Hello, bots and cons. Centurion here and welcome back to Dustformers: Season 2. I'm glad people are still liking this story. We're at the third part of Wreck 'N' Rule. In the last part, Ironhide and Impactor had a shouting match, Shockwave and others are building Project: Mindfazer in Mistral, Atlas isn't out of the game yet, Wheeljack is seen taking out a pair of Energy Katanas, and Jaune has finally apologized to Winter and accepted Winter's umpteenth apology.
Once again, I'd like to thank all my contributors: (OCs/Story Ideas)
Spartan-100
SnowBranwen
PaperView
Mobian
cryo threshold
D3ADPOOLK1d
invictus113
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Perseus12
Sithlord-666
Lordofuselesness
TomtomtheWriter
Mol2311
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These people give me ideas for chapters I work on and for future ideas and for that, I deeply thank them. I hope for their continued support.
Now, let's get back into the action!
*Cybertron. Sea of Rust. Autobot Base. Unknown Time*
"Straxus's forces are coming closer and closer to finding our main base." Melodia pointed out.
"We just have to keep on the move." Airshock said.
"I know it isn't cozy, but we have no other choice. We can't exactly lay siege to Darkmount itself. We can only perform fast and light strikes at his forces." Springer reminded.
"Springer's right." Kup voiced as he walked into the meeting. "We need to be patient and wait for the right moments."
"Kinda hard to do that when you're always on the run being hunted, Kup." Patch retorted.
"We may have to move deeper into the Sea of Rust." Springer realized.
"Into the Tombs?" Surplus asked. "It might be a good choice." Suddenly, explosions were heard outside a few kliks from the base. "They're close to finding us, Springer. If we're going to move further in, we'll have to do it now!"
"Alright! All Autobots: We are to evacuate into the Tombs! We must survive if we are to strike a real blow to Straxus!" Springer announced. After he turned off the comm system, he sighed. "I'm not good with speeches that are inspiring."
"Very few are, kid. Very few are." Kup patted Springer's shoulder as the two got going. The Autobots were on the move to the Tombs deeper in the Sea of Rust. Once they were deep enough in the tombs, a figure walked out of the shadows. It was a gold and gray Autobot.
"This was a good place once in a happier time." The Autobot spoke.
"Emirate Xaaron. Apologies for intruding on your sanctuary, but we have no choice." Springer bowed.
"I understand fully, Springer." Emirate Xaaron said. "I wish it wasn't so, but I understand nonetheless. We Autobots need every refuge we can get on Cybertron."
*Remnant. Vale. Vale Forest. The Ark. Main Lobby. 14:21 pm*
"Um, Warpath? Can I ask you something?" Jazz asked softly.
"Sure, Jazz. What's up?" Warpath asked back.
"The Autobots still on Cybertron… Was Melodia among them?" Jazz asked.
"Yes. Melodia was among the Autobots I saw before I left Cybertron." Warpath answered, giving Jazz the chance to sigh in massive relief.
"That's the best thing I've heard in a long time." Jazz smiled.
"However, I hope they can all either evade or deal a blow to Straxus." Warpath expressed. "Staxus is strong and intelligent. I don't think he earned the nickname 'Devil of Darkmount' for nothing."
"I pretty much got that when you told us about him when you first got here." Jazz replied. "I've been hoping to see her again."
"I think she'll be alright, Jazz." Warpath tried to reassure. "All I know is that the Decepticons must be stopped."
"Agreed." Jazz bumped fists with Warpath and the two walked out of the Ark to start their patrol.
*Mistral. 100 KMs outside Mistral City. 17:01 pm*
"There. Project: Mindfazer is complete." Shockwave said in monotone. "Now, we can begin the next phase."
"Ah, yes. I've been waiting for this." Strikecharge grinned.
"Of course you have, Strikecharge." Bloodsurge muttered. "This just means you'll try to kill Arcknight again and botch the objective."
"This should be quite a show." Hypnotica chuckled.
"With this, the Autobots will surely fall to their knees." Meanstrike sported his own grin. "With the minds of the humans and faunus of Mistral City in our grasp, they'll have no choice but to surrender to us."
"Especially since it's protected by energy shielding thanks to these Electro-Nodes." Abysswing reminded. "The Autobots have no chance."
"We must not assume anything at any point. Many have boasted before, but the Autobots are still around." Cindershot brought up.
"You shouldn't worry so much about the Autobots, Cindershot." Manic smiled. "It's those kids I'd worry about since they beat us the last couple times, even when we combined into Grimmlord."
"I find those children quite fascinating." Shockwave voiced as he walked over. "They display weapons and abilities no human or faunus should possess. They were obviously provided these new traits by some unseen source. Whatever it is, we will find it and then, we will destroy them." Pressing a few buttons, Project: Mindfazer was activated. A purple beam shot out towards Mistral City. The Decepticons didn't care about the amount of screams that occurred within the next few seconds.
"Now, Autobots. We have stolen the consciousness of every single human and faunus in Mistral City. We would be willing to return them only if you Autobots come to our location and surrender!" Strikecharge announced.
*Vale. Vale Forest. The Ark. Ironhide's Quarters. 16:00 pm*
Ironhide was looking at a holographic image of himself when he was a lot younger, Impactor, a much younger Kup, Springer, Pyro, Roadbuster, Ironfist, Rotostorm, and Guzzle. He sighed in sadness. "Those were the days weren't they?"
Just as he was about to reminisce, he heard a hard knock on his door. Grumbling, he went to answer it. Opening it, he saw it was Nora Valkyrie. "What do you want, Nora?" He asked.
"For you to tell me what went on with you and Impactor." Nora answered as she ran into his quarters.
"Nora, I told you I don't want to talk about it." Ironhide repeated.
"Sometimes, the best way to feel better about something is to open up to anyone, not keep it all bottled up otherwise it'll only turn to nothing but anger and resentment later on. If that happens, you will lose the chance to maybe help." Nora expressed.
Ironhide stared at Nora, his optics wide as he'd never heard her talk like that. "Regardless of that, I still don't want to talk about it, Nora." He repeated.
Nora groaned in frustration. "Damn it, Ironhide! I'm trying to help you!"
"Help me with what?!" Ironhide was steadily raising his voice.
"With your problems regarding Impactor!" Nora shouted.
"What's there to talk about! He executed Decepticon prisoners! That's not the way Autobots do things!" Ironhide kept shouting.
Nora wasn't intimidated in the least, however. "I know that part, but I feel it's deeper than that! The only other time I've seen you like this was with the Dinobots back in Atlas! However, it was worse with Impactor, so I'm getting the feeling that it's something deeper than just killing prisoners!"
"Kid, you do not want to provoke me!" Ironhide was close to losing it.
"Too bad cause I'm not scared in the slightest! I was scared when my family got abducted and taken to Atlas! After that, I felt the exact same way you're feeling right now, but I talked to my friends and they helped me feel better! That's why I'm trying to do the same for you! Tell me! What happened with you and Impactor back on Cybertron?!"
"HE WAS MY BEST FRIEND!" Ironhide finally exclaimed at the top of his vocal processors.
That got Nora to stop dead in her tracks and look up at Ironhide with wide eyes. "What?" She asked softly.
Ironhide picked up Nora and plopped her down onto his desk so she could actually look him in optics. "Impactor was my very best friend on Cybertron when I was a lot younger. When the war broke out, we founded the Wreckers together. You wanna know who made the Wreckers so damn famous? It was me and Impactor. It seemed like we were inseparable. Then came Operation: Volcano."
"Operation: Volcano?" Nora slowly tilted her head.
"It was a foolish gambit that involved luring out some of the deadliest killers the Decepticons had. Plus, we had to protect the Autobot Emirate Xaaron from said killers. We were mostly successful in beating down the Decepticon killers, but we lost Sandstorm, Rack 'N' Ruin, Twintwist, and Topspin along the way." Ironhide continued. "After that, Impactor and I decided to go our separate ways, but we still remained the best of friends. Soon, more members joined the Wreckers and they became a large combat unit while I became chief of security and met Optimus Prime. Then, we found out about Impactor killing every prisoner we captured. I lost my best friend for good that one solar cycle."
"Ironhide, I'm so sorry." Nora whispered.
Ironhide ruffled Nora's hair with his finger. "Don't be. It's not your fault. War always has its hardships. Losing a very best friend is just one of those hardships."
Suddenly, the alarms went off. "All Autobots report to the main lobby!" Optimus Prime announced. Ironhide and Nora ran out of his quarters to the lobby.
*Vale. Vale Forest. The Ark. Main Lobby. 16:24 pm*
The Autobots were assembled for the situation. "What's going on, Optimus?" Snipewing asked.
"We've just received footage of the Decepticons outside Mistral City. Shockwave is there along with the Grimmcons, Strikecharge, Hypnotica, Bloodsurge, and Abyssica. They've completed building something they call Project: Mindfazer. They have stolen the minds of every human and faunus in Mistral City. They'll only return them if we show up and surrender." Optimus explained.
"Those bastards!" Yang growled pounding her fists together.
"They won't get away with this!" Ruby exclaimed with determination.
"Why would they think this is okay?!" Weiss shrieked.
"They're Decepticons, Weiss. They don't care about anything but obeying Megatron or whoever leads them." Jaune deadpanned.
"We're gonna stop them." Nora had a serious look. She'd adopted a more serious tone to her usually cheery personality since becoming Valkyria and adopting Lily into her family.
Meanwhile, Hound noticed Wheeljack wasn't fidgeting with some new weapon or with some tech. "Are you sure you're okay, Wheeljack?" Hound asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine, Hound." Wheeljack replied.
"Really? You sound a little different." Hound observed.
"I said I'm fine." Wheeljack repeated.
*Mistral. 100 KMs outside Mistral City. 16:39 pm*
"You think they'll show?" Meanstrike asked.
"Oh, they'll show. They can't let the minds of the people of Mistral City remain in our grasp." Cindershot grinned sadistically.
"Their compassion will be their undoing. It is illogical to show feelings for another being." Shockwave said.
Hypnotica began seething with rage at Shockwave's words, but her two sparklings calmed her down. "Don't listen to him, mother." Abyssica whispered. "If you and Abysswing didn't show feelings, Bloodsurge and I wouldn't have been brought into this universe."
Suddenly, a ground bridge opened up and the kids, Ironhide, Wheeljack, Hound, Wasp, Zig, Zag, Wildfire, Warpath, and Snipewing came through. "So, you came after all." Manic grinned.
"You thought we wouldn't show?" Hound asked snidely.
"Oh, we were counting on it. Now, Mindfazer can steal your consciousness along with all the Autobots, not to mention all the wretched inhabitants of this primitive planet." Shockwave voiced.
"You're going to return those minds back to the people, Shockwave!" Snipewing shouted angrily.
"I think not." Shockwave cooly retorted. "It would be illogical to do so."
"How can you talk about logic and apply it to what you're doing so damn casually?!" Blake shouted. "You're talking about people's minds here!"
"I am aware. It's simply logical to keep them where they are so that they don't stand in our way." Shockwave continued.
"Let's do this!" Wasp shouted. With that, the two groups went to battle. Jaune, Nora, and Weiss transformed into their robot modes and joined in with the rest of the kids staying in the back with their weapons.
Strikecharge ran toward Arcknight at top speed. "This time, you die, Arcknight!" He shouted attacking Arcknight with a flurry of punches from his electrified knuckles. Unfortunately for him, Arcknight was simply evading the punches as he simply delivered a punch of his own right into Strikecharge's face, knocking him back a couple of feet. "Frag! Why won't you go down! Just die like Bumblebee did!"
Arcknight started getting angry at the mention of Bumblebee, but reigned himself in and just rolled his optics at his opponent's anger."You're too consumed with rage. That's your mistake, Strikecharge. Yes, I was angry for a long while about Bumblebee, but I'm moving on from that. You haven't moved on at all and are consumed with vengeance." Strikecharge wasn't having any of it however and brought out an energy sword. Seeing this, Arcknight readied his own sword and shield. Plus, Strikecharge had become increasingly predictable, so Arcknight was able to block all of Strikecharge's attacks and land all of his offensive moves on various parts of Strikecharge's chassis.
Abyssica and Bloodsurge were dealing with Ruby and Yang once again. "Why do we always wind up fighting these two?" Bloodsurge asked his sibling while avoiding a shot from Ruby's sniper/scythe. "It seems to be fate since these two are siblings like us." Abyssica answered while she punched Yang in the stomach.
"Hey! No one does that my sister!" Ruby screamed as she spun around in the air with Crescent Rose and attempted to slash at the two sparklings. The surprising thing was that she actually managed a minor slash on Abyssica's left leg, causing her to hiss in pain.
"Abyssica!" Bloodsurge shouted as he went to attack Ruby, but Yang gave him a nice uppercut, knocking him off balance. "Oh, scrappin'..." Yang managed to get a few shots in with Ember Celica.
Zig and Zag were taking on Manic in his Beowolf mode who was slashing relentlessly at the twins. "Ooh, light snacks!" He transformed to robot mode and continued to slash at them. Zag and Zig were staying well away from the Grimmcon and shooting at him with their weapons. All of a sudden, Manic fired a couple smart rockets from his shoulders. Zig and Zag were barely able to dodge the small but powerful projectiles.
Hound was fighting Hypnotica who was doing a much better job at handling her mind unlike the last couple times she fought. Transforming to her Vampire Bat mode, she proceeded to bite into Hound's shoulder strut and begin to drain the Energon from his systems. Hound, however managed to get ahold of Hypnotica and broke her off from his shoulder strut and threw her to the ground. When she got up, she didn't manage to dodge a tank shell from Warpath who was providing support fire.
Suddenly, a ground bridge opened up and Skywarp, Slipstream, and Thundercracker came through. Wheeljack surprisingly jumped into the air, kicking Slipstream down to the ground. His next move was to bring out his energy katanas. "Ooh, looks like you've got some new moves, Wheeljack." Slipstream flirted while grinning.
"Oh, I got a couple other things to show you." Wheeljack grinned under his faceplate. He proceeded to distract Slipstream, then punch her right hip joint and kick one of his energy katanas at her side which made her cry out in pain. "How do you like that, Con?" Slipstream didn't respond and instead pulled the energy katana from her side and faced Wheeljack in a sword duel.
Thundercracker focused his efforts on Warpath by firing a salvo of cluster rockets at the Autobot Tank who didn't bother to dodge. Instead, Warpath just stood there, taking every single cluster rocket like a champ. "That all you got?! POW!" Warpath fired shells from his own cannon which caused Thundercracker to fall to the ground. Warpath was just laughing as he continued shelling Thundercracker.
Meanwhile, Shockwave was simply observing the battle from the background. "How pitiful to see fellow Decepticons losing against not only the Autobots, but a bunch of children. It is time to even the odds." He began activating Project: Mindfazer. "Perhaps if I steal the consciousness of the silver-eyed child, the others will stand down due to their compassion for one-another." He concluded. Mindfazer targeted Ruby and fired it's beam. Yang spotted this after she punched Abyssica back.
"RUBY!" Yang shrieked as she sprinted towards Ruby. Time seemed to slow down as Ruby turned her head to see the beam heading towards her. Yang managed to push her sister out of the way just as the beam hit. Once again, the world seemed to go black and white as Yang let out a scream of pain.
When Ruby got up, she saw Yang just lying there. "YANG!" Ruby sped over to her sister. "Yang! Are you okay?! Please be okay!" Turning Yang over, Ruby saw her eyes have no life in them. Her consciousness was taken by Mindfazer. She started crying her eyes out. "No, no, no, no, no, no…" Ruby repeated over and over again. The Autobots and others just stood, paused in their fights to see the bawling girl. "This can't be…. NNNOOOOOO!" She finally shrieked to the heavens. A bright light covered the entire area.
Hello, everyone. I hope you all liked the third part of Wreck 'N' Rule. Jazz and Warpath have a conversation regarding Melodia, Ironhide and Nora also talk regarding Ironhide's past where we find out that Impactor and Ironhide used to be best friends and founded the Wreckers together. Not only that, but they split up after Operation: Volcano, and yes, this is mostly the same Operation: Volcano from the comic: Target: 2006 from the G1 days, Emirate Xaaron and all.
Also, the Decepticons complete Project: Mindfazer and steal the consciousness of everyone in Mistral City and give the Autobots an ultimatum. The Autobots arrive and fight the Decepticons, but Yang's consciousness gets stolen in the process, causing Ruby to cry out and a bright light to cover the area. What could that light mean?
We also see Shockwave being as logical as ever. Classic Shockwave. On the topic of specific Decepticons, Strikecharge is being like Sixshot from Transformers: Energon, consumed with revenge for his sibling.
Meanwhile on Cybertron, things aren't looking good for the Autobots still there as Straxus's forces seem to be closing in on their base. However, we do see Emirate Xaaron alive and well still on Cybertron leading the Autobot resistance seen so far from the tombs in the Sea of Rust.
As usual, if anyone has any ideas for this story, please let me know in the comments/reviews, or personally PM me.