Chapter 12 – Terror's End
"Foolish Humans! Nothing stops the might of Devastator!"
The massive green Decepticon combiner roared as he repelled the barrage of fire coming from all the troops on the ground. The humans and Autobots continued to attack the creature together as they poured on the barrage of weapons fire at him. Missiles, machine guns, tank shells, everything they could muster against this walking giant failed to stop him as he continued to rip the area apart. The gigantic robot ripped the tanks in half, stopped on the ground with such force that it flung the troops back for miles. In the carnage, Devastator laughed with delight as if this was a sick form of fun, nothing could stop him now, not even the Autobots dashing round trying to damage him as well. From a distance, Archeville's second in charge, Commander West watches the futile battle and activates his cellular phone.
"This is West…" The man sighs with a twinge of angst. "Is my god damn weapon charged yet? Or do I have to come down there and crank that sucker by hand!"
"Sir, yes sir." The nervous male voice replies on the phone. "Forgive us for not contacting you…the tremors shaking the underground base are rattling the staff's nerves and we're scrambling to get the weapon raised. All hell is breaking loose down here!"
"Screw your assessments Soldier!" West screamed in a vicious tone. "All hell is breaking loose up here as well and there's nothing to stop it! Raise the weapon and kill this son of a bitch before he levels the whole god damn base both up and down!"
After flipping the cell phone off, the sound of Optimus Prime's horn blares from behind him. The Commander looks behind with wide eyes and suddenly leaps out of the way as Prime and the other Autobots drive past the man as they just narrowly miss him; the three Autobots rush into battle and encircle the monster robot while the others help to close the gap in-between them.
"Autobots!" Prime screams. "You know the plan, keep him occupied until I give the word…let's get to work!"
"Yeeeeeeeee-haaaaaa!" Hound screams as he and Smokescreen separate apart and rush towards Devastator at full speed.
Both Hound and Smokescreen unfold their missile launchers from their side panels and throw everything they have at Devastator. The explosion causes the green menace to block the smoke and flame with his hand as he tries to clear the air and target them with his eyes. Through his ruby colored vision, he takes aim with his massive weapon and fires at them at point blank range. The laser shatters the ground as they swerve out of the way and nearly makes them loose their balance. Optimus Prime steers past the smoldering crater as he drives near and uses his mirrors to see the two Autobots he needs behind him.
"Red Alert and Sideswipe keep in front until I give the signal." Prime again orders out loud.
"Rodger that Prime." Sideswipe replies.
"I just know I'm going to regret doing this." Red Alert moans.
The rest of the Autobots rushed in and quickly transformed into their robot modes. Jazz finally joined the team as he too rushed in and took command of the group firing up at the massive Decepticon.
"Ok Bots! Target that massive 'Con and lets see if we can do some damage!"
As the stream of laser fire bombarded Devestator, the weapon bay door began sliding open on the ground. The strong glow of the energy from the purple canon slowly rising up caught the massive robot's eye.
"Ahhh…" The Decepticon says as he turns to see it behind him. "Now you bring me a gift humans? How thoughtful…I shall use it to eliminate your whole species in one swift stroke!"
Watching from a distance, Commander West folds his arms together and snickers at the giant's remark.
"Not before I use it against you robot. A taste of your own medicine."
As Optimus Prime and the others drive around the giant Decepticon again, they too notice the ground bay doors opening and the weapon slowly rising out.
"Now Prime?" Sideswipe asks as he keeps ahead of the leader.
"Not yet…" Optimus replies.
"Now Prime?" Red Alert repeats nervously as he two tries to manage a swift speed ahead.
"Not yet…almost…"
Inside Optimus Prime, the monitor screen views an image of both Devastator and the huge energy weapon rising up at the same time. A flash of numbers and calculations suddenly appear over the image as Prime quickly sees the answer and makes a target.
"Now! Red Alert! Sideswipe! PUNCH IT!"
The two sleek vehicles drive well beyond Optimus Prime and race ahead to where Devastator stands. Both Autobots do a one eighty and begin driving towards their leader at full power. Their wheels spin enough smoke to cause a massive phloem behind as they speed towards him. Blaster, standing far away from the battle, notices the two cars changing course and quickly opens up his leg coverings to reveal the massive speakers built into them.
"Alright, that's my cue! Time to Rock and Roll!" He yells with delight.
A massive blast of heavy rock music to the tune of "Nothing Gonna Stand In Our Way", a revamped song from Spectre General and now being played by the band Sum 41. The shockwaves from the ultra-high volume music shoot out across the plains and sweep some of the humans off their feet as they get caught in the updraft of it. The music is loud and thumping, the ultra sonic wave hits Devastator full on and begins to make the giant Decepticon vibrate in pain.
"What? What is this!" The green goliath shouts. "The noise is unbearable! Aaaaarrggghhh!"
Optimus Prime still driving at full speed suddenly opens his back trailer doors and unfolds a pair of massive rocket boosters. As they fully unfold, the thrusters engage and send Prime hurling towards Sideswipe and Red Alert at an even faster rate of speed. Both Autobots begin to lower their forward hoods and scrape their noses to the ground. The Autobot leader finally reaches them and uses their hoods like a launching ramp as his wheels touch onto their metal and launches upward. Soaring into the air, Prime switches on his ultra high beam lights and blinds Devastator as he comes straight up into his face. Everyone watches this amazing feet of stunt driving as if it was going in slow motion. The shockwaves were shaking Devastator apart, while the lights off of Prime were blinding his vision as he suddenly turned to see Optimus coming at him; the human weapon behind was almost fully risen just as the blaring sound of the Autobot leader's horn blared away.
"HEAD'S UP!" Prime shouted as he delighted in seeing the giant's surprised look.
Optimus smashed into Devastator's face, the impact sends his head whipping backwards and causing him to fall on top of the weapon in behind. The laser cannon exploded and shattered from the sheer weight of the massive being, together the weapon and Devastator fell back into the open hole below. A flash of bright orange and red flame shot out from the two colliding, as if hell had been opened for all to see; the ground shook from the impact of the two finally hitting the bottom, Optimus Prime transformed into robot mode in mid-air and landed hard back onto the ground. Crouched onto one knee and his fist impacted in the soil, the leader sat in the newly formed crater he made from his fall. The Autobots shouted in joy as they saw the results, their great and powerful leader managed to take out the huge robot in one massive strike.
"Booyeah! You da man Prime!" Jazz howled in the distance.
The humans were in total awe. The soldiers couldn't help but join in the cheering with the Autobots, it was a grand victory that none had ever seen before. West was so bewildered with what Prime had just done, that he dropped his cell phone and gawked with his mouth open.
"The weapon…no…the weapon!" He muttered in his shocked state.
Blaster turned off his music and folded his legs back into their proper form.
"Now that's what I call a Head Banger. Heh!"
Optimus Prime rises up from his crouching position and steps out of his impact hole. Walking over to the gathering group of Autobots, who all transform back into their robot modes, he gives a sigh and cracks his hydraulic knuckles.
"Good work all of you. Especially you two Red Alert and Sideswipe, hope I didn't ruin your paint job too much."
"Nothing to it Prime…I love it when a plan comes together." Sideswipe laughs as he taps his hood with the tread marks still on them.
"That was the most dangerous, most reckless, stupidest thing I've ever seen you do Optimus…" Red Alert growls as he shakes his fist. Then his eyes relax and he begins rubbing his forehead. "But then again…so was my little stunt as well. Ow. I think I'm going to need to have a stress pill and a little lie down after all this. My nerves are shot!"
Blaster joins the group and gives a howl of joy.
"Ooh MAN! That was so cool O.P.! So I guess that petty much ends that huh?"
Suddenly a low growl comes out from the smoldering, fiery filled hole where the giant lays. The echo of it even makes the humans take notice as they all freeze in their tracks. Prime looks back at the pit with wide eyes and then quickly turns his head back to the other Autobots.
"Oh you just had to jinx it didn't you, Blaster."
"Oh man…what now Prime?" Bumblebee asks with concerned look.
"There's only one thing to do in a situation like this."
"And that would be?" Hound inquires scratching his head.
"RUN!" The leader shouts at them all.
As the group hears the roar of Devastator getting louder, they all quickly dash from the area. A massive purple hand appears from the hellish fire, scorched from flames and the metal torn in the fingers, the huge hand of the Constructicon combiner clutches onto the ground above with a tight grip.
"AUTOBOTS! You…you shall PAY for this! I shall crush you all and scatter your remains across this planet! Garraaah!" The angered robot shouts as he tries to lift himself up.
As West continues to stand there and watch, one of the soldiers comes over to him and grabs his collar in hysteria.
"West! West! For god sakes! They're calling you sir!"
"Who is?" The shaken human leader mutters.
"Who? Who do you think? The weapon operators underground! Sir…the weapon is still building power!"
"Shut it off then." He simply says in his confused mentality.
"They can't shut it off! The power build up is too great…it's going critical! Don't you get it? It's gonna blow at any second!"
West snaps out of his stupor and realizes what that means. With nothing to turn the flow of power off or release the energy, the entire area is now a death trap. The two of them begin running for their lives as they call the other troops to move back. Prime sees Agent West running away and notices the rising bright green glow coming from the pit as Devastator continues to pull himself out slowly.
"Oh…my…" He gasps. "AUTOBOTS! DON'T LOOK BACK! JUST TRANSFORM AND ROLL FOR YOUR VERY LIVES!"
All of them transform and begin increasing their speed away from the base camp. Prime notices the direction of West and starts to run after him. The base commander doesn't even dare look back at the continuous glow of the weapon energy build up and also doesn't even notice Optimus Prime reaching down to scoop him up. Devastator, still trying to get out of the deep pit, watches them all flee completely unaware of the danger below him.
"That's right you maggots! Run! I shall spare no one from my wraith…I am indestructible! Nothing can stop me now!"
The light below grows brighter and brighter. Now the giant robot suddenly takes notice of it and gazes down with a wide surprised look.
"What the - ? Oh…shit!"
With that final phrase, the laser weapon explodes beneath him and sends a massive column of green energy spiraling into the sky. The ground throughout the entire valley splits apart into cracks and suddenly makes the pit grow wider and wider with everything sinking back towards the energy beam. Prime finally grabs hold of the human commander and quickly transforms.
"We're dead! We're all dead!" The man screams.
"Hold on, this is going to be one hell of a blast!" The leader shouts at the man gasping for air.
The Autobot leader races to keep ahead of the cracking foundation as the green light pierces through all around. As they finally manage to get just beyond the last one opening up in front of them, the entire area grows deadly quiet for a second, and then the energy soon disperses like a nuclear blast. The force of it throws Prime and all others across the remaining stretch of solid ground. The blast shatters the rocky terrain all around and even manages to reduce the mountains near by into debris as it rips through them all. The ground trembles and quakes as the explosion ends, rocks fall from the sky and rain down on the many still alive below. The green light begins to die down and the earthquake from it subsides slowly; the soft red hue of the molten core of the blast point keeps a dim light in the dark starry night. Now the sounds of humans crying out in pain ring out and mix with those trying to shout orders at the few surviving troops. The Autobots all climb out of the rock they were buried in and some even manage to show that they had saved a few of the humans themselves in the process.
"Sweet Cybertron's moon." Inferno says as he rises up and rubs his head. "That was a blast I'd sure like to forget. Could have been worst though I suppose."
"What do you mean…could have?" Bumblebee groans as he climbs out of his rock and ash. "This is the worst it can get!"
"When you've seen the amount of carnage the Decepticons have done in the past like I have…" The red robot says as he shows the group of humans he managed to save. "Trust me…this could have been a lot worst then it was."
Bumblebee shakes his head and looks at him. "Well, somehow Inferno…I have to disagree with you there."
The yellow robot with his bright glowing blue eyes looks out into the valley as he scans the area full of dead and wounded humans.
"Nothing is worst then this."
Optimus Prime is lying on his side in tractor-trailer mode, battered and covered in rocky soil, the leader groans as he tries to recover from the blast. His door quickly pops open and Agent West pulls himself out of Prime's cab. The man stumbles as he crawls out of him and collapses to the ground. Prime quickly transforms and stands over the trembling man as he gazes at the quake from the destruction. Never has his eyes looked so concerned or so horrified by such a sight. The cries of human suffering ripped into his heart like a painful energy spike. Tilting his head in sorrow, he gave a simple sigh and held his face with remorse.
"Constructions…that can only mean one thing. Megatron."
The leader balled his fist and gave an angered peer into the sky.
"I should have known that crashing the ship into ocean wouldn't have killed him. Now we're all paying for that oversight. We should have made sure he was gone forever…I should have made sure…"
West coughs below the massive robot and makes Prime take notice of him. West was bruised and bleeding from a gash on his forehead, wiping away the blood from his eyes, the man looked up at Optimus staring back down at him. His large robotic hand reaches down at the man and picks him up off the ground. Optimus holds him out in front to show him what's left of this secret base.
"Take a good look!" Prime shouts. "There's your control! There's what you've brought to this world. Death, destruction, and a whole lot of trouble. Technology you humans have no understanding about and destroying life as if you were no better then the Decepticons. Is all this worth keeping your stupid secrets? Is this what you want for your kind? Tell me…how does it look to you? How does it look!"
All that could be seen was the biggest crater anyone on Earth could imagine. It went down for miles as the molten lava cooled and exposed the remains of what was left. The underground lair was totally exposed and looked as if it stretched down as large as the abyss itself. The continuing howls of the wounded people grew as West just covered his mouth as if he was going to be sick. The smell of burning rock and flesh filled the air, but the only thing on his mind still at this moment was…where is Doctor Archeville?