Hello everyone! Here's another chapter for you all.

Chapter 26

As Optimus laid on the medical berth, his thoughts were on Unicron and how they were going to defeat such an entity. But also where their wayward friend was. He had noticed that Jack seemed more tired and exhausted for the past few days. Whenever he had looked at Jack, something deep within his spark seemed to resonate within him.

Looking at Jack was like looking into a mirror. Responsible at a young age and having a wisdom that those his age do not possess. When he first was introduced to the three children, he noticed that Jack was seemed reluctant to even be around them. But despite his reluctance, Jack seemed interested in who they were and why they were here in the first place.

When Jack left after the whole debacle with the undead Cybertronians and the Decepticons capturing both Agent Fowler and himself, he had asked what had happened when his Autobots were on the Nemesis. Miko told of Jack keeping herself and Rafael safe from the Decepticons by wearing his armour.

But when his home was the target of an invasion, Jack came to their aid and helped to make sure that they did not have too much trouble with the Decepticons. He had sacrificed his peace and quiet life to ensure the Decepticons were defeated. Even going so far as to help him battle against Megatron. He had learned later on what had made him into such a person. His father had taught him the meaning of right and wrong, that one must take responsibility for their actions and those around them.

He knew that Jack would sacrifice his entire being to protect not only his friends and family, but also his home. And nowhere was this more proven when he had taken the nuclear bomb and flew it straight through the wormhole over New York City when the Chitauri attacked. Losing both of his arms and legs in the process.

Now he is missing and with the GroundBridge inoperable and no way to contact Jack, the only thing they could do is wait.

It would late into the night, after the Autobots were powered down and the humans were back home, that it happened. The large Autobot symbol that was engraved on the floor, began to part sideway in the middle until there was a large hole. Ever so slowly an object began to rise from the depths until it was done. By the end, parked right in front of the GroundBridge was a MARAUDER. It was slightly bigger and wider than Optimus' vehicle mode. The entire colour scheme of the truck was mostly black with red streaks of flames on the front of the truck, going all the way from the grill to just before the windows.

Suddenly the GroundBridge opened and the truck revved its engine before speeding through said GroundBridge. Once the GroundBridge closed, the Autobot insignia began to close.

Nothing would happen for the next two days as both leaders of the Decepticons and Autobots healed from their injuries. But that was not to say that they were idle. Reports were coming in of a large Cybertronian coloured in black and red flames with purple optics destroying many of the old and abandoned military bases and causing as much destruction as possible. And that it was slowly making its way towards Jasper Nevada. When Fowler asked if any of the Autobots knew of such a Cybertronian, they denied of any such knowledge.

The earthquakes that had rocked the earth days earlier had subsided, with only a spare few popping up once in a while. When they had initially went to investigate the different points, they discovered that the area surrounding the point was very rich in ore and minerals.

It would not be until the third day that the trouble truly began.

Everyone in the base was doing their own thing, Ratchet was alert for anymore earthquakes to form, while Arcee and Bumblebee had just returned to base. Bulkhead was watching a monster truck rally on TV with Miko, Raf was on his computer while Steve was reading his newspaper and Optimus was in his room.

Suddenly the klaxons in the base began blaring, telling everyone that someone was heading towards the front entrance of the base. Typing a few commands on the computer, the cameras showed a large vehicle speed its way towards the hidden entrance. As it did so, they notice a rocket fire from the vehicle and fly to the entrance.

The whole base shook as the missile destroyed the entrance and the large vehicle blast its way through the tunnel and into the main area of the base. The vehicle stopped just in front the Autobots, who stood in front of the humans while also pointing their weapons at the intruder.

The vehicle then transformed into a rather large Cybertronian. The figure in front of them was taller and much broader that Optimus, very similar to Megatron. He however looked more like if Megatron lost his spikes and his shoulders and arm canon. The one thing that stood out however is how its head reminded them of how Jack would like if he wore his Iron Man armour.

It was in fact the armour that Jack created to deal with Cybertronians in an all-out war of attrition. Dubbed the ConCrusher, the suit was a walking artillery with heavy sabot rounds loaded into the weapons with an Energon Machine Gun strapped on top of each forearm. He had even more weapons, such as a freeze gun and flamethrower and various form of grenades that he could launch with his grenade launcher. It was made of the pure Cybertroniam, and because it was made of pure Cybertroniam it meant that his suit could take a hell of a beating before being destroyed.

The chest area suddenly opened up and sitting in there was Jack.

"JACK!" Everyone exclaimed, shocked to see their friend sitting there.

"I am not my Herald." Jack said, but his voice was much more deep and baritone. "Do you know me follower of Primus?" he asked staring at Optimus.

"Unicron, the Chaos Bringer." Optimus answered, narrowing his optics at him and stepping in front of everyone.

"Good. Now know me as Unicron YOUR DESTROYER!" Unicron shouted as the chest closed in around him.

Unicron then shot forward so fast that Optimus had no time to react as he was thrown backwards by the punch, causing himself and every Autobot behind him to be thrown to the wall. The humans were in shock that the Autobots were overcome so quickly and with only a single punch.

Unicron then approached the fallen Autobots and pointed his machine guns at them, preparing to fire. "I thought that a Prime would put much more of a fight. How disappointing." Unicron said.

"JACK STOP!" a voice cried out.

Turning to where the voice came from, Unicron saw the three humans standing there. From his Herald's memories, the small boy was Raf, the blond man was Steve and the girl was Miko, someone who was very dear to his Herald's heart.

"And who are you to tell me to stop, parasite?" he asked, leaning down to face them.

"Jack, I know you can hear me. Please, we know about how your nightmares plagued you and the fear you had for all of us, but this isn't the way!" Miko said, trying to reason with him.

"Fool! You're prattling will do you no good. My Herald is mine to control and nothing can break him from my power." Unicron shot back.

The sound of a war cry had Unicron quickly turn to the Autobots only to be tackled to the where the GroundBridge controls were be Optimus, causing the lever to fall and the GroundBridge activating. Optimus then proceeded to hold onto his chest, swing him around and throw him threw the GroundBridge.

Landing hard on the ground, Unicron looked up and saw that he was in the middle of a canyon. He quickly got up in time to see Optimus and the rest of the Autobots exit the GroundBridge before it closed.

"Reinforcements will not save you for what is to come, Taint of Primus!" Unicron declared, as several dozens of stone avatars of himself in his true form surrounded the canyon.

The stone avatars began attacking the Autobots and the original Unicron and Optimus battled in an all-out slugfest. Parrying and blocking each punch and kick while trying to finding a weakness in each other's stances. But due to the injuries that he had suffered earlier from Megatron and him being recently recovered, Optimus began to waver a little, and that was all Unicron needed. Blocking a right hook from Optimus, Unicron wrapped his arm around Optimus' and headbutted a few times before picking him up and throwing the Autobot leader to the ground.

Walking to the fallen leader, Unicron was intercepted by the one called Bulkhead when said Autobot slammed his large wrecking ball to the side of his helm while Arcee and Bumblebee begun to run in circles around him shooting at him with their blasters. Growing tired of their incessant attacks, Unicron ordered his avatars to attack the other Autobots. Once they were sufficiently distracted, he turned his back to the now standing Optimus who began to fire his own blasters at Unicron.

Transforming his hands, Unicron used the flamethrower and unleashed an inferno at Optimus, who had dodged the blast by rolling out of the way. Unicron sent another blast of fire at Optimus who this time ran sideways, firing his blasters at Unicron while also staying just ahead of the flames that were trailing behind him.

"Where is your courage Prime! You shame your predecessors by fighting the way that you are." Unicron goaded.

He then quickly switched his flamethrower for his grenade launcher and fired a single grenade just in front of where Optimus was going. The resulting explosion in front of him caused Optimus to be thrown back. Jumping up high into the air, Unicron brought his fist down to where Optimus' head was, only to miss and leave a small crater where his fist landed.

Optimus, who had stood up by that point gave a swift kick to his head and instead of pressing his attack retreated with the other Autobots. Getting up quickly, Unicron chased after the group, but stopped after a while when he noticed where they were going. Using his control, he summoned a titan of an avatar, easily reaching 1000 feet high. He then went and followed them to the top to watch what would be the end of the Autobots.

He suddenly heard the GroundBridge opened next to him. Turning, he watched as the group known as the Avengers exit the vortex. The group consisted of Captain America, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Hulk, Thor and Miko.

"Foolish humans! What possible threat could you pose against the Chaos Bringer?" Unicron demanded.

"We don't give up hope! Avengers attack!" Captain America ordered, as he threw his shield at Unicron.

Black Widow, then began firing her own dual handguns, while Hawkeye shot multiple flash arrows near his head to blind him. Thor meanwhile sent a powerful blast of lightning at his chest with Hulk smashing into his chest soon after, causing him to fall from the force of the impact.

"HULK SMASH TIN MAN!" Hulk raged as he continued to bash the chest area of the suit.

Using his right hand, Unicron swept him off like a bug and got back up. Once up, he began to stomp at wherever the Avengers were. Yet as he was doing so, he did not notice that Miko had thrown something at his chest until it was too late. He heard the sound of metal being eaten and watched in horror as his chest soon had a large hole.

It was Anthony who had chewed through the chest, and because he was a scraplet, he could easily chew through Cybertronian metal.

He was suddenly grabbed and thrown out of his suit by the Hulk, landing hard on the ground. Getting up quickly, Unicron saw that the Hulk was charging at him.

"ENOUGH! I'm a god you dull creature and I will not be bullied by-ah!" Unicron boasted until he grabbed by his ankle and smashed up and down for about a minute before he was dropped in the crater that his body made.

"Puny god." He heard Hulk say.

Unable to do anything, Unicron watched as Miko placed a strange device on his chest and very quickly he could feel his presence being separated from his Herald. As he felt his control on his Herald slip from him, he swore that he would have his revenge.

The explosion that followed was so powerful that it swept everyone off of their feet and cause the Autobots and Megatron to stumble back two miles away. As the humans around Jack slowly started to get up, they noticed that Jack was still on lying prone on the ground unmoving. Seeing this Miko quickly stumbled her way over to him as Anthony was crawling on top of Jack's chest, falling onto her knees when she got close.

"Jack?" Miko whispered his name, hoping for a response.

Placing her hands to the side of his helmet, she slowly pulled it off and saw that Jack's eyes were closed. His entire complexion was pale from the lack of sunlight and gaunt due to lack of food.

The first of his senses to return to him was his hearing. The first thing he heard was the sound of a heartbeat monitor going on in time with his own heartbeat. Next came his mind as it woke itself from its slumber after Unicron took over. Then came the sensations of his body and boy was it sore, so he just stayed prone on whatever he was laying on and just let his mind and body adjust to the sudden pain.

After about a minute, Jack blinked his eyes opened and took stock of what was around him. It seemed that he was in the human part of the infirmary, and that when he looked around, he noticed Miko sitting on a chair next to his bed with Anthony on her lap, both of them sleeping. Thoughts of when he had lost his limbs after the battle of New York came to his mind as he felt a sense of nostalgia, he even almost expected to see Tony Stark walk into the room.

Sitting up slowly, Jack noticed that he was still in his armour and that his chest area had an addition that was not the before. It had silver outlines with Energon blue marking on it, and when he placed his hand near the device it began to emit a soft glow, causing him to see strange symbols. The symbols were definitely Cybertronian in nature as he recognised some of them but older, as if the current Cybertronian language was an offshoot of the language.

He quickly held his hand to his head and groaned from the sudden burst of knowledge, causing him to have a slight migraine and subsequently waking Miko and Anthony up.

"Jack! You're ok!" Miko exclaimed as she quickly got up from her chair to hug him. Anthony managed to jump off her lap and land on the bed just in time.

Hugging back, Jack let her go and began to rub Anthony's large head when he placed it on top of the scraplet.

"Thank you Miko." Jack said suddenly

"For what?" Miko questioned.

"For saving me from Unicron's possession." Jack answered. "Without you, I might never have been rid of that monster's influence."

Miko simply smiled at him and hugged him again before holding him at arm's length and scrunching her nose a little. "You need a shower. You stink!" she said.

Jack gave a short laugh and slowly got out of bed with Miko's help. "That I do."

I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Leave your thoughts in the reviews.

Have an awesome day!