Chapter 4
Inside UDC Central's medical wing, a rather short green and white transformer walks the halls, holding flat semi-transparent board in his singular hand, looking over several readouts for a recently admitted patient. "They're lucky..." He mumbles to himself in British accent. A door opens for him as he approaches and enters a room, where we see the four Aerialbots standing around a table, on which lays Slingshot in robot mode, who has definitely seen better days, as he is hooked up to several large machines.
The Autobot doctor sets his charts on a nearby desk and walks over to the group. "You're going to have to give me some room here, guys." He says and walks over to Slingshot, and then up to them, his visor-like optics glowing faintly.
"So how is he, Lifeline?" Air Raid asks eagerly.
"Your lucky you got him here so soon. I don't think he would have survived too long after the damage he took. He'll live, but just barely. It might be a few days before he even recovers consciousness. And even when he does, it will be another week at best before we can release him considering the extent of his damages. It took several tries just to jump start his transformation cog..."
"It doesn't seem fair that Captain Ego got released so soon,. With Devastator planet side, Superion is need more then he is!" Skydive says, slamming his fist down upon the table.
Lifeline glares at Skydive and walks over to him, poking him harshly with the multi-tool attachment that serves as his left hand. "That is PRECISELY the reason I'm keeping Slingshot here till he is at one hundred percent. If one of your team is injured, then so is Superion. Unlike Sky Lynx who's two components can work just as well individually as they can combined. " He says angrily at Skydive.
Suddenly a pale green and white fembot rushes in. "Lifeline! We have a major emergency!"
Lifeline looks away from the Aerialbots and to his nurse. "What is it this time, Refit?" He asks snapping just a slight bit, still a bit upset with Skydive's attitude. Today has not been a good day to be a medic.
Refit humphs and crosses her arms. "Thats no way to speak to your assistant." She says with a slight scowl. "Anyways, Ultra Magnus just arrived towing Computron's body. It seems that Devastator bored a large hole right through him."
Lifeline's optics brighten at hearing this "Oh slag..." He says and rushes out the door past his nurse. Really wasn't a good day to be a medic... First Slingshot, then Sky Lynx, now Computron... He didn't see this day getting any better while Devastator was on a rampage. Rushing through the front doors of the clinic he halts in his tracks seeing the sparking body of Computron.
Gizmo looks from from Lifeline "You can save his life, right? They can't die like this!" He says in his youthful ignorance.
Lifeline looks down to the boy. "I'm not sure... I'm not used to this kinda damage... I came online during a time of peace... I don't have much experience beyond checkups and minor repairs. I really wish my mentor First Aid was here, he'd be more fit to handle this but his unit got restationed on Earth so I'm rather short handed... Bring him in, my staff will see what we can do. But Devastator really needs to be stopped before it gets any worse, last thing we need is for someone to go offline."
Ultra Magnus nods softly "We are doing our best, I have a special team assigned to monitor his movements. But rest assure Lifeline, I won't allow anyone to die on my watch." Ultra Magnus says confidently as he places his hand on Lifeline's shoulder He turns to look to Gizmo. "I think you should stay here, You seen what Devastator is capable of. I can't have yourself risking yourself against him. Besides, I think you'd be more useful to Lifeline here. If you can scratch build your own transtector, you should be able to do repair work." He says with a slight grin to the boy.
Gizmo, as Armorhide, looks up to Ultra Magnus seeming a bit disappointed that he's being benched so soon, though he grins as his optics light up at Ultra Magnus' complement, suddenly seeing this as a bit of a challenge, the chance to work on and repair a Fusilateral quintrocombiner, probably the most complex creations the Transformers had, was just to great to pass down. "You can count on me, Magnus!"
Ultra Magnus smiles and nods "I need to get back to the front lines before we suffer anymore casualties." He says as he transformers and drives off, hoping that Rodimus and Goldbug haven't been smashed to pieces yet.
----
Devastator continues to rush forward at a breakneck pace towards Crystal City, his mind focused completely on his goal, and anything that gets in his way only gets flattened. Luckily most Autobots have been advised to keep their distance thanks to the efforts of Rodimus and Goldbug who constantly send out warnings to any in the area as they continue to follow the hulking beast.
"There has to be something more we can do..." Rodimus complains "We can't just let him reach his goal."
"And what do you propose? Attack him head on? You seen what he did to Computron. We wouldn't even registered as speed bump. We have to be smart about this. If he was the dumb brute we're used to, this wouldn't be a problem.."
"I just wish Firebolt was still around. We'd at least be able to distract him, while you get to Crystal City." Rodimus replies.
"Even that is too risky. He'd noticed one of you two and you'd be done for."
"Screw this." Rodimus says frustratedly, and revs his engine and drives off towards Devastator at full speed."
"What the slag are you doing?"Goldbug asks as he speeds up as fast as he can to keep up with Hot Rod.
"Playing it safe won't get us anywhere. I know better then most that just spinning your wheels and worrying about what could be and what should won't win you any battles. I decided long ago that I wasn't going to worry about that kind of stuff any more. I'd rather die heroically then let a monster like that do what he wants. You do what you have to and I'll do what I have to."
"But..."
"No buts. That is an order!" He says strongly. "I'm stronger and faster then you are anyways. I'll hold out better then you could. Your better at covert stuff anyway, so go and be covert!" Rodimus says and pulls away from the little golden colored Voltswagon not allowing Goldbug a chance to get in another word.
"Dammit Hot Rod..." Goldbug mutters to himself. "You better not get yourself killed..."
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"Crystal City is just a few clicks away, we're almost there!" Astrotrain reports gleefully, before crying out in pain. "Arguh!" His right wing going up in flames. "I'm losing control, I'm going to crash!" He says as he spirals out of control and smashes into the cold hard metal ground.
Rodimus transforms back to his car mode and speeds away into a near by alleyway right before Devastator spots him. "That takes care of his eye in the sky; Now just for the big lug himself... Be much easier if I had some backup..."Right at the moment Devastator roars out as a large blast strikes him, Rodimus peaks out from the alley way and his optics go bright. "Omega Supreme!"
"The time has come to settle this, Devastator." The large gray behemoth says, as he glares at his most hated of foes, firing another blast from his conical arm. Devastator staggers back in pain as he charges. "Omega Supreme!" He roars and slams his fist right into the face of Omega, cracking the screen some. Rodimus rushes out and fires with his twin guns, barely a bug bite for the large monster, but enough to allow Omega to regain some composure and grabs Devastator with his large claw and tosses him into a near by building the collapses under his weight.
"I will not let you harm Crystal City!" Omega says displaying two of the few emotions he still has left, hate and anger. Devastator back hands Omega Supreme as he stands up and begins to clobber the Autobot with all his might. Down below Rodimus barely dodges laser fire from a slightly recovered Astrotrain, his right wing sparking heavily. "Think your so smart huh? Hit and run? All you Autobots are cowards." He says and fires again, Rodimus darting into an alleyway. "Run you miserable coward! Let me show you what real fear is!" Astrotrain growls and stalks after his prey.
"I'm no coward, Astrotrain. I'm just getting you away from your large friend." He says with a grin and fires at an old emergency escape on a building causing it to collapse and smash into Astrotrain. He sakes ht off as his eyes glow brightly and fires a heavy blast from his rifle right as Rodimus turns away to check on Omega Supreme, the maroon robot falling the the ground as Astrotrain gets back on his feet. "Say hello to your creator for me, Autobot." Astrotrain says with an evil grin and fires again on the fallen warrior, making him cry out in pain.
Omega grunts as he pushes Devastator off of him, his armor badly dented. "Activating Overdriver unit..." Omega says, the device inside of his sparking to life, his optics glow hotly as the power rushes to all his systems. "Now, I shall end this!" He says and fires on Devastator, He tries to dodge, the blast only connecting with his hand... which doesn't remain in one piece, the sheer force of the blast ripping it to sunders.
The pain only seems to send Devastator into a blind rage charging once more as his good hand transforms into drill mode. Omega once again grabs Devastator with his claw, crushing the green robot's waist and slams him powerfully into the ground. The impact making it feel like the whole planet is shaking around them. Omega bares down on Devastator, his gun arm pressed right into the face on his nemesis. "Exterminate!" He growls and powers up to a finishing blow... right as the Overdriver starts to malfunction, the power of the blast completely overwhelming the circuits in his arm, resulting in a large explosion that throw Omega backwards. When the Smoke clears, Omega's arm looks like it never as and his optics completely blank.
Devastator inst fully unscathed either, the explosion having damaged him further, his optics going dim and separates back into his component pieces. Scrapper gets to his feet shaking his head. "That was more damage then I was hoping for..." He says and then his optics brights. "But on the bright side, were just outside Crystal City. Pull it together, We will soon be to our old labs and be able to repair ourselves and bring about the next age of the Decepticon Empire.
------
"Welcome home, brothers." An old voice says as the small group enters the city. Hightower stepping into the light. "I hope that Brute didn't give you too much trouble, I did my best to disable him."
Hook stares at Hightower. "What are you doing here?" He asks and points his blaster at his former comrade.
"I'm here to help you."
"Help us? Why would an Autobot help us?"
"Not by choice. I've see what you have accomplished thanks to Megatron. The Autobots hold me back, so much procedures and red tape, and just putting up with that infernal Perceptor is enough to drive a bot mad. When I heard of your arrival I knew you'd head here. I sabotaged our old friend and evacuated the city, leaving it empty for you to get done what you need."
Scavenger smirks softly "Well, that does make things a lot easier."
"Alright then, Hightower. You can help us to revive Megatron. Now if only Road Hauler was here, it'd be like old times again..." Scrapper says and pulls out an Energon knife and quickly slashes through Hightower's Autobot and UDC logo. "You won't be needing those anymore. Now come, to the lab!" He says gleefully and rushes off to his old lab, followed by the other Constructicons and heavily damaged Astrotrain, doing his best to keep together till he can be repaired.
In the shadows, a pair of blue optics glow faintly. "This isn't good... I best keep an eye on them. Prime and Magnus will want to know all about this..." Goldbug says to himself nd follows discreetly as he remains in the shadows.
Through the night the Constructicons work, first repairing each other first before moving on to Astrotrain. They decide to test out some of their ideas on him first, reconstructing most of his body and improving him with the proposed upgrades. After all it was better to test them out first on a guinea pig then have Megatron malfunction. Hightower remains at the controls of Crystal City, turning it into a virtual fortress, even though The Autobots have enough trouble with the nearly offline forms of Omega Supreme and Rodimus. Ultra Magnus watches Crystal City in its state of lock down, as his crews work on getting Omega to the nearest repair station to try and keep his body from fully offlining before he can be repaired.
"I think its defiantly time to alert Prime of these events... Especially if what Goldbug heard was true. Megatron..." Ultra Magnus muses to himself with a soft sigh. "Galvatron might be more powerful, but he's easier to keep in check thanks to his madness. With Megatron, we wont be so lucky..."
The night continues on, Several teams of Autobots try to infiltrate the City in a last ditch effort, to stop the Constructicons, having little success as its defenses hold strong. Meanwhile inside, Goldbug watches silently, his optics dimmed to keep from being noticed, as the Constructicons put the finishing touches on the larger new body of Megatron. What humans would refer to as a shiver running through him at the sight of the tyrant.
'Keep it together, Goldie... Just keep watching and report back to Magnus...' He thinks to himself before Rodimus' speech replays in his mind. 'Playing it safe won't get us anywhere. I know better then most that just spinning your wheels and worrying about what could be and what should won't win you any battles. I decided long ago that I wasn't going to worry about that kind of stuff any more. I'd rather die heroically then let a monster like that do what he wants. ' He shuts off his optics as he nods to himself once. 'Your right Rodimus. Even if I fail, I have to stop this, regardless what happens to me. Or else I'll just feel guilty about letting loose a worse Monster then Devastator...' His optics flash back on and he grabs a nearby blaster that had be left during the evacuation of the city.
He gets up and rushes at the group firing on them. "I won't allow you to revive Megatron!" He yells out. Though his actions come a little late as Scrapper finishes up, and closes Megatron's chest. His bright red optics flashing to life as he roars out in frustration, all the memories that were stored in his back up flooding his processors. He looks to the charging Autobot, and his optics narrow. "It seems we have a bug on the wall." He says and raises his fusion cannon. "And like all bugs, is should be swatted." Without mercy he fires on Goldbug the blast of purples energy engulfing the form of the small Autobot who cries out in pain and falls to the floor, as the cruel laughter of Megatron rings through the halls.