Monstrous: The Origin of Abhorrus

by Abhorrus

This is the story of a young Autobot with a dream: To join the fiercest fighting force on Cybertron, the Dinobots!

Monstrous

The Origin of Abhorrus

Commander Parker surveyed the battlefield dreadfully. The outer defenses that his team had built on the outskirts of Iacon were already in jagged twisted pieces of metal after the initial Decepticon bombardment. Dozens of Con shock troops raced in the gaps they had created, pressing their advantage on the suddenly demoralized Autobot defenders offering an almost tepid counterattack upon seeing the outer walls they had built destroyed so quickly.

Even worse, Parker saw his troops shrink back from three Cons in particular who were leading the charge, one a purple and blue massive monstrosity whose massive clawed forearms were horrendously crushing Autobot weapons and limbs, another a sleek white and blue figure whose claws were sheering through Autobot armor before he bit down on his victims with his massive toothed jaw, and worst of all was the yellow and purple flying creature whose beak, talons, and wings were a near whirlwind of frenzied attacks, massively injuring every Autobot unfortunate enough to be close to him. Parker had been briefed on these three Cons, whom he recognized as the Terrorcons Blot, Rippersnipper, and Cutthroat, and realized that his troops had no chance holding out against them. If reinforcements didn't arrive soon…

"What is the status on the reinforcements we requested?" Parker asked his communications officer.

"Headquarters states that the Cons are attacking multiple positions throughout Iacon," replied the comms officer. "They have ordered us to hold this position as long as possible until they are able to send help. They say it's vital that we keep the Cons at bay here to prevent further damage to the city."

"Blast it!" yelled Parker. "Tell them that we are being overrun by Terrorcons! There won't be any position here if we don't get those reinforcements…"

A silver and gold creature swooped down right over Parker and his communications officer. The winged beast had a long sinuous neck and even longer tail. The creature roared before breathing a scorching blast of fire upon the Cons, catching several who hadn't noticed the creature's arrival until it was too late.

"Is that a Dinobot?" asked the communications officer. "Did they actually send us a Dinobot?"

Parker and the officer watched the creature land and lash at Cutthroat with his tail. The tail caught Cutthroat cleanly, knocking him to the ground. While the Con thrashed about trying to get back upright, the silver and gold beast pounced on him, stomping him with his massive hind legs. Cutthroat screeched in pain as the Autobot continued to stomp him mercilessly.

"This can't be the best you've got," yelled the beast. "Surely you can put up a better fight than that!"

Suddenly, he was grabbed from behind by Blot. The Autobot grunted as the Terrorcon tried to squeeze the life out of him with his muscular arms. He tried scratching Blot's arms with his claws, but the Terrorcon didn't seem to even notice the gashes his was making. "Now, this is more like it!" said the beast. He leaned forward then, actually lifting Blot off the ground.

Blot, unconcerned about being lifted up, kept squeezing. "That isn't going to help you, Autobot! I don't need to be on the ground to crush you!"

The Autobot beast squatted down and then forcibly launched himself and the stubborn Terrorcon still clinging to him into the air. While in the air, he leaned back and allowed Cybertron's gravity to pull them both back down. Blot, now between the Autobot and the ground, was slammed harshly. The impact of hitting the ground while simultaneously being crushed by the massive creature he had been holding stunned him. His grip loosened and the creature was jumped up.

Once upright, the creature smacked Blot several times with his tail. "That was almost too easy!" he whined. "I thought you Terrorcons were supposed to be tougher than this!"

Rippersnipper, upon seeing both Blot and Cutthroat getting thrashed, started running away from the creature. The other Cons started retreating just as quickly, eager to put some distance between them and the creature. The Autobots on the field cheered and started chasing after the retreating Cons.

"Ah come on!" yelled the beast. "Don't tell me the fight's already over!"

"Oh no," whispered Commander Parker, suddenly realizing who the beast is. "No! Don't chase the enemy!" he yelled to his troops. "Get back under cover!"

"What's the problem, Commander?" asked the communications officer. "We have the Cons on the run! That Dinobot really saved us!"

"That's no Dinobot!" yelled Parker. "It's Abhorrus! We need to get everyone back under cover before he gets bored and leaves!"

Almost prophetically, Abhorrus suddenly saw a tan and purple jet flying in the distance. "By Primus, is that Blitzwing?" he exclaimed excitedly. He suddenly launched himself into the air and started flying away from the battlefield towards the jet. "I've always wanted to fight a triple changer! They're supposed to be really tough!"

Rippersnipper and the retreating Cons all stopped and watched Abhorrus fly away. The Autobots that were chasing them also stopped, each wondering why the Autobot who had just saved them was leaving.

"Hey guys!" yelled Rippersnipper, "the Autochumps don't have their savior anymore! Let's tear them apart!"

"No! No! No!" screamed Parker, but it was already too late. His Autobots were now exposed to the Cons. He could only watch helplessly as Rippersnipper started once again tearing apart the soldiers under his command while the Cons started overrunning defenses. "Slag it all!" he swore. "Retreat!"

---

Abhorrus flapped his wings furiously, straining himself to catch up to Blitzwing. This was the moment he had prepared so many solar cycles for, a chance to prove himself worthy of being noticed by Grimlock by defeating one of the Autobots' greatest enemies. If he could do this, he knew Grimlock would take notice of him. Feeling exhilarated with this unexpected shot at glory, Abhorrus allowed a glob of flammable liquid to well up in his throat before he spewed it at the speeding tan and purple jet.

The jet swerved deftly to the left to avoid the fireball. "Well, well," said Blitzwing. "It looks like an Autobrat wants to play. Are you sure you want to play with the big bots so soon after coming off the assembly line?"

Abhorrus spat out another fireball at him in response. Blitzwing almost laughed at how pathetically easy it was for him to dodge the projectile. Did this Autobot really not understand what was happening? It seemed that the intel that the Soundwave had gotten on this Autobot had indeed been correct. He really was big, slow, and stupid.

"Ok, Autobrat! Let's see if you can keep up," he taunted as he juked to his right, his rear tail fins nearly brushing the surface of a gleaming spire as he zipped past it. Abhorrus spun his torso to give chase after him, bringing his wings in a little to give himself a small boost of speed. Seeing that, Blitzwing suddenly veered to his left, once again skimming the surface of yet another spire.

Abhorrus spun clumsily, trying desperately to keep up as he temporarily lost sight of the speeding jet. He flapped as hard as he could to build up speed and took off in the direction where Blitzwing had flown. As he swooped around the spire, he was shocked to find no sign of the triple changer anywhere. There weren't any other spires or buildings close enough for Blitzwing to fly to. He should be seeing him somewhere. Where did he go?

Abhorrus got his answer when a tank shell smacked him square on his underbelly. The explosion stunned him momentarily and he crashed unceremoniously onto the ground, his right wing getting caught under his body as he skidded to a stop on the uneven ground. He stood gingerly and winced when he moved his wing. Before he could berate himself for forgetting that Blitzwing was a triple changer, another tank shell impacted on his breast, the explosion knocking him back. However, with his feet firmly on the ground and his tail instinctively counterbalancing the sudden force against him, Abhorrus managed to stay upright.

"So, the Autopunk can take a couple of hits," stated Blitzwing smugly. He then noticed that Abhorrus' wing was bent in several places. "But it seems he can still be hurt."

"I barely notice this," said Abhorrus defiantly. "You can't really hurt me."

"Let's test that," stated Blitzwing, his tank turret suddenly firing another shell at Abhorrus. Abhorrus jumped to his right to avoid the projectile, spewing a blast of flame in Blitzwing's direction. Blitzwing calmly stayed in place as Abhorrus' spout of fire stopped just short of reaching him. "What's the problem, Autopunk, don't quite measure up?"

"Don't worry about me not measuring up," yelled Abhorrus. He pulled his wings into his back while twisting his form to until he stood before Blitzwing in his robot form. The reflected starlight from Cybertron's moons reflected brightly on Abhorrus' gold chest plate as the mostly silver robot pulled out his laser rifle and fired several laser shots at the large tan tank.

"Better range," said Blitzwing as the shots pinged near harmlessly off the armor of his tank form. "But largely useless, much like you it seems."

"I'll show you how useful I am!" screamed the enraged Autobot as he threw aside his laser rifle and ran towards Blitzwing. When he was close enough, he leapt into the air, gripped the large red energon sword that was strapped to his back, and swung it down towards Blitzwing with all his strength.

Blitzwing deftly transformed into his robot mode, the engines of his jet mode concealed as the soles of his feet blasting out a small burst of flame to propel him away from the descending Autobot's sword strike. The sword clanged loudly as Abhorrus drove it into the metallic surface of their homeworld. Blitzwing glided back and gently landed a safe distance away from Abhorrus, surveying how deeply Abhorrus had embedded the sword into the planet's surface. "My, you are a strong little Autobrat, aren't you?"

"Shut your slagging vocal circuits!" yelled Abhorrus, struggling to pull the sword from the ground. "When I…"

"Hold that thought, Autobrat!" interrupted Blitzwing, turning slightly to check a screen on his wrist. "Well, it appears we've completed all of our objectives and your colleagues are coming to save you." He immediately transformed to his jet form. "Playtime's over, Autopunk! I wish I could say it was fun, but this was far too easy!"

"Wait! I'm not done with you yet!" bellowed Abhorrus as he helplessly watched Blitzwing jet away. "Come back here, you coward!"

---

"Are you even listening to me?" screamed Sergeant Kup, jabbing his finger into Abhorrus' chest, almost as if he were pushing the large red circle on his golden chest plate like a big button. "Because of you, we have twelve good Autobot soldiers in complete stasis! You had orders to defend that position! What in Primus' good name were you thinking?"

Abhorrus bristled at Kup's tone. "I didn't see you out there taking down two Terrorcons!"

"For all the good that it did!" yelled a mostly white robot standing behind Kup. This robot had red and blue splashes of color on his torso and something else in red that looked familiar somehow to Abhorrus. "You left my troops when they were exposed. With you there, we could have defended our position!"

Abhorrus suddenly realized what the symbol on the white robot's torso was. It was a leaf, from what the humans called a tree. What sort of weakling wears the symbol of a leaf on his chassis? "Your troops were slowing me down," he said with contempt. "There were only three really dangerous Cons there and I took care of two of them myself. If you and your troops were too incompetent to…"

"That's it!" screamed the white robot, twin axes appearing in his hands. "I'm going to cut you to pieces, you worthless piece of scrap!"

Kup jumped in between the two robots. "Stand down, Parker!" he barked. "Save it for the Cons!" The white robot looked startled at Kup.

"Come on, Sarge," said Abhorrus arrogantly. "Don't stop the fight before it starts."

"That's enough out of you!" bellowed Kup. "You've done enough damage to your fellow Autobots with your stupidity!"

"Stupidity?" questioned Abhorrus. "I was trying to take down the real threat, Blitzwing!"

"And how did that work out for you?" asked Kup. "You went after a Con that had already accomplished his primary objective of taking out our early warning system before drawing you off. Don't you realize just how many good troops we may have lost?"

"Ten? Twenty? Does it really matter?" replied Abhorrus. "If I take out Blitzwing, that hurts the Cons a hell of a lot more than losing a few minor Bots!"

"You don't get it, rustbrain! Blitzwing tricked you! Didn't you even realize that he could have lost you easily in his jet mode? Or did it never occur to you how you were keeping up with a jet?"

"By Primus, Sarge!" yelled Parker. "How many more Autobots do we have to lose before we kick this piece of slag to the scrapheap where he belongs?"

"You're in the brig, Abhorrus!" ordered Kup. A pair of large Autobots appeared on either side of Abhorrus. Abhorrus tensed up as they approached him. "You're still hurt from your tussle with Blitzwing, you turbo running punk! If I have to, I'll finish the job he started," threatened Kup.

Abhorrus glared at Kup, also noticing that Parker was also poised to pounce on him. He contemplated briefly on whether he should fight or not. He didn't like being disciplined for Parker's ineptitude, but Kup was a legend on Cybertron, almost as famous as the Dinobots. Grimlock might not like it if he heard that he was fighting important Autobots like him. He relaxed and let the guards take his arms.

"That might have been the only smart move you made today," said Kup. "Take him to the brig," he ordered the guards. "I'll decide what to do with our problem soldier later."

---

Ultra Magnus, Grimlock, and Prowl finished watching the proceedings on the screen before them. "This is the problem recruit that you've mentioned before?" Magnus asked Prowl. "The one who wishes to join the Dinobots?"

"Correct," said Prowl. He handed Ultra Magnus a pad showing the information that the Autobot database had on Abhorrus. "Abhorrus is a fairly new recruit with the stated goal of joining and I quote 'the greatest fighting force on Cybertron'. To that end, Abhorrus has volunteered for every armor enhancement program the Autobots have to augment his strength and durability. We suspect that he's also had dealings with less than reputable sources before he joined the Autobots, but it appears that he's been rejecting those sources since he's joined our cause. Red Alert and I have been keeping a close eye on him though, in case he gets even more ambitious."

Ultra Magnus used a massive blue finger to scroll down through the text as he read the report. "It says here that he chose a form of a mythical Earth creature rather than a dinosaur."

"That's right, sir. He turns into what the humans call a dragon. He reasoned that it's similar enough in appearance to the other Dinobots that he'll be accepted anyway. He might be correct. Abhorrus may just be as powerful as any of the Dinobots in his dragon form."

"Pah," huffed the large silver and gold robot who towered over both Autobots. "There more to being Dinobot than power."

"That is true, Grimlock," said Ultra Magnus. "However, this is a robot who managed to hurt two Terrorcons by himself."

"Terrorcons not so tough by themselves," retorted Grimlock. "Him still untested."

"Abhorrus does show a certain amount of promise," interrupted Prowl. "However, he is insubordinate, rude, dismissive of his fellow Autobots that he considers weaker than himself and refuses to follow orders."

"Hmm," hummed Grimlock thoughtfully. "Maybe he fit in with us after all."

"It's the part of him not following orders that concerns me," said Ultra Magnus. "We lost a great deal of the defenses around Iacon in that latest attack by the Decepticons and a fair number of troops were incapacitated. Ratchet is doing the best he can, but he's not confident that we will get all of them back to fighting shape. Abhorrus had orders to defend his position and reinforce the Autobots under Commander Parker's command. He abandoned that position to chase after his own ambitions. Morale is extremely low now. There are many Autobots who just want him kicked out. I'm tempted to do just that."

"Ultra Magnus is correct," agreed Prowl. "Abhorrus is a powerful fighter, but his presence on the battlefield thus far has done our cause more harm than good. His desire to become a Dinobot overrides everything else."

Ultra Magnus turned to the massive leader of the Autobots. "I am reluctant to grant Abhorrus his wish, but it might be the only way to get him to focus while fighting the Decepticons. If he's no longer consumed with proving himself to get on your team, maybe he will actually become a good soldier."

"Me no convinced him good enough," stated Grimlock.

"To be honest, Grimlock, I'm not either," agreed Ultra Magnus. "But you might just be the only commander that Abhorrus will listen to."

"Me no like being ordered to take new members. Dinobots are good team. Dinobots fight well together. Dinobots no like outsiders."

"I won't order you to take him, Grimlock, but I am asking you to consider at least giving him a chance to work with you, maybe as a trainee."

"He does have a strengths and skills that are compatible with your team," added Prowl. "And the Dinobots weren't always five. Your team added Swoop and Snarl soon after you, Slag, and Sludge were forged."

"That true," remarked Grimlock as he contemplated what Prowl said thoughtfully. "It still no feel right, but me Grimlock say me willing to give new guy a chance. Me Grimlock see if him strong enough or not."

"I'll have him report to you in a decacycle," stated Ultra Magnus.

"Me Grimlock be ready," answered Grimlock.

As he stomped away, Ultra Magnus turned to Prowl. "Do you really think this is a good idea?"

"It's a risk," conceded Prowl. "Most of what drives Abhorrus is his singular focus on joining the Dinobots. I can't predict whether achieving his goal will help him or not. We might be making things worse."

"How bad is morale going to be once word of this gets out?"

"Likely bad. Commander Parker wants Abhorrus expelled and he's not alone. He's been very vocal about this, but I believe I can reason with him."

"Oh?" questioned Ultra Magnus.

"You see, Parker has spent a great deal of time on Earth, in the country of Canada. His alt mode is a police vehicle from one of their provinces. He greatly enjoyed his time there and still feels a great affinity for the people there as one of their protectors."

"And since you both share a similar alt mode and purpose on Earth, you feel that this kinship can assist you in convincing Parker to stop his crusade against Abhorrus."

"Correct as usual, sir," responded Prowl.

"Very well, see that it's done. I will report what we are doing to Optimus Prime.

Prowl saluted, "Yes sir."

---

Abhorrus almost couldn't contain the glee he felt when Grimlock informed him that he was joining the Dinobots when his time in the brig had ended. Sure, it was provisional, but that was a technicality. He had done it. He was now a Dinobot.

The ride on the transport from the stockyard went by in a blur as he contemplated his achievement. He would forever be remembered as one of the fiercest Autobots ever. His name would be spoken in awe, he would be revered, as much as the others he had looked up to for so long. A feeling of immense pride swelled up in his chassis as he imagined all the glory he was about to experience.

The transport slowed to a stop and the door opened. Abhorrus smiled when he saw Grimlock and the other four Dinobots standing there, waiting for him. He jumped off the transport. "Hi guys! I'm Abhorrus! It's a pleasure to finally meet all of you!" he said excitedly.

"Ab…Hor…Rus?" said Sludge slowly. "Hard word. Not sound right."

"It because it not right," growled Slag. "It bunch of cesium salami! He no Dinobot!"

Grimlock turned to Slag. "No one say him Dinobot. Him trainee. Dinobots see if him tough enough."

Swoop walked up to Abhorrus and held out his hand. "Swoop hear you flyer like Swoop. Dinobots could use another flyer like Swoop."

Abhorrus shook the offered hand vigorously. "I can't believe I am here! I look up to all of you so much! I can't wait to fight alongside you!"

Slag stomped towards Abhorrus angrily. "You no tough enough! You go back where you come from before me punch you!" He jabbed his finger into Abhorrus' chest. "Paint no make you Dinobot! Dinobots no need wannabe!"

Abhorrus shoved Slag aggressively. "I earned my place here! I've fought every battle like a Dinobot, trying to get you to notice me! That's why I am here! I deserve to be here!"

Grimlock stepped between the two large Autobots. "As much as me Grimlock love to watch good fight, me suggest Dinobots see what Abhorrus can do before saying him no Dinobot."

Swoop jumped into the air and transformed into his metallic pterodactyl form. "Swoop want to see Abhorrus' dino mode."

"Good idea Swoop," agreed Grimlock. "Abhorrus, transform."

What appeared to be a silver backpack on Abhorrus' back immediately started to unfurl itself and spread out into two massive wings, silver interlocking strips expanding and compacting to allow ease of movement. Next, his chest opened, allowing him to exchange his robot head and massive arms with two smaller arms tipped with three long golden talons, a long sinuous silver tail, and an elongated neck with a reptilian head with crimson eyes. Once his chest closed, Abhorrus began to flap his wings. While he lifted himself into the air, his lower legs folded into his thighs to form enormous hind legs. Panels on his hind legs opened and from them emerged large claws. Like his smaller arms, the claws were also tipped with three golden talons, though a fourth talon protruded from his heel. Then, Abhorrus spread his wings as far as he could spread them, reared up on his hind legs, and spewed a wide cone of flame from his mouth directly above.

The other Dinobots simply watched his display of power. When Abhorrus finished, he saw that his demonstration wasn't quite having the effect he thought. Grimlock and Slag clearly weren't impressed, while Sludge just kind of looked dully at him. Was he expecting something more? Snarl just looked confused. Swoop was the only one who seemed happy.

"Him have wings," exclaimed Swoop excitedly. "Finally, Dinobots have another flyer!"

"Him not dino," observed Snarl.

"What?" asked Swoop.

"It's true," admitted Abhorrus. "I took the form of what the humans call a dragon. It's one of their mythical creatures. I couldn't find a dinosaur form I liked, so I thought it would be okay to go with this form. It's close enough to a dinosaur that most won't know the difference."

"Is dragon dino?" asked Sludge.

"No," stated Slag. "It no dino, just like him no Dinobot."

Grimlock walked around Abhorrus, inspecting the metallic dragon. "Form look strong, powerful. It have potential. Me Grimlock say Dinobots see what Abhorrus can do."

---

For the next few decacycles, Abhorrus pitted his dragon form against the Dinobots to gauge his abilities. They discovered that he could hit a target with his tail with about half the force of Snarl and Grimlock, but he seemed to impress Grimlock with his singular ability to actually grab a metal block with his tail and crush it using constriction.

His flame blast turned out to not be as hot as Slag's, though Abhorrus was pleased to be find out that he was able to breathe fire as well as Grimlock. Grimlock seemed pleased with this as well as Abhorrus' ability to breathe fireballs that could be used with more precision than a straight flame burst.

In flight, Abhorrus turned out to be much slower than Swoop, as well as much less maneuverable. Abhorrus was embarrassed, but Grimlock pointed out that his dragon form was much more durable than Swoop's, so it was to be expected that he would not be able to fly as well as Swoop. Swoop also promised to teach Abhorrus tricks to flying that he had learned that make Abhorrus nimbler in the air.

Abhorrus was thrilled with how well his audition was going when suddenly he heard Slag yell, "Coming at you!" He turned just swiftly, just in time to see Slag running full speed at him in his triceratops form, his head lowered so that he could lance at Abhorrus with the twin red horns protruding from his golden head. The surprise attack caught him flat footed and the air rang loudly as Slag slammed into Abhorrus. Lifting his head slightly after impact to allow himself to lift Abhorrus off the ground, Slag continued to run, getting back to his fastest running speed swiftly before leaping forward and driving Abhorrus through a thick steel wall that they had been using for target practice. On the other side, Slag tossed his head, sending Abhorrus flying through the air and landing unceremoniously on the ground.

"Slag! What you doing?" demanded Grimlock.

"Seeing if him can take hit," stated Slag.

"Him new! We no yet know if him tough!" screamed Grimlock.

"Now we do," yelled Slag back. "If him no able to withstand that, him no Dinobot!"

"Ouch," complained Abhorrus as he gingerly started to lift himself up. "That hurt!"

"Him get up," exclaimed Sludge, the surprise evident in his voice.

"New dino tough," said Snarl. "Might be Dinobot after all."

"You okay, Abhorrus?" asked Grimlock. "You hurt?"

Abhorrus started brushing off small pieces of steel. "Not too bad, I don't think." He flapped his wings and immediately winced in pain. "Ouch, it feels like my left wing got punctured," He limped towards the others, favoring his right hind leg.

Slag transformed to his robot mode. "See?" he said. "Him not tough."

That was the opening Abhorrus was waiting for. He suddenly whirled around and hit Slag as hard as he could with his tail. The strike sent Slag flying back. When he landed on his back, Abhorrus pounced, pinning him down.

Slag struggled to free himself, but his arms and legs were being held by Abhorrus' dragon limbs. The stupid beast had leverage himself so that he was using the full weight of his beast mode to hold Slag down. "Let go!" demanded Slag.

Abhorrus ignored Slag and turn his head to Grimlock. "What do you think, boss? Is the fight over?"

"Let Slag go, Abhorrus," ordered Grimlock. When Abhorrus slithered off him, Slag started to get up irately, but Grimlock placed his hand on Slag's shoulder. "No more fighting today, Slag. Let new recruit get fixed up. Dinobots need him healthy for our next mission."

Startled, Slag looked at Grimlock incredulously. "You no mean him Dinobot now!"

"Him took your best shot," countered Grimlock. "Him get back up and fight."

"Sound like Dinobot to me," said Snarl.

"Me too," added Swoop.

Slag shrugged off Grimlock's hand and stood. He started stomping off, but stopped and looked back at Abhorrus. "Fine! Me no like it, but me follow Grimlock," he declared. He then continued to stomp away from the others.

"Give him time," said Grimlock. "Him no like that you got back up after him hit you."

Abhorrus winced again as he moved his wings. "I don't like that he ambushed me."

"Go get fixed up," ordered Grimlock. "You join Dinobots on next mission. Maybe change Slag's mind."

"Yes sir," chirped Abhorrus brightly, heading towards the Autobots medical facility.

The other Dinobots watched him walk away. Once he was far enough away to be out of earshot, Snarl asked Grimlock, "You think him be Dinobot?"

"Me no know," answered Grimlock, "but him might be."

"Swoop like him," exclaimed Swoop.

"What you think, Sludge?" asked the Dinobot commander.

"Me have hard time saying Ab..Hor..Rus," replied Sludge. "It hard name to say."

"You get used to it if him prove himself," replied Grimlock.

Sludge shrugged, "Maybe."

---

Abhorrus hovered with Swoop behind the other four Dinobots as a swarm of Insecticons scuttled towards them rapidly. "Dinobots! Wait for signal, then fry them!" ordered Grimlock. Abhorrus waited patiently as the Insecticons got closer. There seemed to be hundreds of them, but he felt excitement rather than fear. Nothing could hurt the Dinobots. Suddenly, he heard Grimlock yell out, "Now!" and Abhorrus joined the others in unleashing a massive spray of fire from their collective mouths. The fiery blast vaporized the front ranks of the Insecticons effortlessly, but the horde still pressed forward.

"Swoop! Abhorrus! Bombard them! Sludge! Shake them up!" shouted Grimlock.

Swoop immediately darted ahead of Abhorrus, using his superior speed to race to the rear rank of the swarm. That was okay. He and Swoop had discussed how they were to work together. Swoop would bomb their enemies and he would come in and clean up any stragglers who somehow managed to escape Swoop. As he and Swoop rained fiery death from above, he could see the Insecticons being tossed around as Sludge pounded the surface of Cybertron, causing a massive local earthquake. Then Grimlock, Slag, and Snarl charged into the fray, crushing, smashing, and pummeling their frail foes. Abhorrus suddenly felt extremely disappointed. Despite the seemingly overwhelming odds of the Insecticons, they were being annihilated quickly by the assembled might of the Dinobots. This wasn't how he imagined fighting alongside the Dinobots. What glory could be gained from fighting weak opponents like the Insecticons? No one would look at him as one of the mightiest Autobots if this was the best that Dinobots fought.

Soon, the attacking wave of Insecticons was annihilated and Abhorrus and Swoop landed beside the rest of the Dinobots. "Good work, Dinobots," complimented Grimlock. "Dinobots make short work of Insecticon horde in record time. Abhorrus good addition to team effort."

Slag harrumphed and Abhorrus found no pleasure in the praise from Grimlock. This fight had been too easy. He needed something to prove his worth or the Dinobots would never accept him.

"This just warm-up," said Grimlock. "As long as main three Insecticons online, threat not over. Abhorrus, Sludge, and Snarl, you stay here and guard position. Slag, Swoop, and me Grimlock go on bug hunt."

"I want to come too," protested Abhorrus.

"Swoop cover more ground than you. Faster too. Abhorrus stay here like me Grimlock say," reprimanded Grimlock.

"But!"

"You disobeying me Grimlock?" yelled the large Dinobot commander irately.

Abhorrus gulped as he looked up at his hero. "No sir. I just wanted to get some more action, that's all."

"Me Grimlock like desire to fight, but me Grimlock need you here," said Grimlock. "Watch out. Insecticons like play tricks. Don't let them ambush you."

"We keep look out like you want," stated Snarl.

"Suuuure," slurred Sludge.

"Now that settled, me Grimlock and others go look for Insecticons."

Abhorrus could only watch as the Dinobot commander walked away with Slag bounding next too while Swoop took to the air.

For the next few cycles, Abhorrus paced back and forth, fuming at the assignment he was given. The action wasn't here. It was out there, where Grimlock, Slag, and Swoop were. If only Grimlock had listened to him, he would have the chance to prove himself to Grimlock and the others.

Suddenly, he heard a loud boom, followed by a sharp whistle that was increasing in volume.

"Look out!" yelled Snarl, shoving Abhorrus out of the way of an oncoming tank shell. It narrowly missed both of them, but the explosion shook them.

"Ha! Almost caught the Autobrat napping," taunted Blitzwing as he rolled into view in his tank form.

Snarl and Sludge breathed fire at the tan colored tank as Abhorrus transformed to robot mode. The tank rapidly backed up to avoid the Dinobot flames. Abhorrus hit Blitzwing with several laser shots from his rifle, but they pinged largely ineffectively off his armor. Sludge rambled forward and stomped on the ground, causing Blitzwing to wobble wildly as he was tossed about by the vibrations Sludge was causing. He immediately transformed to robot mode and used the jet boosters in his feet to hover above the ground. Snarl snorted and fired a couple of blasts from his nostrils at the floating Decepticon.

Blitzwing juked to avoid the shots from Snarl and Abhorrus. "I'm not dumb enough to try to take three Dinobots on head-on." He transformed to his jet form and blasted away from the assembled band of Dinobots. "Keep your optics open, losers!" he taunted as he flew away, "or I will get one of you next time!"

"There won't be a next time!" screamed Abhorrus, transforming to his dragon mode. "I'll take care of you here and now!" He bounded upwards and started giving chase to Blitzwing.

"Abhorrus! Grimlock say stay here!" yelled Snarl.

"I can't let him get away!" replied Abhorrus, rapidly leaving his teammates behind.

Snarl and Sludge watched the two fliers rapidly leaving. Sludge turned to Snarl. "Ab…hor…rus leave us? Grimlock no be happy."

"We follow Grimlock's orders. Stay here and protect. Grimlock deal with Abhorrus later," agreed Snarl.

"Meanwhile, we will deal with you now now," yelled a metallic voice.

"Who?" asked Sludge dully.

In answer to Sludge's question, a purple and black insectoid with long hind legs jumped behind a piece of debris. The insectoid used his powerful hind legs to kick the large metallic chunk of metal at the two Dinobots.

Snarl jumped to his left to avoid the impromptu projectile, but Sludge wasn't as quick. The impact knocked him slightly off balance. "Ouuuch!" said Sludge.

"Snarl hurt Kickback for hurting Sludge," threatened Snarl.

"That's what you think think," replied Kickback as he jumped to another piece of debris and kicked it at Snarl. This time though, Snarl was ready for Kickback's attack and swiped at the incoming debris with his tail, whacking it back towards Kickback. Kickback bound again to avoid Snarl's counterattack. "Well well, who knew Dinobots know how to play play!" he said.

Another purple and black hued robot with two large silver antennae appeared to the right of Sludge. "Over here here, you large dummy dummy!" he taunted.

Sludge lumbered towards the new Insecticon slowly, breathing a stream of fire in his direction. The Insecticon sidestepped the fire stream and fired a few shots from his electro-blaster. "Dinobots tough opponents opponents," he yelled to his companion, Kickback.

"It's true true," confirmed Kickback as he jumped back and forth widely to avoid Snarl's blasts. "Unfortunately for them, Shrapnel, Shrapnel, they forgot that Insecticons are three three."

That's when another purple and black Insecticon, this one with a plump bulbous body and a long silver stinger flew towards Sludge from his hiding spot and stabbed his stinger into Sludge's braincase. "Nice work, brothers, brothers," Bombshell stated. "This big lug is now under my control control. Now slave slave, attack your fellow Dinobot and destroy this facility that you are protecting protecting."

"Sludge attack?" asked the large Dinobot slowly.

"Yes, cause as much damage as you can can," ordered Bombshell. "Start with your friend friend!"

The metallic sauropod turned toward Snarl, his eyes gleaming red with hate from the cerebro-shell Bombshell had implanted into his head. He stomped the surface of the planet as hard as he could. A fissure started to spread from the impact, widening rapidly as it raced toward the unsuspecting stegosaurus.

"Huh?" asked Snarl as he noticed the fissure opening rapidly between his legs. Before he realized what was happening, his rear legs lost their footing and he started to fall backwards. Desperately, he tried to dig in with his front claws, but his natural body weight dragged him down and he started tumbling controllably into the deep trench that had just been created by Sludge. Snarl transformed frantically, flailing about as he plummeted, trying anything to slow his descent. He landed at the bottom of the ravine on his back, the violent impact causing a massive clang. The severely damaged Dinobot struggled to raise up, but then the pain receptors in his body overloaded his primitive brain and he lapsed into stasis.

"Oh my my," laughed Kickback. "That was a magnificent crash crash!"

"This plan is going better than we imagined imagined," added Shrapnel. He surveyed the scene as Sludge turned his attention to the Autobot defenses and started to rampage through them. "Let's take our leave now now, and let our slave continue to do our bidding bidding."

With that, the three Insecticons transformed back into their insectoid modes and flew off, cackling with glee at the carnage they had just unleashed.

---

Blitzwing marveled at the stupidity of Abhorrus, allowing him to draw the Autobot further and further from the outpost he was supposed to be defending. Did the fool not even realize how much faster Blitzwing was than him? How could he have not even noticed that Blitzwing was stringing him along, playing him for a fool yet again?

"I had heard Dinobots were stupid, but I had no idea that even they would allow someone so dumb join them," taunted Blitzwing.

"Shut up!" bellowed Abhorrus, spitting a fireball at the Decepticon jet.

Blitzwing weaved disdainfully, dodging the slowly moving flaming projectile with contemptible ease. "Nice comeback, kid. Did you stay up all night working on it?"

Abhorrus didn't respond, instead flapping his wings furiously to rise upwards into the atmosphere. Blitzwing watched him rise and while he recognized Abhorrus' tactic, he also had to give Abhorrus some credit that the kid didn't just try the same thing again and again. He was trying new tactics, even if they were predictable. Sure enough, when Abhorrus achieved what he perceived was sufficient height, he drew in his wings and dove at Blitzwing. Blitzwing waited until the last possible micron before swerving to avoid the dive. "I see Swoop has been trying to teach you how to fly, kid. Too bad you're as slow as your fellow Dinobot, Sludge."

"Slag you!" cursed Abhorrus, flapping his wings to stop his downward momentum.

Blitzwing circled Abhorrus as the young Autobot regained momentum. "Poor Autobrat, all I did was offer some criticism of your obvious deficiencies. You must have known that making yourself a big lug with wings wouldn't be able to fly very well."

"Quit taunting me and attack, you spineless coward," spat Abhorrus.

"Very well," replied Blitzwing, transforming into his robot mode and rocketing at Abhorrus, his electro-scimitar slicing towards Abhorrus' sinuous neck. Abhorrus barely had enough time to catch the sword with his right claw.

"I'm not that easy to dispatch."

Blitzwing let go of his sword, grabbed Abhorrus' forearm, planted his feet into Abhorrus' chest, and transformed into tank mode. "Guess again, punk!"

"Oh scrap!" yelled Abhorrus as the sudden weight of the tank overwhelmed his wings and the two started plummeting towards Cybertron's surface. Abhorrus drew his wings in to protect them from impact this time. The sound of the impact with the ground was deafening. Before Abhorrus could even think of grabbing Blitzwing, he revved his engine and drove off of Abhorrus, his turret swinging around to aim behind him as he drove away.

Abhorrus, noticing that Blitzwing was still on the attack, rolled to his left frantically as Blitzwing fired an explosive shell right where he had landed. The concussive force from the explosion still hit him hard, but he ignored the pain and rolled a few more times until he stopped himself on all fours and leaped forward to chase the rolling tank.

Blitzwing maintained his speed as he aimed his turret at the bounding beast chasing him and fired a few more shots. Abhorrus was doing a decent job dodging the shots, but his evasion maneuvers were preventing him from gaining any ground on Blitzwing. Still, Abhorrus was single-mindedly pursuing him, determined to catch him. He let the poor fool chase him for a few more microns before he received a radio transmission from Shrapnel.

"Blitzwing, Blitzwing, Soundwave reports that the Autobot base has been completely destroyed destroyed. The mission was a complete success success. Return to base base."

"Acknowledged," answered Blitzwing. "Well kid, I hate to cut our fight short, but the simple truth is, I was never ordered to really fight you." He transformed into jet mode and started rocketing away at his top speed. "See you around, chump!"

"Get back here!" bellowed Abhorrus, launching himself into the air to give chase, but in less than 30 microns, Blitzwing was already almost out of his visual range. "Scrap! I hate that Decepticreep! I know I can beat him in a fair fight!"

Frustrated at his failure to defeat the triple-changer yet again, Abhorrus started to fly back to the outpost. "Maybe the other Dinobots can give me ideas on how to beat him once and for all."

---

Grimlock and Slag waddled back towards the base while Swoop glided smoothly above them, scanning left and right for potential threats.

"It make no sense," grumbled Grimlock. "We Dinobots find swarms of insecticons, and then they run away."

"They know they no match for Dinobots," stated Slag.

"Yes, but Insecticons no care for mindless drones. It almost like they give up. It not like them."

"Grimlock," said Swoop alarmingly. "Swoop see smoke up ahead at base."

"Swoop, fly ahead and see what happening." As Swoop flew away at his top speed, Grimlock started to run as fast as he as capable of running. "Slag, we run now."

As they got closer to the base, Grimlock and Slag saw the smoke that Swoop reported and felt dread. "What happened to others?" asked Slag.

"Me Grimlock no know," responded Grimlock, "But we destroy the ones who did this!" he promised.

"I run ahead," yelled Slag as he started to gallop faster.

"No! Until we know more, we stay together!" ordered Grimlock. As the two Dinobots sprinted, they began to hear sounds of metal being rent and angry roars.

"That sound like Sludge!" yelled Slag. "He still fighting!"

"We help him soon!" promised Grimlock. "Whoever attacking learn Dinobots always stick together!"

Suddenly, they came upon the besieged base and stopped, both stunned at the sight they beheld. Sludge was rearing up on his hind legs and bringing the full force of his weight down on a damaged wall, tearing through it effortlessly.

Swoop circled the rampaging metal sauropod. "Sludge! Why you attack base?" he called, trying to reason with his friend.

Sludge breathed fire sluggishly at Swoop.

"Yow!" squawked Swoop, dodging the clumsy attack narrowly. He hadn't expected Sludge to try to attack him. "Why you fight Swoop?"

"What going on, Grimlock?" asked Slag.

"Me Grimlock no understand why Sludge attack, but we Dinobots need stop him," stated Grimlock as he transformed to his robot mode and pointed his double-barreled blaster at Sludge. "Try not hurt Sludge too bad," he ordered, firing a twin laser blast at Sludge.

The twin lasers bounced off Sludge's torso, barely scorching his skin, but it did as Grimlock hoped. Sludge turned his attention to Grimlock and Slag.

Slag transformed, gripped his electro-sword at Sludge, and loosed an electro-blast at his fellow Dinobot, which also bounced off Sludge's armor with almost no damage whatsoever. "What stop Sludge from hurting us?" he asked.

Sludge stomped his right foot on the ground. The ground before him rapidly split from the tremendous impact, racing toward Grimlock and Slag.

The two Dinobots jumped before the ground opened up under them. As an enormous chasm formed under them, they glided down to the bottom of the newly created canyon.

"Grimlock!" called out Swoop, circling overhead, "Swoop see Snarl! Snarl hurt!"

"Dinobots need stop Sludge first! Swoop, knock Sludge on his back!" commanded Grimlock.

Swoop glided around and launched a couple of missiles. The missiles landed just under Sludge. The force of the explosions caused Sludge to sway off balance, his right legs swinging wildly as he struggled to maintain his balance with his left legs. Unfortunately for the Dinobots, Sludge managed to bring his right legs back down. His eyes started glowing brightly and he angrily fired laser beams at the soaring Dinobot that almost succeeded in knocking him over.

The lasers didn't even come close to hitting Swoop, who by now was anticipating attacks from the lumbering giant. Grimlock and Slag flew back up to the surface. "What now?" asked Slag. "Maybe me ram him?"

"That could hurt Sludge," stated Grimlock. He and Slag jumped as Sludge breathed fire towards them.

"Sludge not care about hurting us!" yelled Slag. "Why care about hurting him?"

"Him Dinobot!" argued Grimlock. "Dinobots no hurt each other if Dinobots can help it!" Grimlock watched as Sludge knocked over a piece of jagged wall, the weight of it crashing down in a thunderous clang. "It seems we Dinobots have to choice but to…"

"Grimlock, look!" yelled Swoop, spotting a silver and gold dragon gliding their position. "Abhorrus coming!"

"Abhorrus?" asked Slag. "Where he been all this time?"

Abhorrus landed softly next to Grimlock and Slag. "What's happening?"

"Sludge gone crazy! He destroying base! Why you no here?" demanded Grimlock angrily.

Sludge, noticing the three Autobots standing together breathed out a blast of fire towards them.

Abhorrus jumped in front of Grimlock and Slag and responded with a massive blast of fire to shield them from the incoming fire. "Can we stop him?"

"Swoop try knocking Sludge over, but it no work!" responded Grimlock.

"He and I can do that together!"

"Do it!" commanded Grimlock. "Slag and me Grimlock keep Sludge distracted!"

Abhorrus took off and flew beside Swoop. They glided and watched as Grimlock and Slag took a few shots at Sludge, keeping his attention away from them. "What's the plan?"

"Swoop knock Sludge off feet before? Abhorrus able to knock Sludge over if Swoop do it again?" answered the metallic pterosaur.

"Yes, I can do that!"

"Abhorrus ready?"

Abhorrus flapped his wings to gain a little more altitude. "Yes! Lead the way and I'll knock him over!" Swoop turned and dived towards Sludge from his right side, once again launching a couple of missiles aimed at the ground directly below Sludge. Once again, the force of the twin explosions started knocking Sludge off his feet. Sludge starting waving his right feet in an attempt to regain his balance, but that's when Abhorrus swooped in. The diving dragon came in like a cannonball, flipping himself over at the last moment and hit the off balance Dinobot with his massive hind legs.

Sludge rolled over and found himself unable to roll back over, his legs kicking ineffectually. He transformed to robot mode. That's when the others pounced on him, each pinning one of his limbs. Sludge struggled mightily to free himself, but not even he could stop the other four Dinobots from holding him down. "Let Sludge go!" he demanded. "Sludge need destroy!"

"No, Sludge!" yelled Grimlock. "Sludge need stop destroying!"

"YEEEAAARRRGHHH!" screamed Sludge, redoubling his efforts to free himself, but the Dinobots succeeded in keeping the raging Dinobot down.

"Sludge lose mind!" stated Slag. "He not stopping!"

"You right, Slag," said Grimlock solemnly. "Me Grimlock have no choice!" He let go of Sludge's arm and slugged Sludge hard into Sludge's face.

The large Dinobot immediately stopped struggling as the force of the impact from his leader's fist caused him to go offline.

The others gingerly let go of Sludge, ready to pounce back on Sludge in case he started moving again. Once they were sure that Sludge was out, they breathed a sigh of relief.

"Swoop go get Snarl now," said Swoop, taking off to retrieve him.

"Yes, do that!" said Grimlock angrily, turning to Abhorrus. "Me Grimlock now want answers!" He transformed to his tyrannosaurus rex mode and loomed over Abhorrus.

Abhorrus looked up at his fearsome leader with trepidation. The Autobot he looked up to more than anyone was glaring down on him, filled with outrage that was directed firmly on him. He now understood why Grimlock was so feared by the Decepticons. The enraged Dinobot leader was terrifying.

"What happened to Sludge?" growled Grimlock menacingly.

"I…" Abhorrus gulped nervously. "I don't know. I wasn't here."

"What!?" bellowed Grimlock. "Me Grimlock ordered you stay here with Snarl and Sludge! Me Grimlock order you not to chase Insecticons!"

"I didn't chase Insecticons!"

"Then why you go!"

"Abhorrus chase Blitzwing," interjected Snarl softly, drawing Grimlock's attention away from Abhorrus as Swoop slowly lowered the injured Dinobot to the ground.

Grimlock walked over the Snarl. "What you mean? Tell me Grimlock what Abhorrus did."

"Abhorrus see Blitzwing attack. He decide chase Blitzwing."

"Blitzwing attack three Dinobots?" asked Grimlock, bewildered that the triple changer would be so bold.

"Blitzwing ambush us and then fled. Abhorrus leave to fight him."

Grimlock's red eyes glowed fiercely. "And then what?"

"Sludge and Snarl attacked by Insecticons. Sludge and Snarl fight them. Then Sludge attack Snarl."

Grimlock stomped back towards Abhorrus. Before Abhorrus could even react, the raging Dinobot commander swung his tail and smacked Abhorrus hard in the chest. "It your fault!" he screamed.

The impact sent Abhorrus soaring through the air and he bounced several times on the surface before slamming into a pile of rubble. The sheer force of the attack stunned him. He really hadn't expected that his hero would attack. Every system in his chassis was screaming about the damage to his internal components. However, the physical pain was almost nothing compared to the pain of knowing how badly he had just screwed up and failed Grimlock.

He heard thunderous footsteps rapidly approaching him. He turned and saw Slag charging him at full speed, his horns lowered to skewer him. This couldn't be real. Could his heroes really be intent on hurting him? He hastily rolled to the side, just narrowly dodging Slag's bull rush.

He saw Grimlock sprinting towards him as well, roaring with rage. Abhorrus nearly sobbed at the horror of the situation. How could he ever make amends to them for his mistake? He had to get away.

Abhorrus jumped into the air and started transforming into this dragon form. If he could put some distance between him and the others, he might be able to talk to them and apologize.

"You no get away!" screamed Grimlock, lunging for the fleeing dragon. His jaws snapped, narrowly missing Abhorrus' tail.

"Please, I don't want to fight you!" pleaded Abhorrus, his wings beating furiously to fly up out of furious Dinobots' reach. "If I could only explain!"

He heard a shriek above him just a split second before a couple of bombs exploded on his back. Swoop zoomed by as Abhorrus plummeted back to the ground. "Swoop hear enough!"

Abhorrus slammed and skidded brusquely on the surface. He felt vibrations on the ground and braced himself for what he imagined was about to happen.

Slag gored him while running as fast as he could run. All three of his horns penetrated Abhorrus' skin and Abhorrus was shoved harshly, sparks flying as his metal skin scrapped the ground. When Slag's momentum was stopped, the triceratops tossed Abhorrus aside.

Abhorrus transformed back into robot mode. "Please, stop! I give up!"

Slag transformed and slugged him soundly across the face. Abhorrus' vision blurred. He could barely register Grimlock transforming and grabbing Abhorrus roughly by the neck and shoving him up against a wall.

"Please," sobbed Abhorrus.

Grimlock punched Abhorrus. "Me Grimlock give you chance to join Dinobots! You no follow me Grimlock's orders! Sludge and Snarl hurt!"

"I just wanted to capture Blitzwing," explained Abhorrus feebly.

"Cons fight dirty! Dinobots survive by following me Grimlock's orders! You no think of Dinobots! You fight for self only!"

"That's isn't true," protested Abhorrus. "Capturing Blitzwing would bring more glory to the Dinobots!"

"And where Blitzwing?"

"He got away," said Abhorrus softly.

"You too dumb!" yelled Grimlock. "Me Grimlock order Dinobots to stay together! You no follow me Grimlock's orders! Dinobots only survive when Dinobots follow me Grimlock's orders!"

"But you guys fight each other all the time!" said Abhorrus.

"Not in battle!" raged Grimlock. "Dinobots always follow me Grimlock's orders because Dinobots all trust me Grimlock! You stupid! You no follow me Grimlock's orders!"

Swoop transformed to his robot mode and landed behind Grimlock. "You no Dinobot!" he stated flatly.

Slag added, "You never be Dinobot!"

Grimlock took out his sword and pointed it at Abhorrus' head. "If me Grimlock ever see you again, me Grimlock tear you apart! Me Grimlock no trust you!"

The three Dinobots walked away, leaving the stunned Autobot they had been beating behind. Abhorrus could only watch as his dream of joining the Dinobots left him behind in ruin.

---

Ultra Magnus reviewed the report that had just been handed to him by Prowl intently. When he finished reading, he asked, "Is this correct?"

"Verified by Cosmos," replied Prowl. "The target was completely destroyed."

"And Abhorrus did this alone?"

"He insisted on going in alone," explained Prowl. "In fact, it's the eighth such solo mission that he has completed."

"There was a high level of risk with this mission, wasn't there?"

"Correct, sir. The risk level was so high that even several of the Wreckers had turned it down before Abhorrus volunteered."

Magnus put the report down and walked over to the window overlooking the majestic skyline of Iacon. "So, this is all that we can expect of Abhorrus now? A lone operative that only takes on the most suicidal jobs?"

Prowl strode up next to him. "Apparently so. His failure with the Dinobots seems to have increased his inability to work with others. It doesn't seem that anyone can get through to him now."

Magnus shook his head. "It's a pity. There was some promise there. He could have become a tremendous asset. Now it seems that his potential will be wasted before too long."

"Agreed, but I have no solution," conceded Prowl. "Who on Cybertron would even think about trying to rehabilitate a soldier so out of control that even the Dinobots rejected him?"

Both Magnus and Prowl were surprised by a fit of laughter that seemed to burst behind them. The source of the laughter was a magenta hued robot with silver highlights on his arms, legs, and head. The near heroic look of the robot was marred both by humongous grey wings protruding from his back and the mirthful grin on his gray face as he laughed. "That was a tremendous joke, Prowl," said the new arrival to their conversation.

"I wasn't trying to joke," stated Prowl to the robot he now recognized as Grotusque.

"I know, but it just sounded so funny," replied Grotusque. "What makes your statement even funnier is the fact that the answer to your question is so obvious, I have to wonder about your logical abilities."

"What's that mean?" said Prowl clearly annoyed by Grotusque's statement.

"Who on Cybertron would want to work with a robot like Abhorrus?" asked Grotusque. "My dear Prowl, why in the name of Primus didn't you immediately think of us?"

---

Abhorrus took another long chug of energon as he sat at the bar of Macaddams. The number of empty energon containers in front of him almost reminded him of the wreckage he loved to create on the battlefield. It almost made him cheerful, which was actually rare for him these days. He started to raise his container up for another drink when he spotted Grotusque and Repugnus in the mirror behind the bar walk up and stop right behind him.

"Get scrapped!" Abhorrus said irately, his mode suddenly souring on that someone was bothering him.

Repugnus folded his brightly colored red and white arms across his equally shiny red chest, a smirk appearing on his yellow hued face. "Make us!" he said in an apparent challenge.

Grotusque put his hand on Repugnus' shoulder. "Let's not start a fight before we have a chance to talk to our friend here."

"I'm no one's friend," stated Abhorrus, keeping his back to them, hoping they'd take the hint and leave him alone.

Grotusque chuckled. "Oh, we are very aware of that. That's why we are here to talk."

"Have you lost a screw or something? No one talks to me!"

"Because they abhor you?"

Abhorrus stood up suddenly and rounded aggressively towards Grotusque. "Are you trying to make me angry, you slagging joker?"

Repugnus immediately started shifting. His arms folded behind his back while his chest became two insectoid arms with massive red forearms with two long serrated knife-like claws. His legs seemed to fold in half while smaller two toed clawed legs sprang forth. A massive bulbous head emerged from Repugnus back and placed itself over his head, giant iridescent green eyes pulsating with power over a wide mouth filled with razor sharp teeth and two large mandibles at each edge. "You don't want to start something you can't finish, punk," he threatened.

Abhorrus turned back to the bar and downed the remainder of his beverage. "I was just fine sitting here enjoying a few drinks, rustbrain! It's you two who are starting something!"

Repugnus made an amused noise from his massive mouth. "Now I know why the Dinobots kicked you out! Go ahead and cry in your energon, kid! It'll take the sting away from the fact that you can't even handle a single triple changer!"

"Slag you!" screamed Abhorrus, transforming into his dragon mode. "I'll tear your apart!"

The jets on Repugnus' jet pack like wings flared, jetting him backwards away from the massive beast lashing out at him. Abhorrus lumbered angrily towards his prey, his tail smacking soundly on the bar, crushing sections of it. The few robots who were also in the bar ran out the front door, fleeing the conflagration that was about to begin. Abhorrus stomped towards Repugnus, reared up his long neck, and shot a fireball at the bug like monster.

Repugnus darted to the left, nimbly avoiding the projectile. It soared through the bar and exploded on the front wall, completely blowing out the wall, window, and door. Repugnus jumped through the new opening that Abhorrus has created. "Wow! You actually helped me! You really can't think, can you? No wonder Blitzwing always uses you like a receptacle!" He launched himself down the street.

"Get back here!" bellowed Abhorrus, galloping across the floor on his four bestial legs. When he reached the street, he leapt into the air and started flapping his wings to give chase after Repugnus.

Grotusque surveyed the damage to Macaddams and whistled appreciably. "I honestly did not expect that work as well as it did. He was far easier to provoke than we thought."

The massive robot bartender who was the namesake of the bar continued to wipe the container he was cleaning when everything had started. "Indeed he was," he confirmed. "I've seen plenty of hotheads, but that one is going to be a tough nut to handle."

Grotusque laughed. "Yes, he is." He put down a bag with a massive number of energon chips in it. "I appreciate your assistance in this matter, Mac."

Macaddams took the energon chips. "I wanted to renovate the bar. This helps me out tremendously as you lot got Abhorrus to do much of demolition already." He stopped smiling and looked at Grotusque seriously. "You sure that you can get through to him?"

Grotusque shrugged. "We Monsterbots enjoy near impossible tasks. This should be right up our alley."

"Shouldn't you be assisting Repugnus?"

Grotusque pulled out an energon chip and pointed to a bottle of energon. Macaddams grabbed it and poured him a drink. "Repugnus doesn't fail his missions. Abhorrus is already in our hands."

"Primus help him!" stated Macaddams.

"HA! Good one!" said Grotusque cheerfully, putting a few more chips on the mostly ruined bar. "Pour yourself one and join me!"

Mac poured one for himself and clinked his container with Grotusque's. "To improving our damaged properties!"

"Cheers!" replied Grotusque.

---

Repugnus landed deftly on the street and looked backwards. His target was now flying towards him. "Took him long enough to get after me." He leapt down the street, his jets amplifying his jumping speed and distance.

"You can't escape!" raged Abhorrus.

"Not trying to, rust head," muttered Repugnus contemptuously, springing down the street, staying just out of Abhorrus' range. Grotusque had been clear in his orders when they had prepared for this confrontation. Repugnus was to make sure that Abhorrus did as little damage as possible once the fight was taken out of Macaddams.

That suited Repugnus just fine. He could almost feel the growing frustration welling up inside of Abhorrus, trying to vain to catch someone who just wouldn't play along. Well, they were almost to the designated spot that they had prepared. The chase was almost over.

Abhorrus watched the massive monster jump around ahead of him, moving faster than a creature that size had any right of moving. Suddenly, he saw Repugnus stop and turn towards him, spreading out his claws in a defiant gesture, daring him to come straight at him. Abhorrus didn't disappoint him. He dove straight at the Monsterbot. "Now I'll gut you!" he swore.

Repugnus' eyes suddenly flashed brightly, blinding the diving beast. Abhorrus shut his eyes and opened them again, hoping to be able to see, but his optic sensors had been overloaded by the pulsating light. He suddenly collided with the street, skidding loudly and roughly on the metal surface. He felt Repugnus land on his back and screamed in pain as Repugnus' claws slashed through his left wing.

Repugnus leapt off and landed deftly away from the wounded beast. "Blinded and now unable to fly. You're about as worthless as minicon."

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" yelled Abhorrus. He breathed a burst of fire towards the sound of Repugnus' voice.

"You'll never be able to hit anything like that," taunted Repugnus. "Come on, big guy! Show me you've really got!"

Abhorrus reared up and let loose as big a fire blast as he could. The sound of multiple detonations answered him. Before he could fully understand what was happening, large chunks of metal started raining down on him. The rubble continued to drop on him, burying him in what seemed to be an avalanche of metal. He strained and struggled mightily but could barely move under all that weight.

He heard scrapping sounds coming from his side and soon, he could see a blurry form lift a large chunk of metal from his head and neck. The form leaned forward and Abhorrus felt Repugnus claws on his neck.

"You can't move now," said Repugnus softly. Somehow that made him sound scarier to Abhorrus. "All I have to do is sever your head and you will be forgotten forever."

"Do it!" demanded Abhorrus. "I have nothing left to live for."

"Oh, you don't know how much I want to do that," purred Repugnus. "But orders are orders."

The last thing that Abhorrus felt was Repugnus' massive mandibles puncture his neck. Then the void enveloped him as he went offline.

---

Abhorrus groaned as his optics came online and winced in pain. Even the normal level of light brightness seemed to cause his head to hurt. He sat up slowly and glanced around, trying to get his bearings. He saw Grotusque, Repugnus, and a sleek, black, twin headed dragon watching him.

"Well, well," said Grotusque cheerfully. "Look who's up, the protoform who would be a Dinobot. Did you have a good nap?"

Abhorrus laid back down. "I don't have the energy for this."

"That's not a surprise. We did set up enough explosives to drop nearly an entire building on you. I actually am surprised you have any energy at all."

Abhorrus stood up gingerly, rolling his arms to release the tension he was feeling in them. He started to walk forward. "Whatever. I made it pretty clear at Macaddams that I don't want to talk to you."

Grotusque grabbed Abhorrus by the shoulder and shoved him back. "I'm afraid that you do not get to walk out of here just yet."

Abhorrus glared at Grotusque.

"Before you try something, you should know that I am not as nice as Repugnus," warned Grotusque.

"So go ahead and scrap me already!" blurted Abhorrus. "I've already told you, I have nothing to live for!"

"Is that so?" asked Grotusque. "Let me tell you, we Monsterbots operate in the darkest parts of the war. We've seen Autobots give up and throw themselves at the enemy to end their existence. That isn't what you have done. No, you take on the toughest challenge you can find and you dare it to destroy you. Then you fight like frenzied Sharkticon to overcome it. You fight with all your strength and skill. Simply put, you aren't seeking termination. You are seeking purpose!"

"And you think my purpose is to join a bunch of freaks like you?"

"Yes."

"Why would I want that?"

Grotusque spread his arms. "You haven't really thought about it, have you?"

Abhorrus looked at him quizzically. "What do you mean?"

"It's incredibly liberating to be a freak. You see, like you, we Monsterbots are also shunned by the other Autobots. No one wants to work with us. Leadership loves what we can do but hates our inability to get along with others. They can't stand to be around us. And that gives us our greatest advantage, our freedom! We are free to work alone, doing things our own way. We get to stay in the shadows, shunned by our allies and feared by our enemies. Yes, we are freaks, but neither Autobot nor Decepticon has any clue just how strong we are. That gives us tremendous power."

Repugnus shook his head disdainfully. "I can't believe you are offering this lugnut a spot on the team. He's too dumb to be one of us."

"I like him!" stated one of the black dragon's head.

"No, I don't," exclaimed the other head.

"No one asked you, Doublecross," snapped Repugnus.

"Oh, I'm sorry," said Doublecross' left head.

"No, I'm not!" said Doublecross' right head, clearly annoyed with his left head.

"You aren't a real squad," snapped Abhorrus. "You're a bunch of loose screws!"

Repugnus cracked the knuckles of his right hand. "Oh ho, this one loves to make some noise." He assumed an offensive pose, knees bent, right arm cocked while holding his left hand outward, motioning to Abhorrus to come at him. "Let me teach him another lesson," he said gleefully.

Grotusque shook his head negatively. "No, our new recruit simply isn't in any condition to spar once more with you."

"Like scrap I'm not!" interjected Abhorrus. "I've got a score to settle with this dirty piece of slag!"

Grotusque stepped back and raised his hands resignedly. "Who am I to stand in the way of a stubborn fool?"

Abhorrus charged at Repugnus, hoping to catch him off guard. Repugnus calmly waited until Abhorrus was nearly on top of him, then swung his right hand up quickly, flinging the oil that he had pooled in it into Abhorrus' face.

The oil splashed across his entire face, coating his optics. He tripped over something, he assumed was Repugnus' leg, and slammed harshly on the ground. He lashed out blindly, hoping to catch his opponent.

"Pathetic," sneered Repugnus. He grabbed Abhorrus' outstretched arm, twisted it, and kicked Abhorrus in the face several times. "You can't even last 30 microns against me?" He twisted the arm he had a grip of behind Abhorrus' back.

"Damn you," spat Abhorrus. "Can't you fight without fighting dirty?"

"All fighting is dirty, you slagging' lugnut," hissed Repugnus. "You fought Cons all this time and never learned that? No wonder you are such a liability. You have two choices here, prepare for their dirty tricks or learn how to fight dirty yourself. Anything else will lead to your termination."

He released Abhorrus' arm and walked to Grotusque. "Am I done being nice now?"

Grotusque handed him a bag of energon chips. "Yes. Thank you."

Repugnus grunted and started stomping out of the room.

"Just remember," shouted Grotusque, "if you land in the brig again, I'll keep you there until our next mission."

Repugnus shrugged nonchalantly and left.

Doublecross offered his right claw to Abhorrus to help him up. "Would you like some energon?" his left head asked.

Abhorrus nodded numbly, still smarting from being humiliated by Repugnus.

"I'll bring you a drink," said Doublecross' left head.

"No, I won't" countered Doublecross' right head.

Abhorrus quizzically watched the two headed dragon shuffle away.

Grotusque approached the young Autobot and put his hand on his right shoulder. "It's best to assume that he isn't bringing you a drink. Only one head is telling the truth and none of us can ever figure out which head is speaking truthfully."

"Why would you want such an unreliable Autobot on your team?"

Grotusque roared with laughter. "By my reckoning, Doublecross is 50% more reliable than you!"

Abhorrus glowered at the Monsterbot leader, causing him to laugh even louder.

When Grotusque calmed down, he said, "Come now, you still haven't given me an answer on whether you will join my squad or not."

Abhorrus turned his back to Grotusque. "I don't know why you would want someone like me," he said.

"It's simple. You have power, some rudimentary skill, and more drive than just about any Autobot on Cybertron. I can also use someone on my team who is tough enough to survive a beating from three enraged Dinobots. However, you lack discipline and the ability to think tactfully due to your desire for glory. If you give up this desire for glory, you can be far greater than even you imagined."

"And what's that?"

"A Monsterbot," said Grotusque proudly. "We aren't widely known or celebrated like the Dinobots, but our reputation among the Decepticons is such that many a Con has leaked his lubricants immediately upon happening upon us in the darkest corners of this war-torn world."

Abhorrus' frowned as he heard the words, unsure of what he was hearing.

"Think of it," stated the Monsterbot leader. "Your quest for glory has led you down a destructive path that benefits no one except the Decepticons. As long as you seek glory, the Cons will exploit your weakness to further their ends. If you abandon this desire, you can learn to fight smartly to destroy our enemies and win this war. What greater goal can there be?"

"And you can teach me?"

"Hasn't being humbled by Repugnus twice taught you anything yet?"

Abhorrus rubbed his chin thoughtfully and contemplated his fights against the insectoid. Grotusque patiently waited for him while he did. Finally, he spoke, "So you're telling me that Repugnus was able to control both fights the whole time and that's why he able to beat me."

"Hmmm, there may be hope for you yet," replied Grotusque. "So, are you interested in joining my team? There won't be any glory, but I guarantee that you will have missions that will have you committing as much carnage against the Decepticons as your spark can handle. Sounds like fun, doesn't it?"

Abhorrus shook his head. "I must be insane to even consider this, but I think I do want to join you."

"Ha!" barked Grotusque. "I'd say you are insane to accept! Welcome to the Monsterbots!"

---

Abhorrus crept quietly amongst the metal wreckage. He and Grotusque were sneaking behind the large insectoid frame of Repugnus. He watched as Repugnus stuck one of his claws into the ground. "Why didn't we bring Doublecross?" he whispered to Grotusque.

"Because Doublecross is more of a rampaging killer than a covert operative," answered Grotusque.

"What part of covert aren't you two understanding?" hissed Repugnus harshly. "I'm having a difficult time concentrating on the information I'm receiving from my claws while you two are making so much noise."

"Information?" asked Abhorrus.

"Repugnus has sensors in his claws that can detect electromagnetic pulses and noise," explained Grotusque. "He also has infra-red and x-ray vision. This makes him by far our best infiltrator."

"Stop telling the scraplet my slagging secrets and shut your trap," snarled Repugnus. "Both of you are just as bad as Doublecross at stealth."

"That's true," agreed Grotusque. "I wondered if Abhorrus might have a talent for stealth, but it does appear that he shouldn't join you on covert missions."

"Imagine my disappointment," said Repugnus sarcastically. "Now shut up while I concentrate."

Abhorrus and Grotusque complied with the giant insectoid's request and watched him intently as he concentrated on the information he was receiving through his claws.

"I'm counting roughly three transports, with an escort of six guards," said Repugnus quietly.

Grotusque rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "That seems to be a very small contingent of guards for this transport. They must not be expecting any trouble."

"No, that's not it," interjected Repugnus. "One of the guards just transformed. From the rumbling I'm hearing, I'd say his alternate form is a tank. I've heard this rumbling before and it explains why it seems this convey is lightly guarded."

"What do you mean?"

"It's Blitzwing."

"Blitzwing?" exclaimed Abhorrus loudly. "Are you sure?"

"Keep quiet, Abhorrus!" ordered Grotusque.

Abhorrus shifted his form into his dragon mode and flexed out his wings. "I owe that scheming Con payback for all the times he's humiliated me!" he screamed. "I'm turning him into a grease stain!" Abhorrus launched himself into the air.

"Abhorrus! No! Wait!" yelled Grotusque.

The Monsterbot leader's words fell on muted audio receptors as Abhorrus darted towards the convey that Repugnus detected. The Cons guarding the convey spotted him almost immediately and started firing at him. Most missed, but a few lasers bounced off of his skin.

A few of the Cons paused as their barrage of defensive fire wasn't even slowing the large beast coming at them down before re-doubling their efforts to stop him. It didn't make a difference. The ramping dragon barreled into two of the defenders and landed on them, pinning them to the ground under his massive claws. "You small fry aren't worth my time!" screamed the dragon irately, flinging them aside with minimal effort. "Where are you, Blitzwing!" he bellowed. "Come out and fight!"

A large Con dropped his rifle, unsheathed a large energon blade, and rushed at Abhorrus.

Abhorrus contemptuously swatted him aside with a swipe of his tail. He then grabbed one of the transports with his claws and started rending large gashes into its hull. Soon, he tore a large hole in its side and peered inside. He saw large caches of weapons inside. Smiling, he ignited the weapons with his flame breath and it exploded violently. The concussive blast from the explosion knocked over the remaining defenders and started fires on the other two transports. The Cons looked upon the destruction of the transport fearfully, watching the large silver and gold dragon responsible walk through the roaring flames seemingly untouched by them. They scrambled frantically and fled from the beast as fast as they could run.

"This is barely a challenge at all!" yelled Abhorrus, watching another of the transports explode when the fire reached its cargo. "You're supposed to be protecting this convey, Blitzwing!" The final transport soon succumbed to its own fire, booming loudly as it too was torn asunder by the ignition of its contents. "Are you such a coward that you won't even face me?"

He heard a couple of hands clapping appreciatively behind him. He turned around and saw Grotusque and Repugnus applauding him.

"Well done!" exclaimed Grotusque. "That was a truly magnificent display of brute force! I must say that your plan worked even better than I had imagined, Repugnus."

Abhorrus frowned. "What is he talking about?" he demanded.

The giant insectoid smiled, his many teeth making the generally creepy looking monster look even creepier. "We know that you have a huge grudge against Blitzwing, so I figured that if you thought Blitzwing was here, you'd go charging in and destroy everything in sight."

"You tricked me?"

Repugnus laughed. "You are such a clueless lugnut, that I figured that I could get you to do our dirty work for us. It worked like a charm, thanks to your stupidity."

Abhorrus sprang forward, charging directly at Repugnus. "I'll rip you apart!"

Repugnus' eyes strobed brightly, blinding Abhorrus. "Oh, I'm going to enjoy this!" he said joyfully.

Abhorrus skidded to a halt, knowing that he'd never hit Repugnus charging blindly. He lifted his arm to try and shield his optics from the bright colored lights, but he is still couldn't see what was in front of him. He heard loose shrapnel from his recent battle crunch under his feet. He then suddenly braced himself and flapped his wings frantically. The rapid beating sent a hail of jagged metal right towards Repugnus.

A few pieces pierced Repugnus' enormous eyes, causing him considerable pain. He immediately transformed to his robot mode. Shielding his eyes from the debris while he dashed to his left out of the debris storm, he aimed and fired a glob of greenish liquid at Abhorrus' right wing.

The glob smacked loudly on the wing and it suddenly drooped as Abhorrus suddenly lost all feeling in it. However, his optics started recovering from the strobe effect and he lunged forward with his left claw. Abhorrus felt a small matter of satisfaction as he felt his claws rake a few gashes in Repugnus' arm, causing his opponent to cry out in pain.

"Oh, the protoform is actually making a fight out of this," said Repugnus, a certain amount of glee in his voice. He shot a couple more globs of venom from his gun, incapacitating Abhorrus' left arm and leg. "What can you do when you can't walk?"

Abhorrus pivoted on his right leg and caught Repugnus in the chest with his tail, sending the red and white robot sailing through the air. He then pulled in his wings and tail, his chest opening to fold in his dragon arms while his head and arms swung out, and his thighs folded down around his lower legs.

Repugnus landed roughly on his back, somewhat actually bemused that he got caught off guard once again, but this was far from his first fight. He rolled backwards and braced himself in a squat position. He knelt done on one knee, aimed his rifle, and fired another shot of venom.

Abhorrus, having regained full use of his arms again, pulled out his sword and used it to deflect the oncoming shot. "Your shots are easy to block when I can see them coming," he taunted. He unholstered his rifle and took a few shots at Repugnus. "Let's see if you can dodge mine!"

Repugnus rolled to his right, expertly dodging the hastily shot lasers coming towards him. He glanced upwards as a couple of shots just flew wildly over his head. "I didn't even have to dodge those shots. Are you still blind from my strobe effect?"

The groan of twisting metal was the only warning Repugnus got. He turned and saw a slab of metal falling towards him. The slab slammed into him and he found himself pinned between it and the ground.

Abhorrus limped towards his pinned opponent. Transforming had lessen the impact of the venom on his leg, but it hadn't completely countered it. Nonetheless, he smiled as he approached Repugnus. "I wasn't aiming for you," he gleefully explained. "Now, there's nothing you can do."

"Pah," spat Repugnus. "You don't have the ball bearings to choke me into submission."

Abhorrus knelt atop the slab above Repugnus, reached down, wrapped his fingers around the pinned bot's head, and started squeezing. "Just what is your damage?" he spat angrily.

The red portion of Repugnus' chest suddenly split apart and sprang out towards Abhorrus. Before he could even react, Abhorrus felt the claws of Repugnus' insectoid form pressed up on both sides of his neck. Realizing he had just lost once again, Abhorrus slowly let go of Repugnus and raised his hands in surrender.

He was grabbed roughly from behind and pulled up from Repugnus. "As fun as it was to watch that, the fight is over," stated Grotusque as he almost effortlessly held Abhorrus above the ground.

Confused, Abhorrus glanced down and saw that Grotusque was still in his robot form, but the arm that was holding him was his beast mode's arm. He watched curiously as Repugnus used all four of his arms to extradite himself from the slab that had been pinning him. "What's going on?" he asked. "How are you two doing that?"

Grotusque gently put him down and his arm morphed back to normal. "Not here," he said.

Repugnus' insectoid arms folded back and became his chest once more. "This is a bad idea," he stated. "You should have just let me decapitate him."

"I might still," admitted Grotusque.

Abhorrus felt a chill as he realized that for once, the Monsterbot leader wasn't joking. "What the slag is going on?" he asked nervously.

"Let's just say that it would be better for you not to say anything else until we get back to the base. Agreed?"

Wide-eyed at the threat, Abhorrus simply nodded.

---

An ominous air hung over the base as Grotusque led Abhorrus and Repugnus into the Monsterbots training grounds. As they entered, Grotusque nodded to Repugnus, who started springing around the room, sinking his claws in random points of the room's walls, ceiling, and ground. The other two watched him silently until Repugnus jumped back to them.

"The room is clean," reported Repugnus.

"Excellent," responded Grotusque. "Now we can talk freely." Both of arms started to change at that pronouncement, his arms bulking up while monstrous claws emerged while his closed fist folded into them. When his arms finished changing, Grotusque stretched out his massive arms to allow Abhorrus to get a good look.

"You can use your monster arms while you're still a robot?" asked Abhorrus bewilderedly.

"Correct," answered Grotusque. He picked up a chunk of metal and squeezed it with his claws. The metal groaned as it deformed under the immense pressure of the claws. Grotusque then tossed it up in the air and as it fell back down, hit it with his full strength. The metal zoomed across the room and embedded itself in the wall.

Grotusque flexed his arms before Abhorrus. "As you can see, I can use my bestial strength when I use my claws in my robot form. I call the technique partial transformation and it is the secret behind our squads' effectiveness."

"I don't understand," said Abhorrus.

Grotusque transformed his arms back to his normal robot arms and pointed to Repugnus. "It was our most dangerous member who first discovered the technique. He realized that his insect arms were right in front of everyone and no one even thought about it. He wondered if he could use this as an advantage, so he trained himself to use his insect arms whenever he wanted. You have already discovered the tactical advantage this gives him."

Abhorrus' eyes widened as he recalled how easily Repugnus ended their last fight. "Yes," he said in awe. "I thought I had beaten Repugnus, but in actuality, he could have killed me before I even realized what was happening."

"Exactly. That single technique of his has saved us almost every time we've gotten ourselves in trouble."

Abhorrus contemplated what he had heard and seen. "Something like that would only work if no one knows about it. Once the Cons know, you lose your advantage."

"That is why no one outside of our squad knows. Not even Optimus Prime knows."

"Why are you telling me then?"

The room filled with laughter as Grotusque chortled. "Why am I telling you? You're a member of my squad, aren't you?"

Repugnus tsked. He clearly didn't agree with the statement made by his leader.

Grotusque wagged his finger in Repugnus direction. "Now, now, this is what we are training our new recruit to become, isn't it?"

"I never agreed to do that," snarled Repugnus bitterly.

Grotusque put his arm around Abhorrus' back and started leading him away from Repugnus. "Don't mind him. He's always been a loner. We are about the only ones he can actually work with because we let him do everything he wants to do. It's quite nasty, but that helps us in our line of work, which is basically all the nasty things that Ultra Magnus likes to pretend doesn't need to happen to win."

"Isn't that what the Wreckers do?" asked Abhorrus.

Grotusque grabbed his stomach as he chortled heartily. "Oh no. The Wreckers specialize in high risk missions. We specialize in doing what the humans call wetwork."

"What's that?"

"Assassinations, the elimination of secret Decepticon experiments and labs, and the, well, abhorrent things that sometimes need to be done to prevent even worse atrocities from the Decepticons."

Abhorrus looked askew at Grotusque, making the Monsterbot giggle even more. "That doesn't sound too bad," he remarked when Grotusque finally calmed down.

Grotusque's face suddenly soured. He actually started to quiver with rage. "Often, we have to kill our own. Once, we came across a Decepticon plan to have Autobot prisoners infected with cosmic rust be rescued in order to destroy as many Autobots as possible. Cons are ruthless with Autobot prisoners. Sometimes all we can do is put a poor spark out of its misery. That's what we deal with. We are ruthless because the Cons are ruthless. As outcasts, we are the ones who fight the Cons the way they fight us. Whatever threatens the Autobots, that's what we eliminate. Friend or foe, it doesn't matter. We do what needs to be done."

The change in tone from the Monsterbot leader unnerved Abhorrus. He suddenly understood what exactly it was that Grotusque was asking of him. Could he put aside his desire for glory to do something of value, even if it was distasteful? He thought of everything he had heard of the Monsterbots. They were almost unknown, unheard of. But from what Grotusque had described, they were at the very forefront of the war, doing whatever they could do in the shadows. It was almost opposite of everything he had always desired. He had always pursued glory, wanting to be celebrated. This was something else. Was Grotusque right about him? Could this be the purpose he sought?

"I don't know that this is what I want," Abhorrus admitted.

"Not surprising," remarked Grotusque. "I don't require an answer now. You can take your time to contemplate everything you have learned about us. In the meantime, would you like to learn how to do partial transformation?"

"You would still teach me?"

Grotusque shrugged. "I don't see why not? You don't seem to be the type to reveal our secrets and even if you don't join our team, this might save your spark one cycle in the future."

"But if you in any way reveal this secret, I'll filet you," growled Repugnus, glaring with hatred at Abhorrus.

Abhorrus' optics widened. The overt threat directed at him caused him to feel like he had just jabbed his finger into an electrical socket.

Grotusque clapped him on the shoulder. "The funny thing he is he actually doesn't need a reason to want to terminate your spark. He genuinely wants to do that already. Don't worry. He wants to kill me too."

"And this doesn't bother you?" asked Abhorrus incredulously.

Grotusque wagged his finger. "Not at all. We function and then we cease to function. I have no control over how and when that happens. The entire joke of this war is that we fight so hard for control of our destinies and we have none whatsoever. The Cons we terminate can't control how they become one with the Allspark. It just happened to be us that sent them on their way. One day, it will be same with us, so why worry about it?"

"This is a very strange squad."

Grotusque guffawed loudly. "I thought that was obvious from the beginning!"

The insanity of situation made Abhorrus' computation unit heat up. One of the Monsterbots was seemingly homicidal to just about everyone around him, another was completely untrustworthy, and at its core was a leader that seemed to view everything as a colossal joke.

Grotusque put his arm around Abhorrus sympathetically. "Did you really think that any squad who would want to recruit you as you are now would be normal?"

"As I am now?" asked Abhorrus.

"I see potential in you. If you can control your emotions and learn to maximize your strengths on the battlefield instinctively, you will quite literally become a true monster."

"And you're the one to teach me?"

Grotusque smiled brightly. "The line of commanders lining up for you ends with me."

Abhorrus sighed. "Wonderful," he stated sarcastically.

"Glad you agree," said Grotusque mirthfully, noting the somewhat sour look that appeared on Abhorrus' face. "Now, you ready start learning how to do partial transformation?"

"I guess so."

"The first part is all about visualizing what part of your alternate mode you want to unfold from yourself. What part of your alternate form do you think you might be able to use while in robot mode?"

Abhorrus shrugged. "I never thought about that."

Grotusque lightly touched the backpack on Abhorrus' back. "What is this backpack mostly made up of?"

"It's pretty much my dragon form's wings," answered Abhorrus.

"That seems pretty handy, wouldn't you agree?"

"I don't know. Wouldn't it just be easier to transform to my alt mode if I need to fly?"

"Yes, it would, but I can see that you haven't considered the tactical advantages of using your wings in robot mode yet. Tell me, can you think of just one way wings in your robot mode might provide you a tactical advantage?"

The question puzzled Abhorrus. Using his dragon wings in his robot mode? How could that help him in a fight?

"Think of how Repugnus beat you with his extra arms," whispered Grotusque, encouraging the young Autobot to start examining the potential of this talent.

Abhorrus contemplated what he had just heard. Could he hit someone with his wings? They probably wouldn't do much damage, but the sudden appearance and shock of being hit by something so large could perhaps provide a distraction or an opening in a fight.

"I think I'm starting to understand what you are asking of me," said Abhorrus.

"Good," complimented Grotusque. "Now get a good picture in your mind of how you will look. This will help you with the process of learning how to start and stop your transformation once you have achieved the desired mode. Close your optics. Can you see how you will look with your wings?"

Abhorrus nodded affirmatively.

"Now, start to transform and stop it when only your wings emerge," ordered Grotusque.

Abhorrus concentrated intently and started changing his body. His backpack unfurled into the massive batlike wings that his dragon mode possessed and stretched out wide before everyone. Then his chest popped open, while his robot arms and head folded into the chest cavity while the long scaly neck and head slithered out and his dragon arms swung. "No!" yelled Abhorrus. "Stop! I want you to stop transforming!"

His body though refused to listen though, completing the process until he stood before the others in his dragon mode.

"A valiant first effort," stated Grotusque.

"But I failed," said Abhorrus miserably.

"Transformation is engrained into all Cybertronians. It's as natural as walking for us. It's going to take time and lots of practice to teach your body how to respond to what you want."

"Or you will prove to be too stupid to learn," added Repugnus sourly.

Grotusque made a shooing motion with his hand. "Go away, Repugnus," he ordered. "I'm trying to teach our new charge."

"You want to teach this scrap for brains lunkhead? It's a waste of time." Repugnus stomped out of the room.

"Does that guy ever let up?" asked Abhorrus after Repugnus left.

"Nope," answered Grotusque. "He's nasty to pretty much everyone all the time. Fortunately for us, he hates Decepticons far more than he hates us."

"Except for me," interjected Abhorrus.

Grotusque chuckled. "Well, he doesn't see you as one of us yet. Give it time, do your best, and prove him wrong. Then he'll simply insult you instead of threatening to kill you."

"Great," said Abhorrus sardonically. "Something to look forward to."

Grotusque clapped him on the back. "That's the spirit. Now let's try again."

Abhorrus steeled himself for another attempt at deploying his wings while in robot mode. "I'm ready."

---

Repugnus sank his claws into a wall outside a sealed door. The other Monsterbots silently watched him as he scanned for any indication that there were any nasty surprises waiting for them on the other side.

"It's quiet inside," the large insectoid reported in a hushed tone. "If there are any Cons in the lab, they are staying silent. I don't like it. It feels like an ambush."

"Or maybe we got lucky and no one is around?" whispered Grotusque.

"Do we ever get lucky like that?"

"Not often, but it does happen. I suppose there is only way one to find out." The Monsterbot leader reached for the door handle.

Abhorrus caught Grotusque's massive arm with his own. "What if I go in first?"

"You?"

"Yes. I think I have figured out how best I can help the team. Since I am the most durable, I should be the team's point man. In my dragon form, I can take a lot of punishment. Even if it is an ambush, I'm the one who can take the hits and provide you the opportunity to retaliate."

"Are you sure you want to act as our shield?

"You and Repugnus have been teaching me to be more tactical in my actions. Tactically, doesn't it make sense for the most durable of us to enter unknown situations?"

"He makes sense, much as I hate to admit it," said Repugnus softly.

Grotusque pondered Abhorrus' suggestion. While it did make sense, he wasn't sure that Abhorrus wasn't just putting himself into deliberate danger just to prove himself useful. While it was true that Abhorrus could take a great deal of punishment, Grotusque was worried that he was putting a little bit too much faith in his ability to withstand pain.

"Times ticking," hissed Repugnus. "We sending in the protoform or not?"

Grotusque nodded and took up position on the side of the door. "Take it slow. Don't go rushing in. If something feels wrong, retreat back here."

Abhorrus felt a thrill at being given this task. He nodded at the orders given him and grasped the door. After taking a long breath, he opened the door and dashed inside, spreading his wings in case a Decepticon was there. Perhaps he could frighten him, giving him a chance to attack.

"On your left," screamed Repugnus. "I'm detecting a buildup of power. I think they have a…"

Abhorrus turned left and saw a concussion cannon pointed right at him. The barrel flared brightly just as it fired. "Oh scrap!" he managed to yell just before the crimson beam slammed into him, driving him into the far wall.

"…concussion cannon!" concluded Repugnus.

Doubleheader roared and barreled into the room. Both of his heads' mouths opened and spewed twin columns of intense flame. The cannon and the duo of Decepticons operating it vaporized immediately.

Grotusque and Repugnus bound in. Grotusque jumped to Abhorrus. "Are you okay?"

Abhorrus gingerly stood up, wincing as he did so. Sparks flashed from his left arm and wing. They had taken the brunt of the blast and both sagged listlessly. "Ow, that hit harder than I thought it would."

"That was foolhardy," admonished Grotusque. "I told you to take it slow."

"I know, but since I am not sneaky, it's best for me to just charge in and take the hit."

Grotusque transformed and placed his hand over his face in exasperation. "I wonder how long I am going to have to work to dispel this foolhardy notion from your computation unit."

Abhorrus transformed slowly to his robot. The pain of it reminded him just how hard he had just gotten hit. Fortunately, he regained his mobility. "I'm fine now that I'm in my robot mode."

"Grotusque, I have found the weapon prototype," stated Repugnus.

"Good," replied Grotusque. "It's time to get out of here. Doubleheader, you lead the way. Repugnus, you watch our back."

"What about me?" asked Abhorrus.

"You did your part. We succeeded in our objective and you were the only one to suffer damage. That's a win in my book. Monsterbots, move out!"

---

The Monsterbot team stood around a deep pit and stared down at the inky blackness that seemed to go on forever.

Repugnus' eyes vibrantly cycled through a myriad of colors as he scanned the pit with his infrared and ultraviolet sensors. "It seems to a large cache of energon about a kilometer down. This seems to be the energon stores that the Decepticons in this area have been using."

"Abhorrus, fly down slowly and take a look," ordered Grotusque. "Be careful. Decepticons typically boobytrap their energon caches to keep Autobots from getting their hands on it."

Abhorrus hopped excitedly and started flapping his wings.

Grotusque shook his head. "You're just going to dive down there as fast as possible, aren't you?"

The silver and gold dragon darted straight into the abyssal darkness. Wind whistled in his audio receptors as he sped towards the bottom. As soon as the floor was in view, he flipped over and allowed himself to fall the rest of the way. He landed with a thunderous boom that seemed to increase in volume as the sound reverberated throughout the spacious chamber. He roared a challenge to any Con who might be present.

"Abhorrus, report!" demanded Grotusque. "Are you okay?"

Abhorrus glanced about the room and felt disappointed that no one was guarding the valuable cache of energon. "No one down here, boss," he reported. "It looks like the Cons weren't expecting anyone to find this energon store. It looks like it's all clear."

He stepped forward and felt the floor sink a little. Looking down, Abhorrus saw a square of the floor had given way under his right claw. Immediately, panels on the wall opened and automated weapon systems emerged.

"Check that," said Abhorrus excitedly, feeling a rush that there was something to fight after all. "The Cons have an automated defense system! Now, I get to have some fun!"

To Abhorrus' chagrin through, the weapon systems, which all turned out to be flame throwers, turned towards the piles of energon. Bright flames erupted from the weapons and the cubes of energon that had been piled up so neatly by the Cons began to vibrate as the volatile energy stored within was ignited.

"Oh scrap," moaned Abhorrus, just as every energon cube in the chamber exploded.

---

Doublecross peeked out from the cover that the Monsterbot squad sheltered behind as laser fire pinged all around them from an entrenched group of Decepticons guarding a large door. "That clearly isn't the Decepticon lab we need to destroy."

"Yes, it is," he said seconds later.

Abhorrus took a peek to make his own assessment of the situation. "Their fortifications are clearly hastily put together. Any one of us can destroy them without much effort. They also don't have any heavy weaponry. I bet I can charge them and clear them out without taking any damage in my dragon mode."

Grotusque stepped aside and gestured towards the enemy.

Abhorrus transformed into his dragon mode. "You're not going to tell me to be careful?"

Grotusque chortled so loudly that he snorted. "Like you would listen," he wheezed.

The silver and gold dragon shrugged and then bound from cover and started to charge bull like at the Cons protecting their objective. He smiled as he saw panic amongst the defenders as their shots seemingly did no damage to him. Nothing they could do could stop him now.

A series of rapid loud explosions above him drew his attention upwards. He saw a rectangular pattern of explosives going off on the ceiling of the chamber. Once they completed exploding, the giant slab of metal that had been part of the ceiling dropped rapidly down towards him.

"Oh scrap!" yelped Abhorrus.

---

Abhorrus limped into the Monsterbot base behind the others. Every part of him ached. Their mission had been a success, but once again, he had walked directly into a Decepticon trap. This time, it was a pillar that would've crushed him flat if he hadn't been in his dragon form. His short time with the Monsterbots was showing just how tough he was, but the toll was taxing even his incredible durability.

"Our walking scrap-shield came through again," remarked Repugnus. "Things have been a lot easier for us ever since he started taking the massive hits for us."

"Indeed it has," agreed Grotusque. "I wonder, Abhorrus, are you ever going to get tired of being the Decepticons' literal punching bag?"

Abhorrus winced as he rotated his shoulder tenderly. "I am feeling tired of that now," he admitted. "However, you guys have made a place for me here, and I want to prove myself to you. If that means taking the hits for you, that sounds fine."

Repugnus stomped over to Grotusque. "How long is this farce going to continue?" he snarled at his leader. "It's pretty obvious that this bearing brain doesn't have what it takes to be a part of our team. One day, his stupidity is going to get us all terminated."

"Hey!" screamed Abhorrus irately. He grabbed Repugnus by the left shoulder and spun the robot around. "I've had enough of your insults!"

"You sure you want to get your sorry tail kicked again in your state!"

"Now Repugnus, let's not get carried away," said Grotusque, worry evident in his voice as he tried to put himself between the two.

Abhorrus shoved his leader back. "I've got more than enough fight in me right now," he snarled at Repugnus.

"You should know better than to get this close to me, bolt brain," hissed Repugnus, his insect arms on his chest lashing out.

Abhorrus grabbed the insectoid arms. "I know this trick already! You aren't strong enough for hurt me while I'm…"

Repugnus headbutted the arrogant young Autobot in the face. Abhorrus gritted his teeth and stubbornly held on Repugnus' insect arms. Repugnus used his robot arms to start punching Abhorrus in the abdomen. "Go ahead and hold on tight, you Dinobot wannabe! Now you can't let go or I'll filet you! In the meantime, I'm free to mess you up!"

To prove his point, Repugnus slugged Abhorrus directly in the face. Abhorrus head rocked back and forth as Repugnus nailed him with punch after punch. "This is too easy!" he said. "Can't you do anything other than taking hits, you slagging ..."

Suddenly, something wound itself around Repugnus' neck and started squeezing and pulling him backwards. The force being applied to his neck was immense. Repugnus struggled as fiercely as he could, pulling on the serpentine form coiling around him. His efforts were in vain.

"Go ahead and start punching me again, you vile insect," whispered Abhorrus menacingly. "I bet I can pull your head clean off before you even get close to knocking me out. I'm hardheaded that way, which you already know."

Repugnus' eyes widened. This was Abhorrus' doing? How was he doing it? He looked up into Abhorrus' eyes, glaring at him with pent up rage.

"Abhorrus," gasped Grotusque. "You're using your tail in robot form!"

So that was it, realized Repugnus. Abhorrus had finally figured out how to partially transform himself. Repugnus stopped struggling and lifted up his arms in surrender.

Abhorrus slowly unwound his tail from his opponent's neck. When he seemed sure that Repugnus wasn't feigning surrender to get him to drop his guard, he released his grip on Repugnus' insect arms.

The insect arms folded back into Repugnus and formed his chest. The robot stepped back and looked at him with a bit of surprise on his face. "Nice trick," he said almost complimentary. "When did you learn to do that?"

"About four cycles ago," answered Abhorrus. "I've been keeping it a secret, just in case."

Grotusque roared in delight. "Keeping it secret!" he howled.

Repugnus glared at Grotusque sullenly.

"Oh, don't be such a sore loser just because you lost to our resident idiot!"

Repugnus gingerly touched his neck. "That was a sneaky and underhanded move. I won't forget that."

"I might be slow, but I do learn," retorted Abhorrus.

Repugnus turned and started stomping out of their lair. When he got to the door, he paused. "Grotusque knows I don't willingly fight with many, but I will with you." Then he transformed to his insectoid mode and leapt off into the darkness.

Abhorrus' eyes widened. Did Repugnus just compliment him? That made him feel as woozy as getting hit by Grimlock's tail.

Grotusque strode up next to him. He also seemed shocked at what Repugnus just said. "Well," he said. "I guess this makes it official." He turned to Abhorrus and extended his hand. "You're a real Monsterbot now."

The pronouncement made Abhorrus feel giddy. For the longest time, he had been seeking to be part of an elite team. He had thought that his dream had been turned to ash after the Dinobots had rejected him. Now, he realized that all his efforts had produced his desired goal after all. The Monsterbots were a great team and they had forced him to grow so much as a soldier. He grabbed his leader's outstretched hand and shook it vigorously. "Thank you, sir! I won't let you down!"

"You haven't yet," responded Grotusque cheerfully. "You've already started putting the needs of the team over your own. All we need to do now is help you use your head more than your brawn."

"Whatever it takes, I'm ready to learn."

Grotusque slapped his newest member on the back. "That's the spirit. Now go get yourself fixed up. We'll be needing you again soon."

"Yes, sir!"

---

The Monsterbots assembled on a jagged rooftop of a delipidated burned out building. Below them, they saw a couple of Decepticon sentries standing guard before a sealed door to what appeared to be an underground bunker.

"It looks like there are a couple of alarm buttons close to both of the guards," reported Repugnus softly. "We're going to have to take them out practically at the same time to prevent either one of alerting their comrades."

"Can you paralyze them with your venom gun?" asked Grotusque.

The insectoid peered down and analyzed the distance. He shook his head negatively. "They're both simply beyond the range of my gun."

"It looks like we're going to have to perfectly coordinate our attack then to make sure we take them both out at the same time."

"I think I might have an idea," interjected Abhorrus.

"What do you have in mind?" asked Grotusque.

In response, Abhorrus' backpack started to unfurl before the astonished Monsterbots until he stood before them in his robot form with his dragon wings folded behind his back. He shrugged at them. "What can I say? The wings were also a good idea." Then he drew his sword and leapt off the roof.

The others looked down, watching Abhorrus silently glide down the building. They watched as Abhorrus skimmed the surface, darting towards the sentries. One of the guards spotted him just a split micron too late. Before he could even react, Abhorrus swung his massive sword as he swooped by them, decapitating both.

Repugnus stood with his massive insectoid mouth agape. Finally, he stated, "Slag! Now, the rookie's making us look bad!"

Grotusque started to laugh, but Repugnus clamped his mouth shut with his claw.

"Don't you dare give away our position," he hissed at Grotusque. "This is a stealth mission."

Grotusque chuckled lightly. "You're right. Come on. Abhorrus is waiting for us. Let's join him before he has all the fun."

---

Parker watched in horror at the scene unfolding before his optics. Despite his squad's best efforts, the Decepticons were overrunning their positions. The surge was led by three Decepticons in particular.

The first was a rampaging grey and blue beast scattering his troops as he charged forward, trampling several Autobots who didn't get out of his way in time. The beast's brightly pink horns were a jarring contrast with the dark blue of his head and the grey of his body, creating an almost freakish quality about the monster goring anything and anyone unfortunate enough to be in front of him.

Behind that monster were two others. One was a magenta-colored creature with black arms, legs, and wings that looked too small for such a massive beast. All this was bad enough, but the worst part of this creature was the enormous wolf like head, completely black with shiny white teeth and piercing blood red eyes that seemed to seethe with rage as he rampaged through the battlefield.

The final member of this monstrous trio seemed to be the worst of them. His monstrous form was seemingly uncased in a blue shell of seemingly impenetrable armor. He simply seemed unfazed by any shots that hit him. His flat bulbous purple head swiveled left and right, seeking victims for his massive pincers. Parker watched in horror as one of his soldiers was captured in one of those pincers and simply crushed by the monster.

He turned to his communications officer. "Radio HQ and tell them we need reinforcements immediately! Horri-Bull, Fangry, and Squeezeplay are leading a massive charge!"

"HQ says that Cosmos has already relayed the situation to them, and help is incoming now!" answered the comms officer.

A silver and gold giant swooped overhead, making a beeline for the three monstrous Decepticons. It tackled Fangry just as he was about to bite one of Parker's soldiers.

"Who?" hissed Squeezeplay, turning to face the new arrival.

The large creature didn't respond, instead spinning a momentarily stunned Fangry around. When he achieved enough momentum, he released the Decepticon.

Squeezeplay's green eyes widened as his teammate zoomed towards him. The impromptu monstrous projectile slammed into him, sending both of them crashing into a pile of jagged metal that they had shredded just minicycles before in their charge.

"That should buy us some time," remarked Abhorrus, pleased that his attempt to halt the Decepticon charge had two of the leaders of it flailing about helplessly while they tried to right themselves. He then heard a rumbling sound that was rapidly increasing in volume. He leapt into the air and flapped his wings to gain some altitude. His guess had been correct. Horri-Bull sped underneath him.

The large bull like creature had been trying to ram Abhorrus into a structure. Horri-Bull hadn't anticipated that Abhorrus would dodge his charge and he ended up slamming himself into the structure. His horns punctured the wall. While the impact didn't seem to do much more than momentarily stunning him, Horri-Bull found himself pinned in place. He grunted and huffed as he struggled to pull himself free.

Seeing that the three deadliest opponents were out of the picture for the time being, Abhorrus focused on the band of Decepticons that had been following them. He started spitting small fireballs at them, scattering them and causing them to panic.

Parker's troops saw their opportunity to strike back and started re-grouping. While it seemed to them that their shots weren't hurting the monsters that had been hurting them so badly before, it was now clear that they could be worn down as the monstrous Decepticons started to retreat with the others they were leading. Parker's soldiers cheered and started giving them chase.

"No! Don't chase them!" yelled Parker as loud as he could. However, his troops either cheered too loudly to hear or were too exuberant to care, continued their pursuit of the retreating Decepticons.

All the combatants soon heard a loud sonic boom. Overhead, they all spotted Blitzwing flying overhead. "I remember you, Autobrat!" he taunted at Abhorrus. "Wanna bet you can't beat me again?" he laughed as he jetted away from the battlefield.

"Oh no," whispered Parker.

Sure enough, as Parker feared he would, Abhorrus launched himself into the air and started chasing the wily triplechanger.

"Blitzwing!" bellowed Abhorrus. "You won't get away! I'll chase you to the ends of Cybertron itself!" He rapidly flew as fast as he could to catch the jet.

"Hey look," snarled Fangry, suddenly realizing what Blitzwing had done. "The Autobots lost their advantage and are wide open!" He and the others turned back towards the advancing Autobots. "Let's tear them to pieces!"

"No, no, no!" spat Parker in fury, watching his crew start to panic in the face of the oncoming Decepticon horde. "This can't be happening again!"

Abhorrus suddenly swooped back over the Autobots. Before the Decepticons could even react, Abhorrus hit them with as big a blast of dragon flame as he could spew. Fangry howled in pain as the fiery assault singed his fur. Horri-Bull and Squeezeplay also cried out as they were ingulfed in an inferno.

Their troops screamed as armor and weapons started melting. The dragon then landed amongst them and swung his tail. Like a scythe cutting through grass, he flattened half of them with one swing.

Parker couldn't believe his optics. Abhorrus came back?

One of his soldiers turned to Parker and said, "Sir, do we assist?"

That brought Parker back. He drew his twin axes and yelled, "Autobots! Join the battle! We take no prisoners!"

The others yelled and charged at the Decepticons, Parker leading the way. He cut down two Decepticons who had realized too late that the other Autobots were attacking once more. His soldiers, not knowing if they had lost any of their comrades in the Decepticons initial assault, fought with fury and overwhelmed the Decepticon horde.

Parker made his way to Abhorrus and together they finished off the remainder of the Decepticons, leaving only Fangry, Horri-Bull, and Squeezeplay to be dealt with. The trio stood back to back, surrounded by Parker's troops.

"Attack from above," yelled Abhorrus.

Blitzwing launched a barrage of missiles at the Autobots. Most were able to scatter due to Abhorrus' warning. However, Parker found a couple of missiles coming right him.

Suddenly, he was yanked from behind. Massive claws pressed Parker up against hardened alloy and massive wings curled around him, obscuring his vision. He heard Abhorrus groan in pain as the missiles hit his back and exploded.

Parker was then dropped unceremoniously as Abhorrus transformed into his robot form. Abhorrus drew his rifle and fired a couple of shots at Blitzwing. Other members of Parker's team joined him.

"I thought you wanted to fight me, Autobrat!" shouted Blitzwing, expertly weaving around the incoming laser fire.

"No, I want to tear your spark from your lifeless chassis!" answered Abhorrus. "And one day I will! Count on it!"

Blitzwing didn't answer. Instead, his afterburners flared as he rocketed away from the battlefield.

"Yeah, keep showing me your aft," sneered Abhorrus softly at the retreating Con. "That's likely the direction I am coming for you."

A young Autobot came over and offered his hand to Parker to lift him back up from the surface. "Sir, Fangry, Horri-Bull, and Squeezeplay are retreating," he reported.

Parker accepted the Autobot's hand and was pulled up. "Let them go," he ordered. "We've hurt the Decepticons a great deal today. Check on our fallen back at base. Get our wounded to First Aid as quickly as possible. The rest of us will start re-fortifying our position."

"Yes sir!" The Autobot saluted and ran off to see Parker's orders followed.

"Need any help?" offered Abhorrus.

The surprise on Parker's face must have been evident, because the large silver robot started laughing out loud. "I see that you are confused," said Abhorrus. "You didn't expect this of me, did you?"

Parker slowly shook his head. "No, I didn't," he responded. "Neither did the Cons. You caught them completely off guard."

"Yeah, I sure did," stated Abhorrus. "The look on Fangry's face just before he took a full blast of fire to the face was priceless!"

The younger Autobot's jovial manner was contagious. Parker found himself grinning mirthfully. "Yeah, I can imagine that was quite an unpleasant surprise." Parker's mood changed slightly. "I am sorry. I thought you had abandoned us again." He extended his hand. "Please forgive me and thank you for saving my squad."

Abhorrus clasped Parker's hand and shook it. "There's nothing to forgive. The last time you saw me, I was arrogant and self-serving, a glory seeking cyber-hound obsessed with glory. Time and more than a few bumps in the head have made me see the error of my ways."

"Yes, I heard you took a few lumps from the Dinobots. Honestly, I cheered a little when I heard that they had rejected you."

"Oh man, could you imagine how bad I would be if I had stayed with them?"

Parker actually shuddered, causing Abhorrus to laugh even louder.

"I thought you were a lost cause," admitted Parker. "I'm glad to see I was wrong. Any chance I can convince you to join my squad?"

Abhorrus shrugged. "I'm part of a great team already, but who knows what time will bring."

"Fair enough. The invitation's always open though."

Abhorrus clapped Parker on the back. "Glad to hear it. Now let's get to work." The two new friends walked off towards the ruins of Parker's base.

Unknown to them, they were being watched from a perch on ledge of a burned-out building. There sat a camera on a tripod. The lens rotated on its own, bringing into focus the two Autobots joining the efforts to refortify their position and taking a picture of them.

The camera split into three equal size pieces and expanded as they unfolded into a trio of nearly identical purple robots.

"That was unexpected," said on the robot on the left to the middle robot, who by the refractive lens on his torso marked him as the leader of the triad.

"Not entirely," said the leader solemnly. "Soundwave suspected something like this might happen. That's why he's been sending us out to observe him."

"Is this going to be a problem?" asked the other robot.

"Possibly. It seems that Abhorrus is a lot more dangerous now if he can gain the trust of someone like Commander Parker. But that's an issue for Soundwave to figure out. For now, Soundwave needs to know that our usual tactics won't work on him anymore. Let's return to base."

The three Decepticons flew off into the black sky, leaving behind the Autobots sifting through the charred remains of their base as they attempted once more to rebuild some framework of order on a planet consumed by seemingly never-ending chaos.

THE END