Hammerhead.
Warnings: Violence, bad language, gore and possibly some sex.
"Through this doorway what's on the other side, never knowing exactly what I'll find, locked and loaded, voices screaming: let's go, come on do it, here we go!" – Hammerhead, the Offspring.
Timing: Post season 2 finale, set few weeks after Beauty of the Beast in my very own BotB Prime Timeline (due to the fact that season 3 – The Beast Hunters is about to be aired at the end of March).
Rating: M (alternative – if there will be any – or extended chapters will go MA and will be available on my Tumblr account, the address is available on my profile page).
Pairings: Megatron and June, Bumblebee and Miko, maybe some Shockwave and Arcee.
Disclaimer: Transformers Prime © Hasbro. Story's plot and OC's © me. There may be some OC's that aren't mine – they belong to their respective creators.
July Morning. 1]
There I was on a July morning
Looking for love,
With the strength of a new day dawning
And the beautiful sun
At the sound of the first bird singing
I was leaving for home
With the storm and the night behind me
And a road of my own. – "July Morning" Uriah Heep
Silia marched angrily into what for the lack of better word would be called a 'briefing room'. It was an empty gas station's store. No one ever passed this place anymore, the place was surrounded by desert and there wasn't even any water in the tap anymore. The place was dead because the water runs out and it was too far from the nearest town to actually build a pipe line; it was far easier and cheaper to just leave. M.E.C.H. had its own water supply in form of a tanker.
"Did we manage to get anything from the footage? The damage extent for example?" She asked in calm voice, almost free from her British accent.
"We are sure that the shot went clean through." Answered one of her scientists. "And basing on Breakdown's anatomy we killed him, or almost killed him…"
"Almost makes a huge difference!" Silia snapped. She didn't scream but her tone became more aggressive and her accent return in its full. "Did we or did we not managed to deactivate that unit?"
Everyone looked at each other. She was their leader, Silas left everything to her, including their personal files, their funds (composed from Nazi gold bars he found somewhere in Europe after he left the Army) and the entire data base – the only complete copy of it; they had to obey her and they had no problem with that, she had vision and she continued her father's work. It was that just sometimes she was too hot headed.
"Well… the mere shock should cause him a lot of pain and probably render him unconscious… And if we were in luck we managed to hit his hydraulic fluid tank. Maybe even reach his T-Cog. But we believe that the shock itself should be dangerous enough…"
"You mean that we managed to cause it serious malfunctions? How long would it have to deactivate permanently?" Silia calmed down and sat.
"Hard to say, all depends of how much of his lifeblood, energon, he lost and if we managed to hit any vital systems." The scientist started to look through his documentation. "Certainly we severed his veins, er, energon lines, and some wiring… the shot was angled, we didn't hit him square in his back, it was the left lower back, slightly angled, we might miss his spinal column… But those injuries would be fatal for human; this shot would kill a man on the spot, so we believe that Megatron could survive only so long without any medical help…" He went silent under Silia's angry glare.
"It." She spat. "And 'mechanical help'. Why do you insist on calling that thing 'him'?"
"Ma'am. That's probably because he is a 'he'." It was Ripley who finally decided to speak. "At least grammatically. This is how they refer to themselves. And we met two females too."
"Those are machines. Robots. Objects, they don't have separate genders."
"True. But regardless if they have two genders 2] or not, they use personal pronouns." Ripley shrugged mentally, he wasn't curious about Megatron's private parts. "So we just… "
"Regardless their sexuality or lack of it, we still are not sure just how devastating our shot was." Everybody heads snapped at the man who said that. This wasn't any military type. He wore his mask, but under the regular M.E.C.H. outfit there were no muscles. The man was tall, taller than most of his M.E.C.H. colleagues but he was also fat. He wasn't just massive, he was fat with blubbering belly, breasts bigger than Silia's, double chin and legs so thick that his trousers could fit two men – each for one hose.
"Thank you Heracles" She didn't stutter when speaking his name knowing that it was the man's private joke.
"I conjecture Megatron was taken by one of the factions and received professional help. We should assume that he is alive." Heracles scrolled something on his tablet but said nothing more.
"What?" The blood drained slowly off Silia's face.
"The shot while proved that the weapon is outstandingly effective was otherwise rather poorly aimed. I agree that the shot to that area should cause shock and maybe even immobilize the target, would be lethal only if Megatron would be left alone to succumb to his injury and spreading shock that – we are sure that it does work the same way for them as for humans – would, to put it simply, shot all of his systems down." Heracles paused to take a breath, he half expected for someone to cut in but they just stared at him in silence. "However he was taken by his own kin and we should presume that they tended to his injury. This means that, safe for some unexpected complications, he should be well and alive right now. The question is: how long will it take him to fully recover, hence how serious his condition was."
"Or to put it simply: we managed to get him, we almost finished him but the bastard will live." Ripley translated the long speech. "And we only had three shots."
"So, if we are to effectively fight those things, we need to enhance our firepower." Silia rubbed her eyes and sighed.
"Yes. It would be good if we had more than one weapon so we could shoot one target multiple times." Heracles put his tablet down. "The single canon takes too long to charge for the next shot, two or three shooting simultaneously or one directly after another could be far more effective. This would allow the spent canons to charge again and be ready while other shoots. We could also enhance the battery to last for more than three shots. For now the size doesn't matters as much."
"All right, gentlemen, I call it a day." Silia got slowly up. It was getting dark. "Tomorrow we will work on building two more canons and getting better batteries."
They got up and left. Their camp was just behind the gas station, the canon safely hidden in station's single garage. The spot was perfect for their needs.
oOo
Elsewhere. The next day.
The grim form of New Kaon towered over the area known previously as Jasper. Early morning light spread in fresh, cool air. The day was just beginning and the desert was still cold after the night. Last starts faded when the skies brightened, few clouds turned pinkish-orange when the rising sun stained them with its warm light.
The morning was just perfect; it was ultimate bliss to be able to wake into such calmness. Starscream as all seekers was an early bird; he happily started his day when the rest of Decepticons was still out cold. Only the night shift was up before he was.
The Air Commander stretched his wings and arms while sitting on his recharge berth and yawned silently… Then he fell on the floor.
Soundwave sprang to his pedes before his systems started and before his pedes touched the floor he was already clicking his visor in place. The sounds from outside of his quarters were most disturbing and he himself was angry. He always stayed late and this was much too early for him to even consider leaving his berth.
Shockwave calmly approached his doors, as unusual the situation was he recalled that this was Decepticon base. He wasn't on Cybertron anymore, this place crawled with his brethren and that meant only one thing: strange things happened. He became disaccustomed to all the insanity that followed Megatron and his crew. He didn't miss it. But now he would have to get used to it again.
Three heads peeked to the corridor at the same time. All three spotted three unconscious Vehicons, then they looked up and saw…
"WA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA!"
One of the meanest Insecticons was wielded to the ceiling by his aft. The poor beast-former was hanging helplessly and wailing with irritation, anger and desperation. He tried to de-attach himself but he was wielded true and well, all he could do was to brandish his all six limbs.
Three unconscious Vehicons could be culprits behind this stunt or just innocent by-passers, neither of them had any wielder with them, but it didn't prove anything as the one that wielded the Insecticon could have fled.
"WA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA!" The robotic beetle wailed again then flapped his arms and legs before he allowed them to hang limply again.
The view was both hilarious and scary. Hilarious because despite the deplorable status the Insecticon presented quite comic sight. Soundwave was silently recording the bug for his personal file, for blackmail material and for Lord Megatron. Scary because there was three unresponsive Vehicons and the blasted insect had quite an arm range. Luckily he didn't use his blasters yet.
"What in the name of Primus happened in here?" Starscream was the first to regain his speech. Despite his undying loathe for any and all Insecticons he was also Second in Command, keeping order of things was his job.
"This Insecticon seems to have been wielded to the ceiling by his aft." Shockwave moved his antennae in contemplation. "It is quite obvious."
"I can see that. But why he was wielded to the ceiling, who did it and when?" Starscream waved his servo at the poor creature hanging in front of him. "You there, speak, who did it?"
The Insecticon glared at Starscream for a moment, moved his mandibles as if he chewed some profanity that he didn't want to utter and then he growled in his very special way. Starscream wings jerked in irritation and the seeker was about to say something but the Insecticon preceded him.
"I do not know." His voice was low and raspy like grinding machine. "I was recharging. I woke in here; these three were standing, laughing and pointing digits at me."
"Soundwave. I do not suppose you have any surveillance installed in this corridor?" Starscream turned to the Third in Command.
Soundwave only shook his head slowly; he had no cameras in the corridor. He was only starting to install the surveillance equipment and the command centre and laboratory area held higher priority than living quarters where theoretically all should be quiet and calm. Not to mention that he didn't had Lord Megatron's permission to install cameras in this corridor.
"I see." The grey seeker sighed wearily; this was going to be a long day. "Oh well, I guess we should sort this mess out first." He tapped his audio receptor and activated his comm link. "Starscream to Knockout!"
Knockout stirred when his comm link pinged and woke him from his slumber. He mewed something illegible but the link pinged again. The medic had no other choice but to answer.
"This is Knockout and you better have a very good reason to wake me on this unholy hour…"
::Knockout!:: Starscream screeched so loudly that the CMO almost jumped. ::Be kind to drag your aft in front of my quarters. NOW!::
Knockout pulled unhappy face and mumbled few obscenities under his vent. Then he sighed and started to manoeuvre himself around another lump that lay in his berth. The lump was wrapped in very large blanked but as Knockout passed it, it moved and the blanked sledded slightly revealing purple pained back, pair of wings and right half of an aft. Said aft had a daisy tattoo, complete with white petals and yellow centre.
"I'll be back later. Duty calls." Knockout said when he spotted that his companion's head rose to give him a look. He knew it would be groggy if Vehicons had normal faces. "Anyway, keep the berth warm for me."
"Sure, I'm not going anywhere anyway." Said Vehicon known as Daisy 3]. "Not on this unholy hour."
It wasn't very long walk as Knockout was an officer and the head of medical staff (which consisted of him and three assisting Vehicons that helped him during their infirmary shifts).
The red and white 'Con was about to say something about having better things to do than pay visits to Starscream when he stopped, his mouth half open and his optics fixed on Insecticon.
"Well, frag me!" He exclaimed as he gawked at the bug- former. "Do I see what I see or do I have malfunctioning optics?"
"Your optics is fine." Shockwave approached the medic. "You are to detach the Insecticon from the ceiling."
Knockout gave the one eyed Decepticon grim look. He didn't want to get near to the Insecticon. Every time he had anything to do with them it ended badly for his finish. Then he noticed Vehicons.
"What about them?"
Starscream glanced at three horizontal forms. "You will get few troops to tow the three stooges to the med bay and note me when they will wake up."
"Hmm." Knockout took closer look at the three unlucky soldiers.
"But start with the Insecticon." Starscream pointed with his digit.
"Fine, I'll be back in a moment." Knockout shrugged and started to walk away.
"And where are you going?" Starscream frowned seeing medic's back.
"Oh, I need to bring my wielder and a ladder." Knockout turned to give the seeker slight grin. "And sent few troopers to haul those three to the med bay."
And he was gone. Starscream only sighed. This was so typical. Whenever he was left to command (even if – like in this case – wasn't the sole commander) everything was slipping out of his servos. The moment Megatron was gone the discipline went out of the window and everyone acted like they wanted to turn the Nemesis or (in this case) New Kaon into psycho ward.
"How it is that such things always happen at my watch?" He said out loud to his fellow officers. "At least with Megatron around they try to behave sane."
"Now, that you mentioned our Lord." Shockwave spoke calmly. "I believe it is time to contact Autobots and inquire about our Lord's healing progress."
Soundwave nodded slowly but then he displayed analogue clock's face. His meaning clear. He waited few seconds for the two other Decepticons to get a good look and then he turned on his heel and returned to his room locking the door.
"I must agree." Shockwave turned his head to look at Starscream. "It is too early to call them." And the tank-former returned to his own room leaving Starscream and the Insecticon.
"Well, what are YOU looking at?" The seeker snapped at silent form hanging from the ceiling.
The Insecticon growled in the unique way of his kind before he spoke. "I too wish I could go to the nest and recharge. This time is far too early to function properly."
Starscream mumbled few choice words and went to the mesa to get his morning energon. This was just beyond him why everybody had such problems with early mornings. He never slept that long, save for situation he stayed up long.
Behind him a lone Insecticon wailed silently and flapped his limbs again, just in case this time it would work. It didn't.
Somewhere down the corridor a scrapping noise could be heard as Knockout lead procession of four Vehicons. One of them dragged a ladder.
TBC
1] The very early July, the school is over to the children are there all the time. I plan that perhaps because of her involvement Miko will be granted "scholarship" and stay in USA, otherwise she would have to go back to Japan.
2] Actually – in my fics and many others – there are three genders: mech (male), femme (female) and carrier mech (a mech who can give birth, hermaphrodite in essence). This is so because young Cybertronians have no actual sex, or to be more exact they have both but inactive, each have potential to become mech, femme or carrier mech – depending on what they feel like. During their last upgrade (it's like turning 18 for a human) when they become officially adults; they can choose if the prefer to spend their life as a male or female, they can also choose to keep both options and become carriers but this is rare occurrence. You can check that in my fic: Beauty of the Beast, chapter 11. Lucky bastards, eh?
3] See Hammerhead chapter 6.
And still, the next chapter will appear in two weeks as I still haven't managed all the stuff that hangs over my head. And the deadlines are closer and closer with every day…