(A/N:) hey, sorry for the big wait, I actually had most of this done for several months, I just got distracted and sorta forgot to post it. But hey, here it is. Late, but meh, I suck at updating.
Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, we get to see Cyclonus a little more, and Primus is gonna start getting a bigger role. Setting shit up to get good and all that.
alright, go ahead and read now~
To Be A Faction Again
Chapter: 3
A Home Is Lost
And A Goal Is Set
The air was thick with smoke, hiding much from view. The world was deathly silent, not a single sound was uttered, the land the true description of ground zero.
All was still.
COUGH COUGH!
A red servo busted out from between rusted metal plates, shortly followed by an arm, and then a shoulder. Soon a whole mech had forced himself out of the rubble, coughing loudly, desperately trying to clear his throat from the dirt and debris stuck inside.
Sideswipe groaned loudly as he fell to his knees, dragging himself up against the broken foundations of a building, before looking around him.
"Sunny?" he called out hoarsely, before falling into a fit of coughs again.
"Sunny, are you there?"
No answer.
"Rewire, Ironhide?" he began to call louder, "Mirage, Hound, GUYS?!"
All was silent.
Sideswipe breathing began to increase, his eyes flashing around the rubble in a panicked fear.
"Oh Primus" he hissed fearfully.
He raised his hands and clutched his helm between them, his anxiety kicking in.
"fragfragfragfragfragfragfrag…" he mumbled lowly to himself, optics scanning.
Just as Sideswipe was about to fall into a full on panic attack a loud cough was heard. Shortly after the rubble began to shift as mechs forced themselves out from under the rusting metal.
Sideswipe let out a shaky sigh of relief as his team rose slowly to their knees, glancing around themselves in confusion.
"Did we seriously just get crushed by a building…?" Mirage asked dully, holding his right servo up to his helm, energon leaking from underneath it and down his face plates.
"Give us a break," Jolt said tiredly, attempting to shake off some of the rusty filth, "the world was literally exploding around us"
"There is no excuse" Mirage said sarcastically.
Rewire stretched largely from underneath Hound, gazing up at the green mech in concern.
"Are you alright, Hound?" she asked sweetly, although her voice was slightly strained as she held a servo against her throat.
Hound nodded mutely, looking down at her with equal concern.
"I'm fine, youngling," he rasped, reaching out and placing a servo over hers on her neck cables, "but are you? Move you hand sweet spark, let me see the damage"
"No, no I'm fine" she whispered in a raspy voice.
"No, you're not, I can tell by the frequency of your voice that right off the bat you have some damage" Jolt said as he moved over to them and forced both of their hands away, tilting Rewires head back slightly to look over her neck with a critical eye.
"Let's see here" he mumbled, "you do have some minor damage to the external plating, signs of some internal. Looks like it's small enough that your internal repair systems should be able to take care of it in a few weeks, no lasting damage."
Rewire made a face, "well that's good"
Mirage swung his helm around, swaying dangerously on his peds as he rose to his feet, spinning around to look at their surroundings with glazed optics.
"Have you ever though that peds were just stubby little servos covered in metal chunks…?" he warbled.
Both medics gazes snapped over to him in concern, optics wide in surprise.
"It seems that we should probably check him over, huh?" the little femme mumbled.
"Probably"
Jolt stood once more and walked swiftly to Mirages side, and with Hounds help, Rewire did the same.
"Get off your peds Mirage, your helm was hit pretty hard." Jolt said seriously, slipping an arm around the slim nobles waist, gently forcing him to lower to the dust covered ground.
"But I feel fine" his eyes glazed over even further and he furrowed his optic ridges in discomfort, "oh, no, no I don't. I actually feel rather sick all of a sudden."
"Ok, just take it easy Mirage, take it easy." Rewire murmered to him, rubbing his shoulder plate soothingly, "deep intakes"
"Why… Why do… You know, scraplets are like little, little iti biti-"
"sssssh, calm down, rest. Don't speak, just rest"
Ironhide knelt across from them, counting heads to make sure everyone was present. Once he was satisfied that everyone was, in fact, there, he stood up, moving to aid Sunstreaker next to his brother.
The yellow twin grunted, but said nothing as a strong arm wrapped around him and helped him limp over to his brother, Ironhide propping him up against the wall before Sunstreaker slid down with a huff and sat next to his red brother, pulling his red servo into his own yellow one.
"So… old bucket head is still alive and kicking after all…?" he breathed out, collapsing his head against the building foundation.
Ironhide took a long, deep intake before he replied, "It would seem so…"
Trailbreaker coughed hard, but tried his best to ignore it as he continued to brush debris off of Roller, whom was leaning heavily against his black thigh.
"Where do we go from here, 'Hide? I doubt the base survived that explosion, with how run down it was. It probably collapsed in the shock wave."
Old Ironhide groaned as he tiredly dragged his servos down his face, taking in yet another deep intake.
He looked around once more, his gaze landing on the wounded Mirage, and the exhausted team.
"We need to find somewhere secure, and quickly" he said sternly, looking Trailbreaker right in the eye, before moving his gaze to make eye contact with Hound, "We can't risk being left out in the open, and with Mirage out of commission this is gonna take a bit more effort."
"That's right," Hound started in thought, "we can't send him out to look for a place. With his invisibility cloaking, he's able to slide right by any Decepticon drones."
"Correct" The old weapons specialist rumbled.
"Who are going to send out then?" asked Jolt, "Rewire and I have to stay here and tend to Mirage, so it has to be someone else"
Ironhide hummed in thought as he gazed around at his remaining options, before he made his decision.
"Hound, Trailbreaker," he addressed them, the two mechs making eye contact with him in response, "I want the two of you to locate us a temporary base as soon as you're able. We need to get Mirage somewhere sheltered so he can heal, and I do not want to risk being in the open. That explosion was huge, and I have no doubts that the Decepticons will come snooping around."
The green mech nodded, "I'm ready to go whenever. Trailbreaker?"
Trailbreaker nodded his consent before he turned back to Roller.
"I'll be back soon, little one. I won't be long" he smiled.
Roller gave him a small smile in return, "I know," he said, "I trust you"
The black mech gave the small bot one last smile before he stood up from where he had been kneeling with the silver two wheeler, moving to stand next to Hound.
"You ready?" asked Hound.
"Yes"
The two looked around silently, before beginning to move away from the other and towards the general directions of Iacon.
Ironhide watched them leave, listening as their footsteps grew further and further away, sending off a silent prayer to Primus that they would return unharmed.
"Hey, Hound!" Sunstreaker yelled after them, "bring me back more wax, I'm out!"
Ironhide chuckled as he heard a far off 'Yeah yeah!'.
'So then… you can hear my thoughts?'
A soft chuckle was heard.
"My dearest Cyclonus, I can hear the thoughts of everyone"
'That must be hard to live with, hm?'
"At times, indeed"
Perhaps I should ask him how I am alive once more. Yes, that's what I'll do.
'Is there a chance that perhaps you could tell me how-'
"Cyclonus, I can hear all your thoughts, not just the ones you direct towards me. I know what it is you wish to ask"
Oh dear, that doesn't help. It makes me want to think of things I really do not want to.
Primus damn it, he's chuckling.
"I cannot damn myself, young one. That's not how it works" he chuckled in warm amusement.
'At the least could you help me out of the ground? I would rather not lay here' I asked bitterly.
The warm baritone of Primus chuckled once again, "I would if I could, but I have no servos to dig you out with. Perhaps you should ask your companion? He still has his servos attached firmly to his wrists."
…
He's making fun of me.
"Not making fun of, simply… teasing gently"
'That is the same as making fun at someone'
"All a matter of opinion"
Making fun of me… how am I supposed to retaliate?
That's right, I can't, he's our god.
Ask my companion to…
…
What companion?!
"The one next to you, of course. You are actually closer to the surface then you think"
My bright red optics snapped open.
All was dark, but the lights of my optics lit up the small space slightly. I was definitely buried, hopefully where I had asked. I was laying on my back staring straight ahead of me, before I turned my gaze to look beside me.
On my left there was another mech, but he was most definitely offline. What looked like it was once white and blue armor was now dull and grey, paint chips coming off. There was a huge slash mark right across his spark chamber, making me highly doubt this mech was alive.
'oh, you mean that one… I'm not sure he counts, he looks quite… offline…'
"I can assure you,Cyclonus, he is in the same situation as you are. Here, I will even include him in our little conversation."
Suddenly a panicked whirling was heard, the offline mech optics flashing to life in a brilliant flash of blue, mouth open in a panicked yelp.
'HOLY FRAG, WHAT'S GOING ON?!'
My optics widen.
He's, he's alive? But that's not possible, he has a huge slash right where his spark should be!
"I must ask the two of you to remain calm. I know this is quite shocking for the two of you, but there is a very important task that must be done"
'Who are you?! What is this?! What happened?!' the other mech was still panicking, his helm beginning to thrash around slightly, freezing when he made eye contact with me.
'Oh hello' he said blankly
'Greetings' I drawled.
"Now now, get along you two. I regret to say this, but I must ask something of the both of you" Primus' strong voice captured both of our attentions, both of us falling silent.
"Thank you," the god said softly, "before I am asked this again, the two of you are alive again because of a truly vile act. One of my children has gone mad with power, and attempted to use the power of-" he hesitated before he continued, "-…Dark Energon… to resurrect the dead of Cybertron to use as his conquering army… I regret to say that you two were affected by this attempt as well…"
'The voice I heard when I first awoke' I stated.
I could sense Primus nod, "yes. That was the voice as the war lord known as Megatron. Cyclonus, you will not recognize him, due to your passing many eons ago, but our dearest Tailgate here, is another story all together"
Tailgate?
So that's the others name.
"So what do you think that was, back there, I mean" asked Hound as he and Trailbreaker walked quietly through the broken streets of Iacon.
The two had been gone for several hours, searching for an acceptable location for a new base.
"I'm not sure, I just know it must have been the act of Megatron. No one else would try something so insane" said the black mech, shaking his head lightly.
Hound rubbed the back of his helm.
"Yeah…that mech changed a lot…"
Trailbreaker hummed in agreement.
"I remember" the black mech started softly, "when we first met him, when he was still Megatronus, how awed I was by him. He was brave, and strong, and stood up for what I believed in. He was everything I ever wanted to be"
"yeah," said Hound, "and the way he acted around Orion, by Primus, it was one of the sweetest things" the green meh chuckled softly as he placed a servo over his spark.
"It's almost hard to believe those two would ever become enemies, much less be away from each others company. If you went back in time and tried to tell me they would end up on separate sides of a war, I would have said you're crazy."
the two mechs sighed sadly, their processors far away, dreaming of days long passed.
a sudden sound to their left attracted Hounds attention, causing him to turn his helm towards the location of the sound. He tensed slightly.
"You hear that?" he whispered.
trailbreaker scowled, transforming his right servo into a blaster as his eyes narrowed.
"Yes, I did"
Hound quickly morphed his hand into a blaster as well, and the two began to slowly approach where the sound came from.
the dark rubble shifted as a grey figure slowly began to rise up from beneath it, face down.
"Freeze, Autobot or Decepticon?!" Hounds barked out demandingly, raising his blaster level to the figures head.
all was silent for a few seconds before a distorted voice cracked from a mangled throat.
"...nEiThEr!"
The figure lunged at them violently, glowing purple optics devoid of life, jaw hanging. disfigured.
Dead claws slashed out, the undead mech shrieking an unnatural scream.
"FRAG!"
(A/N:) Thanks for reading yet again my friends, and for waiting so long.
If you notice any spelling or gramer mistakes, could you please point them out for me so that I can fix them as soon as I can?
And as always, constructive criticism is always appreciated ^ - ^
Review and give me feed back, I love hearing what you guys think of the story!
TUNE IN NEXT TIME FOR THE NEXT INSTALLMENT OF-
TRANSFORMERS BALL Z!