-Deep underground...-

"Scorponok, you've got some bearings showing your face again!" Sprawl said, his shock igniting after said Cybertronian revealed himself to the six rescuers. The rest of the Dinobots stood there, shocked with the revelation that one of their old enemies had returned. They all knew who he was, and apparently Sprawl remembered as well as his hands clenched into clutched fists, marching ahead of the Dinobots to get a make sure Scorponok knew who he was talking to. The rogue Decepticon smiled down at the Warrior Elite that stood tall in front of him.

"You recognize me Sprawl, I'm flattered." Scorponok said, putting a massive two-fingered pincer over his chest on screen. "How long has it been since we'd seen each other, my dear friend? Probably not long after I installed that arms factory inside your body."

"Far too long for both of us, I'd assume." Sprawl shot back, catching some attention from the Dinobots. Scorponok frowned, his once cheerful mood now tainted.

"Oh please, you're still sore after what happened during the Exodus all those years ago?" Scorponok gingerly mocked, "Hard to believe you still remember."

"I remember, Scorponok. I remember all of it." Sprawl spat, pointing a finger at the rogue Decepticon. Grimlock and the rest of the Dinobots watched on as the two Decepticons, current and former, had a probably long-awaited confrontation. There was some obvious history between him and Scorponok, something that surprised the Dinobots.

"Hmph, still so conceited with your morals. And I see you've brought some very strange allies along with you. Here I thought the death of Snarl would have stopped Grimlock from any sort of alliance with Decepticons no less, but I guess times are indeed changing." Scorponok said, his speech returning to a calm, collected manner. It only made him sound even more pretentious. And using Snarl? That just made Grimlock even more peeved. It took some nerve to wave his friend's death in front of him and Scorponok certainly had some, which he was going to pay dearly with.

"Listen here you bug-brained jerk!" Slash yelled to make sure Scorponok heard her, "Where's our kids? And what do you mean by experiment?"

Scorponok let out a deep, threatening chuckle, one that nobody liked.

"Oh I believe you'll all find out very soon. Take care now." And with that the screen lifted back up to the ceiling, leaving the six occupants with their fears and worries. Scorponok had been sparse with his details, probably intentionally as well to get on their nerves.

"The next time I see that bastard, I'm gonna rip his head off." Slug said.

"Get in line," Swoop added on, "Whatever he's doing down here, we're gonna put a stop to it."

"Then we have no time to lose." Sprawl said as he transformed into his tank form, rolling down the spacious hallway towards wherever it might lead him. The Dinobots followed suit, turning into their dinosaur alt-modes to keep up with the triple changer.

...

-The Nemesis-

"So they've gone down to Florida, eh? Nice place if you ignore the swamps and crackheads." Holly said, standing with the rest of the Stuntikids. They had been approached by Snare and brought to the bridge not long after Sprawl had sent out his emergency broadcast relay to the warship. Unfortunately, communication with the Warrior Elite had gone totally dark. Wherever Sprawl and the Dinobots had gone, the Decepticons could no longer get a hold of them. And that wasn't sitting well with Megatron.

"Your mission is not a vocational one, girl." Megatron said, keeping her tone sharp, "Sprawl and his new Autobot cohorts have discovered something inside the peninsula, and with our abilities to contact our Warrior Elite now completely null, we must now take to other measures of finding him."

"So you're sending us?" Bridgette said, and gave it a quick thought, "Makes sense in a way."

"Man, I haven't to Florida in years," Ethan sighed out, "I can surf, y'know. Used to do it a lot."

"We're not going down there for the beach, E. As much as I'd want to, though." Samantha grumbled out the last part. She really needed to get out more other than the occasional mission to some remote location. Her trips to the Amazon and wherever else over the past couple months had not done the former Texas native any good.

"You will not be traveling alone," Megatron said, "Your guardians will be coming with you, in case of severe emergencies."

"Great. Babysitting duty," Breakdown grumbled, rolling his good optic, "my favorite thing in the universe."

Motormaster responded by cuffing the back of his head with an open palm.

"We won't fail you, my Lady. We'll be sure to inform you of what is going on once we return to the surface." Motormaster said, getting things back on track as both Stunticons and Stuntikids got ready to make another move on Earth. No matter how many times they did this, Motormaster would always find this entertaining. Them going on a mission together to go find something or face the Autobots. Never got old.

"See to it that you do."

...

As the group descended deeper into Scorponok's hidden laboratory, it was clear that whatever the rogue was planning to do had certainly taken some time.

"Good god, how long does this go for?" Swoop asked, flying right below the ceiling as the six of them made their way down the ever-stretching hallway to wherever Scorponok was leading them to. Speaking of the rogue Decepticon, the Dinobots had been given a surprise when Sprawl had revealed that he and Scorponok had some apparent history with each other, and it was not friendly. The Warrior Elite had kept silent about his relationship for now.

The hallway of concrete suddenly changed into one of glass, and those looking around could see that they had just entered a body of water as dark as the night sky.

"Where are we?" Slug wondered.

"We are currently twelve hundred meters below the sea's surface," Sprawl answered, "and nearly a quarter mile off the coast."

"You guys noticing how there's no guards around?" Scorn noticed how easily they were making this journey. "I think our old buddy's got us some reserved seats to see his grand scheme."

"Scorponok has always been theatrical in his plans. Nothing like an audience to give yourself a boost to your ego." Sprawl said to him.

"Yeah, and you'd know that wouldn't you, since you looked ready to murder the bastard not too long ago." Slash spoke up as the Velociraptor jumped onto Sprawl's massive tank mode and leered into the open cockpit below her talons. "So I'm curious, what's your beef with the big-ass bug?"

It took a moment for Sprawl to answer her.

"Scorponok and I go back before the war became intergalactic. As he stated before, he was the one who built my internal arms factory. He was constantly experimenting with anything he could get his hands on, and was widely regarded as an exceptionally bright scientist, though that was far from what he truly was. When Megatron had been defeated during her first battle with Zeta Prime, Scorponok challenged her for the throne and won." Sprawl explained, shocking the Dinobots. "His first order when he usurped the title of leader was to create a "strong society" where the weak perished and the strong survived and ruled."

"Sounds like a great plan." Slug sarcastically said.

"It wasn't." Sprawl seethed. "I can't even count how many lives Scorponok tossed aside for his great plan, or the ones he killed. He regarded the majority of us as little more than spare parts. It was during the Exodus that he showed his true colors and ordered all Decepticons, willing or not, to destroy any and all neutrals from leaving the planet, massacring innocent lives for nothing more than to prove himself right."

The mentioning of the Exodus cast a dark shadow over the Dinobots. It was a terrible time for Cybertron when those days passed. So many fled the planet, and it was no wonder that Cybertronians were essentially blacklisted from across the galaxy.

"I was there," Grimlock said, having been on a station before where the Decepticons were killing neutrals for seemingly no reason, "I was there when it started. So much energon spilled, and for what? Can't tell you how many Decepticons I butchered that day, and I don't regret it one bit. They deserved what they got."

"And the 'Cons that didn't want to?" Slash asked, "What happened to them?"

"Those who dissented were murdered." Sprawl replied. "Scorponok saw to it that nobody dared to question his reasoning."

"So what's he doing here on Earth?" Scorn wondered.

"His reign was thankfully short-lived. Some time later Megatron returned from her exile on Junkion and reminded Scorponok who he was dealing with. Nobody sided with him, not after what he tried to turn us into. Watching as he was beaten within an inch of his life proved to be very satisfying." Sprawl responded, "After that, nobody heard from him again, until he started popping up on different planets across the cosmos doing more experiments with other lifeforms and getting arrested by Autobot officials. He must have arrived here on this planet under the radar after setting himself free and decided to set up shop."

"And now we're gonna go and crash whatever he's got in store for Earth? Sounds like a party." Swoop laughed. The tube continued to stretch onward until a shape started to appear in the water. Whatever it was, it was huge, and illuminated with specks of light which allowed them to see the full size of the structure.

"Is that a tower?"

"That must be his new lab. Our kids must be in there. C'mon, lets go." Grimlock said as they made their way to the underwater building. As they got closer they could make out more details of the building. It was bulky and cubist in its design, colored a dark steel with streaks of green-blue light cutting across its walls. As it ascended it became more narrow, eventually leading up to a single tower that held several antennas and satellite dishes pointed towards the ocean surface several hundred meters above. The moment they entered they were greeted with another large, open room. An equally large metal double door lay at the very back, coupled with a brutish lock mechanism strapped between the center.

"I don't think we're gonna be able to cut through that one, boss." Slug walked up and grappled with the lock's handles. It barely budged. "Locked tight."

"So we're stuck," Scorn spat out, "Great. Just great. Can't we get someone down here to help us?"

"Communications with the surface aren't going through. Scorponok must be blocking our signals from transmitting to the surface." Sprawl said, checking the holographic radio on his arm. That was enough for Grimlock's straining patience. He wasn't going to be merrily wandering around Scorponok's secret base while that smug Decepticon was playing them. He knew that Scorponok was watching them from somewhere, either hiding away in some secret room or just beyond that door. Grimlock didn't care. He wanted answers, a fight, and his kids back where they belong.

"SCORPONOK!" Grimlock bellowed to the ceiling above as he ignited his massive energon sword, "I know you can hear me, coward! Come out and show yourself!"

"All in good time, Grimlock." Scorponok's voice pierced the air, sending them all into battle-ready stances. "For now, I think you should behold what I have created. And Sprawl? I think it's time we had a nice, long chat."

"Um, guys?" Slash shakily said, looking down at her hands to see them being covered in a blue-white shimmer, "Is this happening to you as well?" The others looked down to see that they too were being covered in the same light as Slash, and it was recognizable.

"Dammit, he's warping us!" Slug yelled as he tried to move, but found he couldn't.

"Not all of us," Swoop pointed out, "He's only taking five of us! Check out Sprawl!" The Dinobots saw that the Warrior Elite was untouched by whatever was happening to them. Before they could disappear to wherever Scorponok was sending them, Grimlock was able to tell Sprawl one last thing.

"Sprawl! Find Scorponok! Make him tell you everything!" And then he and the Dinobots were gone in a flash. For a moment, Sprawl was all alone. Then the door at the back of the room opened up with a mighty clang as the gears inside began to move, parting aside for the Warrior Elite to enter. For Sprawl there was no other way than forward, so he walked in and entered the tower.

...

At another location inside of Scorponok's lab, the five Dinobots were finished getting themselves up from their teleporting adventure. Some of them had not landed on their feet as the portals had dropped them some distance above the floor. Grimlock offered Scorn a hand and the Spinosaurus graciously took it.

"Thanks boss."

"No problem, though I have no idea where the hell we are." Grimlock said.

"Somewhere deep, dark and very unsettling?" Slash replied, taking a look at their surroundings. She was right; it was completely dark in wherever they had been thrown to. To counter this, Grimlock whipped out his energon sword and ignited it, giving them some light. Hoping to find a way out and continue their journey to kicking Scorponok's ass to Cybertron and back, Grimlock walked on hoping to find a wall.

"I see you're all alive and well."

"I'm getting real sick of that bastard's voice coming out of nowhere," Slash groaned as Scorponok was heard through an overhead speaker.

"Alright Scorponok, we've played your game long enough!" Grimlock yelled out, "Where's our kids?!"

The room suddenly lit up, giving the Dinobots a clearer view of where they were. It was a massive circular arena that must have been twice as big as a football stadium, littered with bits and pieces of junk and other debris. From a distance they looked like spare parts. But as he gave them a closer look, they looked more like body parts than tossed junk, leaving Grimlock to believe that he and his friends had been sent inside a testing area for Scorponok's experiments. They had been smashed and torn apart, like something had decided to completely destroy what they had been attached to at one point.

"What the hell is this place?" Swoop mumbled to himself.

"It was remarkably easy for me to snatch your so-called children right from under your nasal sensors. A quick catch-and-grab, so simple yet so effective, straight from the streets of Nevada right to my lab. All thanks to a fake energon reading and a planted message from the Prime himself. And let me tell you, they were quite resilient once the testing began." Scorponok gave his answer to Grimlock, and it was one that he found so harrowing. It was because on the day they were taken Leo and the other Dinobrats had wanted to prove themselves to the Autobots that they weren't pushovers, that they could help out the Autobots more. They all did, each of the Dinobrats, and they were desperate to show. So Grimlock allowed them to scout for energon, something that should have been considered easy work. How wrong they were that day.

"What the frag do you mean, testing?!" Scorn asked, whipping his Scrapmaker sword like a whip. None of them were liking where this conversation was going.

"I thought you would appreciate the sentries I have chosen for you this day." Scorponok said as five large ports opened up from the floor, letting out steam as they did. The Dinobots eyed them carefully, arming themselves to prepare for anything that Scorponok might throw their way.

Rising up from the ports came Cybertronian bodies that stood with no heads. Each of them was differently designed, and differently colored. The one in the middle was colored black and gold with a metallic shine. The one to its left, the most massive of the bunch, had a pair of massive crests on its shoulders that stretched upwards, and was colored dark gray and orange. The body on the right, slim and feminine, was covered in plumage, metallic in nature and vastly colored in different kinds of blues. On the farthest left, also quite large, was a dirty brown, and the final was a dark green, covered in armored plates that resembled scutes.

"Long ago, there once existed a race of Cybertronians that were binary-partnered with a smaller being transformed into their heads, a symbiotic relationship between two sentient beings. An astounding display of evolution." Scorponok said as more ports opened, this time much smaller that what first came and also right in front too. "They were extinguished in the first Great War, but thanks to recycled ancient technology, and my own grand innovation, they shall live on under my command to take control of Earth, and rule over humanity!"

And out of those ports came very familiar faces.

"No..." Grimlock gasped, seeing five teens standing in front of the bodies. It was them. Their kids. But they were not the same as they once were. They had bodies wrapped in metal, similar to the five forms that stood behind them. And their eyes; blank, expressionless. Almost like zombies.

"What have you done?!" Slash cried out, seeing her own human turned into some sort of horrible hybrid.

"Merely taken the next step in evolution for both Transformer and human! Behold, my Headmasters!" Scorponok announced with glee as the former Dinobrats transformed into Cybertronian heads of various shapes and sizes. The bodies behind them reached down, plucked them up, and put them on their necks. The eyes lit up as they conjoined, glaring at the horrified Dinobots in front of them.

"By Primus!" Scorn swore.

"And now you shall have the honor of fighting the first of my great experiments! Your former humans, each of them been gifted with a various form from Earth's past such as your's, creatures born to fight! And their first prey shall be you!" As he said that, their unwillingly transformed kids, the friends they had known for years, turned into their alt-modes. Leo turned into a huge gold and black Allosaurus, Earheart was a navy blue Quetzalcoatlus, Hun had become a Cerasinops, Apache a large dark-colored Dilophosaurus and Achilles an enormous crocodile, a Deinosuchus. Each of their bestial forms let out a screech or a roar at the Dinobots, which meant that they were itching for to fight.

"Behold, the New Dinobots! I hope you all make your acquaintances known, because it will be your last!" Scorponok cried with glee, and cut off.

"Grimlock, what do we do?" Swoop asked, reluctantly aiming his sword at his charge. "Scorponok must have them under some sort of control! There's no way they'd actually fight us!"

"You're right, Swoop. There's only one way we can do this and save them from Scorponok," Grimlock said, and transformed into his dinosaur form with a mighty howl, "We have to make them remember who we are, and give it our all as BEASTS! Dinobots, charge!" The Dinobot leader roared, his Tyrannosaurus alt-mode ready to brawl. He wasn't alone as the rest of the Dinobots followed suit, and prepared themselves for a fight none of them would forget.

...

Sprawl had taken a much different journey than the Dinobots. The doors to the elevator opened up, revealing a massive, circular room filled with various scientific equipment such as test tubes and and computer screens that displayed various locations across the Earth. Sprawl found it all unnerving, more so due to the fact that he was walking around here completely alone. The Warrior Elite knew that this was all part of Scorponok's master plan.

Sprawl had entered an open room at the end of the laboratory when he heard a voice pop out to his left.

"Welcome, old friend. How are you?"

Sprawl's arm cannons activated and turned to where he heard the voice come from and saw Scorponok emerge from the shadows. He had almost forgotten what it was like to stare at another Cybertronian face-to-face since Scorponok was slightly bigger than he was. Speaking of the rogue, Scorponok had barely changed the last time Sprawl had seen him. He still wore his signature orange optic visor, and mandible-shaped horns. His coloration had changed from the standard green and purple he wore, now adding some orange to highlight his frame. Other than that, he was still remarkably similar to his time on Cybertron.

"Scorponok," Sprawl said, this time choosing to keep his anger in check as he aligned his blue-white targeting lasers to Scorponok's spark.

"Put your weapon away. I invited you to talk, not to fight like some mindless brute such as your Dinobot friends." Scorponok said. While Sprawl had no reason to trust him, he also needed to get answers. Slowly Sprawl disarmed himself, retracting his railcannon back into his arm. "Good, you're listening. And now I suggest you do it some more."

"Try me."

"Ha! Direct and straight to the point. I've always liked that from you, Sprawl. Guards, please escort our guest to my lab." Scorponok clapped his pincer-like hands together, and a pair of unidentifiable Transformers walked on in from another doorway. Sprawl realized that these were the things that carried the signatures that allowed him and the Dinobots to find this place. What truly unnerved the Warrior Elite was their faces, or rather lack thereof. Only a pair of angular red optics and six slits where a mouth should be was any evidence. Scorponok turned around and started walking towards an open door, and Sprawl reluctantly followed after one of the guards nudged him to.

Scorponok's lab was smaller than the room he arrived in. It was also circular as well, with bright yellow lighting and a large monitor at the far end. That was not the only thing, though. Scattered around on tables were unfinished or unkempt experiments tossed on slabs. Some of them dripped various oozes down to the floor below, and Sprawl made a note not to step in anything. Scorponok apparently liked having a messy lab.

"You and I are much more alike than you care to admit, Sprawl." Scorponok began, pressing a button on the holographic keyboard to display the battle between the Dinobots and the Beastmasters.

"We are nothing alike, Scorponok." Sprawl vehemently said back.

"Quite the contrary. We both have our convictions of who is right and who is wrong, and are more than capable of using our strength to make it so. Why do you think I invited you up here? Your strength, your power, the arms factory I gifted to you, you're practically unmatched by almost everyone on this planet, including your fellow Decepticons. Which I why I propose to you an alliance; you and I, together against all!"

Sprawl would have blinked had he been capable of doing so.

"You're not serious."

"Oh, but I am! Think about it, Sprawl! We rank among the strongest Decepticons there is! Do you think Megatron will simply let you go once she has the Earth under her control? Or if she loses the battle for this planet? Even though you helped the Dinobots in their feckless attempt to reconcile with their former human friends, the Autobots will still believe you too dangerous to live and try to put you down." Scorponok said, gesturing to Sprawl to try and sway over the Warrior Elite.

"And what are your plans for the Earth, Scorponok? The Machination?" Sprawl asked, and Scorponok smiled brightly back.

"The Machination is far more than you realize. I am building my own order here, and the time is nearly ripe to reveal its true scale. Thanks to some human help, the Headmasters shall rise again and I will have complete control over the entire planet. Even now my sleeper agents await my order, each of them primed and ready to strike this nation's capital and all others around the globe." Scorponok responded, and turned around to face the Elite with a wild grin.

"And I've got other allies, too." He pressed a button, revealing on-screen a room filled to the brim with familiar monsters.

"Are those Sharkticons?!" Sprawl gasped.

"Rescued from the Quintesson starfighter, brought here on my behalf thanks to some allies within the nation's capital." Scorponok answered, and Sprawl grimaced. Those human fools. They must have known what they were getting in to. Unless it was what Scorponok wanted. One thing still bugged the Warrior Elite.

"So you've been capturing humans, and what? Turning them into some techno-organic abominations to serve under you?" Sprawl asked, taking a glance at the pair of faux-Transformers that stood guard. Neither of them responded to the Warrior Elite's barb. Scorponok let out an indignant laugh.

"Don't act as though you're all innocent when it comes to indoctrination. I know all about the Stuntikids, Sprawl. Motormaster must have been quite the nuisance for Megatron to issue that sort of punishment for his little band of delinquents. I have made my humans into better, more powerful creations, or at least the ones who joined my cause. No matter who gets in the way, Autobot or Decepticon, they will all fall before the Machination. And now I ask you to join me. Together we'll be unstoppable. You can have your freedom, your life back. Isn't that what you've always wanted?" Scorponok asked, and the Warrior Elite turned away. The rogue continued, "Why must your loyalty to Megatron be so absolute? She will discard you like trash like she did to me all those eons ago. Are you afraid of change?"

"I'm not afraid of change. But tell me something, Scorponok. Those things that the Dinobots are fighting," he pointed towards the screen, "they were their human charges before you found them, weren't they?" Sprawl asked, and Scorponok smirked.

"Of course. I despise Grimlock and his monstrous ilk, and what better way to finish him off than to have his precious human friend do it?"

"And how did you accomplish that, might I ask?" Sprawl would have narrowed his optics had he been able to do so. Getting answers out of Scorponok was easy thanks to his ego, but the Elite was not a big fan of where it was going.

"I'll let you in on a little secret. Those Quintesson starfighters that arrived here not too long ago? It was I who signaled them to come here to Earth, on the behest that they would get their slaves back, and in return I would get some of their tech to further the Machination's endgame. That little attempt of revenge bit, though? That was not on my part, that was on their's, besides they're all dead anyway. The second ship crashed on the moon when it left the atmosphere, and I managed to get the first dibs on the starfighter that fell in Chicago. I'll tell you, our ancient adversaries carried with them some impressive technology." Scorponok answered, and it was all Sprawl needed to hear. Had the former Decepticon noticed, Sprawl's hands had tightened into fists.

Hearing that Scorponok had summoned the Quintesson threat, which could have taken the planet if they hadn't stopped it as soon as it happened, boiled the energon in his veins. Bad enough that this psychopath had called himself a friend of his, but now inviting his long-hated nemesis to the Earth for their technology?

"So will you join me? I will not ask again." The rogue asked one final time.

"No need," Sprawl answered, "I've got my answer."

And then he punched Scorponok as hard as he could in the face. Scorponok barely had time to react before he was sent flying into the computer monitor, shattering it into a million pieces. The two guards rushed to get the drop on the Warrior Elite, but Sprawl had known they'd attack. Arming himself with his railcannons he fired two rounds, each going straight into where their sparkchambers would be. While the bodies crumpled, the heads fell off to reveal they could also transform into smaller forms but had human heads, both stunning and disgusting the Elite as they ran off.

"I offered you a way out, and this is how you repay me?!" Scorponok raged, wiping off the energon from his mouth. "Nova Prime truly did turn you into a blind, arrogant loyalist!"

Scorponok fired his shoulder cannons at Sprawl, who blocked it with his arm in time.

"The only thing that you offered me was showing that you hadn't changed at all, Scorponok. Still the revolting madman that Megatron exiled those millions of years ago. Whatever your plans are, I'm putting a stop to them here and now!" Sprawl said, pointing at his former ally.

"I respect your tenacity, Sprawl. You are an ancient warrior of great resolve, but you lack strategy. Something I have honed for eons. Still as a fellow warrior," Scorponok got up and flexed his arms, preparing to bring a fight to the Warrior Elite, "I shall grant you a warrior's death!"

Sprawl hoped that Grimlock and his Dinobots were winning their fight as well as he hoped.

...

It wasn't.

"Leo, it's me!" Grimlock said in desperation, "It's Grimlock! Your friend!"

The dinosaur placed himself some good distance from the Allosaurusthat was once his human, his friend. Dark blue optics, cold and unemotional, stared right back into his own. They had no glimmer of thought, nor life. This journey was turning into nothing less than a total nightmare. The rest of the Dinobots were fighting their own battles, each battling their former humans in a desperate attempt to save them from themselves. Swoop and Earheart dueled in the air above them, the large aerial dinosaur spitting out balls of fire from her beak as the Pterodactyl weaved around them. Slug and Hun were locked in a ferocious headbutt, neither wanting to break off. Scorn had barely been chomped on by his charge's massive maw, and Slash and Apache were racing around trying to outgun the other in a game of cat and mouse.

And it was starting to get dangerous.

Grimlock could feel it; the nagging at the back of his head, the urge to go all-out and destroy. Shockwave's experiments had left their mark on him both physically and mentally, drawing in more primal rage as he continued to fight. But he couldn't, not on the one human that he had trusted more than anything else. He needed to break him out from Scorponok's control, no matter the cost.

Heh. Felt like Optimus for a moment, Grimlock internally said as he used his tail to bash Leo away, but the mind-controlled dinosaur twisted his body and landed back on his talons with ease.

"This is crazy!" Slug cried out, his horns locked against Hun's own, "How do we even manage to break them out of Scorponok's control without killing them?"

"We have to try something!" Scorn dodged to the side as Achilles's massive jaws clamped down next to him, "Think! There has to be some sort of mechanism!"

A mechanism... Grimlock gave it some thought, and realized that Scorn might be onto something, That's it! If they're really Headmasters, then their own strength is their weakness! Their heads and bodies are two separate parts! And mind control means heads!

"Force them to transform!" Grimlock shouted, using his tail to bash Leo away from him.

"Force them to-? How? Is that even possible?!" Slash replied as she kicked Apache away from mauling her.

"Their heads! Target their heads!" Grimlock answered, "If we force them to transform back into their robot forms with enough force, it might break Scorponok's control over them!" And Grimlock did just that. He charged the mind-controlled Leo, the two dinosaurs barreling at each other, and at the last moment rather than lose control to his more violent self, he transformed back into his bipedal form, dodged his former human's attack in the form of a powerful swipe from his claws, and punched the back of Leo's head as hard as he could. The techno-organic sailed through the air, and to Grimlock's surprise he transformed as he did, turning back into his robot mode. He tumbled away, collapsing into a heap.

Slowly Grimlock approached Leo, wondering if his idea had actually worked like he wanted to, but seeing his former human charge knocked down only stroked his fears. The Dinobot began to worry that he had hit his former charge too hard and had accidentally rendered him unconscious, or possibly killed him. And to his amazement, Leo began to stir.

"Ughh... what-? Where am I?" He said in his own voice, putting a hand on his aching head. The whole world felt like a giant blur of movement. That is until he turned his head to see a familiar shape in front of him, one that he easily recognized. "Grimlock?"

The Dinobot nearly shouted in hurrah. By Primus, it worked!

"Welcome back Leo," Grimlock said, relieved that he had brought his friend out of Scorponok's mind control, "How are you feeling?"

"God, I feel... awful. Can't remember much over the past couple days before... this happened." Leo responded as he reached out to grab Grimlock's hand and hauled himself up on his feet. The former human stumbled a little bit as he began to look upon his new body, taking in the gold and black armor that adorned him. His red optics scanned back and forth.

"My god, what am I? Where are the others?" Leo asked, and Grimlock pointed to where the rest of the Dinobots were helping up their own charges after Grimlock's plan had worked on Leo. They too were dealing with their new bodies, some of them more intensely than others.

"I-I'm a Transformer?!" Earheart screeched in horror as she tugged on the metallic plumage on her arms. "Oh god, what happened to me?"

"What happened to us, more like." Hun growled. He, along with his fellow former humans, were looking at their bodies as they woke up from Scorponok's brainwashing thanks to Grimlock's quick thinking. Based on their reactions most of them weren't taking this new development in stride. While the boys were dealing with this in silence, Earheart was trying to calm herself with Swoop by her side.

"Scorponok captured us and turned us into these things." Apache said, rationalizing their worst fears, "But how? Is this even remotely possible?"

"Sprawl said that Scorponok did a lot of shady slag even before the war started," Slug responded as he put a hand on his friend's shoulder, "He's probably got some sort of device or machine buried here in his fortress."

"Wait, Sprawl's here?" Leo asked, and the rest of the Dinobrats turned their attention to Grimlock.

"Yeah, he tagged along. We asked the Decepticons for help and he came. Turns out he and Scorponok have history, the bad kind. Kind of like us and any sort of authority." The Dinobot leader said.

"So," Achilles wondered, scratching his chin, "If Scorponok turned us into Transformers, do you think we could we reverse it? Turn us back into normal humans?"

"I don't know. But what I do know is that we should get out of here as soon as possible." Grimlock said, getting their attention. "Listen up. We came here to get you out, and that's what we're gonna do. Leo, you and the others stay with us as close as possible. We're not letting you out of our sight. Let's find an exit and get the hell out of-"

That was a far as he got before the ceiling above them exploded, and something big came falling down right in the middle of the arena. The ten Autobots jumped out of the way before any could become collateral damage. When the dust settled, the Dinobots and Dinobrats saw a recognizable shape in the newly formed crater in front of them.

"Here? Sprawl?" Grimlock asked.

"I'm fine," The Warrior Elite said as he stood up, shaking the rubble off his body. He noticed the five new Transformers alongside the Dinobots as well, "And I see you've managed to rescue your friends. How are you, Dinobrats? Feeling any better now that you've become unwilling hybrids?"

"Screw you too, dude." Earheart spat.

"Bastards! How dare you!" Scorponok's voice raged from above, getting their attention as he leered down from the blast hole where Sprawl fell from. Scorponok's orange visor lit up in anger. The rogue had just arrived to witness his hard work become undone thanks to Grimlock and his Dinobots, and now he was utterly incensed. As if fighting Sprawl in his personal laboratory and destroying it in the process wasn't enough, now he had to deal with his experiments regaining their independence. And wasn't alone with being angry. The Dinobrats probably wanted nothing less than to fly up there and finish him off.

"And there he is," Scorn seethed, the rest of the Dinobots in the same mood.

"We can't stay here," Sprawl said, "Scorponok has an army of Headmasters and in his fortress that number in the thousands. We must get in contact with the Nemesis and warn them."

"You think you can leave so easily?" Scorponok sneered as he pressed a button on his wrist and the arena's doors opened to reveal a seemingly endless horde of fake Transformers and hungry Sharkticons running in armed and ready to kill, "I'll have you all processed down for spare parts!"

"That's," Hun said, "a lot of bad guys."

"Oh sweet lord, more of those things?!" Earheart aimed her fear at the Sharkticons.

"Sprawl? Make an exit." Grimlock ordered as he hooked his energon sword.

"Sure thing," The Warrior Elite jumped up and transformed into his gunship mode, firing his cannons to form a massive hole in front of them. Debris rained down on the charging Headmasters, some of them crushed. He lowered himself down and deployed his grapple bars as the smoke cleared to reveal an escape.

"Swoop, Earheart! Follow us! The rest of you, hold on tight!" Grimlock shouted as Sprawl engaged his boosters and blasted off into Scorponok's tower and out of his sight. The Headmasters were left in the dust, and Scorponok let out a cry of frustration, pounding his fist against the metal floor. How could this have happened? Not only did they manage to escape, they had made a fool out of him! Scorponok would not stand for it!

"Sir?" A Headmaster on his level asked, "What do we do?"

Scorponok slowly regained his calm composure, allowing his cooling fans to get some air inside his body. Losing his temper now, while he still had pieces to play on the field, would only make his situation more dire. He needed to act fast, and now. The Autobots and Decepticons would be here soon, but the thought of all of his enemies in one place at one time made him chuckle. It was almost poetry, for him to lose the battle here, but to win the war today.

"Activate the warp engine! Let us show our friends the powers of the Machination!"

...

Meanwhile on the surface, the Stunticons and Stuntikids were cruising towards Sprawl's beacon. They had been dropped off some time ago, and the sun had just begun to rise above the horizon as morning crept over night. Motormaster led the convoy as they neared the location given to them by Sprawl. But as they got closer, they were greeted with no big black and chrome Decepticon in sight. The docks were empty save for the ten of them.

"Anyone else think Sprawl might have been duped?" Holly asked.

"It says it should be right here," Bridgette said, taking a look at the GPS indicator in her hand, which was showing that they were exactly where Sprawl messaged them from, "This is where he last was, but there's no Sprawl anywhere."

"Maybe he vanished." Breakdown wondered.

"Maybe he's dead," Dead End said, and Zoey glared at her guardian through his steering wheel, "Don't you look at me like that."

"Can Sprawl even die? Dude's practically invincible." Wildrider asked.

"If he was dead, we'd know. This place would be leveled if someone tried to get the drop on Sprawl, let alone any Warrior Elite." Motormaster replied. The Stuntikids jumped out of their guardians as they transformed to get a better look at the surrounding area. As they did, they started hearing footsteps coming from around the buildings beside them. At first they thought it was Sprawl himself, since they had just arrived and were looking for him. But who it really was slowly revealed themselves, and it was far from who they wanted it to be.

"Gah! Autobots!" Samantha cried out, pointing at the group of Autobots that turned the corner. Prowl, Arcee, Bulkhead and Bumblebee along with their human partners and the Lambo twins rounded the street just in time to run into the Stunt collective. And they were just as shocked as they were.

"Decepticons!" Arcee said, unsheathing her arm blades. The rest of the Autobots armed themselves, and so did the Decepticons and turned the whole street into a standoff.

"Where's Sprawl?!" Motormaster demanded from them, aiming his atom-smasher rifle.

"Where's our friends?!" The little human, Miko, shouted right back.

"How about you tell us where they are before things turn ugly around here?" Sideswipe said, taking a moment to level his gun at Wildrider.

"Why do you think we came here before you jerks did? We're looking for Sprawl, idiot!" Drag Strip replied.

"Wait a second," Bulkhead wondered out loud, "Sprawl's gone missing too?"

"Uh, yeah?" Wildrider responded, "Didn't we just say that? We did, right?"

"Then if Grimlock and his Decepticon buddy ain't here," Sunstreaker said, taking a moment to look around, "then where are they?"

The waters next to them exploded as something blasted out of the surface like a rocket. The spray of saltwater momentarily blocked their sight, but was greeted with whatever had launched to the sky suddenly drop down and transform, revealing itself to be Sprawl. The soaked Warrior Elite landed on his feet with a mighty thud and turned to face his fellow Transformers, both Autobot and Decepticon.

"We have a problem."

It took a moment for anyone to respond.

"Um," Drag Strip wondered, "what kind of problem?"

As if a higher power had heard him, the ocean behind Sprawl began to broil, and the earth began to shake. The Transformers and humans watched on as an enormous swath of water rose up from the surface taking the shape of a huge geyser. It was gigantic, dwarfing the Cybertronians staring at it, and the city behind them as well. Once the water that covered it cascaded back down to the sea and off of the structure, they could all see just what they were dealing with; an utterly massive, towering fortress floating in the air, suspended by an equally large support ring the stretched around its midsection and parted by huge thruster engines. It must have been at least a mile high, the morning sun shining off its dark-colored hull.

"That kind of problem," Sprawl replied.

Here's another chapter. Next one is the final, but I'm still wondering about a reboot.

We'll see what happens.