When The Decepticons Invented Protogens

  Pyroat was quick to carve out a hole in the wall; super-heating her claws allowed her to melt a hole that was big enough for them to get through, and according to her it wouldn't draw much attention, considering how small they were.

Still, Aerocip had doubts on that theory; it felt weird to break out of captivity when your captor didn't know you were here to begin with.

The Protocons stepped out of the shop's door one by one, where the saw the night sky for the first time. Aerocip expected it to be pure black, but there were specks of white light in the sky, like shining, polished silver. There was a light in the sky that shone brighter than the others, Earth's moon, if Aerocip remembered correctly. It was curved like a sharp claw and stood out amidst the rest of the stratosphere, a beautiful compliment to the night sky.

"Does it always look this mesmerizing out here?" Aerocip thought aloud, her voice filled with wonder. Dyne was quick to respond, "No, actually. In residential areas there appear to be very few stars in the sky due to a phenomenon known as light pollut-" Pyroat smacked Dyne with her tail, "Shut your faceplate, you're ruining the moment!"

They marveled at the stars for only a moment longer before Dyne gave them a splash of reality. "We still need to find a way out of here, any ideas?" Aerocip agreed, while the view above was beautiful, the junkyard smelled like disease-laden rust and spoiled meat. Aerocip wished she could shut off her olfactory sensors due to the overbearing smell. Her optics searched for a way out; not the entrance, it was blocked by massive stone walls. She eyed the inside of the junkyard and noticed the large human-made scaffolding on the sides of the walls, she was once again reminded of the presence of humans in this place; most had left, but some stayed on the top of the walls and continued feeding garbage into the trash containers. A blue Terrorcon stayed up there too, who seemed to be leading them, shouting orders that could be heard even from the floor level.

"C'mon, men! You wanted to stay so you'll have to earn that precious 'salary bonus' of yours!" The beast encouraged; his gurgling voice echoing throughout the junkyard. The beast leaned over the edge and shouted down below at the flying Terrorcon, who seemed to regret being awake at this hour. "Cuttthroat! Are you doing your job or are you too bird-brained to work at this time?!" Despite the blue Terrorcon's small size, he acted like he ran the place, a fact that Cutthroat was quick to remark on.

"Rippersnapper, why is it that when given even a miniscule amount of power, you act as if Primus himself came down from the Great Spark in the Sky and ordained you the next Prime?" he asked with an obnoxious helping of sarcasm in his voice. The blue 'Rippersnapper' seemed unphased, perhaps squabbles like this happened often.

"Cause I'm not a geeky history buff like you, ya scrap-sniffin' spawn of a-" Cutthroat landed and perched right in front of him, some humans nearly tripped from the shockwave of his impact. Cutthroat towered over Rippersnapper.

"You neglected to mention my knowledge of anatomy as well. For example, I know how your body works, I could shove my talons directly into your spark chamber and pull out your spark right now with brutal efficiency. I could tear off your limbs and manage to keep you alive in inexplicable pain." Cutthroat hovered his dinosaur-like head over Rippersnapper, "Do I make myself clear that it is unwise to talk back to your superiors? You are the supervisor of the humans, and nothing more." Cutthroat dropped the flattened scrap in his talons in front of the humans, "Now it's back-to-work with you, Rippersnapper." Cutthroat flew back down for another load of compact garbage.

The Protocons made their way to the scaffolding, which made of sturdy wood and metal poles, and wasn't too wide either; clearly not made for many people (or human-sized Cybertronians) at once. Because of how dark it was, there was no need to go out of the way to be stealthy, so the three of them walked normally up the ramp-like scaffolding. Though it wasn't very wide, Pyroat and Dyne walked side by side while Aerocip was by herself at the rear. Out of the three of them, Aerocip was the last to come online, but that didn't make her naive to the obvious flirting between Pyroat and Dyne.