Sorry, everyone, the fluff-break is over. Back to doling out death and destruction with a dash of Decepticons on the side!
As mentioned before, this is part 5 of the "Darkness Rising" arc, and I intend to end the story after this chapter and an epilogue. It's been fun to write, but I honestly wouldn't be able to continue it all the way through all three seasons. Even one season would be a stretch! Sadly, I must focus the majority of my attention on the world of humans, not Cybertronians, lest I fall behind in my studies, and so it would be imprudent of me to start something I wouldn't be able to finish.
That being said, shall we begin? We've got battles to fight!
Far beneath the Atlantic Ocean, just past the Sohm Plain, something moved in the shadows. Out of the murky depths, there was a glimmer of light—gone as soon as it had appeared, obscured by a cloud of clay and silt stirred up from the ocean floor. A small school of deep-water greeneyes passed lazily in front of the cloudy patch, sluggish in the cold waters.
Their journey was cut tragically short as the tiny fish were dashed against some broad, smooth object as it trawled their abyssal home. Scarlet lights narrowed to mere pinpricks in the gloom, disgusted. Optimus Prime brushed the surviving members of the school of greeneyes off of his armor and continued on. He would be cleaning the rest of the organic pests out of his intakes for days.
Every other joint, vent, and crack in his frame had been sealed over for the trek to the Space Bridge—except for his intakes. He would have to speak to Goldbug about extending the shielding once it was time to bring his conquering army through from Cybertron. As terrifying as it might be to the little insects who crawled the surface of the planet, there was something about a Prime with a mouth dripping organic slime that lacked dignity.
All was in readiness, the pieces were in place. Optimus Prime was ready to make his war. Still, it could be no harm to make certain that the Space Bridge was in proper working condition. After all, the best laid plans of men and Cybertronians often go astray. Beneath his inscrutable mask, the corrupted Prime allowed some semblance of a smile to cross the twisted mass of scar and circuit that had once been a mouth at the thought of the colloquial phrase. Liaison had taught it to him, the clever little creature.
Of all the Autobots' human pawns, he was perhaps the most useful, carrying out his orders quickly and quietly, then waiting hidden in the dark corners of the mesa, listening for treasonous speech. More than one half-formed mutiny had been cut off short by the attentions of Goldbug's human. Liaison was humble, and Goldbug would suffer no hurt to come to his favorite minion. When the Decepticons were dust, and the human race groveled in panic, Optimus resolved, he would spare Liaison and his kin for the sake of his spy.
Introspection halted as he approached the great archway. Despite the crushing pressure of the abyssal plains, the shielding remained intact on both mech and machine. Squared servos danced over controls, setting in coordinates, raising atmospheric adaptation levels. Yes, all was in readiness. It was time: the dead of Cybertron would walk again, and even Megatron would bow before him.
The Frederick Douglass sliced through the coastal waters of Iceland cleanly, surging forward with hardly a ripple to tell those on the surface that the mighty submarine had passed. On the uppermost deck, Ramsey ran a hand over his face and leaned back in his chair. Surely he was imagining things! The soldier adjusted his headphones and fiddled with the dials on the console. No, there it was again. The Scotsman grimaced and spun his chair around.
"Scooter! Get your butt over here!"
The radar monitor scowled at him from over his round glasses. "That's Skeeter!"
Ramsey shrugged. "Same difference. You've got younger ears than me, tell me what this sound is!"
The slight figure of Howard Skeeter joined Ramsey at his station with a longsuffering sigh. "What is it this time, Ram? More whalesong?" The young teenager yelped as the headphones were jammed down over his springy mohawk and he was shoved down into the chair. He listened for a moment, carefully, then glanced up at the older agent. "I just hear water, Ram."
Ramsey tapped on a small touch screen set into the upper part of the hull. "Computer, run that recording through the system and filter out all organic sounds." There was a soft chime as the Frederick Douglass's computer complied. When he saw Skeeter's eyes widen and his glasses slip down his nose, Ramsey knew that he hadn't been imagining anything.
"That's mechanical, whatever it is!" the boy cried, ripping the headphones off.
"Mechanical and of alien origin, I'm willing to bet," the other answered grimly. He opened a comm channel to the deck officer, intent on reporting the strange sounds. The report was quickly filtered up through the ranks of MECH, and soon found its way into the medical ward amidships.
Blackwell measured out the pills into a tray and stoically handed them to the grizzled leader of their rebel band. Silas thanked him with a weary smile and returned to his post beside the small cot. The medic shook his head. How was it possible for a man to endure so much pain and continue on undaunted? He'd been stripped of his rank, his home and funds confiscated, his wife and daughters executed before his eyes, his adopted child fighting her way through yet more injury and trauma, an entire organization resting on his shoulders, and yet he stood against the Autobots like a stone wall. Blackwell watched Silas gently coaxing Violet into taking the medication.
"Come on, cheri. Just a few more weeks of the antibiotic, I promise."
The girl squirmed away from him and limply tried to pull the sheets over her thin frame with her one hand. "Non! I'm fine, I don't need it! What, you want me to choke on those things? They're horse pills!"
"Yes, I know they're big. But you always do fine, remember?"
Jade marbles squinted out at him. "It's just the antibiotics?" She glared suspiciously at the pills on the tray.
"And something for the pain," Silas nodded. "Nothing with drowsiness side effects. I promised, remember? No sleeping medication without your say-so." There commenced a silent battle of wills between the MECH commander and the thirteen-year-old girl, until Silas eventually won. As usual.
The report from Ramsey came just as Silas carefully placed the first pill into Violet's mouth and poured water in after them. "Now swallow," he reminded her. It took a moment, but she finally swallowed the pills and sank back against the pillow.
"Tinkerbell!" she exclaimed suddenly, pointing to a flashing green light chiming on the wall. Oh, he knew what she was doing. The moment he turned his head in confusion, she'd hide the other pill. She'd been doing this for as long as he'd known her.
"Nice try. You still have to take the antibiotic," he agreed tiredly. Silas switched off the comm light while Violet huffed in frustration and answered.
"Bishop."
He listened intently and stood so quickly he nearly knocked over his chair. "Blackwell, stay with Violet until the pain medication kicks in, then send her on to physical therapy. I'll be on the bridge."
Dr. Blackwell knew something was afoot. "Sir, what's going on?"
"Megatron, we have located Optimus Prime's Space Bridge, deep beneath the Atlantic Ocean!" Starscream announced, striding onto the bridge with Sierra perched on his shoulder.
"Which puts us at a distinct disadvantage," the warlord mused.
Sierra tightened her grip on her guardian's shoulder guard and shifted position. "Wouldn't the pressure down there crush you all?" she asked, concerned.
June shook her head. "Not necessarily. We could equip them with a very tight cloaking field to regulate pressure and keep them from getting waterlogged, but it could potentially lower their visibility."
Beside her, Airachnid shuddered. "Ugh. I hate cloaking fields. They're so clammy!"
Listening in on the conversation via open comm, Knock Out chipped in his two cents' worth. "Even with a high-density shield, there's no guarantee that we won't suffer sensor damage down there. And what about the native sea-life? I've heard there's some pretty big things down in the trenches that not even humans know about!"
Megatron turned away. "As Optimus Prime is likely already in transit, that is a risk we will have to take," he rumbled, "Reaching the Space Bridge first is our only hope of stopping him."
A three-toned klaxon chirped, and one of the many viewscreens lit up.
"Lord Megatron!" Silas looked tired, but triumphant. "This is the Frederick Douglass calling from the Atlantic. I think we've just found your Space Bridge."
Megatron nodded to the man without changing posture. "Then engage silent drives and standby for further contact. We may have need of the Frederick Douglass's weapons system, should the battle go ill."
He turned to the rest of the crew and opened a shipwide hailing frequency. "Decepticons, prepare for departure!" In an instant, the Nemesis was a hive of activity as the strike team prepared to leave.
Breakdown took Airachnid's servos in his own. "One of us needs to stay here." he whispered, discreetly nodding in the direction of their daughter. The spider-femme tiptoed to plant a kiss on her husband's faceplate.
"You go, beloved. I'll stay with the children this time."
Breakdown bent down and wrapped one hand around June in a gentle hug. "Okay, kiddo," he grunted. "I gotta go."
June chuckled and pressed her cheek against his servos. "You've been going on missions since I was five, Daddy. I'll be okay."
Sierra crossed her arms and swallowed hard and Starscream gently set her down on the catwalk. "Be seeing you?" she said awkwardly.
The Seeker offered her a weak smile. "It'll be fine, Sierra. I'll be home before you know it. In the meantime, I want you to call your family and tell them to get out of Jasper for a few days, at least until this blows over."
The girl nodded and made him promise to put extra shielding over his wings before he made the journey. "I'll practice my Baguazhang style while you're gone," she promised, then stepped back to allow him to leave.
"Look after Jack, will you?" Starscream said, turning back towards her a moment. "You know how he is."
The Air Commander slipped away to report to Knock Out for shielding, wondering for perhaps the fiftieth time in the last few weeks how he had gotten so attached to the girl so quickly. On his way, he passed Soundwave, holding Frenzy in one hand and Miko in the other.
"You two better-be good while I'm gone," he strung two clips together and fixed them in a mock glare through his visor.
Miko took a deep breath and slowly enunciated. "B-be c-careful." She beamed at Megatron's startled expression.
The huge mech stepped over to the spy and his charges and smiled softly at the little girl. "I take it Knock Out's invention was successful? Congratulations, little one. I hope it serves you well."
Soundwave hugged the child and the deployer close, then set them down beside Sierra and June. Over the comm, everyone heard a crash and the flustered squabbling of the medic as—to no one's great surprise—ST3V3 tripped over something important and managed to injure himself yet again.
"ST3V3! I needed that!" Knock Out hollered.
Wild blue optics filled one of the screens as the young doctor hissed, "Megatron, if you leave me alone and in charge of this flying circus, I will never forgive you!"
The ex-gladiator took the threat in stride, and nodded gracefully. "Until we meet again, my friend."
He joined the rest of the strike team at the Ground Bridge and found Jack standing on the console, waiting to bid farewell to his family.
"Bash some skulls, Pop," the boy said with a half smile, touching his fist to his grandfather's.
"Will do, Small Fry," the heavy mech promised. He stepped aside as Starscream passed, stopping to stare down at Jack with squared shoulders.
"Look after Sierra," the Seeker ordered.
Jack bowed his head in acquiescence. "Good hunting, Starscream."
Soundwave ducked under Starscream's wings to ruffle his "nephew"'s hair. Using the voice of E.T., he joked, "beee gooood!" Jack made a face at him.
"Never!"
He laughed as Starscream grabbed his best friend by the side of the helm and dragged him off to the Bridge so that Megatron could make his way to the console.
"Pax Minor," the Decepticon leader said gravely.
"Lord Megatron," the boy returned respectfully.
Megatron touched the tip of a servo to Jack's forehead for a moment, then turned and joined the others.
"Four to Bridge out. Transform and Rise up!" he rasped.
In the near-lightless world of the Atlantic floor, schools of fish, tiny even by human standards, scattered in panic before the sudden flood of bright green, damaging their small, sensitive eyes.
"Decepticons," Megatron's voice came in harsh and loud over the comm systems. "Switch to instruments—your optics are better left for emergency use."
The four mechs marched slowly along the silt and clay bottom, movement hampered by the displacement of the water. "Well at least we know the Autobots can't move any faster than we can," Starscream sighed, "Or see better."
He glanced over at Breakdown, who had turned on the headlights in his chest armor and was ploughing merrily ahead.
"I'm sorry, you were saying?" he teased. Starscream did not dignify the jab with a response, and slogged on to follow Megatron.
The Space Bridge was not hard to find. It stood at the edge of the Sohm Plain, half-anchored in coral. Starscream knelt to examine the pale growths.
"Look how much coral is growing on this thing!" he marveled, "This has been here a long time!"
Suddenly, Soundwave began broadcasting a radar signal on his visor. Something was coming.
Less than half the size of the Nemesis, and yet still larger than any human craft, a dark shape loomed at the edge of the abyssal plain like some metal megalodon.
"The Astyanax," Breakdown growled.
She had been an Autobot starship, a pirate sloop designed for speed and agility. The Astyanax could swoop in on an orbital torus state, decimate defenses, and be gone before a proper warship could arrive. Upon first arriving to the blue planet, the Autobots had retrofitted the Astyanax to be an underwater craft, a Cybertronian submarine. This, of course, did not come without its difficulties. While admirably seaworthy and able to withstand even the greatest of depths, the ship was no longer a fighter, for to open the ports for the guns would unbalance the careful measures taken to adapt the hull to the pressure. Still, the Astyanax was a fast and formidable piece of Autobot equipment, and it was there for only one purpose:
Optimus had come, and he had not come alone.
"So Prime's packing enough Dark Energon to raise Cybertron's dead?" Breakdown muttered in an aside to his leader.
Megatron nodded once. "And, as we do not posses the means of disabling the Space Bridge," the deep tones were unmuffled by the waves as the silver titan equipped his broadsword. "Nothing gets in or out!"
Behind and beside him, the rest of the team shifted into fighting stances, fully aware that physical battle would be slow-moving at best. But if the Autobots tried to enter the Bridge, they would be subjected to battle, no matter how tortuously slow it was.
On a wide data display aboard the Astyanax, a still shot of the Decepticons hovered. A choked half-chuckle reverberated in the stale air.
"Megatronus, my old friend, you never disappoint,"
Optimus Prime's helm whipped about so quickly that bystanders heard the cables creak. "Unlike you, Cliffjumper!"
The heavily dented Autobot gulped and shrank back like a whipped dog. "Er...no need to worry, Prime. Goldbug is locking on to Cyberton's coordinates, like I told him to." He attempted a weak smile, but it fled his faceplates faster than his courage.
There was no sound but the muffled gurgling of the Decepticon's slight movements as they guarded the Bridge. The Astyanax floated, motionless, only half a mile away.
"Well? What are they waiting for?" Starscream muttered, focusing his internal instruments on calculating the distance and any possible actions the submersible ship could take.
Something caught his attention, and he focused a silent radar on the upper left section of the Astyanax's hull. "Their navigational relays are damaged," he observed.
"Oh!" Breakdown remarked in surprise, "I did that! It was right before we landed on Earth!"
A faint smile, invisible in the heavy darkness, creased Megatron's features. "Well done, Breakdown. Without a fully functioning navigational system, they will not be able to lock on to Cybertron."
Through the comm systems, Sierra, apparently translating for Miko for the comms' benefit, asked, "Don't the Autobots know where their own planet is?"
Jack's voice joined hers with a gentle laugh. "Of course they do, Miko. But Cybertron is very far away, and their calculations have to be astronomically precise."
The little girl sighed and proclaimed once more her disdain for mathematics. The strike team hid their amusement as Knock Out could be heard shooing the children away from the comms, citing "emergency use only". Attention was soon focused back to the problem at hand.
"If Optimus Prime took the trouble of rendezvousing with his Space Bridge, he must have an alternate targeting system. A remote one, perhaps."
Back on the Nemesis, Knock Out frowned. "Given the state of Earth's technology, I highly doubt that there could be a satellite dish big enough." He stared moodily at the display.
"What about a bunch of telescope radio dishes, all linked together?" Jack ventured, hopping up to one of the many wall-consoles. Slim fingers danced over a human-sized keyboard, bringing up pictures. "Like the ones in Texas?"
"Good thinking, Pax," Megatron's voice reverberated over the speakers.
"June, alert the array staff to the security risk."
June dropped to the deck. "Yes sir!" she darted across the floor and hoisted herself up to the primary communications console.
"I really gotta start doing parkour again," she muttered, shaking out her slightly sore arms. Over her shoulder, she called, "Jack, get into the array system and take over."
Wide blue eyes met hers. "You...want me to hack?" he gulped.
June smiled encouragingly at her son. "It's just math and coding, honey. You can do this."
Jack shook his head. "If you say so," he mumbled under his breath.
Knock Out continued to monitor the away team as June attempted to reach the array station. "Scrap!" she growled, "Their phone lines are blocked."
For once, Megatron was too focused on the mission to correct a younger crew member for swearing. The human woman turned to a wide-eyed Miko. "Don't ever repeat what I just said," she ordered flatly.
Miko opted not to tell her that Soundwave and Frenzy had already taught her almost a full lexicon of Cybertronian swears.
At the second screen, Jack made a frustrated sound. "They've got some really thick firewalls," he complained. He shifted over so that Airachnid could see the display.
"Regardless of firewalls, do you think you've got a chance of keeping the Autobots out?" she asked.
Jack shrugged. "I guess so, I mean, if I could get in." He turned back to typing.
"Hey Jack!" Jack turned again to look down at Sierra. There was the barest hint of mischief in her eyes as she asked, "What if we could get you all the way in? Like, inside the building?" She shot a meaningful glance at the Ground Bridge and raised an eyebrow.
"It could work!" Knock Out acknowledged, "He could log into the internal network on the other side of the firewall."
Megatron was not pleased with the idea.
"The risk is too great," he said firmly. "The Autobots will be there, perhaps even on-site!"
Miko scrambled over Knock Out's arm to the comm switches, a look of determination in her brown eyes. Megatron she reasoned, with Knock Out swiftly patching her words through to the Decepticons' HUDs, With all due respect, this is way bigger than a couple of humans.
Sierra nodded. "Yeah, we've got families out there, and we're going to protect them the best we know how, just like you guys do. If the 'Bots win, it's curtains for everyone, not just the 'Cons."
There was no reply for several tense seconds, then the rolling timbre asked a question in the form of a single word. "Jackson?"
All eyes turned to the boy at the keyboard. He steeled his nerves and took a deep breath. "I want to give it a shot." he said quietly.
Optimus Prime stared into the wall of black water beyond the viewports, servos twitching restlessly. Cliffjumper sidled up beside him, clearly ready to break and run at the slightest provocation.
"Surely, Prime, the Decepticons are up to something."
The usurper turned a baleful optic on the SIC. "Your grasp of the obvious does not cease to amaze me," he deadpanned.
Returning his gaze to the deep, he calmly spoke to the small squadron of Autotroopers gathered in the Astyanax. "Crush them."
From his remote position above the surface, Goldbug opened a small Ground Bridge, just big enough for the drones to drive through, and they rolled out, shielded and in vehicle form. The Autotroopers' equipped energon repeater cannons began blazing almost before they'd targeted the enemy.
Breakdown sighed and brought out a large hammer in place of his fist. "And here comes the welcoming committee."
The Ground Bridge spat the three children and Airachnid out in a sandy compound surrounded by a barbed wire fence. Rows of massive—for a human—satellite dishes stood at attention like soldiers, awaiting commands.
"Remind me why Miko came along?" Airachnid grumbled, shooing the kids towards a warehouse-like structure.
"These are regular humans. They think teenagers are up to no good, probably. If we get caught, she's our appeal to sympathy," Sierra answered unblinkingly.
As if on cue, Miko whirled around and fixed Airachnid with the most innocent, heart-rending look ever to grace the face of a child.
"Whoa! Okay, that's enough of that," Airachnid covered her optics. "I get it already!" The Decepticon femme shook her helm. "Yeesh. You'll give someone a heart attack that way, honey."
The little girl shrugged expressively. If it helps? She smothered a giggle as Jack pulled her into the building.
"I'm going to patrol out here," Airachnid murmured to her grandson. "If I catch sight of 'Bots, you three call for a Bridge. Am I clear?"
Jack saluted gravely. "Be careful, Rani," he said.
Energon weapons were not hindered by the surrounding liquid, and guns of all kinds were soon firing their payloads across the Sohm Plain. As they got closer, the Autotroopers transformed and charged the Decepticons.
Soundwave started moving the instant he saw one raise its blaster, knowing that the bolts wouldn't be as hampered as his agility. A scant three inches to the side was all he needed to miss the blast, and fired off his subsonic repeaters twice. The drone fell slowly to the floor with a creaking groan, displaced water finding a new place to go: the crater in his helm.
Soundwave continued in this way, only moving as much as he needed to escape being shot, and then picking off the stragglers of the Autotrooper squadron. In this way, he appeared to be untouchable. Starscream, on the other hand, was hardly still at all. Using his small size and wings, he was able to glide with a little momentum, and took the fight much closer.
Swish-thunk! He buried his talons in the mask of a drone, ripping the front of its helm off.
"Sorry, friend," he snarled, "I need your gun." He tore the energon pulse generator from the dead mech's arm and held it like an assault rifle. Having rockets rather than lasers, Starscream was slightly at a disadvantage in long-range underwater combat. He launched himself up from the plain and floated above the others, firing at anything with red optics.
Below him, Megatron caught one bold fellow by the head and slammed him face-first into the side of the Space Bridge with a muffled crunch. When he released the mech, he drifted harmlessly away to settle amongst the coral. Breakdown's hammer crushed and dented anything that even came near the archway.
Overall, it did not look good for the Autobots.
With a soft click, Sierra eased the door open, peering cautiously into the corridor. It looked like any other generic office building: drab taupe walls, pale green carpet that had probably been laid down in the early '60s, and a water cooler next to an empty cup dispenser. She raised one red eyebrow and slowly shut the door again.
"Security is strangely lax for a place like this," she remarked, walking over to the desk where Jack was hard at work, hacking the array station's central computers.
"I'm in," he stated. His eyes narrowed. "And so are the Autobots."
Miko leaned over his arm to squint at the screen. What?!
Sierra leaned over his other shoulder. "How can you tell?" she demanded.
Jack highlighted a few lines of code and opened a file. "Recognize this?" he asked grimly.
Sierra certainly did recognize it. She'd been helping Starscream decode it for days! "It's the schematics from the Autobot base!" she breathed. Jack nodded.
"A-hem," came the sound of a clearing throat.
The older teens glanced over at Miko, who was casually leaning on the edge of the desk. Her eyes spoke for her as she waved a small flashdrive back and forth under their noses.
"Where did you get that?" Jack demanded.
The smaller girl grinned and pointed to a filing cabinet nearby. I broke the lock with some chewing gum. At their wide eyes, her smile only grew larger.
"How did you—never mind, I don't want to know." Sierra ran a hand over her hair. "Okay, so we download the schematics and send them back to the Nemesis. In the meantime, what do we do if the 'Bots start syncing the Bridge to the dishes?"
The wheels of the swivel chair scraped at the carpet as Jack pulled the chair closer. "I can sync to them, I think."
The screen lit their faces with an eerie glow as Sierra wondered, "Will they see you?"
Over a small comm device they'd brought with them, Airachnid answered, "They shouldn't. They might find out he's in the system, but they have no way of knowing he's actually in-house."
Jack continued hacking, commands and electrical currents whispering away down through the system and wires plugged into the back of the console. The wires ran through a tiny hole in the wall, through a duct that opened out into a wide warehouse space.
The servers were all clustered together in the center of that room, and crouched over them was the dark, unsettling figure of Optimus Prime's chief spy. Long tentacles snaked from his black and gold armor to connect him to the array system, linking it to the Space Bridge. Liaison Darby stood at his back with a machine gun at the ready.
Goldbug twitched suddenly: just a fraction of a movement, nothing more than the slightest premonition, but Liaison had learned by now that Goldbug's hunches were never wrong. Neither of them required verbal speech to communicate. He merely lifted his gun once and Goldbug dipped his helm, data still scrolling across his unusual optics. Darby slipped into the shadows to make certain the base was as empty as previously thought. As blank, amber optics reflected the schematics of the Space Bridge, the satellite dishes began to turn with a mechanical whine.
Clouds of silt and tiny fish began to billow up from the abyssal floor as the Space Bridge hummed to life.
"What's going on?" Breakdown's internal comm crackled as he ducked a laser blast.
"The Autobots have locked onto Cybertron," Megatron answered.
"Prime! The Space Bridge is ready for activation!" Cliffjumper crowed, a little louder than necessary. The hulking menace stood quietly and narrowed his optics, not quite ready to accept the ease of the victory.
"Silas?" quiet though the voice was, it caught the attention of the silent navigational crew.
"Violet, what're you doing up, lass?" Ramsey asked, startled.
Without answering, the slight figure shuffled over to the lit map table, a warm blanket wrapped around her shoulders. Silas was bent over the projection with a laser level and a marker, sketching out coordinates.
"Medication wearing off?" he asked, somewhat gruffer now that he was in the midst of the crew. The girl shook her head.
"Non. I'm a little tired, but otherwise I feel fine." (Not entirely true, but Violet still held herself to unreasonable expectations.)
"Told you it would help," he offered her a brief smile and returned his attention to the table. Violet tiptoed to look at the maps.
"I thought we were over the Reykjanes Ridge?"
Skeeter brushed past her, carrying an armload of files. "Nah, you've been off-duty for a while. We're on the edge of the Sohm Plain, waiting on contact from the Decepticons."
Violet blinked vacantly. "Decepticons? Why?"
"Because, if the situation calls for it, we are going to torpedo the Autobot Space Bridge," Silas answered shortly.
As the girl silently digested this information, Ramsey could be heard to mutter, "It's a shame, you know. It's a crying shame. If we torch the Bridge, whoosh. There goes the 'Con's main chance at getting home."
Skeeter pushed his glasses up on the end of his nose and stared. "You actually want them to leave? What are you, nuts? Without the Decepticons, we're all dead!" There was a distracted scoff from the map table.
"Thank you for your confidence in me," Silas muttered sarcastically.
"There. Whelan, chart a secondary course for the Mid-Atlantic canyon. If things start looking bad for the 'Cons, we'll drive the Autotroopers into the rift." He stepped away from the maps and strode to the helm. "Radar, calculate distance to target. One ping only."
(a/n: if you know where that last quote came from, you're my hero.)
"The Autobots locked on to Cybertron," Jack warned the girls, "But not for long." The keyboard rattled like gunfire as he changed the commands. With a buzzing whine, the dishes rotated once more, back to their original positions.
In the depths of the Atlantic, what few coral formations had survived the first movement of the Bridge crumbled and fell away as it rotated once more. Soundwave pumped a fist and played a clip of fireworks exploding across his visor.
"Indeed, Soundwave. This can only be the secondary team's doing." Megatron agreed.
"Cliffjumper, explain!" Optimus loomed over the smaller Autobot ominously, and Cliffjumper shrank a little in his armor.
With a little squawk, he turned to the comm and, in a demanding tone born of fear, shouted, "Goldbug! What's going on down there?!"
The spymaster turned his helm away from the servers and let his optics go dark. Reaching out with his processor, he caught hold of the faint bio-electromagnetic signal that was his deployer. Physically, it had a body and mind of its own, yet it was utterly dependant upon him for its very survival. Let the others shrink back and mutter behind their masks: they didn't understand the wealth of potential in the human species.
Personally, Goldbug found that having an alien symbiote attached to his life force made things...simpler. Focusing on the flickering presence, the host impressed a single, imperative thought. Clear the base.
"How's it going, Jack?" Sierra asked, halting her pacing for a moment.
He shrugged and blew out a sigh from the corner of his mouth. "They moved the array again. Guess I'll just...fix it..." Somewhat irritated, the boy deleted Goldbug's commands and substituted his own.
"Hey, what happens if the 'Bots figure out they're being punk'd?" Sierra asked suddenly. There was a cold feeling in the pit of her stomach, and she was a little afraid of what might happen if she wrote it off as simply nerves.
Jack clicked his tongue and hissed his breath through his teeth, concentrating. "It's just virtual combat. They can't actually hurt us." he tried to ease her fears. "If it makes you feel better, you can comm Rani and see if she's spotted anything."
Miko reached up and punched Sierra's arm. Yeah! The 'Bots are probably miles away!
As if she'd jinxed them by saying it, the nanites functioning as Miko's auditory nerves suddenly flared their range of hearing, picking up soft footfalls in the corridor. The little girl's eyes widened and she pointed at the door, then her ears. The bugs are picking up somebody out there! she warned.
Easily, the girls fell back into the patterns of stealth and watchfulness.
Armed? Sierra asked, reaching for a fire axe on the wall. Miko pressed her ear to the graying wallpaper and listened. Putting out her thumb and forefinger, the girl signed gun. Sierra nodded.
Miko, get under one of the desks and stay there. Immediately, the smaller girl scrambled away from the door and tapped Jack's shoulder.
Company.
She jerked her head towards the door with worried eyes. The older teen gritted his teeth. Not now! There wasn't time!
"Sierra, take over!" he hissed, "Miko, text Rani!"
Sierra cast a skeptical look at the monitor, then at Jack.
Look, if you can help Starscream with his science experiments, you can hack the arrays. I already laid the groundwork, you just have to keep replacing the Autobot commands with mine.
With an urgency, the teens swapped places and Jack crouched in the shadows beyond the door, waiting. The office next to them suddenly had its door kicked in with a splintering crash. Miko scooted back behind the file cabinet and covered her mouth.
The door burst open, light from the hall spilling in around the tall frame of an armed man. He raised the submachine gun calmly, centering it on the back of Sierra's head.
"Young lady, it is so important to your future that you not touch another key."
Further threats were delayed when Jack kicked the gun from the side, not quite tearing it out of his grip, but loosening it enough that the boy could take hold of it in a desperate attempt to yank it away.
"Oh!" Liaison grunted, "Brought some friends, huh? That's smart! Though, to be fair, not getting involved with the Decepticons would have been smarter."
With one fierce tug, he pulled the weapon out of Jack's hands and sent him sprawling to the floor with a powerful backhand.
"Rani! Rani!" Miko urgently tapped into the comm from her hiding place. "The crazy guy from the Autobot base is in here! The one that you said hurt Violet. He's got a gun!"
In the outer compound, Airachnid's energon ran cold. "Oh Primus, no," she gasped. "Not here!" She clenched her servos. "The Pit with laying low!" she growled, and charged towards the building where the children were.
Liaison froze, finger on the trigger, and squinted down at the young man on the carpet. "Turn around, boy. Slowly."
Jack pushed himself up into a sitting position and turned around, blue eyes as cold as ice. For the moment, anger and a need to protect outweighed fear for the moment.
"Well I'll be scrapped," the rough voice chuckled. The gun was lowered and a calloused hand reached down to haul Jack to his feet. "Jackson Darby, I presume?"
There was iron behind the friendly smile, and Liaison tightened his grip when Jack tried to pull away.
It's okay, it's okay, Jack told himself, Don't know who the Pit this guy is, but if I can keep him distracted long enough, Sierra can—
Darby raised the gun again, one handed. "Young lady, didn't I just tell you to stop typing?"
Sierra shot a glance at the screen and wilted slightly. Goldbug had finished the calculations. The Autobots had finished targeting their homeworld.
The redhead stood slowly, biting her lip. "Okay! Okay! Don't shoot." she whimpered, but as she passed the console, she surreptitiously slipped the flashdrive up her sleeve.
"That's better." Liaison adjusted his hold on the submachine gun again and wrapped his free arm around Jack's throat, ignoring his struggles. John Darby was built of solid muscle, and the resistance put up by a sixteen year old was hardly a threat to him.
"Now, us men are going to walk out of here and have a little talk. Unfortunately, Jack bringing home a girlfriend wasn't on the agenda. Which is a shame, really, because you seem like a nice girl."
He raised the barrel again and Sierra flinched, waiting for the bullets. They never came. There was an empty clicking sound, followed by Jack's mocking laughter.
"Lose something?"
Sierra took advantage of the man's momentary confusion to pick up a ballpoint pen and jam it into the webbing between his fingers. A particularly fiery curse escaped Liaison's lips as he released Jack and shook out his hand. Jack darted away from him, dragging Sierra with him.
The Autobot agent schooled his features into neutrality once again.
"You stole my ammo clip, you little scamp!"
Suddenly, he stiffened, and his eyes hazed into a blank green. "Understood." he said to no one in particular. His eyes faded back to blue.
"Well kiddo, you lucked out this time. I don't have time to get the clip back and shoot your girlfriend. Come on."
Jack passed the ammo to Sierra and stood protectively in front of her. Thank heaven the man hadn't noticed Miko yet. "Why would I go anywhere with you?" he growled.
Liaison sighed. "Okay, apparently you missed the part where that wasn't a request. Get over here before I start breaking bones. If I have to come over there to get you, boy, believe me, you'll regret it."
Splat! A net of sticky webbing plastered the man to the wall.
"Touch the kids and die, Autobot scum!" Airachnid snarled. Liaison Darby jolted.
"I know that voice!" he whispered. A slow, wicked smile spread over his weathered face. "You're kidding me! She was one of you the whole time?"
His eyes moved to Jack's. "So they raised you as one of them, huh? Well, that makes you more useful than I thought!" He shut his eyes and focused all his attention on his host's life-force, fully relaying the situation.
Airachnid didn't know what was going on, but she didn't plan to stick around and find out.
"Knock Out, Bridge us back now!" she shouted, scooping up Miko in one hand and hovering over the other two protectively.
"Now? Aren't you inside a building?" the medic asked.
"Yes! With Goldbug and John Darby!" the spider-femme snapped. She ignored the shocked and questioning glances coming her way as the vortex opened.
"Go!" she ordered. The kids leaped into the portal in front of her, and she slipped through just as an enraged Goldbug burst through the wall, intent on freeing his deployer.
Rounded optics swirled and dilated suspiciously as the Ground Bridge shrank and vanished, then the Autobot turned to extract Liaison from the webbing.
"Nah, I'm alright," the man assured him. "They couldn't stop you, and better, I got a good look at them. The Decepticons have been keeping more secrets than we thought."
Aboard the Astyanax, Prime pushed Cliffjumper aside and touched the controls of the battered console. At once, the blackness of the ocean floor was lit by a massive circle of light.
"At last." he murmured, then strode away to the Ground Bridge.
In moments, he had reappeared atop the ship's hull with a massive boulder of the vile blood of Unicron. With a herculean heave, Optimus sent it hurtling through the water and through the Bridge. Megatron fired uselessly at it until it had passed the barrier.
Shaking his helm, the Decepticon subspaced his cannon and waited. The poison would course through the plates of the planet, like an infected wound, and the dead would walk again.
"Arise, my legions!" Optimus thundered in a voice unimpeded by the volume of water surrounding him.
There was no time for contemplation of possible endings. Perhaps his decision would doom his species to permanent exile, but Megatron refused to choose a dead Cybertron over the living world of his human family.
"Knock Out." he spoke softly, sadly. "We must destroy the Space Bridge. There is enough live energon within it to achieve detonation, but we lack a means of igniting it in this environment."
"Hold on, Lord Megatron! The kids have the schematics!" the red Decepticon assured him, then paused. "My lord...you realize this means we will never be able to go home?"
Megatron straightened his back struts and glared up at Optimus. Starscream moved to stand at his right, Soundwave at his left. "There is no other choice." he rumbled.
"Then by all means," Knock Out replied in a determined voice,"Let us light our darkest hour!"
Megatron turned to his followers. "Decepticons, take your positions and await Knock Out's direction. I will make my stand here."
Nodding, the other three each pushed off the silt with their pedes and propelled themselves into darker waters. The headlights of a semi, near invisible outside the light of the Space Bridge, neared and shifted with the transformation of the false Prime.
"Your soldiers are wise, Megatron. They have learned when to retreat!" he gestured to the disappearing forms of Breakdown and Starscream.
The silver mech bowed his helm slightly. "I hold no illusions about engaging your army, Optimus Prime. But—" and the great blade slid from its sheath with a low ringing tone, "I might derail its objective by removing its head."
Optimus allowed himself a derisive chuckle. "Highly unlikely, old friend, for I am infused with all the might of our planet's fallen!" Very slowly, he moved forward, equipping his double swords.
"One shall stand, one shall fall!" Megatron raised his weapon in a solemn gladiator's salute, then braced himself. Optimus charged, and the battle was joined.
Block. Twist. Jab. Side-step. Ram. Block.
Blow for blow, the titans countered each other, anticipating the opponent's moves almost before they were made. No set of brothers could have been more evenly matched.
"You should not have left me in Kaon, brother," Optimus snarled, catching Megatron's blade between his own and twisting it sharply to the side. Pauldrons locked, they strained against each other.
"It was not I who did the leaving!" Megatron responded, pulling away and landing a powerful hit to the Autobot's battlemask.
"Knock Out? We're in position." Breakdown whispered, crouched at the underside of the Bridge. "And hurry it up, will you?"
"Alright already, keep your plating on!" his old friend snapped, "Okay, here we go! Listen carefully!"
Beside him, Starscream fidgeted helplessly as he watched the duel above them. Megatron was beginning to lose energy—something Optimus used to his advantage. A brutal blow to the midsection sent the older warrior reeling, and he barely had time to raise his sword as a block.
Snap!
Starscream's jaw dropped as the broad blade settled lazily to the sand, independant of its wielder. A second punch cleared Megatron's pedes of the ocean floor, and the Autobot Prime seized one in order to flail the Decepticon about like a rag doll, finally dropping him, sparking on the sand. Optimus stood over him, blades drawn. He raised his arm to strike, and then—
"Master?"
Prime tipped his helm back in exasperation. "What is it now, Cliffjumper?" When he got back to the Astyanax, there was going to be pain.
"I'm not questioning your 'all seeing wisdom'," the insufferable mech spoke insolent words in a humble tongue, "But I think the Decepticons are up to something again...beneath the Space Bridge this time."
Optimus rolled his helm on his neck cables and smile beneath the mask. "Ah. Misdirection, Megatron? Aptly named, Decepticon. Still, I grant that you'd have made a fine Autobot." He swung the blades down—and they were caught on the forearms of his old foe.
"I chose my side," Megatron hissed, and Optimus noted the hum of a hand cannon too late. The force of the shot sent him rocketing back to the side of the Bridge, where Megatron peppered him with laser fire, keeping him at a distance.
"Cliffjumper!" the Autobot snapped, switching to vehicle mode, "My army approaches. Rendezvouz for pickup!"
Beneath the Space Bridge, all was prepared. Starscream and Soundwave strained against the turnstiles of an energon valve, reversing the current of the flow regulators within the structure.
"Current reversed, Knock Out," Starscream gasped, "Get us out of here before it detonates!"
Sudden laser fire cut off his transmission as Optimus Prime charged them. "One urchin left!" he growled, centering his fire on the Seeker.
Before he could shoot him down, he was knocked to the side by a torpedo. With a cry of pain, the Autobot extracted himself from the pillars of the Bridge, looking about for his assailant. The Frederick Douglass shot between the Autobot and his prey like a vast shark, and Soundwave—appropriately—played a clip from an old submarine movie in response.
"Way to go Dallas!"he chirped. The young spy raised his arms, prepared to unleash a sonic pulse.
"Whoa! Hold it, 'Wave," Starscream pulled one of the arms down. "Do that down here and you're likely to catch the attention of...other...lifeforms that use sound to find prey. We're not the biggest things on this planet, you know.
The Frederick Douglass fired again and again, until it had exhausted its store of missiles, leaving Optimus Prime dented, damaged, and very angry. He took aim at the MECH submarine, intent on finishing off the little pests who had dared attack him.
This time, Soundwave sprinted in from the side and jarred his aim. Just as the Space Bridge began to overload, tearing itself apart in pieces, the Prime's stray blast struck Starscream in the torso, knocking plating loose and setting him adrift.
Within the submarine, Silas's eyes widened. "Back reverse, full!" he bellowed, strapping himself into a chair and motioning Violet and Skeeter to do the same.
"Whelan, take us out of here! Aim for the canyons." Energon flares burst like strobe lights over the ship, nearly blinding the navigators.
"Brace for impact!" Silas commanded, gritting his teeth.
Optimus whirled about at the explosions. No. This could not be happening! He'd been so close. He charged the barrier of the dissolving Bridge, one hand stretched out towards the multitude of foul beings awaiting him on the other side.
He could almost reach one, surely, if he could pull that one demon through, the others would follow? Where was the Ground Bridge he'd ordered? He turned to find the Astyanax missing in action.
"Cliffjumper!" he roared, "Where is my ship?!"
The reply sounded concerned enough, but who would trust Cliffjumper?
"We would never make it, Prime! Don't be a fool! Retreat before that thing makes a new Abyss!"
Megatron's pedes pounded against the silt, making good time regardless of water displacement. Over his comm, June announced the arrival of the Decepticon Ground Bridge.
"Decepticons!" the warlord shouted, "Jump!"
One by one, they vanished into the portal. First Breakdown, then Megatron, then Soundwave, half-carrying Starscream. The portal closed, leaving nothing but dark water behind it. Just in time, for in the instant after they departed, the Space Bridge, and Optimus Prime with it, were eclipsed in a burst of fire and light, shattering the ground and sinking a new trench into the floor of the Atlantic. Massive waves thrashed at the surface, tall enough to capsize several aircraft carriers. The East Coast would be dealing with the catastrophic tidal waves' aftermath for a long, long time.
And then, just as suddenly as it had begun, it ended, and the bottom of the sea was dark once more.
"My fellow Autobots," Cliffjumper stood in the relative safety of the mesa, dark against the display screens of the command center.
"It is with deep sorrow that I note for the log...Optimus Prime's spark has been extinguished." He bowed his helm for a moment of respectful silence as the drones and upper-level Autobots daubed a broken circle of violet onto their shoulder guards to honor the fallen Prime. Then he lifted his head with a shark-like smile.
"All. Hail. Cliffjumper."
To be concluded.
Good gravy and trout that was long!
