AN: I am dead... almost. Next week I´ll post maybe two chapters, work is harsh af at the moment and it´s sucking my drive to write.
Team Prime arrived well after nightfall, when humans were expected to already be asleep, unaware of the heist that would be taking place, and separated to cover all museum sides. They would need to be careful, as their movements could be considered suspicious, and even if there was no security guard at the moment they would need to leave before the next one arrived in less than an hour.
"Autobots, confirm position." Optimus parked in front of the main doors, on the lookout for any meddling Decepticons.
"Westward on my end." Arcee leaned against the wall with her headlights off.
Bumblebee beeped and confirmed he was in position at the East point.
"South side covered." Bulkhead was left to guard the back entrance.
"Maintain your guard." The Autobot leader suspected they may have visitors soon, it would do them best to act fast. He then focused his attention on the next phase of their plan. "Radical, I will have a clear view of you. Once you secure the harvester contact Ratchet to bridge you back to base."
Back in the old military silo Radical was armed with, of all things, a human motorized scissor lift. Well, it did make sense, if the Harvester was held up high by a marble statue he'd need a way to get it down without the help of… an adult. He felt like using colorful language at that last thought.
Ratchet pulled the lever to online the bridge and looked down at the… Should he still be considered a sparkling? "Now, since you'll bypass all points of normal entry you won't have to worry about setting off the alarms but take care and avoid being spotted by security cameras."
"Take care." Solarflare nodded towards the small mech.
"Good luck." "Have fun." Silverbot and Mayhem offered their words of encouragement at the same time.
"Make us proud." Airachnid winked from her perch.
"And remember, you break it you buy it." Doomsday smiled and waved a goodbye at her son.
Ratchet turned to the Forger in annoyance. "This is no joking matter, Doomsday."
"What?! He's the one trading in the stock market almost every day, not me."
The medbot looked down at Radical with a cross between surprise and questioning.
With a shrug Radical attempted at avoiding any further questions. "You never know when human money can be useful. And I like videogames, ok?"
With a last look around the control room he went through the bridge under the gaze of several pairs of optics. Some concerned, others not so much, but, in the end, they all wanted him to come back in one piece.
Radical exited the green vortex on the other side and noted that he was on the hallway adjacent to the main exhibit, if the glass wall separating it from the outside was anything to go by. There was also a very familiar truck parked just on the other side and it made him feel a little more at ease.
Now, he just had to locate the Harvester and get out of there. Hopefully it didn't weight too much, he was a lighter model with a sparkling frame, heavy lifting wasn't exactly his specialty. Takin in the different item in the exhibit he attempted to locate the Harvester. T-Rex skeleton? No, but was it him or did it look like a Dinobot? Easter Island head? Funny, but also no. Tall Greek statue holding a golden orb? Bingo.
Outside Optimus made signals with his headlights. It was go time.
The sparkling carefully handled the controls of the lift, he wasn't giant but was still an alien robot with strength to match, and elevated the platform to be able to perform his first task. He plugged his wrist cable into one of the ports on the back of the camera, opened the panel on his wrist and with a few short key strokes the surveillance network would be frozen until the next guard came in.
With security take care of Radical was finally free to move forward and retrieve the Harvester but he was about to get a first-hand taste of what was like to be out in the field.
Outside everything was quiet and Optimus didn't like that one bit. It was when a red Aston Martin approached from behind and pulled to a slow stop next to him that he began fearing the Deceptions were making their move.
Knock Out let out a whistle. "Sweet rims. Twenty four gauge? You're real heavy-duty… just like my friend here."
With that line Breakdown appeared from behind as well and did not waste any time to shoot a missile at the museum. The Harvester would survive the impact but not much else, not that he cared about the useless human relics.
Optimus transformed to bipedal mode and caught the projectile just as it was flying overhead but the force kept pushing him back and he had to give his all to prevent a disaster from happening. He dug his pedes into the ground, deciding if something was going to be damaged better the pavement than the building, yet he kept going back until he was on top of the museum's steps and only stopped when the missile actually touched the glass, causing a worrying spider web crack to appear.
Radical, who was busy attempting to push the Harvester off the statue's hand into the lift the gentlest way he could, heard the telltale sound of glass cracking. Having been raised by a Forger he'd learned to fear that sound from an early age, it always meant something was going wrong and someone would be getting hurt if not careful. He looked outside and felt his spark freeze for a moment then race like it was attempting to burst out of its casing. Solus help him, he needed to hurry up.
The sparkling saw the Autobot leader look over at him, making sure he was hurrying along, but he soon realized that had been a mistake. The red Decepticon took advantage of the Prime's temporary distraction and took out his energon staff to then shove it forcefully in the mech's neck cables, a high voltage electrical current wracking through his frame that rendered him powerless and he fell to the ground.
"Optimus!" It had been impossible to silence the scream that emerged from the sparkling's voicebox.
For good measure the attacker jumped onto the Prime's back to repeat his actions and Radical, while not able to see the red mech's faceplate, knew only a manic glee could be present. It had been a long time since he'd see that particular expression, then again…
Knock Out stood proudly on top of the Autobot leader's back and made light signals to his partner. The others were bound to jump to their leader's defense at any moment and he'd need some heavy support.
Breakdown accelerated towards the museum after receiving the signal but halfway through Bumblebee abandoned his hiding spot and drove at the Decepticon, intending on stopping him. Immediately the heavy-duty mech shot another missile and the scout barely had time to break before the explosion hot the pavement in front of him, causing him to lose momentum and trip forwards just as her turned to bipedal mode.
Arcee came up from her side as well but, just like Bumblebee, Breakdown shot another missile and she barely managed to dodge it, skidding across the pavement was sent crashing into Bumblebee.
Bulkhead came running across from the rooftop and jumped down, ready to have a rematch against the Decepticon. He landed with a loud crash and kept going straight ahead, not thinking about his tactic too much, which was a bad choice since Breakdown took that chance to halt and transform. With a swift punch to the faceplates Bulkhead was sent flying… straight into Knock Out, who did not have time to even scream before the wrecker crashed into him and then both into one of the building's pillars, setting off the alarm.
The vain Decepticon medic was the first to get up and noticed the Autobot leader had almost recovered from the electric shocks and was attempting to steady himself enough to get back up. He grabbed his energon prod, ran up and jumped, once more attempting to subdue the Prime, but got a swift punch that halted his plans and sent him crashing into the pavement.
Inside the museum Radical went into panic when the alarm went off, chastising himself for not having taken care of the alarm. When he was drafted to go on the mission it was like his processor short-circuited and he'd forgotten the basics of breaking and entering that he'd been taught by Sub-Rosa when she looked after him.
With a final shove the Harvester fell to the ground and he followed after, a few cracks growing along the stone floor but was already enough destruction outside, a little more inside wouldn't make too much of a difference. The device was too heavy for him to lift up but it rolled easily when pushed so he moved it along to the nearest exit, completely forgetting about to comm Ratchet in the process.
Going back though the hallway Radical found someone had forgotten to seal off the loading zone from the rest of the museum and did not waste any time in taking advantage of that fact. The room was pretty much empty except for some machinery and saw a loading ramp left half-opened leading to the outside. He kept going and saw a pair of sleek legs coming his way and lit up, knowing only one Autobot had that frame type.
"Arcee!" Radical gave a final push and the Harvester rolled towards the exit with him following close behind.
It was then that the taller Cybertronian knelt down and a servo that definitely didn't belong to the two wheeler pushed the rest of the metal door open and revealed a certain masked Decepticon.
"Wrong bot!" The device was already at the mech's pedes so there wasn't anything the sparkling couldn't do except back away slowly.
Soundwave grabbed the Harvester and made a motion for Radical, attempting to secure the small mech per Starscream's (very demanding) orders. That time he would not allow himself to be caught off-guard by a numbing patch.
Radical could only see the harrowing digits move forward, widening to fit him in their grasp, ready to take him away to the Nemesis and who knew what they would do to him. Seekers were protective of seekerlets, no one could deny it, but if Starscream found out about his condition it could mean a one-way trip to a dissection table for all he knew. Unwilling to back down the sparkling reached into his subspace and took out the grenade his Carrier had given him back when dealing with MECH and hooked his thumb onto the pin.
"Come any closer and both of us are scrap! I'm a Maker, you know I'm crazy enough to do it!" Radical yelled out, doing his best to keep his servos from shaking.
Soundwave halted and remained still in thought. It was true Makers were known for endangering themselves in order to protect others and, while still young, that behavior could have been either taught or absorbed by the seekerlet. Behind his visor he examined the situation and decided it would be best to retreat with only the Harvester, taking a step back before transforming and flying away.
With a relieved sigh Radical lowered his arm and unhooked his digit from the grenade pin and slumped his shoulders. "Thank Solus for stereotypes."
Putting away the weapon he carefully approached the door and looked around for any more surprise Decepticons. He heard two different engines start and move away, meaning the two grounders that had attacked them were also going away, and prepared to face the Autobots.
So much for helping them directly on the field…
"In all likelihood Starscream will use the harvester to gather energon as quickly as he can from the planet's otherwise un-minable deposits. Approach with caution, Starscream will not hesitate to turn it on any one of us." Optimus was confident in his words, even if they may have spelled out doom for the entire team.
With the clock ticking down to an unknown timer the team had to hurry and attempt to locate their enemies before they gained the definite upper hand. The Harvester could be an efficient tool to gather vast amounts of energon in little time or be converted into one of the deadliest weapons in Cybertronian history and in the servos of Decepticons the likeliest option was the second one.
The Autobots and Makers paired off in teams of two, for both ground and aerial support, and bridged to different parts of the globe in an attempt to get a lead on where Starscream might be striking but, since they had no clue where the Nemesis actually was, they were pretty much going in blind. Arcee and Mayhem had already went through as well as Airachnid and Bumblebee, only remaining Optimus and Solarflare to bridge out.
A pull of the lever and the groundbridge was onlined once more while the Prime addressed the green wrecker. "Bulkhead, it is best you remain here."
"What? Why?" Surprise overtook the mech and he couldn't help thinking he'd done something wrong. Had it been because Breakdown had bested him twice?
"So you can help Ratchet."
Doomsday let out a purposeful sigh but did not take her optics off the parts she was welding together. "Yeah, just pretend I'm not even here."
After the fiasco at the museum with damaged property and a missing piece of supposed Greek history Agent Fowler would more than surely yell in their audio receptors six ways from Sunday, so the least they could to in order to avoid some of that conversation was to build a replica. Doomsday and Ratchet sat on crates around another bigger crate with various mixed parts strewn around and were attempting to put together a reconstruction of the Harvester to return by the end of the day, even if they did so without much enthusiasm.
"And what am I, a scraplet?" Silverbot approached the Prime. "If Bulkhead isn't going it means that either I'll be heading out alone or I'm in the same position."
"You would stand out too much, it is best you remain here until we discover where Starscream is planning to strike." Optimus chose to leave it at that and made a motion to prompt Solarflare to follow him.
The femme put her servo on her son's much bigger one and gave him a weak smile. "I know you want to help, but please refrain from pulling a Mayhem and stay here." With a last reassuring squeeze she went after the blue and red mech though the green vortex, knowing at least her son had the impulse control her daughter lacked.
The groundbridge closed behind the femme and it wasn't long before the discontent started showing through with the actions of the wrecker.
"This is so not fair!" Bulkhead pounded his fist on the nearby table, which happened to be the one where the replica was being built, and crushed one of the tools while also making Doomsday jump out of her seat and fall backwards with a yelp.
"Bulkhead, I needed that!" Ratchet chastised the bigger mech but after so many times it looked like he'd become indifferent to the complaints.
"I'm on it." Said Doomsday without much enthusiasm while not making no move to get up, looking up at the ceiling wondering if that had been what people felt when something on her worktable either exploded or short-circuited. If so, it actually explain a few things.
"Why am I in here when Breakdown is out there?! I know his moves, I can fight him." Bulkhead pleaded with the medbot.
"And he knows yours." Ratchet pointed out. "Agent Fowler's going to be furious enough as it is. Right now we need to return this replica to the museum, the construction of which would be going a whole lot faster if you hadn't mangled my frame welder."
"Trespassers and thieves, why not add forgery to the list?" Radical thought out loud while attempting to contact their liaison for what seemed the fiftieth time with no results, the recording paying once again. "Yeah… we're not going to go very far on this."
Bulkhead let out a groan and palmed his helm. "I wish I never was the one to…" Halting his train of thought the wrecked remembered an important detail. "Wait, the painting of the Harvester wasn't the only thing we found in those ruins, the humans struck an energon vein back there. Starscream's not dumb, no matter what kind of tool he has he's gonna take the easy route. Doc, you gotta bridge me to those ruins."
"Oh no, he doesn't." Silverbot took a step forward to stand in front of the green mech. "You heard Optimus, you stay here while I'm on reserve for when we locate Starscream. And we just did, so, Ratchet, bridge me a little further up, please, I'm going to make an entrance."
"I'll go with you."
"No, you're not. Wanna know why?"
The triple changer was leaning over, towering over the wrecker in in unconscious intimidating gesture, a neutral expression on his faceplates that made Bulkhead a little frightened. He knew Silverbot claimed he wasn't one to make use of his stature just because and that he didn't enjoy fighting the way Mayhem did but to have a bot of that caliber tower over him made the wrecker feel weak at his knee joints. The green mech could only nod for the other to go ahead.
"My sister is very important to me and somewhere along the line a certain someone made the mistake of making a comment that I did not appreciate. I know, she can take care of herself just fine, and if had been during a stage performance back in the district I wouldn't have cared the smallest bit, but now something very dangerous is telling me to reduce that Con to scrap and you really don't want to see me angry. We clear?"
"…Yes."
"I knew you'd understand."
The sun had set not long ago and, while here was no darkness to provide much cover yet, Starscream, Knock Out and Breakdown were already at the freshly detected energon vein where the fresco depicting the Harvester had previously stood.
With the relic held in the self-appointed Lord's hand he confidently walked (he did not prance!) about, taking another moment to rejoice in their newest acquisition. For all the time they'd been on Earth during Megatron's leadership not once had they possessed such an item, proving once and for all who was best fitted to lead the Decepticons into conquest of that pitiful planet and the destruction of the Autobots.
"Why move mountains now when we have a motherlode of energon right here for the taking? Curtesy of this gift from ancient Autobots." Starscream admired the golden orb in his servo and held it proudly.
"Actually, Commander Starscream, it was a gift from Breakdown and myself." Knock Out could not resist correcting the seeker, his vanity going beyond his always perfect perfect finish.
With a scowl Starscream aimed the relic at the medic and his assistant, the two flinching and raising their arms in self-defense. The red grounder had been called back to the Nemesis in order to provide care for the stasis-locked Megatron, not to voice his opinion or to correct the new Lord of the Decepticons. Still, the two mechs could be useful to fill in the ranks of Vehicons, so I would be best to test the Harvester on someone more… expendable.
A ray of energy shot from the golden orb but went over the cowering bots, striking the only Vehicon patroller they'd brought along. It was a spectacle to watch for the three mechs as the hapless drone convulsed as the energon pumping through his frame was extracted in the form of a blue mist that encircled the ray and was absorbed into the Harvester, effectively offlining the patroller before the black and purple bot even fell to the ground.
The seeker smirked and once again proudly held the relic. "All that energon in such a tiny vessel."
Fearing for more than his finish, Knock Out nervously smiled. "Those ancient Autobots never missed a trick, Lord Starscream."
Pointing the Harvester again at the pair, making them flinch, Starscream resisted the urge to laugh and turned around, aiming it at the exposed energon crystals that the humans had uncovered during their excavation. No more mining operation for the Autobots to raid, a small thump card was all they'd need for then on out.
The rumble of a flyer's engine was heard coming in their direction, a heavy-duty one from the noise it produced, and all three Decepticons looked towards the sky.
"We didn't know you ordered backup, Lord Starscream." Breakdown commented.
"That is because I did not! Must be those pesky Makers again. Why Lord Megatron was so interested in them I have no idea!"
Silverbot flew overhead and came lower, doing a barrel roll before transforming to bipedal mode and landing with enough momentum to create craters beneath his pedes. Snarled at them. He didn't like getting violent but a little showmanship was good enough to scare the wits out of a few Decepticons.
"You didn't tell us anything about a triple-changer!" Knock Out turned to their leader and resisted the urge to strangle some sense into him.
"Yes… well… I, erm…" The seeker was too embarrassed to admit he'd never gotten a good look at all the makers, only from over the shoulder of the former Lord.
"Who's Breakdown?" Silverbot kept his expression neutral, although he wanted to chuckle maybe just a little bit. He really was pulling a Mayhem on that one.
Starscream and Knock Out pointed at the blue and orange mech with no hesitation, leaving him to bear the brunt of whatever was to come.
"So… sweet aft, was it?"
"What?" All three Decepticons were confused at the words that came from the triple-changer.
"My sister. I believe that's what you referred to her as."
The Decepticon medic looked at his partner, his optics wide in disbelief. "Out of all the femmes on this wretched mud ball, you had to try your luck at the triple-changer's sister?!" He bellowed.
"I didn't… I mean, I-" Breakdown was having trouble finding whatever words could fit on that situation words. He was a fearless mech that had seen many battles but triple-changers were another class entirely, he still remembered the one that had dominated the arena before Lord Megatron. Come to think of it, the one in front of him looked awfully like Victory too.
"Save it." He didn't want to hear it either way. "I'm here to teach you a little lesson about personal space, so try to retain some of it, will you?" Silverbot smiled, then let out a battle cry and charged forward.
"Keep him busy!" Starscream went to collect the rest of the energon while leaving his underlings at the mercy of the triple-changer.
The two Decepticons looked at each other with panic but could do nothing more than dodge the servo that implanted itself into the ground just where they'd been. Knock Out took out his energon prod, voltage turned up to the max, and attempted to shove it in Silverbot's neck cables but got backhanded and sent crashing into one of the ruins nearby. Breakdown was not so lucky, as soon as he deployed his hammer the same servo that had struck his partner punched him into the ground, knocking the wind out of him, and then the digits spread out in, ready to dig into his frame.
Silverbot was ready to do something he'd never done before, all for the safety of the others, when he was struck by a ray of blue energy that began to sap the strength out of him. He struggled to remain upright, feeling his knee joints ready to give in at any moment, but refused to give in.
Starscream smirked as he watched the triple-changer succumb to the Harvester. One of Cybertron's deadliest classes would be offlined by him, certainly cementing once and for all his lordship over the Decepticons. "You're a big one, this should take a while."
With a snarl of defiance, Silverbot powered though the continued removal of his life-fluid and, with paced breaths, straightened up to his full height and headed towards the seeker, looking as if he was barely being affected. It was time to put the so-called mythical endurance of his type to the test.
"What are you doing?" Starscream began stepping back in fear, optics wide in disbelief. "No! Stay back, monster!"
Lunging for the Harvester the taller mech held it between their servos, Starscream having let go as soon as he'd made contact, and crushed it, causing it to power down for good. He smiled at the terrified Decepticon before punching him bellow the chassis, strapping the seeker against a wall and causing him to even spit out energon. Without looking Silverbot threw the Harvester great deal away behind himself where seconds later it exploded, creating an explosion of blue flames that made him seem all the more terrifying.
Removing the servo pinning Starscream to the wall Silverbot let the seeker fall in a heap and turned his back to him, facing the other two mechs that were getting onto their pedes and gazing at him in terror.
"Anyone else want to have a go at the monster?" He asked in a low voice.
Before they could even process the words a groundbridge opened up the hill and both Autobots and Makers came charging though and began taking shots at them. They were already unprepared to deal with a triple-changer but with even more bots against them it was time for a quick getaway.
"Drive!" Knock Out shouted to his partner.
Both Decepticons turned to their alt-modes and sped away without a second though, leaving the self-proclaimed Lord to fend for himself. Said Lord watched his underlings abandon him to deal with all their enemies alone and, powering through the pain reverbing though his frame, transformed and flew away, engines working overtime to make his escape as fast as possible and avoid any pursuit should it follow.
The others halted their attack and came close to the triple-changer who let out a relieved breath and fell to his knees, prepared to meet the ground after his encounter with the Harvester. Mayhem and Bulkhead held him before that happened and put his arms around their shoulders.
"So, defend my honor, did you?" Mayhem chuckled and rested her helm against her brother's.
Silverbot chuckled. "Overall, I can almost certainly say yes. Are you mad, because you're a strong femme who can stand up for herself?"
"About that? No. That you came without me? Yes. You pulled a real me, didn't you?" She winked and stuck her glossa out.
Yes, had. And, judging from the look his Carrier was giving him, he'd have a lot of explaining to do, but, for now, he only wanted a good recharge. He'd nearly offlined a Decepticon that day, but it didn't make him a monster, only worried about his family… right?
AN: Another episode down, remember to R&R and if you have questions leave a review or PM me :)