DESTROY ALL MONSTERBOTS
"You're kidding me. You're THE Monsterbots?!"
Grotesque sighed and turned to face Hot Rod. The young Autobot was staring at him in utmost shock. Grotesque didn't see what all the fuss was about.
"Yeah. What's your point? Stunned by my good looks?"
"Pbbt… Yeah, sure." Hot Rod leaned against the wall and held up his hands. "I just wanna know what yer doing HERE. I mean, we're heading to Nebulos for peace. And correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't you guys the most enthusiastic Con smashers this side of the Wreckers?"
"Yep, that's us. 'War is ugly, and we're the masters of both'. A crappy little motto, but it confuses the hell outta the Cons!"
"So why come with us? Why not stay on Cybertron?"
Grotesque looked out of the window, into the vast void of space and Cybertron disappearing over the horizon. He sighed. Did he really want to go over the reasons NOW? He could just walk away- No. The kid should know why. He didn't want people to think the Monsterbots quit out of cowardice.
"I'll tell ya," he said quietly. "First off, you know mostly about us, right? The Monsterbots: Doublecross, Grotesque and Repugnus. And you may know that we were great in the noble art of metal-munching. For instance, there was this one time…" He smiled at the memory; it had been such a clean victory. Repugnus had felt a bit put out. "Repugnus had found out that Straxus was planning to break through Scorponok's defences and grab some of his territory. So he sent three of his troops in on a covert operation to knock out the power on Scorponok's defences, so his army could attack easily.
"We decided to intervene…"
"There they are," said Repugnus. "There's the slagsuckers."
We could see 'em. Crosscut, Ferak and Macabre; three Decepticon terrorists with serious mental problems. Ferak was a hyped-up bully, Macabre was a sadist and Crosscut kept volunteering for things that would get him slagged for some reason. Maybe he'd realised he looked like a gimp.
They were in robot mode. Crosscut looking all blocky and dumb, Macabre with spikes and horns sticking out of odd places and Ferak being a conehead. They were checking around, making sure no one had noticed 'em yet.
"You know what to do," said Doublecross. "Well, I don't," he said again. "Oh shut up, I know you're just being pedantic. Your builder cleans Unicron's exhaust pipe! Oh, shut up."
Did I mention Doublecross had two brains? He had two brains.
"Let's get 'em," I said, cocking my rifle. "I'll take gimp-features. Doublecross, you get Ferak, and Repugnus should get Macabre. You're the only one who can match him in sadistic combat. And if you can't, your smell will take him down."
"Shaddup and ATTACK!"
The 'Cons looked up in surprise. They looked a bit freaked and I can't blame 'em; Doublecross was in creature mode, and they were downwind of Repugnus. I grinned at them and then opened fire on Ferak. To his credit, the conehead was able to get a shot on me before I landed on him.
To my left, Doublecross was roasting Crosscut and Repugnus had converted to monster mode, and was battering ol' Macabre. Ferak could see he wasn't getting any help and transformed. I let him fly up and fire on me, then transformed myself and flew up. I flew around him, dodging his shots, before shooting forward and chomping off a wing. He landed HARD.
I swooped down and grinned as the others finished their fights. Doublecross had Crosscut in one mouth and tore out the guy's right arm with his other, and then slapped him with it! Heh. Then Repugnus transformed and punched Macabre in the head. Down went Ugly- Macabre, I mean, NOT Repugnus, smart-pipe.
Anyway, the 'Cons were wounded and in no condition to fight anymore. Which was bad for THEM, because when we attacked we fired off a flare, which Scorponok's troops saw.
I have no idea what those guys under Scorpy's command do all day, but it seems they get really BORED. Otherwise they wouldn't have sent about twenty jets! Led by Apeface and Kranix, no less! The trashed guys took one look at the jets and ran off like scared little petro-rabbits! We slipped away into the shadows and watched the pursuit.
The three got away but later that day, Scorponok ordered an attack on Straxus' border; he tore apart a mile of defences and marched 100 metres into the city, trashing it. That caused quite a few wee battles for the next Vorn or so, trashing more 'Cons than we alone could!
Man, I musta been blessed by Primus when I came up with that plan! Either that or I had some really good high-grade Energon last night! Either way, we were celebrating for the whole night afterwards! I did my joke routine, Doublecross tried to sing and Repugnus…
Let's NOT talk about what he did for his party piece.
Basically, it was a big Autobot victory.
Grotesque finished his recap. Hot Rod looked at him sceptically.
"The point of that was…?"
"The point is that we were some of the best. This was just one of our many, many victories!" Grotesque sighed. "But… I keep thinking, recently, of the LOOK in Ferak's eyes when I was falling on him, and I wonder what happened to the three Decepticons."
"They're all dead, last I heard," said Hot Rod. "Macabre went out killing Impactor."
The Monsterbot looked pained, and slammed his fist into the wall. "Of COURSE! I heard about that! EVERYONE HEARD ABOUT THAT! How could I have forgotten?" He sighed and said, "But then, Macabre didn't really get named. He was just a faceless target, someone to cry out 'gotta-ACK!' so the big boys could strut their stuff."
Hot Rod looked shocked at this bitterness. "Um… Kay?"
"It's just a sore point with me," he said. "Anyway, I was telling you the story, wasn't I? Well, we continued fighting over the years and clocked up an impressive kill rate. And then, a few days ago, there was this battle…"
It was meant to be a diversion for another group; the Sparklebots. But we got too much INTO it. We just kept firing and firing…
I could see, out of the corner of my optics, that Repugnus had a gun. This was odd; he usually LOATHED firearms. But in this case, he was pumping rounds like there was no tomorrow. I myself was yelling out some war cry, I don't remember what, and tearing apart wounded 'Cons with my TEETH.
Eventually, we ran out of ammo and stopped. And I got a good look around.
I felt sick. "Primus…"
The whole area was littered with Decepticon remains. There must have been fifty or so. We had NO IDEA there'd been that many; if we'd known, we would have retreated! But… we didn't notice. We were too busy killing. And I realised we were in the open, that we could have been easily picked off and died, and I JUST DIDN'T CARE. I wanted to do the whole thing again, but with more Decepticons. More and more and more.
The others… they felt the same. And we were worried.
"What's happened to us?" I asked.
"We've always been like this," said Repugnus.
"No. No, we didn't. Don't you remember the past few months? Remember how bored we were?" I pressed on, every word being spat out. "We've been bored and dead, except when we're fighting. Then we REALLY come to life, don't we? Are our whole lives just fighting?"
Doublecross frowned, and his left head replied, "I know what you mean. We used to actually feel alive and happy off the battlefield, but recently… Well, we're just war machines. Nothing but walking guns."
"Oh, come ON," said Repugnus. "Aren't you the one who bragged about slapping Crosscut with his own arm, Doublecross? You're talking as if we were Decepticons…"
He fell silent. And then we knew. We knew what we were becoming.
Grotesque finished his story, fists clenched and his face down. He looked up and out the window, watching the stars for a few minutes, before saying softly, "we had to get out. Before we lost all that made us Autobot." He looked at the kid with dead eyes. "You see now?"
Hot Rod nodded. "Yeah. Man, I never expected things like that-"
"Well, you should," said Grotesque sharply. "We were in a war, and that's what happens to people in war. They sometimes go on living but as something that's not Transformer in anyway. Happened to thousands, kid. I envy Nebulos; it ended its war, millennia ago. It's the best place for us now. Maybe there, we can find peace and I can regain my humour. I hope."
The ship sped on towards Nebulos.
THE END
"You're kidding me. You're THE Monsterbots?!"
Grotesque sighed and turned to face Hot Rod. The young Autobot was staring at him in utmost shock. Grotesque didn't see what all the fuss was about.
"Yeah. What's your point? Stunned by my good looks?"
"Pbbt… Yeah, sure." Hot Rod leaned against the wall and held up his hands. "I just wanna know what yer doing HERE. I mean, we're heading to Nebulos for peace. And correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't you guys the most enthusiastic Con smashers this side of the Wreckers?"
"Yep, that's us. 'War is ugly, and we're the masters of both'. A crappy little motto, but it confuses the hell outta the Cons!"
"So why come with us? Why not stay on Cybertron?"
Grotesque looked out of the window, into the vast void of space and Cybertron disappearing over the horizon. He sighed. Did he really want to go over the reasons NOW? He could just walk away- No. The kid should know why. He didn't want people to think the Monsterbots quit out of cowardice.
"I'll tell ya," he said quietly. "First off, you know mostly about us, right? The Monsterbots: Doublecross, Grotesque and Repugnus. And you may know that we were great in the noble art of metal-munching. For instance, there was this one time…" He smiled at the memory; it had been such a clean victory. Repugnus had felt a bit put out. "Repugnus had found out that Straxus was planning to break through Scorponok's defences and grab some of his territory. So he sent three of his troops in on a covert operation to knock out the power on Scorponok's defences, so his army could attack easily.
"We decided to intervene…"
"There they are," said Repugnus. "There's the slagsuckers."
We could see 'em. Crosscut, Ferak and Macabre; three Decepticon terrorists with serious mental problems. Ferak was a hyped-up bully, Macabre was a sadist and Crosscut kept volunteering for things that would get him slagged for some reason. Maybe he'd realised he looked like a gimp.
They were in robot mode. Crosscut looking all blocky and dumb, Macabre with spikes and horns sticking out of odd places and Ferak being a conehead. They were checking around, making sure no one had noticed 'em yet.
"You know what to do," said Doublecross. "Well, I don't," he said again. "Oh shut up, I know you're just being pedantic. Your builder cleans Unicron's exhaust pipe! Oh, shut up."
Did I mention Doublecross had two brains? He had two brains.
"Let's get 'em," I said, cocking my rifle. "I'll take gimp-features. Doublecross, you get Ferak, and Repugnus should get Macabre. You're the only one who can match him in sadistic combat. And if you can't, your smell will take him down."
"Shaddup and ATTACK!"
The 'Cons looked up in surprise. They looked a bit freaked and I can't blame 'em; Doublecross was in creature mode, and they were downwind of Repugnus. I grinned at them and then opened fire on Ferak. To his credit, the conehead was able to get a shot on me before I landed on him.
To my left, Doublecross was roasting Crosscut and Repugnus had converted to monster mode, and was battering ol' Macabre. Ferak could see he wasn't getting any help and transformed. I let him fly up and fire on me, then transformed myself and flew up. I flew around him, dodging his shots, before shooting forward and chomping off a wing. He landed HARD.
I swooped down and grinned as the others finished their fights. Doublecross had Crosscut in one mouth and tore out the guy's right arm with his other, and then slapped him with it! Heh. Then Repugnus transformed and punched Macabre in the head. Down went Ugly- Macabre, I mean, NOT Repugnus, smart-pipe.
Anyway, the 'Cons were wounded and in no condition to fight anymore. Which was bad for THEM, because when we attacked we fired off a flare, which Scorponok's troops saw.
I have no idea what those guys under Scorpy's command do all day, but it seems they get really BORED. Otherwise they wouldn't have sent about twenty jets! Led by Apeface and Kranix, no less! The trashed guys took one look at the jets and ran off like scared little petro-rabbits! We slipped away into the shadows and watched the pursuit.
The three got away but later that day, Scorponok ordered an attack on Straxus' border; he tore apart a mile of defences and marched 100 metres into the city, trashing it. That caused quite a few wee battles for the next Vorn or so, trashing more 'Cons than we alone could!
Man, I musta been blessed by Primus when I came up with that plan! Either that or I had some really good high-grade Energon last night! Either way, we were celebrating for the whole night afterwards! I did my joke routine, Doublecross tried to sing and Repugnus…
Let's NOT talk about what he did for his party piece.
Basically, it was a big Autobot victory.
Grotesque finished his recap. Hot Rod looked at him sceptically.
"The point of that was…?"
"The point is that we were some of the best. This was just one of our many, many victories!" Grotesque sighed. "But… I keep thinking, recently, of the LOOK in Ferak's eyes when I was falling on him, and I wonder what happened to the three Decepticons."
"They're all dead, last I heard," said Hot Rod. "Macabre went out killing Impactor."
The Monsterbot looked pained, and slammed his fist into the wall. "Of COURSE! I heard about that! EVERYONE HEARD ABOUT THAT! How could I have forgotten?" He sighed and said, "But then, Macabre didn't really get named. He was just a faceless target, someone to cry out 'gotta-ACK!' so the big boys could strut their stuff."
Hot Rod looked shocked at this bitterness. "Um… Kay?"
"It's just a sore point with me," he said. "Anyway, I was telling you the story, wasn't I? Well, we continued fighting over the years and clocked up an impressive kill rate. And then, a few days ago, there was this battle…"
It was meant to be a diversion for another group; the Sparklebots. But we got too much INTO it. We just kept firing and firing…
I could see, out of the corner of my optics, that Repugnus had a gun. This was odd; he usually LOATHED firearms. But in this case, he was pumping rounds like there was no tomorrow. I myself was yelling out some war cry, I don't remember what, and tearing apart wounded 'Cons with my TEETH.
Eventually, we ran out of ammo and stopped. And I got a good look around.
I felt sick. "Primus…"
The whole area was littered with Decepticon remains. There must have been fifty or so. We had NO IDEA there'd been that many; if we'd known, we would have retreated! But… we didn't notice. We were too busy killing. And I realised we were in the open, that we could have been easily picked off and died, and I JUST DIDN'T CARE. I wanted to do the whole thing again, but with more Decepticons. More and more and more.
The others… they felt the same. And we were worried.
"What's happened to us?" I asked.
"We've always been like this," said Repugnus.
"No. No, we didn't. Don't you remember the past few months? Remember how bored we were?" I pressed on, every word being spat out. "We've been bored and dead, except when we're fighting. Then we REALLY come to life, don't we? Are our whole lives just fighting?"
Doublecross frowned, and his left head replied, "I know what you mean. We used to actually feel alive and happy off the battlefield, but recently… Well, we're just war machines. Nothing but walking guns."
"Oh, come ON," said Repugnus. "Aren't you the one who bragged about slapping Crosscut with his own arm, Doublecross? You're talking as if we were Decepticons…"
He fell silent. And then we knew. We knew what we were becoming.
Grotesque finished his story, fists clenched and his face down. He looked up and out the window, watching the stars for a few minutes, before saying softly, "we had to get out. Before we lost all that made us Autobot." He looked at the kid with dead eyes. "You see now?"
Hot Rod nodded. "Yeah. Man, I never expected things like that-"
"Well, you should," said Grotesque sharply. "We were in a war, and that's what happens to people in war. They sometimes go on living but as something that's not Transformer in anyway. Happened to thousands, kid. I envy Nebulos; it ended its war, millennia ago. It's the best place for us now. Maybe there, we can find peace and I can regain my humour. I hope."
The ship sped on towards Nebulos.
THE END