Chapter Five

Starscream

Ash landed at Blackthorn City, and went to the Poke Mart to stock up on supplies. He decided to visit the Dragon Shrine-it would keep him out of sight, plus he could battle some Trainers and maybe get a Dratini.

Negotiating the cave took some time, and Ash lost all track of the time he was spending down there. He was enjoying getting back to battling, and had almost forgotten the situation he was in.

When he finally came out, his head still occupied by the battling he had done, the sunlight dazzled his eyes, which had become more used to the cave's gloom. He blinked, trying to see, orienting himself with the city and heading towards the Poke Centre to give his Pokemon a much needed rest.

He was so preoccupied that he didn't notice the jet that flew by overhead.

When the human child was spotted flying in a north-easterly direction, all the Decepticons-who were spread out, searching all over Johto, in vehicle form-were alerted to the human's general direction by Frenzy. They all headed, still in vehicle form, for that area of the country. Brawl and Bonecrusher-a tank and a minesweeping vehicle-were still out of place-and very slow-even in vehicle form. Both problems were solved by Blackout transporting them both in his cargo area to a location within the suspect area.

They all knew what part of the continent Ash was in, but not his exact location. However, the area they had to search was now much reduced, so they split up-the wheeled forms traversing the ground and checking caves, buildings, and overhangs, the airborne Decepticons searched from the sky, covering greater swathes of ground as they searched in a concentric pattern.

It was Starscream who spotted him coming out of a cave. It sent a locator signal and databurst to the others, who all stopped their search and began to converge on the area Starscream's signal had come from.

The final battle was about to begin.

As the shadow passed over him, Ash did not, at first, react, preoccupied with other thoughts as he was. It took two seconds for the shadow to register, then his survival instinct suddenly took over. He jerked his head up and scanned the sky with his eyes.

Circling around, coming lower, was a sleek jet. As Ash heard the sound of a helicopter, growing closer by the second, Blackout made a swift appearance and began dropping lower like the jet. The third shape-a long, spreading craft like nothing else Ash had seen-was further away and had more altitude, but was also swiftly converging on his position.

Ash started running even before the jet performed a graceful somersault in mid air, changing into a jet-shaped robot and landing on two legs that sprouted from the tail end, the widest point of the jet becoming the shoulders for the robot. Ash saw none of this, for he had his back to it, and was running in the opposite direction.

There was a roar of engines and Ash found his escape blocked as a Police car, a tank, and a minesweeper drove in, cutting off his escape via that route. The Police car door opened, and the creepy, stalky thing Ash remembered from the Ilex Forest scrambled out. It fluidly spindled towards him as the three vehicles changed to robot form. Ash disliked the creepy movements of the stalky thing, and began backing up. At that point, Blackout landed and resumed its robotic form.

He recognised four-the stalky thing, Barricade, Brawl, and Blackout, were all horribly familiar to him, but the jet, the other flying creature and the minesweeper were unknown to him.

"You are trapped, human." came an oily voice from behind him. Ash turned to find that it was the jet-robot addressing him. It extended a long arm and hand."Give us the AllSpark, and we'll let you live."

Then Barricade spoke.

"You forget, Starscream, that I have a prior claim on this creature's life. He humiliated me, in front of other vermin like himself. His life is forfeit to me, and I will make him suffer terribly for what he did."

Although the conversation turned Ash's blood into ice-water in his veins, he took advantage of the exchange to assess his escape chances. Towards Barricade and its companions was out of the question, and backwards towards Blackout and Starscream was also not an option, and he didn't want to risk flying-not with Blackout, Starscream, and the other flying thing all able to give chase. That left one direction in which he could go-down.

Snatching up Marshtomp's poke ball, Ash grabbed Pikachu, released Marshtomp, and climbed on Marshtomp's back.

"Marshtomp, dig!" Ash cried. Marshtomp began doing as Ash commanded, but when Ash was about five feet down, Blackout gave a shrug, and something insectile dropped from its back and burrowed into the earth, making straight for Ash and Marshtomp.

Ash's escape was cut off as the metal scorpion that Blackout had released burrowed towards them, lashing out with its hooked claws and tail, almost killing Marshtomp. The Pokemon disappeared back inside its poke ball, leaving Ash to be struck by a claw, and thrown back to the surface where he lay on his front, trying to catch his breath and gather his wits.

"You will find that you cannot escape, human, we have all your potential exits covered." said Starscream. Ash grimaced, both at the seeming truth of Starscream's statement and from the soreness of his injuries. "If you hand over the AllSpark now, you will find it easier on yourself. Maybe I can persuade Barricade to relinquish his claim on your life, or if not, persuade him to make it a quicker death than you might otherwise have to endure."

Ash struggled back to his feet. He felt even more strongly that giving these things that cube would not be to anyone's good but theirs. He had nothing to lose, now. Perhaps yes, they would take him and the cube, but he'd make sure that had to fight for it! He watched the four ahead carefully, certain it would be one of them who would make the first move.

It was. The stalky Frenzy suddenly leaped at Ash, it's four manipulative limbs flailing, it's feet kicking, as it flew at him in an attack that lived up to the small Decepticon's name. It had sharp ends to its digits, for Ash felt pain wherever it's fingers hit and felt himself bleed. He grabbed two of its spiky hands, managed to plant a foot on its chest, and wildly kicked, letting go of its hands. Frenzy sailed through the air with a funny chittery cry, but landed on its feet. Something flashed at its chest, and it was only pure instinct that saved Ash's life. He ducked and dodged, and Frenzy's flying razor discs missed him by millimetres.

Frenzy scuttled towards Ash again, obviously planning for another bout of hand-to-hand. Ash abstractly realised that Frenzy was the only one of the robots around him with blue optics-all the rest were red, and he wondered why. Ash was dreading Frenzy's next attack, he was already bleeding from two dozen cuts on a dozen points on his body-face, hands, arms, legs-and wasn't sure if he could survive another assault. Also, Barricade had just stepped closer, and Ash didn't want to take his eyes of that one, considering it's threats earlier, for a moment.

It was then, that Pikachu, concerned for Ash, acted on its own initiative. It had tensed, waiting for Ash to give the order to attack, but once the silvery stalky thing had jumped on him, Ash was too busy, but obviously needed help. Pikachu also noticed one of the others approaching Ash, and knew Ash could not watch both his adversaries. None of the others looked too friendly, so Pikachu acted in the only way he could to help his friend.

Ash heard a loud "PIKA-CHUUU!" which was the only warning any of them, including Ash, got. Every optic turned to watch, as a huge bolt of yellow lightning arced towards Frenzy. Frenzy was thrown back several metres by the force of the attack, the electric aura shining harshly around Frenzy, its body spasming as it was engulfed by an attack more powerful than the Raikou attack that had floored it in the Ilex Forest. It muttered something impolite before collapsing, its optics dimming.

The next one to get hit was Barricade.

Pikachu had noted the threat this one posed to Ash, so went for it. It rocked the Police car, who fell over. When Starscream moved forwards, he got the next Thunder attack, and Blackout, as a big flying target was struck next. The strange flying thing was the next target, and although it wavered, it then prudently rose vertically, getting out of range. The metal scorpion, Scorponok was zapped next, followed by Bonecrusher the minesweeper, and Brawl the tank was quickly zapped too. As Barricade got up, Pikachu, eyes wide and dripping sweat, directed another bolt at it, but this seemed to hardly faze the Decepticon.

Ash knew what was wrong-Pikachu had not paced itself, had attacked without regulating it's attacks or limiting its opponents. Weak lightnings flickered at Pikachu's cheeks. His Pikachu was extremely powerful for a Pikachu, but even Ash's Pikachu had its limits, and it had just pushed itself beyond that point.

Ash stepped between Pikachu and Barricade. He glared back up at the Police car/robot. Ash and Pikachu both backed away as it bent towards them.

"Very impressive, but I think your electric protector has just run out of energy." Starscream spoke from behind him.

Ash turned to look at the jet/robot, who had stepped closer, and opened his mouth to respond, but before he could, he felt a harsh metal hand grab hold of him and lift him from the ground. Ash could barely move, barely even breathe.

He had made the mistake of turning his back on Barricade.