NAILED IT
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"And what is this?"
"The humans call it Chess."
"Humans? They've grown on you, my lord. They are no more than insects."
"Even insects have subspecies. The humans have their own."
"They must be too small to see."
"Maybe. Pawn to E4."
Ramjet studied the board. His optics stared hard.
"I barely know the rules. I will not beat you."
"Humour me."
"You don't really believe in what we're doing, do you? Pawn to D5."
"Does that even matter? Bishop to E2."
"Yes, my lord, it does. Pawn takes pawn."
"Now look here, Ramjet; one pawn faces down the entire of my army. One solitary, common soldier faces my entire force of soldiers, knights, rooks and even the king himself."
"He's doomed to die, my lord."
"Maybe not. Charge with him. Bishop to H5."
"As I'm not allowed to disobey the orders of a superior," Ramjet sneered. "Pawn to E3. You need to move only one pawn to kill him."
"Queen to F3. Charge."
Ramjet stared at his lord, angry. "This is a stupid and pointless game. Why must they move in regimented order, set moves? Although it might increase intelligence, it does nothing to help strategic planning or tactical manoeuvring! It is pointless!"
"Charge."
"But of course, my lord has a metaphorical allegory to teach me. Pawn to E2."
"Your pawn now stares down my king. The soldier and the king are about to duel."
"Duel? What nonsense is this? Unless your king plans on taking it, I have nothing to say to you."
"Then I shall finish this. Queen to F7. The pawn is dead. Checkmate."
Ramjet stared at the board for a second.
"N-No it isn't! My king can—"
"It is checkmate, but explain to me how it isn't."
"My king can move to D7!"
"Why can he move there?"
"B-Because… because my pawn moved…"
"Exactly. Checkmate."
"My lord, whatever you're trying to teach me here, I'm lost," Ramjet snarled.
His lord pointed to the pawn that stared down his king.
"It is checkmate for me. It is your turn and the king is set squarely in the sights of the pawn. Take the king and you win. It is checkmate."
Ramjet struggled to understand. "B-But… that's illegal. Pawns can only attack—"
"Pawns attack wherever you order them to attack," his lord replied. "Otherwise, they aren't your pawns."
"But it's against the rules of the game!"
"The true game has no rules. The only rules we follow are the ones we make ourselves. Take the king."
"B-But…"
"Take the king. Stop following the rules of Chess and follow the rules of the game."
Ramjet stared blankly. And then he got it.
"But isn't this cheating?"
"Since when has following rules been cheating?"
"Surely both players must be content with the new rule…"
"Ah. Now why would you reveal to your opponent the new rule?"
Ramjet grinned an ugly grin. "Heheh… I see now."
"But just remember, Ramjet; even the soldier can kill the king."
"Yes… pawn to E1. The king is captured."
Ramjet flicked the little chess piece into the air and caught it. He stared at it.
"Welcome to our side."
Episode 34: The Mother of All Monsters (Part 3)
They're screaming: "Sanctuary!"
They're screaming at you...
Lock Up The Wolves
The showdown was about to begin.
Two pawns would enter the warehouse, to fight over a queen.
She sobbed, the tears running down the gag in her mouth, streaming off her chin. She had given up on rescue long ago. For now, she waited for when the creatures would return.
A flap of metal wings echoed around the warehouse. She flinched.
And then a different sound. The sound of a door slowly grinding open. She did not open her eyes, dared not. She would not see what new horror would be before her.
"I know you're in here," a voice, relatively human, announced.
She looked up, hope flickering in her eyes.
She saw a boy, older than her, by the door.
He wore a duster, rifle in hand. He stared around the room with hidden eyes.
Another flap of wings.
She screamed through her gag as rending talons took her skull. Something heavy and malevolent perched on her head, chuckling. The boy aimed the rifle, as long as him.
"You," Laserbeak snarled and Cassandra relieved herself in pure terror. "I was not expecting you."
"Me," Ryder answered, focused entirely on the Decepticon across from him. "And I think this is the last time I ever want to see you, birdbrain."
"'Birdbrain'?" Laserbeak laughed. "Surely, child, you can do better than that."
"The best I can do is tear you apart, right now," Ryder replied. "This was your plan? To simply kidnap the President's daughter and force his hand; how uninspired."
"The simplest plans work best," Laserbeak muttered. "Although, I'm afraid it's gone rather awry here…"
"So you have no need to hurt her; release the girl, Laserbeak. I'll let you live so that we can duke it out later. But not with the lives on the line."
Laserbeak cackled, a hideous, haughty sound. "So what? I'm to return, becoming your nemesis as we duel for the power and the glory? You are a dead man. Tell me, how can a dead man be my nemesis?"
"The same way you're one dead pigeon."
"No. Simply no," Laserbeak replied nasally. "I bet all of my masters' resources on this gambit and I underestimated the human at the top. With so much at stake, I assumed he would crack. I was wrong. But because of what he's done, his life won't be the only one ending today."
The talons gripped. Cassandra's muffled screams seemed to resound off the steel walls.
Then a footfall echoed as well.
Immediately, Laserbeak shot into the air as several bullets whizzed past him. Ryder fired, but the Decepticon was too quick, spinning into the air in a falling ballet. Ryder ducked behind some barrels as Laserbeak turned his sights on the intruder.
Sherpa and the Decepticon stared each other down. The element of surprise was lost. It was down to who drew first.
Sherpa had been a former Delta Force sergeant for two years and had taken a tour with the Green Berets. He was a marksman with any weapon that weighed less than a hundred pounds and a pretty good shot with anything heavier. He had killed over fourteen men in the call of duty, travelled across half the world, selected for the Secret Service and had been successful in the protection of three consecutive Presidents, without voting for any one of them. In his spare time, he listened to opera.
In his Glock 17 were four rounds of byrillium-plated, feron-coated, armour-piercing rounds.
Laserbeak had been a former aerial predator on Cybertron's food chain, before the high-ranking Decepticon Soundwave had found him and in his experiments, successfully turned the avian monster fully sentient. He had killed over ten Autobots, twenty-five cybertronian civilians and nineteen humans since his 'rebirth', travelled across half the galaxy and been successful in the following of every order his master had given him. In his spare time, he dreamed of killing.
In his mouth, thirty-two teeth that could chew on diamond and a 32mm cannon loaded with fifty automatic rounds that could punch through solid steel. In his tail was a 40mm cannon loaded with sixty-five automatic rounds that could dent solid lead. His wings could cut straight through cybertronian armour and it had done many times before. Sharp spikes protruded from the tail as well.
There could have only been one outcome to the showdown.
Sherpa raised the gun and fired all four rounds. Laserbeak opened his mouth wide and prepared both of his guns. Due to the Decepticon's erratic manoeuvring, Sherpa missed three of his shots. The fourth punched through a wing, spattering some energon onto the floor.
Then it was Laserbeak's turn.
Sixteen huge rounds tore Sherpa to pieces. His left arm was blown clear off and his bullet-racked body was thrown back against several crates. He fell to the ground, blood leaking all over the floor. Cassandra was screaming as loud as she could, trying to wrench herself from the chair she was bound to.
Laserbeak almost plunged into the ground as well, but managed to wrench back onto Cassandra's head. Both of them roared with pain.
Ryder came back out of his cover, rifle and machine-gun now pointed at one another.
"STAY BACK!" Laserbeak shrieked, his mouth cannon aimed at Ryder, while his deadly tail curled around Cassandra's neck.
"Dude, just give it up," Ryder sighed. "It's over. Your little plan failed. Retreat to your evil lair and plan again. You can always return. That's what you guys do. You get beaten one week, you return the next. Hell, you've been doing it ever since you guys all came back."
"YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!" Laserbeak yelled. "This is it! There's nothing left for me out there! My master is dead, his last plan my last act! The other Decepticons couldn't care less about me! All that is now and all that's to come is this slab of a building! MY LIFE WILL END HERE!"
Ryder fingered the trigger, not quite as cool as he appeared. "What are you, an idiot? Don't throw away your life in some bullshit kidnapping gig. Get out."
"AND GO WHERE? WHERE? TELL ME THIS, HUMAN, WHERE SHOULD ONE LIKE ME GO?"
Ryder nervously stroked the trigger. "Wherever you want. There's a whole universe out there. Explore 'til your spark stops. Life is nothing if not experiences. What kind of last experience is this? To die, alone and foolish, in some human hive, waxing an eulogy about how you miss your master?"
The two of them stared each other down.
Sirens wailed in the distance.
"I can almost hear the hounds…" whispered Laserbeak. "And my shattered wing means I can no longer fly."
The tension rose. Cassandra still sobbed.
Ryder realised there was only one last card to pull. And it was certainly no ace.
"Surrender," he suggested. "If you surrendered and told us everything, you'd be spared, maybe even freed—"
"FUCK YOU!" Laserbeak screeched, finally snapping. "I WILL DECIDE WHEN I SHALL DIE, NOT YOU!"
A bullet shot out his mouth.
It smashed Ryder in the chest, bursting straight through one of his lungs. He was thrown to the floor, ELLIPSIS spinning into nowhere.
"FUCK YOU, PRETENTIOUS FOOL! DO YOU BELIEVE WE SHALL LOSE? DO YOU HONESTLY BELIEVE THAT? THERE WILL BE NO RETRIBUTION! THERE WILL BE NO KARMA! ALL YOUR FRIENDS WILL PERISH, THE AUTOBOTS WILL DIE, YOUR WORLD WILL BE DEVOURED! AND I WILL DIE AND I WILL LAUGH AND LAUGH AND LAUGH AND LAUGH AND LAUGH!"
With a flick of his tail, he slit Cassandra Callahan's throat.
Blood flowed down her body as her life ebbed away. The stink of death filled the air.
And it was that stench that finally woke up Sherpa.
"COME THEN!" Laserbeak continued to shriek. "COME THEN YOU PUNY INSECTS! I'LL KILL—"
There was the sound of a gun being reloaded and cocked.
Laserbeak turned to look.
Woozy from his injuries and huge amounts of blood loss, Sherpa's will to avenge his employer and his employer's family bent the odds slightly in his favour. It helped that his target wasn't flying anymore.
Five bullets went nowhere. The sixth broke through the Decepticon's chest, bursting through his spine and spinning into the warehouse. The next three punched through Laserbeak's face, shattering his optics, exploding his skull and tearing his head to pieces.
The Decepticon fell from Cassandra's corpse, his impact on the floor echoing across the room.
"Birdbrain… eh?" Sherpa coughed up blood. "Not much… brain… from what… I saw…"
He slipped away.
And as the cops and ambulance members arrived, Ryder gasped for life on the warehouse floor, the only survivor of the showdown.
"How can I breathe?" Kaminari asked, eyeing her escape routes.
"Iron lungs," Flatline muttered with a grin. "Almost literally. But the point is, you don't need to breathe; your heart isn't beating."
Kaminari felt her chest. She staggered backwards in shock, feeling for the pulse in her wrist. It wasn't there.
"H-How is this possible…?"
"I did more than just swap your arm out," Flatline hissed, joyously recounting his surgery. "I converted your entire network of arteries, veins and capillaries into running energon instead of blood. Of course, the results would be highly unknown, yet I was determined to experiment. You also have a personal oxygen supply that activates every time you subconsciously attempt to breathe. That will allow you to speak, as long as you keep your vocabulary to three hundred words a day. I'll teach you how to replace the oxygen canister later."
"This… this is impossible!" Kaminari cried, feelings of terror impeding her brain. "You've turned me into one of you! I have a spark inside my chest!"
"Wrong," Flatline gleefully revealed. "Truth of the matter is, you still have a heart; just not one of flesh. It's a small piece of metal located in your right arm; therefore, if the arm is removed, you die. Due to the power of energon compared to blood, it only beats once per day. That beat must be done manually, by twisting the small nob on your shoulder—"
But Kaminari wasn't listening.
I HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE!
She raced towards the door. She knew she would never be able to outrun Flatline and simply didn't care; she had to do something to escape this nightmare.
THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING!
She leapt through the huge doorway out of the infirmary, Flatline's laughs following her.
"Where are you going?" the Decepticon medic called after her. "Sri Lanka? Timbuktu? Mars? You can't escape, little one. You'll burn up in the Earth's atmosphere or get stepped on—"
And then the realisation hit Flatline.
"…Or use the Pillars."
He cursed and leapt out of his room.
"COME BACK HERE!"
Crashdive broke Optimus's neck.
He threw Prime's unconscious form into the mud as Buzzsaw lay dying in front of him. The Prime had hit the creature with a powerful sword blow, knocking the beast out of the air. Cruelly, Crashdive crushed it underfoot as he made his way to finish off Optimus.
Overhead, Ratbat circled, watching with keen eyes.
Crashdive stood over the forms of Optimus and Arcee, both in stasis lock. He grunted, considering their abysmal resistance.
He looked up at Ratbat. The creature screeched at him, warning him away from any more combat.
Crashdive shrugged and raised his scimitar to finish them off—
"HEY!" Mirage roared as he smashed two feet into Crashdive's face, sending the Decepticon spinning away, his scimitar flying into the treeline. Ratchet joined the other Autobot and the two of them faced off against Crashdive, weapon-less.
The Decepticon stood up and faced them both. Two blades appeared on Mirage's arms. A buzzsaw appeared in Ratchet's right hand.
"Leave now and we'll let you live," Mirage uttered.
Crashdive let out a low chuckle and withdrew two sickles from his hands.
"Mirage," Ratchet whispered.
"Yeah?"
"We don't stand a chance. I'm no fighter and this one clearly outmatches you."
"Watch me."
Mirage stepped forward, his blades swinging.
Crashdive grinned and charged forwards.
Sickles met swords and the two of them fought in a contest of strength. Mirage quickly realised how big a mistake this was, just as Crashdive headbutted him so savagely it forced him immediately into stasis lock.
As Mirage's limp body flopped into the mud, the Decepticon looked up at Ratchet, all alone.
"Oh scrap," the medic muttered.
Crashdive launched himself into the fray.
Kaminari ran as fast as she could, aided greatly by the moon's lack of gravity. She leaped entire rooms, her small size allowing her to escape through crooks and crannies within the twisted shipwreck.
"YOU FOOL!" Flatline continued to roar after her. She took no heed, breathing hard, even though her lungs never filled. She felt herself choking as she ran, before slipping under a small gap in a wall. Kaminari entered a pitch black room, forcing herself to stop. She stopped herself from breathing, shocked at her lack of panic.
She heard Flatline enter the room she had just exited.
He stopped. Kaminari flexed her fingers and claws with tension.
She heard him grumble, just before he left.
She let out some of her precious oxygen. Although it was unneeded, she realised it was a rather thoughtful gesture by the medic; if she had woken up, unable to breathe, she might have died of shock.
"This is most unusual," a voice chuckled.
Kaminari opened her eyes, fear gripping her yet again. But she couldn't see three feet in front of her in this darkness.
She remained silent.
"A little mouse crawling into the lair…" the voice muttered. "Uninvited, no less. What do you make of this, sir?"
Kaminari flinched at the word 'sir'. If it was Megatron, she was doomed—
"Intriguing," a sinister and deep voice uttered. Kaminari began to shake in pure terror.
S-S-Sh-Shockwave!
"To say the least," Astrotrain considered. "What are you from, human?"
Kaminari didn't reply.
"Speak or I'll squash you."
"A-America…"
"America? Don't think Soundwave's the only one who brushed up on your human culture. Your accent makes it a 64% chance that you are Japanese, 22% chance you are actually American and a 14% chance you are Korean. Truth or squish."
"I-I'm originally Japanese, but I live in America."
"And how does a Japanese-American immigrant come to tour our humble abode with a complete lack of proper space-faring equipment? You shouldn't even be able to speak."
Kaminari nervously raised her new arm. Astrotrain studied it from the shadows.
"…What has Flatline been up to…?"
"Who brought you here?" Shockwave finally asked, a low thunder rippling through the room.
"C-Crashdive."
Unseen to Kaminari's eyes, Astrotrain opened his mouth in surprise. Shockwave was silent.
"C-Can you point me towards the Pillars?" Kaminari asked cheekily, expecting death now at any second.
Astrotrain caught the joke. Shockwave didn't.
"It seems you do not like our company," Astrotrain chuckled with mirth. "I wonder why?"
Kaminari stayed silent.
Astrotrain considered something. He reached out a large, clawed hand. Kaminari flinched.
"Decision time," the Decepticon intoned. "Squish… or take my hand."
Kaminari shivered, but knew she had no choice. She stepped onto Astrotrain's hand, curling up into a ball to minimize any damage she might take.
Astrotrain took off, with unknown intentions.
Ratchet fell back, barely escaping Crashdive's mortal strokes. The sickles seemed to cut the very air itself. Ratchet knew he didn't have long left.
Where's Bumblebee and Sixshot? We need them now more than ever!
A sickle drew a wound across Ratchet's right arm, forcing him back into the mud. He stared up at the Seeker who had bested them all.
Crashdive grinned. He swung his sickles in slow, lazy arcs, building up Ratchet's death like some big event.
Ratchet shut off his optics.
The Decepticon roared in pain.
Ratchet's optics flickered on again. Crashdive was cradling his shoulder as bullet holes began to fill him.
All around the crash site were soldiers. Tanks and other armoured vehicles appeared everywhere, with rocket launchers and other assorted explosive weapons.
"Decepticon in the middle!" Major Fenway roared from atop a tank. "Surrender, immediately! Or face imminent destruction!"
Crashdive wrathfully stared around him, eyeing up the reinforcements arrayed against him. He calculated the odds he did not like.
Finally, he walked over to the mud where his scimitar had fallen and picked it up. Sheathing it on his back, he gave a little smile and raised his arms in the air.
He knelt on the mud.
There was silence.
"H-He surrendered?" Fenway asked, rather shocked. "That was… way too easy."
"Sir, I think we should execute this one," Epps suggested. "He's one of the few Decepticons who knows what he's doing—"
Suddenly, an almighty crash and ear-splitting din echoed around the crash site. Crashdive let forth a sonic boom, which deafened Ratchet and threw every soldier to the ground. Without a second's hesitation, he transformed and shot into the air.
There was silence in the pit.
Finally, Epps groaned and sat up. He looked around him, an entire company of HARP soldiers stunned.
"Goddamn," he muttered. "I thought only Thundercracker could pull that trick…"
Fenway got to his feet, stretching. "Whatever it was, let's just hope he's gone for good."
"Sir, I suggest we help bring the Autobots back to HARP Washington and have them debriefed. We need to work out what the hell happened here."
"Yeah… you can call this a lot of things, but a victory isn't one of them."
"Open your eyes."
Kaminari opened them. She gasped.
The world was before her, resplendent in green, blue and white. A massive orb of immense size in a space infinitely bigger, staring at her as she stared at it. Hanging in complete darkness, it glowed beautifully.
"Your Earth," Astrotrain announced. "A strange little place…"
Kaminari didn't reply. She looked around and realised she was floating in space. The sudden realisation of just how small she was in the universe hit her like a ton of bricks; looking down on the Earth, she gained this new perspective instantly.
"A world of land and sea, of people and places, of milk and honey…" he uttered. "So small, yet so big at the same time."
Kaminari began to feel scared. Not because of her company, but because of how… simply how small she felt.
"But I want to show you something," Astrotrain continued, before pointing at the Earth. "What is it you see?"
Kaminari gritted her teeth and forced herself to answer.
"My home." The words felt tiny, insignificant, especially against the huge creature beside her.
"A good answer, but I'm afraid you're wrong," the Decepticon sighed. "The fact is this; the Earth is nothing more than a rock."
Kaminari didn't answer. She just stared at the Earth.
"Because the universe is always expanding, I don't believe in size. You can call this rock big or small, I couldn't care less; but just remember that it is a rock. A rock that could be considered pretty or ugly, heavily populated or sparsely covered… but it is a rock. The fact of the matter is, wherever you are or whatever your opinions may be, it. Is. A. Rock."
"So it's a rock," Kaminari hissed. "What's your point?"
Silence.
Then;
"Do you have a family, human?"
Kaminari was taken aback. But she didn't show it.
"N-No… my mother passed away a few months ago…"
"Do you love anyone?"
Kaminari looked up at Astrotrain.
As far as HARP had been informed by the Autobots, Astrotrain had been a thug. A thug with smarts, yes, but otherwise your basic Decepticon grunt. According to the Autobots, he had been a simple engineer on Cybertron, tasked with doing nothing more than fixing vehicles. The only thing that had been noticeably different about him from the other engineers was that he was a mutant; one of the rare few cybertronians who were triple-changers. Other than this, he had been a nobody.
But then fate pulled him into the war's clutches. Before the Autobot and Decepticon war, Astrotrain had been on the side of Sentinel Prime in his quest to restore Cybertron to glory. But one of the crack soldiers was wounded in battle, horribly scarred and close to death. Due to the lack of medics in those chaotic times, Astrotrain found himself in charge of this patient. Using what he found, he replaced pieces of the soldier's torn-up central-processor with drone parts. He even replaced the cybertronian's right arm with an experimental cannon he had been working on. If this operation had been performed on any other cybertronian it probably would have killed him or, at the very least, scarred him for life. But Astrotrain had been delivered the toughest soldier on Cybertron; Shockwave. One morning, Astrotrain's accidental Frankenstein's monster came to life. Since then, Astrotrain had followed his creation with steadfast loyalty.
But, staring up at him, Kaminari realised the truth.
Astrotrain wasn't the toughest Decepticon. Nor the smartest. Nor the maddest. But he was by far the ugliest. This, Kaminari assumed, was why people underestimated him.
They underestimated his tenacity for survival.
This 'con wasn't just a simple engineer.
"You understand love?" she asked curiously.
"Yep. But as a dumb robot, I have no idea what it feels like," he chuckled sarcastically. "But I understand that it's probably the most important thing that you humans want or need. So I'm asking if you're in love, to see if I can present to you any new… career opportunities."
"…No, I'm not in love—"
"Excellent. Join us."
It took a few seconds for it to hit Kaminari. When it did, she looked up in shock.
"Y-You…"
She tried to find words. Astrotrain's hideous face regarded her with amusement.
"You… you asked me those questions to simply find out if I had any meaningful connections to my planet!"
"Smart. You're gonna go far, kid."
"I'm twenty-seven."
"And I'm much older than you think… kid."
Kaminari angrily looked up at him.
"If you think I'm going to betray my country, my friends or my planet, you've got another thing coming!"
Astrotrain studied her. She shivered.
"What's your name, human?"
"Kaminari."
"Kaminari… it's a rock."
"I-It's my ho—"
"HOME?" Astrotrain suddenly roared, splaying his arms out wide. "THIS IS YOUR HOME! WHY RESTRICT YOURSELF TO ONE MEASLY LITTLE ROCK WHEN THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE IS YOURS FOR THE TAKING?"
The force of this outburst caught Kaminari off-guard. But she was suddenly angry in kind.
"THIS?" she shouted back. "IS NOTHING! IT'S NOTHING BUT EMPTINESS! WHAT ABOUT CYBERTRON? DON'T YOU MISS YOUR REAL HOME?"
"Cybertron," Astrotrain hissed. "Is nothing. It bloomed. It burned. It was destroyed. Now it's no more than memories. It was exactly the same as Earth; just made of different materials and several million years in the past.
"But you call this nothing?" he continued. "Nothing but emptiness? You're a fool if you believe that. The universe is empty in the same way that Earth is covered in water. Seventy-three percent. Yet you call it home?"
"I was born there. I was raised there. It's all I've ever known."
"It will burn as Cybertron did. We will sack the world tomorrow."
Kaminari opened her mouth in shock. She looked towards her precious planet, agape.
"Why do you still stare at it so longingly?" Astrotrain muttered. "After all, you're in our clutches now."
Kaminari turned on him, furious.
"I am a human," she announced. "And I will never join you—"
"That, Kaminari, is where you are so wrong."
Quick as lightning, Astrotrain reached out and grabbed her. She struggled in his grasp as he brought her up to his ugly face.
"Do you really believe you're one of them?" he asked cruelly. "What runs through your veins isn't the blood your mother gave you. What allows you to breathe is utterly optional. In fact, you're more machine now than human. Looking down on you, I don't see an enemy that must be crushed; I see a long-lost relative."
Kaminari looked up at Astrotrain. Her iron gaze wavered. His words cut deep, but only because they were true. There were no lies behind Astrotrain's fiery optics.
There was a grunt.
The two of them turned.
Crashdive floated beside them, arms crossed, bemused optics observing.
"In the end, you only have two options, Kaminari," Astrotrain said as he released her. "Either be his slave… or our ally."
Crashdive grabbed his prisoner, transformed, and shot towards the moon.
Astrotrain looked towards the rock.
"Starting tomorrow," he whispered to himself, reflectively. "You will be no more than dust."
Ryder awoke to the smell of burning.
He opened his eyes. He looked up at the night.
"Who dragged me outside?" he wondered aloud. Curiously, he realised he felt no pain.
There was no answer.
He frowned.
Sitting up, he looked around him.
He wasn't on Earth.
Fires melted everything around him. Ton upon ton of metal, all shapes and sizes, melted. The fires burned so bright and so hot that Ryder realised they couldn't possibly be normal flames. The inferno twisted the metal, reduced it to a bubbling pool, and then released the gases it produced into the air. For some reason, Ryder got the feeling that something was dying. Something old and sad… something hungry and benevolent. Something screaming, that could never be heard.
There was no smoke.
"You were not dragged. You came here upon your own two legs."
Ryder turned and saw a figure silhouetted in the flames.
Sixshot.
Ryder stood, frowning deeper, realising he had no weapon.
"What am I doing here?" he asked.
Sixshot turned and looked up at the stars.
"Only you know."
"I doubt that."
"Why should you? You are your own person, are you not? Learn to think for yourself."
"All my life I've done nothing but think for myself."
"Lies. You crave attention like a spoiled child. All you've ever done was to get into the spotlight, never acting like you were seeking it. You live for the attention of others, nothing more."
"Whatever you say."
"Why come on the Autobots' missions? Why help them with their victories? Why the strange appearance, why the dismissive attitude? Why even stay with the others? Why try to save the girl? You are too smart for your age but too blind to do anything with that knowledge. The road you travel will lead you to your death."
"That's fine by me."
"Is it? What if I told you your death would go unnoticed by anyone but me? What if I told you that you would die alone and cold, not helping anyone, doing nothing more than seeking answers to questions irrelevant? You will die, Ryder, in the dark, the spotlight firmly entrenched on those who think for others, not those who think about others."
Ryder was silent, immovable behind his shades.
"For that's what you've been building to, isn't it?" Sixshot continued. "A death that would capture the eyes of the world, a death of true heroics, of true brilliance, of true courage! After all, what is life but leading to death? But for you, death will be painful and brief. Alone, atop a dead god, as he tightens your throat with invisible hands. That's how you will die, Ryder; immaterial."
"You're not Sixshot."
"It doesn't matter who I am. Unless you get out now, while death lingers close, your entire life will be entirely meaningless."
The fires drew closer. Sixshot's silhouette began to fade.
"Who are you?" Ryder muttered.
The fires surrounded him. The smell of burning lingered in the air.
"WHO ARE YOU?" he roared.
"Ryder? Are you awake?"
Ryder awoke to the smell of plastic flowers.
"Ryder? Are you ok?" Marcus asked.
Ryder frowned. Marcus stared down at him, worried.
"Yeah," Ryder murmured. "I guess so."
Marcus slapped him across the face. The blow stung and Ryder's eyes widened.
"I deserved that," Ryder admitted.
"Glad we're on the same page. Look to your left."
Ryder looked and saw Stacy asleep in the next bed along, bandage wrapped around her head.
"Hospital," Ryder spat. "I hate hospitals."
"This hospital removed the bullet from your pancreas," Marcus told him. "And it stopped her bleeding to death. So shut up."
Ryder lay back and shut his eyes.
Then immediately opened them again.
"Marcus…"
"Yeah?"
"You didn't get any headaches while here, did you?"
Marcus frowned. He looked at Ryder steadily.
His eyes widened.
"You saw something too, didn't you?" he asked.
Ryder nodded slowly.
"Yeah. Do your weird hallucinations ever pronounce your death in a rather demeaning way?"
"All the time. Frankly, it's become disappointing when he doesn't give me an update on my date with destiny."
"What a prick."
There was a small silence between them.
"You know…" Ryder murmured. "I've a bad feeling about whatever's coming next…"
"You've got a bad feeling? Sound Defcon 1!"
"Funny. I'm serious. Time's not on our side."
Marcus sighed and sat on a nearby chair.
"You know, we've come pretty far, haven't we?" he wondered. "We ran around with HARP for a while, explored the world, made friends…"
"But our luck's ran out," Stacy murmured, opening her eyes. "We all came close today. We need to quit while we're ahead."
Marcus smiled. "You okay?"
"I guess."
Ryder made an exasperated noise. Marcus and Stacy smiled at him.
"How did the invulnerable Ryder get into hospital then?" she continued.
"Killed another Decepticon creep. Unfortunately, it did its best to kill me. We need to find the Echidna behind all this."
Marcus frowned. "Echidna?"
Ryder sat up, sighing as he prepared his story.
"You heard of the Chimaera?"
"The Greek monster? Sure."
"You heard of the Hydra?"
"…Yeah."
"The Cyclops?"
"This have a point?"
"There was a creature called Echidna; known as the Mother of All Monsters. If you've heard of a creature from the myths, chances are she conceived it. The point I'm making is that no matter how many monsters you kill, Echidna will make more. Laserbeak was just another monster of the week, a guy who needed to be beaten and put six feet under. We need to find the guys who sent him and beat them in order for the monsters to stay gone."
"And how would we do that?" Marcus questioned. "They're kind of on the moon."
"Let them come to us."
Marcus threw up his hands in conclusion. "Fine. The Autobots can handle it."
Ryder frowned. "What do you mean?"
"Ryder; it's over. We're done. The Autobots could be exiled at any minute, the world's in the middle of a shitstorm after the Decepticon assault, and we almost died today! It's time to pack it in and get on with our lives."
Ryder shook his head. "You're giving up?"
"Ryder," Stacy said. "It's not our fight. It never was. And the fight's in its final stages anyway. We just need to report to HARP, say our goodbyes, then find our own way."
Ryder looked at them both. They looked back. He sighed.
"Then good luck to you both," he muttered. "But I need to find some things out before I retire. If this really is the endgame of this war, I'm determined to be part of the checkmate."
Marcus sighed. "Here comes the theatrics. Life isn't a chess game, Ryder."
"You're right. War is."
Megatron stood atop the Ark.
Below him, numbering dozens, Decepticons stood, ready for battle.
"There will be no speech," he uttered. "There will be no delays. There will be no more waiting…
"DECEPTICONS ATTACK!"
They shot off, Earth in their sights, leaving behind only a skeleton crew.
They vowed the skies would burn.
And the rock would die.