Chapter 21-Linkage part 2
Rodimus and Hound exited the ground bridge in a back alley in their alt modes. It wasn't exactly inconspicuous to have a sports car and a jeep suddenly appear in a dingy back alley, but it's not like there were a lot of places to appear out of sight.
"So this is Esper Town." Rodimus said, looking around. "I got to say, I'm not too surprised it looks this crappy."
"It's a region populated by the esper minority in the city, Rodimus. Anything more than a ghetto would be surprising." Sparkplug said. He was sitting in Rodimus's front seat, which was a rather tight fit.
"Whatever the case, we need to make this quick. There's a massive protest going on that could turn violent soon from the looks of it." Hound said.
"A protest? What for?" Rodimus asked.
"The Human Front's been harassing espers in the area for a while now, and their latest attack put a young girl in the hospital." Sparkplug explained. "Tensions are high and Esper Town might become a warzone if things keep going like this."
"All the more reason to hurry up and find those Minicons." Said Hound. "Any leads on where to look first?"
"They're probably hiding out in a secluded area out of sight to avoid detection." Sparkplug surmised. "Maybe by the river. That might be a good place to start."
"Then let's go before the fireworks start." Rodimus activated his holomatter and sped out of the alley with Hound and drove down the street.
XXXXXX
"That's a lot of angry people." Lyn said nervously.
Her friend and partner Carla glanced down at the long line of espers marching their way through the neighborhood with signs and microphones, shouting and screaming all at once. "How did we miss this? We shouldn't have missed a mass protest marching down the street."
"Only if it was planned." The girls looked up and saw a small red twin-rotor helicopter flying over to them. It transformed into a red and black Minicon with folded up rotors for hands. "I saw a group of people congregating near the D-Building earlier just thirty minutes before this protest formed."
"But how? We told people to remain calm." Lyn frowned.
"You can thank a certain blue haired chick for that." Impulsor said.
"Naomi Blue." Carla growled. "That little bitch! Don't tell me she start this mess!"
"Possibly." Impulsor sighed. "I spotted her at the front of the mob leading the charge. I'm sure she just started this to strike back at the humans."
"Damn it, she's going to start a riot! If this keeps up, people are going to get hurt." Lyn said.
"I've already given Gar and the girls the heads up. With any luck they'll simmer this down before things get violent."
XXXXXX
Rodimus, Hound and Sparkplug reached the riverside junkyard that was about a sixteen minute drive from the downtown area. Sparkplug exited Rodimus and looked around, noticing the odd arrangement of some of the junk that actually looked like someone welded the various pieces of metal together.
"They're here." Sparkplug whispered. "They have to be. Let's take a look around and—"
"Sparky!"
A pink figure slammed into Sparkplug and sent him skidding across the ground. Dazed, Sparkplug looked down to see an orange face place plate smiling up at him.
"T-Twirl?"
"Sparky, you finally came to see us!" Twirl giggled. "It's been so long since we last saw each other!"
"It has." Sparkplug smiled.
"Not long enough, if you ask me." Falcia and Combusta flew down from their hiding places.
"Combusta, Falcia!" Sparkplug exclaimed. "It's good to see that you two are still kicking!"
"Likewise, Sparkplug." Combusta nodded, ignoring Falcia's grumbling beside her.
Redline, Servo and Flat Out drove up to them and changed to robot mode. Redline pulled Twirl off Sparkplug and helped him up.
"I never thought I'd see you again, Sparkplug." Redline said, shaking Sparkplug's hand. "How's your stay on Terra?"
"Eventful to say the least." Sparkplug smiled. "And from what I'm seeing, you guys are also finding your own excitement."
"Believe it or not, it's not usually this lively around here." Flat Out chuckled.
Falcia looked at the two Autobots, who remained silent and out of the way as the Minicons talked. "Yo, Sparkplug, aren't you gonna introduce your friends here?"
"Oh, yes! Guys, this is Rodimus and Hound. They're members of Optimus Prime's team."
Rodimus and Hound slowly transformed before the Minicons and smiled down at the wary group. The fact that they didn't visibly trust them at first glance really didn't start things off on a good note.
"Hey there." Rodimus greeted them. "Nice to meet you all."
"Huh, so Prime finally noticed us." Falcia said, crossing her arms. "About damn time."
"So I take it you guys emerged from your stasis panels early?" Hound asked.
"Yeah, we have no idea how that happened, but it was by dumb luck that we all ended up in the same area." Redline said.
"We've befriended the espers of the local neighborhood watch who found us. They've given us a home here in Esper Town." Combusta said.
"Well, we'll make sure to thank them later when we get the chance." Rodimus said. "So, you guys ready to head back to base? Longarm and the others probably have your quarters all set up at Omega One."
"Who said we were leaving?" Falcia growled.
Everyone went quiet, a tense silence falling over the area. Rodimus and Hound traded worried looks as Sparkplug looked at his friends confused.
"What do you mean?" Sparkplug said. "Don't tell me you're actually planning on staying here."
"Sparkplug, we're helping the espers of this area. We've been working from the shadows making sure these people are safe. Have been for a little over a year now." Redline said. "We can't just abandon them."
"Aren't you worried about the Decepticons? If you stay, they'll find you eventually and put the humans in danger." Hound said.
"No more danger than being stuck with the Autobots." Falcia said. "From what I've heard, the Cons have been giving you guys the run around a lot lately."
"Be still, Falcia." Combusta scolded her subordinate. "Redline's right, though. We can't just leave our friends. Things have been getting worse around here and the humans need our help."
"But this isn't your fight. Having a bunch of aliens getting caught up in an already controversial conflict will only cause more problems." Sparkplug said. "Look, I understand you want to help your friends. I'm good friends with a couple of espers myself who have gone above and beyond for me and the other Minicons, but this fight is way too dangerous."
"We're staying." Twirl said stubbornly. "We go where we're needed, and we're needed here."
"Here we go." Hound sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose.
"So it looks like we've hit a dead end." Rodimus said, rubbing the back of his head. In all honesty, he was hoping that the Minicons would at least be more agreeable this time around.
Unfortunately for the Autobots, setbacks like this were becoming all too common in regards to the Minicons.
XXXXXX
"No justice, no peace! No justice, no peace! No justice, no peace!"
This was the mantra of the protestors consuming the city just outside the south end of Esper Town. Dozens of espers chanted these words as they lashed out against the world. They banded together, united by a common goal of showing anyone who wanted to threaten them that they were sick and tired of being attacked and discriminated against.
Leading this chaotic march was Naomi Blue, a blue haired girl who could run at superhuman speeds. She was a longtime supporter of Karaba's ideals of asserting esper dominance over the non-powered "naturals" and had a history of starting protests like this one to spread Esper Town's influence, but the neighborhood watch always stone-walled her attempts. But this latest HF attack had angered a lot of people, and Naomi jumped on the opportunity like a shark smelling blood in the water. These people were sick and tired of the treatment they were getting from the humans. This town belonged to the espers, and it was about time the naturals realized that.
All around her, espers chanted and cheered, some even trashing cars or blasting out windows. The rage they were displaying was great, and even local law enforcement stayed out of their way…at least until reinforcements arrived.
"That's right! Show them that these are our streets too!" Naomi yelled. "Show them they can't hurt one of our own and not expect to get fucked in return!"
Down the street, Gar, Shelia, and Luan were already getting ready to stop the angry mob.
"Impulsor, Lyn, you two keep an eye out up top in case the violence gets out of control. Carla, you better get down here fast." Gar said.
"We can't fight a mob that size." Luan said.
"No, but we can take Naomi out before she causes anymore damage." Shelia said.
"Yeah, there's a chance she might back down if we gang up on her." Gar nodded. Luan snorted.
"Like that's going to happen."
Before they could meet with the mob, two more Minicons drove out into the streets and stopped before them. One of them was a white and red alien car, and the other was a bright yellow truck. The espers paused as the two mechs transformed to robot mode, and the white and red mech stepped forward.
"Cease and desist, citizens!" Kingsbolt said in a loud, strong voice. "You will cause no more chaos while we are here!"
"Who the hell are you?" Naomi yelled. Wait, you're one of those Minicons, aren't you?"
"That is correct," Kingsbolt nodded. "And I have come—"
"Buzz off!" Naomi snarled. "This is a matter between us and the naturals. Don't get involved alien!"
The other espers roared in agreement behind her. The yellow mech, Quench, sighed and spoke up.
"Look, we have friends in this city too, and your march is going to get them and a lot of other people hurt." He said. "Just simmer down so we can go about this civilly or we'll force you all to back off."
"Oh really?" Naomi crossed her arms with a smirk. "You and what army?"
A flash of light burst from behind the Minicons as Gar and Shelia appeared with Luan.
"We don't need an army, madam." Kingsbolt grinned.
Some of the espers calmed down upon seeing Esper Town's famous vigilante group standing before them. They were hesitant to start a fight with the espers who had been protecting them for so long. The neighborhood watch, who were christened as the Defenders by the area's residence, had done a lot to make Esper Town safe, and fighting them wasn't exactly something they wanted to do. Naomi had no such reservations.
"Get out of our way, Gar." Naomi growled.
"Not until you back off, Naomi. Our job is to keep our people safe, and you're needlessly leading them headfirst into danger." Gar said, glaring at her.
"So kindly knock it the fuck off!" Shelia growled.
"I'm showing these people what happens when you attack someone on our turf! Those bastards have been running around causing us trouble without repercussions for too long, and we're sick of it. They think we'll cower in fear because of the law or some shit like that, but they're wrong!" Naomi yelled to her mob, who cheered in response. "Where are they now? Hiding behind the raggedy old corpse of their dead leader! This is our town and everyone knows it!"
"Sir Gar, I don't think the angry maiden will back down." Kingsbolt said. Gar gritted his teeth.
"Naomi, if you keep doing this, the ERD will come down on our asses and cause everyone, even the espers who are innocent, trouble." Shelia said. "Even we can't handle them by ourselves."
"Maybe not you, but we are a thousand strong!" Naomi said, earning more cheers from her followers. "Now take your tin cans and get out of our way!"
"Tin cans?" Kingsbolt huffed, insulted. "Why I never!"
"We're not going anywhere." Gar said as his and Shelia's bodies glowed like a pair of binary stars.
"Oh scrap." Quench looked back and forth between the two opposing groups. "Kingsbolt, we better—"
"We will not run, Quench. Our honor dictates that we stand by our friends in battle." Kingsbolt said excitedly as he took out a shock baton. "Stand strong, brother, for this will be a glorious battle!"
"Oh shut up." Quench rolled his eyes.
For the moment, no one said a thing. A tense silence fell over the crowd as they waited to see who will make the first move. Whoever struck first, the ensuing battle will be very destructive. But by luck, or fate, this fight ended before it even began as Impulsor flew overhead calling out to his friends.
"Guys, we've got incoming! Something's heading this way!" He called out.
Minicons and espers alike looked to the sky. From the clouds came an ominous figure who descended towards them. It was a talos, but nothing like anyone had seen before. It was bright blue of varying shades, with a sleek humanoid frame that to the Autobots looked really similar to the Atlantian gigas used by the Atlantian military. Flying down towards them with rocket boosters installed in its legs, the talos extended two cannons from its arms and pointed them at the crowd.
"Get back!" Gar shouted.
The crowd of espers tried to scramble, but couldn't completely escape the sights of this mysterious attacker. It landed on the ground and began firing energy blasts from its arms cannons. Huge chunks of the street were exploded, blasted apart as the espers were attacked indiscriminately. Many people were seriously injured, others tried to fight back, but found their attacks ineffective against its tough armor.
Inside the Leviathan, Madison took care of the mob with horrifying ease.
"Attention espers! I am Captain Rufus Madison, enforcer of the human race! On behalf of the Human Front and all law-abiding humans of this city, I am here to stop your reckless rampage. No human will be harmed on my watch!"
Gar and Shelia looked up at the talos with wide eyes, but Naomi, still simmering with rage, wasn't intimidated. She jumped off a nearby car and turned into a blue blur, running faster than a speeding bullet at the Leviathan with a gun in hand.
"Here's my message to your HF buddies asshole!" Naomi shouted.
Naomi ran circles around the talos's legs, shooting wildly at anything that looked vulnerable to her. But the Leviathan was more than ready to handle such a small scale assault, the bullets easily bouncing off its composite armor, and it was readily equipped to dish out an assault of its own.
Unable to properly hit Naomi, Madison pressed the trigger on his left joystick. The grenade launcher on the talos's shoulder fired a flash grenade down at the street, which exploded right in Naomi's face. She tripped and stumbled, crashing do the ground hard and landed on her right shoulder. The Leviathan focused its cannon on her and prepared to fire.
"This is your punishment for threatening human lives!"
Gar ran forward and shot towards Naomi like a bullet. His body glowed white as the kinetic energy in his body's molecules accelerated him at high speeds. Reaching out, he grabbed Naomi and flew her to safety as Shelia and the Minicons got involved.
"Have at thee!" Kingsbolt stabbed his shock baton into the talos's leg, but it had little effect.
"What? Aliens?" Madison snarled as his camera focused on the Minicons. "So you monsters are teaming up with the aliens ravaging our world? Just when I thought you abominations couldn't get any lower!"
"Look who's talking!" Shelia flew into the Leviathan's chest, punching its chest plate hard enough to leave a dent in its armor.
Madison tried to swat her away, but she dodged it and allowed Kingsbolt and Quench to attack its legs. Madison growled and flew back on his unit's boosters to get some space between them before firing his laser cannons. The Minicons jumped apart as the attacks blew up large chunks of concrete and asphalt behind them, but one shot managed to blast them off their feet.
"Guys!" Shelia flew over to the pair, who were trying to dig themselves out of the rubble. "Are you two alright?"
"I'm fine, my lady, just winded." Kingsbolt grunted. "My comrade on the other hand…"
Shelia looked over to Quench and gasped. The mech was holding lying against the side of an overturned car, but his legs were sitting on the other side of the street.
To his credit, Quench didn't look too panicked about losing his legs. "Well this is unfortunate, isn't it?"
XXXXXX
"Redline, guys, please you have to understand." Sparkplug pleaded with his fellow Minicons. "It's too dangerous to be wandering around alone."
"He's right. The Cons aside, there's also this human terrorist organization that has no problem ripping us open to make weapons out of us." Rodimus said. "It's already happened to a member of my team."
"Seriously?!" Twirl gasped. "That's horrible!"
"It is. And you should know that Dualor and his team were also helping said organization." Sparkplug revealed, much to the shock of the others.
"What?" Redline exclaimed.
"They'd do such a thing to another cybertronian?" Combusta gasped, horrified. "Why?"
"Why else? To get back at the Autobots and Decepticons, by any means necessary." The Micron leader sighed and looked down. "I know you care for your friends here, I really do, but it's not safe to be running around on our own anymore. Especially now that humanity knows about us now. We've lost the Race Team to the Cons already and I don't want to lose any of you either."
The Minicons went silent at that, even Falcia didn't know what to say. Trading a glance with Combusta, Redline walked up to Sparkplug.
"Sparkplug, I…" Before he could make a decision, his radio crackled.
"Redline, we've got serious trouble over here!" Impulsor's voice echoed throughout the junkyard in a panic. Redline quickly picked up his radio.
"Impulsor, what's wrong?"
"Some talos just flew down from the sky and started attacking everyone. We've got injuries, including Quench!"
Redline looked at Sparkplug as he said, "We'll be right there. Just tell the kids to hang on." He looked at the others. "There's trouble in Esper Town. We need to help the Defenders."
"No need to tell us twice." Falcia transformed and flew out of the junkyard with Twirl and Combusta. "Move it, car-bots!"
"Frag off, Falcia!" Servo shouted.
"Well, looks like we'll get to see some action after all." Rodimus grinned. "Let's go, people. We've got humans to save!"
"You're helping us?" Redline asked surprised, as if the move caught him off guard.
"Of course! Helping people and saving lives is what Autobots do." Rodimus said and gave Hound a look. "Right, Hound?"
"Yes, Rodimus. You're right." Hound said. He shifted to his vehicle mode and opened his doors. "Get in, we're going to save your friends."
XXXXXX
The battle against the Leviathan raged on in the streets of Esper Town. Impulsor was in his alt mode firing his laser cannons into the talos's body, while Gar and Shelia attacked the legs as they flew around the machine like two bullets. The riots had completely dispersed in the chaos, running for cover.
"Your reign of terror ends here, espers! Never again will you put innocent humans in harm's way!" Madison proclaimed.
"Oh shut up already!" Lyn yelled, firing a few energy streamers to explode in the talos's face.
Madison winced as light exploded across his monitor and swung his laser cannons around to shoot at the girl on the rooftop. Lyn screamed and tried to run, but Shelia swooped in and grabbed her before the roof was blasted apart.
"Lyn, stop taunting the madman in the mecha." Shelia scolded.
"He started it." Lyn pouted.
Gar flew onto a car and called Carla over. "Carla, change your skin. We're getting in close!"
Carla nodded and gripped the skin on her arms, pulling it until her skin tore right off like tissue paper. Ripping the skin off her face, Carla revealed a new layer of skin underneath, this time it was a metal shell. Gar jumped into the air and carried Carla towards Madison. She shifted her hands into two sharp blades and let Gar throw her at the rampaging talos.
"Take this!" Carla landed on the mecha's chest and began hacking away at the cockpit.
"Get off me!" Madison tried to grab her before she could do some serious damage to the hatch. The Leviathan's armor was as strong as tank armor, maybe even stronger, but he wasn't taking chances.
Carla tried to stab into the cockpit, but the armor was too dense to pierce through. The she saw its large hand reach for her, but she jumped off before it could grab her. However the Leviathan was quick enough to swat her away with its arm and send Carla smashing into a car, knocking it over.
"Carla!" Impulsor flew in for a closer attack, but Madison spun around and fired two missiles at him. One of them caught him in his tail rotor and sent him spiraling to the ground. "Scrap!"
He crashed into the street and transformed before skidding to a stop. Impulsor groaned as the Leviathan stomped over to him.
"You aliens will learn that Terra is our world, and has no place for you or your war!" Madison targeted the Minicon and took aim.
Luan phased through the talos's leg and ran over to Impulsor. She touched his arm and they turned intangible just as the beam was fired. She held Impulsor close to her as the laser blasted right through them into the street, leaving them completely untouched and unharmed.
Madison growled and moved his shoulder launcher into place to target them. He failed to see the red and orange sports car speeding towards him until it slammed into him from behind.
"What the…?" Madison was jostled in his seat as the car knocked the Leviathan off balance and drove right under him. It spun around and transformed into a 16 foot tall robot with an eager grin on his face.
"An Autobot?" Gar gaped.
"Back off, pal! You're done terrorizing these people!" Rodimus spat.
Behind Rodimus, Hound arrived with Sparkplug and the Super Stunt Team. He let the Minicons out before transforming and pointing his blaster at the Leviathan.
"More Autobots?" Impulsor coughed. "What's going on here?"
"This is getting insane." Carla muttered.
"I'm so posting this on Tweeter." Lyn said, snapping a few pictures with her phone.
"Redline, what is all that?" Gar asked.
"We got your call just as these guys paid us a visit." Redline said, nodding to the Autobots. "Is everyone alright?"
"Kingsbolt took a bad hit and Quench is missing his legs. Shelia is watching over them. Otherwise, all we have are bumps and bruises." Gar said and glared at the Leviathan. "That talos isn't normal. It's stronger than anything the ERD's developed."
"Then let's hope our Autobot heroes can handle it, then." Redline said. "And we're going to help."
In his cockpit, Madison eyed the two Autobots angrily. Here he was, purging the city of the esper threat within and these aliens decided to just barge into his mission like they had the right to do such a thing. The sheer audacity these creatures displayed was insulting!
"You aliens shouldn't interfere in human affairs." He growled. "Get out of my way."
"Not an option." Hound said. "We're not just going to stand by while you hurt innocent people."
"Innocent? Innocent?!" Madison roared "There are no innocent espers here! Only monsters that need to be purged!"
Without even aiming at anything, Madison began firing his weapons wildly in all directions. His uncoordinated blasts hit everything in sight, even killing a few unfortunate humans who were still trying to evacuate.
"Shelia, Carla, Luan, get everyone to safety!" Gar yelled.
Redline, his team and the rest of the Minicons evacuated the remaining people still in the area as the Sonic Assault Team flew in from above, firing on the Leviathan. Hound dived to the side to protect a young couple from falling debris and guided them out of the blinding firing madman. After seeing them off, Hound glared at the rampaging talos, losing his patience with the man.
"That's it." Hound fired his blaster and the laser beam caught Madison's unit in the shoulder, almost knocking it over.
Madison righted himself and returned fire with a blast of his own, which hit Hound in the chest and knocked him back on top of a car, nearly crushing an esper girl with green skin and a lizard tail.
Combusta transformed and landed on the Leviathan's head, firing her guns into one of its eyes. Her bullets tore apart the glass covering and destroyed the optical camera. Madison lost part of his panoramic monitor and had to quickly switch it to one of the other cameras on his unit before trying to dislodge the Minicon on his head.
Combusta jumped off and changed forms to avoid the large hand reaching up to smack her away. Gar flew straight into the back of its leg, staggering it long enough for Rodimus to rush in and punch the Leviathan in the face. Madison tried to shoot him, but Rodimus caught his arm and tore off one of its laser cannons.
"No more guns for you!" Rodimus growled and kicked the talos to the ground.
Madison gnashed his teeth in rage and quickly got up, shooting Rodimus in the leg. Rodimus hit the ground, clutching his leg as the Leviathan prepared to take another shot. Lyn, who stood on the opposite street, fired off another barrage of fireworks into the talos's face. The bright, colorful bursts blinded Madison for a moment.
"A fancy fireworks display isn't going to stop me!" He growled.
"But I can." Rodimus lunged forward, shifting his hand into a vibro-saw and severed the Leviathan's right leg in a single slash. With his other arm, he fired his arm cannons repeatedly, blasting apart the talos. Even the Leviathan's tough armor couldn't withstand a close range barrage of electrostatic energy that completely ripped apart its limbs, weapons, and even destroyed the head.
"No, no, no! Not like this!" Madison screamed and tried futilely to move his damaged talos.
Rodimus and Hound stood over the ravaged talos, weapons pointed at it
"You going to come out or are we going to have to drag you out?" Hound said.
"You already know the answer to that, Hound. Don't worry, I'll get him out." Rodimus took out a combat knife and went to cut open the cockpit.
"No, I'm not letting you bastards take me!" Madison snarled. Heaven knows what those espers will do to him when get cut him out. "You won't have me, you monsters!"
Eying the big red button on his control panel, Madison flipped the covering open and slammed his fist down on the button, initiating the Leviathan's self-destruct function.
"If I'm going down, I'm taking you with me!"
His declaration could be heard by everyone surrounding him, but only Hound was cautious enough to realize what that meant.
"Slag, everyone get back!" Hound yelled before grabbing Rodimus and running back.
Seconds later, the Leviathan exploded in a huge fireball, sending flaming pieces of metal and machinery flying everywhere. It was by luck alone that no one was caught in the explosion. Smoke coated the street corner and the smell of burning metal and fuel filled the air. Hound and Rodimus stared at the smoking remains of the talos they defeated with grim expressions.
"That sucks." Rodimus muttered. Hound grunted in agreement.
"May he rot in hell for all eternity." Falcia spat.
XXXXXX
Kennedy Ross knew she was in trouble. The prototype field test had been an absolute disaster Madison had failed them. Not only had he failed to exterminate the freaks of Esper Town, but he also endangered several natural humans as well.
'I knew I shouldn't have put all my faith in some army grunt. They're always the most uncontrollable.' Ross thought angrily.
By all accounts, the Leviathan fared well against the espers in its initial strike. Madison's military training allowed him to react to changes in the battle in a heartbeat. What was unexpected was the intervention of the two Autobots. Even a talos born of a fusion of human and merfolk technology would be find it difficult to fight two cybertronians in a serious battle.
"Damn aliens." Ross growled. "I'll rip them apart and sell them for scrap!"
Her phone rang and Ross was tempted to just let I ring, but something told her not to ignore this call. When she answered it, she was glad she didn't leave it alone.
"I wish you could see my face right now."
Ross's breath hitched at the sound of Sherisha's tone. She was mad, and when the Iceron matriarch was mad, people tended to get hurt or worse.
"Ms. Iceron, I—" Ross began, but Sherisha cut her off.
"Don't. I know what you did, Ross." Sherisha hissed. "You handed over a valuable prototype to some jarhead from a defunct group of entitled racists without authorization. Do you have any idea how hard it was to produce the materials and technology for that talos?"
"I'm so sorry, Ms. Iceron, but the field test was going perfectly well against those espers, just like it was designed to do. It was the Autobots. They were the ones who—"
"They wouldn't have been a problem at all if you hadn't sent our only prototype ahead like a damn fool!" Sherisha hissed. "Consider this your first and only warning, Ross. Try something like this again and I'll kill you myself. And I don't believe in giving slow deaths. Do you understand?"
"Y-Yes, ma'am." Ross stammered. She was well-aware that Sherisha could do just that.
"And to think that you were smarter than those Human Front morons." Sherisha said coldly. "From now on, all your research and development projects will be closely monitored to avoid any further incidents like this one. Are we clear?"
"Yes, Ms. Iceron."
"Good girl."
Sherisha hung up and Ross placed her head in her hands. She was on thin ice with a woman who could ruin her entire career with a single sentence. It would be wise not to anger her again. Doing so would be certain death. Literally.
But this didn't mean Ross was done with those espers. No, she was going to make this planet human again no matter what it took. It was just going to take her longer to continue the fight this time.
XXXXXX
"What a mess." Gar sighed.
The battle against the Leviathan had left much of the neighborhood seriously damaged. Gar and his team had worked hard with the Autobots to evacuate as many people as possible during the battle, and thankfully the casualties were low, though there were several people injured.
"I heard the military is coming in to retrieve the talos remains." Carla said.
"About time they cleaned up their own mess." Lyn grunted.
"I don't think this was some military OP." Luan said. "This felt way too random."
"Let's just hope that they don't have more of those things in reserve." Shelia sighed. "So Gar, I hear you're handing Naomi off to the ERD?"
"Yeah, though reluctantly. This mess got out of hand when she started that riot." He said. "We need someone to take the blame, and since that talos pilot is dead, Naomi's our prime candidate."
"Yo!" Rodimus limped over to them with a wave. "How are you guys doing?"
"We're all alive and in one piece, so that's something." Carla shrugged.
"That's good. Once Hound is done talking to the police, we'll call over our medics to help anyone who's wounded." Rodimus said.
"Really?" Shelia gaped. "You'd do that for us?"
"Of course. We're Autobots!" Rodimus grinned. "Saving people is our thing."
Luan, who was looking over at the Minicons, asked Rodimus, "Will you be taking the Minicons back to your base?"
Her question put a damper on everyone's moods. They didn't want their friends to leave, but they couldn't force them to stay. Rodimus wasn't very eager to answer that himself.
"That's up to them." He answered.
Sparkplug helped the Hazard Team get their injured teammate into the ground bridge for medical assistance. When they were gone, he went to talk to the Super Stunt and Sonic Assault teams.
"I'm sorry I just barged in asking for you two up and leave your friends. I know you guys are really close. I'm the same with my human friends as well." Sparkplug said. "But Terra isn't a safe place for Minicons to be alone in anymore."
"We know your Spark was in the right place, Sparkplug. And this attack proves that Terra's dangerous." Redline said.
"But it also strengthens our resolve to stay and protect this place from anyone who would wish it harm." Combusta said. "Apologies, Sparkplug, but we've elected to stay."
"If trouble does come up, then we'll be sure to let you know." Twirl chirped. "It was great seeing you again.
"Just be sure to take care of the Hazard Team, will you? They're a bit of a handful, even more so since Kingsbolt got to reading old school Britannian plays." Flat Out said.
"I'll watch over them." Sparkplug smiled.
"Sparkplug, we're heading out." Hound said.
"Okay." He said and turned back to Redline and shook his hand. "Stay safe, Redline."
"You too, Sparkplug." Redline smiled.
It was reassuring to Sparkplug to know that not all Minicons condemned him like Dualor and his group. Knowing that they were safe was enough for him, and increased his hopes for a new life for the Minicons on Terra.
The future, while uncertain, was still looking bright for all of them.
That's it for our little Minicon mini-arc. Next chapter we get into a significant changing point in this story that leads to some crazy stuff for the next few chapters. Also, I've had plans for a complete rewrite of the Avatar series (both LTA and LOK, as well as two more sagas afterwards) in the style of a xianxia universe and a reimaging of the Avatar mythos. It's nothing concrete, and it's still in the concept stages, but I was wondering what were your thoughts on the idea. Be sure to check out the official Transformers Titan website on WordPress. Thanks for reading, please leave a review, and stay safe everybody!