Title: Transformers: The Catalyst
Language: English
Rating: Mature. Non-slash, just violence.
Summary: The Mayans predicted that come December 21st, 2012 was the end of the world. Little did they know that it actually was. The Decepticons are back, and this time brings new faces (G1) and old faces (movieverse) come back as well in the ultimate clash between good and evil, life and death, and Autobot and Decepticon.
Warnings: Rated for violence and mentions of gore.
Chapter Two- This Is War
"A warning, to the people,
The good and, the evil
This. Is. War.
To the soldier, the civilian, the martyr, the victim
This. Is. War.
It's the moment of truth and the moment to lie and the moment to live and the moment to die
And the moment to fight, the moment to fight, to fight, to fight, TO FIGHT!"
~This Is War, 30 Seconds to Mars
"So, ugh…how've ya been?"
It was a stupid question, she knew. Ratchet was never a one to fall for this kind of stuff. But she felt awkward standing there in white clothes, barefoot, while he looked on, fully knowing that she had totally gone against him and the Autobots and tried to kill him and destroy the Earth.
It's not something to forget.
She shifted from foot to foot under his gaze, never looking him in the optics. How could she? He must be thinking about all they've been through together, how he's helped her all those times, and she stabbed him in the back. And now, he's being forced to give her a check-up and aid to her injuries. Like a drone medic.
After a few moments of silence, she sighed heavily. I get it, she thought. He's doing that parent thing where they just stare at you and wait for you to pour your heart out and apologize for all they've done. Like confessing your sins. Like-
"Fine."
Wow. She flinched and looked back up at him. He actually responded to such a stupid question? Now what the hell was that supposed to mean? Looking into his optics for any trace of amusement, of how she was somehow being used, she found none. Instead, she found annoyance and slight anger and…pity?
"Ugh…" she muttered again, trailing off. Why can't she speak? He's just another doctor to tell where it hurts. But then sudden dread filled her as she realized how much she hates going to the doctor's, and this is just some old regular doctor's visit.
She licked her lips, thinking of what to say, staring at the floor. Should she go for sarcastic and funny to lighten the mood, or will that just make things worse? Should she go forward and confess, or will he laugh at her?
As she was about to go for funny and confess, he spoke up again, shifting his pedes. "Well, I believe we should get this started now."
Thank. God. She tried not to show the relief that flowed into her heart, but she figured it was no use as he was probably already scanning her. She looked up at him, waiting for further instruction, when she realized he was only a few feet away from her with his palm flat out on the ground, beckoning her to get on. With slight hesitation and embarrassment, she walked over and stepped on his servo rigidly. Slowly, he stood up and walked over to the giant Cybertronian berth, resting his servo on the side for her to walk off, to which she did and turned around to look at him with big eyes.
Sliding back a piece of his armor on his right forearm, he scanned her, blue light shining on her, but red at her neck and head and stomach. Sliding his armor back in place, he transformed his hand to two metal claws, pinching them together. Cameron's eyes widened slightly in shock at what the hell he was going to do with them when he began advancing them towards her neck. She shut her eyes shut, waiting for him to do whatever horrible stereotypical thing doctors do, but heard only the sound of clinking metal, and then a snap. She opened her eyes to watch the metal collar around her neck fall to her feet and moved them just in time from being hit.
Without hesitation, she transformed her right foot into metal and kicked the collar as hard as she could, watching it fly to a corner of the room. Smiling, relieved it was finally off, she turned to see Ratchet's reaction, and her own smile faltered when she realized he was smiling as well, ever so slightly.
"Transform," he told her, and she obliged, switching from flesh to metal slowly, allowing him to watch every detail. When she was done, she did a slight turn-a-round so he could get every part of her. She felt like she was some Cybertronian model, and the thought almost made her laugh.
His arm still transformed into the claw, he clicked it twice, and Cameron automatically could tell that he was nervous. As she was about to ask herself why, he said, "This is going to be slightly awkward, giving our size differences."
Well, that was…blunt. He reached forward with his clawed hand, his optics twirling as he zoomed in on her metal figure, tweaking a few of her parts, finding them all stable but a few. Two of the plates on her stomach were slightly off to one side, and her 'knee caps' were practically dangling.
Grunting, he transformed his other hand into a drill and his optics zoomed in even further. Slowly, carefully, he began the procedure to align the metal back into place, the whole time checking Cameron's stress and pain meters instinctively.
Cameron stayed as still as a statue, watching him with his work. It amazed her that he could still configure everything back to normal even though he's more than ten times bigger than her. Well, she figured, he did put Optimus' arm back on. He deserves a medal. And the fact that he does things so gently, occasionally looking into her eyes for any signs of pain, made her relax. He does care.
After she felt everything tighten up again, she felt a sudden surge and saw a flash on her hud, telling her that her energon system is internally repairing her damaged parts. She relayed the message to Ratchet.
"Good," he replied. "Only expected as much. Now." He transformed his arm back into a hand again and exposed the scanner, running it on her once more. This time, it remained blue. Ratchet grunted in good measure and transformed his scanner back into hiding and gave Cameron a nod. "You are alright now. Your system will finish repairing your broken parts in about an hour. Until then, you should rest."
Cameron nodded and gave a half smile. She tried not to laugh of the irony of this situation they were in and forced herself to concentrate and be serious.
"What happened while I was gone?"
The question came out of her mouth without her permission, and she tensed. What happened while she was gone? Did she seriously just ask him that? And what did she mean by 'gone?' She looked down at the floor, and the walls, and the monitors-everything but Ratchet's eyes. She heard the sound of gears shifting as Ratchet made a mechanical sigh.
"You mean about Samuel?" Again, without permission, she nodded, looking at the ground. "Well…he was appointed a position in the NEST corporation, as a human and Autobot communicator." Cameron slowly nodded again, this time by her own free will. She hoped that it'd come across as acceptance, but when Ratchet began talking again, it came across as willing. "Also…he and his mate Carly Spencer are going through a human tradition known as marriage."
Cameron's breath was caught in her throat. They did not just go there. "Ugh…" she muttered. "…when?"
"Eight a'clock tomorrow, November 16th."
"Oh…" She couldn't believe it. They go through one apocalypse together and they think they're soul mates. And not only is this going to ruin Sam's life, he bothered to pop the question to her while his own sister was in captivity right under his feet. She was chained to a wall in a room only a short walk away from him, and he was in such a good mood that he bothered to get on his feet and open the box. Incredible. He hates her that much that he'd go against what she thought of Carly while she was chained to a wall and get married as fast as he could.
"Your stress levels are rising," Ratchet announced, shifting on his pedes. "This troubles you. I've heard that marriage is a good thing among your race."
"Yeah, ugh…" She tried to think of another topic. "You said the date tomorrow was November 16th?"
"Yes."
"When did I first arrive here?"
"October 25th."
Wow. So she was here for almost a month. More than enough time for marriage preparations.
No…stop thinking about that.
"Do you know where it's taking place?"
"The marriage?" Ratchet received the smallest of nods from Cameron, her optics blank. "In room C17, so Bumblebee and others can bear witness."
Cameron smiled, but it was not because she was happy. "Funny. How Bumblebee gets invited and not his own sister." She clenched her fists in frustration and gritted her dentas. Think before you speak, Cameron. Think.
"Is that what frustrates you?" Ratchet asked, his voice one of concern, easing Cameron a little bit.
"No," she spat. "We're all done here, right? So it's time for me to leave."
But Cameron didn't even make it one step before Ratchet asked, "Don't you want to know more about yourself?"
Cameron stopped and heaved a loud sigh. "What else is there to know about me that I don't already know?"
"Well, just to go over the basics." Cameron turned her head, showing half interest. "The infusion of the AllSpark with your body has gotten you a degree stronger, faster, and smarter. You may find yourself knowing things that you have not yet learned. Also, the energon infusion destroyed all of your blood cells. You now have energon running through your veins. You have an increased rate of reflex as well as a better regenerative factor than us Autobots here. That's why your healing will only take an hour."
"Great," Cameron muttered. "Thanks, doc." Activating her thrusters, she flew off the Cybertronian-sized berth and landed on the ground, transforming back to her human self and leaving the room.
Ratchet sighed.
"How many hours until we reach the city?"
"One."
"Are the troops ready?"
"Yes. I will lead Sunstorm, Blitzwing, and Octane to the north end, and Cyclonus will take Scourge and Sweeps to the south end."
"Good, Skywarp.
"Prepare for landing."
"…prepare for landing."
"Kup, who's taking the north end?"
"Hound and Blurr."
"And Sunstreaker and Bluestreak have the south?"
"Yes, sir. I will stay here with Red Alert to man the ship and track Astrotrain."
"And I myself with take to Thundercracker."
"Are you sure that's wise, Prowl?"
"It's time to tie loose ends. This war, must end."
The big apple. Home to almost 8.5 million alone. Thousands of families strive during the day, going to a fro, and the burglars awaken at nightfall. Millions of souls live within the great barracks, the tall towers of this major city.
And only a few will make it out alive.
As the clock struck 2:30 in the afternoon, a few shouts and murmurs were heard from one corridor of the city as a spaceship the length of a three story building flew overhead casually, as if sightseeing. People began panicking and running throughout the streets, stumbling over one another to get anywhere but here. Mothers grabbed their children as the fathers got the cars. Shouting was heard, dubbing as a background music, and the occasional psychotic laughter filled the streets.
The sound of a high pitched screeching stopped everyone in their tracks, forcing themselves to cover their ears. A large hatch opened up from the bottom of the ship, slowly, as if it hadn't been used in ages. Then, to the horror of everyone, four large figures leapt out of the ship and barreled down to the ground. They transformed themselves into alien craft. A huge, collective gasp ran throughout the entire city, and a few laughed.
Decepticons. Here. Now.
The four craft flew downward and transformed about a hundred feet from the ground, landing with a large dent. The two bigger ones landed on the street, and two landed on top of buildings who amazingly held their weight.
The bigger one on the left was a deep purple and black, with some white here and there, it's red optics smiling. The other one was purple, beige, and black, with two large guns mounted on its shoulders. The one on the building to the left was a rather beautifully detailed yellow, orange, and red, made to look like flames, making one wonder if he actually cared that much about his image. And the other one was dark blue and black with bright yellow optics.
They all looked terrifying, with the imposing size of their guns and shark teeth, menacingly standing over all of the scattered humans like skyscrapers. It seemed as if time had froze-all sounds stopped, no babies cried, as if every living and non-living creature held their breath and leaned closer to what they were going to do, or say, until one of the larger ones on the left opened his mouth to speak:
"Boo."
Smiling, he raised his arm, transformed it into a cannon and fired.
The southern end of New York had had about a five minute advantage. For such a large ship, it moved pretty quickly. People who had already heard the news and shouts told others and in those five minutes had managed to pack the little that they could and get into cars. All is to say, the southern half was less dense.
Much to the disappointment of the Decepticons.
Three more mechanical beings came barreling out of the ship, not even bothering to transform as they fell the whole four hundred yards to the bottom, creating huge craters by their feet. These ones all looked similar, as if they were brothers-purple, bulky, and downright terrifying. They didn't even provide a humorous entry line before they started whipping out their weapons and obliterating the humans. They seemed to only want bloodlust.
The larger one-by at least two feet-raised up his hand and shook it. With that signal, the two flanking giants went left and right, stepping on people, kicking them, crushing them in their cars. Over all of the gunshots being fired from their plasma guns you could faintly hear them chuckling in unison.
It seems that they had anticipated this.
This went on for ten agonizing minutes, and in those minutes hundreds had already died. Another spaceship came into view above, immediately opening a hatch and dispatching two more beings, who transformed and headed for the others.
What? they all seemed to think, a collective thought. This wasn't enough? Even more wanted to join in the fun?
But no, they soon realized. A missile had fired from each of the two flying things, and every human cringed, expecting a rather explosive death, but opened their eyes to find that the missiles had hit the largest one, who roared in anger and pain, staggering. One of the planes transformed on top of the destroyer on the left, blasting it's head, while the other transformed next to the other being and kicked him in the face. The hero-so far-on the left seemed to have won, with the back of his opponents head bashed totally in and he seemed to have been smirking and rolling his shoulders. The yellow and orange winner smiled and stepped off the corpse and turning to the giant in the middle, who was well self-aware at the moment and turned his guns towards yellow-and-orange.
"Hello, Cyclonus," said yellow-and-orange, not even phased by the fact that a gun with a barrel as thick as his arm was pointed at him. His voice was as thick and smooth as a guy's voice can get, even making one of the female humans at his feet sigh in admiration. "Sorry about your friend Sweeps here."
Roaring, Cyclonus fired his gun, a loud plasma cannon that made the nearby humans cover their ears. The yellow-and-orange hero jumped in the air, dodging the blast by practically an inch. He landed on the ground in a run and leaped at Cyclonus, taking him down. But Cyclonus acted quickly, kicking the bot off him and backing away a few feet, firing. The bot dodged the first two bullets but got hit by the third, sending him flying into a building.
Cyclonus tiled the corner of his mouth up as he cocked his plasma rifle, walking to the fallen bot to finish him off, until a cry got his attention. He turned to his left only to watch the other savior, the light and dark blue one, go flying into him, knocking him back a few feet. Cyclonus' partner, realizing where he just sent his fight flying, muttered something Cybertronian under his breath and walked over to the two brawling robots, not ready yet to give up his fight, when the yellow-and-and orange one recovered from his blunder and tackled him.
The nearby humans who were brave enough to stay watched the fight in admiration, occasionally cheering on who they knew were the Autobots, as metal was torn and shots were fired.
Up north, things went about the same. A ship materialized above and down dropped two bots, one dark blue and the other a white and baby blue. They were outnumbered and outgunned, but it didn't stop them from distraction. They roared at each other in their language, ducking behind buildings and occasionally laughing. Some humans around them realized what was going on-that these brave soldiers were not here to kill those four opposing giants, but were risking their lives being a distraction. They told others of the true intentions-some didn't need to be told twice, and some didn't want to leave. Within a few minutes, most of the human population had dispersed.
"Kill them!" ordered one of them in English, tired of this. "They're just a distraction! This shouldn't take long!"
The white and baby blue Autobot peeked out from around the building, noticing the Decepticons advancing, and turned to his comrade on the other side of the street, behind another building, firing.
::Hound:: he called via comm. link. ::ShallIusemypulsecannon?::
::Yes:: came the immediate response. ::And Blurr? Quickly, please::
Nodding to himself, Blurr transformed his arm into a magnet contraption. Focusing on all of his bridled up energy into his hand, a blue orb began to appear, the sides of his 'magnet' contracting as the orb got bigger.
::Hurry!:: called Hound. The Decepticons were a block away now.
Satisfied with the size of the orb, Blurr came out from the side of the building, quickly aimed at the nearest target, and fired.
The orb hit a smaller, purple one, jumping from rooftop to rooftop. The orb went completely through his chest before exploding inside, completely slaughtering him. It momentarily stopped the rampaging Decepticons as they shielded themselves from the flying parts of their comrade.
Blurr ducked behind a building as he recharged up again as this certain skill requires a lot of energon when a ball rolled to where he was hiding. Looking closer, he realized it wasn't a ball-it was a head, optics gray and mouth wide open into an eternal scream, face contorted in pain and shock. Octane, he realized. He never thought that those blasts of his could actually be slow enough to let the bot feel the pain.
At sound of continued fire he focused again on creating yet another orb.
Cameron walked into the main hangar, following a group of running soldiers, ignoring their dirty looks. Apparently, another and rather large Decepticon attack has been noticed and all soldiers were needed as backup in the main hangar. She realized he meant her, too.
A small siren was going off, not loud enough to make ears bleed but loud enough to make you get up and make someone turn the damned thing off. Cameron watched a large group of soldiers in black uniforms and large M16's-slash-grenade launchers 'line' up behind Optimus Prime, Sideswipe, Mirage, and the Wreckers. A smaller group of people wearing camouflage carrying snipers lined up behind. They were all impatiently standing in front of a large circle made out of metal lined up against one of the walls with a bunch of doohickeys coming out of it. On the right, a few people worked furiously at the keyboards, yelling commands to one another over the roar of soldiers at their feet.
This is ridiculous, thought Cameron, leaning up against a wall and smirking. They're lined up like pigs for slaughter in front of a wall. Do they think that if they step into it it'll transport them like Harry Potter?
As Cameron mentally laughed at her own joke, a metallic whir came to life. Swirls of blue, green, pink and purple lights erupted at the heart of the metal circle, making its way towards the edges and aligning there. Cameron stood up at the sight of Optimus Prime walking into the wall and completely disappearing, as well as the other soldiers. Mouth agape, she looked around the room to see other people's reactions, expecting to find them just like her, but they all seemed please.
"What the fuck was that?" she murmured, suddenly feeling uncomfortable.
"It's a rush, huh?"
Cameron whipped around to find Epps staring at her, smiling, his left arm in a cast. At first she couldn't speak-she could only stare at the cast and wonder why he's being so nice to her.
"It's called a ground bridge," continued Epps. "Using those three pillars-" he pointed to three large pillars on the wall next to the 'ground bridge' with his right arm, one on the left and right and one up top it "-we're allowed to teleport anywhere in the whole world. Thanks to Sentinel Prime's technology, that is."
Cameron had followed to where he pointed and continued to stare at the pillars, recognizing them from the other three on top of the tower at Chicago, as memories of Sentinel Prime and the fight flooded through her head. She couldn't help it-she felt like she was about to cry.
"I broke my arm in a battle, if that's what you were wondering before," he whispered. Cameron looked back at him. "Bastard D-con blew a shot near me and sent me flying. Now I can't even fight!"
Cameron continued to stare at Epps, unsure of what to say. He was being friendly to her, yes, but he doesn't have a reason to. What should she say? Comment on the fact that the large contraption in front of her defies physics or make a funny comment about his inability to kick some ass?
"Come on, kid," said Epps, putting his right hand on her left shoulder, smiling. "I'll show you around. You missed a lot."
"But where did they go?" Cameron whispered as she was being dragged away, completely out of control of what was coming out of her mouth.
"Oh," he answered. "They went into the heart of the fight: New York City." He shook his head and looked down, a look of pain and sadness fluttering on his face for a moment. "Bastards never stop…all they want is death and spilled blood and…
"They just keep coming…"
A/N: Sorry guys for the incredibly long wait! The only excuse that I have is that I never had any time to write, but that's not a good excuse, so, forgive me. *bows head in shame*
Anyways, I've decided that the fight will continue on into the next chapter because this thing is 10 pages long already in size 12 font in Word, so, yeah...
I picked the song 'This Is War' by 30 Seconds To Mars because I finally found it again! It is one KICKASS song that perfectly describes this story. I may use it again once in a later chapter...
Yes, I am bringing in old characters from G1. Yes, I did just go TF:P-ish on you. Yes, there are more characters to come. Yes, there will be more in depth of the dynamics of new and old characters. No, I did not forget about that ship trailing the Cosmos in the previous chapter-that's next chapter. And yes, you maybe see some old 'movieverse' faces again...
Anyways, thank you all for reviewing and tolerating me! It really means a lot to me when I get multiple reviews on just one chapter! Thank you so much for waiting this long for this update, but I absolutely WILL try harder next time to update quicker!