Oh yeah! The finale! Next chapter is the Epilogue!
As for the beginning quote, I just really liked that quote, fitting for this chapter (even if I have a repeated a few lines down). Why I have those pieces of conversation appearing will be explained at the end.
"Look, I know you don't think I'm programmed to be a hero. But, work with me will ya!"- Optimus Prime
As Prowl neared the city on his motorcycle, he saw all the destruction already by the three Lugnut Supremes still hovering above the city. He lifted his helmets visor so his optics could zoom in to get a better look.
Up above, he sees Prime and Prowls' counterpart were up above facing the three Supremes. Prime charges the Magnus hammer and misses.
-Look, I know you don't think I'm programmed to be a hero. But, work with me will ya! -
Prowls' optics widened a bit. How..?
A flash of yellow caught his attention on the other end of the city. And it wasn't Bumblebee...
A smile graced his faceplates at the sight of a much older Sari Sumdac. He may have just spoken to her, but it was another just seeing her weave between the buildings.
~/~
Jazz is speeding and dodging around the city trying to catch up to the bots. He sees them up ahead and parks behind them. One of the blast hit an antennae on top of a building causing it to fall atop a group of Humans. Autobot Jazz sees a male Human run from behind him to the group of Humans under the antenna. The group scatters, but a female is left behind. The male runs to the female as Ratchet catches it with his EMP. The male shields the female with his body, but the rest of his reaction says he expected Ratchet to catch it. He leads the female out of Harms way so Ratchet could drop it.
"Hey! What do you think you're doing?!" Bumblebee rushed over. "You almost-! Wait. Jazz?"
"What's going on?" Autobot Jazz stared at the 'Jazz' confused. 'Jazz' merely nodded with a grin, but faced the others.
"The rest of us are here to help with the evacuation. Since we lived though this day before, we have a plan."
"You're here to help?!" Bulkhead.
"What did you mean by that last statement?" Autobot Jazz questioned. "You lived this day before?"
"It's a long story. Once we get through today, I'll tell you everything. But for now, I'm you r ally, ya dig?"
~/~
Ratchet was driving an ambulance along with the city's rescue forces he ran into. While there was a makeshift shelter near the Tower's shield (set up because the Supreme's were far enough away, and close enough to the shield to evacuate once they DO get close enough. He was driving around at the moment stocking up on from the abandoned Ambulances and Pharmacies with a group of volunteer drivers. Already, he had to patch up around 20 Humans who were caught in the crossfire.
Ratchet heard Prowl chuckle over the Comms. So I heard. All that's left to figure out is what the rest of us will do.
"Well, I have an Ambulance ready to help when needed. I found several abandoned already." He found the next drug store and pulled over when he saw a man carrying an injured child. The boy, Daniel, needed surgery for his broken leg. The little boy kept looking at him while a towel was in his mouth so Ratchet could set his leg. He saw something flash and could just barely make out the necklace.
Ratchet! He could almost hear her grinning. Uh… sorry for not- And her wince.
"Apology accepted. I knew on the bridge it wasn't the right time or place for a reunion all things considered. Just promise me something."
Anything!
"I do NOT want to see you at all today! Patching you up or blasting you with my EMP is the last thing any of us need right now!" He still has nightmares about it...
Soon, he finished binding him with bandages and helped the boy into the Ambulance. The father then helped get all the medicine and medicinal supplies as a thank-you. As the father thanked him and stayed in the back with his boy, Ratchet went back into the drivers seat and slumped a little as the conversation flowed into his Comm. He saw his necklace came out and flipped it over in his hand:
Ratchet
Chief Medical Officer
Beware! This grumpy old bot
has the softest Spark
this side of Earth
~/~
Megatron was sitting off to the side at a bar, near the window, watching the Blitzwing triplets annoy Starscream. He was thoroughly amused the more annoyed Starscream got. He could hear laser fire and explosions in the distance. Some of the Humans already cleared out, leave the drunks and the ones that just don't care behind.
He lazily looked back out the window, lifting his glass to his lips as he recalled this attack. He could see Optimus up above appearing and disappearing above the buildings with the Magnus Hammer. He could see it so clearly in his mind: Relaying orders to Lugnut, up next should be Prime making that tornado and disabling their flight capabilities causing them to crash into Dinobot Island. He really should stop underestimating that pesky Autobot. He grinned. The conversation over the Comms. brought him back to reality he's in.
"Me and my Decepticons will attempt to get through to-"
Megatron…?! You're willing to help? Sari asked sounding shocked. Understandable from her perspective.
"Correct Miss. Sumdac. No matter how much I wish this city to burn to rubble, I cannot allow my other self to make a fool of things again."
He mentally counted the ways in his head: Relying on Lugnut for control, leaving Arcee on the moon when he discovered later both Miss. Sumdac and Ratchet was able to recover Omega Supremes Recognition codes. Putting all his focus on defeating Optimus, when he should have just abandoned the city and let the bomb blow it up and be done with them. Why did he stay behind again?
I see… Do you remember where you were today?
"I recall being grounded on Dinobot Island briefly before flying back into the city." He trailed in thought.
Another foolish idea, because of his arrogant mindset thinking he could defeat the Prime. As well as later staying in range of the remaining Supreme when the shield formed around it, trapping him with the blast. He doesn't recall the shield around the other two. Perhaps if he stayed on the island, he could have eventually regained control of it.
Then it would be wise to stay in the city instead of wasting valuable time to get there only to come back. Prowl contributed.
"…You have a point." He smirked.
Looks like you just have to improvise.
Up above, Megatron sees that familiar tornado, and then hears a loud crash.
As he is deciding how to take advantage of the fallen Supreme left behind, he hears:
-"Destroy the Autobots. Destroy the city! Destroy anything that's NOT ME!-
His optics widened.
~/~
Optimus, Elita and Prowl finally catch up to Bulkhead, Mix an Scrapper. The latter trio were setting up charges along a few bridges (that were going to get shot at anyway later) and set up proximity detonators for anything larger than Bumblebee. This way, the fleeing Humans wouldn't accidently get blown up.
The area they were currently in was finally abandoned!
Over the radio in his truck, was the radio connected to the police radios. He could hear Captain Fanzone rapping up the evacuation and helping coordinate the refugees. Bulkhead could always count on him to get the job done. As well as snicker when he could hear the Chief of Police complain about another broken machine.
Optimus found a regular diesel truck, filled the tank and followed Bulkhead in it. They already split the explosives and other traps between them and split up.
While driving to the next spot, Bulkhead couldn't help looking at his necklace again. To remember.
Bulkhead
Cybertrons' Top Spacebridge Technician
Earth's best artist
Scrapper patted his shoulder from his seat in silent support.
~/~
After weaving her way around the crowd of refugees earlier, crammed together under the shield, Blackarachnia found a spot where she could start climbing. Granted, she could've taken the elevator, but she wanted to watch the battle. And... use her abilities without having to blow her cover for once.
Blackarachnia was currently about 2/3 up the building, under the part of the tower that jutted out. She shot out a rope of webbing and reinforced it before kicking off of the wall and swing out until she had to shoot another rope to yank her back to the glass wall of the tower, causing the glass to crack a little. The Humans inside backed away in fear and looked at her in curious awe, and she just winked before continuing her climb.
~/~
The 2 Lugnut Supremes walked through the lake to get to the city. Large tidal waves are left in their wake, boats in the harbor crashing into each other as it neared. Megatron climbed out of his Supreme, Transformed and took to the air to follow them. Rage fueling him to go faster to get revenge on the infuriating little Autobot Prime.
Prowl and Optimus (in the air) caught up to the two Supremes. Optimus charged his hammer, grey clouds appeared above overhead, hitting the hammer, and shot it at the closest Supreme doing no damage
Prowl spotted Megatron "Prime! Behind you!"
Megatron fired while still as a helicopter and then he transformed as he neared.
"Get away from my weapons of Mass destruction!"
~/~
Around the time Sara neared the Tower and then changed course to gain altitude towards the roof, and Ratchet making it back to the temporary shelter:
Okay… she's really starting to freak me out here. A much younger-sounding Sari spoke warily over the Comms. Sara and Ratchet faltered slightly, but continued on, listening.
Those Decepti-scums fried her processor trying to remove the activation code. And if I try to rewire her circuitry, you could take her off line for good. Ratchet angrily grumbled.
The Human Ratchet leaned against the wall, overwhelmed, as he remembered this conversation on board Omega Supreme. "Arcee..."
You need to recalibrate your EMP Generator into a data recovery tool. Then you can salvage Arcee's secondary memory storage from her hard drive, bypassing her binary input/output systems.
I suppose us… 'machines' told you that?
Pretty much.
He could almost see that smug look on her faceplate even with her helmet covering her mouth. Sari always did have a way with 'machines'.
~/~
Down below, Optimus and Elita watched the trio fight high above them.
Megatron shot Optimus in the stomach. Prowl brought out his shruikens and Megatron them sliced to pieces with his swords. Prowl hit him with a staff, but Megatron blocked it while Optimus got his own blast from the hammer in.
"Nice shot!" Elita grinned. Optimus chuckled.
"We need to buy Ratchet more time. Get Jazz and try to slow the clones down. I'll deal with Megatron!" Optimus Prime yelled over to Prowl. Prowl nodded and flew off. Megatron charged again and kept shooting Optimus, who kept blocking with his hammer.
Optimus charged, Megatron blocked with both swords crossed.
"You're a persistent little Autobot."
"My name… is Optimus PRIME!"
Down below. "Is my name... really that hard to remember?!" the Human Optimus groaned. Elita merely patted his arm amused.
~/~
Finally making it to the top, Blackarachnia slumped over and grabbed her knees as she caught her breath. Wiping her brow, she looked back over the horizon and proceeded to watch Prowl as if she were still a predator. She's not letting him out of her sight.
Behind her, on the other end of the roof, she can hear the professor as he tries to keep the shield around the tower from failing.
~/~
The two Lugnut Supremes stop in their tracks.
"Lugnut?! Attack~! Your glorious leader commands you!"
They turn to face Megatron, Starscream's face appears on them.
Greetings Megatron! His voice projected loud enough to hear all over the city.
Their chest open up to reveal the bombs
As you can see, I decided to give you're 'Ultimate Weapons' a little upgrade. Equipping them with a self destruct mechanism that will destroy you ONCE AND FOR ALL! Along with any unfortunate human or Autobot in a hundred mile radius. Starts laughing like crazy.
"STARSCREAM! That automated self destruct clone-trick didn't work the last time you tried it!" Soars in and attacks with his blades. Not. A. Scratch. Electricity shoots out and sends him flying.
He stabilizes and the duo walk past him on both sides.
Megatron looks back too see Optimus hovering on the other side between them
"If I cannot save my clones, at least I'll have the satisfaction of destroying you Optimus Prime."
"So you can remember my name." They fly at each other.
~/~
Just as she sees Prowl and Jazz fly over, she hears someone fly over her head from the other side of the roof.
Blackarachnia can't help the relieved smile even if she tried!
"No! NO! This is no time for the force field to FAIL!" The Professor yelled in fear.
BA hides behind the wall as she watches Jazz and Prowl land on the roof in front of the Space Bridge.
"Does this building have a bomb shelter?" Prowl asks in a rush.
"Yes why?" All look over and see the two Supremes dangerously close. "Ooh! Nevermind!" And he ran to the door leading inside.
"Ready to jam? Cyber-Ninja style?" Prowl nods.
"Don't EVEN think about it!" A new voice adds from above.
Everyone looks up to the top of the Space Bridge to see Sara crouched down, hand on the ledge and glaring at the two Cyber-Ninja's.
A/N- All caught up now!
"You're that older Sari they were going on about, right?" Jazz questioned. She nodded.
"Call me Sara for now, to tell us apart, ok?"
"But I thought you offlined four years ago..." Prowl spoke softly.
Bee slowly walked out from his hiding spot to stand between the two Autobots.
Sari's optics softened and she retracted her helmet to show her face. "Hey guys." He stood up. "Sorry, but I can't let you gather the Allspark."
"But why not? We need them to power the shield!" Jazz stepping forward. But Prowl just looked at her.
"Something happens during the process." He stated. "Something you're trying to prevent."
She snapped her gaze to him and grinned. "You always were the observant one of the group. And you're right. Let me handle the Allspark gathering. I don't have to remind that I'm the most qualified for this job, do I?" She teased. He chuckled.
"Very well, what would you have us do instead?"
"Prowl! Mind letting me in on this plan? What did she mean by that? What's going on?" Jazz grabbed Prowl's shoulder and made his fellow Cyber-Ninja face him.
Sara could detect that Starscream was about to enter Earth's atmosphere from the moon. She needed to speed things along.
"Why don't you two just stay and watch instead of wasting time trying to explain."
"Sari!" Bee finally spoke up. "W-won't you overload again?" He panicked.
"That's right-" Prowl started.
"Don't worry, I found a way around that. I built in a defense mechanism that will put me in temporary Stasis Lock. This one is programed to shut down and reset my settings to how I have them now to prevent an overload. In other words, you guys are just going to have to catch me when I fall, ok?"
"We will!" Bee replied without hesitation.
She nodded and brought out her helmet again. She took a deep breath to calm herself, then started to glow. Soon, any remaining power left in the city shot out of the cables towards her and she absorbed it, Jazz and Prowl noticed bright specks in the distance getting closer.
The shards.
They soared in and passed through the shields and attached to her body.
Starscream flies in.
More and more shards flew in from all directions, almost covering her now.
"This is it, after millions of stellar-cycles of trying, I finally get to extinguish Megatron's... Spark?" Seeing the Shards both fly in and surround a glowing Femme on the roof.
The crystals started to liquefy and then absorb into her body.
"The Allspark? Here!? In tact?!" His own shard starts to glow and yanks him towards the tower. He screams in pain. "What in the name of Decepticons?!"
As he hovers near the tower- "Release me at once you ninja bot ninnies!" Starts firing. " Ow ow! You are giving me a splitting processor ache!" The Spark gets yanked from his head and he falls to the street below going grey.
~/~
Back in the shelter, Ratchet sees Captain Fanzone groan in misery as he watches the sky with binoculars. Ratchet follows his gaze and inwardly cheers.
Omega flies in from above, clearing the atmosphere and leaving a clouded trail behind them.
What say we send those second-rate knock-offs to the scrap heap! Ratchet unknowingly says this in sync with his counterpart on board the old ship.
In what feels like eternity since he's last seen his old friend, Ratchet watches entranced as Omega transforms mid-air into his Bot-mode.
It would be my pleasure! His deep voice projected as loudly as Starscreams' did earlier.
Omega punches Starscream Supreme in the face while still mid-air. He finally lands and charges at him.
A few punches and a kick causes him to fall back.
"So, it's safe to assume that new machine fella is friendly?" Ratchet heard an officer ask the irritated Captain.
"You bet your aft he is! That's Omega Supreme! He was designed as a means to combat the Decepticons during the war on Cybertron. He's single handidly responsible for driving them off and winning." Ratchet explained as he watched Omega fight.
"Sounds powerful." Fanzone idly stated staring at the medic with a suspicious eye, the medic looked oddly familiar somehow. But what confused him, was that his voice and how he spoke reminded him of one of the Autobots. He went back to watching the fight through his binoculars, seeing only the damage being done in this fight.
The refugees were torn between fleeing to the Tower, or cheering on the new Bot after what Ratchet said.
Fanzone's binoculars broke after a few minutes, causing him to snap and trash 'em. Ratchet snickered.
~/~
In Omega Supreme' Bridge.
"One oversized Starscream down! One to-!" Bumblebee fell over from a blast.
~/~
A blast from the second Starscream Supreme interrupts and knocks Omega down.
The Starscream Supreme walks over and grabs Omega's leg, spins him around while hitting several buildings. The buildings didn't stand a chance as they were either holes, entire sides or top floors, re just scattered debris flying in every direction leaving a large debris clouds surrounding the two.
It then throws Omega halfway across the city.
Omega quickly transforms back into a ship mid throw, but still crashes...
~/~
Around this time, a group of unknown figures made their way to the fallen Supreme. Finding a hole in the hull, making their way inside...
~/~
Ship
Everyone is groaning and dizzy
"Is everybot alright?" Omega asks concerned for his crew.
"All Autobots, half-bots, and almost-bots present and accounted for." Sari groaned seeing the bridge still spinning.
~/~
The remaining Starscream Supreme continues walking to the Tower and arms itself, giving off a red glow as the beeping gets louder and louder.
But then starts walking into all the traps Bulkhead and Co set up. Blast after blast, actually slowing it down a little! Unfortunately, it continued it's pace to the Tower. But all the explosions and such were effectively slowing it's pace. Mix and Scrapper where whooping and cheering because their traps were working.
~/~
"We're gonna need more Spark to shield the city from that blast!" Jazz yelled as the Supreme got dangerously closer. Blackarachnia was covering the area above the Bots, but below Sara with a net of her webs, ready to catch her when she goes into Stasis. The webbing appeared to glow due to the angle they were at from below.
"Please~. We have plenty of power and then some to spare!" Sara's voice spoke from above. A blinding light spreads from her body and fills the area.
~/~
A shield forms around the Supreme, Optimus and Megatron (still fighting) lifting them into the air.
~/~
Sara's body drops to the ground, but instead, fell gently into the webbing. Prowl lifts up Bee to check on her. He keeps getting stuck in the sticky webs, but eventually makes it to her side. He wanted to cry. How many times does this have to keep happening to her?!
~/~
As the duo continue to fight, Megatron kicks Optimus into the shield and electrocuted him. Megatron uses this chance to grab his face to hold him there.
"If I must give up my Spark… at least I get to take yours with me!"
Beeping gets louder until The Supreme begins to fall apart as it reaches Critical.
A projection of Sara appears and Optimus gets teleported away. Megatron screams in outright fury as he gets caught in the blast.
The shield contains the explosion emitting a blinding light during the explosions' peak, and then disintegrates, letting the smoke disperse.
~/~
High up on Sumdac Tower, Sara and Bee are still on the giant web net, while the others went to find Optimus when he wakes up.
Bee is lying down beside her, head propped up with one arm and tracing her face with the other. He's taking his time looking her over, knowing Optimus is going to finish this any minute now. He gently places his hand on her cheek as she starts to open her eyes again.
"Hey." He whispers.
"Hey..." She whispers back.
"How are you feeling?" While using his fingers to brush her hair from her face.
"It's like coming down from a caffeine fix. Give me a minute." She groaned in misery. He just chuckled.
"What about all that energy? Any left?"
"Yeah, too much. But I have a way to use it though. I asked the Cons earlier to give me a hand with something."
"The Cons? With what?" He asked curiously.
"Remember the Starscream Supreme who got it's aft kicked by Omega?" She grinned.
"How could I forget?" He grinned toothily. She snickered.
"Yeah, well, I asked the Human Cons to bring it to where Optimus wakes up on the highway."
"What?! How? I thought it was scrap by now?"
She shook her head. "No. Just knocked out. All it needed was a reboot and basic hotwiring to its' computers to bring it back online."
He just stared. "And now the Cons have it." His eyes widened. She merely grinned and sat up. He slowly sat up as well, confused.
"Nope! But let them keep thinking they have the upper hand. I can control it because of both the TWO Allspark in me, and because I was there when the original Omega Supreme was built, as well as the clones!" She was full on grinning now.
"But I still don't get why you need it." She squealed and bounced a little in place, like she badly wanted to tell him about a surprise, but also didn't want to spoil it.
He eyed her warily.
~/~
Optimus eventually wakes on the highway. His Human counterpart sitting on his chest, knee propped up and an arm draped over it. He smiled at the exhausted Prime. The Human then jumped off of him so Prime could sit up. Looking around, he sees the other Humans: Jazz, Ratchet, Bulkhead, Mix and Scrapper, Elita and Prowl.
"Prime! We did it! The shield worked!" Ratchet yelled as the Bots ran to him from behind.
"The Starscream Supremes are history! And everybody's ok!" Bumblebee. Then stopped when he saw the crowd of Humans. "It's you guys!"
All the Humans (especially Jazz) kept staring past Optimus, to the other end of the highway, anxiously for some reason.
Two vehicles drove in the distance towards them. Jazz and Prowl.
Prowl Transformed and the Humans cheered, confusing the Bots. Jazz's doors opened to reveal BA and Megatron.
Human Megatron walks between Optimus and the wall of the Highway. He takes out his sword and jumps on to Optimus, jumping off him to deflect a blast from a pissed off and severely damaged Decepticon Leader. Optimus, reflexively catches the Human, before setting him down.
"You have interfered with me for the last time, Optimus Prime!" Megatron screams as he keeps firing is he flies in.
Ratchet uses his EMP generator to lift and throw the Magnus Hammer to Optimus.
Optimus catches it then flies up to meet Megatron. He lifts the Hammer and whacks Megatron into the ground. Optimus lands on the ground and charges, lifting his hammer above his head and hesitates.
"What are you waiting for, Autobot. Finish me." Megatron groans. He's taken far too much damage today.
Optimus charges his hammer, but hits to the left of Megatron's head.
"That would be the easy way out Megatron." He sets the hammer down with the mallet on the ground and reaches back for stasis cuffs. "You don't deserve it."
Behind him, Sari was sitting on Bumblebees shoulder, doing a headcount of the Humans and noticed several missing. Including Bee.
"Where did Bee go?" She whispered curiously.
Bumblebee looked at her. "Hm?"
"What's going on?" Elita pointed at the tower. They all looked and saw a Space bridge being activated then disappeared.. Then another appearing above them.
"Get back!" Jazz instructed the Humans, who rolled their eyes but complied.
The space bridge revealed Sara, hovering in mid air and holding a flailing Bee from behind.
Sari stood up in shock.
Sara stared back.
Bee waved Prime over to hold him (since Sara's grip was loosening in shock). Bee jumped to his open servo as Sara just hovered there.
Megatron is watching this whole thing, thoroughly confused...
And then he sees a surviving Lugnut Supreme making its' way to them. None of the others noticed so far. He stealthily backed away from Optimus Prime.
Sara started to glow again. Sari's reaction to it, brought it to Sara's attention who started power up again.
"What's happening!?" Blackarachnia stepped back.
Another bright light, but this time, in the form of several Space Bridges.
A few minutes later they were all gone.
Cliffhanger of DOOM! Mwa ha ha! (Sorry, couldn't resist...)
Anywho! The conversation snippets was because Sara was purposefully relaying certain bits of conversation to them to help motivate them or something. I'll let you interpret that.
Before I post the next chapter, what do you think Sara has planned for the 'Surviving' Supreme?
Also, I'm going to post a spin-off of this story. From the Human Bots and Cons point of view from the last four years, including that X-mas special I mentioned. Anyone got a silly situation to put them in? Ha!
Don't forget to review!