I'm glad so many people are enjoying this! Thank you for reading; it's all of you that make me want to keep writing.

Haley Macrae: The plushie can be anyone I please? YEE! ((huggles plushie))

Neko: Thaaaaaaaank you! ((squee))

Kamaitachi: Thank you too! ((double-squee))

Ra88: All Decepticons will get PLENTY of attention; I just haven't decided where to work Tidal Wave in. But don't worry, there'll be at least one chapter focusing on him. Notice how he kept loyally believing Megatron should, could, and WOULD come back no matter what? In the very first episode, his intro was of him staring into space. Possibly looking for a sign as to when Megatron would return? Tidal Wave will have his time in this fic. And thanks for the spoilers, but until I see the eppies, I think I'll go with my definition. But thanks for news about Prime's return. The Matrix was lost? Hmm... poor Autobots. ((heheheh))

Pivot: I think I'll use Hypotenuse next chapter, okay? Thankee muchos! People, read her fics. They deserve it.

Hey, has anyone noticed how Energon seems like it could very well be a fanfic? You've got a couple of new factions (the Omnicons and Terrorcons), humans fighting alongside Autobots, a plot that ALMOST makes the Decepticons seem pitiable, reviving Unicron, two characters other than Prime being resurrected (and does it bother anyone else that within the FIRST TEN EPISODES Prime's already died and come back?!). And then the whole episode Pitiful Starscream/Legend of Rodimus, whichever it's called. THAT can't be anything BUT a fanfic!

I'm afraid that circumstances call that I put in a little stuff from the Autobot/Autobrat POVs. And, so you know, in my story the Autobrats are sixteen, which means that during Armada they were fourteen and fifteen. If, in ten short years, they're expected to have jobs working for the Autobots, they have to be older than twenty-two. So, when this fic ends, they'll be twenty-six, 'cause they're sixteen now. See me logic? See it? GOOD!

Now, before people read this chapter and start flaming me, I know you all hate Thrust, and I do too. But we all have to admit that most of the time he got what he wanted, right? Right. So, we just have to remember that. Even if we do hate his #$% guts.

Disclaimer: Don't own Transformers, though I expect that someone who's posted on this site now does... ((glares suspiciously at readers)) I'm on to you! I own the city Regalix, and my brother owns the name. I own Diddlysquat. Pivot owns Hypotenuse and the HUMDINGERS, who're appearing next chapter.

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Sanctified By Oppression

Chapter 3

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((on Cybertron, a month later...))

"You... did... WHAT?!" Demolisher yelled, gaping at Hot Shot.

"I invited the humans to Cybertron for the summer!" Hot Shot said angrily. "What, is there a problem with that?!"

"Yes! I don't think we're quite ready to bring biologicals to Cybertron. How will they breath? Think about that!"

Hot Shot sighed. "Look, we're terra-forming Cybertron. Humans should be able to at least stay in this city. We've got enough oxygen they can..."

"I KNOW that!" Demolisher interrupted. "I've been going around to every terra-forming lab in Regalix making sure things get done."

"Hey, I've been doing all the legal stuff," Hot Shot argued. "I don't see how sitting in the labs watching everyone work is going to help."

"I don't just sit in the labs, I..." Demolisher trailed off, growling. "Look, the point is I know the progress and if you bring humans here they won't be able to leave the city, and they'll probably spend most of the time indoors so they don't start choking."

"What makes you think they'd choke?" Hot Shot asked.

Without speaking, Demolisher walked to the window in their joint office, and gestured outside. Below, Regalix, the new capital city of Cybertron, was bustling with activity. Fliers soared over the city, and below shining metal buildings reflected the multicolored sky above. Holograms of the Autobot and Decepticon sigils watched over the city.

Hot Shot walked over. "Regalix. Looks nice. Your point?"

"Look at the sky," Demolisher said.

Hot Shot looked up. "So? It's the sky! Lots of pretty colors. Are you going somewhere with this or do you just think I need to go site-seeing more?"

At that moment Diddlysquat walked up behind them. "Yo, Hot Shot. Jolt's been begging me to let him visit you so..." He gave Hot Shot a weird look. "Did you just say 'pretty colors'?"

Demolisher ignored Diddlysquat. "Those colors are caused by gasses that humans can't breath. We do have oxygen in our atmosphere, but our atmosphere is 55% ozone, 26% carbon dioxide, 9% carbon monoxide, 8% oxygen, and 2% primus-knows-what. They won't be able to breath very long without being near some kind of oxygen generators."

Diddlysquat was nearing hysterics. "The great Autobot leader just said 'pretty colors'!" He covered his mouth with one hand, motioned to Jolt he could stay, and dashed out of the room.

"So?" Hot Shot said. "We're way ahead of schedule as it is. We predicted that we'd be done terra-forming in about twenty years, but it looks like it'll take about two."

"That doesn't mean they can come NOW!" Demolisher yelled. "Carbon monoxide is toxic to humans, and there's more of that than there is oxygen! We can't let them come to Cybertron."

Hot Shot glared at Demolisher. "They want to come, and like you said, we can just keep them near oxygen generators. They're coming to Cybertron and that's final." Hot Shot turned and stomped out of the room, Jolt following. "And you don't have the authority to stop me. No one's going to listen to a 'leader' who runs around the city and never works."

Demolisher gaped at Hot Shot's back as the door slammed close. Never works? Never works?! What was that supposed to mean?!? Demolisher was the one who had to make sure everything was being done right! He even had to do two days of manual labor the week before because Hot Shot had signed vacation requests for half of the Omnicons without realizing it. It was the most painfully tiring two days he'd had in millennia. Hot Shot, rushing through paperwork he shouldn't be doing and taking long breaks, was the one who never works. But, Hot Shot was right, in a way. What was Demolisher supposed to do about this?

'What can I do about this?' Demolisher asked himself. 'I'm just a stupid soldier. I wasn't programmed to lead anything, except other soldiers. Megatron was too. Even he couldn't do this without having to kill Hot Shot or something.' Demolisher snorted. 'I'm not that desperate. I don't even care about the humans. I just don't want to be responsible if they get sick or something.'

Demolisher stared out the window. 'So. Who do I know who could influence people?' He stood there a few seconds, watching Transformers go by on the street below, before it finally dawned on him. 'Thrust! Thrust always gets his way, doesn't he? Somehow, he got people to do what he wanted.' Demolisher grinned to himself. 'Now we're getting somewhere. So, think of a way Thrust could make sure those humans stayed on Earth until the terra-forming got a little farther along.' Demolisher started pacing.

"Okay, so, I can't just not let them come up. That could start the war up again, if Hot Shot doesn't want to give. I could bribe the pilot to sidetrack the ship... no, I could get caught. Don't want to get kicked out of office, Primus knows what'd happen to the Decepticons then." Demolisher sighed. "I need to think of something LEGAL." He glared out the window at the polluted skies.

"The problem isn't really the humans, is it?" he said suddenly. "It's the atmosphere. So, if I could find some way to keep them out of the atmosphere... A different way than keeping them near an oxygen generator..."

Demolisher looked down at the city. There were many huge buildings, but there were lots of empty areas where buildings were yet to have been rebuild after the war. Maybe some buildings could be built for humans to live in?

Demolisher left the room to search out Hot Shot.

((about half an hour later...))

"Hot Shot!" Demolisher exclaimed, having found his co-leader (for some reason, Hot Shot objected to being called co-commander) in the rec room playing video games. "When are the humans coming?"

Hot Shot paused and looked up. "Um, well, why do you want to know?"

"Just answer the question," Demolisher persisted.

"Okay..." Hot Shot thought a moment. "Well, it's April on Earth, they get out at the end of May, and they're coming up a few weeks after that..." Hot Shot shrugged. "About two Earth-months. Why?"

"We've gotta build some place for them to stay while they're up here!" Demolisher said. "We can't just leave them out in our current atmosphere. And if we ever want human embassies to come up here..."

"Wait a second!" Hot Shot said. "Don't you think that's a little much? They're only staying for summer, after all."

"We don't want them to die, now do we?" Demolisher said. "And they could if we don't give them somewhere safe to stay."

Hot Shot shook his head in annoyance. "Well, I'm not gonna work on this. If you wanna do it, that's your problem."

"Fine," Demolisher said. "I doubt there'll be any need to sign datapads, anyway." He turned to leave.

Hot Shot gave Demolisher a dirty look, then turned back to his game. "You're gonna kill yourself with all this extra work," he said casually.

Demolisher smirked to himself as he left. 'This coming from the Autobot who said I 'never work'.'

...

Alexis sighed and threw her books aside. She was SICK and TIRED of studying for finals! They weren't even for another month, but she had learned last year that not getting a head start could drop your grade dramatically. Her finals had almost all been C's and B's, except for Algebra. It was her best subject.

"I need a break," she muttered, dragging herself to her computer. She got online, and waited impatiently for MyYahoo to load. Dial-up was getting slower every day. She had had Comcast, but her parents decided that she was taking the "privilege of ridiculously fast Internet much too lightly!" In other words, she'd done something else wrong without knowing it and was grounded from using Comcast for a month. They had hidden the cable well this time. So she was forced to use ((shudder)) dial-up.

Finally, the page was up! Alexis glanced at her Inbox. The exploding mail icon was beside it. She had mail.

Grinning, Alexis clicked it (and waaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiited!). Hot Shot had said he was going to let them know when he got authorization for them to come to Cybertron. This was probably it. Seeing as no one ELSE ever emailed her...

"You have 1 unread message." the screen said. Alexis clicked on the link below it, leading to her Inbox.

The email was from Hot Shot. Well, duh. Clicking on it, she read:

"Hey Alexis!

"I finally convinced Demolisher to let you guys come up here. He didn't really care either way, I think, but being a Decepticon, he had to fight over it anyway. He tried to use some pitiful excuse to keep you from coming, but I guess even he realized it wouldn't work, and just gave up and started some building project. I haven't heard another word about it from him since. Being a Con must give you a short attention span or something.

"So, we'll be waiting for you! Finish your school thing quick!

"Hot Shot, Co-Leader of Cybertronian Empire"

Alexis typed a quick reply.

"Great! We'll be looking forward to it! By the way, good name chance. It's a lot better than Co-Commander.

"Alexis"

"Hmm. Just like a Decepticon," Alexis muttered, reluctantly going back to her studying. "Demolisher goes off and starts some project for no reason at all. I'll bet he doesn't even care we're going to Cybertron this summer."

.....

Heh, yeah, an ironic little ending. And, what Demolisher is doing IS kind of what Thrust would do, isn't it? Finding some way around the rules to ultimately either get what he wants or something he can live with. He may be a jerk, but he is a strategist.

If you look closely in chapters-to-come, you'll find a good deal of this story is irony.

And, for anyone who cares, my pizza from last chapter did get here, thirty-four minutes after I ordered it. No, it was not free.

ckret2