Ruby - Transformers: Age of Extinction fanfic

Life's a Tightrope

"Whoa," exclaimed Cade, as Ruby and Crosshairs caught up to him and Tessa, "What is this?"

They were in a huge chamber, empty except for a two identical statues of robots, dressed like knights, guarding a round table from which protruded a circle of sword hilts. Goosebumps raised all over Ruby's bare arms, and not just because this room felt colder than the rest of the ship. The statues looked so much like Optimus, from their size to their samurai-like head gear. She approached the table, which came up to her neck, and ran her fingers along the handle of a sword. It was cold, longer than her whole body, and old. Very old. Thousands of years old. Intricate engravings of alien symbols ran up and down the hilt. Ruby shivered.

"You know you shouldn't touch anything in this ship," said Crosshairs, "There's a lot we need to watch out for. Bone-grinders, brain-blinders, flesh-stealers, chromosomal inverters, catatonic slugs, black hole trapdoors, and, of course, radiation."

"I think we've already encountered most of those," said Tessa.

"You forgot Steeljaws," said Ruby.

Cade, completely ignoring the autobot, withdrew the smallest sword and the sound of it's blade scraping against the stone rang out across the huge room. He pressed a button with his thumb and the metal tip retracted, revealing a nasty looking gun.

"Cool. I'm keeping this one."

"This room seems so out of place on this ship," said Ruby.

"I think," began Crosshairs, "That's because it's not an original part of the ship." He walked round the table, examining the different swords. "These come from all manner of places in time,"

"It's like they're trophies," whispered Tessa.

The floor rumbled and shook. The air hummed.

"Oh no!" cried Crosshairs, "They've activated the dark matter drives! They're preparing the ship to leave Earth's atmosphere!"

"We can't let that happen," said Ruby, "We'll die."

Crosshairs was already running. Ruby ran behind Cade and Tessa, who struggled to keep up with him. He shot holes in the ship walls as he went, showering them with sharp debris. A piece sliced open Ruby's arm and she flung up a force field in an attempt to protect the others. 

"I thought you said we had be careful and watch out for stuff!" she shouted,  "I'm too busy watching out for your stuff at the moment!"

Blood ran warm down to her fingers and anger started to rise in her chest.

She copied Crosshairs, throwing energy balls with her free hand at anything that resembled a controls box. It was so inconvenient that her power to manipulate machines didn't work with this ship.

They kept running, blindly following Crosshairs. She hoped he knew where he was going. Her ears strained behind them, listening over the swish of the autobot's cloak for enemies who were likely to come after them.

"This one!" Crosshairs smashed through the wall, taking them onto a short brown platform outside the ship.

Ruby skidded to a stop and shielded her eyes from the sudden daylight. Crosshairs pulled a six-foot long leaver by the door. A dozen mooring cables shot out of the ship and attached themselves to a Chicago sky scraper. 

They were the thickest cables Ruby had ever seen, but still, she wouldn't like to walk down them, not when they swayed so freely in the wind. The humming noise that had been building in the ship stuttered and died out. The launch had thankfully failed.

"Is that Willis tower?" said Cade.

"Again with the questions," said Crosshairs.

The unmistakable barks of Steeljaws came from the ship.

"Go!" cried Ruby.

Cade and Tessa set off down the cables. Ruby's stomach lurched at the sight of them teetering.

Tessa slipped. Her feet slid off and she ended up straddling the cable, hugging it tight with her arms. Ruby dug her nails into her palms, terrified for her.

"Keep going! Don't look down!" Crosshairs shouted, "You too, Ruby,"

"No!" she said, "You go with them, I have to get Optimus."

Crosshairs started to say something but Ruby cut him off, "There's no time to argue! I can sneak around the ship easier than you can. But first, I'll keep these guys at bay!"

She lunged at a wolf behind Crosshairs, propelling herself over it's body and pulling it with her, smashing it into a second one. Tessa and Cade were half way now. Ruby tore her eyes away from them and faced the ship, ready for the next wave of wolves.

They pounced out of the darkness, swarming Ruby. She fell underneath their weight, cracking her head against the hard platform. One had it's paws on her chest, snapping at her neck. It stunk like wet dog. With a scream she flung it off and began fighting. There wasn't enough time for energy to gather in her palms. Instead she balled her hands into fists.

Major Lennox would be proud. He always said Ruby could do with more hand-to-hand combat training, but here she was, after years of imprisonment, punching her way through a pack of ugly wolves. There were so many, their red eyes blurred into one.

A shot knocked one aside and Ruby whipped round. Cade was attempting to aid her, firing his crazy alien gun. The mooring cables swung wider than before and Ruby's blood turned to ice.

The wolves were chewing through the cables.

"No! Keep going!" she yelled, not that they were likely to hear over the wind.

One of the cables snapped. It whistled as it snaked through the air, and fell out of sight. The next one could take Tessa or Cade to their deaths.

Ruby stepped up her attack, trying to take out as many wolves as possible with each strike. But they weren't really bothered about her anymore. They stepped out onto the cables, where Ruby didn't dare shoot in case she hit one of her friends.

Snap. There went another one. Snap. Snap Snap.

"AH!" A pulse of energy exploded from Ruby in a wave, knocking all the remaining wolves flying.

Except one. It was right behind Tessa, tearing through the cable. She screamed, tried to kick it away; and then she fell.