Gateway Future

Heaven and Hell

"H-Hot...Shot...?" His voice was full of confusion and disarray. Something in the back of his mind began to scream at him, however he ignored it. "...You are...Hot Shot, are you not...?"

"S-Starscream...?" Hot Shot whispered. He relaxed his grip on the swordsbot slightly and slowly brought both himself and the addled halfway red and white halfway black fighter to his feet. His optics, both silver and light blue, ran across the room as if to try and find something he had lost. He paused when he caught sight of Sideswipe – to be exact, he stopped when he caught sight of the thin scar over Sideswipe's spark.

"Side...Sideswipe...? What happened...to your chest...?" he whispered in question.

"You don't remember?" Sideswipe questioned. The swordsbot looked at him curiously.

"Remember? Remember what...?"

The voice in the back of his mind was screaming now. It was screaming at him to attack, and slowly, his will was failing.

They had been saved, somehow. He tried to think back as to how exactly they had been saved, but nothing besides a pressing pain exploding thought both his body and mind met his query. The soft ruffle of a scared shaking child and her pet stuffed dragon pulling tighter against him brought his mind back to the present. So she was safe as well. The next step was to escape the prison of concrete and steal that had encapsulated them and make it to the safety of the Autobot lines. Laser fire dulled by the tonnage of steal around him echoed in his ears and made the girl he had wrapped himself tightly around wiggle closer in fear. Rick looked down at his new charge, her own scared sapphire eyes meeting his somehow calming brown.

"Are you alright, kid?" Rick questioned. The girl merely nodded. A smart idea on her part, seeing as if they didn't escape their prison soon the duo would run out of air.

Something in the back of Rick's mind registered this and grew worried. Rick was aware that it was not his own conscious that was growing worried with this fact echoing in the back of his mind, but another sentient conscious. It was a powerful consciousness as well – overwhelmingly powerful – and it too was trapped with them in the rubble. He fought back a gulp of fear as he realized that the owner of this consciousness was trapped in the same concrete and steal cadge that they were. With wide eyes, Rick looked up into the blackness of the concrete cave that had formed around them, and slowly he stood up. Elexandria instantly shifted her grip to his leg. She gasped and nearly cut off the circulation in Rick's leg when four burning red demonically arched eyes glared down at them from what had to be the ceiling and a puff of red fire illuminated a giant blacker than night scaled muzzle and rows upon rows of razor sharp dagger shaped teeth.

The powerful consciousness in the back of Rick's mind seemed to grow even stronger when the glowing blood red eyes locked their sights on him. A voice seemed to echo with the new consciousness, echoing booming questions in his ears. Rick broke his eyes away from the four that marked where the ceiling was and slammed his hands over his ears in an effort to block out the voice that was ringing in his ears. His eyes were wide in pain and his knees became like gelatin. As he collapsed down to his knees and screamed at the voice in his mind to leave him alone, the four glowing eyes turned so that only two could be seen. Elexandria recognized the cry of a dragon in pain, and recognized its owner with a gasp of shock, fear, and awe when the cadge was shattered, allowing sunlight to penetrate the darkness and revile the owner of the four demon eyes in all its glory.

Demolisher was sent crashing back into the wall, followed by Megatron's fist grabbing his throat. His hands instantly snapped over Megatron's in a futile effort to dislodge his former master and free himself to continue the battle. Demolisher knew that if he didn't win soon, Elexandria was doomed to suffocation if she hadn't been squished by the falling derbies.

A burning black darkness penetrated the cadge of concrete and scrap iron, pausing the fighting both around the entrance and the battles in visual rage of the spectacle. A giant roar echoed out from where there once had been a cadge, overlapping a human scream and gasp of fright. Red Alert was blasted back into the depths of Ocean City when one of two scaly black wings shot back into a wide arch. Two giant scale-covered hands with three claws extended outwards in a cadge-like shape with a fourth located at a six o'clock position on the hand to provide balance to the remainder of the giant oak-sized muscular scaled leg were firmly planted into the concrete, providing the giant double monster truck sized body natural support. Two more such legs were bent, allowing the giant reptilian-like creature to be seated, though how comfortably it was seated had yet to be noted nor did anyone care at that present moment. The black head, with two demonic blood red glowing eyes on either side of its face, stretched out on a neck that was a fifth of the body's total length and roared as if in pain while its tail whipped out behind it, knocking new sections of the entryway into simple dust bites. From the tip of its tail to the end of its muzzle, the giant beast was tall two Optimus Primes standing one on top of another.

"What in the name of Primus is that...?" Megatron whispered. The beast turned on him and before he knew what was going on it had lunged for him. Needless to say the 'Great Decpticon Leader' screamed like a sissy and ran for his life. Had their jaws not been so slacked, both Demolisher and Elexandria would have laughed at the scene. The beast let out one giant fireball after the revived dead, who answered by turning back and bringing his sword to a guard position.

"It has an incredible power for a simple illusion..." Megatron growled between gritted teeth. Demolisher gulped. The tail of the beast was overly close to his own midsection, and he had seen what that tail could do at not even half power to the reinforced titanium on the walls surrounding the entrance to the base. He tried to push himself back further into the wall in an effort to disappear when the two glowing blood red eyes closest to him seemed to catch him in their sights. The beast back-winged so that it was almost standing straight on its hind legs in the air and raised its fore claw to rip Demolisher to shreds.

"Stop it!" The beast's claws stopped only meters from Demolisher's armor. It turned in an almost confused manor towards the small painting child on the bridge. "Stop it, Mr. Black Dragon! You're hurting him!"

Her hand was outstretched into a pointer aimed, not at Demolisher, but at Rick. He was doubled over now, holding tight to his head and whispering back at something only he could hear to be silent and to go away. The black dragon slowly, deliberately flapped back to the bridge, landing with an echoing thump a few feet away from the doubled over teen and aggravated child. It walked forward slightly, confusion, worry, pain, all echoing in its eyes. Just as it was about to extend a claw in what almost looked like an effort to comfort the boy, a blast of red energy sliced past its arm. Both the dragon and Rick arched their backs and grabbed at their right arm a few inches away from the shoulder, and echoed out a single yell of pain. The dragon's blood red eyes blazed towards Red Alert, his blaster still smoking from the recent expenditure of energy. He was covered in dents and small puddles of purplish black liquid were forming down around his feet – the results of open puncture wounds that covered him from head to foot. Rick looked back down at the ground, his eyes covered in shadows.

"Mr. Rick! Are you alright?" Elexandria demanded. The dragon's attention was again brought to Rick and its eyes seemed to soften.

"...Leave..." Elexandria stopped for a moment. "Not you..." His eyes were blazing now in hidden fires which he turned upon the black beast that towered over him. "You! Leave, now!" The dragon whined and whimpered almost pathetically. "I said leave, NOW!"

A glowing silver gate snapped open about a hundred feet above the dragon. It closed its eyes as if it were saddened by something before opening its wings to their fullest extent. A rich depressing bugle sounded from its throat as it rose from the ashes of the bridge, and with its depressing cry the Decpticon/Terracon forces made their own retreat. When the last fleck of black from the beast had been swallowed by the silver of the target-like gate, Rick's eyes rolled back into his head and he collapsed into a very startled Elexandria's arms.

His hand went slamming down into what had been the bed he had occupied moments ago and he screamed off a single terrain curse. Erin slammed her hands over Elexandria's ears so that the child would not have to hear such a black curse. Once it was clear, she bent down to the child's height and ordered her to run off to the adjoining room where her giant warrior friend was recovering from his own injuries. Elexandria left without delay, pausing only for a moment to look up at the aggravated giant that had cursed. With another small gulp she bolted for Demolisher's bedside.

"Damn!" Hot Shot slashed his fist into another wall, creating a crater sized dent in it. He slowly brought his hand next to his spark, looking down at it and the gem bracelet he had been ordered to wear for who knew what reason. "Damn it all!" The bracelet was soon dislodged and shattering against the cold metal ground. "What the hell happened...?"

"I'd like to know the answer to that one as well, Hot Shot." Optimus' cold voice cut through the heated youth like a cold knife through hot butter. The four occupants of the room turned to face the two newcomers with glances anywhere from blazing anger to disillusioned respect. Kicker was one of those who looked at Prime with a burning glare of anger as he stood by his twin's bed. Rick's eyes were open, but he had refused to say anything. It was as if he were a shell without a soul now. Optimus turned to the Autobot he had assigned to be Kicker's partner and ordered in a suggestive gentle way, "Ironhide, why don't you take Kicker and Rick back to their room?"

"Yes sir," Ironhide answered halfheartedly. He gently picked Rick up in his hand and ignored the cold but gentle kick Kicker had planted on his face. He whispered to the angered teen just low enough for only the boy to hear and no one else, "I know, I know, I hate it too. Let's get Rick someplace familiar. It might just snap him out of shock."

Optimus and his Vice-Commander watched the trio exit the medical wing. Once it was clear they were gone, the duo turned towards Hot Shot and Erin. Optimus walked calmly over to the rejuvenation tank and softly brushed his fingers over the glass above Sideswipe's chest as if he were to lay a hand on the recovering robot boy in a comforting gesture. Jet Fire turned to look at Hot Shot and questioned gently,

"So what happened down below?"

"I don't feel like talking, Jet Fire... Why not ask those two humans that were with us?" Hot Shot answered. He was about to storm off when a giant white gate opened in front of him. A burst of energy as large as he was grabbed him off the ground and deposited him back on the bed he had been seated on. The white gate closed once the energy had vanished back within it, leaving behind two looks of startled shock and confusion, a third look of indifferent opinion over the event, and a fourth look of anger from the gate's owner.

"If the both of them were able to be found somewhere on this base, we would have asked them already. I may have the Gates of Ying and Yang, but that doesn't mean I can do everything." Erin snapped coldly. Hot Shot looked at her blankly for a few moments.

"Y-You...did that?"

"Yes." Her glare was as cold as ice. A fear Hot Shot had never known before began to well up in his spark. Angering this strange human child would not be good for his health. Erin released a cold sigh, loosing her tight grip on her surroundings, and turned up to look at him with a gentle understanding smile. "Hot Shot, please, tell us what happened down below in the Energon storage center."

As if he really had a choice?

As all things came to light, the cold penetrating darkness of the room he shared with his twin brought him out of his spell of illusion. It was right as Kicker was about to leave the room that he spoke out to the darkness,

"I feel like my whole body and soul have just been violated." His voice was almost trembling like his hands as he pulled himself tight in a hug. Kicker laid a hand over his twin's shoulder, startling the boy.

"It's alright, Rick. I'm here..." Rick looked back down towards the cold darkness of the ground and whispered,

"But so is he..."

"He who?" Kicker questioned. Rick turned to look at his twin with eyes a mix of fright and the smallest tinge of delight.

"Obsidian, the Black Dragon. It's weird... It's like I can hear everything he's thinking about, and he can hear everything I'm thinking about... It almost feels like he's in my blood." Rick explained. His voice seemed distant, yet close; it was fearful yet a hint of excitement lingered in it. "I don't know if I should fear him or accept him as a part of myself."

Kicker wrapped his twin in a hug – a rare thing that startled the half a second older sibling. The younger pulled himself tighter against the older twin's back, almost as if to breath in the black ash scent of his hair. Memories of earlier childhood times when Rick would give the boy piggyback rides echoed through their minds almost in complete unison.

"Rick... I haven't seen you since I first went to Cybertron with dad... I don't want to lose the only other guy in my family that comes even close to understanding me." Kicker confessed to the darkness. Rick slowly reached up and grabbed Kicker's wrist, the same that was wrapped with the ashy grey bracelet Erin had given him. It flashed bright silver before adding a new silver charm to its count – a replica of the Black Dragon.

"And I don't want to lose you, Kicker. I don't want to lose myself, either, but..."

"Hey," Kicker suddenly cut in, "You said you could understand Obsidian's thoughts, right?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Maybe he can explain how he showed up in this world?" Rick scuffed at that, laughing,

"That part's easy, Kicker. I opened the Gate of Spirits and brought him here from his home dimension out of a reflex action when the entrance to Ocean City nearly squished me and that kid. I think he was so disoriented from the trip that he pushed a bit too hard on asking questions up here," Rick paused to point to his head, "And that's what caused me to freak like that."

"So it was first time blues?" Kicker questioned.

"And it should probably be the last time, too." Rick sighed. His eyes drifted back against the blackness of the room's silver walls and his mind began to wander again. Obsidian's own mind echoed like a daunting door before his own thoughts. "Stop it!"

"Rick?" Kicker jumped in alarm.

"No, not you bro... Obsidian's trying to push his way through my mind, understand my thinking without permission." Rick explained. His breath almost seemed labored from the effort of returning the dragon's mind to its own corner of his consciousness. Obsidian bowed within his mind's eye, and much to Rick's astonishment, it spoke to him.

'I am Obsidian the Black Dragon, as you already know. I shall remain hidden in the folds of your consciousness till I am needed, then I shall return.' He did an impromptu dragon bow before Rick's eyes then vanished into the shadows like the waning light.

"He...just...vanished..." Rick whispered. Kicker grabbed his twin tight by the hand.

"Hey, I got an idea, Rick." Rick blankly looked at his twin. "Let's go ask Erin for advice."

"Yah mean the babe?"

"Yeah, the babe. Yah see, she's a Gate Keeper, which means she has control over a Gate, which is what you used to summon Obsidian. She probably knows what's going on in your head." Kicker explained. Rick slowly stood up from his bed, his nerves yet again rattled.

"Right now, Kicker, I wouldn't care if I got squished and found out the hard way what's going on."

He felt dead. The small red mini F-1 racer styled robot painted red and black, the reverse color scheme of his master, felt dead and cold as the news that had been delivered to him secondhand through a passing rumor sunk down into his spark. A silver hand was placed on his shoulder followed by a series of beeps echoing through the corridor he had collapsed in. These beeps were to the small being as words were to men and Transformers.

"It's alright, Swindle." a silver robot that looked to have been modeled of a strike series jet plane whispered in their native tong. Two others stood behind it, one looking to have been modeled after a discus recognizance plane and the other modeled off a passenger cargo carrier. The threesome shared a similar color scheme of silver, blue, and white with tips and edges laced in jet night black. Swindle brought himself to his feet and turned to the trio with optics stinging in fresh purple tears.

"Alright? Alright! It's far from alright! Unicron...Unicron turned him into a monster! He doesn't even remember his own comrades! He can' even remember his own name!" Swindle snapped, slapping away the friendly hand. The second of the trio spoke up with a voice of beeps that seemed aged.

"We know. Master Starscream's been altered by more than just Unicron's power, though, and in that lies the key to returning his memories and his freedom to him. At least that's what we hope we can do." Swindle looked at this second. He whipped his tears with the back of his arm and sniffled,

"How so?"

"We've done some research on the internal scans the base automatically did when the alarm was raised to an intruder in the Energon Depot, and we think we've found what caused his memory blackout." the third of the trio stated.

"Swindle... We're going to ask the Gate Keeper Erin for help."