Blackarachnia stared at the gaping ceiling for what felt like minutes. It was actually about four seconds, but she didn't care about that. Hands on hips, the Decepticon took a moment to exhale through pursed lips before slapping the front of her thighs and gesturing Ironhide to leave. 'Well, we did what we could. How's about we head back to the Ark and check out some of those movies you bought.'

Ironhide grabbed her by the shoulder, spinning her around to face him. He shook his head vigorously. The mints had still impeded his speech, but Blackarachnia knew what he meant.

'Yeah, I get it. You want to head to the rescue and get to Optimus before that cracker gets to him.' She pressed her fingers against her chin in reconsideration. 'That "Thundercracker", I mean.' She sighed. 'To be honest, I'm not really feeling it. Just not in a fighting mood today I suppose. You know what they say… don't blame the player, blame the marketing executives that thought it was a good idea to push the release date of a game for Christmas.' She motioned to her baggage. 'So, Ark?'

The large Autobot rolled his optics and grabbed Blackarachnia by the head, lifting her up and dragging her towards the exit.

'Ow. Ow. Ow.' Blackarachnia scratched at Ironhide's servos before quickly relenting.

Ironhide dragged the Decepticon to the entrance, stepping past horrified and screaming civilians along the way. As he reached the door, the two, thin-legged bouncers stepped forward, blocking the exit.

Releasing herself from Ironhide's grasp, Blackarachnia massaged the top of her helm and scowled at the bouncers. 'Hey, what gives?'

The left bouncer made a gesture that could best be translated as: "are you serious?" 'Um, you just destroyed our bar.'

'We kind of need that. For our jobs— and our living.'

Blackarachnia hunched her shoulders behind her head and grinned. 'Nah.'

'What—'

'Nah, no. I disagree.'

The bouncer's voice tuned to an antagonistic tone. 'What do you mean, you disagree?'

'In my opinion—'

'No! One of you just destroyed our bar, and that doesn't even compare to—.' The bouncer stopped and took a breath, shutting his eyelids and massaging the rim of his potato-shaped nose with his meaty fingers. 'No, have you even heard what's happening at the other end of this sector? Do you even know the kinds of reports we've been getting?'

Blackarachnia shook her head.

'There's a Decepticon warship hovering over the south-end. It's under siege and taking fire above a civilized area.'

Blackarachnia's optics drifted aside as she considered this development. 'Well that does sound pretty badass.'

'You are breaking the Tyrest Accord!'

The Decepticon turned to Ironhide, only to find that he was just as confused as she was. She turned back to the bouncer. 'Okay, full disclosure here, those guys are not us. The guy who broke your roof? Not us either.'

'You know we can't afford to take the word of someone whose race is notorious for deception.'

'Well I mean… that's kind of racist, so…'

'Look, even if it wasn't—we just saw you converse with that Decepticon, and we're supposed to let you leave?'

Blackarachnia laughed. 'Well, what are you going to do? Arrest us?'

Her smile and confidence ceased as the surrounding bar-regulars advanced on them.

'…But not really …right? Guys?'


Optimus felt his face hit the ground. Clearly, crowd-surfing was not a smart idea, especially not after being alerted by the authorities that posing as a famous singer, was in fact illegal, even if you were the one forced into it by idiot interns. It wasn't until the great Optipotamus stormed on-stage did things begin to get intense. On the ground, Optimus transformed into his truck-mode and drove off as the crowd parted around them. Either the authorities simply couldn't keep up on foot, or they decided real quick that chasing him wasn't worth it after all. He kept driving, until finally, he had reached a point in the city where the civilians had stopped pointing at him and laughing. He was indeed, an idiot. Of course it wasn't his fault that he was led on stage and placed on camera. Everything that happened in between, however… that, he would tell no-one. In any case, he was just as thankful that his big appearance didn't attract any attention, especially so with the whispers of a Decepticon incursion he had been hearing about. He transformed into robot mode and began strolling through the streets. He needed to get back to the Ark before they found him, of course he needed to pick up his crew and belongings first. There was bound to be a map of some kind somewhere that would give him directions back to the bar. He wondered how Ironhide and Blackarachnia were holding up.


Thundercracker was surprisingly sober. He drank quite a bit and felt like utter slag while he was still in the bar, however actually getting some fresh air high and above the township's meager occupants had helped him feel all the more refreshed. It didn't explain why he was sober though. Either those free mints relieved Engex levels or he had Energon-negative drinks. Didn't matter, he didn't really expect to find Optimus anyhow. Calling it a city was an overstatement, but the shoddy market area was still big enough to—wait, nope, there he was.

Optimus had been standing directly below him. The Prime was searching through stocks, apparently looking for something he wasn't finding. This was Thundercracker's chance—but no. He circled back. Even if he fired a payload at him, there was a good chance Optimus would survive it, and the civilians… he wasn't happy about dragging them into this mess either. Thundercracker dropped from the sky, landing in the middle of the street of where Prime had been approaching before hiding himself in a nearby alleyway. It wasn't like he cared for the civilians, but, it was his responsibility to keep things personal between him and the Prime. The rest were uninvolved. He readied his incendiary gun, watching Optimus from the shadows. He wasn't going to mess this up. On one hand he could run in, guns blazing and catch him by surprise—but he was better than that. He wasn't like Starscream or Strika. He wasn't a brute. He was going to sort this out cleanly and without collateral. A quick shot to the head would do it… maybe. He was a good shot, but perhaps not good enough to shoot him from where he was standing. Even if he did nail him dead in the head, there's a good chance it wouldn't kill him. For an Autobot, Prime was a head taller than most and only slightly bigger. Even against smaller bots like Frenzy, a shot to the head wasn't uncommonly deflected, and a single shot would probably not be enough to silence a larger bot such as Optimus. He had to catch Optimus by surprise, if only he was a little closer, perhaps he could leap out and disable his joints with a few blasts to the elbows and shins before he could react. But who was he kidding, he wasn't the protagonist of an action movie. He was just a robot with a gun. He was just—

Thundercracker lowered his gun.

He didn't know what he was doing. Thundercracker joined Starscream as a means of making up for where he had failed in letting Prime kill Megatron, and in doing so, make Starscream leader. He didn't like Starscream. In fact, frag Starscream! But he was the only one who would take him in… and the one most likely to get rid of him once deemed unnecessary. Nobody liked Thundercracker anyway, would killing Megatron's killer really fix that? Probably not. In fact, until now he had figured it was a self-fulfillment kind of thing, but at this point he doubted his void was ever really going to be filled; nor whether he even had a void to begin with. Then there was Starscream. Would making him leader fix anything? By killing Optimus, and putting Starscream in charge, Thundercracker could potentially cause more harm than good. Thundercracker didn't know what he was trying to do, or what he wanted to do with himself.

A shot hit Optimus dead-center in the chest, sending him stumbling back and only just catching his balance.

Thundercracker was so taken aback that he had to say it out loud, as if to convince himself. 'That wasn't me.'

Optimus activated his axe and did a somersault across the street, dodging another payload and protecting a group of fleeing civilians from the blast. From the sky, dive-bombed a black and purple jet. Its wings collapsed into itself and its panels shifted into a tin figure that stood at a similar height to Optimus.

It was Slipstream.

The Seeker ripped a pistol from her waist and fired several shots in Prime's direction. Optimus deflected the shots with his axe which he promptly swung in Slipstream's direction, slicing through empty air. The Seeker had sidestepped before firing a shot that bounced off Prime's shoulder. Optimus reacted the best he could and kicked her in the shin before swinging his axe against her weaponized servo and causing her to drop the gun. He raised his axe above his head and prepared to strike, only for Slipstream to lunge at him and grab his wrists. Crushing his servos and holding him back.

'Let's try to be a little more honest with ourselves here. I'm stronger than you, Optimus, but don't worry, I'm not going to kill you,' Slipstream said, her grip tightening.

'I'm sure that's precisely why you shot me in the chest three seconds before telling me this.'

'Well… I mean, it was a little more than three seconds but…'

Optimus pushed forward, throwing her off of him before taking another stance. 'I have no time to exchange "banter" with you, Slipstream. I will not allow you and your Decepticons to endanger this planet—not as long as my spark burns and my cogs—'

'Oh for the love of—.' She pulled out a second pistol and fired another shot dead-center in Prime's chest. Shutting him up and sending him falling on his back. 'I'm in a very not-pontificating-mood right now, Prime. I'm not feeling the speech at all right now. I was actually looking for someone else, but now that I've found you, things have just been made a thousand times easier. Now all I need to do is rip out your spark and brain module and take you back to where you belong.' She fired another shot into Prime's chest, shattering the glass armor that covered his spark chamber. 'The Nemesis and Sunstorm are of no consequence. This is the age of giants, Prime, and Sunstorm is not one of them. I'm not let in on everything my employers are investigating, but from what I'm hearing, the smallest God we've discovered —.' she paused for a moment and raised her servos to articulate what she was trying to say. 'Okay, so if you took the Hulk… and the Spiderman… and then somehow mutated him together into one entity. The Amazing Incredible Spider Hulk—the smallest giant we've uncovered would probably beat him in an arm wrestle. I think his name was Metrotitan.' She blinked, realizing Optimus was no longer lying where he was. 'Ah, dammit. I've really got to stop bragging about stuff I don't even know is true.'

Optimus planted his axe in her shoulder from behind before kicking the gun out of her hand and disarming her. She responded with a heavy left hook across Optimus's face, cracking open his faceplate and knocking him back. Unsheathing a hatchet-like blade from her wrist, Slipstream lunged at the Prime and clashed with his axe.

This was perfect. Or so Thundercracker thought. His two adversaries were trying to kill each other, right in front of him. As it turned out, he didn't need to lift a finger. From now on, Thundercracker was going to play it like Megatron would have; let his enemies tear each-other apart, then swoop in and deliver the killing blow to the winner once they were out of fuel and nearing stasis lock. He readied his incendiary gun. He was going to end this war, not for Starscream or the Decepticons, but for him.


Starscream tore through another jet as he chased down Ramjet. Three other Seekers trailed behind him, returning fire. Perhaps it was "mean" to have abandoned Obsidian, but hell, if he couldn't hold his own then he probably wasn't worth hiring in the first place.

Ramjet took the lead of the pack, driving Starscream away as he boosted to the trade-building: the highest tower in the district. He transformed and landed on its pavilion, just barely evading the electrical wires that stemmed from its base. Hotlink landed next to him, watching the dogfight that occurred below between Starscream and three of their seekers.

'I'm not so sure about this.'

'You doubt we'll win?' Ramjet said, as if it were the most unthinkable thing in the world.

'I'm just saying, Ramjet, Starscream is pretty deadly in the air. His reputation as a predator of the skies precedes him.'

'Then let's—OH!' Ramjet grabbed Hotlink by the shoulders. 'DUDE! I just had a glitchin' idea!'

Hotlink slapped Ramjet's servos. 'Tell, don't touch.'

'Okay… so if Starscream is considered the—the butcher of the skies…'

'Predator of the skies.'

'Whatever.' He pointed at the Seeker in question as he dodged and twirled past Ramjet's forces. 'Then why don't we just take away the skies!'

Hotlink considered this and grinned. 'Turns out your head is screwed on better than I would have thought, Ramjet. Brilliant! If you use your null-ray to disable his thrusters, then he will no longer be able to fly.'

Ramjet frowned. 'Yeah—wait, no, what are you talking about?'

'Your plan. You mean to ground him in order to remove him as a threat—.' Hotlink slapped himself in the forehead, shaking his head in understanding. 'Okay, Ramjet. You weren't talking about removing the sky, were you?'

'I was talking about removing the sky.'

'You can't remove the sky, Ramjet.'

'But—.'

'We're not removing the sky, Ramjet.'

Ramjet lowered his head, disappointed. 'Oh.' He let out a sigh and pressed his focus back on the action. 'Then I guess we ought to do as you said.'

'By using the—'

'The null-ray.' Ramjet activated the weapon and aimed it at Starscream. 'Yeah.'

The barrel came alight as a thin, pink laser fired, streaming across the airspace and striking Starscream's right thruster. The pink stream surged through both thrusters until slowly, Starscream descended. The jet pathetically twisted in the air as Ramjet's soldiers homed in on him.

'Open fire!' Ramjet said, supplying his own from above. The crack of gunfire echoed the skies as the four seekers unloaded their weapons on the plummeting Starscream. The explosion left cloud of smoke wafting in the air surrounding Starscream's position, but his figure didn't fall out of the sky as Ramjet had hoped. Starscream remained intact-but just barely. His servo was punched through the building's steel alloy leaving him hanging off from the side of the tower. As impressive as it was to see him stomach that first hit back on the Nemesis, the second load was… less so. His body had fragmented and his armour had been cracked open revealing patches of internal circuitry. Smoke bellowed from the cracks between his lips as he tried to re-ignite his thrusters. Sunstorm was right: rep aside, Starscream was still a mortal.

Ramjet didn't need to lift a digit. The three Seeker jets honed in on Starscream, preparing to unleash a typhoon of laser fire and high-octane. One from above, one from below, and one from the front. Starscream ripped his arm from the building's infrastructure and let himself fall, landing on top of the nosecone of the Seeker from below and digging his fingers into the jet's cockpit; ripping out a gob of wires and machinery. The jet sputtered in the air before turning back into the direction of the trade building. Starscream managed to jump off the jet and latch on to the side of the building once again—letting the jet crash into a mess of metal parts and explosive flames. He began climbing, punching a hole through the building, pulling himself up, and repeating the process—terrifying many of its residents in the process. Through the smoke came another jet, firing a missile that Starscream promptly batted aside with the back of his fist. Without much of a plan B, the jet just flew straight for the former Aerospace Commander only for Starscream to punch his free hand through the jet's undercarriage. He squeezed tightly, activating his buzz saw and dragging it through the Seeker's length, bisecting it into two large slabs of metal that squirted bright, yellow sparks and green liquid over the disgusted Air Commander. As the last jet approached, Starscream dove off the side of the building once again, letting out a roar and allowing his smile-scars to split, revealing an orange fire burning from his belly. He grappled with the jet, digging his fingers into its alloy skin and forcing the soldier's nosecone to face the sky.

'Huh.' Ramjet felt his fists clench, as if on instinct. 'Hotlink… you may have been right all—.' But when Ramjet turned to face him, the medic was nowhere to be found, presumably jetting off out of cowardice. When Ramjet turned back, Starscream was hovering above him, having used the seeker's jet thrusters as a means of elevating him to Ramjet's level atop of the tower. Ramjet reacted accordingly and fired another blast of null-ray at Starscream, only for the red and white Seeker to throw the remains of Ramjet's last soldier in the course of the blast and dive for the cone-head himself, hands first. A missile fired from Starscream's shoulder and blew apart Ramjet's Null-Ray along with much of his servo. Before Starscream's feet touched the ground, the Commander entwined his fingers with Ramjet's, grappling with him in what soon became contest of pure strength. Letting his Decepticon brutality take control, Ramjet stopped thinking and pushed forward, convinced of his might. Starscream and Ramjet kicked and struggled until their adrenaline had taken over, degrading both parties into a pair of snarling and raging beasts. Just as Starscream's heel touched the edge of the building, the Commander pulled his arms backwards, first his left, and then his right. With each jerk, Starscream succeeded in ripping Ramjet's arms out of their sockets and leaving a trail of ooze. First his left, and then his right. Stunned into a daze, the armless Seeker stumbled backwards, optics wide and flickering as oil squirted from the two newly formed cavities on either side of his torso. Starscream whirled Ramjet's discarded, meaty arms like a pair of clubs before cracking them against the cone-head's upper torso, sending shivers through his broken frame. Ramjet's arms shattered as the rest of his body torched and contracted at Starscream's feet. The battle was won.

Dusting off his hands, Starscream moved passed the broken body and began cutting down electrical wires. Ramjet rolled over, his vision coming back to him. His face had since crumbled, leaving himself an expressionless wreck. His chest expanded as if gasping for air.

'What… are you doing?!' Ramjet spluttered.

Starscream began tying the wire around his waist. 'I'll be honest… I may be having second thoughts on this.'

'What?'

Starscream marched over and kicked Ramjet in the ribs. 'You don't need arms to transform, do you? If you change into a jet like me, then your arms should form an undercarriage of some kind. You should be able to fly without them. Transform.'

Ramjet, still defiant, remained in his pathetic form on the ground, causing Starscream to punch a hole in the cone-head's stomach.

'I said, "Transform", not "pretend to be dead". I took away your arms, Ramjet, not your ears. I don't— does "transform" sound anything like "play dead?" Does it?' He made gestures as he accentuated on either word. 'Transform… play dead… does that sound anything alike? No? Am I asking for too much here?'

He kicked Ramjet again, and the jet immediately transformed from armless robot into a crumpled jet.

'Thank you.' Starscream groaned, tying the other end of the cord around Ramjet.

'What are you doing?'

'Well, since – thanks to you – I can't fly, I'm using you to get me back to the Nemesis so I can kill Sunstorm.'

'I—I—'

'Go on. It's depressing I know, but since the last thing I'm going to do is ride you back, you're going to have to pull me there. Again, I'm having second thoughts.'

Ramjet's thrusters activated as if on their own. His mind an utter mess. He took off, flying off the edge and pulling Starscream along with him. Once in the sky, Starscream felt his stomach lurch as he was dragged from behind, swallowing his discomfort and allowing himself to be pulled through the skies by something outside his own volition. 'To the Nemesis.' Starscream said grimly. 'It's high time we blocked out the sun.'