Chapter 154 – The Storm
(OPOV)
Optimus cycled his processors, following the lead of the scouts and field marshal femmes. Chicago.
::. There's nobody here!.:: Roadbuster exclaimed cheerfully.
::. Good, nobody to get caught in the crossfire.:: Prowl growled as Ratchet nodded his own grim satisfaction.
::. Time to tell Kae we're here.:: Arcee murmured, even as she waved everyone under the cover of the bridges.
Decepticons flew over top of them, silence once more.
With a great deal of relief, Optimus reached for his mate, and felt her joy at his presence.
::. We are here.:: he murmured to her gently.
::. Thank Primus.:: she whispered ::. Stand by, I'm informing Sentinel, any word from Ironhide?.::
::. Chromia?.:: Optimus murmured.
::. I'm right here.:: Ironhide snorted. Optimus couldn't help but stride to his old Weapons Master, enveloping the old bot in a hug.
::. Sap.:: Ironhide rumbled fondly, hugging him back for a moment.
::. I grieved your death, and rejoice in your life.:: Optimus told him gently.
Ironhide chuckled softly.
::. Kae, your position?.:: Optimus rumbled.
::. Hold up a sec...:: she muttered. Optimus waited patiently. ::. Right, we're at the trump tower, Sentinel is bridging the bridge to safety. We're going to go start tearing into these bastards.::
Optimus nodded firmly at that, he looked around at his bots, grim faces looked back at him.
"Primus watch over us," he rumbled softly. "Auto-bots, roll out."
Firm nods, and rapid transformations, Bumblebee and the femmes fanned out, scouting out the Decepticons' positions. The second a group was found, they took them down. Optimus looked up in shock with his bots as the Decepticon's flagship rocked with a massive explosion.
"Atta girl," Ironhide growled, grinning as they watched Sentinel and Kae dropping from the crippled battleship. Sentinel caught hold of her wings, and in moments, they were invisible. Optimus straightened with pride for his mate, turned and casually strode into the middle of another skirmish.
He caught a familiar signal, and returned Jetfire's greeting, the seeker had arrived and was no doubt scouting the Decepticon positions from the air.
Optimus looked around, checking on his unit's conditions.
Each had partnered up, fighting seamlessly together as their Kae had trained them to.
The Decepticons were being rapidly dispatched, none had as yet surrendered. He looked at a few trying to sneak up on him, and idly produced one of his blades.
"One chance to surrender," he rumbled calmly.
They charged.
The fluidity of his mate's fighting style meshed with his own, observe, strike, observe, strike. Over and over, his recovery time from each strike down to nothing.
He was almost ashamed at how easy it was to take out the entire group.
"Showoff!" Skids shouted at him.
Optimus shot a quick, amused look at the young bot, even as his twin casually took down another con.
"Watch your brother's back, not mine," he admonished the bot gently.
"Droneshit, we'x takin' turns watching yo' back 'till yo' and Kae is fightin' together!" Mudflap protested cheerfully, even as Skids shot another con in the face.
Optimus nodded musingly and observed the situation.
"DOWN!" he barked out in the voice of command. As one, his unit dropped to the ground, giving him clear shot of every con surrounding them.
Split plasma shot from his cannons reached every spark.
"Niiice," Sideswipe grinned at him. "You're teaching me that when we get home."
As one, the unit looked up as the second largest battleship was rocked with multiple explosions.
"Don't much like this heavy atmosphere," Roadbuster stated amicably. "but ya gotta admit, tha' is just stylish."
Optimus snorted, and the battling continued. In time, the sector was clear, wreckage strewn everywhere. Optimus stood in silence, surveying the scene as the wreckers continued tearing bots apart.
"Optimus," her voice called out gently. Optimus spun, and immediately strode to his beloved mate, reaching out and winding her deeply into his embrace. No words were necessary, not even between their sparks. They knew each other absolutely, together, they were whole. He leaned down and pressed a kiss to her lips, greeting his beloved mate properly.
"To work?" she asked mischievously.
Optimus snorted, straightening and turning to face the bots gathered around them, his beloved Kae took her place on his right, and automatically he reached out to hold her there. Sentinel was smiling at them.
"You made me beg, I don't beg," Ironhide snorted irritably.
"True, but at the same point, it is remarkably difficult to make one's holoform fire upon one's self, as you would far more likely do," Sentinel replied with a grin.
"Hmnph, true," Ironhide snorted. "I'm not even going to scold you for being sappy, youngling, one time deal, let's get to work!"
"Mikaela, do you have a report on their positions?" Optimus looked at his mate calmly.
"No, Jetfire's will be more inclusive, I was focused more on blowing up warships and making sure Sentinel didn't fall off of my wings." his Kae reported patiently.
Optimus nodded and turned to Jetfire.
"At the moment there's a great deal o' talk o' falling back, Sentinel and Kae have terrified them with the two primary ships going down already," Jetfire reported calmly. "Megatron is the only thing keeping them here now. The majority are one mile north of our position, Shockwave is in the ground with Driller. With your permission, I would like tae see how many of the fliers will still heed me words."
It was a good idea, Optimus nodded to the seeker calmly, then looked at his mate worriedly, she had her rigid stance, the one that she assumed when someone was comming her.
"Mikaela?" Optimus rumbled worriedly.
"Colonel Lennox reports that they are en route, four companies," she stated with a frown. She put her comm over her speakers.
"Colonel Lennox," Optimus rumbled with a small smile.
"PRIME! YOU'RE ALIVE!" Will shouted over Kae's speakers.
"We are not so easily killed," Optimus rumbled with a snort. "However we are here, recommend you go back."
"Bull shit!" Jacob's voice shouted. "You might not be dead, but they still tried to kill you, this is our planet, and we ain't standin' by to watch!"
How kind of them.
"As you wish," Optimus rumbled with a grin.
"Are you at least wearing the suits?" Ratchet called out irritably.
"Yeah we are!" Chance howled.
"Mikaela will rendezvous with you, provide escort in," Optimus rumbled quickly as his Kae nodded. "She will activate the suits."
"I'll go with," Jetfire rumbled quickly.
"The rest of us will circle to the North," Optimus rumbled firmly, nodding to Jetfire. Sentinel was grinning, bouncing somewhat in anticipation. For good reason, the old Prime was in excellent condition now. Ironhide was snorting in amusement at him. Optimus surveyed his unit, his friends, sending another prayer to Primus that they would be alright.
"Auto-bots, Roll out!" He commanded, watching for any hidden injuries as his unit transformed.
"Let's fly," Mikaela nodded to Jetfire, they both leaped into the air and transformed, streaking toward the humans. Optimus rolled out, his old friend beside him.
::. I am sorry, Sentinel.:: he sent softly.
::. For what, young warrior? I allowed you to believe your weapons master dead, your reactions were not unexpected.:: Sentinel sent to him in amusement.
Optimus acknowledged his scout's co-ordinates of next attack and roared toward him, Sentinel hot on his bumper.
::. Regardless, I found no betrayal in your spark yet believed your betrayal.:: he sent to Sentinel.
::. Make it a personal note that your mate needs to coach you in the art of effective lying and we shall call it even.:: Sentinel replied magnanimously.
::. But... why!?.:: Optimus demanded silently, even as he transformed beside his father-mentor and joined the latest skirmish at full-speed.
::. Because my beloved mate, you are a terrible liar.:: his Kae sent in amusement. ::. I am astonished you did not recognize my acceding your claim on Sentinel's helm. I did promise to slag him if he ever opened fire on our unit.::
Optimus rolled his optics, even as he beheaded another con. He just couldn't help it. Above him, the flier-builds were converging toward the west, leaving the grounders in their mechanical fliers to their own devices. He looked around and felt his spark begin to freeze.
Because Jolt was gone.
(MPOV)
"Let's fly."
My grandfather nodded to me and we took to the air, soaring above the destruction toward the human soldiers. We caught sight of them quickly, and unfortunately, so did the cons.
I took Jetfire's lead as he shot warning-shots over the flier's bowstruts, the immediate message clear.
We are here, and we will protect these creatures.
I was frankly astonished when a large number of fliers veered off, but that wasn't for this moment, I got in underneath one of the choppers, stabilizing the far heavier aircraft as our human comrades bailed out. Scans showed the last human clear and I made to drop the osprey, then noted several grounder 'cons beneath us. I hesitated to drop the chopper on them, not wishing to make the wrong impression thereby making Jetfire's words meaningless...
::. Go ahead, granddaugher.:: Jetfire sent with an audible snort. ::. They're groundpounders!.:: I shrugged and sent the chopper spiralling to the ground.
I scanned the area and kept tightly to my grandfather's fifth as dozens of flier-builds circled around us, following Jetfire's example as he fired only on the remarkably few whom fired upon us. Then, then a frequency was passed to me.
::. Jetfire calling all fliers!.:: my grandfather was sending repeatedly. But then, the most astonishing thing I had ever heard.
En-mass, several dozen replies, seekers responding to the eldest's call, then following Jetfire as we streaked to the edge of the city.
I landed on my toes, remaining beside my grandfather as fliers of all sizes surrounded us.
"By th' credo o' the seekers, I demand th' speaker's ceasefire!" Grandfather barked out.
"We hear thee, speaker Jetfire," one of the larger stated with stern respect.
"How the scrap are you still alive!?" another demanded incredulously.
"By virtue of my granddaughter, host bearer of the all-spark," my Grandfather announced sternly. "Seekers! Fliers! Why do you follow the insane ramblings of a grounder!?"
"Megatron's words are strong!" another shouted.
"Megatron's spark has become twisted! Sullied by the Fallen Prime!" Jetfire shouted back.
Silence, nods.
"Megatron flies!" one barked out.
"Ungracefully," another snorted. "He is a grounder with stolen wings!"
"It'd help if he'd actually let the command trine coach him," yet another snorted, I looked at him and did a double-take. He looked like Starscream. A black Starscream.
::. Thundercracker.:: my grandfather supplied idly.
"The Lord High Protector has abandoned his credo," Jetfire added aloud, looking sternly at his brethren.
"The Prime is weak!" Thundercracker shot back. It was all I could do to maintain my neutral poise. Jetfire turned and looked at me in amusement.
"You're gonna take tha' granddaughter?" he rumbled with a snort.
"Stop. Tempting me," I gritted out, struggling against my initial response to end the mech's existence for slandering my mate and caste.
"Who is she you call granddaughter?"
"Thrust," Jetfire nodded. "May I present my granddaughter, Archangel Prime, Bonded of Optimus Prime."
"Optimus Prime bonded a flier?" another asked incredulously, snorting in derision.
"Bound to a Seeker once I've the time to train her proper," my grandfather snorted.
News to me.
"Prime in her own right, her markings cast." he added proudly, "But that is beside th' point!" Jetfire called out sternly. "By virtue o' the Lord High Protector, the Prime should never ha' had tae sully 'is hands with battle! Instead he fights! Has bonded a fighter! A flier for whom he demonstrates his adoration! Our Prime is stronger than he should have needed to be, stronger-"
"I beg permission to pause, our full trine must hear this!" Thundercracker called out, interrupting. Jetfire nodded to him.
"I'll get him," another stated immediately. He disappeared.
"Skywarp," Jetfire added patiently, nodding to me. I shot him a look of thanks. Three minutes and another thunderclap.
Starscream was standing in front of me.
"Really?" I asked flatly, looking at my grandfather.
"Problem?" my grandfather asked urbanely.
"He dropped me."
"You have thrusters."
"I was supposed to be stopping!"
"This little femme?" Starscream asked menacingly.
"I whupped our 'master' in a matter of seconds," I informed the bot with a sneer, putting a definitive tone of sarcasm on the word.
Starscream dove at me, but before I could thrash the little slagger Grandfather had him by the scruff of the neck.
"You were not present, therefore you will be forgiven one error of judgement during the speaker's ceasefire!" Jetfire snarled, lightly tossing him away.
"See? Told you Screamer," Skywarp murmured.
"Stop. Calling me that," Starscream growled. I snorted, I couldn't help it, until I noted the way he was walking. Not walking. Limping. Didn't matter that he was a con. I scanned him.
Wow that was a lot of damage...
"Starscream," I stated calmly, striding toward him. "Armour off."
The entire circle stared at me as Grandfather snorted in amusement, looked at me and burst out laughing as I rolled my optics.
"Just say it granddaughter!" my grandfather hooted.
"Ugh, really?" I demanded of him. "Air Commander Starscream you are in a relatively safe place and I can only assume your trine will protect you. You're breaching. Even if we're going to beat the tar out of each other later I refuse to go into battle against a wounded opponent. Aft plates off. Now."
"It is unfair advantage, you are fully armed," Skywarp growled softly.
I rolled my optics and shed my armour in one motion.
"There, happy?" I demanded flatly. "Get your aft over here, now!"
"She heals even her enemies?" Thrust asked softly, edging toward grandfather.
"Observe her, Seekers, Fliers! Archangel Prime, host of the All-spark, one who willingly heals, one who will heal our home! She has been found Seekers!" my grandfather announced, even as I tugged Starscream around and flashed energon through his systems.
I cleared out his airways as well, because that tar spewing out of his mouth was simply disgusting.
Thundercracker was actually looking rather grateful for that...
"Right as soon as we will not be destroyed the second we are healed," Mico murmured.
"Really? You think now's the best time to borrow my vocalizers?" I asked with a small frown, continuing to tweak a frankly stunned Starscream's frame. Mostly because her voice invading my systems meant some serious re-syncing would be needed.
"The flier children are our friends, daughter, let them keep their neutrality once more, let them fly through our skies once more," Mico whispered from our combined spark, not bothering with my vocalizer. Kind of her.
"That is their choice, Mother," I stated patiently, "We cannot abide them if they simply wish to destroy our body once more." I stood back and scanned Starscream again, nodded my completion and shrugged into my armour.
Silence.
I looked at my grandfather.
"She's here, now!?" he demanded hoarsely.
"Uh, yeah, host to the all-spark. Where I go, she goes, vice versa," I stated impatiently. What the scrap did they think host meant?
The next moment, three dozen fliers were flat on their faceplates.
Genuflecting to me in the middle of a battle zone.
Great.
(JPOV)
Jolt fought beside his unit, privately admiring the efficiency with which they did so. Sunstreaker and Sideswipe were dispatching cons left right and centre.
Then, then he saw them.
His memories were sketchy sometimes, memory loss was a major factor after a slagging, the spark and processors suffering from the energon cut-off.
But he remembered those helms, the cowards already retreating from the fury of the terror twins before they were even spotted. But he'd spotted them. His Lena's spark had been slowly increasing it's strength, sensing her eventual change.
He could not bear the thought of those slaggers existing in the same universe as his beloved Lena.
In a flat rage, he sprinted after the cons, he had taken their torment for two vorn, it was his turn to bring the hurt. He didn't care if there was any compassion in his optics, they didn't deserve it.
The first went down to his whips. He was attacking from behind, and at any other time in his life he would have been ashamed of such a thing.
But four vorn ago, they had struck the first blow. His right servo whip wrapped around another's neck struts, making short work of shorting out the con's circuits. He couldn't remember how these slaggers had captured him the first time. But it wasn't happening again, the third went down, and he felt a sharp, hot pain direct centre of his back.
He couldn't remember that that was what had happened last time. The dominant con, the one that had the habit of allowing his subordinates to take the fury of their potential captive would hide, allow his subordinates to take damage and stun the captive from behind.
Jolt was down on his knees now, how did he get there? His processors were fuzzy, tangled, that wasn't good...
"Well lookie here," the dominant stated with a broad smirk, one of Shockwave's minions... Tripper... Gripper... Ripper? "Our little technician got a new sword!"
The subspace sheath was torn from his back.
Right, Ripper.
The pain began clearing his processors again, but he was in... slag. Friction cuffs. His comm was being blocked. Terror began humming through his spark and processors, because in this position, his memories began returning full force.
Slag.
He could already feel the probing signals from the cons. The signals designed to trip the slavery codes that Kae had removed from him when his marks were restored. That had been the worst embarrassment, a technician, specializing in coding that couldn't figure out how to bypass the slavery coding Shockwave had installed into his processors.
Then, through the EM forced fuzziness he heard a sound.
A sound bringing back a memory he had believed gone, it sounded like the banshee hawk that had visited him as a youngling from time to time. It had snatched up the Jork that had been stalking him when he'd been out wandering... He clung to that memory, it was far better than his situation.
Terrifying creatures, in their own right, but Jolt had liked them, their screech alone could paralyze their prey. And sometimes, they even paralyzed the bots far larger than their comparatively tiny frames. He remembered the banshee hawk and remembered the legend surrounding their species, the old bots used to say that Banshee Hawks had their remarkably strong spark-chambers because they were the semi-conscious sparks of bots searching for their mates...
(LPOV)
Lena was terrified. That wasn't right. She hadn't been properly terrified since... she stopped that thought angrily. She hadn't been terrified since that night. She loved heights, and the wingsuits were her favourite sport.
It took her some time, but she finally recognized the terror, because along with that terror was a pull, a direction.
She was already in the air, one of the choppers was being supported on Kae's back as she stabilized it just enough for the last of the soldiers and the pilots to evacuate.
Shit was already burning, but there weren't any civilians in the area, Lena splintered away from the grouping of soldiers.
She had business to attend to. Colonel Lennox was shouting for her, demanding where she was going.
"Jolt's hurt," she snapped back. In her... in her spark she could feel the edges of her Jolt's pain, his terror finally registering as his own, not hers. Lena flew toward him, she could feel it, feel where he was, never once questioning the sense.
The occasional bursts of fire below served only to thrust her higher in the air, thermals rising from the ash-blackened area that had once been a park.
When she saw him, rage ripped through her. Her spark-mate was bound, showing every appearance of being insensate as his captors gloated over him. The shriek of rage that tore from her throat was entirely unintended. She simply couldn't stop it.
Instinct ruled in her as she dropped on the first con, her suit morphing over her skin as plasma swords emerged, handles pressing themselves into her palms.
Sunstreaker had actually complimented her on her pretty little daggers, her genuine thanks causing him no end of amusement.
She wondered what he'd think of her pretty daggers now as they tore through her victim's primary energon lines. The bot began falling, and she leaped at the next, barely registering her own shrieks of rage. It felt so easy, so gods damned simple to leap from one con to the next, never stopping to think as she tore her blades through their weak points.
At least, she didn't think about it until she reached her fourth. The cons weren't moving, weren't even looking at her as she jumped from one to the next!
But Jolt was watching her, a look of stunned awe in his optics.
'Don't stop' his optics whispered in awe, so Lena kept going, jump to con, tear out energon lines, sever the important circuitry. Jump to next con.
She'd be having nightmares about this, later, but she'd face those nightmares so long as her Jolt was alright.
Seven cons, Lena rode the final one down to the ground and ran for her Jolt.
"How do I get these off you?" she demanded shrilly.
"You... you uh..." Jolt stammered, staring at her.
"Jolt!" Lena shouted, terrified for her bot, what if the cons had started messing with his processors!?
"Lena, you uh... oh just shoot this bit, here," Jolt stated sheepishly, squirming somewhat and showing her a seam in the bars around his servos.
"Jolt, why the hell did they just let me kill them!?" Lena demanded shrilly, shooting the bars and watching with admitted satisfaction as they fell from his frame.
"You scream like a banshee hawk," Jolt stated with a shrug, he grinned at her.
"I what? What the fuck has that got anything to do with it!?" Lena demanded irately.
"You paralyzed them, you know, like a banshee hawk does," Jolt grinned, picking up his sword and wincing as he reinstated it amidst the damages across his back. He leaned down and picked her up, cradling her to his chest-plates as he began running.
"You're not explaining," Lena informed her bot flatly.
"Banshee hawks... oh right," Jolt snorted above her. "Banshee hawks had three unit wingspans, and when they hunted they shrieked, which would cause their prey to freeze, and sometimes the hawks would scream and make bots freeze too. You totally hit the same frequency the banshee hawks did, it paralyzed them!"
Lena sat comfortably in her bot's hands in shock.
So he was... complimenting her?
Jolt ducked down behind the remnants of a high-rise, cautiously glancing around the corner.
Lena squirmed from his hands and took a look herself.
Optimus and Sentinel were fighting back to back, two dozen cons surrounding them.
That. Had to be one of the most brain-twisting things Lena had ever seen, hadn't the older Prime... you know... betrayed them!? The scene was made all the more bizarre when a bot looking distinctly like Ironhide blasted his way through several of the cons, Ratchet close behind him as they made their way to the Primes.
"Sentinel bridged Ironhide and killed his holoform," Jolt murmured above her. "Try it again!"
"Try what?"
"Shrieking again!"
The moment he said that, a blast caught Optimus' shoulder. Their Prime.
"Throw me!" Lena growled.
"What-?"
"Throw me!" Lena snarled, her suit stretching out into a membrane between limbs again. Jolt obediently picked her up and lobbed her, well into the air, giving her a decent flight time.
And there it was again, her battlecry, the shriek of rage. Jolt was right, too, a load of cons were standing stock still, easy targets.
Sentinel was standing straight, looking around for the source of the sound.
But there wasn't time for that, Lena's swords emerged from the suit again, she landed on the con that had caught Optimus with a cannon blast and tore through his energon lines.
New favourite tactic.
The next trick was going to be getting back to Jolt so he could throw her again, she jumped to the next con, shrieking her rage that they had the audacity to attack their Prime.
Except this one wasn't really freezing.
Shit.
An explosion of fire from the Con's chest had her absolutely shocked.
Scratch that. The fact that Sunstreaker lightly picked her up by the suit harness, plopping her on his shoulder then continuing to fight while she held onto his armour?
Nope. THAT was the brainbuster. Absolutely. The second his path was clear he was wheeling back toward Jolt.
"Nice job with the pretty little daggers Banshee," Sunstreaker informed her cheerfully, plopping her onto her Jolt's shoulder and whizzing back toward his brother, calling a "Now don't go squish!" over his shoulder.