AN: I have to say this was one of the funnest chapters to write up to date. I have to thank Lexsequor for having given me some good ideas to implement on this chapter and thank them once again for the inspiration provided :) Also, announcement here, I'll likely be skipping "Crisscross" because, in all honestly, I don't feel like writing another human-based episode. FYI I´m still open to pairing suggestions and OC cameos if you have them!
Team Prime kept moving on through the deserted city, weapons drawn and ever alert to any surprise attacks from M.E.C.H. or, even if unlikely, from Decepticons. The team felt as if they were on a mission back on Cybertron, looking and pointing their blasters in every direction, their senses on high alert for anything that moved.
Ratchet was the only one with his weapons sheathed, scanner in one servo and striding confidently ahead, backed up by the three other Autobots, to where the signal was pointing towards. The mech didn't even know what they would find when they arrived on the site, it could range from nothing to a true nightmarish vision.
"This way." The medbot lead the rest of team Prime past a pair of high walls and though where, once upon a time, perhaps a gate had stood.
The building they'd been drawn to was the largest around, probably having served as a teaching place, military office or even the residence of someone important in the past, but, as every other construction in the town, it had long been left behind.
Arcee and Bumblebee had quickly ran up ahead to protect the flanks, kneeling behind another pair of smaller walls, and gestured for Optimus and Ratchet to pass though after them when it was deemed safe. The taller mech walked up ahead of the medbot, clearly taking the stand of the deterrent between him and a surprise enemy attack, caution in his every move and blaster calmly swaying from one direction to the other.
When the whole team had converged around what had once been a fountain they gave way for Ratchet to continue through, unsure of what they were exactly searching for.
"The reading's coming from right… here." The medical expert paused in front of the fountain and looked down, only to find a very familiar piece of a Cybertronian's biology standing on top of it, almost like a trophy on a pedestal. Kneeling down, he studied it carefully before making his assumptions about if it was indeed the real deal. "Breakdown's optic."
The sight was enough to make a shiver go down the spinal strut of every present Cybertronian. To have such a sensitive part of one's self removed was bad enough, for the job to have been performed by humans intended on studying their race was even worse. To think that Bulkhead could have suffered that fate made the event all too hard-hitting for the bots gazing down at such a small, yet valuable, element of their nature.
Ratchet carefully picked up the optic and connected it to the top port on his scanner, letting his equipment try and get any readings that might have been left behind before the organ had been forcibly removed. The others gathered around the kneeling mech and observed his work with intent curiosity.
"What are you doing?" Asked Arcee with a sort of morbid curiosity. She wasn't anywhere near Ratchet's level of medical expertise so her knowledge didn't go far beyond the basics taught at the Academy.
"The optics receptors might have retain the final image's scene." Answered Ratchet while pressing a few buttons.
The image displayed on the scanner changed, showing a human dressed top to bottom in black, mask with orange goggles included, operating horror-movie worthy equipment.
"What do you know, weird science wins again." Said the two-wheeler with some sort of wonder at the abilities of medical technology.
The human displayed in the video feed then began directing a drill into the organ in question before the feed cut to static. Everyone gasped at the nightmarish experience it must have been to endure such a forceful procedure performed on one-self, but the surprise didn't end there. A short second after the static gave place to a real-time video of the extensive procedure Breakdown was enduring and, right front and center, was a man they'd fought before.
"Well, well, Optimus Prime, a pleasure to set eyes on you again." The ageing man greeted the Prime with a sense of smugness about him.
"He's converted the optics into a two-way feed." Whispered Ratchet, amazed at how easily their biotechnology had been manipulated in such a short amount of time.
"And you must be Silas." Responded the Autobot leader with cautiousness. The calmness to the situation by the human man could be compared to that of Megatron during the war's peak of atrocities, he mused to himself.
"In the flesh." He almost gloated at the thought of being recognized by the giant alien robot. "But being that our captive is not one of yours, I have to admit I was expecting Megatron."
"In this circumstance, Autobots and Decepticons share a common foe."
"M.E.C.H. is anything but common. Our guest is yielding quite a bit of information about your biomechanics, as you can see, although Breakdown himself can't see so well anymore."
"We don't fear you." The medbot talked back to Silas. He'd seen too much in his past to be affected by the scenario taking place in the background, no matter how gruesome it was.
"Oh, but you should. In fact, I would strongly urge that you not stand your ground." Silas smiled at the team of Autobots, knowing of his 'special' surprise planted beneath their pedes.
It was only then, in their confusion, that the bots noticed a distinct 'beep' going off every second and looked down. Underneath a grating laid a bomb if with few seconds left to going off. They'd walked right into a trap and ran the risk of being in more pieces the Breakdown himself.
"It's a trap!" Loudly proclaimed the Autobot leader, prompting the others to shrink away from the explosive.
"Would this be a roll-out kind of trap?" Arcee nervously asked, but she already knew the answer.
"Evacuate, now!"
The whole team retreated as fast as possible, turning into their alt-modes to try and evade the explosion that followed. It was like a thousand fireworks going off at the same time, obliterating the entire surroundings with ease, reducing the stone constructions in the vicinity to rubble in a flash. They got caught by the momentum and were sent flying away but, luckily, they managed to land safely to watch the building go out in flames.
It was a frightening sight, to know they could have met their end right there at the hands of M.E.C.H. after eons fighting the war for Cybertron.
Arcee couldn't take her optics off the burning building, but was the only one to voice the question going though everyone's minds. "So, any idea where they're keeping the rest of Breakdown?"
Mayhem had been stealthily following the tire tracks on foot for a while now, mainly due to her alt-mode being a flyer type and not exactly quiet. It was a challenge not to charge in and run after the vehicle that had left the imprints behind, but she endured none the less. To her the drab atmosphere made the buildings look the same and she prayed the tracks weren't some sort of decoy and she'd find herself to have been walking in circles the entire time.
Using the time she had, Mayhem though back to her Carrier. The older femme had her reasons to not want her daughter in the battlefield, but she didn't realize the more the young seeker was pushed away the more she pushed back. Being cooped up inside the base with occasional break for patrolling and goofing off wasn't something that pleased Mayhem in the slightest, not when a war was taking place between factions.
It was a vicious cycle between the two of them, it had always been. When Mayhem had first seen Solarflare in 'action' through the cameras in the surveillance room of the bar back of Cybertron it was as if a whole new world had been born before her very young, impressionable optics. Suddenly being trapped in the district wasn't such a bad thing because bots from every corner of Cybertron went through there all the time, she could grow up to talk to them and get information from places she'd never be allowed to visit or even be supposed to know about. No more datapads with stories accompanied by imagined illustrations when she could goad gullible mechs into showing her the pictures of the real deal and tell her first-hand accounts of those places. She would be able to go everywhere yet remain safe in her home, a win-win situation in her mind, even if her Carrier did not agree with her reasoning.
Snapping out of her reverie while looking over the corner of one of the apartment complexes, Mayhem saw a green car go by and quickly pressed herself against the concrete while maintaining a visual, praying her wings wouldn't her undoing.
"Please don't see me, please don't see me." She whispered, while at the same time loathing a certain insult thrown at her by her brother, who'd called her a kite during many of their disputes.
She kept following the car closely with her optics, which drove around the buildings and right through the middle of some nearby train tracks, and only lost it from sight when it went into a train tunnel not far up ahead.
When the vehicle was gone she ran up to the entrance and looked around. There was no-one else around as far as she could discern, so decided to keep going up ahead, her hammer already out and wings tucked as far back as possible in order to avoid the walls or low ceiling.
She was ready to pound those humans down into pulp. Optimus' orders or not, those organics were definitely not safe from being sent to where they went after dying.
Under Breakdown's constant gaze the demented surgery kept on going ahead. With him being unable to stop the detested humans from performing their demented experiments on him there was no way to stop his further dismantling. He'd long ceased struggling, knowing he'd be unable to even run away in his current state. Such a fate for a Decepticon was indeed cruel, to be offlined by those weaker than him was unacceptable of someone in his rank.
"Enjoying the view?" Silas taunted from his place up in the platform, gazing down at the defenseless Cybertronian. "Ironically, your would-be rescuers would be in far more pieces than you, right now."
"Decepticons don't break that easy!" Shouted Breakdown.
Was it true? Had his comrade actually came for him? Had Megatron deemed him of such importance he'd dispatched a rescue team? His spark clenched at the both thoughts of being rescued and being seen in such a state.
When he'd joined the ranks he left behind a part of himself. There was no place for soft sparks among his brethren, be it on the battlefield or in the war room, and so decisions Autobots deemed hard were easily pushed though the Decepticons. You were alone and trapped in a hostile zone? Good luck, because there would be no one coming for you and you were deemed disposable for having placed yourself in such a situation. Sometimes he would 'hang out' with the faceless drones, try and keep from withering that old part of him that wanted to create a better Cybertron for everyone who'd been oppressed, but he knew it was all in vain. There was a reason they always had an undying amount of Vehicon spare parts.
"Who said they were Decepticons?"
That had caught the mech by surprise. Who else would put their sparks on the line to rescue a Decepticon? "That doesn't make sense, Autobots wouldn't come to rescue me. Not even Makers would be willing to do so."
Out of nowhere the sound of pounding began to emanate from not far up ahead and the floor lightly shook with each impact. The crew of scientists stopped their work and wondered what could be happening for their defenses to be falling under such stress.
It would seem the rescue was indeed on its way and were already breaking and entering.
Silas roughly shoved an operative aside and immediately pulled up the video feed onto the main screen. Their main door to the exterior was looking very much dented and it wouldn't take long before it fell to the attacks. It was obvious their intruder was of the same variety of the one they had strapped down and thoroughly examined, so their defenses would not stand for long.
"More grist for the mill." Whispered the man. Better than a test subject were even more of them. "Everyone, move out!" He ordered.
Silas and the rest of the operatives around him exited through the only door up in the platform, knowing whoever was coming would have the upper-hand… as long as they didn't have the proper weapons.
Also, Makers, huh? What seemed to be a two-way war was actually three-faceted… interesting.
The troops grouped around the heavily reinforced metal door, their weapons trained and ready to shoot any intruder that came though into their hideout. The dents continued to grow on the outer door, whoever was on the other side insisting on getting though, no matter how many attempts it took.
After one last bang the air suddenly grew quiet, confusing the M.E.C.H. goons, before a loud battle cry echoed throughout the tunnel and the door went flying off over their heads with the last hit from a gigantic hammer. Said weapon came down onto the floor right after, creating a sizeable crater and dispersing the crowd of armed men.
"And now, for you entertainment, MAYHEM!" Announced the Maker, as if she were stepping onto a stage.
Caught by surprise, the soldiers attempted to shot down the the seeker, but nothing seemed to work against her armor. They soon began to disperse, knowing their fates would be sealed with a single blow, as the femme used her hammer as a sort of pestle. She was very much aware that wildly swinging her weapon could cause a cave-in, and that would not be good. She was not Airachnid.
Eventually all the humans had dispersed and not even one remained behind, so Mayhem carried on, careful to look out for any traps, her ever-trusty hammer slung over her shoulder.
It only took a few steps and curve later for her to spot Breakdown. He did look like he was in the process of being Frankensteined, trapped and in the middle of being torn apart by horror-movie-looking machinery, and did make quite an impact.
Once again, human movies had steered her in the right way and even sort of prepared her to see such a scenery.
Carefully, Mayhem approached the Decepticon and looked down into his optics, his surprise clear on them. He really had not expected to see her again.
"My brother couldn't finish you off but humans almost did… I wonder if there's any irony in that." The femme pondered out loud, her expression stony and unmoving.
AS she reached down, Breakdown closed his good optic in preparation, fully expecting the femme to finish the job… only for him to feel her tear off his restraints. He opened his optic in surprise and wondered what had prompted her to come all this way just to release him. In the back of his processor he wondered if it was only for her brother to be the one to finish him off.
Mayhem offered up the servo that wasn't holding a giant scepter-like hammer and made a motion for him to take it. They had to get out of there before backup undoubtedly arrived and caused even more trouble for them.
"Wha-what are you doing?" Breakdown couldn't believe he was seeing this.
"Helping you up, what does it look like?"
Hesitantly taking her offer, he found himself back on his pedes and free of any restraints. She was actually on a mission to rescue him! "Didn't expect that, to be honest. Thanks, erm…"
"Complimented my aft but doesn't even know my name, aren't you a charmer." She gave him a deadpan look but then a contradictory smirk right after. "It's Mayhem and if you do anything like that again I'll make sure you can't even say it. Now, please have the decency to cover up and answer me this, can you walk?"
Breakdown quickly shut his open chassis and rotated his shoulders. "I think so."
The Decepticon still couldn't figure out why the Maker had put her spark on the line for his. Their first encounter hadn't went well at all, with her automatically hating him due to his faction and rivalry with Bulkhead, and her brother had even went after him later that day and would have likely offlined him, Knock Out and Starscream had it not been for the Harvester. Breakdown honestly was having a hard time pinning down the femme as a certain type but the more he though the weirder it got, so it would be best to stop his mind before it went further.
An alarm began sounding, startling both Cybertronians. The seeker's entrance had obviously not went unnoticed and now they had to escape before they both ended up as science experiments.
"Scratch that, how about run?" Asked Mayhem while making a motion towards the way she'd come in through.
"Never run when you can fight." Breakdown deployed his hammer with glee. It was payback time.
"Fair warning, touch me even once with that thing and I'll be the one to finish what the humans started."
Mayhem ran up ahead with Breakdown following right behind her, both eager to find their way out of the cramped abandoned tunnel. The mech also had though that he refused to voice, knowing the femme hadn't been joking… it wasn't his fault she had a great aft!
More humans showed up to try and block the Cybertronians' way back to the outside, but were quickly barreled through and shoved to the side by the eager pair. With the exit already in their sight they wouldn't stop until they were finally out of that chamber of horrors… and surrounded by an army of M.E.C.H thugs. Scrap.
Exiting the tunnel the two Cybertronians were greeted with a barrage of shots coming from soldiers, cars and even more heavily armed helicopters. It was likely a contingency plan the organization had up their sleeve in case of a break-out and it was working very well.
The two bots brought up their arms in an attempt to shield themselves from their more vulnerable parts getting targeted, but it looked like there was barely an opening for them to get away without much of a mess.
Getting tired of those vermin having the upper hand, Breakdown shot back with his shoulder canon, taking out two cars and a few soldiers, but did not have much of an overall effect, not even when his move gave Mayhem the opportunity to struck her hammer down and send a humans flying away.
"You have some sort of escape plan?" Breakdown asked, unsure of how they would get out that situation. He wasn't much of a planner, preferring to stick to following orders.
"Yeah, but it won't be pleasant for neither of us." Mayhem already could image the talk-down she´d be getting, but commed the big bot himself either way. They needed help and fast! "Optimus, I found Breakdown and broke him out, but we need backup and fast!"
The Decepticon had his reservations about being greeted by a rescue of a team of Autobots but, at the moment, complaining wouldn´t be the best idea. He was growing tired of the fleshies up in one of the helicopters taking shots at his helm so he grabbed the nearest thing, a human car, and threw it at the helicopter, creating an explosion that got him rid of those annoying pests.
Mayhem, also having grown tired of not doing anything to defend herself, raised her hammer up high and brought it down with a resounding smash, crushing whoever had the unfortunate luck of being in the vicinity and pushing back the rest of the troops with the blast of wind generated by her strike. While distracted by her small victory she failed to notice one of the helicopters readying to take her down and, had it not been for what happened next, she wouldn´t have survived.
Breakdown had been in the middle of disposing of more of the human ground vehicles when he noticed one of the helicopters had stopped shooting and was preparing to fire an energy blast aimed at Mayhem. In an uncharacteristic act of altruism he ran up to the Maker and knocked her out of harm's way, both narrowly avoiding the explosion, with him landing on top of her.
"Woa, big guy, buy me dinner first, won't you?" Mayhem laughed before pushing him away from her and getting back up, pulling him along the way with up.
The battle continued on, now both Cybertronians back-to-back smashing though their opponents. It seemed as if there was an endless fodder to M. .´s arsenal, the two loosing count of ow many cars and soldiers they smacked away. With the shots hitting them at every turn it wouldn´t take long before they grew tired but they kept pushing forward, hoping reinforcements would come soon to their aid.
Inside the main helicopter, the pilot now had the two giant robot aliens in sight and was ready to shoot when five dots appeared on the radar and the man halted his progress. They could take down two but surely the ones inbound would demand retribution and they were coming in fast.
"Sir, incoming enemies!" Warned the pilot, waiting for the orders of his superior.
Silas could not believe it. They already had the information needed but nothing would ever top having a captured subject for further testing and experimentation, but if they remained and attempted to fend off the reinforcements they would almost likely fail and all their efforts would have been for nothing. M.E.C.H. was about to make a break-though and take over the world with their new and improved technology, so there was no room for error so far into their plans.
Having made his decision, the man picked up the intercom and spread the orders to his soldiers. "All units, disengage and initiate omega protocols."
Mayhem and Breakdown noticed the humans retreating, their helicopters flying away, followed on the ground by the cars the remaining soldiers were hurriedly cramming themselves into for fear of being left behind. The two Cybertronians kept fighting until the last of their enemies had retreated, only stopping when they noticed the sound of aerial engines approaching.
"Your backup?" Breakdown asked.
It was then that five jets came into view, transforming mid-air and landed in front of the two bots. Starscream and for Vehicons stared at the battleground before them and at the two unlikely allied that had fought against the humans and stood their ground.
"Yours." Mayhem dejectedly responded. Why hadn´t the others came yet?!
"Commander Starscream!" Exclaimed the blue and orange mech, surprised that there had been indeed an inbound rescue party to release him from the grasp of the humans.
"Consorting with the enemy, Breakdown?" The seeker asked with an edge to his voice, walking ahead with nothing to stop him from getting closer with the heavy-duty Decepticon.
"Mayhem got me out of there!"
"Oh, on a name basis, were we now?" Was the sarcastic remark before Starscream turned to the femme. "Many sparkfelt thanks, Maker. Now destroy her."
Mayhem settled the handle of her hammer over one of her shoulders and narrowed her optics. She would not go down that easily, not to that squawking mech imitation of Stagefright and to the very same Decepticon she´d just rescued.
Breakdown looked at the femme. For some reason he didn´t feel that much hatred towards her anymore, even after her brother had pretty much promised to offline him. "But-"
"Do you plan on joining their ranks any time soon? No! Then be done with her already!" The Commander stiffly pointed at the Maker and got up-close to his underling, his presence commanding total and utter obedience.
He didn´t have much of a choice, did he? "Touch break, sweetaft, maybe in the next life." Breakdown deployed his hammer and attacked without hesitation.
Mayhem, already having expected such an action, avoided being struck by the Decepticon and gathered all her strength and took a swing with her own hammer at the mech, throwing him onto Starscream and the accompanying Vehicons.
"I warned you!" She held her weapon proudly while smirking. No one caught her off-guard in such a predictable scenario. "Who else wants their tailpipe kicked?!"
The Decepticon seekers swiftly got up and aimed their weapons, but before they could even begin their attack they were surprised with shots from the rear, curtesy of the Autobot cavalry that had arrived just in time.
Optimus, Bumblebee, Arcee and Ratchet were surprised to hear from Mayhem, even more when she proclaimed to have rescued Breakdown and they were in need of backup. Wasting no time they drove to the sight only to find M.E.C.H. already gone and Starscream along with a few drones wanting to take a shot at the femme. They drew their blasters and fired without hesitation, unsure of why Decepticons were there in the first place but questions would have to remain for later.
Starscream snarled. Always those pesky Autobots that seemed to arrive right on time every single time with their darned luck. "Retreat!" He ordered to his troops.
The seekers flew over Mayhem and away from the fight, while Breakdown followed in his vehicle mode, almost trampling over the fame femme that had risked herself to save him. Once a Decepticon, always a Decepticon, there was no way around it. Like he said, maybe in the next life thing would be different.
Mayhem stared at the retreating Decepticons and put away her hammer with a sigh and a shake of her helm. Her Carrier was right, a bot couldn't ever change who they really were, no matter how much one attempted to make them change their ways. Some bots were just bad with no leeway for change.
Optimus approached the young femme and noticed the look in her optics. Disappointment in herself and in Breakdown. "Have you learned nothing about engaging the enemy on your own, Mayhem?"
"I could say yes, but I´d be lying. Sorry." She faced the taller Cybertronian and lightly crossed her arms while looking away.
"In any case, you rescued a Decepticon, even putting yourself at risk to do so. I am proud of you."
"Yeah…" It would be best not to mention the humans she'd likely killed. "Thanks, I guess."
Arcee saw the way the seeker seemed disappointed and though of a way to cheer her up. "Now all we have to do is see what Bulkhead thinks of it. You did rescue Breakdown and even kicked his aft afterwards."
"I'm more worried about mom, to be honest." Mayhem chuckled. "I wonder what she'll say."
"You're ok!"
The second the team stepped through the groundbridge back home, Mayhem was hugged by Bulkhead.
"Whoa!" Mayhem reeled in from the surprise. "Yeah, I'm fine."
The wrecker let go of the Maker and did a once-over. She looked a little dented here and there, along with patches of soot all over her frame, but beyond the superficial injuries she looked unharmed.
Bulkhead had gotten thinking during all the time he had to himself. Mayhem had wanted to go, even if she despised the Con almost as much as he did, all so that everyone could be safe and their enemies list not to grow another name on it. He'd felt bad for letting the bot that he proudly proclaimed to be HIS nemesis have to be rescued by the rest of team Prime and even Mayhem had tagged along, putting the overall good of mankind over her safety.
"What were you thinking, doing all that by yourself?" Asked the worried wrecker.
"That's what I want to know!" Solarflare pushed him aside to stand in front of her daughter. It were times like these she wished not to be the shorter one. "You've got a lot of explaining to do!"
Coming from down the hallways to see what the commotion was all about, Doomsday and Airachnid approached the newly-arrived Team Prime and the Maker who'd apparently went along with them on what appeared to have been either a dangerous mission or she'd put herself in harm's way unnecessarily.
"What happened to you?" The Forget smiled, awaiting eagerly the story of Mayhem had done something that somehow had miraculously worked out.
"Did something reckless, was it?" Airachnid put her hand on her hips and gave the younger seeker a knowing look. That was going to be a good one, she just knew it.
"Yeah, well…" The purple and white seeker scratched at her helm and sheepishly looked aside before having a though. "Hey, you two on good terms again?! Sweet!"
"Don't think you're getting yourself out of this one, Mayhem!" The older femme was not in the mood for diversions, even if she was glad the other two had patched up without the help of high-grade.
"It's… it's kind of a long story."
Did she think Breakdown had chosen then wrong side? Definitely.
Did she regret her actions?... Naw, she got an amazing story out of it.