Chapter 18: Surviving the Fall
Optimus had brought his axe back, in preparation for another strike.
When Metroplex's fist arrived at Trypticon's jaw.
The force of the punch sent the Titan recoiling, and sent a wave of kinetic energy through his frame.
It also sent Optimus flying off his feet, along with the other autobots.
He went smashing down the creatures back, as Ratchet grabbed one of his large back spikes to hang on. He reached to catch Bumblebee, and slipped, letting go.
Jazz plummeted straight over the edge, as Optimus reached out for him in desperation.
Mirage and Arcee both hung on to different spikes, as Ratchet went rolling all the way down the creatures back, end over end, over the edge, before crashing to the ground.
He laid down on the ground far below, and let out a groan of pain.
"I'm not getting up." He muttered.
"Me neither." Jazz wheezed, his frame badly dented as he lay on the ground next to him. "I think I just ruined my back."
"You're both getting up!" Ultra Magnus shouted, running over to them. "Because that thing is going to crush you if you don't."
Jazz's optics widened, as he watched Trypticon tilt back, and shoot out one of his feet to steady himself.
"DOC LETS GO!" He shouted, grabbing him, and pulling him away, as Ultra Magnus guided them.
Trypticon's massive foot crashed down behind them, sending out a shockwave that tore apart nearby buildings, and crushed Main Street, causing it to collapse.
"Fall back!" Ironhide shouted. "Let the big guys fight!"
Metroplex reared back and hit Trypticon again, sending him collapsing backwards.
"Metroplex!" Optimus commanded, driving his axe into Trypticon's frame to keep himself attached. "Take the fight to the plains!" He commanded.
"As you wish, Prime." Metroplex boomed. He grabbed Trypticon by the back spikes, then delivered a devastating head butt that caused the Titan to cry out in pain.
"I would advise you hold on." Metroplex warned. He lifted Trypticon up, then turned and hurled him over the city.
Optimus felt his spark stop as he stared down at the city passing by below him. He couldn't believe something this large was this high off the ground.
He couldn't believe he was still aboard.
He looked up to see Bumblebee trying to hang on to one of the spikes.
"Bumblebee! Let go!" He shouted.
"I can't!" Bumblebee shouted back.
"Have faith Bumblebee! I have you!"
Bumblebee watched the ground get closer.
He let go of the spike and let out a cry as he flew down Trypticon's back.
Optimus reached out and grabbed him from the air.
"Brace yourself!" He commanded as he held the mech's hand tightly, and looked at Arcee and Mirage.
Trypticon came crashing down into the plains, tearing up the ground, sending massive chunks of metal flying, as he slid along its surface. Optimus felt the axe shudder from the strain of keeping him attached.
And with a horrible cracking sound, it shattered, sending Optimus and Bumblebee sliding down Trypticon's edge.
Arcee reached out, and grabbed Optimus with one hand, letting out a cry of pain as the Prime's weight threatened to tear her apart. One hand held firmly on to the spike, the other held Optimus in place.
Optimus stared at the jagged remains of his energon axe, and let out a remorseful sigh.
"Optimus, I don't know if that's you or the matrix but Primus, you're heavy." Arcee groaned, as she used all the strength she had to hold him up.
Bumblebee was hanging from Mirage's grip across from him, as Arcee took a deep vent, and lifted Optimus up to safety.
Optimus reached out his hand and pulled himself over the edge, as Trypticon began to regain his bearings.
"Quickly autobots! He has a breach in his armor." He said, lifting Arcee up, then running over to pull up Mirage and Bumblebee.
"Go!" He commanded, pointing to the giant hole in the Titan's surface.
Arcee ran towards it, followed closely by Mirage and Bumblebee, and jumped into the breach, as Trypticon rose up off the ground.
The angle of his back became extremely steep, as Optimus sprinted after them.
"Let's go!" Bumblebee shouted, feeling the Titan stand up again.
Optimus transformed down, his wheels spinning frantically and kicking up smoke, as his semi truck mode rumbled up the steep incline.
He fired his undercarriage thrusters and his red white and blue truck mode was boosted forward, changing form again as he crashed through the breach.
Inadvertently knocking over Arcee and Mirage as the large mech came crashing down inside the Titan's frame.
He let out a groan of pain, as he lifted himself off the two.
"Forgive me." He offered, helping them up.
"I'll try not to take it personally." Arcee replied with a smirk as Mirage pulled out his blaster, wasting no time.
"Let's go." He stated. "Metroplex doesn't have the energon to hang in there with this thing forever. We have to kill the spark."
"What do we do now?" Brawn asked, watching from the ruined street as Trypticon and Metroplex battled in the plains.
"I don't know." Ironhide replied with uncertainty, as Ratchet and Jazz hobbled over to reunite with their brethren.
The aerialbots came streaking down and transformed.
"Orders, Ultra Magnus?" Silverbolt asked, standing with his squad. "Do we keep attacking Trypticon?"
"No." Magnus replied. "The risk of hitting Metroplex is too great. As is the risk of hitting Prime."
"You don't think Prime survived all that, do you?" Cliffjumper asked. "That Titan just got launched."
"He's still in there, kid." Hound said confidently. "It would take a hell of a lot more than gravity to get in Prime's way."
The insecticons came screeching out of the darkness. The sounds filled Trypticon's internal chambers.
"What do we do?" Bumblebee asked, holding his tiny pistol. "We can't take those things."
Optimus pulled out his ion blaster. "We will have to." He replied. "The only way to this creature's spark is through that horde."
Arcee pulled out her two blasters, then turned to Bumblebee. He handed one of them to him.
"Take care of it. These guns were my first friends." She said.
"That's awful strange." Bumblebee replied, feeling the gun's balance in his hands. "But thank you."
"Anytime kid." Arcee replied, a blade extending from her arm, as she gripped the other blaster. "You ready, Mirage?"
"I never stopped being ready." Mirage replied, pulling out a rifle. "I allowed Cybertron to fall. It will not be made right until the beast falls."
The screeching got closer.
"Get ready." Optimus called to them, holding his rifle close. "Here they come. Stay close together. Push forward. And if you get hurt, then get behind me."
Metroplex let out a roar as Trypticon ripped off his shoulder turret, and slammed him across the face with it.
"You've become so old." Trypticon taunted, as he battered the Titan again, reaching out and grabbing his head, pulling it close. "Time has not been kind to you. But it has preserved me."
"You are still nothing but a mindless servant of the chaos bringer." Metroplex retorted, firing his other shoulder turret, blasting off the edge of Trypticon's shoulder armor.
Miles away, watching from the edge of the plains, Alpha Trion watched.
Optics taking in the whole sight.
The burning world. The smoke filled sky. The two titans crashing together with brutal force.
He was the watcher. It was his duty to bear witness. And so he did. He bore witness to the horror.
The insecticons came swarming in, and the autobots opened fire.
Optimus tore through them with his ion blaster, as Arcee shot and sliced at them in the air.
The flying creatures screeched as they tried to overwhelm the autobots.
Mirage let out a roar as he threw himself into the fray, his rifle blazing as he took out as many of the creatures as he could.
No longer was self preservation of any matter to him. Only rage drove him now. Rage, guilt, and loss.
And Bumblebee felt something similar.
He had thought his fear would overwhelm him.
But then he remembered Seaspray. And he remembered everything else Trypticon had already taken.
And he raised his two guns, and unleashed a spray of fire into the throng, as he charged ahead.
"Optimus, they're grouping around the spark!" Arcee shouted. "They're going to be even more thickly fortified in there!"
"We have to reach it!" Optimus shouted in reply, as the ground shook with each punch the Titan received.
"Come on!" Mirage shouted, as insecticons tore into his frame, sending metal and energon spraying. "We have to finish this!"
Arcee was getting similarly chewed up, as she sliced through the throng.
Optimus sighed, watching the two warriors get battered.
He turned as Bumblebee had one of his arms ripped away by a flying insecticon, and let out a cry of pain, energon splattering from his wound.
"Autobots...fall back! We can't reach the spark!" Optimus shouted.
"No!" Mirage shouted back. "WE HAVE TO FINISH THIS! WE'RE NOT FAILING AGAIN!"
"Mirage!" Optimus grabbed the struggling mech by one of his back mounted wheels, and pulled him back, as Arcee backtracked to cover. "We cannot win this way!"
"ITS THE ONLY WAY!" Mirage shouted, tears streaming down his face. "It's the only way this is made right! Optimus, don't do this! We have to keep pushing!"
The insecticons crowded around Optimus as he ripped a column from the wall and brought it crashing down in front of them for cover.
"There must be another way." Optimus said, opening his comm. "Ratchet, are you there?"
Ratchet watched as Trypticon began to rain punches down on Metroplex.
"I'm here Prime." He replied quickly. "Thank the maker you're still alive. Metroplex doesn't have much time left."
"Ratchet...cannot...Spark...heavily guarded..." the broken up message stammered. "Alternative..."
Ratchet frowned.
"Optimus, I don't understand, please say again!" He called.
"Need...alternative method...shut down..."
Ratchet's optics widened.
"I have an idea." He said into the comm. "It's a long shot but...Rossum's trinity."
The message was almost entirely static for Optimus. He couldn't hear ratchet anymore.
He listened as closely as he could.
"...long shot...rossum's trinity..."
Optimus's optics widened.
Rossum's trinity.
"Rossum's trinity. Of course. Ratchet you're a genius!" He exclaimed.
He looked down, and began blasting the floor.
"What are you doing?" Mirage asked.
"Rossum's trinity." Optimus replied. "If you can damage the spark, brain module and t cog simultaneously, it will cause shutdown of all three. It was a homicide case I investigated once as a policeman."
"How do we damage all three if we can't reach any?" Bumblebee asked, gripping his wound.
Arcee looked down at the floor as Optimus blasted it apart.
"A concussive grenade." She said quietly. "If you put that into the energon feed connecting all three..."
Optimus ripped away the floor metals to reveal a pipe full of flowing dark energon.
"You can cause a shut down." Optimus replied.
"That would work on a mech, but this is a Titan." Mirage said skeptically. "Are you sure it would work?"
"It's our best shot." Optimus replied. "Arcee?"
Arcee handed the mech a concussive grenade.
The column behind them exploded, as the screeching insecticons broke through.
"Take them out!" Optimus shouted, firing into the throng, as they came crashing into him, knocking him on his back.
The grenade bouncing from his grip.
Mirage fired into the throng, insecticons dropping dead around him, as he dove toward Optimus.
"This time, we make it right!" He shouted, as the other autobots desperately fought to hold the swarm back.
Mirage grabbed the grenade, and backhanded a screeching insecticon out of his way, as he blasted open the energon pipe with his rifle.
He pulled the pin on the grenade, and jammed it inside, letting the dark energon flow take it.
"Autobots, let's go!" Optimus shouted, firing thrusters in his feet to get out from under the insecticons.
He turned and changed form, rumbling toward the breach, with the other autobots rumbling behind him, as the insecticons chased after them.
"Burn." Mirage snarled, as he accelerated after the others.
The grenade detonated, incinerating a massive chunk of the insecticons, and sending a pulse of flame through the energon lines.
The flames spread through Trypticon's interior, consuming his energon supply, as the spark was hit first.
The Titan slammed Metroplex against the ground, and brought his foot crashing down on his chest.
"It is over, old friend." Trypticon hissed.
His mouth began to glow purple as he prepared to fire his laser.
Suddenly, he grabbed at his chest, letting out a growl of surprise.
His insides were burning. His spark was burning. He roared in pain, as the pain spread, consuming his spark, and reaching his t cog.
Inside his head, Bludgeon stood, still connected to his brain module.
He turned and saw flames burning through the floor, and streaking toward the giant, corrupted brain module.
"No!" Bludgeon shouted, putting up his hands.
The flames hit the brain module, which began to burn as well.
Trypticon let out a cry as flames erupted from his mouth, and his optics flickered.
His frame spasmed, and his optics offlined, as flames erupting from the breaches in his armor.
His metals shuddered as he leaned, and began to fall to the ground.
And from one of his breaches, four vehicles emerged, the breach exploding behind them as they flew through the air, and plummeted downward, toward the ground, thousands of feet below.
They stayed in their vehicle modes as they dropped, Trypticon's massive, dead frame crashing to the ground beneath them.
And now, their vehicle modes stood in freefall. High above the ground. Reality began to set in.
"It's been an honor and a privilege, Optimus Prime." Mirage stated.
"No better way to go." Arcee agreed.
Bumblebee was silent, the mortal fear gripping his spark.
"We're not going anywhere." Optimus replied confidently.
They watched as a giant black hand stretched out beneath them.
And their wheels slammed against its surface, and they came skidding to a stop.
They changed form, and looked up at Metroplex, as he looked down at them with kind optics.
"It has been a long time since I have known one who is worthy of the name Prime." The Titan boomed. "But you, Optimus, have brought honor back to Solus's ranks."
Optimus looked up at him, with remorseful optics, as Metroplex set them down next to the ruins of Iacon's acrolight district.
"With respect, Metroplex, I bring no honor to the name Prime." He replied, as he saw the other autobots rolling towards them. "I failed to save Cybertron. I allowed that monster to destroy more than half of our world."
"That is not your burden to bear." Metroplex replied, as Optimus began to walk towards his approaching soldiers. "He who doomed Cybertron shall pay. In time."
He watched happily as Arcee, Bumblebee and Mirage ran to reunite with them.
He looked up at Metroplex again.
"At least now, there is hope that..."
A purple blast hit him in the chest, and he was thrown back, smashing through the wall of a ruined theatre.
He landed in the center, amidst a debris filled ruin, looking up at the burning night sky.
And he stood slowly, his frame smoking from the blast.
Megatron launched himself through the hole Prime had just made, and punched Optimus across the face.
"Look what you've done, Prime!" Megatron shouted in a rage, as he stood before the heavily wounded mech. "Look what you've done to our home!"