"I believe the phrase is: "Total Ownage, n00b."
- Isaac Sumdac, Malgus Cluster
No.
No.
Nope.
Negative.
Nuh-uh.
Bad.
In the course of Rafael's chemistry research, he had come across stories of people who had attempted to manufacture methamphetamines. The process required a variety of solvents that would evaporate, filling the room in which they were kept. One of these ingredients was ammonium nitrate, a crystalline solid that had uses ranging from agricultural fertilizer to a mining explosive. The fumes from the meth lab would encounter a spark, a pilot light, or someone foolish enough to smoke a cigarette; causing the whole set up to combust and creating explosions that would blast the sides off of houses.
The pictures were scary.
Raf's house looked worse than that.
From Seven's window, the only hint that there had been a structure there was the blast crater that took its place, and the bits of wood, steel, and brick that littered the street.
His family. What happened to his Mama. To Pilar. He had to see, he had to…
The locks on the car clicked and Raf felt Seven's hand pressing down on his chest, pinning him to the seat as the agent peered out the windshield. "Don't move." He ordered.
Don't move? Don't MOVE? Who did Seven think he was? This was his house! He looked down at the hand holding him. Did Seven think he was strong? Raf could tear off his arm and use it to smash the windows. Nobody kept him inside a car. Nobody had the right to-
"Something's not right." Seven continued, relaxing his hand. "This is a small town, the fire station was ten blocks from here. No way did this house burn down that fast. Our agents would have warned me as soon as it started." Seven shifted gears and began backing away. Away from Raf's house. Away from his destination.
"Let me out." Raf ordered.
"Not until I figure out what's going on." Seven said, ignoring him. Defying him. "That car doesn't have plates, and I've never seen it around here. Definitely not Fowler's either."
Raf's attention was directed towards a black Ford Taurus on the other end of the block, its windows tinted too black for the driver to be made out.
"MECH-7 to Prometheus Watch. Come in." Seven said into his comm.
No response, just static.
"MECH-7 to Jasper units, report."
Still nothing.
"I've got a bad feeling about this…" Seven said, and pulled out a camera to take pictures of the… of the blast site.
When its headlights on the mystery car turned on and its engine started, Seven quickly shifted gears again and turned the corner, speeding back the way they came, away from Jasper, away from the Autobot base, and away from his house. Raf closed his eyes in the seat, and for what he would look back and remember as the third time that day, he lost consciousness.
"Is this what you learned from Alpha Trion?" Ratchet demanded of Smokescreen. "I highly doubt that he would have condoned such irresponsible behavior."
Raf looked around. He was back in the Autobot base? The other bots were looking at him. Well, him and Smokescreen. Not with confusion, just with… guilt.
Wait, how was he at eye level with them? He looked down… to see Sideways' body. Raf jumped back, or tried to anyway. But he wasn't in control.
Hey, I missed you rattlin' around in my noggin, master.
That was Sideways' voice again. What was going on?
Speed racer here transformed in front of one of the locals and threatened him.
Right but how was he here?
We… drove back?
"Blowing your cover is not OK." Arcee scolded.
"Sorry, guys." Smokescreen said, "I know I really messed up."
"While Ratchet and Arcee are correct," Optimus said as he arrived in the base, "I believe that we are all equally responsible for this incident."
"Us?" Arcee asked.
"How?" Ratchet groaned.
"We weren't even there!" Bulkhead said.
"Yeah, come on." Bee beeped.
"Well… he and Sideways were."
"Come on!" Bumblebee shook his head at Bulk for selling them out. Raf noted that Bulkhead seemed to have recovered from his injuries, walking and moving without any signs of pain.
"Our recent efforts have been so intensely focused on averting crises," Optimus said, "that we have overlooked simple matters, such as teaching Smokescreen and Sideways how to best function on this planet. It is an oversight that must be corrected."
What? I know plenty about the maggots on this rock.
Is that how Sideways viewed this world and its people?
Oh! I, uh… no, of course not! I forgot myself for a second there, these life forms are reflections of you, master, I didn't mean… sorry.
"Optimus, I'm honored to train under you, and will do whatever it takes to make things right. To make you proud. Right Sideways?" Smokescreen asked.
Shine his hubcaps, why don't you?
"Uh… yeah." Sideways actually said.
"Perhaps the best way for you two to learn about the human world is from a human." Optimus suggested.
"Both of them get their own partners?" Arcee questioned.
"Puh-lease…" Ratchet scoffed. "Isn't having three humans here enough?"
The entire room turned to look at Ratchet. What was that supposed to mean?
He was forged in a different time, boss?
Ratchet sighed and turned back to his computer. Not so much as an apology to Miko.
If it makes you feel that upset, I could just say something. Unless it would blow cover. Would it?
Raf didn't know what was going on anymore.
That's a first.
It really was.
"I was referring to ones already among us." Optimus continued, turning to Miko. "I would send Jack with you, but he is not answering our calls."
"Um… Sure, Optimus." Miko said. "Robots in Disguise-"
Do do do do doooo
"Traffic laws," Miko continued, "don't beat down humans. I can bring them up to speed."
"We've all put in curbside duty." Bulkhead reassured the two of them, placing a hand on their shoulders. "Part of the gig."
"Then let's go for a drive, teach." Smokescreen said as Miko climbed down the ladder and hopped into the driver's seat. Smokescreen tore out immediately, and Arcee turned to Raf, no, Sideways, and then to Optimus.
"Optimus, with all due respect, Agent Fowler is out investigating what happened to Raf's house. Meanwhile Smokescreen, in all his wisdom, chooses a vehicle mode with screaming double '38s' on the doors, making him an easy target." She pointed to Sideways. "At least Sideways only looks like a Decepticon with his color scheme. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't more than concerned about Miko's safety."
Wait, they knew what happened?
"What happened to Raf's house?" Sideways asked.
Optimus exchanged a glance with Arcee. "We fear that the location of his home was compromised, and that his home was targeted by Decepticons. His involvement with MECH has made him more of a target than ever for them."
"But… How do we know if he's OK?"
"Ratchet had confirmed his location at the MECH base today, when the attack happened, it was impossible for him to have arrived home in the intervening period. I only fear now for what has happened to his family, and for how Rafael will react when he finds out."
"That's… why didn't you tell him?"
"We have been unable to communicate with any MECH frequencies since the attack. Unfortunately, you Smokescreen, and Bumblebee were investigating the energon signature, which meant that you could not wait for him at his home." Optimus frowned. "Beyond that, I did not want Smokescreen to do anything… rash after discovering the nature of the incident. His spark is in the right place, but he would likely insist on some form of retaliation. And I will not allow such reckless behavior." He turned back to Arcee. "Though I am now firm in my belief that he understands the value of protecting humanity."
The words "protecting humanity" echoed in Raf's mind as his vision clouded and he woke back up in Seven's car.
"Did you know that you black out a lot?" Seven said, not taking his eyes off the road as they approached the MECH base. "It's… pretty concerning."
Did Seven know that he needed to shut up and mind his own business?
Agh, Raf's head, what… Come on. Unicron was supposed to stop these things from happening.
"Raf, are you feeling ok?" Seven said, stopping the car in front of the highway exit. "You've looked ready to die since earlier when we revived Silas. And now with your house, I… Look, if you don't want to go back to base... we can just keep driving for a bit."
No.
"No."
Seven sighed and turned the car down the road leading to the base, towards the main command building, where two M-Cons blocked his way.
"Hold, Seven. Why did neither you nor Prometheus Watch report after dropping off Rafael?"
"Because I didn't get to drop off Rafael." Seven said, pointing to Raf in the passenger seat. "Where is Silas?"
"Inside the science building overseeing construction of the Ground Bridge," one of them pointed to the second largest building in the complex, still being repaired on one side where the Insecticon had burst out, "why didn't you drop off Rafael?"
"Above your pay grade." Seven said, speeding towards the building.
"Seven, you've returned, good." Silas said, turning his robotic head slightly to acknowledge them upon their entry before turning back to MECH's latest construction project, a Ground Bridge. Or at least, a prototype Ground Bridge that they practically threw together. For a second, it resembled a single-cylinder internal combustion engine. The Scientist was right; it only had taken them a few hours. "Care to explain why you didn't report upon arrival at Rafael's house?"
"Because Rafael's house doesn't exist anymore." Seven said.
"Thank you for choosing the most dramatic, yet least informative diction possible, agent." The Scientist said from above them.
"What do you mean, 'it doesn't exist anymore'?" Silas said, crouching down to get a closer look through the windshield.
Seven sent the pictures to the MECH mainframe, and they opened up on the Scientist's main screen. Several MECH commandos standing guard turned to look at the images.
"Whoah." The Scientist said.
"Sir. If the Decepticons are attempting to assassinate Rafael, we need to strike back." Seven said. "We need to get Scourge or the Sweeps or someone to hit them hard, show them that that won't be tolerated. Rafael's our frie-… asset."
Silas didn't say anything, and his eyes narrowed at the pictures Seven took.
"Sir?"
"Look at these photos, Seven." Silas said. "What do you see?"
"The same thing I saw when I was thirty feet from the site in person?" Seven said slowly. "A destroyed house. Blasted to smithereens."
"Ah, blasted, that's a funny word, isn't it?" Silas said. "I'd say it's taken a whole new meaning for us given our line of work. In normal use, it means 'to launch explosives at'. Yet our enemies use blasters that launch superheated plasma."
"What are you saying, Silas?" Seven asked.
"I'm saying that I'm noticing a curious lack of evidence of blaster fire ever having occurred here, and our intelligence shows that Starscream is the only Decepticon we know of to use conventional missiles. And I highly doubt that the Decepticon warship itself managed to successfully do a flyby so close to the Autobot base."
Oh. I must admit, I did not see that coming.
What.
"Silas. This is exactly what I was talking about." The Scientist said, his voice beginning to raise.
"What?" Raf asked. "It wasn't the Decepticons?"
"We don't know for sure." Silas said.
"Then who was it?" Raf asked.
"My guess is… 'a shadowy government organization with more budget than morals.'"
The words hung in the air for a while, and Raf realized that they were waiting for his response.
"B-but… no!" Raf managed to say. "That doesn't… Agent Fowler wouldn't-"
"Agent Fowler wouldn't. But General Bryce would." Silas said.
"But they can't do that!"
The Scientist and Silas both let out a quick laugh.
"Welcome to MECH, kid." The Scientist said. "Take a number, and Silas will be with you shortly for the presentation." He turned to Silas, and his voice got serious again. "I warned you about soldiers, sir. I told you, Silas."
"This wasn't supposed to happen." Silas insisted.
"I told you." The Scientist said now pacing back and forth. "I told you about Bryce."
"I know!" Silas snapped. "Look, we have to look on the bright side here. If Bryce was responsible for an attempt to assassinate Rafael, then he failed, because Rafael is here, alive, and safe with us."
"But what about my family?" Raf asked. "My mama? My sisters?"
"Look, Rafael." Silas said. "We're going to get to the bottom of this, and when we do, believe me, they'll pay in blood or energon."
As he said it, the Scientist's screen began to flash.
"I take it the techs have finished decoding the next entry in the Iacon database?" Silas asked. "We could use some good news, I suppose."
"No," the Scientist said. "They're still working on it, but it looks like the NBEs beat us to the punch. We're detecting a frequency matching the beacon on the Tox-En container."
"Well, where is it?"
"… China." The Scientist sighed.
"Well, I suppose that this might as well be the perfect time to test out our prototype." Silas suggested.
"To send Scourge… On a trip to China?" The Scientist asked. "Silas, the prototype isn't… I mean, I guess it would work, but the power drain would be ridiculous. We might not be able to call him back for a couple of hours. I haven't even tested sending something over to the next building. And what if Scourge gets hurt?"
"Come on, don't tell me you're growing soft on me." Silas chided.
"So this is our Ground Bridge, huh?" Scourge asked, inspecting the machine, and poking a finger at one of the tesla coils. "It is supposed to be so… unfinished?"
"Where's your sense of adventure?" Silas asked. "It's not unfinished, it's advanced!"
"Hm… My impending doom sensors are tingling."
"Listen, Scourge, this mission is important, and we're sending you because we have the utmost confidence in you." The Scientist assured him. "And by my calculations, the odds of you being violently ripped apart by the electromagnetic distortions are less than two ten thousandths of a percent!"
"Very well, and when can I return?"
"When the mission is accomplished and you call for pickup."
Scourge looked at the three of them. "And I'm expected to, what; tuck the relic into my bomb bay? What if I get attacked? Can I at least bring a Sweep with me as an escort?"
"Uh…" Silas turned to look at the Scientist, who shook his head. "No."
"Welp, this'll be fun." Scourge said. "Go ahead, rev up that engine."
The Scientist put a hand on the lever and flashed a thumbs-up to the other technicians in the room, who readied the targeting data and flashed a thumbs up back. The Scientist pulled the lever, and a Ground Bridge portal, crackling with extra energy but otherwise stable opened up at the mouth of the device. The lights dimmed, and Scourge whispered a prayer, to whom, Raf didn't want to think about, and dashed through the portal, which closed behind him.
On the Scientist's screen, Scourge's signal blinked, moving from his location in base to northeast China. Right on target.
"Scourge, report?" Silas asked, using his on-board communicator. Static came back.
Uh oh.
Scourge lives. I sense him. Believe me, if Scourge falls, we shall be the first to know.
"Scourge, report." Silas repeated. Still nothing.
"I'm getting his signal. Weak, but undoubtedly his." The scientist reported. "And he's on the move."
Twenty minutes later, a message came through, from a MECH technician. "Sir, we've finally deciphered the next set of co-ordinates."
"Not to worry, Team Oracle, Scourge has already been dispatched to _ Province." The Scientist reported. "Move on to the next set."
"I'm sorry, sir? The next set of coordinates don't point to China, they point to… Maine."
"What. Are you sure?"
"Positive. Satellite imagery even confirms a mass of Decepticons congregating at the site."
Silas slammed his fists together. "Well of course! Anything else would be too convenient!"
"Look, this isn't entirely unsalvageable." The Scientist said. "At that distance, we could probably open up a second Ground Bridge, even if we can only send one mech through. Power drain increases exponentially the larger and further the object we send."
"No… why send a mech to do what a machine can do better?" Silas asked, grinning.
"Because machines can't do anything better than people can?" The Scientist volunteered.
"Becau- no." Silas shook his head. "I'll be right back."
"Project Damocles, sir? Really?" The Scientist questioned. "That's your plan?"
"Along with a few minor tweaks made by some of the lab techs." Silas boasted.
"Did you shove Dark Energon in that thing?" Raf demanded.
"As a matter of fact, I did. How did you know?"
How couldn't he? Raf could practically smell the stuff. The normal orange of the folded satellite's solar arrays was being mixed in with a purple glow that crept from the center, and just being near it was giving him a headache.
"Silas, do you seriously expect us to deploy an autonomous, malevolent Kill Sat into orbit around the planet?" The Scientist said. "I said it with Scourge and I'll say it again. This is movie villain stuff."
"Well then it's a good thing we're not the villains, isn't it?" Silas patted the satellite with one of his metal hands. "And besides, Dark Energon's effects only manifest in that way when used as a fuel. The Dark Energon here has been precisely cut to serve as an alternative focus crystal for the particle beam."
"Silas, I don't think that's a good idea…"
Silas had stopped listening, and was hefting the satellite both hands and making practice throwing motions. "Activate the Ground Bridge!" he ordered.
The Scientist shook his head and pulled the lever again, causing all of the lights in the room to dim. Silas spun around, releasing the satellite and sending it flying though the portal.
"Alright." Silas muttered. "So far, so good." When the portal closed and power returned to normal levels, the Scientist checked on the satellite and watched as it automatically adjusted itself to geosynchronous orbit… right over MECH's base.
"Sir, what are you doing?"
"I have a plan." The blaster on his shoulder flipped up and began emitting a red light. Silas turned to look out at one of the large ventilation windows that was approximately level with his shoulder, and focused the beam on the command building, and the screen shifted its reticule over a few yards over to the same target. "Perfect. Activate the Ground Bridge! I have a relic to retrieve."
"By yourself?"
"No, with Rafael. Yes, by myself." Silas tapped his forehead and a live feed of his vision (not panoramic, given that it was just the Scientist's screen and not the main control rig). Raf noticed in the screen that he was looking pretty pale. He could actually see his veins though his skin, even from Silas' height. The Scientist sighed and activated the portal, and Silas charged through.
Silas emerged to see a… well, it started with "cluster".
Some dozen Insecticons, plus a few dozen more Vehicon fliers, drivers, and miners were swarming around the base of a mountain, interrupted in the middle of whatever drilling operation they were performing. Megatron himself was there, wearing his Apex Armor and watching over the scene unfolding before him. Several Vehicons had surrounded… Smokescreen and Sideways, both of whom were on the ground, smoking from blaster wounds, but otherwise OK.
The Decepticons seemed to be in the middle of carving out an entire section of the mountain before they were interrupted by the two Autobots. What they were thinking charging into such a dense group of enemies, Raf didn't know. Silas zoomed his vision into the mountain, scanning it until he focused on what looked like the hilt of a sword sticking out of it.
Several Insecticons ran through his peripheral vision, and Silas zoomed into see that they were chasing… Miko?! What did Raf miss? The moment took on an even more surreal quality when the mountain began to shift, and Silas looked up to the Nemesis beginning to pull it up with a thick cable.
Silas zoomed back in on Megatron and readied his laser designator. On a corner of the Scientist's screen, Damocles flew across the North American continent until it settled over Maine.
"Silas! He's too close to the Autobots!" The Scientist warned.
"Right, right." Silas said. "I'm just scoping him out. Do you think the Apex armor can withstand a particle beam?"
"You'll never take the Star Saber, Megatron!" Sideways could be heard shouting out.
The Star Saber? Here? That should not be. The Star Saber was a creation of mine, not of Primus.
What?
In another world, one unknown to you, I crafted several weapons made up of smaller mini-cons. They were unimaginably powerful, and the hunt for these weapons stoked the fires of the Cybertronian wars to dizzying highs.
And what happened?
The weapons were used to revive my body by an agent of mine, but the Autobots and Decepticons put aside their differences and destroyed me.
Who was the agent?
Some insignificant transformer from an equally insignificant planet.
"Oh really?" Megatron asked, mockingly, and leaned closer to Sideways. "and I suppose you are going to stop me?"
Sideways reached up and tapped his own chest, though Silas couldn't see what he did from that angle. "That's right, Megatron. You won't be taking that weapon today." He continued.
Megatron grinned widely and stood up to his full height. "Ohohoho. I guess we'll see about that." He turned to Smokescreen. "And who are you?"
"Who wants to know?" Smokescreen asked.
Before Megatron could strike Smokescreen for his temerity, the Autobots, plus Scourge, charged in from the woods, blasters blazing. Lacking ranged weapons, Scourge simply charged forward until he encountered a Vehicon and did what he did best. Silas did a target acquisition and noticed that Optimus Prime was not among their number. From the look on Megatron's face, he noticed the same thing. Silas looked up and saw that Optimus had run from another direction and was climbing the section of mountain not being lifted and running in an attempt to be level with the sword.
"Keep Prime from the relic!" Megatron rasped, running towards the mountain while removing the Apex armor and handing it to an Insecticon. "Lose that, and I shall cast your spark into the smelting pits!" Megatron jumped and transformed, flanked by three Vehicons and two Insecticons. He really didn't want Optimus taking that sword.
Silas ran forward into the clearing to get a better shot, and his targeting computer locked onto Megatron and his escorts. He also turned his head to lock onto a Vehicon that he noticed was pointing a blaster straight at the head of a recovered Smokescreen. Flexing his fingers, more rockets than Raf thought could fit in his chassis poured out from him, twisting, twirling, and otherwise making somewhat unnecessary flight adjustments before homing in on the flying Decepticons.
What happened next was fuzzy from the electromagnetic disturbances that occurred, but everybody stopped fighting at that moment, first to look at the missiles streaking through the sky towards Megatron, and then at the pillar of concentrated orange plasma that lit up the sky as if it were daytime and slammed into the Vehicon behind Smokescreen, burning for five seconds before cutting. Raf would find out later that his proximity to the blast actually burned Smokescreen's wings and left him completely deaf for the next hour. Smokescreen turned around for half a second to see what exactly happened behind him before snapping back to see a multitude of explosions happen in the sky as the missiles hit their targets, dropping most of them out of the sky… except for Megatron, who emerged from the smoke unscathed, flying erratically and blasting at Optimus with his ship blasters and his top-mounted fusion cannon. As Silas paused to re-acquire him as a target, Scourge sprinted across his field of view towards the three Insecticons that were chasing Miko, one of which was holding the Apex Armor in its secondary hands while pulling rocks away with its main ones. As soon as Miko was exposed, one of them reached for her before Scourge launched himself to drop kick it in the face, while the second one was hit by one of Bulkhead's wrecking ball fists. The two of them stopped and said something to Miko before the third Insecticon struck Bulkhead in the back.
Silas locked onto the last Insecticon, but Scourge and Bulkhead were too close to it for him to blast it with Damocles again. When the two other Insecticons stood back up, Silas deselected Megatron and began setting up his targeting systems to attack the three bug-bots without harming Scourge. Oh, yeah, and Bulkhead. Raf could actually see that after thought play across Silas's face, too.
Silas grinned when the Insecticon dropped the Apex Armor to dedicate itself to the fight.
Silas stopped grinning when Miko ran to the Apex Armor and jumped on the button.
Silas frowned when the armor actually activated, enveloping her first in a metal cocoon, and then forming around her until she stood as tall as a Vehicon and three times as wide. He turned back towards the chase between Megatron and Optimus and saw Sideways firing at them.
Strange, Sideways didn't seem to be aiming particularly well. He was just pouring blaster fire in their direction, really.
Optimus Prime transformed into truck mode to pick up speed until he ramped off a cliff, towards the flying mountain.
Giving up on trying to target Megatron from the distance, he ran forward to get a closer look, barely registering the sight of the other Autobots, Scourge, and an armored Miko coming behind him.
They all watched as Optimus took to the sky… got shot by Megatron… transformed in mid-air… and grabbed the handle of the Star Saber. As soon as he did, Megatron broke off from his flight pattern towards the Nemesis, transforming and landing on the deck before running inside. Silas zoomed back out to see the sword glow a pale blue for a moment before slipping free of the stone in which it was embedded, falling with Optimus a few thousand feet to the ground below.
Optimus stared intently at the sword as he fell, landing on his feet and holding it above his head, not taking his eyes off of the blade.
"I loosened it for him." Smokescreen claimed.
A mile away, the clamp on the Nemesis released its grip, dropping the mountain it held, and it began to roll down the incline… straight for Optimus.
"Optimus, retreat!" Arcee shouted.
"Now!" Bulkhead said.
"No time!" Silas declared, targeting the mountain with his designator and setting Damocles to full burst.
Optimus finally took his eyes off of the Star Saber and turned around just in time to see a twenty meter wide particle beam pierce the heavens and hit the ground twenty yards in front of him. As the mountain passed through the beam, it was sliced in two like a hard-boiled egg and either side rolled harmlessly past him before stopping.
Everybody but Optimus turned to look as Silas.
"Did you just…" Bulkhead began.
"O…kay" Bumblebee buzzed.
"No way!" Miko said.
Optimus nodded, at what, Raf didn't know, and ran towards the fleeing Nemesis, twisting around in a circle and swinging the Star Saber at it with a roar., sending… some kind of beam towards it until it slammed into its engine array.
"It can do that?" Sideways asked, and turned to Silas while pointing at the mountain. "and you can do that?"
Raf wasn't even there and he could feel the tension ratchet up several levels. Scourge stepped away from the group to stand by Silas's side, and Team Prime was giving a look of pure suspicion.
"Who… are you?" Bulkhead asked.
"Another one of MECH's projects, no doubt." Arcee sighed. "They can't seem to stop cranking them out."
"Who's MECH?" Smokescreen asked.
"Acquaintances." Bulkhead said. "We'll explain when we get back to base."
"Oh, is it 'acquaintances' now, Bulkhead?" Silas asked. "After all we've been through?"
Bulkhead's eyes widened. "Silas?"
"In the flesh, in a manner of speaking."
"Wow." Miko said. "Didn't think you would actually come out to fight yourself. But that is seriously one awesome looking robo-suit." She flashed a "rock on" gesture with the Apex Armor.
"Likewise." Silas grinned. "and I'm glad you think so Miko. I've grown quite… attached to it as of late."
Optimus approached the group and looked at Silas before shaking his head in disapproval. "Ratchet would want us to leave now." He announced, and turned to Silas and Scourge. "Thank you for your assistance, Silas. The Star Saber will be a valuable asset."
"Not a problem, Optimus Prime." Silas pointed up as the Ground Bridge opened to the Autobot Base and the other Autobots walked through. "And MECH now has a sword of its own."
"How epic was that?" Smokescreen gushed on his way back into Autobot Outpost Omega One, pantomiming Optimus's Star Saber swing. "I saw it with my own optics, and I still can't believe it."
"You know what I don't believe?" Bulkhead said, pointing at him and Sideways. "That after what Ratchet and Arcee said, you two still put a human at risk."
"Come on, Bulk, it wasn't their fault!" Miko said, walking forward and testing her range of motion in the Apex Armor. "I insisted! And I even got this sweet armor out of the deal! Besides, you take me on missions all the time!"
Sideways leaned in to more closely inspect the armor.
This armor is actually pretty incredible. Kind of reminds me of the Nemesis Shield.
"Yeah, I know, but… I've never taken you to fight half the Decepticon army."
"We didn't exactly know that ahead of time." Smokescreen offered. "It was a mistake, Bulkhead. I'm sorry."
Sideways shrugged innocently.
"Bulkhead, you should send Miko home." Arcee said. "And talk about this tomorrow."
"If I go home, I'm taking the armor with me." Miko retorted. "I found it, finders keepers."
Ratchet rolled his eyes, and held his hand over the Ground Bridge lever, waiting for Bulkhead to make the call.
"I… guess you can't exactly get hurt anymore, as long as you keep the armor on." Bulkhead sighed.
"Yes! Sweet!" Miko cheered, giving Bulkhead a hug and lifting him up a few feet in the air. "This is going to be awesome! I'm like a real Wrecker now! Just wait 'till Wheeljack sees this! He's gonna flip!"
Sideways turned to walk away, but Arcee pulled him back next to Smokescreen and glaring at the two of them. "OK, Bulkhead's clearly too nice to say this, so I will. We've been in need of more Autobots in our ranks, not more children. I'd almost be willing to expect, not accept or tolerate, but expect this kind of behavior from Smokescreen. He's greener then Tox-En. But you, Sideways? You were supposed to have way better training than this."
"Look, Arcee, we were wrong. And I'm sorry… again." Smokescreen sighed. "And if you need to kick me off Team Prime-"
"Easy there, Smoke," Sideways interrupted, his voice now serious for once, "we apologized. No harm done. That's enough."
"Disregard for human safety, or anyone's safety, will not be tolerated." Optimus said from behind them, standing the Star Saber on the ground, "Do you understand?"
"Fully, sir." The two bots said in unison.
Optimus nodded in approval. "We must never lose sight of the fact that upon this Earth, we are titans, and such power must be used wisely."
When Optimus finished speaking, the Star Saber began to glow a bright blue in his hands, just as it had when he first grasped it, and when he had launched the sword beam. Optimus picked up the sword and held it in front of him, staring into it until the blue glow the sword overpowered the blue glow of his eyes.
"Optimus, speak to me." Ratchet said. Optimus didn't respond. "Optimus?!"
"I am receiving a message." Optimus said.
"From who?"
From whom, buddy. And I'm not picking up any of your energy in that sword at all, master.
"Alpha Trion." Optimus remained silent for a minute after that.
"Optimus, what is Alpha Trion saying?"
After several more minutes, the glow faded, and Optimus began to stumble to the ground before Ratchet caught him. "Easy, Optimus." He cautioned.
"So, did Alpha Trion ask about me?" Smokescreen asked.
Bulkhead pulled him back and stepped forward. "What was the message?"
"It is paramount that we recover the final four Iacon Relics: The Omega Keys." Optimus stated.
Ah, now those I remember. But… If I remember right, they should be quite the trip to find. The Autobots would need a ship… or a Space Bridge. Is there even a Gigantion here? I sure hope not.
"Keys?" Arcee began.
"To what?" Ratchet asked.
"To the regeneration of our home planet… and the fabric of the universe itself.
On the next exciting chapter of A World Forged From Chaos
-Teletraan-1 Breaks
-We've just arrived! The most elite warriors in the universe!
-Some days, you just can't get rid of a bomb.
AN: I actually managed to crank out chapter 15 in a week, and it's done, and it is long and it is amazing and I am so proud of it and I can't wait to share it with you people because it was so much more fun than writing this one but I needed to move the plot along so this needed to be written.
Tell your friends!
And I read all of your feedback, so I'm going to answer a few questions that I feel aren't spoilers.
-fanficbrowser: You are correct, Wheeljack was referencing New Vegas. The story is packed pretty heavily with them if you go back and look, particularly when it comes to Silas and General Bryce.
-Taserlaser: Silas is Cyclonus, even if he doesn't refer to himself as such, but as far as Unicron is concerned, he has taken up the mantle, and was influenced to use the name for his robot's operating system, while the robot itself is named Cylas. Sideways is indeed the Sideways we've all come to know. Ratchet's arc in this story is basically a reversal of what it was in the show, because Ratchet started the show as being pretty blatantly racist against humans, apart from his few human friends, and only coming to be less of a prick in season 3. So in this case, seeing MECH embody in many ways the best and worse impulses of humanity isn't helping him at all. MECH is taking humanity to greater scientific frontiers, by wearing Ratchet's people like a suit, and Seven freely tells him that humans have done far more inhumane things to other living humans. As for MECH's history, I had to basically extrapolate an entire history for Silas based purely on the fact that he was former military, spoke of "The New World Order" as something that was already here as a opposed to something coming. His Space Laser Project helped me pinpoint a timeframe for him since that would mean that he would have been in the military during the Reagan administration.
-T51b Mordin: As I write this story, I realize that part of the reason that Raf rarely gets screentime is because, like Ratchet, his skillset rarely requires him to leave the base. And part of the reason Silas took a dive off of idiot canyon in "The Human Factor" I feel is because MECH didn't actually stand for anything in canon. From the little I knew of/extrapolated from his history, I saw many similarities to the character of John Rambo translated to an officer rather than an enlisted man. Whereas Rambo carried his rage against what he saw as treacherous politicians and ungrateful civilians and channeled it through wanton violence, Silas, who is considerably more educated and tactful, chose to channel that same feeling towards managing a terrorist organization. I also considered other fascist movements of the past, particularly Hitler's repeated claim that Germany's loss in WWII was due to this mass backstabbing by Germany's Jews, and this common belief in authoritarian movements that the masses supposedly actually agree with them, but due to some group's interference, this silent majority cannot aid them. Given that fascists tend to make good demagogues, this becomes something of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Sort of. Also, side note, I believe that you are confusing Sideways with Shockwave.
Everything Silas says, by the way, are based on real philosophical and political concepts that you guys should look up, not because I agree with them (I disagree with nearly everything Silas says, actually), but because it is always good to read from a perspective that you won't really see in the mainstream media. That's why I actually enjoyed Fallout New Vegas, because two of the three factions were able to present well-reasoned arguments against the democratic foundations of the NCR (and by extension, the USA) beyond "I hate democracy because I'm evil and hate freedom". Or course, Caesar actually was evil and did hate freedom, but he had reasons. Not good reasons, mind you, but somewhat logical ones.
If anybody is wondering, I support Mr. House, because he had a valid and enforceable property claim on the Strip, and effectively homesteaded Hoover Dam. Vegas, though not the entirety of the Mojave, was his by right.