Chapter Two
**Earth, Indeterminate Timeframe
"Thirty cycles until he can fire again," Copperhead noted, the blast hole smoking in the
mountainside nearby. "I timed it."
They'd been trying to get into the immense craft for the last two megacycles with
absolutely no luck, save draining the power core when Starscream attempted to fire.
"Now's our chance," Copper barked, and Tyrannix leapt several meters higher.
"STEEL... DRAGON... FIRE!" A white hot bolt erupted from Tyrannix's throat,
ripping through the oddly-textured, remotely metallic hull. "Hold on tight, little snake,"
the dragon roared, tacking on extra speed, blasting through the shrinking hull breach.
"Something about this place gives me the willies," Copperhead noted as the two
regained their composure. "Sure as heck isn't Cybertronian, and it's obviously not built
by the protohumans."
Tyrannix growled deeply. "It's Vok. I overheard Colonel Silvermane talking
about them with Primal one night, in hushed tones... they're responsible for the Standing
Stones and the Floating Island, and Optimus knows something about them we don't."
Copperhead nodded. "He always does... now can't you see why it took me so
long to change my command codes? Being a Maximal doesn't bother me, but
sometimes... being under his command..."
"Say no more, snakey," Tyrannix said as he halted. "The walls have ears."
It wasn't as if there were auditory sensors lining the walls-- which, knowing
Starscream's sometimes paranoia, there probably were-- but Tyrannix saw, in fact, small
bumps in the shape of some mal-formed ear, lining the wall.
"Well that's disturbing," Tyrannix half-chuckled.
"Must be part of the kid's mind... some of this place looks like it was designed by a
five year old." Copperhead looked around a corner, and seeing no sign of an enemy,
changed course. "Something tells me that since this thing's shaped like a head,
Starscream's in the brain."
Tyrannix nodded, and followed.
Meanwhile, planetside, Pantera fumed. "Primal, get me up there right now," she
ordered. "As a Maximal elder, I command it."
"I can't fulfill that request, and you know it," Primal responded. "Quit asking."
"I wasn't asking," she said with military crispness. "I was commanding."
"And a lovely commanding tone you have," Primal rebutted, still steadfast in his
refusal.
"Fine!" she roared, "I'll find another flier to get me up there."
"Airazor's M.I.A., and Tyrannix has already left with Copperhead. We need you
groundside," he ordered, indicating what remained of the Axalon's forward hull, now the
Maximal control center, "just in case the Predacons act rashly in this chaos."
She continued to demur, and Primal continued to scold her. Finally, after what
seemed like a decacycle of argument, Pantera relented. "I'll be on the scanners," she
snarled, stalking to another station. Primal, on the other hand, stepped outside.
Even buried among the mountains of the Pacific Northwest, Optimus could still get
a good glimpse of "Metalhunter," the... device... Starscream had acquired. It hung,
almost motionless, in the sky, not 500 meters above the planet's surface. It had formed
itself into a grim visage, a gaunt representation of a face somewhere between Starscream's
and Skyfire's. It only made any sign of activity when it opened fire-- seemingly at
random, for Optimus couldn't see Copperhead and Tyrannix from the base.
"Every attempt at communication," Optimus lamented, "every attempt to get
Starscream's ATTENTION has been for naught." He slammed his fist against the wall so
hard, it left a crack. "What will we do?"
"Whatever shall I do?" Starscream cackled in a mocked dirge, his body strapped to
the floating throne of power. "Two puny Maximals have invaded my space... I am
outnumbered and outmanned. Now would be a perfect time to activate this."
He held up a large chunk of metal, what had at one time been a segment of a disk,
and examined it. "Perhaps there lies here some information to my advantage... like how to
deal with the two corpses at my feet."
The prone forms of Tigatron and Airazor, hands still locked together, lay on a slab
nearby. A blue casing of energon surrounded them, as if imprisoning them.
Or preserving them.
As Starscream gave his soliloquy, the self-tribute to his own power and hubris, the
sounds of Tyrannix echoed through the walls. "Oh, it appears the dragon has made his
way into the sanctum sanctorum... it should be fun to play with him."
The gold dragon had wrecked several layers of the ship's hull, even to the extent
where the self-repair circuits had gone offline. Thrashing his way through Metalhunter,
Tyrannix and Copperhead had finally made their way to the quarry.
"Free them!" the dragon roared. "Let my comrades go!" He punctuated the
orders with gouts of silvery-gold flame from each nostril.
"I think... not," Starscream responded, his demanor pugnacious. "You've broken
into my property, and I'm not pleased." Without another word, he jammed the shard of
brass into the side of his chair, causing the entire room to shudder under the power of that
alien artifact. "Now look what you've made me do!" he whined like a child. "I've broken
my fabulous toy!"
The control chamber bucked beneath Tyrannix's and Copperhead's feet, sending
the latter sprawling and skidding across the deckplates, ultimately slamming into the base
of the slab where Tigatron and Airazor lay. From Starscream's position, in his waning consciousness, Copperhead could make out a
beam, emanating from the base of the floating chair on which Starscream sat.
"Ah, Vok technology," he crooned, though Copper couldn't make out the
maniac's expression. "One must love the potential it presents... for instance..."
Copper felt the slab lowering, as the field surrounding Tigatron and Airazor
crackled, coming into contact with Copperhead's lame shoulder. He was barely able to
roll out of the way, knowing full well that energy field could probably evaporate him with
little trouble. As the slab settled itself back into the floor-- Copperhead wasn't sure it
wasn't simply an extension of the floor, considering the twisted carnival of design that
marked the ship-- Tigatron's and Airazor's containment bubble began to hover, glowing
brighter.
Copperhead regained his composure and scrambled to his knees, then up to his
feet, watching the bubble constrict somewhat.
Then he saw something that disturbed him to no end: the two sparks of Airazor
and Tigatron had been rent from their bodies, and, in the declining space of the force
bubble, had huddled next to each other, seemingly for protection. From their sparks,
Copperhead could hear an outcry... an urgent demand for succour. But Copperhead was
too far away, too weak, to help, and he gazed wordlessly at Starscream's crime.
The sparks began to meld. It was as if one was melting into the other, and as they merged, Starscream let out a spine-chilling call.
"Let life be ignited from the death I have caused..." he screamed, his shrill voice
echoing above, and probably filtering through the walls outside of the ship, as well. "And
let my penance be paid!"
Penance? Copper wondered. What duty to the gods was Starscream performing,
stealing the sparks of two noble warriors, smashing them into a monstrosity...
The sparks had fused entirely, and, in the much smaller bubble, had moved back
into the one form that had so recently been two.
"Arise..." Starscream ordered to the blob.
A hand, clawed, and bone-white, reached out from the energy field and grasped
the air. A second talon followed, pulling the newly born Transformer from its energon
placenta. The Transformer revealed itself ever-so-slowly, sliding free from the sheath
piece by piece, joint by joint, until, finally, it stood revealed. A tall, masculine form it was,
a stylized white tiger's head rested on its left shoulder, a sparkling green orb-- what
Copperhead could only guess was its spark chamber-- on its right. The chest bore, of all
things, a crimson Maximal shield, flanked on either side by an eagle's talons. The face
was ghastly, with a grimace filled with sharp teeth, and, in the image of its creator, a
mirrored green visor covering its eyes. Two immense, green and violet wings spread off
its back gracefully, giving this beast a savage yet noble appearance.
"State your name," Starscream hissed, "my son..."
"I am Tigerhawk, and I am no son of yours, monster!" he roared. The voice was
Tigatron's!
Starscream's feathers frayed in rage. "You DARE defy me?! Pathetic FOOL!"
He burst forth from the throne, sending it clattering to the deckplates below, wings
spread, reptilian tail lashing in fury.
"The foolish one is he who considers the destruction of two lives to ignite the
spark of one, a good deed. Your penance to Primus for your misdeeds, Starscream, is
banishment."
Tigerhawk raised both his hands and folded them together in front of him, as if
praying. A wordless song he chanted, causing a sparkling blue aura to engulf him. The focus of
that aura was at the point where his fingertips touched, where another blue field of energy
had begun to grow. He was charging his own body from his spark, Copperhead realized,
a feat something that few Cybertronians he'd ever known had been capable of.
"Take your penance, Starscream," Tigerhawk growled, separating his hands and
enlarging the energy charge. "Take it with you to the pit!"
The blast sizzled through the air, over Copper's head, and slammed into the
cockatrice with all the force of a meteor. It sent him, chest smoking, to the mat, with a
resounding THUD.
"You... fool," he hissed, mech fluid streaming from mouth, optics, and chest. "Do
you realize what you are doing?"
Tigerhawk had now reached the fallen Air Commander, and stood above him, his
shadow ominous, his hand now crackling with that same blue energy, now in the shape of
a double-bladed longsword. "Yes..." Tigerhawk replied simply, then drove the energy
blade deep into Starscream's chest.
Starscream, his spark skewered on this blade that combined pure energon and the
power of Tigerhawk's very soul, could only laugh. "If I'm to visit the Pit, you shall join
me."
A bright flash of light, and the craft bucked again, pulling Tyrannix and
Copperhead into the air. It was crashing, and there was now nothing to stop it: the spot
where Starscream had lay, and where Tigerhawk had driven his sword into the chest of the
despot, was empty.
They're dead? Copper thought aloud. No, not like this...
The roar of vernier boosters approaching snapped the serpent out of that line of
thought. "Going my way?" a voice called into his aural receptor, to which Copperhead
turned his head in response.
"Tyr?" he muttered.
"It's me," the dragon replied, dipping and barrelling to avoid falling debris. "This
place is about to go boom..."
A blast of dragon's fire, and a wall was opened to them, leading outside.
"Not a moment to spare..." Tyrannix wheeled about for a better look at the
rapidly evaporating Metalhunter starship. "Look..."
Two forms were descending rapidly from the former craft, but they were dead
husks.
Tigatron's and Airazor's empty shells, Copperhead told himself, immediately
ascertaining what Starscream had actually done.
"Good Primus!" Copperhead gasped, urging Tyrannix to burst forth to catch the falling
bodies. "We have to..."
Tyrannix was a step ahead of his small paramour, putting on as much speed as he
could to reach the falling shells before the impact desecrated them.
But it was too late, as Tyrannix had been too slow. The two shells fell beneath the
treeline. "I tried," the dragon apologized, eyes closing.
But the Dragon's tears were shed in vain. The rush of engines told Copperhead
and Tyrannix that another Transformer was nearby, and the sound of Optimus Primal's
voice rose above the treeline, carrying with him the burnt out shells of Tigatron and
Airazor. His optics were dim with sadness, his shoulders hunched.
"I couldn't save them," Tyrannix apologized.
"Nor could I," Copperhead replied.
"They're saved," Primal muttered, dropping his altitude. "The Matrix has seen to
that."