Chapter 24 – The Long Journey's End

The crazed laughter of Doctor Archeville echoes in the entire room as he watches the massive gun from the monitoring station below ground. With a large whine of power build up, the massive towering weapon grumbles as the energy flows through it and causing the tip of the barrel to glow as the charge comes to the surface. The cannon suddenly launches a burst of energy that streaks across the sky and causes the ground to tremble by the sheer power it unleashes. The men standing all around close by shield their ears from the loud scream it produces, the calm silence before the massive shot of power didn't prepare them any as they all dive to the ground after hearing the laser being sent out. The neon glow of the purple ray of light streams high above and over a long distance as it heads for its primary target.

••••••••••••••••••••

Meanwhile, as Spike and Sideswipe continue to fall to their doom after Megatron's deadly blast, Sideswipe manages to eject his damaged rocket back as it continues to smolder and flame. Pressing a small button on his right hand wrist, the pack snaps away and continues to fall downward well beyond them. Still within his clutch, Spike tries to stay alert as the speed in which they continue to fall is causing him to slowly black out. Sideswipe looks down at him and tries to keep him talking, even though the earth his coming closer with every second.

"Come on Spike...stay alert!"

"You...you think that's wise Sideswipe?" The young man chuckles. "We're about to become the largest street pizza in the history of the world."

The Autobot laughs slightly as well, "Guess that might be so...but how can you not enjoy that view before the end."

"You're...a strange...Autobot Sideswipe. It was great knowing ya."

Down below on the ground, the rest of the Autobots watch them plunge in horror. Ironhide uses his optical sensors to get a better look and describes it to the others.

"For Primus's Sake! They're dropping like asteroids in the sky! Sideswipe just ejected his pack and now they've got no way of slowin' down!"

Carly looks up in the sky with tears forming and shouts in panic, "SPIKE!"

Jazz frantically runs over to Windcharger.

"You've got to slow them down before they impact!"

"I need a refuel for my anti-gravity system...that's more then a leap for me Jazz...I'd have to use up everything I've got and then some."

"Ok you got it!" Jazz nods as he runs back to the other Autobots. "We need all the energy packs you can muster...so lend a hand and give it up busters!"

The entire group takes out any extra power pack cell from within their chassis's and gives them to Windcharger as he quickly walks around taking them all. Wheeljack looks at his and sighs.

"You'd better grab them in one leap Windcharger. By my calculations, if you over shoot there's no way you can manage to lower yourself in time to properly catch them."

Windcharger takes the concerned robot's power pack and smirks, "Well then...I'd better not miss huh?"

The small red and grey robot opens up his chest and places the extra packs into his spare reserve slots. Each one is capable of holding more then two, normally he wouldn't be able to keep so much power in his body, too much would overload his circuitry if he didn't expel that power quickly. As he closes his chest, the surge of power causes his eyes to glow brightly.

"Stand back people...time for me to fly!"

The little robot crouches down as he prepares to leap, keeping an eye on his falling targets, the small robot volts away like a superhero rushing to save the day. On chest is a small indicator of how much energy he is using on his anti-gravity unit, the bars slowly begin to fade one by one as he manages to get closer and closer to Sideswipe. With his hands reaching out, Windcharger makes contact with the two and grabs hold of Sideswipe's waist as they collide.

"Going my way?" Windcharger chuckles after taking hold of him.

"Bout time someone showed up." Sideswipe smirks.

Spike still looking very pale gazes at Windcharger and smiles.

"Super Windcharger to the rescue. They should make...a...a comic book of you."

The tiny Autobot begins to slow them down and uses the remaining power to hover safely back to the ground. More of his power bar indicators begin to fade off as he nears the halfway point on it. Suddenly, the large laser blast from Archeville's weapon streaks over their heads as the light nearly blinds all three of them.

"What the hell is that?" Sideswipe utters as he shields his eyes.

"More trouble by the looks of it." Windcharger says with a serious tone.

On the ground, all of the other Autobots see the bright flash as well, a large purple laser heading deep into the sky and giving a slight curve as it continues on into the stratosphere.

"Leakin' Lubracants!" Ironhide exclaims.

"You can say that again Ironhide." Cliffjumper utters in awe as he looks up at the sight.

Wheeljack looks over at Jazz and whispers, "Dear Primus...its heading straight for the ship!"

"Well, I'll be...its just as he said it would happen." Jazz said to himself in thought.

••••••••••••••••••••

On board the Decepticon ship, Megatron continues to gloat over Optimus Prime as the silver robot chuckles away in his chair.

"We're almost clear of this planet's biosphere Prime...take your last look at it. For soon this whole world will be nothing but a memory to you for as long as you live...which, I'm afraid, won't be very long at all."

"Wait for it Megatron...just wait for it..." Prime speaks to him in a rather curious tone.

The Leader rises out of his chair as he wonders what Optimus is talking about. The Autobot doesn't look frightened at all to him; in fact, Prime is tapping his fingers on his folded arms and looking very patient.

"Wait? Wait for what? Why aren't you trembling in fear?"

Soundwave quickly spins around in his chair and shouts at the leader.

"MEGATRON!!! INCOMING FIRE!!"

The Decepticon leader turns to see the large main viewer, on the screen is the laser blast heading straight for them and with no time to react, Megatron just utters the only thing he can.

"NO!"

The blast strikes the side of the ship, just where the right engine happens to be, and manages to slice it off completely from the hull. With no engine on it's right side, the ship veers quickly to the left and begins to spiral down ward into the atmosphere again. Everyone inside is thrown about as the vessel buckles from the new direction, warning sirens and red lights flash throughout the ship as the screams of all the Decepticons join in with the panic. The smoke fills the control room and fire shoots out from the exploding computers around them. Prime manages to stand up again as the ship levels off and becomes trapped in a slow descent down to the planet again. With both Thundercracker and Skywarp no longer near him, the leader quickly opens his left leg compartment and a replica of his gun pops out into his hands. Equal in size and looks, the massive hand weapon glistens in the soft light of the flames as he points it over to Megatron. The Decepticon leader kicks off Rumble who was lying over top of him after the spiral, and rises up from his spot slowly as he spots Optimus with his gun.

"Surprise Megatron!" Prime proudly states.

"You knew..." Megatron grumbles at him. "You knew this would happen!! Didn't You?!!"

"That's right Megatron...I told you not to underestimate these beings and certainly not me either. After seeing their secret weapons during our battles, I had a hunch this would take place...only much sooner. I knew those military men had a plan for us...I played their game long enough to get this ship well beyond their grip. Funny, how things turned out. But that's humans for ya...unpredictable."

"You...you planned this whole thing all along? That's impossible!"

Prime continued to keep his gun aimed at the Decepticon, "Not impossible Megatron...inevitable. And that's not the only surprise I've got for you. Mirage code 221, Activate!"

On the large Autobot's shoulder, a small device begins to uncloak, Optimus Prime grips it off of his metallic structure and holds it up to show Megatron.

"Mirage gave me more then just a simple goodbye after our handshake...he gave me the means to end your little cargo run for good."

Megatron's eyes widened with fear, it was one of Mirage's bombs that he had been attempting to place on the side of their energon stack down in the cargo hold. The two leaders locked eyes, Primes were calm and gave an air of control, while Megatron's could see what the Autobot leader was thinking and flashed with anger.

"You wouldn't dare!" Megatron screams.

"Oh wouldn't I? How well do you know me Megatron? Hm? How well? Well, I'm afraid the time to figure that out...has long past. Welcome to oblivion." The Autobot leader snickers.

Megatron points to Prime and orders his Decepticons recovering from the attack, "STOP HIM!!"

Prime fires his long black gun and takes out the few taking aim. Thundercracker, Soundwave, Starscream and two of the Reflectors all get a quick volley of Optimus Prime's weapon, the leader is quick on his trigger and a skilled shot as he takes each one out. Megatron tries to transform into his gun mode, but Prime instantly gets another shot off in his direction and knocks the evil leader to the ship controls. He had managed to stop the Decepticon while in mid-transformation. With everyone clear of his path, the Autobot warrior transforms into his tractor-trailer mode and rushes for the corridor that leads to the cargo bay. Ravage runs in front of the doorway to stop him, only to be run down like critter on a freeway. The black metallic cat howls in pain as it feels the impact of Optimus's grill work.

"After him you fools!! After him!!!" Megatron screams as he tires to recover.

Hook helps rumble and Starscream up as they all begin to quickly sprint for the cargo hold Prime is rushing too. The rest of the Constructicons are trying to repair the flaming ship inside as they hurry to regain the ship's controls. The Autobot rig continues to speed down the long hallway as he notices the cargo doorway straight ahead of him. Waiting at the door was one of the remaining Reflector trio, pointing his gun and firing away, the Decepticon was doing very little to stop the bulky tractor trailer transformer from coming. With the last look of fear in Reflector's eyes, Optimus Prime smashed through him and the doors as he broke inside the room. Reflector's body was utterly destroyed into a million pieces, the sheer impact managed to kill this transformer instantly.

"Say hello to Gears for me!" Prime screams as he crushes the remaining parts of Reflector on the floor.

As he sees the Energon stack near by, he quickly transforms while still in motion. With the small bomb still in his hand, the massive Autobot flicks the center button with his thumb and throws it over to the energy-bonded cubes. The bomb instantly attaches to the side and starts an instant count down from ten seconds. The digital counter slowly rolls each second as Prime completes his transformation again as he flies though the air. Back in his rig mode, his wheels touch the floor again and continues to speed down the room. Rumble and Starscream run into the room and open fire at the fleeing Autobot. Hook runs in and suddenly notices the timer.

"OH SHOCK! He's attached the bomb!!"

Rumble stops firing and runs back down the corridor in a panic.

"Waah! We're all going to die!! Megatron...MEGATRON!!"

Starscream hears Hook's grim discovery and goes into a violent shooting tantrum at Optimus Prime. Without even realizing it, one of the Decepticons crazed shots blasts a hole through the hull in front of the Autobot leader and watches him drive right on through.

"Thanks for the exit! See you in the Great Spark Beyond fellas!"

"NOOOOO!!" Starscream yells at Prime as he launches out of the ship.

As Optimus begins to drop away from the ship, he transforms back into robot mode and gives a last salute to them all. Megatron screams in anger as he witnesses his foe on the flickering widescreen.

"OPTIMUS PRIIIIIIME!!!"

Inside the cargo hold, Hook is helpless to pry the bomb off as the seconds continue to count down.

The Constructicon runs over to Starscream, "I can't take it off!!"

"To hell with the Energon...I choose life!!" The air commander screams.

Smacking a small console beside him on the wall, the large cargo bay door swings open sideways and the entire energy bonded platform the cubes are sitting on ejects out of the ship. As the huge cargo just barely comes out and drops a few feet, the digits on the bomb come to their double zeros and the device triggers the explosive. As the small Autobot-made device detonates, so too does the entire energon stock in that split second. The massive explosion rips through the air and cripples the Decepticon's ship yet again. This time all the engines have been destroyed, along with some of the ship's hull and tilts the vessel in another direction, this time, it heads straight down. Megatron and Shockwave are the only survivors at the controls, as they both try to steer the craft, Soundwave gives the grim news to his leader.

"We have no control of our descent! The ship is on a collision course with the planet's ocean!" The garbled, and often broken, monotone voiced robot states to his leader.

Megatron looks up at where the large widescreen monitor once was. The blast took away that chuck of the ship as well, now he has a gaping wide hole in front of him, showing the Earth's ocean they are about to plummet into.

"No...No! Not again..." Megatron pounds on the dead controls. "I will not end this way Soundwave...Do you hear me?! Do something Soudwave! I command you to do something!!"

The leader frantically shakes his heavily damaged Decepticon soldier as he screams away at him, but as the two look up again, they both fold their arms over their eyes as they come crashing into the water as fast a bullet. The ship's impact causes a huge water and foam plume that shoots up into the sky as if a nuclear bomb was set off in the deep. They had managed to drop dead center into the Pacific Ocean, the large water tsunami was visible from the coastlines of America, and millions of people along its shores were gasping at the sight of it. People quickly ran from the beaches and their homes fearing it was heading their way. Panic had gripped the people watching, the news media was covering the entire event in the sky and as the ship crashed into the ocean. All over the world people watched and prayed for the safety for the many caught in the drama that was unfolding on camera. The deep blue waters swelled with large waves, and as they came crashing to the shores, the continuous strikes they made did less damage that many expected to happen.

Prime was still dropping like a rock in the sky and from the high altitude he was in, he could see the devastation the ship was causing below.

"Primus...forgive me. I could not see any other way, now...the task is done. Take me....I am ready to be with you and all those that paid for the price of freedom."

The robot spread his arms as he continued to fall, dimmed his eyes and began to accept the deadly fate that awaited him as well.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Archeville sat in his chair with a sour look at the monitor's repeating shot of the Decepticon ship crashing into the vast, deep blue ocean. The others around him were quiet and looking at the man as if to wonder what he will do next. The large TV screen beside the monitor he was previously looking at had the live satellite camera shots of Optimus Prime falling back towards Earth. The old man breathed with contempt as he gazed at the victorious Autobot and rose out of his chair slowly.

"Can we send out another shot?" He asks the woman sitting at the console.

"No sir. The energy output has fallen to even attempt a second attack."

Walking over to the monitor, the old man purses his lips in frustration and taps lightly at the image of Optimus Prime.

"So much for giving you a quick death Prime. Perhaps the crushing pain of hitting the Earth will be the last painful memory you'll ever remember. I hope you die horribly."

Turning around, Archeville looks at Agent West and folds his arms together.

"Can we locate the Decepticon ship position from the satellite?"

West nervously twiddles his fingers and licks his lower lip before he speaks, "Sir...the impact would have scattered the ship all over the bottom. Tracking will be impossible from space seeing how the Autobot computer Telatran One will be monitoring our movements up there."

"Yes..."The Doctor thinks as he rubs his chin. "That blasted computer of theirs would alert the Autobots if we tried, I should have secured that Ark better when it was discovered and had that ship's computer core ripped out. But...what's done is done."

He walks over to a large electronic map of the Earth, a see-through plastic one that displays the area of the Pacific Ocean where the Decepticon ship crashed.

"We must begin to prepare for retrieval. I want submarines modified immediately, contact the levels of Government to avoid this section of the ocean and select the best soldiers for deep sea assignment."

West points to the various people around him to do as the old man instructed and sighed as he approached him with caution.

"This will take time sir. We didn't anticipate for this contingency."

"And why the hell not!" Archeville shouted. "This is what we do for god's sake! Plan for every sort of possibility!"

Once again the room stood still as his outbursts of utter rage nearly scared the room to death. Adjusting his light suit jacket and tie, he eyes them all as his scowl of disparagement quickly changes into that of calm. The old man starts to head out of the room, pausing for a second at the doorway, he turns around and gives the soldiers one last order.

"Proceed to lower the weapon, turn off all energy reserves and have all troops stand down from their positions."

West approaches Archeville with concern.

"But sir? What of the Autobots and the millions of people that witnessed the laser shot?"

"Come with me West...there is so much to do and so little time to do it. The Decepticon's will be ours, no matter who stands in our way." The old man giggles as he grabs hold of the Agent's arm and pulls him along.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

As Windcharger lands with Sideswipe and Spike in his arms, Carly runs over to the bewildered looking young man and gives him a large hug as he steps down on the ground.

"You idiot! Never make a stupid mistake like that again." She said.

"Well I had to do something." Spike says back at her. "Besides...you had your big adventure with Mirage...guess it was my turn."

"Show off." She smiles as she continues to hug him.

Sideswipe and Windcharger run over to Ironhide who is still using his visor to look at the sky with a horrified look on his face.

"Oh...Oh Primus no!!" The robot screams as he gazes up. "Optimus Prime...he...he made it out of the ship and falling down to Earth as well!!"

Hound steps up beside Ironhide and uses his superior optics to zoom in at the sky as well, with his mounted shoulder rocket, a small green holographic light pierces out of the tip of it and gives everyone a glimpse of what he can see. The hologram display is round and looks more like a flat 2D image of Optimus Prime falling in the blue atmosphere. Bumblebee rushes over and looks at it with panic.

"Optimus! We gotta do something guys!"

Jazz looks over at both Windcharger and Trailbreaker, "Quick Windcharger, fly back up and slow his fall. Trailbreaker, make a force field to help ease their return."

"I'm all out of juice Jazz!" Windcharger reveals to him. "I barely have enough to even go a few feet up. It was a long way up and a waste of more power just to hover back down again."

"I'm out of power as well." Trailbreaker speaks in a worried tone. "What with the battle with the Decepticons and giving Windcharger my power pack...I'm totally spent. Besides, even if I did have enough to create one...at the rate Prime is falling, he would shatter like glass on my shield as well."

"At the rate he's falling..." Wheeljack estimates. "We'd need more then one of us to slow him down. But with no power and no one else with flying capabilities...face it...we can't do anything!"

Cliffjumper pounces on Wheeljack and shakes him in anger, "That's it?! That's all you got for us smart guy? Some genius you are...you can't even save your own leader!"

Hound suddenly tracks something in the sky and moves his holographic eye over to the incoming shadows heading straight towards falling Autobot leader.

"What the heck? Guys...Guys!! Take a look at this!"

Spike, Carly and all the other Autobots ran up to see Hound's hologram image; peering at it with curiosity, Spike and Carly tried to make out the faint blurs.

"Wha...what is it Spike?" Carly asked him.

"I...I dunno." He utters softly. "But if I didn't know any better...I'd swear they were..."

His eyes quickly light up and starts to shout out with joy. "YEAAAH! GO AIR FORCE!!"

It was indeed a group of four jets heading towards Optimus Prime; the bulky looking high flyers were streaking in with large magnetic grapples attached to their underside. All four were top of the line new aircrafts, a similar design as the F/A-22 Raptors, but with new hovering thrusters built into them making the jets look more bulky. The pilots swooped in over Prime and adjusted their speeds to follow his angle of decent, with a flick of a switch on their consoles; the magnetic grapplers powered up and grabbed hold of Prime's metallic body. A quick jerk slung the jets down as they locked on and soon fired up their powerful sounding hover jets to slow him down. Optimus switched on his optics again and saw the brave human pilots trying to rescue him. He looked over at each one of them and gently nodded at them as they all gave him a thumb up. The Autobots on the ground cheered in delight as they witnessed his miraculous survival, some screamed out at the humans in praise and both Carly and Spike hugged each other in relief. That was when Spike looked at Carly and embraced her in a very passionate kiss. She seemed surprised by his sudden move, but rather then complain or slap him in the face, the woman gave in as well and continued to make the kiss last. Bumblebee watched them from where he was and smiled, a smile that he had long missed since the accident with Spike's dad.

"Now that's more like it..." The yellow Autobot simply states to himself.

The human aircrafts soon brought Optimus to the ground, the two back ones holding his legs let go first, allowing the leader to stand up on his own. Then as he touched down, the second two turned off their magnets and backed away from him. The four lifted back into the air and started to make their way back into the bright blue sky. Prime looked up at them all and waved with gratitude.

"Thanks for the lift friends!"

Once they were gone, the Autobots ran to the leader and all greeted him with joyful faces.

"Welcome back Optimus!" Ironhide said in an almost tearful glee.

"We almost lost hope there Prime." Bumblebee says as he shakes his hand.

The Autobot leader looks at them all with pride and nods in thanks.

"I've always said...no Autobot is doomed to die alone...so long as has friends to be there with him in the end. Even human ones..."

As the massive red robot looks down below, Spike and Carly approach him with great big smiles and touch his metal blue leg with care.

"You did it Prime...just like you said you would. Megatron is history." Spike says looking up at him.

"But I don't understand, who could have sent them to save you?" Carly inquires.

Prime rubs his manifold mouth and thinks about it. "Hmm. Well if I had to take a calculated guess...I'd say it's the one person who needed to redeem himself, not just for us...but for his kind as well."

•••••••••••••••••••••••••

Far off into the near by rocky plateau, a lone figure stands on the top of the rise and observes the celebrating Autobots a few miles away. Lowering the massive binoculars, the man reveals himself to be General Hank Pressman. Still in his military suit and displaying all of his metals upon his left pocket, he gives a tender smirk and holds a small cellular phone up to his right ear.

"Mission successful base commander. I thank you for your help."

"A pleasure to assist you General, consider it a payback for all you've done." The other male voice says back to him on the phone.

"And thank those brave pilots for me as well...I know they'll have a lot of explaining to do once Archeville finds out."

In a far off air base, thousands of miles away from the General's location, the middle aged Caucasian base commander sat in his black leather chair and smirked as he talks to the other man on his modern looking black phone.

"Balls to that Hank. If Archeville doesn't like it, he can kiss my ass two."

The General's voice snickered at the Base Commander's comment.

"You've been the best Ted. Don't forget to give that special package to that certain someone for me. And be sure to keep an eye on my son and granddaughter from time to time, huh?"

Base Commander Ted leans on his cluttered grey metal desk and holds the phone receiver closer to his mouth.

"Hank...maybe it's not too late. If you come here now I might be able to help..."

The General sighs, "It's way past time for that buddy. Just make sure you deliver that parcel for me, consider that my final gift to mankind...and the one weapon to put an end to Archeville once and for all. I'll see ya when I see ya."

"I'll see ya when I see ya too. God bless you my friend." Ted sighs in pity.

He hangs up the phone and looks over to the large flat brown envelope sitting beside his arm on the desk. Picking it up, the Base Commander looks at it with concern and eyes the General's writing on it.

ATTENTION: SENATOR SHAWN BEGER

CONFIDENTIAL FILE - FOR YOUR EYES ONLY

Back at the rocky plateau, the General flips his cell phone and places it into his pocket. With a quiet sigh and looking out across the beautiful landscape before him, he just utters out loud what he's thinking at that moment.

"Beautiful."

"It sure is." Another deep male voice booms out from behind him.

Without acting surprised or even turning around to look at the person, the General continues to look out at the sight before him.

"What kept you?"

Agent Drakemore now steps out beside him and looks out at the valley with him as he answers the question.

"Traffic is horrible. Not to mention the fact that there's a lot of reporters trying to get over here."

Pressman smirks. "Should have taken the south route into this region, less security and lots of kick ass trails."

"Cool." The Afro-American man in black says as he adjusts his dark sunglasses. "I'll have to remember that next time, bring the RV and do some off-roading."

Looking over at him, Drakemore gives a slight smirk. "So...anything you want to say before we do this?"

The General squints as he thinks, shuffling the ground with his shined black shoes, and then straightening his tie with a calm manner.

"Just two conditions."

"Name it."

"One, you stay the hell away from my family for good. I don't want anyone hounding my son and granddaughter...got it?" Pressman demands of him.

"Ok...done. The Second?" Drakemore nods.

"My disappearance...make it look like I was lost in combat. That way my family gets the benefits and no one can link me to the Project. I died as a soldier and with honor."

Drakemore nods again and smiles. "You got it. General, you're a good man. It's been a pleasure serving with you and well...I trust there are no grudges between us."

"No...no grudges, son." The General says as he shakes the Agent's hand. "You've done your job well. And I'll see ya when I see ya."

Drakemore nods to him as he shakes the old man's hand back and starts to walk away. The General looks out at the horizon again and breathes in the air once more.

"As I said...my god...it's a beautiful day. Make it quick."

The sound of a gun calking behind his head makes him close his eyes slowly.

"I always do General...I always do." Drakemore's voice booms out from behind him.

The black suited man pulls the trigger and the sound of his shot rings out across the valley, the calm sounds of the wind soon take over from the loud banging noise and all that can be heard now is the cry of a lone hawk flying in the sky.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Optimus Prime walks up to Mirage as he's being carried over to Ratchet awaiting him to be placed into his open backend. Prime takes hold of the robot's hand and looks at his damaged areas with concern.

"Don't worry Prime...I'll be...I'll be ready for duty before you know it." Mirage jokingly says to the leader.

"You've done me proud soldier." Prime replies. "As far as any Autobot here is concerned...you're the bravest and the boldest out of the bunch."

Mirage smiles at the leader's comments and soon gets placed in by the bunch carrying him; Smokescreen, Huffer, Bluestreak and Prowl all lower him in and shut the door with care. Ratchet quickly turns on his Emergency lights and heads down the road. Prime then walks over to where the body of Gears lay and kneels down. Placing his hands on the robotic corpse, he gives a solemn prayer.

"May the Matrix guide you back to the All Spark, to await those of us who love and miss you dearly...when we shall all return and become one with Primus again."

Standing back to his feet and looking over at the other Autobots watching him with somber looks, the leader looks over at Ironhide and asks a personal favor.

"Will you do the honor and carry his body back to the Ark?"

"I'd thought you'd never ask Prime. It would be my pleasure...for an old friend." Ironhide salutes to him.

The Autobots pick up Gears remains and place him inside Ironhide as he transforms into his Minivan mode. Optimus Prime closes the backend door and taps Ironhide to head on out. As the red Minivan moves down the path, the Autobots all line up beside the trail and salute the car as it drives past them all. Spike and Carly, standing at the very end, also salute the dead soldier robot and hold their other hands together as they watch. Ironhide and Ratchet meet up on the dirt trail and quickly trans-warp out of sight.

"Autobots!" Prime shouts out to them in a commanding voice. "Let's go home. Transform and roll out!"

The group instantly all transform in unison into their various vehicles, each one revs their engines and prepares for their leader's next order. Carly and Spike casually walk up to Prime as he watches his soldiers with pride.

"Hey, think we could get a lift back as well?" Carly says as she sticks out her thumb in a hitchhiking manner.

"Yeah, how bout it Optimus? I'm sure my dad would like to see you guys pop by the hospital to visit along the way."

Prime nods with agreement. "Sounds like a good plan to me Spike."

The massive robot leader folds down into his tractor-trailer form and opens both side doors for the two of them. As they climb in and shut the cab doors, Spike gives an uneasy look and asks the leader a question.

"Aren't we forgetting something?"

"Like what Spike?" Prime's voice inquires back at him.

"Archeville. What about Archeville and his secretive bunch?"

Carly realizes the same thing and agrees, "Yeah, that's right. Shouldn't we go after him as well?"

"In due time you two." Prime says. "Right now, lets just see what tomorrow brings. I think he's going to have his hands full after such a large display of fire power the entire world saw. But rest assured you can bet Archeville isn't going anywhere at the moment, now that Megatron is scattered in pieces at the bottom of your ocean."

"I guess that's the end of them, huh?" Spike sighs with relief.

"I hope so Spike...I hope so." Optimus simply states.

The big red and grey tractor-trailer begins to drive out past his awaiting Autobots, and as he passes them one by one, they soon follow behind as they head for home. They all honk their horns with joy as they all trans-warp into a massive green streak down the dusty road and vanish from the scene.

•••••••••••••••••

The deep blue ocean rolls as the sunlight sparkles on the top of it as it penetrates the down into its murky depths. Deeper and deeper into the vast Pacific, fish swim with calm pacing and shadows of sharks skim below the prey the watch from underneath. Like a heavy weight dropping to the very bottom of the water, we see a large crevasse in the rocky ocean floor that takes us deeper still, the water is pitch black with very faint light giving off the smallest detail to the various creatures swimming around in its unreachable fathoms. A soft outline of a metal structure appears, large enough to be a ship and looking very fractured as it lies there. Deep within the various dark rooms, we see more faint outlines of robotic bodies lying on the floor, and as we peer into the last room at the end of the long tunnel, the very dark room suddenly shows a pair of glowing red eyes that puncture through the pitch black darkness with a gaze of utter anger.

"Op...Optimus...Prime!" The badly garbled voice of Megatron strains to whisper out.

END