Chapter Eleven – The Battle For Sherman Dam
Large white letters appear on a flat red and blue background, "NEWS UPDATE" it reads as it sits there on every TV across the country. A very stale male voice soon accompanies the bold print as music cues along with the appearing text.
"We interrupt this show to bring you a live report, here now is anchorman Dan Murphy"
The picture fades away and soon an Afro-American man with short cut hair is seen shuffling some papers on a beige desk with red strips running across it's visible front. The man is wearing a dark blue suit with a white shirt underneath and sporting a red tie. Blurred behind him are people working away on computers, moving from seat to seat and running all around the room that he's sitting in. Clearing his throat and looking up as he's now shown, the man leans in and stares out to the camera pointed at him.
"This just in...There are reports of something happening out in the Texan oil fields not more then a few minutes ago. People are phoning in about strange explosions in the area and of oil workers fleeing the site in their vehicles. Nothing is confirmed at this time...but we've just gotten word that the military has also been seen driving in to create road blocks."
A red haired young Caucasian woman comes up beside him and places a sheet of paper in front of his hands. She quickly darts off after placing it down and the anchorman gives it a quick glance. As he pauses, he nods and holds the small earpiece on his right side. He looks up again and starts to talk about what he's just read.
"Uh...yes.... sorry folks, I've just been informed of some breaking news. It seems there has been another military presence in a neighboring state not long ago as well. More explosions were heard and there are reports coming in of people who have eye witnessed that event. We don't seem to have any statements or video of that new information, but we will keep you posted about it when it does come in. In the meantime, we have a live feed with one of our reporters stationed near that Texas explosion...perhaps he can shed some light on what this all means."
Turning to the next camera at his left side, the image cuts to his face as he turns. A new smaller inlet image pops up of the reporter he is about to talk too. An Asian American man with a dark mustache and short-cropped hair. The image is in black and white and looks like a standard stock photo of the man posing.
"Jack Hong, our local correspondent in that area is standing by with an update...Hello Jack? Can you hear us?"
Jack's voice comes booming in over the airwaves in a slightly garbled- static filled tone, "Hello? Hello Dan...Yes I can hear you."
The anchorman once again leans in as he talks to the reporter, "Jack can you fill us in on what's happening out there? What's all the commotion about?"
"Dan, there is a lot of activity out here! The road is jammed with workers running and driving by, all screaming for us to get out as fast as we can. One female worker was shouting over and over that there were metal monsters on the loose."
The black man squints as he hears the reporter, "I'm...I'm sorry...Jack... did you say metal monsters?"
The Asian American reporter nervously chuckles, "Indeed I did Dan...Apparently some of the screaming hordes of people here are ranting on and on of metal creatures tearing up the oil refinery and shooting at them with some sort of weapon. I think perhaps it's just shock and panic getting the best of them, whatever is going on at the refinery it appears to be major!"
The anchor rubs his temples and tries to keep up the questions to ask the live reporter, "Jack...is there any indication that...that this might be a terrorist attack? Or perhaps a large environmental...."
Suddenly Jack Hong interrupts the news anchor and begins to shout out, "Hang on a minute Dan. We are seeing something.... there's.... there's something in the sky everyone is pointing at. I...can't see...no...Wait...wait...I do see what they're all looking up at."
"Jack? Jack! Describe it to us.... what is it? What do you all see?"
"Oh...Oh my god!" the reporter shouts out, "Dan...There are large objects...metal...things in the air. Some look like military jets to me...but the others around them as I look closer...they look like...well.... like large...robots!"
The news anchor's eyes grow wide with confusion, "Robots? Did he say robots? Jack...Jack did you just say robots?"
Soon the people could be heard screaming over the static filled airwaves, the reporter begins to sound like he's running along with the crowd as his breathing becomes heavy. Explosions are heard in the muffled background of all the screaming panicked people.
"Dan...Dan....We're being shot at! Oh God...those things are dropping out of the sky and shooting at us all with some sort of weapons. Ouch! Ow! Dan, people are running for their lives here and...Oh...OH NO!!"
The laser fire can be heard getting louder and louder, the anchorman squinting as he listens to the carnage and his reporter friend panting as he runs. Suddenly, the anchor can hear loud laughter over top of all the noise happening, like a group of people talking in strange electronic voice. One of the voices shouts out as the last shot is heard through the broadcast.
"So long humans! Thanks for the Energon!!"
The signal soon goes dead afterwards and the news anchor takes out his earpiece quickly as the sound of the laser shot nearly deafens him. Recovering quickly, and shielding his hurt ear, Dan Murphy calls tries to call out to his friend.
"Jack?! Jack are you still there?!"
Looking up at the main camera poised on his face again, the anchorman adjusts his tie and tries keep the show going.
"Uhm.... ok. Well, we'll try to get Jack Hong back on the air in a few minutes...it looks like we're experiencing some technical difficulties. We'll have more on this when we come back from break. See you in a few minutes."
As the show begins to cue the music up, the news anchor sits there and shrugs his shoulders to someone off camera. In a whisper voice, he talks to them as he sits there gathering his papers.
"What the hell happened? Somebody better fill me in fast...what was all that crap about attacking robots?!"
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Racing down the long highway in the desert, Optimus Prime and the other Autobots rush towards Sherman Dam at full speed. Spike, The General and Sparkplug all sit inside the Autobot Leader and brace themselves as the tractor trailer barrels down the road. The convoy of Prime's fellow car- robot soldiers quickly maintains a pace behind him; one of the Autobots pulls up beside the big red rig to talk. Jazz, the white, blue double striped Sportec 996 GT2 SP650 keeps a record speed next to the leader and shouts out to him as he raises some concerns.
"Hey Prime!"
"What is it Jazz?" the leader says in his deep booming voice.
"I'm picking up Telatran One on the Autobot frequency...T-1 is reporting that the satellite that was jamming us is no longer in orbit."
Inside the truck cab, the three men can hear the conversation. General Hank talks to Optimus as if he and Jazz can both hear his words.
"I must have been taken out. Any chance the Decepticons know about it already?"
Jazz laughs as he can hear the General's response, "I'll take those odds any day man...Decepticons love to shoot things down for sure."
"If we could spot it, so could Megatron." Optimus Prime says aloud, "How long ago did that happen Jazz?"
"Telatran One says just over twenty minutes ago, in fact there's already some human broadcasts spotting the Decepti-creeps heading in that direction already..." the white Sportec car says back.
"That means we have about fifteen minutes to reach Sherman's Dam before they do." the leader calculates.
Spike sits there in amazement, "My god...you mean they'll be able to reach it before we do? How is that possible?"
Sparkplug leans over to Spike, "The same way the Autobots can reach a destination in half the time...only I'll bet the Decepticons don't have as many obstacles in their way like the Autobots do on the ground."
Optimus Prime is impressed with Sparkplug's guess work, "Correct Sparkplug, the Decepticons have the unlimited sky to use and don't have to pre- calculate what lies ahead of their scanners. Some Autobots are equipped with anti-gravity hover converters, but unfortunately those that are modified with them aren't even here. A few rocket packs and some booster rockets are all we have..."
Jazz, still following parallel speaks up again, "I could always send Sideswipe...he's got a rocket pack handy."
"No Jazz...we ride together, I don't want the Decepticons to catch wind of us too early. Sideswipe's energy signature from his rocket pack might alert them and all this would be for nothing. Stay the course...."
Jazz falls back behind him, "Rodger that Prime!"
The Autobot leader raises his voice so that the entire convoy of cars riding behind can hear, "Autobots! Trans-boost drivers on.... Engage!!"
The entire car filled road glows as they all build up a green energy around each of them, as they all reach a bright point in their soft glow, they warp speed down the road way and soon the highway they were driving on becomes empty and silent. The noise of their engines drifts off into the breeze and all that can be heard echoing in the distance is multiple sonic booms.
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In the deep valley, where the Decepticons have made a temporary launch base, the Constructions continue to work on the new ship. The bottom section looks almost completed as they focus on building the next section of the craft. All around the ship, a massive interlace of metal holds the frame in place; the towering scaffold shows just how sizable the project will end up being. The Constructicons build in their robotic modes and their transformed vehicle modes, working non-stop to complete the next phase. In a small area on the ground next to the ship, a group of the captured human prisoners sit in a circle inside the makeshift detention cage. All around them are small metallic rods that stick out of the ground; each one has an energy stripe connecting to the one a few meters away from the other. Each stripe glows a soft pink hue and the low humming noise of the energy passing through gives the hostages a feeling that this is nothing they want to touch at all. Eight lines from the bottom to the top surround them, leaving the only open space above as the means to be free, but jumping up to it would be pointless, as it would take an extremely tall human to even get his or her hands above it. For now they are all trapped. Two of the Constructicons walking by them in robot form lean in to taunt the frightened group of humans.
"Not so dangerous without your primitive weapons are you...Bah-hahahaha", the green and purple colored Decepticons laughs out loud.
The other one standing next to him simply stares at them in contempt, "Puny humans...you dare challenge the likes of the Decepticons...let alone the might of the Constructicons!! We should kill you right now!!"
The leader called Scrapper looks over at the two workers and shouts to them as he stands near the ship he's working on.
"Long Haul! Scavenger! Return to your duties! Megatron will be back soon and we need to complete our work!"
The two transformers snicker as Scavenger flicks the energized barrier trying to scare the human captives. Both soon return to their work and transform into their vehicle modes. Longhaul converts into a massive dump truck and Scavenger transforms into his digger form. Scrapper looks around the area with his eyes, making sure there's no one around, and also returns to his work on the ship. Unknown to him, both Mirage and Carly watch near by on top of the canyon ridge. They sit and watch from a safe distance and get a layout of the land, Carly uses her binoculars to see the soldiers trapped in their cage and the distance between them and the Constructions.
"There they are Mirage..." She says to him while looking, "Do think we can sneak up without being detected?"
Mirage laying beside her nods, "Don't worry Carly...I'll come in nice and slow, they won't be able to see me unless they switch to their thermal optics. So we'll have to be extra quiet as we ride in cloaked."
Carly lowers the binoculars from her face, continuing to look out into the valley, "That's a lot of people to carry back Mirage...I hope you can manage."
"Yeah, I know...I hope I can too. We'll have to drive extra slow on our way out again so I don't throw any of them off. This is going to be tricky. You ready for it?"
Carly looks at him and nods smiling, "You bet!"
Mirage stands up and looks down at her, "Alright then...we'll move in and when Prime gives us the signal we'll move the people out."
Mirage quickly transforms into a blue and white Formula One racing car, a large fin spoiler sits on the back of him and the white racer stripe decals run from his spoiler to the tip of his hood. Carly hops into the cockpit and attaches the cross-strap seatbelt inside. Gripping the steering wheel, she looks as if she's ready to peel away like formula one racer. Mirage revs up his engine, but doesn't pull away just yet.
"Uh...Carly. Do you mind if I do the driving? Let go of my wheel sweetie..." Mirage says to her.
Carly looking a bit embarrassed sits back and lets go of the wheel, "Ooops...sorry. Never been in a car like this...guess I just wanted to give it a whirl."
Mirage laughs, "No problem. Maybe I'll let you take me out for a spin when this is all over. But right now...it's time to save some humans."
The racer peels away fast and head down the cliff road path leading down into the valley, Carly sits tight as Mirage descends into the Decepticon territory and suddenly begins to use his cloaking shield. The soft green outline surrounds the vehicle with Carly inside and soon vanishes into thin air as it blurs away. The only thing that can be seen is the dust trail the invisible car is producing, but that too starts to die down as it reaches the bottom of the area.
In the sky above the valley where the Constructicons work, Thundercracker swoops in out of nowhere and lands near the ship site. Scrapper approaches the sleek blue jet and waits for the Decepticon to open his cargo hold doors.
"Hurry up and unload me already! Megatron is on his way to the next target and I don't want to miss it!" The jet speaks out loud.
Scrapper grumbles, "Ah cool your thrusters you hot head! We've got more important things to do then worry about your trigger happy finger."
"What did you say to me?!" Thundercracker says furiously.
Long Haul pulls up near Scrapper and transforms beside him, "You heard what he said! We've got enough on our plate, building the ship and watching the humans, so unload the energon yourself fly boy!"
Thundercracker transforms quickly and the energon cubes drop out of him as his cargo bay ejects them. The two Constructicons flinch in fear as they see the cubes hit the ground. But they lower their arms down as soon as they see they haven't exploded from the impact. Thundercracker laughs at them and flies up into the air still in his robot form.
"The mighty Constructicons? Hahahaha...you guys are pathetic!" the blue jet robot cackles.
Scrapper shakes his fist at the flying Decepticon as he watches Thundercracker transform and flying back into the distant sky.
"You miserable idiot!! You could have killed us all!!!"
Long Haul begins picking up the cubes with Scrapper as they clean up the mess, "They give us no respect, they treat us as lower class maintenance bots. We should crush them all and rule Cybertron for ourselves!"
Scrapper eyes glow at the thought, but turns to his friend as he finishes picking up the energon.
"One day we shall Long Haul. But after seeing how greedy Starscream is...I think we'll have to get in line."
Long Haul nods "Let the fools take each other out. Megatron can kill Starscream for us...and we..."
"Can kill Megatron afterwards." Scrapper says finishing his friend's thought, "Excellent idea Long Haul. But we should wait until we return to Cybertron, that way we can gather our followers to a true revolt. For now, we shall do their bidding and when the time is right...Devastator shall be unleashed to finish Megatron!"
The two lime green Decepticons chuckle at their plans and begin to stack the pile of energon cubes in order again.
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It is a calm blue sky day at the Sherman Dam, the men and women workers go about their jobs professionally as they maintain the water reservoir's daily needs. It is also an open house afternoon, tourists flock around a young male guide as he gives an exclusive walk around the various areas of the dam. Young and old are gathered about, some taking pictures with bright flashes and others looking tired of dragging their kids along. The youngsters are restless and begin to play away from the group, but as one falls to his knees and cries, the parents instantly shout at them to come back and behave. They all move out to the middle of the dam outside, there the guide gives them more useless information and lets the people take a majestic look at the dam they are standing on top of. It looks more like a big road paved with asphalt and concrete, but looking over the sides they see that it is a massive wall that holds in the water where they all stand. More adults take pictures and the children once again split away from their parents to play now that they are outside. As the workers pass them by and give casual smiles and hellos, one of kids stares out into the sky as he perches himself on the dam's railing. The brown haired freckled face kid squints as he looks out and begins to point out to what he sees. The guide is getting annoyed at this boy and calls him back over to the group.
"Excuse me? Huh...hello, little boy? Would you mind coming back over here? I don't think you should be so close to that railing."
The kid keeps pointing and looks back at the man, "But I want to know what those things are coming at us. Are they part of the tour?"
The guide looks up to see what the kid is talking about, as do all the other tourists. He curiously gazes at the incoming objects rapidly approaching the dam and seems puzzled as to what it is as well.
"I...dunno. What the heck...?"
The other workers all stop and see the incoming shimmering objects, all of them just as curious as the guide and tourists. But as they all stare up at it, they soon notice a large array of light coming down from them. The streaks of light bombard the area they all stand in and explode into balls of fire, each hit creates another and another, the people all scream and run for their very lives. Now fully visible, the Decepticons swarm the entire dam and land down on various parts of the dam. Megatron hovers near main section of the building and uses his fusion cannon to blast open the wall of the main generator room. Starscream and Skywarp transform out of their jet modes and follow in behind Megatron. Stepping into the now exposed generator room, the leader watches the humans all scramble about screaming. He smirks at the sight of the humans panicking and almost enjoys hearing them howl in horror. Aiming his cannon upwards he sends out a blast to make the people all pause in order to hear what he has to say.
"Weakling Humans!! I am Megatron, leader of the Decepticons.... you will do as I command or be destroyed!!"
Now frozen in fear, the various workers trapped inside the room with the massive metallic robot shiver with terror as his booming voice echoes across the room. Megatron looks down and sees one of the older male workers standing near by. He points his arm cannon towards the smaller being and glares at him with his pulsating red eyes.
"You will assist us without question. Understood? Or do I have to show you what a real blast of energy can do to your frail structures?!"
The man nods, "I...I...I'll do what you say! Just...don't hurt us...please!"
"Then get to work...Slave!" Megatron commands to him.
Starscream and Skywarp corral the other workers back as they point their side arm cannons at them all. Soundwave flies into the room with Rumble and Laserbeak, setting down beside Megatron as they land. The blue minidisk transformer begins to make his empty energon cubes as each human worker is forced to walk up and take one in their hands. A slight shock touches them as they each receive one, but soon it passes as the energy becomes stable in their arms. Now it feels more like an empty container, but glowing and feeling more like static electricity. Starscream points his null ray cannons at the generators and fires at every one of them. With each shot an engine freezes, giving Skywarp the means to re-wire each one and attaching new cables to them all. Now they force the humans to put their cubes up to the various generators and hold them near the output device Soundwave installs. It was amazing to watch to some of the engineers, the massive robots managed to do all of this in the matter of minutes, as if it was like changing a light bulb. As the workers held up the cubes to them, the generators kicked in again and began to spin almost at twice the speed. The energy build up from them began to give off a strange glow, which soon started to fill up each cube with raw power. The humans flinched as they held on, the energy obviously increasing the static shock even more. Megatron looked on with a great pride, it was just as he'd hoped for and more. When the cube was full, the Decepticons moved the humans aside and brought up the next one to be filled.
"Generators are at tolerant capacity, Megatron." the cycloptic yellow eyed Soundwave announced to him.
Megatron stroked his metal silver chin, "Hmm... It's still not fast enough though Soundwave. I think we need to double the production...increase the water pressure and bring it to critical, I want a non-stop flow of cubes!"
The blue transformer bows, "As you command, Megatron."
Turning to Rumble, Soundwave points out to the water reservoir and gives him instructions, "Rumble! Activate you pile drivers. Operation...Tidal wave!!"
The minidisk bot smiles up at him, "Alright! Time to flood this place...Rumble style!!"
Running out of the room, he jumps out and flies over the water the dam is holding back. He drops into it like a sinking rock and transforms his arms into the two large pile divers. They begin to pound away at the bottom surface, causing the Earth below it to shake and give off shock waves. The water becomes disturbed and sloshes around violently, each quake becomes faster and faster, causing the water to flow out the spillways faster and faster. Inside the generator room, the equipment rotates at almost critical speeds as the Decepticons force the humans to work as fast as the energy flowing out of the generators. The sight frightens the workers, knowing all too well that if those motors explode it will be the end of them all. Outside still cowering on the wall, the tourists try to sneak away undetected. They almost reach the other side to safety, when the boy with the brown hair and freckles runs back out to see the action. The boy's parents desperately try to grab him as he bolts away, but they couldn't catch him in time. The boy stands in the middle of the dam wall and looks at the Decepticons over in the generator room. All the while, under the kid's feet, the water is flowing at an unstoppable rate. The water pressure begins to crack the cement wall slowly and right around where the child is standing. The parents can't stay quite any longer and scream out to their boy to come back. The water is so loud; the kid doesn't even hear them. He's still too mesmerized by the large robots forcing the humans to work for them, but as he steps closer to have a look, the wall gives way and breaks the section he's standing on. The kid begins to fall to his death as the parents stand there helpless and screaming.
As the boy tumbles down with the stream of water, a massive object in red and blue rushes up to him and grabs him with its large hand. It continues to fly up and land softly back onto the main wall/road, the parents and tourist stare up at this massive thing, which now lowers it's hand down releasing the boy unharmed. The boy looks back at the towering robot and smiles.
"Thank you", he says to it.
"Your welcome, but I think you'd better go with your parental units and leave this place fast."
The parents run over, hugging and kissing their child. With tears in their eyes they look up at the metallic robot with glowing blue eyes and smile.
"Thank you...Thank you..." the mother says, "Whoever you are."
"My name is Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots. And you've very welcome, but this is no place for you and your family right now. Go...quickly!"
The re-united family dash off together and continue to leave the area with the rest of the tourists. The Autobot leader makes sure they've gone at a safe distance and takes out his large black hand weapon from the panel opening on his back. He cocks the massive hand weapon and holds it up as if to make a signal. As he makes the motion, the group of Autobot vehicles rushes in over the wall roadway and transform into their robot modes. Each one takes out their weapon and looks at their leader.
"Remember the humans and aim only at the Decepticons...I don't want any of these creatures harmed, is that understood?"
They all nod at their leader's words. Optimus Prime touches his top arm again and the head microphone pops out of the side of his helmet head.
"Optimus to Mirage...come in Mirage...."
A faint voice is soon heard responding back, "Mirage to Prime...I read you, over."
"Begin the rescue immediately. And be careful you two...", the leader says back softly to Mirage.
Carly's voice soon whispers back at Prime, "Don't worry Optimus...just go and kick some ass!"
"Rodger that Carly...", Prime snickers.
The microphone retracts back into the leader's helmet head and he looks over at his awaiting Autobot soldiers.
"You heard the woman...Autobots! ATTACK!!"
They all leap from the dam wall and fly into the gaping hole in the Generator Room, Optimus Prime thumps down inside and stands with his gun pointed at the Decepticons within. The other Autobots rush in with their guns blazing and voices screaming. The Decepticons turn around and all fire back at them, shocked by their foes attacking, they try to find cover as the laser bolts fly across the room. Megaton refuses to hide and turns around to see Prime pointing his weapon at his head.
"You fool Optimus!! You've signed the human prisoners death warrants! And here I thought you cared about these flesh beings..."
Optimus Prime's eyes flash at him, "I think you'd better worry about yourself Megatron."
The Autobot leader fired his weapon at Megatron, who in turn quickly dove out of the way of its strike. As the Decepticon leader rolls and makes a recovery, he fires his arm cannon at Optimus Prime who jumps high above and fires his weapon down at Megatron again. Once more, the Decepticon leader moves out of the way in time and now begins to fly up to the second level platform that leads outside. Optimus Prime jumps up to the open balcony Megatron is standing on and begins to brawl with the evil leader hand-to- hand. The other Autobots and Decepticons continue to fire away at one another as the explosions drive the humans towards the exits. Sparkplug and the General come through the doors and help the various crew escape.
"This way! Hurry!" Sparkplug yells to them all.
The General grabs on to a worker who trips and guides him out the door, "Easy does it now..."
Spike stands outside and leads the people to a safe point towards the distance.
"Keep going...don't stop! Just keep running in that direction and don't look back!!"
Suddenly Hound drives up to Spike and starts to talk to him, "That water can't be flowing like that by itself...I'll bet even money that Rumble is down there. Come on Spike, come with me!"
Spike hops into the army green hummer and smiles, "Let's go get that water rat!"
Hound spins his tires and heads over to the water reserve, Spike holds on as the ride becomes bumpy and very dangerous, but Hound manages to keep the young passenger safe. As they pull up to the water's edge, Spike quickly jumps out and Hound transforms into his robotic mode, the both peer into the water to see if they can spot little Rumble at the bottom.
"Anything Spike?" Hound asks.
Spike shakes his head, "I can't see anything. The water is too murky and violent for me to see...I think we'll have to go in there."
"Better let me go Spike...I don't need oxygen to breathe underwater."
"Ok Hound, I'll watch your back from out here."
The army green robot jumps into the water, and sinks in like a massive rock straight down to the very bottom of the reservoir. A large light beams out from the top of his head and he begins scanning the disturbed water as he walks though it. The light catches the small minidisk transformer pounding away at the Earthy ground stirring all the dirt up and making blurring shock waves around him. Hound slowly walks over and points his gun at the unsuspecting Decepticon, who apparently has his back facing the Autobot. As Hound gets as close as he can, he aims the gun at the small robot and makes ready to shoot. But suddenly Rumble notices him and maneuvers his pile drivers around to strike a blow at the sneaky Autobot. Hound loses his weapon from the hit and falls backwards from the shock wave. Rumble jumps on top of him and continues to use his drivers on the helpless robot pinned down.
"So you wanna rumble with Rumble, eh? Then here's a few pounding pointers to change your mind, Auto-scrap!!"
Hound struggles and tries to grab hold of the small robot, "I've got a pointer for you too shorty!"
The green Autobot flashes his high-beamed headlight at the robot and causes Rumble to squint. The glare is too much for the little robot and tries to shield his eyes with his arms; which quickly transform back to normal. Now the Autobot stands up and gives the blinded Decepticon an upper cut to the chin, the powerful hit makes Rumble fly across the dense water and smacks against the concrete wall. Hound, not one to give up a fight too early, runs along the muddy soil and heads towards the blue-ish purple minidisk robot with a fist ready to give him another punch. Rumble shakes off the affect of the last hit and sees the Autobot speeding his way. The small robot smiles and activates his pile driver arms again; the ground quakes and starts to split open right in front of Hound. The Autobot falls into the massive crack Rumble created and soon becomes lodged with boulders and dirt pinning him in place. Hound once again struggles to free himself, but finds it's much more difficult this time, the boulders are too heavy. Rumble laughs away at the Autobot's misfortune and transforms his arms back into regular mode. Taking a gun out from his back panel, the evil Decepticon points it at Hound's head and gloats.
"Well, well, well...Looks like I caught me a fish in these waters after all. Should I be merciful? Or put it down before it drowns to death...Muahaahahah!" the little robot laughs.
Hound looks up and realizes he's too immobilized to do anything, one arm is stuck below the dirt and his other hand is being pinned by a heavy rock. With Rumble taking aim with his weapon, it looks as though he's finally met his doom.
As Rumble begins to pull the trigger, Spike suddenly swims over and kicks the gun out of his hand. The Decepticon is surprised by the attack and tries to grab the small human man who quickly dodges his grip. Hound finds his strength again while Spike keeps Rumble occupied, and manages to free one of his hands. Spike desperately swims for the surface as Rumble angrily follows up behind. Spike notices the robot is gaining on him fast, and tires to increase his speed as well, but he's no match for Rumble who nearly grabs him by the foot.
"I got you now you stinkin' lousy human!"
Rumble is jerked back as Hound appears and takes hold of his foot.
"We're not finished yet, get back here and fight like a transformer!", the Autobot says to him.
Rumble screams as he is thrown back down to the bottom of the water reservior. Spike manages to get to the surface and breathes. He takes in a few more gasps of air and heads back down to see if he can help is friend.
Inside the generator room, the Autobots continue to fire at the Decepticons who sheild themselves behind various objects. Starscream blasts away at Sideswipe and Prowl who quickly dive behind one of the generators spinning at maximum capacity.
"Good thing Starscream is such a lousy shot!", The red robots laughs.
Prowl looks at his back and shows Sideswipe his right door sticking out behind him.
"Oh yeah? Seems pretty accurate to me you chrome head!"
Up above on the platform, Optimus Prime and Megatron continue to fight hand to hand. The two grab each other into a dual head lock and try to keep one another pinned down.
"Face it Megatron...you're not as good as you used to be!"
"Niether are you Optimus Prime...you're soft when it comes to doing what's necessary. These humans are your weakness...and weakness deserves to be stamped out!!"
Megatron transforms into his gun mode and blasts Prime in the chest, the leader falls backward and comes close to the edge of the platform their on. Megatron quickly transforms again, runs over and kicks the Autobot leader off of it. Prime nearly drops to the ground as he suddenly grabs hold of the ledge. Now he hangs dangerously above one of the generators below, spinning so fast it could probably cripple the leader. Megatron laughs as he stands over him and sees the predicament Optimus is in.
"You've failed once again Prime...and that spinning device below is the sound of your doom!"
He steps on the Autobot leader's hand and twists down on it with all of his might, as Prime growls in pain, as he begins to lose his grip on the edge. Starscream looks up and sees Optimus Prime in just the right spot for his blasters. The Decepticon smiles and aims both cannons at the Autobot.
"Megatron shouldn't have the honor of killing him...If I do it, the Deceptcions will follow me and make me the new leader! Baaahahahaa!!! SO LONG OPTIMUS PRIME!!!", the Decepticon shouts.
Sideswipe and Prowl see who Starscream is aiming for and both fire their weapons just as the evil robot fires his. The dual blasts hit the Decepticon air commander in the arms and he in turn misses Optimus Prime, but ends up striking Megatron in the face. The evil leader falls back from the blast and Prime uses the moment to lift himself back up.
"YOU FOOL STARSCREAM!!", Megatron yells at him.
Starscream scream up at him, "Megatron!! Forgive me!!"
"Never mind that...finish the Autobots and get the energon cubes out of here!", the leader yells back.
Optimus Prime runs over and picks Megatron up off the ground, he holds him over his head and throws him out of the building.
"Let's finish this discussion outside Megatron!"
The Decepticon leader falls on his back onto the dam's wall bridge, Optimus Prime runs out and slowly walks up to him, ready to finish the job.
"I'm tired of your games Megatron. Tired of having to lose so many friends and innocent lives just to satisfy your greed...your destrctive behavior...and you're arrogance. Cybertron belongs to all of us, not just the Decepticons but all Transformers...Primus wanted us to live together in harmony, not to have one faction dominate the other, not even to treat other species as slaves!"
Megatron tries to lift his head, "Ahaha...You're wong as usual. All lifeforms are below us...we are the rulers of the universe not them. Decepticons are the only true inheriters of Cybertron, Primus hid the truth about our kind...we were the ones that liberated Cybertron...without us, he would have failed miserably!"
The Autobot leader continued to walk over to him slowly, "Once again your circuits are faulty Megatron...it was both sides that led us to freedom. You're just trying to justify your position in order to fulfill your sick, twisted mentality of how you want things to be. It's always been about you...you crave power and destruction....and it's caused our planet dearly for your stupid ambition!"
Megatron's eyes lower at the Autobot leader's words, "Your one to talk Optimus...I've seen you do just as much damage as I have. You could have ended the war long ago, you could have pitted every last Autobot at my Decepticons and been victorious. It would have only cost you half of your forces and made you the most powerful Autobot on Cybertron! But instead, you cared too much about what was right...you showed compassion and became soft. You never have the guts to see things through Prime...Never willing to do what is necessary to win...no matter the cost."
Prime's eyes flare, "You still don't get it Megatron...I've always done what is necessary. Life....life is what must be saved at all cost. Primus new it....and I certianly understand it. All life is worth living...Autobots, Humans and Decepticons. It must be preserved and allowed to flourish....no matter the cost."
Outside in the bright blue sky, a commercial sized red and white helicopter flies in with large letters detailed on the side. The hovering chopper reads—ACTION NEWS 7—and a man opens the sliding door on the side pointing a large shoulder mounted camera towards the dam. A caucasian man, middle aged with dark black hair, kneels down beside the camera operator and begins to speak into a microphone headset as he describes the scene.
"This is Jerry McLane reporting for Action News....We're bringing you live footage of a major conflict just happening at Sherman Dam with what appears to be massive robots!"
Looking through the video feed of the camera, it shows a grainy shaken image of the Autobots fighting the Deceptcions inside the generator room, that soon shows a Jazz, Sunstreaker and Trailbreaker launching out as the Tri-decepticon group, Reflector, continues to fight them all in the open. The camera pans over the area and then spots Optimus Prime walking over to Megatron, who's trying to get up on his feet again.
"This is incredible! We are witnessing a most unusual event in the history of our planet. The robots are in a destructive struggle with one another that is endangering human lives! I begs the question as to where our military is and why they haven't come to stop them? America wake up!! We're under attack and no one is doing a damn thing! Don't stop filming damnit...keep rolling!"
In a dark, hidden underground lair, Doctor Archeville sits in his usual balck chair and watches the TV monitor. The live feed from the TV broadcast plays out as he sits there with several other monitors around it. On each one of those, the faces of each country government official stares back at him, as they too watch the horror being televised on their screens at each of their locations. Archeville continues to sit very calm and slurps on a hot cup of tea that is placed beside him on a small glass table.
"Ladies and Gentlemen...as you can see the menace is very real.", he says to them all as they look horrified on the monitors.
"This is the destructive power I told you about...and warned you would happen if you didn't agree to my terms."
An older asian man begins to speak as he shakes his head at the sight.
"This does not concern the people of China, Doctor Archeville. So we will not buy into your purposal, nor shall we agree to any terms you set down."
The Doctor drinks from his cup again and glares at the chinese politican, "Minister Quan...if you don't agree you will suffer the same fate as any other that opposes me. I have the technology to level your country to the ground if need be...I have been paitent and allowed you to make your idle threats to this country and to the world...but do not even dare to push me any further on not doing as your told."
The asian man blinks as he becomes flustered by the tea sipping man's comments. Archeville sets his tea down and points to chinese man on the small monitor.
"You will do as I say and you will continue to work for me. Understood? Think of the possiblities I will bring you once I have control of this new crop of technology. You can carry on your wars and spying missions to a whole new level...this is our business gentlemen...we make the world run the way it should. But when it comes to world power...just remember who is the TRUE world power. I, Doctor Archeville am that power and only I know the secrets of this technology that you all need."
A caucasian woman begins to speak in a british accent and sounds nervous as she directs her comments at him.
"You've been promising us this for years Archeville, so far the technology you've given us is very limited. When can we expect to see the main product you told us about? Where is it?"
The Doctor sighs, "My man is on it. Don't worry, it won't be too long now...you've waited this long...time is still on your side."
"Bull", says the Canadian official on the lower monitor, "Doctor you've had plenty of time to have this done...And now with these massive alien robots smashing around, we need those weapons and technology more then ever. There's no time left! Why aren't you stopping these creatures? Maybe we should ban together and attack them with our armies, we could take the technology for ourselves."
"I see...", Archeville says calmly.
The old Doctor looks to his left and stares at one of his dark suited agents standing beside him in the shadows. Not saying a word to each other, the agent walks over to a group of phones and picks up the one that has the country name on it. The agent picks it up and begins to talk in a low voice that nobody can hear in the room or on the monitors. Once he hangs up, the agent walks back over and Archeville turns to face the Canadian man again.
"Goodbye Mr. Daniels."
On the monitor, the man looks to the right of him as he hears someone enter the room. As the Doctor and the other world officials look at their monitors, they see Mr. Daniels' eyes grow wide as a gun suddenly is aimed at his head in plain sight.
"NO...NO WAIT!!", The man screams.
Archivlle turns off the monitor just as the man gets shot in the head.
"Mr. Daniels has been retired ladies and gentlemen....are there anymore that wish to...retire?"
All of them remain silent as he looks on each face to see if they do object.
"No? Good...I'm glad to see the line of thinking has finally stopped. I supply you with everything you need and those that wish to attempt to go into buisness for themselves will find that my men are well placed in your governments. Betrayal will be not be tolerated."
Looking back at the british woman, the Doctor once again lifts up his tea and drinks from it.
"You will have what I promised you soon enough...for now...we shall let these metal mosters take what they want and then after the dust is settled....we will take them. Who ever finishes whom first. Thank you all, we'll talk later."
The entire group of monitors shut off and all that remains is the main viewer that has the live TV broadcast of the sherman dam struggle. The Doctor snickers as he continues to nurse his drink, the agent beside him bows and leaves the room.
"Who ever wins....and whom ever loses.", Archeville chuckles, "Either way...you will be ours."
Large white letters appear on a flat red and blue background, "NEWS UPDATE" it reads as it sits there on every TV across the country. A very stale male voice soon accompanies the bold print as music cues along with the appearing text.
"We interrupt this show to bring you a live report, here now is anchorman Dan Murphy"
The picture fades away and soon an Afro-American man with short cut hair is seen shuffling some papers on a beige desk with red strips running across it's visible front. The man is wearing a dark blue suit with a white shirt underneath and sporting a red tie. Blurred behind him are people working away on computers, moving from seat to seat and running all around the room that he's sitting in. Clearing his throat and looking up as he's now shown, the man leans in and stares out to the camera pointed at him.
"This just in...There are reports of something happening out in the Texan oil fields not more then a few minutes ago. People are phoning in about strange explosions in the area and of oil workers fleeing the site in their vehicles. Nothing is confirmed at this time...but we've just gotten word that the military has also been seen driving in to create road blocks."
A red haired young Caucasian woman comes up beside him and places a sheet of paper in front of his hands. She quickly darts off after placing it down and the anchorman gives it a quick glance. As he pauses, he nods and holds the small earpiece on his right side. He looks up again and starts to talk about what he's just read.
"Uh...yes.... sorry folks, I've just been informed of some breaking news. It seems there has been another military presence in a neighboring state not long ago as well. More explosions were heard and there are reports coming in of people who have eye witnessed that event. We don't seem to have any statements or video of that new information, but we will keep you posted about it when it does come in. In the meantime, we have a live feed with one of our reporters stationed near that Texas explosion...perhaps he can shed some light on what this all means."
Turning to the next camera at his left side, the image cuts to his face as he turns. A new smaller inlet image pops up of the reporter he is about to talk too. An Asian American man with a dark mustache and short-cropped hair. The image is in black and white and looks like a standard stock photo of the man posing.
"Jack Hong, our local correspondent in that area is standing by with an update...Hello Jack? Can you hear us?"
Jack's voice comes booming in over the airwaves in a slightly garbled- static filled tone, "Hello? Hello Dan...Yes I can hear you."
The anchorman once again leans in as he talks to the reporter, "Jack can you fill us in on what's happening out there? What's all the commotion about?"
"Dan, there is a lot of activity out here! The road is jammed with workers running and driving by, all screaming for us to get out as fast as we can. One female worker was shouting over and over that there were metal monsters on the loose."
The black man squints as he hears the reporter, "I'm...I'm sorry...Jack... did you say metal monsters?"
The Asian American reporter nervously chuckles, "Indeed I did Dan...Apparently some of the screaming hordes of people here are ranting on and on of metal creatures tearing up the oil refinery and shooting at them with some sort of weapon. I think perhaps it's just shock and panic getting the best of them, whatever is going on at the refinery it appears to be major!"
The anchor rubs his temples and tries to keep up the questions to ask the live reporter, "Jack...is there any indication that...that this might be a terrorist attack? Or perhaps a large environmental...."
Suddenly Jack Hong interrupts the news anchor and begins to shout out, "Hang on a minute Dan. We are seeing something.... there's.... there's something in the sky everyone is pointing at. I...can't see...no...Wait...wait...I do see what they're all looking up at."
"Jack? Jack! Describe it to us.... what is it? What do you all see?"
"Oh...Oh my god!" the reporter shouts out, "Dan...There are large objects...metal...things in the air. Some look like military jets to me...but the others around them as I look closer...they look like...well.... like large...robots!"
The news anchor's eyes grow wide with confusion, "Robots? Did he say robots? Jack...Jack did you just say robots?"
Soon the people could be heard screaming over the static filled airwaves, the reporter begins to sound like he's running along with the crowd as his breathing becomes heavy. Explosions are heard in the muffled background of all the screaming panicked people.
"Dan...Dan....We're being shot at! Oh God...those things are dropping out of the sky and shooting at us all with some sort of weapons. Ouch! Ow! Dan, people are running for their lives here and...Oh...OH NO!!"
The laser fire can be heard getting louder and louder, the anchorman squinting as he listens to the carnage and his reporter friend panting as he runs. Suddenly, the anchor can hear loud laughter over top of all the noise happening, like a group of people talking in strange electronic voice. One of the voices shouts out as the last shot is heard through the broadcast.
"So long humans! Thanks for the Energon!!"
The signal soon goes dead afterwards and the news anchor takes out his earpiece quickly as the sound of the laser shot nearly deafens him. Recovering quickly, and shielding his hurt ear, Dan Murphy calls tries to call out to his friend.
"Jack?! Jack are you still there?!"
Looking up at the main camera poised on his face again, the anchorman adjusts his tie and tries keep the show going.
"Uhm.... ok. Well, we'll try to get Jack Hong back on the air in a few minutes...it looks like we're experiencing some technical difficulties. We'll have more on this when we come back from break. See you in a few minutes."
As the show begins to cue the music up, the news anchor sits there and shrugs his shoulders to someone off camera. In a whisper voice, he talks to them as he sits there gathering his papers.
"What the hell happened? Somebody better fill me in fast...what was all that crap about attacking robots?!"
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Racing down the long highway in the desert, Optimus Prime and the other Autobots rush towards Sherman Dam at full speed. Spike, The General and Sparkplug all sit inside the Autobot Leader and brace themselves as the tractor trailer barrels down the road. The convoy of Prime's fellow car- robot soldiers quickly maintains a pace behind him; one of the Autobots pulls up beside the big red rig to talk. Jazz, the white, blue double striped Sportec 996 GT2 SP650 keeps a record speed next to the leader and shouts out to him as he raises some concerns.
"Hey Prime!"
"What is it Jazz?" the leader says in his deep booming voice.
"I'm picking up Telatran One on the Autobot frequency...T-1 is reporting that the satellite that was jamming us is no longer in orbit."
Inside the truck cab, the three men can hear the conversation. General Hank talks to Optimus as if he and Jazz can both hear his words.
"I must have been taken out. Any chance the Decepticons know about it already?"
Jazz laughs as he can hear the General's response, "I'll take those odds any day man...Decepticons love to shoot things down for sure."
"If we could spot it, so could Megatron." Optimus Prime says aloud, "How long ago did that happen Jazz?"
"Telatran One says just over twenty minutes ago, in fact there's already some human broadcasts spotting the Decepti-creeps heading in that direction already..." the white Sportec car says back.
"That means we have about fifteen minutes to reach Sherman's Dam before they do." the leader calculates.
Spike sits there in amazement, "My god...you mean they'll be able to reach it before we do? How is that possible?"
Sparkplug leans over to Spike, "The same way the Autobots can reach a destination in half the time...only I'll bet the Decepticons don't have as many obstacles in their way like the Autobots do on the ground."
Optimus Prime is impressed with Sparkplug's guess work, "Correct Sparkplug, the Decepticons have the unlimited sky to use and don't have to pre- calculate what lies ahead of their scanners. Some Autobots are equipped with anti-gravity hover converters, but unfortunately those that are modified with them aren't even here. A few rocket packs and some booster rockets are all we have..."
Jazz, still following parallel speaks up again, "I could always send Sideswipe...he's got a rocket pack handy."
"No Jazz...we ride together, I don't want the Decepticons to catch wind of us too early. Sideswipe's energy signature from his rocket pack might alert them and all this would be for nothing. Stay the course...."
Jazz falls back behind him, "Rodger that Prime!"
The Autobot leader raises his voice so that the entire convoy of cars riding behind can hear, "Autobots! Trans-boost drivers on.... Engage!!"
The entire car filled road glows as they all build up a green energy around each of them, as they all reach a bright point in their soft glow, they warp speed down the road way and soon the highway they were driving on becomes empty and silent. The noise of their engines drifts off into the breeze and all that can be heard echoing in the distance is multiple sonic booms.
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In the deep valley, where the Decepticons have made a temporary launch base, the Constructions continue to work on the new ship. The bottom section looks almost completed as they focus on building the next section of the craft. All around the ship, a massive interlace of metal holds the frame in place; the towering scaffold shows just how sizable the project will end up being. The Constructicons build in their robotic modes and their transformed vehicle modes, working non-stop to complete the next phase. In a small area on the ground next to the ship, a group of the captured human prisoners sit in a circle inside the makeshift detention cage. All around them are small metallic rods that stick out of the ground; each one has an energy stripe connecting to the one a few meters away from the other. Each stripe glows a soft pink hue and the low humming noise of the energy passing through gives the hostages a feeling that this is nothing they want to touch at all. Eight lines from the bottom to the top surround them, leaving the only open space above as the means to be free, but jumping up to it would be pointless, as it would take an extremely tall human to even get his or her hands above it. For now they are all trapped. Two of the Constructicons walking by them in robot form lean in to taunt the frightened group of humans.
"Not so dangerous without your primitive weapons are you...Bah-hahahaha", the green and purple colored Decepticons laughs out loud.
The other one standing next to him simply stares at them in contempt, "Puny humans...you dare challenge the likes of the Decepticons...let alone the might of the Constructicons!! We should kill you right now!!"
The leader called Scrapper looks over at the two workers and shouts to them as he stands near the ship he's working on.
"Long Haul! Scavenger! Return to your duties! Megatron will be back soon and we need to complete our work!"
The two transformers snicker as Scavenger flicks the energized barrier trying to scare the human captives. Both soon return to their work and transform into their vehicle modes. Longhaul converts into a massive dump truck and Scavenger transforms into his digger form. Scrapper looks around the area with his eyes, making sure there's no one around, and also returns to his work on the ship. Unknown to him, both Mirage and Carly watch near by on top of the canyon ridge. They sit and watch from a safe distance and get a layout of the land, Carly uses her binoculars to see the soldiers trapped in their cage and the distance between them and the Constructions.
"There they are Mirage..." She says to him while looking, "Do think we can sneak up without being detected?"
Mirage laying beside her nods, "Don't worry Carly...I'll come in nice and slow, they won't be able to see me unless they switch to their thermal optics. So we'll have to be extra quiet as we ride in cloaked."
Carly lowers the binoculars from her face, continuing to look out into the valley, "That's a lot of people to carry back Mirage...I hope you can manage."
"Yeah, I know...I hope I can too. We'll have to drive extra slow on our way out again so I don't throw any of them off. This is going to be tricky. You ready for it?"
Carly looks at him and nods smiling, "You bet!"
Mirage stands up and looks down at her, "Alright then...we'll move in and when Prime gives us the signal we'll move the people out."
Mirage quickly transforms into a blue and white Formula One racing car, a large fin spoiler sits on the back of him and the white racer stripe decals run from his spoiler to the tip of his hood. Carly hops into the cockpit and attaches the cross-strap seatbelt inside. Gripping the steering wheel, she looks as if she's ready to peel away like formula one racer. Mirage revs up his engine, but doesn't pull away just yet.
"Uh...Carly. Do you mind if I do the driving? Let go of my wheel sweetie..." Mirage says to her.
Carly looking a bit embarrassed sits back and lets go of the wheel, "Ooops...sorry. Never been in a car like this...guess I just wanted to give it a whirl."
Mirage laughs, "No problem. Maybe I'll let you take me out for a spin when this is all over. But right now...it's time to save some humans."
The racer peels away fast and head down the cliff road path leading down into the valley, Carly sits tight as Mirage descends into the Decepticon territory and suddenly begins to use his cloaking shield. The soft green outline surrounds the vehicle with Carly inside and soon vanishes into thin air as it blurs away. The only thing that can be seen is the dust trail the invisible car is producing, but that too starts to die down as it reaches the bottom of the area.
In the sky above the valley where the Constructicons work, Thundercracker swoops in out of nowhere and lands near the ship site. Scrapper approaches the sleek blue jet and waits for the Decepticon to open his cargo hold doors.
"Hurry up and unload me already! Megatron is on his way to the next target and I don't want to miss it!" The jet speaks out loud.
Scrapper grumbles, "Ah cool your thrusters you hot head! We've got more important things to do then worry about your trigger happy finger."
"What did you say to me?!" Thundercracker says furiously.
Long Haul pulls up near Scrapper and transforms beside him, "You heard what he said! We've got enough on our plate, building the ship and watching the humans, so unload the energon yourself fly boy!"
Thundercracker transforms quickly and the energon cubes drop out of him as his cargo bay ejects them. The two Constructicons flinch in fear as they see the cubes hit the ground. But they lower their arms down as soon as they see they haven't exploded from the impact. Thundercracker laughs at them and flies up into the air still in his robot form.
"The mighty Constructicons? Hahahaha...you guys are pathetic!" the blue jet robot cackles.
Scrapper shakes his fist at the flying Decepticon as he watches Thundercracker transform and flying back into the distant sky.
"You miserable idiot!! You could have killed us all!!!"
Long Haul begins picking up the cubes with Scrapper as they clean up the mess, "They give us no respect, they treat us as lower class maintenance bots. We should crush them all and rule Cybertron for ourselves!"
Scrapper eyes glow at the thought, but turns to his friend as he finishes picking up the energon.
"One day we shall Long Haul. But after seeing how greedy Starscream is...I think we'll have to get in line."
Long Haul nods "Let the fools take each other out. Megatron can kill Starscream for us...and we..."
"Can kill Megatron afterwards." Scrapper says finishing his friend's thought, "Excellent idea Long Haul. But we should wait until we return to Cybertron, that way we can gather our followers to a true revolt. For now, we shall do their bidding and when the time is right...Devastator shall be unleashed to finish Megatron!"
The two lime green Decepticons chuckle at their plans and begin to stack the pile of energon cubes in order again.
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It is a calm blue sky day at the Sherman Dam, the men and women workers go about their jobs professionally as they maintain the water reservoir's daily needs. It is also an open house afternoon, tourists flock around a young male guide as he gives an exclusive walk around the various areas of the dam. Young and old are gathered about, some taking pictures with bright flashes and others looking tired of dragging their kids along. The youngsters are restless and begin to play away from the group, but as one falls to his knees and cries, the parents instantly shout at them to come back and behave. They all move out to the middle of the dam outside, there the guide gives them more useless information and lets the people take a majestic look at the dam they are standing on top of. It looks more like a big road paved with asphalt and concrete, but looking over the sides they see that it is a massive wall that holds in the water where they all stand. More adults take pictures and the children once again split away from their parents to play now that they are outside. As the workers pass them by and give casual smiles and hellos, one of kids stares out into the sky as he perches himself on the dam's railing. The brown haired freckled face kid squints as he looks out and begins to point out to what he sees. The guide is getting annoyed at this boy and calls him back over to the group.
"Excuse me? Huh...hello, little boy? Would you mind coming back over here? I don't think you should be so close to that railing."
The kid keeps pointing and looks back at the man, "But I want to know what those things are coming at us. Are they part of the tour?"
The guide looks up to see what the kid is talking about, as do all the other tourists. He curiously gazes at the incoming objects rapidly approaching the dam and seems puzzled as to what it is as well.
"I...dunno. What the heck...?"
The other workers all stop and see the incoming shimmering objects, all of them just as curious as the guide and tourists. But as they all stare up at it, they soon notice a large array of light coming down from them. The streaks of light bombard the area they all stand in and explode into balls of fire, each hit creates another and another, the people all scream and run for their very lives. Now fully visible, the Decepticons swarm the entire dam and land down on various parts of the dam. Megatron hovers near main section of the building and uses his fusion cannon to blast open the wall of the main generator room. Starscream and Skywarp transform out of their jet modes and follow in behind Megatron. Stepping into the now exposed generator room, the leader watches the humans all scramble about screaming. He smirks at the sight of the humans panicking and almost enjoys hearing them howl in horror. Aiming his cannon upwards he sends out a blast to make the people all pause in order to hear what he has to say.
"Weakling Humans!! I am Megatron, leader of the Decepticons.... you will do as I command or be destroyed!!"
Now frozen in fear, the various workers trapped inside the room with the massive metallic robot shiver with terror as his booming voice echoes across the room. Megatron looks down and sees one of the older male workers standing near by. He points his arm cannon towards the smaller being and glares at him with his pulsating red eyes.
"You will assist us without question. Understood? Or do I have to show you what a real blast of energy can do to your frail structures?!"
The man nods, "I...I...I'll do what you say! Just...don't hurt us...please!"
"Then get to work...Slave!" Megatron commands to him.
Starscream and Skywarp corral the other workers back as they point their side arm cannons at them all. Soundwave flies into the room with Rumble and Laserbeak, setting down beside Megatron as they land. The blue minidisk transformer begins to make his empty energon cubes as each human worker is forced to walk up and take one in their hands. A slight shock touches them as they each receive one, but soon it passes as the energy becomes stable in their arms. Now it feels more like an empty container, but glowing and feeling more like static electricity. Starscream points his null ray cannons at the generators and fires at every one of them. With each shot an engine freezes, giving Skywarp the means to re-wire each one and attaching new cables to them all. Now they force the humans to put their cubes up to the various generators and hold them near the output device Soundwave installs. It was amazing to watch to some of the engineers, the massive robots managed to do all of this in the matter of minutes, as if it was like changing a light bulb. As the workers held up the cubes to them, the generators kicked in again and began to spin almost at twice the speed. The energy build up from them began to give off a strange glow, which soon started to fill up each cube with raw power. The humans flinched as they held on, the energy obviously increasing the static shock even more. Megatron looked on with a great pride, it was just as he'd hoped for and more. When the cube was full, the Decepticons moved the humans aside and brought up the next one to be filled.
"Generators are at tolerant capacity, Megatron." the cycloptic yellow eyed Soundwave announced to him.
Megatron stroked his metal silver chin, "Hmm... It's still not fast enough though Soundwave. I think we need to double the production...increase the water pressure and bring it to critical, I want a non-stop flow of cubes!"
The blue transformer bows, "As you command, Megatron."
Turning to Rumble, Soundwave points out to the water reservoir and gives him instructions, "Rumble! Activate you pile drivers. Operation...Tidal wave!!"
The minidisk bot smiles up at him, "Alright! Time to flood this place...Rumble style!!"
Running out of the room, he jumps out and flies over the water the dam is holding back. He drops into it like a sinking rock and transforms his arms into the two large pile divers. They begin to pound away at the bottom surface, causing the Earth below it to shake and give off shock waves. The water becomes disturbed and sloshes around violently, each quake becomes faster and faster, causing the water to flow out the spillways faster and faster. Inside the generator room, the equipment rotates at almost critical speeds as the Decepticons force the humans to work as fast as the energy flowing out of the generators. The sight frightens the workers, knowing all too well that if those motors explode it will be the end of them all. Outside still cowering on the wall, the tourists try to sneak away undetected. They almost reach the other side to safety, when the boy with the brown hair and freckles runs back out to see the action. The boy's parents desperately try to grab him as he bolts away, but they couldn't catch him in time. The boy stands in the middle of the dam wall and looks at the Decepticons over in the generator room. All the while, under the kid's feet, the water is flowing at an unstoppable rate. The water pressure begins to crack the cement wall slowly and right around where the child is standing. The parents can't stay quite any longer and scream out to their boy to come back. The water is so loud; the kid doesn't even hear them. He's still too mesmerized by the large robots forcing the humans to work for them, but as he steps closer to have a look, the wall gives way and breaks the section he's standing on. The kid begins to fall to his death as the parents stand there helpless and screaming.
As the boy tumbles down with the stream of water, a massive object in red and blue rushes up to him and grabs him with its large hand. It continues to fly up and land softly back onto the main wall/road, the parents and tourist stare up at this massive thing, which now lowers it's hand down releasing the boy unharmed. The boy looks back at the towering robot and smiles.
"Thank you", he says to it.
"Your welcome, but I think you'd better go with your parental units and leave this place fast."
The parents run over, hugging and kissing their child. With tears in their eyes they look up at the metallic robot with glowing blue eyes and smile.
"Thank you...Thank you..." the mother says, "Whoever you are."
"My name is Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots. And you've very welcome, but this is no place for you and your family right now. Go...quickly!"
The re-united family dash off together and continue to leave the area with the rest of the tourists. The Autobot leader makes sure they've gone at a safe distance and takes out his large black hand weapon from the panel opening on his back. He cocks the massive hand weapon and holds it up as if to make a signal. As he makes the motion, the group of Autobot vehicles rushes in over the wall roadway and transform into their robot modes. Each one takes out their weapon and looks at their leader.
"Remember the humans and aim only at the Decepticons...I don't want any of these creatures harmed, is that understood?"
They all nod at their leader's words. Optimus Prime touches his top arm again and the head microphone pops out of the side of his helmet head.
"Optimus to Mirage...come in Mirage...."
A faint voice is soon heard responding back, "Mirage to Prime...I read you, over."
"Begin the rescue immediately. And be careful you two...", the leader says back softly to Mirage.
Carly's voice soon whispers back at Prime, "Don't worry Optimus...just go and kick some ass!"
"Rodger that Carly...", Prime snickers.
The microphone retracts back into the leader's helmet head and he looks over at his awaiting Autobot soldiers.
"You heard the woman...Autobots! ATTACK!!"
They all leap from the dam wall and fly into the gaping hole in the Generator Room, Optimus Prime thumps down inside and stands with his gun pointed at the Decepticons within. The other Autobots rush in with their guns blazing and voices screaming. The Decepticons turn around and all fire back at them, shocked by their foes attacking, they try to find cover as the laser bolts fly across the room. Megaton refuses to hide and turns around to see Prime pointing his weapon at his head.
"You fool Optimus!! You've signed the human prisoners death warrants! And here I thought you cared about these flesh beings..."
Optimus Prime's eyes flash at him, "I think you'd better worry about yourself Megatron."
The Autobot leader fired his weapon at Megatron, who in turn quickly dove out of the way of its strike. As the Decepticon leader rolls and makes a recovery, he fires his arm cannon at Optimus Prime who jumps high above and fires his weapon down at Megatron again. Once more, the Decepticon leader moves out of the way in time and now begins to fly up to the second level platform that leads outside. Optimus Prime jumps up to the open balcony Megatron is standing on and begins to brawl with the evil leader hand-to- hand. The other Autobots and Decepticons continue to fire away at one another as the explosions drive the humans towards the exits. Sparkplug and the General come through the doors and help the various crew escape.
"This way! Hurry!" Sparkplug yells to them all.
The General grabs on to a worker who trips and guides him out the door, "Easy does it now..."
Spike stands outside and leads the people to a safe point towards the distance.
"Keep going...don't stop! Just keep running in that direction and don't look back!!"
Suddenly Hound drives up to Spike and starts to talk to him, "That water can't be flowing like that by itself...I'll bet even money that Rumble is down there. Come on Spike, come with me!"
Spike hops into the army green hummer and smiles, "Let's go get that water rat!"
Hound spins his tires and heads over to the water reserve, Spike holds on as the ride becomes bumpy and very dangerous, but Hound manages to keep the young passenger safe. As they pull up to the water's edge, Spike quickly jumps out and Hound transforms into his robotic mode, the both peer into the water to see if they can spot little Rumble at the bottom.
"Anything Spike?" Hound asks.
Spike shakes his head, "I can't see anything. The water is too murky and violent for me to see...I think we'll have to go in there."
"Better let me go Spike...I don't need oxygen to breathe underwater."
"Ok Hound, I'll watch your back from out here."
The army green robot jumps into the water, and sinks in like a massive rock straight down to the very bottom of the reservoir. A large light beams out from the top of his head and he begins scanning the disturbed water as he walks though it. The light catches the small minidisk transformer pounding away at the Earthy ground stirring all the dirt up and making blurring shock waves around him. Hound slowly walks over and points his gun at the unsuspecting Decepticon, who apparently has his back facing the Autobot. As Hound gets as close as he can, he aims the gun at the small robot and makes ready to shoot. But suddenly Rumble notices him and maneuvers his pile drivers around to strike a blow at the sneaky Autobot. Hound loses his weapon from the hit and falls backwards from the shock wave. Rumble jumps on top of him and continues to use his drivers on the helpless robot pinned down.
"So you wanna rumble with Rumble, eh? Then here's a few pounding pointers to change your mind, Auto-scrap!!"
Hound struggles and tries to grab hold of the small robot, "I've got a pointer for you too shorty!"
The green Autobot flashes his high-beamed headlight at the robot and causes Rumble to squint. The glare is too much for the little robot and tries to shield his eyes with his arms; which quickly transform back to normal. Now the Autobot stands up and gives the blinded Decepticon an upper cut to the chin, the powerful hit makes Rumble fly across the dense water and smacks against the concrete wall. Hound, not one to give up a fight too early, runs along the muddy soil and heads towards the blue-ish purple minidisk robot with a fist ready to give him another punch. Rumble shakes off the affect of the last hit and sees the Autobot speeding his way. The small robot smiles and activates his pile driver arms again; the ground quakes and starts to split open right in front of Hound. The Autobot falls into the massive crack Rumble created and soon becomes lodged with boulders and dirt pinning him in place. Hound once again struggles to free himself, but finds it's much more difficult this time, the boulders are too heavy. Rumble laughs away at the Autobot's misfortune and transforms his arms back into regular mode. Taking a gun out from his back panel, the evil Decepticon points it at Hound's head and gloats.
"Well, well, well...Looks like I caught me a fish in these waters after all. Should I be merciful? Or put it down before it drowns to death...Muahaahahah!" the little robot laughs.
Hound looks up and realizes he's too immobilized to do anything, one arm is stuck below the dirt and his other hand is being pinned by a heavy rock. With Rumble taking aim with his weapon, it looks as though he's finally met his doom.
As Rumble begins to pull the trigger, Spike suddenly swims over and kicks the gun out of his hand. The Decepticon is surprised by the attack and tries to grab the small human man who quickly dodges his grip. Hound finds his strength again while Spike keeps Rumble occupied, and manages to free one of his hands. Spike desperately swims for the surface as Rumble angrily follows up behind. Spike notices the robot is gaining on him fast, and tires to increase his speed as well, but he's no match for Rumble who nearly grabs him by the foot.
"I got you now you stinkin' lousy human!"
Rumble is jerked back as Hound appears and takes hold of his foot.
"We're not finished yet, get back here and fight like a transformer!", the Autobot says to him.
Rumble screams as he is thrown back down to the bottom of the water reservior. Spike manages to get to the surface and breathes. He takes in a few more gasps of air and heads back down to see if he can help is friend.
Inside the generator room, the Autobots continue to fire at the Decepticons who sheild themselves behind various objects. Starscream blasts away at Sideswipe and Prowl who quickly dive behind one of the generators spinning at maximum capacity.
"Good thing Starscream is such a lousy shot!", The red robots laughs.
Prowl looks at his back and shows Sideswipe his right door sticking out behind him.
"Oh yeah? Seems pretty accurate to me you chrome head!"
Up above on the platform, Optimus Prime and Megatron continue to fight hand to hand. The two grab each other into a dual head lock and try to keep one another pinned down.
"Face it Megatron...you're not as good as you used to be!"
"Niether are you Optimus Prime...you're soft when it comes to doing what's necessary. These humans are your weakness...and weakness deserves to be stamped out!!"
Megatron transforms into his gun mode and blasts Prime in the chest, the leader falls backward and comes close to the edge of the platform their on. Megatron quickly transforms again, runs over and kicks the Autobot leader off of it. Prime nearly drops to the ground as he suddenly grabs hold of the ledge. Now he hangs dangerously above one of the generators below, spinning so fast it could probably cripple the leader. Megatron laughs as he stands over him and sees the predicament Optimus is in.
"You've failed once again Prime...and that spinning device below is the sound of your doom!"
He steps on the Autobot leader's hand and twists down on it with all of his might, as Prime growls in pain, as he begins to lose his grip on the edge. Starscream looks up and sees Optimus Prime in just the right spot for his blasters. The Decepticon smiles and aims both cannons at the Autobot.
"Megatron shouldn't have the honor of killing him...If I do it, the Deceptcions will follow me and make me the new leader! Baaahahahaa!!! SO LONG OPTIMUS PRIME!!!", the Decepticon shouts.
Sideswipe and Prowl see who Starscream is aiming for and both fire their weapons just as the evil robot fires his. The dual blasts hit the Decepticon air commander in the arms and he in turn misses Optimus Prime, but ends up striking Megatron in the face. The evil leader falls back from the blast and Prime uses the moment to lift himself back up.
"YOU FOOL STARSCREAM!!", Megatron yells at him.
Starscream scream up at him, "Megatron!! Forgive me!!"
"Never mind that...finish the Autobots and get the energon cubes out of here!", the leader yells back.
Optimus Prime runs over and picks Megatron up off the ground, he holds him over his head and throws him out of the building.
"Let's finish this discussion outside Megatron!"
The Decepticon leader falls on his back onto the dam's wall bridge, Optimus Prime runs out and slowly walks up to him, ready to finish the job.
"I'm tired of your games Megatron. Tired of having to lose so many friends and innocent lives just to satisfy your greed...your destrctive behavior...and you're arrogance. Cybertron belongs to all of us, not just the Decepticons but all Transformers...Primus wanted us to live together in harmony, not to have one faction dominate the other, not even to treat other species as slaves!"
Megatron tries to lift his head, "Ahaha...You're wong as usual. All lifeforms are below us...we are the rulers of the universe not them. Decepticons are the only true inheriters of Cybertron, Primus hid the truth about our kind...we were the ones that liberated Cybertron...without us, he would have failed miserably!"
The Autobot leader continued to walk over to him slowly, "Once again your circuits are faulty Megatron...it was both sides that led us to freedom. You're just trying to justify your position in order to fulfill your sick, twisted mentality of how you want things to be. It's always been about you...you crave power and destruction....and it's caused our planet dearly for your stupid ambition!"
Megatron's eyes lower at the Autobot leader's words, "Your one to talk Optimus...I've seen you do just as much damage as I have. You could have ended the war long ago, you could have pitted every last Autobot at my Decepticons and been victorious. It would have only cost you half of your forces and made you the most powerful Autobot on Cybertron! But instead, you cared too much about what was right...you showed compassion and became soft. You never have the guts to see things through Prime...Never willing to do what is necessary to win...no matter the cost."
Prime's eyes flare, "You still don't get it Megatron...I've always done what is necessary. Life....life is what must be saved at all cost. Primus new it....and I certianly understand it. All life is worth living...Autobots, Humans and Decepticons. It must be preserved and allowed to flourish....no matter the cost."
Outside in the bright blue sky, a commercial sized red and white helicopter flies in with large letters detailed on the side. The hovering chopper reads—ACTION NEWS 7—and a man opens the sliding door on the side pointing a large shoulder mounted camera towards the dam. A caucasian man, middle aged with dark black hair, kneels down beside the camera operator and begins to speak into a microphone headset as he describes the scene.
"This is Jerry McLane reporting for Action News....We're bringing you live footage of a major conflict just happening at Sherman Dam with what appears to be massive robots!"
Looking through the video feed of the camera, it shows a grainy shaken image of the Autobots fighting the Deceptcions inside the generator room, that soon shows a Jazz, Sunstreaker and Trailbreaker launching out as the Tri-decepticon group, Reflector, continues to fight them all in the open. The camera pans over the area and then spots Optimus Prime walking over to Megatron, who's trying to get up on his feet again.
"This is incredible! We are witnessing a most unusual event in the history of our planet. The robots are in a destructive struggle with one another that is endangering human lives! I begs the question as to where our military is and why they haven't come to stop them? America wake up!! We're under attack and no one is doing a damn thing! Don't stop filming damnit...keep rolling!"
In a dark, hidden underground lair, Doctor Archeville sits in his usual balck chair and watches the TV monitor. The live feed from the TV broadcast plays out as he sits there with several other monitors around it. On each one of those, the faces of each country government official stares back at him, as they too watch the horror being televised on their screens at each of their locations. Archeville continues to sit very calm and slurps on a hot cup of tea that is placed beside him on a small glass table.
"Ladies and Gentlemen...as you can see the menace is very real.", he says to them all as they look horrified on the monitors.
"This is the destructive power I told you about...and warned you would happen if you didn't agree to my terms."
An older asian man begins to speak as he shakes his head at the sight.
"This does not concern the people of China, Doctor Archeville. So we will not buy into your purposal, nor shall we agree to any terms you set down."
The Doctor drinks from his cup again and glares at the chinese politican, "Minister Quan...if you don't agree you will suffer the same fate as any other that opposes me. I have the technology to level your country to the ground if need be...I have been paitent and allowed you to make your idle threats to this country and to the world...but do not even dare to push me any further on not doing as your told."
The asian man blinks as he becomes flustered by the tea sipping man's comments. Archeville sets his tea down and points to chinese man on the small monitor.
"You will do as I say and you will continue to work for me. Understood? Think of the possiblities I will bring you once I have control of this new crop of technology. You can carry on your wars and spying missions to a whole new level...this is our business gentlemen...we make the world run the way it should. But when it comes to world power...just remember who is the TRUE world power. I, Doctor Archeville am that power and only I know the secrets of this technology that you all need."
A caucasian woman begins to speak in a british accent and sounds nervous as she directs her comments at him.
"You've been promising us this for years Archeville, so far the technology you've given us is very limited. When can we expect to see the main product you told us about? Where is it?"
The Doctor sighs, "My man is on it. Don't worry, it won't be too long now...you've waited this long...time is still on your side."
"Bull", says the Canadian official on the lower monitor, "Doctor you've had plenty of time to have this done...And now with these massive alien robots smashing around, we need those weapons and technology more then ever. There's no time left! Why aren't you stopping these creatures? Maybe we should ban together and attack them with our armies, we could take the technology for ourselves."
"I see...", Archeville says calmly.
The old Doctor looks to his left and stares at one of his dark suited agents standing beside him in the shadows. Not saying a word to each other, the agent walks over to a group of phones and picks up the one that has the country name on it. The agent picks it up and begins to talk in a low voice that nobody can hear in the room or on the monitors. Once he hangs up, the agent walks back over and Archeville turns to face the Canadian man again.
"Goodbye Mr. Daniels."
On the monitor, the man looks to the right of him as he hears someone enter the room. As the Doctor and the other world officials look at their monitors, they see Mr. Daniels' eyes grow wide as a gun suddenly is aimed at his head in plain sight.
"NO...NO WAIT!!", The man screams.
Archivlle turns off the monitor just as the man gets shot in the head.
"Mr. Daniels has been retired ladies and gentlemen....are there anymore that wish to...retire?"
All of them remain silent as he looks on each face to see if they do object.
"No? Good...I'm glad to see the line of thinking has finally stopped. I supply you with everything you need and those that wish to attempt to go into buisness for themselves will find that my men are well placed in your governments. Betrayal will be not be tolerated."
Looking back at the british woman, the Doctor once again lifts up his tea and drinks from it.
"You will have what I promised you soon enough...for now...we shall let these metal mosters take what they want and then after the dust is settled....we will take them. Who ever finishes whom first. Thank you all, we'll talk later."
The entire group of monitors shut off and all that remains is the main viewer that has the live TV broadcast of the sherman dam struggle. The Doctor snickers as he continues to nurse his drink, the agent beside him bows and leaves the room.
"Who ever wins....and whom ever loses.", Archeville chuckles, "Either way...you will be ours."