Author's note: I think I may be gaining some momentum again. Thanks for reading and commenting and favorite-ing and for the well wishes. I appreciate all of it. Transformers belongs to Hasbro and Takara, not me.
A Blessing and a Curse
By: Quetzal1
Chapter 37
Coalescence
Awareness returned as Stormvolt came back online. She was still about an hour away from full charge and wondered why she was awake when she discovered the answer. Beeping, which signaled an incoming message, was the culprit. Usually, there would be the noises of various systems powering up or pressurizing, but not this time. She had programmed her sensors to remain active, which kept her systems ready to go except her main processor. It was like the human expression "to sleep with one eye open." She liked to flex and move slowly upon awakening, but she feared doing so now would disturb Cyclonus. The poor guy needed his rest but his sensors would likely go off at the slightest provocation. The communicator display advised the call was from Rumble.
"Yeah?" She transmitted internally.
"Hey Stormvolt…. Uh, we're not interruptin' anything are we?" The seeker heard poorly disguised mischievousness in the mech's voice in addition to Frenzy's cackle in the background.
"If by 'anything' you mean my recharge, then yes. What's up?"
"Listen, you two need to get back out here to the refinery."
"Oh?" 'You two?' How did he know she wasn't alone? They seemed to have a gift for getting into the business of everyone else. It wouldn't have surprised her in the least to find out that Buzzsaw was dispatched to keep an additional eye on her until it was obvious his surveillance was no longer required. And they were teasing her instead of acting appalled. Had they finally accepted her relationship with Cyclonus?
"We found somethin' that will help us help our friend with his little problem." Rumble said slyly, his deliberate vagueness briefly reminding the femme of the mobster movies she'd been a fan of years ago. A split second after that, the import of his words sunk in.
"You what?" She said out loud, while suddenly rising to a sitting position. Her earlier guess was correct. Cyclonus was immediately awake and on the alert. She put a hand on his chest plate as a calming gesture.
"This ain't the way ta discuss it, so I'll tell ya when ya get here. You'll wanna kick yourself for not thinkin' of it first," Rumble said, sounding exceedingly pleased with himself.
"We'll see. Be there soon as I can."
"Right." And the connection was broken.
"What is the matter?" Cyclonus asked, watching her intently.
"That was Rumble. If I understood him correctly, he and Frenzy have found something that will help us with Galvatron."
"If you understood?"
"He didn't want to get specific over the communicator and said he'd tell us when we got there."
Cyclonus nodded. "That was wise of him. We should all approach this matter with a large amount of discretion." The enormity of what they were planning weighed on the mech. It was a task some would consider impossible. And others who didn't think it out of reach might prefer it fail and wouldn't hesitate to cause that outcome by any means necessary.
"What we're doing is dangerous in more ways that one, huh?" Stormvolt asked, as if reading his mind. The threat of what Galvatron would do to them if he found out what they were plotting had been foremost in her mind. However, what would the others do if they learned of it? A number of them, the Constructicons for instance, would likely be all for it. But… it was the last thing the Stunticons or Combaticons would want to happen. Especially if they knew they their own plot wasn't as secret as they thought.
"Yes, and that danger will only increase as matters progress."
"Let's go see what they found. I should check on Scourge after that," said Stormvolt, as she slid off the platform and onto the floor.
"I shall accompany you. I fear we will require his assistance."
She pushed with all her weight against the makeshift door. It began to move, but very slowly.
"How about a hand," she said. "We'll be here all day at this rate." Cyclonus was serious about her protection (as he was with everything) and had blocked the exit with a sheet of thick, heavy armor plating. It wasn't impossible for an intruder to blast their way in, but it would have taken a few attempts thereby giving ample warning and a chance to counterattack.
"Do you plan to be my second shadow until this is over?" If he intended to hang around nearby all the time, that would be okay with her. Unless it was constant over-protective hovering, but that seemed unlikely. Cyclonus was no mother hen. And this way she was still allowed out and around which was preferable to his wanting her to hide. But then hiding would lean toward the cowardly and no way would he have that.
The mech leaned over and helped her shove the plating to the side. It moved much easier under their combined force.
"What do you think?" He asked.
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Ratbat was especially skilled at secreting himself away, but not far enough away that he missed anything important. He had entered the chamber and slipped into a huge crack up on a high wall. From there he had an excellent view of the entire room and all that transpired within.
xxx
Onslaught was staring at the crude model of a nearby valley he had made from odds and ends. Pieces of stone were fashioned into small representations of various Decepticons, although they were so poorly rendered no one aside from their owner could tell who was who. The Combaticon leader was positive there was a good strategy for defending the valley but he was unable to come up with a single one. It was frustrating. In the recent past, concocting strategy was second nature to him but now…. Even recalling the basics was an exercise in exasperation. He was deeply absorbed in the task and hardly noticed when Vortex, Brawl and Swindle entered.
"What are you doing?" Vortex asked with a smirk as he looked over the replica valley. He knew full well what Onslaught was up to but delighted in watching him struggle and avoid the admission that he didn't know what he was doing any longer.
"I am devising a theoretical defense of the valley near here," Onslaught replied without so much as glancing up.
"Oh yeah? Sounds like fun," Brawl said sarcastically, as he picked up a few of the pieces that were carefully grouped in one position near a cluster of tall peaks.
"Don't touch those," Onslaught said, finally pulling his attention away from the model and scowling at them.
"Aw, what's wrong? You afraid he's going to break your toys?" Vortex asked, moving ever closer.
"Those aren't toys. And why are you three here? I didn't summon you."
"Right. About that…you won't be summoning any of us from now on."
"What?" He noticed that Vortex was drawing nearer and, with unease, that Brawl had haphazardly tossed the pieces back onto the board and was approaching too. Swindle had said nothing and even seemed reluctant but was following the other two at a distance.
"I'm calling the shots for the Combaticons now, and you'll do what I say,"
"Or else…?" Onslaught asked. He wasn't afraid of Vortex and he knew all his moves, or rather, he used to. It was more of that knowledge that had slipped away.
Vortex was still near the model valley and he stopped his advance, with the others doing likewise.
"Which one of these is you?" He asked, pointing at the figures.
"That one, fourth from the left."
Vortex picked it up and sneered before tossing it to Brawl. "Show him what'll happen if he doesn't cooperate."
Brawl placed the figure in the palm of one hand and then brought his fist down on it, smashing the tiny representation of Onslaught to fragments.
"Why are you challenging me for leadership?"
"Let's get something straight. I'm not challenging, I'm taking. I have the backing of the others and there's no way you can stop it.
"That's not the way it works. Our law states that the only way you can assume leadership is if you challenge me and win in hand to hand combat."
"Don't talk to me about the law, Onslaught. Look around you. Do you want to keep living like this? The only laws are the whims of Galvatron and we've had enough of him."
From his hiding place, Ratbat was intrigued. After another of Starscream's failed takeover attempts, the Combaticons were reprogrammed to be loyal to Megatron. And now this. How did it happen? Perhaps the metamorphosis to Galvatron rendered the logic of the reprogramming faulty. Whatever the reason, evidently Vortex and the others didn't feel that deep under the surface, he remained Megatron.
"What are you saying?" Onslaught asked. He was slowly being backed into a corner, an event he once would have been far too clever to allow to happen.
"I think you know, but then you've gotten kind of slow lately, so I'll spell it out. I'm taking over the Combaticons and then, with some help, we're going to get rid of Galvatron and his goons. Once they're out of the way, no one can stop us from taking control of the Decepticons."
"You can't get rid of Galvatron. He's too powerful."
"No, that's merely what he wants us to think. He's too scrambled to be that strong. Power is no good without control."
"And who's going to help you?"
"Not 'you', us. And don't you worry about that. We'll let you know when you need to know," Vortex said, placing an arm across Onslaught's shoulders. The gesture would be considered friendly to anyone watching that didn't hear the exchange, but Vortex meant it to be menacing. It was hard, using this much restraint. He longed to simply beat his former team leader into submission.
"Now, are you with us, or do we have to persuade you?"
"Let me have a word with him, Vortex. I bet I can make him see it our way," said Brawl, eagerly.
"No. Onslaught's reasonable. And he can surely understand why it would be foolish to disagree any further with us. Isn't that right?" Vortex asked, wrapping his arm around one side of Onslaught's neck joint and squeezing.
He was outnumbered and trapped. There was only one correct answer in this situation, whether he meant it or not.
"Yes," Onslaught replied.
"There. I knew we could work this out," Vortex said. "Now you can get back to your little game," he continued, sliding his arm down and away, before gesturing toward the door and walking away.
Onslaught was starting to relax a tiny bit when Vortex suddenly turned to face him again. He pointed at the crushed remains of Onslaught's avatar.
"Remember what I said, and don't get ideas about telling anyone, either. You know what will happen."
Onslaught only nodded in acknowledgement.
Ratbat was surprised it went as easily as it did. Didn't Onslaught see the obvious? The only reason they didn't beat him to spare parts was because they really needed him. They couldn't form Bruticus without him, and if they seriously damaged him, he would have to go see Hook, or more likely Stormvolt, and they would want to know what had happened. As it was, Onslaught couldn't be much safer from them. Did he know this and only pretended to cooperate? He watched as the Combaticon went over to where the remains of the piece that represented him were scattered. Onslaught crouched and scraped the chunks into a pile and then scooped them into his hands. He remained on the floor, staring at the pieces in his hands for a long while.
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Shyness was not an issue for Rumble or Frenzy. They were not intimidated in the least by the four larger 'bots standing over them waiting to see the purported answer to their problem.
"Do you care to explain why you've summoned us all here?" Shockwave asked. By the time the twins had called him, they were not explaining themselves. The less said openly about what was going on the better, so they only advised that he needed to come back to the headquarters sooner than scheduled.
"Relax Shockwave," Frenzy said.
"Yeah. Don't get your wires in a bunch," Rumble added.
"Get on with it," said Cyclonus. "I am not in the mood for any nonsense."
"All right, all right," said Frenzy, walking a short distance to where a portion of a workbench was covered with a tattered sheet of plastic. The lumpy protrusions beneath gave no good clues as to what it was hiding.
"So Frenzy and me was talkin'. What we need is a way to get Galvatron-,"
"Unless ya think he'll be willin' ta cooperate with the whole thing, Cyclonus," Frenzy interrupted.
"No, I do not," Cyclonus replied. Galvatron had said he would prefer to be in his old form, but once he heard how that could be obtained, he would be entirely too paranoid and suspicious to allow them to attempt it. Or he could change his answer when he wasn't under the influence of the new energon and his guard was back up.
"As I was sayin'," Rumble continued, shooting an annoyed glance at Frenzy. "What we need is a way to get Galvatron. And it should be somethin' that if it don't work, we can blame it on someone else and none of us is in any trouble."
The other Decepticons were intrigued and none of them spoke.
"And then Frenzy found just what we needed," Rumble said, pointing to Frenzy who took his cue and yanked the plastic off the object that was on the bench.
"Rrrrrgh! You're right. How did I forget about that?" Stormvolt said, placing a hand on her head as though it hurt. She had brought it back after their run in with the Quintessons in order to see exactly how it worked but so much else had happened that it had been set aside and no one had touched it until now.
"Told ya."
"What is that junk and how is it supposed to help us?" Shockwave asked.
Cyclonus recognized the mass of parts and was waiting to hear the rest of the plan, but he already suspected what it was.
"What that is, is a trap. It shoots out a net and then zaps ya until you're offline. Scourge got caught in it," Rumble said.
"Yeah, and the best part is it belongs to the Quintessons," Frenzy said. "That way, if Galvatron's too strong for it, we play dumb and blame it all on them."
"And how would Galvatron be caught with it?" Shockwave asked.
"I dunno. What if we planted it out away from everything and one of ya said ya found somethin' and he oughta take a look at it? Then he comes out and gets too close and that's that," Rumble suggested.
Soundwave nodded. He was pleased with his minions. There were a few obstacles in the plan, but overall it was very plausible.
"But this device is obviously damaged. How is that going do any good?" Shockwave asked.
"That's where you and Stormvolt come in. You guys can either fix it or build a new one. She knows what it's supposed ta do," Rumble said.
"Or maybe we can find another one. The Quintessons had no way of knowing that anyone would go to the exact spot where they left that one. I'd bet they planted several of them," Stormvolt said.
"True. Perhaps they did not retrieve any others they may have left. I will have the Sweeps search the asteroid," Cyclonus said, standing over the scattered parts and staring at them thoughtfully. Such deviousness directed at their leader was against his nature, but there weren't many options. If the Quintesson machine affected Galvatron as they anticipated, then it would be easy to put him into stasis and make the repairs to his damaged mind.
"I'm going to go see how Scourge is doing and then I'll come back and we can figure out the best way to go about fixing it incase the Sweeps don't find a new one," Stormvolt said to Shockwave.
"Have there been any updates from Ratbat?" Cyclonus asked.
"Negative," Soundwave replied.
"Notify me at once if there are any new developments."
"Acknowledged."
"Shockwave, you will begin work on the device. Rumble was present at its deployment and can answer your questions."
"As you wish," Shockwave replied. He didn't care for being told what to do but reminded himself it was a small thing to tolerate in order to get Megatron back. And speaking of small things to tolerate, he was equally displeased by being paired up with Soundwave's lackeys.
"Stormvolt, let us depart for the Vengeance. Scourge needs to be at full operational capacity as soon as possible.
The cassettes were perching themselves atop the workbench on either side of the ruined trap. Their suggestion was accepted as the plan and they were proud of the fact. They were expecting nothing more and were quite taken aback by what happened next.
Cyclonus was following the seeker toward the door when he stopped suddenly and turned.
"Rumble? Frenzy?" he said. They looked at him, expecting yet more instructions. "Well done." And then he left, not seeing the expressions of astonishment exchanged between the pair.
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The Sweep ordered to watch over Scourge wasn't the most cowardly of the three, but he felt uneasy. Nothing had happened and that was partially why. Scourge remained stretched out on a table in the repair bay. The beeping of monitoring equipment attached to his team leader was the only sound on board the Vengeance, save for the occasional creak of the metal hull of the ship. The glowing displays of the monitors cast a gloomy light as they advised of the many aspects of Scourge's functioning. If not for those readouts, the tracker could have been deactivated as far as appearances went. It had the feeling of a crypt and the Sweep didn't like it. It would have eased his mind greatly to know that Scourge was, in fact, fine but maintained the appearance of dormancy out of caution.
Scourge felt good physically, a condition that previously he never thought he would experience again. It was tempting to move around and try out his repairs, but he fought against the urge. His sensors told him there was a Sweep nearby. He did not fear his subordinate, but he knew that he wasn't here out of concern. No doubt Cyclonus or Galvatron had commanded him to stand guard and notify them upon his awakening. What did they have planned next? Did Galvatron want to pummel him again? Would he be tortured out of spite? Did they want to publicly execute him as an example to the others?
He heard a heavy scrape as the Sweep shifted his weight. What should he do? Was the Sweep brandishing a weapon? Was he paying close attention or was he distracted by something else? Would it be possible to overpower him and make an escape? But then where would he go? Questions flew through his processor but they found no answers. And then the chance to consider them further disappeared. Sudden steps were growing louder as they approached and his spark sank when one of the owners spoke.
"Is he online yet?" Cyclonus asked.
"I do not think so," said the Sweep. "He hasn't moved since I got here."
"Very well. You are dismissed."
Whoever was with Cyclonus came nearer. The lightness of their steps indicated someone of lesser weight. Probably the femme.
"All the readouts seem good," said Stormvolt. "But he was pretty beat up, it could just be taking a tad longer than we thought." Or possibly he was faking. Cyclonus came over to view the monitors himself, although he wasn't knowledgeable about all the information he saw there.
"Let's give him a little shove in the right direction. Would you grab the circuit booster from the storage room while I pull off this panel?"
Cyclonus nodded and did as requested. Stormvolt picked up a couple of tools and leaned in close to Scourge.
"Hey, you better knock it off. If I use that booster on you when you're already online, it's going to hurt like you wouldn't believe. Cyclonus isn't here to kill you, if that's what you're worried about. But when you leap off of this table howling in pain, he's gonna know you were faking and then he'll really be pissed," she whispered. There was no response. Was she wrong? The seeker removed the panel that allowed access to the connections she needed. Cyclonus returned with the device and it was quickly connected.
"All right, a jolt from this and hopefully he'll be ready to go," Stormvolt said, as a final warning. "One, two…"
Right on cue Scourge began to stir.
"How fortuitous," Cyclonus said, dryly. He had immediately noticed the way Stormvolt pointedly announced her intentions. Ordinarily she was silent except when requesting assistance in some way. He wasn't crazy about it, but he knew she preferred to make others do things of their own free will, or at least think they were, instead of threatening or forcing them.
Scourge slowly rose to a sitting position. "I still function?" He asked, hoping his surprise was accepted at genuine. If they had arrived there earlier, it wouldn't have been acting. He had been honestly shocked to discover he was alive.
"Spare me your deceit, Scourge," Cyclonus said. "I haven't the patience for any more difficulties with you."
"So you are going to destroy me," said Scourge, gloomily. "All I ask is that you make it quick."
Stormvolt moved aside. Once Cyclonus was finished she would give Scourge one final going over, but she didn't want to be in the way if the second in command's version of persuasion was applied.
"Courageous as ever. Stop it, and listen to me. You have one final opportunity to return yourself to my good graces," Cyclonus said with a warning clearly implied in his tone.
"I do?" This certainly wasn't what he expected. Not at all. Torture, pain and death, yes, but not a chance to redeem himself. Was it a cruel trick? It didn't make sense.
"Why?" He asked, before he could stop himself.
"Because we are on the verge of a glorious event, and to achieve it your participation is required."
When he heard what was expected of him, Scourge didn't think it was that bad. All he had to do was take a couple of Sweeps and return to the asteroid where the Quintessons had captured him and locate another of the devices. It was too easy.
"And this is all I have to do? Afterwards all is forgiven?" He asked, suspiciously.
"I didn't say that. What I said was that your first assignment was to locate and retrieve one of the snares. There will be other tasks, but you do not need to know what they are or why yet." Scourge still appeared dubious. He hated it when the other mech acted mysterious.
"Are you going to be a problem? I can grant your earlier request if you'd like," Cyclonus said, taking a threatening step in Scourge's direction.
"No! Of course I'll do as you say. When do you want me to go?" It continued to have the feel of a trap. He would have to keep an extra close eye on the Sweeps he took along.
"The sooner the better."
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Swindle wondered how he got himself into these messes but deep down he knew it was because he valued his own armor and sheet metal above all else. He had hoped that Vortex would eventually lose interest in the scheme but thus far he was showing no signs of that.
"That's everyone," Vortex said with a smug grin as he, Swindle and Brawl left the crumbling structure Onslaught considered their base of operations. "Now we need to figure out the best way to get rid of Galvatron."
"I thought we were going to attack him and fight it out," Brawl said, ready to be upset if more peaceful methods were devised.
"I don't know. I'm not convinced we could take him in a normal battle. And besides that, what if one of us is wounded or deactivated in the process? Or what if the Stunticons double-cross us?" Said Swindle.
"I don't know if they're that bright, but it would be better not to give them the chance," said Vortex.
"What then? No way can we threaten Galvatron like we did Onslaught. I say we blast them into scrap," Brawl argued.
"No, I think Swindle is on to something. Maybe there's a way to get the job done with less notice. If it works on Galvatron and his idiots, we could use it on Motormaster or all the Stunticons if we're quick about it. But what is it?"
With underhandness being his specialty, it didn't take Swindle long to come up with the idea.
"I think I've got it," he said.
"Out with it," Vortex demanded.
"One word: Ambush."