Chapter 2-The Plague part 2

Gina worked without pause at her computer, using her link with Teletran-1 to search as many possible sites where the Decepticons could be holding Optimus. An hour had passed since that ill-fated battle and the Autobots were no closer to finding their missing leader or learning about their wounded yellow scout. So many things were going wrong at once and the stress was starting to get to her.

"Gina, sweetheart, you need to rest." Sureshock said. "You're going to pass out if you keep at it like this."

"How can I rest when two of my friends are in trouble? Optimus is a prisoner and Bumblebee might die, I can't exactly get a good night's sleep with that on my mind." Gina said, taking off her glasses and rubbing her forehead."

"Gina," High Wire knelt down beside her. "Optimus is a strong bot, nothing is going to happen to him. And so is Bee. They're both going to be all right."

"But I doubt that they'll be happy to see you running yourself ragged for their sakes." Darren said.

"I know, but I can't help but be antsy." Gina held her head in her hands. "Now I know how Annie felt when Bulkhead got hurt."

Annie just sat down next to the blonde and rubbed her shoulders to comfort her. Then Longarm came into the room, most of his body covered in drying energon and looking exhausted. The Autobots, Mincons and humans all crowded around him as they grilled him for information.

"Is Bee all right?"

"Will he live, Longarm?"

"Does he need a blood transfusion? I'm a type-A!" Annie yelled.

Longarm held up his arm for everyone to quiet down. "Bumblebee is finally stable, but he's in stasis lock. Ratchet is going to put him in the CR chamber for him to heal from his injuries before operating on his legs."

"How was the damage?" Jolt asked.

"Extensive and almost fatal. According to Ratchet, Megatron had blasted him near his waist, destroying his legs and nearly taking out his torso too. Any higher and we'd be short one Autobot today. Even still, we had to make sure that his Spark core wasn't breached. It was hard stuff, but we managed to save him."

A wave of relief washed over the entire team. Something was finally going for them today. Gina felt like crying, but an alert from her laptop got her attention.

"Guys I think I've got something." She said and checked the readings. "Teletran is detecting faint traces of…quantum pulses?"

"What the hell is that?" Jetfire asked. He really hated it when smart people used crazy techno-jargin to explain things. It made his head hurt.

"Quantum pulses are the energy waves released by space bridges." Wheeljack explained and to everyone's surprise, Bulkhead added to it.

"They're caused by massive amounts of energy that is required to fold space to shorten long distance locations. Both space bridges and ground bridges have the same thing, and it's what allows us to travel so far in the blink of an eye." Bulkhead said. Everyone looked at him like he grew a second head.

"And you know this how?"Ironhide asked.

"Who do you think helped rebuild the space bridge we used to get here?" Bulkhead crossed his arms. "Alpha Trion had Jackie and I work on it with Perceptor. You learn a thing or two when working with that guy."

"Why didn't you mention this before?" Prowl sighed.

"Um…you never asked?"

Seeing that Prowl looked like he was about to strangle the green Autobot, Jetfire decided to intervene with his own question.

"Anybody wondering why we're detecting something that should be coming from a space bridge on this planet?"

That brought on a lot of ideas and none of them were good. It wasn't hard to put the pieces together but no one wanted to say them out loud out of fear of it coming true.

"We better speed up our timetable." Jazz said and looked down at Gina. "Gina, can you and Jackie locate that pulsewave?"

"We're on it!" They said and got to work on pinpointing the signal.

Prowl turned to the team. "Autobots, grab your gear and get ready! We're getting our leader back!"

XXXXXX

In the time he spent on this planet, Megatron learned that there was more to Terra that meets the eye. The Dolems, hephaestium, the artifacts, all of it only increased his desire to conquer it so that he may learn its secrets. He never thought that Terra could prove to be so valuable, but it was glad it did. It made all his humiliating defeats in the past year worth something.

This 'stargate' he was using was old, thousands of years old and disguised as a religious monument sacred to ancient druids, but the mechanics that were employed in its construction was disturbingly similar to Shockwave's blueprints of a space bridge. It was found thanks to the information provided by the golden disk he had found, and rebuilding it was surprisingly easy. Thanks to the necessary components that the humans supplied to him, they were able to enhance the structure and get it working again, and the reactor that was also provided by those humans helped solve their need for a power source.

After he decimated this world, Megatron planned to see what other secrets it might have…after he torched those accursed Dolems!

"These Dolems are just full of surprises," He said to the retrained Optimus. "They are like us in so many ways, yet they are more powerful than we are."

Optimus didn't say anything. He only continued to weakly struggle in his bonds. Megatron snorted and shook his head.

"You could break out, you know. Try to stop us. But you won't get anything done. Your body is still suffering from the effects of Starscream's null ray. In your sorry state, even Knockout could take you out by himself."

"My Autobots will come for me, Megatron." Optimus said.

"I'm counting on that. I want your lackies to be the first to meet my army as they march on this world." Megatron replied and glared at Optimus. "And then when I'm done with you so-called team, I'm coming for those human pets you hold in such high regard. They still need to pay for killing Lugnut!"

Just before their battle against the Cardinal Forititudo, the Decepticons had cornered the children in their new Talos mecha. Just as tensions reached its peak, Darren fired a single beam from his rifle that shot Lugnut in the chest and killed the mech immediately. Though Lugnut was most well-liked Con, the other Decepticons thought it was a stain on their pride that the first casualty on their side was caused by a human. Megatron himself tried to kill the kids, but they held him off long enough for the Autobots to arrive. It seemed that Megatron was not willing to let go of that particular slight just yet.

Megatron marched away, leaving Optimus alone. The Prime growled and continued to struggle in his bonds, praying that the Autobots got here before it was too late.

XXXXX

"So, I'm guessing that a space bridge is something like a ground bridge?" Annie questioned. While the Autobots were working on finding Optimus, she and the others were in the west wing waiting for Gina to do her part as well. Annie figured that now was the best time to get some of her questions out of the way.

"Yes, in fact, the ground bridge was first invented by Wheeljack using-zzt-space bridge mechanics." Fixit said. He waved his arms around, nearly hitting Jolt in the head as he tried to visualize how large a real space bridge was. "They were massive, like ground bridges but the size of starships, maybe even bigger than that. Cybertron had a ring around them that they used during the expansion years of the Golden Age."

"So that explains how the Ark and Nemesis got here." Darren said. "But I'm guessing that they aren't working anymore?"

"That's right. Cybertron destroyed the space bridges by order of Nominus Prime when the Rust Plague hit the colony worlds." High Wire explained. At the twins' questioning looks, he elaborated on the plague. "The Rust Plague can best be described as the Black Death of our people. It was a fast spreading disease that causes the body to rust and corrode, slowly breaking down the body. All the while you felt nothing until the corrosion caused your Spark to shrink and you died a painless death."

"God, that's horrible." Annie whispered. High Wire nodded solemnly.

"Thousands of colony worlds had been sterilized by the plague, and it was the Prime's decision to destroy the space bridges that saved the planet, at the cost of sending society into another dark age."

"The space bridge that the Autobots used was the only one still intact, and from what Ratchet told me, it was barely in working condition." Sparkplug said.

"So Megatron is trying to build a space bridge on Terra using the components he stole?" Darren asked.

"That's the general idea, but such a thing is impossible with the materials here." Rollbar huffed. "Chances are that they components are used to act as surrogate parts to an already working space bridge. How they plan to do that is beyond me."

"Maybe it's not a Cybertronian space bridge they're building, but rather they're reverse-engineering their own." Gina muttered. She snapped her fingers as she had an idea. "I think I know what they're planning!"

"Care to fill us in?" Jolt asked.

"The Decepticons stumbled upon that circle that teleported us to Brigadoon, which we thought looked like a pile of stones arranged in a pattern by the ancient tribesmen. The Decepticons also found that dome that captured Optimus and Nightshade. Both structures were created by the Dolems, and I bet my anime collection that they found another one of those things lying around somewhere."

"Another one of those portal things?" Annie muttered and cursed. "Shit, I didn't think there would be more of them."

Gina nodded. "And those things ran on large amounts of hephasetium. If we focus on locating large amounts of haphaestium, then perhaps we can find where the Cons are."

"And Optimus!" Darren smiled at the blonde. "Gina, you're a genius!"

"Well, I wouldn't say that." Gina blushed.

"I'll tell the others about what we found. Maybe this might be the break we're looking for." Sparkplug ran out the room to speak to Prowl and Wheeljack. He hoped this was their lucky break, because every second they wasted sitting around was a second longer for Megatron to form a link to Cybertron and the rest of his army.

XXXXXX

Megatron had every Decepticon on hand working on the site. Thundercracker and Skywarp were welding radiation reflecting panels to the standing stones while Flamewar was hooking the Nemesis' transwarp drive to the main generator that the reactor was installed in. with the Nemesis grounded for good, they didn't need the thing anymore. The drive's transdimensional capabilities will make reaching across space and time much easier, long enough for troops to move in. Soundwave and Knockout were using small amounts of the hate plague to decrease the radiation level of the reactor so they could properly handle the machine without radiation poisoning.

"Everything seems to be going on schedule, Megatron." Starscream reported. He looked at what used to be the rune covered stones but were now pointed spires of metal that reached to the sky as if trying to grab something. "It looks impressive."

"Thank you for your input Starscream." Megatron glared at the Seeker commander. "Was there something you wanted to tell me?"

"Only that we're almost finished with the construction. The reactor should be ready to install and the transwarp drive is working perfectly with the particle collider. All in all, this monument is perfect to act as a makeshift space bridge." Starscream frowned at the Decepticon décor. "Though the spikes are a bit ostentatious."

"When I want your opinion Starscream, I'll ask for it." Megatron said and motioned to the entirety of Stonehenge. "I want everyone to see the Decepticons' greatest victory, to know that it was here that the apocalypse started."

"It won't even begin if the Autobots find us and torch it. This thing isn't the most subtle of space bridges and heaven knows how much power it's going to bring out." The Seeker said. Megatron glared at him but he stared right back into his eyes. "You know I'm right. They'll ruin your little plan before it even gets off the ground. If I were in charge I would've-"

"If you were in charge, you would've tried to turn it on before it was ready and blow the damn thing up by yourself." Megatron interrupted. "You're no leader, Starscream. You're a tool who leaps before he thinks. It's no wonder why your sister used you as a punching bag all the time."

Starscream almost punched Megatron right then and there, but Nightshade standing nearby kept him at bay. He settled with a glare at his leader before marching away. Flamewar watched the scene with a smile and couldn't help but dig the nail in further.

"Had a nice chat with Megatron?" She asked.

"Shut up you witch! You're not one to talk." He hissed.

"Oh am I? I'm not the one who proclaims his goals of leading the Decepticons, but spends most of his time groveling at Megatron's feet to avoid getting slagged." Flamewar jumped down from the boulder she was sitting on and got in his face. "Face it, Starscream, you're too weak both physically and socially to fight him now."

"But I do have time on my side, Flamewar." He replied and went over to his fellow Seekers. "I've waited five thousand years to kill Megatron, and I am willing to wait another year until my opportunity rises."

"Famous last words." Flamewar smirked.

"Megatron," Soundwave said. "The reactor is stable and is ready for installation."

"Perfect! Soundwave, install the reactor and activate the transwarp drive and particle collider." Megatron ordered. "Charge the gate up for activation!"

"No, Megatron! You don't understand what you're fooling around with." Optimus said. "This is Dolem technology, you could end up bringing more of them here. This is between the two of us. Don't involve humanity into our war!"

"They became involved the moment you took those brats under your care! This world will be mine and I don't care who stands in my way!" Megatron shouted at his archenemy.

"You won't have an easy time doing that Megatron. So long as you continued down the path you walk, more and more people, Autobots, humans or otherwise will rise to stop you." Optimus told him, glaring at him with crystal blue eyes. "You were once like that to, you can't expect me to believe that people won't rebel against your rule!"

"Then they will all die! I did not risk our world, our people's future just to bow down to inferior species!" Megatron said. The stargate behind him started to hum and the spires began to crackle with energy. "Watch as your precious world is made another outpost in my grand Decepticon empire!"

Optimus looked at what used to be Stonehenge as the energy output started to rise and glared at Megatron. He wasn't going to let it all end like this, not when they lost so much already.

XXXXXX

"I've got something." Ratchet said, eyes on the terminal. "It's a faint energy signature, but its growing stronger."

As Ratchet triangulated the signal, Gina joined him, bringing up a map and inputting the coordinates. It didn't take long to pinpoint the exact location, but it wasn't what she was expecting.

"I got the location. It's…" Her eyes widened. "In Wiltshire, England!"

"Stonehenge?" Darren said. He face palmed himself hard. "Why am I not surprised?"

"As unexpected this is, at least it's far away from any population centers." Arcee said. "We need the open space for the fight that's about to go down."

"Attacking them in the middle of such an open space will be difficult, but we'll manage." Prowl said. "If we're detecting the space bridge now, then it means that we don't have a lot of time to sit and talk, so we better get moving."

The Autobots gathered their weapons and went to the ground bridge with their Minicon allies; with what's at stake, taking their little friends along wasn't so overkill anymore. The children had willingly chosen to stay behind, in case things went south again and they were needed to pick up the slack. It was something that even Prowl couldn't deny and he gave the humans a solemn nod before joining the others in front of the ground bridge, which came to life in a flash of green light.

"Autobots," He said, facing his team. "I know that things look bad right now, and I'm not going to sugarcoat it. There is a high probability that we might lose before Megatron can form a link to Cybertron. I don't think I need to tell you what will happen if we fail. We can't let our emotions get in the way of our mission-to stop the Decepticons and keep this planet safe from our war. Even before we left Cybertron, our war had spread to other worlds beyond our solar system, killed thousands. Despite what I say about humans, the last thing I want is to see a planet like this burned beyond recognition because of our war.

"Now the plan is simple; we let Jetfire lead the charge from above with an air strike. Then we charge in from all directions, spread their numbers thin and try to overwhelm them with our enhanced abilities. We have two objectives here, retrieving Prime and stopping that space bridge from activating above all else. I don't care how you do it, just keep it from fully powering up." He continued. "I can't guarantee that we'll all get back safe and sound but I just want you to know that whatever happens today, I am proud to serve alongside you all."

"Aww, so you really do care." Jetfire remarked, and got smacked across the head by Ironhide and Arcee. "Ow! Just lightening the mood."

"Ratchet will monitor the situation from the command center," Prowl explained. He then looked to the children. "And you three…will standby in case things aren't going well. I'm sorry to have you three involved, but…"

"It's okay Prowl. We know the risks." Darren said. He and Prowl shared a short glance, a silent apology to each other, before the Autobot SIC turned back to his team.

"All right Autobots. Transform and roll out!" He transformed into his alt mode, a police car, and drove into the bridge. The rest of the team followed suit, shifting into their alt modes and driving into the portal with their chosen Minicons. Arcee and Bulkhead gave the twins parting glances before they also took on their alt modes and drove into the portal.

"They'll be all right, won't they?" Annie asked, sounding strangely timid. "I mean, this isn't different from when we fought those Cardinals."

"They'll make it through this, Annie. We just need to trust them." Gina said. But even she didn't believe her words as that sense of dread grew in the back of her mind."

XXXXXX

The stargate was reaching the peak of its power, only two thirds of the way to its maximum power output before it could fold space. The gate was linked to the Nemesis' targeting computer that provided the exact coordinates of Cybertron based on the Cybertronian stellar guide, and the entire structure was surrounded by a torus shaped ring of power cells holding hephaestium crystals to provide the majority of the power. Electricity lanced through the spires and traveled through the power cells, generating enough power to activate the particle collider and transwarp drive. It was a glorious sight for Megatron and the fact that it ushered in his total victory made the whole experience positively euphoric.

"Soundwave, how much power do we have?"

"We are at 87 percent, Megatron." Soundwave reported. "Estimate time until full power is reached-20 miuntes."

"Good, good," Megatron smiled and turned to his assembled Decepticons. "Decepticons! Witness the moment of our victory and savor it! Today, we reunite with our comrades on Cybertron and gain enough numbers to tear this world apart! On this day, our war will end and we will finally be able to revitalize our world and make it the glorious empire it was meant to be!" He stared at Starscream as he said his next words. "This is the reward that you'll get when you work under my steady hand. We have lost much while stuck on this world, but the fruits of our labor are finally ready to harvest."

As Megatron addressed his soldiers, Prowl, Arcee and Jazz looked over the hill they were hiding behind to scout the area. The team had split up, with Ironhide, Bulkhead and Wheeljack attacking from the north, and them attacking from the south. Jetfire was circling the area high enough that the Decepticons wouldn't be able to sense him. They were also wearing scramblers to keep Soundwave from hearing their thoughts as they approached the stargate.

"I got a visual on Prime," Prowl said, magnifying his optical vision to get a good look at Optimus. "He's functional, not too seriously wounded, just superficial damages. They have him in magna-cuffs in between two stone pillars near the southeast corner of the monument. They have him guarded by Ravage and Laserbeak. No other Minicons in sight."

"Looks like you're up, Sparky." Jazz glanced down at Sparkplug. "You up for this?"

"Of course I am," Sparkplug said. "Anything to save Optimus."

"Then you better get going before our opening closes." Arcee turned to Peppercat and Undertone. "Take care of her, okay?"

Undertone nodded and transformed to his motorcycle form and led the way with Sparkplug and Peppercat following after him. Prowl contacted Ironhide on the other side of the field.

"Ironhide, you're up." He said.

Ironhide grinned and sent a signal to Jetfire before combining his two cannons to form his signature "boom-stick". "Showtime."

XXXXXX

Jetfire wasted no time in delivering his payload- a plasma density charge. He opened his bomb bay and dropped three of them right down on the Decepticons. Thundercracker, who was the only one who looked up on reflex, saw the bombs and cursed loudly.

"We've got incoming!"

The Decepticons scattered, but the charges hit the ground, detonating with great force and blasting them apart. Megatron crashing into one of the spires and saw Jetfire fly over them.

"Kill him!" Megatron roared at his Seekers. Skywarp teleported into the air with Starscream and Thundercracker to pursue Jetfire.

Ironhide used the chaos to run over the hill and fire his super cannon, not at Megatron, but at Soundwave, hitting the spymaster in the back and knocking him to the ground. That alone was the signal for the rest of the Autobots to charge Stonehenge from both sides.

"We've got Autobots!" Nightshade flew into the air and fired Gandiva at Ironhide's group, blasting Bulkhead off his feet. "Form a perimeter around the stargate! Don't let them through!"

As the battle kicked off, Sparkplug, Undertone and Peppercat approached Optimus's position. Laserbeak saw them coming, but Peppercat pushed off the ground with her powerful legs and lunged at the Minicon. She slammed her head into Laserbeak's face and knocked him to the ground, switching to robot mode and dug her knee into his neck to keep him from making a noise. Undertone jumped onto the stone holding the magna cuffs and got to work on cutting through the iron bonds.

"Sparkplug?" Optimus whispered.

"We're going to get you out, Optimus." Sparkplug climbed on to the other stone holding Prime, but he was taken down by Ravage's large form. He grunted as he hit the ground avoided the bullets shot at him by the feline Minicon.

"Lord Megatron, Prime is al-" Ravage's voice was cut off as Undertone threw one of his swords into the back of his neck, emerging through his underside and stabbing right through his vocal processor. Unfortunately, Megatron heard him and saw the Minicons freeing Optimus.

"No, no, no!" Megatron roared and fired a blast at Undertone. The white Minicon ninja managed to free one of Prime's hands before jumping off the boulder to avoid the deadly beam. Then Megatron turned his attention to Sparkplug and leveled his cannon at the yellow mech. "I should have done this from the start!"

Megatron fired his cannon and sent a plasma beam heading straight at Sparkplug. The Minicon saw his life flash before his eyes as it neared him, but before it could vaporize his tiny body, Optimus jumped in front of him. As the beam hit his shoulder, Optimus fired a blast from his ion cannon that caught Megatron in the face, making his stagger back in pain. Optimus charged Megatron, ramming his shoulder into Megatron's torso. They both tumbled to the ground, but Optimus got up fast enough to land a solid punch to the side of Megatron's face before the warlord slammed him to the ground again. Optimus kicked him off and got to his feet.

"No, I will not let you ruins my plans!" Megatron snarled. "Not when I'm so close!"

"Then you'll just have to face with being disappointed again, Megatron." Optimus said. Sparkplug drove up to him and power-linked with the Prime, deploying his glowing hot blade from his forearm.

Megatron charged at Optimus, but Optimus tore a boulder from the ground and slammed it into his face. Optimus riddled him with powerful punches to his face and chest, not giving Megatron a chance to fight back. When he got stabbed in the leg by the heated blade, Megatron lost his patience and called for reinforcements.

"Decepticons!"

Starscream and Blackout came to his aid. Blackout fired a sonic blast that knocked Optimus over, and Starscream fired his null ray, but Optimus rolled away and caught Megatron's kick. He elbowed Megatron in the face and jumped away to face his three adversaries.

"It doesn't matter how many of you come at me," Optimus growled. "I'll take you all on!"

XXXXXX

Arcee saw Optimus fighting the three Cons at once and ran to help him, only to have a knife thrown at her head. She leaned back just enough to let the knife fly over her face and shot back forward to block a kick from Flamewar with her arm.

"Your reflexes are as fast as ever sis." Flamewar smirked.

"No, you're just getting sloppy." Arcee retorted. She drew her sword and swung at Flamewar, who kicked her away and fired a few bursts from her crossbow. They hit Arcee's arms, but she ran through it and leapt at Flamewar. She missed hitting Flamewar's head, but managed to slam her knee into her face to knock her back.

"I should've killed you back on Cybertron," Flamewar growled, wiping energon from her split lip. "It woulve saved me the trouble of going trying to slag you now."

"There are a lot of things you've should've done, Flamewar." Arcee said, slashing at Flamewar's head. The huntress ducked under her swords and tried to get in close to behead Arcee, but the pink Autobot stabbed her sword between them, almost shoving the blade up Flamewar's skull had she not moved her head in time.

"You know sis, I've been thinking," She grinned. "After I kill you and help Megs take over the world, I should pay your little boy toy a visit. Should I give him a swift death or make him watch as I flay his sisters alive?"

"You couldn't even get the job done when you had me in chains, what make you coming after them any different?" Arcee taunted.

Flamewar hissed and ran at Arcee, their blades clashing. With their banter over, the sisters continued their war anew.

XXXXXX

Optimus, despite being wounded, was holding his own against the three Decepticons. With so much at stake, he couldn't hold back now. They still had a chance to stop this before things went too far.

He had Starscream in a headlock and the Seeker was firing his cannons wildly as he tried to get free. Megatron came at him from behind, but Optimus spun his body around to kick him in the face before tossing Starscream away and backhanding the Con to the ground. Blackout swung his rotor blades into Prime's back, digging into his armor, but Optimus knocked his arm away with a slash of his blade. Starscream transformed and fired two cruise missiles that hit Prime in the chest and blasted him back.

"Ngh!" Optimus grunted as he hit the ground, his chest panels smoking. He lifted his ion cannon, but Megatron grabbed his arm and threw him over his shoulder and into the ground.

"It's too late to stop this, Optimus!" Megatron said. He kicked Optimus in the face hard enough to chip away some of the metal from his mouth plate. "I've already won!"

Starscream fired another missile while Blackout shot a sonic blast from his thunderclap cannon, both hitting Optimus with tremendous explosive force and sending him flying almost twenty feet before he hit the ground in a shower of dirt and grass. Optimus groaned as he pushed himself up, smoke rising from his body and he sported numerous holes in his armor where the missiles burned into his chest and shoulder. But despite his wounds, he still managed to get to his feet.

"You are too late to stop this, Prime. Just stop trying and accept defeat." Megatron urged, inwardly amazed at how Prime was still able to move after taking a beating like that. "Why throw away your life so recklessly?"

"That's a question you should ask yourself Megatron." Optimus replied.

With a yell, he jumped up, power surging through his body as his left hand retracted into his forearm and an orange energo-blade, a miniature version of his axe, formed from his wrist. He slashed upwards and caught Megatron in the chest, leaving an ugly red gouge in his chest, and followed up with a stab to his abdomen. Megatron stumbled away as Optimus did a spin-kick to Blackout's face and he swung his blade down to sever the large Con's arm, rotor blades and all. With his axe, he spun around in a circle and jammed the sharp side of the blade into Starscream's shoulder. Starscream cried out in pain as Optimus kicked him away and tore the axe blade from his shoulder, tearing away armor, energon and circuits in a gory mess.

Optimus returned to Megatron, stabbing his blade into Megatron thigh and punching him in the nose with an uppercut from his axe hand that sent him falling onto his back. Starscream shot a null blast at his back, but Optimus dodged the blast and grabbed Starscream's arm, karate chopping the limb off and smacking the Con in the face with it.

Blackout stumbled at him and threw a punch that Optimus caught and in one move, jumped onto his back. Optimus tore off a jagged piece of Blackout's armor and stabbed it into his eye before pulling. Blackout screamed as Optimus pulled his head apart in a shower of sparks and metal, tearing it right off his shoulders. Optimus jumped off Blackout's body and let it fall to the ground.

"Piece of tin." Optimus panted.

XXXXXX

Bulkhead rolled to the side as the ground next to him exploded, sending dirt everywhere and nearly blowing out his audio receptors. He felt laser bolts hitting his thick armor and returned fire to force Thundercracker back. Up above, Jetfire and Skywarp were engaged in an aerial dogfight, with stray missiles and particle blasts hitting the ground around Stonehenge. It was chaos all around.

"Jackie, how long do we have?" Bulkhead asked.

"A few minutes at best. We've been fighting a lot but we're being held at bay for too long." Wheeljack said.

"That's because of the arrow-sligning turkey raining down death on us!" Ironhide fired a fission blast at Nightshade, which she dodged and returned fire with an ether arrow from her bow. Ironhide jumped to the side but fell on his face as the explosion knocked him off balance. "I'm getting sick of that thing!"

"Thundercracker and Knockout are holding Prowl and Jazz back." Wheeljack yelped and ducked under the sharp talons of Laserbeak as he swopped down over him. Then he saw Soundwave limping towards them, his gun trained on the engineer. "And we've got Soundwave."

"He won't be a problem anymore!" Bulkhead ran forward and went into his vehicle mode, speeding towards Soundwave. Soundwave fired a concussion blast that hit Bulkhead head on, but his armor took most of the damage and only slowed down a bit. Soundwave stopped shooting and waited until Bulkhead was just a foot away from him before he jumped to the side.

"Surprise!" Frenzy and Rumble appeared and attacked Bulkhead's left side. Rumble's pile driver arms slammed into the green Autobot with immense physical force, and Frenzy's sonic scream sent the large hummer tumbled down the hill.

"Bulkhead!" Wheeljack exclaimed. He fired two explosive shells at the Minicons, detonating the projectile and catching Rumble and Frenzy in the explosion.

Soundwave ran at him and fired a sonic wave from the dish that emerged from his arm, but Wheeljack transformed and drove away from the attack, taking a hard left and returning to robot mode before firing his gun. He caught Soundwave in the shoulder, but a dozen mini-rockets hit him in one single burst, knocking him to the ground.

Bulkhead crashed into one of the pillars and hit the ground amidst a rain of stone and sparks. He reverted to his natural form and lied on the ground on his back in pain and disorientation. He forgot the Soundwave like to roll with his Minicon posse when he wasn't working with his fellow Cons. Damn that hurt.

"Huh?" Bulkhead groaned as he heard a loud humming next to him.

He lifted his head and saw that he was lying next to a generator that had a grey spherical device in the center, taking in energy and glowing brightly. It was a transwarp drive! Realizing what this was, Bulkhead grinned and shifted his hand into his wrecking ball, lifting it above the drive. Nightshade, who happened to look his way, cursed as she saw what he was doing.

"No!" Nightshade took aim, but Bulkhead had already slammed his weapon into the machine. "Slag!"

The transwarp drive was crushed and the machine it was connected to exploded from the pounding it took. Bulkhead gave a thumbs up to Nightshade and went to help Wheeljack.

"And that's all she wrote."

XXXXXX

Megatron hissed in pain as he clutched the sparkling wound in his waist. His whole body ached and the damages he took from Prime's energy weapons were smoking as the metal around them was warped and melted. He looked up and saw his stargate start to crackle, looking like it was finally starting to open…but then the lights slowly died down and the energy transference flowed to a stop. Megatron painfully got to his feet as he stared at the smoking wreck that used to be the transwarp drive.

"My stargate!" Megatron shouted. All that planning, all that work…

"Ngh, Megatron, we must retreat." Starscream groaned, holding onto his severed arm and leaking energon from cuts and dents in his face. Getting smacked in the face by his own arm did not do his appearance any favors. "The Autobots outnumber us now and we've lost the stargate."

Megatron didn't say anything, he just stared at the depowered stargate that he was so close to opening. Nightshade, upon seeing that Megatron wasn't going to be any help now, gave the order to retreat and had Soundwave open a ground bridge. Barricade forced Knockout to help him drag Blackout's headless body into the bridge back to the Nemesis.

"It's over, Megatron." Optimus said, looking no better than Megatron. "You've lost."

"No, no, no! I refuse to lose to you, Prime! This day if mine!" Megatron roared and transformed into his tank mode. He pointed his cannon barrel at the N-17 container. "If I can't win, then neither will you. Let this world tear itself asunder!"

"Megatron, no!" Optimus ran to stop him, but he was too late.

Megatron fired a blast, which cut through the air and blasted the container to pieces, making it explode. The Autobots watched in horror as red smoke rose from the container and the wind started to spread the mist over Stonehenge.

"I'll see you in hell, Prime!" Megatron cackled as he drove into the ground bridge and it disappeared.

"Autobots, retreat! Don't let the mist touch you!" Prowl shouted.

Optimus watched as the Hate Plague fell down upon his Autobots. They quickly vacated the area, but Arcee and Bulkhead were not so lucky. Being too close to the stargate, they were hit by the mist first, and not even a second later they started to convulse and twitch. Their vibrant colorful bodies were tinted red as they started to growl and snarl like animals. Arcee leapt on Bulkhead, scratching at his face, and the large mech threw her off and tried to smash her with his wrecking ball.

"Arcee!" Peppercat almost ran for her friend, but Sparkplug disengaged from Optimus and held her back. "Let go, nya!"

"Don't, or you'll go rabid too!" Sparkplug said and looked up at Optimus. "Optimus, is there a way to stop it?"

"No, there is no cure, and it's spreading too fast to properly contain." Optimus said. He clenched his fists as he thought of the ramifications that would come from this. The plague would cause every man, woman and child to devolve into animals, kill each other, start global wars that would burn this planet into a cinder. Even the children won't be safe from this…

"No, I won't let it end like this!" Optimus ran into Stonehenge and into the red fog, to everyone's horror.

"Optimus!" Prowl called out, but the Prime ignored him as he focused on maintaining his senses.

Optimus walked into the heart of the fog, and he could already feel his mind starting to go blank, fill with an uncontrollable rage at everything, everyone. But he kept his sanity in check and focused on the Matrix within him.

"Matrix of Leader, I call upon you," He closed his eyes and summoned the power of the relic within him.

Optimus's chest cavity opened to reveal a magnificent, glowing blue spherical crystal encased within an orange metal shell with handles at the sides. This was the Matrix of Leadership, an ancient relic that grants a Prime his status, and has caused so many pain in its long history.

"KRRAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!" Optimus roared as his whole body was wracked with mind numbing pain. The Matrix emitted a blinding light that lit up the entire field and a bluish white dome expanding outward to contain the plague. To the amazement of all those present, he began to absorb the red mist into his body. The Hate Plague was absorbed from the earth, the air, even extracted from Arcee and Bulkhead and was taken into Prime's very being. The process lasted only for a minute, but watching it felt like an eternity. When all of the chemical was absorbed into his body, the dome exploded in a pillar of light that shot into the sky before fading away.

Smoke filled the area as the Autobots ran to aid their friends. Bulkhead and Arcee were weak and on the verge of unconsciousness, but they were fully cured. Prowl and Jazz approached Optimus, who was on his knees, head lowered to the ground. Red energy crackled around his form as he sat on his knees, trembling slightly. The air around him shimmered as if he was giving off heat.

"Optimus, you okay?" Jazz asked.

Optimus said nothing as he stood up to his full height, checking his limbs.

"Prime?" Prowl called out. He reached out to lightly touch Optimus's shoulder, but then Prime spun around and sucker punched the Autobot in the face.

"I feel fine," Optimus said with a darker edge to his tone. He looked at the rest of his team, his crystal blue eyes now a deep crimson that shown with malice. "In fact, I feel absolutely divine!"

He took out his ion cannon and opened fire on the other Autobots. Ironhide came at him from behind and grabbed his arm.

"Prime, what the hell are you doing?" Ironhide grunted. "What's gotten into you?"

"Nothing," Optimus said and ripped his arm from Ironhide's grasp. With that same arm, he punched Ironhide to the ground. "I just had a different world view, that's all."

Optimus lifted his hands, which began to crackle with energy and slammed his fist into the ground, kicking up a dust storm. When the dust settled, he was gone with no trace of him left behind. The Autobots were now alone among the ruins of the deactivated stargate, feeling worse than they did coming in.

They just lost their leader again, and in the worst way possible.