The Incident at
Tyger Pax
Kyle was fed up, he'd just had about enough of this war and especially of Zeta Prime. "Old cranky, slagger! Go and whine to Optimus!" With him few remaining scouts were talking about who was causing trouble down at Tyger Pax. "That's it! We'll find out what the cons are doing down there and tell Zeta, then he wouldn't treat us like dopey sparklings!"
That had the older scouts worried. "Kai, I don't think that's such a good idea, what if Megatron or Reedwick found us?" Scarlet eyed him warily,
"If you're too scrappy, then I'll go alone!"
"Nah, wait Kai!"
"Yeah! We'll come with ya!"
The green and black scout looked back to see his friends come walk up to him with determination gleaming in their optics. "Good, let's go!"
The team had been busy chatting that they hadn't noticed they'd come all the way to the war zone of Tyger Pax. "We're here to prove ourselves to Zeta!" cried SquirrelTrack, she looked across towards her friend and smiled as he ran out and cheered, they were finally here! "Pebble-glaze, slow down!" Kyle warned as he thought he could feel crimson optics watching them.
"Don't worry! Nothing's here!" As soon as the young mech said that a seeker burst out of the sky and fired missiles at the grey and blue scout, as he was knocked backwards SquirrelTrack ran towards him. "Pebble glaze!"
"You'll pay for that!" Bumblebee roared, all Kyle could see was a grey dull cloud and one seeker, we're okay its only one con, then came the others at least five of them surrounded the small team, with Soundwave in the lead. "Ah, the scouting party," Kyle knew all too well of that vocalizer.
"Megatron." Snarled Bee as the former leader of the Decepticons towered over both mechs.
"I think I've seen enough of Zeta's pathetic armies." As the war lord grabbed the yellow scout's throat and tightened the grip. "I think it's clear to know what we're here for." Kyle growled and jumped onto the dark warrior to save his friend.
"Let him go! Bucket head!"
Soon Soundwave, Big Ranger, Reedwick and Megatron as well as a few cons, had the small team tied up. "We'll tell you nothing!" The big black bruiser sneered at the young Scout's brave words.
"And I'll make sure you'll never say a thing again if you don't tell me what Zeta and the other Primes plan to do with the Allspark!" Frantically Bumblebee looked at his friends and saw that SquirrelTrack had tried to patch up Pebble-glaze's wounds while Kyle had said nothing since Megatron had arrived but the scout just glared at the war lord. "Megatron, is it? Ha! I thought you had an evil name!" That was a first, soon all optics were on the troublemaker.
"Yes, and yours would be?"
"Kyle. Unless it's Kai for short and Kai-yak-Kyle for nickynames!" The mech just grinned as Megatron came closer.
"And who do you think I am, Autobot?" The dusty grey mech spat out the venom in 'Autobot', while Kyle happily went on without a care in the world. "Why, I think your name was 'Bucket head' according to the Wreckers!" And only smiled.
"Well then, Kyle, I suppose you're the one who knows what Optimus and Zeta are up to." The scout swallowed hard, he'd ears dropped on the two when he should've been down at the docks loading energon.
"Well, uh… I knew you'd come around Bee!" He looked hopefully at the yellow scout, who in which groaned at the fact that his friend had been in so much trouble that not even the cons knew. "Well?! Spit it out!" SquirrelTrack was the one to speak up,
"Zeta Prime ordered everybot to stay silent about the attack on the border." Pebble-glaze stared at Soundwave in awe, the con had literally no face at all!
Megatron noticed, "well, Soundwave, let's show what these scouts are in for. Hmm?" At that the surveillance chief extended his claw like servos and struck the young bot in the side dangerously close to his spark-chamber, the grey and blue speckled mech dropped to the ground with a groan. "Pebble-glaze!" SquirrelTrack could do nothing but watch as her friend's life bled before his own optics. Bumblebee growled at Megatron while Kyle didn't turn away to see what was happening but he knew and he held those fiery crimson optics with hatred. "Yes, I know who you are, no need for showing off!" The war lord only smirked as the bot before him snarled.
"Reedwick here is a loyal warrior, he'll show you what real warriors do." And with that the reddish-brown mech picked up the orangey brown femme as she gave a squeal of surprise. "Now, what do they plan on doing?" As the tone of his voice grew deeper the grasp on SquirrelTrack's stomach tightened.
"Please don't do this!" Bumblebee begged, he had lost one friend today, and he didn't want to lose anything else. Kyle nodded at the young femme as if to beg her to purge her tanks on the con, instead she was gulping for air now, her life depending on it. "Come sparklings, surely you want your friend here to be the same as the other? No? Then you'd better hurry." Megatron snickered at the young bot dead on the ground.
"Born a Decepticon, weak like an Autobot!" Big Ranger sneered at the dead scout while the other three gave each other wary looks.
"What do you mean born a Decepticon?" Bumblebee asked and yelped as the war lord grabbed his throat and crushed it, all the while he smiled, the dark warrior threw the small bot across the ground. "Bee." Kyle's whisper was barley heard as SquirrelTrack watched in silence, her mouthplates open in a snarl yet nothing came out. "See what happens when you mess with a champion of Kaon!?" Megatron roared as he looked at the two remaining scouts, SquirrelTrack wasn't ready to end this just yet, first Pebble-glaze and then Bumblebee. "You're a monster!" She yelled with such fury, that Kyle never knew she had. Megatron chuckled and gave the signal, a drone ran up as Reedwick held the femme higher, and then the drone slashed his claws down from her helm to her peds ripping open her stomach and face. Kyle turned away, unable to stand the look of what become of his friends. "I'm sorry." Megatron cocked his helm at the last bot.
"Dear Kyle, what was that?" The green and black mech couldn't meet the warlord's optics no more.
"I'm sorry." He repeated,
"Oh, really? Just now I was having a little fun!"
With such sarcasm that he'd never heard Kai looked into those crimson optics for the last time.
"Go back to the pits, Bucket head."
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Sentinel looked around, next to him were Jazz and NightStalker, both looking worried at what they'd just heard. "Are they alright?" Sentinel was just as disgusted as Zeta, the two bots couldn't even look after four simple scouts for Primus sake!
"What do we know of what has become of them!?" Zeta roared while Optimus held his ground, the Prime might have been older but was he as wise as him? "Zeta, please, maybe they went to scout for energon." Alpha Trion held all the mechs a death gaze as if to say I told you so.
"Then why did they leave without permission and why are half of their life signals dead?" NightStalker held her breath while Jazz shook violently from fear that his teams were under fire. Optimus looked at his friends and towards his mentor and finally his royal blue gaze rested on the two elder Primes.
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"Moooonniiiiieeeeee! Come on! You have to tell me where they are!" The medical trainee glared at her friend, then at her partner.
"Arcee, for the last time! I don't know where they are!" Arcee wasn't convinced, First Aid looked away, unable to explain why. "C'mon! What about the life signals? Can't you just track them?"
"It's easier said than done, cee. Every day, now, bots die-"
"So do cons!" Moonracer sighed and showed her the screen.
"We lost their signals by the time they entered Tyger Pax dead zone." The blue scout was concerned for her brother's state and didn't want to take any chances with him.
As soon as it was dark enough the young femme managened to sneak past defences and head straight to the border without being seen. As soon as she reached the border, she had head straight to the dead zone of Tyger Pax. "Come on Kai! Where are you?" There lying on the ground just a few meters away was a dull grey-blue shape. "Pebble-glaze!" The shocked femme whispered, the poor mech was covered in wounds. And just a couple of metres away from him was the fierce scout SquirrelTrack, she was just as worse, from top to bottom she was covered in scratches as well as a dreadful scar on her stomach, from it, she had a silent snarl on her face. "SquirrelTrack. What have they done?" Then she gasped as a familiar mech lay beside a yellow and black scout. "Kyle!" She screamed, her brother had his optics open but in a miserable way, he seemed to be staring at the scout. "No, please! Wake up!" Arcee begged, she tried, she really did. But the black and green scout ignored her and turned as dull as the others. The blue femme began crying fearing that she was left alone, then she heard it. The faint breathing of the yellow mech beside her, although his optics were closed, he seemed to be whispering something. Confused she moved closer and said; "Who did this?" The scout's optics opened a little and stared up at the femme, "Megatron." His voice was frail as if he hadn't used it for millennia, he groaned and shut his optics.
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Arcee lay there she'd been beside the scout since she called for a ground bridge, and now sitting in the medical bay, worried the poor mech was going to die. Moonracer walked in with the CMO and took pity on her friend. "I'm sorry we couldn't save the others, cee. We'll try and help this one though." Ratchet walked over towards the scanner, his apprentice, First Aid, joined him and a grave look appeared on the two's faceplates. "What? What's wrong?" Moonracer walked over and stared at the scanner, Red Alert walked in and looked from the scout to Arcee and back again. "Do you know him?" Arcee lifted her helm,
"No." The medic nodded at the two bots that had walked in. "Cliffjumper, Timber, do you know him?" The femme looked at him and shook her brown speckled helm, though the mech nodded. "He was a friend of ours, me, Wheeljack, Bulkhead, And Bumblebee." And pointed at the mech on the berth, the medic nodded.
"So his designation's Bumblebee. Did you know who was with him?" The three didn't meet any optics at all.
"SquirrelTrack, my sister, went with him." The red mech replied.
The brown and grey speckled femme nodded gravely. "My brother, Pebble-glaze, went with them." Arcee looked at them scared that she might get the burden of her brother's death.
"My brother, Kyle, went to Tyger Pax. He thought that if they proved that they could spy on the cons and see what they're up to, Zeta wouldn't ignore them." And sighed. Red Alert looked back at the scout and re-checked the data.
"Bumblebee, here, will live." The others started to get their hopes up. "Although his voice box was crushed." Confused and worried they looked towards the scanners.
"What do you mean?" Timber asked,
"He won't ever speak properly again." Moonracer answered.
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Two weeks had passed since the shocking news that the Autobots had to leave Cybertron. The Wreckers had been ordered to guard the outskirts of the Well of Allsparks, while Arcee, Bumblebee and Cliffjumper had been set on the inside borders to make sure no con dared get past. They were transporting the Allspark across the galaxy to the safe reaches of space. All was going well until: "We're underfire!" Came the call.
"Arcee, you stay here on post and callout if any con's around while me and Bee scout ahead to find help." Arcee was just ready to accuse the red Hard-Horn when the two had already sped off, great. As nothing stirred she paced back and forth thinking what would her brother do? Then she saw them, two purple optics hiding behind some debris staring at her. They seemed to be whispering playfully. "Hello? Who's there?" Arcee called out before she even knew what was coming, the ground started shaking and distant screeching rose from the ashes that had covered the city's side. Arcee was petrified, what was happening? "HELP! Something's coming!" She screamed although her voice was drowned out by the noise, then something bulky smashed into her side and sent her flying, in a heap she lay on the ground panting. "Cover the area, make sure no bot trespasses across the border!" Arcee recognised that vocalizer easily, she looked up at the purple optics of;
"Arachnid!" She snarled at the rogue Decepticon, who in favour smiled down upon her prey.
"Well, Arcee, it's good to see you're still functional." The black and gold femme sneered dripping her nasty venom onto the younger scout. "Release her immediately!" A white and blue mech towered over both femmes, Arcee was never so scared in her life to see such a wicked bot before her. "But Tailgate!-"
"No, release her, now! DarkStar said he needs to know where the rest of bots are." With that the spider-bot let the blue femme up and walked away mumbling. Arcee got up and stared at Tailgate, his was broad shouldered and white with blue flames, he had a nasty look in his optics that she didn't like. "DarkStar. My lord, we've found one bot on the territory and nothing more!" An orange, blue and gold seeker stood behind him handing out reports and messages. "FireDrain! What do we do with her?" Tailgate pointed his canon at Arcee, who in which tried to run but shrieked as something dragged her down. She looked back to see a black Bat-a-con holding her leg tightly in its mouth. "See, I told you we couldn't trust a bot." The con transformed swung Arcee over his shoulder.
"SharkTip, I understand that you didn't want to be on this job. No need for blaming Tailgate." The seeker seemed to be paying attention to how much pain Arcee was in for. "Anywho, we are going to wait until Ashpipe gets here, then we cut open the gates and get the Allspark." Arcee stared from one mech to the other and tried to get free of herself from the con.
"Now, cee, don't be like that." Tailgate pushed his gun against her neck,
"Yeah, we just wanna play!" SharkTip snickered at the femme as he held her tighter so that his fellow bot could get a better shot. The blue scout struggled and the more she did the mech's grip got tighter and their smirks got wider. "Tailgate! SharkTip! There's no time to mess around! We need that cube secured now!" Ashpipe transformed and stood up both her winglets alert for any signs of hostile intense. "Wings! I need you, Tailgate and Arachnid to stay here and guard the border. The rest of us will move forward and hopefully obtain the Spark." As said and done, Arcee kept struggling in hopes to warn the teams of the danger.
"What are we going to do with this one?" Winger stared at the older femme sitting on the ground locked in stasis cuffs.
"Dunno, maybe Darkie can fish out something." Tailgate looked at the blue femme in wonder and then stared back out on the other side of the border. Arcee could tell she was going to be in trouble for what she did to these bots. "I won't let you get away with this." She snarled, Tailgate crouched down in front of her while Arachnid traced a digit around Arcee's right optic. "What was that?" Tailgate whispered.
"I'll defend the border with my entire spark! I won't let you get away with this!" Arcee spat, it was true, she wasn't going to let them get away with this. Arachnid then scratched the optic, it bled its heart out, the blue femme couldn't see anything at all.
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"Arcee!My Primus!She's dead!" Bumblebee screamed as hard as could, him and Cliffjumper had gone to Tyger Pax to help the Wreckers while Arcee had stayed here on the border to report any signs of hostile intense. Although covered in wounds and an energon blood pool where her right optic should've been, there was a small, slow rise and fall in her chest. "Bee, she's alive! Quick, we've gotta help her!" Bumblebee quickly called for a ground-bridge and Cliff went to check over the femme to see if there were any spark threatening wounds, Arcee didn't know who it was but groaned to say she was in terrible pain. "I know cee, I know." He coaxed, "Yea, I know it hurts. Just hold okay?" Messaging was what only they could until they could get a medic.
"Ratchet!Is she gonna live?" Bumblebee frantically asked as soon as the orange and white mech came through the ground bridge. Annoyed and frustrated the CMO crouched beside the groaning scout and as Cliff went to move away, Ratchet grabbed his servo and put it on top of Arcee's chest. "But doc-"
"Listen Cliffjumper! Bumblebee's already chickened out and there are no other medics available, I need you to step up and help out." The red Hard-Horn didn't like this one bit but did as Ratchet told. Cliff held his servo gently on top of her breast plates and watched as the slow and small breathing began getting quicker. "Ratch? Is that supposed to happen?" The medic didn't answer only watch and then swept his own servo across the velvet stomach, Arcee responded slowing down her breathing to a steady. The two mechs turned around at the sound of a BANG and then an,
"Owwww! That hurt!" Bumblebee had fainted purposely, "She's gonna DIE!" He screamed through his buzzing vocalizer.
"Bee! Shut up! She's fine! Okay?"
"Yea! Ow!" Cliff ignored the black and yellow bot sitting on his aft and turned back towards his unconscious friend. Arcee's breathing had come to a maximum soon her neon optics flickered on as she gasped and jumped to her aft completely falling on top of Ratchet, Cliff tried not to giggle as the femme looked around with the hugest optics he'd ever seen. "Arcee can you try and tell us who did this and what happened?" The blue femme looked at the medic with optics as wide as saucers, her breathing began to quicken and she literally collapsed on Cliffjumper. "Huh? Uh, Yea. Wings, Arachnid, Tailgate, SharkTip, FireDrain and Ashpipe." She then looked up into the aquatic optics of Cliffjumper, Wow! If she were mine I'd never let her leave my sight. "Who are you?" The mech stiffened, had she lost her memory card? "Wait you're the mech who said stay here and report if anything crosses the border." Ratchet pecked her right optic with his digit, worrying she had lost half her sight. "Why are you cradling me?" Cliff didn't even notice, looking at the beautiful optics of hers, he felt like the luckiest mech alive! "Cliffjumper! We need to take her back to the base! Her optic needs to be cleaned up!" The mech jolted as Bumblebee came up and helped the two stand.
Inside the base Cliffjumper paced outside the medical bay worried that Ratchet would come out and say; "She's half blind but hopefully Sentinel will make her a warrior, and if not she would either become an elder. Or though she has lovely servos for medical duty or if she wanted I'm sure there's room for her in the Nursery." Cliff just wanted to be there when the news came, alongside him was Bumblebee, the two and a couple of elder warriors were here in the base. Moonracer was in there helping the CMO while Chromia had tried to speed up her patrol. "Bumblebee, Cliffjumper. She's ready." Moonracer whispered as she and Ratchet went to get some energon. Arcee sat there on the medical berth staring at the wall. "Hey cee! How's it humming?" The blue femme looked at them with watery optics.
"Hey." She barely whispered, Cliff sat next to her while Bee planted himself on the door. Cliffjumper couldn't help but smile at the pretty scout. "I heard maybe they're gonna-"
"They're not Cliff." The stunned mechs looked at each other.
"What do you mean?" Bumblebee asked, Arcee sighed and moved closer to CJ wishing it was all a dream. So close to her Cliffjumper dared not move, he could feel her spark beating as if it was his own. "Sentinel said that he had to move me down a notch. So Optimus said that he would take me in as a scout until I was fit enough to become a warrior. But the High Council told Sentinel something, I don't know, but he said I should never be made a warrior because I let the rogues get past." Cliffjumper never knew he had so much anger and fury inside him until now.
"That's stupid!" He snarled so suddenly Arcee yelped as the red mech flew off the medical berth and dragged his friend outside leaving the femme by herself. "I've never been so disgusted before!" Bumblebee took a step back as he watched his fellow team-mate roar with frustration.
"Yeah! If that stupid Prime thinks he can treat Arcee like the poor peds he walks on! Then, then….. He can go and eat Megatron's scrap!" Cliff laughed at the way the small scout puffed out his chest and pricked his door-wings up in a hostile pose for their weak and injured friend.
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Many vorns had passed since the war on Cybertron and many things had changed during the Autobot's time on Earth. Now driving along a deserted border on the newly re-freshed Cybertron a blue motor-cycle and a white corvette sped at their top speeds. "Hey! Cee, when do go back to earth? I really miss the kids there!" Fleece, one of Arcee's sparklings, drove alongside his Carrier as she chuckled.
"Now Fleece, you know that Cybertron has to be cleaned and finished before we can go back." Reading high energy signatures nearby the two slowed down, transformed and readied their weapons. "Stay here." Fleece didn't want her to go alone but obeyed orders anyway.
"Come play with us!" The white mech turned around to see two amber optics staring directly at him, this he knew, was not his refection. Being raised on a different planet the young warrior had much to learn from Cybertron and its past. "Arcee! What's this?" As the blue warrior came back from checking what was behind the pillars, only to find her precious sparkling standing in front of one of Cybertron's most dangerous creatures. "Fleece! Run now! That's a Predacon! Move before it bites you!" He didn't know what a 'Predacon' was, he just stood there looking at his Carrier waving her servos frantically. "But-" No time to explain, the Predacon threw its jaws around one arm of the small bot as he screamed in pain.
"Fleece! Let him go you scrap-eater!" Arcee ran towards the dragon-like-bot and unsheathed her arm blades. Soon the Predacon was covered in small wounds and scratch marks, but the ground started shaking and the distant roars of more Predacons rose sky-high. "What are those?" Fleece asked, although from the look in her optics he knew it was more trouble that lied ahead. At least three more Predacons had arrived, Arcee had told Fleece to call for back-up while she held them off. The leader of the Predacons was small and stocky while his pelt was a very dark brown, almost black, Fleece could tell he was the leader by the way he bossed around the tall and more heavier built Predacons if they ever got in his way. "Arcee! Optimus is on his way right now!" The femme couldn't have more faith, her leader was coming to help.
"Fleece! I need you to help out until Optimus gets here!" The Predacons had towered over them and almost had Arcee in the leader's grasp, the ground was covered in energon. Fleece ran towards the battle and found himself locked in the jaws of a Predacon, looking across out to the other side he saw his Carrier fight off the leader and fire three shots at his captor's head. Before Fleece could warn her, a big Predacon, white with blue flames and broad shoulders, ran up and clamped its jaws tight on her neck, Arcee screamed out in pain. The Predacon then shook her like a chew toy and threw Arcee across the air and eventually she smashed into the side of one of the pillars, she lay there on the ground not moving. Fleece stared at the Predacon until he thought that it would attack him. "Fleece, Arcee, head to shelter quickly!" Optimus transformed and fired four shots at the Predacon standing above the soft unmoving body of Arcee, while Wheeljack and Bumblebee went head-to-head with the creatures. Fleece ran to his leader after the Predacons had retreated and were gone. "Optimus, Arcee's dead." The Prime gave the young warrior a solemn look, "What is this place?" He asked, Optimus didn't meet any optics and the white Wrecker looked away, instead Bumblebee came up. "This is Tyger Pax, Fleece." The young mech's optics widen,
"Tyger Pax?"