Autobots, Assemble!

Part 2

Chapter 3

Wheeljack charged forward into the cave, the lighting dimming only slightly (it was dark out), so the white sports car turned his headlights on and forged ahead. A roar from behind and the dragon bounded in, crashing into the walls in its haste to pursue its prey. Quiet beeping echoed around the empty tunnel the car was leading the dragon down, his grenades flashing on and off like mechanical fireflies as they waited for the signal from his detonator. The dragon continued screaming and spitting fire at him, its spiked tail dislodging some of the glowing energon crystals embedded in the wall but thankfully not dislodging a single grenade.

Sensing he was deep enough in the tunnel, the car spun on its wheels and barreled under the dragon's underbelly back outside, the dragon too confused for the moment to chase after him. The car transformed and landed behind a conglomeration of boulders where the others were waiting.

"And, boom." Wheeljack pressed the detonator and the mine exploded in a cloud of blue fire. He'd been careful to plant the grenades in the most structurally weak spots to ensure the mine would collapse on itself, and also bury the dragon under the rubble. There was no way it could've survived a double blow like that.

"Ye-hah! Snuff the tragic dragon!" Miko hooted.

SCCREEEEEEOOOOOOAR! The dragon had miraculously survived the double blow of being blown up and buried alive and struggled out of the debris, flaring its wings in rage, its yellow eyes narrowing in hate.

"We're toast." Hawkeye whimpered.

A plasma shot from above impacted against the dragon's neck, stunning it for a few seconds but not even leaving a scratch on its thick armor. Everyone turned and saw a large navy blue Cybertronian ship swoop down over the dragon's head as it fired off a second blast, fully earning the dragon's attention.

"One of ours?" Bulkhead wondered aloud.

Wheeljack shrugged . "Does it matter?"

The ship banked around and flew for them, lowering a hatch on its underside, and got just low enough for the two 'Bots to jump on. Bulkhead scooped up his charge and the archer, knowing full well Hulk could make the jump and that Thor could fly onto it. Once they were all on the hatch raised up into the ship.

The inside of the ship was huge, much larger than Wheeljack's own ship, the Jackhammer, big enough to easily fit even the towering Prime inside. But that wasn't the most interesting part…

"ARCEE!" Bulkhead cried out, picking the blue femme up and hugging her tightly before setting her down again. Four humans and one android peeked out and rushed their friends, each offering hugs (apart from Vision; he was still learning and adapting to human behavior, but he did offer a handshake to two 'Bots who took his small hand and shook it gingerly).

"Thank you for the rescue, Arcee." Thor said politely.

"Don't thank me Thor. Thank these two." She turned and faced two new mechs; one in the pilot seat of ship, the other standing with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Soldiers." Ultra Magnus greeted them stiffly.

The green ex-Wrecker's jaw slackened. "Ultra Magnus?" He gasped. "It's an honor."

"It's an honor, sir." The pilot corrected coldly.

The white and black mech nodded his head in greeting. "Bulkhead. Wheeljack."

Wheeljack frowned. "Great. Of all the Autobots to rescue us, it had to be you two."

Wasp promptly zapped him in the shin. "Gee, grateful much?" She hissed. "They just saved you from getting barbecued."

Jack planted himself in between the two of them before Wheeljack could harbor the thought of stomping her flat. "Enough." Arcee nodded in approval at her partner's swift thinking. Maybe Panther was right – Jack was rather good at dispelling tempers and keeping everyone calm. Valuable traits in a leader.

"Care to tell us what's nipping at our tailpipes, guys?" She asked as the onboard scanners on the ship displayed a real time video feed of some kind of metallic reptile with wings chasing them down.

"We think it's a robo-dragon!" Miko and Hawkeye piped up. "Thor himself said it was a dragon, so…"

"Yes, but the creature is made of metal just like a Cybertronian. It merely has the appearance of one of your fire-breathing beasts of legend, Ms. Nakadai. That does not necessarily mean it is a dragon." Vision contradicted the two, though the comment was clearly directed at the spunky Asian teen alone.

"So it could be a Cybertronian reptile, Vision? A predator maybe?" Jack asked.

"That would explain the hunting behavior." Prowl agreed. "But how are we supposed to bring it down? Even dropping an entire Decepticon energon mine filled with explosives hardly seemed to phase it."

"I have a suggestion." Panther said. "The beast appears to be heavily armored on every inch of its body aside from its wings and optics. I suggest targeting those."

"The wings I could easily hit." Ultra Magnus informed him, for the moment disregarding the fact that he not called him sir. "But the optics…that would require someone with targeting skills beyond my own. Even my ship doesn't have that kind of capability. The fact that it is moving would make that endeavor far more challenging, as well." He shook his head in defeat.

"Someone call for a sniper?" Hawkeye joked.

Prowl looked down at the purple-clad human. "You? How could you possibly hit the optics of a moving target?"

The human puffed his chest out in pride. "Because I'm just that good. Give the gun controls to me, Magnus."

The blue mech looked ready to snap out a sharp retort, but was stopped by Wasp. "Trust me, sir. He can hit them." She glanced at the controls in confusion. "Thought the controls seem a bit big for him…"

In response, Ultra Magnus flicked a switch on the far side of the dash, replacing the Autobot-sized gun controls with ones that could be manipulated by a human. Hawkeye clambered up and gripped the controls.

"Sweet." He grinned. "Watch and learn boys. If you can drive, Mags, I'll handle the shooting." Ultra Magnus just sighed in irritation and gripped the flight controls.

The dragon (everyone refused to refer to it in any other way) spat another ball of fire at the ship which lunged to the side to avoid it. Another fire ball and a second dodge. As the dragon powered up for third blast, the archer unleashed a volley of shots at its wings and the dragon screamed in fury, its wings singed and burned from the shots. Its yellow optics glittered darkly as it seemingly realized that a more experienced shot was controlling the ship's mounted guns and flew up into a bank of clouds.

"Where'd it go?" Wasp flew around frantically to try and spot it through the ship's windows.

"Heh, that thing isn't so tough. It's runnin' scared." Hulk growled.

"Do not get overconfident. It's smarter than we give it credit for." Prowl cautioned. With a bone jarring thud the dragon landed right on the ship's front end, snarling at the occupants inside and staring down the gun controller. Hawkeye repositioned the guns and fired off a single shot that hit the dragon square in its left optic, forcing it to release its claws from the ship and tumble off.

"Yeah! Get some!" The archer whooped it up and flashed a rude gesture at the falling dragon. The Avengers and the two members of Team Prime let out a hearty cheer in victory.

"I must admit, you have skill." Ultra Magnus said grudgingly. "But now we must find the rest of both your teams."

A beep came from the ship and the monitor flashed white, displaying a short typed message: Meet up at the Harbinger, followed by a set of geographical coordinates. Then the message deleted itself.

"That was no doubt sent from one your team members." Prowl guessed smartly. "Was the ship able to copy the coordinates, sir?" He asked Ultra Magnus.

"Thankfully, yes. Though why your allies would be hiding inside of a wrecked Decepticon ship is beyond me." The pilot glanced back as he said this.

"The others are possibly using Megatron's own pride against him." Thor said. "They rightfully believe that he will not think to search for them on one of his faction's own vessels."

Wheeljack finally broke out of his angry silence. "Smart move. Bucket Head won't bother monitoring his own frequencies to find Autobots either. He thinks everyone else is offline except me."

At the word "offline" the Avengers and the other two Team Prime members went deathly quiet as they remembered Jarvis's words: I am unable to locate the signals of Smokescreen and Optimus Prime.

OoooooooooooooooooooooOooooooooooooooooo

At the Harbinger, Tony was tinkering with both the vessel's shielding and trying to encrypt its communication frequencies to keep them hidden. He'd confirmed that sending a message to any Autobots would be completely safe after the encrypting was done. Which it was. The shielding was a bit trickier. According to Ratchet, the Harbinger had been split in two parts by an Autobot battalion stationed here before them, and the shielding generator was in the other half, so he'd been forced to improvise and build a makeshift prototype cloaking device, similar to the one he used in his Stealth Armor. But this one was a lot bigger and built to cloak an entire ship full of Avengers and Cybertronians.

So after the message had been sent all they could do was wait and hope everyone got there in one piece. And they didn't have to wait very long. The scream of a high powered engine was heard outside and they all bolted madly outside to see a large – what they could only hope was Autobot – ship land on the red rocks of Death Valley and lower its hatch. Ratchet let out a relieved sigh ("exvent" he'd corrected them) on seeing familiar metal feet lower onto the ground.

"Guys! You're alive!" Raf sprinted forward and was picked up and hugged by Miko while Jack gripped the smaller boy's hand first and then hugged him. The Avengers similarly spilled out of the ship and began chatting feverishly with their comrades, trying to gain any information they could from each other. That's when Prowl and Ultra Magnus came forward, earning a startled trill from Bumblebee and utter shock from Ratchet. The two mechs offered a curt greeting of "Doctor." to him. The sound of two more high power engines confused everyone and they looked skyward.

Two aircraft, one a camo- colored military fighter plane, the other a sleek dark grey jet with a large black eagle logo on – the crest of S.H.I.E.L.D – were headed right for the Harbinger. Ultra Magnus and Prowl both activated their blasters and trained them on the planes forcing the other 'Bots to jump in and stop them. Cries of "Don't shoot!" "The green plane is friendly!" and "It's Fowler! He's with us!" convinced the two mechs to lower their weapons.

"What about the other aircraft?" Prowl asked.

"S.H.I.E.L.D jet. They're the good guys." Cap assured him. "Well, most of the time. Probably got word about the spire and sent someone to do recon and report back."

"Then why is it landing here?"

"No idea."

Both aircraft landed and opened their doors. The green plane let out Agent Fowler and black haired woman in nurse's scrubs. The S.H.I.E.L.D jet let out a blonde haired man….and Jane Foster, who was carrying a human medical kit and a tool kit with specialized gear to help out with Autobot repairs. The two women stopped dead on seeing each other, hinting that each aircraft had arrived on its own accord and for different purposes. It also hinted that the two aircraft had not been communicating with one another while in flight.

"Jane?!" The black haired women said in disbelief.

"June!" Jane rushed the women and embraced her.

"Wait, Mom, you know Jane Foster?" Jack asked the black haired woman in shock.

"Of course! We attended the same nursing school together." The black haired woman, June, replied to her son.

The blonde haired man stepped forward and began conversing with Agent Fowler. The Avengers recognized him – Agent Clay Quartermaine, one of Fury's most trusted agents next to Agent Hill. He'd helped them in their fight against the Skrulls and helped protect a group of civilians who had gotten trapped in an old flood tunnel below the subways along with the Serpent Society. Cap and a second super human, Spider-Man, had been trapped as well and assisted, fending off the Society until the other Avengers could get them out. The two Agents were most likely discussing ways to keep the spire under the radar and keep the entire population of Nevada from flat out panicking.

"Cap you totally missed it! We were getting chased by a giant robot dragon and Clint shot it right in its eye and – " Wasp belted out recent events.

"Wait, 'robo-dragon'? You were getting chased by a robotic dragon?" Ant-Man interjected.

"Aye, we were. Though I think that 'hunted' would be a more appropriate term to use." Thor confirmed. "We were able to fend the beast off, but I fear we haven't seen the last of it."

"I admire your vigilance Thor," Prowl said, having left the Autobot discussion. "because we will need to employ every precaution when we attack the spire. Can we count on your aid again, Avengers?"

"You can."

The Autobot nodded decisively and returned back to the others. Definitely not the super friendly type they decided, but still a good Autobot at heart. The 'Bot's discussion only lasted a few more minutes and then they all filed inside the Harbinger, the humans ending their own interactions and following them in.

Once everyone had gathered inside, the Autobots milling around the Harbinger's digital display, and the humans electing to find perches either on the bot's shoulders or on little wall outlets scattered around the room, Ratchet brought up a schematic of the tower that Agent Fowler and Agent Quatermaine had managed to get during a fly by on their way to the impromptu rally point. Even those not very skilled in analyzing Cybertronian constructs could see that the spire was heavily defended and heavily armed against intruders. Fusion canons were positioned on virtually every level and massive AA guns defended the upper levels.

"Now aside from the heavy exterior defenses and troops swarming each floor," The medic began, "the spire is also defended against unauthorized groundbridging – even those originating from Decepticon technology. So groundbridging in isn't an option."

"How are we supposed to get the guards out then? If we can't bridge in, I mean." Ms. Marvel asked.

"We could pretend to be Girl Scouts. Everyone opens the door for Girl Scouts." Wasp suggested jokingly, alluding back to an old quip she'd used when Kang had invaded. Ultra Magnus and Prowl glowered at her and she wisely shut her mouth.

"What we need to do is lure the troops away from the spire – at any rate most of them." The medic said and then turned to the humans. "That is where you come in, Jack."

"What? Me?" Jack said, pointing at himself in disbelief. "Why me? Why not one of the new Avengers?"

"Because Soundwave most likely has recordings of their voices thanks to the public video-taping their fights against super criminals and posting them online."

"And we've learned that S.H.I.E.L.D is capable of being hacked without us knowin' about it till it's too late." Quartermaine put in. "From what I figure, Soundwave is a master hacker."

"Thank you Agent Quartermaine. That is another reason why Jack is the best candidate: he has no real affiliation with S.H.I.E.L.D or the Avengers and has rarely encountered the Decepticons long enough to speak, so there would be no readily available recording for Soundwave to check up on his voice print."

Jack mentally steeled himself. "What do you need me to do?"

OoooooooooooooooooooooooOooooooooooooooo

The first part of the lure plan went without a hitch. Everyone rightly surmised that the 'Cons would be tracking the kids cell phones and they used that to lure a sizeable chunk of the guards away from the spire, scattering them across the continent (Miko seemed rather put out that she wouldn't get her pizza she'd ordered) in small groups. Now came the second part.

Jack cleared his throat and recited the lines he was supposed to speak while Ratchet fiddled around with the comm. frequency and added static.

"Decepticon command we are under Autobot attack. Do you read?"

A curse came from the other end, "Reinforcements are on their way. Hang tight. Over and out." then the link was cut off abruptly.

"Psh. Morons. So gullible." Hawkeye snorted.

"Autobots, Avengers…lock and load." Ultra Magnus ordered. "We have a Decepticon citadel to take down."

Cap and Tony nodded. "Let's do this."