Chapter 37-Headmasters part 3

It was early morning in Valparaiso, Indianna as Rodimus and Wheeljack drove down the highway leading into the city. The two Autobots had just been on recon duty when Ratchet called them up for a much-needed update on their missing comrade-Ironhide.

"Let me get this straight, Ratchet," Rodimus said. "Someone's going to pulverize Ironhide?"

"Apparently so, Rodimus. It's taken three weeks, but I finally got a solid G.P. lock in an automotive scrap yard in Warsaw." Ratchet said. "According to their onsite log, he's in a clutch of wrecks scheduled for the pneumatic presses when they operated at 8:00 AM."

"Huh. Well then, given that it's 5:17, we're hardly, er, pressed for time." Rodimus made a noise of clearing his throat at the bad pun. "Still, any excuse to go fast! Come on, Jackie, let's burn!"

Rodimus and Wheeljack increased their speed and made to drive someplace private for Ratchet to bridge them to Warsaw. They were unaware of the Sedan trailing after them, tracking their travel route.

XXXXXX

"Come on, Bulkhead! Keep the pace up!"

"Ugh," Bulkhead groaned as he lay on his side, lifting his leg up in tune with Annie's counting, matching her movements in their usual exercise routine. "This is embarrassing."

"If you want to walk, Bulkhead, you'll follow my lead." Annie said. "Doctor's orders."

Off to the side, Grindor and Jolt were watching the odd spectacle like it's a movie, sharing two cans of Kremzeek. "This is too good." He smirked.

"I know, right?" Jolt laughed.

"Shut it." Bulkhead grunted, struggling to lift his leg before bringing it down with a sigh. "This is too much. Can't I just drive around? I can do that perfectly."

"And risk your legs atrophying? Not a chance, Bulkhead." Ratchet said. "You need to regain strength in your body after that neurotoxin tore through your body's systems. Daily exercise is key, and Annie is the perfect instructor for you."

"Be glad Jazz isn't doing this. He'll make you do balancing acts on your fingertips." Annie said. "And stop complaining, Bulk, don't you do twice as much lifting as anyone in this ship?"

"Yeah, Bulkhead, this shouldn't be too hard for a former Wrecker!" Jolt called out.

"I'm plucking you after I'm done with this." Bulkhead threatened.

Grindor tapped Jolt on the shoulder. "Did you record this?"

"I've got a sky spy recording this as we speak." Jolt whispered.

"Sweet." Grindor gave Jolt a fist bump.

Annie helped Bulkhead complete a few more sets before ending their session, much to the giant mech's relief. As she went to get some water, she heard shouting outside in the hallway and looked out to see the commotion.

"Don't walk away from me!"

It was Debbie, and she was tailing Prowl down the hall like a feral cat ready to tear apart her prey. The elder Radcliffe was giving Prowl an earful and the Autobot looked like he was at his wits end, close to tearing his audials out.

"Debbie, please, would you stop being so hysterical?" Prowl asked miserably. "You don't have to shout."

"Apparently I do if I need to get anyone's attention around here. You may not give a damn about Darren, but I do!" Debbie yelled. "Look at me damn it!"

Prowl stopped in front of the command center and glared down at Debbie with a rare show of annoyance, and Debbie glared at him without hesitation.

"It's been three weeks since they took Darren and Sunstreaker, and the only ones who seem to actually give a damn are Arcee, Moonracer, Bumblebee, and the Minicons. Even Gina and Sara are doing more than you guys!"

"We've hit a dead end, Debbie. Right now, all we have to go on is a single company with facilities all over this nation and Europa." Prowl told her. "Too much ground to cover and it's too dangerous to start attacking locations randomly and hope we'll hit gold."

"So instead, you people decide to do nothing and sit on your asses."

"You've said the some of the others are making an effort to look for your brother, see if they've made any progress." He turned his back on her and continued walking down the hall. "Right now, we've got to deal with saving Ironhide and contend with the Decepticons still hoarding ore-13. If you'll excuse me."

Debbie watched Prowl walk away with angry eyes and stomped her foot. "I HOPE ALL OF YOU AUTOBOTS GO TO HELL!"

"Debbie," Annie walked up to her, grabbing her elbow to pull her to the side. "Calm down. You're causing a scene."

"So what? I hope everyone hears me! They need to know that I'm not going to shut up until someone does something around here!" Debbie screamed. She took a deep breath and rubbed her forehead to soothe her aching head.

"Raging about it won't help anyone, and your face is so red you could match Optimus in coloration. You're going to pass out from stress." Annie gave her sister a one armed hug. "Please, calm down, for my sake at least before you put yourself in the hospital."

Debbie took a moment to calm her fast heating heart before pulling Annie close, resting her head in the smaller girl's hair. "How are you so calm? Usually you're the one who'd be kicking and screaming in situations like this."

"Because I know Darren's still alive. He's my twin, remember? We know when the other's in pain." Annie said, resting her head against Debbie's chest. "He's still alive and I have faith that he'll find a way to come back to us."

"Thanks, Annie."

In the command center, another tense conversation was going on. Optimus was sitting in his chair listening to a very concerned Sideswipe try to convince him to get a transfer to Terra.

"Look, Prime, whatever reason there was for us to be here, it's gone. It went with Thunderwing." Sideswipe said. "Instead of babysitting an empty base, we could be there on Terra backing you up. See, I've been monitoring your situation so I know that right now, you could do with reinforcements."

"Sideswipe," Optimus said calmly. "Put Hound back on."

Sideswipe frowned and backed away to allow an annoyed Hound to speak. "Sorry about that, Prime. I-"

"Hound, I'll have Elita-1 take over from you there. She can see to the decommissioning of Bludgeon's base. You and a squad of your choosing will prepare for onward transmission to Terra."

Sideswipe's look of shock almost made Optimus smile if the situation weren't so dire. In truth, he didn't require anymore reinforcements on Terra at the moment, and he knew Sideswipe only wanted to come because he knew Sunstreaker was in danger. Cybertronian siblings had a kind of sixth sense to each other's pain, no matter the distance. It happened with Arcee and Moonracer, and Sideswipe and Sunstreaker were no different.

Optimus agreed to have Hound's team transferred because Sideswipe might actually instinctively know where Sunstreaker was being held by OZ, and by extension, Darren. It was a risky plan with a lot of room for error, but it was better than sitting around waiting for something to turn up.

He turned in his seat and saw the Radcliffe sisters talking in the hall. Optimus prayed to the Matrix that Darren was safe, because he didn't believe Debbie and Annie could handle another personal tragedy.

XXXXXX

"It'd be great, Hot Rod. You, me, together again!" Dealer said. "Come on!"

Rodimus expression had an oddly serious look on his usually carefree face as he spoke with a good friend of his from his old unit. The flame patterned mech once had a team of his own on a mission to the planet Ki-Aleta, which held an ancient and powerful relic called the Magnificence. Long story short, halfway into the mission, equipment failure led to Rodimus's team being slaughtered and Dealer being taken prisoner by Decepticons. Rodimus had worked tirelessly to save his friend and led a solo operation to free Deale, putting at least some of his demons to rest.

"Sure, Dealer, sure, but…things are really tense here and I doubt Prime or Prowl would appreciate me taking in unneeded stragglers." Rodimus said. "Deployment wise, my hands are tied."

"Come on! You're telling me you couldn't whisper in the right audio receptor, grease a few sticky wheels? You must be losing your touch." Dealer quipped. "Get me to Terra, Hot Rod, the sooner, the better. You and I, well, we've got history!"

"Um, yeah." Rodimus said, a little distracted. "Let me see what I can do. Right now, I gotta go places."

That conversation was on Rodimus's mind since this morning, and it made him uncharacteristically quiet. He really didn't need to deal with this right now, not with so many other things going on at once.

"Hot Rod, you feeling all right?" Wheeljack asked. "You're kind of quiet."

"I'm fine, Wheeljack, just focusing on the mission. And don't call me Hot Rod!" Rodimus said. "Now pick up the speed-we got three hours to haul Ironhide's fender out of the hydraulic presses!"

"Which is plenty of time. So let's keep it a mile closer to the speed limit, eh?" Wheeljack said as he pulled up to Rodimus. "And Rodimus, initialize your holo-driver."

"Yeah, yeah." Rodimus generated his faux human in his empty driving seat. "As for as the speed limit, it's not like there's anyone on the road at this hour-whoa!"

Rodimus's hologram jumped a bit as two yellow blurs zipped past him and Wheeljack. "What the hell? Wheeljack, did you-"

"Yeah, I see them too." Wheeljack said. "And I wish I hadn't."

The two Autobots realized they were surrounded on all sides by cars that looked exactly like Sunstreaker's alt mode, easily matching their speed on the highway.

In a mobile command vehicle, field agent Drake of the Mars unit was monitoring the highway chase with agent John.

"Targets are in the grid, Drake." John reported, using aerial drones to monitor the situation from the air. "We have a 30-mile window before they hit Plymouth."

Drake nodded. "The Zodiac are watching, John, give 'em a good show!"

The Sunstreaker clones pulled back and opened their hoods, revealing six chambered missile launchers. "Rodimus!" Wheeljack exclaimed.

"Looks like the resemblance to Sunstreaker is more than skin deep!" Rodimus remarked.

"Break!"

Just as the four cars fired their missiles, Rodimus and Wheeljack separated, allowing the dangerous projectiles to explode between them. Two of the clones sped up and slammed into Wheeljack, trying to knock him off the road.

"We need to put some distance between them and us!" He grunted, trying to dislodge his assailants. He yelped when a missile hit dangerously close to his fender.

"Why?" Rodimus ignited his exhaust pipes, increasing is speed. "I vote we stick around and show these pale imitations how to fight fire with fire!"

Wheeljack broke out of the deadlock by slamming on his brakes just as another clone tried to ram him, slamming into the other clone instead. The engineer caught up to Rodimus. "Because what's to say one of them isn't the real Sunstreaker?"

"Then he better pray I don't leave him in stasis lock."

XXXXXX

"Hmm," Pisces hummed and waved his hand in front of Darren's blank face. The boy didn't move or even blink as he sat in his chair, staring forward with dead eyes. "Is he awake?"

"Yes…and no. his conscious mind has been surpressed," Doctor Sidney Jones said, checking Darren's medical charts. "But all his motor-functions and reactions are intact, leaving us free to impose our own directives. Essentially, Darren Radcliffe..is OZ property."

"Good, good." Pisces smiled. "You've really helped us this time boy. Your body's accepted both the implants and the exo-carapice perfectly. Such a shame you and your sisters garnered Aries' ire. You certainly won't be needing this anymore."

Pisces inserted a key into Darren's inhibitor collar and clipped it open to take it off. He patted the boy on the head and walked to the door with the doctor.

"Now Sidney, show me how the Barricade warriors are doing."

"Of course, Pisces…"

They left the room to move onto their other projects, and they were so engaged in their work that they failed to see Darren's green eyes following their movements.

XXXXXX

Highway 30 became a highway to hell for Rodimus and Wheeljack as they dodged the volley of rockets fired at them by the Sunstreaker clones. The unknown and unnamed attackers were only a few paces behind and they were increasingly hard to divert or escape from.

"So much for outrunning them." Rodimus said.

"Yeah, they've got pace," Wheeljack said, swerving around a rocket that almost blew out his front tire.

"And range! Ow!" Rodimus hissed as a rocket crashed in front of him. "Any other bright ideas, Wheeljack? Cause, you know, much as I tolerate Sunstreaker, I'm starting not to care!"

"If we can't outmaneuver them, then we outsmart them!" Wheeljack made a hard left, drifting in front of an oncoming eighteen-wheeler truck. A clone tried to follow, but the truck hit it dead center and sent the vehicle crashing into the highway's protective railing, now a crushed and destroyed wreck.

"Good to see you're not a straight shooter, Jackie." Rodimus swerved onto a sharply curving road and the clone chasing him tried to do the same move. But it wasn't as adept at high speed control like Rodimus was, and this it crash through the railing and fell over the edge to its destruction. "That's two out of the equation."

They drove to the end of the road, making a detour onto a dirt path that led to the back end of an oil refinery. Seeing they lose their pursuers, the Autobots parked themselves to take a breather.

"Can we rest now?" Wheeljack groaned. It wasn't even ten yet, and things were already going south. He groaned even louder when he saw the remaining three clones drive down the path and slowly edged toward the Autobots, rocket launchers ready to fire on command.

"Slag, it's like they know how we think," Rodimus growled. "Anticipate every move we make."

"But…they're just automated drones, right?" Wheeljack asked and looked at his partner. "Right?"

"I don't know, but I know I'm sick of this game of cat and mouse. Let's see what they do when they see this!" Rodimus and Wheeljack converted to their robot modes and deployed their weapons; Rodimus extended his arm blasters, and Wheeljack took out his pulse cannon. They were ready for battle, but were hoping these "drones" were just simple clones of Sunstreaker's alt mode.

Too bad the universe hated them too much to cater to their hopes.

XXXXXX

'What did they do to me?' Darren thought as he stumbled through the halls of the OZ base. He felt dizzy, and his mind was hazy and sluggish. 'What am I now?'

Whatever they had done to him, it was more than just fixing some weird exo-armor to his body. He felt different inside too. Over the past three weeks, the scientists here had been trying to brainwash him into some loyal soldier on Aries' orders. Three weeks of pumping drugs into his body and using hypnotic suggestions to weaken his defenses. The only reason he had a clear head was because he repeated songs from his favorite childhood animated movies and inflicted some form of pain on himself to fight off the effects.

Thinking about his family and friends helped too, along with a personal mantra of Gina's science equations.

Darren jumped when he heard cheers coming from one of the rooms. Quietly, he sneaked up to the door and peeked inside. A group of scientist were deeply engaged in watching their prototype warriors battle two Autobots.

"Rodimus and Wheeljack?" Darren whispered. A shudder ran up his spine when he heard a pained, weak voice.

"Dn-Darreennn…"

He spun around, holding back his startled scream, but the horrific sight he came upon was enough to steal his voice.

It was Sunstreaker's head. And only his head, with a few cables connecting from his neck into the glowing spherical Spark chamber. It sat on a pedestal, hooked up to dozens of wires and cables, his expression fixed into one of pure agony. The armor and optic lens around his right eye was stripped away, revealing his bright blue optical sensory organ underneath. And that one eye was staring straight at him.

"Oh god," Darren gasped. "Sunstreaker?"

"Puhlease," Sunstreaker's garbled voice coughed through his battered vocoder, though his lips did not move. "Kill me!"

XXXXXX

Rodimus and Wheeljack were both in similar states of shock as one of the clone cars began to transform on its own. Unlike the natural, fluid transformations of normal cybertronians, this conversion was rigid and mechanical, lacing the quick fluidity of a natural transformation. Within seconds, a 15 foot replica of Sunstreaker stood in front of them, similar to the actual Autobot in almost every way, but its head had a cold, dead expression with red eyes.

Another surprise came when the clone reached up and plucked off its head!

"What the hell?!" Rodimus exclaimed.

The headless clone placed the head on the ground, and it too transformed into a smaller humanoid form-a man clad in some strange exo-armor that was once the larger mech's head.

"What are you?" Wheeljack whispered in awe and horror.

"Headmasters," The man smirked. "In evolutionary terms, the next step. Which makes you two surplus requirements!"

XXXXXX

Darren felt sick. He never saw a cybertronian, friend or foe, dismembered in such a manner this gruesome. Even Skyquake's death was quick and clean, merciful some would say considering the circumstances. Blinking back tears and keeping himself from retching, Darren tried to stay focused.

"S-Sunstreaker, how are you still alive?" Darren asked. Sunstreaker tried to speak, but all that came out was a digital drawl. "Sunny, stay with me here!"

"Suh-sorry, Darrennn. Difficult to-to…focus." Sunstreaker said in his broken speech. "They're…in my head. DD."

Why? What have they done to you?" He asked. "To me?"

"Suh-some kind of new t-tech. Human-mech hy-hy-"

"Hybrid?"

"Yuh. Har-hardwired into my neural p-processor. Call themselves…headmasters."

"Head-is that what I am? a headmaster?" Darren choked back a sob. "Gaia help me. Do I…change?"

"Yuh." Sunstreaker answered. "Into muh-my head. They're b-building ann…army. Using me as the…hub. Squeezing my mind."

"I heard Aries say Barricade's name. Is he…?"

"Theyyy-have him, tooooo. Making army of him, but ha-hahaving difficulty. Trouble wo-wo-working with dead brainnnn."

Darren quickly ducked under the window when one of the scientists glanced his way. He cursed and scooted out of sight into the corner. Okay, right." He breathed. "So what do we do?"

"Kuh-kill me." He pleaded. Darren turned to him with horrified eyes.

"No," Darren said firmly. "I won't accept that. There must be another option. Some way to fight back."

"Pwlease. I…just…want. This. To. Stop." Sunstreaker begged, a tear of energon leaking from his single operating eye. "They're all in here, uuusing me…to hunt, to hurt other Autobots! And this…is just the beginning!"

"I'm not killing you, Sunny. Not when I can save you. We're both going back to our families after this. I promise you." Darren looked at his armor, which looked like a demonic version of Sunstreaker's face. "The only way we both get out of here is together. Sunstreaker, they tried to make me into a weapon, and they already have dozens of clone bodies down here, I've seen them."

Darren took a deep breath and looked up at the dismembered Autobot. "Teach me…teach me how to be a headmaster."

XXXXXX

Headmasters were a special breed of cybertronian. They were born as mechanoids able to detach their heads, which operate as separate beings and are the true heart of their larger bodies, called transectors. They were an oddity before the war, and their numbers declined following the outbreak of hostilities.

What OZ had done with Sunstreaker was a perverted version of headmaster biology. It appalled Rodimus and Wheeljack, who had friends who were true headmasters like Brainstorm and Chromedome. But Rodimus hid his disgust with witty taunts.

"Headmasters? Now I've seen everything." He smirked. "I mean, I can see how you'd want to cover up all that fleshy vulnerability, but really! It'd be laughable if it weren't so tragic."

Wheeljack's back armor panel slid apart and one if his shoulder cannons extended from its compartment. He looked to Rodimus, who signaled him to wait.

"In a way, it's ironic you should have picked Sunstreaker to model yourself on. Because, well, this is the ultimate vanity!" Rodimus continued. "Plain fact is, all the cosmetic surgery in the world won't make you him."

"You're wrong…Rodimus of Nyon!" Agent Kloss grinned. "Actually, we're everything he was. More in fact! And thanks to him, we know all there is to know about both of you!"

"Well, see, I'm not sure. My friend here, Wheeljack he's something of a tinkerer. Always inventing some new bit of weaponry or gadget." Rodimus smirked. "And Sunstreaker, well, let's just say he's somewhat lax when it comes to reading the memos. I'm willing to bet he's never heard of a gyro-inhibitor shell."

Rodimus snapped his fingers and Wheeljack fired the shell from his cannon. It exploded over Kloss and his transector, raining down tiny sparks upon him. These sparks were in fact tiny EMP nanobots that disrupted electrical objects on contact. To Kloss, when his transector's neural signals were disrupted, the psychic link shared between the two caused a strong disruption in his equilibrium. When headmaster and transector fell over, that's when the Autobots made their move.

"Move it, Jackie!" Rodius reverted to his car form with Wheeljack and sped past the other two headmasters.

"We're running?"

"For now. We have a deadline, remember?"

"Right, Ironhide." Wheeljack sighed. "We've got 60 minutes."

"Then let's roll!"

XXXXXX

"These headmasters," Darren said. "They look like you and think like you."

"Yuh."

"And that's because at this stage of the process, they're hardwired into your head."

"Yuh."

"So, Sunstreaker," Darren flipped a lever to reveal a pod inside. "Room for one more?"

"Hehn. Why not?" Sunstreaker replied. "Whuhddabout youuu? Puh-point of nh-no return…"

Darren looked at his body. "Yeah, I know. But we have no choice. OZ must be stopped."

He walked over to the pod and looked it over nervously. "What do I do now?"

"Juhst…get in. Puh-process is auto-muh-muh-mated from hrh on in…"

"Okay." Darren got into the pod and waited anxiously. "A-anything else I should know?"

"Yuh. Iht's painful."

"Oh great!" Darren gulped as clamps fastened around his waist and a helmet was fitted onto his head. "No he tells me-AAAAAHHHHH!"

Darren's complaints melted into a scream as he felt his mind mesh with Sunstreaker through a painful procedure that felt like his entire brain was being electrocuted. Thoughts were exchanged, minds melded, memories were shared, and from it came a new breed of human.

XXXXXX

It was 7:53 when the pair of Autobots made it to the car lot. They spent tie than what was needed losing the headmasters, and even then they couldn't be sure that they were free. It was two against three.

"Did we lose them?" Wheeljack asked.

"Can't afford to assume so." Rodimus said, using the tasers in his headlights to break open the gate. "But neither can we afford to do more than we've done to shake them off. Ironhide's scheduled for the presses first thing, so we need to get him out of here, fast!"

The two Autobots drove into the lot, where Wheeljack encountered another problem. "I can't seem to get a GPS echo. Didn't Ratchet say he had it locked in?"

"Yeah, Wheeljack, he did. Funny thing is, we haven't heard a thing from him this entire time, let alone the GPS locator pulse."

"Oh boy." Wheeljack's scanners surveyed the huge area they had to deal with. Rows upon rows of scrapped cars in neat little piles. "Look lively, Hot Rod, we've got a lot of ground to cover."

South of the lot, Kloss and his team were still searching for their prey, who had surprisingly managed to elude them within the city.

"Well?" He asked.

"Command central has them making this turn on the local surveillance. Then…gone."

"Spread out. Work the grid. Keep in touch at all times." Kloss growled. "Find them."

The headmasters split up in search of the two Autobots, ready to gain more kills for their lord Aries.

Meanwhile, said Autobots had also separated to cover more ground. Then Rodimus had an idea. "I just realized something. If Ironhide was scheduled for the presses first thing this morning, chances are that's where he is, ready and waiting. I'm on my way there now."

"Roger, Rodimus, I'll see you the-"

A loud explosion over the comm nearly made Rodimus jump out of his alt mode. "Wheeljack? Wheeljack, are you all right?"

"I'd worry less about him and more about your own predicament!" Kloss drove around the corner and stopped in front of Rodimus's only other exit. "You're alone, isolated and you have me on your case. I move faster, think faster. Anything you can do, I can do ten times better. It's been fun watching you squirm, but it ends here!"

"Then shut up and bring it!" Rodimus shouted and made his engine roar, flames spewing out of his exhaust. "The only reason I've been putting up with you freaks is because you're only a secondary priority. But since you tried to torch my friend, all bets are off! Let's see who blinks first!"

Rodimus and Kloss drove straight at each other at full speed. Kloss fired two rockets, but Rodimus easily shot them down with the machine guns in his headlights. Neither warrior slowed down as they neared each other, almost nose to nose, waiting to see who bailed out first…and Kloss lost the battle of wills. He tried to turn at the last minute, but Rodimus slmmed into him hard enough to send him flying onto his hood, crashing into a car pile upside down. Rodimus transformed part of his arm and fired a volley of electrostatic blasts that blew the headmaster, and Kloss, up on contact.

"Amateur." Rodimus sniffed. He cursed when two missiles hit the ground near him and he was on the run again. "For Prime's sake, what you bozos lack in quality, you make up for in quantity!"

XXXXXX

"Ow. Ow. Ow!" Darren stumbled out of the pod, holding his aching head. He hissed and poked the helmet attached to his skull. "You weren't kidding when you said it would hurt. But…other than the headache, I don't feel any-"

He froze when a scientist walked in, looking down at his clipboard. When he looked up and saw a clearly unhypnotized and unrestrained esper boy up and about, he slammed his hand on the emergency alarm near the door. Without thinking, Darren rushed forward and punched the man hard enough to send him crashing through the door and into a wall, possibly breaking his back on impact.

"Whoa. Did I do that?" Darren looked at his hands. He barely realized what he was doing before it was over, and he wasn't even using his powers. "Or was that you? Or bother of us?" Sunstreaker made a garbled nose, but Darren understood his meaning. "Yeah, that's what I thought. But now that that's over, let's scram!"

Darren ran out of the room and down the halls, following the directions he memorized to the factory level. He heard soldiers marching down the halls and Darren made sure to create as many barricades as possible before sprinting toward the manufacturing plant. He skidded to a stop in front of the lined up transectors and took a deep breath.

"Here you are." He panted. "I hope this headmaster thing works."

XXXXXX

"What do you mean the boy escaped?!" Aries shouted. "I thought his reconditioning was a success!"

"Well, obviously it wasn't." Pisces replied, annoyed at this unfortunate development as well. "Apparently, he's also linked himself to the Autobot and now he's in the bodyshop."

"That boy's head is mine!" Aries snarled and marched towards the door, but was stopped by Pisces. "Don't start with me, Pisces!"

"Stop acting like a brute and act like a general of Our Lady's noble order." Pisces hissed. "If you started blasting away at him, then you'll destroy everything we've worked for, for almost a year in a single day! Don't let him get to you."

Aries took a deep breath and asked in a calmer tone, "And what do you suggest we do?"

"I've ordered all exits to be sealed and posted extra talos guards around the perimeter." He said. "The body has no training in being a headmaster and he'll have nowhere to go. He's trapped."

"You two boys and your runaway toys." Thornment chuckled, walked past them. "The human has already served his purpose. The resources invested in him have not been entirely wasted. I'll kill the boy myself and we can focus on more important matters."

Down below, Darren stood in front of the transector trying to get it to move. "Come on! I know I'm a headmaster on some level, I'm Sunstreaker as well, but I can feel someone interfering."

He felt the ground shake, lightly at first, but the tremors slowly increased in pace, scaring Darren. "Please work. Please work!" He gritted his teeth. "I know this can work if I don't-"

A large form smashed through the wall and Darren screamed as Thornment entered the room, stomping toward him.

"Panic!" He squeaked.

XXXXXX

"Looks like you bozos just downgraded from serious threat to rank amateur in no time at all!" Rodimus said. He kept ramming a headmaster in the side until it crashed into a broken down van and exploded. "Whatever edge you guys had is gone!"

It was true. Unknown to Rodimus, the scientists were unhooking Sunstreaker's head back at the central base, causing the increased reflexes and psychic link they shared to be interrupted. This affected not only Darren, but the Hunter team as well, who found their combat capabilities drastically.

Which spelled trouble for headmaster warrior Reese, who was forced to resort to fighting Rodimus in bipedal mode to avoid getting turned into a trash compactor by the Autobot. He manage to force the Autobot to take cover with his plasma fire as he called the regional base for help.

"Headmaster Reese to OZ central. Respond! What's the situation?" He called in. "I'm getting psychic interference on my end-agh!"

Reese cried out as two missiles and multiple rockets tore him apart from behind. A modified Apache Longbow appeared in the sky above them and fired another volley of rockets that blew the already dead transector apart.

"That's right!" Rodimus yelled at the dead clone. "Get slagged!"

"Rodimus? What's going on here?" Tomahawk flew closer to the ground and switched forms. "And did I just kill some bot that looked like Sunstreaker?"

"First-I love ya babe, you saved my tailpipe." Rodimus said. "Second-this is a really long story that I'll tell you about later. Third-Wheeljack and Ironhide need help ASAP!"

"Um, okay?" Tomahawk blinked.

XXXXXX

Staring death in the face in its various forms was something that Darren was becoming all to accustomed to since getting dragged into the Autobot/Decepticon war. but this was a predicament only a miracle could help him out of.

"You don't look so strong, boy. But of course, you must feel empowered after fighting brutes like Aries and Pisces." Thornment cackled.

"Shut up and tell your masters that I'm slave to no one!" Darren shouted. Then he realized the trick he was missing. "Duh! Head. Master. Of course!"

Something clicked at the back of his mind and Darren felt his body collapse into a crouch, the armor he was wearing folding together and snapping in place. In a split second, the head of Sunstreaker sat on the floor in front of Thornment…totally defenseless.

"This is wired!" Sunstreaker's voice said as his personality took over.

"You finally learned how to transform! Good for you, you learned something a protoforms could do in it's sleep!" She whipped her heat rods at the head, but it was snatched up before it was smashed by the powerful weapon.

One of the transectors jumped back from another whipped strike before attaching its head to the hard point on its neck. Sunstreaker gained control on his clone body and groaned.

'Moving feels like an effort and it shouldn't!' Sunstreaker thought. 'Whatever those bastards are doing to the real me, it's…slowing me down!'

Die, Autobot!" Thornment transformed to her fighter mode and unfolded to fire her particle beam, almost hitting Sunstreaker in the chest.

"Yow!" Sunstreaker instinctively transformed to car mode and sped around Thornment as he drove to the other side of the room. "You'll forgive us if we're not privy to giving a slag about you, you crazy glitch! You're not just dealing with old flesh and blood Darren Radcliffe anymore!"

Sunstreaker fired a missile and blew out the wall, driving out the hole and landing hard on the ground. "We're-I'm Sunstreaker! And I'm out!"

Thornment flew outside, but the Autobot was already speeding out of the courtyard, firing another missile in her direction to hold her back. She stumbled back as it hit her chest and the Autobot crashed through the gates to freedom.

"Well," She remarked. "That's just unfortunate."

XXXXXX

Rebecca and Joshua Red watched along with a group of Skywatch scientists and technicians as a large crane slowly loaded the still frozen body of Grimlock into the massive testing facility. As some of the other agents gazed up at the goliath in awe, Rebecca and Joshua were having a tense discussion.

"I can't do it, Red. Not on such short notice!" She said. "We've got two Skywatch mechanoids unaccounted for and you're asking me to fast-track another? I need more time!"

"We're out of time, Howard. Its war and we need warriors!" Red said. "Just two hours ago, we've got another battle between aliens the aliens in Xing that destroyed a town in the countryside. We can't hang back anymore."

"Then let me at least attempt to make contact with one of the factions. We know this is a civil war, so just allow me to-"

"No! Powers told me about your plan and it's too risky." He cut her off. "For all we know, they could just be fighting over who gets to torch us first."

Rebecca bristled. "You don't know that!"

"Neither do you." He glared at her. "We need to show these beings that humanity will not submit to extraterrestrial aggressors. If we don't show out strength, benevolent or not, they'll stomp all over us."

He glared up at Grimlock as if all this was his fault. "Whatever the risks, we have to take them. One thing I know for sure, we can't rely on anyone coming to our aid!"

Rebecca sighed and looked at Grimlock. As he passed by them, she could see her reflection in his red visor…and the primal rage hidden behind them.

That's it for the first arc of the final part. Up next, we'll get into the prelude to the Dynobot's story arc, then hit the finale afterwards following the craziness that'll follow. I'll be updating Distant Stars next to keep an eye out for that! Thanks for reading and please leave a review (seriously, they're addictive).