"I'll say one thing for my namesake, he liked his artillery big and plentiful. Now, where was I? Ah yes, mindless destruction! Good for the spark I always say."

-Predacon Megatron, Primax Cluster


This is not the time to panic.

This was the perfect time to panic.

He said he would be fine.

He was clearly delirious.

MECH will not blame you.

That wasn't the issue!

Then what is the issue?

Silas was dying. And at this point, that counted as a Bad Thing.

Just calm down, boy.

Calm? Raf was totally calm. Why wouldn't he be calm? He only just saw a man nearly get disemboweled from within another disembowelment.

And what will panicking do?

It was better than doing nothing!

It really isn't.

"Kid."

What?

"KID!"

"What?!" Raf shouted, his eyes burning.

"You need to get off of Silas if we're going to move him." The Scientist shouted from the ground. "We need to survey the damage."

Raf leapt off of the robot and landed in a crouched position in front of the Scientist and stood up to look him in the eyes.

"Tell me," his voice said, "that you at the least gathered some useful data from this incident."

"Listen, kid," the Scientist spat, "I know you think your tough stuff around here, but-"

Raf hopped up and snatched the tablet out of the Scientist's hand, and began swiping through. The device had logged a wealth of transmission data, all from Airachnid's subconscious commands. It was more than enough to begin prototyping if MECH's researchers weren't completely incompetent. He shoved the tablet back into the Scientist's chest and walked back to the screen.

Optimus and Bumblebee were inspecting the eggs that held Airachnid and Arcee, and were speaking amongst themselves and eyeing Scourge.

"Scourge, do you truly mean for us to believe that Arcee and Airachnid just happened to step into Insecticon stasis pods?" Optimus asked.

"No." Scourge answered, slightly frustrated. "Like I said already, Airachnid knocked Arcee into that one, and I slammed Airachnid into the other one."

"And were you aware of the effects of that course of action before you embarked upon it?"

Scourge shook his head.

"Very well," Optimus said, and put a finger to his ear. "Ratchet, we require a Ground Bridge… And prepare the plasma cutter." With a crackle of energy, a portal opened up behind Optimus. He stepped over to the pod holding Arcee, and with a grunt, tore it out of the ground and stepped slowly towards the portal. He turned his head back to Scourge. "Scourge, it would be much appreciated if you would bring Airachnid through as well."

"Into your base?" Scourge asked.

"Seriously, Optimus?" Bumblebee buzzed.

"Yes," Optimus nodded "With Arcee in stasis and Bulkhead's whereabouts unknown, we are severely shorthanded. With the location of our base already known to MECH, I am trusting in Rafael to provide assistance with the means currently at his disposal."

Raf looked back to see MECH troopers begin lifting Silas' exosuit and moving it out of the building, and others began dragging the Insecticon's corpse away. None of them seemed to be paying even the slightest bit of attention to the fact that Raf was in the control seat. Raf turned back around. "OK, Optimus." He spoke through the Scourge mic. Scourge knelt and pulled Airachnid's pod out of the ground, and followed Optimus and Bumblebee through Ratchet's portal.


"Stasis lock." Ratchet confirmed after inspecting the two pods. "It's better than she deserves." He said, pointing to Airachnid. "Luckily, Arcee should be completely unharmed, once I find a way to get the pod open."

"How does it open?" Raf asked through Scourge.

"Well, that's the difficult part, walking-security-breach." Ratchet scoffed. "The Insecticon sentries on Cybertron were programmed to awaken when an Autobot was in proximity, but this one seems to require a control frequency to awaken whatever lies within."

"And what's the control frequency?" Raf asked.

Ratchet gestured to Airachnid.

Scourge stepped forward and tapped the glass on Arcee's pod. "I could just rip it open." He suggested.

"You could," Ratchet admitted, pushing his hand aside. "If we didn't particularly care about the potential harm you could cause Arcee."

"Then what if I just rip open this one," he pointed to Airachnid's pod, "have her open Arcee's pod, and then terminate her?"

"No." Optimus said. "I cannot condone the killing of any defenseless lifeform, and we currently lack any means of imprisoning our enemies. To waste what is clearly a humane and efficient containment vessel and execute a prisoner in the process would be intolerable."

"Are you saying to just let your comrade stay like this?" Scourge asked, stunned.

"No." Optimus turned to Ratchet. "Removing Arcee without harming her is our top priority. It would be optimal if the stasis pod itself remained re-useable."

"Very well, Optimus." Ratchet sighed, and swapped out one of his hands for his built in cutter/welder, the other one for his blade, and activated his arm-scanners.

"Now, Rafael," Optimus turned to Scourge, "I have several questions regarding your current status with MECH that have been on my mind."

At that moment, MECH-7 rolled into the base, his car severely scratched, dented, and generally beat up. He hopped out of the car and looked up at Optimus. "I have some good news, some bad news, and some very bad news." He declared, and looked up at Scourge and the two stasis pods. "Looks like today just wasn't our day."


"OK, so here's the situation." Seven said, pacing the scaffolding after Jack, Miko, and Agent Fowler returned to base. Agent Fowler was less than gleeful about having to be briefed by a terrorist, and his face made no attempt to hide it, continually scowling at MECH-7 and his damaged vehicle on the other side of the room. "After we joined up with Bulkhead, we found out that the location we scouted was actually a Decepticon Energon mine. After a… comedy of errors, all five of us sort of… fell down the shaft, surrounded by Energon boxed and ready for pickup."

"Were there any Vehicons guarding it?" Ratchet asked.

"If there were, we'd be toast, because the fall KO'd Bulkhead… and us." Seven turned his head and winced. "Haven't been in a crash like that since I was 17."

Miko giggled in spite of herself, and stopped after a glare from Optimus.

"Bulkhead came to first, and woke up the rest of us. Turns out the Decepticons didn't actually inspect their shipment, because we were still in the Energon hold, miles in the air, with no communications."

"The Decepticon's Molecular Masking Field, yes." Ratchet nodded. "Continue."

"Right. Well, the first thing we did we tried to do was find the escape pods, except none of us exactly had a map of the place. We did find something better, though." He turned to Scourge. "An old friend of ours, Starscream."

Everybody looked at Scourge.

"Didn't you say you scrapped him?" Miko asked.

"I did." Scourge insisted, replaying a video of the memory on the bottom of Raf's screen.

"He's dead, alright." Raf spoke into the mic. "I'm watching the video now, there's no way he could have survived."

"Whoah, Raf's in there now?" Jack asked, looking up at Scourge. "When did that happen?"

"It's complicated." Raf said, looking back at the empty chamber he was in an the humongous hole in the side. In their rush to medevac Silas, MECH had apparently forgotten all about him. "But basically I'm the new team diplomat."

"Cool!" Miko said, "So are you like… in MECH now? Do they give you cool weapons and stuff?"

"Miko, Raf isn't 'in' MECH." Jack insisted. "He's just our liaison, like Agent Fowler is for the US Government. He's still one of us."

Agent Fowler raised a hand to his mouth, as if he had a thought that he couldn't quite verbalize.

"Well, we could just ask Arcee about Starscream, right?" Miko asked. "She was there wasn't she?"

"I suppose we could, once I find a way to get her out of stasis lock." Ratchet informed. "I am sorry to have not mentioned that earlier, Jack."

"What happened?" Jack frowned. "Airachnid?"

"If it makes you feel better, Airachnid's fate is exactly the same." Scourge smiled, holding out a finger to Jack. "I made sure of that myself."

"But that didn't bring her back, did it?" Jack only scoffed and stepped away from the hand, moving closer to Agent Fowler.

"Do not worry, Jack." Optimus assured him. "Stasis lock is not damaging in any way to Cybertronians. Arcee will be fine. Consider it similar to a coma."

"Anyway," Seven said, trying to get them back on topic. "After some… interrogation from me and Bulkhead, Starscream wouldn't tell us anything, and we couldn't let him go without him raising the alarm. So we escorted him around the ship until we found a communications terminal."

"And that's when you called us?" Raf asked. "What happened during that call?"

"You called MECH, but Bulkhead could not call us?" Ratchet demanded. "And Rafael, why did you not tell us about this message?"

"Well, I told… Arcee." Raf sighed. "Things were hectic, OK?"

"Today just wasn't anybody's day, OK?" Seven agreed, snapping his fingers to resume his story. "So, we got a message out to base, but somebody tripped the ship's alarm systems on us. We think it was Starscream, but considering the guards shot at him, too…"

"Perhaps he was not as welcome as he thought that he was." Optimus deduced.

"Exactly. So there we are, on the run. I had the idea of blasting Starscream in the knees, which distracts the Vehicons long enough for the rest of us to split up with the intent to regroup once we found an exit."

"I assume the 'regroup' part didn't work out." Fowler muttered.

"I wish. We didn't even find an exit." Seven looked down and clenched his fists. "The ship was a maze. We crawled the place. At first we thought about maintaining radio silence, but then we gave up and started just sprinting through the place, taking out guards, going on the war path. That Bulkhead is something else, by the way. He trashed that place like…"

"A rock star in a hotel room?!" Miko offered, excited.

"Like a rock star in a hotel room." Seven nodded. "We almost got caught too, but then someone else decided that it would be that it would be the perfect time to assault the ship from the outside. We didn't know what it was, but we found out soon enough. Guards were running in one direction, which meant that we were running in the opposite."

"Optimus, the Insecticons." Ratchet warned. He turned to Seven. "Please tell me the Insecticons were all terminated, and that none of them chose to defect to Megatron."

"Sorry, but I tend not to lie during mission debriefings." Seven said grimly. "So the bugs are hitting the ship, and hitting it hard. For a while, I was worried that the ship would go down with us in it. But after a few minutes, it stopped, all at once. I thought we were safe, but I was grievously mistaken."

"How many Insecticons were there?" Ratchet asked, clearly feeling a bit faint.

"What's the largest measurement of mass in your vocabulary?" Seven asked.

"The closest translation would be a 'Megaton'."

"A Megaton, then. I'm pretty sure it was the whole swarm."

"Am I to understand that this is the 'very bad news' of which you spoke, Seven?" Optimus asked. "Or is there worse news yet to come?"

"Well… It comes down to what your priorities are, really."

"What happened to Bulkhead?" Miko asked. "You said 'is' and not 'was', didn't you?"

"Right, that's the less-bad news." Seven shrugged. "So we're still split up through the base, and we've gotta be quiet again because the guards are on red alert looking for us, and one by one, I'm losing my squad's signal until it's just me. But then I get a message from Bulkhead, says he's got a something for me to see, so I transform and speed to his location. Turns out Bulkhead didn't find an exit, but he did find their power core."

"Nice!" Miko cheered. "So did you blow it up?"

"We deliberated for a few seconds, but that's basically what we decided on, yeah. We poured everything we had into it, or we would have, anyway, if the creepiest bot I've ever seen didn't show up."

"Soundwave." Jack guessed.

"Well, he didn't say anything, but sure." Seven said. "So luckily, this guy doesn't have any blasters, because he came at me servo to servo. Not-so luckily, he kicked my tailpipe."

"Definitely Soundwave." Bumblebee hummed.

"So I turn and tell Bulkhead to just keep blasting at the power core, while I distracted the… thing. I said my prayers, charged straight at it, and bam, out of nowhere, there's a flash of light and I fall fifty feet and land in the Canadian wilderness."

"One of Soundwave's Ground Bridge tricks, no doubt." Ratchet said. "And that is when you chose to drive here, to us."

"Seven, I ask, what is the good news?" Optimus said after thinking silently.

"The good news is that I can say with certainty that the Decepticon ship is compromised. That power core was ready to blow." Seven clenched a fist. "This is the perfect time to hit them and hit them hard."

"Seven, Perhaps you are not aware, but with Arcee in stasis and Bulkhead still captive aboard the Decepticon vessel, we are not capable yet of mounting the assault that you propose."

"But I know who is!" Agent Fowler declared. "This is the perfect time to call in an airstrike, just give me the coordinates. Uncle Sam'll show them what being a superpower is all about."

"Negative, Agent Fowler. With Bulkhead aboard the vessel, the risk of terminating him is too great for such an indiscriminate method."

"That's why I came to you first, and not MECH." Seven affirmed. "MECH would have immediately dispatched MECH-1 and Scourge to blitz the site. While the opportunity to harvest the ship was enticing, I wanted to make sure Bulkhead and my squad got out first. MECH isn't big on rescue operations. We prefer to bail and re-group before losses mount."

"And what made you choose differently?"

"Nobody deserves to die like that… not even an NBE."

"What is an NBE?"

"A 'Non-Biological Extraterrestrial'." Seven gestured to the three Autobots. "Like you, and the rest of your kind."

"But… we are biological." Ratchet objected.

"Could have fooled us." Seven said, pointing at Scourge. "It took us six months to do with your bodies what humans have been trying to do with our own for six thousand years. When you construct homunculi, let us know."

As I said.

"We are getting distracted." Scourge interrupted. "The dark one's right. This is the perfect time to attack."

"The dark one?" Agent Fowler questioned.

Seven cleared his throat and turned around.

"If rescuing Bulkhead's the plan, then we need to strike now, while the iron is hot." Scourge continued. "We should use the Ground Bridge, rescue the huntsmen, and clear the area."

"We must not act rashly." Optimus cautioned. "Even if the ship itself is down, the Decepticon army is stronger than ever, and they will no doubt be on high alert."

"They're not getting any weaker." Scourge insisted.

"Time is of the essence here, Optimus." Ratchet noted. "Once the Decepticons repair the ship and reactivate their cloaking system, rescuing Bulkhead becomes a hundred times harder."

"Very well." Optimus announced firmly. "Ratchet, repair Seven's mech-suit. Bumblebee, prepare the Ground Bridge with Seven's co-ordinates. Agent Fowler, alert the military to prepare to strike. We strike in ten minutes. And Rafael?"

"Yes, Optimus?" Raf asked.

"Refrain from notifying MECH of the situation."

No. Tell MECH to prepare a retrieval team.

Everybody nodded, and moved for their tasks. Jack and Miko stepped forward to the edge of their balcony to get another close look at Scourge.

"So, Raf, what's it like in the MECH base?" Jack asked. "Are they working on any secret plans?"

"Yeah!" Miko smiled, leaning in as if to whisper. "I bet they have all sorts of cool robot tech in there."

Raf looked over his shoulder again. The base had returned to something approaching normal operations. MECH commandos had increased the frequency of their patrols, but they had returned their mech-suits to vehicle mode. "Well, there's not much to tell. They don't exactly take me on tours."

"Do you think they have a chance against the Decepticons like they say they do?" Jack asked.

Don't answer that.

Raf had to. It was an innocent question and that would be suspicious.

Are you doing anything that warrants suspicion?

"I don't know." Raf said, not sure to whom. "They have cool weapons like the mech-suits, and plasma cannons and stuff, but they don't really have that many people. The Decepticons have an army. MECH has a militia."

"So then… they just need better bots like the big guy here?" Miko suggested.

"No, Miko." Jack said, stroking his chin. "Unless they can get something massive to back them up, they won't have a chance to stop the 'Cons. The only thing that can stop the Decepticons is a military. A real military."

"Hold it there, Prime." Fowler said, gesturing Optimus off to the side while Seven and Ratchet were working on their quick-repair of the mech-suit. Scourge cocked his head slightly to listen. "If you're bringing a terrorist with you in a hostage rescue raid on the 'Cons, then it's my job as a representative of the United States to bear witness."

Optimus turned and eyed Scourge, and then Seven.

"I believe that you are right, Agent Fowler."

Raf didn't get to see what happened next, because he was blinded by purple flame from nowhere. He clutched at his head. It was almost as bad as the Unicron headaches. Almost. He blinked. There was no actual light, but he could feel it burning, in the distance. An overwhelming malevolence, simple and implacable.

Hmm… I see. Megatron grows ever more reliant on my blood. Time is critical here, Rafael.

"Uh, Raf, is Scourge OK?" Miko asked. "He's looking kind of… purple."

"He's… agh." Raf grunted. "Already purple." He piloted scourge to walk to the Ground Bridge and turned to Bumblebee. "Is everybody ready?"

"Optimus, I'm detecting a massive energy spike at the Decepticon crash site." Ratchet declared. "It appears to be Dark Energon."

Wow, he didn't say.

Seven got into his car, transformed up and back, and gave a thumb up out the window.

"Autobots…" Optimus began, and realized that Bumblebee was the only other combat-ready 'bot left. "Autobot and company, roll out!" He transformed and rolled through the portal, with Bumblebee and Seven tailing him, along with Agent Fowler in his sedan.

When they emerged on the other side, the Decepticon ship (it could not have been anything else), was brimming with a glowing purple energy and beginning to lift itself out of the ground.

"How are we supposed to get on it?" Seven asked.

"Quickly!" Scourge shouted, performing a mid-air jump transformation and blasting towards the ship as it cleared the ground, exposing the autocannons underneath. Six of them immediately swiveled to target Scourge while a dozen or more others targeted the land-bound attackers. Scourge quickly dove underneath the ship, out of the rotation range of the cannons, searching for any kind of entrance, not finding one, he pulled up on the other side and hugged the surface, jetting past the bridge and doubling back to the bottom and racing towards the stern. As soon as he flew up behind the thrusters, the chase cannons deployed and began firing even larger blasts at him. Scourge began dodging out of their way with many shots getting too close for comfort even from Raf's perspective.

As soon as Scourge caught sight of the landing deck, a new weapon spring up and began firing white beams at the Autobots struggling to climb the side of the ship. The first one hit Bumblebee, and he lost his grip immediately, crashing the ground below, limp.

It fired a second time, this time at Optimus, but the Prime jumped out of the way and continued climbing upwards. The beam fired again, hitting its mark this time, and Optimus too fell off of the ascending ship.

Seven's mech struggled and made it over the edge of the platform, and attempted to lift itself to its feet when another dish deployed and fired at him, arcing energy through its body and locking it in place.

Scourge quickly, without thinking, reached out with his claws and shoved his hand into the mech's chest cavity, pulling out Seven before his mech fell the rest of the way to the ground, exploding on impact. Scourge was just setting the human down when the dish targeted Scourge and blasted him. Raf's control panel sparked with energy, jolting his hand, and Scourge froze up, falling back over the edge of the ship, away from Seven who reflexively reached out as if to catch the multi-ton robot. Raf saw the Decepticon ship fade further out of view until Scourge slammed into the ground. His transmission scrambled, filled with static, and ultimately cut.


"Team's down," Agent Fowler reported, "requesting medevac."

Raf slammed his fist on the table. They were so close!

The ship speaks. Listen.

Raf's eyes widened as Unicron's flame flooded his eyes and ears. He was looking in a room, filled with screens and Decepticons, including Megatron, Soundwave, Knockout, and Dreadwing.

"There! That is the interloper that has been attacking our energon mines, and another one of those pathetic human battle-suits. Guide us closer, so that I may collect it and send the insects a message of my own."

Yep, that was Megatron.

CO-ORDINATES DECODED.

That was a new one, and nobody seemed to have heard it save for him.

"What?! Where are you going?!" Megatron demanded. "I said closer!"

"Lord Megatron, the ship seems to be navigating itself." A Vehicon reported.

"Override."

UNAUTHORIZED MISSION INTERFERENCE. NEUTRALIZING.

"The systems are bypassing manual controhhh!" The Vehicon shrieked as power coursed through him, and he collapsed.

"It appears the ship now possesses a will of its own." Knockout deduced.

"Impossible! Trace the problem to its source and fix it!" Megatron ordered.

"DO NOT TAMPER WITH MY SYSTEMS. THIS WILL BE YOUR ONLY WARNING."

Well, they heard that.

"Warning?!"

"MY MISSION ASSUMES PRIORITY. ANY CYBERTRONIAN WHO INTERFERES WILL BE NEUTRALIZED."

"My own vessel dares to address me in threatening tones?!"

Knockout inspected one of the screens. "It also seems to be doing a better job of decoding the Project Iacon Database than we were."

"As I desire…" Megatron muttered. "You see, this warship is nothing more than an extension of my will." He announced to the crew on the bridge. They seemed less than convinced.

"YOUR WILL IS NOTHING. THE IACON ARTIFACT WILL BELONG TO ME."

"I am Lord Megatron!" He protested, shouting at the screens and the ceiling. "I command you to cease operations!"

"YOU ARE NO LONGER IN COMMAND."

DARK ENERGON DETECTED IN SYSTEMS. UTILIZING.

Megatron dropped to the ground clutching his head in pain. In a moment, Raf felt it too, weaker, but still enough to make him wince.

"Regain control of this vessel by any means necessary." Megatron ordered soon after recovering.

Soundwave nodded and plugged both of his chest tentacles into a terminal.

TAMPERING DETECTED... AGAIN.

A shock coursed through the tentacles, jolting Soundwave until he stood limp.

"All hands, cut power to the mainframe and disconnect data relays now!" Megatron ordered. Dreadwing, Knockout, and the rest of the Vehicons sprinted out of the Bridge, and Knockout split from the group.

NEUTRALIZING.

Bad call. The ship's hallways were soon scoured by white meshes of energy that jolted and paralyzed any bots in its path.

Raf's vision was interrupted when he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around to see the scientist looking down at him.

"What have you done to Scourge?" He demanded, his voice rising slightly from his usual dispassionate tone.

"Nothing!" Raf said, slightly startled.

"Sure doesn't look like nothing. What happened to the feed?"

"Umm… He got hit."

"Kid, I left you alone for… an hour, maybe! How did you manage to let MECH's number one project become a field casualty?!"

Scourge lives.

"Scourge is fine!" Raf retorted, realizing too late that he had no way to prove it. "He's just…"

"I've never encountered this form of stasis lock." Ratchet's voice said, garbled, from the computer.

"Is that an Autobot?" The Scientist asked.

"The 'cons are crossing the Atlantic, making a beeline for North America." Fowler's voice reported.

"Is that Agent Fowler? With our robot?! Where is he?"

"In… the Autobot base?"

"Out of the chair." He ordered. "Boy, out of the chair, now."

"What?! No! He's in the middle of an important mission!"

"Maybe so," he said, lifting Raf out of the seat and dropping him into the sidecar, "but you're not in command anymore."

"But Silas put me in charge of Scourge!" Raf protested.

"Silas has suffered massive organ damage outside the reach of conventional medicine, which makes me the acting leader. And as of now, twelve year olds are no longer allowed to pilot our robots."

"This doesn't make a lick of sense," Fowler continued. "They had us in their cross hairs, but the 'Cons just took off."

"And they still have that 'Seven' guy now." Miko added.

"The Decepticons have MECH-7?" the Scientist growled. "What did you do?!"

"It's not my fault!" Raf insisted. "Bulkhead and his squad were trapped aboard the Decepticon ship! He had to go back with the Autobots and rescue them!"

"He went on a rescue mission for an NBE?!" the Scientist massaged his temples. "Kid, just wait 'til Silas hears about this."

"Wait, I thought you said his injuries were outside the range of conventional medicine?"

"MECH is anything but conventional." The Scientist answered, and opened up the communicator. "MECH-7, this is Surgeon, do you copy?"

"Uh… surprisingly, yes." Seven answered after a second.

"What is your current status?"

"Unarmed and unarmored aboard the Decepticon warship."

"Your little unauthorized rescue mission didn't pan out, huh?"

"I can neither confirm nor deny that the mission resulted in abject failure."

"Well you have a new mission now. Escape from the ship and return immediately to base. I'm dispatching MECH-1 to your location now."

"Wait," Raf asked, "you're tracking the ship's location? Shouldn't it be cloaked?"

"Yeah, this ship makes even less sense than the first time." Seven noted. "I'm literally wandering the hallways unharmed. Every 'Con in this place is offline. There's zero security to speak of. I'm going to see how my squad is."

"And Bulkhead?"

Seven paused and sighed. "I… yes, and Bulkhead."

"Perhaps you need to be refreshed as to our operating procedures. We do not remain on the scene. We definitely do not return to a scene. We cut losses to maximize gains."

"You want to talk about maximizing gains, 'sir'? I have free reign of the largest repository of alien military technology we've ever seen or will see. I am in a position to have an Autobot owe me his life. And I can check to see just how much information the Decepticons have on us."

The Scientist stroked his chin. "Very well. Don't expect backup."

"Whoah!" Seven muttered.

"Yes?"

"I just so happened to arrive at what looks like the main data relay," he whispered, "listen:"

"Lord Megatron, the computer has decrypted a second set of co-ordinates." Knockout could be heard saying. "Perhaps we should permit it to continue."

There was a zap.

"I DO NOT REQUIRE PERMISSION."

"I think these aliens have managed to create a rogue AI…" Seven whispered.

"Don't be ridiculous, they are rogue AI."

"Actually, Ratchet says that they're biological in nature." Seven corrected.

"Could have fooled me."

"That's what I said." Seven was silent, and then grunting was heard.

"What are you doing?"

"Climbing the red one." Seven reported. "I wanted a better look at the console."

A faint ringing sounded over the comm.

"What's that?"

"I'm not sure. I think the ship is getting a call."

"Autobot Outpost Omega One to Decepticon Warship." Ratchet's voice said. "Come in, Decepticon Warship. Megatron, please respond."

"Should I respond?" Seven asked.

"Do you even know how to answer their communicator?" The Scientist questioned.

"Well, Megatron's kind of busy." Seven said, over the sound of loud stomping going by.

"This mutiny ends now!" The warlord shouted distantly.

Another zap.

"Megatron." Ratchet repeated.

"MEGATRON HAS BEEN RELIEVED OF HIS COMMAND."

"Who is this?"

"WHO IS THIS?"

"Have you taken control of the Decepticon vessel?"

"I AM THE VESSEL. ANY CYBERTRONIAN WHO INTERFERES WILL BE NEUTRALIZED."

"What mission?"

"PRIORITY ONE: DECRYPT IACON DATABASE AND RECOVER DECEPTICON TECHNOLOGY."

"For what purpose?"

The ship hung up.

Rude.

"Interesting," the Scientist mused, "so there is, at this moment, a giant spaceship flying around looking for Decepticon Weapons of Mass Destruction. Seven, see about downloading this 'Iacon Database'."

"Wait," Raf interrupted, "only Optimus Prime can decode it."

"And, evidently, so can the ship. Get the files, we'll work on decoding after that."

"This thing doesn't exactly take USB, sir."

"Figure something out." The scientist ordered. "Time isn't of the essence here."

"What about the prisoners?"

"Oh, yeah. Get them, too."

"Roger that... You know, the Autobots might have a compatible transfer drive."

"One, that would compromise operational security. Two, I highly doubt that they would share one with us."

"True, but they might share one with Rafael, and if they don't, well, that's what Scourge is for."

"You know what? I'll allow it."

"MECH-7 to Autobot Outpost Omega One. Ratchet, do you copy?" Seven asked.

"Yes, Seven, is that you?" Ratchet answered. He could be heard clearly, since the communication was now being patched directly to them.

"The one and only. I am aboard the Decepticon vessel, and I need an assist."

"Really? We had assumed that the ship may have been blind to humans." Ratchet responded. "Do you need pickup?"

"Yes, but not yet. This ship is decrypting something called an 'Iacon Database', and I just figured that now would be the perfect time to download it."

"Yes… that's right! I'll infiltrate the ship momentarily."

"Negative. The ship's security would paralyze you, like the others."

"So then what do you suggest?"

"Send the kids?"

Ratchet actually laughed for a good fifteen seconds. "You want me to send the kids aboard a Decepticon warship alone with Decepticons?"

"And terrorists!" Agent Fowler added, clearly frustrated that people were forgetting about that.

"OK, then. Guess I'll just wander this treasure trove of alien technology by myself." Seven teased. "Wow, I might not even have time to rescue Bulkhead... Shame."

"Agent Fowler and the children will be aboard the ship momentarily." Ratchet sighed.

"Don't forget to bring a set of transfer drives."

"Yep, yep." Ratchet interrupted. "One will be sufficient for us. And I highly doubt MECH has a compatible computer anyway."

Seven didn't answer, and heard the Ground Bridge portal opened a moment later.

"Fowler to base," he reported, "we're in."

"Good, their data core should be accessible from any console."

"Over here!" Seven shouted.

"Whoah!" Miko could be heard shouting. "Doc Knock is knocked out!"

"Yeah," Seven said, "And the ship was kind enough to decode two, no, three sets of coordinates for us."

"I'm coming up." Fowler declared.

"Why? Just toss me the drive."

"Fat chance." He argued as he began straining to climb Knockout. "OK, the drive's in."

"Uh, why is the warship heading for Manhattan?" Jack asked.

"That's probably where the first set of co-ordinates are." The Scientist suggested.

"What would a relic from Cybertron be doing in the Big Apple?" Fowler asked.

"The Iacon Relics landed on Earth eons ago, Agent Fowler," Ratchet explained. "long before the city was built atop it."

"Which means that if the ship wants this one," Jack realized, "it may have to move some buildings out of the way."

"Our mission just got complicated." Fowler declared. "How do we deter this ship?"

"I would suggest disabling the navigation module. Call up the main navigation menu."

"Seven, now would be the time to continue with your rescue mission." The Scientist suggested.

"Got it." Seven replied. A few seconds later, he laughed as a thump could be heard beside him.

"What happened?" the Scientist asked.

"The keyboard tazed Fowler."

The Scientist laughed too. "OK, where are they likely to be?"

"More than likely, Knock-Out's interrogation room." Seven reported as he began running down the hallway.

"SYSTEM ACCESS DETECTED. INTERFERENCE WILL NOT BE TOLERATED."

"Move fast." The scientist warned.

"REVEAL YOURSELF."

"Hah, yeah, OK." Seven said as he continued to search. "The ship doesn't see me." He laughed. "Have the Decepticons never encountered carbon-based life before us?"

"That's actually somewhat disturbing." The Scientist noted. "Maybe we really are alone in the universe, after all."

More than you can imagine.

"You're not alone," Ratchet repeated, "the galaxy has several other mechanical life-forms, on other far flung planets."

"But none like us?"

"No," Ratchet said, contemptuously, "none like you."

"Guys, we need to focus," Jack insisted, "millions of lives are at stake now, and we're the only ones who can do anything about it."

"Jack, this is too much!" Ratchet argued. "These readings, the ship's rapid recovery all point to the fact that Megatron employed Dark Energon to repair it."

"Hold on, if you're saying the ship is fueled by Dark Energon, we can dump it, right?"

"Hmm… You'll need to reverse the warship's energon infuser. Follow the main overhead conduits, they'll lead you to the power core."

"Base, I found Knock-Out's lab." Seven announced.

"And what is everybody's status?"

"Wow, um… I see Starscream."

"And? Is he in stasis lock?"

"Uh, no… It's safe to say he's been terminated. He's in more pieces than Breakdown."

"Hey… Hey, Seven! Is that you?!" Bulkhead asked him.

"Is that Bulkhead?" Miko asked.

"Yeah, it's Bulkhead." Seven confirmed. "He's uh… not looking too good either."

"I'm... urgh… fine," he insisted. "What's going on out there?"

"The ship mutinied." Seven explained. "Don't leave this room though, unless you want your circuits sizzled."

Bulkhead groaned in both pain and disappointment. "And here I was ready to start busting Deceptichops."

"To clarify for those listening, my team is also strapped to the tables next to Bulkhead." Seven noted. "Now, how do I get you guys out?"

"The squad's fine. Just out cold." Bulkhead explained. "There's a release switch on the table over there."

Another few seconds.

"Done." Seven announced.

"Good," Bulkhead grunted, "now to, whoah!"

A huge slam echoed through the speakers.

"What was that?" the Scientist demanded.

"Bulkhead's having issues walking." Seven said. "We're gonna have to tow him."

Bulkhead strained, and transformed.

Power hummed and three more mechs could be heard activating.

"Sir… we're alive?" one of the commandos questioned.

"Apparently that's debatable." The Scientist sneered over the mic. "One of you, hitch up to him and prepare to roll out."

"Got it," one answered, and transformed as well, "Sir, you may want to grab a weapon from the trunk."

Raf heard a trunk open.

"You have a lot of explosives in here, Agent…" Seven said.

"Yeah, I do…"

"What say you we thank the Decepticons for their hospitality?"

"You guys would love Wheeljack." Bulkhead noted.

"Yeah, We're gonna be a while." Seven said, no doubt affixing explosives around the room. "Two, Six, go see about assisting the others in the generator room. Follow the power conduits."

"Affirmative." The other commandos said in unison, transformed, and sped off away from Seven.

"How are things on your end, Jack and Miko?" Ratchet asked.

"Looks like Megatron had the same idea." Jack answered.

"The energon injection valve can only be operated manually." Ratchet instructed.

"That's gonna be a problem," Miko said, "There's about seventy metric tons of big bad holding the lever in place."

"Give me a boost." Jack requested, and began climbing Megatron.

"OK, Megatron's hand is pretty strong." Jack said. "I'm going to need a wedge or something to-"

"I AM INFESTED WITH ALIEN LIFEFORMS."

"That's bad." Miko understated.

"ALL PARASITES WILL BE ERADICATED."

"Miko, run!" Jack shouted.

"Coming from behind!" a commando shouted suddenly, and there was a huge crashing sound.

"Got the kid!" the other one announced.

"What just happened?" Ratchet asked.

"The MECHs just body checked Megatron!" Miko cheered. "And they got the lever!"

Raf could feel a difference. The persistent malevolence was fading, fast.

"CRITICAL POWER DRAIN. I AM… IN… COMMAND…"

It was just an ember now.

"PREPARE TO BE… NEUTRALIZED."

A low groan could be heard.

"Megatron's waking up." One of the commandos relayed, and transformed. "Get in."

He sped back away, and soon the other one did the same.

"Seven, are you done yet?!" Raf asked, urgently.

"Just about." He answered over the sound of welding in the background. "We're on our way."

Thirty seconds later, Jack told Ratchet to fire up the Ground Bridge.

"Wait, we gotta pick up Agent Fowler!" Miko shouted.

"Do we have to?" Seven asked.

"Yes!" everyone replied except for the Scientist.

"Fine. I got him in Bulkhead." Seven said a second later.

Another beep.

"That's all that downloaded?" Jack asked.

"Just four co-ordinates…" Miko said. "Just how big is this file?"

"Doesn't matter, let's just take what we can get!" Seven said. A transformation happened, metal hit metal, and then they all left through the Ground Bridge. Raf saw them arrive as the Scourge feed resumed.

The car that was towing Bulkhead transformed up, holding the transfer drive.

"You know, as enlightening as this joint mission was, I did violate protocol by doing it." Seven sighed. "I think something like this would be just the thing to bring back to base to get back into Silas's good graces."

"Seriously?" Bulkhead asked. "Now?"

"Would another time have been preferable, Bulkhead?" Seven asked.

"Seven. This is not the time for treachery." Optimus warned "Megatron possesses the same four sets of co-ordinates, and he will not hesitate to obtain the potential doomsday devices which lie at the site of each."

"Treachery?" Seven asked, feigning hurt. "I would never betray our allies like that. I was just letting you know that between rescuing Bulkhead and giving you this drive, you seriously owe us." He handed the drive to Ratchet, who quickly snatched it out of his servos.

Scourge slowly pushed himself up and looked at the screen, taking a snapshot of the locations displayed, and sending it back to MECH's base.

"Thank you, Scourge…" the Scientist muttered.

"We are now faced with a problem. If we are to have any hope of recovering the Iacon relics before the Decepticons do, we must divide our resources." Optimus stated, surveying the group. "Swiftness of action is paramount."

"But Optimus," Ratchet lamented, "we were already at a grave numbers disadvantage, but Arcee is now in stasis, and I haven't even had time to examine what those monsters did to Bulkhead, if he had to be towed here…"

"So now it is down to you, Bumblebee, and me."

"And Wheeljack!" Bulkhead chimed in.

"And Wheeljack." Ratchet sighed. "We are not exactly operating at maximum efficiency here. As it is now, we would have to send just one of us to each relic, and with Raf at MECH's base, and Agent Fowler unconscious, we would have nobody to manage the Ground Bridge."

"We could help." Seven offered. "Between my recon team, Scourge, and MECH-1's Sweeps, I'm sure we could make for good backup."

"I'd be happy to aid your hunt." Scourge agreed.

"MECH-1 will standby." The Scientist spoke through the Scourge mic.

"Optimus…" Ratchet began.

"Ratchet, you said yourself, we cannot afford to be discriminating."

"I said no such thing!"

"You kind of did." Jack noted.

Ratchet just shook his head and muttered under his breath.

"First things first." Seven added. "Can you bridge us back to base for a minute so that we can resupply and I can get a new suit?"

"And just where would this base of yours be?" Ratchet asked.

"Don't act like you haven't already been tracing our communications, doctor."

Ratchet scowled at him, and pulled the Ground Bridge lever, and a portal opened in the chamber directly beside Raf.

"Rafael has been awfully quiet, lately." Ratchet noted, inspecting the portal. "Perhaps I should check up on him…"

"I'm fine, Ratchet, everything's cool." Raf replied.

"Good. I would hate to find out that something had happened to you under MECH's watch."

"Nothing's going to happen to him." Seven repeated, the offense in his tone standing out from his usual calm. The three cars drove through the portal and pulled next to the Scientist.

"So," The Scientist began, once everybody showed up back at base twenty minutes later, including MECH-7 in a new car, and MECH-1's squadron, "Scourge seems to be completely repaired."

"Yes, I am." Scourge replied, inspecting his body, whose metal had completely stitched back together, sans paint. "It is most unusual."

"And are you mission ready?"

"Of course."

"And you, MECH-1?"

"Ready to fly." The mech in front replied.

"And you, MECH-7. Both factions of NBE's have the coordinates now, thanks to you."

"If not for me, only the Decepticons would have them." Seven pointed out.

"That is true." The Scientist scratched his chin. "And Scourge's quick thinking means that we have the coordinates and the element of surprise against the Decepticons."

Scourge nodded.

"Oh, and sir, I also brought something else you might be interested in." Seven pointed at the other members of his fireteam. The three of them popped the trunks of their cars.

Raf and the Scientist approached them and looked inside. Unicron's flame roared and pushed against his skin, compelling him to touch the contents.

Within each of the three trunks, glowing purple with raw chaotic energy, was a crate filled with pure Dark Energon.


On the next exciting chapter of A World Forged From Chaos:

-Re: Stinky Cheese

-Everybody was kung fu fighting.

-Look I'm just saying that I think humans and robots have clear differences that the Quintesson establishment doesn't want us to talk about.


AN: Next chapter releases in a week. Reviews are more than welcome.

Uh... I feel like I had something else to say. Don't remember, but I'll edit this space once I do.