Disclaimer: Thank goodness it didn't take as long to get this chapter down. Or maybe it did I lost track of time. Anyway, here's the next chapter of the story. Enjoy.
As always, aw, you know the drill.
Chapter XVI
The Terminus was now in Cybertron's atmosphere and hovering over a specific location. On board the ship, Lockdown and Sky-Byte worked to keep level as it started a slow descent. Lockdown looked out through the side view port at the large tower and then checked the coordinates on the screen in front of him. He then double checked the coordinates to being absolutely certain of their accuracy. Sky-Byte looked through the same port as Lockdown had moments before. He felt a sense of nostalgia after having been gone for so long from Cybertron. But Lockdown brought him back to reality with his sudden words.
"Sky-Byte, did you hear me?"
"Yeah. What?" Sky-Byte replied, failing utterly to feign compliance.
"We're coming up on the designated coordinates for the meeting. Take the Seacons and round up the prisoners." Lockdown said.
"Right, sure. I got that." Sky-Byte said, failing to mask his obvious distraction as he went to leave.
"Hey, quit spacing out." Lockdown reprimanded.
Sky-Byte nodded seemingly in the affirmative, but he inwardly felt a steady increase of doubt. Much of that doubt and the additional hesitation came from the fact that he'd returned to Cybertron for the first time in ages. But he returned with Lockdown, a Cybertronian who cared so little, if at all, about the planet and who was convinced the planet was dead. Sky-Byte was in the midst of thinking that maybe, just maybe, there was still something left alive on Cybertron. But that was clearly a nonfactor considering that he was now no more than a bounty hunter and he had a job. When Lockdown looked back to glare at him, Sky-Byte instantly hustled out of the bridge.
On his way out, Sky-Byte was accosted by the six Seacons as they sneered at him. He at least knew them by name. Snaptrap was the apparent leader of the group. Nautilator seemed somewhat clumsy and insecure. Overbite was rumored to be extremely vicious. Seawing tended to sneak around the other's back. Tentakil was a flat-out sadist. Then there was Skalor, the foulest of them all and that was in the literal sense. Sky-Byte didn't like or trust any single one of the Seacons and he had plenty of good reasons. But he had to work with them, like it or not. So, with a crisp tilt of his head, Sky-Byte led the Seacons to the barracks.
At a designated location on the planet's surface, Dr. Arkeville was waiting for the arrival of the Terminus. He wasn't alone. Giga and Mega were both present and near their respective vehicles. Both were ready to form Overlord if the need were to arise. The Terminus made its approach and then started a slow descent until it touched down on the surface. The lower hatch opened to reveal Lockdown and Sky-Byte standing side by side. As they started down the ramp and ushered the captive Maximals down behind them. The Seacons were the last to exit the ship, and thus there was nowhere for the Maximals to run. Even if they could run, they were all restrained with stasis cuffs that prevented escape. Dr. Arkeville moved forward in his hover chair as Lockdown approached him.
Lockdown looked at the strange looking Human/cyborg abomination and said, "So you're the mysterious benefactor we've been working for?"
After a few very tense moments, Arkeville said, "Indeed I am. Doctor Arkeville, at your service, and as I recall, you were supposed to bring me all of the Maximals including Optimus Primal."
"If your Seacons did their job just a little bit better, you'd already have Optimus Primal and Waspinator wouldn't be a hundred bits of scrap floating aimlessly in the vacuum of space." Lockdown claimed.
"You'd best watch your tone, Decepticon." Mega snapped.
"I don't recall talking to you, flesh bag. For the record, I ain't no Decepticon or Autobot." Lockdown snapped back.
"Let's not make things any more difficult than necessary, Mega," Arkeville said, holding his hand up to silence his subordinate, then returned his gaze to Lockdown. "I've actually considered your partner's previous explanation and I happen to agree with him."
"How thoughtful of you." Sky-Byte snidely remarked.
"You still haven't spilled on why you want these Maximals, Arkeville. I don't like being left out of the loop." Lockdown claimed.
Arkeville smirked at Lockdown as the bounty hunter appeared to be growing impatient. Rather than explain straight away, Arkeville moved his chair forward and passed Lockdown and Sky-Byte. He was now approaching the Maximals as they were still restrained. The Seacons brought each of them down to their knees, and then they spread out to allow Arkeville to move in between each of the prisoners. He stopped at Rhinox first before moving on to Cheetor and then on Tigatron and finally to Night Scream. Each of the Maximals sneered at him with contempt, and Arkeville just smirked at them although he seemed to completely ignore the one additional prisoner: Dark Steel.
"Well? I'm waiting for that reason." Lockdown snapped.
Arkeville looked back at Lockdown and bluntly replied, "I created the Maximals; all of them. These wonderful machines belong to me just as do the Seacons and Mega and Giga and Overlord."
Right from the outset, Cheetor shouted, "That's a lie."
"We were, all of us, forged right here on Cybertron. We escaped the Great War to search for a better life." Tigatron added.
"All a fabrication, I'm afraid. I implanted those false memories to control each and every one of you. You all belong to me. You always have." Arkeville claimed.
"If that's true, then why did you create us at all?" Rhinox asked.
"You were all originally created to serve as the first vanguard of my own personal army, meant to exterminate both the Autobots and the Decepticons. After my first Pretender seemingly vanished, you were all meant to travel to Earth to find and kill every single Autobot and Decepticon you encountered." Arkeville stated.
"No. There's no way that's true." Night Scream shouted, and Overbite stalked toward the smaller Maximal.
"It is very true, Night Scream. And then, all of you vanished, so I was compelled to hire Lockdown to bring you back while I later created the Seacons and Overlord." Arkeville said.
"All this, just to get a measure of petty revenge against the Autobots and Decepticons over an imagined slight? That's sounds pretty pathetic in my opinion." Dark Steel claimed.
Arkeville now had his attention to Dark Steel and he approached her in his chair. Dark Steel had her optics on him as he came near. "You... are an anomaly. You appear just as the Maximals do, but you carry certain aspects of both the Autobots and the Decepticons."
"You'd be surprised." Dark Steel replied in a cold, almost threatening tone.
"Oh, I'm sure I would be. I'm going to enjoy disassembling you piece by piece for further study." Arkeville counter-threatened, and Dark Steel tried to lunge forward before Snaptrap and Overbite stopped her.
"Enough with your games, Arkeville. It's about time we talked payment." Lockdown said.
"Ah yes, your payment. Actually, after a bit of self-consideration, I've opted to withhold your payment until Optimus Primal arrives to save his friends." Arkeville revealed.
Sky-Byte saw the glared in Lockdown's optics, and the bounty hunter wasn't happy when he deployed his hook. "That wasn't the deal. I brought you the Maximals."
"You brought me four them minus Optimus Primal, who is the absolute priority. You say he'll come here to rescue his crew, so until he does..."
Lockdown drew his gun and aimed it directly at Arkeville. Sky-Byte did the same, but Arkeville seemed to anticipate this and snapped his fingers. Within moments, the Seacons surrounded the two hunters. Mega and Giga formed their vehicles into the hulking form of Overlord. Sky-Byte and Lockdown went back to back to cover each other. Overlord took a step forward, his footsteps seemingly echoing across the planet. The Seacons moved closer toward the hunters, neither of whom even flinching. Arkeville smiled at the sight of Lockdown and Sky-Byte being surrounded, but he was unaware the Rhinox was covertly working to free himself.
Sari spent a long time trying to get free from her bounds. She stopped periodically to look at the monitor thanks to Brainstorm tapping into the systems. They both watched as Arkeville and Overlord confronted a group of robots, who were surrounded by several other robots. These robots looked more like monsters than anything else, and they gave Sari pause. She was even considering giving up on trying to free herself. But she kept trying to get free when, all of a sudden, her hand morphed into a saw-like apparatus. Sari was stunned by it but focused on getting the saw moving. It spun momentarily and then it was on a sustained spin. She maneuvered her wrist just enough to angle the saw to cut through the shackle until it snapped off.
"Whoa. Brainstorm, I think I've got a way out." Sari said.
"If that's the case, then don't waste time." Brainstorm replied.
Sari reached over to her other arm and sliced the second shackle, then she removed the ones on her ankles. She dropped to the floor but quickly got back up and rushed to Brainstorm's disembodied head. "I'm free. Now, how do I get you out of here?"
"Sari, listen to me. You have to go." Brainstorm suddenly said.
A stunned Sari replied, "What?"
"You have to find a way out of here and get to Iacon. Find the Autobots there and warn them about Arkeville." Brainstorm said.
"I'm not leaving you here, Brainstorm. We're in this together."
"And, I'm not about to let you get again while you worrying about me. You need to go, now."
Sari was visibly conflicted by the idea of leaving Brainstorm behind and she said, "But you're my friend, my partner. If it weren't for you, I'd be dead right now."
"We need any Autobots still alive to get ahead of Arkeville, and if you get caught again..." Brainstorm suddenly stopped talking and left Sari in a state of confusion.
"What? What is it, Brainstorm?"
"Ahead? A head? That's it." Brainstorm claimed.
Sari wasn't sure if Brainstorm talking nonsense and asked him, "What're you talking about?"
"I'm talking about my Human/Cybertronian theory. I think I've got an idea of how to make it work, but I need your help." Brainstorm stated.
Sari was now somewhat shocked and even a bit flustered but she asked, "What do you need me to do?"
Lockdown clearly wasn't playing when he had his gun out and aimed at Arkeville. "So all that work we put in to catch your toys and you want to back out of our deal?"
Arkeville looked at the situation that Lockdown and Sky-Byte were in, and he replied, "You should reconsider your position, Lockdown. Things might not end well for you should you stay on your current course."
"I figured you'd say that." Lockdown replied and turned his gun on the nearest of the Maximals, which was Night Scream."
"Lockdown, what're you doing?" Sky-Byte asked in shock.
"Proving a point," Lockdown replied and then focused his attention on Arkeville. "I'll make it clear for you, Arkeville; you're going to pay me what I'm owned or you're going to see bits of Maximal raining down on you."
"You kill my Maximals and you won't see one credit of your payment." Arkeville countered.
"I'll kill you next and take what's mine by force if necessary." Lockdown countered back.
"You'll be dead long before you see your payment," Arkeville said as Overlord stomped nearer to Lockdown and Sky-Byte, looming over the latter. Arkeville gleefully said, "Ah, the beauty of a chess game."
"Lockdown, stop and think. Look around; we're outnumbered." Sky-Byte whispered.
"Shut your mouth, Sky-Byte." Lockdown snapped back.
"I'd listen to your friend if I were you, Lockdown, and I'd certainly measure the consequences of my next action." Arkeville claimed.
"Too bad you're not me, Arkeville." Lockdown replied.
With everything going on, Rhinox continued to work on freeing himself from his bonds. That's it, just keep talking.
Sari followed Brainstorm's instructions to the letter. The first thing she did was get behind his head and search for a latching mechanism. It took some time to find the object in question, but she did eventually find it. It was circular in appearance, a single handle sitting dead center of it. Sari grabbed hold of the handle and pulled hard on it. Then she rotated it 90 degrees counterclockwise and pushed it back into the slot. A hatch suddenly opened up before her, and inside was a myriad of circuitry.
"Okay now what?" Sari asked.
"Now, all you have to do is step inside my head." Brainstorm replied.
"Say what?!" Sari snapped.
"Trust me, Sari. This is going to work." Brainstorm replied as the wall of circuitry shifted away.
"You'd better be right about this." Sari said as she stepped literally into Brainstorm's head.
The second she was inside, the circuitry all around her started shifting again. The hatch behind closed, and Sari felt fear gripping her. The was a figurative sense, but she was also literally being gripped around her forearms by a shackles of some kind. The circuitry closed around her, forming almost a sort of second skin. Sari was utterly frightened and started to think that Brainstorm tricked her. She struggled against the rapidly enclosing structuring of her surroundings.
At the same time, Brainstorm's head started shaking back and forth. Then it started a metamorphosis akin to the standard transformation of any Cybertronian. Two sets of limbs burst forth, one set arms and one set legs. Then the frame shrunk down to a smaller body that tumbled to the floor. The body steadied itself as it finished its transformation. The new life form stayed there on its hands and knees for a short while to gather itself. Afterward, the life form stood up. Finding a reflective surface, the new life form saw a bright orange and white figure staring back it with bright blue optics.
It was at the moment that Sari realized that she was looking at herself in a new Cybertronian body. "Whoa! Brainstorm, are you seeing this? Brainstorm?"
"I'm here, Sari." Brainstorm's voice replied, but there was no sign of his head anymore.
"Whoa, wait up. I can hear you but I can't see you. Where'd you go?" Sari said.
"Don't be alarm, okay? The Human/Cybertronian symbiosis seems to have worked like a charm, although must've been pretty scary for you." Brainstorm explained.
"Scary isn't the word I'd use. I practically thought you were going to consume me with all that circuitry compressing around me." Sari said.
"I guess I should've warned about that earlier, but look on the bright side; you've got a brand-new body that fits the bill of any Cybertronian."
Sari brought her hands up and flexed them, listening to the faint sounds of metal on metal. "This is one hell of an upgrade. It might take a while to get used to all this."
"It's going to have to wait, Sari. We've got to get out of here and stop Arkeville. First, we need to reattach my head to my body. Head for the console and see if you can find a switch to release it." Brainstorm said.
Sari did as she was instructed and approached the console, briefly glancing over at Brainstorm's headless body. She started pressing every switch and pulling ever lever she found. In doing all that, she was startled by a few of the machines in the room coming to life. She looked up at the monitor. Things looked to be getting bad on the outside with Arkeville and the other robots. Overlord was the one who worried her the most, but she had to keep focused on the task at hand. After several moments of forcefully hitting every switch, Sari found the one the released the body.
Brainstorm's frame was lowered to the floor, but the shackles broke loosed and caused it to drop down to its knees. Sari had to cringe at the sheer noise of the frame hitting the floor with so much force. She was so stunned by the noise that she failed to notice the monitor. The screen appeared to show Overlord looking behind himself, as if he was acutely aware of something happening at that moment. Sari approached the headless body of Brainstorm and was left wondering what to do next.
"Okay, Brainstorm. Now what?"
"Get onto my hand. I'll handle the rest."
Sari got onto the hand of Brainstorm body and it hoisted her up. Then the body stood up onto its feet one after the other, and Sari tried to steady herself on the palm of the hand. The hand moved toward an opened socket in the upper torso between the shoulders. Sari cautiously moved near the socket and set one foot into it followed by the other one. Now standing up to her waist in the open, Sari felt her own body shift and change its shape back into the head of Brainstorm and making him whole again. Sari's original eyes were shut but she opened them, realizing that she was somehow inside Brainstorm's head and seeing everything from his point of view.
"Now this is crazy, even for you, Brainstorm." Sari said.
"Things look different from a new perspective." Brainstorm said just as he and Sari felt a loud trembling that wasn't from the planet's surface or its underground.
"What was that?" Sari wondered.
Brainstorm steadied himself and replied, "Nothing good. We need to get going and find a way out of here."
Author's Note: I'd say I did a better job on this chapter than the previous one, all things considered. Of course, that notion is totally up to my readers to decide. Keep in mind that I am also working on my original story and I'm still trying to come up with a title. So, don't be surprised if the next chapter for this TF story is delayed. Anyway, please let me know what you think of this chapter and I'll be back soon. Peace out, BAY BAY!
