I would like to say that I am really sorry for taking so long with these chapters. I was working on my other story and I just hadn't had motivation to come back to this one until I started getting back into ARK again. Thank you though to everyone who has fav'd and followed this so far. I promise this story will keep going! Now, I know some of you have been itching to get back to the Autobots, so here it is.
To AinLinx, wait no more because we're back in business (sort of)
To 1SilverandGold1, that's alright, most people who play ARK extensively have no idea how the story goes either haha. But all your questions are gonna get answered at some point or another in the story, just gotta get Team Prime built up from cowering in a thatch hut hehe. Also, here is your Autobots chapter (:
"Where's Jack? It's been a while since he told us to come back," mumbled a concerned Raf to himself. It had been nearly an hour since the sun had gone down, and an hour and a half since they had last seen Jack.
"He'll be fine, Raf. The dude has the wit to outsmart Megatron of all people. I bet he's gonna land right here with that flying reptile any min-ow!" Miko started before she was interrupted mid sentence. Raf could only watch as a few hundred pounds of teenage boy and prehistoric reptile crashed into Miko.
"Hey! What's the big idea Jack?" groaned Miko, only to find that the other teen was slumped in the saddle drooling. Concerned, she searched her friend up and down, worried that something bad had happened. After a while, she saw a few tiny teeth marks had appeared on Jack's ankle. Fearing the worst, she checked his pulse, sighing in relief to find it was still present. He was still breathing too, so he must be sleeping or unconscious.
"Is he alright Miko?" asked Raf.
Miko nodded, stating, "Yeah, he's alive at least. Looks like something bit his ankle though."
At this, Jack suddenly yawned as if he had woken from an afternoon nap. "Hey guys. Wait, how did I end up here?"
Raf and Miko gave the boy a deadpan expression as Miko huffed, "You tell us flyboy. What do you think you were doing sleeping at the wheel 100 feet in the air?"
Jack stuttered as he tried to regain any memory of what had happened. "What? No, that can't be right. I remember taking off with the Pteranodon before these glowy eyed raptor things tried to munch me. One grazed me, and then I put my head down to rela- oh." Jack rubbed the back of his head as he realized his mistake.
"Hmm, if I remember from the fossil records right, one species of bipedal dinosaur had traces of venom glands in its jaw. Were they around the size of your knee?" Raf inquired.
Jack rubbed his chin as he pondered, "Hmm, yeah. I'd say about knee height is a good estimate."
"Then you must have run into a couple of Troodons. Apparently they might have paralyzing venom. Honestly, from what the records say, you're lucky you managed to tame that Pteranodon when you did. Troodons are just as bad as raptors to run into in the middle of night."
"I'm aware," Jack replied as he pinched the bridge of his nose. He couldn't believe he let the thing nick him in the ankle. One second more and he would've been having his insides being used for kielbasa. "Look, the important thing is that we've got something that can actually fly now, so we can get a better idea of this weird island. It's already night, so why don't we get some shuteye and tomorrow we can use Razor Wing here to try and do some exploring?"
"Oh you'd love that, wouldn't you Mr. Drowsy," joked Miko. But she agreed, and together they returned to their now rebuilt and upgraded wooden hut to sleep in for the night.
"Get ready boys, we're going to be entering Earth's orbit in less than 2 minutes," Arcee informed as she started disengaging light speed on their ship.
Bumblebee and Bulkhead prepared themselves as they got ready to touch down on the planet they saw as a second home. "Hey Bee, what do you think we'll see down there?" asked the large wrecker. It had been a while since he had visited the blue planet ever since Miko had passed.
"Beats me. Maybe now that humans can use energon, things might start looking more like home?" the Autobot scout offered.
"Maybe. Let's just hope MECH isn't running the parade like last time. Last thing I want to see is a knockoff Megatron," joked Bulkhead.
"Ha! Gonna be hard to copy something THAT ugly." Bumblebee then turned back towards Arcee as he asked, "Hey Cee', what do you think we'll see down there?" Getting no response, he walked over to the cockpit to check on his friend from concern. "Arcee? Hey, I'm supposed to be the silent one, remember? What's goi- Oh my Primus."
Arcee simply sat there with her mouth hanging wide open. But that's not what had shocked the young scout, but rather what was out their window. Everything that their instruments read indicated that the planet before them was Earth, the flourishing blue planet they had defended so valiantly. Home of the human race.
This was not Earth. It looked more akin to Cybertron after they had fled during the Great War. Gone were the blue oceans that covered most of the planet, as well as the lush green continents. In their place was just a brown orb of dirt. The planet seemed to have ceased its orbit as well, having come to a standstill. By all means, life should not have been possible on this broken world.
"Come on Bee, don't tell me you lost you voice box aga- Arcee? Did you make a wrong turn somewhere? This looks NOTHING like Earth." Bulkhead tried to reason as he tried to deny this was the same planet they had called a home away from home.
"I-I don't know," stuttered Arcee in shock. "All of the navigation instruments say that this is where it should be. Ratchet's signal came from this planet. This has to be Earth, but it just can't."
Bumblebee had never seen his friend this emotional since the loss of Cliffjumper. And why wouldn't she? It was like losing Cybertron all over again. "We need to get on the ground," he declared. "Land us back where Jasper used to be, if you can find it. We need to find Ratchet to see if he has any idea what happened since we were gone."
The blue bot complied, steeling her resolve as she steered the ship towards what was once the western part of the United States, now a barren wasteland.
The Autobot ship made a clean descent as it landed on the dead planet. Lowering the drawbridge, the Autobots stepped out onto the rough dirt of what used to be Jasper. All around them, they saw nothing but wasteland. Jasper's buildings were nothing more than decayed reminders of the past. Farther from the broken town, the bots could see behind some mountains a broken city of unknown origin. Part of a building was pulsating a light blue, and they could already tell that energon was involved in its creation.
"Wow, that's actually kind of impressive," admitted Bulkhead. He hadn't thought humans would be able to match up to Cybertronian architects, but it wasn't half bad for an organic species that only had experience with Energon building for a few centuries.
Bumblebee brought his team's focus back to their mission as he stated, "Alright, first order of business is to locate Ratchet just like Ultra Magnus said. After that, we can figure out what in the name of the Allspark is going on."
"Right," nodded his companions as they all transformed and got ready to speed off in the direction of the signal, but the flapping of wings caused them to pause. Looking towards the sky, they saw a massive set of wings coming at them at high speeds.
"No way. There's no way that's a Predacon flying at us right now," Bulkhead said in disbelief as the trio prepared for combat. When the creature got closer, it was undeniable that it had the shape of a Predacon, but it lacked the two extra legs in the front. The thing was also organic, ensuring them that it was not of Cybertronian origin. But the most striking part was the purple coloration that lined its body and the decaying effect it seemed to cause.
"Move!" Arcee shouted as she rolled out of the way, just in time to avoid a breath of purple fire that would've most certainly burnt any organics to a crisp.
"That's an organic Predacon!" cried Bulkhead as he opened fire on the beast. The large animal weaved between his plasma shots as it turned around for another pass. Bumblebee used this opportunity to jump onto Bulkhead's back and give the flying nuisance a hard punch to the snout.
"That's not a Predacon! Raf used to call them dragons and wyverns. But those were supposed to be myths!" the yellow Autobot yelled out as he concentrated fire on the wyvern.
"Well I've never heard of a myth that's been corrupted by Dark Energon!" shouted Arcee as she transformed into her bike form. Racing up a rock outcropping, the femme bot flew through the sky before landing on the corrupted wyvern's back. Equipping her blade function in her arms, she stabbed the creature in the back and wing, causing it to release a guttural cry as it crashed into the ground. She only retracted the blades once she was sure the creature was dead.
Stepping back to observe it, Arcee joined her friends as they examined the corpse. "Wow, Dark Energon is not a good look on organics huh?" Bulkhead whistled as Bumblebee kneeled to inspect it.
"I know Dark Energon can corrupt a bot or an organic's mind, but seeing it transform an organic's body has got to mean that this poor thing has been suffering from its effects for a really long time." The scout turned part-time leader was about to take a DNA sample for whenever they found Ratchet, but the body seemed to rapidly decompose, startling him and the other Autobots. In mere seconds, the body had decayed as if there was never a wyvern at all.
"Whoa, freaky," commented the Wrecker as he watched with a stunned expression.
"Um boys? We've got more company!" called out Arcee as she swiveled her head to her six. Behind her, a powerful ROOOOAAAARRR sounded as over the horizon, a large reptilian figure almost as large as Bulkhead came from the horizon. Its feet made thunderous shakes as it moved, shaking the very earth that it walked upon. Its gaping maw revealed rows of sharp teeth that would easily slice through their circuits. And once again, this poor creature was covered in the terrible black and purple substance that had covered the wyvern.
"I can't believe it. That's a Tyrannosaurus Rex!" exclaimed Bumblebee. He remembered before the old base in the rock had been destroyed, Raf would tell him all about the dinosaurs that had once roamed the Earth, and he had to admit he had spent some spare time researching them when he was bored at base. Of course, he had faced his own dinosaurs when he had dealt with Predaking, but now he knew what Jack, Miko, and Raf had felt as he gazed at the ancient predator of another world.
"You mean those extinct lizards that Raf would always talk to you about?" clarified Arcee. She knew about the tyrant lizard and some other species the young boy would get engrossed about, but she never paid too much attention. Now she suddenly wished she listened more to their human encyclopedia when she had the chance as the powerful figure walked over to challenge them.
"Well it's about to become extinct again!" shouted Bulkhead as he gave a war cry before charging into the apex predator. The Rex gave a cry of its own as it charged its thick head into Bulkhead's chest, shocking the bot with the surprising amount of power it had. Using his wrecking ball module, the went to smack the dinosaur across the face, but the Rex ducked under it before clamping onto his arm.
"Ow! You better have some good dental insurance," the angered Bulkhead grunted as he pulled his arm free from its iron grip. He switched to a blaster and pelted its hide just as Arcee did the same. The Rex staggered as it took shot after shot, clearly weakening in its balance, before Bumblebee in car form rammed into its side, shattering its femur. The Rex fell and gave one least guttural cry of defeat before laying still on the ground.
"There's no denying it, this is Earth," Bumblebee sadly relented as he looked at the corpse of the mighty lizard they had felled. Unless Unicron packed up his spark and left to another solar system, there was no other explanation as to why there was so much Dark Energon coursing through these creatures' bodies and minds. It was like a hive mind, but even Unicron wouldn't want this planetary devastation to occur on himself.
"Alright, that settles it. This isn't the planet that we knew. Not anymore. We need to find Ratchet and get our afts back to Cybertron so we can report. This is something that the entire Transformer race needs to know about," declared Arcee.
RRAAAAAAAGHHHHH!
Groaning as she was starting to get tired of the attacks, Arcee once again looked to the horizon and could feel the energon leave her faceplate as Bumblebee and Bulkhead felt the same feeling.
In the distance, an enormous creature that the bots had never even heard of roared into the sky. The beast was massive, easily the size of Unicron's giant drone form if not much larger. Its legs were as thick as Predaking was tall, and its mighty tail swished behind it as it casually knocked over some human-made energon buildings. The thing had more muscles than anything Team Prime had ever seen, and the entire body was covered in rock hard scales. The only sign of weakness came from a giant X mark on its chest, as if it had been slashed across its midsection and the wound had healed wrong.
The behemoth gave another cry, and as it did, they could see a sea of purple bodies rise from its feet. Whatever this thing was, it seemed to be the leader of the corruption that had spread across the land. And right now, the Titan had its hateful eyes set on the 3 Cybertronians that dared trespass on HIS planet.
"Get to the ship! NOW!" panicked Arcee as they all gunned it for the ship. Arcee was already at the controls as Bumblebee and Bulkhead manned the weapons. Right as they were about to take off, corrupted wyverns arrived to try to prevent their escape. They managed to blast the creatures away as they flew off over the mountain. As much as they wanted to leave, they couldn't abandon one of their own on this inhospitable world until they were certain he was either safe or gone. Team Prime was really hoping on the former.
As they crested the mountain range, Arcee detected the origin of the transmission. "There!" she pointed, and after making sure the giant beast hadn't jumped over the mountain, she landed their vessel inside of the broken city they had seen before.
It was impressive; the humans had made greater structures since the last time they were here, all thanks to Energon, or as the bots had come to learn, "Element" as they called it. The buildings stretched higher than anything that had been built before, literally reaching for the clouds back when there were any. The streets were wide and vast, no doubt facilitating a number of hi-tech vehicles in and out of the city. Gates were erected to keep the inhabitants safe from the outside. It was a forgotten metropolis. A Sanctuary in a dangerous world.
"That building over there. That's where the signal came from," pointed Bumblebee. It was one of the buildings that were near a strange green obelisk of light. Following the highway, the transformed Autobots sped towards the grand structure, now laid low by nature and time. Bumblebee blasted his way in through a part of the outside showing structural weakness, and as they entered, they found all types of hi-tek medical equipment.
"If there's one place you can find Ratchet at, it's a hospital," smirked Bumblebee. The trio of bots entered through the hole in the wall, finding that the hallways were rather massive They must have built it with Cybertronians in mind thought Arcee as they searched the halls for their long lost friend, and as they took the elevator shaft down to the garage, they found what they had come for.
"Ratchet!" exclaimed Bumblebee as approached the limp form of the cranky field medic. Fearing the worst, Bumblebee checked his with his scanners. The scans showed that he was alive, but in stasis and dangerously low on Energon. He pulled out an emergency Energon container as he found a pump in the wall to funnel the substance through.
"I'll deliver the Energon. You two stay back," Arcee said quickly. She had done surgery on Ratchet before, so this would be cake. She just had to be sure she attached the nozzles carefully or the offline mech would lose what little he had left.
"Aaaaaand, done. Now we just have to insert the container," she said to herself. Putting said container in the pump, she allowed the Cybertronian lifebood to flow into their old companion's body. Slowly but surely, his optics started to glow brighter until he woke with a start.
"Ah! Unhand me you murderous beasts!" cried the field medic as he slashed at air with his blade, nearly taking off Bulkhead's top.
"Whoa whoa! Calm down Doc, it's us!" Bulkhead assured with his hands up, and Ratchet blinked his optics as he finally took in the sight before him.
"Bumblebee? Arcee? Bulkhead? You're finally here!" he chimed. "My apologies, I had thought you were more of those blasted Raptors. Those pests put Scraplets to shame when they're hopped up on Dark Energon."
"Ratchet, not that we aren't happy to see that you're still functioning, but do you think you can tell us why we nearly had out afts ripped apart by extinct and mythical animals coated in Dark Energon?" Arcee said, trying to get to the bottom of the Earth's state.
"Yeah, and why there's a lizard the size of Trypticon trying to send us to the scrapyard?" added Bulkhead.
"And why the Earth looks like it went through another mass extinction? We couldn't even recognize it from how its orbit came to a standstill," Bumblebee finished.
"Slow down! Give an old mech some time after stasis to- wait, you said there was a giant lizard creature still roaming the world?"
After receiving nods from all three Autobots, Ratchet held his face in his hands. "By the Allspark, how could it have ever gotten to this point?" He then frowned as he asked, "How long did it take for my distress signal to reach Cybertron?"
The three Autobots glanced at each other as they tried to decide who would tell him. "Well?" he demanded.
Bumblebee stepped forward as he sighed before answering, "Ratchet, your signal didn't reach us until two centuries after it was sent."
The field medic felt himself losing balance after that statement, to which Bulkhead had to make sure he didn't tip himself over. "Great Primus, it's already too late," he muttered hopelessly. He had hoped to save this world from making such a grave mistake, but it was too late for that now.
"We have to get back to Cybertron. This planet, unless the humans did what I hoped they would do, is doomed. This requires the full attention of any Cybertronian who will give the time of day to listen."
The others nodded. It was clear that whatever the field medic had experienced, it had been traumatic for him. They would ask for more of the details when they went to brief Ultra Magnus or on the way back. "Follow us to the ship," said Arcee as they exited the building.
Taking Ratchet to their ship, the crew got ready to take off for Cybertron when the same piercing roar from before sounded in the distance. Rising above the city, the team was horrified to find the giant lizard from before had followed them all the way to the edge of the city. As they tried to blast away, it opened its maw and released a purple ball of energy at them.
"Veer right!" screamed Bumblebee as Arcee shifted the control as hard right as she could, barely able to dodge the projectile. Bulkhead and Bee fired some shots at the monster, but it didn't seem to have any effect on its thick hide.
"That was a close one," Bulkhead said aloud, glad they had gotten out of range to be shot at again.
Arcee glared into space as they reached the atmosphere. "We are coming back with the entire Autobot army. That thing will not desecrate what we protected," she said fiercely. But just as they were about to take off into light speed, something went awry.
"The ship won't move! It's like we're caught in some kind of tractor beam!" shouted the femme. She tried to gun the engines, but was shocked when the ship seemed to disappear! All that remained were blue outlines of its circuitry, and even that faded away as the four bots floated in space.
"What's happening?!" yelped Bumblebee. Looking up at the tractor beam, Team Prime was surprised to find a large metal structure floating in orbit around Earth. Looking around, many more could be seen circling the planet, though their purpose eluded all but one bot.
"Guys? I can't feel my fingers!" yelled Bulkhead, but soon he started disappearing just like the ship had.
"Bulk!" screamed Bumblebee and Arcee as they watched their friend be turned into nothingness. They had no time to lament though, as soon they found themselves disappearing as well until only Ratchet remained.
As he felt his fingers going numb as well, strangely, he had a small smile on his face as he said, "Hm, it seems they decided to listen to me after all." Staring at the transparent figure of a human above him, he gave a small wave as he too disappeared from the void of space.
