"Are we prepared to activate Pax Convoy's body?" Cheetor asked Rawhyde.
"Yep, we're all set to go. As soon as his spark is inside his body, the computer will determine which alternate form is best for him, and reconfigure him into that form."
"So be it." Cheetor carried Pax's spark to a generic, gray Autobot starter body. He stared up at the body, thinking that it had to be at least four or five times his size. A hover-platform presented itself before the Maximal leader, and he promptly boarded it. The platform slowly, if not even majestically, raised Cheetor up to the level of the starter body's chest. The cheetah's hands trembled as the chest cavity opened, revealing a throne for the spark. He brought the spark nearer to the throne, nearer, nearer…
"Halt!" a voice cried out, followed by the stampede of a team of security officers. "Back away from the body now!"
Cheetor turned and glared at the troops. "This is my project. You stand down, and leave me be."
"Commander Cheetor…?" The bewildered Maximal asked, "What're you doing here? You never filled out any forms requesting access to these areas!"
Cheetor growled in frustration, "Look, lieutenant, I couldn't risk a breach in security. I could not let anyone, except Rawhyde and myself, know about this. Do you understand? The creation of this Autobot could not become publicized." Cheetor silently sighed, relieved as the lieutenant ordered his troops to stand down. "What's your name, lieutenant?" Cheetor asked.
"The name's Sharpshot," he replied, motioning for his troops to return to their posts.
"Good to meet you, Sharpshot," Cheetor said. "Would you like to watch the creation of Pax Convoy?"
Sharpshot's eyes widened. "Pax…Convoy?"
"He's our final weapon against the Decepticons," Cheetor talked in a stern voice, "Attack with Pax Convoy, destroy the Predacon base, and prevent interference from the Omikron. That's all there is to it."
Sharpshot recovered from his shock quickly afterwards. "Well, get on with it! Let's finish this war today!" He strode to the foot of the starter, staring up at it. Cheetor nodded his head, and prepared to introduce Pax Convoy's spark to the body.
A Maximal paced back and forth inside his lookout and gunnery post. Nothing exciting ever happened here, he thought. And if anything exciting were to happen, he would be the last to hear about it because of the twenty-something other posts would see it before him.
He sat down in a chair and began playing with a handheld puzzle. The object of the game was to position all the spheres inside a hexahedron so that when the toy was turned on, all the balls would light up. Far harder than he had originally imagined. He tried arranging the spheres again, and then he held the game up to the window, but to no avail. He rearranged the balls once more and, confident that he had solved it, flipped the switch on the toy to "ON". The spheres lit up in the color of success, and quickly began to glow brighter than before. The sentry, baffled by this, looked around to see that a large shadow had spread throughout the room.
The Maximal peered out the window. Suddenly, he dropped the puzzle, and backed away from the window rapidly. The wall surrounding was brutally torn away in one swift move. The Maximal sentry watched horrifically as a griffin flew through the hole in the wall and set itself down on a computer terminal.
"Magnatron!" The sentry screamed, whipping out his gun and firing recklessly. The griffin set down off his perch on the computer, and walked towards the Maximal. The dark blue of his chest and wings contrasted with the white of his feathers and eyes. The entire griffin had a transmetal shine to him, refracting all light. He meandered slowly over to the sentry until he was mere feet away.
"Yes, I am Magnatron," the griffin said, almost smiling, "die, Maximal." Parts rotated and flipped around as the griffin transformed into a robot of frightening proportions; his entire body was primarily white, except where the winged dark blue gloves and sleek, sharp black boots resided. Blue armor covered his muscular torso, claws lacing around his ribs and shoulders. The griffin head recessed into his back, and the beast legs of the griffin combined together to form a rifle.
Magnatron's white, red helmeted face was lit by his evil green eyes. He raised the rifle, and mercilessly shot the officer three times. As soon as the sentry fell, Magnatron targeted his spark and fired once more, extinguishing the spark. Magnatron proceeded to radio his other strike forces to begin their attacks as well.
Transforming back to beast mode, Magnatron flew away from the tower, and towards the Autobot's capital city…
Cheetor had nearly placed the Pax Convoy's spark into his body when alarms shrilled throughout the room. His head whipped towards Sharpshot, who had just received word over his communicator.
"Magnatron and a whole lot of Predacons began to attack our sentry posts! They came out of no where!" Sharpshot reported, yelling up to Cheetor. "Hurry up and get Pax Convoy operational!"
Cheetor turned back to the sparkless body. He thrust Pax's spark into the chest cavity, closed the torso plate, and hovered back down to ground level. "The Omikron," he thought, "must have allied themselves with the Predacons…that's the only way they could have gotten the energy needed."
Power surged through the gray starter as the spark's influence began to take effect. Rawhyde, Cheetor, and Sharpshot backed away as machines began to mold Pax Convoy's appearance and alternative mode.
Not far above, Predacon air fighters blasted away at the city, dropped bombs, and vomited acid. Industrial centers exploded, their remains destroying surrounding buildings as well. Fire ripped through the city as Magnatron breathed his flames upon the organics, setting them ablaze immediately and running all throughout the city. Maximals and Autobots attempted to hold off their attackers, but did little to stop them. A Predacon attack was not expected so early, so defenses were relatively low and unavailable.
Finally, the machines backed away from Pax Convoy's body. The three Maximals gazed in awe at what stood before them; Pax had red arms, legs, and torso, while his boots, hands, and head were all a royal, light blue. Strips of white armor were his breastplate and abdominal armor. His golden eyes grew brighter and brighter, as he uttered his first words from his gray lips;
"Who…am..I?"
Cheetor gawked. "He doesn't sound anything like either of the Optimus's! His spark is 50% Optimus, and he doesn't sound like either!"
"Its all right," Rawhyde reassured. "Pax Convoy?"
The Autobot lifted its head to look at Rawhyde. "Yes?"
"I am Rawhyde. This is Cheetor, this is Sharpshot."
Pax looked around, confused. "Why are you all so small..?"
Rawhyde snapped his fingers, and hurriedly tapped on a keyboard. "We forgot to add history and background files to his memory. Activating file transfer…" The computer screen popped up a progress bar, and white binary code flashed through Pax's eyes.
"Will the transfer be finished before Magnatron levels the city?" Cheetor asked, voice weighed down with concern. Rawhyde shook his head. "Alright, then, I'm going to go up there and hold him off. As soon as Pax Convoy is ready, send him out."
Cheetor existed the elevator, swords drawn. He punched an unfortunate Predacon standing by the elevator door, and proceeded to the rim of the rooftop.
"Magnatron! Magnatron!" Cheetor yelled, gazing out over city. Cheetor suddenly felt a surge of heat behind him, and rolled out of the way just as a spear of flames darted by.
"Cheetor…we have not battled in months," Magnatron said, landing and transforming to robot mode, rifle drawn, and the feathers attached to his gloves extended and readied to attack.
"Let's get reacquainted!" Cheetor charge, his left sword in front of him, his right sword behind him. He blocked Magnatron's rifle shot with the left, and slashed with the right. Magnatron blocked, and returned suit. Cheetor executed a low sweep kick, knocking Magnatron to the ground. Before the Predacon even hit the ground, Cheetor swung his sword, cutting deep into Magnatron's chest.
Magnatron gasped in pain. "You've improved, I see." He activated his thrusters, flying away from the ground. In mid-air, he cut the power to the thrusters, kicking Cheetor in the head on the way down. Taking opportunity of a dazed Cheetor, Magnatron began pummeling him senseless. They neared the edge of the building, Cheetor too dizzied to see straight. Magnatron's arm feather-swords gleaned as he slashed Cheetor twice; once in the stomach and once in the leg. His third attack met Cheetor's sword, shattering Magnatron's right-handed feather swords.
"I do not need both swords to defeat you!" Magnatron cried, roundhouse-kicking Cheetor back into the center of the rooftop. Cheetor tried to steady himself as Magnatron found his rifle and re-armed it…
"Download complete!" Rawhyde exclaimed. Pax Convoy's went back to their yellow hue as he looked around the room. "Hello Pax."
"Hello…Rawhyde…" Pax Convoy muttered. "Why are all the alarms going off?"
Rawhyde remembered the matter at hand. "The Predacons are attacking! We need your help!"
"Predacons, huh?" Pax Convoy looked around, intrigued. "They must be pretty powerful to cause such a disturbance. So, you need my help?"
"Yes, yes, we do." Rawhyde opened a large door to the far side of the room, where three large items were held. "We need you to go outside and stop the Predacon attack!"
"What's in it for me?" Rawhyde was stunned. "What…did you say. . .?"
"What's in it for me? Money, energon, weapons?"
"Uh…" Rawhyde struggled to conceive what was happening here. Here, an Autobot who's spark was comprised of portions of sparks of two of the greatest leaders of all time was asking for money, of all things, to save his own comrades! This…this was not a Convoy robot at all! But there was still the urgent situation that needed to be resolved.
"Look, Pax Convoy, go out there and help beat back the Predacons, and I'll give you these three drones for you to control." Rawhyde motioned to the far side of the room. "There's Scouter, a scout jet with light weaponry,", pointing towards a white, medium sized plane with two wings and a back wing, and a trapezoidal nose, "Art, a small but heavily armed artillery tank," indicating the small blue tank with two long rail gun launchers at the sides, "and Carrier," he motioned towards a large, rectangular barge that could fit ten, possibly twenty Maximals on it. "Carrier is a heavily armored transport that carries your armor and can serve as a barrack to block enemy fire."
Pax Convoy, while born before yesterday, knew a good deal when he was presented with one. "Agreed."
"Excellent!" Rawhyde tried to hide the disappointment in his voice. Is this what he and Cheetor committed sacrilege for? A mercenary robot? "Now, transform, and get out there!"
Pax nodded his head. "Transform!" he yelled out.
Seconds passed.
A minute went by.
"What? Why aren't you transforming?" Rawhyde demanded.
"Why're you yelling at me?" Pax retorted. Rawhyde walked to the computer terminal.
"Computer, display Pax Convoy's alternative mode." The computer answered Rawhyde's question moments later with the cold reply of text scrolling across the screen.
Rawhyde slowly turned towards Pax. The new Autobot, anxious to know what his alternative mode was, read the terminal screen, quickly sneering in disgust at what he saw.
"Forget it," Rawhyde commanded. "We'll deal with it later. Right now, get out of here and blow away the Predacons!"
Pax Convoy complied, muttering under his breath. The three drones followed him through the first large doorway, and then through another door.
As soon as the four were gone, Rawhyde hung his head in shame, and radioed in an Autobot commander. A generic voice crackled over the com. Rawhyde replied, "We need your commander to return from Cybertron's moon, and get back here to the capital as soon as possible. We have a situation." The voice confirmed his distress call and disconnected.
The Maximal sat down in his chair and breathed painfully.
On the rooftop, Magnatron succeeded in shooting Cheetor in the left arm before Cheetor halved his gun. Reacting quickly, Magnatron seized the sword and began a classic sword duel with the Maximal. Parrying and thrusting, the two fought each other to a standstill. Precious time running out, Magnatron raised his left forearm and ejected the feather blades, two of which hit Cheetor's chest head on.
Magnatron smiled wickedly as he watched Cheetor's right sword drop. Cheetor tore the blades out of his body, and threw them aside, panting. The Predacon leader strode up to Cheetor, that same smile still plastered over his face.
"Any last words, my nemesis?"
Cheetor glared at Magnatron hatefully, almost not seeing Scouter hover over the rooftop edge. Instinctively, Cheetor rammed into Magnatron, bringing both to the building's edge.
"Yes, I do." Cheetor grinned. "Hope you don't mind," Cheetor body slammed both himself and his enemy over the edge, "the fall!"
As the two fell, Scouter flew by Cheetor, offering him a wing to climb onto. Cheetor obliged, and the two floated away from Magnatron, who couldn't transform to beast mode before smashing into the ground.
As Magnatron rose himself, he froze in place as he saw Pax Convoy and Art standing not too far away.
"Fire!" Pax ordered Art. Rounds of ammunition and shells were blasted at Magnatron, who, unable to dodge them, blocked what he could as he ascended into the air.
"Keep firing!" Pax yelled. Art obeyed, adding his gattling gun to the fray. Seconds after the gattling gun came into use, Magnatron was heavily damaged. Fragments of his once sophisticated body dropping to the ground below, Magnatron jetted off in a desperate retreat.
Cheetor hovered down, lying on Scouter's wing. "Good work..Pax."
"I did what I was paid to do. Now, I'd like to blast more Predacons, if you don't mind." Pax Convoy plucked Cheetor off Scouter, and put him on the ground.
Cheetor gave little regard to what Pax said. His body went limp as he rolled into stasis lock.
***
Hours have passed, and Pax Convoy and the Maximal and Autobot forces are still fighting off Predacon invaders.
"Dammit! This is going on for too long!" Pax Convoy complained, blasting more Predacons while behind Carrier. "We have to find a way to get them out of here!" Pax quickly elbowed a Predacon that ventured over Carrier in the face, and then threw him over the barrack-drone. "These guys are suicidal…they refuse to stand down!"
Near Pax Convoy, Art was finally blasted. His left treads broken away, Art became immobile. With a muttered curse, Pax Convoy ran out from behind Carrier and dragged Art behind the barrack. Just before he got to safety, however, Pax was shot in the arm, and dropped his rifle. Not giving an instant for Pax Convoy to get the rifle back, the Predacons shot it out of existence.
Pax growled, "Art, you idiot, look what's happened now!" The drone gave four low toned beeps. The firing intensified, and Carrier began toppling over. Pax turned around and tried to prevent the oversized drone from falling, but failed. He ducked down as a rain of firepower swept over Carrier. Pax, assured that this was his last hour, contemplated self-destructing. However, a white and black Cybertronian truck cab rolled out of a shuttle and landed on the battlefield. Upon setting down, it accelerated, revved its engines, and began mowing down Predacons, one by one. Pax smiled, picked up a discarded Predacon handgun, and helped the Cybertronian truck clear out the enemy.
The truck cab rolled up to Pax, and transformed into an Autobot just slightly taller. Primarily colored white, with gray and red arms, large black forearms, two wheels on each leg, shiny blue shins and boots, a large, almost translucent canopy in the middle of his chest and…a white, Prime-style helmet?
"Hello," the Autobot said. "My name is Silver Convoy."
"Pax Convoy," he stuttered, awed by the presence of such an awesome-looking Autobot.
"Look, Pax, I saw the amount of Predacons left while I was flying in the shuttle. There aren't many," Silver Convoy explained, "We can eliminate them within the next ten minutes. There are ten more or so up north. I'll take those. To the east, there are another eight. You take those. The remaining ones will retreat or be captured. Clear?"
"Yes.." Pax said, disgusted by how an Autobot could exert authority over him so quickly after meeting for the first time.
Silver Convoy transformed back to truck-cab mode, and raced north. Pax Convoy armed himself with another sidearm and marched eastward, abandoning his two damaged drones for Scouter to keep a vigil over.
Scouter set down near his two wounded brothers, analyzing them and assessing their damage. His metallic eye focused over Pax Convoy, his master. Shutters flashed over the eye for a millisecond, cleaning it of dust and particles. Pax Convoy was still the same. Returning to the task at hand, Scouter latched on to Art and carried him back to base.
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