Fate Calls

by Sci-Fifan95

In life, the only certain thing that applies to us is death. We cannot escape it. We cannot outrun it. It is a fate that finds us all. However, He plays chess. And you don't find out until too late that He's been playing with two queens all along.

38. Escape: Part 1

More than two months. I'm getting worse at updating. Great.

I cannot apologize enough for the ridiculously long wait, my readers. I honestly don't understand what's been going on with me these last two updates. They are not only a heck of a lot shorter than "Journeys," by far my longest chapter, but they are also taking me more than twice as long to write. It's like my muse decided it was time for a four-month vacation, and has left me a crappy replacement.

Not only that, but this entire chapter? This WHOLE thing? Not even remotely close to what I wanted to get done in this update. You'll see what I mean very quickly, I think. Going back in this note, I apologize again.

Can you tell I'm upset with my writing speed right now?

*Sigh* Okay. Breath in. Breath out. Goosfraba.

...

Okay, I'm back. Sorry venting a little bit.

*Watches Age of Extinction's first full-length trailer* Hmm. Looks like it has a very different atmosphere than the previous movies. The fleet, ships, and ancient-looking weapons you see hints of at the end intrigue me, as well as Lockdown, AKA gunface. It also could have an interesting plot *shocker!* with humans hunting down all Cybertronians, although I will not let myself hold out a huge amount of hope for it. Revenge of the Fallen's first trailer made me think the movie was going to be ten times better than it actually was.

But, Revenge of the Fallen also didn't have Grimlock. Or Optimus Prime RIDING Grimlock. Two points for Age of Extinction.

I send a thank you to everyone who reviewed last chapter, as well as those who favorited and or followed this story since my last update. I have been having a lot of trouble with my writing in the last four months, as seen by how little I've updated, and the fact I STILL haven't finished rewriting the prologue of my Lord of the Rings story. So, thank you all for showing your support and leaving feedback. It blows me away when I step back and see how far this story has come thanks to your support *And a really great beta* :)

Guest (Known as SunnySides) - I was actually planning on using that song before you mentioned it, but I find it amusing you suggested it a while back. Haha.

dragonbookaddict - I will never think of myself as a gifted writer. Just how I am. But gifted with an overactive imagination? Absolutely. I always have had a story of some sort going on in my head, no matter how hard I try not to. In fact, I regularly design, name, and and personalize characters set in any movie, show, or game I see or play. Been a habit of mine since I was about six.

*Looks at chapter and winces* I will not lie, I am not happy with this one. I will let you be a judge of it, but yeah. Not happy.

hockeynut178 - Thanks for crawling through so much crap to get to this point. Lol. But seriously, it makes me happy to know there are a surprising number of people who read this story in a pretty short length of time.

*Reads near the end of your review* *Voices morphs into Bane's from The Dark Night Rises* You think this tale is coming to an end?

...

Okay, that sounded better in my head.

Fate Calls is not anywhere close to its ending. Two chapters back is what I consider the end of the FIRST ARCH of this story. I have way too many unsolved subplots, main story elements, character side stories, and unseen plots and characters to be coming to the end. You are likely talking about how I could have probably ended this story a couple chapters back and started a sequel to it, but I am not planning on ending this story anytime soon. There's too much to write! Haha.

Thanks go to Crystal Prime for beta reading.

Disclaimer: Transformers belongs to Hasbro. I only take credit for this story and my OCs.

---

(Human calendar) July 16, 2013 3:49 A.M

(Cybertronian date) 1103432 (Centi-vorns since the end of the Golden Age)

Decepticon base, three-hundred and fifty miles northeast of Madagascar

The blue, red, and grey mech looked meaningfully at the dull green and earth-colored mech across from him. "Our time is up. Pick up the pace, Broadside," he ordered. His voice was deep, rough, and mostly stoic and calm, as if he had been in this situation a thousand times before, and knew exactly how to get out of it flawlessly.

The mech known as Broadside understood the meaning of the other mech's order, and after shaking off the last effects of Shockwave's punishment, he started to hit the side of his cage.

While the cage's design was structurally sound, and was made from a high-quality Xieron-Cyberium alloy, the rivets holding it together were made from a composite called Metaionic. It was easy and simple to create, was very lightweight, far harder than any naturally occurring element outside of Cybertron and its solar system, and kept most of its strength even when exposed to temperature extremes and corrosive acid. This combination of properties led to it being used in the construction of nearly as many Cybertronian technologies as Primax, ranging from high-tech starships, to basic containers. And it served its intended purpose almost every time.

Almost.

Metaionic had one weakness. When repeatedly struck by another object, even one softer than it was, it tended to form molecule-sized fractures. These fractures, while meaningless at first, would grow with every impact, until they were clearly visible, and they effected the structural strength of the object made with Metaionic. This weakness was overlooked for the most part, since the composite performed reliably right up until it ruptured entirely, could be easily replaced long before that point, and the fault was not well-known. As long as parts made with Metaionic were maintained properly, there would be no possibility of the material failing.

However, with a mech such as the blue, red, and grey one, whose carrier was in the science caste and knew of Metaionic's shortcoming, being contained inside a cage constructed with parts made from Metaionic, the possibility of the material failing went from impossible, to highly likely.

It was this knowledge of Metaionic that led to the mech to instruct Broadside to hit the side of his cage whenever he was able to do so, in case rescue didn't arrive, which was now fully clear it would not, at least not in time. The blue, red, and grey mech would have done it himself, but he knew he lacked neither the physical strength, nor thick enough armor withstand the force required to effect the integrity of the rivets of his cage. This fact was made especially true with how the sides of their prisons were designed to charge with electricity, similar to what Shockwave used as punishments, whenever they touched them. Broadside was built to shrug off that kind of physical effort and punishment, despite the presence of an electromagnetic field mildly distorting his systems, which, along with a few different treatments, was an addition Shockwave had placed to keep Broadside from using his many cannons on his little prison. As long as he was given chances to rest, the dull green and earth-colored mech could recover.

He, however, would not. Even now he still was feeling the effects of Shockwave's latest punishment, the first one he had given in jours, luckily. If the blue, red, and grey mech attempted what he had asked of Broadside, he would end up offlining himself. But that did not mean he didn't hate the order he had given, despite the fact it was their only option for escape. He never wanted to place his Wreckers in unnecessary danger.

Broadside continued slamming his bulky shoulder-joints against the cage, widening the fractures in the rivets with each hit, ignoring the painful shock he received for his progress. His attempts to escape his prison quickly resulted in his armor splitting from repeated contact with the power pulsing through his cage, but he merely switched to his other shoulder-joint and kept at it, letting his auto-repair systems take care of his damaged armor without losing time spent on weakening the Metaionic rivets.

Only a klick after Broadside began hitting the side of his cage, one of the rivets failed and snapped in two, and its broken pieces fell to the floor with a clang.

All optics fell on the bits of rivet, even Grimlock's furious red ones. In all their time as Shockwave's captives, they had made no visible progress in escaping from the scientist's grasp. Now that had changed.

The blue, red, and grey mech looked at Broadside. "Put everything you have into your next hit."

Broadside wordlessly acknowledged the other mech's instructions by backing up until his backplates were almost touching the back of his cage, electricity biting at his armor mere inches away, then he rushed forward.

Despite the fact only one rivet broke, the structural integrity of the holding cage had been severely compromised. This was due to a basic law of physics. When a set number of smaller objects are meant to hold together another object of greater mass, and one of the smaller objects is rendered useless, the remaining objects must take up the extra weight and strain. This leads to each individual object having a higher probability of failing, as each one must go beyond its set capabilities in order for the larger object to remain intact, and this effect is greatly increased when the remaining supporting objects were already damaged when the destroyed object failed. In common terms, this law is referred to by a number of names. The Butterfly Effect, Snowball Effect, Chain Reaction, Domino Effect, Ripple Effect, Cascading Failure, Mathematical Induction, and many others.

It was because of this law that the remaining rivets on the side of Broadside's cage failed, each one shattering from the force of the large Wrecker impacting the boundary of his prison, and out of the influence of the electromagnetic field Shockwave placed over his cell.

However, the law did not protect Broadside from harm. The energy he put into his final hit was so great, and the remaining rivets so strong, that he broke almost every gear and piston in his shoulder-joint, and split that section of his armor cleanly in two when the combination of Metaionic and electricity proved too much for his armor to take such an impact from.

Broadside grunted and grimaced when he felt his shoulder-joint break, as well as his armor, but he did not cry out, and instead fell to his knee-joints. He stayed there for a moment, then looked up at the blue, red, and grey mech, observing dryly, though through gritted denta, "I'm out, boss."

"So we all see," said the smaller mech, not changing his tone, despite Broadside's successful escape from his cage. There was still a long way to go before they could all leave. "Now you need to find a way to get another one of us out."

Broadside took another micro-klick to recover from bursting through his cage, then used the servo that was damaged the least to pick himself off the floor, other servo hanging uselessly at his side, and he looked around the room. His search turned up nothing he could use to break the blue, red, and grey mech's cage, but that wasn't surprising, since Shockwave never brought tools into their section of his lab. He still had an option in the form of his cannons, but with the treatments Shockwave had given him, and the fact his systems had been exposed to a minor EMP for a very long period of time, there was no telling what would happen if he used them. The scientist might have planted a fail-safe in his systems, a fatal one.

But, he had no other options.

The huge Wrecker stepped closer to the smaller mech's cage, and for the first time since he and his commander were captured more than an orbital-cycle ago, he brought the two massive, bulky cannons on his shoulder-joints online without getting electrocuted, heavy weapons commonly referred to as 'Heavy Neutron Cannons.'

The blue, red, and grey mech narrowed his optics marginally at one of the largest Wreckers he ever commanded, even before his injury. "You don't know what will happen to your systems when you activate those weapons, soldier," he said, knowing what Broadside was doing, yet unable to stop him, or see another option the larger mech could use to break the second cage.

"Nope. That's what makes surprises the best." Broadside aimed his Cannons at one side of the cage, directing his aim away from the mech inside, then fired.

Two balls of highly-condensed, unstable energy shot out of Broadside's Cannons, and exploded with the destructive force of more than a dozen rounds from a Riot Cannon. The side of the cage was instantly reduced to little more than slag, and the mech inside was hit by tiny bits of molten metal and composite, some of which would have gone into his optics, had he not quickly raised a servo to shield himself from the blast.

Broadside fared almost as badly as the cage.

Inside his frame, a dormant artificial parasite activated. It was installed by Shockwave during an experiment he was conducting on Broadside, and it was designed to bore its way into the huge Wrecker's spark if he activated any of his many weapon systems, and begin cutting through his outer sparkcasing the moment it detected a weapons discharge. This would, while not outright offline him, cause his frame to lockup when his spark realized it was potentially under attack, and would call all nanites in his chassis to guard it against the intruder. But all this would do to the parasite itself was delay it from its mission, and as it got closer and closer to accomplishing its goal, the mech would become more and more aware of its presence, yet less and less responsive to outside stimuli.

The parasite began to cut into Broadside's outer sparkcasing, and he collapsed to the ground with a cry of pain and fear.

The mech who had been inside the cage a moment ago stepped out of the burning hole that was one side of his cage as quickly as he could while still recovering from Shockwave's punishment, and went to the side of one of his Wreckers. "Broadside, can you hear me?" He asked, pain from the molten metal on his own frame ignored as he checked the larger mech's frame for the cause of his agony.

Broadside managed to get his initial reaction under control, though it was very clear to the others that it was difficult for him to even look up at his commander, let alone say, "I now hate surprises, Magnus."

Ultra Magnus ignored the huge Wrecker's joke, instead focusing his attention on finding out what was wrong with him. "Where are you wounded?"

Broadside weakly pointed at his chestplates, directly above his spark.

Magnus silently cursed. An internal injury. He couldn't help with that. He didn't have the necessary training or medical tools. But, one of the Dinobots might. "Swoop, do you know how to treat internal injuries while outside an infirmary?"

The smallest of the Dinobots, the closest thing the unit had to a medic, nodded eagerly. "Me Swoop know how!"

"Do you still have tools to treat them properly?" Asked Ultra Magnus.

"Me Swoop's best tools taken away!" Swoop answered, blue optics flashing unhappily. "But me Swoop know how to help!"

The Wrecker commander took in this information calmly. Now there was another factor they had to account for, another disadvantage they had to deal with. An injured teammate, which they couldn't even tend to. But he didn't have time to focus on that. He had to get the others off their platforms, and release them from the additional cold-plasma barriers.

Magnus looked up at the ceiling, searching for the emitters of the barriers containing the Dinobots, as well as the gravity fields holding up their platforms. His search quickly ended when he spotted a power conduit for the barriers and fields around Swoop, Slug, Snarl, and Sludge. The emitter for the cold-plasma barrier and gravity field around Grimlock was nowhere in sight.

"Be prepared to break out and jump," Magnus said to the four Dinobots, and deployed a simple servo-blaster, one of two he possessed, and took aim at the conduit.

All the Dinobots, besides Grimlock, who growled lowly at the fact he wasn't going to be freed yet, braced for the moment the barriers around them would deactivate, and their platforms to fall along with them. They would have less than three micro-klicks to break their restraints and get to the floor in front of them, before the gravity fields failed along with the barriers, and their platforms fell into the acid below them. If they took longer to get out of their restraints, they would be disintegrated.

Nothing new for them.

After Ultra Magnus saw that the Dinobots were prepared, he fired at the conduit.

Due to how the Wrecker commander's systems were still recovering from Shockwave's treatment earlier, his first, second, and third shots missed the conduit entirely, though with a lessening margin each time. It wasn't until he fired his fourth shot that he hit his target, but its outer shell protected it from harm. It took two additional shots to destroy the outer shell, and with Magnus' seventh shot, the conduit fired out an electrical arc, and then failed entirely.

The barriers around four of the Dinobots deactivated immediately, and the mechs that had been contained within them quickly began to pull at their restraints, cracking the strong alloy with each of their movements, until they started to break at the same moment the gravity fields wore off.

The Dinobots started to fall toward with their platforms, but one after the other, all their restraints snapped, and they jumped to the safety of the floor near Ultra Magnus and Broadside, leaping a distance of more than twice their height without even an effort. Swoop, however, took slightly longer than the others, since he was physically weaker, and he had to transform into his Pterodactyl mode to prevent himself from falling into the acid like his platform, which dissolved in the liquid only half a micro-klick after he escaped.

Swoop flew toward Ultra Magnus and the prone Broadside once he escaped, and he landed heavily next to the two Wreckers, while his fellow Dinobots began trying to find a way to release Grimlock. "Me Swoop here help!" He opened a sub-space pocket, then started fumbling through it in search of a basic medical scanner. It took him a moment, but he eventually found what he was looking for under a few energy cells, and he gave the huge Wrecker a quick scan.

The parasite inside Broadside felt the scan as it passed over it, and it dedicated more of its power reserves into completing its objective, its pre-programmed CPU registering the fact there was a possibility it had been detected, and accordingly adjusting its time frame for piercing the outer sparkcasing of Broadside.

Swoop narrowed his optics when he saw the outline of the parasite on his scanner. He placed his medical tool back into his sub-space pocket, and then slammed a servo down on Broadside's chestplates, the hit causing the huge Wrecker to go quiet as his intakes were stunned by the blow.

"Why did you do that?" Ultra Magnus asked, sky blue optics focused entirely on the smallest Dinobot, who was still seven feet taller than the Wrecker commander.

"To stop bad bug from hurting him Broadside on inside!" Swoop replied. "But hit can't stop bad bug for long!"

"What 'Bad bug'?" Asked Broadside, a touch of uneasiness in his voice.

Swoop looked at the downed Wrecker. "The bad bug trying to eat your spark," he replied, as if that had been obvious.

The look Broadside gave Swoop accurately channeled the terror he felt when he heard this news.

Ultra Magnus looked up at the sound of weapons fire, and saw the other three freed Dinobots shooting at the ceiling. It was clear to the commander of the Wreckers that, unlike his own goal before, that the objective of the three massive mechs was to shoot the ceiling so much that it would partially fall apart, and expose the emitter and power conduit of the plasma barrier and gravity field around Grimlock.

It took the powerful weapons of the three Dinobots mere micro-klicks to destroy enough of the ceiling to expose the systems they were looking for, and only one of them had to even fire a single shot in order to turn it to molten metal and wires.

The barrier and field around Grimlock disappeared as soon as their sources were destroyed, and with a single, mighty effort and a roar, he shattered his restraints as if they had been made of glass. He then made the same jump his Dinobots made less a klick before him, and landed on his servos and knee-joints hard enough to vibrate the metal floor beneath him as his massive weight came crashing down.

For a moment, the titanic mech remained unmoved, enjoying the feeling of being unrestrained for the first time in more than a vorn, his slow, deep breaths seemingly drowning out the noise in the room. Then he growled, and raised his helm to look at Ultra Magnus, red optics blazing with fury not directed at the commander of the Wreckers.

Magnus gestured to the door, and the cold-plasma barrier that protected it, with his helm. "Take it down."

The thick, sharp, nine foot long metal horns on Grimlock's helm pulsed yellow, and he stood to his immense full height, absolutely towering over the ninety foot Sludge. Parts of left foreservo shifted, transformed, and snapped into different places, until they formed an energy shield not unlike that of a Brute's, only orange, and far, far larger and stronger.

A sword hilt deployed from below his right servo, and he wrapped his digits around it while sections of his foreservo, like that of his left, shifted and extended out, until a massive great sword, notched with sharp, angled grooves halfway along its inner side, finished forming. It was longer than Snarl was tall, and quickly started glowing orange as a power cell in its hilt began to heat the blade to incredible temperatures.

Grimlock examined his sword and shield, his trusted tools of war and destruction. It had been many orbital-cycles since he had last been able to deploy them.

He looked at the last remaining obstacle standing between what had been the prison of every mech in the room for too long, as if he could see through the fifteen meter-thick metal, and every other door that might be closed behind the scientist who had been keeping them captive. The mech who was responsible for turning him into what he was.

He growled, deeply and lowly. Then he charged.

And more than a thousand metric tons of furious Dinobot slammed into a cold-plasma barrier at eighty miles an hour.

The barrier covering the door was designed to withstand tremendous punishment before it failed, ranging from guided bombs missiles to a gunship ramming it at nearly three-hundred miles an hour. But, despite the fact it was created for durability, it had trouble containing Grimlock's immense, raw power, and it flickered once before it returned to full strength.

The enormous leader of the Dinobots snorted at how the barrier remained active, and he took several steps backward, then charged again, shield in front of him.

The barrier flickered twice when Grimlock's massive frame impacted it, but it, again, return to its full power.

Grimlock growled and stepped back again, then with a mental thought, he charged his energy shield with an electric current, causing energy crackle over its surface. Then he charged for the third time.

Sparks flew as Grimlock's shield made contact with the barrier, the two different types of energy conflicting with one another. The barrier flickered several times in the space of a few micro-klicks, then it fizzled and went inactive, leaving the door behind it exposed.

The massive mech grunted when the barrier failed, and then he slammed into the door with enough force to send a ripple through the air that the other mechs in the room felt, both in the air and beneath their pedes.

---

On the other side of the prison door, near the hidden passage that led from his secret lab to his official one, Shockwave came to standstill when his audio receptors picked up a great rumble from behind him that was nearly as loud as a cannon blast.

Slowly and calmly, the calculating scientist turned to look back at the door to the most heavily armored section of his hidden laboratory, which was still visible since he had yet to close the entryways to the parts of his lab he had to pass through in order to reach the imprisoned Autobots.

His highly perceptive single optic noticed that the immense, fifteen meter-thick door was approximately one inch closer to him, despite the presence of the lock made of molecularly-enhanced, ultra-strength alloy.

Another boom, even louder than the first, rumbled through the air, and the door moved another inch toward Shockwave.

The scientist immediately knew what was happening. Grimlock was out, and not only that, he had broken the cold-plasma barrier much faster than his calculations suggested was possible for him to accomplish.

He was getting stronger.

Shockwave immediately opened a universal communications channel to the entire base. "This is Science Commander Shockwave. To all Decepticons currently stationed at Base Zetta-3, one of my experiments is about to break loose," he said, his usual calm unbroken as he stepped through the hidden door, and used his terminal to activate a lockdown of both his secret and official laboratories. The doors of his secret laboratory closed and locked, blocking access to anything behind them. Additional blast doors folded over them, and secured his most valuable experiments by moving them back behind cold-plasma barriers, and doors thick enough to be considered walls.

He was about to close down the cages holding the Ferals, but reconsidered and instead opened them, releasing the animalistic Cybertronians in that section of his lab. He might not be able to control them or guarantee their survival, but he had many more of them contained in other areas of his lab, and they would be very useful in slowing down Grimlock.

His audio receptors picked up another rumble, and he felt the solid metal floor shake marginally with the impact of the titanic Dinobot slamming into the door.

At least, in theory they would be useful in slowing down Grimlock.

Shockwave stepped away from his terminal and continued speaking as he slowly walked to the door leading out of his lab, "I am triggering an Alpha-level security alert. Unlock the safeties on the armories, and lockdown all unnecessary sections of the base. All able Decepticons are to prepare for battle. Security team six, your presence is required outside my laboratory." He closed the channel after issuing his orders, finding it pointless to keep it open any longer than what was required.

The door opened for the calculating scientist as he approached it, and he stepped out into one of the many hallways of the base. He saw two Decepticon drones running toward him, clearly on their way to an assigned destination with the Alpha-level alert now active.

"You two," Shockwave addressed, causing the two drones to come to a halt. "Guard this door until security team six arrives. Don't let anything in or out." He turned and continued walking down the hallway without waiting for an answer.

"Uh," said one of the drones, unnerved by the Science Commander's direct address of he and the other drone. Shockwave's reputation was legendary among the Decepticons. And not in a good way. "We'll get right on it, sir!"

'Of course you will,' Shockwave thought, turning the corner. One of the best qualities of drones was that they obeyed every command given by a superior, and without question. It was in their programming, and they were not even aware of it. A full Decepticon could tell them to place their own weapon to their helm and fire, and they wouldn't hesitate to carry out the instructions. The fact they obeyed Shockwave's order without question was a perfect example of this, and for a single, obvious reason.

Any guards posted outside his lab would be as good as offline the moment Grimlock burst through the final door. But, at least they would buy him a few more micro-klicks to prepare for the Dinobot's arrival elsewhere.

Behind the calculating scientist, now standing on either side of the door proudly, the two drones stood silently, servo-blasters out and held at the ready.

The first drone, who was the one who spoke to Shockwave, turned to his partner after a moment when a thought came to him. "Hey, 0-31J," he said, restricted CPU not finding strange at all to call another drone by a factory designation, and not a real name. "Why do you think Commander Shockwave had us guard his lab? There's no point to guard it, if a security team's on its way here."

"Because he wants us to be a distraction for whatever got out," replied 0-31J.

"What kind of distraction? Like the kind of distraction that can offline you if you don't pay attention to it?" The first drone asked.

"No. The kind that gives an experiment something else to offline besides a security team," 0-31J said bluntly, slightly older processor possessing a larger understanding of the place of drones in the Decepticon army.

The first drone's optic visor pulsed, and he looked ahead again. "Oh. Well… Slag…"

A faint rumble sounded from behind the door a moment later, and the two drones shared an uncertain look.

---

On the other side of the door the drones were guarding, as well as several hidden ones behind that, Grimlock continued charging into the door of their prison, bending the lock, along with the door itself, with each hit.

He slammed into the door at full speed again, moving it outward another foot. He had been increasing the amount the door moved each time he slammed into it, but he wanted to get out now. He had been contained, treated like a neglected pet, for too long. Now he could taste a hint of freedom, and he was going to get it.

Ultra Magnus watched the titanic mech bash into the door with increasing furiosity, at the same time helping Broadside in any way he could, or rather in what ways Swoop knew how. Normally, Grimlock's presence was both a blessing and a curse. He was a blessing in the sense that he was a walking, though barely talking, tank of a mech that could dish out more punishment in a single klick than anyone else Magnus had ever seen, as well as take just as much. And he was a curse due to his battlerage, and general attitude toward non-Dinobots. Although, all the Dinobots except Swoop seemed to stick together more so than what was normal for a close unit, so perhaps that was where part of his attitude came from, but not most of it.

An example of this was when Grimlock would cross paths with a non-Dinobot at the Autobot base during the war on Cybertron, and the other Autobot would get in his way or not let him pass first. He would glare at the offending 'Bot. Or growl at them. Or push them aside. Or in one case kick them… Lightly. He had a superiority complex, believed himself better than all other Autobots, even Optimus Prime himself, and expected all other followers of the cause to acknowledge his superiority. When they didn't, he got angry. Not to the point of seriously hurting the other Autobot, but he would ignore their presence for the rest of their encounter, and be particularly vocal about his superiority when he saw that bot in the future.

As if he wasn't vocal enough about it in a normal situation.

Magnus flinched as Grimlock slammed into the door again, the deafening boom that followed so loud his audio receptors dimmed their sensitivity without him adjusting them.

But, despite his superiority complex, Ultra Magnus firmly believed Grimlock's presence in their prison was much more of a blessing than a curse.

And he would lean even more toward a blessing when they finally escaped the lab, and most certainly had to fight their way out of the base.

Grimlock's horns pulsed crimson in anger and frustration. He wanted to get out, to tear Shockwave apart piece by piece. But the door was still standing, still preventing him from ripping Shockwave in two.

He was sick of its presence.

With another crimson flash from his horns, and a loud growl that would have terrified the extinct reptile his alt mode was based on, Grimlock backed up one more time, almost to where Ultra Magnus and Swoop crouched next to Broadside, slammed his massive sword against his shield, and rushed toward the door, every ounce of his strength behind him.

Sparks flew through the air, dense metal twisted and snapped, and the door virtually exploded outward, fragmenting into pieces ranging from the size of a human's thumb, to slabs that weighed as much as a small tank.

Grimlock ended his charge after obliterating the door. He glanced at the pieces of the door he destroyed, then looked around the room. His horns quickly flashed red, and he snarled behind his battlemask, narrowing his visor-like optics.

Another door stood in front of him. Shockwave was nowhere in sight.

He locked down this area of the base.

And he was scared.

As well he should have been.

The titan of a mech raised his shield and charged again, and the second door simply ceased to exist. He searched the room, but found that, like the last, it was empty. And not only that, but there was a third door in his path. He growled in frustration, then charged that one, too.

Back in the last room, the other six mechs contained in Shockwave's maximum security holding area followed Grimlock's trail of destruction, staying close together.

Sludge was in front, his larger frame built to take more punishment than the other Dinobots besides Grimlock. Out in front of him, a Diffraction Barrier, a weaker, one-way, portable version of a cold-plasma barrier, hovered above the floor, emitting from a device in his servo that came with the upgrades Shockwave gave the Dinobots near the end of the war on Cybertron.

Behind Sludge, Slug followed, his right servo in its Plasma Scatterblast mode, and his left servo on the weapon's action, ready to load another energy charge into its barrel after he used the one in the chamber.

Broadside followed after Slug, although not under his own power. Swoop and Ultra Magnus each had one of his servos slung over their backplates, supporting, and partially dragging, the much larger mech.

At the back, Snarl was on rear security. Both of his Z-23 Anti-Material Missile pods were out, along with the automated Ion Blasters on his backplates, which normally were disguised as the plates of the animal Shockwave based his alt mode on. His spiked tail was also twitching, almost as if it had a CPU of its own, and it wanted an enemy to get close to it.

Ultra Magnus felt fairly secure, surrounded by the massive Dinobots, but he knew that under normal circumstances, they would be rushing to keep up with their leader, competing with each other over who could offline more Decepticons. One of the only two reasons they were staying back was because Swoop was helping him with Broadside, and they didn't leave each other behind, no matter what. And the other reason was that they didn't want to get too close to Grimlock while his battlerage was active. When he was like this, he went from terrifying, to petrifying, and rarely retained the ability to observe threats and issue commands.

The others needed him to be their leader until Grimlock's rage subsided. Commanding them was a tall order for him under average circumstances. And considering how he estimated himself at half his usual strength, he was supporting a mech at least twice his mass, and it was the six of them against an entire base filled with Decepticons, all of which may be equipped with weapons designed solely to battle the Dinobots, it was made even more difficult.

Another door ahead of them was turned to twisted and sheared metal with a thunderous boom, and another violent growl from Grimlock echoed back to them.

Of course, their chances in battle increased drastically with the presence of a titanic berserker clearing the way ahead of them.

Approximately one klick and seven micro-klicks, and eight doors, later, Grimlock smashed through the thirteenth door overall with a furious snarl.

A snarl that was answered by piercing, chilling screams.

Three violet-opticed Cybertronians leapt at Grimlock, slamming into his shield with far greater strength than their size suggested they were capable of. It was the type of strength that, normally, would break a Cybertronian of similar size, and be more than a match even for a bot in a Brute-class frame.

But Grimlock wasn't similar to their size, and he was no Brute.

With little more strength than it took him to swing his servo, the enormous Dinobot flung the Ferals off his shield and into the wall, denting their armor inward from the impact and fracturing their internal frames. But they were up in an instant, injuries already beginning to heal from their enhanced nanites, the one success of the formula that had turned them into crazed animals.

The three Ferals leapt at Grimlock again, but he was ready for them. As they flew through the air, he brought his shield down on them, crushing them against the floor.

As Grimlock briefly fought the three Ferals, seven more crawled across the ceiling and through the destroyed doorway, screaming again as they spotted the other six mechs.

Ultra Magnus didn't hesitate to order, "Take them down."

The booming report of Slug's Plasma Scatterblast answered Magnus' order almost immediately, completely stopping one Feral in mid-air as the large plasma shell created a two meter-wide hole in its chestplates. It fell to the floor, and never moved again.

Another Feral started to drop down on Slug while he loaded another charge into his weapon, but a pair of missiles fired by Snarl caught it in its chestplates and helm, and Slug nonchalantly batted its lifeless chassis away from him at almost the exact same moment.

Sludge deployed his battleaxe as a third Feral jumped at him, and he neatly sliced it in two. He offlined another with a trio of shots from a Pulse Rifle that deployed from his other servo, then trapped a third in his Diffraction Barrier long enough for Slug to take it out with his Scatterblast.

The sixth Feral jumped from the ceiling and made to attack Ultra Magnus as he and Swoop continued supporting Broadside, screaming as it approached the helpless mech.

Without looking back, Slug loaded another energy charge into his Scatterblast, took his left servo off the action, aimed behind him, and took the Feral's helm off when it got within ten feet of the three mechs who couldn't join the fray.

The shot redirected the violet-opticed Cybertronian's offline frame toward the waiting tail of Snarl, and the least mature of the Dinobots hit the helmless chassis forward, taking the final Feral out of the air as it leapt at Sludge, who finished it off with his battleaxe.

All seven hostiles were downed in less than five micro-klicks. To most military units, that time would be considered incredible. A sign of their exemplary skills in combat. To the Dinobots, it signaled they were off their game, weakened by Shockwave's treatments, but that could not be helped.

The same could not be said of Grimlock.

Exactly one micro-klick after he offlined his first three attackers, Grimlock had cut three more in half. Vertically.

Two micro-klicks after that, eight more Ferals fell victim to the titanic mech's blade, frames lying on the floor with most of their chestplates missing, their helms cut off, or simply in multiple pieces.

And in the next two micro-klicks, seven more had perished by great sword, shield bash, or fist.

In the same time it took the other three battle-ready Dinobots to offline seven Ferals, Grimlock destroyed eighteen. And he didn't stop there.

Nine more Ferals offlined in the next three micro-klicks, and a grand total of thirty-one were turned to lifeless scrap metal by the time the others entered the room.

Even in their state, the Ferals knew better than to fight fairly against the titanic berserker known as Grimlock, and they jumped up onto the ceiling to get out of range of his huge blade. This action did little to save them from the Dinobots, and one by one, they fell offline, with the largest Dinobot claiming only a third of those that remained by throwing his sword and reclaiming it again and again.

Only a klick after it began, the battle came to an end, and the only sound anyone heard were Grimlock's furious growls and snarls.

The Dinobot leader didn't pause to admire his handiwork, and stomped to the door, shield up and prepared to destroy the next obstacle in his path.

He charged forward, and the door exploded in a shower of metal and stone, revealing the immense, mostly wide-open space that was Shockwave's official, and also private, lab.

Grimlock's horns pulsed brightly, the crimson flash illuminating his massive chassis in the dim light. Another fierce snarl formed behind his battlemask, and he huffed, the action emitting black smoke that floated up over the sides of his faceplate.

He was finished with doors.

---

Outside of Shockwave's lab, the drones stood at the ready, at least until they felt the ground shake beneath their pedes, and heard a great crash from behind the door to their superior's lab.

"The pit was that?!" The first drone asked in a panic, backing away from the door and aiming his servo-blaster at it.

"I think Shockwave's pet just got out," 0-31J replied, mimicking the other drone's actions by creating distance between he and the door, and keeping his weapon at the ready. "Brace yourself. I think it's going to try hitting the do-"

At that moment, a thunderous boom echoed up and down the hallway as an incredibly massive mech collided with the other side of the door.

But, it did not break.

The wall did.

---

Rock, metal, and stone flew in all directions, and the door, still mostly intact, slammed into the drones almost before their restricted CPUs registered the danger. Both drones were crushed by the resulting impact between the destroyed door and the far wall, and the only indications their offline frames were even there was the presence of energon already pooling on the floor, and the odd plate of armor that had been knocked off of its owner.

Grimlock's violent gaze searched the hallway, like a beast looking for its prey, but Shockwave, nor any other Decepticon, was in sight. The titan's horns pulsed red, darker and more angry than before, then he threw his servos back and roared so loudly that bots three levels above him clearly heard his shout, "SHOCKWAVE!"

---

At the base's main entrance to the surface, the scientist himself stopped in issuing instructions in how to create certain preparations for Grimlock's arrival. He listened intently, audio receptors picking up a faint cry of his name, echoing from down below.

The other Decepticons with him halted in their work as well, their faceplates growing alarmed as they heard the enraged cry. Many even started to quake in fear, optics already becoming frantic.

Internally, Shockwave could not blame the mechs and drones for their behavior. Had he been a lesser, more emotional mech himself, he might have been having a reaction similar to theirs.

But he was not. And the illogical use of time would be be tolerated.

"Return to your tasks," Shockwave commanded, tone machine-like, as it usually was when not speaking to Lord Megatron. He found a touch of amusement, in infuriating the Decepticon leader.

Only some Decepticons obeyed, the others continued shaking in fright.

All noise seemed to be sucked from the air for a tenth of a micro-klick. Then noise returned in an explosion, both in the literal sense and in the form of detonation waves, and the pedes of one of the drones who had still been quaking in fear fell to the floor, his upper half missing and incinerated.

The calculating scientist lowered his Pulse Cannon, its barrel still smoking, and looked at the shocked faceplates of the Decepticons around him, working and not. "I gave you an order. Return to your tasks. Do not force me to repeat myself again."

The soldiers quickly masked their fear of Grimlock and returned to work, now afraid of annoying their commander.

Shockwave went back to issuing instructions, ignoring whenever a bot started to shiver when he addressed them directly. Being feared was a good thing, in his optic. It made others focus on the tasks given to them by their superiors, intimidated them into submission, and created loyalty when normally there would be rebellion. And it kept one very important fact fresh in their processors.

From their point of view, there was more than one monster they had to fear.

---

Almost at the same moment Grimlock finished his battlecry, a squad of Decepticons made up of Brutes, two Pyros, and a Heavy Soldier ran around the corner of a junction in the hallway to his right, and they moved straight toward the titanic mech.

The horns on Grimlock's helm flashed red, then orange. He roared at the squad in challenge, and charged them, not bothering to check on the other Autobots who were still making their way out of Shockwave's lab.

One of the Brutes in front was crushed against the wall.

Another was cut in two, from his shoulder-joint to his hip, despite the fact his shield was active and held out to meet Grimlock's sword.

The enormous Dinobot folded his sword against his servo, its blade pointed outward. Then he grabbed a third Brute by his helm and threw him into one of the Pyros with enough force to break armor, and they both went down, either critically injured or offline.

A fourth Brute swung his hammer at Grimlock, but the far larger mech caught the weapon effortlessly, and swung the bot into a fifth Brute faster than the fourth could swing his hammer, the impact crumpling the armor and internal frames of the Decepticons like they had been made of Caesium.

The one Pyro still standing activated his flamethrower, sending a stream of liquid white fire at Grimlock that burned hotter than the surface of most stars.

The titanic mech brought up his shield to meet the blaze. It blocked the liquid flames, mostly, but even the huge shield couldn't keep some of the fire from washing over his massive chassis. He ignored the searing pain, partly because his armor could withstand it for a longer period of time than all but the most heavily armored Cybertronians, and partly because he had been through far worse while in Shockwave's captivity.

Grimlock advanced on the Pyro and knocked its flamethrower to the side with his shield, its deadly fuel setting fire to a section of the metal wall. He then returned his sword to his servo, and sliced the Pyro's helm off.

Wild, barely aimed Ion Displacer shots flew around the Dinobot leader's helm, and Grimlock turned his enraged optics on the only member of the squad that was still standing, the Heavy Soldier.

The Decepticon's aim was very off, and fear was clear in both his optics and his shaky movements. Not only that, but he was already attempting to back away from the Dinobot, as close to scrambling as his large, bulky frame would allow.

Grimlock snorted and stalked toward the last Decepticon, ignoring the odd shot that hit his black armor that was now mostly glowing bright red from the heat of the Pyro's weapon. In one swift motion, he cut the Heavy Soldier's weapon in two, cut off one of the Decepticon's servos, reversed his grip on his sword, stabbed the smaller mech through the helm, and kept going until the last fourth of his weapon exited out of the Decepticon and embedded itself in the floor.

Another squad of Decepticons appeared in the left hallway in the junction. They all came to an abrupt halt when Grimlock spotted them and glowered at the group, with his armor glowing red and tendrils of smoke and hot air rising off his chassis. He looked, in their optics, like an angry Demicon, from the stories they heard during their sparklinghood.

Grimlock pulled his sword out of the floor back out through the Heavy Soldier's helm, and rushed the new Decepticons as the offline frame of the Heavy Soldier was finally allowed to collapse.

"We going right way by following he Grimlock?" Sludge asked Ultra Magnus, finishing off the only survivor of the first squad of Decepticons his leader battled with two shots from his Pulse Rifle.

"Yes. At least for now," Magnus confirmed, having been the only one who hadn't been heavily sedated and restrained when they had been transferred to their prison, and had seen where their cells had been in relation to the base's entrance to the surface. "I will vocalize when the path Grimlock is creating ahead of us begins diverging from the way to the exit."

Sludge grunted in acknowledgement, and blocked the chassis of a Decepticon from hitting him or anyone behind him, the frame having been carelessly thrown backward by Grimlock. "I Sludge keep following he Grimlock, then."

The Autobots continued making their way through the base, with Grimlock slashing, smashing, kicking, throwing, and breaking any Decepticons that dared to get in his path, while the others mopped up the few that managed to survive.

After nearly twenty klicks of fighting through the Decepticons, and Ultra Magnus improvising ways to return the rampaging Grimlock to the correct path, the seven Autobots found themselves entering a huge, open room.

The room was circular, and almost a kilometer in diameter. It was well over four times as tall as it was wide, and every fifty feet, the walls opened up to a three-hundred foot gap that hosed another level of the base, large enough even for soldiers in Annihilator-class frames to use. There were forty-two of these levels, along with a seven-hundred foot-thick block of metal and stone at the top, where naturally-occurring light was visible.

And the entire room was filled to the brim with Decepticons.

The bottom floor, where the Ultra Magnus and the others were, was filled with drones with servo blasters, but oddly not a single Decepticon in a larger or more heavily armed frame. They were the cannon fodder, and considering by the amount of shaking they were doing when they saw Grimlock, they knew exactly what their role was.

Each level above the bottom one was lined with drones with Thermo Missile Cannons, or operating Nucleon Shock Cannon and Ion Displacer turrets that were spaced for perfect, overlapping fields of fire.

Some of them were even using the ADC-3, a weapon that fired a barrage of small, guided missiles with a charge of Nucleon-charged plasma. It was the third generation of a line of weapons Shockwave created to keep the Dinobots in line.

A number of Heavy Soldiers, Pyros, Brutes, Insecticons, and even some Annihilators stood alongside their fellow Decepticons, cannons, flamethrowers, or shields at the ready.

The Autobots looked at their surroundings wearily, aware the rules of battle had just changed. There were too many Decepticons around them to count, and the ones positioned on the level above not only had the vast advantage of the high ground, but they also had a plethora of heavy armaments, all aimed right at them. Even at their full strength and with greater numbers, their chances of winning any approaching battle were exceedingly slim.

But Grimlock saw no disadvantage at that moment, didn't acknowledge the fact he was under any threat.

All he saw was Shockwave, calmly standing twenty-one levels above them, a Nucleon Shock Cannon on either side of him.

Grimlock had found him.

The level of fury the Dinobot leader was experiencing doubled, and black smoke poured freely from behind his battlemask.

His horns flashed a red so dark it was almost pitch.

His sword and shield folded away for later use without him sending a mental command.

His rage was so powerful that his chassis shook, and his servos clenched with enough force to bend starship armor.

He slammed his fist into floor hard enough to shake the ground.

His frame shifted, parts changing shape as he prepared to transform.

And then everything stopped as unimaginable pain flooded his chassis, electricity pulsing in tone with his spark. And he went down on all four limbs, struggling to roar in frustration more than pain. He couldn't transform.

"A valiant escape effort, Autobots, but you have reached the end of the line." Shockwave paced along the level he stood on, keeping his single optic on the Autobots below him. "One of your number is, tragically, suffering from an impairment which will prove fatal in short order."

As if to add to Shockwave's words, Broadside bit back a scream as the parasite in his chestplates renewed its quest to bore into the huge Wrecker's spark. But the large mech couldn't take the pain any longer, and he was forced into recharge by his frame, bringing his full weight on the two smaller mechs who had been helping to carry him through the base.

"Two of you are hampered by the fact you now must carry the dead weight of your comrade through the halls," Shockwave went on. "One of you is unable to transform. And all of you are severely outnumbered and outmatched in firepower." His focused focused on Ultra Magnus, processor correctly deducing that the Wrecker commander was leading the others at the moment. "Surrender yourselves, and I will repair the Wrecker Broadside. Then I will make all your ends as painless as possible, without detracting from the required process. I give you my word on this."

Magnus' gaze didn't stray from that of the scientist above them. He knew how Shockwave worked, how he acted. By all accounts, he would make do on his word, but he had left out a number of critical details, any one of which could change what Shockwave promised. He hadn't said he'd deactivate the security measure he'd clearly installed in Broadside's systems, only repair him. He then could leave the measure active, and prolong the huge Wrecker's suffering.

Not only could he draw out Broadside's pain, but also the pain he and the others would go through whenever he conducted whatever twisted experiment he had planned, and point out that if he sped the process up, it would hurt more, and he had given his word to make sure they weren't put through more pain. He had never said how long he'd have them go through that lesser pain.

After half a micro-klick, Ultra Magnus gave his answer, "Shockwave, go frag yourself."

"Very well." Shockwave gestured to the Decepticons all around him. "Open fire."

Missiles launched toward the Autobots in a cloud of metal and fire. Plasma, Nucleon, standard combustion, and blaster fire filled the air. The floor exploded from each shot, sending debris in all directions, along with a few Decepticon drones when another Decepticon from above aimed their weapon incorrectly.

"Cover!" Magnus shouted.

The others sprang into action.

Sludge placed more energy into his Diffraction Barrier, creating a small area behind his shield where missiles and weapons fire couldn't reach.

Slug fired his Scatterblast through Sludge's barrier and at the canister of fuel on a Pyro's backplates, the energy charge easily piercing the armor there, and igniting the liquid ammunition for the Decepticon's weapon.

The fuel detonated spectacularly, vaporizing the Pyro who had been shot, the Ion Displacer he'd been standing next to, and any other Decepticon within eighty meters of him.

Snarl gave Ultra Magnus and Swoop covering fire with his own weapons as they propped the unresponsive Broadside against a support pillar near the hallway they used to enter the room, then added their own weapons to the fray, quickly downing a trio of drones on their level.

Everyone was battling with all their strength, except for Grimlock.

The massive mech was still trying to transform, ignoring the shots from all the servo-blasters firing at him to try fighting through the pain and change into his immensely powerful alt mode. But no matter what he did, nothing worked. Not even channeling all the rage he felt into transforming could change the final result of failure. The very thought of being physically influenced by something the scientist did infuriated him beyond measure. But there was no denying he was stuck in his true form. Again. Just like the first time he escaped Shockwave's captivity.

He was being held back. Just like Shockwave wanted him to be.

No one held him back.

With a maddened roar, Grimlock focused all his efforts on building up more anger, creating more rage, and he let that passionate fury control his chassis.

A squad of drones went flying as the titanic Dinobot's shield came back online, and he bashed them away from him.

Then Grimlock was back on his pedes and running forward, sword cutting down the drones around him like wheat in a field. But his was helm tilted upward to glare at the scientist far above.

Ultra Magnus saw what Grimlock was doing, and guessed his intentions. The Wrecker commander knew what the enormous mech was capable of, what he would do if given a sliver of a chance.

Offline Shockwave, no matter the cost.

The one and only problem with that goal was how there were hundreds upon hundreds of Decepticons attacking them. Grimlock wouldn't even get close.

Magnus took down two more drones and cried out over the roar of battle, "Grimlock! Stand down! Sta-" He cut himself off when he spotted a number of Nucleon Shock Cannon shots heading his way, and he ducked behind the pillar even more just as they hit.

The leader of the Dinobots ignored his call and kept running forward, literally crushing several drones that couldn't get out of his way in time, and were stepped on.

"You Grimlock! No!" Sludge yelled, offlining two drones simultaneously with his Rifle and battleaxe.

"Get your fragging aft back here, boss!" Slug added, the only one of the Dinobots who didn't have a mild speech impairment.

Snarl and Swoop added their own statements as well, but Grimlock continued on, driven by rage, and heedless of Magnus and his fellow Dinobots' cry. Shockwave was his.

The Dinobots' leader slammed his shield into another half dozen drones, then he jumped up, his vastly enhanced strength easily allowing him to jump the required height to reach the suspended stone floor of the level above the floor he had just left. At the apex of his jump, he reversed the grip on his sword and stabbed his weapon into the rock as a support, leaving most of his frame dangling in empty air.

A Decepticon with an ADC-3 on the level just above Grimlock took aim at the massive Dinobot, but Grimlock brought his shield up in an instant, and the resulting missiles fired from the Decepticon's weapon exploded harmlessly against the barrier of energy. Grimlock then returned the favor to the drone by planting his pedes near his embedded sword, which allowed him to raise the rest of his frame up from empty air, and crushed the Decepticon beneath his shield.

The leader of the Dinobots paid no attention to the weapons fire sent his way by nearby Decepticons. His focus went to Shockwave as soon as he crushed the drone, and he called on every ounce of his rage to power him for the next part of his journey to utterly destroy the scientist above him.

Shockwave would pay for all the pain he had caused him.

Grimlock would make sure of that.

The titanic mech braced as if he was crouching on the ground, letting his sword hold him up. Then he launched himself upward, covering a vertical distance that was more than twice his own height, before he stabbed his sword into the rock and alloy of the third level.

His actions caused many Decepticon optics to focus on him, along with their numerous weapons and turrets, but his massive shield proved more than able to take the firepower sent his way, and several turrets were destroyed when the shots they had fired ricocheted into turrets or Decepticons that were near Grimlock.

This change in focus allowed Ultra Magnus and the Dinobots to move to better cover, and just in time, too. The emitter for Sludge's Barrier was damaged, but his auto-repair systems were working on making it functional again, Swoop had been moderately injured when a Nucleon shot hit too close for his armor to handle, and the pillars they had been hiding behind were almost gone. It was a miracle none of them had been offlined.

Grimlock's actions also gained Shockwave's full attention, who had been watching both the Dinobots' leader and the other Autobots far below. Now he all of his focus was dedicated to the massive mech and his obvious intention to climb his way up the walls of the entrance.

Grimlock was after him, and him alone. He knew that with certainty. Any Decepticons that were on the way up were just a hindrance.

But that didn't mean he wouldn't fight them if they came to him.

"Insecticons," the scientist said as Grimlock jumped up another level, forcing the Decepticons firing at him to readjust their aim. He instantly gained the attention of every Insecticon at the entrance, such was their loyalty to him. "Remove Grimlock from the walls."

All the Insecticons let out a chilling screech, which to them sounded joyous, before they transformed into alt modes similar to their namesake and took flight.

Moments later, the Insecticons were assaulting Grimlock from every direction, either firing their weapons from a distance, or getting up close to melee with the Dinobots' leader.

That was a mistake, on their part, and more than a dozen Insecticons were offlined by Grimlock within the first micro-klicks of their attack. But he did not stay to fight. He had a goal, and it wasn't the Insecticons.

Grimlock deactivated his shield long enough to grab an Insecticon off his backplates and throw it into another that was flying, reactivated the protective barrier in time to block several Nucleon shots, and jumped up to the next floor.

The Insecticons pursued him, and soon a pattern formed in their battles. Grimlock would pause to battle the Insecticons for several moments, then jump up to the next level once his enraged processor registered the fact he he couldn't stay in one place for too long with so many Decepticons attacking him, and the Insecticons would follow him. The process would then repeat.

Shockwave's CPU calculated Grimlock's probability of reaching his current position, factoring in how with each floor the Dinobots' leader climbed, more and more Insecticons were offlined without completing their goal, and fewer and fewer Decepticons from below could aim up at Grimlock.

The odds, while still in the scientist's favor, were increasing with each passing moment.

Shockwave powered up his Pulse Cannon as the Dinobots' leader jumped up another floor, smashing the barrel of an Ion Displacer turret that was just above where he impaled his sword. The air around the scientist seemed to disappear for a brief moment, then he fired two powerful shots down at the approaching Dinobot.

The shots found their marks easily, but did little more than scorch the dark paint of Grimlock's nearly two meter-thick armor, and the enormous mech easily jumped to the next floor, completely unharmed by Shockwave's Cannon.

Shockwave lowered his weapon, aware that greater firepower was required to stop the Dinobot, and looked at the gunner of the Nucleon Shock Cannon to his right. "Fire."

The gunner acknowledged the scientist's order by aiming the weapon turret he was operating at Grimlock, and firing several times.

Grimlock saw the shots coming, but did nothing to stop them. He let them hit him fully, the explosions blackening his already dark chassis, but causing little damage to his armor. He roared up at the scientist, as if daring him to try taking him down again.

"Take off his helm," Shockwave ordered the gunner.

The drone fired the turret again, aiming for Dinobot's helm as he had been commanded to.

Grimlock growled at the approaching shot, but instead of allowing it to hit him like before, he bashed his shield against it just before it was going to hit him, returning the deadly projectile back where it came from. And with greater velocity than it initially had.

The drone had enough time to flash his visor in alarm, then the shot hit, and he ceased to exist.

The explosion knocked many Decepticons off their pedes as molten metal and twisted Nucleon parts flew in all directions. Debris from the detonation proved damaging to the average drone, and two of them went down with burning debris piercing their armor.

Shockwave, however, remained unmoved and unaffected by the blast and loss of a drone. He stood as calmly as he had before the battle began, despite how Grimlock's odds of reaching him had increased.

"Destroy the Dinobot," he ordered the gunner on his left, who was now shaking in his seat, either from fear at the current threat or from shock at seeing a fellow drone offlined so suddenly. Perhaps it was both.

Almost reluctantly, as if he had been considering whose wrath he would rather face, the drone obeyed the calculating scientist's order and fired his Nucleon turret at Grimlock.

Within two micro-klicks, the shot fired from the turret returned to its sender, and the second drone and turret suffered the same fate as the first.

The only indication Shockwave acknowledged the resulting explosion was how he brushed off a piece of debris from his left shoulder-joint with his right servo, his single optic focused entirely on the approaching Dinobot.

He knew that, with both nearby turrets gone, Grimlock's odds had now surpassed his own. But, he still had one piece to put into play, one last chance to stop the Dinobots' leader from reaching him.

He just needed to time it properly.

Below Shockwave, Grimlock jumped up to another level, bashing a Pyro away from him as soon as he embedded his sword into the floor. He continued to the next floor without bothering to offline the Decepticon, his attention entirely on the scientist. Nothing was going to delay him any longer, nothing was going to get in his way. Shockwave's time was up.

And he was going to enjoy ripping the scientist limb from limb.

Grimlock quickly advanced another floor, splitting an unlucky Brute in half without even meaning to when he jumped too high, and had to stab his sword into the top of the floor instead of the side like he had been.

Shockwave moved a little closer to the railing in front of him, as if patiently waiting for Grimlock's arrival.

The Dinobots' leader swatted a trio of Insecticons away with his shield, offlined a drone equipped with an ADC-3, and rose another level.

Shockwave observed blankly, issuing no commands to the Decepticons around him.

Grimlock jumped up and stabbed an Annihilator through the chestplates, and used the Decepticon as a stepping stone to the next floor, the larger, now-offline mech falling over the railing and toward the bottom level, where his frame crushed many drones who were still online and attacking the other Autobots below.

The scientist didn't even blink at the loss of the massive helicopter.

The titanic Dinobot deactivated his shield, grabbed an Insecticon out of the air, crushed its helm in his servo, and reactivated his shield and went up to the next floor, the last one between he and his goal.

Shockwave remained unaffected by the advancements of the one mech who he actually had a minor fear of.

Grimlock roared, and leapt at Shockwave with his sword prepared to strike. He had him.

It was at that moment, when Grimlock jumped toward him, that Shockwave aimed his Pulse Cannon at the support of an immense platform, three times Grimlock's mass, attached to the level above him and fired.

The shot hit at the base of the main support of the platform, the precise point Shockwave was aiming for, despite never breaking his gaze away from Grimlock, and the platform fell.

It began tumbling, though only had completed a quarter of a rotation before it arrived at Shockwave's level, at the exact same moment Grimlock's sword was above the floor's railing.

The massive mech hadn't seen the platform coming, as his focus was on Shockwave, and therefore could do nothing by the time it impacted him, and began reversing his forward momentum. But, even as he started to fall, he continued swinging his sword with all his strength, intent on taking off the scientist's helm before he fell.

His gargantuan sword cut through the air at speeds a normal Cybertronian wouldn't be able to match with a dagger, backed by a strength that broke the strongest alloy like it was Balsa Wood. The weapon itself was a legendarily powerful blade, even before it was rediscovered and claimed by Grimlock. Its edge was sharp enough to cut metal simply by being dropped on it. When it made contact with the scientist, his armor would be as effective as paper.

But the sword didn't make contact, and the tip of the blade missed the motionless helm and unblinking optic of Shockwave by less than an eighth of an inch.

Then Grimlock fell, roaring all the way down in rage as the platform carried him further and further from the mech he wanted to tear apart more than anything else in life. He had been so close to the scientist, so close to making Shockwave pay for all the agony he had been through. Now all of his progress was being reversed.

The platform continued tumbling even with Grimlock under it, and it eventually pushed him forward, slamming him between the solid metal platform and the equally strong stone and alloy wall of the base, and creating an explosion of rock and debris as the massive Dinobot shattered the organic material almost on contact.

Decepticon of all types scrambled away from the railings as Grimlock and the platform continued falling, crushing sections of several floors as their combined mass and kinetic energy proved to be too great for the levels to withstand.

With a rumbling boom that could be felt even half a dozen levels above, Grimlock landed on the bottom floor, the impact sending debris and drones flying almost a hundred meters from the point where he hit.

The Dinobots' leader began sitting up, looking little worse for wear after his long fall.

Then the platform landed on top of him, shaking the ground even more than Grimlock had, and creating an explosion of rock that sent debris across the entire bottom floor. It even sent pebbles up to the forth level.

Neither the platform, nor anything underneath it, moved an inch after it fell.

Ultra Magnus and the Dinobots' weapons had fallen silent as soon as they had seen Grimlock be ripped from the wall by the terrace, but it seemed like they died again when the titanic mech had at least three-thousand metric tons of metal fall on him at terminal velocity. At such speeds, an object of that mass would impact with almost four point five terajoules of kinetic energy, which was nearly equal to the energy released during the detonation of one point one kilotons of TNT.

Not even Grimlock could take punishment on that level and come out unharmed.

"Grimlock!" Swoop yelled, no longer noticing the weapons fire heading for him. "You Grimlock okay?"

He received no response.

"You Grimlock!" Called Snarl. "Answer!"

Grimlock remained silent, and there was no sign of movement underneath the platform.

Slug sighed quietly, knowing something was wrong with his leader if he wasn't responding even with growls, and well aware he was the only one of the mechs in cover hard-helmed enough to go help him. "The things I do for you, boss," he said under his breath. He looked up at Sludge, who was in cover next to him. "Cover me!" He then rushed out from his cover, taking down two drones with a single shot from his Scatterblaster, its shell powerful enough to pierce through the armor of multiple targets with ease.

A drone came at him with a sword deployed, but Slug simply kicked him out of his way and kept running toward his downed leader.

Until Shockwave put a Pulse Cannon shot in his chestplates.

All of Slug's armor proved little match for the powerful shot, and all forward momentum was reversed. He was sent onto his backplates, optics flickering between being active or being offline. Parts of his armor were on fire, having been turned molten by Shockwave's Pulse Cannon, but he did not cry out. He didn't have the energy to.

Shockwave gazed down at the fallen Dinobot for a moment, determining whether he was offline or not. When the scientist found his target was still online, he powered up his still-smoking Cannon and fired again.

The shot raced toward Slug, requiring only half a micro-klick to travel the two kilometer distance from where Shockwave stood, to the helpless mech on the floor.

But just as the Cannon shot got within ten feet of Slug, it exploded harmlessly against the repaired Diffraction Barrier of Sludge.

Earlier, the larger Dinobot had chased Slug out toward Grimlock, having suspected Shockwave's attention would be drawn to the smaller mech's rash decision of rushing to their leader. A choice he was now very glad he had made. If he hadn't, Slug would be offline.

Although, now he had to get both of them to safety before Shockwave managed to destroy his Barrier, or the drones around them swarmed him.

The second largest of the Dinobots grabbed Slug by the shoulder-joint and dragged him back the way both of them had come, making sure to keep his Barrier up above his helm to absorb any weapons fire from above, including Pulse Cannon shots from the scientist who had now downed two of the five Dinobots.

Shockwave fired repeatedly at Sludge's Diffraction Barrier, and many Decepticons, both those on turrets and those using normal weapons, joined him on his assault on the retreating Dinobots. But he knew that such action was futile. He had designed Sludge's Barrier to take incredible amounts of firepower, even cannons and missiles mounted on gunships. The fire they were sending in the large Dinobot's direction wouldn't break it. But, it would keep his helm down and prevent him from firing back, and allow the drones on the Autobots' level to fire on him freely.

Just as Shockwave expected, Sludge's Barrier stood against the punishment, dimming only when it was hit by a shot from a Nucleon, ADC-3, or his own Cannon, and the drones on the lowest level were given many opportunities to hit the two retreating Dinobots with their servo-blasters.

Until the other three Autobots began giving Slug and Sludge covering fire, offlining five Decepticons within three micro-klicks of providing cover for their comrades. They kept firing even as many drones turned their attention to them, and didn't stop until Sludge finally dragged Slug into the tunnel the Autobots used to enter the room, returned to the battle, and Swoop transformed and flew into the tunnel to treat their most recently injured teammate.

Shockwave lowered his Cannon once Slug was out of his line of fire. Sludge's Barrier made it pointless to attack him, and the other Autobots were in solid cover. Continuing his assault on the large Dinobot would be an illogical waste of time.

And perhaps, their entire battle was a waste.

There was no denying that his forces were wearing down the Autobots, sapping their immense reserves of strength. But for every Dinobot taken from the fight, they were taking thirty or forty Decepticons, and that was not counting the casualties inflicted by Grimlock, before he had fallen. Too many resources were being spent and lost in this battle. It would take nearly an entire solar-cycle of mining to gather the necessary resources to feed the manufacturing of replacement drones, weapons, and munitions, and another three to assemble them correctly. It was all too much effort for too little gain to logically justify.

He would have to resort to his secondary plan. It was something he had hoped not to put into motion, but it was unavoidable if he wished to conserve as many resources as possible. And, it would leave both his laboratory and the frames of the Autobots intact his own uses.

"Crawler," the scientist said to a Decepticon lieutenant as the other mech ran by with a ADC-3 in his servos, not turning to look at the lesser-ranked Decepticon. "Activate the Purge on the lowest level."

Crawler paused for a moment, uncertain whether to voice his concerns for the drones below. The Purge was a security system installed in every corner of the base, and was very effective. It was made up of EMP pulse generators that were calibrated to fry the electrical signals all living beings had pulsing through their systems, both organic and mechanical. When activated, it would pacify everything within its activation area, whether that area be confined to a single room, or the entire base.

"Is that necessary, sir?" Asked Crawler. "The drones seem to be holding the Autobots back effectively."

"'Holding' is the keyword of that statement," Shockwave replied. "They are proving to be incapable of defeating the Dinobots, and their numbers are already thinning rapidly. The Purge will preserve their frames for later repairs and reactivation with new processors. Do not make me repeat myself, Lieutenant."

Crawler quickly understood the meaning behind his commander's words, and the unspoken reference to the drone who had refused to listen to Shockwave during preparations. He transformed into his jet alt mode and flew up to the level above Shockwave, where there was a tunnel that led to the Purge's control room.

Ultra Magnus watched Crawler fly away with suspicion. It was clear Shockwave had given the other Decepticon orders, but he was much too far away to hear them, even without the roar of battle around him. However, he knew that if the scientist was sending a Decepticon away from the battle, then whatever task the other mech had been assigned meant nothing good for he and the others.

They needed to find another exit.

"Sludge," the Wrecker commander shouted over the sound of battle, gaining the attention of the second largest of the Dinobots. "This battle's beyond us. Grab Broadside and fall back. We're going to find an alternate way out of the base."

"But what about him Grimlock?!" Asked Snarl, optics widened in alarm. "We not leave him behind!"

Magnus was about to answer that they had no way of recovering the Dinobots' leader, whether he was online or not, but then he heard a slow groaning of metal. He looked over the pipe he was using for cover, and saw the huge platform that had fallen on Grimlock slowly rising off the floor.

The platform continued rising at a gradual rate, then suddenly sped upward and landed on its top side with a boom, crushing an unlucky drone who hadn't acted fast enough to avoid the metal slab.

A sluggish Grimlock rose up from the floor. One of his optics was cracked, his battlemask was dented, his right horn was bent, his left servo and pede were visibly damaged and sparking, his shield emitter was destroyed, and his sword was broken into multiple pieces, but he was online.

The titanic mech didn't see the damage to his sword until he was fully on his pedes. His faceplate grew dark and enraged when he finally did, and he carefully searched for the pieces and gathered them together, dodging any Nucleon or ADC-3 shots sent his way with deceptive skill. Once he was finished, he placed the pieces of his weapon in a sub-space pocket.

It was just after he sub-spaced his broken sword that he noticed the sole Dinobot who had the ability to fly attending Slug. All anger left his optics in that moment, and all signs of his battlerage left him. "SLUG!" He cried, and ran toward Swoop and the injured member of his team as fast as his damaged pede would allow him, tossing away any drone that got in his way, and knocking Magnus over when he jumped over the Wrecker commander's cover.

Within moments, the Dinobots' leader was at Slug's side, attempting to speak to the wounded mech as Swoop worked to stabilize him, but having little success due to Slug's condition.

Ultra Magnus picked himself up and offlined a drone who attempted attacking him while he couldn't fight back for a brief moment. The officer in him wanted to reprimand Grimlock for not looking where he was going while in battle, but he knew that would be pointless. The immense mech cared about his Dinobots more than anything. They were his brothers, and he would take his own life if it meant they could live another cycle. As the commander of the Wreckers, Magnus felt for him in that regard.

"Grimlock, we need to move," Ultra Magnus said after letting the Dinobot leader speak to his soldier for a moment, not needing to raise his voice to its earlier level due to their close proximity. "Shockwave sent a Decepticon to another location, and there's only one reason he would send an asset away from battle."

"Him trading for bigger toy," Grimlock said, his voice even deeper and more gravelly than Magnus'. It was like he was grinding rocks to dust inside his throat.

Magnus nodded, ignoring the broken words of the the giant. Grimlock's speech patterns may have been permanently mared by Shockwave's experiments, but that didn't mean the massive mech couldn't think clearly when he wanted to. "We need another exit, and quickly. Whatever it is Shockwave is putting into play could arrive at any time."

Grimlock's only acknowledgement was a grunt, then he picked Slug up off the floor as soon as Swoop finished treating the wounded Dinobot's injuries and moved back down the tunnel he had led the group through earlier, quickly turning into a hallway he had gone by the first time he had been through.

Ultra Magnus repeated his previous instructions to Sludge, and once the second largest Dinobot had placed the unmoving Broadside on his shoulder-joint, Magnus led the rest of the Autobots in pursuit of Grimlock. They provided covering fire for each other until they had entered the same hallway as Grimlock, then they increased their pace until they had caught up with the titanic mech and their wounded teammate.

The scientist watched the Autobots' retreat passively, and paid no attention to the questioning looks his underlings gave him as they stopped firing their weapons, chassis language suggesting they were waiting for him to give them orders. It was clear the Autobots were searching for another method of escaping, but they would find that the closest secondary entrance was three kilometers away, heavily guarded and on the other side of a maze of tunnels and hallways that made it exceedingly difficult for bots to travel through in their first time on the base. By the time they even reached the alternate exit, the Purge will have activated.

Should have activated.

Shockwave opened a communications channel. "What is the delay, Crawler?"

"System's still starting up, sir," the lieutenant replied. "Primary power is unsteady on the ground floor. A main cable may have been damaged during the battle. But I have secondaries up and running, and the Purge should be fully charged within five klicks."

"For your sake, it had better be ready in two, Lieutenant."

---

Ultra Magnus opened a door as he and the others continued down a hallway perpendicular to the one they used earlier, and he found himself looking at the inside of yet another storage room. He mentally crossed off the passageway as being an alternative exit, as he had done for four other doors, and ran to catch up with the Dinobots.

They were now far from the main entrance, but they were no closer to finding another escape route. It was almost impossible to. There were dozens of doors in this hallway alone, and not a single one had an identifying marking, or even a number. They all looked exactly the same, with each one having the same probability of leading to an exit as the other. It was making finding a way out almost impossible.

Magnus reached another door the Dinobots hadn't opened yet, but he quickly found that the door led a small parts recycling center, and he continued on with the others.

A humming suddenly filled the air, coming from all around them and increasing in pitch with each passing moment.

The sound gave Ultra Magnus an uneasy feeling, and he suspected it was Shockwave's doing. A security system, perhaps?

"What that?" Asked Snarl, looking up and down the hallway as he opened another door to see if it led to an escape, catching up with the others when it revealed a workshop.

"Shockwave's bigger toy," Grimlock answered with a growl. "We need find new exit now."

Ultra Magnus silently agreed with the Dinobots' leader, but he also knew they had too many doors to search, too many hallways left to explore, before the increasing pitch around them reached a crescendo, and whatever system was powering up activated. After all their efforts, all their fighting to get out, they had run out of time. They had been defeated.

Shockwave had won.

Then Swoop called to them from ahead, where he had flown to examine a long section of the hallway that was strangely bare of doors or hallways, "Me find something!"

The smallest Dinobot's statement gained the attention of all the other Autobots, and, quickly, they made their way to him and looked at the wall when Swoop pointed a digit at the stone.

It was covered in tiny water droplets, no larger than a millimeter in diameter. That could only mean a very large source of liquid water was on the other side of the wall, one with a constant current strong enough to begin slowly eroding away the rock. Currently, the wall was solid and structurally sound, since only the smallest of water droplets were starting to seep inside, but it would likely be a very different story in little more than a jour's time.

If it eroded naturally, of course.

"You think the water on the other side of the wall is our escape route," Magnus said, a statement, not a question. It would be easy to break down the wall, but the problem was they had no idea how large the water source was, or where they would be going once they entered it. They would have no landmarks to go by, no way of travel besides walking. It could put them in a situation just as dire as the one they were currently in.

Swoop nodded eagerly, looking up as the humming was joined by a high-pitched whine.

"We'll have no idea where we're going, once we break that wall down," pointed out the Wrecker commander.

Grimlock let smoke out from behind his battlemask in a scoff. "It no different than here," he said. He then stepped toward the wall, still carrying Slug, and started to kick the divider between them and potential freedom.

Cracks started to appear in the rock, widening each time Grimlock's pede stuck it. Water soon followed the enlarged cracks, starting at just a small, constant trickle, and quickly growing to sizeable leaks.

The Dinobots followed their leader's example by deploying their weapons and shooting the wall, weakening it further. And Magnus joined them, accepting that they had no time to look for another option besides the unknown.

The leaks grew in size and numbers rapidly, each one spewing out hundreds of gallons of water every micro-klick. This surge of water weakened the wall even more, but it refused to break even as what parts remained intact were forced to hold back more weight.

Finally, just as the humming and whine reached new levels of intensity, the rock lost its battle against the liquid, and the wall collapsed.

A massive torrent of dark water surged through the space where the wall once occupied, slamming into the Autobots like a battleship, and nearly sweeping Ultra Magnus and Swoop away if not for Sludge and Snarl, whose greater masses allowed them to only be sent to the opposite wall by the outburst. Although Sludge had an easier time standing than Snarl, partly because he was now carrying Swoop along with Broadside.

Grimlock, who was the least effected by the wall's collapse, raised his servo in front of his faceplate and fought his way through the flood, a challenging roar lost in the deafening deluge. He continued into the water until the flow was up to his chestplates, then he surged forward and disappeared into the maelstrom where the wall once stood.

The only other two mechs able to stand followed after Grimlock, fighting against the water with each step, until they, too, came to the point where their leader had stood.

With mighty efforts, Sludge and Snarl pushed both themselves and the mechs they were helping through the tide and into water above all of their helms.

Just as the Purge activated behind them, its systems uneffected by water due to their presence in the ceiling.

Magnus saw a flash of light behind them, mere feet away from the powerful vortex sucking water into the base, but he wasn't harmed by it. None of them were. They were outside the base, beyond the limited range the Purge had been designed for. They were out.

Snarl and Sludge kept fighting against the vortex behind them, until they came to a ledge they could barely make out in the dark, even with their optics adjusted for the light. It was clear it dropped off into deeper water, into territory none of them had experience with. But was also clear Grimlock had jumped off it already, since there were no other paths they could take.

The four responsive mechs shared a look, straining to see each other in such a dimly-lit place, and an unanimous decision was made, and would have been made even without Grimlock having already jumped.

Sludge and Snarl stepped off the ledge, into the deep water the Dinobots' leader had gone into moments before them.

And they all went down into the unknown.

---

Yup. 16k words. One scene. One BATTLE scene, with nothing else. No movement in the plot I originally intended for this chapter. This is pathetic on my part.

I really can't say I am sorry enough. Here I am, going two months without updating, and I can't even write a chapter that is a standalone chapter. I had to split it into two parts. Again. Ugh.

This seems to accurately display how my writing's been going for a while now. Long waits, short update for me, and no forward progress. It's what's been going on with my novel and my Lord of the Rings story as of late. Really not fun, especially on the novel. Please don't rage at me, I really, REALLY tried everything I could to write this chapter as I pictured it, but like my other projects, it wasn't working and I had to fight it all the way.

But again, I am very, very sorry for my poor update. I AM going to make my next one much longer, and not just word wise, but in terms of narrative.

One last thing. I have started to use my profile for updates on my writing. Progress, time guesstimates, word counts, stuff like that. So I will be updating my profile periodically to let you all know how I am doing writing wise.

This chapter's credit song is "Sub Pub Music - The Cauldron Born" From where I stand *sit, more like* this song fits very well with the theme of the chapter more than the ending. Grimlock's anger, the ridiculous amount of battle in the chapter, and perhaps a little of the mystery of the ocean depths. Personally, that last one has always been something that's affected me.

Please take a few seconds to leave a review, or send a PM my way. I treat all feedback equally, and appreciate every letter of it. Well, except for trolling, because that's not helpful or constructive in any sense. But that's the one exception.

Thank you all for reading, and have a great day/night, depending on where you live when you first read this. :)

See you soon.