Cybertron, 2017
"Careful," Arcee shouted as she shimmed down the wire into a darkened cavern, she transformed her left arm into a flashlight and waved it around "No one's been down here in ages."
Three more bots came down light on their feet, and lastly Bulkhead came down, crashing loudly into the ground. Hot Rod walked over to him and slapped the larger Autobot on his back.
"Hey Hoist, I think you should stay topside," The young Autobot shouted out to the hole in the ceiling where a green and orange mech was staring down, "There's no way we're getting Bulk back up if you're down here."
"Shut up lughead," Bulkhead said, pushing Hot Rod off of him and walking over to Arcee. Hoist then came down and smacked Hot Rod over the head as he and the others walked further into the cavern.
"Was it something I said?" Hot Rod chuckled, following the others.
"Legend says that this is the tomb of Prima," Rewind said, trailing his hand over the wall's glyphs. A camera on the side of his head activated, scanning them he couldn't make out the content of the glyphs, "This is severely ancient text."
"Arcee to base," Arcee said into her com, only static came back.
"We are way too far down to make contact with anyone," A red and black Autobot said, he crouched down to a second hole in the floor, "Think we should go down further?"
"Not yet, you and Lancer stay sentries at the hole Spin-Out," Arcee said, "Everyone else we keep exploring this level."
"Splitting up?" Bulkhead asked, "We've both seen enough horror films to know that's a bad idea."
"Bulk, we're down here to find energon, no one's been in these caves since Predacons roamed on the surface," Arcee said rather dismissively.
"Yeah Bulky, no one's getting strung up by their circuits." Hoist chuckled.
As the Autobots went further into the darkness, a pair of orange optics glared at them, studying them. Almost, hunting them. The optics then turned to Lancer and Spin-Out. The two alone, staring down into the chasm below.
Metal clanged above Spin-Out's head, scratching metal and whispers permeated in his audio receptors.
"You hear that?" Spin-Out said, turning to Lancer, she just shrugged, turning her back to him.
'Okay' The mech thought to himself, he transformed his right arm into a blaster, his yellow optics looking around the cavern. He could barely see anything. Then he saw a figure approaching him and Lancer. It was roughly the same height as him and Hot Rod.
"Hot Rod?"
"Hot Rod went with Arc-" Lancer started to say. Her last words sounded like a gallon of liquid filled in her throat instantly, then the sound of a blade unsheathing from metal squealed loudly in Spin-Out's ears.
He saw the smaller frame fall down to the ground. Speechless he aimed his blaster forwards at a shadow that seemingly disappeared. He stepped back, nearly falling down the hole, he turned to look at his footing then back to see the shadow right in front of him.
He fired off several rounds, they phased right through the figure in front of him, he stepped back a bit, nearly falling again. Then a hand grabbed his ankle, he jolted around and fired into the hole, forgetting the second figure in front, no behind him.
Suddenly a blade cut through the side of his head, instantly his golden optics faded to a lifeless gray and his body fell limp, falling down the chasam.
After what seemed like hours the others came back, Hot Rod was the first to notice that something was amiss, he transformed both of his arms into blasters and waved them around.
"Clear!" He shouted, the others followed slowly behind him with only Rewind keeping back as he was not a combatant.
Bulkhead and Hoist ran over to Lancer, who was curled up in a ball next to the hole.
"Is she?" Bulkhead asked as Hoist scanned her.
"She's alive, barley," Hoist, "I can't bring her up to the surface like this, and I don't have the equipment on me to fully repair these wounds."
"How long do you think you can keep her online?" Arcee asked.
"Long enough for you to bring me Grapple and our equipment if you leave now," Hoist said.
"What about Spin-Out?" Hot Rod asked.
"We'll have to find him when me and Grapple get back," Arcee said, "Hoist, throw up a line for me."
Hoist obliged and threw his tow cable up to the surface where it hooked onto a ledge.
Iacon, some time later
"Keep me posted," Ultra Magnus said, "And the rest of you stay safe down there. Over and out."
The older Autobot sighed as he turned off the com line to Arcee. He turned around to see Bumblebee standing there. He changed his alternate form sometime ago so now his shape was slightly more blocky than it once was.
Bumblebee now had the hood of his alt mode on his chest and the headlights now on his shoulders, the taillights on his knees. He also was once again yellow with black stripes.
"I see you've settled on a paint scheme," Ultra Magnus said, turning back to the monitor.
"I might change it to gold and blue within a week," Bumblebee chuckled, "Blue helmet sounds like it would look good on me, right?"
"Don't ask me for fashion advice," Ultra Magnus said.
"So Lancer and Spin-Out?" Bee asked, "What happened?"
"We don't really know yet," Magnus answered, "Lancer was found half dead and Spin-Out, I can only assume his corpse was thrown down the hole her body was found next to."
"You might want to soften the delivery when you tell everyone else what happened," Bumblebee chuckled.
"You mean when I call off any exploration beneath Cybertron's surface," Ultra Magnus said.
"We really don't know what's down there do we?" Bumblebee asked.
"Shockwave is," Ultra Magnus answered, looking down at his newly repaired hand, closing a fist, "And whatever abominations he's brought upon us."
Cybertron's underbelly
"Where am I?" Starscream uttered, his vision still foggy, he looked down at his hand, how larger and more in line with how he appeared before he traveled to Earth, "I'm back to my original body form?"
"You're awake," Shockwave answered, "Good."
"Shockwave?" Starscream asked, "What is going on?"
"Come and see," Shockwave answered, he led Starscream into a large chamber where several Decepticons, newly returned to Cybertron, were hard at work building a space bridge.
"Oh, is this what we want to do," Starscream asked, "Without Megatron."
"Leave him to me, as well as any other deserters," A voice came from the shadows behind them, and out walked a hulking Decepticon, clad in black and purple with a double fusion cannon attached to his right arm. One who wore their insignia as a mask over his face.
"Tarn."