Chapter 21
Mario was in his office, resting his helm in his servos as his vents let out shaky and frantic blasts of air, desperately trying to cool his engine that was burning with both rage and sadness. Not too long ago he a received a communication call from Zeldia, informing him that Peach had been captured by the Decepticons and when they had went to rescue her, they saw no sign of her and weren't able to pick up her signal, leaving them with no choice to believe that the Decepticons had killed her. The Prime was doing his best to keep his stern and brave appearance in front of his fellow Autobots when in truth he was devastated.
Mario grinded his denta as he slammed his servo on his desk, enraged that the War had finally taken away the last thing that connected to him to his old life. His spark pulsed in pain as he recalled Peach's sad smile before she stepped into the spacebridge; his last memory log of her. He was lost in his thoughts until he heard the door to his office slid open. He lifted up his helm to see none other than Cuffer.
"Sir, permission to enter?" the purple and yellow mech asked.
The Prime simply nodded his helm without a word as he did his best to not let his stern expression falter. He opened his mouth to ask the soldier why he had came but quickly changed his mind when he found himself overwhelmed by the emotions from the loss of the one he cared for. In an attempt to bury those emotions, Mario dug his digits tightly into the palm of his servos and closed his mouth.
"I know that look. That is the look of a mech who believes he lost everything." Cuffer said as he sat down.
Mario opened his mouth to object only to surprisingly find himself silenced by the purple mech holding his servo in front of his face.
"I know you're our leader but please let me speak, Mario. I think I should talk about this situation." he said in a stern tone.
The red and blue mech raised an optic ridge, now realizing that the mech had came to his office to talk to him about the loss of Peach. Deciding to let him speak his part, Mario nodded his helm as he leaned back in his chair, slightly unclutching his fists.
Cuffer sighed in relief, as he adjusted himself where he leaned on the desk with his servos firmly clasped together.
His vents cycled deeply before he started "Mario, I've been around a long time and I have experienced death and loss many times, especially since I was still a young mech back during the time of Terra Prime's reign. It was pure devastation until Phoenix successfully overthrew Terra when the Matrix of Leadership deemed him more worthy than the corrupt Prime that held it at the time. But before then, Cybertron was filled with nothing but death with many Cybertronians clashing against Terra's corrupt followers. I lost many friends and families during that time."
Mario frowned when he saw the purple mech's chassis shutter upon recalling the dark memories.
Cuffer took a second to cough to clear his voice box of his static before continuing "But I had learn to continue on. Even now in this war against the Decepticons when I had witness my own children killed in battle, leaving me to look after my two granddaughters, despite the pain I felt, I knew I had to stay strong for them. Even now I do my best to stay strong for the Autobots, even though I know when I go out into battle, I have to fight my granddaughter who has sided with the Decepticons. The point is Mario, Peach wouldn't want you cooped up grieving for her. She would want you to be strong and finish this war, much like you would have wanted her if you were the one that died."
The Prime remained silent as his blue optics glanced downward. As much as it pained him to admit it, he did made it clear to Peach that for the best for Cybertron, they needed to push their personal feelings aside until they defeat the Decepticons. He clenched his denta when he recalled how one of his last few discussions with Peach was about her continuing on should he ever die; a discussion he wished wasn't one of the last things he said to her.
After a few moments of silence, Mario finally reactivated his optics and said "I understand, Cuffer. I thank you for reminding me what I must do and what Peach would have wanted me to do. I will make sure that her death isn't in vain, I will win this war."
"I'm sure Peach would be proud to hear you that." Cuffer commented with a smile, prompting Mario to nod his helm in agreement.
Meanwhile back with the Decepticons, Bowsertron raised his optic ridges in surprise as Ganonwave explained to him that he had sent him another Decepticon to aid him with his battle against the Autobots.
"Unfortunately you will have to meet her at the coordinates I'm giving you right now. Due to her nature, she cannot survive Earth's waters which means she won't be able to access the base you have set up at the bottom of the ocean. So you have to be in contact with her with your comm link. Make sure you get her frequency when you go to meet with her." the purple mech stated as he typed away at the control board.
Within seconds a set a coordinates appeared on screen, wasting no time the gray mech summon a wire connected to his helm and connected it to the computer, downloading the coordinates into his processor. Once that was done, he ended communications with Ganonwave and summoned his troops. Much to his pleasing the Decepticons entered the room in a short time, awaiting his orders.
With both of his black servos firmly clasped behind his back, he commanded "I must go meet a new addition to the troop. I shall be taking Skyreala with me and while I am gone you shall all take orders from Vectorwave."
Wartscream snarled in anger upon hearing this, angry that the Decepticon Leader knew better than have him accompany him or leave him in charge since in either scenario he would just simply take advantage of the opportunity and attempt to take over as leader of the Decepticons as usual. His optics glanced around the room to see surprisingly both Skyreala and Thundernights snickering at his expression.
"Oh so you both found a common ground have you?" the red and gray mech sneered.
Thundernights snickered for a few more moments before answering "Yeah, hating you and seeing you humiliated is the only thing I share in common with him."
Wartscream grumbled as he resisted the urge to blast the two seekers with his null rays, deciding he would wait to get payback on both of them the day he finally succeeds at becoming Leader of the Decepticons.
Without another word Bowsertron gestured with his servo, indicating for Skyreala to follow him and left the base. Following the coordinates that Ganonwave had given him, it wasn't long till the two Decepticons found themselves at the entrance of a dark cave. The gray mech narrowed his red optics as get made sure his fusion canon was ready to charge. While he knew that the Decepticon Scientist had never given any reason to be consideried traitorous, the Decepticon Leader refused to lower his guard, something he learned from his many battles as a gladiator.
Silently he started making his way into the cave with his fusion cannon armed and ready. His helm turned in many directions as he carefully studied his surroundings, making sure there were no signs of an ambush. All of the sudden, he was startled by Skyreala releasing a loud yell from his voice box. Acting fast he quickly spun around with a snarl, revealing his razor sharp denta as he got ready to fire his fusion cannon at his opponents. But when he did, Bowsertron stopped and charged back down his fusion cannon at what he saw.
"You idiot, those are only the Insecticons! They're on our side!" Bowsertron yelled in anger, prompting Skyreala to yell once more as he slapped his servos over his audio receptor.
"I know, which is why I was yelling in frustration. You know how annoying the one in the middle is?" the black mech snarled back.
Before the two Decepticons were three small mechs that all had black and purple armor with bug like features that composed of a stag beetle, a grasshopper, and a rhinoceros beetle. The Insceticon with the stag beetle features and round chassis snickered at the sight of the angry seeker as he placed his round purple quantlet against his pink faceplate, his blue optics glinting mischievously behind his red visor.
"Ah, Skyreala, poyo! It's great to see you after so many vorns, poyo." the insecticon snickered.
Skyreala growled in anger and shouted "See what I mean, every time Sharpkirby talks, he always ends his sentences with poyo! I don't care if it's on purpose or not, either way it drives me crazy!"
Bowsertron sighed as he rubbed his digits against the crest of his helm, not really caring about the how the Insceticon annoys the seeker. He was awakened from his thoughts when the Insceticon with the rhinoceros beetle features with small black wings and yellow glowing optics behind his white mask stated that they had been sent to escort them to the leader of their troop. Once again the gray mech found himself surprised at the information he received. He remembered back on Cybertron how the only one to give out orders to the Insecticons was Ganonwave so the fact the new addition could control them interested him.
Deciding to shatter the silence that filled the air, he spoke up "Alright, Metashell, lead the way."
Metashell nodded his helm before he and his Insecticon comrades led the two Decepticons deeper into the cave. After a few seconds they finally reached the end and much to Bowsertron's surprise, he saw the cave walls were covered in spider webs. He tapped his clawed digits against his mussel in thought, wondering why the webs were so large since during his time on Earth he knew that the spiders weren't large enough to create such large webs. But he was awakened from his thoughts when he heard a feminine and seductive laugh.
Out from the dark corners of the cave, a femme with purple and black armor came carefully crawling down the web. A sly grin formed on her face when she saw the two stunned mechs, revealing her fanged denta. She carefully traversed the web with her clawed purple servos and black heeled peds along with the four black spider legs that extruded from her back. Once she reached the ground, she used her extra spider legs to push herself upright onto her peds.
"Greetings, Lord Bowsertron, I had been expecting you." she said as she gestured out her clawed servos.
Bowsertron was speechless when he saw the femme before him. He didn't know why but upon examining her red optics, a sense of familiarity washed over him, almost as if he knew the femme before him but with the black and gold helm hiding away most of her face he couldn't tell for sure.
Deciding to push away the thoughts for the moment, the Decepticon Leader quickly shook his helm before replying "Ganonwave has told me that you would supposedly be a good asset for my troop."
The femme chuckled in reply, holding her servo over her mouth before responding "I'll allow you to be the judge of that, but only if you permit a demonstration."
The gray mech firmly crossed his arms over his chestplates before nodding his helm in agreement.
A dark grin formed on the femme's face as she her red optics immediately glanced over at the Decepticon seeker. Without warning she tackled the mech to the ground and stabbed two of her spider legs into his neck cables prompting electricity to course throughout his chassis as he screamed in pain. After a few seconds she stood up once again and turned toward the shocked gray mech.
"What you just witnessed was my cyber-venom. A small dose causes any Cybertronian to temporarily fall into stasis. Had I injected any more cyber-venom into him then he would have remained in stasis as his systems slowly shut down and finally, the venom extinguishes his spark. But fortunately for you I did not give him that much so he'll survive. But there's another bonus to my venom..." the femme explained.
Within an instant she disappeared in a purple flash and reappeared on the other side of the cave as she finished "When I stab someone with my stingers, I temporarily gain their abilities."
Bowsertron's mouth hung open both out of shock and impressment. His expression remained a few seconds before finally a pleased grin formed on his face.
"Well I see that Ganonwave was indeed truly correct when he said you would be a valuable asset and the fact he even left the Insceticons under you control is even more pleasing."
"Ah yes, these mechs." the femme started with a slight groan, "Since I can't access your base, Ganonwave provided me with a chip to control them with commands in case any prying Autobots want to try to take me out. While I find their abilities useful, they can be incredibly stupid at times."
"Hey, I resent that!" shouted the Insecticon with grasshopper features and was designed to look like a blue penguin.
The femme rolled her red optics with a groan before directing her attention to Bowsertron once more. She gave him her comm frequency for whenever he required her assistance and watched him leave with a still unconscious Skyreala in tow. Once they were gone, the femme sighed as she leaned against the cave wall. She didn't know why but something felt off to her about the whole thing yet she couldn't figure it out. She was awakened from her thoughts when she heard Metashell ask if she was alright.
"Oh I'm fine, just thinking that is all. I think maybe some Autobot hunting will do me so good. Keep watch over the base and should any trouble arise, I'll comm you so keep your communication lines open." she commanded.
Without another word she transformed into a large purple and black spiders with five red eyes and left the cave.
Nightfall had fallen upon the city and many children giggled and laughed as they wore costumes for it was Halloween Night. Luigibee's holoform raised a brow in confusion as he walked aside Bulkmurray's holoform. He found it strange to see many humans dressed up as strange creatures that he didn't know the names of and have their houses decorated with frightening appearances consisting of skeletons, gravestones, spider webs, and dead body parts.
"So what is the point of this again?" Luigibee asked as he quickly moved out of the way of a child dashing by.
Daisy who was dressed up as a princess answered "It's a fun night where you get to be anything you want for one night and get a bunch of candy."
Ness who was dressed up as a pirate and Paula who was dressed up as a black cat both nodded their heads in agreement as they munched away at the candy already in their bags.
"You also said it was for kids, so why are you doing this Daisy?" Bulkmurray asked as he scratched his head.
Daisy huffed as she crossed her arms in anger, careful not to accidental mess up her yellow dress as she responded "Just because that whole upgrade thing ended up ageing my body up to the appearance of a young woman doesn't mean I mentally aged as well. In my mind I'm still a little kid and it's going to stay like that for a while."
Bulkmurray turned toward Luigibee who only simply shrugged his shoulders. Deciding to ignore question for the moment, the group made their way to another house and rang the doorbell. But as they waited Luigibee froze when he heard the sound of hissing. He tilted his head up and his spark nearly stopped pulsing in fear when he saw perched on the roof was a large black and purple spider. Without even thinking, the mech's holoform screamed as he stumbled backwards into a child, causing him to fall through the child and the image get distorted with blue static.
Daisy gasped upon seeing this and thinking fast she quickly picked up the child and stood in front of the holoform, blocking it off from the child's view.
"Oh hey whoops, I left my candy bag on the ground and you must have tripped on it. Sorry!" the ginger-headed woman lied as she gently nudged the child along.
Once the child was gone, Daisy turned around and glared at the holoform that finally had a stable image once more.
"Luigi, what were you thinking! You could have got our cover blown!" she scolded.
Luigibee's holoform shook in fear as he stuttered "Bi-Bi-Big sp-sp-spi-spi-spider!"
Daisy groaned as she slapped her forehead, believing that what truly spooked the mech was only a simple Halloween decoration. With a frustrated sigh she walked away while shaking her head, wanting to move onto other houses before the night was over.
Luigibee gulped nervously as he made his holoform stand up once more and look up at the roof once more. Much to his fear, the spider he spotted on the roof was no longer there. With fear and worry filling him, he quickly caught up with the group while his blue eyes darted around in different directions, searching for any signs of the spider.
But unaware to the group, perched on the wall in the dark alleyway was none other than the spider. She chuckled darkly to herself, having witnessed Luigibee's holofrom incident. She narrowed her red eyes in slyness, knowing that the holoform meant that an Autobot was nearby. Making sure she didn't make a sound, she carefully crawled up the wall, back on the rooftops as she began silently following the group with her red eyes glowing in the dark.
Author's Note - Before I explain who's who, I would like to thank NitroStation, Nicochan11, and veronica for supporting this fic, you guys helped me out a lot with your advice.
Kirby - Shrapnel
Meta Knight - Bombshell
King Dedede - Kickback