Autobots, Assemble!

Chapter 8

"So, who or what are you? Where are we? Why do you have pointy ears?" Smokescreen belted out his questions.

To say the elf was startled may been putting it lightly. In flash he whipped out a pair of long hunting knives and held them in front of the dashboard. Hawkeye reacted just as fast and grabbed the elf's wrists.

"Whoa, easy there pal. He's friendly. True, he's young, impulsive, and reckless, but that doesn't mean you get to stab him just 'cause he asked you a few questions."

The racecar hummed in agreement. "Exactly Haw….Hey!" He realized what the Avenger had said. "I am not!"

The elf remained silent while he listened to the two banter with each other and then managed to get a word in:

"Your vehicle…It can speak and think? How is that possible?"

"Because…I'm an Autobot?" Smokescreen tried to explain. "'Free thinking sentient machine from another planet'?"

"English, Einstein, not Stark techno-babble." Hawkeye scolded. He turned to the elf. "I think what he's trying to say is that he's, putting it very simply, a living machine with a mind of his own. And he's not just a car-he's a giant robot."

The elf seemed fascinated on hearing this. "Incredible…." He reached out to touch the dashboard, placing a hand on the screen. "I…apologize for attempting to harm you." He cocked his head to one side in puzzlement. "The archer keeps referring to you as a 'he'; do you have a name?"

"Smokescreen!" the racecar chirped. "The red car next to us is called Knockout. What's yours?"

To their surprise, a smile broke out on the elf's face. "You have very unusual names. I am Faradei. And, in answer to your former question, you are in Alfheim, home realm of the Light Elves. I once again thank you for aiding me."

"Told you we were weren't on Earth anymore, Autobot." Knockout said smugly over his own dashboard.

"Oh gee, what was your first hint?" The racecar shot back sarcastically.

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The plan itself was crazy. Even for him. And Tony did "crazy" on an almost daily basis with his team. Basically he would nab the sword, let Ulik catch him, and then use the sword to pry the covering off of the arc reactor in his chest, and blast the monster at point blank range with it. If, you know, he didn't suffer immediate cardiac arrest due to removing the cover.

But hey, what's life without the risks?

Ulik bellowed another war cry and charged Ratchet, who merely stepped aside and let the giant bulldoze past him and ram into a stone column. Clearly, Ulik wasn't a tactical fighter-he relied solely on brute strength, which might make taking him down a whole lot simpler. Tony managed to creep past and snatch the small sword, making just enough noise for Ulik to hear him. Which the giant did. Ulik rounded on the Avenger and grabbed him in his hands, foolishly grabbing the human by the scruff of his bodysuit and leaving his hands free.

Tony raised the sword in a threat, but the giant simply laughed.

"HA! You think a little knife like that can hurt me?!" Ulik bellowed.

"No. But I think this can." The human's voice had gone icy calm, and he drove the tip of the sword into the crevice between the reactor and its cover. A huge wave of energy surged out of the reactor and pummeled Ulik, sending him flailing into a wall and slumping down to the ground, unconscious and defeated. With nothing holding Tony in the air any more, he dropped down to the floor as well with a thud.

"Oh yeah…That showed him….not to mess with me." He could barely breathe and it took almost all of his strength to get that quip out. He promptly passed out.

"IRON MAN!" Ratchet cried. He turned to the dwarf king desperately. "We need to locate the cover for the device in his chest. Rafael explained to me that, without it, Iron Man's heart will give out and he will assuredly die."

Eitri nodded and joined the Autobot medic in searching for the cover. Due to its light blue color, finding it was relatively easy, since it contrasted sharply with the grey stone walls of the tunnel. Eitri grabbed in and rushed over to the unconscious Avenger, placing it back in its rightful place and sealing the reactor, allowing it to recharge.

With a dry gasp and cough Tony woke back up, casting a grateful look at both the medic and the dwarf king. Ratchet let out a relived sigh and changed back into his ambulance form, propping open the door for him. The inventor ignored it and tried to walk ahead, but not getting very far before being stopped.

"Ep, ep, ep. You are no condition to be walking. In." Ratchet ordered.

Tony shrugged and stumbled in, the door clicking shut after him. The two injured dwarfs turned out to be not as injured as they believed and walked beside the ambulance. He guessed the only thing injured was their pride.

"So, this Forge place? What do you build there?" Tony tried to make light conversation with the dwarf king.

Eitri gave proud smile. "We dwarves are the finest smiths in the Nine Realms. In this place, I personally crafted Thor Odinson's hammer, Mjonir."

An idea wormed its way into the inventor's head. He asked:

"Ever make a suit of armor?"

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The cold was definitely starting to affect the scout. Ant-Man's helmet ran a scan of his core temperature, and it was well below what he believed it should be. The frost accumulation was more noticeable. He motioned for Sif to come low enough so she could hear him without shouting.

"Is something wrong?" She asked.

"Yes. We need to get Bumblebee someplace warmer quickly. A Cybertronian's systems don't seem to adjust well to extreme temperatures-if we don't get him heated back up, his entire body will start shutting down one system at a time. It'll eventually kill him I think."

"We must make haste then." Sif realized. "Is there any way to slow it?"

"I don't know. And I don't want to risk messing with his internal systems-I might cause irreparable harm."

She nodded. "Understandable. Even I can see that these 'Cybertronians' are very complex."

Wasp flitted up to the scout's faceplates and asked him a question:

"You don't happen to have snow chains in there somewhere, do you?"

He buzzed a few times in answer.

"No, yeah, I get that. But they might be stored away in your car mode's trunk or something and you just forgot about them. You 'Bots always seem ready for anything."

He trilled and reverted back into a muscle car and opened the trunk, allowing the two size changers to search.

Wasp gripped something and, with a huff, dragged it out and dropped it onto the snow. They were snow chains.

"See?" She said triumphantly. The scout gave a happy bwoop and let them attach the chains to his tires. "Yeah, I know. You bring something along and you think you'll never need it, and then it turns out you do end up needing it-and in the weirdest circumstances, too!"

"Nice thinking Jan. Now we can really pick up the pace and get him someplace warmer." Hank complimented her. Bumblebee buzzed and shot off, leaving the two size changers to shout after him:

"HEY! WAIT UP!"

Even the three Asgardians shouted out. "Slow your progress! We must not attract undue attention!"

The scout slowed down enough for the group to catch up, letting the two size changers inside so they wouldn't get left behind in the snow, the three flying horses and their riders following them from the sky.

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The green Autobot dealt with the mini army of monsters easily. The most damage they could do to him was a few good sized dings to his thick armor plating. The road was littered with unconscious monsters, while the few who managed to survive had fled the scene quickly.

The Hulk, meanwhile, had quite literally smashed the cages into splinters. The prisoners got out and remained clustered in small groups, wary of the two green giants that had just decimated their captors.

One of the free prisoners let out a hearty laugh. "Well fought, giants! Truly, you possess the gift of battle!" The man who had spoken bowed formally. "I am Volstagg, the Voluminous! And with your combined strength…we can take back Asgard this day!"

"Wait, back up. Asgard? And those things said this is some place called 'Vanaheim'. Where the scrap are we?"

"We aren't on Earth anymore, that's for sure. As long as I get to smash more things, I'm happy with that." Hulk growled and pounded his fists together. "When do we start?"

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It felt like they'd been on the move for days, but it reality it must've only been a few hours. The semi was nervous enough to never let the super soldier out of his line of sight for even a second, and the thick, gloomy fog only seemed to amplify the truck's uneasiness. The only noise in the place was the occasional creepy whispering that seemed to come from all around and yet nowhere at the same time.

"Optimus?" The soldier decided to break the silence before it drove him crazy.

The semi didn't respond verbally, but Cap could tell he was listening.

"What's a Prime?"

Optimus clearly hadn't expecting a question of this manner, and he slowed down slightly, almost coming to a complete stop. "Why do you ask that?"

"No reason, really. It just…seems important."

The semi seemed content with this answer and was silent for some time as he mulled over his own response. "A Prime….I am uncertain if humans have a suitable equivalent for me to use. But I will explain as best I can. At any rate, I can explain one aspect fairly easily."

"During war or conflict, a Prime is the leader of whatever army he or she sided with. A General, if you will."

"So you're a military leader." Cap summed up. "I guess that means you outrank me. Do not tell Clint that though-he'll never live that one down."

"Indeed." Optimus sounded as though he was trying really, really hard to not to metaphorically smile. "But the other aspect-as I said before, I do not believe that humans have a suitable equivalent. They act as peacekeepers and normally try to remain neutral or on the side of good, and act as direct links to Cybertron's core, Primus."

"So the title 'Prime' is a spin-off of that name." The super soldier thought over this. "Wait, are you saying your planet is literally alive?"

"Yes."

Cap shook his head in amazement. "And here I thought I'd seen everything. Then again, you did say that there was a giant Cybertronian living inside our planet, but it's an evil one and tried to destroy everything. But you guys managed to kill it.

"Unicron, yes. And he is not dead, merely in stasis-comatose, to use your human terminology."

"So that means he'll wake up eventually?"

"Eventually. Hopefully never."

The fog suddenly dispersed in front of them, revealing a staircase adorned with creepy braziers at the base burning with green fire. Low, feminine laughter wafted down. And it wasn't a nice laugh.

"Well, isn't this a surprise?" the female voice spoke from higher up the stairs. There was a throne higher up, and a middle-aged woman sat on it, stroking the head of a large wolf with purple markings on its light brown coat. The wolf itself seemed far friendlier than the woman, swishing its tail back and forth as though waiting for one of the two beings farther down the steps to throw a ball for it.

That's when the noticed something else next to the woman. Attached to a pair of glowing purple chains was a large grey and purple Cybertronian fighter jet, struggling to free itself by gunning the thrusters constantly.

"Megatron?" Cap guessed.

"RELASE ME AT ONCE WITCH!" The jet howled. The voice confirmed his guess.

"Megatron! Stop struggling! You will only end up exhausting your energy reserves!" Optimus ordered.

The jet snarled but disengaged the thrusters, switching back into robot form and scowling at both parties in equal hatred. The 'Con's cannon/sword arm, his other hand, and both of his ankles were also shackled, leaving him with no means of escape.

The woman smiled cruelly. "And why would I release you? You are far too valuable to me."

Megatron snarled again and tried to charge her, but the chains held him at bay. She turned to the other Cybertronain with the same cruel smile. "You, machine, have something I want. And, I believe, something you want." With a snap of her fingers, a large - even by Cybertronian standards – sword spun slowly on her other side.

The Prime's optics widened. "The Star Saber." Then they narrows in suspicion. "How did you come to possess it?"

"One of my servants found it, buried in a mountain on Midgard. But, as you can see, it is of little use to me since I am unable to fully exploit its powers." The woman explained. "You have the means to activate it…and I want it."

"No." The red and blue Autobot said with finality.

The woman frowned angrily. "If you will not give it to me, I will simply take it from you by force!"

Black fire erupted out of her hands and shot down the steps, taking the form of huge, shadowy, claws. They were mere inches from his chest when something just as strange happened: a ring of white fire circled the two leaders, creating a brilliant barrier. The shadow claws struck the white fire and seemed to scream in pain before dissipating. The woman was clearly furious at being denied what she wanted. She tried once more, only to be met with the same result.

"I wouldn't do that if I was you, lass." A new voice, with a distinctly Southern accent, warned. "Some bots don't take too kindly to a Prime being attacked."

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They'd jumped into the well and almost instantly ended up somewhere entirely different. Instead of dead trees, live, brilliant green trees formed a canopy above their heads, and replacing the barren, skull littered soil of their former location, soft grass coated the ground. It looked like a complete, polar opposite to the place they'd just been.

"I can't believe that actually worked." Arcee admitted.

"I suppose, here, one must combat strange with strange, and ignore the normal rules of reality." Panther told her.

The femme bot actually managed a small, genuine, smile. "Careful. You're starting to sound like Optimus."

"Am I?" Panther asked innocently.

"Hop on. Let's see if we can find our friends here." She changed back into a motorcycle and let the Wakandan on, bolting down one of the barely noticeable paths into the forest.

It didn't take very long for them to find tell-tale tire marks in the dirt; two sets, and both of them Arcee knew well. Two sets of hoof prints trailed alongside the tire marks, as well as numerous paw prints.

"Oh thank Primus! Smokescreen's still alive!" She sighed in relief. "And that must mean your buddy Hawkeye survived as well."

"And the other marks?" Panther wondered.

"Knockout's."

"Does that mean-?"

"No. The rookie would never switch sides, no matter what. This must mean that the two have agreed to a temporary truce until they can get back to Earth. And I know that he knows that to fully trust a 'Con is to sign a death wish, so he's probably going out of his way to keep Hawkeye safe, especially after he shot Knockout in the chest and electrocuted him."

"I don't doubt it. And, as a side note, those paw prints are wolf prints, meaning they are being pursued, and even more likely, hunted."

"Hold on." The motorcycle kicked into overdrive, speeding along and following the tire marks and prints, scanning for one Autobot and one Decepticon life signal, hoping, praying, that the others had survived as well.

In the distance, they could faintly make out the sound of howling.