Phases

Phase one – the value of intelligence

"Just to let you know, Optimus" Blaster warned his leader "I don't assume he will like it. I mean, that code was not intended to be changed easily."

The blue helm rose from between red shoulders as Optimus Prime transformed and looked up to the distant mountain range. Somewhere over there, perhaps just a few miles away, was a Decepticon hiding, awaiting Megatron's command to attack the Autobot group. Left and right there were human settlements further down the road. As much as he wished to keep the organics out from the Cybertronian civil war, he feared Earth would be the next planet to fall victim to it. Sixshot's mere presence foreshadowed tragedy, only, the Autobots now had one advantage over the dreaded Decepticon. The Prime blinked at Blaster, who was standing with both loudspeakers lifted high. He was waiting for the order to save the planet by throwing away the last remains of Cybertronian etiquette and honor.

"I understand" he said, almost in a murmur of shame. He hoped he wouldn't be pushed as far as to order the hacking of a sentient Cybertronian. It was one more step from his ideals. "Proceed, Blaster. Change his code."

Blaster's first attack set off a massive alarm throughout the Decepticon's complex processing system. The second swept through his firewalls, and just five astroseconds from the start he got to the deepest core programming of the other mech. A few more astroseconds, and he started the overwriting process.

Once he aired the middle sequence of the code, Blaster had full access to the Decepticon's processor. He experienced no resistance. This was alarming: he was working on an area that not even the victim could reach into. Which was somewhat the point of it being created, but Blaster felt as if he was violating a very personal set of files. He wouldn't have done this, if not for Ratchet's sake.

"He is in pain" he murmured, as if saying it out loud would take some of the responsibility off his shoulders. "I can tell that much from here."

Beside him, Optimus nodded, sharing the guilt and taking the responsibility as much as he could. "Then hurry up and try to do it as fast as possible."

Under any other circumstances, he wouldn't have spoken those words. He would have possibly had to face Sixshot in battle, like he had done it before, (and didn't that have to do with saving Ratchet, too?) but taking advantage of a built-in failsafe just seemed to be the only possible solution right now. He couldn't help but swallow a few comments on his call. Once in a lifetime Megatron took precautions before coming up with some nasty, destructive, sparkless plan – and he, Optimus Prime, was taking advantage of it. He had just ordered Blaster to change the shut-down code of Megatron's greatest walking firepower – the destroyer known as Sixshot.

"Almost there" Blaster whispered, as if that could ease the pain of being hacked. They had been knowingly torturing the Decepticon warrior for almost a minute now. Optimus buried his face in his hands.

It was Mirage who came up with the plan, and the one who brought the data from Megatron's reconstructing facility deep below the ground level of Helex. According to the Autobot spy's impression, the place was a lot like how Earth inhabitants pictured Hell. And this was the place from which Sixshot had originated – the place where he was rebuilt into a phase-sixer, at least.

According to the well-guarded layouts, Sixshot's shut-down mechanism was literally burnt into his brain module. The code that initiated it, however, was not fixed into the hardware. Megatron was not going to share his greatest weapons with some low-ranking techies, after all. Only he and his top-ranking officers could switch off the destroyer with a verbal command.

Blaster's speakers were coruscating with heat when he finally eased down. He dropped his arms that were holding his boosters. His job was done. "He's ours" he muttered. "I hate to say it, but he's ours. Let's go and find him."

Optimus looked up at the cloudless sky and the forest in the hillside.

"Come, Blaster. And thank you."

The red truck rolled through the barely inhabited plains and an almost deserted human village. Those who lived here had long ago got used to seeing various vehicles driving themselves around the area. Optimus wondered how much they truly understood of the war between Decepticons and Autobots. He supposed that most of those who knew enough had moved to more peaceful places on this beautiful world. But, with a phase-sixer around, he wondered if there was any place for them to hide, really.

"Turn right" Blaster suggested. "That crooked road will take us to the foot of the mountain. From there, we will have to walk."

Their prey was easy to find. There was a clearing in the middle of the lush forest, where trees were cut in half or burnt by uncontrolled energy. Among the broken trunks, a large, half-conscious Decepticon was sitting. He seemed to be staring at a white stone in front of himself, waiting for the horrible headache to ease from his systems. But in the next moment, he jumped up and pointed his weaponry at the Prime. If his processing capacity had recovered normal functions, maybe he would have not attacked the very mechs who possessed his new stand-down codes. He fell gracelessly on his side.

"At least we have proof it works" Blaster said.

"I didn't intend to test like this" Optimus stated.

A complex but not quite pretty collection of battle-hardened metal that could take six different forms was lying in front of them. Blaster cautiously walked closer to the offline mech. He looked into darkened gray optics on a shiny white face, then, after a hesitant blink at Optimus and an approving nod from his leader, he peered into the mind of the mechanism who was said to be covered in a metal retrieved from a collapsed star.

For Blaster, reading him in this stage via hardline connection was much like viewing files on a sparkless computer. For a few seconds he wondered if the destroyer had no personality at all – then, when he had found it, he was astonished at its complexity. The mech was truly more than meets the eye.

What a truism, Ramhorn commented from inside his chest. Even truisms can be true, Rewind objected. Eject noted that, despite being repurposed for the completely opposite, Sixshot seemed to have a hidden sense for fair play. Steeljaw insisted that Blaster copied everything he found for later analysis as fast as he could, since the phase-sixer carried invaluable information of Decepticon strategies.

Blaster ignored them all and looked deeper. He wanted to know how the sixformer really worked. It was essential for the Autobots to find out how to control him, as having the shut-down code in itself didn't grant the big robot's cooperation on the short term, and wouldn't have prevented Soundwave from possibly hacking him free on the long run. But as soon as the warm-colored carrier reached into the confidential territory, Sixshot started to boot up. Blaster quickly retreated from his proximity.

For long minutes, the Decepticon's optics were dark. Then, very slowly, red light started flickering across the white face, and ventilator fans kicked in one after the other. This time, it was Optimus who ventured closer to him. The large pile of metal did not move an inch. The Prime knelt down to look the motionless one-mech-army in the optics, and he wasn't sure if he had not seen a flash of evil on the metallic beast. But maybe it was just a few rays of the slowly setting sun, and the shadows of the many leaves. He registered no movement. He walked back to Blaster, clueless what he should do now. They would need to move the Decepticon somehow. He wasn't sure where to hide a huge pile of destruction until the exchange, either. The Ark's brig was out of question.

Again, he had one more reason to wish Ratchet were here with them. But then he wouldn't have to worry about where to keep Sixshot, either. He turned his back at the living weapon, but not even that had provoked another attack.

"Steelie thinks he's just waiting for your permission to move" Blaster said.

Optimus gave a curious look.

"Well, you are the one who took him down, aren't you? You are supposed to be his superior."

Optimus muttered something very un-Prime-like about NOT having taken that position from Megatron. Blaster shrugged. Optimus gave a sigh, and spoke up.

"Come here, Sixshot." His words were calm, serious, just a tiny bit commanding. He was almost sure the mech wouldn't respond to him, but he gave it a try.

He was shocked at the speed with which the white, teal and dark gray pile of destruction picked himself up from the ground, and hurried to him. He kept a respectful distance, however. Cybertronian protocol demanded that two Transformers normally stood just as far from each other that they had enough space between them for them to turn into alternate mode. Optimus didn't fail to notice that Sixshot kept the distance so that he could easily take his semitruck form – but he was way too close for taking any of his own, destructive shapes. Their optics met, and the sixformer dropped to one knee.

The Autobot was careful not to misinterpret this motion like a human would. This wasn't a surrender, Sixshot had only brought himself to optic level with him. The Prime had also used this position when he was talking to smaller beings. Especially those fragile creatures whom he didn't suppose to like being picked up.

Optimus Prime, still keeping the distance the Decepticon chose, produced a cube of Energon from his subspace. It was cybertronium-enriched midgrade, because Ratchet had insisted that he always carried a dose of that with him.

Ratchet...

"Do you accept it?" he asked, offering the cube to his defeated enemy. Sixshot blinked at the energon, a pink cube with shimmers of bright green. Then, immediately, back to Optimus. And Blaster.

Blaster took a step backwards, pretending not to be there. He had done what was asked of him, from now on, he wanted to be left out of handling a Decepticon phase-sixer.

Sixshot understood the gesture and considered himself to be left alone with the Autobot leader. He accepted the cube, and retracted his mouthplate for the first bite. He took in the scent of recently brewed fuel and the unmistakable smell of their home. After one tentative sip and a smile he had no control over, he downed the whole dose in one large gulp. He released his mask back to its standard position immediately afterwards.

"I apologize for having violated your most basic rights, Sixshot" Optimus started. Blaster gave a quiet harrumph in the background. His leader's words meant that he took all responsibility for the hacking, as if the communication specialist hadn't even been there. He valued himself more than that. It didn't sit right with him to let Optimus take all the blame. "I wouldn't have agreed to such profound hack under any other circumstances. We are in a dire situation. Our friend and best medic has been kidnapped by Astrotrain and Shockwave. Considering these two rarely cooperate, we suppose he was taken under Megatron's command. I seek a prisoner exchange, and I hope to make it as soon as possible. I don't intend to harm or hurt you in any way, and I promise not to abuse my power over you."

The sixformer nodded silently. It wasn't like he had been given permission to speak, after all. Respect towards a victorious warrior was encoded in him even deeper than his phase-sixer failsafe, and there was no point in showing otherwise to the mech who just gave his word to treat him honorably.

Optimus took one step back before he transformed. With this, he also gave a nonverbal permission to their captive to do the same. The forest wasn't very thick, and they only had to move down the slope. He opened his passenger's side door, and told Blaster to transform and jump in for the ride. A white and dark gray offroad vehicle followed them without being told. They rolled out of the forest into the sunset's last golden lights, and headed to the Autobot headquarters. Blaster stayed quiet, his speakers probably still torpid after the long-range hacking. If there was any communication going on, it happened on their built-in radio's secret frequencies. Optimus was glad for his silence.

"Where do you usually recharge, Sixshot?" the leader suddenly asked. The mech would certainly need some rest and a proper defragmentation after the hacking.

"In the open, whenever I can" was the reply. In fact, it had been long since he last had to recharge in any built structure. The inside of a dormant volcano didn't seem appealing, even if supposing he would not fit in the prison cells of the Autobot ship and so might be placed somewhere more comfortable. "I usually recharge in my shuttle mode in deep space, away from the orbit of any objects. For now, I would be happy if you allow me to sleep close to the crater of the volcano. I could not get far away, with my codes in your possession." With that, he hoped he could still have at least some visual contact with the open air. Captured by the Autobots, he would be glad if he was given enough space to transform. His processor was still echoing lines of the recent hacking, so planning an escape was out of question for a while. He knew his brain structure was designed with this intentional weakness.

"All right" Optimus decided. "The outside of Mount Saint Hillary is yours for tonight, then. But I remind you, you are of no strategic value to the Decepticons at the moment."

The large off-roader didn't let any emotion show. He just kept following his captors without a sign of surprise, not saying a word. Optimus Prime found the lack of threats more unnerving than anything the destroyer could have told him at the moment.

"Yeah" Blaster added. "Especially with Soundwave still under repairs on Cybertron after our last battle. You're our prisoner, allowed out for good behavior."

"I will honor that."