TRANSFORMERS : THE DEVIL'S GAMBIT

**********************************************

Death's Head – I do not own The Transformers, nor Death's Head. Takara Industries/Hasbro/Marvel US/Marvel UK/Sunbow Entertainment/Saban Entertainment, all own parts of The Transformers. Marvel UK owns Death's Head. There are five characters in this story, which are of my own creation. Outlaw : The new form of Raiden, former Decepticon. Black Autobot, which transforms into a black truck trailer (Kenworth design). Valkyrie : Decepticon femme, who has been brought back as an Autobot. This time, she is a Tripler Changer, a silver futuristic fighter jet and a hover tank (If you've seen the movie Sgt. Bilko, with Steve Martin, the hover tank in that is the same form of Valkyrie's.). Seraphim : Autobot femme, who is the sister of Outlaw. Her vehicle form is that of an F4 McDonnald Douglas Phantom. She is also a Targetmaster. Citadel Supreme : A Decepticon version of Fortress Maximus, now back as the Autobot Fortress Maximus. Alpha Destroyer : Decepticon version of Omega Supreme.

Also, please, please, PLEASE read all of my first Transformers story : Transformers : Book 1 : Death's Head and Transformers : Book 2 : Megatron's Revenge. A lot of information is in that story, which is carried over into this one.

**********************************************

Deep within Cybertron :

Outlaw snarled as he threw a piece of rubble into the wall of the abandoned Autobase. He, Optimus Prime, Seraphim, Kari, Valkyrie, Grimlock, Jazz and Dogfight had found the base after a long search through the vast underground tunnel network starting from Iacon, they had finally found the ancient base. Outlaw was about to smash another console, when Valkyrie put her hand on his shoulder.

"Outlaw, calm down. Think of hard this must be for Optimus."

Outlaw looked over at Optimus. Optimus was standing next to the command chair in Ops, a faraway look on his face. Seraphim joined them, Kari sitting on her shoulder.

"This was Elita-1's command, and you remember how close she and Optimus were."

Outlaw nodded.

"Indeed. Valkyrie, Seraphim, download the computer core memory. Perhaps there's some information there we could use. And tell Grimlock and the others to hurry up and finsih their sweep of the base."

As Seraphim and Valkyrie headed off, Kari looked at Optimus, then spoke softly to her partner.

"Seraphim, don't take what I'm about to say the wrong way or such, but I take it this Elita-1 was the lover of Optimus Prime?"

Seraphim nodded.

"You could tell?"

Kari thought to herself, and then spoke.

"He has the look of a lover who's just realised his partner has gone." She paused, a confused look on her face "But your robots? How can you experience love?"

Valkyrie looked at Kari.

"We're not just robots Kari, we're sentient life forms. We feel and express the same sort of emotions as you do. After all, Outlaw and myself both feel hatred and want revenge against Megatron and the others."

Seraphim looked at Valkyrie from the corner of her optics.

"Is that all? I thought you and my brother were closer than that."

Valkyrie paused and looked at Seraphim, a smile on her face.

"And woudln't you like to know. Come on, we've got work to do."

Seraphim watched her go, and spoke to Kari.

"Kari, we may be robots, and to humanoid life forms, we may seem incapable of the same type of emotions you feel and experience. But we do feel and experience the same things you do. For example, Optimus Prime and the base commander here, Elita-1, had a relationship together. One which lasted for quite some time, before he left Cybertron. He always thought he could come back to her, and to find out she's not here..."

Kari finished.

"But lost somewhere in space."

Seraphim nodded.

"How do you think he's feeling?"

Kari looked at Optimus, who had moved over next to Outlaw, who was busy going through the data. She sighed.

"Poor guy."

Seraphim nodded, and left the control room with Kari.

Outlaw, meanwhile, was cursing to himself.

"Dammit all! Looks like part of the mainframe got slagged. Gonna have to see if I can run a bypass, around the damaged circuitry..."

Optimus looked at the screen.

"Hold. Outlaw look at this. There are some other Autobots here, but they're in stasis lock."

Outlaw looked at the screen, optics narrow.

"Or, could be some Decepticons, waiting to spring a trap on anyone foolish enough to let them out."

Optimus looked at him.

"You're a very cynical robot now aren't you?"

Outlaw chuckled.

"Well, being blown to kingdom come, and getting refused to be allowed to crossover, does tend to change one."

"I've been deactivated numerous times, and yet I'm not as cynical as you are." he paused, a thoughtful look on his face "At least, I don't think I am."

Outlaw faced the legendary Autobot, an incredulous look on his face.

"You? Cynical? Never."

Optims sighed and shook his head.

"You may be called Outlaw, but you still act like the Raiden I remember, all those centuries ago."

Outlaw leaned over the console.

"Why fix something, when it has already attained perfection? Besides, you know what I'm like."

Optimus turned and leaned against the console.

"True, true. I remember what you were like back then. Especially when I had tried to get Seraphim and Valkyrie assigned to Elita-1 and her unit."

Outlaw stopped and leaned back in the chair, his gaze staring back through time.

"I was against it. To the point I crippled the power relays if Iacon. Trapping you and Elita in a lift, for how long?"

Optimus chuckled.

"In human terms, around 7 days and nights! Elita and myself were furious with you."

Outlaw smiled and shrugged his shoulders.

"So? Emirate Xaaron had warned the both of you, not to seperate myself, Valkyrie or Seraphim. You brought it on yourself."

Optimus looked at the dark Autobot.

"Outlaw, tell me something. In Polyhex...."

The smile disappeared off of his face, and Outlaw looked back at the screen.

"Don't ask me that Optimus."

The elder Autobot studied the younger robot.

"Outlaw..."

Before he could finish, Jazz's voice came over the comm.

"Guys, we found something down here outside stasis bay 18, I think the both of you are gonna want to see."

Outlaw spoke.

"What is it Jazz?"

His reply was more or less the same.

"I think it'd be best for the two of you to see this with your own optics. Trust me, your gonna be stumped!"

Outlaw and Optimus looked at each other, then left the control room, heading towards the stasis level.

In the computer core :

Valkyrie smiled.

"Download complete. How about you Sera?"

Seraphim looked at her screen. Both she and Valkyrie had downloaded the entire core into the portable units with them.

"Just about done and... Hello, look's like I found something here."

Valkyrie walked over to her.

"What's up?"

Seraphim pressed some buttons and studied the information before her.

"We'd better tell Outlaw and Optimus. They're going to want to know this before we do anything else."

Seraphim finished the download, and left the room. Valkyrie looked at Kari and picked her up.

"Well, shall we?"

Kari rolled her eyes.

"Lead the way."

Valkyrie caught up with Seraphim in the hall.

"Must be something pretty big for you to get all excited about it."

Seraphim nodded.

"Bigger than Megatron, Galvatron and Alpha Destroyer all rolled into one entity."

Valkyrie looked at her friend.

"Bigger than even... Unicron?"

Seraphim shook her head.

"No, but trouble for all Autobots." She looked at her scanner "Outlaw's in the stasis deck. That's just around the corner..."

As both femmes stepped around the corner, Seraphim lost her voice. Outlaw looked at her.

"Seems this base isn't as intact as we thought it to be."

The corridor outside of stasis bay 18, was carved away, vaporied into the surrounding metal, was a dark tunnel. Valkyrie peered down the tunnel.

"Nice."

Outlaw nodded and transformed into his truck trailer form.

"I'm going to have a little look down here. You wanna follow, be my guest but have your scanners on full spectrum and metallurgical analysis."

As Outlaw started down the tunnel, Valkyrie had grabbed a hold of his trailer and climbed onto the side of it. Both Autobots disappeared into the gloom. Grimlock snorted.

"They full of themselves. Get us in trouble."

Jazz chuckled.

"And what about you, tall dark and grusome? You get us in trouble everywhere you go."

Before Grimlock could respond, Outlaw's voice came back over the comm unit in the wrist of Optimus.

"I think you lot had better get down here now! You're not gonna believe the size of this guy here."

Optimus transformed and drove down the tunnel. Seraphim, with Kari sitting in her arms, flew down the tunnel, leaving Dogfight, Jazz and Grimlock alone. Grimlock spoke first.

"Me don't like this. Me follow."

Grimlock activated the jet's in the back of his Pretender shell and flew down the corridor. Jazz and Dogfight looked at each other.

"After you Dogfight."

Dogfight groaned.

"Wonderful."

The Triggerbot transformed and flew down the tunnel, leaving Jazz by himself.

"Why am I always left by myself in situations like this? I mean, do I always bring these things on myself or what?" He paused and looked around "And why am I standing here, talking to myself? I'm nuts!"

Jazz turned and hurried down the tunnel, where he got the biggest surprise of his life.

***********************************************

Death's Head : Fourth chapter up, and no more for a few weeks. Taking a well deserved break. By the way, if there's any other Autobot or Decepticon, from Generation 1 or Generation 2, you want to see in this story, tell me who it is and a little bit about them, and I'll see what I can do. Also, I need some info on Elita-1 and her troops, as the're going to be playing an integral role in this, and the other two stories I have planned. In any event, R&R please.