Author's Note: I do apologize for my long delay in updating this fic, but circumstances have been against me lately. The reason I am able to update now is that my class schedule at the college this year allows me some free time in which to write, a Wordpad program to write with, and an Internet connection with which to post. So my updates should increase in frequency now. At least, that's what I hope. BTW, the title of this chapter may not make sense at first, but it will later on in this chapter.
Thank you, Fenestrae, for alerting me to that stupid new rule came up with. It's possibly one of the dumbest things I've ever heard, and I hope they come to their senses soon. Reviewer responses are sometimes our only way to communicate with our readers; most anonymous reviewers don't give us their e-mail addresses, some signed reviewers don't have them, and those that do rarely, if ever, answer when we send them an e-mail (that means you, Gromia).
Disclaimer: Ultra Rodimus and Falcon belong to me. Everyone else belongs to someone else.
Metal and Neon
Chapter 15: Slipped Leash
Ultra Rodimus glared at the two Decepticons, fury coiling in his gut. He knew who Bludgeon was; he'd have to be braindead not to. Everyone knew Bludgeon, last true master of the ancient martial art Metallikato and one of the most dangerous Decepticons to face in combat. Very few who faced Bludgeon, either in hand-to-hand combat or in a firefight, lived to tell the tale, and if they survived one encounter at all it was practically guaranteed they would not survive a second, the reason being that Bludgeon knew what to expect and how to take them down.
His eyes fixed on the second Decepticon. It took him a moment to identify him as Banzai-Tron, master of another ancient, nearly forgotten martial art, Crystalocution. While the two were rivals of a sort, they had been known to work together in order to take down an enemy. Separately they were dangerous enough; together they were even worse.
Both martial arts were so ancient very few practiced them, and even fewer remembered them. But those who did remember and practice them were extremely dangerous. Only someone who knew the arts, or something very similar, could counter them. While Ultra Rodimus knew neither art, he had been training in quite a few human martial arts since his rebirth, both in his true form and more recently in his human form, and Magnus had taught him what he knew of Diffusion, another ancient, but much more widely used, Cybertronian martial art. Taking into account the strength of his exo-armor, he gave himself a fairly good chance against them.
Reaching into his subspace pocket, he drew out what looked like a metal rod about as long as his forearm. The two Decepticons eyes it warily, correctly assuming it was some sort of weapon but not knowing what kind it was. Grinning wickedly at them, Ultra Rodimus depressed a stud on the grip and the weapon promptly extended to several times its original length, until it was a little taller than its wielder. Spinning it expertly, he leveled a challenging stare on the two.
The weapon was a force lance, a souvenir from a dimension jump when he'd still been Rodimus Prime. It was keyed to his DNA only; if anyone else tried to use it or even touch it, it would discharge a shock powerful enough to knock them unconscious. In its compact form it fired powerful energy bolts; in its extended form it was most useful as a quarterstaff. During his rebirth it had been slightly tampered with, enabling it to discharge a painful but mainly harmless shock into anything the business end struck. Hot Rod had been interested in the quarterstaff after seeing a few ond martial arts films, and Rodimus Prime had taken the opportunity to learn how to use it.
Bludgeon narrowed his optics at the tall Autobot. Most Autobots would turn tail and try to run from him, but the Prime was actually challenging him to battle. From Ultra Rodimus's stance, he was a martial artist himself, and might actually present a challenge.
"You are aware of my combat record, correct?" he sneered at the Autobot leader, hoping to scare him enough to make him an easier target.
Green eyes narrowed to slits, blazing with emerald fire. "I said that you would pay for wounding Flak, and I meant it." A slight tilt of the head. "Are you trying to delay the inevitable?" Ultra Rodimus purred mockingly. "Are you afraid of me?" His tone was taunting.
"I fear nothing!" Bludgeon snarled.
"Then shut up and fight!" Ultra Rodimus moved.
The two Decepticons were momentarily taken by surprise. Ultra Rodimus had given no indication of what he intended; one moment he was standing there and the next he was hurtling right at them, staff snaking out to slash at Banzai-Tron's legs. The smaller Decepticon jumped over the wicked blow, but didn't escape unscathed. The Autobot leader was fast; he corrected in an instant and sent Banzai-Tron flipping into the rubble.
The fight was on.
Bludgeon pulled out his energo-sword and lunged at Ultra Rodimus, only to be met with the butt end of the Autobot leader's staff. Their weapons locked with the scream of metal on metal. Fighting to regain his usual calm demeanor, Bludgeon tried using his internally-generated electric fireballs to disorient or weaken his opponent, but Ultra Rodimus somehow absorbed the charge without taking any visible damage. The tall Autobot shot him a quick grin, then released an electric shock of his own that sent the Decepticon stumbling back, twitching uncontrollably. Fortunately for Bludgeon, Banzai-Tron moved in before Ultra Rodimus could do anything else, using the bayonet on his gun as a sword. Ultra Rodimus turned to engage him. A moment later Bludgeon had thrown off the lingering effects of the shock and was again on the attack.
Ultra Rodimus turned into a whirlwind of motion, startling both Decepticons. They'd known he was fast, but they hadn't thought he was that fast. They quickly noticed that he could eventually copy their own moves, combining them with moves they recognized as being from Diffusion and another style they didn't recognize at all. The Autobot leader seemed able to shift between those styles randomly, throwing out unfamiliar moves to confuse his opponents. Finally Bludgeon guessed that the Prime was using something he'd learned on Earth, a style of martial arts no other Transformer knew.
Banzai-Tron was becoming very frustrated. His art, Crystalocution, concentrated on using a series of techniques to find an opponent's weak points so that they could be targeted. When performed correctly, a master of Crystalocution could shatter an opponent's armor by triggering pressure points in the armor's crystalline structure. But Ultra Rodimus seemed to have no such weak points. The structure of his armor was so stable that literally almost nothing could damage it while at the same time being able to bend and stretch with its wearer's movements. That both confused and infuriated Banzai-Tron. Finally there was so much built-up frustration and rage in him that he lost his cool and threw himself at the Autobot leader, letting out a roar of rage.
"No!" Bludgeon yelled.
The young Autobot saw him coming from the corner of one eye. He spun around, raising one leg to kick at him, but Banzai-Tron was coming too quickly. The result was that he slammed straight into the hard sole of Ultra Rodimus's snakeskin boot, causing the Prime to change his strategy and slam his foot down, driving Banzai-Tron four feet into the ground. The force of the impact combined with the towering Autobot's massive weight almost flattened Banzai-Tron's chest, causing him to shut down almost instantly.
Ultra Rodimus lifted his foot off the fallen Decepticon and was about to turn when Bludgeon's shield smashed into his back, denting his armor slightly and causing him to hop forward awkwardly in order to avoid falling over. Hearing the furious Decepticon charging at him, he struck out with a vicious back kick, forcing Bludgeon briefly to one knee and giving himself enough time to regain his balance. He was back on his feet and ready to engage Bludgeon again when his mind seemed to explode with pain.
His staff fell from suddenly numb fingers. Ultra Rodimus staggered, howling in agony, gripping the sides of his helmet, eyes flaring. The pain wasn't his, it was his mate's. His head turned blindly in his lover's direction, unable to see him but knowing that Magnus had just taken a close-range shot from Galvatron's plasma cannon. The shot had shattered his armor and burned deep into his circuitry, creating a massive crater in his abdomen. The wound wasn't as bad as the one that had killed Rodimus Prime, but it was close, and the horrible agony Magnus was in reflected down their lifebond to Ultra Rodimus.
That pain tore through Ultra Rodimus's spark, reaching even into the most guarded parts of his soul, waking a force far more dangerous than anything any of the Decepticons had ever seen before. For at the core of Ultra Rodimus's spark was a slumbering demon whose origins no one could discover, a berserk rage that Ultra Rodimus tried his hardest to restrain and control. It had only partially woken when Ultra Rodimus had killed the woman who had tortured him, but now it came fully awake as Ultra Rodimus's hold on it weakened, slipping its leash and surging forth to take control. But unlike the last time it had been fully awake, this time it had a target: anything bearing the Decepticon insignia.
Bludgeon couldn't figure out what had happened. One moment the Autobot leader had been moving to engage him again, the next he was gripping his head and screaming like a damned soul. The Decepticon froze, confused and startled, only able to stare as Ultra Rodimus staggered on his feet, shaking like a leaf in a hurricane, keening wildly. What could have happened to make him react like that? He wasn't injured. The only thing Bludgeon could see was that Galvatron had shot Magnus...
Then it hit him. Magnus had been shot, but Ultra Rodimus was feeling the pain. There was only one thing Bludgeon knew of that could explain what was happening: a lifebond.
Realization hit him like a laser blast. Ultra Rodimus and Magnus were a lifebonded pair, sharing what could only be a very deep, powerful bond. The Bludgeon thought of the stories he'd heard, of lifebonded bots going berserk with rage and pain when their partners were badly wounded, and fear began to spread through him. Ultra Rodimus was powerful enough already, but the rage and pain would make him far more dangerous. Slowly, Bludgeon tried to sneak away, but the instant he moved Ultra Rodimus's head snapped toward him.
Bludgeon froze.
The Autobot leader's eyes were no longer green; they were red, redder than fresh blood, and the look in them was no longer sane. What Bludgeon saw was blind fury, the cold, merciless stare of a killer, and he knew he was facing the beast hidden in Ultra Rodimus's core.
Ultra Rodimus's lips drew back, revealing his teeth in a soundless snarl. Then he lunged.
With a scream of fear, Bludgeon tried to run, but Ultra Rodimus was on him before he'd taken four strides. The impact knocked Bludgeon off his feet, and he went sprawling face-first into the rubble. Pushing himself up, he turned... just in time to see a blur coming at him. Ultra Rodimus's foot cracked across his face with such force that the toe of his boot stamped the clear impression of the serpent's scales into Bludgeon's armor. The blow came from the side, snapping Bludgeon's head around hard enough to break the hydraulics and delicate circuits in his neck, but fortunately the fuel lines stretched far enough to keep from rupturing.
His neck broken, Bludgeon collapsed at Ultra Rodimus's feet.
His thoughts still clouded with rage and pain, Ultra Rodimus paid no attention to his fallen enemy. Stepping on the paralyzed Decepticon without even noticing him, he charged at the next Decepticon with a furious roar.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some hours later, a battered and bloodied Jazz stood on a small hill near the city, watching what was going on below. The Decepticons were gone and the wounded were being seen to. Anyone with any medical experience had been brought in to help with the injured. First Aid was not among them, though. The chief medic's attention was focussed solely on one robot: Ultra Magnus.
Jazz's thoughts wandered back to the final stages of that brutal battle. He'd seen Magnus go down, severely wounded, and then he'd heard a terrible shriek from another section of the battlefield. It hadn't taken long to realize just who that scream had come from; the answer had made itself clear in the most savage fashion. Ultra Rodimus had exploded through the middle of the fighting, eyes blazing a terrible red, tearing into any Decepticon unlucky enough to cross his path. His mate's agony had unleashed the berserker in his soul, and he was set on ripping the one who'd shot his companion apart. Unlike the last time he'd gone into a killing rage, this time Ultra Rodimus ignored the Autobots as if they didn't exist. The full brunt of his wrath had fallen squarely on the Decepticons.
After the shattered Decepticon army had finally fled, the question of how to get Ultra Rodimus back under control had been raised. Several tentative plans had been suggested, but none of them would work. Then Ultra Rodimus had neatly solved the problem by breaking down and collapsing in a heap. Kup said it was because his anger had burned itself out, taking his remaining strength along with it. The comatose Prime had been carried to Metroplex's Repair Bay and placed in Sandstorm's care. The pacifist had been cleaning crusted fluids off the young Prime's armor when Jazz had last looked in at them.
"How could one bot do all this?" Jazz wondered to himself.
"Nobody really understands how a lifebond works," Kup's gravelly voice said from beside Jazz, startling him. "Every pair reacts differently. I suspect that the bond between Magnus and Roddy is much stronger than we suspected. That would account for why he reacted so violently. If Magnus had been killed, Roddy would have destroyed everything around him and then himself." The old bot surveyed the scene below. "At least this time he showed some restraint."
Jazz looked at him incredulously. "Restraint? You call this restraint?"
"You didn't see what happened the first time he was in that state, lad. This time he didn't touch a single Autobot or raze the city to the ground. I'm not even sure he actually killed anyone this time. The first time he killed several hundred thousand innocent beings in a blind rage. He was so devastated by what he'd done that he tried to kill himself. Only the Matrix's interference stopped him."
The special operations officer shuddered. "I guess you're right." He changed the subject. "How's Magnus?"
"Stable. First Aid is working feverishly to repair his vital systems, but he's stable for the moment. If he makes it through surgery he should make a full recovery."
"And Roddy?"
"Comatose. Sandstorm's looking after him. He burned himself out with that last assault. It'll be days before he recovers all his strength."
Jazz nodded, watching Inferno, Hot Spot, Hosehead, Red Hot, and the team of Roadburner and Wheelblaze dealing with the fires while Hot House flew overhead, dropping his own loads of fire retardants on the flames. Other Autobots picked through the rubble to locate buried comrades. There was still much to do.
Kup touched Jazz's shoulder. "I'm gonna head back. You coming?"
"Not just yet."
The old Autobot nodded and then left Jazz alone.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hours later, First Aid looked up from his desk as a soft scraping sound reached his audios. It was coming from the recovery wing where Magnus and Ultra Rodimus, who'd woken up back in control of himself and had insisted on being near his mate, were. The medic sighed and got up to make sure neither of them were trying to sneak out.
As he entered the room, two pairs of optics turned to regard him, but neither pair belonged to the bots he'd expected. First Aid stopped to survey the room.
Magnus lay on the medtable, still in an induced coma to keep him from leaving before he was ready. Ultra Rodimus leaned back in a chair nearby, completely dead to the world. Someone, probably Sandstorm, had piled several crates behind him to form a makeshift table, and laying on top of it was Catilla, still in his shell, chin on his forepaws. The Autobot leader was using him as a pillow, head on Catilla's back, unbound and still damp silver hair flowing over his side. The feline Autobot regarded First Aid for a moment, then closed his eyes again.
Another scrape made First Aid look down to find the source. It was then that he noticed Chainclaw, another Autobot with a shell, this time a huge bear. Chainclaw lay on the floor, paws tucked under his body, his leader's feet resting on his back. The scraping sound had been Chainclaw crawling under Ultra Rodimus's legs and settling himself. Yellow optics watched the medic calmly.
First Aid blinked, then checked Magnus's vital signs and turned to leave. As he did so, he noticed the fluffy whiteness draped over the sleeping Prime's slender form and paused for a closer look. It took a moment for him to realize that the whiteness was actually the hide of an immense wolf.
"It's Carnivac's," a soft voice explained, and First Aid discovered Sandstorm sitting cross-legged by the wall.
"Carnivac's?" First Aid looked from the pacifist to the fur and back. "Taking trophies isn't like him."
"I know, but this time they really pissed him off. Frustration has been known to cause changes in a bot's standard operating procedures. Besides, he didn't kill any of his targets." Sandstorm indicated a small pile of other trophies: horns from Tantrum and Horri-Bull, the head armor of Razorclaw's lion mode, and a couple of others. "He got them off without damaging a circuit. They'll be back soon enough."
"What does he plan on doing with them?" First Aid indicated the trophies.
"I don't think he's decided yet, but I plan to mount them on the wall of his chambers. The wolf hide will probably become a rug."
"Ah." The Protectobot changed the subject. "How did you manage to get all the gunk off his armor?"
"He was unconscious, so I didn't have to work around his temper. Even if he had been awake I doubt he would have argued with me. He hates being covered in filth."
"I see." First Aid cast one more curious look at Chainclaw, who normally wasn't the most social of bots.
"He did that himself," Sandstorm told him. "Poked his head in, took one look at the room, and crawled right under. Startled me, too. He's the last bot I'd've expected to play footstool."
The medic moved in to run a quick check on his leader. Ultra Rodimus's energy levels were still low, but they were slowly climbing. He was deeply asleep, and First Aid doubted he'd wake any time soon. Smiling to himself behind his faceplate, First Aid adjusted the wolfskin slightly, dimmed the lights, and left the group alone.
To be continued...
And this is the next chapter. I hope to be able to update this fic more often thanks to the free time my course schedule allows. This chapter should answer your question, Fenestrae, and I hope you get that fic out of your head so it'll stop bugging you, Gromia.
Has anyone other than me noticed that the Decepticons in the RiD cartoon series are almost identical to the Combaticons? The only differences are in their names and colors. Movor is Blast Off, Armorhide is Brawl, Mega-Octane is Onslaught, Rollbar is Swindle, Ro-Tor is Vortex, and Ruination is Bruticus. Don't you think they could've come up with a more original team instead of repainting and renaming a G1 combiner?
Now send me some reviews and I'll type more story!