Chapter 21: Into the Apocalypse
"Woah," Bumblebee said looking over the rather ashy barren landscape of the planet before them, "So, that's Unicron?" "You wish," Ratchet grumbled from the console he was working at, "That's Chaar. On the other side of the ship is where ya can see the dark god." Curiously, Sari and Bumblebee rushed over to the other window and peered out. That's where they saw it. The large orange and greyish planetoid with a large ring around its hemisphere and its large gaping maw with two enormous pincers on either side of it that had to at least be the size of countries. Though it didn't seem to be doing anything, they could feel an indescribable fear just by looking at the planet.
"Th-that is Unicron?" Sari stammered. Grimly she could see Ratchet nod his head. "He's huge!" Bumblebee exclaimed pressing his face up against the glass, "If this little plan of ours doesn't work we're slagged for sure!" "Relax," Swindle laughed. Everyone else looked at the joyful bot suspiciously. "How can we relax dawg?!" Jazz yelled getting up from his console, "We're going up against Unicron! Can't your processor get down with comprehendin' our deaths?!" "You seem to forget that we have the key to victory," the con artist chuckled wagging his finger and pointed to Optimus, "The Allspark ladies and gentlemen!" "Better hope you're right," Bulkhead grumbled looking at his monitor, "cause due to how close we are now, we're getting sucked in by Unicron's gravitational pull!"
"We're all gonna die! We're all gonna die!" Bumblebee cried flailing his arms around causing Optimus to smack his forehead. "Bumblebee, stop!" Optimus ordered. Immediately the young bot did so and smiled innocently up at the leader. "Geez," he said, "can't ya take a joke? Just trying to liven up the atmosphere. But seriously, where are we even gonna land?" "That is a problem cats," Jazz agreed looking over his monitor for any possible docking-bay, "Scanners ain't picking nothing up." "We're just gonna have to find a place," Optimus replied watching the deadly astral object getting closer with each passing second, "If worst comes to worst, we crash onto him." "We are gonna die," Sari and Bumblebee both mumbled.
Again, the younger ones received a glare from the leader. Ignoring the unsaid response, Sari walked over to the window and looked out, observing all that she could of the thing that the others were calling Unicron. She could now make out various spherical objects embedded along the planetoid's large ring, the highlights of them rather dim. She could also make out the unplated segments that the pincer-like objects jutted out of were also lined with various spikes along the sides. It was...scary. Even just being in the object's presence seemed to strike a rather raw nerve for some reason. The atmosphere it gave off was just frightening, that of something that shouldn't exist, that of something that nightmares themselves are made of.
No, not nightmares, no horror movie or malformation of her mind Sari had ever had could even begin to compare to what she was feeling from it. It was like the uneasiness that she'd felt when Sideways had Bumblebee, but...about a hundred times worse. It was every horror movie, ever scary image she'd ever seen, every fright she'd ever felt, and then multiplied by an unimaginable number. Yet...it felt so familiar, even if it was such a distanced alien emotion, she knew she had felt it before. She felt as though it went beyond her life, beyond her being human, beyond her even being a Transformer, as though she'd known it since before her birth.
"You alright?" Bumblebee asked placing a hand on her shoulder. Slowly she looked up and him and shook her head. "I know how ya feel," he said quietly as he picked her up, "But remember what I said." "What?" she asked softly. "I won't ever let him lay a servo on you," he replied with a smile. Smiling back as best she could, Sari crawled along the robotic arm and wrapped her arms around Bumblebee's neck before planting a kiss on his cheek. "Just as long as you stay with me," she said nuzzling her face into his neck. "Always," he told her and rubbed her back. "Hang on everyone!" Bulkhead yelled as his monitor began emitting a high-pitched beeping noise and the ship began to rock about violently.
Detritus could hardly believe what his optics were observing. After they had left the planet of Junk in the bright blue light that had engulfed the ship, it appeared right up alongside another planet that seemed to have another planet right next to it, one with a large ring around it and what appeared to be some kind of hole with two pincers on the side of it. He didn't know why, but this astral object pierced a whole new emotion that he'd never felt before right into his processor. And though he could feel the gravitational tug from the large planetoid, the ship seemed to also be willingly speeding towards it!
"Maybe I shouldn't have tried to go off on my own..." he mumbled to himself as the scary thing grew larger and larger with each passing second, "But these bots are those that Wreck-gar allied himself with! I must overthrow him and all who help him!" With a shudder, he focused on the planet again. He was now certain that the engines were pushing the ship straight at the thing! If he didn't do something soon, he would be smashed to a sheet of scrap metal on the vessel's underside! He looked at the planet that he had first seen once the Transwarp had ended and then back at Unicron again. He didn't have time to think about it.
Throwing caution to the wind, Detritus leapt clean off the spaceship which proceeded to fly towards the spikey planetoid without him and started trying to swim through the void towards the safer feeling planet. Fearfully he looked back at the evil object. He could just barely make out the ship he'd hitch-hiked on disappear into one of the cracks of the ringed planet's platings as nothing more than a speck of dust. "Well," he muttered to himself, "That takes care of that idiot's friends...wait a sec..." The spikey ringed planet was now growing larger. Hastily, Detritus looked back towards Chaar to see it shrinking. He was being pulled towards Unicron!
"Ugh...are we dead?..." Bumblebee moaned. Painfully, he widened his processors to get a view of what had happened. What he could see is that he was at least still in the ship, though a lot of the lights and circuitry were either out or sparking. On top of him was Sari with her arms spread out about his chest-plate and her face buried in his neck. Ratchet seemed to be wriggling around with his head mashed into the monitor he'd been viewing the functions of Omega Supreme from while Jazz had apparently had his back slammed against his. Optimus Prime was still in the main chair of the bridge, albeit a bit slumped over the arm of it, and Swindle was hanging on for dear life on the rim of the door to the bridge.
"Status report..." Optimus moaned after getting himself readjusted. "I'm alright, but I don't know about Sari..." Bumblebee replied in a worried voice. "I'm fine..." she stammered lifting her head up, "Just a bit...scared is all." "As well you should be," Ratchet coughed dislodging his head from his console, "We're in the destroyer of-" "Ratchet" Prime said cutting the veteran off, "We need to stay as calm as possible, I doubt explaining what Unicron is again will ease any of our circuits." "Well we do have a job to do dawgs," Jazz mumbled falling off of his monitor, "Gotta keep a steady head dig?" "As I said," Swindle commented, "I'm lucky I know so many Spark-insurance agents, cause if this planet-eater doesn't kill me off, your driving sure will." "I'll take that as a compliment considering how annoying you are," Bulkhead grumbled.
"We don't have time for fighting," Optimus reminded them as he stood up to stretch, "We have to stop this monster, here and now." "Hey, what the slag happened?" Sentinel Prime groaned falling through the doorway, "Do you guys know how to pilot a ship at all? That's twice now that we've had a nearly offlining landing!" Optimus glared at Swindle who smirked at him at the comment. "We landed in Unicron," Optimus told his old colleague. "In...Unicron?..." Blackarachnia and Sentinel both repeated as the spider-bot entered with the Dinobots behind her. Sari could see the bots shake in fear as Optimus nodded his head.
"So, what now?" Bumblebee asked standing up with the girl on his shoulder, "We're in the Omega incarnate, how exactly do we even survive?" "Well, if what Swindle says is true, all we have to really do is open the Matrix inside of Unicron," Optimus told them. "Indeed that is correct!" Swindle announced, "For opening the Matrix inside Unicron you get the fabulous reward of life with possible credit loans from certain terrified bots across the cosmos!" "Well then what are we waiting for?" Sentinel asked impatiently, "Let's get out there and light this place up!" "Before we go just remember one thing," Optimus said sternly, "This is Unicron, basically the anti-Cybertron. Make sure you're careful every nanosecond you're here."
With a nod from everyone, the Autobot leader sighed and started to lead the group out of the room and down the hall. "So, think we'll actually be able to pull this off?" Sari asked Bumblebee. "Sounds way too good to be true, but at least if we go out it's together," he laughed back lightly before receiving a hug from the girl. "I love you," she told him quietly so that no one else could hear their conversation. "I love you too Sparkmate," Bumblebee replied softly and hugged her back. "Stop," Optimus ordered as they came to the airlock. The entire group stood motionless before the exit. "Ratchet, Red Alert, you two are to stay aboard the ship," he continued. "But Prime-" "If someone gets hurt we'll contact you, you two need to stay here to keep supplies ready and watch over Omega Supreme, he'd be way too big of a target if he was active in here."
Grimly, Ratchet nodded and started walking back through the halls with the female medical bot. "Now then," Optimus Prime continued after the two were out of earshot, "Does anyone else wish to stay aboard here? There's a high chance we'll probably all die out there." "All we have to do is step out there and open the Matrix," Swindle grumbled irritably. "And are you completely sure that'll work?" At this the con artist looked down in thought. After a few moments of not responding, Prime looked over the other bots. "I know for a fact that I'm going," Blackarachnia told him. "And if she's going then so am I," Sentinel added. "And us," Grimlock growled. "If my main man's going then so is I dawg," Jazz said.
"Ya know, maybe it'd be best if the kids did stay back for this one..." Bumblebee thought aloud nervously. "I'm going," Sari stated causing the yellow Autobot to look down at her in shock, "I just feel like I should be here." She looked back up at him with a halfhearted smile. "Then I'm going," Bumblebee sighed flashing a small smile back. "And Swindle?" Optimus asked. "Slag yeah I'm going," the Decepticon replied, "Even if this doesn't work I still have a little score to settle with this planet eater for killing off my best supply depot." "Then I guess it's settled," Optimus muttered quietly and turned to open the airlock, "Everyone get ready..."
"My lord," Cyclonus's voice echoed through the bridge of the purple ship that Unicron had supplied Galvatron with, "The troops are primed and ready for combat whenever we land on that wretched planet of your enemies." "Good," Galvatron muttered watching the stars through the front window of the ship as they passed through the various star systems, "Unfortunately, we no longer have possession of any Space Bridge technology, but I'm sure I can wait just a bit longer to finally wipe out that insignificant little bug that I've come to know as Optimus Prime. Though it is a bit ironic, for if he had not defeated me, I would never have met up with Unicron. I still wonder just why I was chosen for such a position as the one that the dark god placed on me."
"He obviously saw your great leadership skills my liege," Shockblast told his leader from the console he was monitoring the Decepticon fleet from, "And I have confirmation that Cyclonus is right, Team Chaar and the Seeker Brothers, as we've come to call them, are both at top physical condition and urging to slag some Autobot scum." "They better be ready," Galvatron growled, "I will not accept failure, not on this of all missions!" "As I would hope sir," Shockblast replied typing a few sequences into the keyboard of his console, "We should be at the planet Earth shortly if we keep going at light speed." "Good," Galvatron said pleasantly, "Very good."
"Whoa..." Sari and Bumblebee's voices could be heard echoing around the large chamber in awe as they looked around the ship. Never in either of their lives had they ever even begun to imagine the setting they were in now. What the group had stepped out into had not been at all what they had expected. Instead of just some large metal hallways, the group was now in what appeared to be a giant chamber of texture comprised of so much circuitry and various other objects that parts of it looked like a zoomed-in view of what Bumblebee had seen of the inside of Cybertronian bodies in his old bio-tech class and what Sari had seen of her dad's many schematics of the interior of human bodies. In fact, some of the chamber even looked organic amongst the various wiring and rocks and debris scattered about.
"Unbelievable," Bulkhead finally said breaking the silence that had engulfed the group after they had stepped out of the ship. Even Swindle had had nothing to say. "You can say that again," Jazz mumbled. Despite how astounding the scenery was, the cyber-ninja couldn't block out the constant vibe he was getting. It was just like the feelings he had had when he first met up with Sideways but...now it was all around him! It wouldn't leave, it wouldn't ease up! "Alright Optimus, you ready?" Swindle asked holding a hand out to the Autobot leader. "Yeah Prime, light this puppy and let's go home," Jazz agreed.
Optimus stared down at his chest-plate for a moment with all optics on him. "No," he said looking back up at Swindle. "No?!" they all exclaimed. "But Optimus!" Sentinel yelled, "This is Unicron! Why not stop him?!" "Because," he replied looking sternly at his old colleague, "This isn't the place to use it." "What are you talking about dawg?" Jazz asked shaking a bit from Unicron's constant presence. "Even if I were to try and open it here it wouldn't do so," Optimus told them. "Why wouldn't it?" Bulkhead asked curiously, "How would you know if it would or wouldn't anyhow? You haven't even used-" "I just know," Optimus sighed, "It doesn't want to be opened here." "Just as I feared," Swindle muttered glaring towards Sari, "Alright, well...let's get walking then."
"Where're we going?" Blackarachnia asked. "Yeah," Sentinel added, "Optimus already said the damn thing wouldn't open so-" "It will open," Swindle sighed, "Just...not here, it wants to be more precise." "What do ya-" "I just mean more precise alright!" Swindle yelled cutting Jazz off, "No more questions, comprende? Just follow me and stay together. We can't afford any casualties when we're this close." "Geez, what crawled up his exhaust port," Bumblebee mumbled quietly as the group began to follow the Decepticon. "I think it has something to do with me," Sari told him, still hanging around his neck, "He glared at me when Optimus said it wouldn't work here." "That's just him being a jerk is all," Bumblebee laughed with a shrug.
"Will you two shut up?" Swindle asked from the front. Instantly Sari and Bumblebee closed their mouths and looked at each other nervously. "Never thought I'd be being led by a Decepticon," Sentinel grumbled, "Especially not as sleazy a one as-" BZAP! "Gah!" Sentinel yelped as he writhed around on the floor from the electric current that pulsed through his body from Swindle's vok-stun cannon. "I said quiet," Swindle said, "That goes for you too big, loud, and proud. I can't hear a slaggin' thing with you flapping your face-plates." "And just who are you to lead us?!" Blackarachnia yelled helping Sentinel back up, "You just took charge!" "Shut up!" Swindle yelled. "Why shoul-" "I hear something is why!" the Decepticon yelled, "Now everyone get down!"
Though Bumblebee and Sari instantly threw themselves to the floor in fright, Jazz and Grimlock weren't as lucky as they were strung into the air by what appeared to by dozens of pincers that were attached to long metallic tentacles. "What the slag are those things?!" Bumblebee cried placing himself over Sari so she wouldn't get hurt. "Unicron's immune system," Swindle replied firing a volley of purple energy blasts at the tentacles. In a few seconds the swarm of deadly appendages were gone allowing the bots to get back to the feet, most of their servos shaking. "That's why you have to be quiet," Swindle muttered.
Suddenly the group not only heard something else, but felt it this time. Most everyone other than Swindle fell to the ground as it started to shake rather violently. "Earthquake!" Bumblebee cried hugging Sari tightly. "You wish..." Swindle said, unable to be heard over the loud rumbling that was going on, "Everyone stay close together!" The two youngest members didn't have time to get near any of the others however, as the ground beneath them fell so fast that it seemed to vanish leaving Sari and Bumblebee to fall into the darkness of the chambers below. "Guys!" Bulkhead cried before the ground that he, Jazz, and Optimus were standing on ascended to a chamber in the ceiling above.
"Great," Swindle commented while Sentinel and the Dinobots were sucked into a hole that formed in the side of the hall before it sealed back up. Finally, Blackarachnia waved to Swindle casually as her part of the hall rose into another chamber in the ceiling. "Well...guess I gotta find that damn thing on my own," Swindle said to himself turning around to continue down the hall, "I just knew something like this would happen...well at least I don't have any annoying bots slowing me down now."
"Hey man, look alive!" Mixmaster's voice exclaimed as Rattletrap's hands were tossed a mug, "Straight from the best joint in town, drink up!" "Um...thanks..." the brown Autobot replied confused and took a deep gulp of the oil. It tasted incredible. "What's the occasion if you don't mind me asking," he said between sips. "Yeah, ver iz mine Constructicons?!" Blitzwing's red face hollered trying to grab them through the prison bars. "Hold your horses there," Scrapper said pushing the Decepticon back into the cell, "There ain't no way we're letting the bot that got us involved with Megatron get his hands on this stuff." "Vy you insolent little pieces of slag! When I get my fingers on you I-" the red face yelled pounding his fist on the floor as it switched to the black face, "Vil sweep you off your stabilizing servos!"
"That guy always did strike me as a more colorful character," Mix murmured to Scrap who chuckled in response. "He probably doesn't deserve one, but what about mine?" a female voice asked wrapping her arms around the Constructicons' necks from behind. Mix and Scrapper felt like they could melt right then and there from Flareup's embrace from her cell. "Well yous knows miss we woulda gots ya one-" Mix stammered with a big smile plastered on his face-plates as he and his colleague turned around to view the demolishing expert. "Yeah, we would have," Scrapper agreed, "But babe we-" "No matter how pathetic you two are, I can't thank you enough for this beverage," Rattletrap laughed lightly as he watched over the scene, "So much better than the slag that they serve up here in jail."
"Well glad ya like it man," Scrapper laughed turning back around to the small Autobot, "Just thought yas seemed like a pretty cool dude to us and all so we thought ya might joining us in drinking to my old dino pal." "Dino pal?..." Blitzwing mumbled, now back to his calm blue face. "Yeah, apparently this goon got himself a pet dinosaur robot while me and boss-man were out at sea," Mix replied jabbing his thumb to Scrapper. "He isn't just some pet man," Scrapper groaned, "He's Snarly, he's the only company I had when I thought yous guys went offline. We looked out for each other and everything, even when his own kind rejected him." "And good to ya," Mix laughed guzzling down a mouthful of his oil.
"And here's I thoughts that mook might have actually been getting the hang of controlling something lesser dan 'im," Dirt Boss's voice echoed from down the hall in his cell, "Good to know I still ain't got competition though." "Hopefuly his blabbering don't bother ya too much," Mix whispered to Rattletrap. "Relax," he laughed back, "With three-face here as my cell-mate I don't even have time to listen in on anybody else." "At least ya got someone interestin as your buddy," Scrapper commented. "Yeah, it sure is intriguing to hear what's on his processor, but he talks to himself a lot," Rattletrap told them, "the personality thing and all. Actually I've never asked...hey, three-face, why do you talk to yourself so much instead of me or someone else?" "I just have a craving for intelligent conversation is all," the blue face replied. "...I can't tell if you should feel insulted or creeped out dude," Scrapper murmured taking another sip of his oil.
"Eh, probably a bit of both," Rattletrap said, "So, got any news to bring us today? What all happened with your dino-friend? Where'd run off to?" "Outer space," Scrapper told him. The brown Autobot nearly spat his drink out in shock. "How the slag did someone like him get all the way out there exactly?" "Went with Optimus and his gang," Mix said. Now pretty much everyones' optics were on the Constructicons. "Uh...did we say something?" Scrapper asked nervously. "So you're telling us that the leader of the Autobots and his main gaggle of heroes is now out of the city right after we attacked?" Slipstream grumbled in disbelief. "Yep," Scrapper told them putting his hands on his hips, "Took your old orange trash-buddy with em." "Well that's a relief," the female Decepticon sighed, "But if we had just done the attack a bit later we would have had the place!"
"So, if that Optimus fello's gone, then who's leading now?" Rattletrap asked curiously. "Some guy called Rodimus," Mix told him with a shrug, "Looks pretty young-generation compared to Optimus though. Good fighter however, he was all over the place when you guys attacked the city." "Flaming car vehicle?" Slipstream asked. The Constructicons nodded their heads causing her to sigh once more. "Well, if nothing else the kid's got spunk," she muttered. "So, why'd Optimus's team go to space?" Rattletrap asked. "To fight some guy called Unicorn or somethin'," Mix said. "Unicron?..." Blitzwing suggested as he slowly turned his head to look at the Constructicons. "Yeah, dat was it!" Scrapper said nodding his head. The room fell silent.
"Ugh," Bulkhead moaned as he scratched his head and looked around, "Guys?" "We're here dawg," came Jazz's voice. Bulkhead could just barely make out the outline of the sleek Autobot in the dark before his headlight's came on from his chest-plate lighting a path for optics to see. "I'm here also," Optimus told them moving into view of the beams of light, "No one in front of me came up our way." "Bumblebee and Sari though!" Bulkhead exclaimed throwing himself to the ground attempting to dig into the hard rocky floor beneath them, "They went down!" "Bulkhead, they're on their own," Optimus told him putting a hand on the bot's shoulder. "But I gotta get to them! With how those two act they'll be offline in-"
"Bulkhead," Optimus Prime said pulling the flailing Autobot back a bit, "They're on their own. All we can do now is keep faith that-" "But they'll die!" Bulkhead yelled twirling around to face his commander, "They are going to die!" "They have just as much a chance as we do dawg," Jazz told him, "Speaking of which, we should probably try and find a way to that crooky thief of a bot, dig?" "Jazz's right," Optimus said nodding his head, "Before we can do anything, we need to find our own way. We all went into this after I'd told everyone about our chances." Bulkhead looked down at the ground, still on his knees from trying to dig. "...slag!" he yelled slamming one of his wrecking balls on the ground.
"Chill dawg," Jazz said and started helping the large bot to his feet, "I got a vibe that tells me they ain't offline yet man, in fact, I'm pretty sure that no one is." "But they're going to be offline!" Bulkhead cried. "Bulkhead, you have to be ready to move on if something happens," Optimus told him, "if you can't, there's no way you'll be able to stay alive. Either way though, we have need to get moving if we want any chance of doing anything." After a while, Bulkhead sighed and nodded his head. The group began to walk in silence with Jazz's headlights leading the way through the mangled slowly pulsating caverns they had become trapped within.
"Why didn't you release it?" Bulkhead eventually asked breaking the silence. "What are you talking about dawg?" Jazz asked back. "Prime," Bulkhead said, "Why didn't you just release it and be done with this? Because of you Sari and-" "I told you guys it wouldn't open," Optimus replied as he continued walking. "But you didn't even try!" "Because it wouldn't have opened," Optimus repeated, "I knew for a fact that it wouldn't." "So what Swindle just decided to mysteriously lead us to would have allowed it to open?" Bulkhead grumbled. "Yes," Optimus told him.
"I don't dig just what's up with that con artist's processor," Jazz commented, "he didn't even sling us a hint what we were scoping for." "It's just something that we would use it against," Optimus said, "something that would end this." "How do you know?" Bulkhead asked curiously, "Are you two-" "I just know," Optimus sighed, "It and I have a link of some sort, what I assume happened to Ultra Magnus when he wrote the blueprints for the Protoform we made." "Groovy," Jazz said. Suddenly he stopped. "Hey, what's the hold up?" Bulkhead asked. Slowly, the ex-Elite Guard member pointed his fingers to a group of bird-like bots where his headlights were shining. Then another rumble began to shake the cavern.
"Sir, I believe that you should see this," Shockblast uttered quietly. With a stern glare on his face, Galvatron rose to his feet and walked over to the console that the logical-thinking Decepticon was operating from. "Is that...." "It is my liege," Shockblast muttered in a foreboding voice. The Decepticon leader could not believe what he was seeing. On the screen before him was a video feed of the tail end of the Decepticon fleet that was near Chaar. Suddenly, one of the ships got sucked back towards the planet which was now crumbling beneath the unbelievable grip of Unicron's jaws folding in on its surface. If there were air in space, the entire fleet would have been able to hear the loud crack as the teeth-like structures crunched into the Decepticons' base planet.
"Planet Chaar!" Galvatron yelled in anger and disbelief while Unicron's pincers dragged the remains of the crumbling planetoid farther into the dark god's form as his mouth expanded again to clamp around the rest his meal, "What does Unicron think he's doing?!" "Oh we're sorry dear Galvatron," Sideway's voice laughed as his face appeared on the screen he and Shockblast were viewing, "It's just that your planet was so close, and Unicron was just getting so hungry, and well, you left and...well think of it this way, you just saved half the fuel it'd take for a full round trip!" "You incompetent back stabbing piece of slag!" Galvatron roared slamming his fist down on the console furious, "How dare you do this!"
"Relax," Sideways said, "the good news is no one left on the planet will have to live after going through what Cybertron did." "Planet Chaar was our home..." Galvatron growled. "Indeed," Shockblast agreed, his eye glowing blood red, "it's the only place we could live after we were exiled from Cybertron." "You're always welcome at Unicron," Sideways told them with a shrug, "Just so long as you promise to do every little thing he demands." "I refuse to do anything more for that abomination," Galvatron said. "And here I thought we'd make some progress," Sideways sighed.
Just then, Galvatron dropped to his knees and clutched his head. He couldn't believe the pain he was feeling. It was like getting slammed upside the head with the Magnus Hammer a hundred times in a row, all at once! "My lord!" Cyclonus exclaimed dropping down next to the now-spasming purple Decepticon. "Stop it!" Galvatron cried. "Who do you serve?" Sideways asked , obviously enjoying the torture. "I serve no one!" "Oh so close," he laughed as the pain worsened, "But oh so far off. Now then, who do you serve? Who is your master?" "Nu-no-" "Give some thought before replying this time." "I serve....Unicron...." Galvatron choked.
Instantly the spasms and pain faded. "Yes, he is your master," Sideways told him, "And you will do as he says. He does not take kindly to contradictions from lesser beings, especially those in his employ." Galvatron simply nodded, not daring to speak again. "Now you are to lead the Decepticons that made it off of planet Chaar to Earth so that you may destroy Optimus Prime where you shall reside until Unicron claims that as well." "But what about when Unicron's done eating?" Shockblast asked curiously. "What happens then?" Sideways repeated, "What happens then is the beginning. Now then, I have a speck of dust that landed irregularly on our dear god to attend to, so please pardon me." "My liege?" Shockblast said questionably. "Continue on the course to Earth..." Galvatron grumbled while Cyclonus helped him to his feet.
"Geez, what the slag is going on?" Sentinel Prime muttered quietly as he walked around the chamber that he and the Dinobots had been forced into, "That's two tremors now." Immediately, Grimlock had started the other two Dinobots in digging back towards where they had come from, shouting the word "mistress" all the while. "Hey bonehead," Sentinel called causing the king of the Dinobots to glare at him, "Can't you guys tell we're not getting through that way?" "Mistress must-" "'Mistress' won't get saved by you slag-for-brains just clawing at the same indestructible wall over and over again." "Then what we do?!" Grimlock roared morphing into robot-mode threateningly, "If we don't get back there then spider-bot could be-" "We're all in danger," Sentinel reminded him, "We're inside of a god. Now come on, we need to get moving if we're gonna do anything at all."
Still glaring, Grimlock roared at the other two Dinobots and they started walking. Sentinel just ignored the large figure as they continued down the long atmospheric corridors. "And I used to think that just techno-organics were disgusting..." Sentinel mumbled as they passed by a large pulsating cylinder which curved through the walls, "For being the brother of Primus he sure is the monster they make him out to be, both mentally and physically." The blue Autobot couldn't tell for sure, but he thought he heard a loud grumbling noise echo quietly all around them "Grimlock no see what so bad," the Dinobot said confidently staring at one of the other pulsating structures that seemed to be becoming more prominent, "They just squishy sacks, squishies are easy to destroy and...Grimlock have idea."
"What are you doing?..." Sentinel wondered aloud as Grimlock transformed into his dinosaur-mode. Realizing what tyrannosaurus was up to as it opened its jaws in front of the pulsating structure, Swoop pushed Snarl and Sentinel to the ground. A loud indescribable low pitched noise engulfed the group nearly making their audio receptors short circuit as the king of the Dinobots spewed forth his plasma breath on the pulsating structure beginning a flaming trail that leaked to all the other pulsating structures. "What the slag have you done?!" Sentinel's voice could barely be heard yelling over the noise. "Squishy not happy!" Grimlock informed morphing back to robot-mode in fright while the room around them began to crumble.
Sentinel could hardly make out what was going on at first through the smoke and dust that seemed to erupt from every-which direction from the cracks that started running through the structure of the chamber from the hole that had been made by the explosion of the pulsating structure and the chain reaction it'd set off. Squinting his optics, he could just barely make out Snarl and Swoop diving through the hole in the wall while a rather large rocky structure began to fall towards Grimlock. Ignoring the liquid that was now pouring into the room, Sentinel dove towards the Dinobot with his shield held above his head.
CRSSH!!! Sentinel Prime could barely keep stabilizing servos planted as the rocky structure shattered across his shield, nearly disabling the energy barrier it gave off. "Go!" Sentinel ordered the frightened giant. The blue Autobot felt rather ill as he looked down to see the creamyish-looking liquid rising with the debris splattering into it. He could now see just what he'd saved Grimlock from. It hadn't been a rock at all, it was warped and melded bodies of offline Transformers! That's what the chamber's walls, ceiling, and floor were made of! "Blue bot!" Grimlock's voice called snapping Sentinel Prime out of his sickened state and allowing him to see the larger figure's hand reaching for him, "Come on!" As fast as he could move in the flooded chamber, Sentinel grabbed the servo and was pulled through the hole as the entire chamber collapsed in on itself behind him.
"Sari!" Bumblebee exclaimed scrambling around in the large room they'd plummeted into, "SARI! Where are you?! Oh Primus, don't be dead, don't be dead!" "Bum...blebee?..." he heard the girl's voice moan. Instantly, the yellow bot whirled around to look at where the sentence had come from. Just off to the right of where he had landed he saw Sari, half buried in a pile of discarded scraps. Hastily, he rushed over to her and pulled her out of the pile. "Sari! Are you alright?" "I...I think," she mumbled rubbing her head which she'd morphed into robot-mode when they fell, "How far did we drop?..." "I wish I knew," Bumblebee told her looking up, "But I can't even see the ceiling." "Great," Sari said hopping down to the ground, "What now?" "I guess we start walking, too bad it's not a more romantic setting. I could carry you though if you get tired."
"Nah, I got it covered," Sari laughed lightly jabbed her thumb to her back revealing her jet-pack that she'd folded up, "Figured with how dangerous Prime was making this place out to be I might as well be as prepared as possible." "Well we're in a place no Transformer we know of has ever been remember, we all always just thought this guy was a myth," Bumblebee reminded looking back up, "But since you have your jet-pack you could fly up and see how far down we are ya know..." "I'm on it," she said morphing back to human mode as she flew up, "this place smells a bit odd." "Well we're inside of Unicron," Bumblebee said folding his arms over his chest-plate while Sari continued ascending. "No, I mean...familiar..." she told him, "Like..the ocean."
As Sari looked back down to see her Sparkmate far below she though she heard a rather deep but nearby rumbling sound. "Sari! Is something happening up there?!" Bumblebee's voice echoed to her as she saw him fall over, "It feels like another earthquake!" She blinked in irritation as some watery liquid trickled down her face. Raising an eyebrow, Sari looked off to the side of where she had stopped to hover when she looked at Bumblebee. That spot on the wall seemed to be pushing out a bit and pulsating with water trickling out of cracks in it. It wasn't the pulsing and pushing back on forth of the rocky wall that frightened the girl though, it was the fact that the cracks were growing and the swelling was getting bigger as more and more water spewed forth from it.
"Bumblebee!!!" she cried as the swelling finally burst drenching her in the liquid that had been building up. Sari didn't fully understand what was going on. It felt like she was falling, but she was still inside the water with what looked like a few robotic fish falling by her. Just barely, Bumblebee was able to grab Sari before she collided with the ground in the pocket of water that had fallen on her. "You alright?" he asked holding her up to optic-level. Wearily she nodded her head and looked up at the newly formed waterfall, "Told ya I smelled the ocean." "I didn't know the ocean had such strange creatures," he muttered pointing at a group of round Transformers that seemed to be basically a huge tooth-filled face with arms and legs.
"We don't have things that unfriendly looking on Earth," Sari told him wrapping her arms around his neck, "They don't look like they're happy to see us." "And this water isn't going down," Bumblebee added as the liquid continued to rise. Suddenly the two heard a rather loud noise, as though air had suddenly been pushed out of the room. Curiously, Bumblebee turned around to see a large hole that had opened up in the wall. Reluctantly, the round Transformers were sucked towards the hole as they clawed at the walls trying to stay in the chamber. CLANG! Bumblebee and Sari tripped through the water after one of the creatures had been dragged into them. "Sari!" Bumblebee yelled wrapping his arms around the girl's body as they got sucked down the hole, "Don't let go!" "I wouldn't dream of it," she told him in a worried voice as she morphed back into robot-mode.
Sari could see the warped visions of the walls and floors rushing past them along with the robotic-lifeforms as Bumblebee was sucked under the water with her still entangled tightly in his arms. She thanked the lord that she was a Transformer with how long they were forced under the current with the other things that were being swept swiftly along. The girl's own arms constricted around her partner's neck upon seeing a rather mangled corpse float past them, which some of the round Transformers soon took to consuming. "Yeah, they really aren't friendly," she mumbled to herself. Finally, the pair were swept onto a piece of raised land where they rested, exhausted.
"That was quite a ride," Bumblebee coughed as he tried to get back to his feet. "Way more of an experience than I'd ever get at the fair," Sari added sighing as she sat up. After Bumblebee finally managed to stabilize his servos he joined Sari in looking out at the river that had been made, helpless to watch as the various lifeforms and debris continually washed away. Noticing a rather greenish glow reflecting off of Sari's torso-plating, Bumblebee turned around to see an indentation in the wall off to the side, a cave sort of. "Hey Bumblebee, where ya headed?" Sari asked snapping out of her river-watching trance as her Sparkmate wandered off towards the cave.
"There's something...glowing..." Bumblebee mumbled continuing his walk, with Sari now joining in. "Knowing this place that could be anything," Sari muttered looking around warily as they entered the orange smoothish interior, "There! That's the glowing thing!" Bumblebee eagerly pressed his face up against the large glass wall that Sari had spotted and squinted trying to see farther into the greenish liquid. "What do ya suppose it is?" the girl asked curiously. Unfortunately, the setting answered before Bumblebee could. Sari and him could just watch in shock and horror as a large blocky Cybertronian corpse with its legs missing and its body breaking apart slowly rose up from below the glass and opened its mouth in agony. As its mouth opened all the way a bump that had been forming at the top of its head-plate split releasing a stream of bubbles.
"Oh my god..." Sari said quietly putting a hand to her mouth. Bumblebee could now also see another, more brownish corpse farther in the background, with pretty much just its head and bits of its body remaining, all of its circuits gone. The Decepticon, thats head had burst, tried desperately to reach out to the onlookers, only resulting in its arm elongating as it deteriorated, its circuits from its leg joints flailing about in response. Bumblebee looked down at Sari who was just watching the scene unfold with her eyes as wide as dinner plates. "Come on," Bumblebee said picking the girl up and turning her away from the glass, "You don't need to see this."
The duo traveled on further down the cave in silence for quite a few minutes, neither character knowing quite what to say. They just looked uneasily at the warped techno-organic walls surrounding them. "Bumblebee..." Sari finally said from where she was sitting on his shoulder. With a rather sullen expression on his face he glanced at her. "I'm glad your with me," she told him wrapping her arms tightly around his face. "And I'm glad your with me," he replied smiling a bit and rested his head against hers, "I'm sorry you had to see what you did." "It couldn't have been easy on you either," she sighed as they exited the cave to find the river continuing on the other side.
"Just so long as you're okay," he told her still smiling. "Mentally I'm fine," she laughed lightly before pointing at quite a few round Transformers that were climbing ashore, "But physically...we might soon be worse than if the Junkions were actually real zombies." "You remember about that stupid power of your heart spark slag I tried to teach ya back when I was human?" he asked setting her on the ground. She nodded with a pathetic smile now on her face. "Well, better hope you can build up enough power to help me fend these bozos off." "I'm sure we can at least give them a humongous repair bill," Sari said forming two balls of energy in her hands.
"What the slag are these things?!" Bulkhead yelled as he, Jazz, and Optimus Prime ran as quickly as possible through the unending caverns. Behind them they could hear the whirring and sleek noises given off by the wings of the white bird-like Transformers that had apparently mistaken them for prey. "They're harder to get off your tail than space barnacles dawg," Jazz commented. "And we're running out of road," Optimus told them pointing to a wall up ahead. "Well, normally I don't like to be considered a wrecking machine, but in this case I'm glad," Bulkhead muttered as they came to a stop in front of the wall and began swinging around his wrecking-balls to prepare for the oncoming birds.
"Bulkhead, there's no way we're going to be able to fend them all off," Optimus said grabbing the larger bot's shoulder. "So?" he grumbled, "it'll at least make me feel better as we're taken out!" "I don't think you'll have to take care of all of em dawg," Jazz said receiving rather odd glances from his companions, "My vibe's telling me this ground we're planted on ain't solid beneath it, dig?" Optimus and Bulkhead looked confused at each other. "Just hold em off long enough for me to use processor-over-matter kay?" Jazz mumbled smacking his forehead. With a grin, Bulkhead nodded as did Optimus and they began a charge at the aerial combatants.
Bulkhead could hear the humming that ever so annoyed Bumblebee whenever Prowl tried to perform the Cyber-Ninja technique begin as he sent one of his wrecking-balls smashing straight through one of the birds. See their fallen comrade, four more of the birds instantly dove at the Autobots, two for each of them. Optimus Prime just slid out of the way of his attacker and somersaulted over the other before whipping around and slashing his ax through their bodies. Bulkhead however, wasn't so agile and received two rather vicious pecks to his torso. As the bird-like bots came around again, Bulkhead tossed one of the wrecking-balls at them missing completely and reeled it right back in. As it was reeling though, it snapped into one of the legs of the birds and smashed it into its partner toppling them to the ground in a shattered mess.
"Nice one Bulkhead," Optimus complimented causing the green bot to smile bashfully. Just then though, Bulkhead noticed one of the birds whiz past them and pointed at it in alarm. "Jazz!" Optimus yelled running as quickly as he could after the assailant. It was no use, there was no way he could overtake the winged pursuer. "Bulkead! Boost, now!" With a nod, the young Autobot shot forth one of his wrecking-balls which Optimus leapt onto and rode up alongside the bot. With a leap, he brought his ax down on it, but this time he missed. He was surprised to see the white bot transform into a robot-mode as his weapon swung past where its head had been a second before. FWANG! Though it had transformed, it fell to the ground from a strike to the back.
"Sorry you cats had to wait," Jazz apologized retrieving his nun chuck he had thrown at the white bot's head, "Never did fully master that technique, but I got the floor loosened up enough." "Great! Let's get out of here!" Bulkhead exclaimed running over to the wall that had been blocking their path. "Better hurry," Optimus muttered jabbing his thumb back towards the remaining swarm of bird-like Transformers, "They're really territorial." "Chill," Jazz laughed lightly as he and Optimus joined the younger bot, "we're on the one way express outta hear." Bulkhead could now understand just why the humming got on Bumblebee's circuits as it echoed all around them from Jazz as he attempted to use the Cyber-Ninja technique again. "Get ready Bulkhead," Optimus muttered holding his ax in front of him as the birds got closer, "Just in case." Just as the bots were about to flood them though, Jazz's humming stopped and the ground beneath them fell.
Ratchet grumbled as he leaned back irritably in his chair. The crew had been gone for over an hour or so at least, and he was just sitting there inside the opposing god of their species. There had been absolutely no communications what-so-ever, and the signals that he did eventually send out in order to at least check up on the group all just came back with static and white noise. He didn't like it, nothing seemed right, at all. "Shoulda known it was too good to be true," he muttered to himself while his optics faded allowing for better processing of his thoughts, "Stupid con artist." He knew from the start that there was just something too fishy about all of this mess, just gotta open up the Allspark's container, then go home. What a load of scrap!
Why, if they had opened it right outside of the ship, all that'd have happened was they'd just jump right back in and be on their way back to Earth. Instead, they got all the way dragged out there just to likely go offline. And the worst part was, there was no way of keeping an eye on Sari and Bumblebee! Them of all bots shoulda stayed behind now that he thought about it. They'd more than likely be the first to get killed off!...if they were even still online. Ratchet did find them annoying yes, and he did care about them yes, but there was just something about all of it that he felt he needed to try and keep safe, something about that girl. Something about her origins, if his theory was correct in that she was the Protoform that they themselves had a hand in making.
In fact...if it hadn't have been for them Sari would have never existed, but he needed to study Sari in order to make the Protoform which they apparently sent back in time, but then that would mean that Sari would need to grow up in order for him to study her and make her, but then she would have had to have been sent back in time in order to be studied by him so that he could make-Ratchet's processor had never been so near to bursting with thoughts and paradox theories in all his life! Eventually, he just shook his head to clear his processor so he wouldn't get anymore confused and went back to focusing on the basics.
What mattered was that they had made her and she had come into existence. But it was all...too organized. What other factors were there? She'd been made out of material that Ratchet had never even seen before, that's time records seemed to predate even Cybertronian life that Arcee had brought to Earth. The yellowy goldish web-like structure. And then there had also been the things from Ultra Magnus while he was influenced by the Allspark that Sentinel Prime had brought to Earth. But then that...the Allspark! If it hadn't of been for that supernatural object they wouldn't have even ended up on Earth in the first place! They would have never met Sari and she would have never gotten the key and...interacted...with the...Allspark.
That was it! That was what it was! The Allspark! Ratchet knew from the instant that they stumbled upon it that they had not found it, he knew deep in his Spark that it had found them, that it knew they'd dig it up. But...why? It wasn't just the luck of the draw that this had all happened, it was fate, from the very beginning, the Allspark knew what needed to happen. But why them? Why, of all the bots in the universe, were they the ones that had found it? Why did it chose an expelled Elite Guard officer, a rusty old medic, a failed Cyber-Ninja, a hidden Space Bridge prodigy, and an overactive kid? Sure they all had their strengths and everything, but...what did it all add up to? All the clues were together but...there didn't seem to be any logical solution.
And then finally, Unicron. Ratchet knew, even without Swindle coming to Autobot City, that the Allspark desired to go to Unicron once he'd made himself known to the Transformer race. He was sure that others could feel it too, even if they didn't know just what exactly that feeling signified. He knew for a fact though that Optimus could feel it and understand it completely, he even probably knew more than he let on about the subject. But if he told them everything many would probably back out. Ratchet always admired Optimus Prime. He knew he was leadership material, just didn't have the knowledge or experience when they first met. Ratchet was astounded at how fast the Autobot had bloomed into the leader he became though, he always knew he had potential.
But how did Sari figure into everything? Without the Allspark she would not have been made, but she was not given a Spark. Her design did have a Spark chamber, but her Protoform was built so that it would take on an essence from an organic that she'd scan, which turned out to be Issac Sumdac. She had achieved life without the Allspark's essence. But she had a Spark chamber...it made no sense! Why the slag had her designs called for a Spark chamber if she didn't even have any use for it?! Not that her life didn't necessarily have a Spark, all Transformers had Sparks, but...it was all just too confusing. All Ratchet knew for sure was he felt the desire for her to stay safe.
"Ratchet," Omega Supreme's deep voice echoed around him. "Huh?" Ratchet mumbled bringing his optics back online, "Is something wrong?" "You were mumbling," Omega told him, "I should be the one asking your question." "Oh," Ratchet muttered sitting up fully, "it's nothing I was just...thinking." "I wish we could be more useful," Omega said. "I know that feeling, hopefully Red Alert's not as on edge as we are," the veteran sighed looking out of the front windows of the ship, almost in a trance. "Hey Ratchet?" Omega asked after a few minutes of silence. "Yeah old friend?" he responded. "This place scares me." "It scares me too."
Quietly, footsteps echoed through the large chamber that four figures were walking through, their optics constantly on the lookout, their stabilizing servos never still. The Dinobots and Sentinel Prime had been keeping that continuous pace ever since the cave in. To them it seemed like an eternity that they'd been walking, almost in a trance it would seem to an observer. They were fully aware of their predicament though, they fully understood the situation at hand, and they just had one goal on their processors: finding the others.
Though the Dinobots were some of the most brutal Transformers that had ever existed and Grimlock was one of the most vicious leaders ever, they knew the score. Though he didn't necessarily have the processing power of someone like Perceptor or Wheeljack, he at least had common sense, and his primal animal instincts that had been hardwired into him upon being conceived. He still didn't know quite what Unicron was, but he knew its presence, one of complete hopelessness and fear, that atmosphere which had constantly engulfed them since their arrival in the strange new world they had taken to treading across. And from how the others talked about Unicron, they were inside of him. Now Grimlock, he would never call himself a coward, but anyone daring to go up against something that they could live inside of was a complete idiot. He knew when he was beat. He knew why he should be scared.
Added to that sense of dread though, Sentinel could also feel a vibe of observation encompassing them, as if they were continually being watched, being toyed with, only being allowed to exist just for the amusement of the dark god they were now inside of. If they had just unleashed that stupid Matrix thing back at the ship it all would be over! Optimus Prime hadn't even tried! He always knew that Optimus wasn't the best of the bots, why he should've just taken the thing himself and torn it...no. There he went again blaming others when he hardly even had a clue as to what all was going on. What if he had been in Optimus's servos? He probably wouldn't have dared to even let himself believe that Unicron existed, even after witnessing Cybertron's fate!
Sentinel Prime really needed to stop the facade he always put on whenever he wasn't around Elita 1. Sure he stopped for her, but that was only for her. He still acted like his old jerky self to pretty much everyone else when not in her presence. Why'd he do it though? Just to impress others? To be accepted? All he knew was it was just how he'd always been, and then when something big would happen he'd back away unless he could take credit for something. But not with Elita, with her he was willing to risk his Spark against those vicious spiders that Optimus had blocked him from. If it were to happen all over again, if Elita was to be assaulted like that, he would stay behind with her, no matter who tried to stop him, no matter what his fate would be.
But how loyal was Grimlock? He knew all the Dinobots would help Elita, but Grimlock was the one that stood out, the one that would go out of his way to be with her. Their first interaction had been an assault to the Dinobots, and ever since they began working together they hadn't seen optic-to-optic at all. They constantly got into fights, even if some of them weren't intentional. They'd lash out at each other, antagonize each other, all for her. All for Elita 1. She was the one who held both their Sparks with an iron grip, the one who had full control over whatever they did. If she did so much as want to be carried, they'd both be by her side. But then why had Grimlock helped save him when the cavern had collapsed?
"Grimlock," Sentinel Prime said breaking the long silence and immediately received a curious stare from the taller figure, "Why did you save me?" "Did blue bot not want to live?" the king of the Dinobots asked in confusion. "Of course I want to stay online," Sentinel grumbled smacking his forehead, "But I mean, why didn't you just let me get finished off?" "Why would Grimlock let blue bot get destroyed?" "Because of Elita!" Sentinel muttered, "Spider-bot. With me out of the way you would have had no competition for her Spark!" "Spider-bot wants to be with blue bot," Grimlock simply responded turning his attention back towards the path they were taking, "Grimlock does as mistress says, and she wants to be with you. Besides that, you save Grimlocks life when cave collapse, that is reason enough. You have Dinobots' respect." Sentinel Prime looked oddly at the taller figure for a few seconds and gave a light smile to him. "You know big guy, you're alright."
Suddenly there was a noise. It was far off, but Sentinel could have sworn his audio receptors had picked something up. "Get ready," the blue Autobot murmured getting out his lance as he put his shield in front of him. With a nod to the other Dinobots, they morphed into dinosaur and crouched back a bit, ready to pounce. "Sr Snpmle Prm shr?" is what it sounded like. "Hold on a second," the ex-Elite Guard member ordered listening intently on where the voice was coming from. It seemed to be getting closer. "Sir Sentinel Prime sir?!" Sentinel's optics expanded in shock as he finally realized just what was being said and who the voice was coming from. "Boys?!" he called running further into the chamber towards what he could now see to be a few figures rushing towards them.
The Dinobots looked at each other in confusion as Sentinel Prime caught Jetfire and Jetstorm in an embrace and twirled around a few times from their dive. "Boys! You're online!" Sentinel laughed in happiness and disbelief, "I told those rusty old buckets at the Council to look for ya, but they didn't even send out a search party!" "Sir Sentinel we very much missed you sir!" Jetfire exclaimed tighening his embrace on his old commander as did his brother. "Indeed sir, we did not know how much longer or cautiously we could exist and to for survive in this gigantic trash compactor! We thought for sure you wouldn't get caught though sir!" "Oh don't worry, we're here of our own free will," Sentinel assured them as he patted them on the heads causing the brothers to stare up at him with odd expressions, "We know how to get rid of this place."
"Good..." a quivering voice stammered directing all optics the bot that had apparently been behind the jet-twins. "Oh yes-" Jetfire started before his brother continued, "We forgot to introduce to our new comrade we met-" "His name-" "is-" "Hotshot!" they both finished presenting the rather battered looking figure of the bot that Sentinel Prime had talked to when Unicron made his first assault. "Hey you're that Autobot that was stationed along the rim!" Sentinel exclaimed. "Unfortunately the only...surviving one," he mumbled with a twitch and tried to salute. "Speaking of this place," Jetstorm wondered aloud. "Where for are we Sentinel Prime sir?" Jetfire finished. "...you guys seriously don't know by now?" Sentinel asked. The twins shook their heads. "We're in Unicron."
"Unicron?!" the twins and Hotshot exclaimed. "Well that explains the...bodies," the blue and yellowish Autobot in the background muttered twitching again. "But sir!" Jetfire yelped. "Unicron was just a myth no?!" Jetstorm asked shaking. "Just a petty fairytale Protoforms told to scare each other!" Jetfire added. "I thought so too," Sentinel Prime sighed looking at his feet and wrapped his arms tighter around the boys' necks, "I'm real sorry about what happened. I'm sorry about not knowing what I was getting you two into. I really am, I shoulda been a better officer." "You are sir!" the twins said together brightly, "Besides you still have time if you really feel bad." "I wish." "What do you mean you wish sir?" Hotshot asked looking uneasily at the Dinobots, "were you kicked off the force?" "Not just that," Sentinel sighed, "...Cybertron no longer exists."
"They just keep coming!" Bumblebee exclaimed blasting another of the round sharp-toothed Transformers back into the river. The further on Sari and Bumblebee had traveled, the more and more viciously the deadly opponents assaulted them. They weren't letting up one bit, not even for a second. The predators just kept pouring onto the shores the two were trying to cross. Both Sari and Bumblebee had been giving it their all, but no matter what it just wouldn't end. The yellow bot used every move he had learned in Autoboot Camp along with his military-grade stinger's blasts while the smaller girl Autobot continually flung energy balls with all the effort she could muster. She really was wondering though if that stupid power of your heart crap was true or not, as the more frantic she got the more powerful the blasts seemed to get.
"Just what are these things?!" Sari panted after blasting one of the ball-like Transformers in the mouth shattering all of its teeth. "They're called Sharkticons," a familiar dark voice answered from off to the side, "A rather hard nuisance to get rid of. Ever since their world was destroyed they've been swarming about within the depths of Unicron, not that he minds them getting rid of a few pests of course. Why their shells are so durable that a flaw called Alpha Q even made a new body for himself out of them a while back, different breed of them though." "Sideways?!" they both exclaimed turning their attention fully to the purple and yellow traitor. "That's my name," he laughed, "Surprised to find that the speck that landed on my master though is actually some characters I know. You kids must really have a death-wish if you came all the way out here. But don't worry, I can very easily fulfill that desire."
"You're dead though!" Bumblebee yelped as he ducked noticing that the Sharkticons were still attacking as one leapt over him. "Yeah! I fried every single part of your body!" Sari added blasting the Sharkticon that had almost taken her Sparkmate's head off, "Even if you'd survived, your body was gone!" "You really think that Unicron would let his most trusted avatar be wiped out that easily?" Sideways scoffed as he held out his arm and blasted back the entire group of Sharkticons into the water, "We're inside of him for Primus sake! If he wants a new body made for me then by god, I'm going to get a damn new body! Now then, I believe I have unfinished business with the both of you, especially you you little pint-sized anomaly."
"The name's Sari!" the red-headed girl growled getting two more energy balls ready as Sideways now began walking towards them, "And we'll just blow you to kingdom come like I did the last time!" "Yeah, if you haven't noticed, I'm a Cybertronian again!" Bumblebee declared boastfully and aimed his stingers at the new opponent. "Yeah, I can tell you're just a little adorable Sparkling of a bot aren't you?" Sideways laughed lightly, "And you two aren't going to do a thing to me in here, no matter how much of an anomaly you are Sari." "Stop calling me that!" she yelled throwing one of the energy balls right into Sideway's face. "Nice one!" Bumblebee complimented.
Just then their faces turned to that of shock. Though Sari's shot had completely torn every circuit and mechanical shard from within the bot's head, he was still moving. And his head was still functioning! The closer Sideways got to them, the more easily they could see the intricate and complex wiring reattaching itself within a dark cloud that seemed to engulf the absent parts of his face and begin to form the plating back around the delicate insides of the bot. "Are your audio receptors missing or something?" Sideways asked as his mouth reformed with a rather evil grin on it, "I told you you couldn't fucking hurt me in here didn't I? Unicron isn't going to let you do what you did to me back on Earth you little brat!"
"Sari, get behind me!" Bumblebee ordered zapping his stingers together for a second to get a current running through them. Hesitantly, he looked around. There was nothing but water running along the shore of the piece of land they were standing on and a wall to the other side of them with a rather large techno-organic tank running through the top of it. "Bumblebee, I don't think-" "Don't worry," he muttered cutting Sari off as he took aim, "I'm not going to let him touch you." "Yeah, keep telling yourself that," Sideways laughed lightly taking aim himself. With a yell of frustration, the young bot shot a bolt of electricity at the backstabbing Transformer and sent as many volts as he could into the his body. "That might be good for massages, but if you're trying to actually hurt me I suggest you try something else," Sideways grumbled as the current of energy came to a stop.
"Not even a mark..." Sari mumbled in disbelief at the pristine condition Sideway's body was still in. "My turn," Sideways said with a smirk. BZAPP!!!! "Ah!!!" Bumblebee cried as he was flung back into the wall so hard that his body left an imprint as it dropped to the ground. "Bumblebee!!!" Sari exclaimed. She could see him twitching. Furiously, the girl turned back around to face Sideways as her arms popped open revealing two sharp glowing blue blades. "Oh my, the girl has a pocket knife, whatever am I, a fully armed servant of a god, to do?" the purple bot mused to himself while his arms took aim at Sari. His next blast didn't even touch the girl however, as she skidded beneath the energy from his arm cannons and leapt up into the air slicing the front of Sideway's body in half before turning her hands back to normal and sending an unimaginable amount of energy down at him from them.
BOOM!!! Sari dropped to the ground and morphed her face back to human-mode as she turned around to see Sideway's body parts falling helplessly to the ground. Confidently she put her hands on her hips with her face beaming with a large smile. "You really are becoming very irritating anomaly," Sideway's voice hissed around her. With her jaw almost dropping in shock, Sari looked around frantically for where the voice could be coming from. "I told you you couldn't hurt me!" he continued to yell, "You can't do a thing to me here!" That's when she saw it. Right in front of Bumblebee, what seemed to be rising and disturbingly morphing out of the ground itself, was Sideways, with a scowl on his face-plates. "Perhaps I should save you for last though," he laughed darkly grabbing Bumblebee by the throat as he rose all the way out of the ground, "You know, make you feel all the pain of loosing a loved one, destroy all the aspects of you, blah blah blah, all that angst crap."
"No!" Sari cried running as quickly as she could over to them, "Bumblebee! Do something!" "Like what?" Sideways continued to laugh, "make funny faces at me?! He can't hurt me if you've forgotten!" "Doesn't mean I can't slow ya down," Bumblebee muttered glaring at the taller bot. "Oh, looks like he's awake," Sideways said pinning him to the wall, "At least now he'll be conscious to feel the pain." "The only pain I'll feel is if I hit my head while doing this," he said with a small smile looking up at the tank towards the top of the wall. "Doing what?" Sideways wondered. "This!" Bumblebee exclaimed. No matter how strong Sideways was, he was not at all ready for Bumblebee to break out as his shoulder's wheels connected with the wall and sped him up towards the ceiling. Angrily, Sideways shot forth multiple blasts from his wrists.
PSHWOO!!! Bumblebee grinned and dropped to the ground next to Sari after hearing one of the shots connect with the tank. "What are you smiling for?" Sideways growled spinning around and pointing his cannons at them. "Just thought you'd like to see a happy face to see you off on your little trip," Bumblebee said with a shrug. "Trip?..." Sideways mumbled curiously. "Yeah, I mean, I might not know what's in that tank you hit, but it can't be good if it's from Unicron," he told him, Sari spotting it as the purple bot turned around to see steam hissing from it. "Why you little-" "Blast it Sari!" Bumblebee yelled firing a bolt of electricity at it. After Sari had sent her own energy into it as well, the tank burst pouring forth what seemed like an endless stream of water which washed Sideways right into the river.
"You...little...bugs..." Sideways hissed as he started to walk back towards them amidst the current, "I am going to personally tear your Sparks right out of their chambers and shove them-what the..." "And so starts phase two of my plan," Bumblebee declared folding his arms over his chest-plate confidently while Sari raised an eyebrow, impressed at her Sparkmate's quick thinking. Sideways didn't even have time to fully yank the first Sharkticon off of him as another clamped its jaws around his arm, and then another around his waist, and another, and another... "The next time we meet you two are dead!" Sideways yelled furiously as a final one bit down on his head and he was swept down the current and out of sight, "DEAD!!!!"
"Come on, hurry up!" Optimus yelled back to Bulkhead and Jazz. Though they had indeed dropped down countless levels, much closer to where they had been when they arrived on Unicron, the bird-like Transformers had swooped immediately down after them and a pack of what looked like vicious dark colored dinosaur-like Transformers had team up with them in the pursuit of the three intruding Autobots. "I don't think we're gonna be able to outrun em much longer Optimus!" Bulkhead yelped, one of the birds sweeping right past his neck. "We have to," the Autobot leader replied slamming his ax through the bird, "cause I can't seem to get a transmission through to Ratchet! There's no way to call for backup!"
"Well ain't dat just Prime?" Jazz mumbled and smashed one of his nun chucks into the head of one of the dinosaur-like Transformers as it snapped its jaws off to his side, "We really ain't gonna last here much longer cats." "Fine, then this is where we make our stand," Optimus Prime announced turning around to face the oncoming herd with his troops, "Ready your weapons!" With nods, Jazz and Bulkhead began twirling their objects around, preparing to strike out at anything that dared to get within range of them while Optimus extended his ax. The predators slowed to a halt in front of the Autobots and began to pace around them cautiously, letting out a roar every so often. "They're observing us..." Jazz muttered.
FWANG! The other two bots didn't realize until after the raptor-like Transformer's body parts hit the ground that Optimus had slashed the eager opponent in half as it leapt at them. "Keep your guard up," Optimus ordered instantly getting back into a defensive position after spotting a few more getting closer. Slowly, the bots that had moved backed up a bit upon seeing the sternness in Prime's stance. "They're expecting us to not notice em," Jazz commented, "That's when they're gonna hit us." "Keep your optics on as many as you can at a time," Optimus told them. "That's gonna be a bit hard," Bulkhead said as a few of the white bird-like Transformers morphed into their winged mode, "Especially with what they're starting to do."
Jazz and Optimus too soon noticed the birds beginning to fly around the background of the circle that the opposing force had formed. "Focus on the ground ones," Optimus ordered, his face-plates slipping on over his mouth causing a few of the dinosaurs to hiss, "The birds are just trying to distract us." Bulkhead tried his hardest to do as he was told, but the swirling was just too hypnotizing, so much so that he hardly noticed the raptor-like bots closing in on him. With a glare, he snapped back to reality and slammed his wrecking-ball into the dinosaurs. With a screech, another raptor leapt at Prime, which he quickly disposed of. "Watch it boss-bot!" Jazz said smacking a raptor from an opposite end out of the way, "They getting clever."
Luckily, due to his Cyber-Ninja nature, Jazz could plainly sense the raptor that leapt at him from behind and sent it flying back into the pack with a swift kick to the stomach. Suddenly, a loud cawing sound echoed through the entire chamber as the birds all swooped up into the air and flew at a deadly speed down towards the Autobots. At the same time, all the raptor-like Transformers crouched back and pounced at them as well. Optimus never broke his stubborn stance while Jazz's processor went crazy with the unimaginable amount of danger it was sensing. Bulkhead covered his arms over his optics in desperation waiting for his body to be ripped apart.
He had just wanted to be a Space Bridge technician. That was all, he never wanted to get caught up in all the fighting that went on between the differing factions of the Cybertronian race, he never wanted to hurt anybody. Bulkhead just wanted to lead a simple productive life helping others out. That's all. He didn't care about learning fancy combat moves or anything like that. He only went to Autoboot Camp because he had, it was just standard Cybertronian procedure to make sure you were prepared to live the potentially dangerous life that Transformers had to. He only came along as willingly as he did to keep an eye on Bumblebee and Sari, despite how shoddily that mission had worked out. Bulkhead just wanted to be back on Earth bickering with Professor Sumdac about who screwed up where in their latest check-over of the Space Bridge.
Much to Bulkhead's surprise though, he never felt the attacks come down on him. Instead, all that filled the Autobots' audio receptors were caws and roars from the attackers as they were swirled away from them. "Looks like you could use some help eh Optimus old buddy?" Sentinel Prime asked with his hands on his hips as he, the Jet-twins, the Dinobots, and Hot Shot came into view, "We always did have a knack for getting in over our heads didn't we?" "Only when we worked together," Optimus laughed lightly and looked towards the downed opponents. It wouldn't be long before they were coming right at them again. "Hot damn dawg, you found the twins?!" Jazz exclaimed catching a glimpse of the young Cybertronians on either side of Sentinel. "Happy reunion later, battle time now!" Bulkhead reminded smashing one of his wrecking-balls into a raptor's back as the natives got back to their feet.
Optimus didn't even have to give a command for the Autobots to tear into the fight. With just the three of them, Jazz, Optimus, and Bulkhead could hardly fend off the vicious creatures, but now things had changed. With a snap of Sentinel Prime's fingers, the Jet-Twins took off through the air blasting down birds left and right while Grimlock morphed into robot-mode and thrust out his sword causing the Dinobots to start a charge straight through the raptor-like bots, scattering their parts everywhere. "Any sign of Blackarachnia?" Optimus Prime asked as he slashed at some wolf-like bots that had now crept into the fight. "I was hoping you guys had bumped into her," Sentinel replied putting his shield in front of Optimus to block a dive bombing bird, "And I assume you haven't found the kids yet?" "That'd be a negative," Optimus told him cutting a raptor that had targeted Sentinel in half.
"Well, I spotted a ship if that's any help," Hotshot quivered as he attempted to shoot a bird with his flames, only to nearly get his arm torn off in the process. "A ship?!" both Primes exclaimed at once. "How come you didn't tell me?!" Sentinel yelled putting up his shield to block another bird from assaulting them. "I didn't know how many of you there were here, I thought you wouldn't care," Hotshot stammered, "It was red and yellow..." "That's Omega then," Optimus said with a nod, "At least we know we can get back to it now." "So, should we get everyone to fall back then?" Sentinel asked looking over the scene. The Dinobots and the Jet-Twins, which had now formed into Safeguard, seemed to be making short work of the predators with Jazz and Bulkhead. "I'd say let them have a bit more time to take out their pent up frustrations," Optimus replied.
"If only I'd brought my Life-Spark-Locator, now only ten Energon cubes a pack," Swindle muttered to himself, too bored and determined to notice his lack of an audience. It seemed to the Decepticon that he'd been wandering throughout Unicron forever and a half looking for that which he desired. He hoped that at least Optimus Prime had survived, but either way, he knew he himself wasn't stopping until he had at least found what he was looking for. Optimus may die, but at least he'd be able to delay things...even if it was inevitable with the Allspark gone. All on the trip to Unicron he'd been hoping that he'd been wrong about that little yellow brat's Sparkmate and what he believed the Allspark now realized, but every single thing since then had just convinced him more and more that things would have to be done the hard way.
He just couldn't believe it though. If what he thought was in fact correct, they still had a chance. Even if it was just a fraction of a chance they still had one! It may have taken eons for Primus's operations to come to fruitation, but they finally had! And if they were finally complete, they might actually be able to destroy the dark god for good! But that was a backup plan. If Swindle had a say in things, they wouldn't even need what he figured their creator had planned to get rid of Unicron. They'd be able to do it much quicker, much more efficiently, and much less dangerously. But...Swindle's mind had begun to think that they might have to rely on that backup plan as he had not been able to find head or tail of what he was after.
Just then there was a wet splashing sort-of noise. Immediately, Swindle twirled around and held his armed arms out to whoever had stumbled into the large dark spike-filled chamber. "Well well well..." Sideways coughed, spitting out a bit of water, "Looks like we have yet another pest. Just what do you think you're doing in this corner of the dear master?" "Looking for something," Swindle muttered folding his arms over his chest-plate, "You must be Sideways." Surprised, the traitor's optics expanded behind his green visor. "Yeah...and who might you be?" "The name's Swindle," the Decepticon told him, "the best local black market salesman this side of the cosmos and a stylishly armed con-artist." "Impressive..." Sideways said rubbing his chin, "It's simply astounding that you've even been able to survive this deep inside of Unicron." "Well, with all that I've come across I'm pretty much prepared for anything."
"Really," Sideways wondered walking towards the Decepticon, "Cause I haven't come across any bot that's had tech to defend themselves even the slightest against Unicron without a higher hand helping them. A higher hand like...the Vok." "And the fallen Cybertronian soul gets it right!" Swindle announced in a rather show-host manner as his body parts separated themselves revealing all sorts of different utensils and firearms with purple glowing hieroglyphs, "And his reward is a face-fulla plasma!" "You actually think you can hurt me?" Sideways laughed lightly, "YOW!!!" Hissing in pain, the purple and yellow bot clutched his now singed shoulder-piece with the smoke from the barrel of Swindle's gun still smoking. "I'll take that as a "yes, I think I can hurt you"," the con-artist mused.
Growling, Sideways glared at Swindle, his eyes glowing blood-red. "If it weren't for that stupid Vok tech you have on you, you'd be just another meal," a dark voice uttered from the evil Transformer. "I'm sure I would Unicron," Swindle replied grinning, "But the fact remains that I do have this Vok tech and I am not just some other meal. Only one thing may be able to actually destroy you, but you have been harmed in the past by items from supernatural entities have you not? I mean, even your own weapon was used against you once." Hissing again, Sideways clutched his shoulder harder, remembering the piercing pain of the Requiem Blaster that had been used on him in a reality before.
"Your stupid Vok were no match for me," Unicron's voice continued echoing from Sideway's mouth, "And neither will some bot wrapped up in their weaponry. I have healed from wounds before." "Care to let yourself get hurt even more then?" Swindle asked as he yanked a purple glowing sword out of his retractable abdomen. With a scowl, Sideways morphed into a motorcycle and sped straight towards the Decepticon. SHRING! "GAH!" the purple bot cried tumbling into robot-mode after the blade had passed through his front wheel, "Why you little pile of scrap!" Angrily, Sideways whirled around blasting both of his wrist-cannons at Swindle, only for the shots to bounce right off of his force-field as it went up around him.
"What are you after?..." Sideways asked, both his and the dark god's voice mixing. "Something precious to you," Swindle responded. A few seconds of silence passed. "I do not know of anything that would be precious to me," the voices said. "What about your Spark?" the Decepticon asked, a grin appearing on his face. "What do you mean?" Unicron's voice asked, more curious than surprised. "Don't play dumb," Swindle muttered, "Your Spark you giant trash compactor. Though you may not want to admit it, in the end you are a Transformer, no matter what type of entity you are, and all Transformers have Sparks. I'm searching for yours." "You insolent fool," Unicron said, "I am a GOD! I am above-" "Your brother's a god too," Swindle laughed cutting the voice off, "He had a Spark. So do you."
"My brother was an idiot!" Unicron roared, his voice shaking the chamber around the two combatants, "Though one of his disciples may have become one of my most loyal ones ever, he was a complete fool! He sought to save this wretched multiverse when it's clear as day that it was doomed from the start!" "And he was your brother," Swindle said, "you and him are the same types of beings." "We may have spawned from the same source," Unicron uttered, "But we are two entirely different entities. He's light, I'm dark. He saves, I destroy." "He's a god, you're a god. He's a planet, you're a planet," Swindle continued, almost singing along off of the dark god's sentence, "So he has a Spark, you have a Spark." "You dare to mock me..." Unicron growled as Sideways stepped forward in clear anger. "Indeed I do," Swindle declared, bowing elegantly only receiving even more furious looks from the purple Transformer, "And you may have almost everyone else fooled, but I know things about you that others don't. Now where is it?"
"You think that I would just hand over my soul?" the dark voice laughed hysterically while Sideways reached over to a wall next to him, "Fine, I do admit that I took after my brother's idea that led to your pathetic species' existence, but you honestly thought that I would give it up?! Do you have any idea how hard it was to find just the Matrix shell for it?!" "Well...I was sorta hoping that you could just give it to me," Swindle laughed lightly scratching the back of his head as he did so, "But I guess I'll just have to keep scavenging through your innards won't I?" "You won't live long enough," Sideways told him as he pulled his hand back from the wall he'd placed it on, a long sword coming out of it, "I believe you might know of the Star Saber?"
"Oh...slag..." Swindle mumbled dropping his arms in shock, "Did not see that coming..." "Well obviously it isn't the original Star Saber. We had to leave that traitor behind when we were evicted from a reality," Sideways said with a shrug, "But it's a replica that definitely gets the job done, especially on such primitive technology as the Vok's." "You are so gonna hear from my lawyers about this," Swindle yelped as the glowing blade slashed straight through his force field, shattering it. "Oh will you just shut up and act as the agent you are?" Sideways grumbled kicking Swindle into a wall, "when I come across one of you heaps of slag I expect at least an interesting challenge on some level, even if you never stand a chance."
"Fine!" Swindle yelled firing two blasts of purple energy from his wrists. Sideways limberly leapt over the shots and dove down at the S.U.V. mimicking con artist with the Star Saber held out to him. "You could at least tell me if I'm close to the Spark!" Swindle cried as he rolled out of the way and unleashed a barrage of shots from his chest rail-gun on the traitor. "Well, you're not close," Sideways muttered swiping each blast out of the way with each new swing of the Star Saber while he walked leisurely towards the downed bot, "And you're not gonna ever get close!" SCHVWING! Swindle cried in pain as he saw his arms drop off their elbow joints from the last swing of Sideways's blade along with half of the rail-gun.
Groaning, Swindle morphed into vehicle-mode and drove straight at the purple bot's feet. SRASH!!! He clattered right back into robot mode after the Star Saber replica had slashed clean into his side cutting a crack from his Spark Chamber all the way down to his knee. "Take this!" Swindle hissed clutching his side, oil dripping through his servos, as two mini-guns popped out of his shoulders and began firing at Sideways. "Just cut it out," Sideways muttered blasting the guns off with his wrist-cannons. Hastily, the con-artist reached into his stomach to pull anything he could out the storage chamber that Optimus Prime had popped out of when the Decepticons had been prisoners aboard the Elite Guard ship.
"I said cut it out!" Sideways yelled ripping the entire stomach-portion out of the bot, "You are pathetic. I expected MUCH more of a challenge from an agent of the Vok." "Why should I try all that hard when I know I'm beat?" Swindle asked with a small smile. "Good point," Sideways replied and slid the blade of the Star Saber up along the underside of the Decepticon's jaw, "Any last words?" "Yeah, I got some," Swindle muttered coughing up a bit oil as he spoke, "Unicron, if you'd have let me dealt with this my own way you might have been spared a rather grim fate." "What are you babbling about now?" the dark voice asked along with Sideways'. "Let's just say, there is still hope left for this universe," Swindle laughed lightly, coughing up more oil, "And possibly all others." With a glowing red glare, Sideway's blade slid through the Decepticon's throat and neck. The laughing stopped.
"Why exactly are we setting this slag up again?" Ironhide asked as he set another beam down in irritation, "We already have the prisoners locked up and doing their time." "From what Rodimus Prime told me it's supposed to be some type of "special" holding cell, designed to hold something far worse than just some everyday Decepticreep," Brawn replied bending one of the other metallic structures with his incredible strength, "No idea what they're planning to put in this thing though. Probably better not to ask questions. I mean they kept Project Omega pretty much hidden from everyone." "Yeah, but they didn't have people on the inside questioning things," the orange Autobot grumbled setting up another beam. "You don't know that," Brawn growled, "Remember that Highbrow guy? Head of intel?" "Vaguely." "Well he went offline."
"What are you two bots conversing about?" Perceptor's voice asked from a floor above. "Oh, uh, nothing sir!" Ironhide stammered, "We're just talking about life and stuff." "Just be sure to get the job done as quickly and efficiently as possible," the red Autobot ordered walking off to another room. "That guy always gives me the creeps," Brawn muttered once he was sure the old Council member was out of hearing range. "Yeah, talking in that monotone voice all the time," Ironhide agreed with a nod, "but, I guess that's what ya get when you give up your emotions." "Indeed it is," another voice confirmed from behind the bots. Quickly, Ironhide and Brawn turned around to see Wheeljack leaning against a wall with his arms folded over his chest-plate.
"Sir! We're working, honest!" Ironhide exclaimed frightened, slamming another pole into the floor as he did so, "See?" "I wasn't accusing you two of anything," the white, red, and green Transformer laughed lightly, "Hope you don't mind if I lend a servo or two." "Well, this is strict orders from Rodimus himself," Brawn told him, "Don't know if you're allowed-" "I worked on the Jet-Twins with Perceptor and Red Alert, I doubt they'd mind me giving you guys some help. Besides, if we end up getting heat for it, I'll take all the blame alright?" "If you say so sir," Ironhide said with a shrug bending the pole he'd put in the ground towards Brawn. "You don't have to call me sir," he sighed, smiling a bit as he walked over to one of the beams, "The name's Wheeljack." "Yes sir-er-Wheeljack," Ironhide replied.
Steadily, Brawn grabbed ahold of the beam his orange colleague had bent and attached it to some plating along the other side of the room. The group worked in silence for quite a while, neither Brawn nor Ironhide daring to speak in the presence of the older bot. "So...what's up?" Wheeljack eventually asked. "Nothing," Brawn said sternly. "Oh come on, seriously?" Wheeljack laughed, "Something's gotta be happening? What do you two think now that Rodimus is running things?" "Well, he was an old bud of ours in the military," Ironhide told him, "Always wanting to be the one in charge, and rightly so. He was the best I'd ever seen. I guess it's only right that he take over." "He's a good soldier sure," Brawn muttered, "But the war's long over and Megatron hasn't been seen since Cybertron..."
A spell of silence filled the room again. "And then there's Unicron," Wheeljack sighed, "I always knew we shoulda just confronted him from the start." "How would we have been able to...wait, you knew about him?!" Ironhide yelled in shock. Wheeljack's optics expanded as he realized what he'd just let slip out. "I-what are ya talking about?" the white Autobot asked innocently. "The higher-ups knew about him being real?..." Brawn asked, as dumbfounded as he could sound. Desperately, Wheeljack looked around the room and, after seeing that no one else was around, continued. "...yeah. We knew about Unicron," he muttered, "But keep quiet about it! If someone like Perceptor hears, you guys might be taken offline!"
"So the Council did have more secrets than just Project Omega," Brawn said. "Yeah, they HAD secrets," Wheeljack replied closing his eyes, "Not so much anymore. All that really remains of the Council and their intentions is Perceptor, Red Alert, and me, if you can even count me and that med-bot. Perceptor's the main one fixated on the old Council and the only one that's really left of them." "Then you know what this container's for!" Ironhide exclaimed excitedly. "Yeah, I do," he said grimly, "it's the reason I'm trying to help ya guys with it. I think I've figured out something that Perceptor can't see about it." "What's it supposed to hold?" Brawn asked. "You don't want to know," Wheeljack told him.
Sari sighed as the platform rose. After hours of searching, she and Bumblebee had finally found a way away from the river and since then had been winding their way up through the giant planet. Or down. Whatever way they were pointed. She didn't care, she just wanted to leave. Sari just wanted it all to be over, just wanted to be back home on Earth. Never in all her dreams did she even begin to fathom half the stuff she'd witnessed in this unbelievable setting. The vicious Sharkticons had only been one of the numerous entities they'd had to work around. Added to that, there was the constant uneasiness in general of the internal workings of Unicron constantly echoing through the corridors. The pumping of liquid, the churning of solids. Constant digestive noises underlying the background atmosphere around them.
But at least she was with Bumblebee. She really would rather have been with no one else, even if he was probably the least reliable of the group. She loved him, and she knew she could count on him, ever since the day they'd met. Ever since then they'd always been together, inseparable, always taking things head on and acting on instinct together, nearly dying in the process quite a few times. But that's what they did. They got into mischief together, they did what they thought they should do. They were the rebels of the group, the two that no one could stop whenever they worked together...at least when they knew what they were doing. And they both got on Ratchet's circuits. That had to count for something.
But most of all, they just shared a bond like no other Sari had ever felt. They were so alike it was unbelievable. Plus, before Bumblebee, Sari had never really had a friend. Sure there were kids from her dad's staff, but no one she could connect to. But Bumblebee was perfect! The instant they started interacting he was like the brother she never had, and their friendship just kept growing and growing. Sure there was Bulkhead to hang out with, but he was way too responsible and protective and just seemed like way more of an older sibling kind of buddy. Not Bumblebee though. He just dashed head on into situations as wrecklessly as possible, just like she always had.
Bumblebee was the one that wouldn't give up on Sari no matter what. No matter how much danger he'd be in, he'd always be there for her. When Optimus demanded the key from her, Bumblebee went off to look for her and try to comfort her. When Starscream was about to annihilate her and her dad, Bumblebee took the shot. When her body was going haywire from the key, he instantly tried to help...and she'd nearly killed him. Sari didn't know how she'd be able to live with herself if Ratchet hadn't of been there to save him. Before then she'd never really noticed how alone she really was before the Autobots came to Earth. Sari loved Bumblebee and he loved her.
"You okay?" Bumblebee asked looking down at the red-haired girl. "Huh?" Sari muttered snapping out of her train of thought, "Oh yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Hey Bumblebee?" "Yeah?" "If we get back to Earth...I don't know if I'll ever wanna leave it again," she told him. "It definitely is a nice place," he laughed lightly and ruffled her hair, "With fun creatures." She grinned up at him and hugged his leg. "I love you so much," she sighed rubbing her cheek against his plating. "I'd say I love you too, but now's not the time to be mushy I don't think," he said with another laugh. Sari raised an eyebrow in curiosity. "We should celebrate, cause look what we just stumbled on," Bumblebee told her jabbing his thumb over his shoulder to reveal Omega Supreme in front of the platform they'd risen up on, "I doubt it'll be a problem of getting back home now."
"Hello," Sideways said darkly. "It's about time I found you," Blackarachnia muttered stepping towards him, "Now, about my payment." "Are you serious?" Sideways laughed, "That's why you're here?!" "You promised me my body back," she hissed, "I put up with my end of the bargain, and I've been waiting for quite some time for my reward." "Are you not comfortable with what you are now?" a dark voice asked from Sideways' body, "Even after all this time?" "It doesn't matter if I'm comfortable!" she yelled stomping towards the purple bot, "You promised!" "I'm not denying that," the dark voice told her calmly, "And I'm not denying that you shall be rewarded, I am just curious is all. Why do you desire so much to be your old self again? Do you not realize what you're risking coming here?" "I know full well what I'm doing," Blackarachnia growled, "I just...I'm a freak how I am! Now give me my body!"
"Interesting," Sideways muttered stroking his chin, "You're willing to sacrifice servo and Spark, just to get back to how you used to be...well, fine, if you desire it so much, then who am I to leave what you want out of your grasp?" Blackarachnia's eyes widened the instant Sideways snapped his fingers. The snapping seemed to echo through the chamber as her body began to glow with a bright light. She could feel her features and outlines along her body disappearing as a series of gridded purple lines engulfed her barren form and started warping parts of her body. She could feel each gear grinding into place, each circuit lining itself within her being, her multiple eyes morphing into optical units. As the last bits of her armor appeared on her, Elita 1 dropped limply to the ground.
"Welcome back to reality Elita 1," Sideways said looking down at the female Autobot. In disbelief, the blue faced Transformer looked down at her body. She had servos again! She had metallic plating again! She had a processor again! She no longer had any trace of organic components on or within her! She was Elita 1 again! She knew that if she still had tear ducts she'd be crying in happiness. "Thank you," Elita said quietly as she got back to her feet. "And now, to return you to your path," Sideways said as the corridor rearranged itself back to the one the group had originally gotten separated at with another snap of his fingers. Smiling brightly, Elita began walking back towards the ship. "So...this is where it was..." Sideways said quietly to himself with a grin spreading across his face.
"Hold on!" Ratchet yelled quieting the bridge of the ship down, "You mean to tell me you all nearly got slagged but made it back in one piece?!" "It sure looks that way," Sari boasted confidently. "Not...all of us," Sentinel Prime sighed, "We weren't able to find Blackarachnia." "Spider-bot is not here," Grimlock enforced sadly. "Well, all things considered, it's amazing that any of you lived," Red Alert said as she checked over Snarl for any dents. "And we don't know where Swindle is," Optimus Prime reminded. "Who gives a slag about him?!" Bulkhead asked and embraced Bumblebee and Sari in a spine-cracking hug, "We're all okay! And besides, he's the bot that got us into this whole mess!"
"Still, he's the only one that really seemed to know just what he was doing in here," Optimus muttered, "and Unicron's still alive." "Then open the freaking Allspark thing already!" Bumblebee gasped, "We need something to distract Bulkhead so he doesn't crush us!" "Sorry," the green bot laughed dropping the two youngest members. "I already told you, it won't-" "Just try," Sentinel told him, "If nothing else, then to at least assure us." "Fine," Optimus sighed and closed his eyes. With a hiss, his chest-plate split and opened revealing the glistening crystalline figure within its chamber. With a sigh, he took it out and slipped his fingers into the holes in the handles. Nothing happened.
"I told you," Optimus said putting the Matrix back into his chest. "Slag," Ratchet grumbled as the leader's chest folded back into place. "Ratchet," Optimus said giving a glance to him, "Why was the Allspark exiled from Cybertron again?" "Too keep the Decepticons from getting their hands on it," the veteran replied, "It was the only thing they could think to do to-" "That's just the cover-up story man," Jazz said cutting him off causing all eyes to turn to him, "The real dig is that Primus was in Cybertron at one point as the Allspark. The Autobot council decided to have the Allspark launched into the blackness of the void to keep the Decepticons from getting their paws on it dawg, but also because they no longer sought to take orders from Primus." "You're kidding..." "It's true," Sentinel Prime confirmed stepping into the conversation, "One of Cybertron's dark hidden secrets. Back then there were no Decepticons, just one race, the Cybertronians known as Transformers.
"It was when the one known as Megatron found out about the decision to get rid of the Allspark that the Decepticons were formed. While he is very vicious he was not truly evil back then, just a sort of rebel leader that sought to correct the council no matter how harsh he was. It wasn't until the war actually broke out that he lost sight of his main goal and sought only to achieve the Allspark for military use and conquer Cybertron in a new form of tyranny. Megatron was evil, but it was his realization of the corruption of the Autobot Council that caused him to take the path he did." "So perhaps Primus didn't abandon us..." Optimus murmured, "we abandoned him."
"Though the council knew of the warnings Primus gave them of Unicron they didn't care," Sentinel continued, "They believed they could keep Unicron preoccupied with special shipments of energon flung to the far reaches of space to keep him distracted while they dealt with the conflict between the Autobots and Decepticons to use as a facade for what was really going on. But as we now know, that plan failed." "And no one did anything to stop this?!" Optimus yelled. "THINK OPTIMUS!" Sentinel barked back, "No one that had any sense dared to oppose the Council and those that did that knew about the ordeal were terminated!" "And why didn't you tell us this sooner?" Bulkhead asked curiously.
"Because I wouldn't let them," Red Alert answered. Optimus stared at the medical bot in confusion. "It wasn't until recently that Sentinel Prime had figured out all the history files that Ultra Mangus had incorporated into his logs, but when he did, he immediately shared the news with Jazz. Perceptor assigned me to keep them quiet," she told the group glaring at the two ex-Elite Guard officers, "And also to make sure certain things weren't found out while you bots were out here." "Well, we ain't takin' orders from the Council no more dame," Jazz said sternly. "Well, Perceptor would have it so that none of us would come back if he knew about this conversation, but since I'm the one operating here, I'm game for just getting the hell back to Earth now," she sighed.
"Hopefully that won't be too hard to do," Ratchet grumbled fiddling around with some of the controls in the bridge, "it'll take a bit to build up a Transwarp jump, and we'll have to be a bit off the ground for it to work." "Plus, there's a bot out there that Unicron probably sent to deal with us," Bulkhead said looking out the window, "Didn't know any of them would be blue though." "He just doesn't give up," Optimus sighed looking out the window as well, "Wait a sec...that's no troop of Unicron!" "What are you talking about?" Sentinel asked and peered through the glass as well, "All our bots that are blue are here...Elita 1?!"
Elita 1 waved to Sentinel Prime and Optimus Prime as they came out of the ship with a big smile on her face. She had to force herself not to laugh as she looked at their shocked faces. After a few seconds though, Sentinel's face was replaced with a huge overly joyful smile and he began running to her with his arms extended, ready to embrace her. Elita tossed out her arms as well, continuing to walk towards them and heightening the rate at which they would meet. Though she had expected Optimus's dumbfounded expression she hadn't expected it to last that long. "Sentinel stop!" she heard him say. She rolled her optics, he probably wanted to as much as welcome back to life moment as Sentinel did. She always knew he was a jealous type deep down.
Then Elita 1 felt something. It seemed as though time passed in slow motion. First she felt it at her back as it became exceedingly hot. She couldn't tell if it was just form the enormous amount of joy she was feeling or not, but she could tell that it was passing through her torso. An expression of shock once more crossed Sentinel's face stopping in his tracks as she felt the heat buildup in her breast-plates. Her smile never left her, not even when the deadly blast of energy ripped out of the front of her body, taking her Spark with it. Whether it was a reflex or her last moments of life, Elita 1 looked down at her torso, now torn open, then back up at Sentinel. With one last shudder, she dropped to the ground, lifeless. Her smile never left her.
"I told her she'd get her body back," a dark voice echoed from Sideways as he holstered his still smoking wrist-cannon, "I never said how long she'd get to keep it." "You!" Sentinel Prime yelled whipping out his lance and shield, "You...I...Elita!...You're dead!" "Really?" Sideways laughed and snapped his fingers. Instantly, the chamber began filling up with the bird and dinosaur Transformers that Sentinel's group saved Optimus's group from. "I think the Terrorcons would have something to say about that," he announced extending his arms to his side to indicate the vast number of bots that had emerged, "It sure took a while to locate just where you guys were, but I'm glad to finally have our tear-filled reunion, aren't you? I mean, I couldn't let you leave without even properly welcoming you to my home could I?"
Optimus could hear Sentinel's engine revving in anger as Sideways taunted them, almost not realizing the Terrorcons closing in in a ring around the ship. "Uh, boss bot..." Bulkhead muttered from the airlock, "Might wanna get back in here, Ratchet says he's got the Transwarp built up." "Sentinel come on," Optimus said placing his hand on his old colleague's shoulder. He was surprised to feel it shrugged off. "No, he's getting slagged," Sentinel growled, glaring at Sideways. Optimus looked up at the ship, the bird bots were climbing on it. "Sentinel, that's an order!" Optimus informed more forcefully. "And I don't give a damn," Sentinel replied, "You can take your order and shove it up your exhaust-port, I'm not leaving Elita! Not this time!"
"Spider-bot?" they heard Grimlock say from the airlock in a worried voice. "Grimlock, keep the Dinobots onboard," Sentinel said, "Spider-bot...Elita will be alright." "Sentinel, this is suicide!" Optimus Prime yelled grabbing the blue Autobot, "You're going to die if-" "I should have died a long time ago!" Sentinel replied pushing Optimus off him, "Back in the cave, I shouldn't of left Elita. I should have given my Spark to keep her safe! You once told me that the Autobots needed a leader and that that was me. Well, no matter how much of a lie that was, that's true now for if I were to tell you that. You need to survive and lead the Autobots, you're the one that should be leader, you're the greatest Autobot I've ever known! I appreciate your concern for me, but you gotta get out of here, I don't! Now get on that ship and leave! I'll hold Sideways and his metal heads off!"
Optimus Prime almost couldn't move with what he'd just heard from Sentinel Prime. Never had he seen the bot so emotional and truthful about what he said, and definitely nowhere near as honorable as he was being. "Sentinel...I really wish we'd have gotten to know each other better," Optimus said after a moment and saluted, "Good luck soldier." "Wish I'd have been more open," Sentinel replied saluting and lifted his shield above his head. As Optimus walked back into the airlock he could hear the bird bots on the roof of the ship drop off from an energy wave from the shield. A few raptors leapt onto Sentinel and slashed viciously at his armor, but with a swipe of his lance, they all fell off.
"And now for you," Sentinel growled bending his knees as he placed his shield front of his face and held his lance off to the side, "We never did really finish that little match back on Cybertron." "We didn't need to," Sideways replied stepping through the ring of Terrorcons, "I think we both know who the better bot is here." "It certainly isn't you," Sentinel said with a smirk. "Terrorcons, make sure the ring around us is solid, we'll take the ship out in a sec," Sideways ordered, "If this bot wants a real fight, then who are we to deny him it?" Biting his lower lip, Sentinel charged forth with his lance pointed towards Sideways. Just as he was about to reach the opponent though, the purple bot leapt onto the weapon and bounced behind him. Instantly, Sentinel whipped around. SHRING!
Sideways's legs and body dropped to the ground separately. "You sure made progress," he murmured while his body parts reattached themselves, "You were actually able to hit me this time." "Live and learn right?" Sentinel asked flailing the lance about boastfully, "Can't fall for the same mistakes over and over." "Well with a bot of your processor..." "Ha ha," Sentinel said dryly and charged again. He could hear the ship lifting off the ground. "What the?" Sideways muttered looking at the yellow and red vessel. CLANG! The traitor grabbed his head in irritation after the lance had smashed into it. "Alright, game's over," Sideways grumbled uppercutting the Autobot causing his shield and lance to fly off into the Terrorcons. Coughing, Sentinel Prime stammered back to his feet after falling back to the ground and grabbed his arm in pain. It had taken the blunt of the blow and had begun to leak oil. "Sayonara Cybertronian," Sideways said and pointed his wrist cannon between Sentinel Prime's optics.
Optimus Prime wished he had looked away as he saw Sentinel's body fall to the ground. "We have enough room for a Transwarp," Ratchet told the group, "Ready on your signal sir." "Get us out of here," Optimus sighed. "Yes sir," Ratchet replied. Optimus could see Sideways looking up at him in contempt while the bright blue aura began to appear around the vessel. Ratchet could sense the feelings emitting from their leader as he watched him just gazing out the window. He always knew that Sentinel Prime had been a jerk, even Captain Fanzone could tell that, but he never thought that his life would have ended like this, he'd never wish that unfortunate of an end on anyone.
The younger bots however, didn't notice what was going on outside, they just couldn't wait to get home. Sari let out a small sigh while her body rested on Bumblebee's with her arms wrapped around his neck. She, more than anyone, couldn't wait to get out of Unicron. For some reason...something just hadn't felt right the entire time they were there. It was as though she had felt the very essence of the god himself through their journey through the seemingly endless caves. Bumblebee and Sari both jumped as they felt Bulkhead wrap his arms around them from behind, overjoyed that they'd stayed in one piece without him having to be there. "Boss-bot..." Jazz said walking over to him. "He was a good bot," Optimus replied placing his hand on the ninja-bot's shoulder.
"We're appearing over Autobot City," Ratchet told them. The room let out a mental sigh of relief. Red Alert had never been happier to have not fulfilled a request from Perceptor in her entire life. Just existing inside of Unicron was enough, even if she hadn't done much of anything. She just wanted to get back to her lab, maybe work on the Jet-Twins, repair the damage done to Hot Shot, ANYTHING other than what they had just been involved in. "Um...are your diggin that this is really our pad?" Jazz asked cautiously as the Transwarp glow disappeared allowing them to see Earth's blue sky. "That's what the co-ordinates said," Ratchet replied. Curiously everyone came over to the windows and looked down. What they saw was chaos in the metal city. "It can't be..." Optimus said quietly as he looked down at a purple ship that was in the middle of the battlefield. Standing right outside of it was what looked like a purple version of Megatron. Galvatron.
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DAMN has it been a bad month! Well...bad for you guys, and partly me. Bad news, I was away for half a month in Florida with my ex-gf (now if only she were mine again ) and we lost internet for about a week. Good news, I was away in Florida for half a month with my ex-gf and now have a job. Added to that, scanner's still down so I only got like two or three pictures up, but you guys probably don't mind as long as I finally put a new chapter (that I've had finished for about a month or so now) up.
Well...hope it's an okay one, a very serious grim chapter following up a light-hearted fun one. And to add to the death count I realized while reading back through the story that I had Highbrow be the jailer to Sentinel Prime. Highbrow is dead before Animated even begins I forgot, so...just pretend it was Ironhide or someone guarding Sentinel in that previous chapter, kay?
And as usual, the pictures:
warahi(dot)deviantart(dot)com/art/The-Omega-and-the-Void-142106632
warahi(dot)deviantart(dot)com/art/Digestion-143856858
warahi(dot)deviantart(dot)com/art/Elita-1-143890809
Also, NEW CONTEST!!!! If anyone can name who the Decepticon in the second picture is, I will make a picture for them on Deviant Art. Can't guarantee I'll have it up anytime soon though due to the scanner problem, but I will do it!
I have a job now finally! Woo!...somewhat...oh how I miss Maggie...