Transformers Titan: Awakening (old version)

by kira444

Volume 1 of Transformers Titan. Having crashed on a distant planet four million years ago, two warring factions of mechanical life forms, the Autobots and Decepticons, awaken on present day Terra and begin the next phase in their civil war. Humanity is forever changed as the world is drawn into a war between titans.

4. Truth and Lies

Chapter 4-Truth and Lies

The Helic Rupblic army base sat in the middle of the arid, rocky landscape of the southern state of Zona Arida. The state was not a place to the weary, much less a whole base of soldiers who were going to spend most of the day doing heavy labor or training. Temperatures were known to reach above a hundred degrees and at night, it could drop to a little below zero. You weren't getting a brake in Zona Arida, but as the military personnel say, "At least it isn't Mexica".

The whole reason they were here in the first place was because there had been reports of Karaba activity in the area, probably some small scale business going on between the two countries in secret. But for the HR, Karaba was dangerous enough to warrant military intervention. Thus the construction of a military base and regular patrols to scout the area for the hidden terrorist cell.

Standing guard at the entrance to the base were three Talos. These units were the main force of the Helic Republic mobile infantry; the M6 Bushnell. Like most Talos, they were around 4 meters tall and sported a vaguely humanoid configuration fitted with laminated armor often used for tanks. They armor was a dark blue, almost black color, and their heads were flat and long with yellow visors over a singular optical camera. They made up the majority of the Republic's mecha forces, along with the M4 Murphy mecha tanks that predated them, which were no different from modern Talos save for sporting a pair of modified tank treads instead of legs.

The cockpit was where the pilot operated the Talos. It had three directional monitors in front of the pilot seat that showed video images from the viewpoint of the main camera in the head. On the pilot seat were two flexible joysticks that controlled the Talos' arms, and foot pedals the controlled the Talos' movement; right pedal for throttle, left pedal for reverse movement/brake.

The Bushnell units were large and bulky, and were not very fast. Though they were powerhouses in battle, in the heat of Zona Arida, they could turn into walking deathtraps if the pilot was not careful. Aside from the usual problems of overheating, the cockpits were not built with air conditioners, so heat stroke were a very real threat when operating in the desert. It was just one of many things the average Talos pilot had to worry about aside from either breaking down from malfunctions or getting ambushed and torn apart by Karaba's espers.

"Hey." Said Unit-003.

"Yeah?" Unit-002 asked.

"Why are we here?"

"What?"

"Why are we here? I just wanted to know." He said.

"I don't know man. That's like asking why are we born or is there truly a purpose in life. I sometimes ask myself that same question when I'm alone and it damn does it keep me up at night. Sometimes I wonder if god is just playing with s the same way we play with toys." Unit-003 replied in a dull tone. Unit-002 just stared at him stoically before speaking.

"No, I mean why are we here, out in the heat inside bulky power armor? Like in the middle of this state's equivalent of spring?"

"Oh," Unit-002 said and coughed. "Um, I have no idea."

"What was all that stuff about god?"

"Nothing."

"…You wanna talk about it?"

"No, I'm fine."

'Idiots.' Uni-001 thought. And these were the people he was stuck working with. Good lord this was a dull job.

Then he noticed something strange. A small black shape that was airborne in the distance, its appearance slightly distorted from the heat waves. He enhanced the vision of his suit's visor and saw that it was a black hawk helicopter.

"Huh. Wonder what that thing's doing here." He asked himself. He also saw a two other chopper escorting the Black Hawk to the base, so watch command must feel every bit as uneasy as he does at this moment.

The sight of a Black Hawk chopper wasn't a rare sight in this part of the country, there were a few at the base right now, but what had everyone on edge was that it was sporting a model number of a chopper that was shot down in this area around two years ago. Even more suspicious was that it wasn't answering to any of their calls, getting only static in response.

An entire battalion of Humvees and Talos were posted in the air field where the Black Hawk was descending, their weapons pointed right at the chopper. Once the chopper has fully landed, the CO spoke over the bullhorn.

"Attention crew of the MH-53 Black Hawk, shit off your engines and stand clear of the vehicle or we will kill you." The CO said. The soldiers took aim at once. But there was no movement from the pilot. "This is your last warning."

For a moment nothing happened. The soldiers all began to look uneasy about what was going on. Then to their surprise, the pilot just-vanished! Like a bad television transmission. At the same time all the electronics in the base began going haywire, from lightbulbs to computers, anything electronic began short circuiting.

Then the chopper's rotors stopped in place and folded back, and at once the chopper began to-change. It was changing, shifting, metamorphosing even as the soldiers stared in its direction.

It had feet, arms and a head. It also had a name: Blackout. But the soldiers did not see or sense that, and the Decepticon made no effort to identify himself. Almost at once, everyone opened fire on the metal giant, but their bullets had no effect on his body. Blackout looke around and raised his fist, slamming it into the ground.

There was a mighty thunderclap, a huge spherical shockwave that blasted everyone off their feet. And then the slaughter began.

XXXXXXX

Two days had passed since the meeting with the kids and the Minicons. Things was finally starting to settle down for the Autobots in the Ark, and they've managed to include their new additions into their daily pattern. But everyone was still on high alert, as a stasis panel could pop up at any time. As evidenced by the second panel's activation.

Optimus Prime and his SIC Prowl stood in the Ark's bridge watching a news report on the Teletran-1 interface. The report was a breaking news story that was telling about a military base that was attacked and destroyed, with no survivors.

"That is a bold move on the Cons' part." Prowl noted. He didn't seem bothered by the death toll the humans took, rather he was more bothered by the implications of the attack. "It's not like them to just up and attack a military base like this in the early stages."

"Megatron would spend no expense at obtaining the Minicons, even at the risk of exposing themselves." Optimus said.

It was bad luck that the Minicon panel was located under the military base. It was painfully clear that the Cons had no qualms about erasing any evidence of their presence through violent means, and did the way they did it best, through infiltration. And now another Minicon was in their possession and the human casualties were high.

'What a way to start off an arms race.' Prowl thought dryly. Looking at Optimus, he asked, "Do you think they'll do it again?"

"Not likely. Megatron only did this to get a head start on us. But open confrontation with the humans will prove counter-productive at best. Hopefully this is the only time that such a tragedy will occur."

BOOM! A loud explosion rattled the base and Optimus and Prowl both ran into the hallway to see smoke leaking from a room not too far from the bridge.

"Oh for Primus' sake, what did Wheeljack blow up this time?" Prowl said.

But to his surprise, it wasn't the engineer who caused it, but their new human friends, who had stumbled out of the room covered in soot that was on their clothes and faces. High Wire, Sureshock and Grindor exited the room as well.

"Sorry, false alarm." Darren coughed. "No one's hurt."

"Speak for yourself, Mr. No-hands, my ears are ringing from that crap." Annie scowled.

"Oh relax Annie, the explosion wasn't that big." Gwen chided.

"Would someone please explain what is going on here?" Prowl said impatiently.

"We were trying to use red Dust to power the computer consoles here but Darren used too much and they exploded." High Wire said.

"Not to worry though, the kid shielded us from the flames. It was pretty cool actually." Grindor said.

"Don't you mean hot?" Sureshock asked wryly. Grindor looked at her before laughing.

"Ha! That was a good one, you crazy girl!" He cackled. Annie face palmed herself.

"And who exactly gave you this room?"

"I did." Sparkplug walked up to them from the computer hub. "The kids and Minicons need a place to stay, so we can be out of your way. Especially if we're going to be spending a lot of time here."

Prowl didn't look very happy at Sparkplug taking the initiative on his own and claiming space in the Ark for themselves, but any objections he had went unsaid as Teletran began letting out an alert. Prowl rushed over to the console to see what was wrong.

"What is it?" Sparklug asked.

"Another Minicon panel just came online." Prowl said.

XXXXXXX

Blackout entered the bridge of the Nemesis with his prize clutched in his hand. He roughly pushed past Starscream and approached Megatron. He presented the panel to the warlord in a humble bow.

"Lord Megatron, I have come with another panel for you." He said. Megatron smirked.

"Good work, Blackout. Have you made sure there were no witnesses?" Megatron asked. Blackout nodded.

"Yes sir. I was very thorough in my extermination of the pests. They didn't put up much of a fight."

"Good. Despite the current circumstances stealth and secrecy remains paramount. We must maintain our cover on this world until the time is right." Megatron took the panel from Blackout and held it out towards Nightshade. "I believe this belongs to you."

"What! How come she gets a Minicon?!" Starscream bellowed, outraged. "She barely lifted a finger!"

"Because unlike you Starscream, Nightshade has proven her loyalty to me and the cause." Megatron replied. Starscream huffed but didn't say anything more. No point in starting a fight about it, since he was going to get punched into next week to speaking his mind.

Nightshade took the panel and had it read her bio-signature. Another Decepticon panel hidden among the refugees, designed to be only awakened by a Decepticon. Like the last panel, this one dissolved and reconfigured into the Minicon. This one was far different than Leader-1.

It was a femme, with bright golden armor and a large owl's head on her chest. Her arms and legs looked long and thin, tipped with pointed claws that looked very sharp. Her face was petite, with a pair of large, round red optics that glowed brilliantly and a thin mouth also painted red.

"Tell you master your name, Minicon." Megatron ordered.

Nightshade marveled at the surprisingly extravagant Minicon as she looked up at the much larger femme.

"I am Songbird, mistress. It is an honor to be in your service." Songbird said in a soft, airy voice that sounded like wind chimes. Nightshade smiled down at her partner.

"Hello Songbird."

"Let this be an example to all of you!" Megatron said, looking at the assembled Cons. "Those who serve me loyally without falter will be handsomely rewarded. But try to disrupt my efforts and go against our righteous cause," He gave Starscream a dark glare as he said that. "And you won't live to see the next sunrise. Am I clear?"

"Yes, Lord Megatron!"

XXXXXXX

Everyone had gathered in the computer room as Optimus brought up a holographic map of the continent where the panel was situated-Europa. The red beacon that showed the panel's location was in the continent's central region.

"The panel is located in the kingdom of Nabradia. Somewhere in a town named Prague." Prowl explained. "The city has been abandoned for a decade due to an earthquake so we don't have to worry about maintaining much of a disguise."

"But the panel's signal is faint. We can barely get a lock on its coordinates." Ratchet said

"Any idea as to what's causing its disruption?" Optimus asked. Before Prowl could answer, Gina cut into the conversation.

"It must be underground," She said. "Half of the city was buried after it was hit by the freak earthquake. It might be possible that it was inside the city when the place was leveled and is now underground."

"How can you be so sure?" Prowl asked skeptically. "You've never even been to Prague. And we don't have any solid evidence that it's underground in the first place."

"If the signal we're getting is anything like usual electrical signals, then the reason it's so faint is because it's being covered by a thick layer of rock." She easily answered.

"Try to argue that Mr. 'Don't talk me because I'm not your friend'." Annie smirked.

"Can you estimate how far its underground Gwen?" Optimus asked. Gwen shrugged.

"I can only say that it must not be that far down if Teletran can still detect it. Sorry."

"No need to apologize. You've already helped us as it is. Ratchet activate the ground bridge." Optimus turned to Prowl. "Prowl, call up Arcee and Bumblebee. Urban combat is there specialty."

"Yes, Prime." Prowl nodded and made his out of the hub. Annie raised her hand.

"Hey, Optimus? What do we do?"

"I'm sorry?"

"What can we do to help?" She asked. The present Autobots looked at her surprised.

"You want to come with us?" Sparkplug said.

"That is out of the question, Annie. These missions are ver dangerous and I will not endanger you by taking you along."

"But we won't be anywhere near all the fighting! We'll be the ones to find the Minicons for you guys while you go kick Con ass."

"The answer is still no."

"She has a point Optimus." Darren spoke up. "Those caves are very small, too small for you guys to get into. We would have no problem getting through there."

"And we have Darren and the Minicons to keep us safe in case anything goes wrong." Gwen added.

Optimus was reluctant to adhere to such a request. He had already involved these children enough just by association alone, this was just too much. But another part of him noted that they had a point. The panel was basically inaccessible to them, but not did they have a chance of getting to it, the search itself will keep them away from the heavy fighting that will inevitably occur.

"High Wire," He said. When the Minicon stepped forward, he continued, "You keep these children safe by any means necessary. If things get too harrowing for you, then you abandon the mission and get out there. Understood?"

"Yes sir."

"Don't worry Optimus, I'll go along with them to give them some extra protection." Sparkplug said and smiled down at the children. "They're in safe hands."

"Very well. Autobots, let move out!"

XXXXXXX

The city of Prague was not that old a city. Many of the buildings that survived the earthquake that ravaged the region were still intact, if a bit in disrepair. As he led the team through the desolate streets of the city, Optimus noted how eerie the place was when devoid of life. Such cities were stock full of humans, so seeing this place completely deserted was alien to him. Riding inside him were the kids, with their Minicon partners riding alongside Sparkplug in their vehicle modes.

"Wow, an earthquake did all this?" Bumblebee asked. "I didn't think that earthquakes did this much damage in Europa."

"That's why it's so strange." Gina said. "You'd never expect Europa of all places to get hit by a large quake like this but it happened. Mother Nature was always unpredictable like that. Didn't make the death toll any less horrific."

Indeed the city was basically split in half, with a large jagged crack running down the middle of the city where the fault line was located. Large sharp earthen spikes jutted up from the ground and a deep ridge bordered where the city square used to be. This was the place where the children would be going in to find the panel. Once there, the kids got out of Optimus and the Autobots took on their bipedal forms.

"Oh boy," Darren said as he looked down the steep slope that led into the earth. "Uh, you sure this is the quickest way to the panel?"

"Yeah, the signal is stronger here." Gina said without a care. She did some stretches and took a deep breath. "Okay, I'm all ready to roll."

"Same here." Annie said.

"Remember, if you get into trouble down there, pull out immediately. Don't take any risks, do you understand?" Arcee asked.

"Yes, yes we get it Arcee, at the first sign of trouble get the hell out of dodge. Now can we go already?" Annie grunted as she jumped down into the crevice and began to climb down.

Darren took a deep breath and followed his sister, with the others doing the same. Sparkplug gave Optimus one last reassuring nod before entering the hole. Arcee crossed her arms, unable to shake off her unease.

"Is anyone else feeling that this is a really bad idea?" She asked.

"Relax, Arcee. Those kids know what they're getting into. They have Sparkplug and Centurion watching their backs." Bumblebee said.

"The Minicons can't protect them from everything. Sure they're smart enough to avoid trouble…" she thought about Annie. "Well, most of them, but if a Con gets past us-"

"That will not happen." Optimus said. "Because we will be right here standing guard. You two set up a perimeter around the crevice and stay alert, the Decepticons may already be here."

And he was right, for up in the sky, the Minicon Lazerbeak was watching them from above, circling their position like a vulture waiting for its prey to die. He broke his pursuit and flew to a distant corner of the city on the other side of the crevice, where Soundwave was waiting with Megatron and Nightshade. Lazerbeak landed on his master's shoulder and cawed.

"Megatron, Lazerbeak has reported three Autobots sighted at the edge of the crevice. Optimus Prime is here as well." Soundwave said. Megatron nodded.

"Good, I was looking for a good fight. Soundwave you stay back and monitor the field from here." Megatron ordered. Soundwave nodded.

"Understood."

"Starscream, do you copy?" Megatron asked. Up above, far out of the range of Autobot sensors, Starscream was flying above their position.

"Loud and clear."

"I want you and Nightshade to move in and attack them with all your firepower. We need their attention diverted on us." He said.

"Don't worry Megatron, I'm sure I can complete the task even with your pet bird holding me down." The seeker said arrogantly and dived into the clouds.

Nightshade paid him no mind, making a mental note to break his wings when this was over and quietly got into one of the hollowed out buildings. Looking out through the hole in the building, Nightshade turned to the small purple owl Minicon on her shoulder.

"You know what to do." She said.

Songbird nodded and jumped up, powerlinking to the port on Nightshade's right forearm. Her limb sizzled with energy before the armor opened up and her hand split apart to reveal a dark violet railgun that was crackling with energy, while on her arm, Songbird's body had shift in its configuration. Her beast mode's head was pointed forwards and had become a laser targeting system. Nightshade looked out the large hole of the building and pointed her railgun at Prime's head. At her mental command, the weapon began to charge its energy, giving off a soft hum. Waiting for Songbird to lock on to Prime's head, Nightshade fired her railgun and a narrow energy blast cut through the air towards Optimus.

XXXXXXX

When the kids said that the underground was no place for an Autobot, they weren't exaggerating, Sparkplug mused. He noted how little space there was down in the cavern they climbed down into, barley enough for the Minicons let alone the kids. The tunnel itself led deep into the earth, and if it wasn't for the kids' flashlights, then they would've been in complete darkness.

Gina had Skyspy go on ahead and scout the safest route to the panel and map the way for them to follow. The area was still pretty unstable and it would be best not to spend too much time down here.

They exited the tunnel and centered a large cavern that looked wide enough to hold a mall parking lot. The scattered remains of buildings littered the ground, either completely turned to rubble or partially damaged from the quake. It was surprising to see that there were even buildings that were still intact or that there was so much space down here as well.

"So on a scale of one to ten, how likely is the chance of a cave-in?" Grindor asked.

"Grindor," High Wire sighed.

"I'm sorry but its just that you can never be too careful with these things. I had a friend back on Luna-2, an energon miner, he was an expert on stuff like this and knew where you should and shouldn't mine based on how structurally sound a cave was. And you wanna know what happened to him?"

Sparkplug decided to humor him. "No Grindor, what?"

"He got killed in a quake, a giant boulder just up and crushed him. Offlined him instantly. And this happened in a cave he said was totally fine to work in." Grindor said. Gina groaned and turned to look at him.

"What's your point Grindor, we're trying to do our job here." She said annoyed.

"I'm just saying that you can never know how caves work. Hell this place can come crashing down on our heads any-"

"We get the idea, Grindor now please stop talking." Darren pleaded. This wasn't helping his rising paranoia at all.

Buzzsaw led them deeper into the tunnels until they came upon a pile of rubble that was formerly a building. Skyspy returned to Gina and landed on her shoulder, motioning its camera beak towards the huge pile of rocks in front of them.

"I think Skyspy found the panel." She said and pointed to the rocks before them. "Its somewhere in there."

"Must've been buried when the earthquake hit." High Wire noted.

"Great, how are we going to get it now? Any one got an shovels?" Grindor asked.

"No, but we do have a telekinetic." Annie grinned at her brother. Darren took a deep breath and stepped forward.

"This shouldn't be any problem for me." He said. "I just need some concentration and-"

The place shook a little and the sound of an explosion was heard not too far away from them. The kids and their Minicons were suddenly alert when they realized that the sounds were coming from the surface.

"Slag, looks like the party just started up there." Grindor said.

"You have no idea Auto-brat!"

They spun around to see three Minicons approaching them, and none of them looked friendly. The lead one was grey and blue with a yellow visor. Behind him were two taller Minicons, each about twelve feet tall, and were twins. One was red and black with a blue visor, and the other was blue with large bulky clawed arms and sported a red visor. The Street Action Team got in front of the children as Sparkplug looked at the newcomer shocked.

"Leader-1?"

"Sparkplug, how nice it is to see you." Leader-1 sneered. "I thought that you'd have perished in the crash with your little band of pacifists, but I guess that was too much to ask Mortilus, huh?"

Sparkplug was completely shocked by this new discovery. Leader-1 was like his main confidant, his right hand mech. They worked on many projects together, from the Exodus' construction to the gestalt program. They had went to great lengths to preserve Minicon safety and independence during the War for Cybertron, but here he was, working for the Decepticons who want to enslave them all.

"How are you even here? Why are you with the Decepticons?" Sparkplug asked.

"That's a story for another time, one I don't plan on telling." He turned to his two companions. "Rumble, Frenzy. Kill them all."

XXXXXXXX

Optimus reacted before he even saw the blast heading towards his head. He jumped back just as the beam shot past his face and embedded itself into a building. It caused the building to explode, sending debris flying everywhere. Without pause, Optimus raised his ion cannon and fired it in the direction the attack came from. Nightshade was quick to vacate the building she was hiding in just as the blast blew it to smitherines. She continued shooting blasts at the Autobots even as they fired upon her, not showing any hesitation in her reactions.

Bumblebee then noticed the jet heading straight towards them. Starscream, who opened deployed his two hunter missiles and flew away from the blaster fire. Bumblebee and Arcee dived out of the way as the missiles impacted the ground and shook the area with their massive explosions.

"Wow, these guys aren't playing!" Bumblebee said. He saw that Starscream was circling around to deliver another payload and grinned. "Not today Screamy."

Taking aim with his blaster, Bumblebee focused his acute optic sensors on Starscream's fast moving form. A lesser known fact about Bumblebee was that his optics were very sensitive and acute enough to actually spot targets from long distances, a requirement that suited a scout like him. Timing his shot, he fired a blast that cut through the air and hit the seeker's right wing dead center. Starscream cried out in surprise as he was hit, not expecting anyone other than Prime to be that good a shooter. He spun in the air before doing a nose dive and transforming just before he hit the ground, firing the boosters in his feet to slow his impact as he hit the ground.

"Now you know what it's like being on solid ground like the rest of us." Bumblebee taunted him.

"You insufferable ingrate!" Starscream growled. ""I'll-"

He was cut off when Arcee jumped in and kneed him in the face, sending him crashing into a ravaged building. Arcee gave the yellow Autobot a disapproving look.

"Can you save the witty remarks for later Bee?"

"Sorry." He grinned.

Optimus continued firing at Nightshade who was ducking in between buildings, popping out only long enough to shoot back at him before hiding behind cover again. Seeing that his partners had Starscream occupied, he advanced upon the femme, firing his cannon enough times to keep her from retaliating.

"Prime!"

A silver tank came crashing out of a building and rammed into Optimus, sending him through what was left of the destroyed buildings and into the city square. Optimus grunted as he lifted the tank and threw it over his head with his powerful arms. He watched as the tank split apart, taking on a humanoid configuration as he landed and scowled at Prime.

"Megatron," Optimus said lowly. "I was beginning to wonder if you were ever going to show."

"Why would I miss out on obtaining the third Minicon, Prime?" Megatron smirked. "We've been on a winning streak after all."

"Only you would treat the Minicons as if they were trophies!"

"But they are, you're just too afraid to relish in the power they grant!"

At the speed of thought, Megatron willed his fusion cannon to fire, releasing a powerful beam that shot over Optimus' shoulder, vaporizing the structure behind him. Optimus was quick to close the distance, kicking his arm to the side and drawing his orange battle axe. Megatron brought out his blade from his wrist and blocked the downward swing.

"Where are your Minicons, Megatron? I thought you would jump at the chance o make them dance to your tune." Optimus grunted as he pushed against his nemesis.

"As usual you jump to conclusions Prime. What makes you think that I am using them against their own will? They fight for my goals the same way your mindless drones fight for yours."

Megatron kicked Optimus away and slashed a cut into his torso. The cut wasn't deep, but it was noticeable. Optimus jumped back and readied his axe.

"In fact, my most trusted Minicon is currently doing my bidding for me, getting the panel and wiping out those pathetic lifeforms you so valiantly protect." Megatron laughed. Optimus' optics grew wide.

"The children!"

XXXXXXX

Darren telekinetically lifted the rocks in his way as quickly as he could, trying to focus on his task while the battle was going on not to far from him and the girls. Their guardians had merged into Centurion and were fighting both Rumble and Frenzy at once. The gestalt was holding his own against the two Mini-Cons, but the constant blows from Rumbles pile driver arms were string to wear him down. Each blow was enough to knock him off his feet, and having Frenzy nearly gore through him with his hand drills made it hard to concentrate. Even still, the two Mini-Cons still had a hard time fighting Centurion.

Sparkplug and Leader-1 were engaged in a very intense close quarters match, lighting up the dark cave with the sparks that came from their clashing blows. Leader-1 gave him no quarter as he did his best to try to get the upper hand on Sparkplug.

"Why? Why are you doing this?" Sparkplug asked. "I thought we were friends. I thought you wanted to leave the war!"

Leader-1 responded by kicking him in the chest and following up with a spinning kick that knocked him back.

"Leave? Sparkplug, who do you think told the Cons about the Exodus in the first place you piece of slag!" Leader-1 cackled. "I never wanted to leave, I wanted to be in control. To be a apart of the winning team."

"Do you realize what Megatron is doing to us Minicon's? He's enslaving us!" Sparkplug shouted.

"Only the disobedient ones. You made a grave mistake, Sparkplug, and that was trying to be neutral in a war where picking a side decides whether you live or die. There is no neutrality anymore, its either us or them! And you chose them!"

Leader-1 transformed and deployed two orange cannons from the top of his cab. But he didn't point them at Sparkplug. Instead he took aim at the children.

"Kids!" Sparkplug shouted.

Leader-1 fired two laser blasts from his cannons and watched gleefully as they shot towards the humans. But to his surprise one of the humans, the boy, spun around and held up his arms. Inches away from their target, the blasts exploded against an invisible shield that protected the children from harm.

"What the hell?" Leader-1 growled.

But he didn't have time to seeth at his own failure as Darren waved his arms and telekinetically lifted six large rocks and shot them at the Mini-Con. Two missed but the other four hit their mark, slamming into Leader-1 with enough force to daze him. Sparkplug took this moment to run up to him and grapple his enemy's vehicle mode.

"Don't interfere, just get the panel!" He shouted. Darren looked at him shocked.

"But-"

"Just get it and go!"

Darren still didn't like leaving Sparkplug alone like this, but Gina brought him back to the task at hand.

"Darren, it's right there. We just have to grab it and go before they start losing steam in this fight." Gina said.

He sighed but nodded, lifting more rocks out of the way and trying to move the large boulders the best he could. It was only a few seconds before he managed to uncover what they came for. A familiar hexagonal stasis panel boring the Minicon faction symbol, which was emitting a green glow. Gina snatched it up and turned to her friends.

"Let's go." She said.

Frenzy grunted as he took a punch straight to his jaw and crashed to the ground. He didn't sign up for getting tossed around like a rag doll by some freak of nature! He was about to jump back into the fight when he saw the kids running down the cave with the panel in their possession.

"Bro!" He yelled to Rumble.

"I see them!" Rumble grinned.

Taking his focus off Centurion for a moment, he jumped up and slammed his arms into the ground. The shockwaves caused by his pile driver arms caused the whole cave to tremble and knocked everyone off balance. Annie had to push Darren and Gina away to avoid a falling boulder from crushing them. Leader-1 shook off Sparkplug and switched to his natural form, pinning the yellow Minicon into the ground. Frenzy took this chance to rush at Gina, a mad grin on his face.

"Give me the panel toots and I wont have to rearrange your face!" He threatened. But Gina wasn't scared at all.

"Try it and see what happens!" She said and tossed the panel over to Annie. "Annie!"

"On it!" The brunette ran backwards and caught the panel in the air like it was a football. "I got it!"

"And I got you!"

Annie screamed as Rumble suddenly appeared behind her. Acting fast, she threw the panel over to her brother.

"Darren, go deep!"

Darren did a huge leap and caught the panel in his hands. He landed on the ground and looked up just in time to see Annie in the strong grip of Rumble. His blood ran cold at the sight and everything seemed to freeze.

"Hand over the panel or I'll snap her neck!" Rumble snarled.

XXXXXXXX

"I don't know why, but I thought that the great cyber-ninja Arcee would be a better shot than this."

Arcee gritted her teeth as she continued to fire her blaster at the black bird. Her visual accuracy was usually spot on and Nightshade would've been riddled with laser burns by now, but the Decepticon's reflexes were highly adept, avoiding the blasts the moment they leave the barrel of the gun. Even in robot mode, she was like a black blurr, doing flips and spins that Arcee had only seen seasoned Circuit-Su masters perform.

Nightshade landed on the ground and shifted to her beast mode, her large avian form hovered above the ground. Multiple, barely visible panels opened up on her winds and from underneath her feathers came a volley of small but very lethal EMP missiles. Arcee cursed as she cut off her assault and skillfully dodged and flipped over the missiles, which would've taken her out of the fight if they hit her and leave one hell of a headache the next day, if not put her in a coma. Explosions littered the area, and Nightshade's vision was soon eclipsed by smoke.

Then Arcee leapt from the smoke, cerulean blades in hand, and stabbed one into Nightshade's right wing. The Con let out a pained cry and transformed, grabbing Arcee by the throat and throwing her away. Nightshade grabbed one of her feathers, which extended into a long, thin ebony blade, and ran forward. The two femmes met midway, their blades clanging together.

"Why the angry face? Not use to fighting out in the open like that?" Arcee grinned.

Nightshade didn't answer to her taunts. In an unexpected move, she lashed out with her left hand, slashing Arcee across the face with her sharp fingertips. The pink Autobot staggered back and clutched the deep scratch marks on her right optic and face, leaving her open to a series of quick slashes and kicks from Nightshade. She quickly leapt back but the femme pursued her with her blade in hand. Arcee quickly brought her own weapon up to avoid getting beheaded by the wicked blade.

"Only a weakling talks while fighting!" Nightshade said.

"That's because you're too primitive to do two things at once!" Arcee hissed.

Meanwhile, Bumblebee was racing through the tarnished city trying to avoid the constant bombardment of armor piercing incendiary bullets that Starscream peppered him with. The yellow Autobot weaved through the streets, trying to shake off the seeker, but couldn't stop without getting a chasis full of lead pumped into him.

"Pathetic fools!" Starscream roared. "There's no escape!"

Starscream stopped his assault, but the slight reprieve was only a prelude to the other weapon in Starscream's arsenal. Bumblebee turned a corner when he saw the seeker release a couple of missiles from his bomb bay hatch.

"Oh scrap." Bumblebee groaned.

A trail of large explosions littered the area, causing the ground to rumble and filling the air with deafening booms that sounded like a hundred C4 going off at once. Bumblebee could feel the heat of the fiery plumes on his trunk as he transformed and dived out of the way, crashing into a statue in his haste. He groaned, shaking the dull ringing in his audio receptors from his head as he saw Starscream fly over him and into the air. When he saw that the Con was circling around to do another missile run, the scout had enough.

"Alright," He grunted. "I've always wanted to fly to the moon."

He hopped on top of the buildings, wincing as he felt the structure groaned under his weight. Starscream dived towards the Autobot with the intention of shooting two missiles at the little scout and calling it a day. What the seeker didn't expect was for Bumblebee to suddenly leap up and grab onto him! he extra weight caused Starsceam to become unbalanced and he spun out of control, doing barrel rolls in mid air and flying around haphazardly.

"Get off me you fool!" Starscream shouted.

"Like hell I am, this is awesome!" Bumblebee retorted.

The scout didn't let go of the seeker even when they crashed through the interior of a hollowed out church. He held onto the wing with all of his strength, but when he noticed Starscream start to fly higher into the air, he realize that he'd have to cut this flight short. Hanging on with one hand, Bumblebee raised his hand and punched a hole in the seeker's wing, eliciting a cry of pain. They spun around in the air as Starscream spiraled out of control, and as they neared the ground, Bumblebee jumped off and hit the ground hard enough to lose the feeling in his legs. Starscream transformed to get out of his death spiral and fired the boosters in his feet to slow his decent. The tactic was the only reason his legs didn't shatter upon impacting the ground, leaving a trail of destruction in his wake as he crashed through multiple buildings before rolling to a stop. He was out for the count.

As for the scout, he was lying in a pile of rubble, his whole body hurting from the previous artillery fire and the rough landing.

"Ugh, now no one can say I didn't do my job," He laughed. "Take that Prowl! Ow..."

XXXXXXX

"Hand over the panel now or the girl gets it!" Rumble shouted.

"I'd do it if I were you, boy." Leader-1 said, keeping Sparkplug pinned. "Rumble is not known for his mercy."

"Don't give it to him, bro!" Annie shouted. She grunted when Rumble tightened his grip on her.

"Shut up!" He hissed.

Darren's heart was beating a mile a minute. He didn't know what to do. They came down here intending to save a minicon, but he couldn't let his sister get killed doing so! Glancing at Sparkplug, he saw that the yellow Minicon wanted him to give up the panel. For him, risking Annie's life wasn't worth it. But then he had an idea.

"Okay, you win, I'll hand I over to you." He said.

Letting go of the panel, he slowing let it float over to Rumble, his hands in the air. Annie was about to protest his actions when she saw the look in Darren's eyes. As he let the panel float in the air like a feather, Daren's focus was on creating a barely noticeable telekinetic bubble between Annie and Rumble, using his mind's eye to manifest it as discreetly as possible. He let the panel get closer and when Rumble reached out with his free claw to grab it, that's when he made his move.

BANG!

A deafening bang like a gunshot echoed in the cave. Darren exploded the tiny telekinetic bubble like a cherry bomb, the compressed air letting out a startling sound that not only stunned Rumble but caused him to loose his grip on Annie. She was propelled forward by the force, and the panel came rushing back into Darren's hands.

"No!" Leader-1 shouted.

Centurion rushed towards Frenzy, snatching him up by the shoulders and throwing him at Leader-1. The deployer crashed into Leader-1 and they both went crashing into the wall. Sparkplug jumped up and fired his blaster at Rumble, keeping him at bay long enough for the kids to regroup. Darren clenched his hands and the ground under Rumble split open, three large stone pillars shooting up from the ground and encasing him in a stone prison. It wouldn't hold him for long but long enough for them to get out of there. Frenzy jumped up and cursed.

"You're not going anywhere!" He shouted and took a deep breath. Rumble immediately knew what he was planning to do.

"No wait!"

But it did no good as Frenzy released a deafening sonic shriek that reverberated from the Minicon throughout the cave. Seeing this, Centurion used the seconds he had to pushed the kids out of the way before the sonic wave hit him like a wrecking ball. It felt as if every circuit in his body was going on overcharge, his audio receptors, which he turned off just as the wave hit him, were assaulted by a loud ringing noise that disoriented him further.

"What the hell is he doing!" Annie yelled over the noise. She couldn't even hear the words she was yelling and that was not a good sign.

Sparkplug saw Centurion stagger before falling to his knees, and to his horror he saw the gestalt break apart back into his three combiner parts. The already dazed Minicons were on the verge of falling into stasis if this kept going. And what's worse was that the structural integrity of the cave was starting to weaken. They needed to go yesterday!

"Darren!" He yelled at the boy, making hand motions at Frenzy.

Luckily Darren understood and acted quickly. He focused hard and swiped his hand. The ground under Frenzy erupted in a flurry of stone and dirt, causing Frenzy to lose his balance and fall back. His sonic scream was aimed upwards and hit the cave ceiling. Much to Rumble and Leader-1's horror, the scream had dislodged some large boulders and they came crashing down from above. A rain of boulders fell to the ground, and the Street Action Team barely had enough time to scramble out of the way before the rocks came tumbling into the ground, kicking up a plume of dust. Frenzy wasn't so lucky, he was pinned down under a boulder that fell on him, and couldn't move as he was almost completely buried under the rubble. Leader-1 tried to make a run for it, but his path was already cut off before he even made it half way there.

"No, no, no!" Leader-1 shouted in frustration. "I'm not losing to you, Sparkplug!"

Sparkplug didn't say anything. He just stared at Leader-1's cold yellow visor before the falling rocks obscured his view of the Con. Within minutes it was over, and they were safe.

Annie ran over to their guardians and checked them over. They had multiple cracks and dents along their armor from the devastating sonic attack, and were bleeding energon in some places, but they were still in one piece-so to speak.

"Are you guys alright?" She asked.

"Depends on what you constitute as alright," Grindor groaned. "Do you mean alright as in we can still hear, or as in that our internal circuitry hasn't been ruptured beyond repair?" Sureshock bonked him on his head. "Would you stop doing that?!"

"The panel. Do you have it?" High Wire asked. Darren smiled and held up the still glowing panel. He sighed in relief and fell back on to the ground. "Thank Primus."

Gina looked over at Sparkplug, who was looking at the wall of stone with an unreadable expression. She walked over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Sparkplug, are you alright?"

"Yes," He answered curtly. It sounded as if he was trying very hard to keep his emotions in check. The yellow Minicon turned to Gina and gave her a fake smile. "I'm fine, just tired. Let's get up to higher ground and tell Optimus the good news."

Gina didn't look convinced at all, but she knew it was best to let him be. She would let High Wire deal with it later.

XXXXXXX

The battle between the two leaders still went on. They no longer tried to take each other out at long distance but were now locked in a heated fist fight. Both mechs were launching blows that would knock a smaller bot senseless. Optimus swung his battle axe down on Megatron, but it was caught in the warlord's hands and they grappled over it. Neither leader looked close to giving up, despite their growing exhaustion. Both sides were simply buying time for their smaller counterparts to get the prize. Then the news came.

"Megatron," Leader-1's barely audible voice came in over the static ridden .

"Leader-1, what is taking you so long?" Megatron snarled. "Do you have the Minicon?"

"N-no, my lord." Leader-1 replied. "The Autobots' Minicons and their human allies had-"

"GAH!" Megatron cut the feed and kicked Prime away. He charged with his blade and slashed at Optimus, who easily blocked the strike.

"It would seem that the so-called pathetic life forms you so loathe have prevailed over your dedicated soldiers." Megatron could just hear the smirk in Prime's voice. "How unfortunate."

Megatron growled and swung his blade once more, but to his surprise, Optimus ducked under the blade and grabbed his arm. He swung his axe like it was a staff and buried the heated blade into Megatron's forearm, pulling him in close so he could look into his arch nemesis' eyes as he spoke his next words.

"You called me weak for trusting my comrades, but you are the one who is weak!" Optimus said. "You, who has spent your whole life keeping your soldiers at a distance. Using fear to keep your people in line. How long do you think that will last?"

"Shut your mouth!"

Megatron kneed Optimus in the abdomen an punched him away, making him lose his grip on his axe. Megatron pulled the axe from his arm, ignoring the burning pain of his heated armor, and ran at Optimus. Prime quickly grabbed his incoming fist and glared at Megatron.

"How long will it be before your fear tactic gets old and you're tossed to the side like yesterday's trash? Last years' damaged goods?"

Optimus kicked Megatron's feet from under him and landed a strong uppercut that sent the warlord flying back into the remains of a fountain. So enraged was Megatron at this point, he failed to notice Optimus pull his ion cannon from his back compartment.

"To them you're nothing but junk." Prime continued. "That's what you are. Junk!"

"SILENCE!"

Megatron raised his arm and prepared to blast Optimus away with his signature weapon. But Optimus was quicker. Like lightning, he was able to point his ion cannon and fired off a blast that went shooting into Megatron's fusion cannon. The reaction was immediate, the fusion cannon exploded from the inside and took a good portion of his arm along with it. Nightshade was close enough to see it and was greatly angered.

"Megatron!" She cried out.

Leaping away from Arcee, she extended her wings and fired a volley of EMP missiles at Optimus. He quickly jumped back from the attack and allowed Nightshade to attend to her commander. Megatron tried to shake her off when she tried to help him up but she wasn't having it and signaled for a ground bridge.

"What are you doing? I didn't order a retreat!" Megatron shouted.

"You're wounded and the Autobots have the Minicon. There's no reason for us to be here." Nightshade said. Looking at Starscream, she ordered, "Meet us back at the Nemesis."

Starscream scowled but obeyed her orders nonetheless, transforming and taking to the air, his red and silver form fading out of sight within minutes. 'Of course the one mission Megatron goes on and we lose to Minicon. Shocker.'

Megatron glared at Optimus even as Nightshade was leading him into the ground bridge that just manifested behind them. "This isn't over Prime." He hissed.

"No, it certainly is not." Optimus replied coolly.

The two Decepticons vanished inside the ground bridge, which also dissipated. Optimus took a moment to vent some air to cool his heated systems and looked over at Bumblebee and Arcee, who looked no worse for wear. Though Bumblebee looked like Bulkhead ran him over.

"Are you two alright?" He asked.

"Never better," Bumblebee answered weakly. "But my legs hurt."

"I'm fine as well. But what about the children?" Arcee asked with concern. "Are they still safe?"

"They're fine, Arcee. In fact, they've completed their mission." Optimus smiled.

He looked over at the opening where the crevice was and was pleased to see the children and the Minicons climb out, with no injuries save for the excess amount of dirt on their forms. And in Darren's arms was the stasis panel.

Optimus had never felt so elated in his time on this planet. The children really have proven themselves.

XXXXXXX

Sparkplug stood in the doorway at the newly built Minicon/human wing of the Ark watching the children and other Minicons greet their new member. Their new arrival was a Minicon named Tracer, who probably was probably the most bubbly femme that he had ever met. She was a slender ground-based femme with a racer car alt mode, and sported a flashy orange color scheme with glowing black highlights that ran down her arms and legs. She zipped across the room trying to look at everything at once and asking various questions a mile a minute without giving the kids any time to explain the situation to her.

"Sparkplug." He looked up to see Optimus walk towards him. "How is our new arrival?"

"She's doing fine." Sparkplug answered. "She's a bit of a handful, its like she's running on Engex at all times."

Optimus saw Liftor jump nearly a foot into the air when Annie put her hand on his shoulder and Sureshock rushed to calm him down. "I can see that. But what about you? You've been quiet since we've gotten back."

Sparkplug grimaced and sighed. "Optimus, back in that cave I...I ran into one of the Minicons from the Exodus."

"Really? And you weren't able to save him?"

"No because he didn't need saving. Leader-1 is willingly working with the Decepticons and he's probably the reason why we crashed on this planet."

Optimus narrowed his optics. "So it wasn't an accident. It was sabotage."

"By one our own. And now there's a chance that there are more sleeper agents hidden among the crew along with the others. As if I didn't have enough to worry about." Sparkplug groaned. "Why would he do this? We've worked on that ship together, helped rally the Minicons together when Ratbat turned tail and ran like a coward when then fighting started. And yet he just turns around and tries to sell us to Megatron like we're weapons."

"That's the horrors of war Sparkplug. It brings out the worst in some people. Leader-1 is not the first one to betray his own people for self preservation, and he will not be the last." Optimus said and looked down at his partner. "You'd be surprised how many people are willing to betray everything they stood for, for a chance at getting power."

Sparkplug mulled over Prime's words in his mind for a moment. Then he asked, "So what do I do now?"

"What you have been doing all along. Save as many Minicons as you can and bring those who would do them harm to justice." Optimus replied and began to be on his way. "And try to keep them from losing themselves in this war."

The yellow Minicon exhaled deeply and crossed his arms. As the designated representative of the Minicon race on Terra, it was his job to make sure that everyone was safe and yet all he managed to do was get them stranded on a distant world, scattered to the winds with no sign of their ship and now being systematically hunted down like power ups in one of Annie's video games. Now he has to worry if the next panel they're going to find is going to be one of their people or a Decepticon. At this point, who could they trust?