Hello, and welcome to chapter one of The Darkness in the Light, a spin-off to 9aza's story, The Noose, which you should read in order to better understand this fic. Well, to start off, I do not on The Transformers, nor do I own any of the characters that are associated with the Transformers. I don't own The Noose either, that belongs solely to 9aza...I do however own several OCs who will be featured in this story. This story takes place centuries after the time of the Autobots and the Decepticons, and focuses on their descendants, the Maximals and the Predacons respectively (but mainly on the Predacons here). Well, I sincerely hope that you enjoy the following fic, don't forget to check out The Noose while you're at it, please review and finally...Thanks for reading! Enjoy!
On Cybertron, despite the rolling blackouts caused by a shortage of energon, certain parts of Cybertron had never been subjected to the power outages that had plagued the rest of the planet. For many years, no one, not even the Maximal High Council, could explain the reason for this, they had always just assumed that somewhere out there, an ancient, probably abandoned power station was somehow still functioning, using some kind of alternative power source. No one had ever bothered to search for the mysterious power source, citing the cost of mounting such an expedition, not to mention the waste of energon.
Nobody had bothered searching, until now...
"Vanquish, are you sure this is the place?" A missile tank asked as he and an anti-artillery truck lumbered along down the streets of Cybertron.
"Perfectly sure my dear Demolisher, my sources indicate that this is the most likely location for the fabled lost energy source of the Decepticons." Vanquish replied as he and Demolished stopped at an empty intersection.
"What are we doing here? You know that the Council expects us to complete our mission as soon as possible!" Demolisher reminded his commander.
"True, but before we start, we need to wait for the rest of our team." Vanquish replied "Ah, and it looks like they have arrived!"
And it was true, for a trio of Cybertronic attack jets appeared on the horizon, rapidly flying towards the pair.
"Skystalker, Terrorize!"
"NovaScream, Terrorize!"
"Cometjumper, Terrorize!"
As the three landed, they began their transformation from attack jets to robots. The lead one, Skystalker, was mainly red, with a teal trim and had a head very similar to the Coneheads of the Great War, but his wings were located on his back, like a regular seeker and he lacked thrusters on his shoulders.
The second one, NovaScream, was mainly a dark brown, but his helm, arms and wings were a deep purple, his optics were yellow and he did have a pair of thrusters on his shoulders.
Cometjumper meanwhile, was grey, gold and red, also seemed to lack the shoulder mounted thrusters and even wings, which were apparently stored somewhere within his body. On the top of his helm was a crest.
"Sergeant Skystalker, reporting sir!" Skystalker said crisply, snapping to attention "And this is the rest of my squad, privates NovaScream and Cometjumper.
"Excellent, and I assume you were told the reason for your being here?" Vanquish asked.
"I'm a little short on details, but apparently we're looking for some kind of energy source?" Skystalker suggested.
Vanquish nodded "Correct, I'll fill you in on the details when the rest of the squad arrives."
Demolisher balked "There's more?"
"Indeed there is, do you think we could do this with only three Seekers? No, we need to be prepared for whatever obstacles, so I took the liberty of recruiting a small force." Vanquish replied.
"And it looks like they're arriving now..." Cometjumper murmured, pointing at a rapidly approaching cloud of dust.
"Ah, finally..." Demolisher breathed.
Coming towards the group was a convoy of vehicles, including a howitzer, a motorcycle, a sports car and various others. When they had all arrived, they transformed and faced their commander.
"I see you have all arrived, I will of course need your names." Vanquish told them.
One by one, the Predacons stepped forward and announced themselves.
"Gravedigger." The howitzer grunted, a tall Predacon with mainly orange and purple colouration.
"Crumble." A green crane stepped forward.
"Dropshot." The green and blue sports car told the others.
"Crosswire "sir"." A menacing white and grey motorcycle spoke up, malice dripping from his voice.
"Hook's my moniker." A hook and chain wielding maroon motorcycle spoke.
"The name's Toxin, don't forget it." A blue and green bipedal walker snarled.
"They call me Blowout." A black sports car said in a bored tone of voice.
"And I'm Enemy." A beige anti-aircraft tank revealed.
"Excellent, well, it appears that we are all here!" Demolisher exclaimed.
"Not quite. Vanquish said.
"Eh, but isn't this team large enough already?" Demolisher questioned, eager to get a move on.
"We're still missing three." Vanquish replied.
Demolished sighed in frustration "But we already have twelve, including us! Surely that is enough!"
"The ones I'm waiting for are pros." Vanquish stated, before turning back to the road.
"Well they better get here soon!" Demolisher muttered, angry that he had to wait.
Suddenly, three bright lights flashed across the sky. Craning their necks skyward, the Predacons all saw three fireballs heading their way.
"Maximal attack!" Demolisher gasped, before transforming and aiming his turrets at the fireballs.
"Wait." Vanquish told his second in command, raising his hand to stop him "These are no Maximals."
All three fireballs slammed into the ground, creating craters. Cautiously, the Predacons moved towards them, weapons raised. Steam shot out of the craters and three silhouettes appeared.
"Galleon!" One of the figures cried out, jumping out from the steam and revealing a dark blue Predacon bristling with ball turrets, the prow of a submarine jutting out from his chest.
"Control!" The second exclaimed, as he too stepped out of the steam, showing off his dark green colouration. He seemed to be a Triple Changer, as evidenced by the wings sticking out of his back and the wheels poking out of his shoulders.
"Magmatron." The final Predacon said, strolling out in the open.
The others gasped when they saw him. He was huge, towering over the others, and appeared to be a Combiner, as evidenced by his somewhat mismatched appearance.
"Ah, so glad that you arrived." Vanquish greeted the newcomers.
"We agreed to be here, and so here we are." Magmatron simply said.
"Indeed, I assume you want to collect your payment?" Vanquish asked.
"Yes." Control replied, holding out an outstretched hand.
Vanquish stared at it carefully, before reaching into a hidden compartment and pulling out a small bag full of currency.
"Good." Magmatron hissed "Now, let's get started."
"Finally." Demolisher muttered as he and Vanquish strode towards a large, abandoned power plant.
"This is the place?" Magmatron asked.
"Yes, It took me stellar cycles to find it, it cost me thousands and I had to kill so many to gain the information, but finally, the fabled lost energy source is here!" Vanquish hissed, barely able to contain his glee.
"Fabled energy source? An explanation would be helpful." Crumble suggested.
Demolisher half turned, ready to strike the insolent Predacon, but Vanquish stopped him "Let it slide, he's right, I should explain our little mission. You see, over the centuries, Cybertron has been experiencing power outings, due to a crippling shortage of energon. Certain cities on Cybertron however, just kept on running. No one knew why this was, and apparently no one cared enough to find out why. I however, was curious, and so I practically exhausted my wealth in a...quest, shall we say, to find the answer to this mystery. After stellar cycles of searching, I finally stumbled upon a single lead...It was rumoured that during the days of the Great War, Megatron and his tactical office Shockwave had created a powerful energy source, one that could not only power the entire Decepticon war machine, but was also indestructible. Simply rumours, or so it was thought, but I believe that there's something more to it...I believe that the legends may be true...Gentlemen, if we can find this power source, we would be unstoppable, we could rule the Predacons for ourselves, we could effortlessly overthrow the Tripredacus Council, the Star Conclave, the Galacticon Order and then, once we have united the various Predacon factions, we can concentrate on our true enemy, the Maximals!"
Crosswire folded his arms "And what makes you think that you can trust any of us?"
In response, Vanquish nodded to Galleon, who nodded back, turned to Crosswire and opened fire with the full force of his firepower. The motorcycle never stood a chance.
As the others looked at Crosswire's smoking remains in horror, Vanquish spoke up "That is how I know you can trust me, otherwise I will simply have Magmatron and his men take care of you, any objections?"
The others were quick to pledge their loyalty to Vanquish.
"Excellent, now, Demolisher, open the door." Vanquish commanded.
"With pleasure." Demolisher replied as he transformed into a missile tank and aimed both of his turrets at the massive gates to the power plant.
"Ready...Aim...Fire!" Vanquish cried.
At his leader's command, Demolisher let loose dozens of armour piercing missiles which struck the gates of the power plant at full force. A massive cloud of smoke went up as shards of metal went flying everywhere. Cometjumper cried out and held a hand up to his cheek as a piece of debris flew past his face, cutting into it.
"Now, get rid of all that smoke." Vanquish ordered, turning to the Seekers.
"At once sir!" Skystalker acknowledged, as he and his men leapt into the air, transformed and used their might engines to blow all of the smoke away.
When the smoke had settled, all those present could see that a massive hole had been blown into the gate.
"Excellent, Demolisher, you go first." Vanquish told his second in command.
"What? Why me?" Demolisher questioned.
"Because there might be all sorts of dangers, Megatron may have set up traps to keep the Autobots out, or perhaps the building has just naturally fallen into a state of disrepair, either way, I'm not risking my life."
Demolisher growled and swivelled around to face his leader, all of his remaining missiles trained on Vanquish.
In response, Vanquish cleared his throat and motioned to Control, who was now pointing a particularly large rifle at Demolisher.
"Oh crud..." Demolisher muttered, before powering down his missiles "Demolisher, Terrorize!"
"Good, nice to see that you know your place." Vanquish said with a smirk "Now, you take the lead."
Demolisher grumbled something under his breath, before doing as his leader told him to do.
"Um, nice threatening there sir..." Cometjumper complimented his commander as he nervously walked past, making sure not to brush against him.
"Uh, yes, f-fantastic." Scramble added, careful not to do the same, fearful because of his earlier act of questioning Vanquish.
Pleased, Vanquish turned towards his trio of enforcement thugs "Nice work men, very nice work, keep this up, and you'll be looking at some substantial rewards when I rule the galaxy!"
"Assuming that this isn't all a wild petrorabbit chase." Magmatron replied, looking down at his employer.
"It's not, I assure you that."
"Well, we shall just simply have to wait and see." Magmatron said in a cold and emotionless tone of voice.
And so, the small team of Predacons moved forwards, searching for their goal. Deeper and deeper did they make their way into the long abandoned power plant, until the only light was that made by the plant's emergency lights, which cast a dim red glow on everything around them.
"We're close, I can feel it." Vanquish murmured.
"Ah, sir, not to question you, but what exactly does this energy source look like?" Dropshot asked.
Vanquish shook his head "No one knows but presumably, it will be large, very large!"
"Ah...well, ok then..." Dropshot said in a hushed tone of voice.
"This is ridiculous, I doubt there's actually anything down here!" NovaScream muttered.
"Sssh! Do you want him to hear you and have one of his goons fill you full of holes?" Cometjumper hissed.
"Ah, he can't hear me!" NovaScream hissed back.
"No, but I can." A deep voice rumbled.
NovaScream and Cometjumper flinched, before slowly turning around. Standing behind them was the massive form of Galleon, who seemed to be pointing his cannons at them.
"Ah...I was just...joking..." NovaScream whispered in a scared tone of voice.
"Hmmm, that's strange, because I wasn't laughing." Galleon told the Seeker, leaning in closely.
"Uh...I'm bad with jokes?" NovaScream said weakly, in a small and timid voice.
"Yes, you are, and if you know what's good for you, you won't make any more, understood?" Galleon asked.
"Y-yes sir..."
"Good." Galleon replied, before strolling ahead.
Skystalker turned and glared at NovaScream "You stupid twit! You almost got yourself killed!"
NovaScream shrugged, pretending to be nonchalant now that Galleon was gone "It'll never happen again, trust me..."
"See that it doesn't, because if we have to scrape you off the walls, I will not sympathise with you!" Skystalker snapped, before walking off after Galleon.
NovaScream sighed "Is everyone against me today?"
"Looks like it." Cometjumper replied smugly, caressing his cut cheek gently.
Suddenly, the group walked into a large chamber.
"Whoa!" Blowout exclaimed in wonder.
"What is it? Let me see!" Vanquish snapped, pushing Blowout roughly out of the way "By Primus!"
Seated in front of them was an ancient Transformer, a Decepticon, sitting in a large chair, wires attached to his helm, chassis and arms. Although he might have been painted once, now his skin was a dull grey, and dust settled on him, indicating that he had been there for a while.
"This is incredible!" Vanquish breathed.
"The way he's hooked up to these machines...could he himself be the power source?" Skystalker asked.
"Impossible! No Transformer could do such a thing!" Blowout protested.
"Perhaps one could..." Toxin spoke up.
All the others turned to face him.
"What do you know of this? Speak now!" Vanquish ordered, whirling to face Toxin.
"I've studied the records of our past, and they make references to a Seeker...a powerful one...They say that he was the clone of another Seeker, Starscream, one of Megatron's lieutenants, but he was unstable...when Starscream and his followers attempted to betray Megatron, he foiled the coup and had the traitors put to death...Supposedly, this Seeker, Sunstorm was among the traitors, but I have found no record of his death...what if...what if Megatron did something to him? What if he managed to turn him into some kind of...living generator?" Toxin suggested.
"Astounding! In all my years of searching, I never thought that it was possible! A living generator! One that could function as both a power source and a soldier! It's brilliant! It's-!" vanquish began, only to be cut off by Crumble.
"It looks dead." Crumble pointed out.
"What?" Vanquish asked, annoyed at this interruption.
"Well, it's all grey and covered in dust, I doubt if it still functions, just look at it!" Crumble exclaimed, kicking Sunstorm to prove his point.
"Don't do that!" Vanquish hissed "Even if he ceases to function, he can still be of use to us! You see how he continues to power the area, even in death? This suggests to me that he still has some energy left! Perhaps he could be revived somehow, and even if he can't, then we still have our generator! Gentlemen, we have found the answer to the Predacons problems! Our names shall go down in the annals of history!" Vanquish cried.
"Wait a nano klik, there's some sort of console here..." Cometjumper muttered, walking up to an old and dusty control console "I wonder if it works?"
Skystalker noticed too late what Cometjumper was doing "No, stop you fool!"
It was too late, Cometjumper pressed down on a button. Almost instantly, all of the lights in the power plant flickered to life. Suddenly, several slamming sounds were heard.
"What's happening? What is that?" Hook asked in horror.
"The security system! It must be rebooting!" Dropshot gasped.
"No! Quickly, we must get out of here, before it's too late!" Skystalker cried as he attempted to rush through the entrance.
He wasn't fast enough, for no sooner had he reached the entrance than a thick metal gate slammed down, sealing them in.
"Blast! Demolisher, can you blast through?" Vanquish asked.
Demolisher peered at the metal closely, before shaking his head "No can do, this is Lithonian steel, one of the hardest metals in the galaxy."
Vanquish cursed "Then we'll just have to find some other way out! Crumple, Hook, you two stay behind and guard our prize, the rest of you, spread out, I want an exit found, and I want it found fast! Leave no nook unexplored!"
And with that, the team split up and began searching for some way to escape their prison. While the others left, Hook and Crumple stayed behind, guarding Sunstorm.
What neither of them noticed was Sunstorm's eyes flickering a deep red colour.
And, there we have the end of the first chapter. Well, what did you think? I certainly hope that you enjoyed it so far, I promise to have an update up as soon as I possibly can. For further information on Sunstorm's plight, please refer to 9aza's story, The Noose, where you will find all you need to know to make better sense of this story. Well, now that I've done the exit piece, I guess that there's not a whole lot left to say, but I do accept constructive criticism. Anyway, I hope that you've enjoyed the following tale so far, please don't forget to leave a review, and finally...Thanks for reading! Until the next chapter!