Chapter 11-Inhuman part 1
Inside an undisclosed location, the Zodiac general Pisces was in his personal lab working on a project that was almost four years in the making. He did so with an urgency he rarely displayed, mostly because he was close to hitting a breakthrough, and he wouldn't stop until he had something. The normally clean and refined Zodiac looked like he hadn't slept in days, his normally well-groomed hair slightly and his eyes red and sleep deprived. He was testing the limits of his stamina and endurance just to see this project through. His brothers and sisters noticed the change in his routine, but left him be, which was fine for him. He had no time dealing with a bunch of children playing soldier.
The lab was dark save for one light near the front of the room. Pisces sat bent of his work table, not moving from his hunched position as he worked nonstop on whatever his new obsession was. He heard the door swing open and the loud click-clack of high heels against the smooth floor. He knew that slow, predatory gait anywhere.
"Are you still working on that farce of a project of yours?" Aquarius asked, looking down on him like he was dirt on the bottom of her expensive designer boot.
"Are you and Aries still playing war games with the cybertronians?" Pisces smoothly retorted.
Aquarius scowled. She forgot Pisces was the wrong person to trade verbal barbs with. He was too clever for that. "Why aren't you aiding the science department on the Master project? We have a schedule to keep and a deadline to meet, you know. Don't forget your job."
"My job? I am doing my job, Aquarius. You, however, seem to have gone way off track and down the mountain slope." Pisces said. "Have you forgotten our mission?"
"I'm well aware of our plan, you fool, and the cybertronians are the key to that goal!"
"Really? And how's that coming along?" Pisces finally looked at her, giving her a mocking grin. "Deny it all you like, but the only reason you were able to find the Decepticon's body was by dumb luck and Thornment's involvement was just a crutch to cover your abysmal failures. Well-equipped we may be, but it's getting harder to fight the cybertronians. The Decepticons are now actively seeking out and destroying our installations, and even the Autobots are getting more ruthless in their dealings with us. We're losing too many soldiers, and more importantly, too many expensive talos."
Aquarius was starting to lose her patience. "Get to the point, you stupid fish!"
"Wars are not just won by luck or brute force." Pisces said. "Advanced technology and proper battle tactics are what define the outcome of a battle and ultimately, the war. History has proven that new innovations are the bridge between victory and defeat for both sides. And that is what we need."
"A new secret weapon? So I assume that you're working on something that could give us the winning edge." She hummed, tapping her chin. "That explains the basement dwelling. You always were too caught up in your little experiments."
"There's nothing little about my work, Aquarius." Pisces said with a hard edge in his tone. "And yes, I've been working on something to tip the scales in our favor. This is our answer."
He took a pair of tweezers and picked up a small red crystal no bigger than a diamond ring. Aquarius thought it was a ruby, but the crystal was glowing and radiating heat. Pisces smiled at her sudden interest in the pretty mineral.
"What is that?" She asked.
The smile Pisces gave her was all teeth and actually unsettled Aquarius. "Our path to evolution."
XXXXXX
It was late night when Ironhide was doing his recon in the state of Nebrask, in the middle of nowhere with the Minicon Undertone, who was the worst conversationalist Ironhide had ever met. Originally he was glad for the silence, chatter on the clock was dangerous and unprofessional, but the silence was getting to him and honestly, Ironhide felt like he was talking to himself most of the time. All he had were some good old country tunes to pass the time while they did their rounds. He wasn't one to complain about recon duty since it came with the job, but even he had to admit that driving around a desert countryside was boring.
'I'm starting to see why the humans talk smack about this place. Primus, I feel like shooting myself in the head just to stave off the boredom.' Ironhide thought. He checked some other radio stations for something more modern, but nothing caught his fancy. "Can't a mech get better music out here?"
Ratchet's voice called out over the comm-channel. "Ironhide, this is Ratchet. Do you copy?"
"I hear ya, doc. What's up?"
"How are things out there?"
"Dull and boring. I'm driving through the middle of nowhere with a Minicon who speaks through sign language. Things are just peachy." Ironhide grumbled. "I can hear you smiling, Ratchet."
"Well, just hang in there a little longer, Ironhide. Jasper, Nebrask can't be that bad."
"You've never been here."
"True," Ratchet chuckled. "Well, I'll leave you to your solitude. See you later."
The channel switched off and Ironhide grumbled some more. "Cheeky bastard."
Aside from almost running over a few wildlife who thought that it was safe to cross the road just when a pick-up truck was about to pass them, the next few minutes were quiet and uneventful. It wasn't until his recon neared its end that Ironhide's mission got some unwanted excitement.
"What's the hell?" He muttered.
A man was standing in the middle of the road. He was tall, taller than any other full grown human Ironhide had seen, and very muscular too, almost to the point of looking unproportioned because of his muscle mass. He was wearing a tight fitting sandy brown military uniform that had to be custom made for his size. He had healthy skin and neat, short blond hair and striking baby blue eyes.
Ironhide and Undertone brought up their holo-drivers and the Autobot honked his horn. "Get off the damn road!"
The man didn't even budge. In fact, he was smirking. Then what happened next would reaffirm Ironhide's complains about recon duty for the rest of his life.
The man's eyes glowed a bright, luminous blue and a ring of energy formed around his body. From their energized halo, a chain of energy spheres shot at Ironhide and Undertone, exploding around them with the force of a dozen tank shells, destroying the road in a chaotic display of power. Ironhide rolled across the ground and transformed to right himself.
Undertone had also transformed, and was immediately sprinting toward the man. The man grinned and created another energy wave that tore up more of the road with destructive bolts of energy. Undertone swiftly dodged the debris thrown at him and lunged at the superhuman, slashing his swords down on the man's shoulders. The blades cut into his flesh, but to Undertone's surprise, they were stopped short. The man's own muscle mass had stopped his blades completely!
"You'll have to hit me harder than that!" The man grinned and shrugged off the swords in his flesh before punching Undertone in the chest. The Minicon felt his chest cave in from that single punch and flew back a couple of feet before hitting the ground. He didn't get back up.
"Undertone!" Ironhide pointed his cannons at the man and fired. The human, despite his large bulk and size, jumped away and flew a good two feet through the air before landing back on the ground, skidding to a stop near the road.
"That's right. You better come at me with the intent to kill or you're going to die!" He shouted and sent more energy spheres at Ironhide.
The red Autobot avoided most of them, but two hit him in his right arm and lower abdomen. He hissed, it felt like getting hit by a high powered photon blast. The man charged at him, still unleashing his destructive payload on Ironhide and not letting up even as the Autobot fired a barrage of fission blasts at him.
Ironhide felt another sphere dig into his shoulder and burn away his armor like red hot plasma. This human was out to kill him and wasn't pulling his punches. When the man dodged his next laser blast, Ironhide threw a punch at him, slamming his fist directly into the man's crossed arms. The human felt his bones creak from the blow, but didn't break, which was good for him. Still, the punch sent him flying and he hit the ground hard enough to leave a crater.
To Ironhide's surprise, the man was still standing, and looked relatively unharmed save for his bruised arms.
'What the hell is this guy?' Ironhide thought. 'That punch should've smashed every bone in his body!'
Before he could react, an energy sphere exploded against his chest. He was blasted onto his back, his chest plate warped and smoking. He pushed himself up and glared at the smirking human.
"Sorry to do this to ya, big red, but orders are orders." The man's eyes began crackling with energy as he walked toward the downed Autobot. "I'll be sure to wear one of your gears as a ring in your memory."
Ironhide stood up but another sphere to his left leg shattered his knee and sent him back down again. Just as the man charged up for a final attack, a ground bridge opened up behind him. Optimus, Bulkhead and Skyfire ran out of the portal.
The man had no time to react when Optimus fired his ion rifle at the ground near him and blasted him of his feet. He slammed against the hard ground and cursed when he felt his shoulder dislocate. Looking up, he saw the Autobots disappearing into the bridge, which closed behind them.
"Well there goes any chance at a medal." He muttered and took out his radio. "Colossus to base, do you copy?"
"We hear you, Colossus. What's your status?"
"Broken shoulder and fractured bones, but still alive. And so is the target, sir. I'm sorry, sir, I failed."
"Did you do well against him in combat?"
"Yes, sir, the Autobot and his little friend didn't last long against me. Brought them both to their knees."
"Then this mission wasn't a complete failure. Return to base, Colossus, you've done a good job."
"Thank you, sir." Said Patrick O'Connor, known to his fellow soldiers as HMH Colossus.
XXXXXX
Once they were back at the Ark, Ironhide and Undertone were rushed to the medibay. Ratchet worked on Ironhide's injuries while leaving Undertone to Longarm, who worked on repairing the damages he suffered from the powerful punch he took to the chest Undertone's wounds weren't serious, but the punch he took almost caved in his laser core and caused an energon build up in his chest cavity that would've been lethal if left unattended for too long. Once he was sure his patients were taken care of, Ratchet placed Ironhide in another CR chamber and left to address the team's concerns.
"What's the diagnosis, doc?" Jazz asked.
"Ironhide and Undertone will recover, but the damages they received were serious. The human that attacked them was strong, and powerful enough to lay them both out." Ratchet walked over to a Teletran-1 terminal and brought up images of the burns on Ironhide's body.
They looked really bad. It was like someone branded Ironhide with a superheated drill that gored into his body. The energy blasts had left severe burns along Ironhide's arms, shoulders and chest, and his right leg was blasted off at the knee in a single shot. The warped armor pieces looked grotesque, and even Optimus cringed at the severity of the damages.
"See how his armor is warped? That's where he was repeatedly hit by those energy spheres the man shot at him," Ratchet pointed to each of the pictures. "And they could deal some serious and lasting damages if taken head on. Ironhide's thick armor saved him from taking more serious wounds that would've been fatal if he was hit in the right places."
"An esper did all that to him?" Moonracer muttered worriedly. She knew some espers on this world were strong, according to Arcee, but to be able to bring down a powerhouse like Ironhide?
"A powerful esper at that. Keep in mind that most espers are probably better equipped to fight us than most other humans. Ironhide's already had some altercations with them in the past." Prowls said.
"Is anyone gonna ask where the hell this guy came from?" Bulkhead said. "I mean, some man just pops out of nowhere and tries to slag one of our own. I'm no strategist, but this doesn't look like some random encounter to me."
"Bulkhead's right, this attack seems deliberate." Arcee said. That thought alone led to everyone coming to the same conclusion.
"OZ." Bumblebee growled. This situation seemed all too familiar to him. "Those people are the only ones who could stage an attack like this."
"So what do we do?" Skyfire asked.
"Remain on guard in case they attack again." Optimus answered. "Stay alert on recon duty. We will deploy on missions in pairs. We can't let them ambush us like they did Ironhide and Undertone."
The team was dismissed and Ratchet and Optimus shared a grim glance. Something about this attack seemed different than the others. They both knew OZ always attacked them with the intent to capture them alive, but this felt more like a test than a planned attack. This seemed like the start of something that was only going to get worse as time went on.
XXXXXX
Dr. Stephanie Bergen stood at the back of the crowd that assembled in the hangar bay of the OZ regional base. Soldiers and scientists who worked hard on this three year project waited anxiously for the return of their crowning achievement, HMH Colossus.
The man himself came riding in atop one of OZ's new armored carriers, the Tumbler, looking like Achilles after bringing down Troy. Everyone cheered and rushed him, shouting their praise like he was a war hero. To them, he was. Colossus was their first living test subject in the project, a culmination of all the blood, sweat and tears spent bringing this dream to fruition. He caught Stephanie's eye and winked at her, causing her to huff in disgust and look away.
This wasn't the first time the lumbering brute made a pass at her. Stephanie was a beauty for her age; a young woman with a fit athletic body honed from years of exploring remote areas of the world with long blond hair tied into a loose ponytail and sea green eyes. She wore a tight black bodysuit composed of a special material capable of deflecting small caliber bullets and a lab coat denoting her rank among the science division of OZ's research department.
Her great beauty was matched only by her legendary cynicism. The past three years working for OZ had made Stephanie consider suicide numerous times, mainly out of guilt for the horrors she helped bring out into the world. Unfortunately, as that was out of the question, she was forced to resort to taking her cigarette buds and putting them out on her arms and legs as some kind of coping measure. Depressing, yes, but the things they made her do was enough to make anyone anticipate the sweet release of death.
"Colossus!"
The crowd parted as Pisces entered the hangar, arms spread with a big smile on his well-formed face. He reached Colossus and hugged the taller man like a father greeting his beloved son. "Colossus, you wonderful man, you've done a great job tonight! I knew you'd do us proud!"
"Just doing my job, sir." Colossus said.
"Exactly, and soon there will be many more like you doing their part for OZ." Pisces said and turned to Stephanie. "You see, Dr. Bergen? This is the fruits of your labor. A new form of human being that can make espers more obsolete than the dinosaurs. You should be proud."
"I am. You can see how proud I am by my expression." Stephanie said dryly.
Pisces merely chuckled and left Colossus alone to leave the hangar. Stephanie followed him, knowing they had to get back to work. This success in the trial run meant that they had even more work to do in the long run. It didn't matter that she was sick and tired of working long hours into the night just to make superpowered beefcakes. This was her life now, and OZ owned it the minute she signed that accursed deal with them.
"What's next on the agenda?" She asked.
"Just a little last minute errand, my dear." He answered.
Her eyes narrowed at him. "What errand?"
Pisces didn't answer. He led Stephanie through the armory to the medical wing of the base, passing medical staff and wounded soldiers resting in their rooms before stopping at the room in a restricted section on the first floor. A room that belonged to a special patient. Pisces knocked on the door before entering.
"Ms. Beller?" Pisces said, stepping into the room. Good evening, how are you feeling today?"
Stephanie thought that was a cruel joke to even ask the question while the women was unable to speak.
Lying on a bed covered from head to toe in bandages was Josie Beller, former talos commander in the OZ military. A discharged Osean Army major, Beller was chosen by OZ to test run their experimental talos, Circuit Breaker. Stephanie heard from various reports that Beller was doing great until she battled against the Autobots last year. According to some sources, it was a little girl who not only brought down the Circuit Breaker talos but also short-circuited the bodysuit that gave her powers, leading to a serious injury that left her body paralyzed save for her right arm.
Even half a year later, Beller's condition hadn't improved much. The parts of her body that weren't covered showed skin that was pink with visible burns, and her hair had yet to fully grow back, with bandages hugging her scalp. Her left arm and legs were completely limp and unresponsive, save for her right arm, which was placed in a hardness. Despite this, Beller's eyes were still live and vibrant, holding a great deal of anger at her situation. Her brown eyes, once full of arrogance and superiority, now held pure hatred. Hatred for the aliens that put her in this sorry state.
"Sorry I haven't been visiting lately. I've been very busy with something that could turn the tide in our war against the aliens. But I have someone I want you to meet." Pisces waved a hand to Stephanie. "This is Stephanie Bergen, one of my associates helping me work on a project I call Project: Uber. I won't go into details, but you've just recently tested positive in a blood test to confirm if you're liable to take part in the project. It involves a procedure to enhance the human body."
Beller's eyes widened, as did Stephanie's. She wasn't expecting Pisces to already work on turning another human into an Enhanced individual. He wasn't kidding when he said that he didn't want to waste any time.
"The process I'm talking about is very risky, even for those people who are eligible. It is a painful and violent transformation, and you will be wishing for death before you're even five minutes in. however, once it's over, not only will you be fully healed, but you will be stronger. Strong enough to fight the Autobots, Decepticons and anyone else that gets in our way." Pisces continued strongly. "But I can't do this without your permission. So what do you say, Beller? Do you want to take the plunge to become powerful?"
Beller's breathing increased and her eyes narrowed into angry slits as she forced her hand to clench into a weak fist. Pisces smiled at her determination.
"I'll take that as a yes."
Pisces arranged to have Beller moved from the medical wing into an underground sub-level, which was built like a nuclear bunker, but scarier. Stephanie, Pisces and Beller took an elevator down to the sub-level down to a heavily reinforced room that was bare save for a chair in the middle. Rolling her into the room on a medical bed, Stephanie and Pisces gently lifted Beller's limp body into the chair and strapped her wrists and ankles to it.
'What…are they doing?' Beller wondered. How dangerous was this procedure if they were strapping her down like a prisoner on death row?
"Just a safety precaution, Beller. As I said, the conversion process is rather violent and painful." Pisces told her, as if that explanation was supposed to make her feel better.
Stephanie checked her restraints one more time before standing up and giving the woman a look of pity. She held the black briefcase she brought with her up to Pisces, who opened it and took out some tweezers. Reaching inside, he took out a tiny red crystal, which didn't look very scary to Beller, but she felt her heart rate increase when Pisces neared her.
"Fear not, Josie Beller." Pisces said, holding her head in place while lowering the crystal toward her face. "Once the pain is over, you will be reborn as someone stronger. A true warrior of the Zodiac."
Stephanie looked away as Pisces placed the crystal on Beller's forehead. Nothing happened for a second, but the Beller started to feel her forehead start to heat up. In just a few seconds that mild warmth evolved into scalding pain, and in a minute it reached unbearably painful levels. Her eyes bulged and her mouth hung open in a silent scream, but she couldn't move. Her right hand twisted violently in its restraint, and the leather strap dug into her skin. The pain spread from her head down to her shoulders, to her chest and the rest of her body. Tears ran down her face as she underwent the first phase of her rebirth.
At that moment Josie Beller knew pain on an intimate level.
XXXXXX
"A present?"
Ratchet's comment was in response to some surprising news from Bumblebee, who had just interrupted one of his scanning sessions with Ironhide. The scout didn't look too apologetic as he dropped the bomb on Ratchet.
"Yeah, a present for Gina." Bumblebee said, blinking at Ratchet's confused expression. "It's for her birthday, Ratchet, remember? It's in a few days."
Ratchet's eyes widened, giving a surprised little "oh" at that piece of news. Despite his acute knowledge of alien physiology, he wasn't really keen on learning anything else other than things of the medical field. Learning about other cultures was something Jazz and Bumblebee were adept at. But still, he couldn't help but feel guilty for not remembering Gina's birthday. She spent more time with him than any of the other bots, even her "student" in all things Terran, Bumblebee.
Gina had become surprisingly important to Ratchet's personal life. She was like one of those young Autobot cadets who would ask him what Cybertron was like before the war, before the senate and the Functionists, when the planet was golden and prosperous. She was smart, curious and very acute in learning new skills. She took to learning how to read cybertronian like a textbook and her ability to remember key moments of his race's history was amazing. When she told him that he was like a grandfather to her, Ratchet honestly felt touched. And to think that he had the audacity to forget the most important day in her life.
"I don't know what kind of birthday present you can give a girl who makes robots and laser weapons in her spare time, Bee. She's not the type of girl you can just give flowers and a cake to and call it a day." Ratchet told him. "Has she been hinting at wanting anything? Making discreet suggestions, sneaking glances at anything important?"
"Well," Bumblebee rubbed the back of his head. "She hasn't really talked about her birthday all that much. In fact, I think she forgot."
"Forgot? How can she forget about her own birthday?" Ratchet asked, and then put up a hand. "Wait, I know. She's usually forgetful with things like birthdays."
Bumblebee nodded. "Especially with all the craziness that's been happening. Granted, she often has her head in the clouds after she got back from Cybertron."
Ratchet frowned at the mention of that harrowing mission. To hear of an alien, much less a human, actually interfacing with Vector Sigma was unbelievable. Gina had went into great detail about everything up to that blank point in her memory. He was very thorough in his tests of her for any sign of residual radiation poisoning or defects from the abnormal transportation. But he never did see if there were any mental side effects.
He hoped it was nothing, but when dealing with an anomaly such as Vector Sigma, it was better to be safe than sorry.
XXXXXX
The red and gold armor of the Prometheus clashed with the verdant greenery of the wet foliage and fallen leaves it crushed underfoot as it trudged through the dense vegetation. It stuck out like a sore thumb, but fortunately it wasn't being deployed on any missions, at least not an official one. Darren looked at the soggy forest around him from within his cockpit and sighed. Why did Gina come out here of all places?
He had never been to Azteca before, not even to retrieve a Minicon, but walking through the rainforest now, he knew that he hoped he would never come here again. The humidity was high and it rained nonstop, on top of the unholy amount of killer insects that made his skin crawl just crawling around unseen places. Even inside his talos he felt like he was sitting in a sauna. But he couldn't exactly call it quits, he just managed to detect the Athena's signal.
Her trail led to a large cave that extended deep underground, a cave system that was rather prevalent in Azteca. He saw Gina's white and purple talos parked outside the mouth of the cave, kneeling in its standby position. Gina sat next to its feet, staring out at the rain alone. When she saw Prometheus walking through the trees and waved him over.
"Hey, Darren." Gina greeted him. "Want to sit out here in the rain with me?"
'Thanks, but I'm good.' That was what he wanted to say, but instead he said, "Sure."
He parked his talos next to hers and climbed down to the ground. He jogged over to her into the cave and sat down next to her on the cold, damp rocks. Together the two children sat in silence watching the rain pour endlessly over the forest. Darren, confused as to why Gina was even here to begin with, allowed himself to enjoy the peaceful calm of nature for a few minutes before asking the money question. "So…what are you doing out here again?"
"Just…thinking." Gina said vaguely.
Darren nodded and waited for her to add on to that. But she didn't, making him sigh and ask, "About what?"
"Things," She replied. "A lot of things that I'm trying to figure out right now."
Darren didn't like what he was seeing. This wasn't the nerdy girl he grew up with; the girl whose eyes would light up at the news of some new discovery that was made or learning more about what alien life the Autobots had encountered before coming to Terra. He was used to that girl, not the brooding talos pilot who had Gina's face. And this wasn't the first time she acted like this, the other children noticed a subtle change in her attitude, her long moments saying nothing and thinking to herself, her melancholy expression when she thought no one was looking. The fact that she didn't even remember her birthday was just as startling.
"Gina, what's wrong? I know something's bothering you. You've been acting strange ever since you got back from Cybertron." Darren crossed his arms and gave her a stern look. "Tell me, Gina. I know I can help you in some way."
Gina looked over at him and gave him a small smile that didn't reach her eyes. She stood up and walked out into the rain. Darren watched with wide eyes as she stood out in the downpour, arms outstretched as she let the rain fall on her. It was like she was trying to wash away the worries she'd been having all day.
"Darren, do you know what Vector Sigma is?" Gina asked.
Darren blinked. "Um, didn't the Autobots call it a supercomputer or something?"
"Yes, that's what they see it as, but…" Gina bit her lip as she thought back to that moment when she entered Vector Sigma's chamber-the Primal Wellspring as Optimus called it. "I touched it, Darren. As in literally merged with it, mind and body. It doesn't work like some supercomputer. I felt like I was communicating with some higher intelligence."
"Like…a god?"
"I don't know." She sighed. She wasn't an overly religious person who really believed in a specific god, though her belief in a higher power did increase after fighting the dolems and seeing their power. As a scientist, she had to look at everything with a certain degree of skepticism, but after her experience with Vector Sigma, she couldn't describe it as anything else.
all that with Vector Sigma, she couldn't describe it as anything else but divine.
"It was like I was flying through a sea of stars. I could see the whole universe, Darren. Stars, planets, nebulae, everything. All the while I felt something roaming through my mind, taking information from me while giving some information in return. I want to call it very advanced technology, Darren, but I just can't bring myself to see it as just some computer."
Darren, despite hearing her story three times, couldn't keep the look of awe off his face. It sounded like Gina had seen God himself and was change profoundly by it. Gina was careful to keep the news of the cybertronian glyph on the back of her neck. Seeing that she was lost in her thoughts, Darren thought it would be best to change the subject to something more light-hearted for both their sakes.
"So, your birthday is coming up in a few days." He said, trying to look innocent. "You excited?"
"I forgot all about it to be honest. Everything's been so crazy, and then we have this thing with OZ again…" She shrugged. Then she narrowed her eyes at him. "You aren't planning a surprise party, are you?"
"What? No! I would never do something so obvious." Darren snorted. There goes that plan. "I was just thinking of something simpler…like fireworks!"
Gina giggled. "Fireworks?"
"Yeah. I'm sure I can get Wheeljack to cook something up." He said, then muttered, "Gaia knows he causes everything he touches to explode."
Gina smiled and walked back over to Darren. She caught him off guard by throwing her arms around him and pulling him into a tight hug. "Really Darren, its fine. You don't have to go jump over the moon for me. But…if you really want to do something special, then we can go out."
"G-go out?" Darren blushed.
"Yes, as in going out on a da-"
There was a loud boom and the ebony form of the Enyo came crashing through the trees, ruining the sweet moment. Darren and Gina glared up at Annie as she poked her head out of her cockpit, but were immediately concerned when they saw the look of alarm on her face.
"Annie? What's wrong? Did something happen?" Darren asked.
"You two better get back to base quick. Sara and Skyfire just found something!" Annie said.
XXXXXX
It was only thanks to an odd team-up between Sara and Skyfire and Comettor that the Autobots made this discovery. Though her attitude towards the Autobots was still frosty, Sara's relationship with them was less tense (as in she made no more threats at them) so she wasn't that opposed to working with them so long as it didn't interfere with her protection of Gina.
Comettor detected a small OZ location in Canadia via a stray transmission they just happened to come across on the communications band. Its size meant it was lightly defended, and that allowed Skyfire to swoop in and quickly bombard the base by herself. As she took out the automated defenses, Sara rushed inside and (brutally) took care of the human soldiers inside.
In all the chaos, the soldiers failed to completely wipe out their computers, so after they were either run off or killed (mostly on Sara's part), the android got to work in hacking their database and gleaning what information she could. Most of the data was heavily encrypted but Sara was nothing if not dedicated, and she managed to decode something that had to be shared with Gina as soon as possible.
"What did you say?" Gina whispered disbelievingly.
"It's your father, Ms. Gina, Theodore Harkins." Sara said softly, making sure to make the blow as soft as possible for her charge's sake. "I have confirmed that he is in the custody of OZ, more specifically one of their generals, Pisces."
The news came as a shock to Gina, and Sureshock quickly helped her sit down before she fainted. Gina's father was an archaeology professor who went abroad on various projects who vanished three years ago during an expedition to Belka. Neither Gina nor her mother knew what happened to him or if he was still alive…until now.
Seeing that Gina needed time to process this, Optimus took control of the conversation. "Do you know where Mr. Harkins is, Sara?"
Sara shook her head. "Unfortunately I do not. All I know is that he is being held prisoner somewhere, and is involved with a top secret OZ project called Project: Uber."
Gina gasped and shot to her feet. "Oh god, they're experimenting on him?!"
"We don't know that for sure, Gina." Prowl said.
"You don't know that! Those freaks will hurt anyone if it got them what they wanted!" She yelled at him. "Look at what happened to Debbie!"
"Gina, calm down." Darren wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "We'll find him. We just need more information or we'll be the ones in trouble."
"I am decoding the rest of the information as we speak in my cyber-brain, but I do have a possible lead on where to look." Sara turned to Optimus, who lifted her onto the Teletran-1 terminal. Connecting a plug from the back of her neck into the console, Sara downloaded some data from her cyber-brain into Teletran and brought up some documents on the monitor. "There is a large OZ facility located in the state of Sioux. It's one of the more relevant outposts in the west coast, and it might have the information we need."
"But that means getting someone on the inside, and OZ doesn't take kindly to intruders. The amount of soldiers inside the base will be large, and that's not taken into the account the number of Talos." Prowl deduced the numbers in his head, and he did not like the possible outcome of an all-out assault on the base. "Our chances of winning such a fight is low, Prime. They have numbers and resources on us. Not to mention we don't know if that femme they're working with is there. There's too many wild cards to factor in."
"Whoa, we can't just throw in the towel before we've even seen the place!" Bumblebee exclaimed.
"Use your head, Bumblebee. If we attack head on, we'll only suffer casualties, and we don't know enough about the base to infiltrate it." Prowl said. "I'm sorry, but those are the facts."
"SCREW THE FACTS!"
Everyone turned to Gina, who had screamed at them with a fierce look of anger on her pretty features. She blinked away tears as she gave the Autobots a piece of her mind. "I spent three years worrying for my father, and now that he's alive you people want to hang back? If you tin cans won't help my dad, I'll go myself."
"Gina, that's suicide." Arcee said.
"I don't give a damn. My dad is alive and I want him back, even if I have to fight the Zodiac or whatever they throw at me. I'm not going to let him be used as some science experiment!"
"And we'll be right there to help her." Annie said.
"She's got that right." Darren nodded.
"Same here." High Wire spoke up. "Centurion will help her alone if we have to."
"I understand your frustration, but even with the Athena's stealth capabilities, you won't be able to fight them all off." Prowl said.
"How about we let the real commander here decide for us before we start tearing each other's throats out?" Jazz said and turned to Optimus. "Boss bot, it's your call. What should we do?"
Optimus thought on it. Prowl had a point, rushing in without a plan or a clear idea of what they were dealing with was tantamount to suicide. On the other hand, the kids would no doubt go off on their own to save the man, even if it meant fighting off the Autobots to do so. Granted, their talos were definitely stronger than the regular mecha fielded by OZ. Optimus crossed his arms and sighed, giving his team a look.
"The sole purpose of being an Autobot is to preserve all life, even a single individual. I'm sorry, Prowl, but my hands are tied on this one." Optimus said and nodded to Gina. "I swear on the Allspark, Gina, we will save your father."
Gina smiled and wiped the tears from her eyes. "Thank you, Optimus."
"But we still don't know how we're going to hit them." Arcee pointed out. "With all the soldiers and weapons they have, how are we even going to get close to the base?"
"Leave that to me." Prowl said gruffly. "I'll think of a plan that's at has a percentage of at least a 75% success rate."
"Very good, Prowl." Optimus looked at the rest of his team. "Autobots, children, get ready to move out. Today, we strike at OZ."
XXXXXX
As expected, the OZ base looked nothing like a secret facility. Living up to their method of hiding in plain sight, their base was disguised as a large farm. A pleasant little white house sat next to a huge barn with a massive corn field a few feet away from the dirt road. There was another barn house that acted as an autoshop, large enough to accommodate a cybertronian Optimus' size. To the average person, it'd look like a normal piece of land on the countryside that was pretty to look at when passing by.
But the Autobots weren't fooled. In their past experiences with OZ, they learned to expect the unexpected and not to let their guard down because they were humans. OZ liked to take refuge in locations either so far out of the way that no one can find them or in places no one would think to look at, at first glance. They could tell from the farmland alone that this base was a major operations center that held dozens of soldiers and talos.
The plan was a basic divide and conquer maneuver. The Autobots would draw out the bulk of the base's forces through a frontal assault while the children used that opening to sneak into the base. Annie's Enyo talos would ferry the children, Centurion and Sara into the base, rendered invisible via the cloaking device Wheeljack hooked up to the talos. They would've gone with the Athena since it was more stealth oriented, but not everyone could fit in its cockpit.
It was night when the Autobots drove up to the farm. Once they were within eyesight of the base they transformed to bipedal mode and pointed their weapons at anything that looked valuable.
"Autobots attack!"
Upon Prime's order, the Autobots opened fire at once and attacked the house and barn with a barrage of blaster fire, lighting up the dark corn field with a bevy of lights. The assault destroyed the house and damaged the barn, but only a few seconds later well-hidden entry hatches located under the corn maze and fields slid apart to allow HS tanks to roll out into the open. From the autoshop, another entry hatch disguised as a garage slid open and Codarl mecha began running out to fight the invaders. The image of the pleasant little farm was destroyed by the ensuing battle between the humans and the Autobots.
"Looks like we got their attention!" Bulkhead said and ducked under a barrage of laser bolts that flew too close to his head. "Whoa! When did these guys get laser weapons?"
"Their new friend probably gave them a little upgrade!" Arcee said. A Codarl charged her shooting plasma blasts at her. She quickly charged it and severed its arms with a swift slash from her swords before slicing off its legs too. "Took them longer than I thought for them to get to that level."
"Cut the chatter and focus on the fight." Prowl grunted, keeping his head low to avoid the tank shells the HS tanks were shooting at him. "These guys are more heavily defended than I thought."
"We just need to stall them for as long as possible. We'll hold this position until our friends are done." Optimus said, blasting the legs off a Codarl.
Not too far away from the battle, the cloaked form of the Enyo glided along the ground, undetected thanks to its heavy sol particle emission. In its arms were Darren and Gina, clad in their protective exo-suits, while Centurion and Sara rode on Enyo's back. After some deft maneuvers on Annie's part, they landed next to the barn and waited for three Codarls to exit the lift before running inside.
Darren grunted as the talos' rough movements nearly made him lose his grip on its arm. "Watch it, Annie. You almost made me fall off."
"Do you want me to get you in fast or not?" Annie said. "We're on a tight schedule here, people."
"Not now, guys." Centurion cautioned.
Gina fingered her plasma blaster nervously. She felt vulnerably going into a dangerous place without the protection of her talos. Her pilot suit might provide her with some physical enhancements, but that meant little when dealing with the Zodiac. Darren noticed her unease and gripped her hand as a show of support.
"Don't worry, Gina. We're right with you." Darren said, giving her a smile.
Gina smiled and squeezed his hand back. "Thanks."
"We're almost at the bottom. Once we've stopped, I'll have to torch the goons waiting for the elevator, so you guys will have to move fast." Annie said. She readied her talos arm cannons. "Oh, and cover your ears. It's going to get loud down here."
Just as she said, there were a group of Codarls waiting for the elevator at the bottom, and they were swiftly blown away by the beam cannons on Enyo's forearms. Alarms started blaring but Annie ignored them as she mowed down the enemies in front of her. Rapid fire beam blasts fired from the rotary cannons in the talos' forearms easily destroyed any talos unlucky enough to be in her way, and forced the reserve units to take cover from her assault.
As Annie did her thing, Darren, Gina, Sara and Centurion ran through the halls leading out of the docking bay. The clock was ticking and they had to move fast.
XXXXXX
The Zodiac general Scorpio watch watched the battle above with a small smile. He stood in the base's command center watching the Autobots fight the Codarls and HS tank battalions with the disposition of a man going out on a stroll. He hardly seemed worried that the Autobots were attacking a major installation that was supposed to be secret, probably because he was confident in their ability to repel them.
"Sir?" The female officer spoke up. "We're got intruders in Section A-2. An unknown talos has infiltrated the docking bay and started attacking out forces. There are also four more intruders heading toward the left wing."
Scorpio raised a delicate eyebrow. "Oh? Are they human?"
"Two of them, the third is cybertronian and the fourth…is an unknown."
Scorpio's eyes narrowed and he ran a hand through his bright orange hair. Eye glowing a bright amber, the general fastened his jacket and stood up from his seat. "I'll take care of the Autobots above."
"And the intruders, sir?"
"Send Pisces' new pets to take care of them. I have no need to fight children and little robot dolls." Scorpio said uncaringly.
He was a Zodiac after all. Fighting children and insignificant robot aliens was beneath him.
XXXXXX
Outside, the Autobots were still fighting the OZ forces and they were meeting some unexpected complications that made the battle harder than they thought. Not only were the Codarls equipped with energon powered plasma rifles, they were also given upgrades to their servo-motor systems and OS that made them move faster and hit harder. One on one, this didn't mean much, but in large groups, this meant that they posed a serious threat to the Autobots. Combine that with the kinetic shells and plasma bursts being fired from the upgraded HS tanks, and they had a monster on their hands.
"How many are there?" Bulkhead asked, hissing as a shell hit his shoulder.
"At least three dozen talos." Prowl said. "It's not their numbers that's giving us a problem, it's their firepower. Sooner or later, they'll push harder when they realize that we're not advancing as much as we should."
"Well let's make the show more convincing!" Skyfire said. "We gotta give the brats some time!"
Suddenly a blue laser beam shot from the smoking remains of the house and hit Skyfire in the chest. She stumbled back and fell over from the attack and Arcee and Bumblebee rushed to get her to her feet as another blast shot over their heads. Optimus and Jazz returned fire at where the attack came from, destroying the rest of the house. From the flames, a large talos leapt out of the wreckage and landed on the dirt road.
The talos was vastly different from the other ones they were fighting. Instead of a humanoid frame, it was shaped like a scorpion with red and purple armor, reaching around 21 feet length wise and sporting two large claws with energon powered laser emitters inside. The tip of its stinger was a laser cannon that drew power from the palladium reactor that powered it. This talos was the personal unit of the Zodiac Scorpio, the Skorpios.
"Is that a giant bug?" Skyfire groaned.
Scorpio targeted Optimus and fired two beams from its claws. Optimus dodged it, but the armor panels on its back flipped open and shot four missiles at him that caught peppered the corn field with explosions. Jazz fired his photon rifle at the talos, but the Skorpios quickly avoided the blasts and shot back at them.
"From what I can see, only a few of you are worth fighting here. I don't see how Aries could fail so spectacularly in fighting you aliens off." Scorpio commented.
"You haven't seen what we can do, yet." Jazz said.
"Oh really?"
Scorpio fired another volley of missiles that forced the Autobots to scatter. Jazz back-flipped from the flames, but Scorpio shot a beam that hit his leg and sent him tumbling.
"I'm not impressed." Scorpio said.
XXXXXX
Darren, Gina, Sara and Centurion ran through the halls toward their destination, the base's computer room where they stored their information. They ran into a couple of soldiers sent to stop them, but Sara took care of them with her blades and palm blasters. Eventually they reached a large room that held a lot of weapons.
"What is this place?" Centurion asked, looking around for any threats.
"Must be their armor. Look at all these weapons." Darren scanned the various assault rifles and launchers hanging in cages, most of them taken by soldiers being deployed to the field. "How do they pay for all this stuff?"
"They're a secret terrorist organization. I imagine they have a lot of influential people on their payroll." Gina said. But she was more focused on some of the larger containers. They held items that were of greater importance than mere weapons; pieces of Flamewar's armor, Jazz's arm and…Barricade's head. "Jinkies!"
"Where did they get that?" Darren said.
"Would you believe me if I said that it was found?"
Centurion grabbed the children and jumped back as the spot they were just standing in was vaporized in a burst of blue energy. He placed them down and stood in front of them with Sara as a large man walked into the room. HMH Colossus shook his head upon seeing the children and sighed.
"Man, this is a bummer. Saddled with fighting a bunch of kids. That's not going to look good on my record."
"We've fought Decepticons that could torch you ten times over, pal. Don't mess with us!" Gina growled.
"Yeah, yeah, you say that. But considering I brought an Autobot to his knees, you should probably reconsider fighting me. I don't want to hurt you kids, so go back the way you came and no one will get hurt."
'So this is the guys who beat Ironhide and Undertone.' Darren thought. 'He looks like he took steroids on top of steroids!'
"I'm not going anywhere!" Gina yelled. "You're going to have to throw me out, you mindless bru-"
Colossus sprinted forward at Gina and covered the entire distance between them in just a few seconds. He reached a large hand toward Gina, but Centurion grabbed his face and slammed him into the floor, casing the metal panels under them to shatter and dent from the force of the blow. Sara pulled Gina back as Darren telekinetically tore apart the metal panels in the walls and threw them at the man. Colossus only felt minor discomfort as two metal sharps stabbed his shoulders and threw a punch at Centurion. The gestalt dodged the punch, but he felt the rush of air whistled past his face from how hard that punch came at him. He jumped back over to Darren, who also prepared to fight.
"Gina, Sara, head to the server room. We'll handle this guy." Darren said.
"What? No!" She protested. "You can't-"
"We will stall him." Centurion said. "That's all we need to do."
Gina bit her lip, not wanting to just leave them alone. Darren smiled and grabbed her hand to comfort her before turning to Sara. "Keep her safe, okay?"
Sara nodded. "Affirmative."
Sara pulled Gina past Colossus to the other side of the room. Colossus made to go after them, but a laser blast from Centurion slammed into his head and made him stumble. Though the laser blast didn't do much damage, it still hurt. Colossus glared at the two and cracked his neck.
"Stall me, he says. Man you kids are stupid. You've been playing hero too long, little boy." Colossus growled.
"This is coming from the walking science experiment." Darren said. "Before we start, can I get your name before I wreck your shit?"
"Major Patrick O'Connor, but you can call me HMH Colossus. The first of a new race of humans who shall lead the vanguard of OZ's future." Colossus grinned. "Before we get this party started, let's take this outside. There's a lot of expensive merchandise here that I don't want to scratch."
Colossus shot forward and grabbed Darren and Centurion in his large hands before leaping through the ceiling, tearing through it with his energy halo.
XXXXXX
Gina and Sara managed to make it to the server room with little interference, aside from two soldiers whom Sara quickly put down. They made it to the room and Sara got to work on using her physical uplink to take over the base's defense systems.
"I'm preparing to disable the facility's automated weapons above ground." Sara announced.
"Wait, can you make it so that the turrets target the OZ forces?"
"The turrets are based on an IFF systems and attack anything that doesn't have an encoded OZ IP signal." Sara explained. "Rewiring them to attack friendly forces will take some time."
"Just do your best, Sara. Our friends are counting on us."
XXXXXX
"I'm starting to chafe here, guys!" Skyfire grunted, punching a Codarl's head off before shooting down another one. Behind her, Bulkhead smashed apart a tank that was shooting at her. "How long are the brats going to take?"
"Just a little longer, Skyfire!" Prowl said.
The corn field was a burning mess littered with destroyed talos and tanks. There were still a number of talos giving them trouble, but the hardest enemy to fight was the Skorpios. Optimus and Prowl were fighting Scorpio, though the talos was heavily armed, built with combat against cybertronians in mind.
"Come on! Show me a good time!" Scorpio said, shooting beams from his claws at the two Autobots. One beam hit Jazz in the shoulder while another grazed Prime's legs as he rushed Scorpio and grabbed the talos by its claws. "Get off me!"
He pointed his stinger cannon at Prime and fired. Optimus dodged the blast and wrestled with the talos to knock it off balance. While Scorpio grappled with Prime, he noticed that the automated turrets that were shooting at the Autobots had stopped firing and aimed at the OZ mechanized forces before resuming their attack.
"What the hell is going on?" Scorpio growled. "Command, what are you doing?"
"S-Someone's hacked our defense systems and took control of the turrets, sir! They're already rewriting the IFF signal!"
As if to confirm the officer's words, the launchers already targeted Scorpios and shot two missiles at him. They slammed into the side of the Skorpios, almost knocking it over. Scorpio cursed and wrestled out of Prime's grip before slamming his stinger into Jazz's chest and backing away. His mecha's enhanced armor took the blunt of the missile's damage, but he won't be able to take another direct hit like that.
Jazz looked around at the automated defenses as they started attacking their own forces. "What's going on?"
"It must be Sara's work. She's the only one who can do something like this." Optimus said. The other Autobots smiled.
"That means they made it in!" Bumblebee cheered. "Sweet! I knew they could do it."
Prowl allowed himself a small smile as he recharged his blaster. "I didn't think they could make it, but there's always that five percent chance. Our chances of success have increased somewhat."
The good mood was cut short when a blue explosion completely tore apart the front half of the barn. Optimus turned to the burst of energy and saw three figures emerge from it. He recognized Darren and Centurion immediately, and they were fighting a large, muscular man who fit Ironhide's description of his attacker. He created energy spheres around him that tore apart everything they touched and forced Darren back, who summoned telekinetic shields to block the energy bursts before they could touch him or Centurion.
Then he cried out as Darren's shield was completely broken by a single punch from the man and the force of the backlash threw Darren back into the cornfield. "Darren!"
XXXXXX
"No!" Gina gasped. She saw Darren hit the ground and roll into the cornfield with the superhuman running straight for him. There was no way this man could be some esper. No esper was this powerful! "Sara, you've got to help him!"
"They're out of the range from the turrets." Sara said.
"At least draw his attention to give-"
"So you're the little mole digging around in here."
Gina and Sara spun around to see a woman standing there. The young woman looked like a professional cage fighter with a toned and evidently muscular physique that didn't hamper her femininity. She had strawberry blonde hair that reached the top of her shoulders and glowing electric blue eyes that crackled with energy. It took Gina a moment to realize that she recognized this woman.
"Circuit Breaker?" She said.
"The name's Josephine Beller, or Major Beller to you, brat." Beller smirked. "And I definitely remember you."
"But…how? I saw you get electrocuted by your own tech! You should be dead!"
"Well, I'm not, though not for lack of trying on your part. Because of you and your alien buddies, I had to endure a year of agonizing pain recovering from my injuries and I couldn't even move my fucking toes! You left me weak and in pain, but OZ has made a new woman out of me!" Beller snarled. "I'm going to get my share of blood, either from you or those walking trash cans!"
Gina took out her plasma blaster. "Sara, download everything that looks important and run!"
Sara's eyes widened. "But, Ms. Gina-!"
"Just do it!" Gina yelled and pointed the blaster at Beller's chest.
Beller scoffed. "Please, little girl. You're not going to shoot me-"
She was cut off by a powerful invisible force slamming into her and sending her crashing through the wall. The kinetic force from Gina's tractor beam gauntlets sent her into the hallway and into the adjacent wall. The force alone should've broken some bones, but she only felt dazed. Gina jumped through the hole and shot her blaster into Beller's chest, burning a hole into her shirt, but only leaving reddened, irritating skin that burned on contact.
'That should've killed her!' Gina thought. Getting hit head on by a plasma blast at close range would've burned a hole through her torso. 'Okay then, let's take it up a notch.'
Gina increased the power output on her blaster and shot at Beller again. The blast caught Beller in the chest again, but it did little to slow her down. The woman stomped forward, inconvenienced but not overwhelmed, as if pushing through snow. Gina already gave up on using her blaster for a kill shot when they can barely burn through her chest cavity.
Beller grinned and leapt forward, smashing through computers and tables as she got close to Gina. Before the girl knew it, Beller slammed her fist into the side of her head. It was only thanks to the exo-suit that Gina was still alive, because that punch would've snapped her neck like a twig. Even still, Gina still felt the blow and her whole world went blank for a moment. She quickly forced herself to recover, and punched Beller in the face hard enough to daze her, allowing her to grab the woman by the throat.
"My turn!"
Gina punched Beller in the chest, smashing her through the wall into another room. She leapt forward and punched the woman to the floor.
These were strength enhanced punches that would normally break bones, but to Beller, they barely hurt. She was stronger now, more durable and resilient. Still, it would do for a little girl to lay a smackdown on her during her trial run.
Gina went to punch Beller again, but the redhead caught her fist and squeezed. Her inhuman strength was too much for the girl's exo-suit and she broke the flex-fiber in the suit's hand, along with Gina's hand itself. The blonde gave a pained scream and fell to her knees in pain with Beller looming over her.
"My turn." She snarled.
She punched Gina in the head again, this time smashing off a piece of her helmet to reveal her left eye. Beller picked Gina up and threw her through the wall with no more effort than a kid throwing a softball.
XXXXXX
"Still standing, kid? You got balls!" Colossus laughed, his eyes emitting blue sparks.
Centurion helped Darren to his feet. "You okay?"
"I'm still in one piece, though I did see my life flash before my eyes." Darren groaned. "No wonder this guy took down Ironhide. Any ideas on how to take him?"
"I will get in close. Cover me." Centurion said.
Centurion lunged at Colossus, who manifested his energy halo and fired a string of energy spheres at him. Darren formed a TK barrier around Centurion as the gestalt ran in close to the superhuman and slashed his thigh with his vibro-blade. Colossus hissed and tried to backhand Centurion, but he ducked and punched his face. Darren shot a plasma blast at Colossus's face before lifting a large block of stone and dirt over his head to slam down on the man. Colossus easily broke through the block and lunged at Darren.
"Shit!" Darren jumped back and formed a shield to block Colossus's next punch, which was strong enough to bounce off his shield and knock him back. When he tried to get up, Colossus grabbed his neck and held him in the air.
"Darren!" Centurion shouted.
XXXXXX
Every part of Gina's body hurt. Getting her hand broken, then thrown through a wall had paralyzed her with pain. Having never fought without the aid of her Talos, she never knew how ungodly terrible the pain of getting hit in battle hurt. She could barely move her body. But she knew that if she wanted to live, then she had to force herself to fight back. She wasn't going to die down here!
'How is Beller still alive?' Gina thought. She remembered vividly that Beller was seriously electrocuted from her own malfunctioning power suit (it was hard to forget that gruesome sight). She should've either been killed on the spot or paralyzed for life. She never had those powers of hers either. OZ must have done something to her, given her powers on top of physical enhancements. The same with that Colossus guy.
Forcing her eyes open, Gina saw that she was thrown into the generator room that provided power to the entire base. She could see her only exit just a few feet away from her. If she forced herself to ignore the pain, then she could probably make it there before Beller reached her.
"Ms. Gina-zzt-I have downloaded all the data I could acquire. I'm coming to assist you." Sara said through the speaker of Gina's damaged helmet.
Beller arrived, smashing through the wall with her fists, eyes glowing dangerously. Energy crackled around her, burning holes into the floor.
"S-Sara, call Darren and Annie." Gina coughed, clutching her broken hand. "Make sure they're okay. I can handle this."
"No you can't. I'm not leaving you!" Gina smiled at the urgency in the android's voice. Seems like Sara was starting to learn how to have emotions now. But Gina wasn't going to risk her life like this.
"I'll be fine. Just go and keep them safe."
Silence followed. "…I understand. And be careful Ms. Gina."
Gina cut the feed and shakily stood up before a smirking Beller.
"Ready for round two, bitch?" Beller asked.
Gina responded by pulling out another little invention she made with Roll Bar, a sonic weapon she called the Screamer. It was a cone shaped device that emitted a direction high frequency alarm. An ordinary person would have lost balance, collapsed and bled from ears, struck down with immediate hearing damage. Beller covered her ears with her hands and winced. She rocked side to side for a moment.
Gina used this chance to leap forward and pull her fist back for a punch that could kill a human with her exo-suit's enhancements. Beller reached out and stopped Gina's fist mid-punch. She caught the girl's fist and held it tightly.
'Her ear drums should nearly be vaporized!' She thought. 'She shouldn't even be able to stand!'
Beller's hand tightened around Gina's right hand, rushing it like glass.
"AAAAAAHHHHHH!"
Gina used her other hand to grab her laser pistol and fire half a dozen bolts at Beller's face, ignoring the pain of her broken fingers pulling the trigger. Beller winced at the plasma bolts hitting her face, but she recovered quickly. She landed another punch that broke Gina's helmet to pieces and kicked the girl's right knee backward, instantly snapping the ligaments, destroying the cartilage and crushing the joint.
Gina's hand and leg were held together now by just the suit. She pointed her pistol at Beller's face and fired it at the highest setting, where flesh should melt from the intense heat output. Even that didn't bring Beller down, but it certainly left a mark on her face. Scarred and battered, Beller snarled through broken teeth and swung a fist directly at Gina's heart.
Gina stumbled back, coughing up blood. Her chest hurt, she couldn't feel her hands or her right leg. A blow to her shoulders sent her crashing to the floor. Gina knew she lost. How could she fight a woman who could take plasma to the face at point blank range?
As she struggled to breathe on the floor, Beller tore a small generator out of its place, sending power cords and oil flying everywhere. She lifted the machine high above her head and approached the dying girl.
'Darren, Annie…Sureshock…Ratchet,' Gina's thought were starting to jumble as her vision went blurry. 'I'm sorry…'
Beller threw the generator on her and everything went dark.
XXXXXX
By the time Centurion moved to save Darren, Colossus was already trying to incinerate him with his energy blasts. Darren kept his TK barrier up, but it was hard with the constant pressure on his defenses.
"Why won't you die!" Colossus growled. He had the kid dead to rights and yet he was still fighting. It was starting to get on his nerves.
An explosion behind him blasted Colossus away from Darren, setting him free. Arcee ran toward them, firing her blasters to drive the man off. Colossus dodged the laser blasts returned fire with energy bolts of his own, which she dodged. Arcee drew her swords and slashed at him, almost bisecting him at the waist. He dodged a downward strike from one of her swords, but was left completely open to the left hook that slammed into his right sight and sent him flying. That punch shattered his right arm and sent him crashing through the ground, digging up a deep trench in his wake.
Colossus stood up, cradling his broken arm with a baleful glare and charged up another energy halo to take her out in one shot. But as he did so, he failed to see Darren telekinetically shoot a pebble into one of his eyes to blind him until the rock pierced his left eye. He stumbled back and clutched his eye, cursing as the halo he was charging up began to crackle and destabilize. To everyone's surprise, Colossus's body began to break apart and he exploded in a gory mess of blood and scraps of clothing like a bomb.
"Holy crap!" Darren gasped. How did that happen?
"Darren!" The Enyo climbed out of the barn, looking like it just walked through a live fire exercise, but still operational. Mjolnir flew back into its holster in Enyo's left arm. "Are you alright?"
"We're okay, Annie. Thanks for the save." Darren smiled.
Inside his Skorpios, Scorpio scowled at the death of one of Pisces' beloved Enhanced. That was one powerhouse gone, multiple talos and tanks destroyed and a base that was compromised. At this point, there was nothing left to do but cut their losses and retreat. Pisces wouldn't be happy about it, but he honestly didn't care what that man thought.
"All units, retreat to secondary locations." Scorpio ordered, glaring at the Autobots. "This isn't over, Autobots. We'll finish this another time."
The Skorpios ran away, firing its cannon behind it to keep the Autobots from pursuing, though they didn't want to. Armored transports carrying personnel drove out of another secret entrance on the double, not even giving the Autobots a second glance. Optimus ordered his men to stand down as he saw them running.
"The children have done it." Optimus said, feeling proud of them.
"Oh yeah! Those fools aren't feelin' so hot without their fancy gadgets helping them! Right bro? Bro?" Annie looked down at Darren, who was staring at the barn with a look of concern. "Darren, what's wrong?"
"Gina and Sara should've called in by now." He said. "I hope nothing happened."
"Relax, Darren. Gina's probably with Sara right now getting all the data we need. Soon she'll call us and-"
"DARREN!" Sara's voice cried through the comm, making Annie jump.
"See?" Annie said smugly.
"Sara? What's wrong?" Darren asked.
"It's Ms. Gina!" Sara said. She had none of her usual composure, sounding hysterical and on the verge of tears. "She's gravely injured, Darren. We need help down here. Please!"
Darren's heart filled with dread as his worst fears were realized.
XXXXXX
Pisces sat in his office with Scorpio lounging on his couch as he gave his report. Pisces sighed and crossed his arms.
"So, Colossus is dead." He said.
"Yeah, one of those brats hit in the eye with something and he just exploded." Scorpio said.
"You don't know what happened?" Pisces asked.
Scorpio frowned. "I was busy fighting that Optimal-whatever the hell his name was to worry about your golden boy."
"His name is Optimus Prime, enemy combatant and the one Ophiuchus wants alive." Pisces scrolled through the notes on his computer. "But that's okay. We have enough data on the Inhumans to continue the project."
"Inhumans?" Scorpio said curiously.
"That's the name I coined for them. Human but not-so human. It has a sense of power, like the Arridan Immortals that the Spartans fought." Pisces smiled.
Scorpio chuckled and took a swig of his wine. "So what's our next move?"
Pisces looked at the bowl of red crystals sitting on his desk, glowing brightly in the dark room. "Now we create our army."
