"Fire in the hole!"
Optimus Primal lifted one massive arm to shield himself as Rattrap's grenades, as promised, blew the unholy slag out of half the hill. The concussion and bits of the shattered landscape buffeted him in a hot, stinging wave, rattling against his sparkforged plating.
Luckily, the onslaught was brief. "Was that it?" he asked as the dust settled.
Rattrap poked his head out from where he'd sheltered himself behind Optimus's leg and grinned. "See for yourself, Big Ape," he declared, pointing up the hill.
Optimus looked. Sure enough, there was a sizeable hole where previously there had been only fallen rock. "Well done, Rattrap," he declared.
"Of course!" Rattrap smirked. "But, uh... where's Cap'n Minnow?"
Optimus blinked. The cavern where Depth Charge had been trapped was uncovered, its opening more than wide enough for their fellow Maximal to escape. Yet... no manta. "Depth Charge?" Optimus called, then repeated himself over commlink. //Are you all right?//
The reply, when it came, was thoroughly disgruntled. //Fine.//
Optimus and Rattrap exchanged dubious looks. "Call me crazy, but I don't quite believe him," Rattrap commented.
"Hmm." Optimus shook his head. "He's never been the most demonstrative of individuals. Still, I'd better take a look." He approached the cavern, awkwardly climbing over broken rock that rattled under his feet. "Depth Charge?" he called.
"What?"
"Just checking," Optimus said quickly, pulling back from the glowering, mouthless visage that had just appeared at the cave entrance. Depth Charge grumbled and hauled himself out into the sunlight, revealing the full extent of his damage. Optimus noted with interest the patterns of scuffs, scratches and dents in his armorplating - not quite consistent with rocks falling on him, but maybe he'd been fighting with Rampage again.
"'Ey, where you goin', fish face?" Rattrap demanded when Depth Charge claimed his flight mode.
"Shower," Depth Charge added tersely, and added in a lower tone, "a long one." He fired his jets and blew past Optimus and Rattrap both, rocketing away from the scene without comment.
"Typical," Rattrap snorted.
Optimus watched Depth Charge's receding profile. "I'm not so sure," he mused aloud. Acting entirely on instinct, he climbed the last few steps to the cavern entrance and peered inside.
Sprawled out mindlessly against the back wall, one wing detached and glittering on the floor, Waspinator groaned in what might have been pain. "Waspinator needs cigarette."