35- Armada.
Warpath started to open his eyes, and groaned as he got up.
"My head aches. What the…? The Cons' warship?"
Yes, he was in a room of the Nemesis surrounded by lots of energon boxes.
"Beautifly."
He wasn't alone, May's Beautifly accompanied him, and followed him inside the ship. Warpath walked back a few steps until he almost fell through a hole, which they could see they were already in the air.
"Ratchet, don't ask how we got here, long story. Ratchet, you copy?" Warpath called, by it was no use. "Oh scrap. I guess we'll have to get out of here by ourselves, little buddy."
"Beautifly." The butterfly pokémon said landing on his head.
Warpath walked out of the room they were very carefully.
"Stealthy, stealthy." Warpath said to himself.
He stopped when they heard footsteps getting closer, made by a group of Vehicons. Warpath tried to return to the previous room, but when he tried, the door closed in front of his face, so Beautifly didn't look. Fortunately, the Cons continued their way. Warpath started walking, looking back in case they return, until he bumped into someone and turned around with his guns ready, the same as the other individual, who for his surprise was…
"Dark…? Wait. Starscream?! When did you return to your retro version?" Warpath asked in disbelief.
"Not your concern. Why is it that every time I return to my old stomping grounds, I find an Autobot roaming the halls?" The so-called Starscream asked in irritation, but changed his face when he saw Beautifly on Warpath's head. "Nice sticker."
"Don't tell me you came crawling back to Galvatron."
"Hardly, now out of my way."
But Warpath blocked him. "Scream, you gotta show me the way off this boat."
"Sorry, too busy."
"Look, when you needed help…"
"As I recall, we bartered!" Starscream interrupted. "So, unless you have anything of value to offer me, step aside."
"The exit, now!" Warpath demanded, starting to lose his patience.
"I may have given Arcee a free pass when she and I last met." Starscream said as he slashed Warpath's torso with his claws. "But I won't hesitate to skewer you as I was supposed to do personally with your certain comrade Hot Rod."
Beautifly flew next to Warpath as he looked to the scar Starscream made to him before looking at him mad.
"Okay Scream, you asked for it. Kaboom!" Warpath said firing his chest cannon.
The shot sent Starscream to the ground, but he incorporated a little with his guns ready. "Perish, Warpath."
But Warpath jumped on top of him and started smashing him with his hammers.
"This is for Hot Rod! For Bumblebee! For everything." Warpath said before grabbing him as aiming his cannon at his head before firing.
Warpath finally calmed down after finishing with Starscream.
He sighed as Beautifly landed on his shoulder. "He left me no choice."
24 hours earlier, in the Unova's Nature Preserve, Darkscream was walking toward a canyon, but his body looked completely different: it was thinner, as well his hands and arms; some parts of his former armor were now gone; his wings, still on his back, were not that bigger as before; and he now possessed a missile attached to his arms; the only recognizable facts were his face with red eyes, his claws and the Decepticon emblem, now located on his chest; he looked now like his previous self: Starscream.
"How degrading is all this. Being forced to get rid of my new robust body and return to my old configuration merely to survive, to renounce to my marvelous upgrades and cope with I already thought lost in the past." He groaned. "What I would not give to recover what I so gratefully became. And have wings again. I hope that this particular finding that I unburied in that demolished human facility can be of some use to me."
He was referring to a few items and a rock he was carrying on one of his hands, which seemed to had something embedded in. Then he smiled at seeing the canyon, and other familiar thing.
"Ah, just as I left it: the Harbinger. Things are finally looking up."
He entered the ship, which it was a mess inside. He searched through the wreckage, but he got mad and hit some rumble, probably because he did not find what he expected.
"Arg! Really?! Not one scrap of energon!"
Starscream slammed his fist to the wall. The impact caused a door behind him to open. He entered the room.
"A laboratory." He recognized, before pressing a button on the terminal in front of him, turning it on. "And its functional."
The lights turned on, revealing 5 cybertronian bodies hanging in front of him.
"Protoforms."
Meanwhile, Warpath was scouting on Kanto, with May's Beautifly flying right behind him. Suddenly, his terminal detected something.
"Warpath to base, I picked up a strong reading. Better going check it out." He said changing course with Beautifly after him.
Meanwhile, Starscream was seeing some instructions present on the terminal, some kind of scientific formula.
"Let's see: transference of binary bonding, submolecular infusion. The formula seems straight forward enough. Well, my little lumps of clay, you look like you're right for the molding. Let's give cloning a whirl, shall we?" Starscream said, looking at the protoforms.
Warpath reached to a crater in the ground as he turned back to his robot form.
"Beautifly." Beautifly said taking a look inside.
"Yeah, no sign of activity." Warpath observed before he started to climb down.
At the same time, Starscream took a med canister to extract some of his own energon and inserted it in the fusion chamber. The machine scanned his genetic code and his image appeared on the terminal. That caused lots of currents of electricity to flow all around the chamber, while Starscream laughed maniacally.
"Give me life!"
Starscream pulled down a lever, making the currents to flow to the protoforms. Immediately, one started to change until it transformed into a perfect copy of Starscream: a clone. The same happened with the other four, which lined up.
"Ah, like-minded company, at last." Starscream smirked.
Back with Warpath and Beautifly, the duo continued their way down the hole, until Warpath saw the bottom, with a pile of energon cubes.
"Energon. Boxed and ready for pick up."
But suddenly, a shadow covered the hole. They looked up and spotted the Nemesis descending above them, probably to claim the energon.
"Scrap."
Warpath tried to climb down faster, but he took a wrong step, and fell, landing on the energon. He fell unconscious, Beautifly went to check him as the Nemesis used its elevator to pick up the energon and getting it inside. Back with Starscream…
"Esteemed members of my armada, you now stand upon the very precipice of glory. To meet the destiny which I have so tenaciously worked toward." He announced to his new squadron.
"Dynamic leadership of the Decepticons!" One of the clones suddenly said.
That surprised Starscream. "Uh, I am…delighted to hear that we are on the same page."
"We are as one, commander." One of the clones started.
"We share your memories." Another clone continued.
"Your very feelings." Another said.
"Even your insatiable quest for power." Another clone revealed.
"Hpm, I see." Starscream said, suspecting of the clone.
Moments later, they were walking out of the ship.
"Fortunately, the Harbinger's tracking systems have remained sync to Galvatron's warship. Of course, we should require a means of reaching the…" Starscream was saying, until he heard a transforming noise from behind him. He turned back and saw all the clones in vehicle mode, one he scanned when he turned back completely to his previous self: a F-16 Fighting Falcon plane. "Ah, you can transform? Eh…of course you can, hehe. How else would you fly to the ship? That was a test to which you all…passed. Now take flight and snuff Galvatron's accursed spark."
The five clones followed Starscream's command and left the reserve, heading to the Nemesis.
That was around the time when Warpath woke up inside the warship. At the same time, Starscream's clones sneaked inside the Nemesis.
"Spread out, keep to the shadows." The first clone instructed to the others.
"Any one of us is an instant target aboard this warship." The second clone warned.
"But since the known one here was Darkscream we should not worry that much since we differ from him." The third clone pointed.
"But to be seen together would sacrifice the element of surprise." The fourth clone reminded.
"Whoever manages to find Galvatron first, report your position." The fifth clone suggested.
And all the clones went by separated ways. One of them went down a hallway and heard footsteps approaching. He slowly backed away, until he bumped into someone: Warpath.
"Dark…? Wait. Starscream?!"
At the same time, back with the real Starscream…
"I cannot wait to savor the vivid details of Galvatron's demise." Starscream said, until suddenly he felt a sudden pain. "What is happening?"
It was because Warpath was hitting his clone.
"This is for Hot Rod! For Bumblebee! For everything." Warpath said before grabbing him as aiming his cannon at his head before firing.
The pain made Starscream fall to his knees.
"My genetic code provides my clones with a T-Cog I no longer possess and all I get is their agony?!" Starscream asked in disbelief.
Warpath hid the clone's body in a corner before looking at a terminal.
"A com-unit."
Warpath walked to the terminal and started to use it.
"Warpath to base, do you read? Do you copy?" But there was no response. "Stupid Con tech. Is this thing even on?!"
Then the terminal began to release a screeching noise, which sounded the alarm all around the ship, warning the Decepticons that something was wrong. Warpath pressed a button, ending that terrible sound. He sighed in relief, until he heard the sound of footsteps coming their way, so he grabbed Beautifly and hid. The two Decepticon soldiers saw nothing, until they spotted other of Starscream's clones at the end of the corridor. Seeing that they already saw him, he started to run.
"Halt!" One of them shouted as they went after him, thing that Warpath saw, and allowed them to continue their way out.
But Warpath's doing on the terminal was not over. It left an active location beacon. One that even the other rogue Decepticon on the planet detected.
"A Decepticon beacon. At last." Airachnid spotted on her radar.
She was heading in vehicle mode to the cave of Tarroco Island when she tried to eliminate Galvatron with her Insecticon. She transformed, landed and looked at the cave's entrance.
"Devoted servants, the time has come, for the ultimate retribution."
Her words started to awake the whole Insecticon hive. Fortunately, that was noticed in the Autobot base.
"Optimus, no word yet from Warpath, but I am detecting some rather curious subterranean frequencies." Ratchet reported.
"Of earthly origin?"
"I do not yet know what they are, but I do know where." Ratchet answered, showing it on the screen.
"The coordinates at which we last encountered Galvatron." Elita recognized.
"And Airachnid." Arcee snarled.
"And Airachnid's Insecticon." Hot Rod added.
The first Insecticon got out from its stasis chamber and roared, awakening the rest of the hive.
"Arise, my armada! And attack!" Airachnid commanded.
The Insecticons changed to their alt mode and flew out of the cave, heading to their target. When the Autobots arrived by ground bridge, they spotted the hive flying away.
"Whoa, that's a lot of bugs!" Moonracer expressed.
"This is starting to make me think about some bad memories of the Crystal City." Sideswipe confessed.
"We are in all likelihood witnessing the launch of a mission to terminate Galvatron." Optimus deduced.
"I can't think of a reason to stop that even if we could." Wheeljack admitted.
"But we can stop Airachnid." Elita declared as she looked down to see Airachnid.
Optimus activated his battle mask and the team aimed their weapons at her. However, she saw them too.
"Rear guard, engage the Autobots." Airachnid ordered.
Multiple Insecticons turned around and headed to the Autobots as they fired their weapons. Airachnid saw as the shots bombed the Autobots, creating a cloud of smoke. But her enjoyment ended when Arcee came out of the smoke in vehicle mode toward her, forcing her to activate her spider mode and started to crawl away, with Arcee after her while the rest of the Autobots shot down the Insecticons one by one. Meanwhile, Warpath and Beautifly were now moving through the Nemesis service ducts.
"Stealthy, stealthy."
"Beautifly." The little pokémon called, sensing something.
"What is it, buddy?"
"Lord Galvatron." One Decepticon called.
Warpath looked over and saw what Beautifly detected: Galvatron, next to him.
"Yes, what is it?" Galvatron asked.
"An intruder."
"Autobot?"
Warpath and Beautifly remained in silence, hoping to not ended being discovered.
"Darkscream. He was last seen in the vicinity of the bridge." The Con reported.
Galvatron turned around and headed for the bridge, while the duo was confused. At the same time, Arcee continued chasing her rival, dodging a near shot. She saw through the rearview that two Insecticons were chasing and firing her. Of course, being only focused at Arcee, one of the Insecticons did not see a tree and clashed against the other one, making it to spin without control, heading towards Airachnid.
"No!"
The clash sent her down a hill. When Arcee arrived, she changed to robot form and saw Airachnid making another tunnel in the ground.
"Underground. There's a surprise." She said sarcastically pulling out her weapons and jumping into the hole.
Back to the Nemesis, Galvatron found dead bodies of Vehicons at the bridge's entrance. When he entered the bridge, he saw the ones how operated inside dead as well, and Starscream standing in middle of the room. He turned at him as Galvatron pulled out and aimed his fusion cannon.
"Darkscream? Have you decided to change back to your former self?" Galvatron asked, both surprised and confused.
"Galvatron, it has come time to settle old scores."
Galvatron laughed maniacally. "Really Starscream? All on your own?"
"Actually." The clone and the others said in union, surrounding Galvatron and aiming him with their missiles.
Galvatron truly was surprised. "Clones. Well played, Darkscream. If you're even here among your inferior underlings."
"Underlings? We are as one, though many." The clones said in union.
"Bring me Darkscream's head on a stick and I will reward you as my second-in-command, all of you."
That made some of the clones to look at each other.
"No. You're trying to trick us!" One of the clones realized.
"Am I?"
"Is he?" Other of the clones asked confused.
"Accept my proposal and we all win. Otherwise, you will merely end up terminating each other to get the spoils. It is your nature after all."
"Don't listen to him!" One of the clones advised.
"Prepare to perish at my hand." Another clone announced.
"Our hands!"
"Yes, only our combined firepower will assure Galvatron's destruction." The first clone reassured.
"Take aim!" Another clone started.
Suddenly, a buzzing noise started to sound.
"Do you hear that?" One of the clones asked.
The sound reached even where Warpath and Beautifly were. It was the sound of the entire Insecticon hive, which besides the distance, managed to find the Decepticon warship. Back to the bridge…
"Ignore it! Fire on three!" One of the clones started again.
"One…!" Other counted.
"Two…!" Other followed.
But before anyone could say three, the ship received a hit, making it to shake and the clones to lost their balance.
"What was that?" One of the clones asked before seeing Galvatron aiming his fusion cannon at him.
"The sound of the tables turning." Galvatron answered, firing his cannon.
He fired at the other three clones, taking them down one by one. Of course, the real Starscream felt that when he moved with the impacts.
"What is going on up there?!"
As that happened, the Insecticon swarm attacked the Nemesis, firing from all directions. As for the clones, only one was still alive.
"Exterminating you was so gratifying the first three times." Galvatron admitted as he advanced to the last one, aiming his cannon.
The clone covered himself, waiting for the last blow. But then another hit made the ship shake again, allowing the clone to escape. Instead of following him, Galvatron looked to the bridge's screen, showing the Insecticon swarm attacking.
"Airachnid." He realized. "A busy day for assassins."
Back with Team Prime, the last Insecticon was firing at both Bee and Hot Rod, so they went to opposite directions dodging the attacks until Sideswipe jumped out of nowhere and kicked it, making it to lost control of its flight and heading next to Optimus, who crushed it with another Insecticon's corpse that Elita already eliminated. Wheeljack made sure they were dead checking their bodies with his swords while Moonracer zapped them with her electric whip. When it seemed that all Insecticons were scrap, the Autobots reunited.
"Well, that was entertainment." Wheeljack admitted.
"Wait, we are not all." Hot Rod observed.
"Arcee." Elita called out.
She was now in the underground caves, looking for Airachnid. But she was not aware that she was heading toward a trap: Airachnid was waiting on the wall, with her guns ready to fire. Meanwhile, the Decepticon troops positioned on the ship's deck to fight the Insecticons, but they were giving them a hard fight. Galvatron went there and saw the scene, he joined the fight and started to shot down the bugs with his cannon and hit others with his gladiator bowler. One of the ones he took down rammed into a Decepticon and dragged him during the fall. Back in the caves, Arcee finally reached to the chamber were the Insecticons slept, their stasis pods were still there. She readied both weapons and continue searching, until she saw Airachnid reflected on one of the pods, so she jumped and evaded Airachnid's shots. She hid behind one pod and waited while Airachnid continued shooting until she got the chance and fired rapidly at her. The shots hit her enough to make her fall to the ground, to her knees and at Arcee's mercy.
"When you extinguish my spark, make it hurt. You know I would extend that courtesy to you." Airachnid incited.
"I'm not like you." Arcee answered.
"Very well."
Airachnid charged against Arcee, trying to hit her with her spider claws. Arcee jumped backwards and pulled out her wrist blades. She saw an Insecticon pod right behind Airachnid, which gave her an idea. She blocked Airachnid's spider legs until she got the chance and jumped at her, kicked her two times and sent her into the pod. One of Airachnid's spider legs pressed the pod, activating it and making it close.
"NO!" She shouted as she was trapped by the pod, which cut one of her spider legs.
Arcee observed how her hated rival could do anything to escape before she was frozen in stasis. Back to the Nemesis, Galvatron continued fighting the Insecticons. Some of them changed to their original form to engage Galvatron in close combat. But suddenly, they stopped attacking and all changed to normal form, gathered around Galvatron, and for his surprise, bowed before him.
"Forgive us, one true lord and master." They begged in union.
"This day has certainly seen its share of thwarted intentions." Galvatron remarked.
At the same time, Warpath jumped out of an air vent with Beautifly behind him and reached to a big room full of conduits, with a giant structure in the center, and a metallic claw that was inserting energon boxes inside of it from a huge lot. Warpath looked at it with attention.
"Beautifly?" The pokémon asked with curiosity.
"I know what to do, and I'm gonna enjoy it. One way or another, we're getting off this boat."
Warpath changed to vehicle form, aimed his cannon at the core and fired a few times. That caused lots of explosions on the core, which made the ship shake again. Galvatron and the Insecticon hive noticed it too.
"Now what?!" Galvatron demanded.
The explosions caused a hole on the Nemesis' engines which released smoke, and made the ship started to descend. Inside, Warpath and Beautifly made their way back to the hangar, but found someone else there: Starscream's remaining clone.
"Out of my way!" The clone yelled before changing to vehicle form and fly away, making the two look at each other confused.
The Nemesis continued its way down. Galvatron went back inside the ship and returned to the bridge.
"My liege, our power core has been compromised." One of the new Decepticons who were operating the bridge reported.
"Prepare for landing."
The warship crashed into the ground, which slowed it down near a ledge of the Kanto Safari Zone. When it stopped, Warpath took the chance to left the ship in vehicle mode, and Beautifly flew right with him. Meanwhile, the Autobots brought Airachnid's pod back to base.
"She's locked in stasis in that pod?" Sideswipe asked in surprise.
"She deserves worse." Ratchet said in anger.
"I intended worse, more times than you know." Arcee reminded.
"But at the end you managed to get rid of your hate and act as the warrior I expected you to become. Tailgate would be proud of you." Elita congratulated.
"Indeed, dear. You were stronger for the choice you made." Optimus proclaimed.
"Now you are the one who have risen above yourself, partner." Hot Rod said putting a hand on her shoulder.
"You managed to teach that witch a lesson, one that I'm sure she will never forget. Because she maybe will be there forever." Moonracer joked.
Arcee laughed. "You can be sure of that."
Then everyone heard a honking noise as they turned to the entrance, from which Warpath drove in before transforming with Beautifly on his head.
"Guys, you are not gonna believe the day we had!" Warpath announced really excited, until he saw Airachnid's pod. "You too, huh?"
Meanwhile, the last clone of Starscream returned to the Harbinger. He transformed, landed and entered the ship, still hurt. He found the real Starscream waiting for him at the ship's control room.
"Lord Starscream, your most loyal servant has returned. But I regret to inform you that our collective mission has failed." The clone told.
"Hum, yes. I got that sense." Starscream started, as the clone started to aim his missile at him. "Something to do with…a throbbing ache in my side!"
As Starscream ended speaking, he fired one of his missiles at his clone, hitting him on the chest and sending him to the ground. The impact left the clone badly injured, and before he could get up, Starscream stepped on him.
"You…knew…I would attempt to terminate you?" The clone asked in disbelief.
"Ugh, I feel your pain. Really I do." Starscream said aiming his other missile at him before fire it. Of course, that caused Starscream to scream in pain a lot. "Scrap, that hurt!"