Disclaimer: Hasbro and Cartoon Network owns TFA. All additional culture references, locations, et cet, belong to their rightful owners. I own the story.
Chapter 21: Restore in the Storm
Grimlock's prediction was true. The rain began at five the next morning, and by seven, the streets of Detroit were abandoned while everyone hid indoors from the torrent of rain. Even Jazz, who had famously thought rain as Earth's "free car wash", didn't want to take a drive with the rain turning the streets into streams. Sari and Bumblebee enjoyed a brief session of slip-n'-slide before the lightening and thunder became too violent for their care.
Toby glanced out at the rain nervously and called the other two members of his party.
"Hey, are we still on for today?" he asked, "Because, you know, it's raining like the end of the world outside and neither Blurr nor me wanna die and sink into a wet, watery grave, but I think I don't need to say 'wet' because that comes with watery—"
"Yeah, we're going," Rick interrupted from his end of the call. He was applying a bandage to a fresh cut on the side of his head, courtesy of temporary motor control loss during a fight with Starscream the night before. "If I have to spend one more day with this egomaniac in my head, I'm going to blow my own head off, with him in it!"
He hissed sharply in pain at the headache Starscream gave him.
"I can see the lake from my apartment," Charles reported, "The waves are rough, but if we move fast, we can go before the storm gets worse. Bring your waterproof boots; we're going to get wet."
Charles hung up to escape complaints from the lame line. Prowl spoke in his head, radiating concern and even a rare cent of nervousness.
Charles, I can wait one more day, really, Prowl assured, it's of no consequence; the Constructicons' machine will be there tomorrow.
"No, we have to go now," Charles said, slipping into a fisherman's yellow rubber coat, "The bay will be clogged with wrecked ships tomorrow, and then who knows how soon until we get to Dinobot Island? Don't worry, Prowl. Humans have experience with storms; we can get through it."
Well, it's your body, Prowl said reluctantly, But please, be careful. I don't want you harming yourself for my sake.
"Hey, you died for my city," Charles chuckled at the irony as he fasted on his knee-high rubber boots. "I think that it's only fair that I take the same risk."
"It's too rough! We're going to get hit by lightning! Shockwave's gonna be mad! It's dark and scary, can we go back now?" Skywarp ranted.
"Shut up!" the raid members snarled.
Lugnut was carrying Soundwave, his Minicons, and Blackarachnia in his hull while Blitzwing and the clones flew about outside in the raging rain and wind.
"Sorry, sorry, I'll shut up now, sorry," Skywarp squeaked.
"Personally, I agree with this raid with all my Spark," Lugnut announced, "This way, we may root out the weak and the glorious Lord Megatron may inherit only warriors worthy of basking in his glow—"
"Shut up!" everyone shouted.
"My glow is the one everyone is supposed to bask in!" Thundercracker snarled.
"Ah, can it, Thunder," Slipstream snarled, slamming into Thundercracker's side.
"Warning: Cease fighting," Soundwave ordered, "Or I will rip your Spark chamber out."
"A little extreme there, aren't ya, 'wave?" Blackarachnia asked.
"Nah; he's just that epic!" Rumble replied.
"Hey, what's under the blanket over there, any way?" Blackarachnia asked, looking over to a bundle at the far end of Lugnut's storage area.
"Look under there and I will rip your Spark chamber out and eat it," Blitzwing warned.
"Scaaaaaary…" Frenzy sang, but was cut off as Lugnut jostled about in the rain as they flew deeper into the storm, towards Dinobot Island.
Toby came in an overcoat he had "borrowed" from Owl (who was still unconscious from the booze). Rick didn't have rain gear, so came in his usual shoes, jeans, and hoodless jacket, looking for the world like an unhappy wet dog. They got into their speed boat and headed off, clinging for dear life to the edges of the boat as they traversed the bucking waves to get to the island. Halfway there, Toby was struggling to keep the boat from capsizing and Rick was beginning to question whether dealing with Starscream was as bad as drowning.
Come on, tell the speedster to steer this pathetic floating capsule better, you incompetent human! Starscream snapped.
"He's trying," Rick growled through gritted teeth, "But it's harder than it looks, so shut up!"
"Starscream again?" Charles called over the sounds of the storm.
"Yeah, the creep thinks that he can maneuver this thing better!" Rick called back.
"That would actually pretty difficult." Toby jumped in, "Considering that there is no liquid body on Cybertron, so Transformers not only have no aquatic modes, but we have very limited knowledge on the life style on water and—"
"Oh, Spark, look out!" Charles yelled, pointing up.
Appearing with all the drama and suddenness of a boss in a video game, a massive wave suddenly reared up over the humans and their puny, puny boat. Once it came down, those poor suckers were doomed and their guest personalities would be doomed… again. While Charles and Toby reacted with fear, Rick simply drooped in annoyance.
"Oh, come on!!" he yelled.
Lightening and thunder cracked over head, covering another noise, and the enormous wave came crashing down, destroying the boat. Splinters and boards floated while the engine bubbled and sank. If one looked for the trio of possessed humans on the sea, they could assume fatality.
If one were to look to the skies, though, they would see Swoop in Pteranodon form gliding and hopping on the winds with Toby on his back and Charles and Rick in his claws. Rick dangled by a leg while Charles got a nice, cozy grip about the waist.
"Swoop, you're my hero!" Toby laughed.
"Put me down!!" Rick screamed.
Swoop twittered happily, ignoring Rick, and continued through the storm. In moments, he had come upon Dinobot Island and was landing in the destined meadow. The Constructicons' personality-splitting machine was simple: one human-sized glass tube connected to one Transformer-sized glass tube with a cable-wrapped metal bar in between them with a control panel attached to the middle. A tall lightening pole had been attached to the top of the human tank. Every time lightening struck the pole, a meter going from red to green on the control panel was grow a little more to green.
The Dinobots stood in the shadows of the forest, watching curiously. The Constructicons were positions around the machine, ready to act. Swindle and Lockdown were also there, standing beside a Transformer-sized, metal-glass tube of some sort, and Swindle carried something in a giant cloth bag.
"Ah, I knew that the little grubs would be too dumb to cross the water on their own," Dirt Boss grunted. "Anyway, who goes first? The machine's charged for one go, and part-lightening charged for another. I like getting my projects done, so let's go!"
Rick jerked and grunted, before suddenly standing up with his fists clenched and chest bared. Anyone who had seen Starscream in his real body could recognize that pose.
"I'll go first!" Starscream snarled with Rick's body.
Charles, may I say something? Prowl asked.
Go ahead—Charles began.
As quick as shadows, Prowl took over Charles' body and growled, "I think not, Starscream. Primus knows that you'll just blast the machine and take off for yourself."
To the Transformers, the humans' forms shivered and shifted, disappearing in masses of colored smoke before reappearing as their possessing mechs in miniature. The Transformer audience raised their eye brows and exchanged surprised looks. Before, things were an interesting dilemma. Now, they were an almost surreal situation that they were finally fully grasping.
"I can destroy you in my Transformer body and I can destroy you now, ninja-bot!" Starscream snapped, shaking a fist at Prowl.
"I'll go first!" Toby yelled, his hand shooting into the air like an eager school boy.
"Alright, let's do it," Mixmaster said.
Mixmaster carefully scooped Toby up in his massive metal hands and went over to the machine, ignoring the enraged look Starscream was giving him in the back. Mixmaster unscrewed the top of the human tank and dropped Toby into it. Seeing Toby going first, Swindle reached into his bag and went over to the Transformer sized tank. From the bag, he pulled a light blue cube with a spike on it, being the sized of a crushed car. He opened a door on the side of the tank (why there was a cap for the human tank and door for the Transformers' was left unclear) and set the cube on the floor of the tank before shutting it.
Toby glanced over at the cube and suddenly emitted a dismayed cry of shock before launching off into a rushed sentence incomprehensible to the others.
"Oooh," Starscream moaned sympathetically, "That's nasty."
Charles felt the discomfort and sympathy rolling out of Prowl and somehow realized that that crushed cube was Blurr's body. How it got to be in such a desecrated state, he did not wish to know.
"Remember kid; you gotta breathe for the next three minutes," Dirt Boss called, pressing buttons on the control board.
Lightening struck the pole as the machine began to glow from within, lighting the tanks up like turquoise neon lights. Toby gasped and looked around, apparently feeling something. In the Transformer tank, the crushed cube of metal began to spark as small strings of energy crawled through the air between the cube and floor. The cube began to levitate as the machine hummed louder and the tanks glowed. Soon, all eyes and optics were on the Transformer tank.
Blurr's cube began to tremble and shake, hopping across the floor of the tank. Suddenly, the cube jumped up and hovered in the air, slowly gaining altitude as bits and tweaks of metal popped out of the cube, unfolding and unfurling like an otherworldly flower. Another lightening bolt hit the tower and suddenly, all at once, there was a flash from with in the tank. The on-lookers jumped in surprise when a great snap came from with in the tank, accompanied by screeching metal and sheets of alloy clapping against each other.
As suddenly as it began, it stopped and the machine lost its glow as it quieted down. Toby was on his hands and knees, panting and pale, in his tank. In the Transformer tank, shaking off the last wisps of trash metal was a slim blue robot with large shoulder joints with a horn on his head. Looking at him, anyone could see that he was a sprinter, bred and built for speed.
He shook himself off and looked down at himself, first blankly before a grin crossed his blue face. He raised his fists high over his head in triumph and, thankfully, kept his happy speech short.
"I'm back!!" he whooped.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, you owe us," Lockdown growled, opening the door for Blurr to come out, "We had to shift through the trash for four hours looking for your 'body'. Someone had thrown it in with the trash."
Blurr made a whiney "waa" noise, but broke off to go retrieve Toby from his tank. Toby looked up at Blurr, squinted against the rain, and widened his eyes when he finally got a good look.
"B-Blurr!?" he exclaimed.
"Special Elite Guard Agent Blurr of the Cybertron Autobot Army, at your service!" Blurr said, saluting as he grinned down on the human. "And I thank you from the bottom of my Spark for saving my poor little doomed body, because if you hadn't been there, then my body would be left as a stacking block of metal for all eternity and—"
"Outa the way, we're working here!" Dirt Boss yelled, swatting the Autobot and human out of the way.
Dirt Boss stalked over to Prowl/Charles and Starscream/Rick as Blurr zipped over to stand by the Dinobots and continue talking with Toby there. Swoop leaned over to pet Toby's head with his beak. Blurr was still chattering at an incoherent pace with Toby as he lifted up one of Swoop's wings to make a roof against the rain. Swoop gave him a look. Dirt Boss towered over Charles/Prowl and Rick/Starscream with his fists on his hips.
"Alright," he grunted. "So, are you two going to fight to the death again or am I going to just go eenie-miney-moe and pick one of you?"
"Fighting to the death can be arranged," Starscream snickered, facing Prowl.
"Oh please," Prowl said, rolling his eyes.
It was at this moment that laser fire fell through the air and vaporized a tree branch mere feet from Grimlock. The Dinobots set up a fuss as a flock of jets swooped in from the storm clouds over head and transformed.
"Well, well, well," Slipstream, "Look at who's having a party without us?"
"Aw, come on, what now?" Dirt Boss groaned.
"A Decepticon raid, led by my glorious self," Thundercracker boasted, "With intent to wipe out Autobot opposition and Decepticon deserters: That is what!"
"Oh, yeah, I forgot about that," Scrapper muttered.
"Me Grimlock no like intruders!" Grimlock roared, "Dinobots destroy!"
In response to his challenge, Lugnut landed in his cargo plane alt-form, sliding in the wet ground and digging up a massive ditch. From his back leaped Soundwave, Frenzy and Rumble and Blackarachnia. He kicked out a large bundle before transforming into humanoid form. The Decepticon raid had arrived.
"Crap, this isn't good," Toby muttered.
"These guys don't stand a chance against this many Decepticons, come on, we'll go get the Autobots for back up!" Blurr exclaimed.
Speaking that at a barely understandable speed, Blurr transformed into a sleek sports-car mode with Toby in side and took off in his name sake.
Soundwave tossed out Laserbeak and Swoop screeched as he took to the sky, directly attacking the bird. Snarl the Triceratops charged forward, tackling Soundwave, and was immediately attacked by Rumble and Frenzy. Grimlock jumped up and bit down on Thundercracker's wing, pulling the terrified Decepticon out of the sky in order to shake him like a rag toy. Skywarp squealed and teleported away, only to come face-to-face with Snarl on the ground. The Triceratops snarled and tackled the clone in a wrestling match, taking on Soundwave's squad at the same time. Slipstream and Blitzwing began circling around, shooting at the Dinobots while Swindle and Lockdown hid to the side in the shadows, not wishing to interfere.
"Me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me!" Starscream exclaimed, "Let me go next, I can talk them out of vaporizing us!"
"Okay, brace yourself," Scrapper said.
Unceremoniously the Constructicon picked the Transformer-possessed human up like a doll and dumped him into the human tank before dashing into hiding among the trees. Swindle reached into his bag and pulled out a cube of crushed red and grey metal and darted out of hiding long enough to stick the cube into the Transformer tank. Starscream/Rick looked over at the cube and emitted a shockingly girly scream.
"Ah, can it, it could be worse," Dirt Boss grunted, smacking the activate button.
I hope it will have enough juice for us, Charles thought.
"I hope so, too, Charles," Prowl whispered back.
This time, instead of glowing turquoise, the tanks began to glow a vibrant, bloody red. Slipstream paused in her circling of the meadow to look over at the tanks that she had, up to this moment, ignored.
"What in the universe is that?" she asked quietly.
"Who cares? It's not important." Hot Head Blitzwing snarled, slamming a shoulder into Slipstream's back and knocking her aside, "Get out of my way!"
Slipstream squealed in pain before crashing to the ground at Grimlock's feet. Grimlock spat Thundercracker out and turned his attention to stomping over Slipstream. Before he could attack, Blackarachnia appeared and kicked up at him, knocking him away.
"Thanks!" Slipstream called out over the racket of the storm and battle.
"Your welcome. Hey, Grimlock! It's me, spider lady!"
"He can't see well at night!" Scrapper called over.
"Slag," Blackarachnia commented.
She transformed into her spider mode just fast enough to keep Grimlock from biting her head off.
Hot Head Blitzwing, mean while, dropped through the air to crash into Scrapper just as he turned to look up from his hiding spot. He was sent rolling heels-over-head away from the woods and into the meadow. He came up in a kneeling position, gritting his teeth in a growl as one of his hands turned into a drill.
"So, you wanna play rough, eh?" Scrapper snarled.
Scrapper launched to his feet and attacked the triple-changer, ducking jets of flame that were aimed at him.
"Scrap!" Mixmaster yelled, running to go help his friend.
"Oh, sure, leave me with all the work, why don't ya!?" Dirt Boss yelled over at them. "Ya useless bums!"
At the moment, the red light reached a fever pitch and flashed. Rick screamed momentarily in pain before collapsing to the floor of his tank. Over in the Transformer tank, Starscream's cubed body suddenly exploded outward, like a star going super nova. When the flash ceased, a Transformer burst through the roof of the tank with his jet wings spread, his engines roaring, and an over-polished smile crossing his ridiculously over-sized-chinned face. Below him, the top of the glass tank shattered, leaving a broken-topped capsule.
Attracted by the flash, everyone paused in their fighting to turn and stare. The Decepticons' faces dropped in complete shock and disbelief. Swoop fell through the air and crashed into the woods near by, miraculously defeated by Skywarp. Skywarp fluttered about nervously overhead.
"Starscream!?" Thundercracker yelled, "What the Spark is going on here!?"
"Oh, my, my, my, my, this is surely not good!" Skywarp whimpered, "Things are getting bad indeed if Starscream's back!"
"How is he alive?" Slipstream whispered.
Starscream smirked, amused at everyone's surprised reactions. It almost made his imprisonment in the organic alright. He looked down at Rick. The human and enormous Transformer stared at each other, unsure of what to say. Finally, Starscream smirked and gave Rick a mocking salute.
"I thank you, flesh creature, for your aide in returning me to my rightful form. Now, if you will excuse me, I must go and claim my rightful place as the leader of the Decep—"
Lightening struck Starscream.
Multiple times.
In the head.
The lightening went straight through Starscream and down into the lightening rod of the now-broken body transfer machine, charging it up. When it was over, Starscream's engines spluttered, but he shook his head and rubbed it.
"Note to self: do not make speeches in thunderstorms," he muttered. Aloud, he yelled, "Clones, follow me, your new leader!"
"I'm the leader now—"Thundercracker began.
Starscream's shot was inches from blowing off Thundercracker's head.
"…Okay, we go now…" Thundercracker squeaked.
"Alright, I assume we're still on the moon base?" Starscream demanded.
"Yeah," Thundercracker muttered, pouting over loosing leadership.
"Then let's go!" Starscream yelled, rocketing off into the sky.
In spite of him being a jerk, on lookers had to admit that the stream of light and flame he left in his wake was impressive: A solid beam of white light rushing from his rockets and lighting up the night-like storm around him, paving a path into the clouds as he flew off.
"This I gotta see," Slipstream snickered, flying after Starscream.
Thundercracker and Skywarp followed right after.
"Order: Come back!" Soundwave called out, but the clones and Starscream were already gone.
The people left were Soundwave, Rumble, Frenzy, Lugnut, Blackarachnia, and Blitzwing against Grimlock, Snarl, Swoop, Scrapper, and Mixmaster. Laserbeak retreated to Soundwave after being seriously injured.
Swindle and Lockdown betted on who would survive and the battle raged on, ignoring the machine in the clearing. They were just here to kill Dinobots, not tinker with Marine World reject tanks.
"Slag it!" the Dirt Boss yelled, "The stupid jet broke the damn tank! Now how are we supposed to finish this thing?"
"Can we plug Prowl's coffin into the machine?" Lockdown asked, calling out over the storm.
"Coffin--!?" Charles exclaimed with his own mouth, looking over to the glass-and-metal tube between Swindle and Lockdown.
The Transformer equivalent of it, at least, Prowl replied.
"Holy crap… Lockdown's a freaking grave robber…"
I admit that it is unusual, but I am grateful for his help, whatever the reasons are.
"I think so," Dirt Boss grunted, "Maybe we can just attach the old tank cap onto it to complete and it just might work. You and Swindle plug the thing in, I'll look for the cap! Hamster guy, you sit tight and don't get squished!"
To encourage Charles, Grimlock was tossed onto his back, landing mere feet from Charles. He skidded backwards on his front, leaving ditches in the dirt. Grimlock got to his feet and for once, assumed his humanoid form. He braced himself as a football player would, then roar as he charged Lugnut again.
Charles scrambled away from the fighting steel titans and came up against the human tank. Looking in, Charles saw that Rick was still on his knees and weak.
"I gotta get him out of there…" Charles muttered.
Then, like the corner store fight, Charles drew knowledge from the foreign mind with in and knew how to get into the tank. He took a few steps back then charged at the tank, running full speed. He ran up the tank a few feet, launched off of it and onto the metal beam connecting the tanks, and from there hopped on top of the tank. He ducked when Swoop and Blitzwing flew by over head before he easily pulled the lid off and reached in, offering a hand to Rick. Rick shot an annoyed look at the hand, but grudgingly accepted it. Charles hauled Rick out of the tank just as Dirt Boss, Swindle, and Lockdown had the other one repaired.
"That should do it," Dirt Boss muttered.
They ducked as Snarls went flying through the air over head, heavily burnt, but not out of the fight. He proved this by turning into his humanoid form and drawing his fiery axe, landing in a kneeling position. He leaped back to his feet and came back to attacking Soundwave, completely ignoring Frenzy and Rumble's offenses.
"Well, I think that this just about ends my involvements for the night," Swindle chuckled nervously, "Thank you for shopping with Swindle's, and have a nice life!"
Swindle transformed into jeep mode and took off into the woods. His engine actually sounded nervous as he quickly disappeared into the forest.
"Yeah, I gotta get out of here too before I loose my Decepticon customers," Lockdown said. He called over, "Good luck, kid! I'll know if things turned out if I see Prowl rolling around!"
Lockdown transformed and followed Swindle into the woods. In moments, his red lights were gone.
"So long, sucker," Rick growled, dropping down from the human tank and running off into the darkness.
Snarl kicked at Rumble, knocking the little guy clear into the woods and unconscious. Frenzy abandoned the fight to go look after his brother, reducing Snarl and Soundwave's fight to a one-on-one duel. Blitzwing was driven to the ground when Swoop took up his humanoid form and landed on his back, smashing the triple-changer's head into the mud. Grimlock roared in pain when Lugnut slammed his fist down on the Dinobot's shoulder. Scrapper and Mixmaster were trying to defeat Blackarachnia without actually hurting her and flirting with her.
"Come on, Prowl" Charles muttered as he got into the human tank. "Let's end this."
Inside the tank, protected from the cold rain and wind, the tank was actually kind of warm. Mud and water was on the floor from the previous two visitors. The air felt somewhat stale and the energy had Charles' arm hair and mustache standing on end. He brushed his mustache down, but it puffed up again.
I hope the process will be quick, before anyone smashed the machine, Prowl said nervously.
"I hope so, too," Charles muttered, watching Dirt Boss start up the transaction process.
So there they were: Dirt Boss was obeying his inner workman, getting the job finished, with Prowl's body's metal and glass "coffin" hooked into one side and Charles/Prowl in the other side of the machine. The trees were practically doubling over in the wind and everything was sopping wet in wake of the storm. The meadow was torn up and only getting worse as the defense-offense battle raged between Dinobots, Constructicons, and Decepticons. Finally, a blast of thunder roared out as lightening struck the machine's lightening pole, thus charging it up.
"Here we go!" Dirt Boss yelled, smacking a final button.
The sensation Charles felt first was a tingle that numbed him, similar to the feeling one gets when one's foot falls asleep. He found himself petrified where he stood, unable to move. Little licks of electricity could be seen zipping around at the corner of his eye as the tank began to glow yellow. The numbing increased until he could feel Prowl in his head, making him an independent mass. Then he felt Prowl being pulled out, little by little. The glowing reached a pitch and for a moment, the pulling stopped.
Then, with a sudden, savage yank, Prowl was ripped from Charles's head with a flash of pain all over his body that disappeared as quickly as it came, taking almost all of his energy with it. Charles' legs gave out from under him and he fell onto his side onto the floor of the tank. For a brief moment, he felt Prowl being rushed through the connecting cable beam and away then he was gone.
The other tank, covered with metal and glass, glowed yellow from with in, sending beams of light into the darkness when it slid out from cracks. Charles struggled against his sudden exhaustion to see what would come out of the coffin, what the real Prowl, in the metal, looked like. But he was only human, and there was no fighting the urge to sleep and restore him self…