And I have finally finished another chapter, I am sorry it was a long wait. But Mass Effect 3 is very distracting lol... At least until you watch the ending... And then you hate Bioware with a burning passion, I am not going to say anything about the ending other than it was absolutely terrible.
Anyway, I took a lot longer to write this chapter than I usually do, I am just glad that it isn't as long as my last five, I would have taken even longer to finish this. But I already have ideas for what to write next chapter, so hopefully it will be both longer, and won't take as long to write. :)
Thanks go to Crystal Prime for beta reading.
Devil-O-Angel - DEFCON-1 is the highest level of readiness in the United States Armed Forces, it is only used when Nuclear war is imminent. Wonderful story? *Looks around for story* Just kidding, I am a humble person so I think my story is decent at best, but I thank you anyway. :)
707cloud - Review for chapter 6. A few of the terms in this story are from the Transformers Wiki, but most of them have been used in numerous stories on this site, so I decided to use them in this story. Review for chapter 9. I had so much fun writing that part lol, I just could get the mental image of Shadowstreaker shooting the med-bay floor haha.
Fox of Magic - Even if you were right, do you really expect me to answer that? Lol. :) *Looks at date* *Rubs back of neck sheepishly* Wasn't that soon huh? Here's to hoping the next chapter doesn't give me as much trouble. :)
Mikaela the Cat - Seriously? Well how about that? Lol. And what can I say? My muse demanded fluff! hehe.
jayna prime - You're welcome big little sis. :) I am glad you enjoyed the chapter. ^.^
KayleeChara - Thanks! :D Lol, sorry I made you walk away from the computer lol, and a better way to describe the way Arcee is reacting is either being stubborn, or being careful. The one time she ever acted on her feelings for a mech she saw him killed right in front of her, so ya can't blame her for being careful. And I am sorry the romantic in you is angry lol, it will just have to be patient! Hehe. :)
Disclaimer: Transformers belongs to Hasbro. I only take credit for this story and my OCs.
November 4, 2012 4:57 P.M
Autobot base, outside Jasper, Nevada
Two solar-cycles had passed since Arcee told me about what happened to her first partner, Tailgate.
Things were -understandably- a little awkward between Arcee and I. Whenever you almost kiss your close friend, who happens to be the femme you have a crush on, things are inevitably going to be awkward for a while.
Right now, I was standing behind the Xbox area in the ops center as I watched Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers with Jack, Raf and Miko, while Arcee and Optimus talked near the ground bridge.
"No! They killed Haldir! Why'd they do that?" Miko half asked, half yelled at the holographic video screen in front of us from where she sat between Raf and Jack.
Like Jack and Raf, Miko had changed quite a bit since I first met her. Miko now stood at five feet six inches and her hair would have been much longer if she still didn't have it tied in a braid, but even then her hair was still roughly four inches longer than it had been when I first met her. Miko was also, for lack of a better word, curvier, a clear sign that she was becoming a women.
Judging by the occasional look I saw Jack give Miko, Miko's changes hadn't gone unnoticed by the oldest of our human charges.
'Something to keep an optic on,' I thought to myself just before Jack replied to Miko's words.
"Because, Miko. Haldir died in the books, so they had to kill him in the movie," he said as he reached into the bowl of popcorn that he and Raf had made for a the movie.
"Actually, Haldir didn't die in the books, he didn't even go to Helm's Deep in the book. He only dies in the movies." I said matter-of-factly, while Aragorn retreated to the keep to escape the flood of Uruk-Hai chasing him.
Jack paused. "Oh... Then I don't know why they killed him off." Jack said after a brief moment, directing the majority of his statement at Miko.
Miko shook her head, but didn't say anything.
Apart from the occasional comment, we didn't really speak much after that, just sat in silence and watched the movie.
Miko was the first to speak after the movie was finally over. "As amazing as that movie was, please tell me the third one isn't as long as that one." She said, as she stood up from the couch.
"No, Miko. The third movie isn't as long as this one." I began, my words caused Miko to give a sigh of relief. "The third movie is even longer," I finished, laughing as Miko groaned.
Miko turned to look at me, but whatever she was going to say was immediately forgotten as a pair of pings followed by a steady beeping sounded from the workstation.
Moonracer and Ratchet typed commands into their respective parts of the workstation as I started walking over to the two medics. The moment I finished walking over, the main screen displayed two anomalies in two different locations on Earth, one anomaly was in China, and the other was in South Africa.
"What'd you two find?" I asked, briefly looking over my shoulder-joint as Optimus and Arcee approached before looking back at the medics.
My question was ignored as Ratchet addressed Optimus. "Optimus! You're not going to believe this!" Ratchet said in a urgent and slightly excited voice.
"What will I not believe, Ratchet?" The Prime asked as he walked past me and stood next to Ratchet.
"Because somehow the cloaking device on the Nemesis has failed, I can now pinpoint its location to within a meter." Ratchet said, while he typed another command into his part of the workstation and an image of the Nemesis filled the main screen. "Currently, the Nemesis is hidden in a remote valley in China, my guess is they're trying to fix their cloaking device."
"Add up Megatron being offline, the element of surprise on our side and the fact there are ten of us." Arcee said with a smile. "And we could deal some serious damage to the Nemesis." Arcee stretched the joints in her digits, the Cybertronian equivalent of cracking her knuckles, for emphasis.
"We'd still be outnumbered at least a hundred to one." I pointed out. "Even with the element of surprise those aren't very good odds."
"True," Arcee replied simply before falling silent.
Optimus looked at Arcee and I for a brief moment before looking back at Ratchet. "And the other anomaly that was on screen?" Optimus asked, obviously wanting to know the significance of the other anomaly before taking any kind of action.
Moonracer answered Optimus' question instead. "We've detected an Autobot emergency beacon in what the humans call the Namib Desert." She said, and then typed a command into her part of the workstation and the image of the Nemesis was replaced by the image of the anomaly in South Africa.
Optimus looked over at Moonracer. "Can you confirm the beacon is not a Decepticon trap?" The Prime asked.
Moonracer shook her helm. "I rechecked the signal twice, it's authentic, but I can't determine if the Decepticons found a deactivated Autobot beacon and activated it to lure us into a trap. The only way to find out if it's a trap is if we ground bridge to the beacon's location." The green and white femme explained.
Optimus was silent for several micro-klicks, likely gathering his thoughts. "We will postpone our assault on the Nemesis until further notice, there is a chance that Autobots are in need of assistance." The Prime finally said, and looked at Ratchet and Moonracer. "Go and grab your medical kits, we will need them if we find injured Autobots."
Both Ratchet and Moonracer nodded and walked toward the med-bay.
Optimus looked at Arcee and I after Ratchet and Moonracer left the ops center. "If the beacon is indeed a trap, then we need to be ready. Shadowstreaker, Arcee, you two will accompany Ratchet, Moonracer and myself to the Autobot ship." Optimus ordered.
"Understood, Prime." I replied simply.
"Got it, Optimus." Arcee said, giving Optimus a short, simple response as well.
Optimus turned toward Raf after Arcee and I acknowledged his orders. "Rafael," the Prime said. "Contact the others, tell them to report back to base and prepare for an assault on the Nemesis when we return." He said as Moonracer and Ratchet returned from the med-bay with medical kits in their servos.
Raf nodded and ran over to the Xbox area to get his laptop so he could contact the others while Ratchet walked back over to the workstation and activated the ground bridge.
Optimus snapped his battle mask over his faceplate and walked past Arcee and I on his way towards the ground bridge. "Autobots, move out." He said, continuing to approach the ground bridge while in true form instead of vehicle form.
Following Optimus' example, we all stayed in our true forms and followed Optimus to the ground bridge. Soon, all five of us disappeared through the green portal.
November 5, 2012 12:09 A.M
Somewhere in the Namib Desert
I looked around at our surroundings once the five of us stepped through the other side of the ground bridge.
The sky was perfectly clear and the moon was bright enough that my optics didn't even need to adjust to the light. And since there was very little light pollution in this part of Earth, the galactic center was plainly visible in the night sky.
Sand was, obviously, everywhere, and I saw nothing but sand dunes in every direction I looked. But the ground was also covered in a layer of frost, unsurprising since it was so late in the orbital-cycle.
There was a particularly large sand dune was directly in front of us that I estimated to be about three hundred meters tall. The sand dune was so long that I couldn't see an end to when I looked to the left or the right. And roughly half-way up the sand dune, there was a Cybertronian vessel that was mostly buried in the sand dune.
"It looks like this thing's been here since the war." Arcee said, looking up at the Cybertronian ship while she stepped up next to me.
"Then it is very unlikely they'll be any survivors," I observed grimly.
"However unlikely the odds of there being survivors, we will still conduct a thorough search." Optimus said. "Move out."
My fellow Autobots and I acknowledged Optimus' command with a nod and we all walked up toward the downed Autobot ship.
After we reached the ship and found a way inside, we found ourselves in a long, dark and narrow hallway.
I looked around at the walls and floor of the hallway.
The walls looked worn down and slightly deteriorated, something that didn't happen to Cybertronian metals through any natural process.
The floor was far darker than it should have been with all the moon light flooding in from outside, it gave the hallway an ominous and errie feel.
My fellow Autobots and I stood in silence for almost a klick before I broke the long silence.
"Well... Who wants to walk down the dark, creepy hallway inside a downed Autobot ship first?" I asked dryly, trying to lighten the dark hallway a bit with a joke.
My joke caused Ratchet to roll his optics while Moonracer and Arcee gave a short laugh and shake their helms in slight amusement.
Optimus gave me a short, humored look. "Challenge accepted," he said. The Prime then turned and walked down the hallway without another word.
I stood in a shocked silence for several micro-klicks while Moonracer, Ratchet and Arcee laughed, with the two femmes in near hysterics and the gruff mech giving a slight chuckle.
"Did Optimus just... Quote an internet meme?" I asked no one in particular, still in shock that the Prime had just made a joke while still on a mission.
"Yes... Yes he did." Arcee said in between fits of laughter.
I nodded my helm. "Yeah that's what I thought." I said as we started following Optimus down the hallway. "And just think," I continued. "We can tell our sparklings that we witnessed Optimus Prime making a joke while still on a mission." I finished with a laugh.
Moonracer and, surprisingly, Ratchet chuckled at my joke. But Arcee was strangely silent, and I could have sworn I heard a faint hum that sounded like a fan. But I shrugged it off as my audio receptors hearing things as we caught up with Optimus as he stood in front of a closed door that was covered in dark stains, never a good sign.
"Looks like the seals are corroded, the only way that door is opening is if it's completely replaced." Ratchet said, looking at the slightly discolored sides of the door. "But, it looks like the metal itself is worn down, deteriorating, it wouldn't take much to break the door down." The white and red medic concluded.
Optimus gave me a meaningful look after Ratchet spoke.
Immediately knowing what he wanted me to do, I deployed my Scatter-Blaster and fired three shots at the door in rapid succession. The first shot opened up a hole that was large enough for Arcee and Moonracer to walk through if they ducked. The second shot expanded the hole to the point that Ratchet could have walked through without any problems. And the third shot caused the door to completely fall apart, leaving the five of us with an unobstructed path to the next room.
I was the first to step through the newly opened door and was met by complete and utter darkness on the other side, it was so dark that I couldn't even see Arcee as she bumped into me. And the only reason I knew it was Arcee was because I recognized her voice when she said a quick apology before I heard her walk away.
The darkness was so total that it took my optics half a klick to adjust to the lack of light, and when my optics adjusted to the darkness, I wished they hadn't.
The first thing my optics took in when they adjusted to the darkness was the lifeless frame of an Autobot mech lying on the floor directly in front of me. The chassis of the mech an unnatural shade of grey, and even though it was clear that this ship had been here since the war on Cybertron, the mech was lying in a pool of his own energon. But the energon wasn't its usual blue color and it wasn't even glowing, the energon was a foul mixture of a green, light grey and dark red, giving the energon a sickly look to it.
I looked away from the chassis of the mech and saw another offlined Autobot, this one a femme, in a similar state as the first chassis I saw. Looking in all directions, I found that my fellow Autobots and I were surrounded by the offlined frames of several dozen Autobots, all of them were colored the same gunmetal grey as the first and all were lying in a pool of their own sickly looking energon.
"This is a plague ship," Optimus said grimly, voicing the thought I am certain was running through everyone's processor.
As if Optimus' words were a trigger, pain coursed through my helm as a detailed vision was seared into my CPU.
My vision began with Optimus shaking his helm slightly as he looked down at one of the offlined Autobots I had seen on the ship.
"Optimus!" The voice of Ratchet said before my vision briefly shifted to the medic as he scanned another of the offlined Autobots. "These Autobots didn't perish in the crash, they're displaying the affects... Of a virus." Ratchet finished with a slightly fearful tone.
"This is a plague ship," the Optimus in my vision said, repeating the words I had just heard before my vision began.
When Optimus took a step forward, Ratchet ran in front of him and put a servo on his chestplates. "Don't. Touch. Anything!" The medic said in a firm and urgent voice, putting emphasis on each word he said. "The virus could still be active."
Before any other words could be spoken by either mech, the ship shifted and Ratchet fell to the floor while Optimus was barely able to keep himself on his pedes, and even then he was in a kneeling position.
As Ratchet picked himself off the floor and Optimus stood to his full height, there was crash that sounded like a metal beam breaking and my vision changed to show an offlined Autobot mech somehow hanging from the ceiling directly above Optimus. The chassis hanging from the ceiling shifted in its position and fell downward several feet before it stopped moving, but several drops of sickly looking energon to fall from the chassis of the offlined Autobot. These drops of energon fell onto Optimus' helm and caused the Prime to wave his servos in an almost panicked manner, like a human would swat at bees.
Ratchet looked at Optimus in horror and disbelief. "No..." The medic said with a tone that mirrored his expression.
My vision ended with Ratchet's words.
The moment my vision ended, I ignored the pain coursing through my helm and looked up at the ceiling for the offlined Autobot. When I found the Bot, I looked down from the ceiling to see if Optimus was standing beneath the offline mech. Luckily, the Prime wasn't standing under the offlined Autobot like he was in my vision... But Arcee was.
Before I could shout a warning over to Arcee to move, the ship suddenly shifted and all of us were sent to the floor as the ship shook.
I looked up at the offlined Autobot from my spot on the floor when the ship stopped shaking, the chassis started falling toward the floor the moment I looked at it. I didn't think about what I could do, I just acted.
With speed that greatly surprised me, I got back onto my pedes and ran toward Arcee. The moment I reached her, I wrapped my servos around her tank turned and half threw, half pushed her in the direction I just came from, removing her from the danger of getting infected. But even though Arcee was now safe from infection, my action had a consequence, I was now standing under the Autobot chassis.
No more than a micro-klick after I half threw Arcee away from where I now stood, I felt four small droplets of energon land on the top of my helm.
I felt slightly weaker the moment the droplets of energon fell on me, and a burning sensation started to form as soon as the droplets landed on my helm, more than likely it was the infected energon started to spread in my frame.
For several micro-klicks, I just stood there with my helm tilted downward as I looked at the floor. When I finally looked up at my fellow Autobots, I saw that they all were staring at me with different levels of shock and horror.
"This is going to suck isn't it?" I asked in a completely serious deadpan. I was not even trying to put any humor behind my words.
No one responded to my words. Instead, Ratchet walked over and quickly scanned me.
A look of dread and fear crossed Ratchet's faceplate before he mastered himself. "We need to get you back to base this moment!" The white and red medic said urgently, and then started walking toward the doorway as Optimus opened a channel to base and requested a ground bridge.
I quickly followed Ratchet toward the door, feeling my strength wane slightly and the burning sensation increase with each step I took as the infected energon spread throughout my chassis. And by the time I reached the door, I felt noticeably weaker and the burning sensation made my helm feel like it was on fire.
Moonracer walked past me and up to Ratchet as the other medic walked at a brisk pace. "What virus has Shadowstreaker been infected with? Please tell me it's not what I believe it is." She spoke quietly, clearly trying not to be heard by me.
I barely heard the sigh Ratchet gave. "Unfortunately it is. My scan identified the virus as the cybonic plague." He replied in a quiet, grim voice, evidently also trying to keep me from hearing.
"Well isn't that fanfraggingtastic?" I asked sarcastically, making it known that I had heard what the two medics were discussing. "I've contracted the one virus that doesn't have a cure, or a survival rate."
Immediately after those words left my mouth, I fell to the floor as the infected energon spread down to my neck and caused the burning sensation to increase in its intensity to the point that it felt like my helm and neck were on fire.
I laid on the floor in misery for almost three klicks before the pain subsided and I tried getting back on my pedes. But I had no success, each I attempt I made to get up ended in me falling back on the floor.
Out of my peripheral vision, I saw Arcee move toward me and offer a servo to help me up.
"Don't touch him!" Ratchet suddenly yelled, causing Arcee to quickly retract her offered servo. "The cybonic plague spreads to new hosts through direct contact with those already infected, to prevent anyone else from being infected, none of us can touch Shadowstreaker."
Arcee stood next to me for a micro-klick before she hesitantly stepped away from me, giving me a regretful and apologetic look as she did so, clearly she was blaming herself for my current condition.
"Don't blame yourself, Arcee. There wasn't anything you, or anyone else could have done to prevent this." I said as I used the wall to help me get back on my pedes and then started to walk over to where we could leave the ship.
"I could've looked up," Arcee replied, voice filled with self-loathing and guilt.
"And search the ceiling for offlined frames that were infected with the cybonic plague?" I asked with a mix of exasperation and humor.
Arcee gave me a short look, but said nothing in response.
It wasn't long before we exited the ship and saw the ground bridge just outside. But the moment I stepped onto the frost-covered sand, I fell the ground as the infected energon reached my spark, the wave of pain that ripped through my chassis made my first collapse in the ship seem almost pleasant. The pain was so severe that my frame forced me into a brief recharge to numb the pain.
A massive silver mech with crimson optics and spiked shoulder-joints towered over the grey and black form of a seeker with red optics and the Decepticon insignia branded into his chestplates.
I recognized both mechs, the seeker that was cowering before the silver mech was Startscream. And, much to my confusion, the silver mech himself was Megatron, who was steadily advancing towards the far smaller seeker.
It seemed Megatron was speaking to Starscream, but I couldn't hear what he was saying though. But, I could tell that whatever Megatron was saying didn't mean anything good for Starscream since the seeker kept backing away from the warmonger with fear written on his faceplate.
Without warning, Megatron aimed the Fusion Cannon on his right servo at Starscream. The last thing I saw before onlining from my forced recharge was the barrel of Megatron's Fusion Cannon glowing a sinister shade of purple as it powered up.
I snapped my optics open with a start the moment I onlined from my brief recharge.
'What the frag was that?' I asked myself, beyond confused by how I just had a vision of Megatron and Starscream.
I didn't get time to puzzle over my strange vision as I looked up and I saw my fellow Autobots standing next to the ground bridge, clearly waiting for me to enter first.
With great difficulty, I managed to get back on my pedes and walk toward the ground bridge. But I was so weak that it took me nearly two klicks to reach the ground bridge and leave the plague ship behind in the Namib Desert.
November 4, 2012 6:33 P.M
Autobot base, outside Jasper, Nevada
I saw Bulkhead, Bumblebee, Prowl, Springer and Jetfire standing in the ops center when I slowly walked through the ground bridge.
When I stepped into the ops center, all except Jetfire and Prowl gave me an unnecessarily wide berth, clearly they had been informed of my condition.
Usually I would have made a joke about their reaction to my presence, but I really care at the moment, I just wanted to get to the med-bay so I didn't have to walk anymore.
I stumbled just as I entered the hallway, but I somehow was able to keep myself from falling down for the third time and continued my incredibly slow, painful walk to the med-bay.
After five klicks of agony, I reached the med-bay and leaned heavily against the wall next to the door as the door itself automatically opened.
I started walking toward a medical berth after I leaned against the wall for a few moments to catch my breath, figuratively speaking of course. But I stumbled and fell to the floor before I had taken three steps in the direction of the berth.
Instead of trying to get back on my pedes again, I crawled over to the medical berth and used what strength I had left to pull myself up onto the berth.
After I pulled myself up onto the berth, I was so weak that I was only faintly aware of Ratchet and Moonracer as they entered the med-bay.
I laid on the medical berth for a total of fifteen micro-klicks before my frame forced me into another recharge.
The moment I fell into my forced recharge, I found myself standing in a wide, dark canyon.
Black clouds filled the sky from horizon to horizon, and occasionally I would hear a faint rumble from a far-off thunderstorm.
Suddenly hearing sounds of battle, I looked at the canyon floor and saw the two familiar forms of Ratchet and Optimus.
They were surrounded by hundreds of Cybertronians that had glowing purple lines all across their frames and were mindlessly rushing at the two Autobots they surrounded.
Ratchet was using both of his short swords with surprising amount of skill and speed and the dismembered remains of well over a dozen Cybertronians lay it the base of his pedes, an impressive number of offlines just from using swords.
But while Ratchet's total of offlines from using his swords was impressive, Optimus' chassis count was awe-inspiring.
The Prime's moments were difficult to follow as he sliced and diced his way through the Cybertronians that attempted to swarm him. He was swinging his swords so quickly that he would carve a Cybertronian into multiple pieces before the frames of his opponents even had time to hit the ground. The offlined Cybertronians around him were literally stacked in piles.
But, for Cybertronian that fell to the blades of Optimus and Ratchet, two would replace them, and both Ratchet and Optimus were starting to show signs of fatigue. They were slowly being overrun.
After Optimus and Ratchet continued fighting the Cybertronians under the control of Dark Energon for another klick, Optimus was swarmed by a dozen of the monstrosities at once and was overwhelmed. But not before he managed to take down another Cybertronian by deploying one of his blasters and shooting off the helm of one of his attackers.
Ratchet, distracted by Optimus getting overwhelmed, soon suffered the same fate and several Cybertronians piled on top of him.
My surroundings abruptly faded to black just as Optimus broke free from his attackers.
For several klicks, my world was pitch black, but then a light pierced through the darkness and I found myself at in a new location.
I was facing a door while I stood inside a large room with dark grey walls and for some strange reason spikes protruding from the floor.
Hearing a steady beeping from behind me, I turned around and immediately recoiled as if struck by a nonexistent blow.
Hooked up to various medical equipment and lying on a berth tilted at an angle... Was Megatron.
Megatron looked like he had seen better cycles. His chassis was riddled with scores of dents and scratches, and his entire frame was blackened as if he had been set on fire. But the injury that really got my attention was the gaping hole in his chestplates just above his spark, a wound that should be fatal. But somehow, the medical equipment next to him was reading a steady sparkbeat as well as CPU activity, the warmonger was still online.
I heard the door open behind me and I turned around again, Arcee and Bumblebee were standing in the doorway, both with looks of complete and utter shock on their faceplates.
Arcee seemed to answer a question from someone on a comm-link. "It's Megatron... He's online," she said in a surprised voice, but also with a tone of well-placed hatred.
Bumblebee deployed his blasters and Arcee deployed one of her Photon Burst Rifles and they slowly walked toward Megatron, both ignoring me as they moved toward the warmonger, leading me to believe they couldn't see me.
Arcee spoke again. "Well I'm staring right at him," she said, likely addressing the Bot she was talking to through the comm-link. "Good news is, Megatron isn't exactly staring back."
"He looks like slag." Bumblebee said, stepping a bit closer to Megatron and looking over the warmonger's burned, scratched and dented chassis. "But then again, Megatron always looked like slag." The yellow and black scout finished with a slight laugh.
Arcee gave Bumblebee a brief look before speaking again. "His condition's critical, he's hooked up to life support." Arcee aimed her blaster at Megatron's inert chassis. "Time to finish this war once and for all." She started powering up her blaster as she spoke.
Arcee suddenly stopped powering up her blaster, but didn't point it away from the warmonger's chassis as she spoke again.
"One good reason... Fast." She said, clearly addressing the Bot on the other side of her communications channel
A confused look crossed Arcee's faceplate and she stopped aiming at Megatron. "What are you talking about?" She asked the Bot on the other side of the channel.
Bumblebee and Arcee stood in silence for a micro-klick, they likely were listening to the Bot on the comm-link.
After the moment of silence passed, Arcee looked at the medical equipment next to Megatron. "Yeah, his CPU's activity is spiking. His sick processor is still at work," the blue femme said with disgust clear in her voice.
There was another pause as Bumblebee and Arcee listened to the Bot on the comm-link.
'I really wished I could listen in on the comm-link, this is getting annoying,' I thought with displeasure as I waited for Bumblebee or Arcee to speak again.
Mercifully, I didn't have to wait long to find out what the other Bot was saying to Bumblebee and Arcee.
"Enter Megatron's CPU? Ratchet, Moonracer, are you both are you fragging insane?" Arcee suddenly asked incredulously as she put both her servos on her hips, at last identifying who was on the other side of the communications channel.
'From what you just said, yeah I'd say so.' I thought to myself in shock, entering the CPU of the worst war criminal in the history of our race wasn't on my list of things to do... Ever.
There was a short silence before Arcee spoke again.
"No way, have either of you ever even preformed the procedure?" Arcee asked through the comm-link, causing me to wonder what Moonracer and Ratchet had said.
Another period of silence, but this one wasn't as long as the previous silence.
"Whoa," Arcee said. "Can't we just haul Megatron through the ground bridge to give us some time to figure this out?" She asked, her voice was hopeful, but I could tell she already knew her suggestion wasn't going to work.
The look on Arcee's faceplate grew cold and slightly angry as she listened to whatever the response was from Ratchet and Moonracer. "You feel bad because you can't provide him with any treatment? How the frag do you think I feel? The only reason Shadow' even has the cybonic plague is because I didn't pay attention to my surroundings." She said with a guilt-ridden voice.
'Wait, this is actually happening? Megatron is still online?' I thought, to say I was shocked would be an understatement.
I've had several visions before, including the one of Ratchet and Optimus in the canyon I had just a few klicks ago. But each of my visions were at least slightly different than what happened in reality, an example being that Arcee nearly was infected by the cybonic plague instead of Optimus. But the fact that I was watching an actual event located in a ship that likely was thousands of miles from where I was lying in the med-bay... It was impossible.
'So is turning into a different race,' the thought went into my CPU seemingly of its own accord.
I had to admit, my CPU made a good point... And now I am treating my own CPU like a separate being, fantastic.
Arcee continued speaking while I basically started talking to myself. "I would gladly take Shadowstreaker's place on that berth, it's where I should be in the first place. But there's no guarantee the cortical psychic patch would even work, it's a theoretical procedure. And even if it does work, where would we find the cure in Megatron's CPU? Among the memories of his time as a gladiator? Hidden in a seemingly meaningless conversation? In the memories of a time before the war? Or maybe in the memories of his rumored... Conquests." Arcee shivered as she said the last part, leading me to believe she wasn't talking about Megatron's battles.
'Damned Decepticons,' I thought with anger as Bumblebee walked towards Arcee with a purpose in his steps.
"I'll do it, I'll enter Megatron's CPU." The yellow and black scout said seriously.
Arcee turned to Bumblebee and shook her helm. "No, I'll go, Bee'. It's my fault Shadow' is even infected, the least I can do is try and find a cure for him. And that means entering Megatron's CPU, so be it." She said in a tone that held no room for argument.
Bumblebee argued anyway. "We don't have time to debate this, Arcee. If there's a cure in Megatron's CPU, we need to find it as fast as possible. And I'm a better scout than you are." There was no arrogance in Bumblebee's voice, he was just stating a fact.
Arcee looked like she wanted to argue against Bumblebee's logic, but after a long moment of silence, she sighed.
"Alright, 'Bee." She said with grudging acceptance before addressing the two medics on the other end of the comm-link. "Moonracer, Ratchet, what do we need to do?" She asked, and then fell silent as she listened to their response.
A few micro-klicks after Arcee spoke, my surroundings faded to black once more and I quickly found myself in another new location.
'I get the feeling I am going to be here a while,' I thought with a sigh as a vision of Optimus chasing after a train appeared in front of me. I crossed my servos and sighed again as I continued to watch the vision play out.
I watched dozens upon dozens of visions after seeing Arcee and Bumblebee on the Nemesis, some of the visions lasted for twenty klicks, and others lasted for only a few micro-klicks.
Some of my visions showed me events I had personally lived out, the events in the visions were very different at times than what actually happened because I was never in the visions. But it was still interesting to watch a few familiar events from a third person point of view.
One of the visions I received was of Optimus and Bumblebee fighting a Decepticon seeker that was roughly my height. That particular vision was one of the longer ones, and I found out that the seeker's name was Skyquake, the same seeker that Optimus and Bumblebee had fought when I was still training.
And another one of my visions was of Jack getting Bumblebee to help him impress a girl at school by racing in an illegal circuit. Even though I knew that hadn't actually happened, I found that to be an unbelievably stupid move on Jack's part. Whenever a girl wants you to take part in a highly dangerous, and illegal, race circuit just to give you a chance to get a date with them, it's never a good idea to partake in said race, it was more than likely that she was just seeing if Jack would do it.
But the Jack in my vision thought it would be a great chance to impress the girl, and nearly got another human kidnapped by Knockout, of course the other human was an aft, but still.
After what must have been five breems of endless visions, I finally onlined.
I slowly opened my optics and immediately noticed the pain raging through my chassis when I was forced into recharge was gone along with my fatigue.
Arcee's voice suddenly spoke. "Good to see you're finally online," she said in a pleasant and relieved tone.
I raised my helm and looked over at her and saw that Arcee was sitting in a chair next to my medical berth, other than Arcee, I didn't see anyone else in the med-bay.
I rose an optic ridge at Arcee's wording. "Finally?" I asked. "How long was I out?"
"Four solar-cycles," Arcee replied simply.
I raised my other optic ridge at that. "Four solar-cycles? I was out that long?" I asked in surprise, not certain I heard her correctly.
My secret crush gave a single nod. "Yeah, you've been out since we returned from the crashed ship." She said, shifting in her chair slightly so she could cross her pedes over each other.
I got an alarming thought. "Are we going to bury that ship again? I don't even want to think about the things the Cons will do if they get their servos on the cybonic plague." I said quickly, disturbed by the possibility of the Decepticons obtaining the virus.
Arcee shook her helm. "No, we already went one better than just burying it. Optimus contacted General Shepherd and explained the situation. After Optimus told him about the cybonic plague, Shepherd contacted a pair of destroyers the S.T.F upgraded for the United States Navy, they bombarded the entire area with helical railguns. There's nothing left of that ship except scrap metal." Arcee explained with a smile, inadvertently causing my spark to flutter, fragging spark.
"Good," I said as I sighed in relief, there was no telling what the Decepticons would do with the cybonic plague if they obtained it.
"Very, the Decepticons would probably modify the cybonic plague if they obtained it, the cure we found on the Nemesis more than likely would become useless." Arcee replied, smile waning as she spoke in a more serious tone.
I widened my optics slightly. "You actually went inside the Nemesis and entered-" I started to ask before Arcee cut me off.
"Megatron's CPU like in your vision?" She completed my sentence, she elaborated at the confused look I gave her. "You were talking in your recharge, describing your visions to us as you did so. Including your vision of Bee' and I on the Nemesis, Ratchet is still scratching his helm over that. Moonracer and I keep telling him that with the Thirteen involved, you shouldn't even bother trying to figure it out, but he never listens." Arcee finished with a laugh.
I waited for Arcee to finish laughing before I asked. "And Megatron?"
Any humor that was in Arcee's optics immediately vanished. "He's back, Megatron somehow hitched a ride with Bumblebee when Bee' came back out of Megatron's CPU. And the son of a glitch took control of Bumblebee's chassis and used it to revive his own. Bumblebee's back in control of his chassis, but Megatron's retaken control of the Decepticons from Starscream, he hasn't made a move yet, but it's just a matter of time." She said grimly.
I only half-listened to Arcee's explanations after she confirmed Megatron was still online. "Damn it all," I said with a heavy sigh. "It's my fault Megatron's back."
"No it isn't, none of us knew Megatron was hitching a ride in Bumblebee's frame until it was too late." Arcee said, dismissing my claim of being at fault.
"My life isn't worth your life or the lives of any of our fellow Autobots, let alone worth the cost of my survival. You wouldn't have needed to go to the Nemesis in search of a cure if I hadn't gotten infected, so it is at least partially my fault that Megatron's back, if not the sole reason." I argued with frustration directed at myself and let my helm fall back to the berth heavily.
Arcee appeared in my vision again as she leaned forward. "You aren't at fault in the slightest, if anyone should be at fault it's me, I was the one who was about to get infected by the cybonic plague and you saved my aft. And for that I thank you," she said with a slight smile.
I smiled as well before Arcee continued. "Besides, if Megatron was offline then we wouldn't have found the cure for you, and you wouldn't be with us right now." She said in slightly sad tone that carried something else I couldn't identify, it was almost as if she was hurt by how I was angry at myself for Megatron's return.
I looked at her for a few moments before I sighed again. "You're right, Arcee, I'm not the reason for Megatron's return." I said with reluctant acceptance, still not completely convinced I didn't play a role in Megatron's return.
Judging by the look in Arcee's optics, she knew I wasn't totally convinced she was right, but she let it go and moved away from me as she leaned back in her chair with her pedes crossed over each other.
I closed my optics after Arcee leaned back in her chair, not to recharge again, but just to relax. "So," I said after a moment of silence. "Besides the return of the worst war criminal in the history of the Cybertronian race, what did I miss?" I asked.
I could almost hear the smile that formed on Arcee's faceplate. "Oh, not much. Just Moonracer and Ratchet finally getting together," she said in a causal and dry manner.
My optics flew open and I looked at Arcee in shock. "What?" I asked slowly, too shocked to say anything else.
The smile plastered on Arcee's faceplate grew wider. "Yup. Apparently Ratchet pulled Moonracer away from the med-bay and bluntly told her how he felt. They made it official when they announced to everyone they were courting, I've never seen Bulkhead's mouth open that far, and I heard the clank it made from the other side of the room." She said with a laugh.
I joined her in laughing for a few moments before Arcee continued speaking and describing how everyone reacted to Ratchet and Moonracer's announcement.
(Human calendar) November 8, 2012 8:47 P.M
(Cybertronian date) 1103432 (Centi-vorns since the end of the Golden Age)
Decepticon War Cruiser Nemesis, geosynchronous orbit over the Galapagos Islands
Saying Megatron was angry would be the understatement of the centi-vorn. It would be more accurate to say Megatron was furious, but even that didn't fit Megatron's mood.
The former gladiator had spent the majority of the last four solar-cycles beating Starscream within an inch of his pathetic life for his failed attempt to snuff out his spark, an activity Megatron had taken great joy in.
But now, Megatron almost wished he had spent less time beating Starscream and more time fixing the mess Starscream had made of all of Megatron's fleet movements and side projects.
"That traitorous scrap pile shut down Project:Overlord!" Megatron yelled in his admittedly over-sized personal quarters. The sound of his yell more than likely carried through his door and into the hallway outside, causing several of his ground soldiers that were passing his quarters to quicken their pace to avoid their lord's wrath.
'As they should,' Megatron thought, he was in no mood to be disturbed by anyone, not even Soundwave, one of his most loyal and trusted followers.
Megatron looked at the data pad given to him by Soundwave earlier in the cycle, it contained a list of idiotic projects Starscream had started using the resources of Project:Overlord. One of them was particularly stupid, even by Starscream's standards.
The project dubbed Harbinger by Starscream was where most of Project:Overlord's resources had been redirected to.
Project:Harbinger involved building a large number of neutrino-ion engines, relatively primitive technology in Megatron's opinion, on one side of the planet called Mars and sending the red planet crashing into Earth.
Megatron was far from impressed by this plan, while it would guarantee the destruction of the Autobots, Earth was far too rich in energon to simply destroy. And even though the humans had barely reached Tier 4 on the Cybertron Technological Achievement Tiers, Megatron knew they would have their uses when he conquered them, a fact that Starscream couldn't hope to grasp.
The Decepticon leader crushed the data pad in his servo, every single project Starscream had started from halting progress on Project:Overlord was a total waste of time and resources. But it was far, far worse than simply redirecting Overlord's resources to other projects, the pathetic excuse of a SIC that was Starscream had cannibalized entire sections of Overlord to use the extra resources for his own foolish projects.
'That piece of slag has set back Project:Overlord by jours, perhaps even orbital-cycles!' Megatron thought as he shook with rage. The only way to get Overlord back on schedule was to put all other projects outside the Sol system on hold and redirect their resources to Overlord, something that Megatron would never do unless it was for an incredibly good reason. And Project:Overlord was the key to the war, it didn't get any more important than that.
With a fierce growl and a mental note to beat Starscream again for this treachery, Megatron grabbed another data pad and started to write out the orders to redirect all resources to Overlord, he would send to every project leader outside the Sol system, and hopefully he could get Project:Overlord back on track.
'Release me...' The Voice whispered in Megatron's CPU.
'Get out of my helm,' Megatron thought back at The Voice, shaking his helm as he did so.
Ever since he had put a shard of Dark Energon into his spark, Megatron had been hearing a voice in the back of his processor. The Voice, as Megatron had been calling it since he first heard it, sounded beyond ancient. It was commanding, firm, and both infinitely intelligent and infinitely condescending, like The Voice felt like it was speaking to the lowest form of life possible.
Megatron would never admit it if his Decepticon army found out about The Voice, but every single time The Voice spoke, Megatron felt a chill go down his spine, it felt like Unicron himself was whispering into his audio receptor.
Megatron shook his helm again to be certain The Voice was gone and continued writing his orders to his project leaders, right now thinking about The Voice was just a distraction. And if he was going to make any progress on fixing the mess Starscream had made, he needed to start work immediately.
And he had a lot of work to do.
And so Megatron is hearing voices in his head, that explains a lot of things actually... He is insane after all.
And yes, the Cybertron Technological Achievement Tiers is a to the Technological Achievement Tiers that the Forerunners created in the Halo series, so that idea clearly doesn't belong to me.
Anyway, the whole thing with Shadowstreaker getting infected by the cybonic plague an idea that formed in my mind when a reviewer, anissa, asked if I could have it where Shadowstreaker has visions of episodes that Shadowstreaker had already lived through. So, that idea comes from anissa. And if you are still reading, anissa. I am sorry for taking so long to write your idea, and I am sorry I didn't write it very well, but I wanted your idea to make sense when I wrote it, so I am sorry for the long wait. And I hope you liked it.
IMPORTANT NOTICE. As many of you likely know, FanFiction is cracking down and deleting stories with anything that describes sex, ANY description of violence, one-shots inspired by songs and several other things. And I know I am not the only one who thinks that is completely ridiculous.
I personally don't care very much about stories with sex getting removed, I know that sounds cold, but having stuff like that in stories is against my morals. I am just one person though, and since I find stories like that offensive I just don't read them.
But the fact they are deleting stories because they have violence in them in any form is absolutely unacceptable. For crying out loud, violence is basically in every single story on this site in some form, and almost every story that is multi-chaptered is violent. It is part of what makes those stories really good, if a story is set in a fandom that has a lot of action, how are you supposed to write a good story if violence isn't allowed? It doesn't make sense.
Basically what I am saying is, writers should have the freedom to write their stories as they picture them, and not be censored because they have good imagination. So I implore you to please sign this petition to help stop this craziness. Here is the link.
www .change petitions/fanfiction-net-stop-the-destruction-of-fanfiction-net#
Now, back to what matters, music!
This chapter's credit song is "Sencit Music - The Contest Begins" It really suits the whole theme of Megatron returning and taking back command of the Decepticons, especially the first minute and the last fifty seconds or so.
So, please be sure to leave a review and thanks for reading. I'll see you soon.