The Battlefield
"Prepare for extermination!" came the mighty bellow of Devastator as he finally reached his objective, hurling himself at the back of Unicron's ankle and powering up his right hand, sinking his drilling fingers deep into the metal and tearing. His steamshovel left hand followed suit, slashing a wide gash in the metal. The raw power of three Constructicons and a slew of building machines was doing fine work tearing into the thick armor of Unicron, exposing vital circuits and servos.
Bulkhead assisted, showing Devastator where to hit and keeping his back, protecting him from the drones that tried to intervene. His whirling wrecking ball proved a daunting barrier to the bat drones, and his crushing feet a hindrance to the spider drones. Unicron's defenses, however, were relentless, and in moments Bulkhead was being beaten back.
"Uh hey, big guy? Might wanna shake a stabilizing servo! We got serious bad company here!" he called out over his shoulder.
"Raaugh!" roared Devastator, lifting up both of his arms and letting the turbine in his chest begin to spin, mixing up a concotion not unlike Mixmaster would've done. Moments later, his neck bulged and his jaw quivered, and then the great Devastator spewed a wave of green acid at Unicron's internal circuitry, frying them and melting clean through to the ground. The great destroyer gave a mighty roar, shaking the sky, and even Bulkhead knew that had to have hurt him. Even so, Unicron didn't slow down one bit, and in the distance they could see his drill arm extending lower, burying deeper into the surface of the Earth. The surface which was starting to shake ominously now.
He tapped the side of his head, activating his comm link. "Prime! Better hurry up, we're running out of time here."
"Acknowledged," came his leaders voice. "Keep Unicron busy, we're almost there."
"You got it!" he shouted, and reared back his wrecking ball for another strike, determined to give Devastator the space he needed to... well... devastate Unicron. Determined to give Optimus Prime and his friends time to finish their jobs.
Earth wasn't getting demolished on his watch.
Inside of Unicron
Some Transformers were lucky in that, when they took a stasis nap, they remembered little between drifting off to stasis and re-activating the next day. Ratchet was not one of these. When he went into stasis, he remembered. His processor ran overtime, always calling up images of the Great War he'd managed to (somehow) survive. His encounter with Arcee and Lockdown, which had changed his life. The fall of Omega Supreme. A battle with a Decepticon specialized in poisons. Sometimes the code got corrupted, and he'd run through a memory with a more pleasant outcome, himself and Arcee escaping Lockdown to settle down on a nice planet on the fringe of Autobot territory until the war had ended. Other times, they got much, much worse... and they never escaped at all.
Lockdown had been a recurring nightmare of his for stellar cycles. Scarce wonder he had frozen in terror when he'd met the muscle car punk again on Earth. But to save Optimus Prime he'd conquered his inner demons and faced Lockdown, and given himself a measure of peace with the facts of what had happened that bleak day millennia ago.
Now, helpless to do anything but watch as the dread Lockdown advanced on the helpless Arcee, all those nightmares came rushing back to him.
"Arcee! Get out of here! Run!!" he yelled, struggling vainly against the trap with his single good servo. Alas, it was on the wrong side, and he couldn't aim his magnetic clamp properly. He was good and stuck until someone freed him.
Lockdown loomed over the smaller intel Autobot, but to his puzzlement, she didn't even flinch. Something in her optics was wrong. They were clear of worry, of doubt, of fear itself. Her entire stance was different too. Seemingly without moving, her stance had gone from timid to confident.
Idly rubbing a hand along his claw, Lockdown decided to try this the polite way. It never worked, but he prided himself on being a professional. "Now now little femme, no need to make a fuss about this. Come back with me to the Predacon, and we'll just do a quick, painless scan of your processor."
"Don't listen to him!" spat Ratchet.
Lockdown barely spared the older mech a glance as he continued on. "... otherwise, we do this the hard way... and you won't..."
A servo came out of nowhere, catching Lockdown full in the face and knocking him clean off of his feet. Tiny though Arcee was, that was a damn good sucker punch she'd just delivered, and he fell flat on his skid plate, rubbing his jaw as he regained his feet. The pink femme took up a stance, servos upraised to serve up more.
In a stance Lockdown recognized, no less.
"Metallikato?" pondered the mismatched bounty hunter. "Where the heck did you learn metallikato, little femme?" His tone was casual, his own movements deceptively calm, but in an instant Lockdown struck, thrusting out his arm and launching his hook in a wide arc to snag Arcee. However, the pink femme seemed to dodge the move so fluidly she might have choreographed it, letting the hook clatter to the ground as it sailed over her head.
Arcee took advantage, springing forward into a handstand and almost effortlessly shifting into the form of her white and pink motorcycle bike. Her form carried her forward as her wheels began to spin and she launched herself from a standstill right at Lockdown, her rear wheel catching him right in the face and leaving tire tracks as she landed behind him.
"You'd be surprised," replied Arcee darkly as she stood back up, assuming robotic mode. Lockdown frowned as he yanked back his hooks cord and let it snap back into place on his wrist. There it was again. That eerie feeling. Curious, he ran the reply through his processor, filtering out Arcee's previous vocalizer patterns. Underneath, there was a second pattern, almost inaudible, but when magnified...
Crimson eyes widened in horror. "No way... Prowl?"
The pink and white transformers moved to depart, when Arcee bumped into the forcefield erected over the doorway and stumbled backwards, clutching her head. A mild shock had run throughout her system...
In that instant, a flicker, a jolt, arced between the All-Spark concealed within her and her own spark. And Prowl, ever vigilant, made his move.
... blinking her optics, she relied on Jazz to support her as Alpha Trion, belatedly, lowered the force field, apologizing profusely.
Arcee smirked and lifted her head up, letting her helmet's lower portion shift and slide out to cover her delicate features, leaving only her blue optics visible above. Just like her motorcycle alt mode, it was not something she'd been able to do, even during the Great War. It was something Prowl knew, however. And he'd downloaded his... spirit, for lack of a better term, directly into her when she'd come into contact with the All-Spark. Along with all of his programming.
Programming Arcee took full advantage of as she launched herself forward in a classic Coiled Spring Kick move. Caught off guard, Lockdown took it full in the chestplate and was sent flying. He landed flat on his backside, though he quickly regained his feet and charged, letting his regular hand assume its chain saw shape. Powering it up with a mighty 'rhrrrr' he swept at Arcee, who nimbly dodged and ducked the blows with classic Circuit-Su moves. Moves she had never even heard of before this day. Let alone practiced.
Noticing her close proximity to Ratchet, the pretty pink femme deftly sidestepped the next attack and grabbed Lockdown's wrist, pulling him into his downward swing so he neatly severed in half the energon lance which was keeping Ratchet pinned down. She then retaliated with a kick that sent Lockdown reeling back, grumbling and glaring.
"Cute trick little femme," he muttered, returning his servo to its normal shape and flexing his fingers. "But you're not the only one with tricks up your sleeves," he muttered, as a pair of compartments slid open to either side of his hips, like a pair of holsters on a western gunfighter. Reaching inside, Lockdown withdrew his close combat weapons of choice... two halves of an energon naginata, which he joined together and gracefully twirled over his head and then before him in a figure-eight pattern, showing devastating skill. "Oh, didn't Prowl tell you? I was Yoketron's prized student. And I don't need your head attached to your torso to get the data tracks out of it either," he added menacingly.
Arcee glared back at him, no fear showing, as she reached down and tugged loose the energon lances two halves and lifted them up, improvising a crude pair of swords and taking a fighters stance. She wouldn't go down easily, her stance said.
The Field of Battle
Satisfied that Optimus Prime and his team was taking a stab at Unicron's spark (and if anyone could do it, it would have to be the team that had been routinely making a mockery of his top lieutenants for the past stellar cycle) Megatron activated his thrusters and climbed up into the air to survey the conflict.
Taking quick stock of the situation, Megatron saw that most of his troops had broken down into smaller factions, if any. In fact, most had gone solo in an effort to keep their own chassis intact when the swarms of Unicron's drones came for them. Disgusted by their lack of unity, Megatron's body folded in on itself as he assumed the tilt-rotor form he had adopted on Earth. He took a wide arc, blasting with his fusion cannon.
"This is Megatron to all functioning Decepticon units. Victory is at hand! But we must strike now while Unicron is weakened!"
Various cheers came from across the battlefield from his scattered troops, who picked themselves up and threw themselves back into the fray with renewed vigor. Several Starscream clones in jet mode swept past in a tight V formation, peppering Unicron with null blasts as Blackout covered their flank, slamming his fists together to EMP blast a swarm of drones out of the air, sending them crashing to the ground. Megatron was about to swoop in on another opened flank but he was momentarily stunned as an orange and blue pair of cybertronian jets streaked past and beat him to the punch, blasting away at Unicron with fire and wind attacks. However, they were quickly getting in over their heads.
Deciding to give his erstwhile allies some backup, he opened his comm link again. "Blitzwing, Lugnut, back up those two flying Autobots!"
"At once, glorious leader!"
"Of course, right away sir... little punks think they can show me up?! I'll show them who can bring the heat...!"
Satisfied, Megatron was about to call in some reinforcements when he saw how badly the earth was starting to shake. Badly. Small fissures were opening up all over the place, and he could literally see ripples forming in Lake Eerie and the river traversing throught he human city. Doing some rough calculations, he estimated the planet had perhaps twenty-five or thirty minutes until it reached the breaking point and there was no way to reverse the damage. In other words, a massive explosion.
A Decepticon slipped over beside him, and he recognized his cowardly subordinate Starscream even before the grating voice reached his audio receptors. "Megatron, we have to fall back. This Unicron is way to big for us to destroy, we're not even tickling him!"
"He's right," added the female Starscream, Slipstream, as she came up on his other flank. The three of them cut a wide arc on their next attack. "We need to go now, while we still can."
"We will continue to fight," replied Megatron. "You two will continue your assault until I give the order otherwise. Now attack!"
Issuing near identical groans of disgust, the two harriet jets streaked forward and back into battle.
Megatron would have frowned were he in robot mode, pondering over the possibilities of how and even if to escape with the least amount of fuss. Weighing factors: Decepticon Pride. Decepticon Survival. Autobot Interference. Starscream Interference. But in the end, he felt this was best for his races survival. The Decepticon Cause had to survive.
He would order a slow withdrawl. Leave the traitor Starscream and his remainnig clones on the front line (they were hardly true Decepticons anyway) while he had the ground troops retreat to the Darksyde. Then, in one instant, the whole Decepticon Force would retreat. The Autobots would be unable to stop them if they were fast about it. He would also need to send someone to pick up Shockwave. Probably Lugnut, if he could be trusted not to drop his competition for "most loyal troop."
Megatron prepared to give the order for his loyal troops to begin a slow, tactical withdrawl, when a number of sharp stings lit up his side as the Unicron spawned hell bats took after him in greater numbers. One had the audacity to land on one of his shoulder wings and tried to dig its teeth in.
Enraged, Megatron transformed and swung out with his sword, severing the drone clean in half. And then another and another. Six more came at him from the side but he obliterated them with a blast from his fusion cannon. However, the insufferable spawn of Unicron were more treacherous and clever than they seemed at first glance. Two took advantage of his distraction to aim their lasers at his heels. Not very powerful blasts, they wouldn't do him in, but they were able to short-circuit his stabilzing thrusters. In essence, they cut his ability to fly.
He plummeted towards the Earth in free-fall, unable to catch himself, without enough time to signal for someone to catch him (even if he could stomach the idea of asking for help), unable to even slow his descent as the hard earth rose up to meet him.
Unicron's Upper Back
Bumblebee went rolling across the orange plating of Unicron's broad backside, wide as several football fields, and tried to scramble to his feet and open a volley of stinger blasts against Waspinator's iridescent hide. The bigger bug zipped out of the way and swooped around wide for another attack, staying well out of reach of his former comrade. The yellow bug bit back a curse. He had to get back to Sari and Optimus Prime. She at least was in trouble, he knew it. Whatever Waspinator was up to was bad news.
"Get out of my way Waspinator, I haven't got time for this!"
"Bumblebot will MAKE time!" buzzed Waspinator as he came in low and pelted the surface of the mighty planet destroyer with green energy blasts. Bumblebee was forced to duck aside, and slid his stingers away so he could make use of his servos and grab a hold of Unicron's back when he slipped and nearly went careening down over the side to his death. A fall from this height would easily liquefy him. Grimacing, he hauled himself back up onto his stabilizing servos and was ready to try and get another bead on his enemy when Waspinator slammed into him and knocked him flat on his back. His larger arms grabbed a hold of Bumblebee's elbow joints and pinned him down, even as his smaller limbs clawed at his chassis. Bumblebee grimaced as his adversary glared down at him angrily.
"Wazzpinator never forget Bumblebot. Bumblebot betray him. Bumblebot have him locked in the Stockade. Bumblebot drive him to Spider-Lady to make him into thizz... thizz THING!" he roared, and his smaller arms increased their frenzied clawing, tearing into the yellow paint job and starting to dig deeper as the yellow mech squirmed and struggled to free himself. Alas, he was outmatched. Waspinator was bigger and stronger and unlike he, had four arms to his two. He was thoroughly pinned.
Suddenly, however, Waspinator stopped, and leaned in until his ugly, malformed wasp's head face was right in front of his one-time enemies. "But itzz okay," he buzzed in an almost friendly tone of voice. "Wazzpinator is pleased. Wazzpinator is POWERFUL now. Wazzpinator have everything he ever wanted. So to repay Bumblebot... WAZZPINATOR WILL TEAR YOU TO PIECES!" he roared, and digging his claws in, began to pull. Bumblbee winced as the stronger techno-organic began to literally rend him servo from servo. His entire yellow frame began to creak in protest as Waspinator seemed intent on doing just what he'd said.
It was hopeless. Wasp in his prime could do everything he could do and then some. And now that he was Waspinator...
Bumblebee's azure optics widened in realization. It just hit him. Now that Wasp was Waspinator, there were key difference between them. And it started with wheels.
The yellow speedster had previously been trying to push Waspinator up and off of him. Now he lay flat and quick on his back, throwing the green bug off balance as his wheels on legs and shoulders slid out and revved up. Without warning he took off. His initial plan was to throw off his enemy, but Waspinator clung on, and so he modified it and tilted his trajectory into a rising bit of Unicron's orange back. Being short had never been such an advantage when he hit the breaks and stopped with the tips of his horns hitting the obstruction. By contrast, bigger and sturdier Waspinator hit at almost forty miles an hour and stumbled backwards, clutching his head and cursing up a storm, his wings fluttering angrily to keep his balance.
Graceful as clockwork, Bumblebee sprang to his feet and unleashed his stingers, slapping his servos together to augment the blast as he aimed at Waspinator. The shot knocked the larger bug off-balance and nearly over the side before he lifted up into the air to regain his advantage.
"Wazzpinator make you pay for that!"
For once, Bumblebee grinned. Always before, Wasp had been a name that terrified him. Ever since he'd accused him at Boot Camp he'd been the enemy, and a terrifying one at that. But ever since Prime had suggested he apologize... and he had... the burden, the guilt, of turning him in had gone. Deleted. Anything Wasp had done now was on his head, not Bumblebee's, and now he was just an overgrown bug on the windshield. And Bumblbee had the edge. He wasn't afraid anymore. "Put on my account!" he spat back as he zipped to the side with his 'wheels on heels' move, peppering the air with stinger blasts. Waspinator retorted in kind with the organic energy weapons he now had, and the two duked it out across the surface of Unicron for a while.
Waspinator's attacks soon became more and more frenzied, and Bumblebee returned in kind. He still had a job to do, after all, and squashing one bug wasn't in it. However, he had also had to watch his step. Not only could an uncontrolled slide send him careening off of the side of Unicron and to a splattered death, the surface of Unicron was peppered by exhaust vents not unlike the tiny pores of a Transformers metal skin. They occasionally burst in a most violent fashion, sending up waves of white-hot steam with such force they may as well have been plasma cannons. For all Bumblebee knew, they were. He steered around them. Waspinator had no such distraction in the air.
"Wazzpinator superior!" crowed the techno-organic monster, doing a loop in the air to prove it. "Wazzpinator controls the air! Bumblebot just helplezzz Autobot without wingzz!"
"Who needs wings?! I got rockets!" replied Bumblebee, and angled himself properly. This was going to be a gamble, but it was the only real chance he had. Plates slid aside on his back and his turbo jets slid into place. Prepping himself for a very messy landing if he was wrong, he angled himself directly at Waspinator and kicked into maximum burn flat out. He flew off of the back of the planetary destroyer like a missile out of a silo, and slammed into the big bug with enough effort to bend him at the midsection so hard he almost snapped in half.
Waspinator clung on, however, and the two of them spun and clawed and fought in mid-air. Waspinator slammed his fists into Bumblebee's back, cracking his chassis from the force of the blow. Bumblebee reared back a servo and suckered him in the gut with it, taking advantage of the somewhat softer hide of a techno-organic as opposed to the solid plate of a proper Cybertroninan.
Claw. Fist. Blast. Sting. Bite. Rip. Kick. Tear. The two enraged opponents fought one another with every ounce of strength in their bodies, even as they tumbled out of control in the air, only to slam back down atop of Unicron again, this time along one of his shoulders, and go flying in opposite directions to collapse. Bumblbee was a mess, and Waspinator wasn't looking too much better. Purplish fluid, not quite mech fluid and not quite blood, was leaking from all over his body. But he was still plenty strong and he struggled to his freakishly clawed feet.
"Owww..." muttered Bumblebee, trying to stumble back to his feet. But he couldn't. One of his legs was slagged, the circuits must've been fried by impact. He couldn't move it. Waspinator, slowly healing, was making his way towards him to administer the final blow. Already his tiny limbs were powering up, green energy coalescing around them as he leered down at his one time enemy, his enemies, the single bot that had, in one fell swoop, ruined the entire course of his life. His purple eyes were practically glowing with maniacal hatred.
"Any lazzt wordzz?"
Bumblebee lifted his head weakly, and then his weak grimace became a grin.
"Yeah... enjoy your flight!"
He thrust out his arm and switched to his stinger, unleashing a blast. Not aimed at Waspinator, such a meager thing would've barely irritated the bug, but at his feet. And, more specifically, the exhaust vent he was standing on. Realizing his dilemma an instant too late, Waspinator's face was almost comical in its terror and shock as the vent activated. The burst of steam hit with the force of a tidal wave, rocketing the green monster up into the air and far out of sight. Bumblebee lost sight of him in seconds, and grinned.
"Later, loser... I got places to be," he said. Transformation was painful but he bit back against the harm he was doing to his body and took off down along Unicron's hunched back. One of his wheels didn't quite work but three was still enough to carry him along. He needed to get back to the entrance he'd come out of and retrace his steps. Hopefully in time to save Sari and give Optimus Prime the backup he needed.
The Field of Battle
The ground trembled again as the Dinobots took to the field, charging across it with roars that echoed across the landscape, terrifying human and Autobot alike. The mindless drones gave no sign of having heard anything, but this quickly changed when heavy feet came crashing down and flaming weapons swung through the air. Grimlock was at the head of a sudden wave that beat back the forces of Unicron with a surprising intensity. Several Autobots fell into line beside the Dinobots, including Rodimus and his team.
"Out of me Grimlock's way!" roared the mighty transformer as he swung his flaming sword, crashing through a residential district and smashing more than a few houses along with the drones. People were already fleeing in droves, and the sight of the Dinobots did nothing to reassure them. If anything, they panicked even more.
Rodimus hit his comm link. "We need to clear these brutes out of here, they're getting in the way. Anyone got an energon lasso or something?"
A car came crashing down beside Rodimus, smashed to pieces by the rampaging Dinobots.
"Or maybe a fusion bomb?" he asked.
A voice cut across the line. "No, wait, we could use their help! They mean well!" replied Bulkhead. "In fact we could use them here. Drive them towards the back of Unicron's foot, we're making some progress here."
"Roger," replied Rodimus, then fired a arrow past the Dinobot's heads. A warning shot. "You guys come this way, you're needed!"
"No one tells me Grimlock how to fight!" roared the mighty behemoth, assuming his T-Rex form. He began to give chase after Rodimus, but after their last encounter, he almost expected that. Swiftly slipping into vehicle mode, he led them on a merry chase to exactly where he wanted them. Ironhide and Brawn went speeding past him to meet them all there. When they arrived, they found Devastator and Bulkhead, surrounded by enemies. Rodimus transformed back to robot mode and stepped up beside his comrade, opening fire with his arrows, bringing down more of the attack bats while Bulkhead proceeded to smash the spider bots heading their way.
Roaring, Grimlock assumed robot mode and lit up his sword again, letting flames lick along the blade as he started smashing drones, evidently having forgotten the entire reason he chased after Rodimus to begin with. Snarl and Swoop moved in to join them, the latter providing much needed aerial support.
"We need the Dinobots to light up the chemicals Devastator has been pouring into Unicron's leg," said Bulkhead, as he stepped on one of the drones and crushed it underneath his foot. "Grimlock! We need a hand here! Only you Dinobots can do it! 'cause, uh... you're the toughest around!"
Brawn took a hit then, one of the lasers from the bat drones lancing through his shoulder. He stumbeld and cried out, falling to his feet as he clutched his shoulder with his servo. The strong Autobot warrior was just about reaching his limit, but strain was evident in all of those present.
"Give him a hotfoot!" shouted Ironhide, as he stood in a defensive position over his fallen comrade Brawn, trying to draw the enemy fire so it would harmless bounce off of his steel chassis.
Grimlock nodded, and reversed his grip on his sword, jamming the flaming end into Unicron's massive heel. Swoop and Snarl performed similar actions.
"Dinobots... DE-STROY!!"
As one, the three prehistoric transformers increased power on their weapons, pouring them up to full blast, and Unicron roared high above as heat overloaded his pain receptors. Angered at the burning sensation. Growling with a dangerous expression on his face, the ground shook as his foot slowly began to rise up...
"Get clear!" shouted Bulkhead.
Rodimus quickly transformed and burned rubber, speeding out of the residential district and past a nearby high school, pausing only to pop open his top and scoop up a family of humans that wouldn't have made it out of the way in time.
Ironhide and the Dinobots could only watch in a sort of horrified awe as the foot continued to ascend, spelling their certain doom. But none of them could move. They were frozen with terror. So it was that Bulkhead threw forward his arm and unleashed his wrecking ball, swinging in a wide arc. The projectile missed Ironhide by scant inches, but the thick cord didn't, wrapping around his comrade as Bulkhead gave a hard yank, tugging him to safety. He fell hard against Bulkhead, nearly knocking the larger Autobot over.
"Thanks, Mudflap," he said, not in an unkind fashion either.
Unicron's massive foot lifted still higher, seeming to blot out the sky above the Dinobots. And for an instant, they had an inkling of what it had been like for their original designs. When the meteor had come from afar to make them extint.
"Uh-oh..."
Grimlock's famous last words, for in that instant, he and his two Dinobot cohorts, along with Brawn, were swiftly crushed under Unicron's heel into so much scrap. Devastator was hurled back by the impact, knocked clean off its feet, and sent tumbling backwards into an open crevice caused by the shifting of the Earth. Its steam-shovel hand came up to try and halt its fall, digging deep into the ground but ultimately, this would not be enough to save it. It was simply too heavy. With a mighty roar, Devastator fell into the crevice and vanished from sight.
Inside of Unicron, Spiders Trap
"How the heck did you even find us here?" she asked, tugging at the webbing holding fast her wrist. She may've been stronger than a fully organic girl her size but this stuff held Autobots down like it was steel.
Black Arachnia smirked.
A comm link opened on his private frequency. A channel only select Decepticons were able to access.
"I know about your little mission to infiltrate the great destroyer," purred the voice of Black Arachnia. "I've been listening in on the private frequencies of both teams. All I want is the girl... the techno-organic Sari..."
Shockwave tilted his head to the side, and would have frowned if he had the facial features to do so. "But Lord Megatron..."
"No one will miss her if she suffers some accident inside," she replied quickly, cutting him off. "All I want you to do is keep me informed of her movements. And when she reaches a certain point... do nothing. That's all..."
He paused briefly before jogging to keep up with the other Autobots. "Understood."
"I have my ways," cooed Black Arachnia as she stepped onto the web and effortlessly slid into her robotic form. "Waspinator is keeping your Autobot friends busy while we have our little chat, but we do not have long. Now, be a good little girl and just surrender. You and I are going to get out of this hell hole and off this planet before it cracks, find somewhere nice and quiet and have a long little chat. Right?"
Sari swung up her free arm, energon blade activated.
"Not a chance, Deceti-creep!"
But to her surprise, the spider smirked. "I thought you might feel that way," she said, and let one of her spare legs loosen the strand of webbing it was holding. Lowering from a hidden alcove above became visible...
"DAD!"
Black Arachnia smirked and brought up one of her other spider legs, with its very sharp edge, to where Professor Sumdac dangled, cocooned in spider-webbing and hanging upside down helplessly as Sari watched.
"Come with me... or your daddy dearest dies."
Inside of Unicron
Energon naginata came whistling down, but Arcee crossed her makeshift swords up in front of her to block it, the blade inches from her masked face. She retaliated with a swift kick that Lockdown neatly dodged this time, making an expert twirl to try and swinging around the naginata to decapitate her. She ducked and rolled, coming up swinging.
Swords and naginata clashed, sometimes dangerously close, but try though they might, neither the schoolteacher-turned-cyberninja nor the factionless bounty hunter land a telling blow. Breathing heavily, Arcee allowed her faceplate to retract. She wasn't going to last much longer, she realized. She may've had Prowl's instincts, his skills, but her body was smaller and more delicate than his had been, and was unused to this kind of stress. She just didn't have the endurance. Lockdown, on the other hand, seemed to have stamina to spare, and advanced on her, sensing her weakness.
What she wouldn't give to know how to use that Processor-over-Matter trick at this point.
"You're not too bad, little femme," he remarked as he gave another thrust of his naginata, one she barely avoided this time before it sliced her in two at the midsection. "Can't say I care much for the color, but I'm sure I can find something to keep behind as a trophy once we're finished here. Then again, maybe I'll-..."
Arcee cut him off in mid-sentence as she threw one of her makeshift swords at him. He ducked to avoid getting impaled, but that was what she was hoping for, an in an instant, she was executing a flawless Five Servos of Doom attack. Each blow connected with devastating. Like a trained master, she knew exactly where to hit to inflict maximum damage, to set off the circuit-clusters that would overload a transformers brain and render them unconscious. Lockdown was tougher than most, but she hit expertly, and after a second of gaping in awe, he collapsed forward, his naginata rolling off into the darkness.
She brushed imaginary dust from her shoulder as she remarked, "You talk too much."
Seemingly between one breath and the next, the confident, hardened Arcee was replaced by her usual compassionate, innocent self as she turned back to make sure Ratchet was already, helping him lift up the fallen trap enough for him to slide onto her side and stumble to his feet. He leaned against her for support as he gave a quick diagnostic. His left arm was damaged, and he couldn't move his fingers or activate the clamp, but the other was working fine. She had only superficial damage, a few dents and dings that a little buffering would fix right up.
Out of the corner of his optic, however, Ratchet spotted a dark figure making his way towards one of the adjacent corridors, and realized Lockdown was about to make a break for it.
"Oh no you don't!"
His undamaged arm came up and his EMP generated slid into place. A bolt of yellow energy lanced from it to hit Lockdown square in the back. With a strangled cry of surprise, the bounty hunter pitched forward and came crashing down onto the floor with a thud. Ratchet poured on some extra energy, not wishing to chance that Lockdown would have worked out a counter for his EMP, and blasted him again, and again, until he was well into stasis-lock. Grimacing, Ratchet retracted the EMP and used the same arm to grab up some stasis cuffs he'd kept on hand for such an occasion. Well, more like a memento of his time on Earth, really, rounding up Decepticon scum. But they were still functional, and after a moment, they adorned Lockdown's wrist as his latest and, he hoped, last trophy.
"We... we have to reunite with Prime and the others," said Ratchet weakly. He stumbled, a little weak from the overuse of his EMP and his injuries, but Arcee was there to catch him, supporting him, his one useless arm around her shoulders.
The pink femme smiled up at him. "This time, I've got you."
The Heart of Unicron
Finally, they reached their destination. Stumbling down the last corridor, Optimus Prime and his now much smaller team finally reached the very spark of Unicron. For no other place could it be. A wide, empty chamber as big as the Tigertron stadiums in Detroit. It curved along the edges, which held many more tunnels leading throughout the body, until it reached the roof. And there, set in the ceiling like a great light, was the pulsating, crimson-tinted spark of Unicron. It was enormous, easily twenty yards across, but it was a spark.
"Well, we've arrived..." intoned Shockwave, still in his Longarm form. "What now?"
Optimus Prime frowned, and touched the All-Spark with his free hand, hoping for another vision. But while the crystalline orb continued to glow brightly (and no longer in one direction) it did not seem to do anything else.
And they had more immediate problems. Unicron seemed to know they were there. From out of the walls, from tiny holes, a number of black metallic tentacles emerged and converged on the Autobots. One grabbed a hold of Optimus' wrist, yanking it back and nearly causing him to loose the All-Spark. Which may have been its intention. An intention cut short as Sentinel's razor-edged shield came whistling through the air and he cut it to pieces, saving his old comrade.
"Watch it!" he shouted, throwing up his shield to block another incoming tentacle.
Optimus nodded, activating his energy axe with his free hand. "Back-to-Back!" he ordered, and he, Sentinel, Jazz and Shockwave put their backs together and fended off the coming tentacles. Energon nunchuku and axe whistled through the air to slice them to pieces, while Sentinel's shield kept them relatively safe, and Shockwave retaliated against some of the further tentacles with his blaster. However, the numerous tentacles were coming in at ever-increasing speeds and greater numbers, and their defense wouldn't last long.
"Alright, time to end this," said Optimus, grabbing up the All-Spark and holding it up, presenting it to Unicron. Everything was exactly as it was supposed to be. The prophecy had led them to this.
"Now..." he intoned solemnly, as the All-Spark began to pulsate with power. "... Light our Darkest Hour...!"
For a click or two, it seemed as if it was the end, for Unicron's tentacle shuddered as if in great fear. The All-Spark pulsed, glowing brightly. And then, just as suddenly, its light began to dim. Glancing down in abject horror, Optimus Prime and his crew could only watch as the light suddenly went out and the All-Spark became inert. Now the only light came from the great destroyer's malevolent spark above them, bathing the room in an eerie red glow as the tentacles came for them again.
The All-Spark went dark, and Unicron's malevolence closed in on them.
Authors Notes
Arcee's swords are toy-inspired. They I liked. The car design, not so much. Also, if this was animated, in the scene where Rodimus was rescuing children from the school, it would feature cameos of the Armada kids, as well as Sam (movie) Witwicky and Mikaela Baines, in addition to the Animated Witwicky family he rescued.