Note: There's a lot of Hot Rod in this chapter, but do not get the wrong impression. Starscream is still the hero main character of this story. I simply had this particular plot in mind for Roddy and couldn't do without writing it!
Chapter 4:
The sun had set a while ago, but its light still cast a faint glow in the cracks between dark clouds on the distant horizon. It was beautiful, a sight to behold, and more so for a being who came from a world where no sun ever delivered such a show to its inhabitants' vision.
Unfortunately, Hot Rod was far too engrossed in his remorse-filled introspection to look at it, and he definitely should have been more aware of his surroundings. If not for the view, at least he would have looked up and seen the other approaching. But the menacing presence touched down less than ten mechafeet away from his brooding spot, and Hot Rod remained perfectly oblivious. Until the newcomer spoke, that is.
"What is a pretty face like you doing all alone in such a deserted place?" The voice was melodic, the smirk obvious on the face of its owner. Hot Rod was on his pedes the next instant and swiftly turned to face whoever he was to deal with.
The other observed him, arms crossed over his chest plates, his expression haughty and his stance confident. The red of his optics and the purple symbol printed on his wings told the Autobot what he had already suspected.
"Missed your ride home, Decepticon?" he asked, his weapon pointed at the other.
"You could say that," the mech replied.
Hot Rod couldn't put a name on that face. The ones who had attacked earlier had quite clearly been Megatron's cadre of Decepticons and he roughly knew who they were. Not so much for this one. All he could tell was that he was part of those particular models of fast fliers... the seekers, if he remembered his lessons well. This one was identical in built to his fellows, but he was night black from pedes to helmet with only red optics and a purple insignia to contrast with the plain paint job.
His attitude – by looks alone – wasn't aggressive, but Hot Rod should have known better than to not be wary of a mech only because he didn't seem armed. A canon suddenly swung from the Decepticon's back and shot him with cunning precision.
Right into my communication system too! Hot Rod realized, letting out a growl of pain mixed with annoyance.
He fired his weapon but the other moved aside, only a step necessary to dodge the shot, and smiled mockingly at the Autobot.
"I knew I was going to have fun with you!" the black flier stated before he charged on him.
Hot Rod braced for impact by reflex and cursed himself for not having thought of firing instead, but the Decepticon didn't actually hit him. Two clawed hands slid under his armpits and he was lifted in the air, carried by the laughing seeker.
"What are you doing!" the sport car protested. "Let go of me!"
He knew that was useless though. Indeed, the seeker merely laughed more. "Not just yet, Autobot!"
He flew fast and straight upward, taking his helpless charge high in the sky, far above the clouds.
"Now we are going to play a little game, you and I! I haven't given it a name yet, but, basically, I will grant your wish and 'let go of you'..." His grip on Hot Rod loosened slightly and the Autobot's spark lurched in its casing considering the fatal height they had reached. "And the game is... Will you die instantly when you'll crash... Or even before that happens?"
On that, the seeker let go of him and Hot Rod started his deadly free fall. The Decepticon waited a few kliks then dived after him, the twin guns hidden in his arms, plus the one coming from his back, firing at the falling Autobot.
Some of the shots hit the target, some were lost in the air. Hot Rod cried out in pain but resisted the urge to scream in terror as the ground – and his doom – approached too fast. Unable to prevent his fall, he could not even get the leverage to shift his position and fire back at his tormentor; He couldn't do anything else than blindly fire his blaster towards the sky above, hoping to get a lucky shot at the seeker who was still diving after him.
But the sleek flyer moved gracefully out of reach of his blasts and kept his little game on. His shots mostly missed Hot Rod's vital components though, failing to penetrate plating and hitting only minor outer components, as if the seeker didn't want him too damaged. Or was it simply coincidence and was his lucky star shinning down on him? Well, if he could even qualify himself as 'lucky' in such a situation as the one he was currently in!
There was a trail of energon in his wake as he kept falling rapidly with nothing more than air to hold him back. The ground was due to meet him in a matter of seconds. Hot Rod braced himself for impact, for imminent termination and told himself this was what he deserved after all. Yes, this all was a punishment he had to endure for killing Optimus Prime, and what better judgement for a murderer than death itself?
Except that the crash – and death, for that matter – never happened. His attacker caught him before he could as much as touch the ground, his head lightly brushed against the rocks and he was airborne once again.
The seeker's sinister laugh rang in his audio. "Why end the game now when we're having so much fun, don't you agree?" he asked rhetorically before speeding up skyward.
Hot Rod felt too dizzy to comprehend what had just happened and what was about to happen next. There was one thing he knew for sure: He was no more than a toy in this Decepticon's hands and, as much as he hated himself for the events of the day, he wasn't certain he deserved such a humiliation.
This round, he was pulled even higher than before. His equilibrium rendered crazy by vertigo, he was dumped into the void a second time. The game started anew: The seeker dived and fired after him, this time managing to blast the weapon clear off his hand. With his last means of defence gone, he was condemned to endure the 'game' until the other 'player' would grow bored of it and allow him to die either way. He did not delude himself with hopes of rescue: A curfew had been established in Autobot City to make the most of the automated defences now that they were in such a fragile state, and it was too late for any Autobot to be wandering outside or even come to look for him.
The breems that followed were a blur of pain and dizziness for Hot Rod. At the end, he lost count of how many times the seeker caught him before he crashed and flew higher and higher to do the same thing again, or for how long he was fired upon.
When it eventually ended, Hot Rod was swaying on the edge of consciousness. His body was so damaged by the countless hits he had received that he looked nothing like the aesthetically pleasant and colourful robot he had been. More like something, had it only been yesterday, Wheeljack wouldn't have even be able to scavenge spare parts from. For that matter, his internal condition wasn't any better than his external one. His optics were shattered and gone, some of his most sensitive joints and a few minor systems had suffered significant damage including tears, breaks, leaks and burns, and he could feel a crack in his spark casing.
He couldn't move but he could still hear the other's snickers as the seeker let go of him for an umpteenth time. This round, though, he didn't drop into a free fall like before, no, he found himself floating. The Decepticon had brought him so high that he was no longer submitted to Earth's attraction; He was now in the void of space.
His tormentor flew lazily above him. "I hope you have enjoyed the ride!" he said, and Hot Rod seriously hoped he would not be killed by a mech as pathetic as this one. Even the worst of punishments had to have its limits!
"Sadly, I can no longer keep you company. I have my aft plating to polish for you to kiss later!"
Hot Rod didn't even bother to groan at that taunt. He heard the jet fly away, but couldn't see him vanish as if he had never been there at the first place. Hot Rod didn't stay alone for long, though. Soon, he could feel another presence, very different from the previous seeker. An imposing, downright overwhelming and powerful presence that was nothing like what he had encountered before.
"Who...?" he weakly croaked.
Suddenly, he was bathed in a stream of energy, warm and bright. "My name is Unicron." A strong, deep voice engulfed him and reverberated in every functioning relay of his body. Like claws, fear pierced his spark, and he wished he could at least see the other… if only to know when to brace himself for more pain.
"You have nothing to fear, Rodimus Prime," the one named 'Unicron' continued.
"I... I... am not!" Surprised and confused, he tried to explain, to tell the entity that his name was Hot Rod and that he wasn't a Prime at all, but the words clogged inside his vocaliser.
"You are not yet, but it is your inevitable destiny!" Unicron said, as if reading the Autobot's thoughts.
Not that Unicron knew of the future, or of how things were supposed to happen or not – or to have happened for that matter. He just knew how to pull one's strings and Hot Rod was the perfect puppet. Not as perfect as Megatron would have been, of course, but this depressed Autobot would do just fine, for a time.
"Not… possible!" Hot Rod tried to argue and wished his vocaliser would allow more than a few sputtered words.
"You are the one, the only one, who can release the power of the Matrix! Not Ultra Magnus, you!"
Hot Rod listened in confused silence.
"Very soon, the Decepticons will come back with more troops, more energy and fire power! Earth's Autobot and human forces combined will not even stand the assault and Megatron's army will pour down on the planet, enslaving his inhabitants and destroying all who will not be willing to serve their new master. Defeated, the Autobots will be hunted down and terminated to the last one and this will mark the beginning of a Decepticon tyranny that will spread across the entire galaxy and, then, beyond."
If Hot Rod still had his optic sensor ridges, they would be up right now. "H...How? M… Megatron is... terminated!"
"Megatron is not terminated. He's very much alive and already planning your demise! And 'I' am the only one who can stop him... But…"
"But?"
"My powers are confined and cannot be released. For my spark energy to be fully restored, I need the Autobot Matrix of Leadership"
The knowledge that 'Unicron' had a spark made Hot Rod feel more at ease – despite his physical pain – and more comfortable in the entity's presence. Unicron began to seem trustworthy. Certainly, if he tried to help and warned him about an imminent Decepticon attack, this Unicron person was most probably an Autobot like he himself was! Or, that was Hot Rod's logic at that moment...
"...can't ...damaged"
"You are dying," Unicron deadpanned and Hot Rod froze even if he already knew his condition was dire. "I can reverse the process and give you another chance at life"
Hot Rod immediately smiled.
"But in exchange, you'll have to help me restore my spark energy. You will have to bring the Autobot Matrix of Leadership to me."
And there was an unspoken 'or else' at the end of his speech, but Hot Rod, as desperate as he was, didn't hear it.
"Ultra...Magnus?"
"You are the rightful Prime! You are to be given the Matrix! This situation cannot suffer wrong choices or hesitation. Let the Matrix to Ultra Magnus and not only will you be terminated, but all the Autobots and the creatures of Earth will join in your fate!"
What choice did he have? Hot Rod wondered. Of course he wanted to redeem himself for what he had done, and this did sound like the perfect opportunity to do so. But how would he be able to explain this to the others and force Ultra Magnus, Optimus Prime's personally appointed heir, to give up the Matrix to a nobody Autobot? Would he have to force his new leader, like Unicron suggested? No, he could not do that...
But if what Unicron told him about Megatron and the Decepticons was true? Then it would be a necessary action to take. He wasn't entirely certain, but also he didn't want to risk so many Autobot and human lives because of a small hesitation.
Also, he didn't want to die just yet, not like this.
"I accept..."
The next instant, he was surrounded by searing heat and for a moment he thought he was being burned to ashes, but the pain subsided before the thought could morph into conviction. There was no more suffering but he did feel extremely weird – as if all his gears were shifting inside and outside of him, as if he was some sort of three dimensional puzzle. His body was not only being repaired, he realized, it was being changed.
The process, surprisingly, didn't take long.
"Go and get the Matrix of Leadership!" Unicron's words echoed in his head, but when he onlined his freshly repaired optics, he saw no one around.
Next he knew he was sitting on the very same spot he had been brooding earlier that orn, the Earth's ground firmly under his body. All that had happened to him, the Decepticon attack and his encounter with Unicron, could have passed for some weird dream. Until he looked down at himself and realized that his body was now all purple.
Oh, he would have some serious explaining to do once he'd be back in Autobot City.
OooOooO
Back on Cybertron, matters weren't any less out of normality's spectrum.
There may have been more to Soundwave than the passive and silent persona he appeared to be. But if there was something to be said about him from his look alone and which was true, it was that the communication officer was not an emotional mechanic. Of course he knew of fear and, like most Decepticons, the feeling thrilled him more than anything. It brought about all he needed to be flourish among his comrades. But otherwise, he wasn't easily moved or confused, if he was at all.
But there, in Starscream's laboratory, watching the seeker remove his leader's outer platings piece by piece, he couldn't contain a few shudders of discomfort or suppress a sense of nausea from reaching his consciousness.
But more affecting than the sight of Megatron's bared inner circuitry, was the image of Starscream spending so much energy to save his leader. The seeker was working quickly and efficiently, jaws clenched in concentration. His blue hands were skillfully tearing handfuls of burned or torn components out of the warlord innards, only to plug more life saving devices into the ports left behind. He spoke only to ask – or rather, order – Soundwave to pass him tools, to put something aside or to pull yet another chord from the life saving devices placed around the berth Megatron was laying on.
Megatron's still functional state was due to these machines pumping and cycling energy through his systems, something his damaged energon pump could no longer accomplish. His outer body was so thoroughly maimed that it would have to be entirely re-manufactured and stocks of spare parts would have to be raided to find the numerous components and systems that had to be replaced.
Never Soundwave had never felt as close to being helpless or useless as then. He couldn't as much as start thinking of something that had to be done that Starscream hadn't already thought of and acted upon. In the end, the third in command couldn't do anything but whatever Starscream asked him to do, which he didn't like one bit!
He had always liked to think that he knew the seeker enough to estimate what the second in command was up to. Not that he needed to prod his mind to find out, disregarding for a moment that Starscream never allowed him to anyway, but the red and white seeker was simply that predictable. He was a pathological traitor and that was a constant about him!
But here, all of a sudden, Soundwave couldn't figure Starscream out anymore. It was a new situation, a new behaviour for the seeker, one the telepath couldn't comprehend enough to speculate what the second in command's true objectives were. He had to find a way into Starscream's wicked CPU. For the sake of this army, if not for Megatron, he had to!
The shrieking voice of the obviously agitated seeker pulled him out of his thoughts.
"Soundwave! Are you listening? I need the electroshock generator now!"
He'd been lost so deep in his musings that he had not even realized that they were losing Megatron. He reacted swiftly and pushed the machine in position, wasting no time before he sent a current of millions of volts – as per Starscream's instructions – into their unresponsive patient.
"Again! More!" Starscream shouted over the noise of static. Megatron's brain unit had yet to restart and every klik passing could result into irreparable damage to his CPU.
At the third shock, the brain unit restarted. Starscream decided it was a good idea to hook it up to a pulse regulator. It would keep Megatron's brain function automatically.
Next component that had to be taken care of was the spark casing; There was a crack in it. It looked small and harmless if one looked at it quickly, but a closer inspection showed the wound to be deep and left no doubt the operation would be a delicate one. A small shard of the casing had slipped inside and was now pressed at a most inconvenient perpendicular angle between the casing and the spark itself. If they tried to move it, the shard could enter the spark.
"Probability of termination if attempted to be removed: 73%," Soundwave stated, and Starscream nodded. He needed no elaboration. The termination would be immediate, he knew as much. If the shard entered the spark, its energy would be released instantly. With Megatron's systems unable to control it, the spark's chaotic energy would soon consume itself to extinction.
"How long can he survive if the shard is not removed?" Starscream asked his 'assistant'.
"Duration: Uncertain. Estimation: Two orns if Megatron is kept in stasis and not moved."
Starscream sighed. "I have no choice then. It will have to be removed at some point!"
"Observation: Spark energy control necessary." Soundwave droned the information out. He derived no small comfort in the knowledge he was finally being useful.
Starscream focused his gaze on him, maybe for the first time since he had entered the seeker's laboratory earlier that orn. "Only a perfectly stable spark's energy can keep an uncontrolled spark energy under control!" The seeker retorted. "Where are we going to find a spark that is perfectly stable?" And he had a point. Only a very, very small percentage of the Transformers that were functioning perfectly possessed a perfectly stable spark. They were rare, because each spark was unique and their frequencies and cycles were different for each mechanism. The 'perfect cycle' ( which made for a perfectly stable spark) was something that mostly existed as an indication, used as a reference to gauge one's spark stability.
"Pessimism: Unnecessary." Soundwave replied. "A spark with a stability coefficient close to 5/12 within 0,2/12 units will operate effective control."
5/12 where 5 was the amplitude and 12 the wavelength, was the 'perfect cycle' making for a perfectly stable spark. It was extremely rare and the number of Transformers possessing a spark close to that value didn't make the chances of finding one much higher. A difference of 0,2 in amplitude for the same wavelength was a very small difference. They had perhaps one chance on a million to find someone who would satisfy the criteria.
Starscream sighed, very aware of that fact. "Then, the best course of action would be to test all the soldiers in order to find one suitable for the spark connection. The test will be conducted at once!" Starscream ordered. "Meanwhile, Megatron's damaged systems have to be repaired or rebuilt if necessary. You will inform Hook and his team of all this! Make sure that he'll know that I will tolerate no discussion on the matter!"
"As you command." Soundwave almost froze at his own words. Never had Starscream been able to exert such authority over him, even though he was his superior officer. This time, the blue tape deck had to admit that Starscream's decisions were for once very legitimate and Soundwave couldn't think of anything better to do than to follow the seeker's orders.
"Also, you will conduct the tests. You are the most qualified for this." Starscream informed Soundwave. "I will be available on call for any matter that require attention. And I mean ANY!"
"As you command," Soundwave repeated.
"You can take some time to refuel and check on your cassettes." Starscream's tone softened slightly. "And if you need to recharge..."
"Negative," Soundwave cut in, "Recharge: Unnecessary."
"Well, good then. Inform me as soon as the tests results are known."
"As you command," Soundwave droned out for the third time that same breem. He hoped this wouldn't become a habit.
Starscream nodded once and, after checking that all the machinery connected to Megatron was properly functioning and his leader's state as stable as could be given the circumstances, simply left.
Soundwave watched him leave, then turned his gaze back to Megatron, observed his inert form for a short moment, and eventually exited the lab to do as he had been ordered.
To be continued.
A.N: If you wish to leave a comment ( show of appreciation or critiques are a big part of my motivation to write the next chapter of a story.), I'd love to hear your opinion on the 1986's Transformers movie. What did you like/Didn't like in it? I'm curious.
Another thing: Would you like to see some 'romance' in this fic or not?