Chapter 13-Convoy
"…And in other news today, ground was broken on the site of the new solar power array in Zona Arida following on a design from Autobot engineer Wheeljack. Construction is set to last…"
"Give me a break." Jane Lehnsherr grumbled as she switched off the news. "Solar power, energon mining…those bastards would throw a bunch of aliens a national parade, but would shoot people like us from their own planet on first sight. This makes me so fucking sick."
Sue looked at her sister nervously, rubbing at her arm. Jane was a beautiful woman, just like their mother, with long wavy indigo hair and a toned, athletic frame that most women would kill for, but she had a hair trigger temper that flared up at the most unexpected times. This issue with the Autobots and the praise they were getting from the entirety of Osea made Jane more irritable than normal.
"I wouldn't be surprised if the Osean government set those bastards on us in the name of national security or some shit like that."
"They wouldn't really come after us, would they?" Sue asked. "I mean, that'd go against the treaty they have with us, right?"
"Knowing the president, he'd find some way to have the Autobots torch us." Jane said bitterly, glaring at her younger sister.
Sue was only a year younger than Jane, and they shared their mother's natural beauty. Whereas Jane had fair skin and long hair, Sue inherited their father's darker skin tone and had short brown hair that rested just past her ears. She wasn't as athletically toned as Jane, but she still had that lithe figure that was accentuated by her skintight costume she wore on missions. Both sisters took pride in how good they looked, being strong and beautiful as espers of their caliber should be.
"Do you think we can take them if they do come after us?" Sue asked, making Jane snort.
"Please, our dad's the Master of Magnetism. Of course we can take 'em." Jane said. "I'd like to see those filthy naturals just try and set those tin cans on us."
"Don't let your confidence turn into arrogance, sweetie."
Jane and Sue sat up and turned to see their mother standing in the doorway. "Mom!"
Magda Lehnsherr, second in command of Karaba and second wife of Dreyas, smiled at her daughters and entered the room. "Time to put your game faces on, girls. Your father and Fauntleroy just finished finalizing the plans for our next operation."
"Is it going to be an exciting one, mom?" Jane asked eagerly.
"You bet, and this time, we'll be dealing a serious blow to the Osean government itself." Magda smirked.
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Despite how many saw the rank of Prime as, the position had multiple roles associated with it. A Prime was many things; a religious figure, a symbol of racial unity, commander in chief, military leader, and so on. Optimus knew that as Prime he had to be a politician as well as a commander, but fighting of war sort of puts a hold on political dealings. Honestly, Optimus knew a good number of bots who were better at the political game than him, including Elita-1 of all people.
But it was a necessary evil that could make or break an operation. So far, things on Terra had been going hot and cold in the past six months, and Optimus remained diligent in monitoring the humans' response to his team's actions and presence. So far, things were looking good on the PR front despite the debacle in Edo. At least things were doing good in relation to his dealings with President Flagg and Queen Tyr.
"So far, Optimus, the public's opinion of the Autobots is looking very positive. Senator Russo isn't too fond of you, though."
"You and I both know we can't please everyone, Mr. President." Optimus said, shaking his head. "Even with the PR from everything we've promised and done thus far, I doubt they'll ever get used to us."
The Osean Commander-in-Chief laughed. "At least we can be honest about it. At any rate, I'm glad I've got one less secret to worry about."
"As do I, Mr. President." The Autobot leader agreed. "In the meantime, we both have jobs to do."
"Don't I know it." President Flagg smiled humorlessly. "Until next time, Prime."
The line cut off and Optimus leaned back in his chair, letting his broad shoulders sag with a tired sigh.
Prowl, who had been looking over some data reports from Teletran-1, gave Prime a mirthless smile. "They never said this job was easy."
"The most worthwhile ones rarely are." Optimus said. "I'm starting to see why Ultra Magnus avoids taking up the leadership role."
The intercom on his desk chimed. "Alert: Incoming priority one call from Walter Barnett."
"Patch it through, Teletran." Optimus said.
Barnett's face appeared on the screen and he did not look happy. "Prime, we have a situation."
"What is it, Agent Barnett? Decepticons?" Prowl asked.
"No, but something just as serious." Barnett shifted in his seat and hissed in pain. "Damn…"
"Agent Barnett, are you alright?" Optimus asked, concerned.
"I'm fine. My team and I just had a run-in with some espers with a chip on their shoulder. We chased them off with some hard ordnance, but our transports are toast. Which brings me to our topic at hand."
The screen changed to show a large crate holding a clear blue torus shaped object inside that was the size of a car engine. "This is the Helios Reactor. It's an experimental power source I was transporting to the East Cost for testing."
"What would a bunch of espers want with something that hasn't even been tested yet?" Prowl inquired.
"Maybe they seek to turn it into an untested weapon of mass destruction. The Helios Reactor generates huge amounts of recyclable energy. If it's damaged, the fall out could be devastating to this state and the two next door." Barnett said. "Please, Prime, if you can, fire up a ground bridge so we can transport this safely to the coast."
"Agent Barnett, if your reactor is as volatile as you say it is, then taking it through the ground bridge risks it being damaged within the vortex. If that happens, then we risk irradiating all fifty states and beyond." Optimus said.
Barnett sighed and rubbed the back of his head. "Then do you have any other suggestions?"
Optimus rubbed his chin in thought. "As a matter of fact, I do."
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Walter Barnett had to admit that Prime's prime was rather ingenious in execution. Since trying to transport the Helios Reactor by ground bridge won't work without severe risk, transporting the device by ground would be more efficient. What's more, Optimus himself would be leading the ground team for the first part of the plan, disguised as civilian vehicles instead of military convoys. Optimus would be transporting the reactor within his trailer, guarded by Bulkhead, Ironhide, and Mirage. Walter would masquerade as Prime's civilian driver for appearances sake.
Having never ridden inside an Autobot before (which was funny, since he spent six months socializing with them) riding inside Optimus's vehicle mode was a bit of a surreal experience. He knew of the scanning capabilities of the cybertronians, able to duplicate the shape and appearance of any vehicle of similar mass and size, as he had seen Sideswipe and Mirage do once upon arriving to Terra. That didn't mean it was any less amazing to see the perfect replica of a dashboard, leather seats, rubber tires and even personalized decos.
Out of curiosity he asked Wheeljack how the process worked, and all he got from the slew of techno-babble was that their bodies were programmed to change shape, color, and appearance on command. The universe really was a strange place.
"Ratchet, we are en route to our destination. Do you have our location?" Optimus asked.
"We're tracking you, Optimus." Ratchet said over the comm. He was monitoring the transport with Sparkplug and Longarm in the Ark. "If everything goes well, you should reach the rendezvous point in about an hour, less if you don't run into road trouble."
"Understood." Optimus said.
"I can't thank you enough for this, Prime." Barnett said, leaning back in the rather comfortable driver's seat. "You're saving my bacon here."
"I'm proud to be of service, Agent Barnett." Optimus replied.
"The eggheads at the coastal research center are relying on us to get that reactor to them. If they can finalize its design, then we're on the first step to a nation-wide renewable energy network."
"I thought our treaty was to provide you with the means to achieve that."
"You said it yourself, Prime. Humanity's got to stand on its own two feet in the future. You're just providing a helping hand." Barnett said, leaning on the window. By chance he caught something in the rearview mirror-up in the sky was a silver airship that was flying over them. "Hold up…that's the airship that torched my last convoy!"
"Prime, we've got four cars at our rear." Ironhide said.
Further back behind them, four black armored jeeps approached the team and quickly surrounded Bulkhead, cutting him off from the rest of the group.
"Scrap, the bastards are cutting me off." Bulkhead growled. "Feeling a bit constricted without the use of my fists here, boss."
"Maintain vehicular cover unless absolutely necessary, Bulkhead." Optimus ordered. "Agent Barnett-"
"I've never see these guys before. It was just that airship that blew my transport out of the sky." Barnett said.
"I'm not detecting any Decepticons signals near you." Sparkplug said. "I have no idea what you're dealing with, Prime."
One of the jeeps broke out of formation to speed up to the front to cut Mirage off, decreasing his speed. A second jeep drove up along the trailer to drive next to Optimus. The window slid down and a man wearing black and silver combat armor pointed a grenade launcher at Barnett's head.
"Pull over!" The bandit ordered.
"What the hell?" Barnett exclaimed.
Up in the airship, the field commander leading the operation analyzed the formation and nodded, before saying into the radio, "Stop their engines."
Just as the gunman was about to pull the trigger, Optimus made a sharp turn that knocked the jeep off balance, making the gunman misfire. The grenade exploded near one of Prime's wheels but didn't even touch the rubber.
"Autobots, our assailants are human. Use minimal force to neutralize them." Optimus commanded over their internal comm. "Disarmament only."
A second jeep tried to head Prime off on the right, but Mirage blocked them off, slamming his fender into them and making them slam into the rocky slope of the hill they were driving past. Mirage didn't even try to hide his laugh as the jeep flipped over.
Barnett looked outside and saw another jeep driving up along the trailer with a man climbing onto the coupling. "Prime, bear right!"
Optimus veered sharply to the right and knocked the jeep right off the road and down the rocky slope. The other man was still able to hold onto the trailer's coupling and started working on detaching it from Optimus. Barnett cursed and opened the door to slowly climb along the edge of Prime's vehicle mode reach the trailer. It was gut-wrenching giving the speeds they were driving, but Barnett kept his eyes off the rapidly moving road and focused on his target, the yahoo who thought he could get away with government property.
"I wouldn't do that if I were-whoa!" Barnett ducked under a lightning bolt that was fired from the man's palm. "An esper?!"
"Get outta my way, natural!" The man growled before sending another bolt at Barnett's head.
Barnett grabbed the man's arm and twisted it behind his back, spinning the esper around so that he was being held over the side by the back of his armor. He made sure to keep the esper's hands pointed away from him as he interrogated the bandit.
"You better tell me everything I want to know!" Barnett said, earning a laugh from the esper.
"Or what? You're gonna throw me-" A passing tree branch slammed into the esper, smacking him right out of Barnett's grasp.
"That wasn't my plan, but okay." Barnett grumbled and climbed back into the driver's seat.
"Barnett, are you alright?" Optimus asked.
"I'm fine, but the guy who tried to steal the trailer was an esper." Barnett said. "This might be more dangerous than we thought."
Onboard the airship, Magda Lehnsherr stood in the loading bay with her two daughters, all wearing a formfitting bodysuit that was designed to resist the powerful effects of her powers. Brushing aside her rose colored locks, Magda reached for the ship's external radio to speak to the convoy.
"Attention, humans," Magda began. "This is Magda Lehnsherr speaking. I'm ordering you to relinquish the cargo. Do so now and we will let you leave peacefully. Resist and I will kill each and every one of you for wasting my time."
"You must be senile if you think I'm just going to hand this over to you." Barnett said, trying to sound brave, though he was inwardly concerned about how this mission was turning out.
Karaba was a powerful terrorist group that fought for esper superiority over humans. Dreyas Lehnsherr and his family were among the group's most powerful members and the Autobots really didn't need Karaba on their long list of enemies right now. Ironhide especially was cursing his luck, thanks to the hand he had in destroying that Karaba outpost in Azadistan.
"Tell me something, Maggy," Barnett continued. "What's the market price for an experimental reactor?"
"Who said we were going to sell it?" Magda said. "You people always preach about using technology for the betterment of mankind, but all you do is make weapons of war."
"And you're any different?"
"At least I'm up front about it, human." She spat.
One of the remaining jeeps tried to circle around Mirage to get to the trailer, but Mirage did a quick 360 as he slammed into the side of the jeep, knocking two off its wheels off the road. The imbalance caused the jeep to tip over and rolled along the ground, causing another jeep to crash into it and send both vehicles careening off the road.
"We humans may create weapons of war, but that doesn't mean we're out of the race yet." Barnett said.
"Optimus, two miles ahead is your destination. You can lose them inside the highway tunnel." Ratchet said.
"Copy that, Ratchet." Optimus said. "Autobots, tighten formation!"
The road slowly came within view of a train track, with a cargo training running along it. The Autobots formed a close-knit circle around each other as they ran adjacent along the train. As soon as they entered the tunnel, Ironhide spun around and deployed two rockets from his headlights, blasting apart the tunnel entrance and blocking it with debris.
"Happy trails, dimwits!" Ironhide laughed before driving away.
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"Did that pickup truck just fire two missiles?" Sue asked.
"When the hell did they start shelling those out on the open market?" Jane blinked. She looked to the tall, handsome man next to her, taking note of his shocked expression. "Adonis, what's up?"
"That truck," Adonis muttered. "I think I've seen it before."
"Really?" Jane said skeptically. "What, you see it in a commercial or something?"
Adonis wasn't sure, but Magda's voice cut in before he could come to a conclusion. "Focus up, people. They're coming out."
The airship approached the other side of the tunnel, where the Autobots excited with the train and split apart from it at a fork in the canyon they drove through. Magda had the airship pilot increase the vessel's speed to fly ahead of the convoy.
"Adonis," Magda turned to her heavy hitter. "Wipe them out!"
"Yes, sir." Adonis said.
The airship hovered in place over the road and Adonis ran over to the landing hatch as it opened up. He jumped out of the airship and descended upon the approaching convoy, glowing vein-like lines of gold appearing on his body. He felt a heat burn in his lower abdomen and Adonis surrendered to the familiar feeling, allowing that heat to explode from his body.
His body exploded in a burst of light, changing his form from that of a normal man into a golden giant that crashed into the ground. He stood up, unharmed, and faced the approaching vehicles, ready to cause a massacre.
Focusing on the red and blue truck, Adonis gave a screeching, metallic cry and charged at it. It never registered in his mind that the truck was not a normal truck at all until he saw the truck transforming, reshaping itself into a taller bipedal form just as he threw a punch at it. The towering robot that was formerly the truck met his charge with one of his own and retaliated with a punch as well.
Their firsts met and a loud bang ran through the canyon like thunder.
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Optimus knew that it was only a matter of time before they would have to abandon their ruse, though he wished it wasn't with Karaba. He was barely able to warn Barnett before transforming with the man still inside his cab, depositing the human into his left hand while throwing a punch with his right hand.
The two giants' fists met with a tremendous bang, like a thunderclap, and both combatants felt their arms vibrate from the collision. Optimus spun around and kicked Adonis in the face, knocking him into the countryside.
"Are you alright, Agent Barnett?" Optimus asked the human, who sat woozy in his other arm.
"Ask me again in five minutes." Barnett panted. Being in the middle of a mass of shifting parts that became the Autobot leader was mind numbing and terrifying. It was such a disorienting experience and he thought he'd lose a limb if he moved even a finger.
Optimus deposited Barnett on a nearby rock and faced Adonis, who recovered from the kick and was ready for another go. Bulkhead drove up next to him and transformed, while Ironhide and Mirage hung back.
"Better stand clear, Barnett. It's going to get hairy in a few seconds." Bulkhead warned.
"No need to tell me twice." Barnett said and looked up at the airship hovering right over them. "Someone needs to keep an eye on the vulture in the sky."
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Smoke rose from Magda's shoulders as she saw the Autobots on the monitor. "Autobots." She hissed.
"That explains the cooky weapons." Sue said.
Magda said nothing, glaring down at the four Autobots down below. Her glowing orange eyes were focused especially on Ironhide, recognizing him from the security footage from the trashed base in Azadistan.
"So the Autobots are Osea's dogs after all." Jane snorted. "Told ya so, Sue."
"Not now, Jane. Mom's not in the mood." Sue whispered.
'If the Autobots were hiding in plain sight to transport the cargo, then is there anything even inside the trailer?' Magda thought and looked to the airship pilot. "Run a scan on the trailer down there. Something seems off."
The pilot, who had green scaly skin and a lizard-like head, nodded and had the ship run a 3D wire frame scan on the trailer and the crate inside. The system was designed to monitor objects via a sonic pulse that reflected off physical objects, but it ran through the trailer with no interference.
"No objects detected inside, ma'am."
"What?! Where the hell is it, then?" Jane growled. "Stupid fucking robots with their fancy robo-powers!"
Sue tapped her chin in thought. "Maybe they switched out earlier?"
Magda narrowed her eyes. "Yes…that's possible. And the only time they could've done that was…"
"Inside the tunnel." Jane said, eyes wide. "By the train!"
"We'll go catch it, mom!" Sue said.
Magda looked down at the battle, where Adonis was fighting Optimus and Bulkhead. As tall and powerful as he was, Adonis just barely matched Optimus in brute strength, and the fight was made harder by the assistance of Bulkhead. Adonis was strong, but not unbeatable.
"Sue, you go down there and help Adonis. Thomas, change our course. We have a train to catch." Magda said.
Jane glared at Sue, who stuck her tongue out at her. "You lucky bitch."
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Barnett knew the jig was up when he saw the airship change its course to fly in the same direction the train went. "Prime, I think they caught onto us!" He yelled to Optimus.
Optimus deflected a punch from Adonis, allowing Bulkhead to slam his fist into the side of the giant's head. "Ironhide, Mirage go after the train! Don't let them get the cargo!"
"On it, Prime! Come on, kid, we-" Ironhide looked to see that Mirage had already gone and he grumbled under his breath. "Damn brat thinks he's Batman."
Ironhide transformed and sped away towards the train tracks. Bulkhead and Optimus turned back to Adonis.
"Looks like it's just us now." Bulkhead grinned and grinded his knuckles together. "Lucky us."
"Bulkhead, look out!"
Barnett's callout came just as a huge fireball exploded into Bulkhead's back. The green Autobot hit the ground hard, his back smoking from the fiery blast. Optimus moved to help him but Adonis got in his way and pushed him back.
"Where the hell did that come from?" Bulkhead groaned.
Falling from the airship, Sue flew down to earth, her body surrounded by a fiery aura almost too bright to look at directly. Her entire body had changed, and it was as if her physical form was composed of magma, her skin cracked like molten lava. She slammed into the ground, which immediately started to melt from the intense heat she was giving off.
"Hi there!" Sue said. "You ready to fight?"
"Fight? You?" Bulkhead grunted and got back to his feet. "Girl, I'm the last person you wanna fight."
"No," Sue smirked. "I'm the last person you want to fight."
The ground under Bulkhead suddenly burst open like a volcano and he was barely able to jump aside to avoid the geyser of lava spewing from the ground. He gritted his teeth and charged at Sue, converting his hand into his wrecking ball. Sue leapt back as the large blunt weapon slammed into the ground and shot a fireball at his face.
Bulkhead cursed as his vision was filled with orange flames and intense heat. He stumbled back and took another blast to the chest before a swing of his wrecking ball chased her off him.
"Scrap, that hurts." Bulkhead hissed. His face plate was scorched and blackened, but he could still see, though the stinging pain of his burns was starting to tick him off. "All right, then. Let's play, little girl!"
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Optimus's plan had been based on the assumption that whoever tried to take the reactor the first time was more than prepared to combat military forces head on, making it too dangerous for one transport to carry the cargo the entire way. So he decided to have the reactor get switched with another, faster method of transportation and for the Autobots to act as the decoy afterwards. Had Karaba attacked the Autobots after they made the switch, the plan would have gone off without a hitch. Instead, the Autobots were going to have to fight hard to keep Karaba from getting their hands on a potential weapon.
The Karaba airship easily tracked and pursed the train down the line. Each car had a small team of Army soldiers waiting for any dangers that might head their way, however no one factored in the airship. They were all fully armed, but against an equally prepared group of combat trained espers, they were sorely underpowered.
"Lower the ship above the middle train car! The track is in a straight line for at least another mile from here." Jane told the pilot. She took out a large cannon and hefted it onto her shoulder before taking aim at the train. Making sure she had a target lock, she fired a large warhead that burrowed into one of the train cars.
Jane flicked a switch on the launcher and the warhead released a powerful electrical surge throughout the metal framework of the train. The soldiers standing guard over the reactor and the two following train cars were given a violent shock that knocked them out immediately.
"All hostiles disable, sir." The pilot announced.
Magda nodded and turned to her daughter. "Jane, get down there and detach the cars."
"Got it." Jane rolled her shoulders and waited for the airship to get low enough before jumping on top of the target car. Her hands glowed with red energy as she used her powers to shoot a red energy bolt at the coupling, shattering it and allowing the five cars to detach from the train's rear. The car rolled to a stop and she smirked. "Too easy."
"I beg to differ." A voice said.
"Huh?" Jane jumped as a large fifteen foot tall robot suddenly appeared right behind her, his blaster pointed at her.
"Good afternoon, sweetheart." Mirage smirked.
Magda snarled and raised her hand, a fiery aura surrounding her body as she prepared to take out Mirage. However a stray plasma blast was fired dangerously close to the airship.
"What was that?" Magda yelled.
"We're under attack, sir!" The pilot said. "On our twelve!"
Magda looked to the canyon wall and saw another Autobot running along the side. It was Ironhide, who was covering for Mirage the best he could. The same Autobot who destroyed Karaba's Azadistan base.
"Keep an eye on Jane, Juan." Magda said, her eyes glowing bright orange. "I'll take care of this one myself."
Magda raised her arms and shot two large fire blasts at the red Autobot. Ironhide changed into vehicle mode to avoid the powerful attacks as they slammed into the canyon wall, blasting apart large chunks of rock that rained down on him. Magda didn't let up in her assault as she shot a barrage of flaming blasts that pulverized rock and dirt in a single shot.
Back on the train, mirage held Jane at gunpoint, not taking his eyes off her for a second. "I can't spend my day holding your hand, lady, so I'm only going to ask you once to back off and leave this train alone."
"Go fuck a toaster, robot." Jane spat. "You talk big, but you don't even know what my powers are, do you?"
"Don't know, don't care." Mirage said.
Jane smiled. "That's your first mistake."
Her hands glowed with red energy as she clenched her fingers and the metal panels under Mirage's feet suddenly burst up into his face. Mirage yelled as sharp metal fragments dug into his face, almost tearing into his eye. Jane snapped her fingers and Mirage lost his balance in a manner he couldn't understand, falling back to get himself between in the opening between the cars.
This was Jane's power. In contrast to the rest of her family's flashy powers, she had a power that was more subtle. Jane could affect reality by channeling her power through energy bolts, manipulating the probability around her. Essentially, it was to cause bad luck to varying degrees. If she really pushed herself, she could cause things like turning water into blood or shatter tanks like glass by making them fall apart, so turning metal beams into metallic snakes was nothing to her.
"What the hell?!" Mirage grunted as the large metal snake wrapped around him, restricting his arms. Realizing he was in a bad position, Mirage raised his blast, the only thing that he could move, to point it at Jane.
"Not so fast!" Jane sang as she fired a bolt at his blaster. As soon as it was hit, the weapon malfunctioned, and when he pulled the trigger, the blaster exploded.
"Slag!" Mirage hissed as pieces of his gun were embedded into his hand.
Jane grinned. "You should've known better than to fuck with Karaba, robot. Now you're gonna learn just how nasty we can be."
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Bulkhead did his best to avoid the globs of lava being thrown at him. Fighting Sue was harder than he thought, and the growing amount of scorch marks and burns on his body showed that.
It was as if the earth itself was her weapon. Aside from turning into a living fireball, she could also turn solid rock into molten lava and control it as easy as she could shoot it. Bulkhead felt the heat of her flames even with his thick armor and it burned…a lot.
"What's the matter, big boy?" Sue teased as she flew circles around him on jets of flame, taking pot shots at his chest and back. "You not used to fighting a tiny girl like me?"
"I have a friend who's smaller," Bulkhead growled. "But she packs a hell of a stronger punch than you."
Sue scowled and landed on the ground, strengthening her connection to the earth. A wave of her hand melted the ground behind Bulkhead and she had two long clumps of lava grab hold of Bulkhead's hands to pull them behind him. Bulkhead yelled from the searing pain of having red hot lava encase his hands and struggled to get free, but he had no leverage to move.
"Look, big boy, it's nothing personal, okay? I'm just doing this because humans are meanies who deserve everything they get for what they've done to our kind." Sue said, floating a foot away from Bulkhead's face.
"What you're doing is terrorism." Bulkhead said.
Yeah, but have you ever heard of a bloodless revolution? Myself and my big friend over there," She pointed to Adonis, who was still fighting Optimus. "We're fighting for espers. You know, the people the police shoot up every week like it's hunting season? Men, women, children, it doesn't matter to them. They have no problems killing us, so why should we show them mercy?"
"If you think like that, then why are you talking to me?" He asked.
"Because you're an alien who's only seen one side of the story. If you saw things from Karaba's perspective, then I think we can be friends and avoid killing each other." Sue smiled up at him.
"I know what Karaba is," He said. "They're no different from the Cons. Starting out as revolutionaries before turning into conquerors."
Sue sighed and shook her head. "Looks like you're going to be stubborn about this. Oh well, I tried."
"Not hard enough!"
Bulkhead roared and used every ounce of his strength to pull his arms forward. He broke his lava bonds and changed his hand into his wrecking ball, slamming it inches away from Sue. Startled, she stumbled back, allowing Bulkhead to grab her flaming body and throw her at the mountainside. Sue changed the rock into lava so she had a soft cushion to land in.
Angry, Sue hurled blasts of lava at Bulkhead, but the Autobot shot them all down with his arm blaster. Sue shot herself forward, her body a mass of flames as she aimed for the center of Bulkhead's chest. Bulkhead smirked before tossing something at her from his left hand. It was a grenade.
At the speed she was going, Sue had no time to react as she flew straight into the grenade as it detonated.
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Optimus gave a grunt of exertion as he forced Adonis back, pushing his arm hydraulics to the limit as he punched the esper in his golden chest with enough force to lift Adonis off his feet. Adonis stumbled back and Optimus landed another punch to his face that sent him crashing into the canyon wall.
"Optimus, Ironhide and Mirage have reached the train, but they're engaging the enemy!" Ratchet said. "They need backup."
"Copy that, Ratchet." Optimus turned to Bulkhead. "Bulkhead, watch over Agent Barnett. I'm going to help Ironhide and Mirage."
"Sure thing, boss." Bulkhead said, waving Prime off as he changed to vehicle mode and drove away at full speed. Bulkhead slumped down on a boulder and groaned. "Ugh, I feel like I had to cook out with the sun and lost."
Barnett snorted. "Welcome to the mid-west, Bulkhead."
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Mirage struggled in the snake's increasingly tightening grip, which started denting his armor from the sheer force of its constriction. As if being laughed at by the human witch wasn't embarrassing enough. With only one hand free and damaged, he realized something and quickly went invisible in the snake's grasp.
"That trick again? The snake still has you, idiot." Jane laughed. "Going invisible won't change a thing. What good is that going to do for you?"
"This!"
Unseen by Jane, Mirage unclipped a concussion bomb from his waist and threw it at her. Jane saw it and brought up a piece of sheet metal for protection as the bomb exploded.
"Shit!" Jane, though protected from the brunt of the explosion wave, was blasted off the train by the concussion wave and she used her powers to soften the ground into sand that she landed on. Now covered in dirty and sporting a painful headache, Jane could only watch enraged as the trained moved on without her. "You son of a bitch!"
"Happy trails!" Mirage said as he reached up and tore the metal snake's head off with what strength he could muster. Tossing its body aside, Mirage pulled himself back onto the train, sore and annoyed. "I hope Ironhide's having a better time than me."
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"Scrap!" Ironhide felt a fireball hit one of his tires. He tried to maintain traction, but two more fiery blasts from Magda blew apart the ground he was driving on, destroying the rocky path and making it crumble.
Magda smirked as he saw Ironhide tumble downhill with the landslide, converting to robot mode as he struggled to avoid being buried alive. She slowly floating down to him atop invisible pulsations of microwave energy as she regarded him coldly.
"I remember you, Autobot. You destroyed one of my bases in Azadistan." She said coldly. "You caused Karaba a lot of trouble."
"Yeah, we have a thing for pissing people off." Ironhide growled. Magda shot a fire blast into his chest that blew him backwards.
"It took a long time to fix the damage you caused for my people. You almost ruined everything!" Magda hissed. "But I'll take my debt in your blood!"
Magda raised her hands and charged up a superhot ball of concentrated microwaves, emitting enough heat energy to melt solid metal on contact. Ironhide raised his cannons to attack her before she could turn him into molten slag, but fortunately for him, he didn't have to face death today.
A truck horn from behind was all the warning Magda got before an ion blast slammed into her microwave field, almost knocking her out of the air. Optimus Prime arrived on the scene in vehicle mode, changing forms and pointing his ion blaster at Magda.
"Stand down, Magda. Your operation has failed!" He said.
"It's not over until one of us is dead, alien!" Magda snarled and charged up for another powerful attack. However, she paused when she got a call on her radio.
"Mom, that tin can blew me off the train!" Jane said. "I'm sorry, ma, but that's it for me."
Then came another call on the secondary channel. "Sir, Sue and Adonis are down. I'm retrieving them now, but I'm meeting Autobot resistance!" Exclaimed the airship pilot.
Magda seethed for a moment before she schooled her features and glared down at the Autobots below her. "Well played, Autobots. You win this round."
She canceled her flames and rose higher into the air. "But know that from this day onward you are all enemies of Karaba. The next time we meet, I will show no mercy. You'll share the same fate as the humans that infect Karaba's new world!"
Like a rocket, Magda flew away in the direction of the airship to rescue her other daughter and subordinate. Ironhide sighed and slumped to the ground.
"Optimus, is everyone alright?" Ratchet asked.
"Yes, Ratchet, we're all beaten and hurt, but everyone's safe. And the reactor is also safe as well." Optimus replied, looking grim about Magda's final warning to them. "However, I fear we have made another enemy on this world. An enemy that reminds me all too well of the Decepticons."
Here is our first official introduction to the secondary villains of book 3-Karaba. They're going to be a thorn in the Autobots' side in the future, that I can tell you. Up next is a chapter focusing on Arcee, Sunstreaker and Sideswipe as they look into possible Decepticon involvement in a human civil war. Be sure to check out the official Transformers Titan website on Wordpress. Thanks for reading, and please leave a review.