Gendo eyed with hate the fully functional space port built outside the city. It was a monument to have much things had gone off his plans. Now a whole planet of robots had foot hold in Tokyo 3 which was being called Autobot City more and more.
And he was seeing his pawns that knew only of NERV's public goals wearing the red Autobot symbol or even more annoying, a version of the red symbol that was Optimus Prime's face. To make that symbol even worse was that Optimus Prime really didn't want his face plastered over even more products in that form.
The selfless paladin nobility disgusted Gendo. And Starsaber was cut form the same model. Gendo would be even more annoyed if he knew that there was literally a psychological condition among the Autobots and even some Decepticons of taking hero worship of Optimus Prime a bit too far. They repainted themselves to look more like him, even underwent body modifications to look more like him as well.
Gendo had to bribe, manipulate and more to climb his way to power. He had his pawns follow him out of fear and now he had paladins among them that he couldn't crush like he intended for the 3rd Child. And if anything Optimus Prime and Starsaber gave Shinji role models.
Something that Gendo wanted to keep from happening. He wanted to keep the Third Child easy to mold and weak. And the Second Child an arrogant mess hiding her insecurities. But now he was forced to have therapists in NERV's pay roll and for various people to have sessions with them.
And next to him was General Kenji Toru. A man that shouldn't have any say in the operations of NERV yet he did. It galled the Supreme Commander of NERV to have to share power with anyone. Especially someone who was not under his thumb besides the Old Men.
"Looks like we've joined the interstellar community," Toru mused.
Gendo wasn't sure if that just put the Scenario into a wood chipper or hit it with a bullet train. He honestly didn't even want to appear at the opening of the space port, but if Toru and Optimus Prime were there, he had to make an appearance.
It was a PR move and Gendo knew that now he would have to make them to keep onto his power. The world was changing and to be reunited with Yui had to change with it. As much as he didn't like it. He even had to reforge old bonds to find the scientists he had for his special projects.
Gendo then noticed a blue spaceship fly in and transform into robot mode. The odd thing was he had no symbol on him. Every Transformer he had seen had one of the symbols on them somewhere.
'Why would a neutral Transformer if such a thing exists come here?' Gendo thought.
"Primus," High Beam muttered "Sixknight found us."
"Bring me the most powerful Autobots and Decepticons to battle!" Sixknight roared in front of the camera crews.
Sixknight ignored the questions being asked of him, and them recording his image for the news programs around the world. He blocked a sword strike by Braver with with his bare hands and found it amusing how Starsaber and his closest allies enjoyed using melee weapons like swords a lot.
In the Autobot section of the stands Prowl was already sending orders to send all humans to the shelters and raise the defenses. While it might not be an Angel, Sixknight was a powerful warrior and not just someone with a loud audio transmitter.
His ripping Shockblast apart limb by limb proved that. Not that anyone on either side missed that butcher who would kill his own troops if he had nothing better to shoot at.
"Get everyone to the shelters," Optimus Prime ordered.
"Prime!" Sixknight yelled before transforming into a puma and leaping at the Autobot leader. Optimus quickly rolled to the left and the Six Changer collided with the stands. Braver looked annoyed he'd been considered chump change by the neutral Transformer.
As Sixknight burst out of the wreckage, he found himself punched in the gut by Brawn. The force of the blows knocked him out of the stadium and amused the factionless Transformer.
"Perhaps Brawn is worthy to fight," Sixknight mused as he took control over his flight. The ronin Transformer hit Brawn with his blasters and only appeared to annoy the super strong Autobot. Brawn returned fire with his laser pistol. However he no luck in hitting the aquamarine Transformer.
Sideswipe rocketed through the air via his jet pack at Sixknight. The sixchanger looked amused as he easily dodged Sideswipe's clumsy aerial attack. Sixknight was then blasted with a barrage of fire. If anything having multiple people fire on him made the faction-less Transformer look someone told him a funny joke.
He transformed into a giant gun like Shockwave and opened fire. Most of the Autobots got out of the way, but Bumper's left arm was blown off and the small Autobot was sent flying back and made a horrific crash as he went through a reenforced glass window and landed in the food court for the space port. High Beam leaped through the hole to see if Bumper was alright.
A massive bolt of lightning struck Sixknight. It knocked Sixknight out of the air and into the ground. While he was down Cliffjumper put full power into his primary and massive gun and let loose on the Six Changer.
"Aerialbots attack!" Silverbolt ordered.
"I always wanted a shot at Sixknight," Slingshot boasted as he strafed the knocked down Transformer.
Skydive went in close and Sixknight leaped onto him in puma mode and quickly transformed to starfighter mode and attacked the Aerialbots head on. Air Raid nearly was blown out of the sky by Sixknight.
Then Sixknight saw a red cybertronian jet. A feral grin fixed itself onto Sixknight's face. He knew exactly who that was.
"Starsaber," Sixknight said with glee. He had long wished to battle the greatest swordsman in the universe.
Starsaber fired on Sixknight with the Six Changer nimbly dodging the attacks. However it was all a feint as Sideswipe landed on Sixknight and literally kicked the canopy of the starfighter in with his foot.
Sixknight quickly transformed to robot mode and hammered on Sideswipe with high speed punches. The battered Autobot couldn't help but laugh.
"What is so funny?" Sixknight asked sounding offended. He got his answer when Air Raid pulled a move out of Ramjet's play book and slammed into him. The pair rocketed across the sky over Tokyo-3. It wasn't until they reached the mountains outside of it Sixknight was able to free himself.
Sixknight transformed into gun mode to clear the skies of Autobots before landing.
"I got this!" Fireflight yelled.
There was a loud explosion as Fireflight tried hit Sixknight with a fuel air bomb. The six changer Transformer turned into drill mode and managed to drill underground and avoid the massive explosion.
In the armored command center under the space port General Toru watched the battle.
"And you trust a scatter brained Autobot with those kinds of weapons?" General Toru said in shock.
"I can understand why you are weary of Fireflight and his fire-fog missiles," Prowl stated "But he hasn't hurt anyone with his diversionary weapons."
General Toru was shocked. They considered fuel air bombs good for a diversion?
V-V-V
In the confusion and panic Kaji slipped away and found himself confronted by Smokescreen. The triple agent looked surprised for a moment before slipping into a mask of being completely at ease. He wondered what the friendly Autobot Intelligence Agent wanted with him.
"I need to keep this brief," Smokescreen stated "Whose side are you really on Kaji?"
"Now what makes you think I serve more then just NERV and their mission to save the world?" Kaji asked.
"Because we're not stupid or overworked Kaji."
Kaji had to admit that point. He was using the fog of war to keep Misato from finding out what was in that briefcase. Given the instant she found out, Gendo would have her killed. If she didn't take him out and end up killed while doing it.
"And we still wonder what was in that briefcase you delivered to Commander Ikari," Smokescreen commented "Anything important to him will likely become a problem for us later."
Kaji knew admitting it was Adam he hauled around for Gendo Ikari to use in his plans won't go over well. As much as he would have liked to have seen Misato pump that creature full of lead and the Autobots making sure the first Angel was dead and unusable for Gendo's plans. Kaji wondered what Gendo even wanted with Adam in the first place.
"It was hush hush," Kaji said "You know how that is."
"Kaji you are making it extremely difficult for us to figure out where you stand. Grimlock wants to simply kill you and get it over with."
That didn't surprise Kaji at all. Grimlock was very brutal and to the point. Still he felt a bit honored to be a point of discussion among the high ranking Autobots. He just hoped what discussed about him was more pleasant then what did with Gendo.
There was no way that any of them honestly liked working with the cold commander of NERV. Or trust him at all.
"I just want humanity to survive the Angel War." Kaji admitted to Smokescreen. He wasn't sure if it was the best answer but it was the most honest.
"Good answer." Smokescreen said before driving off.
Kaji felt relieved for some reason. He wasn't sure but perhaps he managed to get rid of some of the bad blood he created on the Over the Rainbow.
The triple agent then plotted how he could get the Autobots to find Adam and destroy it for good. And perhaps he could find a way to get MAGI's help on that. Kaji then laughed. He too considered MAGI to be just a computer before this. One of incredible processing power due to the processors, but no different then any laptop he could pick up at an electronics store on a basic level.
Now she could be his best ally in saving the world from SEELE, and Gendo Ikari. And he thought the world was already a place where nothing was as it seemed before the Transformers showed up.
V-V-V
"You know I have better things to do then be your ride," Blurr commented so fast it was almost all one word "I could use my speed to fight Sixknight, who is frankly a loose cannon, and use his arrogance..."
"SHUT UP!" Asuka bellowed "Just shut up and drive!"
"I must agree with Asuka," Rei quietly commented.
Blurr simply increased his speed to over 300 mph instead of talk to the humans riding in him. They won't know a good conversation if it attacked them anyway.
While Shinji was glad he was riding in Windcharger and he might be behind Blurr and the others, he knew he'd keep his sanity. Blurr talked so fast that motor mouth was putting it lightly. And that yes Bluestreak had served with the guy.
The trip thankfully didn't end with Blurr requiring to report to Ratchet for repairs.
"Guess we should have warned you about Asuka," Windcharger joked "She's a spitfire."
"She is a very spirited individual, yet I doubt her self esteem is anything more then a facade but I'm not a psy ops bot like Rung."
"She's in therapy for a reason Blurr," Windcharger noted "Pit! Half the people here are in therapy for various reasons. We think Gendo Ikari has the same standards as the Wreckers reserve list."
"And how would you know about that?" Blurr pointedly asked.
"I've worked with some of them," Windcharger replied "Primus Rotorstorm and Ironfist had problems."
Blurr switched over to Cybertronian. He didn't want anyone but MAGI to overhear the conversation and understand it. His trust of the NERV commanding officers was nonexistent.
"Smokescreen and Bumblebee have told me much about Gendo Ikari and I honestly believe he will be as big of a menace to us as the Decepticons. Especially if he finds any projects Scorponok left on this planet."
"Wait...Scorponok has been on Earth?"
"Yes, and I was part of the mission almost a Vorn ago with Highflyer to deal his experiments on this world."
Windcharger was shocked that Transformers had been to Earth before the Ark and Nemesis crashed on it. And wondered what sort of a mess Scorponok left behind. Especially since biotechnology was something he specialized in.
And his student Brushguard once created Guardian sized plants that tried to eat Transformers. And several other plant creations that were a pain to deal with.
While preparing for launch Rei pressed a button on her watch was in encased in red and grey battle armor. Shinji smiled at the First Child given he knew Wheeljack been working on giving her a unique battle. And Shinji liked the final product a lot.
"Hey those are my colors Wonder Girl," Asuka snapped "Honestly is this supposed to be an sentai show I'm stuck in?"
"I like it," Rei stated softly.
"I think it looks weird," Asuka commented "And I like our plugsuits better."
"And I do not like being seen as some fetish pin up model."
"You live in Japan, even Second Impact hasn't killed off the perverted weirdos into that."
Rei rubbed her wrist mounted laser cannons. Asuka blinked. And wondered where Wheeljack was getting the ideas for what to do with those suits. Where they going to transform into part of their Evangelions by the time the Autobot mad scientist was done tinkering? She then realized to never say that out loud or Wheeljack would probably try to make it happen.
"Honestly these are so we can synch better with our Evangelions," Asuka said pointing at her plug suit "It doesn't have to be full on battle armor like Iron Man."
"I like it," Shinji said with a concealed smile given he had his helmet on. Though the annoyed look Asuka gave him made it clear she heard the smile in his voice.
Ritsuko watched and was jealous of Wheeljack's budget. As in he didn't have to worry about such a thing. He seemed to just invent and create new things because he could. New A-10 plugs, enhancements for the Evangelions, axes, swords and guns for the Evangelions to use, and now this. It was like the scientist had seen some Sentai shows and went "Hey Shinji and the others need some of those" and created them to fit the theme.
"Oh jeez," Ritsuko grumbled "Does he always have to give these kids battle armor."
Of course the fact that the plugsuits had become the butt of nearly every joke since Shinji's TV appearance wasn't helping things. Ritsuko and the science and engineering staff were all feeling like they were grade school children trying to keep up with a straight A college grad student.
Ritsuko lit a cigarette and calmed down a bit. She knew Wheeljack wasn't trying to show them up out of malice. Or trying to destroy Gendo's little Scenario on purpose. Though Misato's amused smile while looking at Rei's suit made her wonder what Wheeljack's next invention was.
In the command deck Gendo wondered why NERV was to be involved in a purely internal Transformers matter. And it wasn't even the Decepticons as this robot seemed to be a free agent that wished to prove he was the strongest.
"Sir we are getting a call from the UN Council," Hyuuga stated "We are to aid the Autobots in this battle."
'And they will then complain about how damaged the Evangelions get after this battle.' Gendo thought with gallows humor. Still it was time to act like professionals and clean up their messes for once.
"Launch the Evangelions," Gendo ordered "And show the Autobots how NERV handles its problems."
And Gendo took solace in the fact the Evangelions hadn't had that Optimus Prime's face version of the Autobrand painted on them. At that point the Evangelions might as well have been covered in marketing logos like race cars.
As she entered her entry plug Asuka looked eager to see if she could crush a Transformer with her Evangelion. At least he won't be able to split into two like the last Angel. Asuka then revised that thought as maybe this one could do that.
In Eva 00 Rei could feel jealousy coming from the trapped soul of Naoko Akagi. She wasn't sure why though was glad she wasn't fighting with her over control of the Evangelion right now. While in Eva 01 Shinji was nearly knocked over with a feeling of love.
'Where is this coming from?' Shinji thought as he basked in the love.
MAGI's holoavatar smirked at her manipulations of the souls of those Evangelions. With the looks on the faces of everyone in the command center other then Misato also being amusing. Especially the expression on Ritsuko's face which was pure anger.
"What you don't like my hat and jacket?" MAGI joked.
"I don't like your face and what you look like." Ritsuko growled cutting to the heart of the matter.
MAGI smirked. She then glared at Gendo Ikari for a moment. He showed no reaction to her other then to look at the golden Autobot symbol on her hat. She didn't want to annoy the hell out of Gendo too much just yet but she enjoyed letting him know what side she was on.
The Evangelions launched into battle and Sixknight looked at them with disgust. Mindless beasts were not worthy foes for him.
'So they have to send their transorganic beasts to fight me.' Sixknight thought as he dodged a burst of laser fire from Air Raid and Slingshot.
Sixknight transformed into laser cannon mode and opened fire on the Evangelions. Eva 02 clutched a wound to the side that was leaking a mix of energon and other fluids. Asuka then tried to impale the six changer on her prong spear, but Sixknight transformed to puma mode and leaped into the spear and transformed back to robot mode. He ran up the spear and blasted her right in the face.
Asuka growled and managed to slap the neutral Transformer with one of Eva 02's hands. Sixknight flew through the air and transformed into his wounded jet form. The sixchanger shot the hand that smacked him to make a point. Asuka rubbed the back of her hand out of reflex. Due to her improved A-10 clips the laser wounds didn't hurt, but it psychologically felt right.
Rei opened fire on him with a compressed air gun but Sixknight managed to dodge bursts of compressed air that could propel a car with enough force to go through a sky scraper.
"I think we need to stop giving the rifles to the Evangelion that lacks depth perception," Asuka remarked.
The First Child wondered if Asuka had a natural talent for getting on everyone's nerves. She pondered if Sideswipe would like to help her with a few things after the battle.
While Shinji fired a ion blast at Sixknight with an upscaled version of Optimus Prime's rifle. Sixknight had to work at dodging the attacks. He wondered what made these transorganics smarter then the usual kind which were mindless beasts.
Sixknight transformed into laser blaster mode and opened fire on Evangelion 01. He blew the eyes out on the transorganic and while it was stumbling blasted through the left leg of the purple behemoth and sent the Evangelion tumbling to the ground.
Rei's eyes narrowed and she tried to cut Sixknight in half with her saber. Asuka gave Rei some cover fire. The aquamarine Transformer nimbly dodged their attacks and returned fire on them. The Aerialbots flew in to give the pair a hand.
'Well this sucks,' Shinji thought as the Evangelion started to regenerate eyes and a leg. Then suddenly he felt a surge of protectiveness and rage build up. He wondered where this came from and why when it overwhelmed him.
Suddenly the eyes and leg on Eva 01 regrew. The massive purple transorganic had a wild look in it's eyes and let out a earth shattering roar. Gendo was shocked that now was when Yui's spirit reawakened. This was what he had planned to have happen when the 3rd Angel attacked. Not in a battle with a ronin Transformer.
Evangelion 01 roared and grabbed Sixknight out of the air and slammed him into the ground. Shinji tried to regain control of the Evangelion as he stomped on Sixknight. Emerald sparks came out of the wounds Sixknight hand and he looked like transforming back to robot mode hurt a bit.
"What the Inferno is that thing?" Sixknight asked. It was like Omega Supreme had just attacked him. An enraged Omega Supreme at that. It explained to him why the Constructicons feared the infamous Guardian.
Evangelion 01 then tried to crush Sixknight it's bare hands. However the Sixchanger was able to avoid the raging purple biotech mech's grasp. Sixknight flew as fast as he could away from Eva 01. The purple berserker collided with Evangelion 00 and sent them both down in a heap.
Inside Eva 02 Asuka watched in shock and wondered what was going on. She couldn't pull her eyes away from the barely controlled carnage. It was was simply...incredible. While worry swelled in Rei. She was worried if her boyfriend would be ok after this fight.
In the command center MAGI was amused. She had awakened Yui and was positive that Gendo would think finally something was going by his plans. And he had no idea it was anything but that. MAGI couldn't wait to see the look on Gendo's face when he found out how bad this really was going to be for him and his long term health. The slagger was going to learn hell have no fury like a woman scorned.
On the battlefield Shinji struggled to regain control of his Evangelion. It didn't seem to be fighting him so much as it had a different idea of how to beat Sixknight. And that moment of internal conflict was enough for Sixknight to get back in the air and back on the offensive.
Asuka however had enough picked up Eva 01's ion rifle and blasted Sixknight at point blank range. The energy blast slammed into Sixknight with the force of Superion's fist and sent him to the ground. Silverbolt hit the downed Transformer with a bolt of lightning from his gun to help make sure Sixknight stayed down.
However Sixknight managed to rise, with sparks all over his body. A look of pure rage was on the face of the ronin Transformer as he opened fire on the Aerialbots and Evangelions. Rei kicked a boulder at Sixknight, which he managed to go through in drill tank mode.
"What does it take to put this guy down?" Asuka grumbled.
Sixknight then leaped into the air and barely avoided being cut in half by the saberblade flying through the air. It boomeranged back at Starsaber, who caught it in his hand.
"Give up Sixknight," Starsaber yelled "We have you surrounded."
To their surprise Sixknight laughed and transformed into his laser cannon mode and opened fire on all of them.
The ego driven aquamarine Transformer was starting to feel all the damage of his injuries as he felt sluggish and his laser blasts not as powerful as he wanted them to be. Suddenly the one eyed transorganic picked him up and threw him to the ground. All three of the transorganics took turns stomping on him.
Sixknight mercifully went into stasis lock.
In the Autobot command center under the space port, General Toru then saw the Evangelions attack Sixknight and wondered if Gendo was insane to launch them against this Transformer. The record of the Evangelions against the Transformers was pretty spotty. The biggest win being because they had help blowing the optics out on Devastator.
Toru then started making calls so Gendo won't be able to claim the battered Transformer for his own personal collection.
V-V-V
In the depths of the Geo Front Steeljaw followed the smell of LCL. The depths of the Geo Front were as twisting and confusing as the depths of Cybertron. Though Steeljaw knew he won't have to fight mutants, Centurion Droids, and transorganics in here, something felt off about the place to him. Like there were things going on that if exposed would shake the foundations of everything.
And Steeljaw did not like that feeling at all.
Through his link to Blaster he'd been kept abreast of current events and had this feeling that LCL was going to fit into the puzzle that NERV was. He just wasn't sure where and how.
V-V-V
The creatures before him reminded Starscream of something he had read of human liteture. Ah yes the Deep Ones of H.P. Lovecraft. The human horror writer supposedly wrote of things from his dreams. The arrogant scientist smirked thinking about his former friend Jetfire would try to explain something from the nightmares of a being could turn out to be true in a way.
Soundwave recorded every telepathic message King Nergal made. Something about them made him feel the undersea king was saying one thing out loud and a completely different thing to his servants. He was completely untrustworthy. Yet Soundwave and Megatron knew he'd make for a useful tool and weapon against the Autobots and their human allies.
King Nergal smiled gleefully at his pawns in the conquest of the surface world. Ever since the waves rose he had been planning to take over what was left of humanity. After all his race could exist on the surface quite easily if they had water to breath.
The only thing that held them back was that their power sources were magma vents on the bottom of the ocean. The logistics of taking over the surface world were too great. But now they could move Sub Atlantis to the surface world and bring all it's weapons to bare on humanity.
Energon was such an amazing thing.
V-V-V
Sixknight awakened from stasis lock to see objects being removed from the transorganics. He was shocked to see small beings exit them and one taking off it's head. Or rather helmet. It was...a human being?
Humans had beaten him? How was that possible? Humans were weak sacks of ego-centrism and slag that acted like war was something they invented. He should have been able to defeat them easily. He was frankly surprised Megatron hadn't crushed them simply because that arrogance would annoy the Slag Maker a lot.
How could have fought him on near equal ground and won? It just didn't make any sense to him. Maybe there was more to humans then he had previously thought.