Transformers Prime

Rise of the Maximals

Disclaimer: I do not own transformers or the characters from the show, I only own my OCs and the plot.

Sorry its been so long.. its been a week...

Chapter 6

Megatron emerged from the space bridge into a darkly lit room, his armor still crackling from his extended stay in the cold depths of space. A small handful of his army was there, bowing to him out fo respect or fear. Starscream, Shockwave, and Soundwave were at the front of the group. "Report!" He demanded.

Starscream was the first to speak. "It is a pleasure to see you return, Lord Megatron. Our scattered forces continue to gather and return to Cybertron. We have even located the Insecticon hive you tasked us with finding to bolster our numbers. Unfortunately, the Autobots continue increase their numbers as well. And even the Predacons are increasing in number."

Megatron glowered at Starscream for a moment before looking to Shockwave. "And how goes the project?"

"The basement of Darkmount has been uncovered, as expected. However, the plan continues regardless of Autobot meddling. Indications are that my latest creations are perfectly stable, and extremely formidable. Converting willing test subjects will begin as soon as you give the order to gather them. I have also contrived an experimental.. Monstrosity.. to further occupy the Autobots. With Starscream's help, I was able to create a convincing deception about its nature. The true purpose of the 'Underbase,' as they have taken to calling it, remains undiscovered."

"Very good. Everything is unfolding as planned." Megatron smiled. "Shockwave, you have my permission to being the next phase of the project. Starscream. Soundwave. You will accompany me to the hive. If this is the one I think it is then I have very special plans in store for them." Megatron grinned as he waded through the gathered Decepticons.

Starscream hurried after Megatron. "Pardon, my asking master, but what.. do you have planned for the Insecticons?"

Megatron laughed, grinning even wider at Starscream's surprise. "It's simple, Starscream. Its a concept even you are familiar with. They're going to defect. Surely, even you can fathom why?"

Starscream slowed as realization crept into his processor. "oh.. OH! Very clever indeed, master! They'll never see it coming!"

::line::

Joan hesitated for a moment as she neared Prime's office. Evidently, he finally had time to see her.. personally. Ultra Magnus was currently taking command of the continued search of the Underbase, so he could see to other things that required his attention. The whole idea made her squirm. Everything she heard about him from the Autobots and humans who worked the base painted him as something between the President of the Autobots, their commander, and their Pope. And here she was.. someone, who was a borderline nobody, meeting him in person. She took a deep breath, cycling her fans before she knocked on the door.. "You.. wanted to see me.. err... Prime.. sir? Its Joan."

"Come on in, and have a seat." Came the voice. To her he sounded tired, weary even.. though she surmised that he's probably been constantly busy as of late. Stepping inside she found herself in awe at him.. before remembering his instruction to have a seat. There was.. just something about him that seemed so much different than the others. Important, even.

He looked up from the datapad clutched in his hands for a moment and managed a smile. "You have been through quite a lot, however, you seem to be adapting fairly well. We were concerned you might react to to your situation in a more.. extreme way."

Joan frowned. More extreme? Did he mean suicide? Yeah it sucked.. and still sucks in some ways, but would someone really throw in the towel over this? She wondered and thens hook her head. "Can't fix it on my own.. I didn't do anything wrong.. only guy who needs to be punished for this is Shockwave... well thats how I see it."

Optimus nodded. "I can understand the sentiment. The question remains, however. What do you want to do now? You are still a US citizen. If you so wish, you can be relocated away from this place.. though your options may be limited that way. But I can understand if you want nothing more to do with us."

Joan shook her head. "No... I can't blame you for the actions of one sicko bot... Actually.. I kinda want to help out a little. You're rebuilding, right? Maybe I can lend a hand.. or.. paw?

Optimus smiled. "Your assistance would be greatly appreciated. You may also want to consider combat training with Prowl, and potentially the Dinobots when they make planet fall. Prowl has expressed interest in putting you and the others in a team together, if they want to be. Decepticons are not known for their tolerance of neutrals, sadly... and the Predacons tend to only understand contests of strength to assert dominance."

"I'll keep that in mind. Might help work out some of the.. frustration I'm feeling." Joan nodded.

"Understandable... there is one other thing, before I send you on your way." Optimus handed her a datapad. "Theres been some suggestions, on just what to call your 'group.' If you will... Jazz would very much like it if you picked the ones you like best and pass this along to the others."

Joan blinked and looked over the list before chuckling. "Okay, I can do that.. thank you.. Err.."

"Just call me Optimus, or Prime, if you prefer." Optimus grinned, and Joan could almost swear she saw a twinkle in his optics.

"Erm. Thank you Optimus." She smiled and headed outside.

Despite Perceptor and Raf's efforts to seize control of the Underbase computers. Both of them were on the verge of admitting defeat. It was bad enough that the system was decentralized. But Raf could almost swear it was actively thwarting them, sending them running in circles. And over the last few hours, the activity had skyrocketed beyond their ability to track even a fraction of what it was doing. "Arg!" Raf finally exclaimed. "The whole system is playing a giant digital shell game with us, and I'm half convinced its cheating!"

"As distinctly remote as such a possibility should be, I am forced to concede that it could be the case." Perceptor lamented.

"Isn't that the point of the shell game though?" Jack asked. "The movement of the shells is there to distract you... and more often than not, the pea is actually in the magician's hands?"

Raf and Perceptor turned to Jack in unison, then to each other. "I suppose, its possible to hide the actual files in a cluster, and fake command calls to other clusters. There would have to be a program that listens for the fake calls and makes the connections."

"Such a program could listen passively, to further avoid detection." Perceptor agreed.

"But even passive programs use up computing power. To find it, we need to make it more.. active. If we generate enough function calls to the program we're looking for..." Raf trailed off as he began typing furiously.

"We can isolate the program and use it to point us in the direction of the others." Perceptor added as he did likewise. "14 Million calls should suffice."

"Screw that, 14 trillion. If we DDoS the system, it may crash a few of the out lying clusters and slow things down." Raf insisted.

".. Indeed. Shutting the whole system down that way may purchase us additional time... Hmm.. Network activity is already fluctuating." Perceptor noted as they tried to strain the system to its limits.

"Something I've noticed with Cybertronian computer systems, most of them aren't designed to handle network intrusion from the inside. In fact, most of them only handle it from the outside by being isolated." Raf noted aloud as he searched for the program that was reading each of the function calls.

"Few Cybertronians have the skill to intrude on networks. In addition, we did not have a period where the personal computer was linked in a network quite like your internet." Perceptor paused as some of the monitor screens around him flickered. "I have located the program... however.." Perceptor blinked as the lights suddenly went out, save for their own computers. "We have also crashed the system."

Light began to flicker back on. "That was fast.." Raf turned to look at the network map. "What the? The nodes just doubled in number!"

"Fascinating.. it also appears we've been locked out. Fortunately, we have a physical location for the primary server cluster. We simply need to reach it." Perceptor noted as he stood.

"I'm coming with." Raf insisted, folding up his Laptop and unplugging it from the system. "Who knows what it may be like down there."

"Hold that thought Raf. Let me tag someone to take over our position while we go spelunking.. we can't exactly abandon this post." Jack insisted as he tuned in the radio. "This is Agent Darby, if anyone is near finished with their route, we need you to take over watch at the hub."

"This is Ironhide. Me an' Kup are already on our way back, we'll take over from there. Where ya'll off to?" Ironhide crackled over the radio.

"If we're right, we located the primary server... hopefully we can shut this thing down from there." Jack responded.

"Good luck!" Ironhide chuckled as he stepped into view.

Jack waved and grabbed an M4 off the rack that was supplied for human agents picking around down there. Granted he wasn't bring it for the gun itself, but for the grenade launcher attached to it, as well as a few "Wheeljack Specials" that the inventor more than happily supplied for the weapon. "Just in case." He stated to Perceptor when he raised a brow at him. Perceptor knew those weapons, when thrown, were designed to knock out a Cybertronian and fry every computer in the room. They were an acceptable compromise on the usual 'no Cybertronian weapons' rule.

Perceptor didn't waste any time arguing, instead opting to transform to let the two humans get on board. Soon he was quickly making his way deeper into the labyrinthine complex. "Interesting, the more I see, the more.. organic.. the structure seems."

"Maybe its part of the construction.. it does seem to grow a lot like a plant" Raf guessed.

"That could be true." Perceptor agreed. "Shockwave has been increasingly interested in duplicating or improving upon designs he's seen on organic worlds. It may be related to his studies on the Insecticons and Predacons."

"It is a bit of a mystery... the Predacons are so much stronger than Autobots and Decepticons, and Predaking seems just as intelligent as the average bot." Jack noted as he watched the weird winding tubes that lined the walls pass by. "Why would Cybertronians evolve into weaker forms with more. Mechanical designs?"

"Perhaps, the secret lies in the darker chapters of our history. There are gaps in the recorded history. Lost to the ages." Perceptor noted as he made a tight turn.

"Lost, or stricken from the record?" Jack asked.

"... Potentially both." Perceptor replied before screeching to a halt as they ended up in a massive chamber. In the center hovered an object.. surrounded by monitors and cables. The object seemed to flicker.. and parts of it seemed.. fragmented. Jack and Raf quickly got out of Perceptor before he transformed. "Amazing..." He blurted as he transformed and approached the object. "I thought.. they were all lost or destroyed."

"What is it?" Raf asked as he peered at the various monitors.

"This... is one of the fabled Keys of Vector Sigma. Or at least, a.. reconstruction of one. It is also possible that Shockwave had attempted to duplicate one in the past. The Decepticon faction did briefly posses one as well. Its.. fragmented nature indicates that its incomplete or imperfect." Perceptor rambled as he carefully worked is way through the mass of cables to get a closer look.

"You are correct, as usual Perceptor." Came the familiar voice of Shockwave as a hologram sparked to life and the entrance slammed shut behind the trio. "I have been carefully experimenting with an existing key, that was destroyed in the Autobot's attempt to reclaim it. Since then I have been working to extract its secrets from the broken fragments. And I have learned much over the centuries. Unfortunately it was so damaged, great gaps in knowledge remained unfilled. Until now. When I discovered the properties Synthetic Energon had on Cybermatter, naturally I sought to duplicate the same experiment that resulted in the rebuilt Omega Lock. It was then, after Bumblebee fell into the active lock and was restored, I learned it could do so much more than cyberform a planet." The hologram spoke as it strode around the room.

"I used it to restore much of the shattered key. After testing the key in a lower state of restoration, I uncovered the curious properties it had when converting organic life. The more I restored it, the better the effect, and with some careful manipulation.. I was even able to control the end result. It is unfortunate that I am unable to fully restore the key, and as such I cannot use it to create new life. However, that doesn't mean I cannot modify existing life." The hologram flickered as the monitors began to light up. "Which brings me to why I've lured you here. In part, I wanted you to behold my glorious achievement, but I also wanted to put you somewhere where you cannot interfere with the final stage of this project."

"So.. you're going to convert humans into Cybertronians... is that your plan? Cause, maybe I'm missing something, but I'm seeing a big flaw in where this is a 'good' idea." Jack retorted.

"The further advancement of the Cybertronian species as a whole is a logical end result I have always worked towards. However, I am not seeking to build an army out of humans." Shockwave replied. "You would be too concerned with your own issues to pose an immediate threat to my operations."

"You're after Unicron." Raf accused. "This massive network, the mining and growth? You want to seize control of Unicron's body!"

"You are extremely astute for a primitive creature." Shockwave sneered. "Even sealed away within the planet, Unicron's body posses incredible power, comparable to even that of Cybertron. Under my direction, it would be a simple matter to turn your species either into an army under my direction, or grind you to dust and build a new one from scratch." Shockwave proclaimed as massive interlocking pillars rose around the key, shielding it from the trio a the room hummed to life.

"You forgot one detail, of insurmountable importance, Shockwave." Perceptor spoke as he looked to Jack. "We work with Wheeljack." Perceptor, actually smiled as Jack hurled all three of the "Wheeljack specials" Into the center of the room. Just as Perceptor powered himself down to ride out the resultant energy pulse. He barely had tome to see Jack and Raf get down behind one of the monitors before his mind was briefly filled with darkness.

When Perceptor came to, his systems slowly, and painfully rebooted one by one, the penalty of a hard shutdown. His first thoughts, went to the humans who were with him. Unfortunately the light was too dim to be of any use at the moment. "Raf. Jack. Are you functional?" Perceptor heard the rumbling and scraping of metal.

"Thats... an interesting choice of words." Jack groaned and sat up. Perceptor noticed that he was suddenly far larger than he was. "I'm guessing we got a bit of.. backlash."

"My head.." Raf groaned.

Perceptor finally manged to get enough of his systems back online to trigger his alt mode's lights, confirming his suspicions. "Indeed, you have both been reformatted."

"But.. did we stop him?" Jack asked as he rubbed his helm.

Perceptor glanced around and prodded a nearby terminal, which only reported a multitude of errors. "It would seem so."

"We need to get back up top, and see what happened." Jack groaned and suddenly shifted into his beast form. "Ugh.. whoah... wasn't expecting that.." He growled. "And I'm Canine.. joy."

Raf sighed and rolled over.. switching back and forth as he tried to get a handle on his new body. "Ugh.. might havea got a little scrambled form being at ground zero.. I'm a bat.. of some sort I think."

There was a pounding at the door and then a sudden ripping and tearing as Miko's unmistakable suit of armor squeezed inside. Sadly the face was less so. "Guys! What the hell happened!? One moment everything is fine and spooky and next thing I know me and all the other humans on site are bots! I asked Ironhide and Grandpa-bot where you were and now I'm here and..." She paused to process what she saw. "Ohhhh... you got hit too!"

Raf rolled his optics as the trio trudged toward Miko. "Let me guess.. you got turned into a squirrel? You are way.. too chipper."

"Pfft no! I'm a cat!" She grinned and points to the helm as the lumbering form of Bulkhead caught up with her.

"Jeeze... Miko.. could you slow down? I'm not that-.. Oh.. uh oh." Bulkhead blinked. "We.. ah.. better get on top... like.. right now."

Elsewhere, a multitude of eyes and optics watched a news report.. as helicopter footage showed the strange technological jungle that sprung up for several miles.. engulfing several small towns and their people. It was hard to believe what had just happened. The room was silent, save for one comment. "So much.. for being secret."

Read and review please!

Deleted lines and outtakes:

"Why, I got the idea from you! Starscream. Even you can be a source of.. inspiration." -Megatron to Starscream.