Edit, 10.2.05: After watching Super Link, I realized that the upgraded Demolisher, Mirage, and Shockblast were never on Earth. This caused problems. Now they've been fixed. Yay!
Now, on with the chapter.
…..
E-bay is pig Latin for be. Just thought I'd mention that.
The-Crab: I know I already thanked you for putting a link to my fic on your bio, but THANKS AGAIN! And I'm glad you liked when Cy tried to control Unicron. Who doesn't want to be a seeker? ;)
White-Winged Angel: Yes, Snowcat's happy. But for how long? After all, there are still several chapters left… Writer's block is evil, yes. I counteract it by forcing myself to write junk then just revising it until it's good enough to post.
Pivot: Death by Yodeling? I might use that concept in a chapter or two. And is Megs using Cyclonus as an interrogator evil on Cy or evil on everyone else? ((thinks)) Everyone else. Definitely.
Pretty in Scarlet: Yay, I'm on your faves list! Keep working on your Mary-Sue fics!
Shade: Well, here's the next chapter. And don't worry about being too lazy to log in, a lot of times I am too. Less than 10 of my reviews are done logged in. ((eheheh…))
There won't be too much about Cyclonus/Snowcat in this chapter, it'll mostly be focusing on Demolisher. But it's important to the fic, and it's got some of the best descriptions I've ever written, so read! Plus, we finally to see some Autobots. I'm sure some of you will be thrilled but I am not so much. ((runs in circled wearing a Decepticon shirt and holding about twenty Decepticon toys)) CONS FOREVER! DOWN WITH THE BOTS! Not that I'm biased…
Warning: Incredibly long chapter ahead! Over five thousand words and counting! That's over 2000 words longer than my current longest chapter in this fic! Then again, someone requested a longer chapter (I think… that coulda been one of my other fics), so here it is!
Disclaimer: Transformers belong to Hasbro. I own this plot, the poem I have little excerpts from every chapter (no, you haven't heard the whole thing yet!), and the nanobots/nanobot controller. It'll make sense by the end of the chapter.
…..
While you can't move
The one beside you can't breath…
Snowcat ducked under a swing from Ironhide and kicked him in the knee, knocking him down. He'd become much better at melee combat in the last few weeks. He stood up and planted a foot on Ironhide's chest then used his cannons to freeze his arms and legs to the ground.
"Hey, what? Lemme up, you Decepticreep!"
"Hmm… NO!" After knocking Ironhide out and making sure he wouldn't be getting up any time soon, Snowcat transformed and drove straight towards the back of Hot Shot's legs, running over one of Ironhide's arms in the process.
Prime was apparently tiring from the continuous battles, for Megatron had him backed into a corner. Megatron risked a glance up, to see how his soldiers were doing. He smirked in satisfaction. Ironhide was down, Hot Shot was about to be – scratch that, Hot Shot was down too, Jetfire and Starscream were fighting above the rest and Jetfire couldn't hit to save his life Starscream, and a heavily damaged Inferno was on top of a pile of rocks, evidently about to shoot at Demolisher, who was looking around for an opponent. Well, maybe Demolisher couldn't see Inferno, but Megatron could.
Prime swung a fist at Megatron's face, catching him off guard. Megatron countered by kicking Prime in the mid section. He stumbled backwards and grabbed the rock wall to stay up.
Megatron was surprised. "That was too easy," he said to himself. A voice in the back of his head told him something was up, but he ignored it. Since when were the Autobots up to anything?
"Demolisher!" Megatron yelled, and when he had his attention, Megatron shot at Inferno, making the Autobots stumble off of his rock pile to avoid the blasts. Demolisher glanced at him, then gave Megatron a half-salute, a dark gleam in his optics. "I'll take care of this one, boss!"
Megatron nodded quickly and turned away from Demolisher. He hated it when his soldiers called him "boss." It wasn't like he had hired any of them.
Megatron's optics widened, and flickered in a blink. His mouth opened a little. Where was Prime? He had only looked away for a second!
Megatron scanned the battlefield, a canyon on a barren planet. They were underneath an overhang that dug deep into the side of the canyon, with absolutely nothing to hold it up. Megatron wondered idly how it had formed this way, as the sides looked artificially carved, but the structure suited his needs. A load of Energon was in the overhang above them, about two hundred feet above their heads. The Terrorcons could dig it out, and then the Decepticons would retreat, taking just enough time to blow up the overhang and crush the Autobots. Of course, the Autobots would probably escape after all, but Megatron could dream.
And Prime wasn't anywhere to be seen.
Megatron clenched his jaw in frustration. Fine, if Prime wanted to play games, he could, but Megatron wouldn't play along. The Terrorcons should be about done; Megatron would check on them to see that they were doing things right.
"Shockblast! Mirage!" Megatron yelled, turing towards the end of the overhang. They were outside, trying to take Kicker down. A waste of time; he was too quick to hit on his silly Minicon hoverboard and too weak to do any real damage. "Leave the human alone and FIND OPTIMUS PRIME!"
"But Megatron – " Shockblast started to protest.
"But nothing!" Megatron snarled. "That's an order! Unless a human is all you can handle?"
Shockblast considered this for less than a second. "Outta my way," he muttered, shoving past Mirage and heading under the overhang, Mirage quickly following him. A bewildered Kicker was left on his hoverboard, still holding the Energon Saber like he was about to hit something with it.
"Pitiful fleshie," Megatron sneered, transforming and flying to the Terrorcons' dig site.
Megatron landed on the edge of the pit, and smirked. Ah yes, the first glimmers of gold were shining through. Such a beautiful sight.
"Pick up the pace!" Megatron ordered. "I want to be out of here as soon as possible." Megatron looked up and saw twenty Divebombs sitting around the edge of the pit, guarding from Autobots.
"What are you doing?" Megatron demanded. "Get down there with the others and DIG!"
The Divebombs glanced at each other a moment, considering the wisdom (or lack thereof) of this order, then glided down into the pit, transformed, and joined the dig.
"That's better," Megatron muttered, smirking, then jumped into the pit himself to monitor the dig more closely.
…
Optimus Prime looked through the narrow (well, narrow for a Transformer) crevice in the wall he had hidden in. He felt a little stupid for hiding, but if this plan was going to work, he couldn't risk being stopped by the Decepticons. Besides, he had died a total of eight times in his life, and was learning that it wasn't a pleasant experience.
Optimus checked on how his soldiers were doing. He winced. Apparently, they weren't doing very well. Inferno had more damaged areas than he had undamaged. Trying to shoot the Decepticons from atop a rock pile hadn't helped him very much. Optimus would have to do this quickly.
He watched Demolisher and Inferno carefully, opening his hand to reveal a small device. He had been holding it the whole battle, shielding it from Megatron's blows. Optimus clicked a button on the top, and it unfolded into a small computer, with a screen and a keyboard of only eleven buttons; the ten regular digits, and an ENTER button. The screen had a single message on it:
N A N O B O T . I M P L A N T . P A T I E N T :
Optimus typed in six digits, 004508, and hit ENTER. The screen flashed a new message:
N A N O B O T . I M P L A N T . P A T I E N T :
0 0 4 5 0 8
S U B J E C T :
D E C E P T I C O N . D E M O L I S H E R
C O N F I R M ?
Optimus hit ENTER again, and a small image of Demolisher appeared on the right side of the screen, with a list of commands on the left.
(1) A C T I V A T E . N A N O B O T S
(2) ATTK . N E R V E S
(3) ATTK . W E A P O N S
(4) ATTK . M O T H E R B O A R D
(5) ATTK . O P T I C A L . N E R V E S
(6) ATTK . A U D I O . R E C E P T O R S
(7) D E A C T I V A T E . N A N O B O T S
(000) S H U T D O W N . P R O C E D U R E
Optimus typed in 1562, and hit ENTER. The picture and all commands except the chosen ones disappeared.
(1) A C T I V A T E . N A N O B O T S
(5) ATTK . O P T I C A L . N E R V E S
(6) ATTK . A U D I O . R E C E P T O R S
(2) ATTK . N E R V E S
C O N F I R M ?
Optimus hit ENTER again.
P R O C E S S I N G . . .
A few seconds later the word disappeared, and the first order was highlighted.
Optimus looked up at Demolisher and Inferno. Inferno was curled up on the ground, and Demolisher was standing over him, holding Inferno's own gun and leveling it at his head. He suddenly froze and took a step back, then looked around wildly, trying to figure out what the heck had just happened. He'd felt a small wave pass through his body, like a static shock. Under his facemask, Optimus smiled grimly. The Nanobots were waking up.
Optimus was watching Demolisher very closely, but if he had been looking at his device he would have noticed the first command disappearing and the second command being highlighted.
Shaking his head to clear the momentary confusion, Demolisher pointed the gun at Inferno again, when his vision went black. He fired and wildly missed Inferno, then dropped the gun and waved his hand in front of his face. He couldn't see it. Suddenly, a flash of blinding colors filled his sight. He shrieked and fell backwards, but the dizzying colors stayed. Demolisher tried to shut his optics off but they wouldn't respond.
Optimus nodded in satisfaction. "The nanobots work better than we thought they would," he muttered, watching Demolisher scrape at his own optics as if he could turn them off that way. Optimus winced. Was that supposed to happen? It looked painful.
The third order was highlighted.
A dull whine entered Demolisher's audio receptor, but he didn't even notice it, still being distracted by the blinding light in his optics. But the whine switched to a shriek, two droning tones in horrible discordance and jumping back and forth between subsonic and sound so high that not even bats could hear it. But Demolisher could.
Blind and deaf to the real world, Demolisher fell backwards until he hit a wall. He felt all the cracks, dents, and bulges in the wall with his hands, trying to ignore the overload of sight and sound. Yes, that was still there. The real world was still there. Somewhere, the Decepticons were still there. Megatron was still there. They could stop whatever this was. They would find him. They were still there. Demolisher could wait this out.
The forth order was highlighted. And all the sudden, nothing was still there anymore.
Demolisher reeled as if from an impact. Every one of his damage alarm nerves had exploded in pain. But worse, he couldn't feel the wall, or the ground under his feet. He wouldn't even be able to feel it if a real shot hit him. Disoriented, Demolisher lost a grip on the wall he wasn't even sure he had and fell on the ground to his side. He couldn't even feel himself fall. He didn't know if he was still falling, or if he had fallen at all. Not even able to hear it himself, Demolisher let out an anguished shriek.
Optimus watched Demolisher for a moment in horror. No one had known how the nanobots would work when the Omnicons had developed them and implanted them into the Decepticons during the ten-year interlude between wars. This had been the first test run, and apparently they worked very well. Optimus shuddered as Demolisher let out another shriek. This wasn't supposed to happen.
Optimus realized with a jolt that he couldn't leave Demolisher like that, picked up the nanobot controller, and typed in 7, ENTER, and then clicked ENTER again before the confirmation request had even finished appearing on the screen.
P R O C E S S I N G…
The controller finished sending the message to the nanobots. The single order was highlighted, then disappeared just as quickly. The nanobots in Demolisher's body returned to their storage containers built in the very marrow of Demolisher's mainframe.
Demolisher's damage alarms went numb, everything went silent, and the world went black again. For an instant Demolisher was relieved, then he panicked. He was stuck in a void of nothingness. A second ago, at least the colors, the sound, and the pain had been real. Here, nothing was. But, slowly Demolisher could feel the ground pressed against his side, hear the noises of the battle, and see the stone walls of the canyon overhang.
'I'm alive! Whatever the slag that was, I survived it!' Demolisher thought, sitting up and choking back a sob. That had been a taste of pure hell.
Remembering his duty as a Decepticon warrior, Demolisher scanned the cave to see what the condition was of the others. All of them were there, and real… oh so very real… Demolisher shook his head and actually focused this time. Ironhide was down, Hot Shot was firing up at Snowcat, with Snowcat standing on his chest, dodging shots and firing up at Jetfire at the same time. Jetfire and Starscream were still fighting, though Jetfire was slowing down. Inferno had retrieved his gun and was trying to sit up, staring at Demolisher like he was crazy. And he probably was. Demolisher had no idea what he'd done when that… that spasm had hit him. As far as he knew, he might have started singing in Romanian.
'Do I even know Romanian?' Demolisher thought, and then wondered, 'When did I learn what Romania is?'
Shockblast and Mirage had just come in and were looking around like they were trying to find something, and Prime was standing there and just staring… right at him!
Demolisher shivered. Why was Prime looking at him like that? And what was that in his…
"Oh, no," Demolisher whispered. He recognized that from when he had been slave. The nanobot controller.
Prime saw Demolisher looking at him, and made a motion with his head. It was a motion for Demolisher to come over, since Prime couldn't mouth it and he couldn't exactly walk onto a battlefield and ask for a conversation.
But Demolisher didn't take it like the innocent gesture it truly was. Anger rushed through him. Oh, how many times he'd seen Prime do that in the ten years he spent in Ocean City, when Prime was on one side of the room and Demolisher was on the other. Come, slave. Do your master's bidding. Demolisher clenched his fists and stood up, glaring at Prime.
Optimus took an involuntary step back when he saw the look on Demolisher's face. He couldn't remember getting that kind of a look from even Megatron… Oh, wait, yes he could. In any case, Optimus glanced down at the Nanobot controller, to make sure he could use it quickly if Demolisher tried anything.
Demolisher noticed Prime's glance. The anger leaked out of Demolisher and fear filled its place. No, he would not let himself go back in there. He had to, as much as he hated it, go to Prime.
'Yes, that's right, even though you're free I am still your master.' Demolisher shook his head to get the imagined voice out of his head. Prime had never actually said that. Prime wasn't the type that would say that, even if he could. But Demolisher could sure imagine him saying that…
"What do you want?" Demolisher hissed. "I'm free now and you know it. You are not my master."
"Master?" Prime repeated, sounding genuinely surprised. "You make it sound like I forced you into signing that contract!"
"You did!" Demolisher growled, carefully keeping a seeker jet's length between himself and the Autobot leader.
Prime narrowed his optics. "It was your own decision to sign it. It's not my fault you – "
"You still haven't answered my question. What do you WANT!" Demolisher snarled.
Prime's grip on the nanobot controller tightened instinctively. Demolisher seemed angrier about this than Prime had expected him to be. Then again, he had no idea what the Nanobots had done to him. "I want you to switch back to the Autobots," he said, hoping he wasn't about to become scrap metal. Since Demolisher had gotten his new body, he'd been a little… crazy.
"NEVER!" Demolisher lunged forward, fists flying.
Jumping back so hard his back slammed into the canyon wall, Optimus quickly typed 1, hit ENTER repeatedly, and braced himself. Demolisher wasn't supposed to react like this. What had Megatron done to his programming?
Demolisher let out a strangled yelp, optics widening. He froze in mid-lunge and fell backwards a few steps as the nanobots entered his fuel lines. But after the lurching inside that signified the nanobots' activation, nothing happened.
Optimus had been panicked for a second as Demolisher jumped, but he tried not to let it show. He typed in 5 6 2 ENTER, and said as calmly as he could manage, "I'm at the confirmation screen right now. All I have to do is push a button and the nanobots will activate."
Demolisher clenched his hands into fists and considered his options. Could he grab the controller from Prime fast enough to keep him from activating the nanobots? No. And it was Demolisher himself who wanted to stay a slaggin' jet's length away.
"Demolisher, why are you just standing over there?" Snowcat called. "If you're not doing anything, I could use some help on Jetfire!"
Demolisher was instantly filled with relief. Snowcat couldn't see Prime from where he was standing, but that meant Prime couldn't see Snowcat. If Demolisher could turn on his comlink, contact Snowcat, and talk quietly enough, he could get him to come over…
Prime had apparently gained the ability to read minds. "Don't bother trying to contact any other Decepticons. I can activate this before they get here."
"I don't care what you call that contract, THIS is slavery!" Demolisher said accusingly. "And you can't deny that!"
Optimus squirmed inwardly. Demolisher was right. How had the Omnicons convinced him to do this? "It's a tactical advantage," Optimus said, repeating the lines the Omnicons had given him. Sometimes, he really hated his job. "And the nanobots will help when the war's over. If a criminal is arrested, we could implant these and let them live freely, but they wouldn't be able to commit any more crime unless they wanted the nanobots to activate."
"How is it that you can manage to sound like a typical goody-goody Help The Universe Autobot and like Megatron talking to a prisoner at the same time?" Demolisher muttered angrily, and quickly shut his mouth. Prime's finger was still hovering dangerously over the ENTER button.
"There he is!" a voice shouted. Demolisher and Prime turned to look towards the sound of the voice. Silhouetted by the sunlight out in the canyon, Shockblast and Mirage stood with all their weapons trained on Optimus Prime. It was the most beautiful thing Demolisher had ever seen.
"Even if Shockblast and Mirage fire right now, I can activate the nanobots before their projectiles hit me," Prime reminded Demolisher. "And if I do and they knock me out, there will be no one to turn the nanobots off." Suddenly the sight of his comrades wasn't nearly as beautiful as it had been.
Prime made another slight gesture with his head. 'Be a good little slave and kill them. Master says.' Demolisher shook his head to clear the thoughts. Prime didn't say that. He mean it, but…
Demolisher couldn't do it. He turned his optics off and back on, hoping Shockblast and Mirage were gone so he wouldn't have to do this. They weren't. In fact, they were much closer and getting closer by the second. Demolisher made a decision.
'Look on the bright side,' he thought. 'You've been wanting to do this to Shockblast since you met him.'
Demolisher turned on his grenade launcher, felt it click into place, and fired at his fellow Decepticons. He looked away when they hit, but only for an instant. That wouldn't be enough. Much as he hated it, he would actually have to fight them.
Demolisher charged forward and punched Mirage in the stomach, then hit his head, putting him into stasis almost instantly. Mirage hadn't been expecting an attack from his comrade. He then turned towards Shockblast.
"Demolisher? What the slag do you think you're doing!" Shockblast yelled, completely forgetting about Prime and turning to look at Demolisher.
Demolisher didn't answer, instead ramming Shockblast with his shoulder, knocking him over. He put one foot on Shockblast's chest, as he had seen Snowcat do earlier.
"Tell Megatron I'm sorry. It's not my fault," Demolisher said quietly.
"Tell MEGATRON you're sorry! Hey, what about apologizing to me! You just…" The rest of Shockblast's complaint was cut off when Demolisher kicked him in the head with his other foot, just hard enough to put him in stasis.
"Good job, Demolisher," Optimus said shakily. He couldn't believe that actually worked. "You'll make a good Autobot, someday."
Prime was talking to Demolisher like he did to all his other precious Autobot soldiers. Demolisher wanted to turn around, right then and there, and beat Prime's slagging head in, and he didn't care if he went blind, deaf, and numb at the same time because of it. Instead, he just hissed, so Prime couldn't hear, "But I don't want to be an Autobot."
Optimus decided to push his luck. "Now, go get the other two."
Demolisher's optics widened. "No way! Not Snowcat! I'll shoot at Starscream, but not Snowcat!" Demolisher quickly shut his vocalizer. Friendship was a weakness, and he had just shown one to Prime.
Demolisher was afraid for a second that Prime would activate the nanobots because of the outburst, but after a short pause Prime simply nodded. "Alright then. I'll take Snowcat." Demolisher regretted speaking up. Which was worse, Demolisher himself beating up Snowcat, or getting him beaten up by Optimus Prime instead? What if he'd been able to warn Snowcat? He could've told him to pretend to be unconscious, then jump up and distract Prime long enough for Demolisher to get the controller. But it was too late now.
Prime watched Demolisher. He was waiting for him to make the first move. Demolisher mentally said a quick prayer to whatever god was rooting for the Decepticons, and attacked.
…
"Hey Demolisher! 'Bout time you made it over here! What were you doing?" Snowcat asked cheerfully. Demolisher didn't answer, just started launching grenades. Snowcat shrugged and started firing at Jetfire too. Snowcat was surprised he was still up there, after all that time. No matter, with Demolisher helping he wouldn't be up there long…
Snowcat realized every grenade Demolisher had fired so far had missed. It was almost like he was missing on purpose. In fact, now that Snowcat was looking, it was almost exactly like…
"Demolisher?" Snowcat asked. "Are you firing at Starsc – GAH!" Snowcat was hit hard in the back and knocked off of Hot Shot and onto the ground. Groaning, Snowcat rolled onto his side and looked up at Prime, who was now helping Hot Shot up. "Awww maaan."
Hot Shot smiled. And you know that friendly, warm, Autobot-ish way he can smile? This wasn't one of those smiles. "You said it." The next thing Snowcat saw was the barrel of Hot Shot's gun.
"HEY!" Snowcat yelled, scrambling to his feet, and stumbling back a few steps. He heard a thud and turned to look at it. Oh, Starscream was down.
"Megatron?" Snowcat yelled into his comlink. "We have a situation here!"
…
The Terrorcons had almost finished with the Energon. What a time for things to go bad. And Megatron had known Prime was going to be up to something. Megatron shut his optics of and counted to ten. "What is it, Snowcat?"
"Well, Optimus and Hot Shot are ganging up on me, Starscream is down, I don't know where Mirage or – OOF! What did I just trip over? Oh, there they are. Mirage and Shockblast are down, too. And Demolisher is… um… traumatized, I guess. He's staring at Starscream. My point is GET DOWN HERE AND KICK SOME AUTO-BUTT! Erm… please, boss?"
Counting to ten would not be good enough today. Megatron decided to count to twenty. When he was done he ordered all the Terrorcons to go under the overhang. If that didn't help he didn't know what would.
…
"Terrorcons!" Kicker yelled, gliding towards the group on his hoverboard. Optimus jerked up to looked out the entrance hoping this was one of those premonitions that'd come true in about twenty minutes. But sure enough, a pack of Terrorcons were right on Kicker's tail. Prime glanced at Demolisher, and Demolisher quickly shook his head. No, he hadn't called them.
Prime quickly realized that the Terrorcons were swarming in their only exit, which left only one option. "Autobots, retreat!" he yelled, waited until he'd seen Inferno, Hot Shot, Jetfire and Kicker warp back to the Miranda II, then left himself, holding Demolisher's shoulder so he would come with him. Megatron got there a moment later.
"Snowcat! Where are the Autobots?" Megatron asked, looking around to make sure they were really gone. Snowcat shrugged helplessly.
"They… they just… left," he stuttered, staring in another direction. Megatron looked over. There was nothing there.
"Snowcat, what is it?" he demanded, hoping it wasn't Snowcat's old depression problem back with a vengeance. He had enough problems right now without having to deal with his soldier's little issues. Snowcat didn't answer.
Megatron growled in frustration and turned to see how his soldiers were doing. He saw Starscream down, he was beat up pretty bad… Shockblast and Mirage were over there in stasis, at least they weren't beat up too bad… there was Snowcat… Something was missing.
"Where's Demolisher?" Megatron asked. Snowcat jerked out of his stupor and turned towards Megatron.
"Demolisher is…" Snowcat trailed off, then forced himself to start again. "Demolisher… left. With the Autobots. Prime took 'em."
Megatron didn't believe it. "Say that again," he ordered. Snowcat said it again. Megatron didn't like it any better the second time.
Luckily, Snowcat ducked.
…
"So, the question now is why Demolisher went with them…" Megatron mused. It was about an hour later. Megatron had blown off steam shooting at the various and assorted rocks, causing Snowcat to hide on the other side of the canyon. Shockblast had come out of stasis, explained (or rather, whined about) what had happened to him, and relucantly told Megatron what Demolisher had said. Knowing that somehow Demolisher had been forced to go with the Autobots had made Snowcat feel better, but not by much. "He's not brave enough to be a traitor," Megatron continued, ignoring Snowcat's sudden stiffening at the suggestion that Demolisher would be a traitor in any case. "But we still have to find out why he went with the Autobots if we want to find out how to get him back on our side."
"I say let him go," Shockblast said coldly. "If he really wanted to be on our side, he wouldn't have gone with them in the first place."
Snowcat's head jerked up. He gaped at Shockblast for a second then yelled, "TAKE THAT BACK, you CREEP!" and lunged at Shockblast.
"What the-- " Shockblast yelled, but was cut off when Snowcat grabbed his head and shoved him to the ground.
"TAKE IT BACK YOURSELF OR I'LL SHOVE IT BACK IN YOU!" Snowcat screamed, bringing back a fist.
"Snowcat!" Megatron yelled, throwing the enraged Decepticon off of Shockblast with one hand, and kicking Shockblast back from tearing Snowcat apart with the other. Evidently, Snowcat did have some suppressed depression, if he was lashing out at others with that kind of fury. Then again, Shockblast had that effect on everyone. "We're not going to leave Demolisher in the hands of Optimus Prime. One way or another, he's coming back. But there's no point in staying on this rock. The Terrorcons have gotten all the Energon we need. We 're pulling back to Unicron." Megatron glanced up at the sky worriedly. Not that anyone else could tell he was worried. 'Besides,' he thought, 'this planet is close to Cybertron. It will only be a matter of time before the Autobots come back to build an Energon grid over it, too."
"Fine. But I'm not hauling them back to Unicron!" Shockblast muttered, gesturing towards Mirage and Starscream.
Sullenly, Snowcat prepared to warp back to Unicron, when he heard a groan from somewhere back under the overhang. He tensed up, and when it didn't get any louder, he ran back under to inspect it.
"Lookit that!" he yelled. "Boss, get over here!"
"What is it?" Megatron asked, going to where he heard Snowcat's voice. He found him standing over… someone. He was almost completely covered in ice, but Megatron thought he recognized whoever it was…
"Um… heheh… hi?" Ironhide said nervously, who had just woke up from when Snowcat had knocked him out.
Megatron smirked. "I see we have a prisoner." He kicked the ice several times, making it shatter. "Snowcat, see to it that he doesn't escape, would you?"
"No problem," Snowcat said, aiming his two cannons at Ironhide. Unfortunately, Ironhide's weapons were still frozen over. Poor guy.
Ironhide stood up slowly. "I don't have to put my hands over my head, do I?" he asked, trying to sound cocky and failing miserably.
"Only if you want to," Snowcat said cheerfully.
"Now that that's taken care of, let's get out of here," Megatron said. "Retreat!" He warped back to Unicron, expecting the others to follow. Snowcat warped out a second later.
Shockblast looked from Ironhide to Starscream and Mirage, and back again. "You carry 'em."
…
"Snowcat? I need to have a word with you," Megatron said.
"But I'm guarding Ironhide!" Snowcat said.
Megatron glanced at Ironhide. He was currently secured to the wall by about a thousand cables, and couldn't so much as turn his head. "He'll be here when we're done."
Snowcat shrugged and followed Megatron around a corner, where Ironhide couldn't hear them. "So what is it?"
"I have an idea that might help us get Demolisher back. But to work, I'll need your assistance."
"Um…" Snowcat shrugged again, wondering what he could possibly do. When Megatron didn't outright order you to do something, you knew it probably wouldn't be good. "Tell me what it is first."
Megatron smirked. Snowcat was smarter than Cyclonus had ever been, even though he was the same Transformer. Cyclonus wouldn't have thought to ask what he was about to promise to do. A simple change in attitude could change so much about someone.
"It's simple. That Autobot," Megatron gestured to Ironhide around the corner, "most likely knows whatever Prime's done to get Demolisher to work for the Autobots. All you need to do is interrogate him and find out what it is."
"Uh, sure, no prob," Snowcat said, surprised. He hadn't expected that. "But, I don't know how to do interrogations."
Megatron smiled coldly. "Oh, what I want you to do is easy. Just… talk to him. Stay in a room with him, alone, for a week or two." When Snowcat still gave him a confused look (the only Transformer alive would could do it through a face-mask) Megatron rolled his optics and just barely restrained himself from decking Snowcat. "Confuse him! Make him question reality, and eventually break him. Make him accept whatever twisted version of reality you show him, and then when I offer to send him back to the reality he prefers, in exchange for anything we want to know…" Megatron let the sentence hang.
Snowcat shifted from one foot to the other, uncomfortable. He thought he was beginning to catch on to what Megatron wanted to do, but he hoped he wasn't. 'Please,' he thought, 'don't do this to me! I'm trying to forget that junk!'
"That mind-twisting stuff sounds like something you'd do. Not me. I mean, you weirded Starscream up, right? Maybe you should handle that."
Megatron laughed quietly. Snowcat decided he didn't like that laugh. "Yes, I do know how minds work. But there's only one Transformer who was able to send five master psychologists to their own sanitarium."
Snowcat wondered if there was a chance he could get out of this. He could still just refuse to do it, play dumb, and say he had no idea what Megatron was talking about. He had been forcing himself to forget his past for about a month now. So far so good, until this came up.
But… if he was the only one that could help Demolisher…
"Actually, only two of 'em went to the sanitarium. The other three killed themselves." Snowcat set his jaw. He could do this for Demolisher. He'd probably come out of it worse than Ironhide, though. "So, when do I get my hands on this Autobot?"
…..
So, that's chapter six! The next chapter, we get to see Cyclonus/Snowcat's interrogation attempt.
Next week, school starts, so updates will be coming slower. I'll say next update will be Friday at the latest.
