Author's Note: Here it is: the battle. Send me some nice reviews for this. Thanks to everyone who reviewed the first four chapters. BTW, did I spell Predicon right? This chapter contains hints of budding Ultra Rodimus/ Ultra Magnus slash. Here's your slash, LadyStarscream. Hope you like it.
Disclaimer: You know already. Don't make me repeat myself.
Years of Darkness
Chapter 5: Battle
"Attack!"
Galvatron's command echoed across the battlefield. The various gestalt teams extricated themselves from the fighting and turned toward the Autobot Prime.
"Constructicons, combine!"
"Terrorcons, conbine!"
"Stunticons, combine!"
"Predicons, combine!"
"Seacons, combine!"
"Combaticons, combine!"
The teams transformed together, combining into new shapes. The giant forms of the Decepticon gestalts rose from the mass of fighting robots. They closed in on Ultra Rodimus. The young Prime tensed, raising his massive battleaxe.
The gestalts attacked.
Predaking lashed out with a powerful right hook. Ultra Rodimus ducked the blow, but the Predicon gestalt managed to correct at the last moment. The blow sent Ultra Rodimus sprawling. He rolled aside mere seconds before Abominus's foot slammed down where he'd fallen. The Terrorcon gestalt snarled and went after him again. Ultra Rodimus sidestepped a blow from Menasor and barely avoided Bruticus. An unseen shot from Devastator caught him in the back.
Ultra Rodimus growled. Now he was mad.
He grabbed his axe and struck out, catching Bruticus on the leg. The gestalt bellowed in pain and rage. The Prime dodged Bruticus's pounding fists and lashed out at Predaking. The razor-sharp axe blades went through the Predicon's armor like tissue paper, biting deep into his shoulder. Predaking roared and flattened Ultra Rodimus with one huge arm.
Ultra Rodimus transformed to his dinosaur mode, using his teeth and claws to attack. Pirannacon brought both fists down on Ultra Rodimus's back, and the dinosaur bellowed, his legs almost giving way. He took a step forward to keep from collapsing and whipped around to sink his teeth into the Seacon's arm. Pirannacon yelped and shook his arm wildly. One of the other gestalts grabbed Ultra Rodimus by the tail, wrenched him off Pirannacon's arm, and slammed him to the ground. He let out a grunt as he hit the ground. Ultra Rodimus lay there for a moment, stunned, the wind knocked out of him. Then he transformed again, this time to his serpent mode.
From head to tailtip, the serpent was an easy 300 feet long. Ultra Rodimus transformed into the head, and the massive body emerged from subspace. The head rose up out of the swirling dust, tongue flicking out and then back in. He hissed, then moved with lightning speed. His powerful coils wound around Devastator and constricted. Devastator gasped for air as those coils tightened even further, crushing him. The Autobot Prime held on, ignoring the fists pounding his back and sides. Finally, he closed his coils in one sudden squeeze, and Devastator, having had enough, fell apart. The serpent's head darted out, grabbing each Constructicon and hurling him away. Then the rest of the gestalts closed in.
"Prime!" Magnus screamed, struggling toward the fighting knot. Decepticons blocked his way. He swatted them aside, but they closed in on him, holding him at bay.
"I won't let you interrupt this!" Cyclonus sneered.
Magnus roared in anger. He was full of rage. There was no way he was going to let this upstart Decepticon get between him and the Prime he loved!
He paused, thinking that thought over. He thought his mind was playing tricks on him. But he still felt that strange emotion inside him. He'd fallen hard for the young Prime. But he couldn't dwell on that thought. He drew back his fist and then drove it straight into Cyclonus's face, putting all of his formidable strength behind the blow. The Decepticon second-in-command went down like a shot bird, out cold.
"Nice shot," Kup muttered to him, tackling Dirge.
"Thanks." Magnus resumed fighting his way to Ultra Rodimus.
Menasor fell to his knees. The scorpion Ultra Rodimus had turned into had stung him four times. The poison was running rampant in his blood. A vicious blow from the just-arriving Autobot gestalt Defensor put him out of the fight. Bruticus and Pirannacon turned on Defensor, forcing him to retreat, then returned to pounding on Ultra Rodimus. A powerful blow to the back made the young Prime stumble and fall, but this time the cry of pain didn't come from him. Magnus let out a scream of shared pain, feeling what Ultra Rodimus was feeling as clearly as if it was happening to him instead. He could sense that Ultra Rodimus was swiftly approaching the limits of how much of a pounding he could take.
Something snapped in Ultra Rodimus's mind. He suddenly transformed again, breaking free of the gestalts and hovering above them. The fighting stopped as everyone stared at him. They'd thought that they'd already seen all of the alternate modes he had. Apparently they hadn't.
The shape he'd assumed was based on his robot form, but there were large differences. His arms had been traded for steel-feathered wings that had a full span more than twice his own height from tip to tip. His legs had an extra joint, and ended in curved steel claws, as sharp as razors and as long as Magnus's hand from his wrist to the tip of his middle finger. More steel feathers ran in a spiky crest down his back, and his head was no longer humanoid. His neck had stretched out, like a bird's, and his birdlike head sported a nasty-looking beak. From his lower back sprouted a full set of tailfeathers. He opened his beak and hissed.
Magnus's skin prickled. He squirmed, trying to ease the sensation. An odd smell, the smell of nearby lightning, tickled his olfactory sensors. After a few moments of trying to get rid of the itching on his back, he looked at Perceptor.
"What in Primus's name is going on?"
"It's him." Perceptor pointed at Ultra Rodimus. "He's pulling the electrical charge from the air. He's building a massive amount of electrical energy inside his body."
"What is he planning?"
Before Perceptor could say another word, the answer revealed itself in a spectacular manner.
Ultra Rodimus shrieked, the sound a cross between a robot's scream and the high-pitched cry of a bird of prey. Then the air seemed to explode.
Bolts of lightning crackled in every direction, with Ultra Rodimus at the center of the eruption. The bolts were coming from his body, crackling across his feathers and leaping off into space. The gestalts jerked wildly as the immense shock tore through their bodies, frying circuitry and shorting out every system. Predaking came apart with such force that the individual Predicons were propelled hundreds of meters away. Menasor crashed, his limbs flailing wildly. Bruticus simply landed in a heap.
Within seconds, all of the gestalts had been incapacitated. The lightning faded out. Threads of electricity sizzled over his feathers. Then his eyes rolled so far back only the whites were visible, and he fell out of the sky to land in a heap.
Magnus forced his way to his leader's side. The impact had caused Ultra Rodimus to transform back to his robot mode. He lay in a crumpled heap, one arm twisted beneath him at a strange angle. His armor was burned black. Smoke coiled from his scorched body. Even his hair was charred. He was unconscious.
"Prime!" Magnus knelt beside him and lifted the young Prime off the ground. To his surprise, Ultra Rodimus was much lighter than he looked. Magnus cradled the wounded youth in his arms, bracing Ultra Rodimus's head against his shoulder. Somehow, he could sense that Ultra Rodimus was deeply unconscious.
"I will see to it that he never wakes up!" Galvatron aimed his cannon directly at Ultra Rodimus's chest.
The Autobots, bellowing rage, swarmed the Decepticon leader. Galvatron was caught completely be surprise. He went down under their attack. Cyclonus attempted to reach Galvatron, barely managing to get through the mass of infuriated Autobots.
Galvatron looked like he'd been mauled by some kind of huge cat. There were deep parallel slashes all over his body, which told Cyclonus that the Autobots had been so angry they'd attacked with their bare hands. Scourge fended off the Autobots with the help of the Sweeps while Cyclonus pried Galvatron out of their grips. Other Decepticons gathered up the scattered members of the gestalt teams and loaded them onto the shuttle.
"Retreat!" Cyclonus yelled. "Retreat!"
The Decepticons, taking a serious pounding from the Autobots, were not the least bit reluctant to obey that order. Many of them were in serious danger of being literally torn apart by the Autobots. They struggled free of the raging mass and scrambled onto the ships. The ships, once loaded took off and vanished into space.
Magnus watched First Aid as he ran a sensor over Ultra Rodimus's prone body. "Well?"
"We have to get him back to Cybertron. He has significant internal damage, damage that could become fatal if left untreated for too long. He's losing fluids at an alarming rate."
Magnus lifted Ultra Rodimus into his arms and carried him toward the waiting shuttle. On board, he hunted around until he found the best spot, chased away the Autobots already there, and placed Ultra Rodimus on the benchlike seat. Then he pulled an equipment crate over and sat beside the unconscious youth, holding one of Ultra Rodimus's hands between his own.
"You seem unusually concerned about Ultra Rodimus," Kup commented, leaning against the wall.
"Shouldn't I be?"
"That's not what I meant." Kup glanced from Magnus to First Aid. "How is he?"
"In pain and deeply under," Magnus answered absently, and Kup's head snapped around to stare at him, stunned. "He thinks he'll sleep for a week."
"And how do you know that?" Kup asked sharply.
Magnus eyed him. "I can sense it. I can feel his thoughts."
"You're no telepath. You shouldn't be able to hear his thoughts. That's impossible!" First Aid exclaimed.
Kup shook his head. "There's only one way that it could be possible, First Aid. Only one thing could allow Magnus to hear what Ultra Rodimus is thinking and know what he is feeling."
The medic turned to stare at the much older Autobot. "And what way is that?"
Kup looked at him seriously. "The only was that would be possible is..."
To be continued...
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