A/N: I blame the last few issues of MTMTE for this entirely.
Disclaimer: Nightraider, Dreadnought and Crossfire get a stay of execution this time round. Otherwise, as per the established G1 timeline, it's time to start killing off TonyTakara, Hasbro and Marvel characters...
Hora Spissisima: Part 4
CE 2005, North-west Colorado, the Rocky Mountains, Autobot City...
Terran nights were less than a quarter of the length of the average Cybertronian night, especially during the periods designated as the summer months. On those nights, having only four or five hours of darkness between the sun setting and rising was not uncommon.
To Soundwave, crouching behind a barricade constructed from the remains of a pillar box and two blast doors, his eldest Cassettes clustered around him and his youngest Cassettes safe inside his chest compartment, this summer night seemed endless.
He poked the muzzle of his ion blaster through a gap in the metal and squeezed off a volley of shots.
A concussion grenade exploded somewhere to his left.
Thundercracker soared overhead and strafed a turret with laser-fire. Screams echoed across the remains of Autobot City's main pavilion as the turret parted company with its main structure and crashed to the ground.
"DEVASTATOR SMASH!"
With a roar, Devastator wrenched an entire bulkhead to pieces, giant hands clawing furiously at the wiring and pipes within.
TCHOOOOOOOooooooooommmmmmmmmmm...
Ravage twisted his head around at the sound of the explosion. That was the main generator. It's crashed.
Frenzy crouched next to his brother, piledrivers at the ready. "You sure?"
Positive.
He looked back at his creator and nodded.
Soundwave activated his comm. and made a fast hand gesture in his commander's direction. "Lord Megatron. Autobot City; power disrupted."
In the trench opposite the barricade, Megatron readied his fusion cannon and snarled.
"Their defences are broken! Let the slaughter begin!"
Behind the barricade, Rumble shared a Look with his twin. "Really? Because we weren't doin' that already?"
Ravage hissed. Time and a place.
Frenzy transformed his arms into piledrivers. "Jus' tryin' t' lighten the mood, kittykat."
"Silence, all of you. We have a problem."
Soundwave nodded at the lightening skies above the smouldering city.
Megatron had seen it too.
An orange and gold Autobot ship, the twin of the recently-destroyed Rebellion, roared overhead, early morning sunlight gleaming off its unblemished hull.
The Revolution.
Optimus Prime's personal transport.
So the Prime had shown up himself. And he had bought...
Soundwave cursed inwardly.
Four instantly recognisable brainwave patterns, all overlaid with lashings of primal rage.
A familiar roar echoed across the mountains. "DINOBOTS TRANSFORM!"
The giant green and purple Combiner turned around and gaped upwards at the rapidly approaching airborne quartet.
Grimlock, Sludge, Slag and Swoop descended on Devastator with all the grace and accuracy of Academy freshmen during a 2-for-1 offer on triple-distilled engex at Maccadam's.
The T-rex was shoved away with a reverse kick.
The Diplodocus was punched in the back and thrown at his snarling leader.
The Triceratops took advantage of the distraction and ploughed into Devastator's legs, shoving him into the remains of the bulkhead.
The Pteranodon swooped in for the kill...and was crushed by a large chunk of falling debris, while Devastator lay in a dazed heap.
Soundwave didn't need to scan the fallen combiner to know that its six distinct personalities were starting to resurface. It would only be a matter of time before the individual Constructicons re-emerged.
But there was no time for that now. With a wave of his cannon, the Decepticon emperor charged out of the trench towards the gaping hole in the bulkhead left by Devastator. Soundwave launched himself out from the shelter of the barricade and followed his leader up the main thoroughfare towards the central control complex, Blitzwing, Shrapnel, and the two elite Trines following in his wake. Rumble and Frenzy darted off through a small alleyway, optics blazing with malicious intent. Ravage followed them, energon dripping from his muzzle and growling furiously.
It was all falling into place...
Until a screech of tyres halted his surge of triumphant thoughts.
He turned back and snarled.
Optimus Prime was charging towards them in vehicle mode, his tyres leaving skidmarks on the dirt orange metal.
Thrust hesitated for just a second too long, long enough to see his shocked faceplates in the Prime's shining grill.
CRUNCH
The impact sent the red and black Conehead soaring into the air.
Shrapnel darted to his left, but was caught under a reinforced Pirelli with a permanent-sounding crunch.
Blitzwing, who was slightly faster on the uptake than the other two, launched himself into the air, turned and started laying down a barrage of laser-fire on the charging Prime.
Taking his cue, Soundwave pulled his own laser pistol out and started firing, Ramjet and Thundercracker following his lead.
None of this seemed to phase the Prime. Transforming out of his alt-mode, he launched himself into the air in a reverse flip that would have made a Galactic gymnast green with envy.
Two shots to the two jets, and Soundwave was staring into the upside-down face-mask of one of the greatest Autobots in Cybertronian history.
He readied his pistol...
CHOOM
Everything fell into darkness.
...Boss? Boss?!
Pressing a hand to his head and wincing at the pain in his chestplates, Soundwave rolled over onto his back and made an attempt at sitting up. Inside his chest compartment, Buzzsaw and Laserbeak both groaned and uncurled themselves from around Ratbat's dazed purple and gold frame.
...BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!
...Silence Rumble, I am fine.
Yeah, you're OK, Megatron ain't!
The Communications officer went motionless for a sparkbeat.
Explain.
Frenzy took over on the comms. channel. "He's goin' up against the Prime, and they ain't goin' t' first energon before Megatron calls a retreat like before. This is it."
Soundwave stood up, dismissing the numerous warning messages his CPU was screaming at him.
"I think one of 'em's gonna die."
Without thinking, he started to run towards the sound of laser fire and metal pounding on metal. The twins were standing with a group of Decepticons gathered at the foot of a damaged building complex, all optics fixed on two...no, three figures on the platform above.
Ravage silently appeared at his side, his sleek black and grey frame pockmarked and scratched by bullets and fire.
The two were evenly matched, until a red and orange Autobot new-build blundered into the fray and tried to attack Megatron.
"How badly is he damaged?"
The jaguar growled as he ran. Impossible to tell, but he and Prime aren't pulling any punches. Frenzy is right.
Soundwave skidded to a halt and stared up, optics searching out the silver form of his leader, and the red and blue frame of the Prime.
Megatron was standing at the edge of the platform, gripping a blaster in his right hand. Beside him, the same red and orange Autobot who had spotted them on board the Rebellion was sprawled on the ground.
The smell of burnt energon filled the air.
The Decepticon emperor's words echoed around the complex.
"...hah...I would have waited an eternity for this. It's over, Prime."
A beat of silence.
Soundwave felt it before anyone heard or saw it.
"NEVER!"
The crash of chestplates shattering would fill Soundwave's audials until the day he offlined.
The sight of Megatron of Tarn flying backwards from the sheer might of the Prime's last punch was forever scarred into his CPU.
Somehow, he didn't hear the noise Megatron's frame made as he was flung from the platform, landing so heavily that several servos in his arms and legs were destroyed.
He ran almost blindly until he was standing beside his liege's crushed head. Rumble and Frenzy quietly moved to flank him.
Behind him, Ravage growled.
Inside his chest compartment, Buzzsaw and Ratbat were sandwiching Laserbeak against the back of the tiny space in a desperate attempt to stop the scarlet condor ejecting to sit with her injured comrade.
Electrical charges tore through Megatron's body. Energon leaked freely from somewhere under his helm. His burned and blistered fingers spasmed uncontrollably.
A gleam of reddish-white light gleamed under crushed chestplates.
Soundwave averted his optics.
He was now painfully aware of the tiny communications device hidden in his wrist. The one he had thought that we would never have the need to use.
No.
This was not how it was supposed to end...
Starscream's words were painfully predictable.
"How do you feel, mighty Megatron?"
He aimed a vicious kick at his leader's side and turned sharply away, activating the general comms. channel.
"Astrotrain, transform and get us out of here!"
Soundwave ignored the jet and focused on Megatron's shaking frame.
The silver gun-former weakly raised his head and fixed Soundwave's visor with his own desperate optics.
"...Uuuuuhhhh...don't leave me Soundwave..."
"Do you understand now why I cannot and will not fully condone your actions, Soundwave?"
"Because that care and concern for your mate makes you weak. Because your loyalty is now divided. Because you are now..."
The whine of the fusion cannon charging was unmistakable.
The Decepticon warlord aimed the barrel at Soundwave's bowed cranium.
"...a liability."
With an immense amount of concentration, Soundwave managed to block the worst of the physiological pain and met his commander's gaze with bleary optics. What Megatron had said was true. He was a liability.
He inhaled deeply, only too aware of what could happen next, and stretched a shaking hand up towards Megatron.
"Request...plea: do not leave me...sir."
The silver gun-former studied the hunched chassis before him in tense silence.
Begging.
Soundwave, the mech who epitomised self-control and quiet strength, reduced to begging for his life like an Autobot or a Neutral.
In any other case, he would have shot the mech or femme with barely a pause for reflection.
But Soundwave...
One black hand reached down and firmly grasped the trembling navy digits. Soundwave shuttered his optics a few times and tried to focus.
Megatron hauled him to stand upright, his optics now an unreadable crimson.
"An optic for an optic. A life for a life."
An optic for an optic. A life for a life.
Soundwave didn't even hesitate.
He knelt down and gathered his fallen commander into his arms. "As you command, Megatron."
Astrotrain landed gracelessly a few hundred yards away and transformed into his locomotive alt-mode, uncaring of the laser blasts flying past him.
The Constructicons, along with the Insecticons and the five battered frames of the Elite Trines, scrambled frantically over all of the rubble and scrap metal towards Astrotrain.
Soundwave, cradling Megatron in his arms as carefully as he would one of his own creations, sprinted towards the triple-changer. Beside him, Rumble was jogging along and clutching desperately onto Megatron's fusion cannon.
Frenzy and Ravage sprinted ahead and scrambled into Astrotrain's travel compartment.
Soundwave and Rumble were the last to board before Starscream reappeared in the hatchway, his dark faceplates set with a curious rigidity.
"Astrotrain, take off!"
The hatch closed.
The engines roared.
Astrotrain shifted into his shuttle mode and roared into the skies above Autobot City.
The damage was done.
Cybertron, Imperial City State of Iacon, the Imperial Tower, Medical Bay...
"OK Lyzack, your go."
The teal tetra-jet grabbed the two dice from Dreadnought's open palm, shook them in her hands a couple of times, and then dropped them unceremoniously on the board.
Knock Out quickly righted his city and one of his roads, and glared at his colleague. "Hey, quit destroying my settlements!"
Lyzack ignored him. "Whatever. Ooooh, three!"
Dreadnought, Glit and Nightraider all groaned while Knock Out's grumpy expression quickly morphed into excitement.
"Two rocks and a sheep thing. Gimme gimme gimme!"
Nightraider slapped the relevant cards into his outstretched hand and pouted.
"And you couldn't have rolled an eight and made my life easier?"
The younger femme rolled her optics. "I don't make the rules, I just have the luck. Anyway, who wants to trade?"
Dreadnought scanned his cards and pondered, chewing on his glossa for a moment.
"Ummm, wheat stuff for pretty much anything."
"I have wood?"
Knock Out snickered into his cards. Nightraider leaned over and managed to cuff him over the head without dislodging a dozing Crossfire from her lap. Glit ignored the pair of them and studied his cards.
Dreadnought squinted an optic shut and plucked a card out of his hand. "Done."
He and the teal tetra-jet traded cards.
Lyzack winked and rearranged her cards. "Pleasure doing business."
Dreadnought grinned and glanced around. "Sweet. Anyone else?"
Glit pouted slightly. I fear I have nothing useful until the next round.
Knock Out glared at his CMO. "Nope, and I'd be doing a lot better if someone hadn't put the robber on one of my tiles."
Nightraider smirked. "My spark bleeds for you, it really does. Suck it up and move on."
VWORP VWORP VWORP
All five players immediately turned towards the sound of the siren.
Nightraider quickly passed Crossfire over to Dreadnought and tapped her comm. link as she stood up. "Status report Shockwave, who's back?"
The Military Operations officer's voice remained as steady as always. "Strike Team Beta has returned to base. Injuries are predominantly minor."
"Acknowledged. Any word on Strike Team Alpha?"
"No reports at present."
"OK, keep me posted. Nightraider out."
She looked back and was pleased to see Dreadnought had already settled Crossfire into his crib, and was busy clearing the remains of their game from her desk. In the main bay, Lyzack and Knock Out were already spraying each other's hands and arms with disinfectant, while Glit had activated the medical drones and was laying out surgical instruments on the operating trolleys next to each berth.
She strode out of her office and grabbed a disinfectant spray.
"Lyzack, you're with me on any servo damage. Knock Out; cuts, scrapes, anything that just needs a clean and a kick out the door. Dreadnought, get the surgical bay sterilised and deal with anything broken and/or gushing. Glit, you're co-ordinating."
The quartet nodded and split up.
"And Knock Out?"
The Aston Martin paused in the storeroom doorway.
"I appreciate that Breakdown is returning, but if I see your aft or his disappearing into my office at any point, you're on surgical sluice duty for the next decacycle. Clear?"
He offered a mocking salute. "As the crystals in the Helix Gardens."
Nightraider rolled her optics and finished spraying her hands just as the medbay doors burst open, and a group of energon and mud-stained mechs poured into the room.
Onslaught and Vortex were supporting a limping Swindle, but the Jeep's purple optics were alert and there were no obvious energon bleeds on his frame. Blast Off and Brawl followed closely behind, the space shuttle squeezing shut a gash in his left arm with his fingers, while the Leopard tank was poking at something jammed into his anti-aircraft gun and looking remarkably sour under the dirt and oil covering his faceplates.
An exhausted Motormaster slung Wildrider's unconscious frame onto the nearest berth and slumped down against the wall. Dragstrip, hooting with glee and covered in what looked like someone else's energon, slapped Dead End on the back, causing the maroon Porsche to howl in pain.
Breakdown, dented and limping but very much online, broke away from his brothers and frantically scanned the room.
The black and red femme jet sighed and opted to take pity on the paranoid Lamborghini. "He's in the stores. Stay. Heel. Whatever."
The mech in question marched out of the stores with two industrial solder reels around each arm.
Nightraider hauled one of the reels off of his shoulders and leant it against a nearby berth. "Remember what I said."
Knock Out looked askance for a moment before he caught sight of Breakdown.
He blinked frantically as his hands clenched spasmodically into fists.
Dented.
Safe.
Online.
Dented.
Safe.
Online.
Fully aware that he couldn't drag the white and blue mech off to his quarters quite yet, he contented himself with grabbing Breakdown's arm, standing on the tips of his pedes and resting his helm against his lover's forehead.
Breakdown wrapped a hand around one of the Aston Martin's shaking fists and sighed.
"Still here. Still standing."
Knock Out let out a brief laugh. "As if you were supposed to be anything else."
The taller mech shrugged and stepped back. Knock Out reluctantly did the same.
"Any word yet on the others?"
"Sweet frag-all, but at this point, no news is good news, right?"
Dreadnought sailed past and threw a box of zinc patches at the Aston Martin's head. "No Red, no news is no news, so quit with the speculating and do your—GYAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGHHHH!"
The battlecruiser roared and clenched a hand over his spark chamber as he collapsed, his optic band flaring white with pain.
The scream would have distracted everyone if they hadn't all felt the exact same thing at that exact moment.
Any mech on a berth bolted upright in pain.
Any mech or femme standing collapsed to their knees.
A terrified shriek emerged from Crossfire's crib as he wrapped his little arms around his body in distress.
Every Decepticon present clutched desperately at their chestplates.
Nightraider, now lying on the floor next to a surgical berth, blind and deaf to anything except her own pain, panicked.
Not Soundwave, not Soundwave, not Soundwave, please Primus no...
Without thinking, she closed her optics and reached into the bond.
Inside Astrotrain's crowded cabin, Soundwave simply braced himself on all fours against the shaking floor and tried not purge his last energon ration.
Inside his chest compartment, the six Cassettes huddled together in agony, two screams, three shrieks and an echoing snarl tearing from their gathered alt-modes.
At the very edges of his consciousness, he realised every other mech on board was reacting in the exact same way. Most were on the floor, rolling about in a combination of spark pain and their own injuries. A few were braced against the walls and their shaking comrades. An unlucky couple of slaggers, Skywarp chief amongst them, had purged their tanks over themselves, but for once there was a good reason for it.
On the floor beside him, his head propped up on his own fusion cannon, Megatron clutched a battered, misshapen hand over his spark chamber and howled in pain.
A simultaneous spark-attack?
No. That would be impossible. No force in existence connected every Cybertronian's spark.
Apart from...
Soundwave's optics widened in disbelief.
It couldn't be...
The tearing agony receded for just a moment before another pain, a more familiar pain tugged at his spark.
A stretched spark-bond.
...Nightraider.
Her panicked whisper echoed through his mind and spark.
Please, speak to me. Where are you? What's happened?
He reached into the bond and sent a short but powerful burst of emotion to his mate.
I am alive. I am returning. I love you. Close the bond now.
Following the brief transmission, Nightraider closed the bond with a sigh of relief, then groaned as the pain from around her spark receded to a bearable level.
"...Ohhhhhh...what the actual frag?"
She managed to twist herself around to face a very pale Knock Out, clinging to Breakdown's trembling frame like a limpet mine, and a woozy-looking Dreadnought. Lyzack groaned and pushed herself up off the floor, and Glit managed a couple of wobbly steps before he sank down to the floor in a white and silver ball.
She managed to stand up long enough to scan the room. "Primus...guys, everyone still online?"
A chorus of affirmative-sounding groans and whimpers met her audials, all undercut by a sparkling's traumatised shriek. She braced herself against the nearest berth and raised her voice.
"Crossfire, sweetspark? I'll be there as soon as I can. Don't be scared."
The little mech's wails of pain died down to quavering sobs.
She sat back down against the berth and tentatively prodded at her chestplates.
Nothing looked out of place, but what she had felt, what everyone had felt, was horrifying.
Pain was one thing. This was agony beyond a stretched spark-bond, beyond grief, beyond loss. There was a sense of something having been taken, something that they had all grown so accustomed to that its absence was terrifying.
Her comm. beeped.
"CMO Nightraider, please respond."
Even the Military Operations officer sounded dazed.
She tapped her comm. and closed her optics. "Acknowledged. I'm guessing you felt that too."
"Indeed. Strika and Obsidian are present, and they too have confirmed the shared sensation."
"Tell me about it. I've got a medbay full of very baffled, very sore mechs, and I'm guessing I'm about to have a hundred petrified 'Cons breaking down the door in the next few breems."
In the control room, Shockwave leaned carefully back in his chair and tried not to feel how desperately his scarred spark was racing.
"Console them with this knowledge. This was a shared spark attack. From the comms chatter, it appears to have affected Autobots and Decepticons alike. I am hypothesising that every living Cybertronian will have felt this sensation, but only a small number of us will have felt it before."
Dreadnought's voice warbled through the speaker. "And where would we have felt this befo-"
He cut himself off. "Oh Primus. I remember."
In the medbay, Nightraider hitched air through her vents as she searched back in her CPU.
The relevant memory surfaced. Her entire frame started to shake.
"...The end of the Golden Age."
The battlecruiser lay back on the floor, one hand covering his optical band.
"The Combaticons will definitely have felt this before, but the Stunties and the two newbies are way too young. You and I, maybe Glit, definitely Obsidian and Strika, Deathsaurus...frag, at least half of Leviathan'll know what this means."
Knock Out, Breakdown and Lyzack had all been leaning against each other listening to the elder 'Con's conversation with growing confusion. The teal tetra-jet's patience finally gave out.
"What do you, what do they have to do with all of this?"
She waved an arm in the general direction of the two groaning combiner teams.
Dreadnought's voice was thin. "When Sentinel Prime fell, every living Cybertronian felt his spark extinguishing, no matter where they were or what they were doing. They all felt him rejoin the Matrix."
Knock Out's optics widened in shock.
"Then...if all of us just felt that...that means..."
In the control room, Shockwave tapped at a console and scanned a newly received message from the orbital listening posts.
The hypothesis was confirmed.
He activated the general comms. system.
"To all Decepticon troops. By now, you will be aware that at 09:52 Iacon Time, every Decepticon on Cybertron suffered a shared spark attack. The phenomenon has since been confirmed to have affected the entire Cybertronian race."
His air vents stuttered. He paused for just a moment, long enough to stare down at his one remaining hand, and clenched it into a shaking fist.
"This phenomenon has been previously documented and has occurred only once in living memory. I am now in a position to confirm that as of 09:52 Iacon Time..."
He bowed his blocky head and offlined his single optic in a rare show of respect. Behind him, Obsidian and Strika did the same.
"...the Autobot leader, Optimus Prime, formerly Orion Pax of Iacon, has rejoined the Matrix."
TBC