Dino-King of the Mountain
By Major Mike Powell III
It was a dark day for Autobots and Decepticons alike.
Circumstances were incredibly dire for both sides but, as would be expected, Earth and Humanity would pay a price infinitely higher if Megatron's warmongering and hunger for power prevailed in this battle.
Autobots and Decepticons clashed in the immediate vicinity of a long-since dormant volcano that was now erupting after Optimus Prime engaged Megatron in battle as the Decepticon leader was in the process of spilling Dark Energon into the volcano's chimney, the blood of Unicron that flowed through the ruthless nemesis of the Last Prime.
"You are more delusional than I thought!" Optimus clashed swords with Megatron with one arm while dexterously unloading an entire clip of his Pathblaster into the pompous Knock Out as the (less-than-stellar) Decepticon medic attempted to cheapshot Optimus while the Prime was in a blade-lock with Megatron.
Knock Out didn't even get to finish a "Hey! Not the face!" before the last round in Optimus' weapon utterly melted his chest chassis, snuffing out Knock Out's Spark with a special molten lava round in the process.
"Oh but I am more than sane, Optimus! You clearly underestimate my dominion and will over the Dark Energon in me!" Megatron grinned sadistically and Optimus' blue optics widened when Jetfire's accented voice buzzed in his audio receptors.
"Optimus, duck! Coming in at your four o'clock!" Optimus followed suit and crouched and then, combat-rolled out of the crimson Aerialbot's line of fire as Jetfire swooped down to rain machinegun fire and a missile barrage on Megatron in his fighter jet mode.
However, Megatron let out a dark chuckle as he seemingly shrugged the bullets and missile impacts, even grinning as he looked at something coming from Jetfire's blind spot.
"Jetfire, on your six! Incoming!" Silverbolt called out as he pinned the throttle and slammed into the Predator Drone form of Soundwave as, less than a second later, he switched to robot form to basically tackle the silent Decepticon out of the air…yet Silverbolt wasn't fast enough.
Jetfire cried out in surprise and pain as the trio of missiles fired by Soundwave impacted him full on the side and sent him transformed into a collision course…
"Got you." Into a point-blank blast to the Spark Chamber from Megatron's Riot Cannon. Jetfire was off-lined in an instant.
Optimus bellowed out a war cry as he showered Megatron with Pathblaster fire before smashing him right in the faceplate with a vicious punch, and then, the Prime slashed at Megatron's cannon arm with his smaller retractable sword and in the process, obliterated Megatron's Riot Cannon and almost crippled his entire arm in doing so.
As for Soundwave and Silverbolt, the chromed Aerialbot wailed down a flurry of vicious lefts and rights into Soundwave's faceplate, leaving huge, jagged cracks on his featureless visor, all in retaliation for the loss of his fellow flier. However, Silverbolt didn't get the chance to finish Soundwave off before he was smashed into by a boosting Swindle and then, while the Aerialbot was still incapacitated in the air, the Decepticon second-in-command swooped down at Swindle's call of "All yours, Starscream!" and in one fluid, incredibly stylish and brutal motion, the Seeker Commander switched to robot form in mid-flight to cleave Silverbolt in half at the waist and then, switched right back to fighter jet mode to fly off and look for more victims while Silverbolt let off the whimper of a dying wolf as his Spark was extinguished, off-line before his upper carcass landed on the ground.
"Swindle! Get over here now!" The Combaticon Commander ordered and the greedy, trade-savvy 'Con replied with a hurried "I'll get back to you in a second, Onslaught! Kinda busy here!" and busy he was, with the yellow-and-black Chevy Camaro, Bumblebee as well as the sleek, platinum-plated Audi TT, Sideswipe ramming and "trading paint" with the Humvee Decepticon, skillfully weaving in and out of the line of fire of Swindle's roof-mounted M134 Minigun.
"Damn it, you bots! Stand still, will ya?! Gah!" Swindle whined and groaned, grunting out in frustration as Bumblebee and Sideswipe zig-zagged, swerved and rained bullets on Swindle as he tried to get a lock on the Autobot speedsters with his Minigun.
"A little help here, please?!"
"Wooooo! I always wanted to ride the buffa-sstato-awww scrap!" The three death-racing Transformers slammed on the brakes when the cool Autobot, Jazz, fell off of the Constructicons' behemoth of a Combiner form, Devastator, which he had been "surfing" on a descent down the side of the volcano they had been fighting on (Jazz making very liberal use of his grappling hook) and accidentally, Jazz smashed into his fellow Autobot fast-movers; Bumblebee, Sideswipe and Jazz all smashed into each other while Devastator fell apart as his Constructicon members lost all focus and separated shortly after landing with a massive shockwave and all on the volcanic rock ground.
"Huh…uh, well, thanks! I guess? Onslaught, you were saying?!" Swindle switched to robot form to look around the battlefield and get a proper visual on his Combaticon comrades.
"Swindle, get topside! The Dinobots are giving us some serious trouble! Raaaaaah! Back off, horns!" And Swindle winced as his audio receptors rung with the crunching metal sound of Onslaught's fist decking the Triceratops-form Slug right in the nuzzle.
"On my way!" Swindle replied before switching back to vehicle mode and boosting off to the aid of his fellow Combaticons in their fight with the Dinobots.
Off in another sector of the battle were the hardened, grizzled veteran and the eager, explosions-happy rookie; the black-with-red Ironhide fighting back-to-back with the Autobot tank, Warpath as the two heavy-weapons specialists took on a swarm of Insecticon minions at the beck and all of the sadistic electric-charge user, Kickback.
"So, I punch Brawl in the face, then right in the gut! I blow off his left knee and then, rip his cannon right off his back! And then, I swing it around to off-line Blackout 'cuz he wanted to cheapshot me from behind!" Ironhide's voice was thick with his badass accent and suave baritone as he ripped an Insecticon Bruiser's mandibles right off its head and then, obliterated the Bruiser with a whole clip of his automatic grenade launcher into its belly in mid-air after a huge kick.
"Wow! By Primus, that's brutal! I love it! But sir, why didn't you just finish Brawl off there?" Warpath cheered and asked as he absentmindedly annihilated a whole pack of Insecticon Swarmers with his Thermo-rocket launcher, seeing was he was rather invested in Ironhide's veteran story. The larger Autobot chuckled.
"Nice shot, lad! You didn't lock on!" "Thank you, sir!" "And eh, I didn't wanna off-line Brawl 'cuz the look of terror on his faceplate was hilarious! I wanted to record that into my memory drive for future laughs!"
"Hahaah! That's aweso-sir, LOOK OUT!" Warpath moved to shield his superior's blind spot from a sneaky Insecticon Spitter...yet he had nothing to worry about upon seeing a sniper rifle beam blow the flying Insecticon to pieces with a wet, squishy sound.
"Don't worry, rookie, old-timer! I've got you guys covered!" Cliffhanger's youthful, excited voice buzzed in Warpath and Ironhide's audio receptors as he shot several more Spitters out of mid-air and then, he and Warpath helped clear the way of more Insecticon Swarmers in order for Ironhide to bellow out a war cry as he charged Kickback.
The electricity-using Insecticon screamed with pain as Cliffhanger's expert sniping blew off one of his insect-form legs right off his shoulder, giving Ironhide the opening to unload a whole barrage of high-explosive ordnance on the Insecticon, off-lining him barely three seconds into the veteran Autobot's barrage.
"Hah! Ironhide makes a pretty overpowered fly swatter, eh guys?" Cliffhanger made the cheeky comment as he stood up to move to another location, yet as he de-cloaked, he stumbled backwards into…
"I can cloak too, y'know~?" Starscream's sadistic grin met Cliffhanger's optics as he turned around to give one final effort…
"CLIFF!" Warpath called out upon hearing the red-horned Autobot's scream of pain as Starscream extinguished his Spark after taunting Cliffhanger. Warpath didn't have time to grieve however, as Ironhide was knocked right into the rookie Autobot tank's feet. "Sir! What the-?" "I find you mourning in the middle of battle to be most illogical."
Ironhide spat out an Autobot-sized tooth as Warpath helped his superior officer stand back up, looking up at the crimson, mono-eyed glare of Decepticon mad scientist stepping over the charcoaled carcass of Kickback.
"…Ironhide, sir…?"
"Rookie…I recommend: take off the kids gloves. You want experience? You've got it right there."
"Blaster for an arm, one eye, worst guy to get captured by and get experimented on?"
"Pretty much. Get ready, kid. Follow my lead!"
"Yes, sir!"
And then, Warpath and Ironhide engaged Shockwave in battle.
Then, up on top of the volcano, the fumes of molten rock did nothing to hinder the combat effectiveness of the battle-hungry Combaticons and the powerful Autobot team once called "Lightning Coalition Force", now the Dinobots.
"Sssslaaaaaagggg!" Swindle barely managed to brake and swerve off in time to avoid getting shredded by Vortex' chopper blades as the UH-60 Black Hawk Combaticon was swung around by the tail and flung, shouting, Swindle's way.
"Whoaaah! Too close, too close!" Swindle shouted in turn after dodging his fellow Combaticon to switch to robot form and engage the spiked Snarl, keeping his distance and peppering the Stegosaurus Dinobot with machinegun fire from his right arm, which now housed his M134 Minigun. Snarl growled and, well, snarled at the greedy Combaticon, unable to close in to swat him with his six-spiked Stegosaurus tail nor switch to robot form without taking heavy damage from Swindle's unlimited Minigun ammo.
"Someone, get this 'Con off of me!" Snarled called for assistance, which came in the form of the Pterodactyl Dinobot replying "Coming in hot! Bombs way~!" Swoop successfully managed to take the proverbial heat off by peppering Swindle with explosive ordnance fired from his flapping Pterodactyl wings. "Thanks, Swoop!" And then, Snarl eagerly charged forward to slam Swindle and sent him bouncing off a solid-rock wall and then, make Swindle howl like a dog in pain after Snarl charged at him and swung his great, deadly tail at the Humvee Combaticon, impaling and then, ripping off his gun arm in one brutal move.
"Swindle!" The break-things-first, ask-no-questions Combaticon Brawl called out to his comrade, getting distracted and giving his Dinobot opponent an opening.
"Never take your optics off your opponent, Brawl!" The enormous Brachiosaurus Dinobot, Sludge, taunted the main battle tank Combaticon, successfully making Brawl turn to look back at him…and take a massive Dino-fist to the faceplate, practically shattering his mouthpiece.
Brawl roared with rage and the two continued to slug it out like two Transformer-sized boxers bent on winning this match and off-lining their opponent in the process. Sparks flew off in all directions as the Combaticon and Dinobot super-heavyweights traded blows.
However, it was Brawl the one that took the victory (and Sludge's life in the process) as he decided to quit fighting fair and thus, he punched Sludge in the faceplate and then, maneuvered one of his main tank guns over his shoulder to shoot Sludge in the shoulder point-blank, thus blowing the Brachiosaurus Transformer's entire arm off in the process.
Sludge screamed in agony before his shout of pain and rage was abruptly cut off by Brawl when the tank Combaticon blew off one of Sludge's knees and then, used his second tank gun, point-blank, to blow Sludge's head to pieces after the Dinobot gave Brawl one final look of defiance before he was off-lined.
Brawl then roared and flexed just to add insult to termination.
Meanwhile, the Triceratops form of Slug was being peppered with machinegun fire by a now-recuperated Vortex from above, who strafed and circled around the Dinobot in his helicopter form and rained fire down on him using his side-mounted Miniguns with incendiary rounds.
"Ahhrgh! You friggin' piece of flying slag!" Slug growled, using his massive head and horns to rip huge boulders off of the ground and walls to try and swat Vortex out of the air. Fortunately, Slug's aim was surprisingly good as a really large boulder he flung at the Black Hawk Combaticon hit its mark, sending Vortex tumbling to the ground, sparks flying off of his tail rotor before transforming to robot form before he hit the ground.
Slug grinned before charging at Vortex like his prehistoric form's instincts urged him to finish Vortex off with a triple-horn impalement…yet he was pushed right back by a heavy machinegun and missile barrage from the fast-mover of the Combaticons, the armed space shuttle form of Blast-off.
"That's twice you owe me now, Vortex! Fall back! Onslaught is calling!" Blast-off reported before moving off to engage Swoop in a new aerial dogfight; weaponized space travel hardware against prehistoric instincts.
It was a battle of impressive stylish aerial moves; aileron rolls, dive-bomb maneuvers and Swoop and Blast-off even "played chicken" to metal-crunching effect when the two charged at one another head-on and transformed at the last second to deck each other in the faceplate with circuit-frying punches at top speed.
After the massive impact, Blast-off was sent in a collision course with the Combaticon leader himself, Onslaught, as the brilliant 'Con tactician engaged the fearless leader of the Dinobots, the Tyrannosaurus Rex himself, Grimlock.
Onslaught paid Blast-off no heed, simply twisting his enormous chassis to the side, nonchalantly-sidestepping the falling space shuttle Combaticon before charging back at Grimlock, the two fighters' Cybertronian swords clashing with deafening metallic sounds and sparks flying off in all directions, sparks that joined the vivid embers floating in the air as the volcano's eruption was beginning to become more severe with each passing second. This entire island would no doubt be turned to ash by the ensuing eruption.
"Got'cha!" Meanwhile, Snarl called out as he skillfully caught the falling Pterodactyl Dinobot in mid-air, landing with a large crunching sound on the rocky ground. "Great, my prince~!" Swoop replied with sarcasm aplenty as, indeed, Snarl had the Dinobot flier in his arms like a human female. Snarl snorted and then, dropped Swoop like a sack of scrap metal.
"You've been seeing too many human animated movies, Swoop!" Snarl made a cheeky comment yet he didn't quite get a response from his Dinobot comrade before the ground shook and they saw their leader, Grimlock, come to a screeching halt a foot away. The T-Rex Dinobot roared as he pulled his sword out from the rocky ground and stood at the ready, Slug quickly coming over to stand by the Dinobot team as Onslaught gathered his Combaticons with a war cry.
"You're good, Grimlock! You're good…but it's time to END THIS! Combaticons! COMBINE INTO BRUTICUS!"
"Uh oh…" Snarl uttered as he and the rest of the Dinobot team witnessed the early stages of the Combaticons' joint transformation into their gestalt form. "Boss, shouldn't we-?" The young Stegosaurus 'Bot's suggestion was immediately cut off by one glance by Grimlock, who glared at his teammate over his shoulder.
"We have more honor than that, Snarl," Grimlock readied his sword and shield as the Combaticons fully finished joining into Bruticus. The Dinobots moved to engage their gigantic enemy…yet Grimlock moved his sword to the side, as if to stop their advance. "But boss!" "Grim!" "No. I will handle this. Swoop, Snarl, Slug. You three fall back, help Optimus and the rest evacuate the remaining humans on this island. I'll buy as much time as I can."
The three Dinobots looked at their leader with awe and respect. They all knew better than to question the T-Rex Transformer's decision. Not this time.
"Ok. Snarl, Swoop! You heard him! Let's get moving! And Grim, boss…" Slug commanded the Stegosaurus and Pterodactyl before turning to his old friend. Grimlock nodded at him without a word. Slug nodded back and he and Grimlock shared the Cybertronian equivalent of what humans often called "a bro fist". "Give'em Hell, Grimlock!"
If there was ever a signal of something resembling joy in Grimlock's visor…it was definitely a special amber glimmer of warrior's pride and honor before Grimlock turned to the Combaticon combiner form.
"This is gonna be fun!" Bruticus bellowed as he cracked his robo-knuckles and Grimlock readied his blade.
King of the Mountain
"…Decepticons, retreat!" Megatron issued the order with a stoic faceplate yet well-disguised dismay and fury. He clenched his fist as the prehistoric roar of victory echoed in the air, making every Autobot in the area cheer at Grimlock, who switched back to his robot form after finishing his battle with the Combaticons. Smoke emerged from the now-empty Spark Chamber of Onslaught, which Grimlock had smashed with his mighty T-Rex form's foot before having to switch back to robot form once his accumulated Rage had finally died down.
The Combaticons were all off-line; ripped to shreds and burned to a crisp by Grimlock and his dinosaur rage. Grimlock stood tall on the volcano and looked down at Optimus after the Prime had sheathed his own sword once Megatron issued the command to fall back, full Decepticon retreat.
The former gladiator from Kaon gritted his sharp teeth and grunted begrudgingly as Shockwave helped the Decepticon leader limp away, now that he had one leg and his cannon-arm missing.
Optimus Prime's sky-blue optics looked at Grimlock with approval, admiration and respect…before the Prime's optics flew wide open upon witnessing a cloaked figure come flying towards Grimlock from behind.
"GRIMLOCK, WATCH OUT!" Optimus Prime called out but alas, he was too late as Starscream de-cloaked and flew right into Grimlock, impaling the Dinobot leader in the back and right through the Spark Chamber.
"PAYBACK, GRIMLOCK!" Starscream shouted with sadistic glee yet this glee soon turned into horror when he realized, as Grimlock began to tumble back into a pool of boiling lava below the ridge he had just been standing on when Starscream ran him through…he could not pull away. "You piece of prehistoric slag!"
"You're coming to the pit with me, Starscream!" Grimlock roared as he held onto the edge of the sword coming out of his torso with one hand and grabbed Starscream by the head from over his shoulder armor.
"WHAT?! No, no, nononononononooooo!" Starscream cried in panic and then, sheer agony after he and his victim landed with a massive splash on the molten rock of the now waning volcano.
Starscream's sounds of terror and agony were silenced by burning oblivion soon enough as his chassis was completely melted to slag while Grimlock didn't say a word, not a sound of pain, just prideful and defiant silence as his massive torso began to disappear into the lava.
In his final moments before joining the All-Spark, Grimlock looked up and saw Optimus Prime's sorrowful blue optics peering down at him from the top of the ridge, joined by his fellow Autobot compatriots.
That was alright.
Before his Spark was extinguished, Grimlock's last gesture was to raise his arm and then, before his hand disappeared into the lava…he gave Optimus Prime and all his respectfully-saluting Autobot comrades, a thumbs up.
Hail to the King