Disclaimer: Hasbro owns Transformers, I own the story. Any and all additional recognizable culture references, locations, songs, et cet, belong to their rightful owners.
Chapter 21: Reprogrammed
Burning asphalt, sweet energon, metallic laser burns, crashing metal, metal limbs flailing in and out of transforming sequences and enraged war cries; yeap, a typical day on Cybertron.
Ratchet actually sighed tiredly as he ducked a Decepticon's kick before an Autobot tackled the Decepticon away and he resumed repairing his latest battlefield patient. It was a depressing thing to realize that what he defined as a "typical" day on Cybertron involved war and death. It must come from eons of the same schedule. He had almost forgotten about it living on Earth. Well, at least it could never get as violent as a Jerry Springer episode.
He heard the zipper sound of air being split beside him and turned to see Blurr standing beside him with a young femme in his arms.
"Hey, Ratchet, ?Thanks!"
Thus speaking, Blurr left, leaving a colored streak in the air and the femme beside Ratchet.
"Blurr!" Ratchet yelled.
He sighed in annoyance when the super fast messenger bot refused to come back and glared at the femme.
"What's your name, kid?" he growled.
"A-Alias, s-s-s-s-sir," the femme stuttered, her blue optics staring widely about at the carnage going on around them.
"Well, Alias," Ratchet said, packing away his tools and helping his barely-conscious patient to his feet, "Help me get this fellah back to ground base. I'll take this side, you take the other. And no lagging behind or I'll leave you behind!"
The femme quickly took up the other side of the soldier and together she and Ratchet made their quick way through the enormous cruiser parking lot surrounding the political base that had become a battlefield. As they went, Autobots protected them and kept Decepticons from picking them off as easy targets.
"So, kid," Ratchet said, casting his optics about for both their safe base and any surprise attacking Decepticons, "What sort of situation were you in to have Blurr rescue you while he was delivering reports?"
"Oh, uh, S-Soundwave was t-trying to kidnap me," Alias replied nervously.
"Decepticon Soundwave?" Ratchet asked with disbelief making his face a scowl, "What the slag does he want with a little femme?"
"Um…" Alias looked away, apparently thinking something over.
"Ooh, look! It's the Effort!" a too-familiar crazy German voice declared.
Ratchet and Alias stopped short as they looked up.
"What-!?" Ratchet exclaimed.
Random Blitzwing landed hard in front of them, stomping the paved ground. Alias gasped in awe as Blitzwing turned to Hot Head and stood at his full height.
"Hand over the Effort or perish, stupid Autobot!" Hot Head Blitzwing snarled.
"Effort--?" Ratchet began to ask. Suddenly, his optics flashed as he flicked his head to look at Alias. Alias looked away guiltily.
"But she's a Transformer!" Ratchet objected, looking at Blitzwing.
Cold replaced Hot Head to explain calmly, "An Effort has access to both human and Transformer forms. Who is to say that they must be human by default? Now, I will take her now…"
Cold Blitzwing showered the trio with a spray of ice. Ratchet reached a hand in a vain objection while Alias moved away as quick as she could, but not fast enough. Blitzwing's ice completely froze Ratchet and his patient while freezing Alias' feet in a sheet of ice, leaving the rest of her free. Suddenly, Thundercracker crashed to the ground near by with an Autobot on top of him, fully intent on throttling the life out of him.
"Blitzwing," Thundercracker shouted. "Give me a hand here!"
Crack!
Ratchet's detached frozen out-reaching hand clunked into the head of the Autobot on top of Thundercracker, but did little to help him.
"Blitzwing!" Thundercracker snarled.
Random Blitzwing cackled in amusement at his own joke, but wrapped an arm around Alias' waist and easily pulled her from the ice binding her to the ground. Ratchet was left in his frozen position, staring at the broken off frozen limb in front of him. His optic twitched.
"Sorry, Cracker box boy," Blitzwing cackled, "But I got more important people to tend to!"
Laughing at his play of words on Thundercracker's name, Blitzwing rocketed into the air with Alias in his grip. A moment later, Skywarp came crashing through the air, slamming into Ratchet and his patient and breaking their icy prison before colliding with the Autobot on top of Thundercracker, knocking the Autobot out and saving Thundercracker.
"Someone tried the two-for-one knock out move?" Thundercracker asked Skywarp, sitting up.
"Yeap," Skywarp agreed.
"Kinda backfired, didn't it?"
"Yeap."
"We can use this to our advantage," Thundercracker muttered.
Ratchet, mean while, was quickly helping his patient across the battlefield as he called out to Optimus on the communications links.
"Optimus!" he exclaimed, "Blurr just brought me a femme by the name of Alias and she was taken by Blitzwing under the premise that she's an Effort!"
"Is that possible?" Optimus asked.
"Well, she looked young enough for it," Ratchet replied, looking around as he finally came to a safe base made out of a nest of large brawny military craft. He handed his patient off as he went on, "And besides, an Effort doesn't have to be human. I saw Blitzwing taking her to the ship."
"Good job, Ratchet. Prowl, Bumblebee and I will see what we can do."
Suddenly, a flash of red and white appeared near the Reborn Nemesis. Ratchet's optics widened and he snatched a pair of binoculars from a passing scout. Sure enough, in the distance, he could see a familiar red and white cat femme doing battle with a Decepticon along side a black and silver femme who had a familiar boy and girl on either shoulder.
"Anne!" Ratchet exclaimed.
Throwing the binoculars aside, Ratchet dropped down into ambulance form, in spite of missing a chunk of him self, and sped off with screeching tires.
(AN: Did anyone catch the Transformers Animated reference?)
- - - -
He has me! He has me! He has me! Alias was thinking frantically as she kicked around in Blitzwing's grip. She wailed in terror and Random looked at her before turning into Hot Head.
"Shut up!" Hot Head Blitzwing snarled, "I'm not going to hurt you!"
"But you're gonna do something bad to me," Alias whimpered.
"And how do you know, smarty pants?" Blitzwing sneered.
"Universal Computer Program," Alias sniffled, "It lets me know anything that's in a computer."
Blitzwing turned to Cold and looked at Alias curiously, "Fascinating," he said. "That can become very useful for Lord Megatron."
"I don't wanna work for Megatron!" Alias shouted, kicking at Blitzwing.
Unfazed, Blitzwing landed with in the shadow of the Reborn Nemesis. He looked up to see Soundwave flying towards him from above. Starscream flew by over head, then began circling, listening to pre-given orders to protect the coming gathering more out of curiosity than actual obedience to Megatron.
"Ah," Blitzwing said, "Here comes Soundwave now. Don't worry; he'll be gentle with the re-programming."
Alias began to scream and kicked and struggle harder. Starscream grimaced in distaste while Blitzwing expressed a surprising amount of control by not reverting to Hot Head to express his displeasure. Rather, he dropped Alias to the ground and pinned her on her stomach there, pressing one of his own legs down to pin the femme while his hands held hers behind her back. Soundwave landed beside the sobbing femme and looked at Blitzwing.
"Privacy required?" Soundwave inquired.
"No time," Blitzwing grunted, "Lord Megatron gave specific orders to reprogram the Lost Effort the instant we found it."
Soundwave nodded and knelt, placing a hand over Alias' head. An electric charge of complicated programming began to build on Soundwave's hand.
"How ironic, isn't it?" Starscream sneered, landing by them. "That not only is Megatron putting so much effort in recruiting little femmes into his army, but the same femme eluded Soundwave's grasp with the aide of the Autobots, only to be caught by us again because of their valiant efforts!"
"Starscream," Blitzwing stated, "Shut up."
Starscream scowled at Blitzwing, but turned his ruby optics in the direction of a certain band of Efforts fighting for survival near by.
"By the way," Starscream added, "Has anyone realized yet that our prisoners have escaped?"
Hot Head Blitzwing snarled at Starscream, "Then go deal with them, slag head!"
Starscream chuckled and shrugged, but went to do as he was told.
"Hello, miscreants!" Starscream shouted before slamming into Becky from behind.
Benjamin and Jess were flung from Becky's shoulders and tumbled to the ground below while Becky became locked in combat with Starscream. Snarling, Jess stood and began to help Becky, shooting at any part of Starscream she could. Pointblank kicked numerous times in her hands as the end of its large gun barrel flashed. The Tasmanian devil etched onto the gun barrel seemed to bound and leap. Benjamin, meanwhile, stood as he shook an impact with the pavement from his head. Something landed behind him and he spun around to face Mextron as he changed from robot to human form.
"Pity," Mextron sighed. "You haven't gained a proper mech form yet. Oh, well. Shall we do hand-to-hand combat for reputations' sakes?"
"Muscles loose, wary of surroundings…" Benjamin muttered, clenching his fists.
"I'll take that as a yes," Mextron stated, then jumped forward and swung a fist out. Benjamin ducked the fist and their fight began. "I had a proposition for you, Benjamin," he said. "I do not wish for our Efforts to fight each other. We are both parties of children born into a war that we never got a say in. I believe that we can help each other--"
"I will never help you," Benjamin snarled.
"You're very much the confident, high-and-mighty leader, aren't you? You don't even pause to listen to me. Very well, I shall wait until you are in a more… social mood."
Anne, mean while, was looking around at the fight. Suddenly, she spotted Blitzwing and Soundwave doing something to a femme pinned on the ground. She didn't know what they were doing, but she defiantly knew that two men having a young female pinned down was not a good thing and charged forward with a savage yowl. As she approached, she saw Soundwave's hand held over the femme's head. Snarling , she leaped forward and bit Soundwave's hand…and would come to regret it.
The energy that had been meant for the other teenage femme charged up Anne's fangs and directly into her processor mind, making her jerk with the excess energy. Soundwave reared back and flung his hand out as a growl of pain escaped him. His visor flashed and he shook his arm, knocking Anne from his hand and slamming her into the ground.
Ratchet saw this as he approached and shouted in fury as he transformed and leaped over Anne and towards Soundwave. Soundwave ducked and Ratchet collided into Blitzwing, knocking him from the femme, Alias. Alias took the chance to leap to her feet and run. Soundwave attempted to grab her as she escaped, but Optimus appeared from the battlefield and kicked him square in the face mask. Soundwave took the backward momentum to completely roll over and jump to his feet. Bumblebee and Prowl appeared from the crowd behind Optimus. Josh (with Sam on his shoulder) and Jazz appeared a moment later; Josh had managed to call in help, just like he had promised his friends.
"Frenzy, Rumble, Ravage: Eject," Soundwave ordered, pressing a button on his shoulder.
"Finally!" Rumble shouted as he and his fellow Cassetticons leaped from Soundwave and transformed. "Some action!"
Frenzy bared his palms and a savage scream sounded out from it, sending mechs for yards around into writhing, pained thrashings. While they were thus distracted, Rumble's arms turned into pile drivers and he spun them and jumped up before slamming them down into the ground, knocking everyone off their feet with the resulting earthquake.
Ravage leaped forward an instant later, going straight for Bumblebee. Ratchet and Blitzwing fought while Optimus was teamed with Soundwave. Frenzy fought Josh and Sam while Jazz fought Rumble. Prowl spotted Starscream attempting to kill Becky and, with a roar filled with fatherly protective love, dove onto Starscream. The only ones left alone were Jess and Anne. Spotting Anne still on the ground, unmoving, Jess ran over to Anne and began to pet the horse-sized femme feline's head in an attempt to wake her up.
"Anne, Anne," Jess whimpered, "Anne, please, come on, girl, don't die on me, Anne, oh, Primus, no, please…"
At that moment, Megatron spoke to all his Decepticons over their communications' link.
"Decepticons: That's enough. Retreat to the ship; they got the message. Flickword, Solarflare: take the forces I assigned you and make your ways to the barren lands outside of the city. Find safe places to camp and wait for further orders."
The Decepticons obediently broke from what ever fights they were doing, some not even taking the finishing move on their opponents: A display of how well Mextron had trained them. Large parties split off to the east and west, each led by either the clever orange and white Seeker or the moth-like mech. Their part in this tale has ended, but their stories would go on with the war as their legends would grow. The Decepticon Seekers and a certain hover camera made their way into the Reborn Nemesis as it began to lift off. Taking a final punch at Ratchet, Blitzwing activated his jets, in spite of being on his back on the ground, and slid backwards on he ground. He pulled Starscream from Prowl's murderous grip and flew into the ship.
"Cassetticons: Return," Soundwave called.
Frenzy, Rumble, and Ravage obediently came back to Soundwave. Once loaded up, Soundwave turned and flew up into the Reborn Nemesis. At that moment, Anne opened her optics. Jess began to sigh in relief, but gasped in horror when she did not see Anne's familiar cerulean with in her large, almond-shaped optics, but a horrific bloody red.
Hissing shortly, Anne leaped up and snapped her jaws around the back of Jess's shirt before turning and running at the Reborn Nemesis.
"Anne!" Ratchet called, reaching out with his remaining arm, "What are you doing?"
"Joining the winning side, old man!" Anne hissed around her grip around Jess.
She paused briefly to gather her haunches beneath her before leaping high up onto the boarding ramp of the Decepticon starship. She scrambled up it quickly as the loading door began to shut, barely managing to make it inside on time.
The entire ship flashed and there was an explosion of displaced air as the starship hyper jumped away to safer skies. The silence following it was eerie. The surviving Autobots began to pick out the injured from the dead and start lining up the dead bodies for counting, as was custom. But Ratchet was left sitting on his knees on the ground, staring into nothing in shock. He hardly even acknowledged the touch when Optimus and Bumblebee came up on either side of him and gently pulled him to his feet and escorted him back to base.
"What the hell just happened?" Becky asked, looking at Prowl as he helped her keep off a sprained ankle.
"I think… Anne just ditched us for the Decepticons," Josh said slowly.