Unknown location, Nemesis...
The Decepticon warship was in a grounded stare due to the actions of the autobot Bulkhead.
"Dreadwing, damage report." Megatron, leader of the Decepticons said.
"We have suffered critical damage to all major systems, lord Megatron." Dreadwing, the blue and yellow Decepticon SIC responded, stating what should've been obvious. "It will be some time before we can get the ship airborne."
"Soundwave..." The silent Decepticon communications officer played a video clip of Bulkhead wrecking the power core.
"So it was an autobot who crippled my vessel? They will move quickly to exploit any perceived weakness."
"Surely they're not foolish enough not to launch a direct assault my liege?"
"Optimus has grown decidedly more ruthless sense our last encounter." Megatron thought up of a plan. "And, if Airachnid's report is to be believed, it seems their pets are learning to fight back."
Nemesis engine room...
"Lord Megatron, as your physician, I strongly advice against this." Knockout voiced his concern "Dark Energon's regenerative properties are impressive, but the side effects - there is no telling how it might impact the ship."
"Dark energon courses through my veins. Infusing the warship will enable me to manipulate the craft as if we are one." Megatron's eyes started to glow purple. "And together we shall crush Optimus Prime.
Autobot Outpost Omega-1...
Bulkhead was telling how he took down the Nemesis.
"And when the insecticons suddenly backed odd, I got inspired by my proximity to the power core and did what I do best." Bulkhead slammed his fist together.
"You trashed Megatron's ride like Four Arms and Arcee did to Hex's plans!"
"Oh yeah! I remember Arcee told us about that. Didn't she make a one liner?"
"Yeah, she said 'And this is how you dethrone a rock lord'." Raf said.
"What ever that one liner was, we focus on taking out the 'cons and we should hit 'em right now while they're vulnerable."
"Megatron's warship may be grounded, but let's not forget that we remain vastly outnumbered, especially since he has added the Insecticon hive to his ranks." Ratchet stated.
"Then maybe it's time for me to call in an air strike."
"Or for us to consider more extreme measures, Agent Fowler."
"Like what? Sending Jack in as Humungousaur to wreck up the place?"
"Even more extreme than that." Optimus stated. "Ratchet, come with me."
Optimus and Ratchet went to the hall where they stored the relics they collected. One of the doors opened to reveal the relic within. It was the first one the Autobots had claimed.
"The spark extractor?" Ratchet was showing concern. "Optimus, are you certain that you want to travel down this path?" Ratchet entered the chamber with Optimus behind him.
"While I am deeply reluctant to deploy a weapon of this caliber, especially one forged by decepticon hands, this may be our only chance to end the war once and for all."
Back in the Nemesis fuel room...
The three fingered robotic arm that deposited energon cubes into the engine grabbed a cube of the purple Dark energon instead of the regular blue stuff. It deposited it into the loader. Megatron walked up and was about to throw the switch that would add the blood of unicron to the ship's power supply, causing all of the blue lights and tubing all over the ship to turn purple. The monitors suddenly had cybertronian runes on them. Deep within the ship, a spark was re ignited.
"I can feel it!"
Back at Autobot outpost Omega-1...
"Optimus, I'm detecting a massive energy spike at the decepticon crash site." Ratchet stated after he saw an energy signal that he was all too familiar with. "It appears to be dark energon."
Ratchet typed in the coordinates and activated the ground bridge.
"Autobots, transform and roll out." Optimus said. Arcee, Bumblebee, and Bulkhead transformed into their vehicle modes and drove through the Vortex.
"Hold on, Prime." Fowler got Optimus's attention. "If you are going to deploy some kind of super weapon in the final showdown in the 'cons, it's my job as a representative of planet Earth to bear witness."
"And you might need someone fast. Bumblebee might be fast, but I doubt he can dodge all the firepower from the entire decepticon army."
"What are you saying Jack?" Optimus asked.
"I'm saying," Jack transformed into "XLR8! Is faster than Bumblebee."
"Very well, you two may join us."
At the crash site...
The Autobot exited the ground bridge. Fowler got out of Optimus's vehicle mode before he transformed along with the others. Jack was still XLR8.
"Sweet lady liberty!" Fowler said when he saw something bad.
The Nemesis was airborne again.
"Oh you have got to be kidding me!" XLR8 yelled. "Okay, who said the words you should never say?"
"What words?" Optimus asked.
"Things can't possibly get worse."
Soundwave had the Autobots, XLR8, and Fowler on his visor via a live feed.
"Optimus, you never disappoint."
The Nemesis deployed it's cannons.
"Bumblebee, now, Jack, stand by to provide support."
"Got it boss bot, but I could provide more support as" XLR8 tapped the dial on his chest. "Diamondhead!"
Bumblebee transformed into his Urbana 500 alt mode and drove towards the nemesis.
"Arcee, Bulkhead, Jack, draw their fire!" The other three autobots and the petrosapien ran at the Nemesis. Fowler watched through a pair of binoculars. "Once you launch the spark extractor, be sure you clear its radius before it can activate."
Bumblebee transformed and ran toward the ship. A satellite dish like thing came out of a hatch and fired a purple beam at Bumblebee right as he jumped, causing him to lose his momentum and fall to the ground dropping the spark extractor. He was frozen.
"Bumblebee!" Optimus shouted.
"Mine!" Arcee grabbed the spark extractor and tried to get it to the destination. She was frozen too.
"No!" Diamondhead shouted. He tapped the dial again. "Waspinator!"
Knockout was impressed with what the ship had.
"I didn't realize this ship was equipped with a stasis beam."
"Neither was I." Megatron said.
Bulkhead ran over and pick up the spark extractor. He couldn't react fast enough and was blasted by the stasis beam.
Optimus avoided being shot by the stasis beam and managed to take the spark extractor out of Bulkhead's hand. He jumped and was about to throw it, but he too was shot by the beam. Waspinator took it out of Optimus' hand as he fell and tried to get it their, but he was also frozen. Waspinator however due to his biology not being completely, managed to tap the dial one again. "Big Chill!"
Fowler looked at what happened to Team Prime. The shadow of the Nemesis was overhead.
"So much for christmas in Fiji." Fowler said as the guns all pointed at him. But then the guns were retracted. "Huh?"
"The Spark Extractor! Guide us closer so that I may collect what belongs to me and destroy the Autobots."
"Um too late for that, Lord Megatron. Look." Knockout drew Megatron's attention to the Necrofriggian that picked up the Spark Extractor.
"Where did that thing come from?" Dreadwing asked.
"It is the one of the Autobots' pets. More specifically, the one who restored the memories of Optimus."
"Shall I terminated him?" Dreadwing asked. "We could use that device on his wrist as a bargaining chip."
"Let those who want the item on his wrist do that. I have made certain arrangements with someone in regards to that particular human."
A set of coordinates were decoded. The ship flew away towards the location, New York City.
"What?! Where are you going?!" Megatron demanded answers. "I said closer to the spark extractor!"
"Lord Megatron," A Vehicon spoke. "the ship seems to be navigating itself."
"Override!" The Vehicon did as it was ordered.
Megatron was losing his patience.
"The systems are bypassing manual control- ohhhhhhhhh!" THe soldier was disabled with a jolt of electricity.
"It appears that the ship now possesses a will of its own." Knockout stated something that fans of the Cybertron game series were aware of.
"Impossible! Trace the problem to its source and fix it!"
"Do not tamper with my systems!" A booming voice demanded. "This will be your only warning!" The decepticons were looking for the source of the voice.
"Warning?!"
"My mission assumes priority. Any cybertronian who interferes will be neutralized."
"My own vessel dares to address me in threatening tone?!"
A beeping was heard. Soundwave pointed to the set of decoded information.
Knockout went to inspect the ship's work.
"It also seems to be doing a better job of decoding the Project Iacon database than we were. It's already deciphered a new set of coordinates." Soundwave's visor showed the destination.
"And judging by our current coarse, that is precisely where the spih is headed." Dreadwing stated.
"As I desire. You see, this warship is nothing more than an extension of my very will."
"Your will is nothing! The Iacon artifact will belong to me!"
"I am lord Megatron! I command you to cease operations."
"You are no longer in command." The vessel sent a signal that caused Megatron great pain. "For I am Trypticon. The station where you discovered the substance that restored my spark."
After the pain subsided, Megatron issued an order. "Regain control of this vessel by any means necessary."
Soundwave attached his two tendrils to a terminal, but a bolt of energy arched up it, placing the spymaster in stasis.
"All hands, cut power to the mainframe and disconnect data relays now!"
Dreadwing and a squad of vehicons ran down a hall, but an array made of laser beams that were in a parallelogram pattern moved down the hall and placed them in stasis.
A squad of insecticons met the same fate, as did two workers who in all honesty were just repairing structural damage.
Back at Autobot outpost Omega-1...
The autobots had been moved back to the base where they were still immobile and positioned like sculptures.
Ratchet looked over the data on a monitor.
"They're alive, but I've never encountered this form of stasis lock."
"The 'cons are crossing the Atlantic, making a beeline for North America."
"Wait, we can track them?"
"Why aren't they cloaked as usual?" Raf asked.
"None of this makes a lick of sense." Fowler said. "The con's had us in their crosshairs, but the 'cons just took off."
"They even bailed on that spark extractor thingy." Miko stated.
"Well, if the ship isn't cloaked, maybe the communications relay is opened, and-" Jack was interrupted by Ratchet.
"Yep, yep. Are you suggesting that we just call megatron and ask him what's happening up there?!"
The four humans tacitly said 'why not?'.
Back on the Nemesis...
Knockout went to the room where, in events prior to this story were where Orion Pax decoded a few entries from the iacon database.
"Lord Megatron, the computer has decrypted a second set of coordinates." Knockout said. "Perhaps we should permit it to continue."
Knockout was shot by a miniature version of the cannon that disabled the Autobots, but despite its smaller size, the effect was the same.
"I do not require permission." Trypticon said.
Back with the Autobots...
"Autobot outpost Omega One to Decepticon warship. Megatron, please respond."
Unbeknownst to Ratchet, Megatron was sprinting towards the Nemesis' engine room.
"This mutiny ends now." Megatron boasted. He was about to remove the dark Energon cube, but was zapped by the stasis ray before he could finish the motion.
"Megatron." After several seconds of uncomfortable silence, they got a response.
"Megatron has been relieved of his command." Trypticon informed the autobots and humans.
"Who is this?" Ratchet asked
"Who is this?!" Trypticon responded.
"Have you taken control of the Decepticon vessel?"
"I am the vessel." Trypticon said. "Any Cybertronian who interferes with my mission will be neutralized." They were shown images, or maybe video footage of the frozen Decepticons.
"What mission?" Ratchet questioned.
"Priority one decrypt Iacon database and recover Decepticon technology." Trypticon stated
"For what purpose?"
"It hung up? Rude."
"Rude?! There's a giant spaceship flying around collecting Decepticon weapons of mass destruction!" Fowler stated the obvious.
"Actually, a giant spaceship filled with neutralized Decepticons." Jack said.
"Point?"
"This could be our only chance to slip aboard and download the Iacon database.
"So Optimus can decode it."
"I was gonna say Optimus or Grey Matter."
"Ingenious. Both parts of your plan. Optimus' knowledge of the code structure used by the archivist combined with the superior processing power of a Galvin brain. I will infiltrate the Decepticon warship."
"Not ingenious. You saw what it did to the Decepticons and Waspinator."
"And probably Megatron, too." Raf reasoned.
"And team Prime."
"But that tub had me dead to rights, and I'm still breathing.
"The ship may be blind to non Cybertronian life forms. When I turned into Big Chill it just ignored me. And based on Big Chill abilities, wouldn't he be a creature you guys would avoid?"
"Actually, Necrofriggians are invisible to Cybertronian sensors. Their bodies are so cold that thermal scanners won't pick up them, but optical sensors will." Raf said.
"Very well, Agent Fowler. But at the first sign of trouble, I am bridging you right back here." Ratchet said. "Now, in order to download the database, you will need a compatible transfer drive."
"A what?" Fowler was handed a Cybertronian sized flash drive that was the same shape as the key to vector sigma, but was thicker and bigger.
"He'll also need tech support." Raf said
"And backup." Miko spoke for herself and Jack.
On the Nemesis...
Jack, Fowler, Raf, and Miko exited the ground bridge.
"Fowler to base. We're in."
"Good. Their data core should be accessible from any console." Ratchet said over the Omnitrix comm link.
Raf gulped, but it sounded like he was going to barf out of nervousness. "H-here's one." Raf saw Knockout.
Miko banged on the shin of the frozen Decepticon. "Doc Knock is knocked out."
"Look." Raf pointed at the data the ship had decoded. The ship's decoded two sets of Iacon coordinates." A third set was revealed. "Three! Let's rip and run." Fowler climbed up Knockout. He helped Raf up as well. "There's the port." Fowler inserted the thumb drive and the download started.
Jack looked at a smaller screen and saw the warship's destination. "Um, why is the warship heading for Manhattan?"
"Because that is where first set of coordinates are located." Raf said.
Nobody questioned how Raf could read the Cybertronian runes.
"What would a relic from Cybertron be doing in the Big Apple?"
"The Iacon relics landed on Earth eons ago, Agent Fowler, long before the city was built atop it."
"Which means if the ship wants this one it may have to move some buildings out of the way." Jack said. "Why do I feel like I'm doing the opposite of what I already did?"
"What?"
"Guy who can control bugs. He didn't want his house destroyed so he kidnapped a member of the city council." Miko said.
"We can share war stories later. Our mission just got complicated." Fowler said. "How do we deter this ship? I've seen Humungousaur in action, he may be tough but he's nowhere near big enough to take on the ship. So, you got any sciency ways of doing the job?"
"I would advise disabling the navigation module." Ratchet said. "Call up the main navigation menu."
"There." Raf pointed at the proper button.
"Step aside, son." Fowler went to push it. When he touched it, he was zapped and lost consciousness and fell on the floor as a result.
"Agent Fowler!" Jack and the kids ran to check on fowler." Jack tripped and landed on the same panel. However, only his left hand touched the panel. A spark of electricity attempted to do to Jack what it did to fowler, but the Omnitrix, acting as a symbiote, absorbed the energy that would normally critically wound or even kill a human. But the Omnitrix got something out of this.
"Arburian Pelarota, Battasapien, Aerophibian, and Nemuina DNA unlocked." The Omnitrix said, the light of its dial shining through Jack's jacket.
"System access detected. Interference will not be tolerated." Trypticon boomed.
"There." Raf pointed at a security camera that was looking for them.
"Reveal yourself." It was looking directly at the kids, but couldn't detect them.
"It doesn't see us." Miko cheered.
"Yet." Ratchet deadpanned. "The ship must not be scanning for carbon-based life-forms. But once it widens its search parameters..."
"We're toast."
"I'm bridging you back."
"No." Jack wouldn't let something like this happen. "There are millions of lives at stake in New York, and we three are currently the only ones who can do anything about it."
"You're out of your element, Jack. These readings, the ship's rapid recovery all point to the fact that Megatron employed Dark Energon to repair it." Ratchet worked to reason with Jack.
"Hold on. If you're saying the ship is fueled by dark Energon, we can dump it, right?"
"Hmm. You'll need to reserve the warship's Energon infuser. Follow the main overhead conduits. They'll lead you to the power core."
They ran down halls of disabled Decepticons. They eventually came to the room with the power core. When they saw what was in that room, they all flinched back in fear.
"Megatron had the same idea."
"Then we're on the right track." Raf said.
"The Energon injection valve can only be operated manually."
"Manually?!" They were all shocked.
"Give me a boost." Jack started climbing up Megatron's body. He came to the shoulders and walked down his arm to the lever that he held on to. Jack tried to push, normally, he would transform but he didn't want to run the risk of alerting the ship.
Trypticon looked through one of the cameras and detected Miko and Raf.
"I am infested with alien life-forms!"
"Uh-Oh." Raf panicked.
"We just got made."
It was about to strike them with the manipulator arm, but Miko and Raf managed to get out of the way. Jack took this time to transform.
"Big Chill!" XLR8 announced. "Or XLR8. He's good too."
Miko and Raf were hitting in the spaces between stacks of Energon cubes.
"All parasites will be eradicated!"
"Hey! Over here!" XLR8 shouted.
"Jack, no!" Raf shouted.
"Run for it!"
"Good idea Miko." The claw was moving to try to crush XLR8, the kineceleran got out of the way in millisecond. "You're too slow!" XLR8 stood still. He waited for the claw to lunge at him. He slid out of the way, causing the claw arm to knock over Megatron, causing him to pull the lever. The purple light on the ship went back to being blue.
"Critical power drain. I am...in...command... Prepare to be...neutralized." Trypticon was no more, again, as the dark Energon cube exited the infuser.
"Megatron became limp as he came out of stasis lock.
"Run." XLR8 said. He picked up Miko and Raf and ran off, but he was reverts back to being Jack a moment later, forcing them to have to run on foot.
Back at the base, the other autobots were coming out of stasis lock.
"Thank the Allspark."
"Ratchet! Fire up the ground bridge!" Jack shouted over the Omnitrix's comm link.
They ran to recover Fowler. Miko helped him up. "On your feet, soldier."
"And beavers and ducks and walnuts and grandma?" Miko dropped him when he failed to make any sense.
Jack saw that only four sets of coordinates had been copied.
"That's all that's been downloaded?!"
"The Iacon file must be huge!" Raf said.
"Sa-weet! Come on! Here's our ride!" Miko and Raf carried fowler out of their.
"Jack?!" Raf noticed that Jack wasn't leaving with them.
"Get Fowler out of here." The other three walked through the ground bridge. "Some is better than nothing." Jack climbed up Knockout, who was confidently still in stasis. "I'm not leaving without that drive." Jack noticed that the Omnitrix had recharged. He transformed again. "Spidermonkey!"
Spidermonkey climbed up Knockout and tried to pull the drive out. However, Knockout then woke up and mumbled, which got the arachnichimp's attention.
"Say 'ahh'." Knockout deployed his drill.
Spidermonkey tapped the Omnitrix dial again. "Diamondhead!"
When knockout attacked the Petrosapien, his drill was destroyed.
Ratchet was standing behind Knockout."I'm here to offer a second the Decepticon medic turned around, he noticed that his drill and the condition it was in. "Or maybe a third." He punched Knockout, making him crash into the console.
That distraction gave Jack enough time to pull the drive out. He jumped down and ran through the ground bridge with Ratchet behind him.
Knockout recovered right as the ground bridge closed. "Lord Megatron, I-"
"You let them escape," he saw that there were now four sets of coordinates decoded. "with vital intelligence."
Autobot outpost omega-1...
"The download of the Iacon database may have been incomplete, but we now possess four sets of coordinates decoded by the ship." Ratchet stated.
"Then we must act quickly, for Megatron possesses the same four sets. And he will not hesitate to obtain the potential doomsday devices which lie at the site of each." Optimus said.
To be continued...
Chapter end.
A.N. Off screen, we had Dreadwing's arrival, Wheeljack's return, Breakdown's Death, Airachnid imprisonment, and MECH finding Breakdown's corpse.
No new aliens, but there were a few new ones unlocked. To find out which ones, you'll just have to wait and see.
Next time, we're going back to New York, but staying underground.