Volume I: Episode 6: The Battle of Site 13, Part II

"They've engaged the Decepticons," reported Yang as the pair moved into the 'labor storage' building. "Did say that Swindle and Lugnut weren't with them though, so we should watch out for them."

"Swindle. Know anything about him?" asked Adam as they passed a door. He'd heard plenty enough about Lugnut on the way here.

"Only that he's apparently just as likely to try and catch us to sell on the black market as he is to blast us," said the blonde as she slowly came to a stop in front of the door. "He's a real 'Con job."

Adam paused, turning back around to glare at her in the darkness. "What are you doing?"

Yang's voice was a curious combination of morbid interest, trembling fear, and perilous rage as she spoke, "I just think that we should check on the prisoners before rushing off. They might be hurt, and Ratchet will need to prepare for them."

"I brought enough medics to the staging ground that the White Fang should be able to handle everyone here," countered the masked redhead, defending his organization. "Now let's focus on the mission."

"It's not just about medical care," she insisted. "It's about hope."

Yang suspected that with his keen eyes he could see her then, glaring back at him. She wanted it that way. She wanted him to see the utter contempt she held him in for not prioritizing the safety of the civilians first. They were, after all, what he was supposedly fighting for.

Besides, she thought with a mighty leap onto the door to pry open the latch on her own, I need to see this.

The latch opened, just in time for Yang to fall back to the floor into a crouch. She moved swiftly, barely dodging what she imagined to be one of Adam's grasping hands as she slid through the gap in the door and out into the open. As she did so, she came face to face with something that did not wholly surprise her: more utter darkness and the glowing red lines of an activated Atlesian Knight-130.

"Intruder, identify yourself," the mechanical menace requested in a voice devoid of all emotion and feeling.

Yang's reply was to curl her fingers into a fist and deliver a mighty punch that not only sent the AK-130 back but also sent her hand deep into its chest to pierce its glowing dust core. The blonde wrenched her hand back, and with it came a few bits of scrap that had caught on Ember Celica. Her victim dropped like the puppet it was, and in response, a great host of glowing red visors snapped into place before turning to stare at her.

A wordless snarl came from Yang's mouth, something deep and terrible and far older and angrier than anything had the right to be. With that snarl, she launched herself into the battle with a recoil boost. Her fist came down again, and another red light went dark.

They moved now to encompass her and box her in, but she would not heed their plans. Close enough as she was now, she leapt with legs only to strike them down. A few managed to open fire with their guns, but too few, far too few, of those bullets managed to hit her, pinging against her aura like leaves against a wall on a windy day. Such was their lack of effect that when she struck them with fist and shot-gauntlet at close range, they switched to using balled fists and blades deployed from their arms.

The battle was joined, and as she danced from one dead opponent to the next that, though just as dead, hadn't yet realized it, she could not help but feel a rush. The circumstances of why she was there were forgotten, and only the joy of combat remained. It was exciting, thrilling even, and she loved it so.

There was a bang, a flash of red, a flying pommel, and suddenly, a new combatant entered the field. Adam Taurus leapt with merciless intent upon the android foes, striking with swift, sure strokes of his blade. He was in his element just as much as Yang was, though he seemed to take both far less and more pleasure in it than she, a note of sadism in his expression.

It unsettled Yang, but she didn't dwell on it. There wasn't time, not now. Whatever there was to be discussed, it could wait until the battle was over.

The foes were many, but as soon as the two intruders began to work in concert, they fell like wheat before the scythe. Like two parts of a combined whole, they moved in near-perfect synchronicity. Later, though, if anyone had asked, both would have insisted it was just the result of the other staying out of the way.

The last AK-130 fell to the ground in a lifeless, sparkless heap. Hmm, sparkless? Was she spending too much time around the Autobots, or was that just normal picking up of the lingo?

Whatever the case was, Yang was finally able to take stock of her surroundings. What she saw then…

Cages, row upon row, and stack upon stack of cages. There were catwalks to access the upper ones, sparsely placed and mostly disconnected from each other, presumably to give the Decepticons room to maneuver if needed. Cells? Not all of them were filled, but many of them were. The acrid, metallic smell she'd noticed earlier was much stronger now, mixed with a whiff of the acidic and sulfuric odor of urine and feces.

The people inside those cells were dirty, some diseased, and all haggard and emaciated. They had been woken up by the fighting, clearly. Some of them sported visible injuries. All had a haunted look in their eyes, like they were dead inside.

She felt her soul, and her hair, ignite as her wrath was enkindled.

The activation of her semblance had an odd effect though, for even a minor lighting such as that produced illumination enough to put her body in profile. In the dim light, the Autobot brand on the shoulders and back of her jacket were made visible. The sight of that symbol seemed to wash away the fear and despair in the eyes of those who saw it.

One of the prisoners, young in face but gnarled in hand, pointed one bony finger at her. "By the Mother's Embrace, she's an Autobot!"

That word sparked an excited murmur.

"Autobot?"

"Did he say 'Autobot'?"

"You mean from the damned lectures?"

"The Autobots are here! We're saved!"

The man who pointed her out spoke again, somehow coming in over the waking din. "Tell us, m'lady. Who are you? Are there any others of your kind here?"

Yang smiled, a soft calming gesture, and assured him, "My name is Sunfire, and yes, I'm with the Autobots. Even as we speak, another group of us, led by Optimus Prime, is battling the Decepticon defenders of this place."

If the revelation of the Autobots being present caused another wave of cheer to spread throughout the cavernous room, then the speaking of that name had an effect altogether greater and more profound.

"Optimus Prime? We've heard of the Primes! The- the Decepticon said they were all dead, that Megatron had killed them all."

On and on the clamor went, and for a moment, Yang too was caught in the joy. Then she looked upon them again, and her fury returned tenfold. She took in the full width and breath of things, and resolved to end this once and for all. What she was seeing, what she found too horrible to even comprehend fully, she could stand no longer.

"You're going to get us out of here, right, Ms. Sunfire?" asked a young, scarred girl with a bushy squirrel tail who reminded Yang far too much of Ruby.

Yang drew back her fist to smite the lock of the nearest cell, but a hand like a striking snake caught it. She turned her head, and found Adam stopping her.

"Are you insane?" he hissed. "If we haven't set off the security already, then busting open the locks certainly will. And I don't like the look of those nozzles in the ceiling nearly enough to think that's a good idea."

Yang noticed then the nozzles he mentioned and felt a new level of apoplectic rage come upon her when her glasses analyzed it and found trace amounts of a highly potent acid upon it. She was going blind with rage, and while almost all of it was directed at the Decepticons, she couldn't keep some of it from leaking at the one holding onto her at that moment and telling her to calm down. Calm? How could she be calm? Why would she be calm?

"What the hell is wrong with you?" she yelled at Adam, her golden mane becoming a blazing inferno that bathed the cavernous room entirely in flickering firelight at her words. "How can you be so calm about this?!"

"Because I've seen worse!" he snapped. "I've lived it! I got out, but if we act recklessly here, they won't!"

"And if we do nothing then they'll be stuck here," Yang shot back, her hair seeming to take on a solar quality. "I swore an oath to defend them. I cannot, will not, ever break that oath."

"That's why we're here, remember?" Adam reminded her, exasperation in his voice. "But we need to make sure we don't end up killing them trying, you impulsive, hotheaded, reckless bitch!"

That seemed to touch something in Yang, and though it took a few seconds, the fire of her locks began to grow cool.

She exhaled softly, and then she finally replied, "Sorry. I got a little carried away there. Let's take out that security station."

"'A little carried away'?" he asked sarcastically as he let go and they turned to get moving. "You looked ready to tear this whole place apart with your bare teeth."

"I still am," responded Yang with deadly coolness. "You're right though. I'll end up causing another Grindcore, not prevent it, if I keep acting like that."

"'Grindcore'?" asked Adam with a bit of curiosity.

"A Decepticon prison camp on Cybertron," answered Yang. "The inmates were worked to death, tortured, poisoned, promised freedom if they worked hard enough, only to be smelted alive instead."

"That's insane," Adam hissed.

"This place…" Yang said, "it's obviously not the same, but you're right. Gotta keep my head on straight, or these people are going to pay the price."

"A human caring about faunus," he mused. "Now that is unbelievable."

"There were humans here too," a voice from behind intruded. They turned, and it was the girl from before. She pointed at one of the cages. "Not many, though. That was Mason's cell."

Yang looked at the cell. There was a shape or two, but no heat signatures. She clenched a fist. "What happened?" she asked, her voice cold.

"He- he was part of an escape attempt," the girl answered. "There- there was a Grimm attack. A Beowolf got on the car they hijacked, and he- he tackled it off so Brock and the others could get away."

"Decepticons don't offer much in the way of health care here," another prisoner, male, added bitterly. "I don't think they get how fragile we are compared to them. Or care."

"There were other humans here too, but, well, the Decepticons called it 'attritional losses,'" said another sadly. "They keep the lights low, and… accidents happen."

Yang turned and saw that Adam still did not believe. She decided to ignore him. That lasted until they back into the alleged crawlspace.

"The Decepticons don't care about humans or faunus," she said grimly. "We have to stand as one or fall divided."

Adam scoffed. "Empty words. Come on, let's see what Lugnut and this Swindle are made out of."

As Swindle traced the signal from the hidden, third emergency transponder Blast Off had, he wasn't surprised to find his fellow Combaticon restrained and guarded.

"Jazz," he greeted cheerfully. No point trying to hide, not from his approach over the grass. Besides, while Jazz was as fanatical about the war as any other Autobot or Decepticon, he was at least willing to be reasonable and make a deal on occasion.

"Swindle," the Autobot special operations commander replied, rising to his feet and dusting off his legs. "Haven't seen you since Simfur."

"Yeah, it's been a while," Swindle agreed. "Blast Off?" he asked, glancing at his teammate, who responded to the attention by struggling with his bindings and saying… something that was muffled into incoherence by the electronic muzzle strapped to his face.

"Kickin' his feet up for a bit," Jazz replied cheekily. "I'd say he's a nonparticipant in tonight's festivities."

Swindle considered his options. He may be a Combaticon, but for all that the rest of the team wore that badge with honor - and, to be fair, so did Swindle... when it suited him - he wasn't particularly fond of fighting.

And everyone had their vices.

"Say," he said, "I've picked up some Atlesian technopop since last time, if you're interested." He took a moment to play a teasing few seconds from an audio file.

"Got some fine tunes, huh?" Jazz mused, then shook his head. "Sorry, cat, can't do that, not tonight. Tonight's all official business."

Swindle shrugged. "Eh, was worth a try."

Then he dove to the side, bringing his scatter blaster up and snapping off a shot. The battle was joined.

Annoying little… Vortex thought as he pursued B-127. The little yellow-plated scout was in his alt-mode, some local civilian wheeled vehicle, and was swerving back and forth through the tall grass they had left outside the turrets' killzone, spoiling Vortex's aim as the rotorcraft Combaticon pursued at low altitude.

Frustrated, Vortex switched his blaster to adhesive rounds and fired a spread ahead of B-127, but the little Autobot simply boosted up, transforming and twisting in mid-air to tag Vortex's nose with his energon battle pistol before returning to his alt-mode and landing on the far side of the adhesive barrier Vortex had laid down before him. Vortex responded by pulling up to gain some altitude, then dive-bombing with a salvo of thermo-molecular bombs that cratered the landscape and rattled the scout's circuits.

"Ironhide!" B-127 called out. "I could use some help here!"

"I'm a little busy here, B!" the Autobot weapons expert replied as he tried to extricate himself from the grip Brawl's left hand had on him, while keeping the Combaticon's right hand away from his faceplate. A stasis blaster bolt struck Brawl's back, but the big Decepticon shrugged it off and looked over his shoulder at Ratchet. "I'll take you both on!" he roared, shifting his grip on Ironhide and hurling the Autobot overhead into the medic.

Sometimes, there were advantages to Brawl's hotheaded recklessness, but Onslaught couldn't spare the processing power to thank him for taking some of the pressure off. He was too busy trying to stay alive. The Prime's ion blaster was nothing to mess around with, and he definitely didn't want to get in close either. And yet, he'd still managed to underestimate the Prime.

The big red Autobot was coming at him with an energon axe, a big one too, so he fired off a stun blast from his sonic blaster - its stun mode was something he usually used more to discipline Brawl than for combat, but while less lethal, it tended to have better impact on tougher targets... like Brawl - and the Prime flinched, his grip on the axe loosening. Onslaught saw an opening and kicked the axe out of his opponent's grip. Before he could go into a follow up, though, a blade as big as his arm deployed from the Prime's wrist.

Onslaught was forced to jump back to avoid the short, sharp lesson that the Prime clearly wanted to teach him. He continued backpedaling, even as he lowered the twin gun-launcher barrels down over his shoulders. Optimized for anti-aircraft work, they were hardly ideal for this: flak warheads would hit, but the Prime was too tough for that, while the anti-shipping warheads lacked the accuracy.

He fired anyway, and the Prime dodged the two anti-ship projectiles. Designed to punch through starship armor, the two missiles were unable to keep track of the Prime… but that was fine, as they instead plowed into the ground, throwing up dirt and debris that obscured Vortex from the view of B-127, who had since shifted to bot-mode.

Bumblebee, for his part, backed away from the debris cloud, looking for the rotorcraft Combaticon, his energon battle pistol sweeping the skies. He wasn't prepared for Vortex to tackle him from ground level.

I hope Yang's having better luck, he thought as he struggled under Vortex's mass and tried to bring his pistol to bear.

The pair of infiltrators worked their way to the security station and exited out of the crawlspace and into the hallway. A quartet of AK-130s stood guard in the hall. They didn't last long.

As they stepped over the bodies of the fallen androids, Adam's attention was drawn to a nearby door, much larger than the entrance to the crawlspace.

"This what we're looking for?" he asked curiously.

Yang looked up and focused slightly. "Sign says 'Armory.' We better keep going."

"Now, now. Let's not be too hasty," he said placatingly as he gave a long glance towards the door.

Yang rolled her eyes. "Oh, fine. I was told these glasses have a hacking feature, so I might as well test that."

She activated the aforementioned feature and quickly found an unfamiliar screen popping up in front of her with the words "Automatic Hacking in Progress" underneath it. Moments later, the Decepticon emblem in the door spun and depressed, and the door parted, revealing its contents. Surprisingly, the lights of the room came on automatically, nearly blinding them.

When the spots cleared, they found themselves looking into a room with row upon row of guns. They were blocky affairs, lined up perfectly in racks along the walls. On the opposite wall was a motivational poster proclaiming that the weapons were to be used for the glory of Lord Megatron, complete with a picture of a grey and black, broad-shouldered Decepticon pointing a giant cannon mounted to his arm at the viewer.

"Oh, come on," Adam complained.

Yang snorted. "Giant alien robots, remember?" she asked mockingly. "Giant alien weapons. What exactly were you expecting?"

"They don't even have something for the androids here?" asked Adam.

"Well, we've only seen AK One-Thirties, and they all use built-in weapons, so I guess not," Yang said. "Just lots of..." and here she tilted her head to the side to read what was written on the weapons, "...'neutron assault rifles.'"

"Sounds powerful," commented the bullish faunus.

Yang looked at him skeptically. "You don't even know what that means. If they were really that good, would they have left them here when they went to fight the Autobots?"

Suddenly, the pair heard the sound of another door opening followed by heavy metallic thuds. Thinking quickly, they moved as one to duck inside and cover the door, taking the same side that the sounds were coming from so that they wouldn't be immediately seen. They got into position just as the Barricade's towering form stomped in.

"What the scrap is going on in here?!" bellowed the Decepticon as he looked about the armory. "Drones destroyed, doors hacked, and now-"

Thwack!

He never got to finish his sentence, for at that moment, Adam completed his aiming sequence and fired Wilt out of Blush to hit Barricade in the side of the head.

"Ow!" the black and grey Decepticon complained as he turned his glowing red optics onto the two organics. "Oh, you humans have some serious bearings on you."

Yang didn't give him a chance to do anything more, recoil-boosting to punch Barricade straight in the jaw and out of the room.

"They're called balls, and yes I do!" Yang declared hotly.

"That punch," realized Barricade as he staggered back up. "I recognize that punch. You. I should have known you were an Autobot. Who are you?"

Yang gave a psychotic grin. This was exhilarating. "The name's Sunfire."

"I'll try to remember that."

And with those words, Barricade dashed back into the armory and snatched one of the neutron assault rifles off the nearby rack, bringing the weapon to bear on Sunfire. A squeeze of the trigger, and suddenly, the air was filled with neutron pellets… that all missed completely.

"Brilliant," complained Adam as he resheathed Wilt and they hid in the hall. "We were supposed to run while he was distracted."

Yang stared. "Communication! It's a thing! You should try it sometime!"

"Well, excuse me, but my last partner at least knew when to run!"

"Sounds to me like that's all she knew how to do!"

The storm of subatomic particles stopped, and Barricade leapt around the door. In one surprisingly swift movement, Yang was knocked to the other end of the hall. Adam, on the other hand, was knocked into the wall on the opposite side of the hall, bouncing off to land on the ground.

Barricade brought down one metallic hand and pinned Adam to the ground. "Ah ha! Nowhere to run now, little human."

"Faunus," Adam corrected defiantly.

"...what?" Barricade blinked.

"Faunus. I'm a faunus," Adam said angrily, glaring up at the Decepticon with his masked face.

"Faunus," Barricade repeated. "Right. Err, what's the difference again?"

Ka-chink. Bang!

Barricade's head, and the rest of his body, was sent spinning by the yellow shot-gauntleted fist of Yang Xiao Long. Her hair was still on fire when she slid to a stop near Adam. She turned and offered him a grim smile.

"I told you. The Decepticons don't care about humans or faunus. They just care about taking over the universe," she repeated, offering out her hand to him to get him up.

Reluctantly, Adam took her hand and allowed her to pull him to his feet.

"That's not true!" protested Barricade as he got off the ground again. "I also care about destroying Autobot scum like you!"

He reached back through the armory doors and came out with a second neutron assault rifle for his other hand.

Yang's eyes widened. "Run."

"Finally, some sense," Adam muttered as they turned and ran down the long hallway, zig-zagging to make for harder targets.

Twin streams of neutron pellets chased them, but their accuracy left something to be desired, much to Barricade's frustration. Neutron assault rifles were the most common weapon in the latter days of the Great War - after most of Cybertron's industrial capacity was gutted - for a reason, and that reason was not their overall quality. Dumping a few dozen here as a "just in case" measure seemed like a good idea - it's not like the Decepticons were short on them - but Barricade sometimes privately wondered if the point was to let the Autobots steal them.

He snarled as the two weapons clicked empty and tossed them aside, and shifted his hand into his usual sidearm, an energon battle pistol. Smaller targets plus the increased range meant he'd need the extra precision. He aimed carefully and fired.

The round hit near Sunfire, and the tiny Autobot was sent sprawling onto the floor. Blast, that was the second time he'd done that; if he was going to keep running into these Mini-Cons, he'd have to spend more time at the range. Ah, well, that's what follow-up shots were for.

He fired again, and this time, the round was intercepted by the human in black and his sword. Amazingly, the human wasn't vaporized. In fact, he looked downright intact.

"Oh, come on!" Barricade complained as he fired twice more, and each time it was intercepted by the sword.

On the floor, Yang found her swirling vision looking upon Adam defending her. "I think I'm hallucinating."

"Welcome to my world," Adam chuckled.

Yang smiled as she got up fully. "Thanks. Need an assist?"

"No, you get the security systems. I'll take care of…?" he trailed off, looking at the Decepticon.

"Barricade!" shouted the Decepticon as he advanced on them.

Adam smiled joyously. "Oh, yeah, that's right. What are those again?" he mocked.

Barricade growled in response and transformed into a Vale PD cruiser that sped towards them. Yang recoil boosted up into the air and out of the way, while Adam merely jumped out of the way, preferring the less flashy option.

Barricade slid past them and transformed before he hit the door to the outside. Adam drew Wilt in reply, and the whole world seemed to shift into red and black. There was a cutting splash of color, and suddenly, the Decepticon found himself hit with a massive wave of energy. He still stood, but the door behind him fell into two pieces.

"He survived?!" Adam blurted out before realizing his mistake. "Oh, right. Giant alien robots, giant alien auras."

He ran then past Barricade and into the cool night air.

Noticing the little swordfighter leaping past him, Barricade turned into the yard and transmitted, "Onslaught, we have a problem."

"Of course we do. Primus, I hope Swindle has better news. Sitrep?"

"I'm working on it," Swindle replied testily as he watched Jazz warily.

The fact was, the two tended to fight pretty conservatively, which led to a bit of a stalemate. For Swindle, it was a matter of prudence, while for Jazz, it was a sign of his general laid-back attitude. Fortunately, Swindle didn't need to beat Jazz, though the spec ops commander had foiled his attempts to outmaneuver him so far.

Swindle sighed. Time to break out the expensive munitions, then.

Hmm, nucleon charge rifle, too close. Thermo mines, no. Magma frag launcher, overkill. Ah ha!

"I was hoping it wouldn't come to this, Jazz," Swindle said mildly, before side-slinging a spread of grenades in the Autobot's general direction.

Jazz jumped back and to the side, bringing up his arms to shield his face. Had there been one grenade instead of five, he might have escaped, and had they been frag grenades, he would have been able to minimize the damage, but instead, Swindle had thrown EMP grenades. Jazz's hardened systems prevented him from suffering the paralysis that would have affected some of the cheaper lines of MTO troops from later in the war, but the combined effect of the two he was still in range of still scrambled his sensitive optics briefly. On instinct, Jazz backed off, keeping his arms up, before he reversed his movement and began firing randomly with his photon rifle in an effort to keep Swindle at bay.

The Decepticon "scavenger" took advantage of the randomness of fire to skedaddle on into vehicle mode. He rushed behind Blast Off and transformed once more. His hands free, he made short work of his compatriot's restraints.

"About time!" Blast Off complained as he pulled the muzzle off. "I thought the two of you would keep bantering around each other all night!"

"You should try it sometime; it's fun!" contradicted Swindle cheerfully. "Besides, I always make time for my valued customers."

There was the snapping sound of a gun arming, and the pair suddenly found themselves staring down the barrel of Jazz's photon rifle.

"Nice slice, cats, but this night's performance will have to take a slide on down to the Hotel Vacuo, ya dig?" the Autobot said as he steadied his aim.

"He's going to shoot us," Swindle translated.

"Yeah, I got that," Blast Off replied. "Just hold on"

"Hold on? Hold on to what?" Swindle asked a split second before it happened.

Blast Off shifted and transformed into his vehicle form, leaping into the air as he did so. Swindle gripped his teammate's wings on instinct and was still holding onto them when his teammate finished his transformation. He was still holding on when Blast Off's transatmospheric engines finally drowned out his screaming.

Blast Off, for his part, was focused on his destination. From altitude, it was simple enough to spot the battlefield, and he brought his nose down into a dive, slinging Swindle toward where B-127 dangled from Vortex's back even as he himself banked and strafed the Prime with his forward-fixed X-ray lasers.

"Combaticons!" a battered Onslaught bellowed. "Unite!"

It was their only chance.

"Autobots!" Prime snapped back as he charged Onslaught. Ironhide and Ratchet similarly stopped struggling to escape Brawl's grip and shifted to trying to pin him down, even as Brawl tried to extricate himself. B-127 scuttled around Vortex; lacking the mass to hold the larger Combaticon in place, he kept himself tangled up in Vortex's limbs and rotors.

Onslaught dove aside, spinning to blast the chaotic melee Brawl was caught in with his sonic blaster, this time set to wide dispersal stun. Brawl shook off the stunning effect, recovering before the two Autobots, and charged away to his own position. Swindle abandoned his effort to get a clear shot at B-127 and joined him, the two Combaticons shifting into their third modes: a pair of legs.

Onslaught launched himself into the air, shifting his own form into a torso, another head emerging, while Blast Off linked up as the right arm, reaching down to pluck B-127 off Vortex, flinging the scout aside and freeing Vortex to connect as the left arm.

"Autobots!" Prime ordered. "Transform and roll out!"

Bruticus had entered the fight.

Barricade was trying to exit the fight; he had a bad feeling about whatever the little Autobot was up to. It was a task made all the harder by the tiny little human who insisted on not being called a human slashing at him, shooting at him, and absorbing his shots. All with that fancy sword of his.

The Decepticon knew one thing about it, though: he had to get himself one of those.

Then, suddenly, he caught movement in the corner of his optic.

The turrets on the battlements and walls were turning towards him, transforming into the "hyperkill" mode Lugnut had insisted on installing.

"Aw, scrap."

He bolted for the front gate, switching into his alt-mode, and floored it.

"You're not getting away from me!" Adam roared as he saw the Decepticon turning to flee. He pumped his legs and leapt on top of the police car, catching the rear spoiler and slowly pulling himself up, inch by inch.

"Are you crazy?!" the Decepticon demanded.

"Adam, jump off!" Sunfire's voice came over Adam's communicator, but he ignored her suggestion.

"I'm not letting him get away!"

The front gate ground open ahead of them, and Adam held on as the Decepticon swerved to try to shake him off.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me!"

Adam looked up at the Decepticon's exclamation, only to see the convoy of Autobots racing toward them, and behind them…

No, it couldn't be behind them. If it was, it would have to be…

But it was. An even bigger giant robot, stomping after the Autobots with a massive stride that devoured the hundreds of yards between them. It made all those that came before look like dwarfs, and its body… the body was made up of the other Decepticons he had seen that night.

So, this was one of the combiners that Optimus Prime had spoken of.

This… this was a whole new scale. He hadn't felt this… small… in a very long time.

A deep whirring noise filled the air, and he turned his head to look over his shoulder. The top of the communications tower was transforming into the biggest gun he had ever seen in his life. The weapon looked to be half the size of an Atlesian air cruiser, and it was beginning to glow as it lowered to point directly at him.

"Adam," Sunfire's voice came over the comms again. "Get off. The Decepticon. Now."

The faunus rebel coiled his legs and jumped. The Autobots were rushing past at that point, and he aimed for them. With skill and more than a little luck, he landed in the bed of the red pickup truck.

"Fancy meeting you here, pardner," Ironhide said evenly in that accented drawl of his.

"Just drive," Adam growled.

"Yeesh. Youngsters, these days. You'd think you were just protoformed yesterday. Why, back in my time-"

Adam groaned. "You're enjoying this."

"Immensely," was Ironhide's immediate reply.

Suddenly, the valley vanished in a blinding flash of light, and as Adam blinked the spots from his eyes, he turned to look back. The combiner had fallen to one knee, and as he watched, it broke apart into its components, who joined Barricade in his flight.

He sighed. "It's over."

"Fer now," Ironhide amended.

Ratchet felt something as he scanned the people coming out of the prison. Whatever it was, he ignored it. He'd devoured the medical texts Yang had provided, but this would be the first time he applied that knowledge. There was a difference between theoretical knowledge and practical skills, after all, and he couldn't afford to let such emotions interfere with his work. Not when lives were on the line.

Most people found it cruel, and they couldn't understand why he did it. That was okay, though, because they were all alive to complain. These people might be scared or afraid too, but they still had burning sparks to feel those emotions, and that was what mattered.

"Ratchet, how bad is it?" Optimus asked as he came up alongside him.

The prisoners were staring at his leader with a look of awe and wonder, as if he was Prima himself come back from the dead. He made a note to laugh about that later. He couldn't feel now, but later was fine.

"Honestly, they got off lucky. They're in bad shape, but it's the sort of bad shape that comes from apathy and ignorance, not the usual Decepticon malice. We should be thanking Primus right now that the Decepticons haven't found a material use for any of the species of this world yet," reported the doctor as he continued to move his scanner over them. "More like the Nibari than the Prysmosians, at least. Small blessings, there."

"'Lucky'?!" an outraged Adam roared. "Are you blind?!"

"No," Yang replied. "He's just seen far worse. The Decepticons could have been recycling them alive instead."

Adam turned her. "What?

"Remember when I mentioned Grindcore?" she asked. "Why do you think they were smelting prisoners?"

Good kid, that Yang. Ratchet still wasn't quite sure about her fighting alongside them, and Bumblebee had obviously been sharing some of the more questionable war stories from Cybertron, but she was proving her worth very quickly in his optics. Though if she turned out to be a mini-Cliffjumper like Jazz said, he was going to have to have words with her with about abusing her infirmary privileges with insane over-the-top stunts.

If nothing else, she certainly fit the name she had chosen for herself. Sunfire, very Autobot of her. He wondered if she would make it official or if it would just remain a cover.

He finished his scans and began preparing his prognoses. These people needed to know what to do on their own. He would only be able to do so much with so many.

Over the mountain, he could see the White Fang VTOLs cresting the hills in the light of the broken moon. This, of course, resulted in a new round of bickering between Adam and Yang. The difference, this time, was that the other Autobots and the patients got in on the discussion too.

"Those will be my Bullheads coming to pick us up now," said Adam.

"'Your Bullheads'?" asked one of the older Vacuans, a tall, antlered man with broad shoulders. "Who are you, anyway?"

Adam frowned. "I'm Adam Taurus, leader of the Vale White Fang."

An uncomfortable murmur rippled through the crowd, and the tension thickened.

"What?"

"I think we'd rather go with the Autobots," the antlered Vacuan said.

"What?" Adam repeated, baffled. "But… we're the White Fang. We're fighting for all faunuskind."

"Fighting for yourselves, you mean!" another voice jeered from the crowd.

Optimus lowered himself to one knee and shook his head. "I would gladly welcome you into our protection, my friends, but we lack the infrastructure to care for you." He waved a hand at the base. "Much of the hardship you faced here is because the Decepticons lack the facilities and resources to care for your species… the same facilities and resources we Autobots lack ourselves. It saddens me to admit it, but I fear you would fare little better in our care than you have with the Decepticons."

"But…" the man looked over at Adam uncertainly.

"It is an alliance of necessity," Optimus said. "There is, I'm sure, more to the White Fang than their more… public exploits."

"We have contacts," Adam said begrudgingly. "People who can get you the right papers, some lien to get started, help you get settled in here in Vale. Or transport back to Vacuo if you prefer, but that'll take longer."

"I dunno…"

"If you like," Yang interjected, "I can give you all my contact info. If they mess with you, call me."

"Or me," Jazz added. Yang looked at him curiously. Weren't his hands too big to use a scroll? The Autobot gave a knowing smile and tapped the side of his head. "Chill, girl. I'm tapped in."

The antlered man let out a resigned sigh. "I suppose that'll have to work," he agreed sullenly.

Unseen, Adam frowned.

Optimus rose to his feet. "Ironhide, get as much energon as you can carry. With the Combaticons active and the amount of energon stockpiled here, we'll need the Aerialbots out of stasis before the night is done."

"You got it, Prime."

"As for the rest of us, we'll cover the evacuation and then begin salvage operations."

There was a knock on Team RWBY's dormitory door. When Ruby answered it, Jaune stuck his head in and looked around, noting Blake on her bed, reading a book, and Weiss working on something on a portable terminal. "Where's Yang?" he asked.

"Out," Ruby replied, annoyed. "Again."

Jaune slipped into the room and closed the door behind him.

"'Out'? Classes start in, like, ten minutes."

"I know," Ruby said with a note of anger. "She's been gone since last night. Now, what's up?"

"It's about the thing," he said. "Pyrrha's contact came through. We have a lead."

Author's Note 1 (Cyclone):

I'm not entirely happy with this chapter, but I'm not quite able to put my finger on why. Anyway, before anyone asks, yes, Cody and I had been playing quite a bit of War for Cybertron lately when we wrote this

Author's Note 2 (Cody MacArthur Fett):

If the Huntsmen scene from last chapter was a pain to write then the battle scenes from this one were something worse entirely. Still, we got the job done, and things turned out reasonably well. Like Cyclone though, things don't particularly sit right with me here, as if it could be more, but I'm not sure how.