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Chapter 5: Light and Shadow
Back on Cybertron, the war wages on!
Three seekers were busy discussing things pertaining to the war. "When will those bothersome autobots give up already," a black and red seeker with 'bat ears' and a red visor complained. "Why do you say that, Nacelle," a masked purple seeker asked, "I want this war to keep going so I can torch more autobots!" "Give him a break, Hotlink," a seeker resembling Arcee scolded, "I'm just as sick at being shot at as HE IS." "Blow it out your actuator, Bitstream," the masked seeker known as Hotlink replied. "Watch what you say, Hotlink," a mysterious ghostly voice chuckled, "you never know who else might be listening." "Ha Ha, Very funny, we know you're here," Hotlink said sarcastically, "stop hiding, you're not fooling anyone."
Suddenly, a white seeker with a cone shaped head slowly became visible. "I've gathered some Intel on our next target," the 'cone head' began, "he's an Autobot official by the name of 'Perceptor'. He doesn't use guns to win battles, but rather his mind." "Thrust, when will you ever stop being useful," Bitstream joked. "All right seekers, let's go get that autobot," Nacelle ordered.
Transition to Earth.
The next day, Optimus Prime was discussing their next move against the decepticons. "What strategy do you have for us, Prowl," he asked the strategist. "Well, one of the most important resources they'll need are nuclear fuel rods," Prowl stated as he looked at the map, "so we'll need to travel East to stop them. I, in the meantime, will travel to Japan to see if they're after the technology there, alone." "No, Prowl, you cannot go there alone," Optimus advised, "there is only safety in numbers." "This is a scouting operation, so that mean's I'll need to be covert, which means it will be a solo mission for me." "Very well," Optimus agreed, "however, I doubt the decepticons are in any shape to make their next move. Let us take this opportunity to plan and rest, while you Prowl shall carry out your own mission." "Thank you, Optimus. Wish me luck!"
Transition to decepticons on Earth.
In Scavenger's lab, the mad scientist herself was working on a temporary substitute energy source, so they would have something to give them some form of energy to get the rest of the resources. "What kind of solution do you have," the seeker leader demanded, "we need energy NOW!" "It's a stop gap solution: a very crude form of energon," she answered, "it won't last us as long as pure energon, but it's something." "Maybe we should've taken Shockwave with us instead of you," he insinuated, "he would've came up with a better invention by now."
After Starscream left, Scavenger was suddenly feeling much angrier than even when he first entered, evident by her clenching her fists. "Shockwave, Shockwave, SHOCKWAVE! If there are two people I can't STAND, it's Wheeljack and SHOCKWAVE! Their neuro-processors must be filled with envious thoughts of ME! Yes..., they're all just JEALOUS of MY superior intellect, compared to their own." At that very moment, Thundercracker barged into her lab as she was ranting. "Oops, I forgot that I'm 'not a scientist'." "Leave now if you wish to not be my next test subject." This was just another day in Decepticon headquarters.
Transition to Cybertron.
The decepticon team lead by Thrust were closing in on their target. "There he is," Bitstream said as she saw their target being escorted by two guards. "Do we go in guns blazing," Hotlink requested. "No," Nacelle pointed at the masked decepticon, "we need to be professional about this."
Without warning, the three decepticons dropped down and landed behind Perceptor. "You're coming with us," Bitstream demanded. Before his guards could act, they acted as if they were being beaten up by a ghost, which they were. "Looks like you have no choice," Thrust said as he became visible. At that moment, a group of autobots had just arrived. One of them painted with flames happened to be the leader of the group that came, and he was known widely by one name. "Rodimus Prime," Thrust greeted, "I should've known." "Let him go, Thrust," the prime ordered. "Why should I," the cone head laughed, "I am just one of many servants of Megatron. Just be thankful for that." "It is precisely that reason alone why every circuit in my body wants you dead," the prime growled. "Then why haven't you terminated me?" "Because you have Perceptor." "It would seem we're at an impasse," Nacelle commented. "Now then," Thrust continued, "I suggest you fools step aside."
Then, coming from behind the prime, was a different autobot who began shooting at Thrust and his entourage. Unfortunately, Nacelle protected them by deploying an energy shield, and the decepticons took off with Perceptor. "What is wrong with you Sentinel," Rodimus asked. "They were taking him and we needed to ACT," Sentinel Prime responded. "Great, now they have Perceptor."
Transition to autobots on Earth.
As suggested by Optimus Prime himself, the autobots were taking the day to rest and prepare. Bumblebee was telling Cliffjumper about the recent events that happened. "...And so the big dummy raised its arm into the air, and then got struck by what is known on this planet as 'lightning'." "If I was with you, we would've beaten that thing in less than a minute. I can't believe you and Sunstreaker got to have all the fun!" "Look, I risked my life to get back here!" "No, you need to look." Cliffjumper then shifted Bumblebee's attention to the Autobot nurse Red Alert. "Well HELLO nurse," he called in his best impression of Bumblebee. "Why'd you do that?" "Maybe SHE wants to hear some of your more boring stories."
The two rookies left as quickly as they could as the nurse turned around. "Oh... Bumblebee... I didn't..." The look on her face was an expression she hadn't learned about, yet. It was a good thing she wasn't human, otherwise the expression she was making would be even more emphasized. "Sorry, Red Alert, I didn't mean to take you away from whatever it was you were doing that was important." "No, no, I wasn't... I wasn't doing anything to tell you the truth." "So... do you want to talk?" "S-s-sure..."
The nurse then walked over to sit beside him, still keeping the same expression she STILL couldn't understand. "All right, what can we talk about." Red Alert couldn't answer, and was looking away from him. "Hey, is there something wrong?" "Oh... I was... thinking about my brother." "Sideswipe? Yeah, I kind of do miss that goof ball, at least that's what humans would've called him." She laughed a little under her breath at the sound of that. "I remember when he would say or do something that would crack us up whenever morale was down. I wonder if he was actually made like that." "Oh, you have no idea. My brother likes to show off, like my sister, only he doesn't show off his looks. He likes to show off, because he likes the reactions of others." "So... how come you're not like that?" "The reason I'm not like those two, is because I inherited only some of the traits from the spark used to make the three of us." "But you kinda look like them." "We're built similarly, but act differently."
And just like that, the feeling she had earlier was now replaced by another equally unidentifiable feeling. "Is that a smile I now see?" The nurse only answered by slightly looking away from him. "Are you thinking about Hot Shot now?" "What? Why would you think that?" "Because you were assigned to work with him and Rodimus after we finished training." The nurse shook her head, leaned in close to his audio receptors, and whispered something. "I actually have to agree with Sunstreaker on Rodimus." "And you said you and your sister were different," he said.
At that very moment, Sunstreaker entered the room and struck a pose. "Yes, you called?" "We were just talking about you," Red Alert replied. "Naturally." The nurse's sister then struck a sexy pose. "I mean, who wouldn't talk about me?" "Arcee, Wheeljack, Ironhide," Bumblebee answered nonchalantly. "But even THEY talk about me." "Yeah, but not very often in a good way," Red Alert added.
Speaking of not talking about Sunstreaker in a good way, let's see who else is doing that.
Transition to Earth decepticons.
Drag Strip was currently trying to refine her skills after the embarrassing results of the last battle with the autobots. The one autobot she was focusing on beating, no matter the cost, was Sunstreaker. Wildrider walked in on the fellow stunticon and asked, "whatcha doin'?" "I'm training for my next battle, no, VICTORY over Sunstreaker!" "Who?" "The female yellow autobot that CHEATED in our last engagement." "I think the reason she beat you, is because she isn't as low on energy as you." Drag Strip then suddenly held her blades against Wildrider's neck. "She. CHEATED!" "Okay, okay, but I have an idea." Drag Strip then removed the blades from her neck and replied, "I'm listening." "How about I tag along for your next showdown with her. That way, you can still beat her if things go badly, which means I'll beat her for you." "Fair... enough..."
Transition to Cybertron.
Perceptor was currently in the hands of Thrust. "If you expect the autobots to surrender, you are clearly mistaken!" "I'm not here to negotiate, I'm here to get some answers from you." The cone head then showed him a picture of three winged figures. "Please tell me, who are they?" Perceptor knew the answer, and it was something he was afraid to tell him, for these three figures were a sign of bad things to come.
Dun dun dun dun DUN!
The Transformers will return!
(Okay, this is sort of a break from all the action that's been happening. Originally, this chapter was going to be different, and I actually HATED the original plot of it. Basically, this chapter was supposed to show off how strong Optimus was by fighting FIVE elite seekers by himself, but I decided against it because there would be too much to keep track of (seriously, one dude against FIVE is pretty hard to write about and make interesting, and it only makes it worse that there's a subplot in this chapter). Overall, I'm much happier with how this chapter turned out, because it fleshed out some of the characters (even though they're machines). I've also added on to Sunstreaker's personality a little. Another thing I did was expand on Drag Strip's personality to make it so (s)he wants to be better than others at... whatever (she's a girl in the case of this story, and she is based a bit off animated Drag Strip). Also, Thrust is based off his Armada version, and I essentially decided to make him sort of like the spy from Team Fortress 2. Anyways, enough rambling, thanks everyone for everything. As always, leave reviews to tell me how you're liking the story so far, or so you can help me make this story even better towards the end, hopefully.)