Leader-1 streaked above a Command Center as it lumbered through the city. He burst through the window of an abandoned building, changed modes and landed. He could hear the foundation straining, the walls were crumbling; it wouldn’t last long. From here he saw the Centers wading through Iacon, fire erupted from beneath their feet, an occasional scream crept from the fires. He turned away, facing the darkness of the room, and tapped a small square on his chest, opening a coded communication. “Turbo, where are you?”
“In the eye of the storm.” Turbo replied through a crackling channel. Leader-1 could hear the sound of gunfire, angry yells and shouts.
“Head for Command Center G-1.”
“On it.”
Leader-1 tapped the same channel. “SmallFoot, talk to me.”
“On my way to Command Center G-2.” She replied, with the same chaotic background noise that accompanied Turbo.
“Good, looks like things are working out. Let’s do this as we are, if we’re lucky, we won’t have to change-”
“Leader-1!” He swiveled his head around and glared at Prime, who stood in the entranceway. The two remained frozen, the scene one Prime had encountered before- during his last fight with Megatron.
“I need to know,” Prime’s voice shook with anger, “Why? Why the lies, why the-”
“I never lied Prime!” The frustration within the GoBot shone through, “I told you what happened, I told you what Unicron did!”
“You said he made an offer, one you refused!”
“No, I said I made a choice.” Leader-1’s voice dropped, “The one that was best for my world.”
“No rational being would trust Unicron enough to become his servant, Leader-1. I find it hard to believe an entire planet would lack the reasoning skill of a drone!”
“MY PLANET WAS LOST!!” Leader-1 bellowed, “I failed them. I couldn’t protect them, not the way I needed to. When it was over, and the offer made, Cy-Kill did jump at the chance. But that wasn’t enough, Unicron wanted all of us. So I was forced to make a choice that could save Gobotron.” His eyes settled on Prime’s face. “You’re that choice.”
“You chose servitude. Make the chains of your slavery look as pretty as you want, but you still sentenced your people. Under Unicron’s rule they’re already dead.”
Leader-1’s voice was flat, like one delivering a eulogy, “This is the way things have to be. So help me, this is only way this can happen.”
Prime’s eyes went wide for a moment. He knew desperation, had heard it in the voice of foes before- but it was not in Leader-1’s voice right now. He was steadfast, determined.
Demented. Prime thought to himself. The shock, the utter trauma of what he witnessed must have pushed Leader-1 over the edge. But did that excuse what he was rationalizing? Did the plight for his world justify Cybertron’s destruction and subsequent possession by Unicron? Prime felt rage stir within him, his fists clenched. The wound in his shoulder no longer bothered him. His voice came in a growl,
“What the Pit is wrong with you?”
Leader-1 recoiled as if he’d been slapped. He sneered, a whispering hiss emanated from between clenched teeth.
“Nothing’s wrong with me…” his eyes large black pools behind his visor, flashed emerald, then back to black.
“NOTHING’S WRONG WITH ME!!”
His hands crackled with surging energy, and Leader-1 lunged at Prime.
*********
Leader-1’s fist collided with Optimus Prime’s face mask, the sound rang through the corridor. Prime staggered back and Leader-1 slammed his leg into his abdomen, then threw a left and tagged Prime again. His eyes were hard behind his visor. He lashed out again and felt his momentum halt as Prime caught his fist in his hand. Leader-1’s vision erupted in a burst of black and yellow lights when Prime struck him. He came off his feet and clattered to the ground, his vision doubled, the room spun and pulled back into focus. He wiped a line of fuel from the corner of his mouth. He’d been leveled, knocked off his feet with one punch. ONE PUNCH! His hands crackled with energy, he pointed a closed fist and fired at Prime. The autobot ducked, allowing the shot to pierce the wall, leaving a smoking ring behind. He lunged and brought a tight fist into Leader-1’s forehead as he tried to stand. The blow knocked the GoBot flat and jarred his processors. He kicked upwards and connected with the back of Prime’s knee, then swung a wild right, snapping Prime’s head back. His leg buckled. A second later Leader-1 was on his feet, charging towards Prime at full steam. With surprising speed the Autobot took hold of Leader-1’s arm and hurled him up and over himself. The ground below dented with the impact. Prime brought up a closed fist into the Leader-1’s chest; there was the sound of metal cracking, followed by a scream. Leader-1 rolled to his side, a hand gripped tightly to the damaged area. He knelt and doubled over, spilling shards of metal to the floor through his fingers. His CPU had almost been collapsed… he winced as he stood.
He came at Prime again, receiving a solid punch in his face that sent him spinning through the air and colliding with the opposite wall. He left a sizable dent behind when he hit the floor, bits of metal fell upon him. Leader-1’s teeth clenched, his hands pressed against the ground and propelled him to his feet. He could take Prime; he had to. He looked up in time to see Prime rocket forward and smash into him, driving them both into the wall Leader-1’s body had just dented. He felt a splash of oil erupt from his mouth and clasped his hands together above his head. He brought them down on Prime’s back with a resounding KLANG, then did it two more times. He’d beat Prime, he’d beat him; and then-
Prime’s gun was suddenly pressed to Leader-1’s chest. Where did that come from? A stuttering eruption sounded, the cannon jumped to life. Leader-1 could actually feel the gyros and micro processing units vaporize and explode through his back. The wall splintered and collapsed, Leader-1’s body hurtled backwards in a complete circle and crashed, sliding twenty feet away. Prime cleared the distance in seconds, gun drawn, eyes narrow and cold. He stood over Leader-1 and aimed his still smoking cannon at his foe, able to see the dull gray floor through the Gobot’s chest.
Leader-1 cursed himself, his body, trying to will away the insecurities creeping into him again. He could do this. His eyes observed Prime, winking in and out of focus. Was Prime hesitating or waiting? He tried to sit up but received Prime’s heavy foot on his neck, pinning him back down. Leader-1 saw Prime in silhouette, only his crisp blue eyes broke through the shadow.
“We were willing to help you.” He growled, “We were going to put our lives on the line to work with you to stop Unicron and save your world-”
“You don’t… get it,” Leader-1 choked, his wound spat a cluster of sparks, “It’s not about stopping Unicron anymore, we already tried that and failed. Now it’s about doing what he wants-” He reworded the statement in his head, gritting his teeth, then, “It’s about giving him what he wants.”
Prime’s optics narrowed as he received Leader-1’s words. Giving him what he wanted…
“This is senseless! We shouldn’t be fighting each other Leader-1, Unicron is the enemy, not us!”
“He is the enemy Prime…” he coughed up a bubble of oil, “But it doesn’t change the situation. We’re doing what we have to-”
Prime’s ire rose with each of Leader-1’s words. His finger caressed the trigger on his cannon. “Don’t you dare try to justify what you’re doing! You’ve made the worst mistake of your life.”
Leader-1 glared up at Prime, indignant at the chastising tone in his voice.
“My people are still alive, that’s not a mistake.”
Prime’s face was stone but his thoughts were thrown into a buzz. He thought about decisions he had made in the past, hoping it would be what was best for the Autobots, for the Transformers as a whole. But he had made mistakes along the way, every leader before him had. He dredged up the memory of perhaps his worst call as a leader, it still lingered in the back of his mind.
***************
Ultra Magnus stood in the middle of Metroplex’s landing strip and stared up at the clouds. Metroplex rested in a wide rocky plain, miles from the human cities but close enough for the Autobots to reach it should an emergency arise. A single road bridged the two mile gap between Metroplex and newly constructed Autobot City-2, a smaller version of the first resting closer to the human establishment. Although it bore a close ressemblance to the original, these days it acted more of as a warehouse than an actual battle station. Magnus sighed. Things on Earth had been quiet since Galvatron negotiated peace with Optimus. He often wondered what would have happened if things had gone differently, what if the war still raged? Luckily that was not the case. As city commander of Metroplex, Magnus knew Galvatron or any Decepticons for that matter, wouldn’t be a threat… Still…
“Ultra Magnus!”
Magnus started at the sudden call of his own name, turned around and found himself looking at Blur. After saying his name a few more times, Blur waved his arms around hurridly, “comequick comequick! Metroplex’s detected something coningtowards Earthand it’s bigbigbig!”
“You mean the cargo shipment?”
“I-“ Blur froze, rewinding his thoughts back to the exact readings he’d seen. A sigh came as he visibly relaxed. “Oh yeah yeahyeah… That’s what it was. How’d youknow? I didn’t-”
Magnus held a hand, halting Blur in mid-ramble.
“We’ve been expecting it since this morning.” He gave Blur a friendly pat on the shoulder, “Now head back to your post, let me know if anything else is-” A thunderous voice shook them both. Metroplex spoke.
“Decepticon vessel approaching.”
He announced it as a warning. The Autobot city would never see them as allies; he only tolerated them because Prime ordered him to do so. Magnus headed down towards ground level after giving Blur a nod to follow.
Springer and Arcee were performing maintenace checks in the armory as Metroplex delivered the warning. Springer sighed, “He’s never going to trust them, is he?”
“Can you blame him?” Arcee hoisted a cannon over her head and placed it atop a large pile of others, “They stole his eyes and transformation cog, I wouldn’t be too keen on them either.”
“Point taken.” They continued stocking weapons for a moment in silence, then looked at each other.
“So,” Springer smiled, “Wanna go say hello?”
Arceee hesitated, “I dunno, we still have a lot to do here.”
“My point exactly.” He transformed and peeled out. Arcee placed a hand to her hip, annoyed. “Who am I to argue with your flawless logic?” She transformed as well and took off after him.
Hot Rod watched the Decepticon vessel descend. A large purple symbol stood out against the hull, a shade lighter from the metal of the ship’s exterior. It lowered at a frightening speed, he wondered if their engines were failing. It was coming in faster than usual, and it wasn’t stopping.
“HEY!” he yelled, transforming into vehicle mode and zooming up to Metroplex’s perimeter. Two hundred feet above ground level the ship’s hover jets kicked in at full force. Vents slid open and jetted plumes of steam. Four more blasted concentrated pillars of flame that burned into the ground and decreased the ship’s fall into a hovering descent. A mini sandstorm erupted as the vessel touched the ground, sending Hot Rod off his feet and into Metroplex’s siding. He held his head and winced. When he opened his eyes, Ultra Magnus stood before him facing the newly arrived ship.
“Hey Magnus, what gives with their sudden visit?”
“I don’t know.” Magnus caught a glimpse of Springer and Arcee joining his side, eyes glued to the ship as well. A small flush of smoke pooled from a door in the side of the craft, revealing a single black rectangle. Galvatron came into full view. He watched an escalating stairway descend and touch the ground, then stepped forward. Starscream and Cyclonus followed, the two seemed very uneasy beside one another. Tension was evident on Starscream’s face, he remained a conspicuous two steps behind Galvatron, who had grown used to the Seeker’s reluctance to near him. In the time following the peace talks, Galvatron himself located a small contingent of Decepticons preparing to strike against the Autobots. It was no surprise when they fingered Starscream as the mind behind the attempt to restart a war he had chosen to finish. The enigmatic nature of Starscream’s spark prevented Galvatron from trying to kill him outright, instead he ordered a series of false memories to be implanted. In Starscream’s mind, punishment for his actions involved being lashed to an abandoned slab of rock on Charr as the Terracons ripped the metal from his frame and devoured him alive. He remembered being rebuilt, only to be delivered to a small jungle planet- as sport for the Predacons. So real were these simulations, Starscream could recall every slash, every rip in his frame with an eerie clarity. He constantly questioned whether or not his punishment truly took place, the time inconsistency made no sense, but the pain he recalled felt so real. The other Decepticons were of no help, Silence greeted him if he asked anyone about the true nature of the memories. They was hardwired into him, he could not delete it despite his repeated attempts. He had also learned the hard way that in the advent of his disobedience, Galvatron could unlock those memories at will, bringing them to the forefront of Starscream’s mind with such intensity he couldn’t tell whether or not it was really happening again.
On this particular excursion, the Terrorcons had been brought along. Hun-Grr trailed a few long paces behind Starscream, a blunt reminder of what could be in his immediate future if he crossed Galvatron again.
“You’re supposed to radio us two hours in advance if you want to come here Galvatron.”
Had Prime been present Galvatron would have ignored Magnus and spoke to the Autobot commander directly, but under the circumstances (which were becoming more and more frequent, much to his chagrin) he gave Magnus his attention.
“There’s a vessel headed in this direction.”
“We know Galvatron, we’re expecting the cargo-”
“Not the cargo ship! Trypticon has detected a series of heavily distorted interference spots near your expected cargo.”
“Strange, Metroplex hasn’t detected anything.”
Galvatron almost laughed, “Autobot, Trypticon’s animal instincts allow him to sense things Metroplex can not. He has many abilities your station lacks.”
“Too bad forming a complete sentence isn’t one of them.” He turned to Blur, “Tell Metroplex to run a dual scan of the immediate stratosphere. Run everything he’s got, if there’s something else there, I want to know about it.” Blur nodded and disappeared. Magnus returned his attention to Galvatron. If he was right, if Trypticon had caught something they missed… Why else would he be so concerned as to actually show up unannounced?
“If Metroplex hasn’t detected it by now, he isn’t going to.” Galvatron frowned, thoughtful, “And if Trypticon and your city could be near each other without coming to blows, I would have brought him along.”
A small shimmering sphere in the sky caught Hot Rod’s attention. An optical zoom identified the ship.
“Looks like we’ll get a chance to see for ourselves. Heads up!” He pointed towards the incoming craft, an orange crescent in the sky. It glided silently through the air- at an oddly increasing speed.
“How come they didn’t hail us with a greeting?” “Springer’s optics zoomed in as he voiced the question. It was coming in fast, too fast for his liking.
“Maybe Sunstreaker’s at the wheel?” Hot Rod’s head tilted as he noticed the speed increasing at an alarming rate.
“Starscream.” Galvatron noticed with hidden pleasure a flinch from the Seeker. “Go make contact.”
“Why not radio them from here?”
“Because their long range signals might be failing.”
“Send one of the Autobots, I’m not-” he froze, eyes catching a slight narrowing of Galvatron’s eyes. The faintest growl could be heard coming from Hun-Grr. Without a word Starscream transformed and took off towards the shuttle.
Starscream cursed himself. Coward! He ran from Galvatron- again. He ran from the memories- again. He loathed Galvatron for what he had done to him. Just because he had been neutered by Prime didn’t mean the rest of the Decepticons should have been.
“Thrust.” He growled to himself. That loudmouth had been the mole, proclaiming his loyalty to Starscream, all the while spying on him and toddling back to Galvatron when it was time to strike the Autobots. He lost everyone. The Stunticons, the remaining Coneheads, even Blitzwing and Astrotrain abandoned him when everything hit the proverbial fan. The only up side had been Motormaster’s response to Thrust’s betrayal. Robbed of the chance for wanton destruction, Motormaster ‘accidentally’ plowed into (and then over) Thrust while he refueled, then ‘accidentally’ backed over him while checking to see if the conehead was still functional. He wheeled over Thrust once more as he left, declaring it was ‘just a scratch’. Though Starscream didn’t get to witness the incident first-hand, he relished the tale.
The wind pulled over his body as he cut through the air, trying to force himself to concentrate on the task at hand. He clicked off the ship’s speed and grunted. It registered 300 miles per hour. “They should have slowed miles ago!” he thought to himself. As they neared he reversed thrusters and spun direction, speeding forward as it came upon him. He opened a direct radio patch between them.
“Hey, what are doing? Slow down you Auto-dolts!” He received dead air in response. “Hello? Don’t you dare ignore me Autobots!” he pulled up as the ship drew beneath him. As it passed, he saw the gaping hole in the top portion. It was pushed inward as if struck by something large and round, a meteor perhaps.
He slowed and allowed himself to see more of the ship’s top section. The hole took up almost half of the ship, it was a wonder the thing still flew at all… Starscream radioed Galvatron, “You’re not going to believe this…”
************
“There’s a hole in the ship!” Blur repeated numerous times in a few seconds as he sped out of Metroplex and transformed inches from Magnus.
“There’s a what in the ship?!” Magnus was furious, both at Galvatron’s suspicions bearing some justifications and his refusal to believe him. Galvatron saw his frustration and decided to add to it. “You heard it as clearly as I did. Starscream’s seen it for himself, and none of your comrades are responding even at short-range frequencies. At the speed it’s going there’s no choice.” He nodded to Cyclonus and the Terrorcons, “Take it down.”
“NO!” Magnus yelled, throwing a hand out to stop the order. “You are not destroying that ship if there’s a chance any of the crew is alive.”
“My coming here was a courtesy, Ultra Magnus. I suspected this would be the only option. If not for our pact with Prime, I would have simply ordered Trypticon to destroy it.”
The ship neared, screaming through the air and gaining speed as it neared Metroplex.
“Proximity Alert.” Metroplex boomed.
“Guys…” Springer pointed towards the ship, its rumbling could be heard as its structural integrity wavered. “Guys!” Arcee called, now she could see the strange deformity in the cargo transport as Starscream described, a large inward curve that looked like something had slammed into the craft, warping the entire thing into a slight curve. Magnus could see it as well. He hesitated, then rose his forearm to his wrist.
“Open all corridor communications!”
Every speaker within Metroplex came online, volumes fluctuated to allow maximum projection.
“Attention Autobots, evacuation code 9, I repeat, evacuation code 9!” He switched channels, “Metroplex, prepare to transform! We may need you to catch the ship!”
Hotspot rolled around the corner and sped towards the group, flashing his lights a moment before transforming. The rest of the Protectobots followed.
“What’s going on? We heard Metroplex give a proximity alert and-”
Magnus pointed towards the incoming ship, Hotspot gasped.
“I need Blades to help Springer, but he’ll need more air support. Where are the Aerialbots?”
“On Cybertron.”
“Great,” Magnus grumbled, “Right when we need them. Alright, Blur, keep trying to make radio contact! Springer, you and Blades try to slow that thing down while Metroplex transforms.”
“Slow it down,” Springer sighed to himself, transforming into copter mode, “right, and tomorrow I think I’ll fill in the Grand Canyon.”
Galvatron nodded to Cyclonus and the other Decepticons. “Help them.”
Magnus didn’t object. Cyclonus assumed his flight mode and lifted off, the Terrorcons followed.
**********
Prime’s finger loosened on the trigger. His thoughts, combined with Rodimus’ memories tried to pull him into recollections that were not his own. His momentary reflection gave Leader-1 the opening he needed. He swung his right hand, connecting with Prime’s cannon and knocking it from his grasp. In the same motion his hand charged and fired a wide blast of energy. It grazed Prime’s temple and struck the ceiling, jarring hunks of metal free. Prime staggered back a step, a clutching the smoking wound as Leader-1 struggled to his feet. The sight came as a shock to Prime; trails of electricity were racing across the circuitry dangling from the hole in Leader-1’s chest. By all estimations, he shouldn’t have been able to do anything, much less stand. Was this Unicron’s doing, or Leader-1’s determination?
“Call off your fleet.” Prime ordered, his voice echoed with warning and concern. Though malicious in his actions, desperation was peeking through Leader-1’s eyes. Prime’s warning fell on deaf ears.
“You know that isn’t going to happen.”
“That’s too bad.”
A wash of sparks coughed from Leader-1’s wound. He opened his mouth to respond and Prime filled the gap with his fist. A savage blow, Leader-1’s head jerked back on a wild angle as his arms pinwheeled. He was lifted into the air by the shot and slammed into a blank computer monitor. It caved with a crunch of glass and eventual tinkle of bits hitting the floor. Leader-1 followed, hitting the ground hard. A hand covered his mouth, oil squirted between the digits. Again he rose and staggered towards Prime, his free arm cocked and already in mid-swing. Prime blocked the strike and delivered one of his own- it veered over Leader-1’s head as he ducked. An uppercut to the jaw caught the Autobot; another grazed his brow. Leader-1 grabbed Prime’s shoulder and sent a blast through the existing wound, pain shot through his arm and upper torso. He rocked Leader-1 with a right cross, an instinctual reaction. Leader-1 stumbled back again, his injuries screaming, his thoughts fought to maintain coherence. He tried to regain a solid stance, removing his hand from his mouth. It curled into a tight fist, his left hand followed suit. His eyes settled on Optimus, his peripheral vision dimming.
“Have to do this…” he thought to himself, trying to block out the pain, “Have to…”
**************
Blaster took cover behind the roof of a collapsed building. Jazz was beside him, crouched next to an unconscious Ironhide. The wound in his face was too difficult to look at, and Jazz’s gaze fell on the other three Autobots taking cover with he and Blaster. Inferno, Red Alert, and Gears kept their backs to the wall. Every now and then Gears cast an uneasy glance at Ironhide.
“Someone should fix him.” He growled.
“We’ll get Ironhide to a repair bay as soon as we get out of here.” Jazz responded. Gears didn’t move his eyes from Ironhide. “I was talking about th’ bastard Gobot that did this to him.” Without another word Gears transformed and sped off.
“Gears! WAIT!” Jazz moved to follow and was halted by a voice from behind.
“Let him go.”
Jazz wheeled around and saw Elita-1. The stern look she wore indicated she was not in the best of moods. Her eyes met Jazz’s visor. “Gears will be fine. He’s hot-headed, but he can handle himself.” She looked towards a nearby Command Center, its dinosaurian form trundling through the city. “How many of us are down?”
“Don’t know just yet.” Blaster glanced over his shoulder and called, “I’ve been trying to make contact with the other Autobots outside the city. I can’t.” He pointed towards the Command Centers, some still hovered, remaining in a halo encompassing Iacon. “They’re scrambling our communications, trying to contain us to Iacon. But I’ve got Ramhorn working overtime, we can talk to anyone within the city limits.” He pressed a single button on his chest, “We need to pull it together, it’s bad out there.” Elita heard explosions layered in the foamy static. Then the screaming came, some she recognized, some were too warbled to pinpoint. She hoped to Primus the distortion was Blaster’s inability to receive clear transmissions. If not… she motioned for Blaster to kill the playback, then took a moment to think… “Okay, we’ve been caught off guard,” An explosion flashed behind their makeshift shelter and sent tremors through the ground, “Very off-guard. Keep trying to contact the others Blaster, especially the Technobots. If you get through, tell them to seek out and capture the GoBots- even if they have to form Computron to do it.”
“Do we know if there’s other Gobots inside those things?” Jazz motioned towards the Command Centers, some hovering, some trudging about like Jurassic beasts.
Elita shook her head, “I don’t know. If there are, they’re not coming out to say hello. We haven’t seen anyone besides Leader-1 and his crew. For all we know this could be another distraction-”
She detected the sound of an engine revving… Without warning, SmallFoot roared overhead, landing inches from Elita with a harsh screeching of tires against metal. Smoke plumed from her exhaust pipes as she sped off. Elita’s eyes flashed, an instant later she transformed. Don’t you dare take off!” Jazz called to her. She paused, her engine growling like a caged beast.
“Blaster, transform and hop in, we’re going with Elita. Inferno, Red Alert, get Ironhide to safety, then find Gears and give that GoBot he was after a serious smackdown!” Elita’s cylinders pumped impatiently, “Let’s GO!”
Jazz immediately transformed and rolled beside her. Blaster reverted to his alternate form and allowed Jazz to catch him in his front seat. Inferno and Red Alert transformed in unison, then sped in the direction Gears had stormed towards. As the two parties split up a Command Center brought a foot down on the makeshift shelter, crushing it in a cloud of metal and wiring.
**************
SmallFoot detected the Autobots in hot pursuit. She shifted gears and thundered over a pile of rubble, careening through the air a moment then bouncing back to the road. Jazz and Elita-1 cleared the jump as well, but landing sent a jolt through their suspension systems.
“We got her on the run!” Jazz upped his speed and winged himself into the gap of road separating the two fems. SmallFoot clamped her brakes, neared a sudden stop and skidded around a corner on two wheels. Jazz blew past the intersection before realizing his mistake. By the time he corrected himself both Elita and SmallFoot were gone.
“Don’t suppose you can track them?
“I’m on it!” Blaster started up Steeljaw’s frequency and located a pair of speeding dots. “They’re two miles north.”
“Two miles?” Jazz hollered, “How fast are they going?!”
“Trust me, you don’t want to know.” Blaster checked Steeljaw’s readings but knew they were right. At the rate they were going they’d clear Iacon and be out of the city within minutes. Jazz sighed to himself, wishing he still had his old Cybertronian vehicle mode.
“Something’s wrong, Elita’s going to need help if she catches that Gobot.”
Jazz shifted gears, praying he could somehow squeeze as much speed from this Earth form as possible. This wasn’t right. He expected Elita to be capable of such speeds, her cybertronian design was made for it- but the GoBot’s wasn’t. She was a clunky 4X4 truck, her vehicle form wouldn’t have a chance of outrunning Elita's, and the fact that she had done just that and still was outrunning Elita bothered him. If SmallFoot could do what she was doing, what else was she capable of?
*************
Elita pressed herself faster and faster still, closing the gap between her and SmallFoot. She strained, feeling her structure protest the demand she was placing on it. “How is she maintaining that speed?” she growled, feeling the wind cut across her windshield. SmallFoot winced internally; blue lines of energy were beginning to creep from beneath her hood. She concentrated and forced them down, clinging to Leader-1’s words during their last transmission. She sensed the Autobot creeping up on her and locked her brakes, skidding and pitching forward with her back wheels in the air. Her arms shifted out of her body and pushed upward. SmallFoot completed the change to robot mode as Elita passed beneath her and dropped down with a ‘THUNK’! SmallFoot’s hands came alive with energy and fired short pulses along Elita’s hood. Paint seared and cracked as Elita began to veer wildly, trying to buck SmallFoot, who responded by slamming a closed fist against Elita’s windshield. It cracked down the center in four webbed lines. Buildings and other transformers blurred by as the two zoomed down the street. Elita forced a bounce in her rear suspension, launching herself into the air and transforming. SmallFoot crashed a fist into the side of her head as soon as she finished, bit it didn’t make Elita drop the gun she was aiming. Still sailing through the air, she fired a shot. It ripped through SmallFoot’s arm and drove a yelp from her, but both she and Elita were suddenly gripped by pain as they hit the ground and skidded, metal against metal, down the street leaving a trail of white-yellow sparks spraying off their path. Skidding became wild tumbling, an occasional limb from both fems digging out a hunk of the metal road beneath them. Neither one would scream. Wild tumbling wound down to a brisk prat-fall, and they halted in a tangled, sparking heap. The only sound on the abandoned street was a random spark as a short circuit leapt from their bodies. SmallFoot began to stir, then hissed in pain as she got to her feet. First to stand, she raised a closed fist towards Elita, calling forth a concentration of energy. Without a word Elita bolted upright with her gun aimed at SmallFoot’s fist. Both fired at the same time, the space between them engulfed in a thick sphere of light. SmallFoot felt a tingling sensation in her right hand, looked, and saw it was no longer there. A ring of frayed metal and wires jutted from the brunt of her arm where Elita’s gunshot had hit its mark. SmallFoot clasped a hand to the wound and inhaled sharply through clenched teeth. She was shot in the chest and leg, Elita’s finger clenched repeatedly, squeezing off one blast after another.
“No!” SmallFoot screamed as a plethora of puncture wounds stabbed into her body. She was losing, losing! She tried to shield herself and tripped, falling backwards. Elita aimed her gun at SmallFoot’s scarred, smoldering body and fired again.
**********
Scooter leaned out of Turbo’s window and fired at the annoying Autobot who’d been on their tail for the last three miles.
“C’mon Scooter, nail that creep and get im off my tail!”
“I-I’m trying, I’m trying! I’m not used to shooting!” Scooter let another three blasts fly, the little blue truck he aimed at veered clear of them all. Gears cranked his speed. He trailed those GoBot scumbags for over twenty miles and wasn’t going to let their pea-shooters stop him now. They were heading away from the makeshift shelter he’d been hiding in with Jazz and the others, and now they raced towards one of the Command Centers.
“Wait a minute…” Gears took another look at the transport as it grew above the horizon. This one was different from the others, much darker in color, almost charcoal now that he thought about it. The red markings looked brighter, but had a deep touch of crimson to them. And most importantly, “Why is it just sitting there?” Gears bounced over a few bumps in the road, the still presence of this odd Command Center disturbing him more than the active ones. Suddenly he didn’t want Turbo to reach it. Something really bad would happen, he knew it. This time he wasn’t being paranoid. He called his blaster from subspace and auto-mounted it to his roof.
“Look ma, I’m a target-master…” he grinned, increasing his speed and dodging two more shots from Scooter before returning fire. Going at that speed he couldn’t target for more than a moment before firing, his shots ricocheted off the street. He cursed and fired again, still unable to lock on. The two played this game until Turbo swung into a sharp U-turn and wound up facing Gears. His tires squealed, his stickshift wrenched into a higher setting, and Turbo blasted forward.
“What are you DOING?!” Scooter shrieked, eyes bulging from the sockets in disbelief.
“He wants us, he’s gonna get us!” Turbo responded and pumped the gas. The speedometer jerked unevenly forward and soon found itself nearing the triple digits. Gears smiled to himself and forced his speed to climb. He could see Turbo nearing, the flicker of his headlights, soon the glossy shine of his cherry red paintjob. The mismatched pair hauled towards each other, blanketed in a whirlwind of speed. Turbo could taste the wind, the air sweeter than the adrenaline rushing through him. They reached an intersection, and Scooter, gripping Turbo’s door for dear life, caught sight of a red blur coming from the left. He didn’t have time to scream.
Inferno blared his firelights a split second before plowing into the speeding GoBot, hoping the sound would scare the daylights out of them.
“Stand back!” Inferno howled above his sirens, “There’s an INFERNO blazing through!”
Turbo’s diver’s side imploded along with half of Scooter’s body. His arm wrenched free and flew into the wind. Inferno kept going, lights blaring, sirens screaming as he tore down the road with Turbo splashed against his grill like a bug. Inner breakage sent coils of pain through Inferno but he ignored it, there was too much excitement in his circuits to feel anything. Diagnostics indicated a cracked radiator, antifreeze was splshing against against the ground, the engine itself threatened to split in two. All this Inferno heard from Red Alert as well.
“You didn’t say you were going to hit him!!” he complained, knowing the shape his partner would be in when he finally cooled off.
Through the flapping winds and passing cheers of the Autobots who witnessed the act, Inferno smiled. His sirens were the last thing Scooter heard before his systems locked up and he lost consciousness. Turbo wasn’t so lucky. He was in inexplicable pain, but couldn’t do a damned thing about it. His insides screamed louder than his outsides, he’d been bent like a crescent moon across Inferno’s grill. They weren’t slowing. Like Gears, Inferno had noticed Turbo’s destination. Unlike Gears, Inferno decided to help him reach it faster. Gears swung alongside Red Alert.
“He stole my frag!”
“I’m sure Turbo’s thinking the same thing about you.”
“I doubt that,” Gears retorted, “He’s probably thinking something along the lines of ‘AAAA! OH PRIMUS, HEEEELP!!!!”
Red Alert tried not to laugh and failed. They chuckled until they saw Inferno increase his speed as the distance between himself and the leg of that odd Command Center decreased.
“What’s he-” Red Alert’s voice vanished beneath the sound of impact. Metal collided with more of the same- the sound was deafening. Red Alert and Gears screeched to a halt as the clanging echoed. Inferno’s tires still spun, Turbo’s mangled car mode the only thing separating him from the Command Center’s leg. Somewhere inside Turbo was Scooter’s equally mangled body. They were both silent, save for the occasional splinter of glass dripping from what remained of his windshield. Steam vented from Inferno’s engine as he tried to back away from the collision he’d caused. There was a sound of metal peeling apart. Strips of Turbo’s side dug into Inferno’s grill as he pulled back, coils and spirals of damaged iron and steel curling away. Inferno’s windshield was cracked, but the glass clung to the frame. Turbo remained mashed against the wall of dark metal like a broken sculpture, then crashed to the ground without a bounce. The GoBot cursed in his thoughts. He’d lost. Dammit, he’d lost!
**********
Prime’s thoughts momentarily leapt from Leader-1 to his Autobots. Leader-1 saw Prime’s eyes glance towards the hole in the building. Smoke, accompanied by small bursts of crimson came from below as the battle raged.
“Fifty Command Centers, if that’s what you’re wondering Optimus. There’s nothing you can do.”
“There’s always something that can be done.”
Leader-1 heard a ‘click’, his eyes darted to Prime’s hand. He had a small gray sphere in his palm, slightly flattened. He drew back and Leader-1 moved to defend against what was most likely a grenade. Prime wheeled in the opposite direction and hurled the sphere through the opening and high into the sky. It spun as it traveled through the air, peaked, and released a sharp, jagged line of red electricity in two directions. More shot forth, forming a cone pattern at both ends, a wide stream of light flared, creating an Autobot symbol that filled the sky. It shone brilliantly for a moment, then faded. The sphere hovered a moment, then dropped, exploding with a thin ‘pop’.
“Leader-1 stared at the rather impressive display. “What was that supposed to do?”
“Distract you.” Prime slugged Leader-1 in the face and drove him back. He slammed a left hand into the GoBot’s temple and saw a thick crack race along the metal. Leader-1’s hands went up defensively and Prime bolted him in the gut. Doubled over in pain Leader-1 caught a stiff knee to his nose and visor. He swung wildly at Prime, half blinded by the constant throbbing from his wounds. He missed, swung again, missed again. Prime did not. The connecting sound filled the room. Leader-1’s head tilted on a painful angle, he careened across the room and into a dying shelf. Broken computer parts and monitors rained down upon him in a patter as they broke into shattered components. From beneath the debris, Leader-1’s thoughts ground upon one another. “I’m losing-I can’t lose-I-can’t-I won’t I CAN’T!!!” And he realized he had done all he could do as he currently was. The element of surprise had faded, if things were going to change, he would have to as well. They all would.
Prime caught sight of his cannon lying in the corner. He dove and took hold of its familiar grip, finger wrapping sternly across the trigger. He was on one knee, weapon trained on Leader-1. He began to rise when Leader-1’s face went mad. His teeth clenched and threatened to cleave into one another; his eyes large black pools behind a cracked yellow visor. He looked about to explode. Prime saw the metal skin across Leader-1’s face was threaded with wrinkles across his brow, highlighting his wild expression. He stood abruptly and sent a majority of the spare parts slamming against the walls.
“NO!!!” He bellowed, then lowered his arms, fists still clenched. His voice became low, surprisingly steady. Prime kept his cannon locked on him and prepared to fire.
“I have seen war...” he almost whispered, “And I hate war...”
He advanced a step, his movements growing stronger despite his wounds. In the lines of his many cracks and splitting seams came a thin blue light.
“But so help me, I love Gobotron too much to let it die. I’ll do what has to be done.”
His voice exploded with rage, he spread his arms and balled his fists, eyes dead set on Prime to make certain he understood, “NO MATTER THE COST!”
Leader-1’s body radiated a brilliant blue glow so strong Prime threw a hand up to to shelter his eyes. The GoBot rose into the air, arms spread wide. His head thrust backwards, a blast of blue energy burst forward and destroyed both his visor and the eyes it protected. They reformed in an instant; new bands of silver metal wrapping themselves around a new skull lit by a neon map of circuitry. Leader-1’s body stripped away from itself. Strings of ragged metal tore free of his body and disintegrated, like an invisible claw slashed at him. Metal encasing his arms and fingers burst into dissipating flaps. His inner wiring burned in a white light. He screamed with a voice that was noticably deeper with a metallic echo. Strips of new shaded metal stretched across Leader-1’s arms. The jet wings connected to the sides of his legs dissipated, a new pair curved up and away from his back, the tips bending inward tipped with razor sharp endpoints. His body shook as his inner workings warped and reconfigured within. A new, amber colored visor covered his eyes in a ‘V’ shape. His head gleamed, covered with a smooth helmet that left an open vent for his mouth. And then the light subsided. Leader-1’s new, evolved body was complete. He hovered a moment, a dull sound of wind coming from his heels, then lowered himself to the ground. He looked down at his glowing hands, mouth turned down in an expression of sadness, confusion. When he turned his attention to Prime it was gone, replaced by a thin, set line of determination. His visor flashed. Prime’s eyes did the same.
“No quarter asked.” Leader-1 said.
Prime responded, “None given.” He ran towards Leader-1 and felt his fist swing and hit nothing. Leader-1 was beside him in a blurred movement, and Prime swung again. Leader-1 matched his shot, taking Prime’s fist in his face as his own found its mark on the autobot’s chest. Both staggered back and Leader-1 brought a hand to his jaw, Prime’s fingers traced the new cracks stretching across his window. He balled a fist and they struck each other again with a resounding clang, Prime’s shoulder shooting sparks of pain, jarred from the impact. Leader-1 charged forward and slammed into Prime, bringing a fist into his chest again, his hand smashing through the window. He reared back and drove another staggering blow through the glass, his fist connecting with Prime’s inner cavity. The moment Leader-1’s hand made contact, a swath of light blared from Optimus’ chest. Wild whips of energy lashed out and leapt into Leader-1’s hands, his eyes went wide and his mouth opened in a silent scream. His mind was assaulted by images he could not understand. A single angry howl furled in his ears then everything went white.
***************
Icy fear and pain raced through Leader-1, he felt something pulling him towards that blinding flash and pushing him away at the same time. Smoke crept from his fingertips, he reached towards the brilliant, formless light and saw it fade. Reality came back and he found himself still locked in combat with Optimus Prime, whose fist collided with the side of his head, knocking him back and sending coils of pain reaching through his skull. He saw Prime stand, but the autobot commander looked just as shaken as he was.
Darkness fell in the corridor, A machine too massive to behold all at once hovered outside, blocking the hole in the building. Its presence was overwhelming, and Leader-1 took an involuntary step back. Dark gray and silver, the machine leveled a series of maroon shaded cannons in every direction. One of these set its sights on Leader-1 himself. He stared at it defiantly, but could not stop himself from taking another noticeable step back. The flying machine continued descending and moving past the hole. For a moment, Leader-1’s eyes went wide. A tremendous, red Autobot insignia filled the gap and stared banefully at the GoBot. It lowered like a second sun, filling the room with a harsh red light before disappearing from view. Soon the sky returned beneath a lowering straight edged curtain. Leader-1 remained motionless, eyes fixated on the massive thing, the flying battle station.
“It’s…” Leader-1’s voice was a hushed whisper. He looked towards the fresh hole in the wall and saw Optimus, a pair of bright blue optics burning in the dark.
“Say hello to Fortress Maximus; our big gun.”
************
Pathfinder made her way through space, towing Cosmos’ unconscious body behind her. She didn’t think anyone would mind that she left her post, she hadn’t heard anything from anyone for hours. She scanned the area, searching for the few Command Centers that had stayed behind to serve as a second wave if things went south, but found nothing.
“That’s strange.” She landed on the surface of a large floating rock and looked about. No sign of anything or anyone, only the occasional flash in the twilight. Wouldn’t they have told her if they had they been called to Cybertron? She guessed not, sighed, and turned back to Cosmos. This was as good a place as any to start the repairs. She knelt beside the little green bot, noticing his size in robot form was significantly smaller than his craft mode. She didn’t stand much taller than him, but by all means she could probably fit inside him if he transformed. She ran her fingers over the embossed autobot symbol on his chest, then gazed at the ‘G’ stamped on her arm. Every Guardian now had one somewhere on them now.
“Believe it or not,” she slid a panel on Cosmos’ chest open and examined the charred circuitry, “We’re the good guys.”
***************
:::Internal Repair Systems: Active
:::Foreign Components Found. Allow Connection? Y/N
_Y_
:::Scanning For Central Data Relay Cable… Unavailable
:::Foreign Component Detected. Reset Connection? Y/N
_Y_
::: Central Data Relay: Active
::: Universal Positioning System… Foreign Component Detected. Synchronizing.
::: Universal Positioning System: Active
Unit RA1:Active
Unit LA1: LA1 Restored. Active
Optic 1: Active
Optic 2: Foreign Component Found. Synchronizing…
Optic 2: Active
The darkness receded, Cosmos felt himself floating back towards consciousness. Sounds drifted about him.
“…ight?”
The sound of a voice, urgent. He felt cool fingers resting on his forehead.
“Al… re-…y…”
This was nice. He was awake, but couldn’t think of a reason to move, he felt content to just lay here with… with…
“Are you okay? Are you alright?”
“Huh?” The darkness was yanked aside like a curtain as Cosmos’ eyes snapped into focus. There was a face hovering above his, an unfamiliar one. He instinctively reached up and clasped Pathfinder’s hands as they both abruptly stood. He’d never seen this robot before… who was it? Its was definitely female, her curved limbs and general shape reminded him of Arcee. A dark gray tone with a hint of green covered most of her body; light gray metal composed her upper legs and arms. A red visor concealed her eyes; a silver mask covered the rest of her face. Cosmos blinked, he still felt woozy.
“Please don’t be alarmed, My name’s Pathfinder… I’m a GoBot.”
“I-I’m Cosmos,” he thought a second and added, “I’m a Transformer.”
There was an awkward silence between them. Pathfinder nodded.
“You can let go.”
“Excuse me?” Cosmos tilted his head, then looked at their hands, “Oh! Sorry…” He released her hand, then placed his own on his head. “When I rebooted, my systems said I have foreign components in me. What did you do?”
“You were hurt really bad, a lot of things burned out, so I used some of my own components and hoped they would hold.”
“Thank you.”
Pathfinder looked down “Don’t thank me, I’m the one who did that to you.”
“What?” Data was still updating itself in his memory banks, the most recent series of events hit him in a painful jolt. The object heading towards Cybertron, the sudden plunge into darkness, his systems shorting out, and now-
“Cybertron!” he turned, preparing to take off, “I need to find out what’s happening there-oh…” He staggered and almost fell. His long ranged radio was catching up, sending him clips of transmissions gleaned from the various frequencies used on Cybertron.
~…You must be…Prime~
~Unicron…world…~
~…thought you’d say that…~
~…Pitt is wrong…you…~
~…for my people… Gobotron…~
Now with both hands clutching his head, Cosmos dropped to his knees, overwhelmed by the snippets of conversations, orders, and finally a coded transmission keyed to one specific Autobot.
“Fortress Maximus?” His head was killing him, losing him in the sudden burst of communications. He felt a hand on his shoulder and tried to come back.
“You…” he staggered, “You know what’s going on, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Your people and mine are at war?!”
Her voice was barely a whisper, “That’s where things are headed, but I-” She heard his weapon systems come online, heard the thin whine of energy powering up in their holdings. She hadn’t noticed the dull glow creeping into her hands. She concentrated and forced the pooling energy away from her fingers. Cosmos looked at her and sighed, “Does this mean I have to fight you?”
“I…” she dropped her hands to her sides, “I don’t want to. That’s not why I revived you.”
“Why then? What is going on?! Why did you short me out?”
“That’s not what I meant to do, honest!”
“I don’t believe you. I have to go-”
“Wait!” Pathfinder reached for Cosmos then thought better of it, “Please, just listen.” She tapped a panel on her arm and Cosmos gasped as her voice came through his speakers
“I don’t know your name, but please listen. Your planet is in danger. I repeat, your planet is in danger. Warn your people, tell them to be ready.”
His eyes went wide. “I’m so confused, that was you talking to me earlier, before I shorted?”
“My body is new, I’m not used to having this much energy, I didn’t realize I was shorting you out until I saw the smoke. I couldn’t let you die.”
Cosmos stared at her, still wanting to leave. Not knowing what was happening on Cybertron was killing him.
“I wanted to warn you. I thought if I could make contact with you, I don’t know, I hoped you could talk to your people and I could talk to mine. Maybe we could have figured something out and no one would get hurt.” She folded her arms across her chest and looked down, “But I hurt you, and they got through to Cybertron, and now our worlds may tear each other apart.” She was silent a moment, then looked up at Cosmos. “You spend as much time in space as I do. It’s a thankless, lonely job. I heard you trying to talk to one of your friends, they just think you’re going to prattle on about novas and solar anomalies.”
Cosmos considered his last exchange with Skylynx, he said nothing.
“But you see a lot more than any of them.”
“Yeah, I guess I do.”
“Then you understand there’s a bigger picture, that there’s a lot more to this than what’s going on here and now.”
Cosmos nodded. In his travels through space, how many civilizations had he seen destroy one another? He was amazed the Earth remained in one piece with the number of conflicts taking place, each time escalating as the humans armed themselves with more powerful and destructive weapons. Cybertron itself had come close to total destruction more times than he cared to remember. And now, if Cybertron went to war with Gobotron it would destroy them both. He was sure of it. He looked up and met Pathfinder’s gaze.
“I have to go to Cybertron.”
“I’ll go with you. We might still have a chance to put an end to this before things go from bad to-”
“Enemy Machine Robot, detected.”
Thunder sounded, shaking the ground beneath them, without warning they were enveloped in shadow. They looked up in unison and gasped, Pathfinder’s visor grew with fear.
Omega Supreme lowered himself and landed, splintering the brittle ground beneath his titanic form. He hadn’t thought much of Skylynx’s warning to be on high alert in this sector, now he was glad he listened. His body wore a variety of scratches and burn marks, his shoulderpads decorated with blackened edges.
“Oh no…” Cosmos took a few steps forward, placing himself between Pathfinder and the giant looming over them. He noticed Omega was clutching something in his oversized orange claw. It dug brutally into a large piece of jointed gray metal. What remained of a connection seal dangled from the stump. Pathfinder recognized the piece of Command Center, no wonder she couldn’t get anyone in this sector to respond. There was a hint of a face behind Omega’s amber helmet; Pathfinder could feel his cold glare freezing her to the spot. Cosmos opened his hands and raised them towards the titan.
“Omega, listen to me-”
“Cosmos.” His voice shook them both, “Move.”
No sooner had the order been given, Omega Supreme raised his left arm, the cannon attached charged and fired directly at Pathfinder. It was a thick beam of energy that surged over Cosmos’ head and exploded into the ground behind him. The concussive blast sent him sailing off his feet and landing inches from Omega’s feet. PathFinder managed to leap back in time to avoid being caught in the center of the blast, but was helpless against the burst of debris that came sailing towards her. She screamed, changed into her craft mode and tried desperately to navigate through the angry wave of superheated rock.
“Pathfinder!” Cosmos shielded his eyes, Omega was firing a continuous stream of energy at the Gobot, intent on connecting with his target. “OMEGA STOP!” His voice was lost in another round of thunderous explosions. Omega’s head spun around, revealing the length of another cannon he normally reserved for his tank mode. He leveled it at Pathfinder, needing only a split second to aim.
“Enemy destruction, now.”
Pathfinder couldn’t think straight. That thing was only half the size of a Command Center, but if he was able to destroy one, what chance did she have? He was still firing at her, didn’t he need to charge between shots?! Another wall of heated, glowing rocks assaulted her, smashing into her paneling and causing her to veer off course.
“No!” she fired a cluster of lasers, destroying a small volley of rock coming at her when she heard the Autobot.
“Desired reaction acquired.”
“What does that mean?” she thought franticly, it didn’t make any sense-and then she realized. Taken by surprise, motivated by fear, she had been moving close to her top speed, firing her weapons on their highest settings. Now he knew what her limits were.
The stream of energy suddenly stopped, large glowing spheres launched from his cannon and homed in on her. As she moved to dodge, Omega compensated for the movement. Using her noted speed, he calculated the trajectory needed to do what he wanted. He took aim and fired a single blast. It ripped through the air, a brilliant flash of light. Pathfinder fired her weaponry at the oncoming beam in hopes of dispersing the energy. It plowed through her shots and struck her in a thunderclap. She screamed and was hurled backwards as she reverted to robot mode, falling, unconscious towards the ground. Omega began to charge his head cannon, it began to glow and take aim. He could hear Cosmos screaming at him, but he was not important at the moment. What was important, was for this Gobot to be handled, just as he had handled the Command Center he encountered.
A blue bolt of energy barreled down from the sky, slammed into Omega’s shoulder and mushroomed into a bubble of power that burst with a deafening bang. Omega immediately turned and fired the shot meant for Pathfinder at whatever it was that dared attack him. It lashed into the sky and barely missed another female Gobot hovering above them.
Her eyes blazed yellow. A series of black markings against white metal denoted shuttle windows across her chest and lower legs. A large, green ‘G’ matching the one on Pathfinder was prominent on her thigh. Although she would easily dwarf Pathfinder, Cosmos noted she couldn’t have been much taller than Omega’s hip were she to stand next to him.
She shifted forms, her new mode clearly a spacecraft, but like nothing Cosmos recalled seeing on earth. It looked too rounded, its wings short but angled back indicating increased maneuverability. He noted a twin line of divots running along the main portion of the body, each housing a small cannon. He didn’t know if it would be laser fire or shell artillery. He suspected he would soon find out, but she hadn’t made a move beyond the initial attack. What was she waiting for?
A second shuttle appeared, casting a shadow over Omega, this one, Cosmos surmised, would almost match Omega’s size if it were to-
Lines of energy flickered across a series of panels that suddenly pulled apart, the larger shuttle began to change, the smaller one igniting her thrusters and locked into place, becoming one with the newly forming machine. A pair of legs rolled away from its back, arms pulled from the main body as a new head rose from the front end of the shuttle. A mask covered her mouth, eyes red and shimmering behind a visor as Super GoBot Spa-C completed her fusion. She landed before Omega Supreme and stood defiantly between him and Pathfinder. At full height she came up to his chest and did not have his girth, but at the moment she didn’t seem to care. Her hands came alive with energy, blue and crackling dangerously.
“How about you pick on someone your own size?”
“Banter irrelevant.” Omega raised his cannon arm, already charged, towards her, “You are not my size.”
Spa-C swung her left hand on an angle and knocked his cannon off-center, lunged and slammed a fist into his forehead. Cracks raced along the surface and threw his head back as his cannon fired into the ground beside him. Omega took a step back and lashed out with his right, clawed hand. It struck Spa-C in the chest and knocked her off her feet. The ground shuddered when she landed, creating a small crater beside Pathfinder. Omega took aim once more and fired as Spa-C pulled herself to a knee and pointed both fists at him. Their blasts slammed into one another, setting the sky above Cosmos and Pathfinder on fire as one sought to overpower the other. Cosmos ran to Pathfinder’s prone form and knelt beside her, pulling her into a sitting position and resting her head in his hand. Her visor flickered.
“Wh..what… happened…?”
He could barely hear her over the battle, he took her hand and tried to help her stand. Another explosion went off above them, and Pathfinder looked up.
“S-Spa-C?” then sagged against Cosmos, her systems clicking off and rebooting, trying to regulate themselves.
As if she heard the whisper (or maybe she had, Cosmos couldn’t be sure), Spa-C looked down.
“Pathfinder!” her voice boomed in Cosmos’ audio, he winced, then froze when her eyes focused on him and narrowed. “Take your hands off her, you-”
Omega’s head cannon spun around and unleashed a blast with a thunderous KA-BOOM! It struck Spa-C, driving her into the air with an angry yell, she crashed again, carving a deep canyon in the rock. This time she didn’t get up. Omega stomped past Cosmos and Pathfinder, this new target his main priority, and stood over Spa-C. A section of the Gobot’s chest was missing, thick lines of blackened smoke rose from her. He scanned her and detected no signs of life. He kicked her once, testing any potential trap she could be trying to spring. Nothing.
“Life signs, gone. Enemy, destroyed.” He swiveled his head around and looked down at Cosmos, who was currently holding the original target in his arms. Energy pooled at the tip of Omega’s cannon, he targeted Pathfinder once more. He would dispose of this one, then continue scouring Cybertron’s airspace as instructed. But first…
“Cosmos, move.”
“No!” Cosmos transformed, pulling Pathfinder into his loading bay and holding her inside as he completed the change. She’d be safe in there-he hoped. Omega looked even less amused than he normally did.
“Listen to me Omega, we need her, we have to find another way to end this conflict without anyone else getting hurt.”
Omega just stared at him. It was uncomfortable, Cosmos thought to ignite his vertical take-off when Omega suddenly boomed “Solution, needed.”
“What?” Cosmos saw Omega’s claw swoop down and clasp around him. It wasn’t a perfect fit, but tight enough to prevent Cosmos from transforming.
“Solution, found.”
“What are you doing?! Let GO!”
Omega Supreme said nothing, igniting his thrusters and lifting himself off the desolate rock and into space. Thanks to Cosmos, his original plans were going to have to be altered. He considered returning to Cybertron and decided against it, Metroplex would be best suited to hold the prisoner. He charted the quickest path to Earth.
************
Ten minutes past:
A sleek, white space shuttle lay buried in a pile of scorched rocks, it was a disaster area. Spa-C changed forms slowly, painfully, pushing aside the stones piled upon her. She thanked the stars she was able to disconnect from her Super Gobot body seconds before it overloaded, silently promising to pay the robot goliath back for sucker-punching her. She rose a charred, shaking hand to her mouth-plate. “This is Spa-C. Two Command Centers in Sector 65-19-84 have been destroyed.” She felt her hand tighten into a fist, “They’ve captured Pathfinder.”

To be continued…