Episode 2: Good Mourning (Part 2)
Killer, intruder, homicidal man
You see me coming, run as fast as you can
Bloodthirsty demon, who's stalking the street
I hack up my victims like pieces of meat
—Black Friday
"Oh no," Lennox said, exasperated, "There is absolutely no way."
He looked at the three kids that were now standing before him, in NEST HQ.
"The Decepticons will be out looking for them," Optimus warned, "The youngest boy, Marcus, may have information relating to lost cybertronian secrets that the Decepticons may do anything to acquire."
Lennox put his head in his hand.
"Okay then," he sighed, "How did this happen?"
"Well…" Optimus began…
Driving the Humvee, Epps found his nose filled with sewage.
"Man, do you guys need a bath," he said, forcing a smile.
In the back, the three kids were accompanied by two soldiers, each trying not to clench their nose out of etiquette.
Stacy was asleep, exhausted by the day's events, her head on Marcus's shoulder. The adrenaline had passed, so Marcus also felt close to sleep, leaning his head against the metal plating of the vehicle. Ryder seemed the only one who wasn't tired, just rather bored.
"So where we going?" he asked at last.
"Hospital," Epps replied, "We need to get you guys checked out, see if that fall you took caused any internal bleeding."
"We're fine, really," Marcus said, as his vision turned blue, "Oh, hang on… I don't think that's supposed to happen."
"What?" Epps asked, concerned.
"The sea is sideways," Marcus smiled whimsically.
He then slumped over, unconscious.
"Oh shit," Epps breathed, "We better get there, double-time."
Marcus awoke in a white room.
He lay in a clean bed, staring up at an unfamiliar ceiling. White tiles and white bandages seemed to illuminate the room, while confusing computer screens read off confusing statistics. It all seemed too clean, too… sterile.
He breathed. Could the past 24 hours really have happened?
He had seen him.
Optimus Prime.
The leader of the aliens known as the Autobots. They came from a planet far away… a planet that, after the events in Chicago, had been destroyed.
They were nomads in space. Without a home and without a hope. And all the while, the power-hungry Decepticons hunted them down.
And out of duty, out of respect and out of belief, Optimus Prime protected the human race against the Decepticon threat. He had killed them all, with the assistance of the human allies. He was looked upon by most of humanity with awe, thanks and respect.
But there were still problems.
The Decepticons. They were still out there.
Although Megatron had bitten the dust twice, Marcus still remembered the reports and interviews on TV about a different dead Decepticon; Starscream. Despite the cool name, he apparently was nothing more than a weakling and a coward. Yet despite his inferiority to both Optimus and Megatron, he had lived longer than both of them; they had both died, and been resurrected. He had survived the battle at Mission City, survived a massive hunt in Africa, survived the events in Egypt and survived everything that had happened in-between. But in Chicago, out of sheer arrogance, he had been brought low by a single human.
And if he could survive for so long on a hostile Earth, who's to say the other Decepticons out among the stars couldn't?
How come no-one had found Dead End before?
"Evil? Is that how you perceive me? I just wanted to survive…"
Marcus had almost died…
And that brought him back to the Allspark shard—
But at that moment, three figures walked in: A military man, a dark-skinned woman and an Asian doctor.
"Where am I?" Marcus asked hurriedly, "Where's Stacy? What happened—?"
"Please calm down Marcus," the doctor said soothingly, "First off, you're in Barber Hospital, still in Mission City. Stacy is another room here, but she's sleeping at the moment. As for who we are, I'm Doctor Andrews; I'll be tending for you while you're here. This is Brigadier-General Charles Mason; he's the Director of NEST; the joint Autobot and human task force. And this is Gerin Rahb, NEST Human Relations."
"Hello Mr Twist," she smiled, with a strange accent that must have been African, "The name may sound strange to you, but it's quite common from where I come from." In a single second, Marcus found himself smitten. She was easily the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, far exceeding all the famous actresses and models he'd seen on TV. Her face was round and pretty, her smile warm and giving.
Mason nodded at Marcus, barely acknowledging him. He was a round, plump man, with a round, plump face. His stern look and large eyebrows made him look like the gruff, fifty year-old man that he was. He was dressed in full uniform, his medals shining like an arrogant array of gems.
"Now," Doctor Andrews continued, "With the exception of several minor cuts and slight bruises, you are fine physically. However, there were some strange results in the CAT scan…"
"Why? What's wrong with my brain?" Marcus asked hurriedly.
"No, no—nothing's wrong with it. It's just, some strange readings came up…"
"What happened in the sewers?" Mason asked gruffly, annoyed by the time wasting.
Marcus thought back. They had met Ryder. He had found the sliver of Allspark. He had picked it up…
"I… I found a bit of the Allspark," he remembered, "Just a sliver. I picked it up—"
"How did you know it was from the Allspark?" Mason asked.
"Mir—Dead End told me," Marcus remembered, "He said they had been tracking it for weeks."
"The Decepticon?"
"Yeah; after I picked up the sliver, I remember this flash of light, then nothing. I awoke while being dragged up a manhole by Ryder. When we got out, Dead End was waiting."
"What about the sliver?"
"Stacy… Stacy told me it turned to ash. Right before her eyes."
"What happened next?"
"Well, Dead End appeared and claimed he was an Autobot; Mirage. So we got in—"
"He told you he was an Autobot and you believed him?" Gerin asked, unbelieving.
Marcus felt his cheeks burn. "Yeah, it wasn't one of my brightest moments…" he admitted shamefully.
"We all make mistakes," she smiled warmly.
"Yeah, but getting into a strange car at the car's request isn't one of the more forgivable."
She smiled again and Marcus felt his heart rise in his chest.
"And then what?" Mason asked, almost bored by the conversation.
"Hang on," Gerin frowned at the general, before turning to Marcus, "What about your family? Can you give me their address?"
Marcus looked down. "Me and Stacy don't have a family. We're orphans."
Gerin's face became sympathetic. "I know how it feels; I'm an orphan as well. Although down in Zimbabwe, I don't believe you could have been worse off than me."
"And then what?" Mason echoed impatiently, "After you got in the Decepticon?"
"Well, he took us down some streets, saying he was going to take us to NEST HQ… hang on, he said something about the Allspark transferring its knowledge into me! Is that what's wrong with my brain?"
Andrews sighed, while Mason looked down unperturbed. "Continue," he ordered, "And then we'll tell you about what's happened to you."
Marcus frowned, beginning to dislike this gruff old soldier. "Well, he told me that we were going to NEST HQ, where Optimus Prime was waiting to meet us… is it really in Detroit?"
"What is?" Gerin asked.
"NEST HQ."
"No, it's somewhere in the Nevada desert. Area 51."
"Hey!" Mason turned, angry, "You can't just be divulging top secret information like that to children!"
"I'm thirteen…" Marcus grumbled.
"Well, we both know he's going to end up there anyway," Gerin sighed, "Right?"
"I am?" Marcus asked, shocked, "Really?"
Mason looked ready to explode. "We'll tell you everything, once you tell us what happened."
"Ryder quickly realised that this wasn't Mirage, so Dead End transformed in the middle of the street. Then you army guys came round the corner and started blasting up the block."
To his credit, only one vein visibly throbbed in Mason's head.
"Dead End quickly transformed again and sped down a street, but reached a dead end,"—Marcus smiled slightly at his pun—"turned around and Optimus Prime was just standing there. We were then thrown into a hostage situation. But, luckily, Ryder had an EMP grenade and threw it—"
"A what?" Mason interrupted again.
"An EMP grenade."
"Where the hell did he get that?"
"I've no idea. We met him in the sewers."
"Hold up!" Gerin interrupted, unbelieving, "You met a kid in the sewers, who had a military grenade, found a sliver of the Allspark, got tricked by an obvious Decepticon and found yourself in a hostage situation, all in one day?"
"Yeah," Marcus replied, "Life's full of surprises."
Marcus clamped his mouth shut. He hadn't meant to say that; he wasn't a sarcastic person by nature. So why had he uttered those last four words…?
"And then what?" Mason asked again. He could have copyrighted it as a catchphrase.
"Well, we dropped and Optimus shot Dead End. Then they spoke in their alien language for a few seconds, before Dead End fell in the lake. He actually seemed quite sad…"
"Who?"
"The Decepticon."
"Then what?"
"We got loaded up into the Humvee, everything went a bit hazy and then I woke up here."
"That it?"
"That's it."
"Well then," Doctor Andrews said, relieved, "I can now tell you Marcus, that your brain is working at a capacity of 476% compared to the average adult brain."
"Right…" Marcus thought for a second, "What's the percentage for the average brain?"
"Around 30%."
"So mine's high?"
"Impossibly high."
"Cool," Marcus nodded, "What does that mean?"
"Dead End may have been right."
It was night. Marcus hadn't caught a wink of sleep.
The interview (more like interrogation) had flowed like water after that. Apparently, whatever was stored in Marcus's brain, the remaining Decepticons may want to take advantage of it. So he and his friends would be transferred to NEST HQ, where they would be kept safe.
But there was one thing that remained unclear; why had the sliver transferred the knowledge into Marcus's mind?
Marcus didn't know, and frankly, he couldn't care less. He didn't feel any smarter and he certainly didn't know any new cybertronian secrets.
He turned over in his covers, trying to get to sleep.
Someone giggled.
He sat up immediately. He looked around.
All was silent and the room was empty.
He fell back into his covers, and blamed it on the ventilation.
But as he drifted off to sleep, he swore he heard a voice.
"Beware Harbinger…"
He stood on the edge. Or was it the verge? He couldn't tell. And he couldn't tell what he was standing on anyway. His entire attention was on the battle before him.
Fires raged and explosions lit the blood-red sky. Twisted steel and ruined titanium littered the corpse-filled valley, a ruin and monument to death. Carrion circled and in the distance, a wolf howled. But in the valley, a figure stood triumphant.
Black of colour and of shadow, this creature stood over the corpses like an artist over sculptures. His entire right arm was that of a cannon, and an eye the colour of gore shone out from his jet-black face. It stood immobile, a demon in hell.
It turned on Marcus and a chill ran down his spine.
But then Marcus saw something strange. There were strings attached to this demon, strings that led into the sky, into the red dawn.
A figure, huge in the sky, loomed over them.
Eyes of yellow spite and of cunning ambition looked down on them all, a master of puppets and a lord of manipulation. It looked down gleefully, enjoying the control it had over everyone.
But then Marcus' vision panned out, and he saw that this entire charade was taking place within an eye. A blood-red eye, strangely different from the demon in the valley, contained it all. It gazed with malevolence, laughing at everyone and everything.
And then everything exploded outwards. But not with flame or water, but with purple crystals. They stretched everywhere, screaming outwards like penetrating spikes. They crushed all beneath them, and infested everything else.
But a figure stood atop them, wreathed in shadow and evil. His eyes glared as a mouth-full of razor-sharp teeth and saliva roared at Marcus. It looked at him with evil intensity.
And then he awoke.
"Good mourning; rise and cry."
The sun beat down upon his armour. The thirst for energon quenched his throat. The trident in hand, he stalked through the Gobi desert.
He found Ruination a minute later.
The Decepticon lay on his back, staring at the sky, feeling the sun's warmth flow through his body. His injuries had almost put him into stasis lock, but he looked up when a shadow blocked the light.
"Space Case…" he muttered, staring at the silhouette in his vision, "Move!"
Space Case stepped aside, allowing the sun to warm Ruination again.
"Where's…?"
"Dead End?" Ruination guessed, "He's being scraped off the bottom of a lake. Prime put a hole in his chest."
"Shame," said the jittery Space Case, "Who will lead us now?"
"Well, there's only us two here and Barricade in stasis lock, back in the lair. Although he would have been perfect, he's in a faraway land… so we have to vote among us two; who will lead?"
"Well, I vote for Space Case!" Space Case said quickly, "I take 30% of the votes!"
"Come on Space Case, use your brain for once; you're half, so you get 50% of the votes… actually scratch that; you get them all."
Although Space Case was one of the fastest Decepticons who ever lived, his brain didn't work quite as well. It took him a minute to work out that he was—
"Decepticon leader!" Space Case roared triumphantly, "I shall now be addressed as Lord Space Case!"
"Don't get ahead of yourself," Ruination grumbled, "You're only leader because you're the only Decepticon who isn't injured or dead."
"You're injured?" Space Case asked, sweeping his eyes over Ruination, "Oh yeah… was it the Autobots?"
"Autobots and insect scum," Ruination spat, "I remember him from when me and Blademaster were in Peru, hunting down the Solar Harvester. Now Blademaster's dead and I'm left with just you."
Space Case sat down beside the prone form of Ruination. He looked up at the sun.
"They're all dead," Space Case muttered, "Megatron, Starscream, Soundwave, Shockwave… even Dead End. Anyone who was even slightly smarter than us is dead."
"Which proves something Space Case," Ruination replied, "You can be strong, you can be smart, you can be powerful or you can be cold; but if you're dumb, you survive."
"No… you just have to be fast," Space Case jabbered, "Well… Ruination; have you ever thought of just surrendering to the Autobots?"
Ruination frowned, but then his expression relaxed. "Yeah… but I quickly realised we'd be paraded around as the first alien prisoners of this hunk of rock and then handed over to the insect scientists for experimentation. We're better off here."
Space Case looked at some camels in the distance. They walked into the horizon, their lives wasting away as they paced across the burning sands.
"So… we're the last two Decepticons left?"
"Of course not," Ruination argued, "There are many among the stars… but we're probably the last two on Earth. So whoopee for surviving so long."
Space Case suddenly leapt up and held his trident in the air.
"Then, by the powers invested in me, Lord Space Case, I order you to return to the lair to help plan our next mission!"
"And this is from the guy who robbed an insect gas station looking for energon," Ruination sighed, "Well, Lord Space Case, as you are leader of the Decepticons, it is your job to look after your troops."
"It is?"
"Therefore, as I am 'heavily' injured, you must drag me back to the lair, or would you rather have no troops to command at all?"
Grumbling, Space Case placed his trident on his back and began the arduous task of dragging the heavy Ruination through the desert.
"Mind the camel excrement," Ruination warned, as the sun began to set.
Marcus sat up in bed, sweating profusely, staring around him.
The room was empty.
What was that? That dream… that voice…
Marcus looked down at his sheets to find he had wet himself.
Well done you idiot. Great job on pissing yourself at a nightmare.
So in the early morning, Marcus Twist got out of bed to find a nurse with clean sheets.
And yet three words echoed through his brain.
Rise and cry…
Later in the morning, the travelling began.
Five hours after that and they were in Area 51.
It hadn't originally been named Area 51, only Bunker SIGINT, an underground base where meteorites and supposed alien hardware had fallen from the sky and been stored. Of course, only a handful of alien technology had been recovered and all of it was cybertronian.
And now, after the Diego Garcia fiasco, the place was filled with Autobots.
"You still haven't explained to me why these three kids are here," Lennox said, not angry, just slightly tired.
"If the Decepticons are looking for Marcus, and the information he has stored in his brain, then he must be kept in the safest place possible; that is here," Optimus replied, "There will always be at least one Autobot and a human protection detail here to keep everything safe. The children have said they have no biological or fostered relations, so they do not mind being here."
"Plus, this place is freakin' amazing," Marcus gazed, looking around the large room that they were in, filled with weapons and Autobots.
"This isn't a sight-seeing tour," Lennox said firmly, "I'm uncomfortable with children in what could be a possible battleground. But if it's for their safety…"
"There is another matter to discuss," Optimus said, "The information from the Allspark sliver."
"Yeah," Stacy interrupted, "What's that about?"
"With the disintegration of that piece of the Allspark, the information it contained was carried via the cells in Marcus to his brain. We have yet to determine what has happened to his cerebrum; the Allspark's energy is unlike any other."
"Well, I don't know if this is related," Marcus began, "But last night—"
He suddenly fell to the ground, twitching.
"Marcus!" Stacy cried.
Lennox and Stacy ran to his side, Optimus crouching down to see what was happening. Ryder simply gazed, uninterested.
"We need a medic!" Lennox roared, but just as he said it, Marcus stopped twitching and looked up, fear in his eyes.
"What happened?" Stacy asked fearfully.
Somehow, Marcus knew something that he definitely shouldn't have known.
"Something's happening in Rio."
Thundercracker and Flatline landed in the favela.
The people looked up, fear in their eyes. Several screamed and ran.
"The insect forces will be on us soon," Flatline snarled, tempted to squash the bugs.
"One thing you must learn from these insects Flatline, is that they always pray to the deity that is biggest."
With those words, Thundercracker turned to the crowds and spoke in Spanish.
"Do not worry," he told them, "My friend and I are Autobots on direct orders from Optimus Prime himself; someone in one of these houses holds cybertronian technology. We wish only to recover our Pillar."
The crowd looked up, and seeing that these Transformers weren't there to kill them, began cheering wildly.
"Please," Thundercracker spoke politely, but was seething inside for conversing with such pitiful creatures, "We need our technology. It is being wrongly held from us by some people in this… nest."
This time, the gathering crowds of people began pointing to a long favela, and from what they were saying a strange object was located.
"You see Flatline?" Thundercracker smiled, "This is why Megatron failed; he never opened with diplomacy."
Flatline walked down the street, the humans managing to get out of the way just in time, and tore the roof of the favela. Inside, several Latino men were attempting to cover a long object with tarpaulin. Flatline simply pointed a blaster at them, much to the delight of the crowds.
"Leave. I won't ask twice."
The men quickly scarpered, where they were shunned by the crowds. Flatline grabbed the object in both hands, holding it almost reverently.
"With the exception of a few crude attempts to get it working," Flatline noted, "The Pillar is perfectly usable for the plan, Commander Thundercracker."
"Good. Then see to it that you rig it correctly."
With a nod of acknowledgement, Flatline took to the sky. The crowds cheered and whooped.
Thundercracker looked around at the awed crowd. Children looked up with wondrous eyes.
"Now then…" he spoke with gleeful malice, "Let the blood rain."
His arm becoming a blaster, he opened fire on the crowds, blowing the people to pieces.
"What are you doing?" Marcus asked as Optimus Prime and several Autobots got ready.
"We're using the Pillars to teleport to Rio," Blazemaster, the Autobot's chief scientist replied, "But it will take a few minutes for the coordinates to be affirmed."
"Why?"
"So we don't materialise in a building or a thousand metres above the ground."
"Can I come?"
"Sorry kid," Arcee, one of the two Autobot sisters, said, "But you're not allowed in the warzone."
"Why not?"
"Because you'll be killed."
"Oh."
"What exactly did you see?" asked Sideswipe sceptically.
"I saw a huge transformer wrecking Rio," Marcus remembered, "He was big, blue and angry."
Arcee shivered suddenly.
"…Blue?" she asked.
"Uh, yeah."
"Optimus," she turned to him, "It could be—"
"It could very well be him," Optimus replied stoically, "But that doesn't affect the mission; we go to Rio de Janeiro and see what's happening."
"Optimus!" called a voice.
Optimus turned to the human. "Sergeant Robertson, you have the satellite feed?"
"Yes sir," Robertson replied, "Looks like some crazy shit down there; we got a Decepticon walking about, wrecking all kinds of havoc."
"Looks like you're not crazy at least," Mirage sneered at Marcus as he neared the Pillars in the centre of the room, "Are we moving or what?"
Optimus, the sisters and Sideswipe joined him.
"Alright then," Blazemaster said, "The rest of you step back; we're about to beam you guys."
The Pillars hummed, and then hovered in the air, flashing and whirring, power running through the ancient cybertronian technology.
Then, with a flash of blue light, the Autobots were gone.
"Please…" a man begged, lying on his back in the street, "I have a wife… a baby daughter…"
"War spares none," Thundercracker spoke coldly, his voice filled with impending horror, "Just know this; when you're gone, they will be next."
As he brought the axe down on the man, shearing him in half, gore splaying everywhere, a blue flash lit up the street.
He turned, to see five Autobots staring back.
"Ah," Thundercracker grinned, "Optimus… I hoped you would come, though not so soon…"
Optimus readied his keyblade, staring down the large Decepticon.
"Thundercracker, your crimes must now come to an end…" but he stopped as he gazed around him.
The street was a bloodbath.
Buildings were on fire, or crumbling, while flames torched the street and the injured were left wailing. The dead were all over the place.
"W-What have you done?" Optimus could scarcely believe the massacre before him. Not since Chicago…
"Were you unable to save them, Optimus Prime?" Thundercracker sneered, "Unable to help the insects? Unable to face the fact that they are dead, and you are too late?"
"You will not take another life," Optimus uttered, enraged, "You will not be reprieved."
"Good," Thundercracker snarled, his hand becoming an axe, "I hate charity."
"You bastard!" Arcee roared and leapt at him, unsheathing a sword, slashing with fury.
"Ah, Arcee!" Thundercracker laughed as he dodged, "Long time no see!"
"Sister!" Chromia cried, leaping in as well, the other Autobots hot on her heels.
Thundercracker swung his hand, batting the two sisters away, slamming them into a building, rubble falling around them. Sideswipe was next, easily dodging a swing of the axe, before slashing at Thundercracker's knee. He roared and spun around, kicking out, catching Sideswipe in the chest, sending him into a building. Mirage leapt on Thundercracker's back, stabbing with his arm blades. In response, Thundercracker grabbed him and threw him across the street, knocking the sisters down again.
"Pathetic fools!" Thundercracker roared, "You will burn here today!"
"Thundercracker!"
The Decepticon turned. Optimus stood, his hands replaced by blades.
"This is between you and me."
A message echoed in Thundercracker's head.
Commander Thundercracker, it is ready.
Excellent. On my mark Flatline…
"Do you realise Optimus?" Thundercracker uttered with menace, "It's just me left. Megatron, Starscream, they're all dead. I am the last."
"So, here and now, let it end," Optimus spoke.
"No," Thundercracker smiled cryptically, "Here and now, let it begin."
Optimus charged, roaring as he did so.
"So what do you do around here?" Ryder asked.
"Me?" Skids replied, scratching his head, "Uh, I dunno… hey, Mudflap; what do I do?"
"Dunno," Mudflap replied, "Bein' a loser, I guess."
As the twins began to scrap, Ryder sighed. "Those are the two biggest imbeciles I've ever seen."
"They're stronger than you," Stacy frowned, "So you better watch your mouth; you couldn't take them in a fight."
Ryder frowned at that.
"Watch me."
He approached the twins.
"Hey, dingbats!" he called, "Fight me?"
"Uh, you?" Skids questioned, confused.
"Optimus says no fightin' humans," Mudflap remembered, "I think…"
"Don't worry," Ryder said confidently, "You won't beat me… pussy."
"What you call me?" Mudflap said angrily, approaching Ryder, "Say dat again!"
"Pussy," Ryder reiterated, his face expressionless.
"That's it!" Mudflap shouted and swung his fist down.
He didn't hit anything. In fact, Ryder had moved so fast, Mudflap hadn't even seen him.
"You know," Ryder mocked from behind Mudflap, "I expected the protectors of Earth to be faster."
"Hey!" Skids cried, "Nobody insults my bro!"
Ryder dodged the flailing Autobot as if it wasn't even there. He spun in-between legs and slid under blows that would have killed him outright.
"Hey!" Lennox called from above, "Stop! Blazemaster, get the twins!"
He needn't have bothered. Both twins had fallen on top of one another, each one dazed and confused. Ryder stood beside them, dusting off his hands, nonchalant.
"At least this place is more amusing then the city," he noted dryly.
"You know Ryder," Stacy frowned again, "You're kind of a prick."
Ryder simply shrugged, and lit a cigarette.
This is it.
The last chance.
The final gamble.
The future of our race rests on perfect timing…
"FLATLINE, NOW!" Thundercracker roared.
Optimus, still halfway through his charge, skidded to a halt, not knowing what was about to happen.
Something materialised in Thundercracker's arms.
Optimus' optics grew wide in shock.
A jury-rigged Pillar was aimed straight at Optimus's chest.
With a flash of blue light, an energy beam sliced down the street, illuminating it even better in the light of day. The light smashed Optimus Prime in the chest, causing him to cry out in pain and to bring him to his knees. The beam was concentrated on Prime's chest, never wavering, pushing Optimus's chest armour apart. Thundercracker's face was contorted with concentration.
Over the com, he heard Flatline's breathless delight.
By Primus… it's working! Ha! It's almost free!
Optimus roared with the pain, as something was dragged out of his chest by the teleportation equipment. As he peered down, he saw what it was.
The… Matrix… The Matrix of Leadership!
The strange artefact that was powered by the energy of the Allspark was what had been used to start the Solar Harvester. It was also the only thing that could reactivate a dead cybertronian's spark…
NO! He… must not… have it…
As the realisation dawned on Optimus's face, Thundercracker's grew in delight.
"Ahh, Prime," Thundercracker gritted his teeth against the reverberation and recoil of the Pillar, "Do you see now…? It was never… about… you and Megatron. It was always… about… the common soldier… and how he could beat the mightiest of leaders."
"NO!" Optimus roared as the Matrix was pulled out his chest.
With a flash of blue light, the Matrix was pulled into the blinding light of the Pillar, whereupon it disappeared.
All was silent in the street.
Optimus heaved with pain, his armour broken, his spark visible.
Thundercracker stared down at him.
"I remember," Thundercracker muttered, partly to himself, "A young, ambitious, foolish 'con; Dreadwing. Just your basic soldier, your basic grunt. But he wanted more than what had been allocated by fate… he fought me and Lord Starscream and met his end on the red planet. But… he tried. And sometimes, the soldier will come out on top. I don't expect you to understand, Optimus, being the self-righteous imbecile that you are, but just remember this; here, you failed to beat the common soldier, and that will haunt you to the rest of your days."
Then, firing up the Pillar one last time, with another blue flash, Thundercracker was gone.
Optimus fell to the ground, fading to black.
"So why didn't you go with Optimus?" Stacy asked.
"Because we have no way of knowing how the Pillars will teleport organic life forms," Lennox replied, "We only know of one person who has touched a Pillar, and he got electrocuted."
"Oh, how sad…"
"Not really," Lennox grunted, "He was working for the Decepticons."
"Really? But why would humans work with Decepticons?"
"Because people are greedy, stupid, malicious sons of b—"
"Colonel Lennox!" called Sergeant Robertson, "Something's gone wrong in Brazil."
"What? How?"
"Our Brazilian division arrived in the city; it's bad and Optimus is in stasis lock."
Everyone in the room could scarcely believe their ears. Optimus… defeated? The only 'con anyone knew could take Optimus was Megatron, and he was dead… so who could have done this?
"What about the other Autobots?" Lennox asked hurriedly.
"They're all shaken and injured."
"Right… send clean-up crews to get Optimus. Blazemaster, get the rest of the Autobots back and then head there yourself to see if Optimus can be taken through the Pillars as well. Ratchet, have you and your medic teams standing by. Epps, we need satellite pictures of the battle… actually, why don't we have them now?"
Epps stood there, looked around and shrugged.
Lennox sighed. "Well, get them. Lieutenant Ramirez, get some squads over to Hangar 18."
"The dead 'cons sir?"
"Yes; I only know of two Decepticons who could possibly beat Optimus; Megatron and Shockwave. Their corpses are supposed to rest in that hangar, so I want you to check if they're still there."
Ramirez saluted and hurried off.
"Great," Lennox muttered, "We're at our most vulnerable, just as they're considering closing NEST. People aren't greedy, stupid or malicious; we're all just idiots."
"How did you find this place Flatline?"
"Soundwave is quite possibly the most cleverest Decepticon who ever lived; in case of him getting 'taken out', he left backups of some of his data in the human's systems; after all, why would the insects look for Decepticon secrets in their own defence firewalls and why would the Autobots be rifling through there as well?"
"So how did you find it?"
"The first thing we did when we arrived was to hack into the insect's systems, right? I rifled through the faction known as the 'Americans' and found a lot of interesting stuff there; namely, where the Fallen's corpse was originally taken."
"Hangar 18."
"However, after a few weeks of the Fallen's corpse being here, the guards began to suffer from all sorts of psychokinetic diseases. Performing probably the only smart move in their war against us, General Mason, who is Director of NEST, had the body incinerated."
"And the guards?"
"Replaced by the ones we just killed."
They both looked at the huge Hangar 18. It was more of a titanic warehouse; although Hangar 18 was thought to be at Nellis Air Force Base, the real one was located much further away. Dwarfing even the Transformers, it was where the Decepticons had been dumped after the Laurentian Abyss was deemed a failure. Now it was where the scientists of NEST and the Autobots helped the research into cybertronian weapons technology.
"Are we going in?" Flatline asked gleefully. Flatline was always happy when something involved corpses.
Thundercracker frowned. "I don't believe I'll like what I see."
"They're dead; the dead do not frighten, only intrigue."
Thundercracker hesitated.
Flatline sighed. "Then just picture how they'll be in an hour, standing over Optimus's corpse instead of how they'll be strung up like mannequins."
Thundercracker grunted, before blowing a hole in the huge doors.
They went inside.
"We don't have long," Flatline said urgently, "Resurrect them."
"You ever think, you know, that we're just pawns?"
Ruination looked up from his position in the lair (lair was a word too complimentary; it was a cave barely big enough to fit them) and stared at Space Case.
"What?" he asked plainly.
"Death. Everyone just seems to be dying… all of our guys are dead… so, you know, maybe we're part of some sort of higher plan, where the Decepticons lose and the Autobots win… you know? Maybe, like, we're in an insect movie, or an insect book, and the author has already singled out that we are to die… so what's the point in continuing?"
Ruination was tempted to smack Space Case there and now for being such a whiner, but something stayed his hand. Space Case had really thought about this. And that was a miracle in itself, because Space Case never thought about anything.
"Well… I don't believe in that fate scrap. You can believe what you want, Lord Space Case, but the fact of the matter is, is that I decide what I want to do; there is no higher plan in that. If our lives are controlled by Primus, or an insect God, then fine; get on with it. I just know that I'm alive, so there. If you think you're already pre-destined to lose, then just go ahead and commit suicide. I don't even care."
With that little slice of philosophy, Ruination slumped back against the rock wall and let his injuries heal. Opposite him, lying on some rocks, was the prone form of Barricade, fighting for his life.
Space Case frowned at Ruination, before his face lit up with revelation. He turned to the night sky outside.
"Then, by the power invested in me, Lord Space Case, if I am not destined to die, then I will stop at nothing to stop the war between the Decepticons and the Autobots!"
He heard Ruination softly chuckle behind him.
"Believe me Space Case, the only way you'll stop this war is if you get the humans and the Autobots to fight; then Optimus will have to form a truce with the Decepticons to survive. If you ever accomplish that, then you can say 'I told you so'."
Ruination smiled smugly, before closing down his power systems to rest.
But Space Case looked out to the night sky and wondered.
Sorry for the incredibly lame way in which the Decepticons are resurrected; I just used the MacGuffins Michael Bay left me with. Oh well, after the first four chapters, we can really begin 'Good Mourning'!