I do want to get on to some more serious fics very soon, and (finally) get around to providing some sort of present-day canon for the Heroic Decepticons on Earth... but for now, I hope you enjoy this one-shot. :)
May all my readers be blessed with the eternal gifts of the pre-existent one.
Secret Decepticon Headquarters, somewhere on the North American mainland
Ever since Megatron had requested that one of the Constructicons go and see him in his personal quarters regarding an unknown artefact – at their convenience, of course; there was no hurry – Scavenger had become increasingly curious to the point that he had insisted, almost pleaded, with his team mates that they allow him to be the one to go.
Mysterious artefacts did not seem to interest either Long Haul or Bonecrusher, whilst Mixmaster preferred to wait and see what it was all about, and was quite content to let his over-zealous team mate do the investigating. So, in the end, it was up to both Scrapper and Hook to grant Scavenger their blessings to be the one to go and see Megatron.
"What exactly do you think it is," Hook queried his friend, "some kind of Holy Grail?"
Hook's scepticism did not perturb Scavenger in the least, however; if anything, it made him ever more anxious to find out, his optics wide with enchantment beneath his red visor at the thought of the myriad of possibilities that had captivated his imagination regarding the unknown artefact. "It could be. Or maybe it's a lost scroll of the Covenant of Primus… or the Terminus Blade, or, or maybe even a Sigmatron!"
"Scav, you and I both know that there's no such thing as a Sigmatron–"
Hook's cynical response did little to temper Scavenger's resolve. "How do you know there isn't?"
"Because…" Hook began, searching for the right words that might perfectly explain to his fellow Constructicon why the Sigmatron – a device that supposedly could grant a Transformer a special ability by Vector Sigma – did not exist and had never existed, but found that he could not so he gave up, exasperated, and changed the topic. "Regardless, since this mysterious artefact has you so enthralled, whatever it is… why don't you just go on and find out?" he said, motioning with a sweep of his hand toward the entranceway to their workshop. "It's better than having to listen to you go on about it non-stop, all day long."
Scrapper looked up at the two of them momentarily from where he was seated behind a desk, his attention mostly taken up by some schematics that he'd downloaded from the internet. He gave them both a brief nod in agreement, as if to say, 'Sure, go ahead,' before returning to his work.
Grateful, Scavenger wasted no time and immediately headed towards the door to their workshop with heightened eagerness, ready to be on his way to get to the Decepticon leader's private quarters in record time. "Thanks guys. I'll be right back."
"Take your time," Hook called after him, but his friend was already out the door and out of sight down the hallway.
The door to Megatron's private quarters was sealed closed, and there was no indication as to whether or not the Decepticon leader could be found inside, or whether he was even available. Hesitating for several long seconds that eventually turned into a whole minute, Scavenger did not like to make his presence known unannounced, nor was he eager to intrude upon any mech's quiet time, so he had to remind himself that it was actually Megatron who had invited him here, or any one of his team mates, and hence was perfectly in the right to just show up in this manner. Not that Megatron had ever turned him away or showed him any sign of disapproval; quite the contrary, in fact, and he supposed that it was simply the admiration and respect that he felt for the Decepticon leader that made him think twice about approaching him like this, especially unaccompanied as he was.
Still, he couldn't wait to find out what that mysterious artefact was all about.
Finally, he extended a hand to press a key on the control panel by the door, and waited for it to respond with all the patience that he could call upon. After what felt like an overly long moment, the small indicator light illuminated and the door slid open.
Inside the room, Megatron rose from his chair and walked around his desk to greet the Constructicon, before motioning for him to enter. "Ah, Scavenger. Thank you for coming."
Scavenger realized that he had not yet moved an inch or said anything in greeting, so he quickly stepped inside the well-lit quarters, not wanting to appear rude. As he did so he couldn't help but notice the interior of the room – its contents, layout and décor – and was surprised to find that it reminded him very much of his own quarters, or even of one of his team mates'. Whilst it was certainly organized, it was a very busy room, filled with all kinds of fancy equipment; data pads, monitors, analysers and scientific instruments of all shapes and sizes, and he realized that Megatron's ongoing interest in experimental science harked back to the days when he was occupied as a mathematician and inventor, even before the Decepticons were formed.
Megatron noticed Scavenger's obvious wonder and awe at the current state of his private quarters, and glanced dismissively back at his desk. "My apologies – I've been working on a new concept… it's not usually this untidy," he explained.
"Oh, no, you really don't need to apologize. Believe me," Scavenger replied, shaking his head. If you think this is untidy, you should see my quarters, he thought.
Megatron turned to face the Constructicon, his attention now fully upon him, and observed him for a brief moment. "You have come for the artefact, no doubt. It should be of no surprise that you are here; I understand that you have an interest in such things."
"You could say that," he responded a little bashfully, feeling self-conscious, though honoured, at the attention he was receiving from the Decepticon leader. He was going to ask about the artefact, but then reconsidered and instead decided to allow Megatron the opportunity to introduce it to him in his own time.
He would not be disappointed. Without wasting another moment, the larger, black and grey mech turned and strode across to one corner of the room, where a shelving unit was stacked neatly with a variety of rare and unusual items, including a very primitive weapons attachment, and some early Cybertronian holo-texts.
Megatron studied the collection for a moment as Scavenger followed and watched him in quiet awe as he reached across to grasp a small, cylindrical object sitting in the back of one of the middle shelves. "Here it is," he stated simply, before turning back to face Scavenger, holding out the artefact for him to take.
Mesmerized by all the treasures that filled those shelves, Scavenger was momentarily distracted, but then his gaze focused upon the small object, and he extended a hand out to accept the offering, wrapping his fingers around the cylinder with all the care and attention of an artisan admiring a rare sculpture. He examined it closely for a long moment, turning it over in his hands as if it were made of fragile glass. He had never seen anything like it before; it was a polished metallic cylinder, sealed at both ends yet hollow inside, with a strange inscription embossed into its surface. "What is it?" he asked tentatively, very curious to learn all about it, though unsure as to whether or not Megatron expected him to already know what it was. The last thing he wanted to do was to look like a fool in front of his revered leader. When he glanced back up to meet Megatron's gaze, however, he was able to eliminate that particular worry from his thinking; the Decepticon leader shook his head determinately in response, and it became apparent to him that the other was just as clueless about the artefact as he was.
"Your guess is as good as mine," Megatron answered, and began to walk back towards his desk, allowing Scavenger to follow after him. "However – if you're interested, of course – I would like for you to find out what it is."
"Oh, sure, I'm interested," Scavenger replied, already thinking ahead as he played in his mind all the possibilities of what he might uncover about the artefact. He couldn't wait to show the others. "Where'd you get it?"
Megatron watched the Constructicon with quiet satisfaction, pleased that he was showing such interest in the artefact. "It belonged to a resident at Tarn's now-decommissioned research facility, when I was stationed there many, many vorns ago." He paused, studied the curious object in Scavenger's hand as he reminisced of a time long gone. "He disappeared mysteriously from the face of the planet one day. Following a short inquiry into his disappearance, his quarters were cleared out and all his personal belongings removed; however, I discovered this sitting atop his work bench inside one of the research laboratories," he explained, indicating the artefact with his hand. "I thought that it must have been left behind, so I held on to it for safekeeping."
The story behind the mysterious cylindrical object was becoming ever more intriguing by the astro-second. "So… was he ever found?"
"No." Megatron shook his head, and then fell silent for a moment as he recalled the unfortunate circumstances surrounding the former colleague's disappearance. "In those days, Autobot scientists were highly revered – even idolized, as even some are today; the research facility could not afford to be the center of any kind of undesirable attention, particularly when foul play was involved."
"You mean… he was murdered?" Scavenger asked, eager to find out more.
The Decepticon leader gave him a small shrug. "Whilst the possibility was never ruled out, nothing much came of the investigation. I always suspected that the institution played a part in making sure that whatever might have been uncovered regarding his disappearance was kept under wraps as much as possible… though I never found out what happened to him." He paused again in reflection. "I was unable to decipher those glyphs you see there… and after a while I completely forgot that I had the artefact in my possession."
The glyphs that were wrapped around the enclosed cylindrical object did not resemble those belonging to any modern dialect that Scavenger was aware of – either Autobot or Decepticon – though they did have the appearance of symbols that may have been used in some sort of ancient, long disused language. He studied it carefully, turning the artefact gently around. "It – it looks very old… primitive, almost. Maybe it's a record of one of the first true Cybertronian languages?" he suggested.
Megatron nodded. "That it is an ancient artefact which came into existence long before my time? I am almost certain of it. That it is a record of the language of its day? Possibly. Or, possibly, it is something else entirely."
"What is that thing?" Bonecrusher inquired as he gazed down in puzzlement upon the prize in Scavenger's grasp. He reached out a hand. "Can I see it?" Tentatively, his team mate allowed him to take it, though he watched over it as if it was worth the equivalent of a thousand mega tonnes of energon, refusing to take his optics off it even for an astro-second. Bonecrusher turned it over in his hands. "What's it say?"
"I don't know," Scavenger replied, taking the object back from him without hesitation. "The writing's probably ancient."
"Let me see that," Hook demanded from somewhere behind him.
"Megatron gave that to you?" Long Haul wanted to know at the same time.
"Come on, give him a bit room to breathe, guys," Scrapper said, noticing his friend getting crowded as the other Constructicons all gathered around him, curious about the object that Megatron had given him. They all slowly backed away upon Scrapper's suggestion.
"Thanks," Scavenger said, and then turned to face Hook, offering him the cylinder to hold. "So, what do you think?" he asked in earnest.
Hook reached out to take the artefact from him, his expression of subdued scepticism slowly turning into curiosity and genuine interest. "Well, it's certainly…" he trailed off, momentarily lost for words. "I've never seen anything like it before."
Scrapper couldn't resist his own curiosity, and moved to stand beside Hook. "What exactly did Megatron say he wanted us to do with it?" he queried Scavenger as he studied the artefact with intense scrutiny.
"He asked me to find out what it is," his friend replied with a level of anticipation that was infectious.
"First thing's first, then. We'll need to decipher what it says," Scrapper proposed, pointing to the glyphs on the cylinder. "We can cross-check those symbols against our database, see if we can find a match."
"I'll get right on it," Hook answered, and immediately headed towards his work station, artefact still in hand.
Scavenger watched as the surgical engineer took a seat behind one of the terminals, and then walked over to stand behind him. Hook placed the artefact inside an analyser, which proceeded to scan the object and its cryptic glyphs. It only took a few moments, and when it was completed the results of the scan appeared on the monitor in front of them. He leaned over Hook's shoulder to study them. "Twenty-six per cent match, Archaic Cybertronian," he said aloud. "No other matches found."
"Hm. That is interesting. Nonetheless, it doesn't tell us anything useful," Hook said, glancing up at Scavenger. As he spoke, Scrapper walked over to join them, followed by Mixmaster, curious to view the results of the analysis for themselves.
"We need to ask somebody who knows a bit more about ancient languages than we do," Scavenger suggested.
Scrapper nodded. "I agree. But, who?" There was a long moment of silence as the team of Constructicons tried to think of the best Decepticon to help them interpret the glyphs.
Then the silence was broken as the four of them all proclaimed in unison, "Shockwave!"
"It is, indeed, Archaic – an early form of the Cybertronian recorded language. However, I am unable to determine its precise meaning, since it does not appear to be any standard form of the language that I am familiar with." Shockwave had graciously stopped what he had been doing to glance briefly at the object Scavenger had held out for him to see. He was not often visited by the Constructicon in his own laboratory, particularly whilst busily working on a project, however this time was different. Scavenger had been impatient to speak with him, and had proceeded to show him some sort of strange artefact before telling him that he had gotten it directly from Megatron. It had been enough to rouse Shockwave's interest.
"But… you can interpret some of it at least?" Scavenger tried as best he could not to sound over-eager or to get his hopes up, though the inflexion in his voice could not hide his enthusiasm.
The purple Decepticon kept a steady optic upon him, and for a long moment he seemed unsure of how to respond. "Even if I could, I would not be able to guarantee an interpretation without error. For this reason, I am reluctant to provide–" He was cut short by Scavenger.
"Please? Any interpretation would be better than nothing. All we have so far is that it's a twenty-six per cent match to any known language in our database," he explained, holding out the artefact for the mech to take. "Please? Just try, that's all I ask."
Shockwave hesitated, before extending out a hand to grasp the object. He sighed in resignation. "Very well."
"Thank you," Scavenger said, and smiled beneath his face mask.
He waited patiently for the Decepticon scientist and guardian to analyse the ancient glyphs, his single optic focusing intently in thought. Almost a minute went by before he spoke again. "All I can tell you… is that it contains all the letters that form the word 'AUTOBOT', however several of the glyphs are not arranged in the correct sequence to form any proper syntax. It's as if… the letters have been scrambled, and some are reversed," he finally replied.
"So, you're saying that it's encrypted in an ancient language?" he asked, delighted with the small yet valuable clue he'd managed to garner from Shockwave.
"I believe so, yes."
A pause, before he continued with the obvious question. "Well – can you decrypt the rest of it?"
Shockwave studied the object again, before meeting Scavenger's gaze once more. He seemed hesitant, and was about to say something in response, possibly to deny his request, but then must have reconsidered. "Megatron… gave this to you?" he asked.
"Yes. He doesn't know what it is, so he asked me to find out," Scavenger explained, wanting to reassure the guardian that it would be well worth his effort.
Finally, without saying another word, Shockwave turned and walked towards one of the lab benches, the cylindrical artefact still in his possession. He placed it carefully beside a research terminal, brought up an input screen, and began inputting data. He worked silently for several minutes, before he turned his head briefly to acknowledge the Constructicon again. "This computational analysis may take a while. If you would like to return later, I will let you know as soon as I am finished."
And with that, Scavenger nodded thankfully, turned and left the lab.
Less than twenty minutes later, Shockwave found the Constructicon surrounded by a small crowd of Decepticons, gathered in the hallway just outside his lab. They seemed eager to hear all that Scavenger had to tell them about a mysterious artefact that had recently come to his attention, and that he had been tasked to unravel the mystery of its function and origin. The group's conversation ceased as Shockwave approached, the small artefact in his hand. He gave them all a curious glance, before addressing Scavenger.
"It appears that this artefact may have been forged by one of the Autobots' first-generation ancestors," he said, handing the object back to Scavenger. "I was able to run the sequence of glyphs through a fairly simple decryption algorithm, and have come up with a translation for the message, with an accuracy of ninety nine point eight per cent." He took a few moments in pause, and was immediately met with expressions of both curiosity and impatience.
"I'd say ninety nine point eight per cent is close enough," Thundercracker said.
"Come on, Shockwave, are you going to tell us what this thing says, or are you going to keep it all to yourself?" the blue Cassetticon, Rumble, added as he examined the inscription.
Shockwave glanced down at Rumble with an aura of a smile. Then he continued speaking, looking back at Scavenger. "'The Ninth Autobot – Custodian of Judgment and Retribution'," he said. The gathered Decepticons all glanced back at him with puzzled expressions, waiting for him to give them something more, but he had nothing further to tell them.
"That's what it says? 'The Ninth Autobot – Custodian of Judgment and Retribution'?" Scavenger repeated, looking down at the object with fascination. Shockwave simply nodded. "Okay, so what – or who – is the 'Ninth Autobot'?" he asked.
Shockwave shook his head. "I am unaware of any Autobot with such a designation, either past or present." He was about to leave it at that and return to his work in the lab, but then he reconsidered, speaking encouragingly. "Perhaps, you may find some relevant clues in the Archives? I am most certain that with persistence… and a little digging… you will be able to unravel the nature and origin of this mysterious artefact."
Of course, the pun was not lost on Scavenger, and he smiled. As the purple colored mech turned to walk away, he called out after him, "Thanks, Shockwave!"
Quick to offer his assistance, Thundercracker turned to him. "Hey, Scavenger... mind if I help you check the Archives?"
The Constructicon looked back at him in contentment, and then nodded. "Sure – I mean no, I don't mind!" he said, and began to lead the way down the hall in the direction of the archived data records.
"Great," Thundercracker replied, as he began to walk alongside the excavator mech, and the small gathering of Decepticons followed after them.
After twenty minutes of searching the Archives and coming up with nothing, Scavenger, along with Thundercracker, Rumble, Dirge and Thrust, was about to give up on the idea and look for clues elsewhere, but then Thundercracker alerted them all to something on his monitor.
"Hey, guys, I might have found something," he said, and the others all moved away from their own terminals to cluster around him. As Scavenger took an empty seat beside him, still grasping the prized artefact, Thundercracker pointed to an entry on the screen in front of them. "Right here. It talks about a legendary group of Autobots that built Iacon. 'They were known as the Circle of Nine, and were purported to hold many mystical abilities that gave them power. Early texts seem to confirm the power and influence of the Circle of Nine, which was said to have extended beyond the Iaconian border to eventually encompass all of Cybertron and its moons, ultimately transcending the barriers of both time and space,'" Thundercracker stopped reading and paused in thought.
"Well, there's no specific mention of any Ninth Autobot… but it's the closest we have so far," Thrust commented.
"I agree. Let's see what else it says," Scavenger replied, and then continued reading from where Thundercracker had left off. "'Whilst the identities of the members of the Circle are unknown, a number of relics and artefacts believed to have originally been used, or even forged, by the Nine were uncovered during Iacon's major restructuring, which commenced at the beginning of the First Era in the 10,368th stellar cycle. However, whilst under the guardianship of the Autobots, many of these artefacts were stolen from the city-state's public Museum in that same year by a band of unidentified pirates, and were never fully recovered. Thousands of vorns later, during the 540,063rd year of the First Era, one of the artefacts – a golden chest – surfaced at an off-world auction on Charr, where it was purportedly sold for around 500,000 credits to a private bidder. One vorn later, rumours of the existence of a second artefact, believed to be a cylindrical hollow object, surfaced on Cybertron, though this artefact, which some had claimed to be the long coveted spark trap of lore, was never recovered…'" Scavenger stopped reading, and looked down at the cylinder in shock and realization. Could it be?
The room fell into a deathly quiet for a long moment. Each Decepticon had become utterly speechless with the very real possibility that Scavenger's artefact might actually be an extremely valuable and long lost item of legend.
"Son of a…" Dirge began, finally breaking the silence, but the expletives that were to flow forth out of his mouth were interrupted by Thundercracker before they were given a chance at life.
"Hold on a second," the blue seeker said, looking back at Scavenger and holding out his hand. "Can I see it?" Scavenger handed it to him, and he examined it with a renewed curiosity and reverence before handing it back. "What's a spark trap?" he asked finally, a little apprehensively. It did not sound very reassuring.
Scavenger shrugged, looked around at the others, but they did not seem to have any idea, either. "I don't know – I've never heard of one before. Maybe there's some more information on it in the Archives?" he offered, and turned to the data terminal to search for the phrase 'spark trap'. He was in luck. "Oh, here – there's an entry here for 'spark trap'."
"What does it say?" Dirge prompted him, rather impatiently.
The Constructicon studied the information on the monitor with intense fascination. Then he began to read aloud: "'The spark trap is an obscure reference to an ancient artefact that was believed to have been forged by the Circle of Nine some time before Cybertron's recorded history. The artefact has been depicted as a metallic cylinder approximately eighteen mechano-inches in length, and was believed to have been stolen from an early Museum near the turn of the Era, in 10,368 1E. Rumours of its re-emergence on Cybertron surfaced for a brief period of time in the year 540,063 1E, but it was never recovered. Surviving stories of the nature and origin of the spark trap, which were passed down through Autobot generations, is all that is left of the prized artefact. According to legend, the spark trap was an ancient yet powerful weapon–'"
"Oh, here we go–" Dirge mumbled behind Scavenger, leaning in closer over his shoulder and eager for him to get to the good bit.
"'–forged by one of the Nine, who imbued it with what some believe to be the power to trap sparks. However, the translation of the text is not clear in its definition of spark, and some scholars have proposed that the term refers to the similar, yet less often understood, term ghost.'" Scavenger paused, contemplating what he'd just learned with unequivocal intrigue.
Thundercracker immediately continued reading. "'According to the legend, the weapon was intended to exact punishment upon a mechanoid by capturing and then transforming his essence into an other-worldly entity, one which could be contained indefinitely inside the cylindrical object, until such time that it might be granted release, only by the invocation of the condemned mechanoid's name, verbalized three times in succession, whilst in possession of the artefact.'"
"Wait, wait, wait–" Dirge said and paused briefly, his optics wide with trepidation as he gazed down at the legendary artefact in Scavenger's hand. "Do you have any idea what that means?" When he received puzzled expressions amid awkward silence, he pointed at the object with a growing sense of urgency that couldn't be restrained. "That thing's haunted!" he declared.
"There's no proof that this thing's haunted," Thundercracker reminded them all with a hint of resignation, trying to reassure the growing number of Decepticons who had since joined them back at the Constructicons' workshop. Along with Dirge, Thrust, Rumble, and the other five Constructicons, there were now three more additions to the group: Skywarp, and the Combaticons Blast Off and Swindle. The artefact was being cautiously examined by Blast Off, who soon passed it to Swindle for cross-examination.
"That thing's haunted?" Skywarp repeated the rumour in awe, offering his trine mate a mischievous smirk. "Really, says who?"
"It's not haunted–" Thundercracker reiterated, more assertively this time, but before he could lay the ridiculous notion to rest Dirge spoke up in its defence.
"The Archives say that it can trap ghosts. Therefore, it must be haunted." The morose jet had his arms crossed stubbornly in front of him in an unspoken challenge.
Thundercracker ignored his stubbornness. "Ugh – according to legend. Everything we know about it thus far comes from old stories that were passed down among Autobots. There's no actual proof that they're even true, let alone that this thing is even authentic–" he emphasized, pointing at the object still in Swindle's grasp.
"Look, it'd be easy enough to prove its authenticity," Dirge cut in, pointing towards the artefact. "Then, if you're still not satisfied that this, right here, is the spark trap of legend, I don't know that you'll ever be."
"And how, exactly, do you plan on proving it?" Thundercracker's expression became impatient, but before the debate could get any more heated, Scavenger spoke up.
"Hold on an astro-sec, guys. Maybe we should all just take a step back for one moment, okay?" he said, and after a contemplative pause he spoke again. "You know, Megatron did happen to mention something interesting about it…" he added hesitantly.
"What?" Dirge asked, turning to him. "Tell us – what did Megatron say?"
Scavenger debated whether or not it would be wise to share with Dirge what Megatron had told him, until finally he decided that it would be okay. They were all going to find out eventually, anyway. "Well, he said that the artefact's previous owner, an Autobot scientist, suddenly disappeared one day, no explanation. It probably doesn't mean anything," Scavenger replied, and noticed Thundercracker taking note.
Dirge took a step closer and smiled at Thundercracker in satisfaction. "Doesn't mean anything, huh? So… you still think it's not haunted?" he challenged, but then quickly turned to Scavenger again when he saw the blue seeker's willingness to take up his challenge. "Oh, I have an idea. Why don't you let me hold onto the spark trap for a little while? Promise I'll give it back."
But Scavenger stood his ground, shook his head 'no'. "Uh-uh. No way, Dirge. I'm not giving it to you."
Dirge eyed the spark trap in Swindle's hand with the full intention of snatching it away in one fell swoop and the next moment, without warning, he lunged toward the Combaticon, his arm outstretched.
However, Swindle had already pre-empted the jet's move, and gracefully jerked his hand away out of his reach right at the last split second. Then he wiggled a finger at Dirge, admonishing him for attempting to swipe the artefact before he handed it back to Scavenger, ignoring Dirge's disgruntled expression. "You ought to hold on to that. It might be worth quite a bit," he informed the Constructicon.
"Thanks, Swindle." Scavenger turned the precious artefact over in his hand, recalling the translation of its inscription that Shockwave had offered. "You know… the legend did mention that the spark trap was a weapon with the power to… well, to turn a mech into a ghost."
Skywarp gave him a look of astonishment. "Really?" It was the first time he'd heard about this spark trap and what it supposedly could do, and it was beginning to intrigue him greatly as he connected the dots. Thundercracker just gave him a resigned look.
"So maybe Dirge is right, then?" Rumble proposed, finishing Scavenger's line of reasoning for him. "About that thing being haunted, I mean."
"Of course I'm right," the conehead was quick to add.
"That's ridiculous." The other Constructicons had all been listening quietly in the background until now, when Hook spoke up. "Look, even if that artefact does contain some kind of lost spark entity, then why hasn't it come out to haunt us, in all the time that it's been in Megatron's possession?"
"That's why it's called a spark trap, see? The ghost… or lost spark – whatever you want to call it – can't get out to haunt anyone until it's released," Scavenger replied, happy to be able to give him a sure answer. "The legend says that it can transform a mechanoid's essence into an other-worldly entity and then trap it inside the cylinder forever. It says that the only way to release it is to invoke its name, spoken three times out loud, whilst in possession of the spark trap."
It was the first time that the other Constructicons, Skywarp, or the two Combaticons had heard this information, and they looked back at Scavenger as if he were making the whole story up to prank them.
"Well, it does sound a little far fetched, if you ask me," Blast Off said.
"Maybe so, but it was in the Archives," Thundercracker advised him.
There was a lull of silence as they all contemplated what they should do next, now that they had some agreement that the mysterious artefact was possibly some kind of ancient spark trap. When Dirge finally broke their train of thoughts, his tone was guarded though filled with possibility. "I say we do it."
They all looked at him. "Do what?" Scrapper asked.
"He means release the entity," Rumble said plainly, answering for Dirge, and the sound of groaning and surprised murmuring filled the space around him.
"Absolutely not," Thundercracker said, staring Dirge straight in the optics.
"Why not? What are you afraid of?" Thrust told him, backing his trine mate.
"Nothing," came Thundercracker's fast response, but Thrust wasn't happy to just let it go at that.
"You said so yourself; it's not haunted. So it shouldn't matter to you if we did," the red jet pointed out.
"He's sort of got a point, you know, T.C.," Skywarp said to his trine mate jovially.
Thundercracker gave him a disapproving look, but then gave up trying to convince Dirge or Thrust otherwise. "Look, it's up to Scavenger. Ask him," he told the conehead bluntly.
His response was received with antipathy by Dirge, who glanced at Scavenger grudgingly. "Well?" he prompted.
The Constructicon looked around at all the faces waiting expectantly for his decision, and then cast his optics down at the artefact. Finally, after a momentary silence, he made up his mind. "Only if everyone's in… then we can try; and only if Megatron can tell us the name of the Autobot who used to own this artefact. We need a name."
As soon as Scavenger gave them his answer, all optics shifted to Thundercracker, who realized that his vote was crucial if there was going to be any chance of a unanimous decision in favour of finding out whether or not the spark trap actually contained a long-imprisoned ghost within its hollow, cylindrical construction. He gave them a small sigh in resignation; after all, who was he to ruin the party for everyone else? "Fine. If Megatron can give us a name, we'll release it."
The wide grin that suddenly stretched across Dirge's face seemed to give him a renewed lease on life. "Hey, don't worry about it. What's the worst that can happen?"
Megatron regarded Scavenger's entourage with curiosity. They had found him in the control room conversing with Shockwave about the power dynamics of the newly built hyperdrive, and when they began to speak all at once he was not able to catch a single word any of them had said.
"Hey! Would you all just quieten down for a second and let him speak?" Thundercracker's deep and commanding voice cut through the clamour with ease, and the gathered Decepticons soon became hushed, looking toward the blue seeker, then at Megatron, and finally at Scavenger, who held out the spark trap in one hand.
"We think this may be the spark trap," Scavenger began, addressing their leader. "We're not sure that it's authentic, though, so we want to find out."
"You mean to tell me that this is the spark trap of legend?" Megatron repeated, somewhat disbelieving. "The ancient Autobot weapon?" He crossed his arms and held his chin in thought. "That does sound a little far fetched, don't you think?"
"Wait – you mean you know about it?" Thundercracker asked.
Megatron nodded. "I have heard of it, yes, though my knowledge of it is limited."
"Oh, well, that's why we want to find out for sure," Scavenger explained, feeling a little foolish now about the whole idea: the thought that he had come across a rare and long lost artefact of legend did seem highly doubtful, even to him, though some part of him still wanted to believe that it was true.
"I see," Megatron replied, and looked at them each in turn. "What do you propose?" he asked, curious.
They all looked to Scavenger to offer him their plan of action, and he continued, his gaze lowered. "Well… we plan on releasing one of the… other-worldly entities… that may be trapped inside," he started, carefully emphasising the phrase 'other-worldly entities'. "We just need to know the name of that scientist you were telling me about, the previous owner of this artefact? You see, he may have been – if you think about it… and if this is the genuine artefact – it might have had something to do with his disappearance..." He trailed off, slowly bringing his gaze up to meet Megatron's.
No one made a sound, quietly hoping that Megatron would not dismiss them all, order them all to get on with their designated duties instead of chasing non-existent ghosts of the long dead.
But to their relief, he did nothing of the sort; instead, he nodded in understanding, and appeared to be just as curious as the rest of them, interesting in finding out whether the artefact was actually the fabled spark trap or just some replica, constructed in a later era to resemble its legendary counterpart. "His name was… Tyrian Ent-Beta."
Half an hour later, the common room was crowded. There was a buzz in the air, and it was filled with expectancy; news had spread quickly, and most of the Decepticons at the headquarters had purposely gathered there specifically to take part in the release of the ancient spark trap's ghost. Scavenger stood in the center of the room, closely surrounded by his team mates who acted as informal protectors in an effort to ensure that the likes of Dirge and his posse, or the members of that new combiner team led by Direct-Hit, did not interfere or try to muscle in on their ceremony.
Not that there would be much of a ceremony. Releasing the trapped ghost should prove to be a fairly quick and simple process; he who possessed the spark trap had only to call out the ghost's name three times, according to what little was known of the ancient weapon. Scavenger had checked the Archives again, just in case there was something there that they'd missed, but he could not find any further information on either the artefact or its trapped entities.
"Come on… let me do it if you're too afraid," Dirge offered Scavenger with what appeared to be utmost sincerity of intention.
"Don't listen to him. Just go ahead and get it over with," Scrapper told his friend, ignoring the conehead.
Scavenger glanced at his team mates. "Well, here goes nothing," he said, and the room abruptly quietened down, all optics now fixated upon the spark trap in his hand. He held it out in front of him, one end of the cylindrical object pointed towards the back of the room. As he did so, a handful of Decepticons that stood directly in its path moved quickly out of the way. Then he began, a little uncertainly at first but increasing in confidence until he was almost shouting the name: "Tyrian Ent-Beta... Tyrian Ent-Beta… Tyrian Ent-Beta!"
Several long moments went by, and then…
Well, nothing. That was it. Nothing happened. No magic, no sounds, no bells or whistles, and certainly no ghosts… nothing. He may as well have commanded a stick to turn into a petro-rabbit, for all the good it would have done.
Dirge and his companions began to shake their heads and walk away, quick to change their tune and scoff at the very notion that some stupid Autobot relic might actually be haunted.
Thundercracker had an I-told-you-so look on his face, though he did not rub it in; if anything he felt a little sorry for Scavenger, not to mention the tiny part of him that had actually wanted to see this work. Some other time, perhaps. "You know… it doesn't mean that the artefact isn't genuine. It's still a very valuable find, even without the ghosts," he said, not wanting the Constructicon to feel like it had all come to naught.
Scavenger simply nodded, and then gave the seeker a small shrug. "Maybe. Kind of makes it harder to prove, though."
"Well, you had to try, at least. That's the only way we can learn whether there's any validity to that part of the legend or not," Hook assured him.
"That's true," Scavenger replied, and began to head out of the common with the others, still holding the spark trap.
"Maybe you should try again. Maybe you didn't… you know, say the ghost's name right, or something?"
Scavenger sat on a chair behind a desk as he stared at the cylinder, where he'd placed it on a stand in the middle of one of the work benches. He sighed, glanced up at his friend. "Thanks anyway, Mixmaster, but I'm pretty sure I pronounced the name correctly. I mean, how many different ways can you say 'Tyrian Ent-Beta'?"
Mixmaster nodded, reached across to pick up the spark trap and began to slowly examine it. "So, what do you plan on doing with it now?"
"I might do a bit more research on it tomorrow, see if there's anything more I can find out about it that may help. Then it'll be up to Megatron to decide what he wants to do with it, after I've told him everything I've learned about it," Scavenger replied. The hour was getting late, and he was looking forward to recharge, if only to take his mind off ghosts for a little while. He started to rise from his seat, not bothering to take the artefact with him, when all the overhead lights in the workshop suddenly flickered and then went out.
"Oh, that's just great," Scrapper mumbled in the semi-darkness. "Scav, would you mind checking – ah, no, never mind. I'll do it." The sound of his heavy footfalls filled the otherwise quiet room as Scrapper made his way to the open entrance. When he glanced quickly outside of the room and down the hallway, he noticed that the entire level had gone dark. "Well, looks like there's been a general power failure. I'm going to go and check the maintenance room. I'll be right back." Then he switched on his personal helm light, and was gone.
At about the same time, Starscream was alone in the control room reading the information that had just come in from their surveillance satellite, when the screen in front of him suddenly went blank. "What the…" he said quietly to himself, and hit the recalibration button. Nothing happened. "Perfect." He was about to call for a tech expert – probably one of the Constructicons, if they were still on duty – but stopped short when he saw the screen readjusting itself. However, instead of restoring his satellite readout, he was confronted with various Earth broadcasts as they continually changed, flipping from one channel to another all by themselves.
– As we bring you the marketplace of America, let's make a deal! – The day I start living by the rules my wife set for me will be the one when Dallas Cowboys – Oh, there's just one more thing… – My dear guests, I am Mr. Rourke, your host. Welcome to Fantasy Island. – As a quarterback, there's no better way to finish your year, in winning a Super Bowl, than with a touchdown pass –
It kept going in this way; the crazy, jumbled up transmissions seemingly controlled by some unknown force. He tried every command, pressed every button he could think of to get the display to return back to normal, but nothing he did seemed to work.
Scrapper looked over the power distribution grid inside the maintenance room one more time before stepping back in puzzlement. That's strange, he thought, it doesn't look like there's been any power failures. As he stood there, pondering what to do next, he heard what sounded to him like a loud bang coming from somewhere in the distance, though he wasn't able to pinpoint its location; it may have come from the control room just as much as from inside the common room, as far as he was able to tell. Thoughts of a power failure suddenly dropped from his mind, he turned and ran out into the hallway, then continued along it on his way to discover the cause of the noise.
He'd only travelled a few mechano-meters when Rumble suddenly appeared from around the corner, rushing toward him. He skidded to a stop when he saw Scrapper. "Hey, what was that? Sounded like a bomb just went off."
Scrapper did not stop to answer, as Rumble followed after him. "You mean it didn't come from down this way?" He paused as he realized that all the lights were working again, and he deactivated his helm light. "That's funny, I thought – did you notice the blackout?" he asked, looking at Rumble.
The Cassetticon slowly shook his head. "Uh… what blackout?"
"This entire level just went dark a minute ago. You mean to tell me that you didn't notice it?" Scrapper repeated.
Again, he received a negative response, another shaking of head only more certain this time. "Nope."
Scrapper sighed. "Okay, never mind. Let's hope that bomb that just went off was also a nothing." As he reached the end of the hallway that split off into the private areas, he heard a startled yelp coming from one of the rooms. A few moments later, Thrust came stumbling out of his quarters, his back dragging against the wall as he backed himself away from his door. The red and grey jet barely noticed Scrapper and Rumble as they approached him.
"Thrust? What happened?" Scrapper asked, but Thrust was too focused on some mysterious threat to bother meeting his gaze.
"There's – th – th – a – a – g…" Thrust stuttered, pointing towards his quarters, before he finally let out a frightful scream. "Ahhh-ahhh! Get the slag out of my way!" he finally demanded, and then bolted straight past the two of them, intent on getting as far away from there as fast as possible.
In his wake, Rumble and Scrapper stood motionless for a long moment as they stared into the darkness of the conehead's quarters through the opened door. A second later a barely visible, transparent wisp of what resembled fine, swirling smoke drifted out from the room and then into the hallway right before their optics, before it dissipated into nothingness. The two Decepticons glanced at one another uncertainly, neither of them knowing quite what to think of it.
As soon as Scrapper reappeared at the entrance to his workshop, Rumble right alongside him, he was greeted by Hook, who was looking a little nervous. "What in the pits is going on? We heard some kind of explosion. I was just about to go and check on you."
Scrapper shook his head. "No, I'm fine. We heard it, too… but–"
"Did you find out what caused the blackout?" Hook asked.
The Constructicon leader looked at him uncertainly. "No, I didn't. I couldn't find anything wrong. I…" he started to explain, and then trailed off as he heard commotion outside in the hallway. When he turned to look behind him, he saw Starscream approaching.
The Air Commander stopped short just outside the entranceway. "Scrapper – we might have a security breach. I need you to go down to maintenance and make sure that our communications array is still functioning properly. In the meantime, I'll alert Soundwave." He was turning to leave again when Scrapper's response caused him to hesitate.
"I was down there only a moment ago. I couldn't find anything wrong with the communications array, or any other system, for that matter."
"Are you sure?"
Scrapper nodded. "Positive."
"Well, could you check again? I think there's–" Starscream replied, but was interrupted by a frantic red and grey jet running towards them from down the hall. As the jet got closer, he reached out to grab him by the arm. "Thrust? Stop! What's gotten into you?"
The sudden interruption of Thrust's odd behaviour by Starscream caused the conehead to quickly take stock of his current surroundings, as well as his mental state, and he began to calm down. After several seconds, he pulled away from the other's grasp as he straightened himself to regain his composure. "Ugh… nothing's gotten into me." He noticed that both Scrapper and Rumble were also there, as were Mixmaster, Scavenger and Hook, and he grimaced, pointed back down the hall towards the private quarters area. "I swear, I saw something back there," he said, answering Starscream. "It was in my quarters!"
Starscream watched him critically, and then activated his com link. "Soundwave? Thrust reports seeing an intruder in his quarters. We need to secure the area. I'll–"
He was interrupted by Thrust, who was becoming increasingly impatient. "No, no – it was no intruder. I mean, it wasn't any ordinary intruder."
"What do you mean?" Starscream asked, puzzled.
Before Thrust could clarify for him, they were joined by Thundercracker, who had been ready to power down for the night but had heard all the commotion from his quarters and had decided to investigate. "What's going on? Starscream?" Thundercracker queried his trine leader.
Soundwave's voice came over Starscream's still active com link. "I will be there shortly," he said, and disconnected.
"I'm not sure," Starscream answered Thundercracker. "The satellite transmission was behaving oddly, so I came down here to see if Scrapper could help fix the problem. Then–"
"Then Thrust saw the ghost," Rumble finished for him, and Thrust, oddly enough, did not try to correct him, "in his quarters."
"He did what?" Starscream and Thundercracker said in unison.
"It's true. Me and him saw it, too," the Cassetticon said, unusually persistent as he pointed to Scrapper and himself. "Tell 'em."
The two seekers glanced at Scrapper in disbelief, who simply nodded. Then all three turned to Thrust.
"What are you all talking about? What ghost?" The Air Commander placed his hands on his hips, looking quite unamused. He noticed Thundercracker's expression as the blue seeker's optics widened in quiet realization. "What is going on? Thundercracker, do you know anything about this?"
Thundercracker was momentarily speechless, as he fought hard to come to terms with the possibility of what might be happening. "Uh, no… you've got to be kidding me," he said in a low voice, mostly to himself, looking exasperated, and exchanged a silent glance with Scavenger.
"Thundercracker?" Starscream prompted him.
But Thundercracker did not answer right away; instead, he turned abruptly to Thrust. "What exactly did you say you saw in your quarters?"
A look of trepidation crossed Thrust's face as he recalled his recent confrontation with the apparition. "I don't know how to describe it except to say that whatever the hell it was, it was definitely not from this world. It – it had no face that I could see, or solid body for that matter. It just appeared before me as I was lying in my berth, kept changing its shape right in front of me. It moved and swirled around like some kind of living mist. It scared the jolting frag outta me! I swear it just wanted to suck me right into itself! Look, I'm not one to scare easily… as you all know, but this thing was… I mean, it was fragging mean."
As he provided details on what he'd witnessed first hand, Starscream looked as though he was starting to wonder whether they'd all flipped their lids. "So now you expect me to believe that you saw a ghost? Who put you all up to this?" he demanded of them all. But Thrust's expression remained steadfastly serious and even Thundercracker, whose testimony he could usually trust, seemed to be accepting Thrust's account.
"Look, I'm not making this up, okay? Why don't you just go down there and see for yourself?" Thrust told him, his voice raised slightly as his patience with the Air Commander began to wear thin.
Starscream crossed his arms, observing Thrust carefully, before he turned to his trine mate one more time. "Well?"
The blue jet slowly shook his head in exasperation. "Look, it's possible that he's telling the truth… but–"
Thundercracker did not finish his sentence as all of a sudden an eerie, semi-transparent mist began to materialize out of thin air in front of them all, slowly swirling above their heads, and they all looked up in disbelief. "What the…?"
"Holy scrap, there it is! That's what appeared in my quarters!" Thrust declared, aiming his missile launchers at the mysterious intruder. "Now do you believe me?"
Following his lead, other weapons were activated and angled towards the ceiling, aimed at the strange fog, which continued to swirl faster and faster until it coalesced into a more solid form right before their optics.
"What in the…" Starscream echoed, taking several steps inside the Constructicons' workshop, "…frag is that thing?"
Standing near the entrance just behind him, Scavenger offered him a possible answer. "Oh, scrap! It's the ghost from the spark trap!" he blurted out in sudden realization, just as surprised as anyone.
"It's the what?" Starscream said, unsure that he'd heard correctly. He did not turn to glance back at him; he was too focused on the phenomenon that had all of a sudden and quite inexplicably appeared before them. He continued to watch as the partly vaporous manifestation began to expand in size, still spinning like a mini-tornado above them. Then it started to descend, drifting ever closer towards them until, abruptly, it attacked, emitting bursts of laser energy from its core out in all directions.
"Oh, scrap – you got that right!" Thundercracker exclaimed, before diving inside the Constructicons' workshop past Starscream as several searing laser blasts hit his armour plating. "Take cover!"
Thrust and Starscream began to shoot their own laser weapons at the thing, but their weapons fire seemed to go straight through the misty apparition, and that they could not effectively defend against it. "Turn back! Seal off this area!" the latter called out to Soundwave, who appeared in the hallway. As soon as the communications officer saw what was happening, he quickly did as he'd been instructed, turning back in a hurry the way he had come. Realizing that their weapons were useless against this enemy, Starscream followed after Thundercracker and the others inside the workshop and quickly tried to seal the door closed, after Thrust had leaped inside after him, but the menacing phantom instantly appeared in the room with them, relentlessly targeting and shooting its laser beams at the Decepticons. It was impossible to escape its wrath.
As the entire room and everything in it was pummelled with laser blasts, spark and smoke from fizzling conduit and damaged control panels reacting to the destructive energy, Scavenger took cover behind one of the benches, momentarily shielding his head with his hands. After a few moments of trying to think of what to do, he remembered that the spark trap was still resting in its holder on top of the work bench. Moving as quickly as he could to avoid getting hit by the angered apparition, he stood up and reached across the table to grab the artefact from where he'd left it. Then he pointed it towards the other-worldly entity, and called out the first words that came to his mind, as loudly as he could.
"Tyrian Ent-Beta! I command you to stop!"
And to his surprise and relief, his voice command seemed to work; no sooner had he finished shouting those words than the mysterious entity immediately ceased its attack, and the next moment it began to quickly lose vigour, becoming ever more transparent with each astro-second that passed, until finally it was gone.
Almost in the same instant, the security warning system came online throughout the base; Soundwave had made it back to the control room.
Working later into the evening than usual and intent on seeing the hyperdrive fully operational, ghosts were the furthest things on Shockwave's mind. So when his concentration was disrupted suddenly by an erratic readout on the monitor in front of him, his first thought was that there was something wrong with the terminal itself. However, that theory was quickly dismissed when he sensed an unknown presence and turned to look behind him, and that's when a semi-transparent figure of a gloomy-looking mechanoid, with no discernible facial features, confronted his optic. For several seconds it hovered directly in front of him as he stood motionless, staring back at it with both curiosity and apprehension. Then the terminal he'd been working on began to emit a high pitched whine, and a shower of sparks exploded from the input pad beside him. He looked down to see that power to the display had been severed. As other electrical equipment around the lab began to exhibit the same uncontrolled behaviour, Shockwave realized that the entity which had suddenly appeared in the room with him was directly responsible, and if he did not stop it somehow his lab would be destroyed. So, with that thought in mind, he transformed into his ray gun mode, and fired his laser into the shadowy apparition just as the base's alarm system was activated.
Once the mayhem and activity in the Constructicons' workshop had settled down again and everything had returned to a state of relative normalcy, besides the continuous blaring of the warning system, Rumble pushed himself up off the floor, where only a few moments before he'd dove for cover underneath one of the work benches to avoid being hit by the supernatural attacker. Beside him, Starscream straightened up to his full height and surveyed the room, making sure that whatever had suddenly materialized out of thin air and attacked them was well and truly gone. His gaze moved from Rumble's surprised yet relieved expression, over to Scavenger and the strange object that he held in his hand; Scrapper and Mixmaster standing behind him with awed expressions; then to Thrust's obvious look of relief as he sat with his back against the closed door still holding his weapons. His optics finally settled upon Thundercracker, who appeared to be a little overwhelmed by the recent incident but who was, nevertheless, determined to maintain a sense of calmness and sensibility, no matter the ridiculousness of what he'd just witnessed first-hand with his very own sensors.
"Would one of you – any of you – care to explain to me exactly what is going on?" Starscream demanded suddenly, his tone of voice controlled yet determined. Thundercracker cautiously moved to stand beside him, on alert against a possible reappearance of the mysterious entity. The Air Commander's attention was now fully upon him. "Thundercracker?"
"Uh…" Thundercracker began, as he paused to examine the amount of damage that his wings and armour plating had sustained during that short but intense attack. But when he saw that there was none – not a single dent or scratch at all – he faltered, and it began to dawn on him that there was no logical explanation for any of what they'd just experienced. Looking around the room and at the others, he soon also realized that there were no signs at all that there had ever been an attack, other than their own defensive weapons fire. Not a single mark on any of them, and no fizzled conduits or burned out control panels, either, as if they had just imagined it all. Finally, he nodded his head. "Call me crazy, but… I think it might have been… a ghost." He paused, reflecting on his words and the way they must have sounded before he added, "…or something."
Those words were echoed back to him after an awkward pause by Starscream. "Or something?" His expression was almost comical, as he tried to determine whether or not this entire incident had been staged by some clever practical joker.
However, before he had a chance to try and figure out who that practical joker might be, Scavenger walked closer to the two of them, encouraged by Thundercracker's willingness to at least accept the possibility that the ancient artefact had something to do with the ghost, and not dismissing it outright. "I think I can explain," he began, facing the Air Commander with a bold self assuredness that was usually uncommon for him. As Starscream's attention shifted to the Constructicon, Scavenger offered him the artefact without waiting to be prompted. "Megatron gave me this artefact and asked me to find out what it is. After Shockwave deciphered the inscription on it, we checked the Archives for clues… and, well, we think we have a pretty good idea…" he said, indicating towards Thundercracker, Rumble and Thrust, before trailing off in anticipation of Starscream's reaction.
With only a touch of hesitation, Starscream took the object from him and began to examine it, turning it over. Then he looked up at Scavenger, more confused than ever. It was clear from his expression alone that he had never seen anything like it before in his existence. "So, what is it? And what does it have to do with anything?"
Rumble joined them, answering the question for Scavenger. "It's called the 'spark trap'. It's supposed to be an ancient Autobot weapon of some sort, meant to punish mechanoids by turning them into ghosts and then keeping them trapped inside this thing," he explained, pointing a thumb at the cylindrical object, "until they're released."
"The 'spark trap'?" Starscream repeated the name slowly. Their story was sounding more incredulous by the second, though he could find no reason to doubt their sincerity – at least not yet. "So, you expect me to believe that this… this spark trap… here, possesses some kind of supernatural power?" He looked to Rumble, and then to Thundercracker and noted that their expressions were one hundred per cent genuine. "To trap ghosts?" Thundercracker nodded. Scavenger held his gaze, as Starscream handed the artefact back to him. "You do realize how all of this sounds, don't you?" he finished.
"Believe me, that's what I thought, too. But, now… I'm starting to wonder that maybe you actually did something, Scavenger, when you called out the ghost's name," Thundercracker proposed. "How else do you explain what just happened… or what Thrust saw in his quarters? Whatever that thing was that attacked us just now, it didn't leave any damage on us at all. You noticed that? It was all just an elaborate illusion, though it couldn't have been a hologram, because I could feel its presence, somehow. I think we all did." He pointed to his armour as evidence, and they all examined their own armour to see for themselves that what he'd said was true.
"He's right," Thrust admitted, pushing himself up and walking over to them. "Sure as hell looked and felt real enough, though."
Despite Scavenger's failed attempt in the common room earlier to prove that his artefact was genuine, Dirge had not been able to stop thinking about the spark trap or the notion that it may be haunted, so instead of powering down for the night along with everyone else, he had decided to spend some time alone in the first storage bay, just down the hall from maintenance.
The storage room was filled with all sorts of items that had been brought over from Cybertron but had ended up never being used. It largely consisted of what Dirge considered to be junk – old technology in the form of useless pieces of equipment that had long since been superseded by advancements in Decepticon technology. But this junk was not the reason that Dirge had come here. No – he was here in search of something else – something that had belonged to him but that he had all but forgotten about ever since he'd arrived on Earth. Truth be told, ghosts, or other-worldly entities, and similar such things interested him greatly. It was something that he was not prepared to openly admit, but he'd much rather that Megatron had handed custody of the spark trap over to him rather than Scavenger.
After about a minute of searching through the old junk that lined the rows of shelves, he finally found what he was looking for; yes, here it was, just where he'd left it – in a box filled with some other personal effects – second shelf to the right beside the neatly stacked pile of defunct console parts. It was something that he had used only once or twice back on Cybertron, during a time when he was thoroughly immersed in all things of the supernatural variety.
Opening the box, he carefully lifted the spherical object out and placed it on a small table nearby, pushing aside a stack of non functioning communicators in order to make some room. He stared at the object for a few moments, wondering whether it would still power up after having spent such a long time in storage, before extending a finger and pressing the button on its base. The sphere immediately lit up, just as it was supposed to do, and he smiled inwardly. Then he reached out and placed both his open hands just above the sphere, palms facing downward. As he did so, he heard the base's warning system go off in the background – his first indication that something was amiss – but he decided to ignore it for now, determined to continue his attempt at communicating with the unseen realms.
"O lost spark from the nether worlds, I summon thee forth and demand that you make your presence known to me!" he cried aloud, and then waited.
For a moment, nothing happened, and he berated himself for believing in things that only mechs like Scavenger were naive enough to believe in.
He was about to give up and put the sphere back into storage where it belonged, when it began to glow more brightly, and Dirge suddenly felt the energy in the room change. He forced himself to keep his hands where they were, or any connection that he might have established to the nether worlds would be lost.
"Tyrian Ent-Beta… is that you?" he asked into the invisible air. "Answer me!"
All of a sudden, the sphere shook violently underneath his hands, as if it had been overtaken by rage, before it was flung right off the table and hurled across the room by some invisible force with such strength that it shook Dirge to the core. The sphere landed on the floor beside the far wall, inert and no longer emitting its light, and Dirge continued to stare at it, wondering whether or not he should pick it up and try again. But before he could make up his mind, the empty space before him began to fill with a swirling, smoky mist before his optics. As he watched, the mist began to solidify into what resembled a faceless figure of a mechanoid, hovering a few mechano-feet above the ground and looming right in front of him as it continued to take on a more definite form in his presence. The figure was far larger than he was, and Dirge took a few steps back in shock, wide optics fixated upon the menacing entity that had all of a sudden revealed itself to him.
Dirge soon became rooted to the spot, unable to move or make a sound, as the ghost-like entity began to extend what looked like long, shadowy arms toward his throat, and then in a terrible, alarming roar it passed on its single-minded message, its words unmistakeable: "Diiirge... Diiiirge… Diiiiiiiirge!"
Before he knew what was happening, he felt his whole frame slide forward, gripped by a powerful force as if some giant, invisible hand had grabbed a hold of his legs and had given him a hard yank, and he was slammed down hard with his back flat to the floor. As he scrambled to get himself back up, that same hand began to drag him across the ground with the strength of a thousand mechs, all the while the mysterious, semi-transparent entity reached down to grab a hold of his neck with its shadowy, mechanical arms, as if hell-bent on crushing the very life out of him.
With all the might of his will that he could summon, Dirge forced himself to aim his arm-mounted concussion blaster directly at the apparition, and fired several shots into the murky denseness of its shape. Immediately, he felt the vice grip on his legs release and he was free, but he was not prepared to test fate. Without wasting another micro-second, he turned his body over and scrambled away on his hands and knees. Back in full control of his frame, he rushed forwards on his feet and shot out of the storage bay like a rocket, releasing an energon-curdling scream as he went.
In the control room, Soundwave spared no time in attempting to track down the frightening apparition on the surveillance monitors. That thing… whatever the hell it was… had apparently managed to bypass their security system altogether, and if it was capable of doing that, he thought, then who knew what else it was capable of?
When Megatron strode into the room a minute later, keen on finding out the cause for the alarm, Soundwave was still unable to get a lock on the foreign intruder, and was at a loss for words when the time came to provide his leader with some sort of rational explanation for activating the alarm.
"Something unidentifiable has gained access to the base…" he said, meeting Megatron's gaze. "I am attempting to isolate its energy pattern…"
Megatron moved closer to the computer display, stared at it for a few seconds. "I see no security alerts… or any abnormal energy readings of any sort," he said, and then took a step back, taking a moment to examine his communications officer with some puzzlement. "Soundwave, if you require some extra time to restore and recharge, I would strongly encourage you to–"
Soundwave shook his head vigorously. "No, Megatron. I do not require recharge. There is–" he began to explain, but then stopped. What could he possibly say that would convince Megatron of what he'd witnessed only moments ago, in the hallway just outside the Constructicons' workshop? Megatron, I am attempting to capture a ghost? Or how about, Megatron, I have reason to believe that the base is haunted? No, no, no, that wouldn't do; even he had to admit that it sounded crazy. The best he could hope for was to have his story corroborated by Starscream and the others, who had all seen the same thing he had.
Then, as if right on cue, Rumble, Scavenger and Starscream entered the control room, followed by Scrapper, Hook, Mixmaster, Thrust, and then, a few seconds later, Thundercracker. They had been conversing intently among themselves.
"Megatron!" Rumble greeted, running up to Soundwave and the Decepticon leader, before pointing back outside through the open entrance. "There's a ghost running around the base!"
"Oh, gees," Thundercracker said quietly to himself as he held a hand to his temple, rubbing it. He couldn't believe this was actually happening. Of course, the humour of the entire situation was not lost on him, either.
"I beg your pardon?" Megatron asked the Cassetticon, breaking the awkward silence that had followed.
"He's not kidding," Starscream replied for him, trying his best to maintain a semblance of believability. "It tried to attack us. Or, at least, it appeared that way. It was quite convincing, as a matter of fact."
"Yeah – I saw it first in my quarters. It reappeared in the hallway outside their workshop," Thrust added quickly, pointing to the Constructicons as he spoke. "Then it started shooting ghostly lasers at us."
Megatron cast his gaze around the room, observing each of them in turn. Perhaps they had all been working too hard and needed a break, he thought, but decided against saying so out loud. Instead, all he managed was a cautious, "Mm-hmm." A few moments later, as he wondered what he should do about the situation, Dirge suddenly burst into the room.
The conehead appeared to be quite distressed, and he was cycling air rapidly, as if he had just been chased by a giant Sharkticon across the galaxy. "What the friggin' son of a – fragging, frying crank-shaft!" he blurted out breathlessly. "What the flying frag!?" he continued, cursing profusely as he held onto the back of a chair as if for dear life, trying to steady himself. Apparently, he did not notice the many familiar faces that were staring back at him with cautious concern, including Megatron's. His odd behaviour continued for a good minute or two before he was finally able to regain his composure and look around, for the first time acknowledging the others in the room.
His friend Thrust slowly approached him. "Dirge, what happened? Are you okay?"
Dirge turned to him abruptly; when he did so, his shock and fear had all but dispersed, only to be replaced by irritability and impatience. "You want to know what happened? I'll tell you what happened!" Then he walked over to Scavenger and pointed at the spark trap he was holding. The red color of his optics seemed to somehow become even more of a red. "I knew that damned artefact was haunted! You should never have released whatever the hell was inside of it!"
Scavenger looked back at him in surprise, unperturbed by the jet's accusations. "So you saw it, too?"
"Yeah, I saw it – it tried to kill me!" Dirge replied indignantly.
"You know, I seem to recall that you wanted him to release it," Thundercracker reminded him. "Or have you forgotten already?"
Intrigued, Scavenger resumed questioning Dirge. "It tried to kill you, just now?" The way he said this it really sounded like he thought that Dirge was crazy.
"Yeah…" Dirge replied, ignoring the blue seeker's timely reminder. "I was in one of the storage bays when it just came at me out of nowhere, tried to drag me down with it. It even called out my fraggin' name!"
"What were you doing in the storage bay by yourself?" Thundercracker asked him inquisitively, but his question fell upon deaf audio sensors.
"It spoke your name? Now that's creepy," Thrust commented, not helping his friend's case.
Amidst all the drama and mayhem that Dirge's entrance had caused, they had forgotten about Megatron until he spoke again, slowly and evenly. "So… if I am to understand the situation correctly… you all say that you have witnessed what appears to be the ghost that was recently released from the spark trap… namely, the ghost of Tyrian Ent-Beta? And that this ghost is presently at large, roaming our base?"
They all stopped to glance at one another, unsure of whether they should admit to any more ghostly absurdities, lest Megatron believed them all to have lost their sanity, and not just Dirge. Then Starscream answered, volunteering to be their spokesperson. "Yes, Megatron. That sums it up quite well."
Before Megatron could share his thoughts on the subject, Scavenger held out the spark trap for him to consider. "It looks as though this is the real deal, Megatron. It's got to be the actual spark trap; the ancient Autobot weapon of legend."
Megatron nodded in contemplation; then, having listened to all of their testimonies, he decided that something needed to be done about the matter. "Very well, then. We must find some way of removing this ghost from our midst, before it causes any further disruption." He paused, and then, "Any suggestions?"
At that moment, Shockwave entered the control room and stopped short in front of the group. It was difficult to read his expression, though it was safe to say that he was hesitant to speak. "Megatron, we have an intruder. I encountered some sort of… mysterious apparition in the lab…" he began, but then trailed off as he glanced uncertainly about, until his gaze rested upon the spark trap in Scavenger's hand.
Then the familiar voice of Skywarp interrupted their conversation, causing them all to look back again towards the entrance, where the shape of the purple and black seeker stood at the doorway pointing back down the hall. "Hey, you guys – you won't believe what I saw just outside my quarters!"
"Let me guess, Skywarp, Shockwave," Megatron said, addressing them both. "You both saw the ghost, too?"
Shockwave glanced back up at him, and for a tentative moment said nothing. Then he offered him a small sigh. "That would appear to be the case, yes."
Skywarp made his way inside the room until he stood beside Thundercracker; judging by all the unruffled expressions in the room, he realized that the strange apparition he had just witnessed roaming the hallway was not a unique experience. "You mean you guys have seen it, too?"
Thundercracker nodded in answer to his question, before he turned to address the rest of the group. "Okay, so how do we rid the base of this entity?" he asked. "I don't particularly fancy being woken in the middle of recharge by the ghost of some ancient Autobot that's trying to kill me."
"He's right," Thrust replied, beginning to look a little concerned with the notion. "I agree; we've got to exorcise it."
"But how do we do that? The Archives don't exactly mention how to use the weapon to capture a ghost, do they? Only how to release one that's already been captured," Scrapper said.
"I say it's too risky to even try something like that. If that thing really is the spark trap, then it could quite easily turn any one of us into a ghost, particularly if it were to be mishandled," Starscream pointed out, giving Scavenger a cautionary look.
"That's a good point. I don't think any of us wants to accidentally be turned into a ghost," Thundercracker offered in support. "Except maybe Dirge," he added in jest. It earned him a sour look.
Dirge frowned at him, but ignored the ribbing. Instead, he decided to share with them a unique solution for their ghostly dilemma. "Maybe I can do what Thrust said – exorcise the entity," he said, with a measured level of caution. "I can't make any promises that it'll work, though."
"You know how to exorcise ghosts?" Thundercracker asked him incredulously.
"I said maybe," Dirge emphasised defensively.
"You can certainly try," Megatron said to Dirge before he shifted his attention back to the Constructicon in possession of the artefact. "I agree with Starscream; attempting to use the spark trap for re-capturing the entity poses too much of a risk. I am sure that none of us wants to make the same mistake and end up like Tyrian Ent-Beta. Scavenger, what do you think?"
Scavenger met the Decepticon leader's gaze. "You're right; it's too dangerous. That Autobot scientist may have very well caused his own demise by attempting to summon the power of this spark trap," he said, making sure not to speak the ghost's name out loud, just to err on the side of caution. "There's no telling what might happen if any of us tried to do the same." Then he considered the situation, looking down at the spark trap, and made his decision. "I say we get rid of it for good – even if it is a highly coveted and priceless artefact. It's not worth losing any of you guys over it."
There were no objections from the gathered Decepticons. Megatron nodded in satisfaction. "Wise choice, Scavenger."
"So, how do we get rid of it?" Thundercracker asked, nodding towards the artefact. "The spark trap, I mean."
"We could simply destroy it," Starscream suggested. "Reduce it to plasma."
"I would advise against that. What if it has some kind of fail-safe to prevent it from being tampered with, or a built-in protective mechanism?" Hook suggested. "It's not the first time something like that has happened, you know. And besides, what if there are more trapped sparks inside that contraption, simply dying to be let out?"
"You make some excellent observations," Starscream contemplated, "but if we can't destroy it, then what other options do we have?"
When nobody else was able to come up with a better answer, it was up to Megatron to make the final call. "We will hand it over to its rightful heirs. At least they might know what to do with it, and we will be rid of it for good."
"Its rightful heirs?" Scavenger asked the Decepticon leader, curious. "Who might they be?"
As Thundercracker considered Scavenger's question, he agreed that Megatron had come up with the best solution of all. "The Autobots," he answered.
Half an hour later, Dirge had summoned to the common room all those who were available and eager to witness the exorcism of the ghost of Tyrian Ent-Beta from the base, where he would perform the deed by utilizing what he called his special "ghost communicator".
All six of the Constructicons were present for the occasion, as were Swindle, Blast Off and Vortex of the Combaticons, Breakdown and Dead End of the Stunticons, as well as Rumble, Frenzy, Thundercracker, Skywarp, Starscream and Thrust.
Dirge sat in the middle of the floor with a strange, glowing spherical instrument in front of him. When he was ready to begin, he ordered everybody present to be seated on the floor so that they formed a semi-circle around him, and then he told them all to keep quiet.
"Now remember, do not fear the ghost, no matter what it tries to do. It can only have power over us if we allow it to," Dirge concluded, and then extended his arms out, placing his open palms a little above the sphere.
"Is this for real?" Frenzy said out loud, and the immediate reaction he got from the conehead was a sharp hiss in his direction and a reminder to keep quiet.
"Just remember what I said. I will begin now." Dirge's optics dimmed in concentration, and for a long moment he sat as still as a statue as he proceeded to establish a telepathic connection with his ghost communicator. As he did so, the sphere began to glow brighter and brighter, until it seemed to match the intensity of Earth's evening sun on the horizon. Then Dirge slowly glanced about the room, as if tracking something that no one else could see. "I sense its presence. It is here," he said. "It is angry."
No sooner had he spoken than the now familiar shadowy, misty form of the ghost of Tyrian Ent-Beta began to materialize right before their optics, directly above them. It spun and hovered for several seconds, as if trying to determine whether or not the congregation of Decepticons were a threat to its existence. It must have made up its mind because very soon, its wispy nature began to coalesce and solidify into what most of them recognized as the thing that had attacked them earlier with the illusory laser blasts. Its vapour-like form began to expand rapidly as it descended ever closer to them, just as it had done the first time in the hallway just outside the Constructicons' workshop.
Sensing its intention, Dirge called out to the others, "Don't move from your spot! Remember, don't let it scare you! It's not a real weapon!" just as the entity began to rain down phantom laser blasts upon all of their heads. However, instead of running and seeking cover, this time the members of the group stayed put, heeding Dirge's advice.
The ghost tried its best to trick them as its laser blasts appeared to cause much damage; smoke and sparks filled the room all around them whilst they sat like easy targets in the middle of a battlefield, shielding their heads with their arms only through instinctual reaction. Even the sensation of being hit by an energy weapon could be felt on their armour, but despite the strong illusion of the threat, each one of them was able to see through the ghost's deceptive tactic and remain steadfast, and they collectively held their ground until the phantom assault was over.
When the sounds of laser blasts died down all around them, they slowly lifted their heads and noticed that any evidence of damage that should have been caused by the attack if it were real was not there at all. The show of sparks and smoke that had been evident only a few moments before had dissipated back into the nothingness from whence it had come, and not a single one of them had sustained any damage to their armour at all.
"Is it gone?" Rumble questioned, but Dirge seemed not to hear him. His attention was fully focused upon the connection with his sphere.
"He is angry, and cannot leave," Dirge told them all. Then, after engaging in a silent communication with the entity, he informed them, "I have told the entity that he does not belong here with us… that he is no longer trapped, and that he must return to his eternal home."
Several moments of silence passed as they all looked on with fascination and intrigue, waiting to see what would happen next. But instead of continuing with the exorcism, Dirge reluctantly pulled his hands away from the sphere and leaned back, looking up at the ceiling in resignation. The sphere continued to glow, but no longer as brightly.
"What's happening? Dirge?" Breakdown asked tentatively.
"Is it over?" Swindle's voice broke through their quiet confusion.
Dirge finally glanced about the room. "No, it's not over. The ghost of Tyrian Ent-Beta is still here."
"What do you mean?" Scrapper asked him, puzzled. "Can't you get rid of it?"
Dirge turned his head to face him. "Tyrian Ent-Beta is angry because his spark cannot attain eternal rest. He is powerless to move on from this physical realm until the one who released him from the spark trap has given him permission to do so." When he said this, all optics turned to the only mech in the room who could fit that description.
"You mean me?" Scavenger looked at Dirge uncertainly, pointing a thumb at himself as he did so.
Dirge glanced at him in annoyance; he did not like the fact that he would not be the one to rid them of the ghost after all, but Scavenger. "Yeah, you. Who else?"
"Oh, okay…" Scavenger sat upright, ready to do what was necessary. "What do I need to do?"
Dirge sighed and moved from his spot, then motioned for Scavenger to take his place. "Sit here." The Constructicon did as he was told, waited for his next instruction. "Place your hands over the sphere, but don't touch it," Dirge guided him, and Scavenger did as instructed, holding out his open palms over the sphere just like Dirge had done. "Now, just concentrate until you start to feel a connection." After about a minute of no response from the Constructicon, he spoke up again, "The connection should be very obvious–".
"Oh, I can sense him!" Scavenger needed no further instruction; he now had this. The sphere had returned to its full brightness. "He's here. You're right… he's angry because he thought we wanted to keep him trapped here in the physical realm. He's saying that he doesn't like where he is right now, and that he–"
"Would you just get on with it already?" Dirge grumbled, interrupting him.
Scavenger stopped to regard him briefly. "Oh, okay, sorry," he said, before returning his concentration back to Tyrian Ent-Beta. He was quiet for several moments as he communicated with the entity. Then, finally, he vocalized the words that were needed to set the ghost free in a loud, commanding voice.
"I command you, Tyrian Ent-Beta, to be released from this physical realm and to be allowed to return to your eternal home, back to the pre-existent one!"
And so it was done.
Autobot Headquarters, Pacific Northwest
Only a few more minutes, and Red Alert could leave his post with the full knowledge and satisfaction that he had performed impeccably on yet another duty shift as security watch. Indeed, his skills and expertise, when it came to protecting Autobot headquarters from all enemy threats, were second to none.
Lost in such thoughts, as he was apt to be towards the end of every shift, he did not notice that annoying Autobot warrior Sideswipe sneak up behind him to tap him on the shoulder by surprise, just so he could have the pleasure of scaring the frag out of the security director.
"Ahhh! Frag!–" exclaimed Red Alert, jumping out of his seat at the sensation of an uninvited hand touching his shoulder, but then forced himself to refrain from any further cursing. "Sideswipe! What are you doing here?" he asked instead, quite irate.
Sideswipe took a step back in mock innocence, acting hard done by. "Just came by to give you this," he said, and for the first time Red Alert noticed the cylindrical object the warrior held in his hand. Sideswipe threw it up into the air in an arch towards him, making it flip over several times like the vanes of a wind mill, until Red Alert reached out to catch it.
The security director examined the hollow, metallic object for a brief second before looking back at Sideswipe in puzzlement and apprehension. "What is it?"
The red and black Autobot shrugged. "How should I know? I just found it on the ground right outside the entrance. Maybe someone left it there for us?" he said, pointing back out in the direction of the Ark's large opening. Then he handed Red Alert a small note. "It came with this."
"No, no, that's not possible. If someone had come that close to the Ark, I would have seen them on the monitors!" Red Alert replied indignantly, chagrined that the mysterious object, and whoever had left it by the Ark's entrance, had apparently bypassed the security sensors so easily, especially on his watch.
Reluctantly, he took the note. The message on it was short, scrawled on a piece of paper in English words with black ink. He read it out loud: "'Attention: the spark trap is real. Treat with caution.'"
"The 'spark trap'? What the frag's that?" Sideswipe asked.
Red Alert shrugged. "I have no idea… but I have a strange feeling that we're soon going to find out."
END