Hello again. No, I have not abandoned this story and do not intend to. Don't worry I just didn't really have much of a chance to work on this with starting university, and all this covid stuff has really messed up my schedule, meaning that I did have the time to write more I was just bad at organising myself. I'm writing this during my Christmas holidays where I have more time and motivation to do things like this So yeah, hopefully I won't go on a four-month-long hiatus again and will continue to post updates whenever I'm sober XD.
Grimlock roared in pain and anger as arcs of energy enveloped his body. He struggled against the bonds that held him in place, but he was too weak to even attempt to break them.
Above, Shockwave looked down from the cell's control room. "Shockwave's log, entry ten-dash-five-dash-thirteen. Grimlock's body appears to be just as durable as it was post-surgery, despite his armour suffering from moderate corrosion." The scientist stopped the recording and turned his optic to the subject below.
He was about to deactivate the energy when he felt a most unnatural sensation, instead driving him to turn the power up. Grimlock struggled more, trying to break free to no avail, getting weaker by the second. The whole experience was most illogical to Shockwave, he had finished his experiments for today. Yet he enjoyed the feeling. The feeling of letting go. If he had a face, it would have borne a devilish smile.
…
"He's not here."
Swoop repeated that line for what seemed like the hundredth time. The other Dinobots and Kup had been looking for Grimlock for hours and had not yet yielded any results from their underground search.
"You don't know that Swoop." Kup told him from a few metres away in the dim sewage tunnel. The old bot was barely visible in the low light, his features were only made visible when Swoop shone his flashlight in his face.
"Hey, point that thing someplace else." The Autobot told him, covering his optics from the bright light. The Dinobot complied. "I'm sure we'll find Grimlock sooner or later. You've just gotta be patient. These tunnels go on for quite a while, there's no way we're gonna find him immediately."
Swoop suddenly stopped, causing the older bot to nearly walk into him. "Swoop, what are you-"
"Do you smell that?" The Dinobot asked the rest of the party.
"Smell what?" A confused Kup asked, straining his olfactory sensors to pick up the scent that Swoop detected. He looked behind to see the other Dinobots react in acknowledgement. It must be their altered CNA, Kup thought. Their senses were closer to those of organics, and therefore more sensitive. Kup would've normally regarded this as a weakness, but here it certainly served them well.
Swoop shone his light at a section of the wall, running his servo along a blackened section. "Scorch marks. Decepticon weaponry by the looks of it. They must've found Grimlock, and tried to bring him down."
"How long ago?" Asked another Dinobot, Slug.
"From the faint scent of the scorching, I'd say they came through here about two decacycles ago."
Slug nodded, having come to a similar conclusion himself.
"This can only mean one thing." Slug told them. "Grimlock has been captured by Shockwave."
The Dinobots were not pleased by this news. The very idea of one of them being in the clutches of that insane scientist was enough to make their joints freeze in fear, and their energon to boil in rage. Swoop clenched his fist tightly. They were going to save Grimlock. No matter what it took.
"Kup. I'm sorry about this."
"What-?" Swoop swung his fist at the Autobot, knocking him down. He respected Kup, but unfortunately his loyalties would get in the way of their new mission.
"Dinobots," Swoop called. "Let's move!" They all unleashed a ferocious battle cry before heading down the tunnel, towards Kaon, and to rescue their leader.
Left behind, struggling to sit up was Kup. He sighed and activated his comlink, knowing that something like this was going to happen. "Magnus this is Kup. We have a problem."
…
For such large creatures the Dinobots found their way to Darkmount relatively swiftly, galloping through Kaon as stealthily as possible. When they got within a few hundred metres, they transformed and ducked inside a ruined, hollowed outbuilding. They did not want to be seen just yet, knowing full well that the Decepticon force inside would most certainly wipe them out.
"What's the plan?" Sludge, the largest of the group asked.
Swoop and Slug carefully examined the fortress, looking for any weaknesses they could exploit. "How about," Swoop suggested. "I fly up to the top floor there and cause as much chaos as possible. While they're distracted the rest of you can sneak in through the ground floor."
"I think we're a bit too large for sneaking, we're bound to get caught. And then what? Will we all end as Shockwave's experiments again? Because I'm in no hurry to repeat that experience." Another Dinobot said.
Swoop shook his head. Snarl, despite the fearsome name he was quite paranoid. "We won't." He replied, addressing his entire team. "We either do this or die trying. No one gets left behind." The others nodded in agreement, even Snarl after a bit of hesitation. "Wait here. You'll know the signal when you see it." And with that Swoop transformed into his reptilian mode and flew out of the building, towards Darkmount.
…
Swoop had to make sure that he was flying pretty high, so he wouldn't get noticed by any of the Decepticons on the ground. He could see a few tiny specks patrolling the front gate, there was no way they could infiltrate the fortress without any kind of distraction.
Once he had flown high enough, Swoop paused to get his bearings. He could just about see the tip of Darkmount through the atmospheric disturbance that coated the high altitude. Focusing on the peak of the fortress, Swoop took a figurative deep breath and nose-dived.
He descended so quickly even the Dinobots, who were looking out for him, barely noticed. In a matter of seconds, the aerial predator had reached his destination. Careful not to make any miscalculation Swoop transformed and used his momentum to swing from one of the building's mounted spikes into the top floor window. Seeing this, the Dinobots below quietly cheered.
The inside of the fortress was dimly lit. Swoop was beginning to see why it was called Darkmount. Luckily there didn't appear to be anyone else on the top floor with him. Not finding anything interesting at the top, Swoop descended a level. Once he had reached the next floor down via an old flight of stairs, the Dinobot continued to search for a viable distraction he could create. Seeing nothing, and no one he crept into the first room he came across and became frightful, then excited.
Inside the dim room, floating suspended in tanks that contained a purple liquid were half a dozen Insecticon Bruisers. Perfect, Swoop thought. They could be his distraction. He approached the room's computer console, attempting to find a way to free the Stag Beetle-like creatures. He gave up after it persistently asked him for verification, instead opting to smash the containers.
An alarm began to sound, but he didn't care. The deed was done. Swoop saw the mechanical beasts begin to awaken and quickly dashed back up the stairs, locking himself on the top floor. It wasn't long before he began to hear screams and yells, followed by blaster fire as the Bruisers started their rampage across Darkmount. They should serve as a good distraction for a while, thought Swoop, as even Shockwave struggled to control those genetically-enhanced creatures.
Now he just needed to give a clear signal to the other Dinobots below. Detaching a grenade from his waist, Swoop looked down, seeing a few Decepticons directly below him. He activated the grenade and dropped it. It fell a few hundred feet before hitting the ground, bouncing a few times before exploding. This caught the attention of the guards at the gate, causing them to turn their backs to the entrance and run towards the explosion.
This allowed the Dinobots to charge through without any kind of coordinated resistance. Swoop saw the three of them bound towards the fortress with amazing speed and strength, not stopping as they barrelled through Decepticon after Decepticon. They soon reached the entrance and proceeded to demolish it. Seeing his comrades enter the building, and knowing that the Decepticons would now have two problems from opposite directions to deal with, Swoop flew down and joined them.
…
The four Dinobots thundered through the corridors of Darkmount, biting, slashing, and crushing any Decepticon foolish enough to get in their path of destruction. They all knew which way to go, having been trapped in a similar complex years ago they remembered the basic outline of Decepticon architecture. The resistance they faced was minimal due to the distractions Swoop had set off, and they soon found their way to Shockwave's laboratories.
There was a set of large steel doors ahead the had a sign above that read: 'holding cell'.
"This seems like the right place." Swoop commented. "Sludge if you'd like to do the honours."
The large cybernetic Brontosaurus stomped towards the doors, pressing all his weight against them. After a slight struggle, the metal buckled and the heavy doors fell inwards.
Immediately they saw Grimlock, in the centre of the room and held down by strong bonds. He seemed to be in stasis, considering how motionless he was. But the giant was just tired, exhausted after Shockwave's brutally endless experiments.
"Grimlock!" The four Dinobots rushed towards their leader at once, immediately tearing off the bonds that held him in place.
Grimlock looked up, barely managing to form words. "You...s-shouldn't have come… S-shockwave will g-get you too..."
"Don't be a lugnut. We don't leave anyone behind remember?" Slug assured him.
"Ha. Yeah..."
"I don't think he can stand. Sludge, Snarl; you help him out of here. Me and Swoop will cover you."
They carefully made their way back to Darkmount's entrance, oddly encountering even less resistance than before. It wasn't long until they found out why. Blocking their way out was a squad of Decepticons, led by Shockwave.
"Aw scrap." Swoop cursed.
"You managed to make it quite far." Shockwave spoke to them. "It's impressive for primitive creatures such as yourselves to come up with a strategy like this, even if it was futile." Crawling to the front of the crowd of soldiers came four Insecticon Bruisers. "Did you think I would keep these creatures if I did not have a way to control them?"
Obviously, he couldn't control them that well, thought Swoop. As two had clearly been destroyed in their rampage.
"Now." Shockwave raised his cannon at them. "Why don't you put that down and return to your master like good pets."
Upon those words, Grimlock's visor exploded a violent crimson. "S-shockwave!" He roared, easily pushing past his comrades and transforming into a mechanical predator, breathing a wall of fire at the Decepticons. Shockwave and his troops all struggled to get out of the way, the Insecticons were not so lucky, being reduced to piles of melted metal in an instant. While the Decepticons were distracted, the Dinobots also transformed and followed their leader over the flames.
Onslaught was one of the first to react. "Combaticons, combine into Bruticus!"
Swindle and Brawl complied immediately, forming the legs of the giant. Onslaught then leaped on top of them, forming the torso and head that bore a pair of menacing ruby optics. Blast Off and Vortex flew in to form the arms, but missed, having not practised in aeons. They crashed into the back of the half-formed combiner, causing all the Combaticons to disconnect and fall to the ground in a heap.
Onslaught looked up to see the Dinobots escaping, now out of their reach. "Eat scrap Combaticons!" He heard Swoop yell at them before losing consciousness. Combination was disorientating to the Cybertronian nervous system at the best of times, a failed one felt like being shocked with a million volts of electricity.
…
The Dinobots thundered through the ruins of Kaon, being led by a ferocious Grimlock. "Incoming!" Yelled Sludge, peering up at the sky to see a squadron of Decepticon Seekers descend upon them. The rain of laser fire that followed peppered the ground around them, narrowly missing their fleeing opponents.
"I've got them!" Swoop told his companions as he turned to follow the Seekers who were now coming around for another strafing run. Before he could take them out, however, he was interrupted by a barrage of laser fire from the surface. Blue projectiles hit their targets precisely, causing the now smoking Decepticon fliers to limp back to Darkmount.
Confused at where this unexpected aid had come from, Swoop looked back at the ground to see that the other Dinobots had now stopped in front of a small group that had just exited a groundbridge. One of which Swoop was not overjoyed to see. Heading back to the surface, he transformed to confront Ultra Magnus.
The Autobot commander looked even more unhappy than usual as he eyed up each of the Dinobots individually. Next to him stood Kup, who actually smiled at them (though it looked more like a gesture of pity at what was in store for them once Magnus dragged them back to Iacon).
Ultra Magnus finally broke the tense moment of silence with a simple order. "Come this way now. I want to debrief you all immediately."
…
Onslaught struggled to sit upright. His body ached all over and he wanted nothing more than to go into stasis for another few centuries, but the slow methodical thud of footsteps made him turn to look up at Shockwave. "S-S-Shockwave we-"
"You were not able to prevent their escape." Shockwave did not even look at Onslaught as he said those words, instead, his singular eye was dead-set on the horizon. "No matter." Without so much as a hint of emotion, Shockwave turned and walked back inside of Darkmount.
The Combaticon leader slumped back down, now utterly defeated. To Shockwave, the Combaticons were no longer reliable.
This chapter was pretty easy to write seeing as I did most of it in September and finished it these past few days. I'll try and get something else out as soon as I can, and as soon as I've got my plan for this series sorted out. In the meantime hope you had a good Christmas and a happy new year (even if it wasn't perfect, not many things this year have been).