Chapter 01: Within the Spider's Web
In the days since his forced landing, time appeared to blend together for the Decepticon formerly known as Megatron. Isolation was both a blessing and a curse for him, as while the time alone had granted him clarity in certain aspects, it had left his mind scattered in many others.
All this inner looking and quest to simply stay alive lead him to one rather sunny day where the thick fog had parted just enough so he could lay witness to a clearing while hiding just above in the trees while a metal panther like creature prowled the clearly. The gun metal grey beast kept low, eyeing a small howl as the head of a tiny creature poked out, the panther leaping towards it and swiping it into its jaws.
Once the critter had been devoured, the former Megatron leapt down from his hiding place and grabbed the beast by its throat. This resulted in a whimper, followed by a fit of snarls as it attempted to free itself from the former Megatron's hold while clawing at him violently. The former Megatron simply glared at the beast, holding it in a way so its claws couldn't touch him.
"Forgive me," he told the beast, pressing his blade to the beasts throat before slicing it open, "and thank you."
As energon blue blood spilled out from the beast, the former Megatron raised its bleeding carcass up to catch the fluid in his mouth before squeezing all that he could out of it, tossing it to the ground once it had run dry. He looked to his forearm, popping open a panel with three bars. Two marked for flight fuel and ammunition were completely empty, but one marking his internal power cells slowly crawled up to twenty five percent from twenty.
"Nothing more than crumbs... as always," he snarled, looking to his still broken fusion cannon before ripping it off, "Here, consider it a parting gift my friend," he told the body of the beast as he threw the remains of his fusion cannon over its body, "it is as useful as killing you."
With that, he turned on his heel and proceeded deeper into the forest. As he trudged along, he kept his eyes fixed on the energy field above him.
"That field is Decepticon technology, that much is certain," he thought to himself, bringing up his radar and scanners which were nothing but static, "However while I am inside it, I am unable to determine its power source." He huffed before putting his scanners away, managing a chuckle only moments afterwards, "If this is your idea of a joke Primus, then this is bad comedy."
He sniffed the air, suddenly coming to a halt as he turned his head to the left. "No... It couldn't be." He uttered before darting into the woods deeper and deeper, his eyes widening in awe once he came to a ruined camp in the middle of yet another clearing.
It was made up a several barriers that outlined the perimeter, all to guard several large crates along with four metal tarp tents that surrounded a much larger tent in the center of the encampment. The former Megatron tiptoed his way in, stepping over severed robotic limbs and stained earth from spilled energon. Hardly anything in the camp was left undamaged, the barriers having been torn apart with scorch marks and bullet hole in just about every point of the camp ground.
The former Megatron reached the center of the camp, looking down to a crate he had stepped on. He slowly raised his foot to reveal a Decepticon emblem on the front of the small crate. This small bit of information brought a smirk to the former Megatron's face.
"Figures," he boasted as he set his gaze to the large tent before him, "then I suppose I shall help myself to the former commander's personal energon supply, or whatever scraps remain of it at least."
Inside the tent was a single desk, a few chairs and a pair of shelving units. All of which was thrown about the room with only a pair of cases remaining within. One case was small, no bigger than then the length of his foot while the other matched that of his entire arm. Both cases seemed mostly untouched. The fact they were on the ground and not put back gave the former Megatron the impression that whoever owned this tent before had left in a hurry.
The former Megatron eyed the cases before walking over to them, grabbing the smaller of the two and cracking it open. Once he did, it brought a grin to his face as he laid his optics on the contents. Eight vials of energon, and of highly refined quality at that.
"This should keep me going until I can get off this rock," he declared, grabbing a vile and connecting it to the port on his arm. With only a few drops it was enough to fill his power cells completely. He closed the crase back up before eyeing the larger one, raising a brow at it.
"And what of you?" He ran his hand along a lock that had been placed on the case, breaking it apart before opening the case proper. He let out a gasp when, out form the case glimmered the shine of a large and clearly brand new fusion cannon with a bright amber barrel, a faint whisper coming out from it as it glimmered in the light as if it were calling for him to take it.
Without a moment of hesitation the former Megatron grabbed the new weapon from its case and placed it onto the socket his old one once held. A click and a whistle of steam erupted from his arm as his systems connected with that of the weapon.
"Like clockwork," he grinned wider as he rose to his feet, grabbing the case of energon on his way out of the tent.
As he basked in the sunlight, he eagerly drew in a breath of fresh air then exhaled. His moment of bliss was not to last however, it coming to a grinding halt by a sudden pause from the former Megatron. He stepped forward, sniffing the air once again as he notice the smell of smoke and ash was far more potent than he had initially realized. He eyed a pair of burn marks in the metallic gravel, kneeling down to scoop up a hand full of it within his claw.
"Still warm," he uttered to himself as he shifted the minerals in his fingers, "whomever made these burn marks... made them recently."
He clenched the dirt in his fist, scanning the tree line with his optics. He froze, catching the glimpse of a winged dark figure among the brambles and vines. He, however, was not allowed to focus on it for long as a bright yellow laser shot hurled out from the treeline to his right. The former Megatron dashed to his left just in time for the shot to miss and strike the ground just beneath his feet. He then refocused his optics back to the trees in front of him only to find nothing but empty foliage, the figure had already vanished.
The former Megatron gritted his teeth as he drew his blade from his wrist, "COWARD!" He roared, slashing his blade through the air as a display of force, "Come out and face me directly if you wish to kill me!"
As he roared into the trees and bushes, it was returned with another that sounded more like it came from a beast than a bot. The former Megatron scowled in frustration, raising his new fusion cannon to the tree line.
"Fine, have it your way," he grinned, spinning the barrel of his new weapon to warm it up, "I was looking for something to test this on regardless."
Another roar cry out, this time from the left side of the former Megatron. His gaze quickly turned to that side, he letting out a gasp as a teal and silver Predacon barreled out from the tree line and pounced on to the former Megatron, pinning him to the ground. Once the one predacon had him within his claws, a second predacon of navy and gunmetal grey coloring emerged from the woods with a stone cold snarl as it edged closer towards him.
"Predacons! Here?" he questioned with a strain to his voice from holding the one predacons jaws as it lashed at him, "I see. But where is your king I wonder?" He smirked to the teal and silver beast named Skylynx. "I trust he did not simply send his minions in his place."
"I am not as low a creature as you, Megatron," declared the voice of the Predacon who had named himself king as he emerged from the shadow of the forest. "That is what separated my kin from yours."
"If you claim it so, Predaking," the former Megatron glared at him. "Though I wonder.. what does the great Predaking have in store for me?" He grinned, raising a brow to taunt the beast king.
Predaking snarled at the former Megatron, balling his hand into a fist as he attempted to quell his anger towards the fiend before him, "Skylynx... Show him."
The teal predacon released him, his navy colored brother Darksteel taking over in pinning the former Megatron down. Skylynx then shifted to his two legged robot form and drew a pair of serrated curved swords from the folds of his wings, scraping the sharp edges of each blade against one another in an intimidating manor before raising the both of them to strike down at the former Megatron. In response to this, the former Megatron only glared at the beast without even the urge to fight back. In his spark, this was the least he deserved.
"If you intend to kill me, do it quickly," the former Megatron barked at him, "but do not waste my time with meaningless theatrics."
"Death will come to you Megatron, after you tell me one thing," Predaking snarled at him before kneeling down to look him in the eye. "Why did you send my clan to the slaughter?"
The former Megatron looked to him with a puzzled look but maintained his smirk, "I assumed Prime and his lot had already told you."
"Irrelevant," Predaking violently grabbed the former Megatron by the throat, "I need to hear you say it. Now!"
The former Megatron closed his optics and took in a deep breath as he thought it over, "It was fear that drove the old me to do it," he admitted, "however, the current me, has only respect for the three of you." He reopened his optics and looked Predaking deep into his own, "Killing me is my gift to you, so go a head and do it already. I wish you the best of luck in getting off this rock."
Predaking gritted his teeth further, looking to Skylynx and Darksteel who both looked to him as if awaiting orders. The king's fist shook before he used it to strike the ground beside the former Megatron's head, leaving nothing but a deep crater as dust and dirt filled the air.
"You..." He snarled as he rose to his feet, "you are not even worth killing." He took a few steps away, closing his optics and taking in a deep breath. The former Megatron stared up at the beasts who pinned him before moving his gaze towards the king who commanded them.
"If you are done sulking, I have questions of my own." He spoke, Predaking remaining silent, "Alright, I will be taking your silence as a yes." He looked up to the sky, the flicker of the web above still being visible beyond the clouds, "First, what do you plan to do with the energy web?"
"Energy web?" Predaking asked, turning back to the former Megatron with a raised brow, "What do you mean?" The former Megatron pointed a figure to the sky, guiding the predacon king's gaze up along with it.
"It is Decepticon technology, arcane by the standards of today," he came out with it, " It was designed to short out any firearms or thrusters that pass through it, but in time it was modified to destroy those systems entirely."
"Your kind… are truly scum," Predaking looked to him with a glare and a growl, "for what purpose would you have for such an infernal thing?"
"It was a precaution to protect my capital city Kaon from aerial assaults," elaborated the former Megatron. "However, I never imagined it would be capable of surrounding an entire planet".
"So... your kin turned this place into a prison?" Predaking asked.
"A tomb is more accurate," the former Megatron retorted, narrowing his gaze upon Predacon, "given the fact you or your underlings are not carrying blasters of any kind."
Predaking widened his stance, darting his gaze around the treeline, "What?!" He readied his claws as the former Megatron's statement sent him into a state of alarm.
The former Megatron jumped to his feet, shoving the predacons off him with ease as he scanned the area. "Believe me when I say this Predaking," he spoke once more as he looked into the king's optics, "we are not alone."
A sudden crack echoed from the trees, the former Megatron and the king ducking to the ground as several bright yellow laser shots hurled out from the brush. Slylynx sliced away at them with his blades, the blasts being cut to ribbon as if they were made out of some sort of cable.
Darksteel, meanwhile, did not fair as favorably. The brutish beast clawed at a few of the cables, only for them to constrict around him and bind the beast down like a hog to the ground. The trees shook as three pale blue hovercrafts of a similar size to the former Megatron's own star ship mode came into view from the opening in the tree line above.
The former Megatron glared at them, snarling before drawing his arm blade. He rose to his feet and darted towards Darksteel, cutting apart any of the cables that dared to come near him until he reached the downed Predacon. Darksteel snarled at him, the former Megatron simply looking at him in indifference to his actions before cutting his limbs free and pulling him to his feet.
"You three! Go!" He barked to Predaking, tossing Darksteel over to Skylynx "NOW!"
Predaking froze at the former Megatron's sudden command only to narrow his gaze and nod in agreement. He then looked to the other two predacons and motioned towards the tree line. Without another moment wasted the trio darted for the brush, shifting into their dragon modes as the vanished into the foliage.
Once the predacons had left his side, the former Megatron looked up to the three hovercrafts and aimed his cannon arm at the one looming furthest to his right. With a tight clenching of his fist, the cannon made a loud humming sound as its cylindrical amber barrel began to spine fastest than the optic could see. With an inner flick of his wrist, the cannon fired off two bright balls of energy with a recoil so strong that it sent the former Megatron to his knees.
With a loud wailing cry, the orbs spun around each other in a ever narrowing spiral before connecting with one another just before striking the targeted hovercraft. The hovercraft was melted within an instant, its remains crashing to the ground while the resulting shockwave from the blast the other two off their mark. Even the trees were rocked until they lost their leaves.
This small victory for the former Megatron proved to be just that, a small one. Just before they crashed, the two remaining hovercrafts shifted into match robot modes. Both were big and muscular with their faces being featureless save for a single yellow optic with the bulk of their hovercraft modes going onto their backs to form something of a bat like wing back.
The former Megatron gritted his teeth, swinging his sword back around as he prepared himself mentally and physically for another fight. What happened next however, he could not have prepared for as more binding shots erupted from the tree line at every possible direction. Before he could so much as move a muscle, he had been pinned down and chained.
Ten more identical soldiers holding weapons that could only be described as cybernetic crossbows emerged from the treeline. Along with them came another pair of robots, one a deep navy short and stocky with the other being a vibrant crimson of a tall slender but still very powerful looking build.
"He didn't last long," chuckled the navy bot in a deep gruff voice as he looked to the red bot by his side, "now can I shoot him?"
"We have our orders Dropkick," the red bot told him in a commanding feminine voice as she approached the downed former Megatron, "the master wants this one alive." She looked over her shoulder and narrowed her optics at her partner, "If you want, you can take a squad of sweeps and hunt down those beasts. Which, need I remind you, the master also wants alive."
Dropkick shrugged, "I just wanna shoot something," he motioned over his shoulder to three of the soldiers, "You heard Shatter, you lot with me!" He shifted into a vitol style hovercraft, taking off into the skies as three of the soldiers followed suit in their own respective alt modes.
"We received a signal that something broke through the barrier," Shatter told the former Megatron as she knelt down to look him in the eye, "In a million eons, I never would have suspected it would have been you."
The former Megatron fought to free himself from the cables all while looking up at Shatter with a glare, "What do you intend to do with me?" he snarled.
"That is not for me to decide," Shatter informed him, standing tall as she looked to the trees once more, "What say you, master?"
As she spoke, another sweep style soldier stepped out from the shadow of the forest only this one was unlike the others. He carried a large energy rifle in place of a crossbow with what appeared to be a cannon on the top of his head. His face resembled that of an elder cybertronian, a pair of withered yellow optics standing out from his torn up silver face that had paneling in the form of a long mustache and goatee.
"That will all depend on how our guest behaves," the newly appeared hunter put simply, looking down at the captured bot with a blank expression on his face. "Try not to fight it, you are in our world now… Megatron."
Next - Chapter 2: Scourge and His Huntsmen