Author's Note: Obviously my plan of releasing weekly updates didn't exactly pan out, but we're still chugging along. As always, I will attempt to get to this in a speedier fashion, but, uh... well. You know the drill by now. As always, thanks so much for your continued patience, interest, and support!

The MECH base's structure is loosely based on the abandoned Kennecott Mine in Alaska, if you'd like a visual to go with this chapter.

Squicks: None that I can think of, but a bit of violence is present.

Chapter 12 - Fire on the Mountain

The first thought that passed through the mind of operative known simply, to his companions, as Watts, was, I really, really hate the morning shift. The sun wasn't even up yet, and here he was, sitting at a desk in the middle of absolutely nowhere, peering myopically at a computer screen and absently rubbing his knuckles against his cheek. I need a shave, was his second big thought of the day. He drew in a deep sigh, but before the sound could trail completely off a sharp rapping from behind him nearly startled Watts out of his seat.

He turned in his chair. One of his compatriots was leaning in the doorway. "Jesus, Abel, it's way too early for that."

"I wasn't trying to scare you."

"Yeah, well..." Watts frowned. He, like the rest of the operatives scattered throughout the base, was dressed in his MECH uniform right up to where it met his neck. "Why do you have your mask on?"

"Didn't you hear? The big guy himself is coming in today. Something to do with that thing they dragged out of Nicaragua." Abel sounded remarkably amused for someone who hadn't been trying to scare his co-worker. "No official word on when he'll be in. They're keeping it hush-hush to us lackeys."

MECH was an organization that was, at times, mysterious even to its members. The names Watts and Abel went by weren't their real ones, of course, and some agents were so cagey that they refused to ever show their faces. Neither of them knew exactly what they'd been brought from their agents in the field, but if Silas himself was coming to the compound... "Well, crap. Would've been nice to know this yesterday."

"You know how they are. C'mon, man, we finally caught a break! We're loaded down with mysterious alien technology. If this goes well, maybe there'll be raises all around. So, look alive, Watts! We've got a big day ahead of us." Abel gave a double thumbs-up.

Watts scowled over his shoulder at the other man. "How the hell are you so chipper this early in the morning?"

"Coffee, my friend." Abel turned on his heel. "There's some in the breakroom, if you need it!" He called over his shoulders.

Watts sighed and looked back to his screen. The Nicaraguan haul had only been half-processed. While some of the items had been inspected, categorized, labeled, and tucked securely away, the rest of them were still in temporary storage. Mysterious alien technology... locked in what amounted to a glorified garage in the ground. He didn't know if he should rush to finish the job or unpack everything that had already been dealt with.

In the end, he decided to do neither, and left for the breakroom, and a low-tech solution to a low-tech problem. The coffee was waiting.

The site of the former mine was nestled in the curve of a ridge of low mountains and hills, all of which were heavily forested. That bit of luck was why the Autobots had managed to get this close undetected.

Arcee and Bumblebee were the first to scout the area. They'd split up, approaching the site from either side, maintaining radio contact and keeping as silent as possible. Arcee was privately worried about her companion. Bumblebee was game for the fight to come, but she had been able to tell, before they left, that he'd been in pain. Ratchet had mended his injury quite well, but he wasn't fully healed yet.

Unfortunately, they couldn't spare him for this mission. They couldn't spare anyone. So much of the MECH base was nestled inside the bluff that it had been built upon. If the humans retreated deeply enough, they'd be effectively out of reach. Their only hope was to hit hard, hit fast, and try to reach the package before their enemies had a chance to move it. That meant an all-out attack from the very beginning.

Arcee and Bumblebee would hold themselves in reserve, waiting until the frontal assault had hammered their foe into a disarray before moving in to flank. Looking down at the complex, Arcee had to admit the abandoned site looked more like a small town than a mine. How many of those buildings had been artificially weathered, and held possible enemies and munitions? How many ways could a human use those little pathways and alleyways between the buildings to outmaneuver a foe who was unfamiliar with the territory?

Only time would tell.

It's almost time, Arcee commed her companion, be ready to move on my mark. After a pause, she added, Let's just hope they take the strike force seriously enough to give us an opening.

Bumblebee's reply was quick to come. They're going to have to take it seriously. After all, we called him in.

Arcee allowed herself a tight little smile. You've got a point. With a silent signal, she made her way through the woods, moving slowly and in counterpoint to her unseen ally.

While one side of the bluffs faced housed the buildings and faces the main road, the other was open only to the wilderness: rolling hills thick with old-growth forest. This side of the mountain was riven through with tunnels that had once been a part of the mine. Some of these had been fortified by MECH, and others, deemed too hazardous, had been blocked off from the main facility. These unused tunnel didn't connect to any that were still in use. They had been sealed up with concrete and rubble, and were furthermore dangerous enough in their own right to discourage any human being from venturing down them.

Even keeping their newest foes in mind, the tunnels were nigh-impenetrable. They were far too small for any Cybertronians—or at least, so MECH thought. As it so happened, unstable sealed-off tunnels were not so much a deterrent as they were a shortcut to a small mech with a pair of blindingly fast drills.

Scorponok and Rumble were the first to infiltrate. Starscream had dropped that little tidbit of information on Soundwave just hours before they moved out for the strike. Soundwave had been none too enthusiastic to learn that the symbiont he'd only recently reclaimed would be operating far away from him on this dangerous mission, but Rumble had been quick to reassure him. "C'mon, Boss," he'd said, "You know I can handle this. Someone's gotta get in there, right?"

Scorponok had offered his support by demonstrating, with his drills, what would happen to any enemy unfortunate enough to stumble upon their two-man infiltration team. That had apparently been of some comfort to Rumble's host.

With a terrible grinding noise and the sound of falling rocks, Scorponok broke through into one of the main tunnels. Both mechs hesitated for a moment, waiting to see if the noise had drawn any attention. Drilling through the rock itself had been a task completed mostly in silence, courtesy of some enhancements built into Scorponok's drills. After a few moments, it was obvious that nobody was coming, so Scorponok led the way, slithering through the hole while Rumble followed after him.

He narrowed his eyes as he glanced both ways down the tunnel. Their first task was to see if they could secure a spot for a land bridge, if possible. So far, none of the tunnels were looking promising. "Why'd they hafta fraggin'... be so small?" he muttered as he proceeded towards the interior of the mountain.

Scorponok did not deign to reply. Instead, he scuttled down the hall, pausing only briefly to let Rumble catch up.

"Yeah, I'm comin', I'm comin.'" Rumble checked to make sure his signal to the flight squad was still secure. Communicating through so much rock was difficult, but luckily he could piggyback comm signals off the various electronics that MECH had stuffed the mountain with. "You reading me, airheads?"

Starscream's reply was a wordless affirmative ping.

A fair amount of activity was going on above ground, not that any outside observer would have found it obvious. MECH personnel were moving equipment about and taking care of other small tasks that needed to be done by the time Silas arrived. When the sound of a car engine greeted them, a few of them jerked themselves away from their tasks, immediately looking to the road that wound its way through the forest to the drive below. It was far too early for Silas to have arrived, and the first thought on their minds was that this was a deliberate attempt by their commander to catch them off-guard.

They were half-right. The vehicle that drove up was not one of the familiar MECH models, nor was it of the discreet unmarked black variety that their higher-ups often used when they wanted to travel unnoticed. Watts, holding a mug of coffee and leaning out of the doorway of his office—which had been built inside of a modified shed—whistled as the vehicle coasted to a smooth stop in the curve of the drive. "That is a slick car. I wonder where the hell Silas got it?"

Abel's reply was a little less impressed, and a little more nervous. "I don't think that's Silas's car. We don't have anything like... uh, like... what kind of car even is that?"

"That?" Watts hummed thoughtfully. "Italian, definitely. Hmm... I might be wrong, but I think it's a Lancia..."

A dull rumbling suddenly pervaded the air and the ground trembled underneath Rumble's feet. "I swear to—hey!" He barked harshly over the comm, "you guys were supposed to wait for my signal to start blowin' this place up!"

One of the aerial drones immediately replied, "That wasn't us! We've got company!"

Rumble scowled. "Well, that's just fraggin' perfect." He began to run.

Wheeljack had gleefully blasted and sliced his way through three buildings before Optimus and Bulkhead arrived to join in the destruction. Optimus had stressed a focus on damaging property rather than people. MECH was their enemy, but the thought of wantonly killing humans still didn't sit well with the Prime.

Their foes didn't stay in disarray for very long; within five minutes of the first attack they'd organized into three teams: one was loading the salvage they'd brought up for inspection back to the bunkers below, another was holding the line as best as they were able, and the third was emptying the armory and preparing the heavy ammunition: suppression cannons.

"We need to cut 'em off!" Wheeljack called through the fray. Whether he was trying to reach Optimus, Bulkhead, or just stating the obvious in general was uncertain.

Either way, Optimus heard and agreed. He called in the flanking team, and within moments Arcee and Bumblebee were streaking out of the woods, ready to intercept the supply lines. The two speedsters blew through the camp, wildly scattering MECH forces. It was a textbook maneuver, and for a moment, the assembled Autobots felt a flicker of optimism pass through them.

Then, as if on cue, the high whining roar of jet engines could be heard. Bulkhead looked to the sky even as the shadow of the aerial squadron fell over him. "Aw, scrap."

The MECH forces were equally dismayed, if not moreso, by the arrival of the jets. The salvage team had sprung into action first, knowing that their best hope of holding onto what little scavenged tech they had lay in getting it underground as fast as possible. They paused, as a group, when they heard the thunder of the engines as the airborn squad came down over the battlefield, but sprang back into action almost immediately, redoubling their efforts.

They'd already made one successful run, securing he largest and most complicated devices onto a heavy-duty gurney and running it into the facility. By now, it was likely on its way underground, away from the worst of the battle. A pair of operatives had covered it until they'd been able to get it to one of the elevators, but the battle had intensified, and they hadn't been able to return to the salvage team. If the trend continued, soon they'd be helpless to move at all.

"We're going to need to bunker down," Watts said as he ducked back into one of the buildings, slotting another stunner-canister into his specialized rifle. Even now, their main priority was to take as many of these things alive as they could. "If we can hole up in the base, then we'll last until we can call in reinforcements."

"I don't like this," another agent protested as he helped load up the second gurney. "These guys all hit us at once. And aren't they supposed to be fighting each other? Since when did they team up to take us down?"

Watts leaned out of the doorway, trying to draw a beat on one of the fliers, only to see it very sharply aside to avoid a barrage of cannon-fire from the yellow robot. He stepped back in with a short, exasperated sigh. "I don't think they're working together."

A third voice broke through the confusion. "How many more trips do we need?" All heads snapped to the direction of this new speaker, who had just skidded into one of the doorways. "We gottaget out of here, ASAP."

"What's going on?" Watts asked. There was an urgent note in the newcomer's voice that sent prickles of alarm running down his spine.

"The boys further up the mountain are going to try and clear the field," the newcomer panted, "and we need to get the hell out of dodge. They're getting the big gun ready."

"The suppressors?"

The newcomer shook his head. "They're already up. I'm talking about the big big gun."

The MECH agents scattered about the room froze as one. For a second, nobody spoke, and then Watts muttered into the stunned silence, "We need to move."

Rumble and Scorponok had slowed when they entered the complex proper, but it soon became apparent that the unexpected interference from the Autobots had done the job of drawing personnel away from the heart of the complex. The two symbionts stuck relatively close, splitting up only as far as individual rooms went, and never got far enough to be in different hallways from one another.

Rumble was keeping watch in a doorway while Scorponok investigated the room beyond when an anxious ping came through the commline. Soundwave. It felt odd communicating in such a flat, stilted way, but the mountain between them was muffling the bond. "Sorry, Boss, no place big enough for a bridge yet. Maybe we should've just brought the miners in, had them drill their way through here."

The wordless burst of data over the comm line confirmed that, if MECH tried to turn this into a siege situation, sending in the drilling machines would be the next step.

Rumble snickered, "Great minds, right?" He stepped out of the way as Scorponok exited, clicking to himself in frustration. "Nothin' left in this hallway but the elevator. C'mon," he turned away, "let's go back to that other hallway, we haven't checked the-"

A clank and a hiss broke through Rumble's words, and both mechs turned around.

Standing in the elevator behind them was a single MECH agent, decked out in full uniform. Even with the mask in place, his horror at spotting two small but very vicious-looking Cybertronians inside his own base was evident. It wasn't just because he feared for his own life, though. He had been backing out of the room pulling a three-tiered gurney. The gurney had been loaded with tech.

Strapped into place to the middle tier was a very familiar-looking pod.

Immediately the human lunged for the door control. Rumble and Scorponok flung themselves down the hall towards the elevator, but even the scorpion's superior scuttling speed couldn't reach it before the blast doors closed. "Slaggit," Rumble roared, skidding to a halt. "Slag it slag it slag it!"

He kicked the nearest wall and angrily barked into the comm, "Someone just came down with the pod! In an elevator! And then they just went up again!" A wordless affirmative reached him, along with instructions to go after it. Scowling, Rumble applied his pile-drivers to the elevator hatch, denting the doors at the seam where they met so he could reach in and pull them apart.

Scorponok gave a series of beeps and chirps as means of reassurance. If something happened, and the pod opened in the elevator, then it would be a situation where one human was stuck in a small space with Frenzy, who was doubtlessly going to be angry and confused (confused for obvious reasons, and angry because it was more or less his default state). Rumble snorted. "You're not wrong. Okay, we follow it up. When we get to the elevator, you'll need to drill through the floor, so climb ahead of me."

He leaped out, sagging the elevator cable and swinging lightly. Scorponok followed after, landing against Rumble ("Oof!") and then skittering up the line in an ascending spiral, drills whining eagerly. Rumble, somewhat more slowly, followed.

The situation above had deteriorated into pure pandemonium. At any given time it was hard to specifically discern who was fighting who. MECH was fending off attacks from both Autobots and Decepticons, while the Autobots were fending off attack by MECH and the Decepticons, and the Decepticons themselves were mostly just engaging in what seemed to be wholesale destruction.

Somewhat surprisingly, the initial advantage began to go to MECH. As soon as they had their suppression cannons online, they began to shoot down the aerial forces, starting with the drones. Starscream was much too nimble to be caught, and the Autobots were harder targets on the ground with so much cover at their disposal, but Eradicons were dropping right and left.

This was giving the humans the chance to move a little more freely, and they clearly had a plan in mind. MECH forces were converging on a single point; the density of their manpower there was vague, but ominous. Starscream could only suspect they were either prepping for extraction or perhaps setting up a bigger and more effective weapon. Whatever it was, it was sheltered by a deceptively-frail looking shack that had been built halfway up the cliffside, and the humans were determinedly confounding all attempts by either faction to approach it from the land or the air.

"I need backup," the Seeker snarled into the comm, "preferably someone with more common sense than these useless drones!"

He received two message at once, immediately following his statement. One was a wordless affirmative ping from Soundwave. The other was a comm from Lord Megatron himself. "If you want something done," he growled, "apparently you must do it yourself."

Starscream didn't much care for Megatron's lack of appreciation of his efforts, but he had to admit, he wasn't disappointed with the choice of backup.

Down below, one of the useless drones was shaking off the effects of the electromagnetic stunner and groaning to himself. "Urrgh." He shifted into root mode, pushing himself up off the ground and looking around warily. None of the MECH operatives seemed to be close. He couldn't even remember exactly which part of the battlefield he'd been flying over when he'd been shot down.

He sat up, wincing and reaching back to pull the pronged stun-missile out of his side. "Primus fraggit. Last time I volunteer for a-"

With no warning, a human plunged out of an open doorway in one of the still-standing buildings next to him, pushing along a gurney. It skidded to a stop when it passed into the shadow of the enormous purple mech above it. For a moment, the two lackeys stared at one another.

"Boo," the drone said.

The human immediately lost its nerve and ran, abandoning its cargo. The eradicon plucked up the gurney, did a double-take, and stared at the prize strapped to the middle tier: the pod. Not only did he recognize it, but he knew what to do with it; Starscream had very thoroughly briefed the entire flight squad. "I don't believe it. I don't fraggin' believe it-" Immediately he tore it free and set it on the ground, pulling the cube of energon he'd been given specifically for this eventuality from his subspace. Setting it down by the pod, he leaned over and waited, watching raptly.

His attention was so focused on the pod that he didn't even see the bright yellow Autobot careening around the corner until he'd taken two shots to the chest. The eradicon went down without a sound and Bumblebee continued to charge through, only skidding to a stop when he saw what it was the drone had been looking at. His optics cycled wide. "Optimus," he commed, scooping down to grab the pod, "I have it!"

Two ground bridges hissed into existence almost simultaneously. One of them opened in the sky, admitting into the air the shining silver bulk of Lord Megatron, who was followed by a stream of eradicon fliers and Soundwave. The second one opened closer to the ground, as near to Bumblebee as possible while still being far from the brunt of the fighting. The risk of infiltration of the base from either enemy faction was too great to open it any closer.

The Autobots struggled to move in to Bumblebee's defense, hampered both by the fresh wave of Decepticons and the grimly-struggling MECH forces. Bumblebee pushed on, the pod tucked securely under his arm and against his side.

Rumble and Scorponk emerged from the same doorway their human prey had taking quick stock of their situation. They immediately rushed to the gurney. Rumble cursed colorfully when he'd seen the pod had been taken, and Scorponok began to slither over the rubble, searching for an sign of it. A weak voice interrupted their search.

"Took it." They both turned towards the sound, coming face-to-face with the wounded eradicon. "The yellow one. Tried to open it... but he ran off."

Rumble wasted no time. "Boss! Bumblebee has it!"

In the sky above, Soundwave twisted in midair and made a beeline for the scout.

On the ground below, the electronic display on the capsule turned green.

Then, in the air between the two points, a roaring torrent of light and heat streaked through the sky. Soundwave swerved, barely avoiding the blast; two eradicons weren't so lucky and took the full force of it, immediately dropping from the sky in smoking wrecks of twisted metal. A question filled the minds of all the mechanical fighters present, Autobot and Decepticon alike: what the hell was that?

Starscream was the first to spot and indicate the weapon on his allies' HUDs. The building MECH soldiers had been converging on had been blasted apart by the force of a long-nosed cannon; it looked rather like the result of a mating between a railgun and a tesla coil, with sparks skittering over the complex geometries of its frame.

"Oh Primus," one of the drones commed hysterically, "is that it? Is that the weapon?"

"Does it matter?" Starscream asked, immediately following his statement with a command for the drones to rally to him. Regardless of what that thing was, it needed to be taken down, and if anyone was going to have a chance at getting even remotely close to that thing, they had to be the best damn flier in the sky. Starscream was a Seeker, and he was going to show those humans exactly what that title entailed. "I believe it is a ship's cannon—modified, perhaps. It will need time to recharge without a large enough power source. We strike now!"

The cannon was pulling away from him, though. It was swiveling down the slope, bringing its muzzle to bear on Bumblebee.

"Is that the-!?" Wheeljack asked, charging through the rubble towards the fleeing form of their scout.

"I do not believe so," was Optimus's reply. They noticed the cannon changing targets moments after Starscream did. Optimus skidded to a halt, eyes widening, while Wheeljack picked up his speed. "Bumblebee, take cover!" the Prime ordered.

Too late. The cannon roared again.

The blast seared a deep furrow into the earth, annihilating the nearby buildings and setting off a series of small explosions in the thunder and fury of its retort. Bumblebee's salvation was that his foes hadn't managed to hit him directly, but the sheer force of the burst sent him flying.

He didn't remember losing consciousness, but as he came to, he realized he must have blacked out for a few moments, either from the force of hitting the ground, or the way such force had impacted the wounds he'd sustained over the past few days... or maybe, a little of both. The sounds of the battle were muffled. All he could hear was a high-pitched ringing in his audials. He'd been hit. He'd been hit with something terrible, and he needed to get up. Bumblebee tried to pull himself up, and felt a warm rush of energon down his side. That couldn't be good. He had to move, or they'd hit him again, unless...

Unless he hit them first. He cast about dizzily for the pod. He was bleeding. If he could get it open, and the Combinatoric was inside-

"Gotcha," Bulkhead was suddenly there. Bumblebee thought muzzily to himself that he had to be in bad shape if Bulkhead could sneak up on him. He tried to speak, tried to tell the other mech that the pod was near. It had to be near. All that escaped his vocalizer was static. "Don't try and talk, Bee," Bulkhead was moving as fast as he could, trying to get them both out of dodge.

Bumblebee tried to gather his legs under him, tried to stumble along, but his movements were jerky and uncoordinated. Then, without even searching for it, he saw it. The pod had been blown out of his hands and come to rest on the other side of the scorched furrow. He struggled weakly. He was close, he was so close to their target. He'd held it in his hands and-

-the pod rocked.

Bumblebee stared as Bulkhead dragged him further back through the rubble. A second mech had joined them, but he didn't register who it was, because he was still staring at the pod. It pod rocked again, and the hatch was thrust open by a kicking foot. A small, slim shape clawed its way out of the interior. It was shaking.

The second mech was speaking to him. Who? Arcee. She was holding the side of his helm and trying to keep his attention. Bumblebee turned to look into her face Arcee looked upset. How badly am I hurt? He thought to himself. He tried to say, "He's awake. He's over there."

Bumblebee needn't have bothered. The former occupant of the pod had peered around at his chaotic surroundings, his eyes suspicious red slits in his face. His face contorted into an angry snarl. He vented in deeply.

Bumblebee managed to beep out, "He's going to-"

Frenzy screamed, and in doing so rained electric hell down on every mechanical device on the battlefield.

Rumble had been doing his level best to follow Bumblebee, but it was harder for him to move through the rubble than the larger Autobot. The moment his twin had regained consciousness, though, he'd frozen, a look of intense concentration on his faceplates, as if he couldn't be sure if he could trust what he was feeling.

Moments later, the scream pierced through the air, removing all doubt. "Yeah," he grunted, picking up the pace and wincing as he felt the effects of his brother's battle-cry ringing in the back of his processor. "That's him, all right."

Scorponok gave a joyous screech and, apparently either unhindered by or unconcerned with the battle-cry, plunged on ahead of him.

The Autobots and Decepticons were immediately thrown into violent confusion as their internal systems scrambled under the effects of Frenzy's battle-cry. The aerial forces slid crazily across the sky for a few moments before the eradicons regained their wits, and the ground forces were halted in their tracks as they struggled to regain mental control.

MECH forces also stumbled; the effect of the scream was wreaking havoc on the electronic components of their equipment. Their suppressive stunners momentarily lost power and died. The cannon locked up, its firing coil cooling. The humans themselves, though unnerved, didn't suffer the same ill effects as their machines, and as such, they were the first to rally.

Within moments, the cannon was moving again, and filling the air with the scent of ozone as it charged.

Likewise, Soundwave was unaffected by his symbiont's cry. He corkscrewed through the air, doubling back and diving towards the source of the scream. The only thought on his processor was reaching Frenzy.

The cannon adjusted its aim slightly, away from the retreating Autobots and on the source of the new disturbance that was continuing to disrupt the bulk of MECH's machinery.

Soundwave noticed it and put on a desperate burst of speed; his mind was a furious blaze of fear and rage and determination, trying to prevent what he saw happening with the sheer force of his will alone. He was fast, but he wasn't fast enough. He had to be fast enough. He wasn't going to make it. He had to make it.

Frenzy stopped, breathing heavy. The cry had cleared his processor and given him a moment to try and process the madness of his surroundings. His optics darted back and forth before they came to rest on the mountainside ahead and the muzzle of the distant cannon aimed directly at him. He tried to will his shaking limbs to move, but he was too weak, too slow, and it was too late: electricity was crackling along the length of the cannon. Moments before the blow, he grit his dentae and his eyes flashed in anger and defiance. Electricity crackled along the barrel of the cannon.

Soundwave wasn't fast enough to reach Frenzy before the shot went off, but Megatron was, and the Decepticon warlord dropped from the sky like a stone, the powerful . In a flash of silver he transformed, landing on both feet with a force that shook the ground. Frenzy stumbled back, looked up, and had just enough to take in the fierce visage of his Lord, who was wearing a snarl of contempt for this human weapon aimed at them. Megatron knelt, and it fired.

Only Bumblebee, Arcee, and Bulkhead saw this happen directly; the other Autobots were too far to know that anything had happened except the third firing of the cannon. The force of it had knocked the three of them off their feet. Bulkhead rose first, dragging Bumblebee with him, who was by then unconscious. Arcee stood on her own, eyes wide, staring at the impact sight with disbelief written on her face. "Did he just...?"

Soundwave had seen it all from above, and for a few moments after the explosion, before the smoke cleared, he was filled with horror. Frenzy and Megatron had been caught in that blast, and to think for a moment that he could have lost both of them, his symbiont and his leader, that long-lost part of him and his Intended—but logic kicked in an instant after. He would have felt Frenzy's demise, and he hadn't. The spy hadn't arrested his plunge even in his moment of chilling doubt, and as he streaked closer he finally saw the aftermath for himself. Megatron was kneeling in front of Frenzy. The plating down his side had been shorn, buckled, and half-melted, but he was still holding together. He was alive, and he was still very much conscious.

The ground around them had been burned and blasted by the cannon, all of it except for that pocket of space that had been shielded by the warlord's bulk, and it was in this space that Frenzy stood, stunned by the frenetic violence of everything that had happened in the few seconds since he'd woken up.

A Bondmate protects.

The next instant Soundwave was there, shifting and landing, long limbs splayed to absorb the significant force of his impact. He placed himself in front of Megatron and Frenzy both, driven to act by emotions that he normally kept under tight control, but that had been loosed by the tumultuous circumstances of the battle and several long days' worth of unusual stress. He wasn't thinking about what he could possibly do to actually shield them, wasn't thinking about how pointless a gesture it was to try and protect them from such a distant threat. He was only thinking about the way he'd felt when he'd seen the searing white fire engulf Megatron and Frenzy both, and how he'd felt when he'd seen them standing in the rubble.

MECH didn't seemed nearly as moved by the mutual displays of devotion, and they were well into the process of charging the cannon once more. They didn't realize it immediately, but they'd actually made a critical tactical error in the few moments since the first blast of their weapon.

They'd forgotten about the Seeker.

Starscream came thundering out of the sky flanked by two ragged arcs of drones who began a simultaneous barrage of fire at his command. In an instant the site surrounding the cannon was a nightmare of laser fire, and just before the squadron pulled out of the dive into a tight climb, Starscream loosed a pair of missiles upon the weapon, finishing the work that his fliers had started. They rose as an impressive explosion bloomed in the air beneath them.

This seemed to galvanize the stunned Autobots into action. Optimus and Wheeljack reached their beleaguered three comrades at last, covering their retreat. They'd lost the pod, and the Decepticon sovereignty of the battlefield meant that staying any longer would ensure they lost their lives, as well. "Even if the Combinatoric is here, yet to be recovered," Optimus said gravely as he relieved Bulkhead of the burden of Bumblebee's unconscious form, "I will not spend your lives to secure it."

Soundwave remained where he'd landed, standing stock-still as he finally managed to wrestle his emotions under control long enough to process what had happened. He turned. Megatron was still kneeling, breathing harshly and heavily through his teeth, his eyes narrowed in defiance of his own pain. There were many things that could have been said in those moments immediately after what could have been an end to both of their lives, but perhaps more significant was the realization that none of those things really needed to be spoken. A look was all that was required. It passed silently between them.

The moment was interrupted when Scorponok exploded onto the scene, immediately making his way to Frenzy and coiling his lower half in a loose arc about the minicon's feet, raising and whirring his drills in challenge to any fresh threat that might make its way there. Frenzy blinked, his features slack, his usual tension drained from him in the place of how utterly stunned he felt instead. "Hey," he said simply.

Scorponok chirped a greeting.

Rumble skidded onto the scene next, nearly losing his footing as he stumbled over the rubble and almost falling flat on his face. "Boss—what happ—oh slag, you-damn." He finished, looking between the four mechs standing before him. He skidded to a halt and blinked. "Damn," he repeated, for emphasis.

Megatron shuddered and bared his teeth, moving to clamp his hand over his side. Energon was welling up between his claws. "We have what we came for," he growled, "I think... at this juncture..."

Soundwave moved to place his spindly fingers over Megatron's claws, but before the warlord could speak again, a thundering impact interrupted his words. The dark form of Blackout loomed over them all. Nobody had been expecting his presence so soon in the battle, but his next words provided all the explanation that was required. "A retreat," he said, kneeling to help Megatron to his feet, "would be the wisest course of action."