Disclaimer:Transformers belongs to Hasbro, Takara, etc . The only thing in this that belongs to me is Arcee's sister.
On board the Nemesis Starscream was laying on the medical slab in the sickbay where Megatron occupied for months, he was beaten up, gasping with cables connected to him, he opened his Opticsas Megatron approached him, "resting comfortably, Starscream? Despite the extent of your injuries, my medical staff assured me that you shall make a rapid recovery."
"Hopefully every bit as rapid as your wrath is swift," Starscream retorted as he tried to sit up.
"And how swiftly things change, Megatron said after chuckling, "To think that but a short time ago, it was you was standing here while I was lying there, right after your failed attempt to terminate me. But know this, dear Starscream, our positions shall never again be reversed." Megatron walked away from the medical lab, the vibrations from his thudding footsteps bounding from wall to wall, from floor to ceiling; from object to object.
Starscream hissed in frustration and ripped the various cables off of his form. Holding a hand to his chest, he walked out of the room. Knockout was using a device when he heard the door behind him open and saw Starscream walk out, limping. "Starscream, h-have you lost your senses? You haven't fully recuperated."
"I feel fine, Knockout. Never better. You're a brilliant physician. Now get out of my way!" Starscream demanded impatiently, as he shoved him out of the way and walked past them, still gasping and limping from pain, "Ah Dark Energon may have replenished your strength, Master. But how could you forget that you never reclaimed your original shard?"
As Starscream talked to himself, he reached into a hidden conduit in the structure of the ship and pulled out the shard of Dark Energon he had personally plucked from Megatron's spark chamber when he found him after the Space Bridge explosion.
"Once the blood of Unicron flows through my veins, our positions shall be reversed."
"I had hoped that my growing expertise on the subject would remain purely academic, but thought faint, this is clearly a Dark Energon signature, and it's moving fast," Ratchet said as he tracked a signature of Dark Energon on the Cybertronian Computer System.
"Megatron," Optimus growled.
"Where'd he find more of the bad stuff?" Arcee pondered aloud.
"I'm wondering the same thing, Sis," Chromette said as they walked with Bulkhead towards Optimus and Ratchet.
"And what's he gonna do with it, recruit a new army of the undead?" Bulkhead asked.
Miko heard this and stopped drawing, "Zombiecons?"
"We cannot rule out the possibility, especially since Megatron seems to be heading to a familiar site," Optimus said.
Starscream was flying through canyons in his alternate mode and as he reached the end he transformed, "Ah, the gravesite of the mighty Skyquake . So quick to reject my authority while you lived, but as the first of my reanimated warriors, you shall bow to my command," he said before breaking the shard in two, throwing one piece into the rocks that are burying Skyquake. It bounced from rock to rock before disappearing into one of the cracks.
He plunged the other piece into his spark chamber, where his Decepticon insignia was, his eyes turned purple, "Yes! Power of Dark Energon be mine!" He sneered as he flowed purple flames, and growled, "Symbiosis. I can feel it!"
"Megatron has barely emerged from stasis, and it seems he's already making up for lost time," Optimus said, "Bulkhead, Bumblebee, Chromette, Ratchet, prepare to roll out."
"Me?" Ratchet said with surprise.
"If we are dealing with Dark Energon, I may well require your expertise," Optimus explained before turning to the blue femme, "Arcee?"
"Bridge operator," she said walking towards the Ground Bridge controls, "Got it."
"Go get 'em Bulkhead. Bring the hurt!" Miko said from the couch, drawing.
Jack and Raf sat on another couch, noticed how she said that, "that's not like Miko to not want to go," Jack said.
"She's definitely up to something," Raf agreed.
Arcee activates the Ground Bridge, Optimus transformed into his alternate mode, followed by Bulkhead, Bumblebee, Chromette and Ratchet, they drove through the portal.
Miko smirked as she threw her sketchpad and pencils down as she jumped over the couch and began running. "Making a break!" Jack said as he and Raf began to chase her, trying to stop her from going. Arcee didn't see them, as Jack grabbed Miko by the elbow within the vortex. "It's not safe!" He told her.
"I am not gonna miss my first zombiecon throwdown!" Miko retorted as she shrugged her way out of his grip.
Unbeknownst to everyone, Miko dropped her phone on her way through the tunnel to reach the portal. "Miko!" Jack said before he and Raf chased after her.
The Autobots arrived at the gravesite of Skyquake and transformed, not noticing the humans behind them. Miko began climbing a pile of rocks to get the best view of the action. Without hesitation, Jack and Raf followed her.
"That's not Megatron," Bulkhead said as he saw Starscream.
"Rise, Skyquake! Rise!" Starscream commanded.
"Let's see some fight of the living dead, already!" Miko cried.
"Miko, what were you thinking?" Jack hissed at her.
"She wasn't," Raf piped in.
"Hey, I totally missed out last time. This could be my only chance to take some snap," she went to take her cellphone out only to find it missing, "my cellphone! I must have dropped it back at the base."
Optimus activates his battle mask and ion cannon as he walks forward, "Starscream!"
"Autobots!" Starscream cursed.
"Stand down," Optimus said as he aimed his weapon at him.
"You stand down!" He retorted.
From his arm, he fired a missile at his Autobot enemies. They immediately jumped in different directions to avoid being hit by the missile itself and the force of the explosion that resulted.
"You cannot harm me while Dark Energon flows through my veins!" He proclaimed only to get one of his arms to fall off by Optimus's blaster, which landed in front of him. Immediately, he took his arm and hid behind a rock.
"You clipped his wing. He's grounded," Bulkhead remarked.
"I agree," Chromette said, they all then came running towards Starscream.
"Come on. Come on. Rise Already!" Starscream exclaimed impatiently before he heard the sounds of oncoming Autobots, "This is Commander Starscream requesting emergency GroundBridge to my coordinates!"
"I can't believe you made me lose my phone!" Ratchet suddenly heard Miko shout.
"Ugh, H-how is this my fault?" Jack asked her.
All of the autobots saw the three humans, "Oh, no," Bulkhead gasped.
"Agreed," Chromette said, "this is bad."
"Base to Optimus," Arcee said from her comlink, as Optimus deactivated his battle mask, "the kids are missing."
"We have a visual," he answered, "Send the Ground Bridge immediately."
Suddenly two Ground Bridge portals appeared at the same time across from each other, one for Starscream back to the Nemesis by Soundwave and the other was sent by Arcee to pick Jack, Raf and Miko up.
"Two?" Ratchet said before turning to the children, "You three into our Ground Bridge now!"
"Come on!" Jack said to Miko pulling her as he and Raf entered the Ground Bridge, Starscream entered his Ground Bridge at the same time. Suddenly the two Ground Bridges began to feed back on one another.
"Ratchet, what is happening?" Optimus asked.
"The dueling Ground Bridge portals must be feeding back on each other," the medic answered.
"Miko," Bulkhead gasped, "We got to get the kids out of there!" He ran to their Ground Bridge portal but as he approached it blasted him backwards, then blasted everyone else backwards.
Back onboard the Nemesis, Starscream flew through the portal and landed onto the floor gasping. He was holding his detached arm anymore.
"My arm!" He cried, he then saw a Vehicon looking at him from a computer. He approached him, "Not a word about this… to anyone!"
He walked down the corridor and took the shard of Dark Energon from his spark chamber.
The humans were somehow still in the canyon as they all woke up, they groaned as they got up, "Are you guys okay?" Jack asked.
"Y-Yeah. I think so," Raf said as he got up and the Autobots then stood up behind them.
"Oh, W-what just happened?" Bulkhead asked as he stood up, Ratchet followed.
"I can't be certain," the medic answered, "But if two Ground Bridges sent to the same coordinates crossed streams, the feedback could have triggered a system overload."
"Could?" Miko retorted, "More like totally did."
"The kids made it through, right?" Bulkhead asked.
"Huh?" Raf said, confused.
"What's he talking about?" Jack asked.
Miko walked forward, "Bulkhead, we're standing right here!"
Optimus activated his comlink, "Arcee, did the children make it safely back to base?"
"Negative," she answered, "You don't see them?"
"No sign," Ratchet said.
"If they're not here or the base, then where are they?" Chromette asked.
"What? 'No sign?!' Okay, seriously, Bulk-" Miko said.
Bulkhead passed right through her, she screamed as she was freaked out, "He went right through you," Jack observed, "We're not alive."
"I don't want to be a ghost! Raf screeched.
"Wait. How can we still touch each other?" Jack asked, noticing that his hands were not going through her.
"Ratchet, could the children have been transported onto the Nemesis instead?" Optimus asked.
"Optimus does have a point," Chromette said, "Is that where they have been transported to?"
"Not likely," Ratchet answered, "If starscream didn't arrive at our base, the most likely explanation is a dislocation. The children may simply have been Bridged to an unintended destination."
The humans followed them as Raf was thinking about what was happening, "Another place but in the same place?" He thought aloud.
"W-Wh- What do you mean?" Jack asked him.
"We're probably in a different Dimension, some kind of alternate reality,a shadow zone," Raf said.
"Nerd alert," Miko remarked.
"Look. Skyquake's tomb is empty," Optimus observed as he noticed that Skyquake's body was missing from where he was buried.
"How did we miss skyquake rising and shining?" Bulkhead said.
"Bulkhead's right," Chromette said, "where is he?"
"It would seem starscream got what he came for," Ratchet pointed out.
"Another matter for another time. Right now, our priority is locating Jack, Miko and Rafael," Optimus proclaimed before activating his comlink, "Arcee, Bridge us back to base."
The humans continued to walk around the shadowzone when they saw the undead Skyquake was walking toward the autobots and the Ground Bridge, "Zombie!" Miko yells as she,Jack and Raf took off running.
"Guys, look out!" Jack called out.
"Bulkhead!" Miko screamed.
"It's right behind you!" Raf cried.
They watched as Skyquake raised his clawed hand to swipe at Bulkhead. However, when he actually made the swipe, he didn't harm the Autobot. Instead, his hand phased right through him. Jack, Miko and Raf froze as they saw this. The Autobots were unfazed and walked through the Ground Bridge without a second thought.
"Awesome! It can't touched them either!" Miko cheered.
"If that thing can't touch the bots," Jack started as realization dawned upon him.
"Just like we can't," Miko went on nervously.
"Then we're trapped in a shadow zone with a Decepticon zombie?" Raf finished fearfully.
"If we aren't ghosts now, we will be soon!" Miko squeaked.
Skyquake suddenly stood before them and took a swipe at the three humans. However, his swipe wasn't even low enough to hit Jack's head, since he's the taller of the three. Immediately, they took off running. Suddenly Raf tripped on a stray rock and fell to the ground. His glasses flew from his face and landed a few meters across the ground in front of him. Jack got Miko to safety before taking off to save Raf.
"Come on!" Jack yelled as he picked Raf up and began running.
Jack peaked around from the rock they were hiding behind to look at Raf's glasses that were still lying on the ground. And he also saw Skyquake coming closer.
"Way too dangerous," Jack declared.
"I can't see without them!" Raf told them.
"What are you? 90?" Miko sniped.
"Not helping," Jack retorted.
"Fine," Miko said, before taking off to grab Raf's glasses.
"Miko! Wait!" Jack cried.
She managed to swipe the glasses before she found Skyquake standing before her. Skyquake lifted his foot and began bringing it down on top of Miko. She dodged out of the way of the oncoming foot.
"Hoo-yah!" Miko cheered as she ran back to Jack and Raf, behind the rock. "Here you go, gramps," she said as she handed Raf his glasses, "Let's book." They ran from Skyquake as he approached their hiding place. "Maybe we could set a trap, try to crush it!" She suggested.
"With what?" Raf asked her, "Nothing around here is solid except for us and the ground."
"We can't run forever," Miko retorted, "But maybe we can hide!"
"Ratchet, if the children were misdirected to an unintended location, is there any way to get a fix on their location?" Optimus asked Ratchet.
"If they were lost, Miko would have called me by now," Bulkhead objected.
Why don't you try to call her?" Chromette said and Bumblebee beeped a reply, agreeing with her.
"Call them?" Bulkhead said, realizing what they were getting at. "Yes!"
Bulkhead activated his commlink and went to call Miko's phone. As soon as he did, they heard a familiar ringtone being emitted from within the base. They turned towards the Ground Bridge tunnel. He walked over and saw Miko's cellphone was lying on the ground in the tunnel. Bulkhead groaned in frustration.
"That's why she hasn't called. And that's why they hadn't bridged themselves back," Bulkhead groaned as he held up the phone.
"Let me try Jack," Arcee suggested immediately.
Jack, Raf and Miko stopped running once they were far enough from Skyquake to be able to stop and try to catch their breaths.
"The best thing about zombies, they're slow moving," Miko said, imitating how a zombie walks.
Suddenly, they heard a sound going off. Eventually, it dawned to them what it was.
"Is that your…?" Raf trailed off.
"Phone!" everyone exclaimed.
Immediately, Jack dug into his pockets and answered the incoming call. "Hello? Arcee?" Jack answered.
"Jack! Can you hear me?" Arcee asked worriedly before losing the connection from static, "Nothing."
"Hello? Arcee!" Jack yelled into the phone before groaning and hanging up, "Nothing."
"Gee, imagine that. The fourth dimension has lousy phone reception," Miko remarked sarcastically.
"Wait, guys. Guys, the phone rang. We're getting a signal," Jack pointed out.
"Maybe the Autobots can't see or hear us cause we're moving at hyper speed or something," Raf suggested.
"Do you think they can read us?" Jack asked.
"Texting!" Raf said.
"Text me! If my phone's back at the base, maybe they'll see it!" Miko exclaimed.
Jack began to text Miko's phone when suddenly Skyquake approached them, Raf noticed him, "Uh… Can you type and run?" They ran underneath the Terrorcon, getting away from him before typing again.
"We're dealing with fluctuating energy profiles inside a wide-distortion field. But it may be possible to back-trace their coordinates," Ratchet said as Miko's phone began to vibrate from the catwalk, but no one noticed it.
"Déjà Vu!" Miko observed.
"What?" Jack asked.
"This doesn't look familiar to you?" She asked him.
"Not really," he answered.
"Dude, we just ran one big circle!" She explained before they ran into an unfamiliar object. They fell to the ground from the impact and saw Starscream's detached arm.
"Sweet," Miko said as they got up.
"It must have gotten trapped in the explosion, too!" Raf observed.
They suddenly heard Skyquake's footsteps and growls, "Well, If it's solid, we can use it," Jack proclaimed.
Meanwhile, Starscream had managed to find his way to the medical lab aboard the Nemesis. Knockout immediately made him lie on the slab and have him checked out. There was something bugging Knockout though. And what was bugging him is…how did this happen?
"Uh, Starscream, I don't quite understand how this could have happened?" He asked him.
"And yet it did! Can you imagine my horror! There I am, minding my own business, when my arm just falls off! Clearly Megatron inflicted more damage upon me than you realized… Doctor." Starscream growled dangerously.
"Well…on the bright side. This provides an excellent opportunity for an upgrade," Knockout remarked as he showed Starscream different models of the arms he has in his possession, "Uh…let's see. You can go with a Sonic Cannon. It's reliable, low-maintenance. Although, it lacks a certain flair. Personally, I prefer the Null Ray. Has just the right mix of flash and fire power."
"I don't want a new model! I just want the same arm as before!" Starscream snapped.
"But Starscream, your equipment is a bit…obsolete. I'm not sure I have another one lying around," Knockout admitted, "Of course. We could try to salvage yours. You'd get it, did you?"
"It was…beyond recovery," Starscream answered.
Through their combined efforts, Jack, Miko and Raf managed to line up Starscream's arm towards the direction Skyquake would be coming from.
"Anyone know how to fire this thing?" Miko asked as she searched the arm, "I don't see a trigger."
"Starscream did something with his fingers," Raf recalled.
"We have one shot. We have to make it count," Jack proclaimed.
"I'm ready," Miko nodded.
Jack pulled the index finger of Starscream's arm, the missile took off at the incoming Skyquake. The missile exploded, blinding Miko and Jack with a cloud of dust. But they knew that they hit their target.
"How do you like us now?" Miko taunted. But suddenly Skyquake appeared from the cloud of dust, with his right arm falling off, causing everyone to freeze in fear.
The hand came to life on its own, flipping itself onto the tips of its clawed fingers. The hand started coming after them…faster than the actual Skyquake.
"Come on! Come on!" Jack yelled as they began to run away from the terrorcon's hand.
"How can the zombie arm move faster than the actual zombie?" Miko asked.
The hand began to jump from rock to rock before walking across the cliff face.
Back at the Autobot base, Bulkhead finally noticed Miko's phone was vibrating and flashing. "Miko's phone. It wasn't blinking before," he clicked the phone with one of his fingers. "It's a message," he said before reading, "In alternate dimension with Zombie. Help."
"That doesn't sound possible," Arcee said.
"Are you sure Sis," Chromette asked. "They say that there is an infinite amount of alternate universes."
"Ratchet, can we triangulate the geographical position of the cellphone signal?" Optimus asked.
"In a parallel dimensional plane?!" Ratchet said, "Let's find out."
Aboard the Nemesis, Starscream was comfortably sleeping on the slab inside the medical lab. The Dark Energon shard rested in his hand lifelessly. Suddenly, as the Nemesis flew over a certain location, the shard purred contently in his hand, startling Starscream from his dreamless oblivion.
"My Dark Energon shard, Pulsing? My warrior lives." Starscream said before disconnecting himself and walked out of the medical lab.
"Ah, look what I found in storage," Knockout said holding an arm that looks like Starscream's own arm, "What are you doing?" Knockout demanded as he saw him walking out.
"You were right, Knockout. I'm much too attached to my original appendage. I will retrieve it," Starscream decided before walking away.
"Now, calculation for relative time delays and Ionosphere distortions, the signal emanated from the exact same location as the original Ground Bridge coordinates," Ratchet said.
"But we already looked for them there," Bulkhead said, confused.
"Perhaps, but not in the correct dimensional phase, as their message stated," Ratchet explained. "But if I can recreate the feedback loop which triggered the event. I might be able to generate a rescue portal allowing passage from their dimension…"
Back to base?" Bulkhead asked.
"No! We're talking about interdimensional travel here, Bulkhead! Attempting to redirect the vortex trajectory would be far too risky!" Ratchet retorted.
"Everyone knows that," Arcee said sarcastically.
"If the coordinates aren't precisely the same, who knows where the humans could wind up?"
"Aw come on!" Miko moaned as they found themselves at Starscream's arm once again, "This place is like one big merry-go-round!"
"Skyquake, your master summons you!" They suddenly heard Starscream say from a distance.
How did that freak get in our dimension?" Miko asked as they saw Starscream approach them.
"He didn't. He can't see us," Jack answered.
"Forget Starscream. We got to run… some more," she said as Skyquake's arm continued to chase them, as they approached Starscream, a ground Bridge appeared in front of them.
"A Ground Bridge portal?" Raf asked in surprise.
"That has to be our way out of here," Jack said.
"The Autobots saw our text," Miko said.
"What? Mine or theirs?" Starscream pondered aloud concerning the Ground Bridge before them.
"If we go through, we run smack into Starscream!" Raf pointed out, "If we don't…"
"We're zombie chow," Jack said, looking at the hand chasing them.
"Option three, we keep running in circles," Miko said.
"Follow my lead," Jack said, Miko looked at the hand approaching them, impatiently, "Now!" The three humans then jumped through the portal and rolled out in between Starscream's legs.
"Humans? Where did you vermin-" he asked before being tackled by Skyquake's arm to the ground. "This isn't mine! Unhand me!"
Another Ground Bridge appeared in front of the humans, Optimus stepped through the portal followed by Bulkhead, Arcee and Chromette. "Jack, Miko, Rafael," the Prime said greeting them.
"Autobots again?" Starscream screeched as he threw Skyquake's arms aside, "Requesting emergency Ground Bridge now!"
Back at the Autobot base, the humans were standing in front of the autobots, "Look if you're gonna blame anyone, blame me," Miko said.
"I'm sorry," Jack said, "could you repeat that a couple dozen times."
"Miko, what you endured has been lesson enough," Optimus said, "We are glad that you are all safe."
"Guess it was a good thing you dropped this," Bulkhead told Miko, with her phone on his finger, "too bad you didn't get any picture though."
"Nah, that's okay," she said, "I think after today, I pretty much have zombie close ups seared up I. My brain."
"What happened? Megatron pound you like scrap metal again?" Knockout asked as he worked on Starscream's latest injuries.
"I would rather not discuss it," Starscream snapped.
"Honestly, Starscream, you need to take better care of yourself. Didn't you retrieve your limb?"
Meanwhile in the Shadowzone, Skyquake approached Starscream's arm, grabbed it thinking it was his own, he tried to stick it on. But it wouldn't stick. So he simply tossed it aside.
Next is Operation: Breakdown