#astro squad

All through Barrage's struggles to make these technoplants stop, Heave was flailing around and trying to keep himself from being eaten. His haphazard kicks were about as effective as Barrage's blasters. At least their little human wA safe behind Barrage, even if she was making too much noise.

"What even are those things?" Ettie yelped.

"Morphobots!" Heave's voice strained from his efforts. He never could pass an opportunity to share about aliens. "We're on Fluron-3! We--" He kicked at another vine and missed. "We aren't insecticons, so--" Another kick. "It wasn't supposed to be a problem!"

Barrage's jaw clenched. He shot at the base of a Morphobot. Just maybe, if he could find the right place to shoot--

"Wait!" Ettie's fleshy little hand smacked his hip. "Wait, wait, wait! Morphobots!"

"What about them?" Barrage snapped.

"I know what to do!" She stepped to the side and cupped her hands around her mouth."Heave! Heave! Play my Blaster mixtape!"

Heave struggled to look over his kibble at her. "What?!"

"Trust me! It'll work!"

Music blared to life from his internal speakers. Horns blared and a guitar played an odd rhythm. If Barrage remembered right, it was some sort of ska band from the 90s.

The effect was immediate. Formerly writhing vines stopped. They stuck straight up in the air, dropping Heave to the ground. The little groan he made was just audible over the music. As he stood, the Morphobots actually moved away from him!

"Now slowly back up towards us!" Only Heave's radar could have picked up her shout.

He followed her command, still blasting the music.

"Alright," Barrage snapped, "let's combine and split!"

"Sounds good to me." Heave scooped up Ettie before they transformed around her, kicking up dirt as they sped off.

Ettie sighed as she fell into one of Barrage's seats. "Whew! We're telling Missile to never come back here again, right?"

"I'll be glad to never come back," Heave agreed.

There was a minute of silence before Barrage spoke again. "How'd you know what to do? We're your first space mission, right?"

"Hm? Oh!" She clapped her hands together. "When Heave said they were Morphobots, I remembered a story Blaster shares on his radio show sometimes! Cosmos got some stuck on him when he was coming back to Earty back in the 80s. Blaster's music was the only way to stop them!"

Barrage hummed. "Well, good to know all that time with headphones in does you some good."