Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, as many as there are. You've heard this crap before. I only own my OCs. All reviews are answered at the bottom of the chapter.
Broken boundaries
Part 21
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On the Jungle planet the autobots had all returned to the Ogygia, the damage to the Jungle planet was just as bad as Velocitron, although if the the bots of speed planet were there they would no doubt disagree. Everywhere the Insecticons had landed they had gorged themselves on anything they could find.
On the top of the Ark's hull stood Backstop, Snarl, and Undermine of Jungle planet along side Hotshot and Redalert who had gathered to watch the decepticons as they swarmed back to the Ark that was hovering above them.
"Looks like the decepticons are bugging out," Snarl said, "Good riddance, they've done enough damage to our world."
Undermine however was not so content, "Why don't we just blow them out of the sky? We have the opportunity and the armament? They need to pay for what they've done."
"That would a good idea unless you want to destroy Scourge in the process." The short yet wise Backstop said in his usual sage like tone. "While doing my best to defend the jungles I happened to notice several of the invaders carrying Scourge with them towards their ship."
"Great, now the decepticons have a hostage." Redalert groaned, putting a hand over his head. "What else can complicate things further?"
"Incoming!" Brimstone screeched as he nearly landed on Backstop. It had not been intentional, it was just Backstop was almost unnoticeable when he stood next to the other autobots. Regardless, the pteranodon gave his scouting report on the aftermath of the attack. "The forests have been completely trashed, many of the trees were knocked over with only have a few bites taken out of them while others look like they were ground to bits." Brimstone snarled, "if they were here for much longer there may have been no vegetation left on the planet."
"How horrible..." Lori said, "If the forests here are anything like the ones on Earth then it will take decades to look like it used to..."
The entire group turned to see Lori walking towards them. They were all well versed in Lori's temper but thankfully she seemed more irritated than angry at them.
"Something wrong?" Hotshot asked bravely, after all he hadn't done anything wrong or so he believed.
"It's Thunderblast," Lori grumbled, crossing her arms. "She's started talking through Steelburst and she wants back in her body." She then turned to Redalert, "Redalert can you do something to shut her mouth?"
Redalert shrugged, "Well I could put her in stasis lock when I restore her spark... and keep her offline until this whole affair is over with."
Lori grinned at the idea of having that decepti-bimbo quiet for the rest of this mission. Despite being tiny compared to the giant robots, Lori still managed to seem scary as she smiled like that and wrung her hands together.
"Isn't Thunderblast the name of that decepticon femme?" Undermine asked plainly.
"It's a long and very weird story..." Hotshot said as he began to explain the whole tale to the beast 'bots.
---
"Well?" 'Thunderblast' said as she tapped 'her' foot impatiently. Presently she was still in control of Steelburst's body, who she claimed had stepped down for a little while. "How much longer?"
"I said just a moment," Redalert grumbled, he was quickly loosing his cool thanks to this annoying decepticon femme and all her irritating questions. Why didn't anyone besides Coby understand that delicate work like this took time?
"I mean, Steelburst just ripped my spark core out and hooked it up with no tools, why would this take anything more than the same treatment?" Thunderblast asked, surprising herself that she was talking highly of the co-owner of this body she had to share. "You're very lucky that worked at all." Redalert said, "If he had made a single mistake with handling your spark core your spark would have been destroyed. More over he could have improperly installed your spark core and offlined you. Personally I don't know how you survived at all."
Thunderblast winced, it hadn't occurred to her to check if Steelburst had actually known what to do when he tore out her spark core. Upon wondering that she felt that Steelburst had done that totally on impulse. It really was a miracle that she lived, but she could tell he was glad that she had lived.
"Whatever," Thunderblast snorted, she didn't care about what happened on the mining world she just wanted to be back in her own body. "Just get to work separating us... Having Steelburst as a constant companion isn't very fun."
Redalert muttered to himself, perhaps it was unethical for a medical expert to want to keep his patient offline but at least it keep her quiet until they could get her to a detention cell where she wouldn't be causing any more trouble for a long time.
As 'Thunderblast' laid down on the table Redalert began the spark transfer.
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Optimus Prime stood on the bridge of the Ogygia watching as stars and their resident planets shot past them so fast they were nothing more than bright colorful blurs. Optimus wished he could take in the majesty of the moment but the situation was too dire and the destruction he had seen too wide spread. He wanted this to be over with. He had expected the fighting to be done with when Megatron was destroyed, for it to continue made his processor heavy. He hated to just pick up and leave Jungle planet without making sure that the people would be okay but they were a hardy race of transformers, he was certain they could hold out for a while.
"Hotshot, do you have a moment?" Optimus asked, breaking the hanging silence that hung in the bridge.
"It's the children, I hate to go into any battle without you but I must order you to take charge of them and ensure that no harm comes to them."
"I understand big bot." Hotshot said, although he wanted to fight more decepticons he knew Optimus enough to know that this was a sign of trust to be entrusted with the human's care. They had been an immeasurable help to the autobots and if any harm came to them Hotshot did not know what he may do. Much worse he would have to be the 'bot who would have to explain to their parents why their children were hurt in an interstellar war.
Optimus Prime nodded, glad that Hotshot wasn't going to give him any complaints. If Scourge was now engaged in combat on Cybertron the destruction could spread to Earth or Gigantion unless this mad man was stopped.
"Jazz, can you send a signal to Cybertron," Optimus ordered. "we're on our way home. Tell Jetfire to prepare for a full scale assault from the decepticons. Every second counts."
"Will do Prime." Jazz said coolly, already sending the message and broadcasting it faster than even they were traveling.
"We just got a message from Override," Hound said, "Some of the giant 'bots are already there and beginning repairs. But more importantly they're getting all those civilians back up and running around. Hope they like off-roading it for a while."
Finally a ray of light in this dark hour. Optimus chuckled heartily but it was a passing feeling, unless this ended soon there could be far worse battlefields.
"Optimus we're getting a transmission." Hotshot said, "It says that Megatron and a group of decepticons are on Cybertron and unless I'm reading this wrong it says you're there too."
"I think that message must be garbled." Optimus said, "We must be getting some interference. It doesn't matter, hopefully we'll get to Cybertron to clear everything up."
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On board the Ark Scourge was now looking down on Cybertron, he had come full circle but once he landed on one of Cybertron's moons and dumped all of the ship's power into the temporal displacement device he would bring an army of decepticons to this dimension. A whole universe would fall under decepticon rule, his rule... the thought made the Unicron-constructed decepticon grin wickedly. He'd keep the autobots alive for a while at least, every good soldier needs target practice.
"Soundwave, patch me into the ships PA system. I want to address our troops." Scourge ordered.
Soundwave wordlessly complied and activated the PA system, patching Scourge's own communication signal to the ship's.
"Insecticons, your copies have served me well." Scourge's voice boomed all over the ship. "If not for their ability to process matter into fuel I would have relegated them to simple cannon fodder but they've managed to refuel the Ark with all that we will need."
Nearly instantly Scourge saw Shrapnel, or perhaps one of his many copies enter the control room of the Atlantis and he did not look pleased at all, having not liked the tone of Scourge's voice at all. "Whatever, care to tell what our next move is? Move is..."
"Simple my Insecticon friend, you and the others will invade and conquer Cybertron while I hold back with the Ark." Scourge toted smugly. "If you are destroyed in battle I will use our little toy to bring you back and maybe a few other allies to help as well."
Shrapnel gritted his teeth and nodded, "Fine, but afterwards I expect to be compensated in energon."
"Of course Shrapnel, now go and prepare your troops." Scourge said, sounding as convincing and humble as he could.
The Insecticon leader left the bridge in silence, that was until he was far enough down the halls that he was certain that his growls would not be heard. He wasn't stupid, no matter how much Scourge praised his acting skills he couldn't fool an Insecticon that easily. If he was destroyed Scourge wasn't going to bring him back, he knew because if he was in Scourge's position that's exactly what he would do.
"It seems you aren't happy with Scourge's type of leadership." Soundwave said, appearing from the shadows. "How would you like to help me with my plan?"
It didn't take Shrapnel a second to decide; "If it means getting that blow hard out of the command chair then I'm all for it. Where to we begin? Begin..."
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Elsewhere on the Ark Megatron had recovered from his encounter with the Fallen and now found himself among the countless mute copies of the Insecticons who were staring at him blankly as he passed them by. It was quite unnerving but it was nothing he could not handle.
Finally Megatron came across the medical bay where he discovered Ransack, Crumplezone, and Thundercracker who had apparently been hiding here for some time.
"What are you three doing in here?" Megatron growled, not happy with the lack of respect he had been getting as of late.
"Hey, those blasted Terrorcons tore me up pretty bad! I'm stayin' faaar away from those monsters." Thundercracker snorted.
"Be quiet, you will show me the respect I deserve or I will reduce you to molten slag you useless-" Megatron would have continued when he heard the ping of an incoming transmission coming from the nearby terminal.
Before anyone could react Soundwave's expressionless face appeared on the screen. "Megatron, I suspect you were responsible for that power drain we detected earlier?"
"Perhaps, what does Scourge know?"
"He believes that it was a fuel drain caused by our past usage of the temporal displacement device. If I had not jettisoned a large portion of our energon supplies he would have known instantly that you were responsible." Soundwave said, his red optics narrowing. If Scourge had not gone out to visit with Terrorcons and ensure they weren't going to eat the ship before the battle began he would not be speaking out loud. "Now who did you bring to the ship?"
"I have never met him before, can you do a ship wide scan for intruders?" Megatron snorted, crossing his arms in annoyance.
Soundwave clicked few keys on his end and within a minute he had his answer. "I detect no unknown energy signatures on board the ship."
"Our intruder mentioned something about taking the device outside to the hull." Megatron muttered, "He referred to himself as the Fallen, does that name mean anything to you?"
Soundwave tapped more buttons, now making a detailed short wave scan of the ship. "The name is unfamiliar but I believe I have found him. I do not know how he managed to stay with us when we made our transwarp jump but he's definitely there. Did he say what he wanted to do out there?"
"He was spouting some nonsense about Unicron." Megatron said, "I wouldn't worry, the way it was described to me only those connected by the matrix, and Unicron does not happen to be tied to Primus in anyway."
Soundwave leaned a little to the side to look behind Megatron, he could see that Thundercracker and Ransack were behind him and they seemed to have become nervous at the mention of the chaos bringer's name. Understandable, but pointless. "You perceive the facts correctly, there's simply no way for this transformer to bring Unicron back."
"Still, I believe we should do something about this... Fallen, as he calls himself. He could become a problem for our plans." Megatron said, he desired to be rid of this ancient transformer as quickly as possible. The amount of power that transformer possessed was... infuriating to someone like Megatron.
"Why?" Soundwave mused. "When he could be useful as a distraction for what I have in mind. Prepare for battle against the autobots, Scourge will be staying behind to guard the Temporal Displacement device but I feel this 'Fallen' could serve as a distraction for when we make our move."
"True, but removing him when he is no longer useful will be a problem. His power is unlike any I've ever encountered." Megatron frowned, "Is it possible to send him back to where ever he came from?"
"Of course. Scourge will be returning to the bridge soon. I must break contact." Soundwave said before his expressionless face vanished from the display screen.
Soundwave muttered, "This is getting out of hand. How am I going to get all of these fools under control?"
"Hey Soundwave we got some good news for ya." Rumble called over to the communications officer, "It's him. Megatron, OUR Megatron!"
Soundwave chuckled, everything was finally coming into place.
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To be continued.
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AN: Arrgh... I hate having such a long pause in between updates but with the holidays and fable two my freetime's been pretty much been nonexistent. Hope this is okay as a holiday present.
SpartanCommander - Since the cybertronian troops don't take prisoners I'd have to wager that the Combaticons were destroyed. But let's say they were damaged but they were repairable.
GrimlockX4 - Powerful enough, he took out grimlock one on one with no trouble at all and broke into an autobot prison to kidnap Blitzwing and suffered no damage at all. It's not that he wasn't shot, it's that it didn't seem to hurt him. He even grabbed the blade of Grimlock's energon sword bare handed with no damage done to him. It took an awakened and very grumpy Primus to destroy the Fallen. Know that "the fallen" isn't his real name, it's all we have to go on.
Meirelle - Aft has not been kicked unless Megatron does the kicking.
dark knight vergil - The idea has been put into consideration. :)