"So explain this to me again." Soundwave turned to Thudercracker after setting the course and putting the ship in auto-pilot. "You were floating in space and suddenly a giant planet showed up?"
"Yep." the Seeker shrugged. "I didn't even notice it 'till it was almost on top of us, but it was huge. Maybe twice the size of Cybertron."
"Something twice the size of Cybertron snuck up on you?!" Soundwave shook his head in disbelief. "Wait, do you mean it had a cloaking device?"
"I dunno. I don't think it was a ship or anything. I mean, when it spoke it said "I am Unicron." You know, singular first-person. And if it did have a cloaking device, it would have activated it once it was done with Megatron. But it didn't; it just floated away."
Soundwave shook his head again, this time in contemplation. "What did it offer Megatron? A new army?"
"Yeah. Like I told you before, it said he could have a new body and a new army if he destroyed the Autobots." Thundercracker assented.
"Sounds a bit too simple."
"Tell me about it. When I first heard it, though, I thought Megatron was gonna go for it. I mean, he'd get all this free stuff for just doing what he always does. But then the big planet made it sound like he was going to make Megatron his slave. Megs didn't like that too much." the jet smirked.
Soundwave smiled as well. That certainly sounded like Megatron. "Did it give any other stipulations? Any explanation?"
"Nope. Just showed up, made his offer, blasted Megs, and left." the other summarized.
"Well." Soundwave sat back in the pilot's seat. "That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever."
"Nope." Thundercracker agreed.
"Why would a huge planetoid care about what happens in a civil war on a planet half its size? And why would it be willing to expend the energy and who knows what else needed to give Megatron new troops just to keep that war going?" the communicator said more to himself than to Thundercracker.
"Well..." Thundercracker realized Soundwave was thinking aloud, but he decided to respond anyway. "If he wanted to keep the war going, it does actually make sense that he would repair Megs and give him new troops. After all, without Megatron, who's in charge? Starscream. And everybody knows he couldn't lead a parade. The Autobots would win and they would promote eternal peace like the hippies they are."
"True." Soundwave nodded. "But that's not what confuses me. Why would this thing CARE? We've never seen it before, we can assume it's never seen us before, so how could it even know we were fighting in the first place? And even if it did, what effect could our war possibly have on it?"
"Maybe it just doesn't like Autobots." Thundercracker shrugged.
Soundwave sighed. "I don't like this at all."
***
Megatron slept through the sonic boom. After living so many years near a space port, the noise just didn't register in his auditory circuits like it used to. No, what woke him up was Wheelie's scream.
"Huh? What?! What's going on?" Megatron jumped up and instinctively reached for his gun. Which was, incidentally, still on Cybertron.
"B-Big sound! Shaking ground!" Wheelie managed, cowering behind the Decepticon.
"What?! Oh, look. A ship." In the distance he could see a small shuttle descending below the tree line. "It's all right, Wheelie. That's just the noise spacecrafts make when they enter a planet's atmosphere." he patted the little robot's head comfortingly. "It's not going to hurt you. I guess you don't get many visitors to this rock, huh?"
Then it occurred to him. A ship meant a spaceport. And a spaceport meant a city. At last! He had spent the last two days wandering around this metallic jungle with Wheelie and he was sick of it! Finally, civilization!
"Come on, Wheelie!" Megatron grinned. "Let's go see where that ship lands!"
"Don't wanna go there! Wheelie scared!" the child protested.
'Amazing, that wasn't QUITE a rhyme.' Megatron thought. Out loud, he said, " Oh, come, Wheelie. If wild Sharkticons and who-knows-what-else's lurking around every bush out here don't scare you, how can you be afraid of a simple spaceship?"
Wheelie just shook his head resolutely.
Megatron sighed. "Look, you'll be alright. I won't let the big bad spaceship hurt you. We won't even get near it, okay? We'll just follow it and see where it landed."
This seemed to console Wheelie a bit and he eventually agreed. So they set out on what felt like the happiest walk of Megatron's life. This couldn't be better. Once they got to the city, he could see about getting a ship and then getting back to Cybertron so he could find out just how long it would take to undo the damage Starscream had undoubtedly already done.
A few feet ahead of him, Wheelie jumped up on a fallen tree trunk and began balance-beam walking across it. At the end of the trunk, he jumped into a pile of underbrush, giggling insanely.
Megatron chuckled at the spectacle. But that brought him to another consideration. Before he left for Cybertron- no, before he even got that ship- he had to find someone to look after Wheelie. The little kid had great survival instincts; Megatron had found out from several silly rhyming statements that Wheelie had been living out here for as long as he could remember. But nonetheless, one did not just leave a small child out in the wilderness. No, there would be some sort of refuge or government institution that could find Wheelie a home. Maybe Megatron could even come back here some time and check on the little boy...
As he found himself doing more and more often lately, Megatron snapped himself out his thoughts abruptly. He was the leader of an army, and that army was in the middle of a war! He should be more concerned about how to get back than how to find some orphan kid a home! But still... He mentally slapped himself. He was getting way to attached to this rhyming little piece of orange fluff.
***
*SPLASH*
What was left of the second Autobot ship filled with water at an alarming rate. Hot Rod floundered near the ceiling as long as he could before he realized that he wouldn't drown on the grounds that he didn't need to breathe. He ducked down into the murk and caught a glance out one of the windows. Then he realized why the ship had filled so fast.
It was still moving.
The water wasn't doing enough to reduce the speed of the ship! At this rate they were going to crash a second time into the...
*CRASH*
...ocean floor.
The ship smashed into an outcropping of rock and burst into several dozen pieces. Hot Rod went flying at least a hundred yards, at which point he was stopped by what seemed like a metallic reed. He lay there for a few moments, just collecting his wits.
Luckily, he wasn't damaged at all. A few scratches maybe, but that was all. He staggered to his feet, unable to see two feet in front of him thanks to the cloud of dust an oil the crashing ship had created. He moved forward anyway. The rapidity of the crash hadn't left him time to see what had happened to his comrades.
"Blaster! Swoop! Optimus! Anybody!" he screamed at the top of his voice. Hearing no response, he hurried into the clouds once more. It was hard staying on the ground, seeing as how he was at the bottom of an ocean, but he never was a very good swimmer. Thankfully, Transformers weren't so naturally disposed towards floating as, say, a human.
Suddenly, one of his feet caught on something and he went toppling forward. The clash of metal against metal surprised him and he quickly scrambled off what he had fallen onto.
"Optimus!" he cried in shock. The Autobot leader hadn't SLEPT through all that?!
"ugh...." Optimus moaned, tiny air bubbles emanating from behind his facemask.
"Hang on, Optimus! I'll get you out of here! You'll be okay!" Hot Rod gathered up his barely coherent commander and began kicking them to the surface.
***
"KUP!!!!" Springer screamed as the shuttle careened out of control through space in no discernible direction. "What the HELL did you DO?!"
"Saved us all, my boy!" the old Autobot's disembodied laughter rang from the back of the bridge.
"SAVED us?!" Arcee screamed, snatching a chair to keep from flying into the wall. "They just detonated three-quarters of the ship!!"
"Would you rather they had detonated FOUR quarters?!" Kup yelled back.
The sonic boom and onslaught of heat in the ship as it entered the atmosphere of an unknown planet rendered further conversation impossible.
***
Hot Rod dragged the half comatose Optimus up out of the surf. He collapsed next to his leader in exhaustion. Once he got up the energy to turn his head and look around, he realized they were on a deserted beach that grew into a metallic jungle a few yards off. And there was no sight of either Blaster or Swoop. They had most likely been thrown from the crash as Hot Rod had. Well, he would have to find them later. For now...
"Optimus?" he leaned over the older Autobot, concerned.
Optimus moaned again. "Hot Rod...what...happened?" he managed. The last thing he remembered was Starscream barreling down on them in Autobot City...
"We...crashed." Hot Rod could think of no other words. "I don't know where we are."
"Blaster and Swoop?"
"I didn't see them. I mean after the crash. They made it onto the shuttle."
Optimus struggled to get up. "We have to find them...contact the others...."
"Wait!" his companion protested, trying to hold him down. "You need to rest, you've taken about fifty major falls today!"
"I...only count two." Optimus pushed the fussing teenager away. "And I'm fine. For now we have to find the others and then find civilization."
"Oh, okay..." Hot Rod sighed resignedly. He knew he couldn't force Optimus down. Suddenly, his ears perked up. "what was that?"
I didn't hear any-" Optimus cut himself off as the sound of twigs snapping in the nearby forest became more audible.
Hot Rod reached for his gun.
"No!" Optimus snapped in a hushed tone. "Just wait. Get down and lie still." Reluctantly, the younger warrior obeyed.
***
Megatron was beginning to feel slightly sick. They were closing in on where the ship came down, if his mental calculations were correct. But he saw no buildings, no sign of life. Just a long stream of gray smoke descending from the heavens.
For a few moments he deluded himself that there might still be a city nearby. But when he and Wheelie stepped out of the trees into an empty beach, even the most optimistic part of his logic functions had to admit there was no hope. The smoke he had noticed earlier seemed to complete it's spiraling course at a spot in the water about a league out. The water itself had obviously not yet recovered from the impact. The ship he had heard had crashed. Perfect.
"This just the sea. HERE nothing be." Wheelie's childish voice interrupted Megatron's thoughts.
"No kidding..." the sometime Decepticon leader moaned.
"STOP RIGHT THERE MEGATRON!!!!!"
"AUGH!!!" Megatron screamed and toppled over in shock.
"Hot Rod!" a familiar voice shouted
But the bright red Autobot would not be pulled down. He stood with his arm cannon pointed at the Decepticon, pure hatred in his eyes.
As for the object of his aggression, Megatron was unable to even pick himself up from the sand. His brain could barely register what he was seeing. Optimus Prime and that little upstart who had tried to interfere with their battle? Here? A million light years from anything? Wheelie, terrified by the scene, scrambled behind some nearby rocks. In the back of his mind, Megatron was glad. Better if the kid stayed out of the way. But as for the rest of this situation...
"What-what in the..." he stammered.
"I'm gonna finish what Prime started on Earth!" Hot Rod cried angrily.
"HOT ROD!!!" Optimus had managed to get to his feet and now grabbed Hot Rod's arm and forced his gun down. Or rather, tried to force the gun and let Hot Rod's shock do the rest.
"O-Optimus!!!" Hot Rod stammered in confusion, allowing himself to be overpowered.
"Hot Rod, that's ENOUGH!" Optimus snapped. It was all he could say. He himself wasn't all that sure why he was doing this; there was no possible way to explain it to Hot Rod. Megatron was alone and unarmed; he certainly hadn't been lying in wait for them...and considering the fact that the Decepticon was still collapsed in the sand, it just didn't seem right to shoot him in cold blood.
Megatron recovered his wits and scrambled to his feet. Wait a minute. Was Optimus actually protecting him? Ye gods, did the great hypocrite never stop?!
/We'll just see about this!/ Megatron thought.
"Come on, Optimus!" He yelled to the two Autobots, throwing his arms out to his sides. "Shoot me! There aren't any hidden blasters here, I assure you! Why don't you kill me?!"
"Optimus!" Hot Rod appealed to his leader. "Let me kill him! He deserves to die, dammit! It's because of him all our friends are gone, right?!" he pleaded desperately.
Optimus felt his resolve falter. Yes, this whole war was Megatron's fault. But he just...couldn't...
"NO ONE deserves to die, Hot Rod." He said simply and firmly.
"Oh, give me a break!" Megatron crowed, in a taunting tone worthy of Starscream. "You didn't think so back on Earth, did you?! Come on, you hypocrite! Take your revenge! There's no one here but you me and that kid. He'd keep his mouth shut. Wouldn't you?" he asked Hot Rod. Without waiting for a reply, he continued. "Go ahead, Optimus! Just shoot me right here! No one has to know! Your image won't be soiled, oh perfect magnanimous leader!"
Optimus clenched his fists in bottled up rage. He would have liked to have blasted Megatron right then and there. But he knew better than to play into the Decepticon's hands. If he shot Megatron now, who would be the real victor? Megatron. Optimus would do nothing but prove him right if he lashed out now. It was a double edged sword, really. If he made peace, he was a weakling. If he tried to kill Megatron, he was every bit the hypocrite the white Decepticon accused him of being.
Optimus stepped in front of Hot Rod. "I won't kill you, Megatron. The war is over. And your side has won, though you are not there to see it."
"Prime!" Hot Rod gasped.
"There is no need for us to continue fighting. I have no personal feud with you-"
"You DON'T?" Megatron exclaimed in disbelief. "Then what the hell did you chase me here for?"
"What?" Optimus looked confused. "Chase you? We weren't chasing you."
"Then what in the name of Cosmos are you doing here, sightseeing?! Although I would suggest you replace the auto-landing devices in your ships if they're all the same make as that one." he indicated the still smoking ocean.
"We weren't after you, you arrogant bastard!" Hot Rod piped up from behind Optimus. "We were trying to get away from Starscream and the rest of your old cronies! Who seem to have completely given up on you, by the way."
Megatron flinched slightly, but quickly regained his composure. "Starscream actually shot your ship down? I'm astounded." he said dryly.
"Megatron, I have no wish to fight with you." Optimus ignored the deviation from their former topic and continued. "All I want is to find my comrades and find the nearest city."
Megatron laughed. "Good luck! I've been wandering around this rock for two days and if there IS a city here, it's either the smallest or the best concealed in the universe!"
"Are you saying this place in uninhabited?!"
"Well, not completely..." Megatron glanced at the small form of Wheelie peeking out from behind a rock. The small bot realized he had been noticed and darted out from behind the rock and to a new refuge under Megatron's legs.
"It's alright, Wheelie." Megatron told him. "They won't hurt you."
Optimus stared in disbelief. "Who...is that?"
"Hm? Oh, this is Wheelie. The only occupant this planet has, as far as I've been able to make out." Megatron explained absently. "He's pretty handy. Fixed me up after I crashed here."
"Wow." Hot Rod was impressed. Imagine such a small kid being able to fix a Transformer....
"You crashed here too?" Optimus asked, becoming more and more confused by the whole situation.
"No, Prime, I parachute down here every year for a vacation!" Megatron's voice dripped with sarcasm. "Of course I crashed here you idiot!"
"HOW?!" Optimus demanded. "Every other Decepticon made it back to Cybertron! Heck, they made it back to EARTH! What did you do, fall out of Astrotrain?!"
Megatron laughed out loud. "As a matter of fact, Prime...."
Megatron gave a slightly abridged version of his eviction from the ship and in return Optimus gave an even more abridged version of how he and Hot Rod had come to be on this planet. Incidentally, both left out the parts of their stories that involved beings named Unicron and moon-eating monster planets. Hot Rod, for his part, just stood in the background and didn't even bother trying to figure out why the two arch-enemies were swapping stories so amicably.
Once both had finished their tales, Optimus stepped forward. "I have a proposal."
"I'm listening."
"I propose you and I declare a temporary truce. We cooperate until we get off this planet."
Megatron considered for a moment. "But suppose we never get off this planet."
"Then it won't matter if we fight or not because it will make no difference to Cybertron. And since the only thing to be gained from fighting each other here, isolated, would be our own wounds..."
"Hm. I see your point." he extended his hand. "Agreed."
The Autobot leader took it, almost expecting a trick. When there was none, he stepped back and nodded.
"Wonderful. Just wonderful." Hot Rod grumbled. "We're now allies with the guy who wanted to kill us forty-eight hours ago, our friends are missing, and that planet thing has probably taken out both moons if not Cybertron itself..."
"What?!" Megatron's attention instantly snapped to Hot Rod.
/You stupid kid!/ Optimus thought. For all they knew, the thing that had destroyed Cybertron's moons was allied with the Decepticons!
"Did you say 'planet thing'?" Megatron demanded.
"Um...I-uh...." Hot Rod stammered, realizing he had made a grave tactical error. "Um...well-I don't really-"
"Did it call itself Unicron?"
"What?" Optimus' optics widened in only partial surprise. "You know what that thing is?"
"All I know is it calls itself Unicron and it wanted me to destroy you."
"WHAT?!"
It seemed the proper time for the full and complete versions of the two commanders' stories.
Once they were both done, Optimus collapsed into a sitting position on a nearby rock. Megatron felt like doing the same, but was more secure on his feet.
"What is going on here?" Optimus asked no one in particular. "This thing ate Cybertron's moons because you refused to become its slave?"
Megatron began pacing back and forth. "I don't know. Maybe it intended to eat the moons from the get-go. But we have to get out of here."
"I thought that was a given..."
"I mean NOW, Prime!" he snapped. "This thing is immensely powerful! If it could destroy the moons it could do the same to Cybertron! We have to get out of here and stop it! Starscream can't be relied on for ANYthing! And your forces are scrapped. Ye gods! Maybe Soundwave...no, no, he'd never get involved in a power struggle...but maybe in an emergency..."
Optimus began to realize the comments were no longer directed at him. Megatron continued to pace and talk to himself. But despite his odd behavior, the Autobot leader was truly amazed.
"You really care, don't you?"
Megatron stopped pacing. "What?"
"About Cybertron. You really care. It's not just about having power now, is it? The planet's in danger and you just want to protect it." He said it as if it were the most incredible thing in the world. And to him, it was.
"Stars, Prime, what have we been fighting about all these years?! Of course I care!" Megatron snapped. "But we don't have time for this! Come on!" he spun on his heel and headed down the beach.
"Where are you going?!" Optimus yelled, standing up.
"Any civilization will be on the water!" Megatron called over his shoulder. "Are you coming or not?!"
Hot Rod and Optimus exchanged a baffled look, shrugged, and followed the Decepticon. Optimus was still reeling from the revelation that you can fight someone for over a hundred years and never really know anything about them.
***
Springer forced his aching joints to move. He shoved a crumpled peice of metal off his midsection and struggled into a sitting position. His bleary eyes took in the scene in the bridge. After the run in with the Decepticons, the place had been less than neat and orderly. But now it was in downright shambles. The front 'windshield' was caved in and glass splinters covered the floor. Bits of the ship's steel walls lay in several states of mutilation around the bridge and on top of the unmoving bodies of his comrades.
"Say...something..." he stammered. "Anybody!"
Acee's arm twitched and she moaned as she raised herself to her hands and knees. "Remind me to give the auto-pilot a raise..." she said dryly. Springer sighed in relief as Blurr also wiggled out from under the rubble and said something indecipherable that generally implied that he was okay.
"Sheesh...what did Kup do, anyway?" Springer wondered, pulling himself to his unsteady feet.
Arcee leaned on the remains of a cockpit chair for support. "I-I think he used the emergency separation function. It splits the bridge from the rest of the ship."
Springer nodded, slowly understanding. "So the Deceps blew up the back of the ship and thought they destroyed us...."
"...sotheystoppedchasingus!!!!!!" Blurr blurted out, desperate to have a part in the conversation.
"Um....right."
"But a lot of good it does us." Arcee sighed. "How are we supposed to get anywhere in this wreck? Does this look like an inhabited planet to you?"
"Well, no...." Springer admitted. "But don't be such a pessimist. Look at all that scrap out there." he pointed out a large hole in that shattered windshield. Sure enough, the planet looked like it had been the garbage dump for an entire solar system. What environment of landscape there might have been was completely covered by massive amounts of scrap metal, enormous bolts, and other assorted junk. "We should be able to find what we need to fix up the ship." Springer continued hopefully.
"Alright..." Arcee said, still feeling a bit skeptical. "But in any case, at least we're alive. I guess we have Kup to thank for that after all."
"Speaking of Kup..." Springer glanced around, noticing the lack of the old Autobot's presence for the first time. "Kup?" he called. He crossed to the back of the bridge with no small amount of difficulty. The mess was even worse in the hind of the ship. The hind of the ship, where no one should have been...unless they meant to throw a hidden switch that separated one quarter of the ship from the rest of it.
"Kup?"
Springer glanced around, the cold feeling in his chest getting even colder. "Kup?" he said shakily, taking one more step forward. That was when he caught a glimpse of teal metal out of the corner of his eye.
"KUP!!!" he dropped to his knees and began to desperately toss crumpled steel off his friend. "Arcee, Blurr, help me!"
But it became painfully obvious that they were too late. The best they could do was pull Kup's body out from under the rubble.
Arcee sighed heavily. "I guess all his experience paid off after all..." she said quietly.
"Yeah." Springer's voice was slightly choked. For once, Blurr said nothing.
Arcee crossed to the other side of the bridge, sat down on what was left of a control seat, and put her head in her hands. They had lost another of their comrades. But, as horrible as it sounded, they had no time to grieve. Now there were only three of them, stranded on an uncharted planet in a ruined spaceship. What in the name of Cosmos were they going to DO?!
"Arcee?" Springer's voice snapped her out of her thoughts. The green helicopter looked as overwhelmed and saddened as she felt. "Come on...let's go outside. I'm sure we can find somewhere to....you know..." he glanced at Kup's remains.
Arcee shook her head. "I don't like the idea of leaving him in a junkyard, Springer..."
Springer smiled sadly. "What better place? People probably come here all the time to fix things, get repairs.... Can you think of anything Kup would rather want his parts to be used for?"
"I...guess not." Arcee sighed. "I suppose it's alright then....but that's not the only thing we have to think about right now."
"Yeah. We still have to get out of here and back to Cybertron."
The femme rubbed her temples fitfully. "Springer, open your eyes! We're stranded here, completely alone....Optimus and Hot Rod and the others were destroyed in the other ship....if we go back to Cybertron, what will we find? At best, a planet full of Decepticons. At worst, nothing at all. We can't just think in terms of what's going to happen an hour and a half from now anymore."
"You think I don't know that?!" Springer snapped back. "But Cybertron is still my home; I don't care who thinks they're controlling it! We have to save it, even if there are only three of us left. Hey, it's happened before. A handful of people beating the odds..."
"Yeah, it's happened. But more often, what's happened is the little guys are stomped flat in a matter of seconds." Arcee got up and strode out of the ship.
Springer followed her as far as the doorway. "I know you don't mean that, Arcee!" he called after her. "You're not a coward! This isn't you!"
Already several yards away from the ship, Arcee stopped. Springer was right. She didn't want to give up. But she didn't want to see anymore of her friends die in a hopeless cause either. It was for Cybertron, that much was true, but Cybertron belonged to the Decepticons now. Besides, who knew if there even was a Cybertron still? And what were they willing to risk to find out? Somewhere in the back of her mind, she remembered hearing someone say the purpose of having a life is to risk it. Maybe it was Optimus Prime. Maybe it was a Japanese kamikaze pilot.
Maybe it didn't matter.
She turned around and walked back to the ship.
"Yep." the Seeker shrugged. "I didn't even notice it 'till it was almost on top of us, but it was huge. Maybe twice the size of Cybertron."
"Something twice the size of Cybertron snuck up on you?!" Soundwave shook his head in disbelief. "Wait, do you mean it had a cloaking device?"
"I dunno. I don't think it was a ship or anything. I mean, when it spoke it said "I am Unicron." You know, singular first-person. And if it did have a cloaking device, it would have activated it once it was done with Megatron. But it didn't; it just floated away."
Soundwave shook his head again, this time in contemplation. "What did it offer Megatron? A new army?"
"Yeah. Like I told you before, it said he could have a new body and a new army if he destroyed the Autobots." Thundercracker assented.
"Sounds a bit too simple."
"Tell me about it. When I first heard it, though, I thought Megatron was gonna go for it. I mean, he'd get all this free stuff for just doing what he always does. But then the big planet made it sound like he was going to make Megatron his slave. Megs didn't like that too much." the jet smirked.
Soundwave smiled as well. That certainly sounded like Megatron. "Did it give any other stipulations? Any explanation?"
"Nope. Just showed up, made his offer, blasted Megs, and left." the other summarized.
"Well." Soundwave sat back in the pilot's seat. "That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever."
"Nope." Thundercracker agreed.
"Why would a huge planetoid care about what happens in a civil war on a planet half its size? And why would it be willing to expend the energy and who knows what else needed to give Megatron new troops just to keep that war going?" the communicator said more to himself than to Thundercracker.
"Well..." Thundercracker realized Soundwave was thinking aloud, but he decided to respond anyway. "If he wanted to keep the war going, it does actually make sense that he would repair Megs and give him new troops. After all, without Megatron, who's in charge? Starscream. And everybody knows he couldn't lead a parade. The Autobots would win and they would promote eternal peace like the hippies they are."
"True." Soundwave nodded. "But that's not what confuses me. Why would this thing CARE? We've never seen it before, we can assume it's never seen us before, so how could it even know we were fighting in the first place? And even if it did, what effect could our war possibly have on it?"
"Maybe it just doesn't like Autobots." Thundercracker shrugged.
Soundwave sighed. "I don't like this at all."
***
Megatron slept through the sonic boom. After living so many years near a space port, the noise just didn't register in his auditory circuits like it used to. No, what woke him up was Wheelie's scream.
"Huh? What?! What's going on?" Megatron jumped up and instinctively reached for his gun. Which was, incidentally, still on Cybertron.
"B-Big sound! Shaking ground!" Wheelie managed, cowering behind the Decepticon.
"What?! Oh, look. A ship." In the distance he could see a small shuttle descending below the tree line. "It's all right, Wheelie. That's just the noise spacecrafts make when they enter a planet's atmosphere." he patted the little robot's head comfortingly. "It's not going to hurt you. I guess you don't get many visitors to this rock, huh?"
Then it occurred to him. A ship meant a spaceport. And a spaceport meant a city. At last! He had spent the last two days wandering around this metallic jungle with Wheelie and he was sick of it! Finally, civilization!
"Come on, Wheelie!" Megatron grinned. "Let's go see where that ship lands!"
"Don't wanna go there! Wheelie scared!" the child protested.
'Amazing, that wasn't QUITE a rhyme.' Megatron thought. Out loud, he said, " Oh, come, Wheelie. If wild Sharkticons and who-knows-what-else's lurking around every bush out here don't scare you, how can you be afraid of a simple spaceship?"
Wheelie just shook his head resolutely.
Megatron sighed. "Look, you'll be alright. I won't let the big bad spaceship hurt you. We won't even get near it, okay? We'll just follow it and see where it landed."
This seemed to console Wheelie a bit and he eventually agreed. So they set out on what felt like the happiest walk of Megatron's life. This couldn't be better. Once they got to the city, he could see about getting a ship and then getting back to Cybertron so he could find out just how long it would take to undo the damage Starscream had undoubtedly already done.
A few feet ahead of him, Wheelie jumped up on a fallen tree trunk and began balance-beam walking across it. At the end of the trunk, he jumped into a pile of underbrush, giggling insanely.
Megatron chuckled at the spectacle. But that brought him to another consideration. Before he left for Cybertron- no, before he even got that ship- he had to find someone to look after Wheelie. The little kid had great survival instincts; Megatron had found out from several silly rhyming statements that Wheelie had been living out here for as long as he could remember. But nonetheless, one did not just leave a small child out in the wilderness. No, there would be some sort of refuge or government institution that could find Wheelie a home. Maybe Megatron could even come back here some time and check on the little boy...
As he found himself doing more and more often lately, Megatron snapped himself out his thoughts abruptly. He was the leader of an army, and that army was in the middle of a war! He should be more concerned about how to get back than how to find some orphan kid a home! But still... He mentally slapped himself. He was getting way to attached to this rhyming little piece of orange fluff.
***
*SPLASH*
What was left of the second Autobot ship filled with water at an alarming rate. Hot Rod floundered near the ceiling as long as he could before he realized that he wouldn't drown on the grounds that he didn't need to breathe. He ducked down into the murk and caught a glance out one of the windows. Then he realized why the ship had filled so fast.
It was still moving.
The water wasn't doing enough to reduce the speed of the ship! At this rate they were going to crash a second time into the...
*CRASH*
...ocean floor.
The ship smashed into an outcropping of rock and burst into several dozen pieces. Hot Rod went flying at least a hundred yards, at which point he was stopped by what seemed like a metallic reed. He lay there for a few moments, just collecting his wits.
Luckily, he wasn't damaged at all. A few scratches maybe, but that was all. He staggered to his feet, unable to see two feet in front of him thanks to the cloud of dust an oil the crashing ship had created. He moved forward anyway. The rapidity of the crash hadn't left him time to see what had happened to his comrades.
"Blaster! Swoop! Optimus! Anybody!" he screamed at the top of his voice. Hearing no response, he hurried into the clouds once more. It was hard staying on the ground, seeing as how he was at the bottom of an ocean, but he never was a very good swimmer. Thankfully, Transformers weren't so naturally disposed towards floating as, say, a human.
Suddenly, one of his feet caught on something and he went toppling forward. The clash of metal against metal surprised him and he quickly scrambled off what he had fallen onto.
"Optimus!" he cried in shock. The Autobot leader hadn't SLEPT through all that?!
"ugh...." Optimus moaned, tiny air bubbles emanating from behind his facemask.
"Hang on, Optimus! I'll get you out of here! You'll be okay!" Hot Rod gathered up his barely coherent commander and began kicking them to the surface.
***
"KUP!!!!" Springer screamed as the shuttle careened out of control through space in no discernible direction. "What the HELL did you DO?!"
"Saved us all, my boy!" the old Autobot's disembodied laughter rang from the back of the bridge.
"SAVED us?!" Arcee screamed, snatching a chair to keep from flying into the wall. "They just detonated three-quarters of the ship!!"
"Would you rather they had detonated FOUR quarters?!" Kup yelled back.
The sonic boom and onslaught of heat in the ship as it entered the atmosphere of an unknown planet rendered further conversation impossible.
***
Hot Rod dragged the half comatose Optimus up out of the surf. He collapsed next to his leader in exhaustion. Once he got up the energy to turn his head and look around, he realized they were on a deserted beach that grew into a metallic jungle a few yards off. And there was no sight of either Blaster or Swoop. They had most likely been thrown from the crash as Hot Rod had. Well, he would have to find them later. For now...
"Optimus?" he leaned over the older Autobot, concerned.
Optimus moaned again. "Hot Rod...what...happened?" he managed. The last thing he remembered was Starscream barreling down on them in Autobot City...
"We...crashed." Hot Rod could think of no other words. "I don't know where we are."
"Blaster and Swoop?"
"I didn't see them. I mean after the crash. They made it onto the shuttle."
Optimus struggled to get up. "We have to find them...contact the others...."
"Wait!" his companion protested, trying to hold him down. "You need to rest, you've taken about fifty major falls today!"
"I...only count two." Optimus pushed the fussing teenager away. "And I'm fine. For now we have to find the others and then find civilization."
"Oh, okay..." Hot Rod sighed resignedly. He knew he couldn't force Optimus down. Suddenly, his ears perked up. "what was that?"
I didn't hear any-" Optimus cut himself off as the sound of twigs snapping in the nearby forest became more audible.
Hot Rod reached for his gun.
"No!" Optimus snapped in a hushed tone. "Just wait. Get down and lie still." Reluctantly, the younger warrior obeyed.
***
Megatron was beginning to feel slightly sick. They were closing in on where the ship came down, if his mental calculations were correct. But he saw no buildings, no sign of life. Just a long stream of gray smoke descending from the heavens.
For a few moments he deluded himself that there might still be a city nearby. But when he and Wheelie stepped out of the trees into an empty beach, even the most optimistic part of his logic functions had to admit there was no hope. The smoke he had noticed earlier seemed to complete it's spiraling course at a spot in the water about a league out. The water itself had obviously not yet recovered from the impact. The ship he had heard had crashed. Perfect.
"This just the sea. HERE nothing be." Wheelie's childish voice interrupted Megatron's thoughts.
"No kidding..." the sometime Decepticon leader moaned.
"STOP RIGHT THERE MEGATRON!!!!!"
"AUGH!!!" Megatron screamed and toppled over in shock.
"Hot Rod!" a familiar voice shouted
But the bright red Autobot would not be pulled down. He stood with his arm cannon pointed at the Decepticon, pure hatred in his eyes.
As for the object of his aggression, Megatron was unable to even pick himself up from the sand. His brain could barely register what he was seeing. Optimus Prime and that little upstart who had tried to interfere with their battle? Here? A million light years from anything? Wheelie, terrified by the scene, scrambled behind some nearby rocks. In the back of his mind, Megatron was glad. Better if the kid stayed out of the way. But as for the rest of this situation...
"What-what in the..." he stammered.
"I'm gonna finish what Prime started on Earth!" Hot Rod cried angrily.
"HOT ROD!!!" Optimus had managed to get to his feet and now grabbed Hot Rod's arm and forced his gun down. Or rather, tried to force the gun and let Hot Rod's shock do the rest.
"O-Optimus!!!" Hot Rod stammered in confusion, allowing himself to be overpowered.
"Hot Rod, that's ENOUGH!" Optimus snapped. It was all he could say. He himself wasn't all that sure why he was doing this; there was no possible way to explain it to Hot Rod. Megatron was alone and unarmed; he certainly hadn't been lying in wait for them...and considering the fact that the Decepticon was still collapsed in the sand, it just didn't seem right to shoot him in cold blood.
Megatron recovered his wits and scrambled to his feet. Wait a minute. Was Optimus actually protecting him? Ye gods, did the great hypocrite never stop?!
/We'll just see about this!/ Megatron thought.
"Come on, Optimus!" He yelled to the two Autobots, throwing his arms out to his sides. "Shoot me! There aren't any hidden blasters here, I assure you! Why don't you kill me?!"
"Optimus!" Hot Rod appealed to his leader. "Let me kill him! He deserves to die, dammit! It's because of him all our friends are gone, right?!" he pleaded desperately.
Optimus felt his resolve falter. Yes, this whole war was Megatron's fault. But he just...couldn't...
"NO ONE deserves to die, Hot Rod." He said simply and firmly.
"Oh, give me a break!" Megatron crowed, in a taunting tone worthy of Starscream. "You didn't think so back on Earth, did you?! Come on, you hypocrite! Take your revenge! There's no one here but you me and that kid. He'd keep his mouth shut. Wouldn't you?" he asked Hot Rod. Without waiting for a reply, he continued. "Go ahead, Optimus! Just shoot me right here! No one has to know! Your image won't be soiled, oh perfect magnanimous leader!"
Optimus clenched his fists in bottled up rage. He would have liked to have blasted Megatron right then and there. But he knew better than to play into the Decepticon's hands. If he shot Megatron now, who would be the real victor? Megatron. Optimus would do nothing but prove him right if he lashed out now. It was a double edged sword, really. If he made peace, he was a weakling. If he tried to kill Megatron, he was every bit the hypocrite the white Decepticon accused him of being.
Optimus stepped in front of Hot Rod. "I won't kill you, Megatron. The war is over. And your side has won, though you are not there to see it."
"Prime!" Hot Rod gasped.
"There is no need for us to continue fighting. I have no personal feud with you-"
"You DON'T?" Megatron exclaimed in disbelief. "Then what the hell did you chase me here for?"
"What?" Optimus looked confused. "Chase you? We weren't chasing you."
"Then what in the name of Cosmos are you doing here, sightseeing?! Although I would suggest you replace the auto-landing devices in your ships if they're all the same make as that one." he indicated the still smoking ocean.
"We weren't after you, you arrogant bastard!" Hot Rod piped up from behind Optimus. "We were trying to get away from Starscream and the rest of your old cronies! Who seem to have completely given up on you, by the way."
Megatron flinched slightly, but quickly regained his composure. "Starscream actually shot your ship down? I'm astounded." he said dryly.
"Megatron, I have no wish to fight with you." Optimus ignored the deviation from their former topic and continued. "All I want is to find my comrades and find the nearest city."
Megatron laughed. "Good luck! I've been wandering around this rock for two days and if there IS a city here, it's either the smallest or the best concealed in the universe!"
"Are you saying this place in uninhabited?!"
"Well, not completely..." Megatron glanced at the small form of Wheelie peeking out from behind a rock. The small bot realized he had been noticed and darted out from behind the rock and to a new refuge under Megatron's legs.
"It's alright, Wheelie." Megatron told him. "They won't hurt you."
Optimus stared in disbelief. "Who...is that?"
"Hm? Oh, this is Wheelie. The only occupant this planet has, as far as I've been able to make out." Megatron explained absently. "He's pretty handy. Fixed me up after I crashed here."
"Wow." Hot Rod was impressed. Imagine such a small kid being able to fix a Transformer....
"You crashed here too?" Optimus asked, becoming more and more confused by the whole situation.
"No, Prime, I parachute down here every year for a vacation!" Megatron's voice dripped with sarcasm. "Of course I crashed here you idiot!"
"HOW?!" Optimus demanded. "Every other Decepticon made it back to Cybertron! Heck, they made it back to EARTH! What did you do, fall out of Astrotrain?!"
Megatron laughed out loud. "As a matter of fact, Prime...."
Megatron gave a slightly abridged version of his eviction from the ship and in return Optimus gave an even more abridged version of how he and Hot Rod had come to be on this planet. Incidentally, both left out the parts of their stories that involved beings named Unicron and moon-eating monster planets. Hot Rod, for his part, just stood in the background and didn't even bother trying to figure out why the two arch-enemies were swapping stories so amicably.
Once both had finished their tales, Optimus stepped forward. "I have a proposal."
"I'm listening."
"I propose you and I declare a temporary truce. We cooperate until we get off this planet."
Megatron considered for a moment. "But suppose we never get off this planet."
"Then it won't matter if we fight or not because it will make no difference to Cybertron. And since the only thing to be gained from fighting each other here, isolated, would be our own wounds..."
"Hm. I see your point." he extended his hand. "Agreed."
The Autobot leader took it, almost expecting a trick. When there was none, he stepped back and nodded.
"Wonderful. Just wonderful." Hot Rod grumbled. "We're now allies with the guy who wanted to kill us forty-eight hours ago, our friends are missing, and that planet thing has probably taken out both moons if not Cybertron itself..."
"What?!" Megatron's attention instantly snapped to Hot Rod.
/You stupid kid!/ Optimus thought. For all they knew, the thing that had destroyed Cybertron's moons was allied with the Decepticons!
"Did you say 'planet thing'?" Megatron demanded.
"Um...I-uh...." Hot Rod stammered, realizing he had made a grave tactical error. "Um...well-I don't really-"
"Did it call itself Unicron?"
"What?" Optimus' optics widened in only partial surprise. "You know what that thing is?"
"All I know is it calls itself Unicron and it wanted me to destroy you."
"WHAT?!"
It seemed the proper time for the full and complete versions of the two commanders' stories.
Once they were both done, Optimus collapsed into a sitting position on a nearby rock. Megatron felt like doing the same, but was more secure on his feet.
"What is going on here?" Optimus asked no one in particular. "This thing ate Cybertron's moons because you refused to become its slave?"
Megatron began pacing back and forth. "I don't know. Maybe it intended to eat the moons from the get-go. But we have to get out of here."
"I thought that was a given..."
"I mean NOW, Prime!" he snapped. "This thing is immensely powerful! If it could destroy the moons it could do the same to Cybertron! We have to get out of here and stop it! Starscream can't be relied on for ANYthing! And your forces are scrapped. Ye gods! Maybe Soundwave...no, no, he'd never get involved in a power struggle...but maybe in an emergency..."
Optimus began to realize the comments were no longer directed at him. Megatron continued to pace and talk to himself. But despite his odd behavior, the Autobot leader was truly amazed.
"You really care, don't you?"
Megatron stopped pacing. "What?"
"About Cybertron. You really care. It's not just about having power now, is it? The planet's in danger and you just want to protect it." He said it as if it were the most incredible thing in the world. And to him, it was.
"Stars, Prime, what have we been fighting about all these years?! Of course I care!" Megatron snapped. "But we don't have time for this! Come on!" he spun on his heel and headed down the beach.
"Where are you going?!" Optimus yelled, standing up.
"Any civilization will be on the water!" Megatron called over his shoulder. "Are you coming or not?!"
Hot Rod and Optimus exchanged a baffled look, shrugged, and followed the Decepticon. Optimus was still reeling from the revelation that you can fight someone for over a hundred years and never really know anything about them.
***
Springer forced his aching joints to move. He shoved a crumpled peice of metal off his midsection and struggled into a sitting position. His bleary eyes took in the scene in the bridge. After the run in with the Decepticons, the place had been less than neat and orderly. But now it was in downright shambles. The front 'windshield' was caved in and glass splinters covered the floor. Bits of the ship's steel walls lay in several states of mutilation around the bridge and on top of the unmoving bodies of his comrades.
"Say...something..." he stammered. "Anybody!"
Acee's arm twitched and she moaned as she raised herself to her hands and knees. "Remind me to give the auto-pilot a raise..." she said dryly. Springer sighed in relief as Blurr also wiggled out from under the rubble and said something indecipherable that generally implied that he was okay.
"Sheesh...what did Kup do, anyway?" Springer wondered, pulling himself to his unsteady feet.
Arcee leaned on the remains of a cockpit chair for support. "I-I think he used the emergency separation function. It splits the bridge from the rest of the ship."
Springer nodded, slowly understanding. "So the Deceps blew up the back of the ship and thought they destroyed us...."
"...sotheystoppedchasingus!!!!!!" Blurr blurted out, desperate to have a part in the conversation.
"Um....right."
"But a lot of good it does us." Arcee sighed. "How are we supposed to get anywhere in this wreck? Does this look like an inhabited planet to you?"
"Well, no...." Springer admitted. "But don't be such a pessimist. Look at all that scrap out there." he pointed out a large hole in that shattered windshield. Sure enough, the planet looked like it had been the garbage dump for an entire solar system. What environment of landscape there might have been was completely covered by massive amounts of scrap metal, enormous bolts, and other assorted junk. "We should be able to find what we need to fix up the ship." Springer continued hopefully.
"Alright..." Arcee said, still feeling a bit skeptical. "But in any case, at least we're alive. I guess we have Kup to thank for that after all."
"Speaking of Kup..." Springer glanced around, noticing the lack of the old Autobot's presence for the first time. "Kup?" he called. He crossed to the back of the bridge with no small amount of difficulty. The mess was even worse in the hind of the ship. The hind of the ship, where no one should have been...unless they meant to throw a hidden switch that separated one quarter of the ship from the rest of it.
"Kup?"
Springer glanced around, the cold feeling in his chest getting even colder. "Kup?" he said shakily, taking one more step forward. That was when he caught a glimpse of teal metal out of the corner of his eye.
"KUP!!!" he dropped to his knees and began to desperately toss crumpled steel off his friend. "Arcee, Blurr, help me!"
But it became painfully obvious that they were too late. The best they could do was pull Kup's body out from under the rubble.
Arcee sighed heavily. "I guess all his experience paid off after all..." she said quietly.
"Yeah." Springer's voice was slightly choked. For once, Blurr said nothing.
Arcee crossed to the other side of the bridge, sat down on what was left of a control seat, and put her head in her hands. They had lost another of their comrades. But, as horrible as it sounded, they had no time to grieve. Now there were only three of them, stranded on an uncharted planet in a ruined spaceship. What in the name of Cosmos were they going to DO?!
"Arcee?" Springer's voice snapped her out of her thoughts. The green helicopter looked as overwhelmed and saddened as she felt. "Come on...let's go outside. I'm sure we can find somewhere to....you know..." he glanced at Kup's remains.
Arcee shook her head. "I don't like the idea of leaving him in a junkyard, Springer..."
Springer smiled sadly. "What better place? People probably come here all the time to fix things, get repairs.... Can you think of anything Kup would rather want his parts to be used for?"
"I...guess not." Arcee sighed. "I suppose it's alright then....but that's not the only thing we have to think about right now."
"Yeah. We still have to get out of here and back to Cybertron."
The femme rubbed her temples fitfully. "Springer, open your eyes! We're stranded here, completely alone....Optimus and Hot Rod and the others were destroyed in the other ship....if we go back to Cybertron, what will we find? At best, a planet full of Decepticons. At worst, nothing at all. We can't just think in terms of what's going to happen an hour and a half from now anymore."
"You think I don't know that?!" Springer snapped back. "But Cybertron is still my home; I don't care who thinks they're controlling it! We have to save it, even if there are only three of us left. Hey, it's happened before. A handful of people beating the odds..."
"Yeah, it's happened. But more often, what's happened is the little guys are stomped flat in a matter of seconds." Arcee got up and strode out of the ship.
Springer followed her as far as the doorway. "I know you don't mean that, Arcee!" he called after her. "You're not a coward! This isn't you!"
Already several yards away from the ship, Arcee stopped. Springer was right. She didn't want to give up. But she didn't want to see anymore of her friends die in a hopeless cause either. It was for Cybertron, that much was true, but Cybertron belonged to the Decepticons now. Besides, who knew if there even was a Cybertron still? And what were they willing to risk to find out? Somewhere in the back of her mind, she remembered hearing someone say the purpose of having a life is to risk it. Maybe it was Optimus Prime. Maybe it was a Japanese kamikaze pilot.
Maybe it didn't matter.
She turned around and walked back to the ship.
