Smoke stacks, orange and towering with black tips, moved mediocre across the sky, spewing grey clouds. At the base, various plates of the deck were uprooted and shifting with one huge plate the first stack lied on prodding upward, sending the stack leaning towards its three counterparts before the plate returned to normal and settling the stack back upright again. The portholes on the side of its structure had gold and jewels leaking out of some of their windows while the lights within flickered occasionally.
A dark laugh made the stacks and the plating shift awkwardly across brown scaly skin when Max dodged a large arm armored by the same white and black plating, black claws scraping over the only visible portion of the upper deck the stacks lied on.
"Run, run, run, little human, I can't wait to add your weaponry effects to my collection. And is that an amulet I see under your coat? Beautiful, let me relieve you of it."
Jumping off the upper deck, Max slid down the mutilated ship armor making up the top portion of the Bowsink Metal Head's tail. But the beast immediately curved it so the next thing Max knew, he was sliding down right back towards Tamatoa's jaws. Using his grappling hook, he latched onto broken railing near the thick neck and swung away, forcing the Metal Head to clamp down on its tail with its white armored lower jaw that resembled a ship's bow. The four red eyes he had opened wide and he gave a massive yelp before shaking off the pain. Max made no movement atop the smoke stack so Tamatoa couldn't pinpoint where he was on touch and hearing alone and sighed.
Tamatoa wasn't supposed to be awake now. His ship-like armor that he copied like Transformers do with vehicle forms alerted many naval flagships believing he was a stray vessel before they were lured to their deaths because he didn't like being approached. His ship design alone should have been an immediate red flag for the military because the vehicle form he scanned was that of the Titanic over one hundred years ago. His armor model didn't exist anymore.
He kind of wondered whether Tamatoa was ever going to update his armor but the Godzilla-sized monster liked it. Tigressa was a fool for creating a Metal Head that could scan vehicle forms and transform yet had no venom but a lot of intelligence to compensate. Once Bowsinks like Tamatoa went commando, Tigressa was forced to destroy them and only five remained, but Tamatoa was the only Earth-bound one. Apparently, Tamatoa scanned the Titanic on her maiden voyage but didn't like the idea of sharing the design so he used his elemental abilities to create an iceberg out of nowhere. His attack missed technically but the bolts and armor of the ship were dislodged enough to where the Titanic gained too much water in too many areas and broke apart, sinking with as many as 1,400 passengers estimated. Ironically, the Bowsink's jaw held the title Titanic as well as his large dinosaur-like feet though the latter had one half of the title on one foot while the second half lied on the other.
Tamatoa's name was Max's fault. Originally, he only referred to him as the Ship-Eater or just the Bowsink, but he finally watched a Disney movie with his younger sisters called Moana with its greedy, flamboyant crustacean character and noticed it held similarities to his own culture as well as described the Bowsink's personality quite accurately when first meeting the monster. He crudely gave the Bowsink the name out of mockery. It didn't have the effect Max wanted as Tamatoa gladly accepted the title. Now Tamatoa was a hunter, stealing other ship's cargo and destroying them while leaving no survivors. And it was Max's job to stop him...of course.
"Where are you, Guardian of Zeliria? Do you think I'm going back to that prison you call the Devil's Den? If that is your intention, I must ask: how exactly do you plan on getting me there?"
He didn't like to be called out on his pride, but how was he going to get Tamatoa there? The Bowsink wasn't like Bermuda; he couldn't be coaxed to chase the human mindlessly in a rage. Max tapped his fingers carefully against the rim of the smoke stack he stood on hoping it wouldn't alert Tamatoa, assuming the stacks were integrated with the nervous system or something similar to where the beast could feel through them. One sharp strike though made Tamatoa's spinal ridge rise up a little which made Max pause and realize his mistake. More smoke blew out of the stack and two of the four unusually red eyes targeted him precisely. Oh, so he could feel that.
The yellow gem skull on Tamatoa's armored head crest glowed bright as his eyes narrowed. Max never got why they were red because Metal Heads usually only had yellow eyes. Maybe Tigressa accidentally changed the genes in the lab without realizing it. Either way, there was a creepiness to the red glare and it didn't help that out of all the Metal Heads, Bowsinks also had slit black pupils...almost like Tigressa's optics. Compensation wasn't usually Tigressa's style.
"There you are, pirate!"
Opening his jaws, Tamatoa's mouth began to glow light blue and Max knew immediately he needed to move to survive. In a second, an ice beam charged at him with speed and precision, forcing him to jump off the smoke stack towards the decks below. The entire orange steam-spewer was encased in ice but due to the rising frustration of the Bowsink, the chimney was too hot for the ice to stay and exploded less than a minute after contact. The frozen shards narrowly missed the human.
Max opened his comm link as he navigated the shaking deck of the angered Bowsink. "Kia, prepare the cavern cell for Tamatoa and send Antagonizer to my location now!"
A sharp roar that sounded like a mix between a whale and a t-rex emitted from Tamatoa, rocking the entire platform as if there was an earthquake. Max had to cover his ears due to being so close to the vocal range of the roar. When it stopped, he unclamped them and spotted some blood on the metal palms of his clawed gauntlets. He could still hear perfectly thanks to his enhanced senses but that roar was loud enough to really stir the inner ear lining. Cursing, he shook his head and stood up.
As Tamatoa seemed to settle down from his fury, a sudden second roar close by made both Max and the Bowsink turn their attention towards it in confusion. The monster glared, "Now what?!"
Right as Tamatoa saw her, Antagonizer leapt onto his head like a xenomorph face-hugger. The warship growled and sank her crab-like metal-tipped legs into the skin of the giant beast, clinging onto his form determined to rescue her master. One nasty jab of her front leg skewered Tamatoa's top left eye in the scuffle of trying to crawl on top of his face and the Bowsink screamed in agony.
"AAAHHH! YOU FILTHY CREATURE! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" He bellowed, bringing both armored hands to his popped eye and clutching it as it oozed red juice and dark purple blood.
Ignoring him, Antagonizer crawled painfully across his back to the ship deck with a pleased Max signaling her towards him. When she drew close enough, the human grabbed onto her rope net ladder on her side and climbed to the wheel helm.
"Good girl! Now how about we cause a bit more chaos on this vessel and see how determined Tamatoa is to kill us, shall we?"
The blue fire-lit lanterns that acted as her eyes clanked with the chains supporting them, rolling upward and to the side to mimic an eye roll in their respective hull holes impatiently at Max's pride. Her sails flared his logo proudly as she began to turn around to leap off the struggling Bowsink still in utmost pain.
Hitting the water with a loud splash, Antagonizer swung her wheel around to navigate the Bowsink but the noise she made caused said Bowsink to stop moving and stare enraged at her. Knowing she had no other choice, she prepared her cannons and aimed as Tamatoa roared in his charge. Antagonizer growled and peered toward Max on her deck.
"The legs? Tamtoa's armor is too thick. It's not going to do much."
Antagonizer made a defiant rumble, ignoring Max and aiming her cannons lower.
"The lights on the legs? By the gods, Anta, you're a genius! The lights in Bowsink's armor are a biological weakness. Hitting them should cause the nerves attached to completely seize and getting his legs would cause him to tip over...into a positioned portal! That's it!"
Antagonizer huffed as her master finally got her plan. Max then opened his comm link, "Kia, I need you to do a trick shot. Can you position a portal at these coordinates horizontally underwater? Yes I know it's risky but I'm willing to take it."
The Bowsink was stomping closer and Antagonizer let out an alarmed squeal. The human immediately shouted, "Kia, now! Fire!"
The roar of the cannons blazing tuned out Tamatoa's angry shout as they struck the between and against his armor where the "rooms" of the ship lied. The lights flickered and the monster made pained whale-like noises as some went out, his legs shaking from each onslaught. He gave an immediate squeal when one portion near his hip was hit and the entire system of lights on that particular plating all simultaneously went offline causing the armor to crack and the veins under his skin to pulse.
Antagonizer kept up her assault as Max narrowed his eyes. He saw the flash of bluish green that was the portal to the Devil's Den appear below the water and smiled inwardly as Tamatoa failed to notice. The problem was Tamatoa wasn't falling. He was getting weaker but he wasn't doing what Max needed him to do.
"Keep firing on him and I'll try to tip him over my way," the Guardian winked.
Antagonizer grunted and groaned, keeping watch between the Bowsink and her master as the latter swung himself up to the crow's nest just below where his signature flag flew. He climbed onto the railing and perched himself as his vessel homed in on Tamatoa's left calf. When she got close enough, he leapt off and used his grappler to latch onto a piece of armor and swing himself up towards the monster's thigh. Tamatoa felt it too and immediately glared downward in his direction.
"You pest! Get off of me!" The Bowsink roared.
Max grappled again and barely missed the hand that crushed against the thigh armor that was meant for him. He ran sideways to the backside where Tamatoa's tail was and paused for a brief second with a snort. The portal was to his right so needed to wrap around the Bowsink's legs clockwise and pull from the left or push the titan with enough momentum in that direction.
As soon as Tamatoa began twisting around in an attempt to spot him, he took that as his signal and leapt off the white-armored appendage. He fell several meters in a dive before turning upright and grappling to swing around the shins of the beast. The advantage of being small was that he moved faster than Tamatoa could walk. He had five loops done around the legs before catapulting himself upward with a good swing and releasing his line which held just fine. Climbing up Tamatoa's form as the monster attempted to keep upright, he scaled the brown hide like a cheetah making good use of his clawed gauntlets and agility.
Tamatoa shook madly trying to dislodge Max but the human wasn't fazed by the action. When he got to the monster's head, he got close to one of the large red eyes the beast had and smirked at his own reflection. The reptilian pupil contracted to a sliver of black as it locked onto him.
Max chuckled, "Hope you enjoyed your time on Earth because you're not going to be seeing it for quite a while."
The eye he stared into narrowed and he pushed off the monster's face into the air just as his own eyes began to glow white. He immediately gestured towards Tamatoa with a loud grunt and a sudden burst of light engulfed him leaving his form in shadow. A bright glowing dragon ten times larger than him gave a horrific roar and flew from its origin towards the Bowsink.
Tamatoa went from angry to afraid in seconds and the dragon pierced him like a bullet, knocking the wind out of him and sending him toppling with Max's grapple lines still strung around his legs to prevent him from correcting himself. He gave a garbled noise and shouted as he made contact with the water and the portal hidden underneath.
"NO!"
A flash occurred and Tamatoa disappeared with no sign of his presence among the water. He was gone. Max gave a frustrated sigh of relief and cut his power, the light dragon returning to him and he dived towards Antagonizer. The ship swung a support rope out and Max caught it right before hitting the water, swinging up above the sails before falling again and landing directly onto the captain's deck with one knee on the floor and his other leg perked at a ninety-degree angle. A normal person would have probably shattered their legs doing that.
He brushed off some dirt and clapped his hands together soundly, "I'd say that's a good day's work, huh Anta?"
The ship gave a pleased grumble, her loose planks shivering happily as her rib siding bounced up and down.
"So, you wanna go take a small vacation? Maybe go to Fiji or Hawaii for a week, catch some rays and just relax? I say we deserve it," Max smirked.
Antagonizer gave a concerned groan, her masts creaking with anticipation.
"What about the Cybertronian war? It's not our problem. Tamatoa and the monsters that entomb Earth are our specialty. I'm not going into a war that isn't mine in the first place."
The ship made some unique noises which made Max moan, "No, we are not going into a war just so you can have an excuse to blast someone either. We have decent targets at home, everything from dinosaurs to useless ruins."
A t-rex like rumble emitted from the ship and he raised a brow, "That's not a valid reasoning but I see where you're going with it. Tell you what, we hit a few banks like old times, get rid of a few Metal Heads and maybe we'll shoot down some Decepticons. How about that?"
Antagonizer gave joyful trills as she rotated her wheel northbound towards the United States. Max caressed her wooden rails on the deck's port side and gently smiled, "You did good today, Anta, I'm proud of you."
AN: Yes, I named the character after Tamatoa the Titan Crab from Moana. I was originally going to call him either just the Bowsink or Charybdis after the sea monster but I decided that if anyone is going to fuck up naming, it would be Max and Tamatoa, out of spite, would accept the nickname.