Disclaimer: I only own my OCs.
Chaom: Alright, where is Authoress? I am going to wring her fleshy little neck until every breath of life leaves her body. My Pandimala is getting hurt...AGAIN! And now my Malwing is in trouble as well! MY SPARKLING!
Ultra Magnus: Calm down Chaom, if you kill Authoress, then said human can't make Pandimala better.
Megatron: He is right Chaom. You need her to undo the work that she has done.
Chaom: *growls*
AN: Oh, and picture Scavenger like his Armada self but with Animated animation.
Ch. 21: Dawn of War
Pandimala was in a panic. She knew that she could only hold off these eight bots for a short amount of time before they would overwhelm her. So far, she had been careful not to get trapped in any corners and she tried to block their hits. But, because there were so many of them, they always seemed to get some sort of small hit in when they all attacked her. If they were attacking her individually, she would be able to hold them off no problem. But, since they always seemed to attack her in groups of two or more, she had to keep on her pedes and always be ready to dodge.
"Gah, hold still femme." Dragstrip growled as she dodged one of his swipes.
She tilted her helm at him in confusion before saying, "Um, I don't think so. My helm likes being on my chassis and my spark is a fan of beating thank you very much."
She then dodged a slash from Sentinel before the plow mech said, "Always ready with a comeback, aren't you Pandimala? Well, soon you won't be able to say those anymore."
Pandimala took a swipe at him with her sword before saying, "Sentinel, honestly I am surprised that you are doing this. The council, not so much since they are energon sucking vampires but you, I am surprised, especially since you always looked down on traitors."
Sentinel growled at her and said, "Well, you changed my view of the Autobots. They have become weak because of your influence. But, about you not thinking I would do this, you have to be kidding me? I have been trying to offline you since boot camp!"
At that admittance, Pandimala thought back to all the times that she had nearly been offlined. The first on the very first day of boot camp when she had been shot near the spark by the 'faulty' equipment and the others came from similar events when she had been training when the equipment had mysteriously 'malfunctioned'.
With a growl, Pandimala stepped forward and hissed, "You reconfigured the weapons to fire real rounds? You son of a glitch."
She was about to say more but Dragstrip suddenly came up and put a servo on Sentinel's shoulder before saying, "We need to leave. The advance warning scanner we placed has detected movement in the halls heading in this direction."
Sentinel nodded and said, "We will get you next time Pandimala." He then turned and the eight of them left.
Pandimala wanted to give chase but she winced from the wounds on her chassis, especially the wound on her wing. When the door opened, Pandimala glanced and saw Megatron run in. When he saw her, he ran up to her and said, "Pandimala, are you ok? Where is Malwing?"
Pandimala felt slight panic rise in her systems when she realized that she had no idea where Malwing went. Forcing back a grunt of pain, Pandimala said, "I'm fine for now. But, we need to go and find Malwing. On a bad feeling, I told Malwing to crawl through the vents and play hidey seekey and to wait for me to find her when she got to the bottom. We need to organize search teams to go find her and I will be going with."
She could see that Megatron wanted to argue but he seemed to forget it and said, "Fine, your bondmate is on his way. He should be here in five clicks."
Pandimala nodded and opened her bond before saying, Chaom; go off your flight plan.
Pandimala, are you alright? Are Megatron and Ultra Magnus with you yet?
Megatron is with me now and I can hear Ultra Magnus running down the halls now. I sent Malwing through the ventilation shafts so she would be safe but now we need to find her.
She heard Chaom sigh before he said, Fine, but as soon as we do you are getting medical help.
Of course dear. Pandimala said before turning to the doorway that Ultra Magnus was now walking in.
"Pandimala, are you ok? Is Malwing safe?" Ultra Magnus asked.
Pandimala nodded and said, "I'm fine for now but I sent Malwing through the ventilation shafts here in Iacon and I don't know where she ended up and I don't want those Virons getting to her before I can find her."
Ultra Magnus nodded and said, "The Virons have retreated from Kaon to unknown places so I will ask my troops who I trust to go and look for Malwing."
Megatron nodded and said, "And I will do the same with mine." He then looked at her with a worried expression before saying, "Are you sure that you are alright Pandimala?"
Even though her wing was hurting like scrap, Pandimala nodded and said, "I will be fine once I find Malwing."
Megatron nodded and so the three leaders left in separate directions. As she made her way to the lower levels, Pandimala couldn't stop the worry that was creeping into her systems. She desperately hoped that her sparkling was safe and Primus had better get out of her way if she finds out that somebot hurt her little femme.
Sentinel ran out of Kaon like Unicron was on his aft. Megatron had come much more quickly than they had figured and so they hadn't had time to finish Pandimala off. Plus, the eight of them had seen the bulletin that had their faceplates on it that also marked them as traitors to the Autobots, which also made them an enemy of the Decepticons and the Dragon Scouters.
"Sentinel; come in. This is Pitch. What is your status?" Pitch asked over the comm. link.
Sentinel sighed before saying, "We were unable to complete the primary assault on Pandimala due to Megatron coming earlier than we expected."
"Frag it! Why is that femme so lucky?" Pitch cursed before sighing and saying, "Well, how about her sparkling?"
"Pandimala had somehow gotten the sparkling out of the room. But, we sent separate units to search for the sparkling. We will hear about it when it happens." Sentinel reported. While they had been attacking Pandimala, he had looked for the seekerling but had not been able to find the sparkling, even though he had seen her when he had entered the room.
"Ok then, get back to Iacon so we can initiate the next part of our plan. We will need a good deal amount of bots to pull off what we have planned." Pitch stated before cutting the line.
Sentinel frowned and turned to Dragstrip before asking, "Did you see the sparkling when you came in?" He hoped that the councilmech had seen something that he hadn't.
The councilmech nodded and said, "Yes, Pandimala was still holding the sparkling when we came in. She must have hid the femme when we weren't looking."
Sentinel thought about the room that they had been in and said, "But, there were no hiding places in there. The only place where she could have hid the femme was…" Sentinel then realized what Pandimala had did so he got onto the Viron frequency and said, "All units still in Kaon, look at every ventilation shaft exit in the lower levels to locate the sparkling and to terminate it. Report back to me once you find something."
"That makes sense. Pandimala might have sensed something was off and hidden the femme in the systems." Burnsport stated.
"Yes, and the little sparkling won't stay in the systems forever so she will have to come out." Backburner added.
Dragstrip nodded and said, "Plus, from the plans of the city, we know that most of those exits are nowhere near other bots. The little sparkling will be helpless when we find her first."
Sentinel nodded and they all continued to run. He knew that, as soon as somebot found Malwing, Pandimala would know about it and would send other bots searching. And, since they had very accomplished fliers on their side, Sentinel knew that the eight of them were scrapped when those fliers started to search for them if they were still in the open like they were now. Of course, the next part of their plans would be a decisive blow to the three other factions.
The lower level bar was just as nice as most of the ones on the upper level. Stutterstep, the barkeeper, glanced around and felt like he had accomplished so much. When he had inherited the bar when they were allowed back onto Cybertron, it was a mess. But, when he looked into the history of the bar, he was impressed with how popular it was. Cybertronians used to come down if they wanted a relaxing drink and the bar was usually kept up.
He was now trying to bring the bar back to its previous state. The first thing that he made sure that he had was a good pair of bots to act as bouncers so he could remove overly drunk and obnoxious bots. So far, he had kept that and he already had a few bots who he counted as regulars, one sitting at the bar now.
"Hey Stutter, can you get me a plain midgrade?" The same regular asked. Stutter nodded and started to pour the mech's drink. As he did, he remembered when the cloaked mech first came into his bar. The bot had walked up and asked for the same drink he was ordering now. Stutter had then asked how the bot had heard of his bar and he was surprised when the mech had said that he was a customer from before the war and he wanted to see if the new management was just as good as the old one. Since he kept coming back, Stutter assumed that he was doing a good job.
"Here you go." Stutter said while handing the bot his midgrade.
The bot nodded and started to sip his midgrade. Stutter glanced around at the other six bots that were currently in his bar, who were at the bar, and realized that he had a pretty good crowd for the solar cycle.
A clatter from the ventilation shaft next to the counter had all eight bots looking at the opening. They all then heard the sound of something sliding down and they all jumped when something crashed into the opening, causing the blinds in front of it to come flying off.
A giggle caused them all to stare in shock and Stutterstep was surprised to see a seeker sparkling femme now sitting on his bar counter. He had read a story from the previous files of this bar that a sparkling had come through the same ventilation shaft during their time and now it was happening again. Her lime green optic and half visor were searching around curiously.
"Where did she come from?" A patron, whose name was Flutterspin, asked as she stared at the sparkling.
"Somewhere from above would be my guess." His regular said.
The sparkling looked at his regular when the mech said that and, to the surprise of everybot, crawled over to the bot.
"Seems she wants to see you Scavenger." Another of the patrons, named Aero, said as the sparkling continued forward.
Scavenger, his regular, took off his cloak and set it on the seat as the femme stopped and sat in front of him. "What are you doing here little femme?" Scavenger asked the sparkling.
"Care told me to come through and stay until she finds me. We're playing hidey seekey." The little seeker answered.
Stutterstep smiled at that and asked, "Can you tell me your designation?"
The femme looked at him and seemed to study him before smiling and saying, "My name's Malwing."
The entire bar went quiet after that. They had all heard of this sparkling. She was the creation of Pandimala, leader of the Dragon Scouters.
Stutterstep and everybot else jumped when Scavenger started to laugh loudly. The bot was usually the silent type and they weren't used to him being this loud.
"Scavenger, are you ok?" Stutter asked.
When Scavenger calmed down, he nodded and said, "Yes, I just find this all highly ironic. The last sparkling that came through that shaft was her carrier and she did the exact same thing."
That surprised them all. Stutter especially. The little sparkling that he had read about had been Pandimala, the now leader of the Dragon Scouters. Scavenger was right; this was ironic.
A whimper coming from Malwing had them all turning to the little femme and Scavenger asked, "What's wrong Malwing?"
Malwing glanced up at Scavenger with a scared look and she said, "Care-care is hurt. She hurts really badly."
Scavenger felt his spark stop at that click. If Pandimala was hurt and Malwing was here, that meant that the leader was being attacked. Scavenger knew that he had to protect Malwing now until Pandimala, or Chaom, came to retrieve her. Since Pandimala was hurt, that meant that Malwing was now in danger. He had heard about the previous attempts on Pandimala's spark and he knew that, if Pandimala had sent Malwing away, it meant that she feared for her sparkling's safety.
The sound of the door opening caused all eight adult bots in the bar to turn and Scavenger narrowed his optics when he saw a scuffed up car mech that seemed to be of the scout model. When the bot's optics landed on Malwing, Scavenger tensed.
"Oh thank Primus you found her. Pandimala sent me to find Malwing here and bring Malwing to her." The mech stated.
Glancing down at Malwing, Scavenger could see that the mech in front of him was lying. Firstly, Malwing seemed scared of the mech and, in his experience; sparklings normally had an extra sense when it came to identifying bots who meant them harm. Secondly, and lastly, Malwing had said that Pandimala had said for Malwing to stay where she was until she came to get the sparkling.
So, Scavenger narrowed his optics and said, "I don't think that the sparkling wants to go with you. And, since she doesn't, I will not allow you to take her. The only bots who I will release Malwing to is Pandimala or Chaom." He of course would also give her to Megatron and Ultra Magnus but he didn't want to make a list for the bot.
The mech, in return, narrowed his optics and Scavenger and turned to leave while saying, "Fine, I'll go tell Pandimala to come down." Scavenger was then surprised that the mech turned to leave.
Inwardly sighing in relief, Scavenger was about to turn fully around again when he heard the quick charge up of a weapon. Reacting quickly, he picked up Malwing and shielded her with his chassis as he dodged the blast.
Scavenger turned in time to see the mech run out and Aero, along with two other patrons, run after him to catch him. But, the three mechs didn't even make it to the door when they watched the assassin's chassis fly backwards and tumble to a stop. Even from where he was sitting, Scavenger could detect the spilled energon and the burning metal from the mech's probably offlined chassis. But, now the question was, who did it?
"Malwing is in here." He heard Aero tell somebot outside, probably the bot who shot the assassin.
He was ready to get on the defensive again but stopped when he saw the injured femme walk into the room. The femme looked at him and smiled before saying, "Scavenger, it has been a while. We will have to catch up later though; where is Malwing?"
Scavenger nodded in understanding before saying, "It is nice to see you Pandimala. Here is Malwing. I swear, she has your best qualities."
Pandimala smiled at him and took Malwing. While she held her sparkling, said sparkling seemed to glance down and say in a worried voice, "Care-care, your wing's hurt."
"Oh, it is just a scratch dear." Pandimala tried to cover up.
Scavenger raised an optic ridge at that when he caught sight of the ripped open wing that had been quickly staunched to stop the leakage. It would need medical attention soon. Scavenger then walked up to the leader and said, "Pandimala, you should have that looked at as soon as possible."
He could see that Pandimala wanted to object but, after a few clicks, he saw a look of weariness come over Pandimala before she nodded and said, "Very well, let's get back to the surface. Chaom is probably having a spark attack right now."
Scavenger nodded and so the three of them began to make their way up to the top level. As he walked, Scavenger couldn't help but smile when he saw Malwing cuddle into Pandimala's shoulder. The sparkling must have been terrified for her carrier. It was nice to see the two of them together peacefully. As they neared a doorway, he smiled to himself. "Maybe I should go top side more often." Scavenger thought to himself as they walked through the door.
When they reached the top though, Scavenger and Pandimala grew worried when Ultra Magnus and Balm ran up to them. While Balm started immediate work on Pandimala, Ultra Magnus said, "Something has happened."
Chaom: I don't know how she does it, but the Authoress has dodged yet another bullet. But, she is growing ever closer to getting one.
Authoress: Well, you know that I can't kill of my main character. *mutters something*
Megatron: What did you just mutter? *aims cannon at Authoress*
Authoress: EEP! *runs like Unicron on her aft*
AN: *runs in and catches breath* Sorry but the bots are after me and I can't stay. At least Pandimala is better and so is Malwing. Also, Scavenger's connection to Pandimala will be explained when I get those origin stories started, which I will eventually. Lastly...HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! I left you all on cliffy! I wonder what happened? Well, I know but you don't and that is all that matters. So, while you all wallow in curiosity, please read and review. But please, no flames. *hears bots* Got to go! *sprints out of there*