7:30 was almost here and the last Transformer purred in contentment, blood dripping from a toothy grin. He threw the remaining half of a human soldier across the room, zipping past the three younglings' heads before splatting on the wall.
"Time to make an appearance once more, eh, my darling children? Be prepared to smile for the camera! No one wants their first 'interview' to look dreadful, now do they?" He smirked.
Flipping a few switches on the abandoned miniature broadcast dashboard, he hissed as he could see multiple camera views of humans either strolling in their daily lives or thousands of people, including police and the Army, gathering for his soon-to-be public announcement. Now it was time to see if the Darby clan was taking his threat to heart.
Using his digital coding to override the systems, he hacked into the television network and searched for the Darbys' as well as the others'. Finally, he could see through the flat screen they had. The brat's father and grandfather were there and a woman who reminded him of Carly Spencer, the girlfriend of Spike Witwicky, Sam's relative.
He spat the last name with utter malevolence. Sam was a pain in the fucking ass and his slut of a wife, Mikaela, was no drink of Energon either. One of them had taken out half of his face at one point which was a bitch, mind you, to repair! Good riddance to those two.
The clock's nine reset to a zero. At last, 7:30 had arrived. He switched on the camera and recorder before setting everything to make the broadcast commence. The people's reactions were immediately priceless.
"Attention, my pitiful little insects...and Darbys', 7:30 has come and now I shall keep my promise by showing you the surprise!" He turned on the second camcorder with the frightened and injured children in view.
"Recognize them? If you don't, that's because they took a bit of a...tumble...on our recent reunion. One of them seems to be slightly silent now which if you think about it, may be déjà vu to certain elders and especially me. Jack, my boy, you may remember something similar to this situation and even more so, dear Raphael...oh wait...he's dead now!"
"No...no!" Jack winced. "That tyrannical, evil fucker!"
Kaylana looked scared to her bones. "W-what does he mean!? What is he saying!? What did he do to my baby?!"
"She's mute, like Bumblebee was. S-she's lost her voice permanently by the same cruel monster who clawed out Optimus' son's. As if he couldn't go any lower…"
"Oh god!" His granddaughter cried.
"As for you, 'Kaylie', I look forward to seeing you in our next meeting and your expression as your daughter is crushed under my foot! You may find me near the former Sumdac Tower tomorrow night. I'll personally see to it you are made a nice appetizer to quench my revenge so you can join your runt and Sari Sumdac. Do remember to give the old girl a kiss from me! Wait a minute; I've already given her one! Well, a second never hurts! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Kaylana stared in horror as the TV turned to static, emitting a mechanical growl from the corrupted signal. "Oh God help us all!"
Isaac, Jason, and others who had gathered around their TVs had no words, only the sheer looks of terror molding on their faces. Jake and Miko had watched from the hospital with two nurses standing by and they too were frozen.
Of all the things Megatron could have done, it was this.
"Damn you! Damn you to Hell!" Isaac scowled angrily. Tears formed on the edge of his lower eyelids. He could do nothing as they fell into the stale cup of coffee below.
The following morning, everyone was stressed and judging by the faded dark circles below their eyes, none slept too well either. Some were loathing while others just sulked in their seats. The dreams, if any, had ended...and the true nightmare has begun.
"This is our last stand tonight. My last stand guaranteed," Kaylana said sourly.
Her father groaned, "Our last stand. I-I won't let you do this without me and I'm not returning if I can't save both of you. That's a promise!"
Jason stood silently with crossed arms as the two began arguing. When they finally brought their conversation to the children, he snapped. "Enough! We are not debating who's dying for who and for what reason, even if it is about getting them back! We're wasting valuable time! And I will not let Carrie, Connor, or Maia perish because you decided to fight about who does or does not leave with them! We act as a group! If one falls then that's that but it will be defending for all of us, NOT just the kids!"
Max huffed but didn't counter Jason. Instead, he resumed looking at the coordinates Megatron had texted Kaylana for where they are to meet in Sumdac Tower.
"'All for one and one for all', guys. A team effort is what we need, not individuality."
"Then I say if this truly is our final stand, I want to use whatever Jack has in his 73C storage cell. As long as it's Cybertronian or similar, it can be used as a weapon and may be used to buy Kaylie enough time to figure out how to destroy the brute," Isaac smirked. "What do you say, Darby? Mind if we raid your personal robot museum?"
Jack nodded but frowned, "I will need to retrieve something for you, Kaylie, but I'm afraid it will take me until tonight to get it so you'll have to distract Megatron for the time being. Find out if you can get the children away from there then strike once you have. I should reach you by the time you figure something out, due to the fact I know Megatron loves to stall at times to make encounters more 'painful'."
The men and Kaylana grinned. "It's payback time!"
Megatron flashed his signature bloody grin at the weeping children, observing how they cringed even greater when he drew closer. "Don't worry now! It'll all be over soon, my younglings. I promise you, you will be with you parents...soon. And you will live happily ever after with them…" He grabbed the partially torn plushy that reminded him of Predaking and slowly pulled its head from its body with his digits. His voice grew darker and coarse as he finished, "Forever."
Carrie was crying harder as her stuffed dragon fell to the floor beside her chair in a heap of its own cotton innards.
The former warlord merely glared at the child in disgust before turning away to monitor surveillance around the Tower. Impatiently, he tapped a scarred finger on the console. He knew Kaylana didn't have the guts to come alone but he also could tell she wasn't going to abandon her baby girl or the other two either. Parental instinct, such a disregarded sense in most humans.
It was almost six in the evening. Although he failed to specify when she should arrive, he wanted her at those coordinates before fifteen after nine at least. Tardiness was a factor he couldn't stand before and still can't stand now.
Seven o'clock...no sign of the brat. Eight o'clock...guess she doesn't really care for Maia. What a shame. Nine o'clock...finally. There stood Kaylana at the base of Sumdac Tower in all her little glory. Like a gladiator ready for battle. Megatron would be lying to himself if he didn't consider that quite a turn on as the Gladiatorial Pits and preparing to fight opponents such as her always aroused him. Too bad she was human though.
He felt his armor and joints creak as he stood to his full height. Admittedly, the human blood was not boding well. Rust spots became ever so visible over time around areas that could flex, limiting some of his mobility. It wouldn't hold him down though. No, he's been through worse.
He made his way to the windows peering across to the courtyard of the Tower before jumping through, using the building's walls as adequate support to slide down without injury. He would transform, but some problems regarding the limited mobility also lingered to his T-Cog as well. Of course, Kaylana heard him and much to his dislike, most of the neighborhood did too since so many lights lit up nearby buildings immediately after he clawed his way down.
He landed with a sickly thud, joints rumbling as if they were hollow. "So, you did come? And no Optimus here? Good! Such a shame about Maia though. To be fair, I didn't cause her vocal failure directly if that's what you're going to yell at me about," Megatron sneered.
Kaylana shook her head with a scowl ever so present, "No yelling, no chatting. I'm done...I just want you to die and get my baby home. That's all I wish for."
"Alright then. As the humans would say, 'let's dance'!"
The poor woman had little time to move out of the way of his servo as it came crashing down with malicious speed. She eventually found herself beneath his torso dodging all four limbs. Angrily he tried to move in all directions to get her in his sights, but she kept under him to buy her time to think of a plan.
Suddenly, he reared before slamming his entire body down but once again, she ran before he hit the ground. She winced as he roared ferally. It was obvious she couldn't verse him where she stood among his towering height, but perhaps a higher area? Then she remembered: Sumdac Tower! High enough that if Megatron fell, it would injure him greatly and if she hurt him enough, the fall would fatally make him succumb to his wounds. "Alright Tyrant, let's see how good you are high up without the ability to fly!"
Without warning, she heard gunshots. Oblivious to her surroundings, she turned and saw her father and Jason firing on Megatron, Jason's well-placed shot rupturing several wires under his shin armor. That definitely strayed the former warlord from his initial destructive path towards her. He turned relatively fast for a rusting mechanoid with a damaged leg.
Jason fired again, shattering his broken optic but before he could get another shot in, Megatron's arm snapped at him, hand catching him. With the force of a 100 mph car, the human was thrown the wall of the Tower. Bones made sickening noises that made Kaylana want to vomit. He slid down the side, a blood streak in his wake. She swore she could hear his lungs straining for a brief second before he stared blankly at her, pupils dilating.
Her radio lit up with Isaac's voice, "Kaylie!? Kaylie!? I found the children! There in an old broadcasting station, the building Megatron appeared from!"
Quickly, she brought the device to her mouth. "Isaac! Jason's dead! And my father is holding out for now! I need to go help him! Get Maia and the other two out of here, please!"
"Roger that!"
Apparently Megatron heard the radio chatter, for his remaining optic was now on his broadcasting station. "No!" Kaylana screamed as she ran towards the disgruntled mech. She ignored the sound of her father's pleas to stay and withdrew her gun. Firing several shots into his neck and shoulder, she went under and past him into the old station and immediately climbed the stairs, hoping he wouldn't try to go through the building rather than scale it.
"Isaac!"
"Kaylie?"
Kaylana saw him with Carrie and Connor but no Maia. She noticed his frown, "Kaylie, what are you doing here! You're supposed to distract Megatron, remember? Not bring him here!"
"First off, he heard me talk to you over the radio so he targeted this place and you! Secondly, where's Maia!?" Kaylana stressed.
The building instantly shook and Isaac quickly pulled the two children close to him. Megatron either was inside or preparing to climb outside...boy did she pray it was the latter. Connor suddenly spoke, "She's scared."
"What?" Kaylana looked around but still no sign of her baby. "Maia, sweetie, come out! Please! Everything's going to be okay! Please, baby, please!"
As the building began constantly trembling, getting louder as he got closer, a small shadow moved towards them before the hole in the structure let light hit it. There was Maia mouthing "Mama" over and over, tears staining green eyes. Quickly, she grabbed her mother's legs, welcoming the swarm of kisses she received. "Oh baby, I'm so sorry! But it's going to be okay now, alright?"
Isaac impatiently muttered, "Any day now to get the hell out of here before Satan's Robot comes to kill us would be really wonderful!"
Kaylana picked Maia up and ran, Carrie and Connor being held by Isaac followed. Down the stairs, ducking by any windows to prevent Megatron from seeing them, they hurried to the back door on the ground floor. Megatron seemed to have not noticed they went down so that's good. Isaac quickly set both children down before moving towards the exit. "Wait, I'll check to see if it's clear," he spoke quietly.
Kalyana nodded but noticed an unusual silence before harshly responding in a whisper, "Wait! It stopped!"
"What stopped?"
She pointed upward frantically. "The rumbles! He stopped!"
Isaac scoffed, "He's probably wondering where we went. He doesn't know we're down here. He probably thinks we're already out of the buil…."
Suddenly a servo broke through the floors above and scooped up Isaac who screamed ear-splittingly. Although she couldn't see Megatron from where she stood, his shadow seemingly tearing him apart told her exactly what was happening as his cries echoed still. Quickly, she pushed Carrie and Connor out the exit, running behind them as they made a break from the hidden menace. They reached Eddie who was coaxing newly arrived military tanks into positions that could allow them to shoot as far as the Tower if Megatron came into their sights.
"Eddie! Take the kids!" Kaylana screamed. The man turned to see two of the three children run past him into the squadron of awaiting soldiers who gladly took them to the nearest safe house. One waited for Maia who refused to let her mother go.
"Maia, sweetie, this may be the last time I see you but know that I will always be with you...even if you can't see me." She fought the tears building in her eyelids. Maia began crying which made her heart sink lower.
Maia stood there in silence, crying. She could tell her daughter wanted to say something like, "Please don't leave me, Mama! I love you!"
Kaylana closed her eyes, "I know and I love you too, but you have to be strong now, you hear? You have to be strong!"
The waiting soldier walked up to them before carefully prying Maia from her mother in which she put up a fight in response, crying even harder. Kaylana could only watch with guilt as her daughter was taken to the safe house, but she had to continue with her mission. "Goodbye, baby girl."
And she ran away. Tears finally breaking loose as she returned to the danger zone.
AN: I'm still a sick son of a bitch but I do it well. Not that anyone has complained yet to my knowledge.