METROPLEX:
Pathfinder’s mind raced. Prime had every reason not to want
to talk to Leader-1, but she had clung to that hope, and now
even that was gone. There really was no stopping this conflict,
but if Cybertron was destroyed, what would Leader-1 do? More
to the point, what would Unicron do? She had to
warn Leader-1. She looked around her cell, just four dark walls,
no window, no cracks in-
A sliver of vertical light was entering her cell. She looked
closer, taking a step towards the door and realized it had not
completely sealed itself. Barely a millimeter,it must not have
reconnected when Prime left.
“Calm.” She whispered to herself, and walked carefully,
slowly towards the cell door. A slot near her eye level gave
her a view of two Autobots, red and identical. They looked bored,
but said nothing. Perfect. She backed away, eyes locked on that
sliver of light, following it up to the cell door itself. They
didn’t notice, probably thought she was pacing. She readied
herself.
“Steady…”
---------------------
Fastlane checked an incoming message on his wrist com, nodded,
then looked over to Cloudraker.
“Hey, do you really think this is going to-” he paused,
they heard the distinct sound of metal parts shifting-
“GO!!”
The door of Pathfinder’s cell exploded off its hinges in
a blast of smoke, Fastlane hit the ground and caught sight of
a thin, flat discus zip through the air and exited the cloud
in a blur. It rounded the corner and disappeared.
The twins transformed in a fraction of a second and neared top
speed as Metroplex’s alarms blared overhead.
“Intruder! Gobot intruder in east wing.”
Cloudraker soared over his twin brother and ignited his boosters,
squeezing even more speed from his reserves. It had been awhile
since he’d been in a real chase, and his servos screamed
in protest as he pushed them, but he couldn’t repress the
thrill it gave him. Pathfinder turned her underside towards the
wall as she neared another corner, lurched backwards, and with
a defiance of physics Cloudraker had only seen Cosmos do, looped
into a forward spin, rocketing forward and gaining speed.
He took the corner and armed his weapons, then unleashed a hail
of fire in her direction.
Pathfinder tilted herself on a wild angle and felt the heat from
the blasts race beneath her. This one was fast, she needed to
lose him, needed to figure out where in the world she even was
and how to get out.
“Intruder alert. Gobot nearing corridor 5A. Initiating
lockdown.”
“Didn’t really think this one through, did I?”
she breathed, and made to make a left when she saw a sheet of
metal from the top and bottom of the doorway clamp down. She
eked through and heard a thunderous bang when they connected
a second later. They were trying to seal her in. She jetted forward,
her only thoughts of escape, when the second twin appeared. He
must have taken a different route, the car popped out of the
corridor ahead of her and raced directly at her, weapons mounted
to his roof and firing. She found it harder to dodge the shots
in such an enclosed space, her anti-gravity controls getting
a workout as she bounced in midair trying to avoid being hit
dead on. She wished she could go full tilt, but in such a tight
space… A laser blast from behind barely missed her as she
swung back and forth, trying to throw off her pursuer’s
aim. Her sensors registered the flying twin increasing his speed,
pushing himself as he fought to catch up with her. The living
city was still rumbling, it’s voice echoing painfully in
the corridor and flashing red lights, it was starting to throw
her off. She tried to focus, charged her online weapons, and
allowed herself to enter a rapid spin, firing as she did so.
The sudden spray of shots caused the car in front of her to bank
sharply to the left to avoid being shot, and she blasted overhead,
down the corridor, and past another set of doors that slammed
behind her. She could hear pounding behind her, the plane hadn’t
made it in time. He sounded angry. More doors were slamming shut
on either side of her, now she just had to worry about the building
itself, she needed to get out.
That’s when she saw it- a door. It was damaged, bent absurdly
inward and grooved like a giant knuckle had punched it. She could
see sunlight spilling in through the gaps. The door was held
up with only a few boards of metal, obviously the Autobots hadn’t
gotten around to fixing it yet.
“ Please please please…” she whispered, and ignited
a third set of boosters she normally only needed to exit the
atmosphere. She halted her spin, changed into robot form, fired,
and plowed into the door feet first. It issued a deafening BANG
when she connected and at first she began to fall, then changed
modes and ignited her thrusters again. There was no time to be
amazed by what she had managed to do, no time to think, she had
to find Leader-1, had to find him and warn him.
The lights in Metroplex continued to blare moments after the
GoBot escaped, then faded. A door slid open near Pathfinder’s
exit, Optimus Prime stepped forward and looked out. She was barely
a speck against the sky, even with his optical zoom.
Fastlane and Cloudraker joined his side, both barely able to
walk, their gears still glowing from the exertion of the chase.
“She got away!” Cloudraker sulked.
“You knew that was the plan.”
“Yeah… but… I think she’s faster than me.”
“Fastlane swatted his brother’s shoulder and groaned
at the effort.”
Prime patted the wall. “Good work Metroplex, you led her
right out.” He tapped his forearm. “Blurr. Are you
in position?”
“Yes Prime, ready, willing and able!”
“Good, she’s heading your way.”
No sooner had Optimus said it, Blurr saw the faintest ghost of
a blur zip overhead. He clocked it, acquired the biorhythm provided
by Prime, and then Blurr became a blur himself.
“Remember, set markers every 15 miles, and whatever you
do, do not engage.”
“Yes sir.”
“Skylynx, time for takeoff. Is your crew ready?”
Skylynx stod atop Metroplex’s uneven launching pad. Even
in his combined form, he kept his claws extended, ready to grip
in case the entire platform shifted. He looked out at the Autobots
gathered, Roadbuster and Whirl stood at the forefront, Springer
and Sandstorm looked around as impatiently as the rest. They
clustered around Skylynx’s feet, anxious, a fire burning
in their eyes.
“I’m always ready Optimus, and for a change so is everyone
else.”
“Good, get airbourne, I want you 100 miles vertical, all
scanners synched with Blurr and Blaster. I do not want Pathfinder
lost.”
“What can I do Optimus?”
Prime was quiet a moment, looked down and saw Cosmos. He nothing,
not quite sure what to say.
“I know, you don’t think my head’s in it, do you?”
“Is it?”
“I don’t approve of this war, I just wish there was
another way to do things. I don’t like what’s happening,
but Cybertron is my home too Optimus!”
“He Gobot sympathizer Prime.” Grimlock snarled, casting
a shadow over Cosmos as he approached. “He useless.”
“I’m not useless! I-"
“Enough. Cosmos, I want you to-” Prime halted suddenly,
his chest flickered with a blue light. He hissed and leaned back
against the wall, a hand reaching for his chest.
“Optimus! Are you okay?!” Cosmos moved towards him,
Grimlock tilted his head. “ Prime?”
Optimus held up a hand as the flickering died down. “Cosmos...
stay… here, with Metroplex. If the Guardians attack, I want
you to let us know, then help defend. Understood?”
Cosmos lowered his head, he understood perfectly. He nodded.
Prime stood, turning towards the Dinobots.
“Swoop, I want to talk to you.”
Swoop’s surprise was obvious, he looked around, then pointed
to himself. “Me?”
“Yes.” He gestured for him to follow, and Swoop followed,
glancing back at the other Dinobots before turning the corner.
***************
CYBERTRON: DARKORE CENTRAL:
“They’re everywhere!” Dirge was on edge, there
were Renegades in the sky, on the ground, if there were lakes
in the city he was sure he’d see them there as well.
“Good!” Thrust shouted, “That’s just how
I like it!”
He saw a small group of three Renegades soaring through the air,
one a thin stealth bomber, a bright orange jet, and one black
alien looking plane. It reminded them of a jet, but the design
wasn’t anything they had seen on Earth or Cybertron.
“Who’re they?” Ramjet clicked his online settings
high, his launchers whines as they powered up.
“Who cares!? I don’t see no Decepticon symbol on em!”
They open fired, the crafts beside the stealth jet split from
formation and veered towards the coneheads from opposing sides.
Ramjet tore through the air leaving Dirge and Thrust to their
respective pairings.
“Name’s Ramjet!” he plowed into the black ship
and sent it spinning, “Tell yer friends!” He watched
the jet spiral wildly, then right itself and change modes. It
remained mostly black in its coloring, a few areas touched with
a hint of brown. He was unnaturally bulky up top in robot mode,
his arms like pistons. “Name’s Bad Boy.” He growled,
blasted the boosters in his feet, and launched himself at Ramjet
as he transformed. They collided and slammed closed fists into
each other at the same time, both were rocked backwards. Ramjet
transformed back to jet form and charged, colliding with Bad
Boy’s midsection and smashing them into a nearby building.
The wall shattered and caved inward, Ramjet transformed again
and slammed Bad Boy to the ground. “You don’t look
so bad to me-AAA!” A bolt of yellow energy exploded against
his chest and sent him flying back. Ramjet hit the ground and
skidded as Bad Boy got to his feet, his fists smoking. He stalked
forward, “Better get your eyes checked, I’m the baddest
bot in the sky.”
A voice called from behind, “We’re in a building,
idiot.”
Bad Boy spun and received a hail of gunfire, it ripped into his
metal even as he threw up his hands to defend. The final blast
tore through his shoulder and sent him sailing from the window.
Windsheer walked forward, guns still drawn and smoking. Ramjet
laughed, “Good one.”
“Whatever.” The beige and red Decepticon stormed past
him, growing more agitated as he stared out of the hole Ramjet
made, watching Dirge and Thrust engaged in a firefight with the
new arrivals. Similar battles were breaking out across the skyline.
“This place is a mess, just gonna get worse, and guess who’s
gonna have to clean it up?” he muttered, transformed into
his jet mode, and took off. Ramjet laughed, then followed.
Dirge screamed and transformed, watching his left wing fall towards
the ground.
“Witch!” he snarled and grabbed the stump, then winced.
The cut was so clean, the remaining stump had been given a sharp
edge.
“Snoop, actually.” Snoop assumed her robot form as
well, the elongated sections of her jet mode doubled as forearm
blades. A curl of Dirge’s metal flaked away from the edge.
She smiled behind her mask as he charged forward, guns blazing.
She flew backwards, a shot pounded into her midsection, doubling
her over with a hiss. She saw a blur of blue, and turned her
face just as Dirge kneed her, the shot sent a racing pain through
her temple. She screamed herself this time and lashed out, her
arm blade resisted, then finished the arc. She saw Dirge’s
right arm spiral towards the city, the conehead’s mouth
was wide, his eyes full of fury. His left hand raised, shoulder
blaster aimed and powering up. She swung her own hand towards
his, it flashed yellow as the weapons fired. The explosion sent
Snoop flying, she recovered and saw Dirge spiral, then crash
into a nearby rooftop. She changed back into her jet form and
took off without a word.
Gunnyr’s new mode granted him mobility that put is original
form to shame. He swung through the air, spun and released a
cluster of explosives at the maroon jet he thought was stupid
for challenging him. “Eat em flyboy!” He enjoyed the
sounds of explosions ripping through the air and laughed- it
was cut short as Thrust burst From the smoke and fired his shoulder
cannons, the missiles screamed forward and exploded into Gunnyr.
“You’re out of your league GoBot,” Thrust pursued,
tilting himself o the side and avoiding a retaliatory blast from
Gunnyr, “We’re the top of the line, the latest in military
hardware!” He fired again and cursed as the Renegade dipped
down, spinning towards the ground. “We were made
for war!”
“You were made alright, for the scrapyard!”
They raced toward the ground, neither giving an inch, trading
shots as they neared the dark streets of the city. Thrust heard
a loud blast, then saw a bright purple sphere of energy explode
into Gunnyr and tear off his tailfin. His right wing shattered
and he crashed into the first floor of a nearby building, bouncing
off and hitting the ground. Thrust transformed and landed afar
off, glancing back at the ball of flame before hearing a loud,
grumbling engine near as Blitzwing approached. His tan metal
stood out against the dark gray street, his cannon still smoked.
“What’re you doing?” Thrust yelled, “I
had him dead to rights!”
“Haven’t you been paying attention? Shockwave said
to clear the skies, he’s got something big planned. Ground
em and pound em.” He swung his cannon towards Thrust, “Don’t
question it, just do it.”
They were near the crash site of Buggyman’s Thruster, or
more accurately, one of its legs. Even though it was just a portion
of the whole machine and lying on its side, it towered above
them. Fire still poured from it, it rolled from the thing’s
husk as it was alive.
The ground shook, then shuddered with more tenacity.
“What’s that?”
“Aftershock, that thing was big as Trypticon for crying
out loud.”
“No,” Thrust squinted at the wreckage, “Did you
hear that?”
The fire boiled from the Thruster’s upper leg portion, a
section of it vibrated, cracked, and fell forward in a wall of
fire that rolled forward. A pair of eyes glowered out from the
flame, brilliant and yellow. Another pair appeared behind them.
Followed by another, then another.
“You gotta be slaggin’ kiddin’ me!”
The Renegades had once experimented with Zod, Cy-Kill believed
that the design, though effective, left room for improvement.
They altered its structure, granted its upper portion freedom
from the single wheel the previous design seemed bound to. Instead
it was give a more dinosaurian upper body, its arms granted independent
movement, the lower half of the body attached to a three-wheeled
base for easier motion. They called it Ultra Zod. In the end,
the creature was destroyed by the Guardians, but Cy-Kill never
lost hope of refining and improving the design even further.
Now there was no need to hope-Zod had evolved.
Blitzwing threw his treads into reverse, backing away from the…
whatever was emerging from the wreckage. The deepest shade of
blue metal colored them, only a slight tone from black. Red and
orange lights traced their joints, their eyes blazed yellow.
When they roared, they revealed a mouth filled with serrated,
red teeth. Fire slithered across their lower jaws like saliva.
They were growling, the combined sound made it hard to concentrate.
Blitzwing imagined they couldn’t have been very happy being
trapped in that leg when it fell and hit the ground. If they
weren’t ticked off before, they were now.
He counted four of them, two from each leg. He didn’t understand
how they fit in there, they were so slaggin big.
They didn’t roll from their holding, they stalked forward
on two solid legs ending in savage looking red claws, a bulky
tail trailed behind. There were two large, treaded wheels buried
in their upper thighs, another, smaller pair rested on their
shoulders. Their arms were not as tiny as the ones Blitzwing
recalled seeing on Grimlock, but they weren’t proportionate
with the body either. They were long enough to reach out and
grab with a three taloned claw, and certainly strong enough to
push itself back up if knocked down.
Blitwing didn’t think twice, he open fired on the one of
the creatures, it opened its maw and launched a glowing fireball
of its own. They collided in a flash, Blitzwing bore left as
his blast was overpowered, the fireball exploded into the ground
and turned it into a steaming pool of melted metal.
“C’mon you dinobot wannabe-huh?”
He turned his cannon and saw Thrust speeding in the opposite
direction. “Hey! Get back here!”
“No!” Thrust screamed, kicking up his speed, anxious
to be anywhere but near those things, “There’s
plenty of Renegades to fight!” he shouted, then under his
breath, “Smaller ones too…”
He rounded the corner of a building, flying low to avoid detection.
He felt his confidence returning in direct proportion to the
distance he was putting between himself those rampaging beasts.
His scanners beeped, startling him at first. He checked the readings
and sighed, then transformed and dropped to the ground.
“Didn’t think I’d ever be glad to see you.”
The look of relief spreading across his face quickly retreated,
replaced by confusion and fear. “Hey wait-what are you doing?!”
A loud blast sounded and with a warbled scream, Thrust’s
head and chest burst into a cloud of shrapnel. His body staggered
momentarily, arms reaching out and fingers grasping the air,
then pitched forward, clattering to the ground in a lifeless
heap.
***************
UNECOM BASE OF OPERATIONS: FACILITY # 4189
Leader-1’s hand rested against the tube containing the Last
Engineer, he heard the hushed gasps of the other Guardians, but
couldn’t pull his eyes away from the Last Engineer’s.
It was cloudy a moment ago, now it looked clear and blue. Everything
else was getting lost, fading away from his vision. He didn’t
notice the shouts from the others as tendrils of wires snaked
forward and dug into his arm just like they had done to Matt’s
gun. Everything went white.
He floated in empty space, nothing was defined, no lines, no
borders, just an all encompassing whiteness. Leader-1 swiveled
his head and looked around.
“Where am I?”
“This,” a voice came from everywhere, surrounding him,
“Is where decisions are made, where understanding is reached.”
A single bead of light formed in front of Leader-1, then changed
into the shape of a man.
“Last Engineer!” Leader-1 fell to his knees and lowered
his head, eyes wide behind his visor as he looked at the one
responsible for the GoBots’ evolutionary jump. He was no
longer a wired torso, in fact, he no longer had any of
the cybernetic parts that the Guardians were used to seeing him
with. He was whole, complete.
“Am I… are you dead?”
The last Engineer laughed, the sound pleasant, “Not quite,
there is still work to do, and I have done my best to hold on
until it is finished.You’re on the right track Leader-1,
but you don’t fully comprehend your situation.”
“I don’t understand.”
“The truth is in you.”
“I don’t understand!” Leader-1 leaned
forward, his hands flat against the nothingness, he didn’t
even cast a shadow. “ Please… tell me! Have
I doomed my people by doing what I thought was right?”
“You are not ready to see, you cannot right now.”
He frowned slightly, “It pains me so to see you like this
Leader-1.”
“Then help me, tell me what I have to do! What I
should do.”
The compassion slipped from the Last Engineer’s face, replaced
by a stern look Leader-1 had never seen before. He reached up
and placed his hands to either side of Leader-1’s head,
drawing him closer. His voice was clear, piercing. “You
are Leader-1. Lead them, and everything
will be revealed to you. Your people are frightened,
they are scared, but they are unified, because
of you! Do not allow doubt to cripple
you! That is what He wants! You have
said it yourself, give him nothing! Heed your own
words Leader-1, banish your doubt and do what you know
has to be done.
“LEAD THEM!”
***************
CYBERTRON: DARKORE CENTRAL:
“Vamp!” Klaws felt his vision fading,
his body still jerked sporadically from the electric-energy blast
he sustained, he hovered, moved to pursue, then fell unconscious
from the sky.
Vamp’s flight systems refused to operate. She dropped from
the sky with a shriek, smashing into the ground and, to her surprise,
fell through it. The pavement cracked and caved in, a bright,
purple-pink light shone from the hole.
Runamuck and Ruabout stood at the mouth of the opening, leaning
over and peering down.
“She’s hit an energon deposit.”
“Good,” Runabout slung his cannon over his shoulder,
“Hope she drowns in it.”
“Can these guys drink energon?”
“Even if they can, it don’t matter. See the red spots,
that stuff’s contaminated, haw!”
Vamp stood, woozy, as rivulets of energon ran off her body and
spattered on the dark ground. She flicked the remains from her
claws and heard something, a metallic clacking. Just one at first,
all at once it sounded like it was everywhere. In the glow of
the spotted energon her eyes adjusted and saw a sprawling expanse,
a wide field containing various circular pockets of energon,
red splotches of contamination marred the surface. Some were
connected by trenches that hadn’t been constructed so much
as they had been chewed. A loud buzzing accompanied the clacking.
Vamp slowly turned her head and saw an army of Insecticons crawling
from the pools, they were the contaminant. They burrowed
up through the ground, a sea of black, purple and yellow metal.
They moved like a single mass, and they were moving towards her.
Runabout guffawed, looking skyward at the other Renegade Mutants
duking it out with the Firecons, then back down at Vamp. He had
no idea this particular energon deposit was infested with Insecticons,
and bet Shockwave didn’t either. He was sure the one-eyed
goon was going to make Runamuck and himself exterminate them
later, but right now, they were going to put on some show.
Vamp looked around at the gathering swarm, they continued to
crawl from the ground and pull themselves from the energon pools.
They were transforming, Shrapnel, Kickback and Bombshell, the
dominant personalities of the swarm, surrounded her. She glanced
at the three of them, eyes ablaze, the deeper tone of purple
contrasting sharply against the lighter glow of the energon.
“Intruder-truder…” Shrapnel’s fractured
speech rose above the buzz of the swarm. “We will…”
he paused, looked at Bombshell, then Kickback. Together, the
three Insecticons spread their arms and dropped to their knees,
eyes shifting from red to purple as they gazed up at Vamp. “…do
anything to please you Vamp. Anything..thing.”
Runamuck and Runabout stared, eyes growing large.
“What the pit,” Runabout whispered, “What’re
they doing?!”
Runamuck’s response was lost in the roar of the buzzing
Insecticons below, it sounded like a chainsaw, or rather, thousands
of chainsaws. They were swirling around Vamp. Sharpnel, Bombshell
and Kickback remained on their knees, gazing at Vamp in that
damn genuflecting pose. Runabout was about to say something-
and then Vamp looked up at them, eyes narrow, glittering slits.
“Aw, leak on me!” Runabout backed away from
the hole, Runabout dropped his weapon, transformed, and peeled
rubber as the ground erupted in a column of Insecticons. They
surged forth in a single, dark mass, and turned towards the fleeing
Battlechargers.
Runabout charged his cannon and swung it towards the cluster,
then fired a single blast into the cloud. It erupted, and he
swore he saw a good number of Insecticons destroyed, but the
light of the shot was quickly consumed by the swarm. Kickback
latched onto Runabout’s arm, he had enough time to punch
the thing once before Shrapnel clamped down on his other arm,
pinning it to his chest. He grunted, fear rolling over him as
another Shrapnel dug its insectile jaws into his right leg, Bombshell
latched onto the left and brought him to the ground. They were
all over him, he struggled, screamed, and turned his head in
time to see Runamuck overcome by the swarm. A single, white arm
flailed helplessly above a black sea of angry buzzing before
being stripped of its metal, then sank beneath the furious swarm.
“RUNAMUCK!!!” he screamed, and renewed
his struggles. Everything was black and purple. A flash of green,
then the sight of two malicious purple eyes. Vamp leapt forward
with a chilling screech, tilted her head and bit Runabout between
his optics. Her fangs caught on the corner of his left eye and
burst the glass, the right eye imploded from the force of the
upper teeth. She thrust her head forward, digging further into
the Decepticon’s face and then jerked away with her mouth
full, trailing a frightening trail of circuits and metal fragments
behind. Runabout was still screaming. Black and red oil quickly
filled the gap of the convulsing body, then succumbed to Vamp’s
toxin, foaming a bright orange that quivered in the socket before
taking on a slightly transparent, gelatinous consistency. Vamp
stood and spat out the bits of Runabout’s face, drawing
a claw across her mouth.
“Disgusting.”
The Shrapnels, Bomshell and Kickback let go of the Decepticon
when his spasms and screams ceased, then turned towards Vamp,
who smiled.
“Very nice, I am pleased.”
The swarm swirled around her, buzzing, waiting. Her smile widened.
“Very pleased.”
***************
EARTH:
Spike and Bumblebee peeled down the road, Bumblebee’s radio
crackled as Blurr relayed
coordinates to them every minute.
Bumblebee rumbled over an unkempt stretch of road. “Should
I be offended that Prime didn’t even give us time to reach
Metroplex before putting us to work?”
“I figured you’d be happy, you’re the best scout
he has.”
Blurr’s voice shot from Bumblebee’s radio, “Heading
Northwest, fifteen miles!”
“Got it.”
“You think it was smart letting that GoBot escape like this?”
“ Prime knows what he’s doing, looks like he had her
pegged.”
“Twenty miles, south!”
“Got it. What do you think their plan is? Why come to Earth
at all, why didn’t they just try a straight take-over of
Cybertron?”
“Divide and conquer I guess, but I don’t think they
were expecting the Cons to be working with us.”
“Primus she’s fast!”
“What’s that’s Blurr?”
“I think he’s jealous. How’s working for the FBI?”
Spike sighed, “I told you, I don’t work for
them… not really. They know I’m the closest tie to
you guys. They’re not happy about it, but according to them,”
he used his fingers to make air quotes “ ‘in the interest
of national security’, they’d be more comfortable if
I’m technically a civilian employee.”
“Meaning?”
“I get paid a stipend to keep them updated, not that there’s
been anything to update them on until now. And I don’t
even want to tell them about this until it’s over, one alarmed
word from me and those trigger happy geniuses in Washington might
trip over themselves trying to hit the nuke button.”
“Twelve miles west. Jeez, will you make up your mind?!”
“Got it.” Spike glanced out of the window, watching
the landscape whiz past. Sometimes it amazed him how fast Bumblebee
could go when he needed to. “Good to see the Throttlebots
again, huh?”
“Uh? Oh…” he hesitated, “…yeah.”
“What’s wrong? I thought you guys were tight.”
“It’s complicated.”
“They can’t still be mad at you for dropping the Goldbug
moniker, I thought they were glad you were happier like this.”
“That’s what they said, but…” Bumblebee
sighed, “There’s a reason they’ve been on Cybertron
and I’ve been here.”
“Oh.”
“Thirty miles east! I swear she’s gassed
on energon or something!”
***************
Pathfinder spun through the air, frustrated. It pained her to
go this slow, but with no idea where the Guardians were, she
had to move at what she considered a crawl. Her scanners worked
furiously trying to detect the faintest hint of Guardian transmissions.
Had they blocked her? She knew they were supposed to be on Earth,
but where were they? She streaked forward, then backtracked,
hoping to snag even the slightest fragment of a communication.
A sudden spike in her readings made her halt and zip due east,
she zigzagged through the air, desperate to find them. She shuddered,
recalling the grim tone in Prime’s voice. He said they were
willing to relocate to Earth, and why wouldn’t they?
They already blended in perfectly with the surroundings, if push
came to shove, they could be just as content here as their home
planet. She doubted Leader-1 had taken that into consideration,
he had to know, he had to be warned. She cut left, traveled a
few miles, then gasped when her scanner went wild, settled, and
fed her an audio conversation, the frequencies unmistakably Gobotronian
. It was at least fifty miles away, but she could hear it perfectly.
“How ya holdin’ up?”
“I’m sorry Turbo, I couldn’t… I just couldn’t
stay in there! I-I don’t know if I should be mad at Matt
for keeping the Last Engineer like that or-or mad at us.
We’re the ones responsible for New Earth-”
“Aw, don’t talk like that, you know it was those stinkin’
Renegade scum! Who attacks a planet fer no good reason?”
There was a pause.
“Isn’t that what we just did to Cybertron Turbo?”
“Sparky!”
Another pause. It was uncomfortably long.
“What was Leader-1 s’ posed to do?”
“I don’t know!” she said quickly, “I don’t
know, but wasn’t there anything else we could have…”
she sighed, another pause. “You look like you hit the body
shop.”
“And you look like y’did before we became 90 percent
metal. You still kiss like that?”
“Turbo, I’ve told you,” her voice was low, close
to giggling, “No PDA!”
“You know I always f’get what that means.”
“Hello, public displays of affection.”
“ Public? I don’t see no one else around.”
“Wellll…mmmmmm…”
Pathfinder cut the link abruptly, feeling her cheeks grow hot
with embarrassment. So they were here, she paused, her antigravity
boosters kicking in again, and rocketed in the opposite direction
she was headed in, homing in on the location of the voices.
***************
CYBERTRON: DARKORE CENTRAL:
“Guardian Robots!” Shockwave pointed towards the nearing
Renegade Thrusters, “Destroy them!”
The Guardian Robots charged forward, Smasher clenched his fists
and turned towards them.
“I. Hate. Guardians.” He raised a fist
and brought it down, intent on crushing the first to approach
like a can. To his surprise, the Guardian raised it own clawed
hand and caught his fist, clamping down with a defiant resolve.
Its feet crunched into the ground from the impact of the blow,
but hadn’t buckled its knees. It could not move however,
Smasher’s sheer size and power forced it to use all its
strength to keep from being flattened. The second Guardian continued
its advance, raising its arm cannon and charging it a second
before taking aim. Skyjack’s Thruster immediately stepped
forward and fired his forearm cannon, striking the ground before
the Robot. It staggered and fired, the blast going wide and into
the air. The yellow-faced Thruster issued a thunderous growl
and shouted “MaNgLe!!!”
The new Thruster (which, after hearing the declaration, Thruster
dubbed Mangler) planted its feet. Large panels set within the
upper portions of each leg dropped down, revealing a single,
titanic beast housed within each. They almost resembled Trypticon,
dinosaur like in appearance, elongated reptilian snouts, curled
in a fetal position. On Gobotron their original bodies had been
stumpy, a can of a torso supported by spindly legs that barely
afforded them an awkward gait. They were hardly capable of walking,
much less pursuing prey. Cy-Kill called the first one created
Quick-Step, an obvious pun based on his disappointment with the
waddling beast. Now they had evolved, resting in their holdings,
one had a dark, tan hue with black markings tracing the grooves
in its body. The second was a deep shade of purple, yellow highlights
ran down its limbs. Their eyes suddenly flashed red, and each
became a twisting bed of motion as they rose and climbed from
Mangler. They leapt free and landed with a dual ‘BOOM’,
both creatures now bent forward like an earth style dinosaur,
balanced by a short, spiked tail. Their legs were more solid,
lined with indentations that concealed embedded cannons. Sizable
arms hung down before them, claws tapping the ground when they
crouched. They stood more than half the size of the Guardian
Robots they currently stared at, issuing a single roar before
lunging at them.
-------------------------
Shockwave continued monitoring the battle from where he stood,
evaluating the Decepticons’ performance to determine where
he would be most needed. He saw the new Quick-Step beasts emerge
from Mangler’s legs and decided that would be the best place
to start. He moved to engage, already calculating the expected
energy expenditure of the encounter, when his sensors went off,
and he jumped back a split second before Catsight slammed into
the portion of rooftop he was just standing on. The Renegade
stood, his bulky size matched Shockwave’s. They took a moment
and evaluated one another. Shockwave could not identify the GoBot’s
material makeup aside from the similar Gobotronian alloy that
composed many of the beings running amok in his city, but the
blue portions of his body didn’t even match that. Interesting.
He logged the bot’s configuration, his systems carefully
running potential alternate forms based on the placement and
shape of the robot’s limbs. He came to one conclusion.
“A Gobotronian space blaster, I presume.”
“Got it in one.” Catsight curled his claws into fists.
“I must warn you, I will do whatever necessary to protect
Cybertron from all hostile threats.”
“Then you have your work cut out for you,” Catsight’s
eyes flashed green, his body came to life with radiant energy
and cast a hard glow against Shockwave, “Few are more hostile
than me.”
***************
Soundwave received hundreds of transmissions coming through the
tower. He was plugged directly into the mainframe, able to control
its weapon systems and monitor its energy output. Currently it
was pulling more power from the energon pools, he hoped to be
ready to launch another assault against the Renegade transports
in only a few short cycles. The monitors flashed screen after
screen of Decepticon faces, everyone shouting orders, taking
orders, creating strategies and dismissing any that proved ineffective.
He had started interpreting transmissions, in the heat of battle
orders were shouted randomly. Some Decepticons forgot the shut
off their comms and were just thinking out loud over an open
channel. There was static and background noise to thin out and
erase to preserve the messages. Others were simply scared out
of their wits or in a berzerker fury-not the best conditions
for talking to others. Soundwave received, interpreted, and broadcast
a concise, comprehensible version of what being shouted amongst
the chaos. It was difficult, but far from impossible for him.
Noticing the sudden appearance of new creatures advancing on
Blitzwing, he relayed the information to Shockwave-who he was
just informed, was now directly involved with a problem of his
own.
Five small transmission towers lined the walls, each containing
one of his cassette companions. He held two within himself, changing
the combinations as he felt necessary. Now was too important
a time to have a breakdown in communication. He checked the recharge
of the Tower weapon systems. Five minutes remaining. He imagined
he would target the green-headed Thruster again, that seemed
to be the one they were most concerned about protecting. If yet
another transport was willing to sacrifice itself to prevent
her loss, then they were still one Transport less than
when they started.
The whole affair bothered him, nothing seemed… right.
“Frenzy, Buzzsaw, point-counterpoint. Discuss invasion tactics.”
Frenzy was confused, but only a moment. He had heard Soundwave
do this before with the other tapes, allowing his companions
to discuss an issue to gather different views on the same topic.
He used this to his advantage, able to talk about almost anything
with the other Decepticons. It helped quell their general uneasiness
around him, but not by much. On the up side, it greatly increased
their willingness to talk in front of him, something that gave
the cassettes more to record for later use.
The cassettes ground inside of him, Buzzsaw’s voice trailed
through the air, calm, confident. “The current invasion
is a poorly thought out assault with no real substance behind
it. No reports of Renegade activity in any other cities.
You cannot-”
“I punch em in the face!”
Buzzsaw made an impatient click, “Invasions require tactical
planning and placement of your forces in such a way as to repel
any advances.”
“Hey wait,” Frenzy broke in, “-if I don’t
want to deal with that, I just take out the big guns first. Then
I can do whatever I want, you couldn’t stop me.”
“I could if I placed stations around my stronghold
to prevent you from destroying said ‘gun’. Besides-”
“And while they’re in timbuck-two, I’m letting
you have it full force!”
Buzzsaw sighed, annoyed, “That’s why you’re a
grunt, you’d be too stupid and random to accomplish any
kind of successful takeover.”
Frenzy vibrated with anger inside of Soundwave, “Well maybe
I don’t wanna take over! Maybe I just wanna punch
you in the face!”
Soundwave froze. He purposely selected Frenzy for this point-counterpoint
because his thuggish nature reminded him of Galvatron’s
description of Blane, and it had paid off. Maybe this wasn’t
about taking over the planet per se. As the cassettes
continued to argue, he tried to focus on relaying messages while
trying to make sense of the possibility that Shockwave may have
actually overlooked something. He had calculated the Renegades’
odds of striking DarkOre Central, and he’d been right, but
he also refused to rule out the possibility of the Renegades
attacking other parts of Cybertron, and had thus spread out their
troops in a careful net both on and off Cybertron. But what if
this city was the focal point, and nothing else? What
if Blane really was pouring everything he had into decimating
DarkOre Tower? Nothing the Renegade did had made any strategic
sense anyway, why would it start now? He ground his servos, thinking…
maybe, just maybe it did have a kind of twisted logic…
Blane would know that no matter where he struck, he would only
have to face a fraction of their full might.
Four Renegade Thrusters had descended into DarkOre
Central. Four. Why? Why were they not receiving word of
an attack from any of their outposts? Shockwave had to be warned.
He prepared to open a direct line to him when he heard something,
a burst of high frequency sound, then silence. The coded palm-lock
on the door lit up, registering a Decepticon identity, then slid
open. What stood in the doorway was anything but a Decepticon.
Tux’s top hat gleamed in the light of the communication
hub. He stared at Soundwave and tilted his head, eyes half-lidded
but oddly focused. He held a neatly severed hand in his own,
he raised it chest high and waved it at Soundwave, then tossed
it over his shoulder.
Soundwave immediately rerouted the incoming communications to
the five towers containing his remaining cassettes and hoped
they would hold, then disengaged himself from the manfrae and
transformed. He landed with a ‘thunk’, and stared at
the lean Renegade.
“Your presence, is not welcome.”
Tux raised a finger to his lips. “Shhhh…”
Click… click…
***************
Blitzwing fired another blast at the demonic creature that kept
advancing, screeching out a horrible sound as it lumbered forward,
mouth agape and spraying jets of flame at him. The four of them
had spread out after crawling from the Thruster’s leg, their
attention being diverted by various Decepticons already entrenched
in their own battles. He continued backpedaling and firing.
“Slag it all I’ve seen this movie, it never
ends well for the tank!”
Blitzwing kept backing away, increasing his speed as the one
creature who decided to hone in on him kept stomping forward,
its yellow eyes glaring off the buildings it passed. Occasionally
it would lash out and slash the side of one, wherever it touched
instantly burst into flame, the metal glowing red with heat.
“Mindless behemoth!” Hook shouted, resentment etched
in his words, “Stop destroying our city!”
Blitzwing recognized the voice and welcomed the volley of gunfire
that shot overhead, pounding the beast’s chest. A green
crane rolled forward, Hook was followed by Bonecrusher, Long
Haul and Scavenger, they called forth their weapons and open
fired on the creature, it snarled at them and sprayed a wave
of flame at them. The Constructicons jerked themselves into reverse,
pulling away from the wall of fire lurching towards them and
firing again. Enraged, the new Zod pounded after them, lines
of molten metal dripping from its mouth as its rage increased.
“Keep his attention!” Hook ordered. Blitzwing didn’t
know what they had in mind, but obliged.
Scrapper and Mixmaster peered from the seventh story of a building
the creature was about to pass.
“That ready yet?” Scrapper knelt beside the window,
Mixmaster rested in his vehicle form, the large drum churning
a concoction he hoped would do the trick.
“Give me a second-”
“We don’t have a second anymore, here it comes!”
Scrapper leveled his gun and fired, the blast struck Zod in the
side of the head, drawing his attention. He snarled and lumbered
towards the source of the attack.
“Come on!” Scrapper backed away from the window, “It’s
looking at us, do it now!”
“Clear the way!” Mixmaster shouted, taking aim as Scrapper
backed away from the window. Zod roared again, slashing at the
building and driving its claw deep into the room the Constructicons
occupied. Mixmaster felt the liquid sloshing around in his drum.
He gave it a final spin, then fired. A jet of white, foaming
liquid fanned from him, it struck Zod’s mouth in mid-screech.
Zod’s sounds stopped abruptly, replaced by a loud gargling
as it backpedaled, swinging its head back and forth, jaws working
up and down. Ice began to creep along its jaw, steaming as it
encountered the liquid metal in Zod’s mouth, then freezing
it as well. It continued to spread, working its way down its
throat and crawling along its snout. Zod’s arms swung about
and pawed at its mouth, it stumbled and fell forward into the
building Scrapper and Mixmaster used to hide. They transformed
and raced forward, bursting from the window and landing hard
on the ground, but for the moment they were out of immediate
danger. Zod was still thrashing wildly, tearing out the building’s
lower sections until it shuddered and began to tilt.
“Aw no!” Bonecrusher fumed as the structure lilted,
then began to fall, “We just built this!”
Scrapper’s visor glowed, “Constructicons unite!”
Scrapper and Mixmaster felt their bodies reconfigure and come
to rest as feet while the remaining Constructicons rose into
the air. A body formed, the arms locked into place as Hook completed
his connection to a ‘V’ shaped chestplace. The head
arose, and the Constructicons’ personalities combined, creating
a single mind for the first gestalt to grace the ranks of the
Decepticon army, Devastator.
“Nothing destroys Devastator’s city!” he bellowed
at Zod, whose furthest concern at the moment was an angry green
robot. It continued to snap at nothing and rake its claws along
its snout, hawking bursts of steam from its mouth as Mixmaster’s
cryo-poison raced through its body. It crashed through the other
side of the building, which bent into a full-on fall. Devastator
caught the structure, his face a mask of personal affront, this
was Hook’s favorite building, he designed it himself. Devastator
felt his servos stress, then dug his fingers into the building’s
side and hoisted. The structure continued to fall, the top half
tearing free and crashing to the ground. Devastator held tenaciously
to the remaining portion he strained to keep raised above his
head, enraged.
“NOTHING!!”
Zod turned towards the gestalt in time to see him hurl the building’s
remains at him. The ground quaked and cracked, smoke burst from
the point of impact. Devastator took a step towards the now demolished
remains of the building, leaning forward to inspect the damage.
Zod exploded from the wreckage and slammed into Devastator, its
claws clamped onto his arms and legs. It squawked angrily, its
weight forcing Devastator to lean back, trying to keep his balance.
He managed to yank an arm free, reared further back and came
up with a solid right that shattered Zod’s lower jaw. The
beast screamed and slammed the now exposed roof of its mouth
down of Devastator’s head. Most of the teeth, now frozen
and brittle, snapped upon impact, but the remaining fragments
dug into the gestalt’s forehead and temple. Devastator roared
in protest, then fell backwards, Zod landed on top of him and
continued thrashing. The claws slashed at his chestplate and
left large grooves behind. Devastator bent an arm beneath Zod’s
broken face as the thing tried to hammer him again, groping the
nearby area for something he could use. Blitzwing rolled toward
the battle, cannon charging and preparing to fire when he saw
the giant purple hand clutching at the ground. It slammed the
road beside him, then reached directly for him.
“Hey!” Blitzwing screamed, now caught directly in Devastator’s
fist, “The Pitt are you DOING?!”
Devastator didn’t answer, he readjusted Blitzwing in his
grip, pointed his cannon towards Zod, and jammed the length of
the weapon through the beast’s eye. Zod lurched back and
screeched, arms thrown wide in shock and pain. Blitzwing screamed
as well and fired, the blast ripped through Zod’s head and
exploded through the opposite eye. His roars reached a fevered
pitch and suddenly faded, his body gave a final convulsion, and
he toppled over, crashing to the ground. Thick spurts of red
and black oil poured from its mouth and mangled eye sockets.
Blitzwing transformed and landed beside Devastator.
“Don’t ever do that again!”
Devastator shoved the rest of Zod off himself and stood, surveying
the damage. He caught sight of another Zod in the distance, it
had latched onto the side of what was once an energon pub and
was ripping the thing apart piece by piece.
“My city…” Devatstator growled, and made his way
towards the beast, Blitzwing shrugged, reverted to his tank form,
and rolled after him.
***************
EARTH:
Blurr’s voice burst from Bumblebee’s radio again. “Well
that’s just great, she’s gone!”
“Gone? How can she be gone?”
“Well she was there one second and then she wasn’t
there. She must have teleported.”
“She’s a UFO Blurr, if she can reach the velocity needed
to clear the atmosphere like Cosmos, I bet she was just cruising
until she got a beat on the Guardians.”
Spike tapped the dashboard, thinking. “Great, how do we
track her.”
Blaster’s voice came through Bumblebee, he laughed, “I’m
all hurt and offended Spike, there’s more than one way to
track a GoBot! You two and Blurr were the visual, I got the audio.”
“You can track her Blaster?”
“Shoot, I can now, all I needed was for her to make contact!
Whoever she was eavesdroppin’ on, they were stationary.
I bet that’s where they’ve set up camp. Now we connect
the dots.”
Blaster remained hooked directly into Metroplex’s communication
center. He refused to admit it, but the subtle differences in
the Gobotronian frequencies were putting a serious strain on
him and his cassettes as they tried to home in on their origins.
He needed to rotate them in shifts to maintain the tracking and
keep from burning them out. Rewind leaned on the chair beside
Blaster rubbing his forehead, it was glowing with heat.
Optimus stood before the troops he held back from Skylynx, they
stared at him with eager eyes, anger flared in most. Elita-1,
Jazz and Ironhide stood beside him as he faced the cluster.
“Autobots, in a few moments, Blaster will have the location
of what we believe will be the Guardians’ Earth base.”
I have selected some of you to remain behind. We don’t know
if they’ll try to attack Metroplex again, and I don’t
aim to give them the chance. This time we strike them before
they strike us.”
“Optimus!” Blaster yelled, ejecting Steeljaw and transforming
as well. “Got ‘em.” Optimus nodded, then turned
towards his troops.
“Autobots, now is the time. Transform, and roll out!”
***************
???????????:
Unicron laughed.
Zeemon stumbled back, smacking his thigh against the boardroom
table. The Unicron/Zeemon monstrosity towered above him, stepping
through the wall of glass separating them. Zeemon’s hands
went behind him, hoping to touch a doorknob, a window pane, something
he could run through to get away-
He felt something cold in his fingers.
A Doorknob?!
“I have wondered why it was I could not draw the power
I craved. You still remain. Impressive.”
Zeemon didn’t ask questions, didn’t care whatever strange
fortune saw fit to grant him a momentary escape. He spun, yanked
the door open, and leapt through it.
He wished he hadn’t. He had leapt with the intent of landing
on more floor, which was anything but the case. Instead he fell
into darkness, his flailing limbs giving him no purchase on anything.
After a few seconds he began to wish for anything, a cliff, a
perch, anything that might stop the fall-he slammed into something
hard and felt himself slide on an angle. His hands dug into what
felt like dirt until he came to a halt, his hands aching, but
his body dangling. Was he on a cliff? He swiveled his head around
and saw only blackness below, a rich, tangible void.
Then came the laughter. Zeemon’s heart sank, the void became
a glistening sheen, rimmed with a crimson lining. Unicron laughed,
his black, featureless face rising to stare at Zeemon as he dangled
helplessly from his finger.
“NO!” Zeemon screamed, “Why are you doing this?!”
“It would appear that you are Zeemon’s will, or
perhaps his hope. It matters not. Once you have been extinguished,
your… unique, biological attributes will be at my command.”
“No…”
“To draw power from anything…” Unicron
seemed to be talking to himself, “No longer will I require
the sustenance of planets, no longer will I need concern myself
with the matrix.”
“The what?”
Unicron didn’t answer, only laughed. The sound was drenched
in certainty and amusement.
“Come to me, little Zeemon, oblivion awaits.”
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