"Come on, come on!"
It was no use. Jazz could not even begin to interface with the Quintesson controls. They were just too alien. The bridge was just white on white from wall to wall, featureless and stripped bare like a surgical facility. There were no consoles, no holographic displays, no buttons…
"How do the five-faces even swing these hunk-a-junks?!"
On the viz-screen ahead he could see the stricken Omega Supreme looming closer as the Quintesson frigates moved in for the kill. Omega's left arm was hanging uselessly his side, the forearm dangling by a few sparking cables, the cannon spitting sparks as it failed to fire. Cracks were appearing on his visor, and his body was riddled with innumerable holes that issued thick plumes of black smoke.
Still the frigates crawled forward, and behind them loomed the much larger Monocon cruisers.
The usually cool Jazz yelled out in frustration and drove his fist into the floor, "Slag it!"
The Quintesson ship suddenly shuddered to a halt, throwing Jazz off his feet. He looked up, bewildered. Looking out of the viz-screen, he saw the other Quintesson frigates had come to an abrupt halt too.
Jazz stared, "Um…did I do that?"
Swindle yelped as he was punted across a low desk in the command centre. He crashed through a bank of monitors and into a tower of processing units, which wavered for a moment before toppling over and landing on top of him.
"Would that we had more time, Swindle", snarled Strika, reaching down and plucking the hapless bot up by the neck, "Your torment would be legendary. But unfortunately, we're a little pressed for time as you've doomed us all!"
Her mammoth fingers squeezed a little tighter, crumpling his neck. Through the red-hot, laser-focused rage she was engulfed in, she became dimly aware of a bot stepping forward to speak to her.
"General Strika".
"Not now, Soundwave!"
"General Strika, I insist".
Strika cursed and managed to tear her gaze away for a moment, though her grip only tightened. She looked at the display Soundwave was pointing too. The other Decepticons and Autobots in the command centre had gathered there too.
"The Quintesson fleet. It's…stopped?" one said.
Swindle was gasping and flailing frantically in Strika's grip, and gesturing frantically at the live-feed of the battle. Strika released him none too gently, but to her indignant rage Swindle was back on his feet in a few seconds, looking unoffended, unconcerned and suave as always, save for the considerable denting Strika had inflicted.
"Perhaps I can explain", he said, "I sold this fleet to Starscream and Sentinel Prime at a very reasonable price. I'm never one to miss an opportunity for a mutually beneficial deal. Ah, unfortunately, Starscream wasn't interested in the premium package that included a million-solar-cycle warrantee on the operating systems, so it's entirely possible there might be some operational issues with the navigation systems".
As the assembled commanders watched, the Quintesson frigates began to move again. Slowly, they began to turn.
"Why, there's no telling what could happen to the nav-computers", chuckled Swindle.
The Quintesson ships were shifting away from the bewildered Omega Supreme and the Decepticons gathered around him. They angled their pointed bows back at the Monocon cruisers and began to lurch forward.
"What the…" Strika pushed to the front of the assembled bots and studied the screens intently. On every feed of the airborne battle, the Quintesson ships were following the same pattern: performing a 180 degree turn and advancing on the Monocon cruisers.
Then, as one, their engines flared with blue light. They picked up speed and launched themselves at the Monocon cruisers. Spinning around their central axis at a furious pace, the screw-shaped streaked across the Iacon skyline towards the capital ships.
"Impact: imminent", Soundwave warbled from his observation monitor.
The Monocon cruisers suddenly opened fire on their former allies, but the realization had come too late to destroy more than a few. Even over the monitors, the sound of the impact was awful enough to make the bots in the command centre wince and cover their audio receptors. The Quintesson ships drilled into the cruisers, carving great chunks out of their hulls. They were grinding themselves into pieces in the process, but as they destroyed themselves, they plunged through the capital ships, destroying engines, weapon systems, shield generators, anything in their path.
Immense internal explosions ripped through the Monocon cruisers. Some were immediately and utterly destroyed, vanishing in a series of cascading blasts that consumed them from bow to stern in seconds. Others limped on, spewing smoke and burning brilliantly even as they continued to target their enemies with their cannons.
The Monocon fleet was not defeated. But the odds had suddenly been drastically altered. As Strika examined the devastation inflicted on the capital ships, she decided they were odds she actually quite liked.
She looked at Swindle, "You took your sweet time enacting this plan".
"Plan?" Swindle shook his head, "Oh no, this is a simply a spectacular example of careless consumer practice. Such a high-profile purchase should always be insured. It is fortunate that the navigation error only occurred when all the Quintesson ships were in command signal range though. Ahh, if only Starscream had bought the insurance…"
"If he had, would you have still sabotaged them like this?"
Swindle allowed the façade to slip for a moment. He shrugged in a non-committal manner.
Soundwave stepped forward, regarding Swindle with his angular crimson optics, "If your intention was to use this fleet against Gigatron's forces, why did you not provide it to the combined Autobot and Decepticon forces before the battle?"
"I think there's something to be said for the element of surprise".
Strika scoffed, "And we wouldn't have paid you for it".
"Well, there is that", Swindle grinned.
Slipstream dived as fast as her thrusters would carry her, transformed to robot mode and reached out for the plummeting Autobot. She seized him by the wrist and slowed her descent. The Autobot turned his head to look up at her.
"Hey, thanks Deceptic-gal".
"Call me that again and I'll drop you".
Jazz looked down: he was dangling from her grip a good five hundred feet above the street level, "Gotcha, I'll can the lip".
Above them one of the Monocon cruisers was going up in flames. Slipstream was having to weave from side to side to avoid fiery debris raining down on them.
"What are you doing up here anyway, Autobot?"
She had spotted him out of the corner of her optic as she witnessed the sudden, unexpected heel-turn of the Quintesson ships. He had been freefalling towards the surface level amidst all the carnage, certain to be dashed across the streets far below if she hadn't intervened.
"I tried to hi-jack one of those kookie Quintesson hot rods".
"Oh. So, is this-" she gestured with her free hand at the ailing Monocon fleet, "-your doing?"
"Not me, these things went ape on their own. I had to haul aft outta there".
"Huh. So…want me to put you down anywhere?"
Something about the absurdity of the situation made Jazz want to laugh. Here he was, mere seconds after nearly being annihilated by the kamikaze course of the ship he had been trying to hijack, and now a femmebot clone of Starscream was carrying him through a warzone while casually asking where he wanted to be dropped off. As if she was a taxi service back in Detroit.
He restricted himself to a small chuckle and said aloud, "Put me down on Omega Supreme, will ya? I wanna make sure my friends are still moving and grooving".
"Got it", Slipstream touched her commlink with her other hand, "Seekers, on my position. We're going to move in as a unit and finish what those drill-ships started".
Up ahead Jazz could see Omega Supreme. The immense bot looked to be in bad shape, but he was still moving. He had descended to the ground and was doubled over. To Jazz's surprise as they drew nearer he could see Ratchet and Arcee standing before Omega Supreme. The two Autobots turned to face them as they heard the seeker approaching.
Slipstream touched down and released Jazz. Ratchet grinned and slapped a battered hand on the ninja-bot's shoulder. Arcee and Slipstream exchanged respectful nods.
"So…any of you bots have any idea what happened to their fleet?" Arcee asked, "One nanoklik we were about to be scrap, and the next..."
Slipstream shrugged as she looked up at the battle above, "No clue, but I'm not about to look a gift Mini-Con in the dental plate".
"How's the big O. S?" Jazz asked, looking up at the titanic bot.
Omega Supreme answered himself, noticeably startling Slipstream, "Condition: stable. Combat systems: compromised. I am running repair cycles".
"He took a real pounding up there", Arcee stroked the plating of Omega's gargantuan stabilizing servo affectionately, "His weapons and higher motor skills are all disabled. He's given it everything he could".
"I have to admit most of the Decepticon fighters would be scrap metal without him", Slipstream said.
"You hear that up there?" Ratchet called up to his protégé, "You did everything you could, you hear us? Even the Decepticons aren't arguing."
"Thank…you…."
Omega shifted slightly, metal groaning and gears grinding as he moved into a reclining position.
"You can rest now, friend", Ratchet was already retrieving his medical equipment from his back-mounted storage box, "I'll get to work on you right away".
"Cool it, pops", Jazz said, "We might be need to quit this shindig. Optimus went after Gigatron".
"Gigatron?!" Arcee and Ratchet exclaimed together.
"Straight up. And I don't think he has any backup".
Ratchet swore. Arcee placed a hand on his shoulder.
"I…I can't just leave Omega", the medi-bot exclaimed, "The streets are still packed with those Monocon glitches, and the warships aren't out of the picture yet".
The wail of jet engines heralded the arrival of the four remaining seekers: they transformed to robot mode and assembled behind Slipstream.
"We'll keep the warships off Omega Supreme", Slipstream said, folding her arms in front of her.
"We will?" Skywarp whimpered.
"Oh, if you're half the mechanoid I am, then you'll have no problem up there!" Thundercracker gave Skywarp a gentle punch in the upper arm.
Trembling, Skywarp looked at him, "You really think I can do this?"
"Of course you can!" Sunstorm said grandly, throwing his arms open wide, "No bot has quite such refined self-preservation skills as you! And the remaining ships will be easy prey, thanks to the genius of whoever it was that sabotaged those enemy vessels!"
Ramjet nodded, "I knew that was going to happen, by the way".
The ground trembled suddenly and a shadow fell over them: they turned to see three monstrous figures approach. One was clutching a deactivated Monocon in its clawed servos.
"Hnnnrgaargh!" bellowed Grimlock, waving the leaking drone about as he spoke, "Dinobots protect big bot from puny enemy. Car robots go help truck robot!"
Ratchet smiled gratefully, then gestured to the lifeless Monocon, "Erm…what are you carrying that around for?"
"Hmm, this? This snack", Grimlock transformed into his terrifying Tyrannosaurus mode in a whirl of parts, tossing the Monocon in the air as he did. He caught it in his toothy jaws and crunched it into swallowable chunks.
"Go, Ratchet", Omega boomed, "I will be alright. Protect the AllSpark. Protect, like an Autobot".
Ratchet nodded reluctantly, "Alright, old friend. If I have your permission. Come on, let's go pull Prime's plating out of the forge. Transform and roll out!"
Jazz, Arcee and Ratchet transformed to vehicle mode and sped off through the warzone towards the Metroplex. Slipstream addressed her fellow seekers.
"We're going straight into the nearest capital ship, and we're gonna blast it apart from the inside out. When we're done with that one, we'll hit the next one and the next one until Omega Supreme and the ground forces are in the clear, got that? Good. Decepticons, transform and rise up!"
The five Decepticons transformed to their jet modes and took off like an arrow from the string towards the nearest Monocon cruiser. They vanished into one of the breaches made by the drilling of the Monocon ships. Below, the three Dinobots stalked around Omega Supreme in their dinosaur modes, daring any wayward Monocons to come close.
"Sari, no!" Bumblebee screamed.
He leapt bolt upright, panic overwhelming his processor. His optics darted around wildly, unsure what was going on, where he was, what had happened or how long he had been out cold.
"Take it easy, Bumblebee! Easy!"
His vision settled on the speaker knelt down next to him. It was Arcee.
"Wh…what happened?" he asked, trying to clear the fog from his memory.
"That's just what I want to know", groaned Bulkhead. Bumblebee looked back and saw his friend lying a few feet away, Jazz helping him sit upright.
"We found you bots out cold on our way to the Metroplex to help Prime", Arcee said, "What happened to you?"
Bumblebee blinked and shook his head slowly, "We…were on the way to help Prime too, and then Sari said she was gonna…Sari! Where is she?!"
He leapt to his feet.
"She's right here", said Ratchet off to Bumblebee's right. The medi-bot was stooped over the technorganic, who was lying motionless on the floor.
"Hey, Bumblebee", came Sari's voice. It was weak, a ghost of a voice.
"Are you okay? What happened? The AllSpark…you didn't-"
"No, I didn't get the chance, thanks to Blackarachnia. She knocked us all out. Said she had her own plans for the AllSpark, and I don't think they're good".
"Your plans for the AllSpark weren't 'good' either!" argued Bumblebee, hurrying to her side, "You scared us, squirt".
Sari propped herself up on her elbows and smiled feebly at him, "I'm sorry", she said, and then looked to the Metroplex. Even from this distance, they could see flashes of crimson and amethyst energy as combat raged within.
"It looks like we're too late now, anyway", Sari said glumly, "Blackarachnia saw to that. I should never have trusted her".
Bulkhead got unsteadily to his feet, supported by Jazz and Arcee, "Well, whatever we do with the AllSpark, we can't leave Prime on his own in there! Let's move it already!"
There was no denying that Optimus Prime was not the rookie commander of a space bridge repair crew that he had once been. He had faced off with terrifying mutants and aliens, wily organic supervillains and the deadliest Decepticons in the galaxy time and again, and emerged online. In the war that had raged since the Decepticons stole Vector Sigma from Cybertron, he had become something of a legend among Autobots and Decepticons alike, carrying out dozens of successful solo missions.
But as capable a fighter as he had proven, Optimus was not too proud to admit that his opponent was toying with him. Gigatron was barely even bothering to parry his axe strikes: the sheer delight he took in Optimus' despair as the AllSpark energy within him knitted any damage he took back together was palpable.
Optimus swung for him again, but this time Gigatron seized the axe shaft in one hand and used it as a pivot to toss Optimus overhead and slam him into the ground. Optimus groaned in pain, but the sound was lost as Gigatron's foot came down on his chest and proceeded to grind him into the floor.
"Ahh, it's the little things that make the spark pulse", Gigatron grinned, "I think you're about done for now, aren't you? I'll just fetch the AllSpark and we can be on our way. You won't go anywhere, will you? There's a spark extractor with your name on it back at my base."
Optimus lay there, embedded in the floor, too wracked with pain to move as Gigatron turned his back and scanned the room for the AllSpark. It had been knocked out of their reach during their opening exchange of blows and skidded into a corner of the room – Gigatron grinned when he saw it resting a small distance away and stepped towards it.
The whir of motors and the creaking of failing joints caught his attention, and he glanced over his shoulder to see Optimus Prime rising from his seeming defeat, limbs shaking with the effort. It was of no great surprise to Gigatron.
"Ahh, you truly are a worthy archenemy, yes, Optimus Prime".
Gigatron admired the resolution in his foe's optics even as the Autobot's body betrayed him. Optimus attempted to raise his axe, but his servomotors were too badly damaged to move nearly quickly enough to stop the thrust Gigatron aimed at him.
The blade of the staff passed clean through Optimus' right shoulder, bursting out the other side in a spray of white-hot sparks. Gigatron wrenched the weapon, and the momentum toppled Optimus over onto his back. The Autobot still struggled to get up, but Gigatron twisted the weapon even as it was impaled in his victim. Optimus screamed in pain.
Gigatron peered down at him, and his smile was visible even through his mask, "Ahh, but even you have your limits. I will render you helpless, even if I have to cut your limbs off one at a time, yes. And then, my archenemy, your suffering will truly begin".
Gigatron yanked the staff back out of Optimus' shoulder and raised it high, the shining blade angled perfectly to slice off Optimus' right arm.
A deep, percussive blast rang out through the chamber. Gigatron just had time to look surprised before he fell forward, his back plating suddenly blown open. Another blast rang out, and this time Gigatron dropped to one knee and bellowed in pain.
Optimus craned his neck around as best as he could to look at Gigatron's assailant. Megatron was rushing into the chamber, his arm-mounted cannon firing pounding blasts of violet fusion energy as he came. Each shot blasted Gigatron back and away from Optimus, peeling away Gigatron's plating and rupturing his internal systems.
When Megatron was within hand-to-hand range he drew his twin swords and began hacking into Gigatron with a deadly fury, slicing through his armour and cleaving into his vitals.
As Megatron set about his foe with his blades he roared, "That is my archenemy!"
There were a lot of thoughts going through Bumblebee's processor as he accelerated down the Metroplex central corridor in his vehicle mode. The first thought was that he was incredibly angry with the occupant on his front seat, Sari Sumdac. How could she even think of giving up her spark and sacrificing herself? She couldn't leave them, like Prowl had.
The second thought was that he needed to keep an optic on Sari in the upcoming battle and ensure she didn't try and slip away and carry out her insane technorganic-AllSpark theory. The third thought was that it really probably wasn't wise to get so far ahead of the others when racing to confront an AllSpark-infused time-travelling Megatron copy from an alternate timeline in which he'd already succeeded in wiping out most of the galaxy.
There were other thoughts, but he had no time to dwell on them. He burst into the High Council Chamber and transformed to robot mode. Sari leapt from his interior as he did, and she was in her full battle mode before she hit the ground. Bumblebee had caught sight of Optimus even as he transformed. The Autobot captain was lying prone and motionless, and Bumblebee and Sari found themselves leaping in front of him and standing in defensive postures before they had time to register what was going on in the chamber.
When they finally did take in what was transpiring, they stared in dumbfounded silence.
A few seconds later Jazz tore into the chamber, followed by Arcee, Ratchet, and finally Bulkhead. They joined the defensive half-circle around Optimus, then they too fell silent.
"Is that…Megatron?" Arcee asked.
Megatron was laying into a badly damaged Gigatron with his dual swords, his fists and his feet. His attack appeared to have taken his doppelganger entirely by surprise: a trail of shrapnel and sparking wires marked the path Gigatron had been driven back on.
"But…but Megatron was scrap metal!" Bulkhead exclaimed.
Bumblebee groaned, "There aren't three Megatrons, are there?"
Megatron had backed Gigatron against the far wall. Still clinging on to his staff in one badly damaged hand, Gigatron plunged it into the wall and attempted to use it to leverage himself to his feet. Megatron did not relent, however, and viciously drove his knee into Gigatron's head, crushing it between his knee and the wall. Gigatron stumbled onto his hands and knees, and when he looked up, he found himself looking down the barrel of Megatron's fusion cannon, which was whining as it powered up.
"Just look at you", Megatron sneered, and fired.
The resultant blast blew Gigatron across the chamber. Shedding metal as he flew across the room, Gigatron rolled to a stop some two hundred feet away. He lay motionless, his mask hanging off his shattered face by a sliver of blackened metal. His armour was cracked and slashed in a hundred places, and his right leg was barely attached to his torso. His cannons were shattered and sparking.
"Two fusion cannons?" Megatron scoffed, "What an unsightly excess. But I suppose I should be grateful for the opportunity to confirm for myself what a mistake your path was".
The gathered Autobots were lost for words. Only Ratchet, driven by his medi-bot instinct, had the wherewithal to do something: he sprang into action with his blow torch, magnetic manipulators and energon stims, and began hasty repair work on Optimus Prime. He would let the others worry about the big questions: right now there was a bot who needed medical assistance, and that was all he would concern himself with.
Bumblebee, however, had questions, "Um, what the slag is going on? How are you still functioning, Megatron?"
"Yeah, what kinda crazy trick did you pull?" asked Jazz.
For the first time Megatron seemed to notice the Autobots, but he only took his eyes off the downed form of Gigatron to regard them for very brief moment. When Gigatron showed no signs of movement, he answered.
"No bot is as surprised by my condition as I. But there was no sleight-of-servo or deception at play. My survival was due to another".
He reached for something secreted in his angular shoulder plate. Sari caught sight of something moving as Megatron picked it up and knelt to place it on the chamber floor.
"Dad?!" she cried in disbelief.
Isaac Sumdac stumbled out of Megatron's grip and tottered in Sari's direction, more than a little dizzy due to his ride on Megatron's shoulder throughout the Decepticon's brutal attack on Gigatron. Sari ran forward and caught her father before he tripped over.
"You kidnapped Professor Sumdac -again- and brought him into a warzone?!" Bulkhead raged at Megatron.
"Kidnapped? Far from it, Autobot", said Megatron, "Professor Sumdac insisted I bring him".
"That's right, I did", Sumdac nodded as soon as he was able to stand up straight, "And Megatron owed me".
"I ain't so sure this is a good idea, Professor," Captain Fanzone said as he shielded his eyes from the blare of the blowtorch with his meaty left hand.
Isaac Sumdac was too busy to answer. Blowtorch in one hand and some sort of bizarre calibration device in the other, he had been hard at work on his newest project for the last two hours. With the full utility of his lab at his disposal, the amount of progress he had made in such a short time was nothing short of staggering, and even proud luddite Fanzone was impressed by the precise and vigorous work of the automated robotic crane arms that assisted the Professor.
But it was the wisdom of the project that concerned the Detroit Police Department Captain. Because the task that Professor Sumdac had busied himself with was repairing the shattered body of Megatron, Supreme Leader of the Decepticons.
Captain Fanzone wandered to the edge of the tower and looked out over his beloved city. For being at the centre of a hostile alien attack, it had emerged remarkably well. Yes, there were a few buildings that had been brought down, but office blocks could be rebuilt. No lives had been lost, and they were much harder to replace. But between himself and the Autobots, they had come up with a fool-proof evacuation plan. All things considered Fanzone was relatively pleased with how events had unfolded today, despite the smoke rising from the streets, the decimated Monocon bodies scattered across several city blocks and the wreckage of three gargantuan alien ships now dominating the skyline.
It was amongst the wreckage of these ships that his first responders had first reported finding the body of Megatron. Isaac Sumdac had immediately sent automated recovery bots to retrieve it and deposit it in his lab, and Fanzone was more than a little concerned to see that the Professor was working at a frantic pace to repair the dismantled Decepticon.
Fanzone looked at the enormous form lying prone in the laboratory. When he had first arrived at Sumdac's lab, Megatron's body had been almost torn in two at the midsection, and all of his limbs save his right arm had been separated from his torso. His face, once proud and cruel, had almost entirely been peeled back, with his lower jaw hanging disconnected from its upper counterpart and one optic over-exposed.
Sumdac's progress had been truly impressive. Megatron's limbs had been reattached, and his face was at least recognisable now. But his chassis was still cracked all over, as if it was laced with spider-webs, and much of his inner workings were still hanging out in graceless piles of cybernetic debris.
"Erm…what makes yer think yer can even bring him back?" Fanzone asked.
Sumdac was sealing up a crack in the torso with his blowtorch at full burn, "Megatron once told me that my understanding of his people was only superficial. That I only understood armour plating and servo mechanics. And he was right. But I've learned a great deal, captain".
He pulled back a panel on Megatron's chest, and it sprang open. Pulsing within was a faint orb of blue light, nestled deep within the robot's innermost workings.
"That is a spark, captain. As long as it still pulses, a Cybertronian is not truly gone. If I can just get him back on his feet…"
But even as they spoke the spark flickered, threatening to go out.
"No, no!" Sumdac leapt to his feet and began frantically running around his lab, "I must have something to keep him online! Residual AllSpark energy in my lab…no, no, that's run dry…could I perhaps take out the fragments powering the space bridge? No, that would prevent us from getting to Cybertron in time…"
"Cybertron? You want to go to Cybertron?" Fanzone shook his head, nonplussed.
"That's right. I know better than most that Megatron is a monster, but he's a monster on the right side for once. I want my daughter to come home safely, and as twisted and evil as Megatron is, I do believe that adding him to the fight will increase the odds in favour of Sari and the Autobots".
"And what makes yer certain he's even gonna help?" Fanzone eyed the lifeless body of Megatron warily.
But Sumdac didn't reply. He was too busy tearing through his lab, upsetting monitors and desk chairs, as if the answer to his problem could be found underneath a cold cup of coffee.
"There must be something, I'm so close! We must have just the tiniest sliver of the AllSpark…"
"Okay, we must have the tiniest sliver of the AllSpark!"
The voice came from the cargo elevator of Sumdac Tower. The ever-dishevelled Wreck-Gar was standing there, smiling pleasantly. He was rummaging through his back-mounted dumpster with one hand.
"Ehh, whatcha doin' 'ere, Sanitation Chief Wreck-Gar?" Fanzone put his hands on his hips, "Ain't there enough to do down there with organizing the clean-up?"
"Oh, I've already vacuumed up the lil' smashed bots!" Wreck-Gar said, "I wanted to ask for a little help disposing of those alien warships in a responsible and environmentally friendly manner. Do you think they go in recyclable or non-recyclable? Also I…ah, here it is!"
With a flourish he produced a small blue crystal from his backpack and held it up. Sumdac gasped.
"An…an AllSpark fragment! Where did you get that?"
"'One man's trash is another man's treasure', as they say!" Wreck-Gar said, "You'd be amazed at what you find in trash cans".
"How long have you had that?" Sumdac said, hurrying over to him, "Why did you not hand it over to the Autobots?"
Wreck-Gar scratched his head, "You know, they never asked".
"Well, I am asking now. Please, Wreck-Gar, I need your AllSpark fragment to save my daughter!"
"Oh, sure! Here you go", Wreck-Gar flicked it towards the Professor, who fumbled and dropped it.
The shard rolled suddenly to the edge of the tower: only Fanzone's boot and quick reaction stopped it from vanishing over the edge. He picked it up and regarded first it, and then his friend carefully.
"Sure hope you know what yer doing, Professor", he said as he handed it over.
Sumdac nodded thankfully, then hurried over to Megatron's titanic frame.
"As do I, captain".
He placed the AllSpark fragment within the Decepticon's spark chamber and retreated a few steps.
They held their breath. Nothing happened.
Wreck-Gar leaned over him and rapped on his optic with knuckle, "Hello, anyone in there? Hmm, are you sure you want to get this bot back on his feet? He looks kinda mean-errggh!"
Megatron's black-plated fist had lashed out and seized him around his scrawny neck. A dazzling light erupted from the Decepticon's spark chamber, burning Fanzone's and Sumdac's retinas. There was a whipping sound of cables lashing themselves back into place, followed by a warping, groaning noise as metal panels flexed and fused themselves back into position and sealed fissures closed.
After a few seconds the light faded, and there was Megatron, without even a scratch on him, sitting upright on the floor of Sumdac Tower. He was still holding Wreck-Gar by the throat, and his eyes were distant.
His voice synthesiser warbled indistinctly, "All-All-All-AllSpark Well of AllSpark Professor Sumdac-dac-dac-dac-dac I am Meg-Meg-Meg-Megatron Optimus Prime Optimus Optimus Lugnut I will distract go go go go go last order Starscream Starscream you win Starscream Starscream…!"
Then his optics blazed crimson and he seemed to fully come to life. He looked around, startled and confused.
"Where am I?" he asked, "And who the blazes are you?" he demanded to know of Wreck-Gar.
"I'm gonna have to ask you to let go of our fair city's Chief of Sanitation, sir", Fanzone demanded, stepping forward fearlessly, "Or I'm gonna have to take you into custody".
Megatron stared at him and released Wreck-Gar. It seemed unlikely to Fanzone that the Decepticon was truly swayed by the threat.
Wreck-Gar adjusted his head and neck with his hands, twisting them back into position until they creaked, "Woah. I'm guessing someone isn't a 'morning-person!'"
Megatron narrowed his optics until they were red lines of light as he attempted to focus, "I was…I was in a battle…against Optimus Prime? No, with Optimus Prime. Against…myself? And Starscream? But now I'm…back in this accursed lab?"
"Yes, Megatron, you are in my lab. I rebuilt you", Sumdac pointed to himself as Megatron's gaze settled on him, "Again".
Fanzone flinched, "Wait, whaddya mean, 'again?'"
After a few seconds Megatron's optics widened and he nodded slowly, "Ahh, yes, of course. Of course you would be the one to rebuild me. Who else would it be? No-one else has the experience you do in that particular field of expertise, do they, Professor?"
"Wait, what?" Fanzone snapped, "What's this about rebuilding Megatron already?"
"But this time I did it in full knowledge of who you really are, Megatron", Sumdac said in a steely tone, "And I did it because you still have work to do. You need to go to Cybertron and help Optimus Prime and the others".
Megatron sank back into a prone position with a defeated groan, "Do I indeed? Oh, what is the point of it all? I've endured enough for one lifecycle. You should have left me to rust".
"Oh, we couldn't do that!" Wreck-Gar exclaimed, "Rust stains are just the worst to wash away".
Captain Fanzone shook his head, "Never took you for a quitter, Megatron. You have one bad day and you're ready to hand in your badge? Some Decepticon leader you turned out to be".
"'Bad day?' I was quite literally detonated, organic captain".
"Yeah, but you don't have to let it beat you. Some days the job just grinds yer down and you feel like throwing in the towel, but yer don't quit. Because yer got a responsibility to the people of this city".
"And you do have a responsibility, Megatron", Sumdac said with a surprising edge to his voice, "You have endangered the people of this city time and time again, and you don't get to do one good deed and call it even. You owe it to the people of Detroit to keep trying. You owe it to Optimus Prime and the Autobots to keep trying. And you owe it to your Decepticons, Blitzwing and Lugnut-"
"Ooh, my good pal Lugnut! He must have been talking about you!" Wreck-Gar clapped his hands together, "He was always talking about how great you were. Always 'glorious Megatron' this and 'wise Megatron' that".
Megatron lay in silence for a moment.
"The awful thing is", he said slowly, "I know I am being manipulated, but it is also working. You're quite right, Professor. Penance is not earned in a single cycle".
He got to his feet suddenly, looming over them all like a terrifying statue carved out of solid steel. He was once more proud, fierce, and dreadful.
"Professor Sumdac, if you would do me the honour of activating the space bridge", he said, "I have business to conduct on Cybertron".
"And I am going with you!" Sumdac declared defiantly even as he was typing destination co-ordinates into the space bridge, "I am coming home with my daughter safe and sound, or not at all!"
The space bridge hummed and vibrated as it produced the bubble of transwarp energy. Megatron studied the Professor, then merely shrugged.
"Our fates do seem persistently intertwined, Professor. Come, I suspect we'll be most needed at the AllSpark's location".
He transformed to his dual-rotor blade helicopter gunship mode. The cockpit flipped open and Sumdac hopped inside, but not before taking one last look at Captain Fanzone and Wreck-Gar.
"Good luck Professor", Fanzone said, "Bring 'em all back, yer hear? I'd miss those bots. They're not so bad for machines".
"Bon voyage!" Wreck-Gar waved farewell, the gravity of the situation utterly lost on him, "Bring back a souvenir!"
Megatron's vehicle mode rose with a whirl of rotor blades that threatened to blow Captain Fanzone off the roof, if Wreck-Gar hadn't been standing between him and the tower edge. A second later Megatron and the Professor had vanished into the transwarp field, which faded into nothingness immediately afterwards.
"Wow, that Megatron fella sure seemed nice!" Wreck-Gar said.
Fanzone blinked, "So… what was all that stuff about Sumdac rebuilding him once before already?"
Sari threw her arms around her father and buried her face in his shoulder, tears streaming down her cheeks as she held him close.
"I didn't think I'd ever see you again", she cried.
"How about that", Ratchet grunted as he tended to Optimus, "Never would have guessed that we'd be thanking Professor Sumdac for rebuilding you, Megatron".
"Serendipity is a strange mistress, Autobot", Megatron replied, "What is Optimus' condition?"
It was Optimus who answered, "Still functional, thanks to you", he said as he sat up, "But listen, we don't have time to power down. Gigatron's not finished yet!"
A low, oily chuckle answered him. It was coming from the smoking pile of scrap that Gigatron had been reduced to.
"Indeed not, no", Gigatron purred, "You are not the only ones who can take advantage of the AllSpark's regenerative properties".
Even as Sari hugged her father, she saw a bolt on the floor begin to twitch, then roll steadily in the direction of Gigatron.
"Dad, it's not safe here. You shouldn't have come", she whispered.
More bolts, nuts, rivets and scraps of plating were rolling across the floor towards Gigatron. They began to whip through the air, faster and more vigorously, until there was a storm of jagged metal detritus descending onto Gigatron's body, which had begun to glow with AllSpark energy.
"That can't be good", Bumblebee winced.
"Oh, it's more than good, my simple friend", Gigatron roared with laughter as he rose to his feet, all the damage Megatron had inflicted upon him vanishing before their horrified eyes, "It's simply excellent".
He snapped his cannons into firing position and unleashed them on the assembled allies. Sari leapt to the front of them and extended her forearm-mounted shield until a rippling sheet of energy overlapped them all, but it only served to diminish the blast somewhat. Her shield mod immediately overloaded and they were all scattered by the explosion.
Gigatron laughed heartily, "You cannot stand in the path of providence with nothing but your trivial triumphs to cling to! They are as fleeting as your mortal lives! What you are attempting to stop is galactic destiny, and it will not be permitted".
"Really now?" Arcee drew her swords with a quick flourish as the allies got to their feet, "Because we had a view of the battle on the drive-in, and let me tell you something, Gigatron. It's not looking so good for your forces".
"Hmph, they are a mere sideshow", Gigatron spread his arms wide in a grand gesture, "They have served their purpose in getting me to this moment. Now they may serve as a fireworks performance to mark my ascension to singular lordship over the cosmos. You are all such creatures of limited scope; you could not comprehend what is at hand. Least of all you, my predecessor. To think you would have been satisfied with premiership over Cybertron. Such little imagination!"
Megatron looked at Bulkhead, "By the AllSpark, are my own speeches so tediously pompous?"
"Kinda?" Bulkhead answered, "You did go on about destiny a lot when I was helping you build your space bridge".
Megatron shook his head, "Small wonder Starscream betrayed me".
As one, the Autobots, the technorganic and the Decepticon leader drew their weapons and threw themselves into the last battle.