Transformers Prime
A/N: Hey viewers, thanks for the reviews. It is encouraging and I'm hoping to get even more readers. Enjoy this next chapter.
Animated Starscream will be referred to as Starscream-atd
Chapter 11
0o0o
Miko, as expected, was all for the racing suggestion proposed by the visiting Bumblebee. Connecting her fingers in a square shape much like a viewfinder, she panned her imaginary camera in a slow sweep across the remaining crew of Autobots.
"C'mon Arcee, Ratchet?" she asked expectantly like a child wanting their parent to buy their favorite grocery from the store.
"Miko, you know I don't race," Arcee remarked casually. Her hand was on her hip and she stood near the computer terminal that Ratchet was typiing on. Uttering a "fine" with a defeated sigh, she asked Ratchet again.
"Bah! Someone has to watch the groundbridge. And besides, your asking me?" Ratchet responded sarcastically, not bothering to turn around or cease typing.
"Eh, you're right." One of Ratchet's optics widened fractionally.
"Why I...bah, earth," Ratchet mumbled, not concerned in the least with racing, but nonetheless a bit offended. This earned a dry chuckle from Arcee, which caused Ratchet to shoot her a look. Which only made Arcee laugh harder, making the others join in.
"Okay, well, we have Bulkhead vs. Bulkhead! By the way, i've never seen your alt. mode."
The foreign Bulkhead heavily resembled the other, except for the star symbol on his arms.
"Do you turn into an SUV, too?"
Bulkhead shook his head and grinned.
"Nope, I'm an armored weapons transport," Miko's guardian twin clarified proudly. He emphasized his point by transforming. Plates rearranged themselves quickly, shifting the biped into the supply vehicle.
"Sweet!"
0o0o
The first thing he felt upon rebooting was the pain in his side and his helm. He couldn't remember what happened after the explosion. Before giving in to the whim of onlining his optics, he heard two voices speaking and addressing another person, who seemed to be unresponsive, although the other continued to speak as though he was.
"Ah, I see you have the Dinobot as per contract."
"Yes, Shockwave. Let's get this deal underway. This dimension is much too strange," responded a voice in a snarky tone.
"Yes. Underway." Grimlock heard the shuffling of mechanical, hendheld devices and pedsteps.
"Here we are Soundwave. The transwarp schematics."
Grimlock was just about ready to bust of the place. With slight effort, his optics onlined. A groan escaped his optics as the overhead lights assaulted his unused eyes.
Ignoring the three figures who were in the room with him were the farthest from his mind, as the first thing he noticed were the electrocuffs keeping his arms placed on a vertical berth on either side, his body forming a plus sign shape. Grimlock's visored head was silent, assessing the situation before him. An explosion occured in the battelfield around Cybertron's Autobot capital city Iacon. He remembered the Ark ship. Then, a blank.
"I see you are finally out of Stasis-Lock," A somehwat deep and condescending voice sounded. Grimlock turned his head and memory assaulted his processor.
"Shockwave..." Grimlock uttered, too exhausted to inflect anger in his tone, giving off the effect of neutrality in his voice.
"Then you are familiar with me? You and my counterpart must have some sort of a history," Shockwave commented half-interested. History? Shockwave made him what he is. But he heard him say counterpart. Grimlock chose not to speak, for there was nothing to speak of. Shockwave gave a rectangular object to Soundwave, who simply nodded, and then exited the large lab, leaving only the jet and the scientist with him.
Counterpart? What had transpired while he was in Stasis-Lock?
"Well, Grimlock. You'll feel just the slightest pain while I conduct some...upgrades," the scientist intoned emotionlessly. He picked up what looked like a servo sized drill, and walked towards him, the drilling mechanism spinning mutely. Grimlock was indisposed to protect himself, so prepared for a round of pain.
0o0o
With haste, the portal closed behind them immediately after the last bot jumped out of the portal.
Both Optimus Primes and Blackarachnia were currently in a dark hallway, that didn't seem oft used. A supplies hallway, apparently.
"This is the Nemesis?" Blackarachnia questioned silently, gazing at the aesthetics of the place. It crtainly seemed more high tech than the one she had been on, and the whole ship here seemed larger.
The older Optimus only nodded in response, focused on scanning the immediate area for the spacebridge's control. "We will need to breach through the upper level and locate the control room, which is just short of the bridge," he briefed, both being addressed had nodded their understanding. Without any more preamble, Optimus' right arm transformed into an energon assault rifle. His younger counterpart and Blackarachnia followed suit, arming their weapons. The time for speaking would have to wait for later now, and the older Optimus pointed two fingers in one direction of the hallway. He lead the way and took cover by the wall. Two vehicons walked by through an adjacent hallway, and Optimus waited an extra two seconds before leading his three bot unit in the direction the two vehicons left from.
Prime activated his internal comm, and relayed his command.
"From here on, we'll need to abandon cover to get to the control room. Prepare for conflict," he warned. With that he set his gun to stun and shot an unaware vehicon in the arm, effectively forcing him into stasis. In the intersecting hallway, a group of Vehicons had spotted the kocked out decepticon and they looked at each other. All seven of them jumped out of the hallway and primed their weapons.