Chapter 9

Hot Rod and Sentinel had managed to evade the drones by remaining as still and as quiet as possible, watching and waiting from a safe distance, but it had taken the cadet all the strength and discipline he had within him to stop from breaking free of Sentinel's grasp and running to help Nemesis, who continued to lay motionless on the ground where he'd fallen; as long as drones still lingered nearby it would be too dangerous, so he had to wait before it was safe enough for him to venture out from their hiding place.

Almost a breem later, Hot Rod was thankful when the last of the undead mechanoids had dispersed from the area. He turned to Sentinel, renewed resolve in his optics, but he did not have to say anything as Sentinel took the hint, and let go of his arm. The cadet rushed forwards into the open area, stopping momentarily as he took note of the Destron soldiers who had fallen victim to the Nemesis Army, their frames lying discarded on the ground, battered and torn and leaking energon. Several damaged drone parts also lay scattered across the ground nearby, still jerking and moving about with what appeared to be a supernatural life force of their own. The entire scene looked like a terrible massacre had taken place.

When Hot Rod finally reached the Nemesis he slowly kneeled down beside him, gently placed a hand on his arm. By now, the large mech had already lost much of his optic glow, dimmed by the loss of energon and the damage he had sustained from Grindcore's cannon. For a long moment, the cadet stared down at Nemesis' hand, unable to look upon the ruined frame of his former friend, not knowing what to say until, finally, he did not need to.

"Hot… Rod…" Nemesis Prime strained to lift his head to face him, his voice weakened and unnaturally weary, burdened by his failure to embrace the glorious destiny that had been promised to him by Primus.

Hot Rod jerked his head up and moved closer to the Prime, anxious yet hopeful all at once; it was the first time that the Nemesis had acknowledged him by name, and the look in his optics almost made Hot Rod believe that he remembered him, and the friendship that they had shared not too long ago. "Optronix?" But the mech said nothing more, only continued to stare back at him with a single-minded stubbornness that Hot Rod had come to know. "Optronix, hang in there… we'll get you help… you'll be all right."

As he spoke, Blaster came running up behind him, stopping short to listen. Behind him, Sentinel stood a few paces back, watching with reserved interest. They were joined several moments later by the other Autobots, who had since regrouped from their confrontation against the Destrons and now sought a way to stop the drone army once and for all, before it wreaked further devastation upon the city.

The Nemesis, oblivious of the Autobots who began to surround them, kept his gaze focused upon the red and orange cadet for a long, strenuous moment until, finally, he lifted his hands to his torn chest compartment and opened the front panels. "I… am…" He spoke with increased effort as his damaged systems began to shut down. "I am…" he repeated, somewhat more forcefully now, "Optronix." Then he reached inside his chest compartment, straining with both hands, and removed the tainted Matrix from its receptacle with all the strength he had left, before he finally went offline, his optics dimmed.

"Optronix?" Hot Rod bent over him, desperate that he would not lose Optronix the same way he had lost Magnus, but before he could do anything more he heard Sentinel say something, and he turned to look up at the gathered Autobots.

"Give the Matrix to me," Sentinel repeated, his tone softening slightly. Hot Rod looked back down at the Nemesis and the sacred Autobot artefact that rested in his hands. Gently reaching out, he took the crystalline object from him and then, as he slowly stood up, Nemesis Prime's frame began to shift and change before his very optics. Unlike the first time that Optronix had undergone the transformation into Nemesis Prime, this time the process did not appear painful; whether this was due to the fact that the mech was offline, no one really knew. But, either way, Hot Rod was grateful that Optronix did not have to endure another agonizing transformation.

Hot Rod stepped back to stand alongside the other Autobots, mesmerized by the process that was occurring, watching as Nemesis Prime's physical structure was reverted back to Optronix's original form. The same pink haze that had surrounded him during the first transformation was not as prominent this time around, though it still appeared – a soft, gentle mist encircling and then dissipating from around the mech.

Nemesis' frame seemed to shift and fluctuate until, after several moments, it was no longer that of a large, heavy-set Destron, but of a smaller, solidly built Autobot cadet. The dimmed optics no longer emanated a red glow, but a dull blue, and the colors that had adorned the mech's frame as Nemesis Prime – black, purple and grey – had returned to their original red, white and blue.

Hot Rod looked to Prowl and Blaster in an unspoken communication, and then at Sentinel, before he realized that he still held the Matrix in his hands and offered the precious object to its rightful owner, who took it gratefully from him.

He turned back to look down upon Optronix's off-lined form, the hint of a peaceful expression now upon the mech's face, and he hurried forward to kneel beside his friend. Blaster followed suit, and together they lifted the injured mech, gathering him in their arms.

Prowl turned to Ironhide and nodded towards the three cadets. "Are you able to take him to repairs?" Even before he'd finished asking, the red Autobot had already transformed into his van alt mode, his rear doors open. After Hot Rod and Blaster carefully positioned Optronix inside the van, the two cadets jumped in and slammed the doors closed, and Ironhide sped off in the direction of the Command Center, determined not to let the drones stop him get Optronix the emergency repairs he needed to save his life.

Watching them go, Prowl looked to Sentinel uncertainly and then averted his optics, fearful of being reprimanded for undermining the Prime's authority earlier. "Sir–" he began.

But the Autobot leader seemed to hear his thoughts, and spoke first. "Never mind that now. We still have a problem on our hands."

Sentinel's words helped to redirect Prowl's attention away from Optronix and back to the Nemesis Army that was still on the loose, and he looked about him in alarm. "The drones," he affirmed aloud, and then noticed all the Decepticons gathered nearby – their leader, Megatron, was among them, as was the Autobot elder Alpha Trion. They stood beside the unconscious form of Straxus, who lay on the ground battered and seared from the damage he'd received from their energy weapons; the war lord had been taken down by the Decepticon jets, and he'd reverted back to robot mode just after he'd hit the ground, triggered by the impact of his crash landing.

When Alpha Trion caught sight of Prowl, he rushed over to greet the Autobots, approaching their leader. "Sentinel Prime, I hope the power shut down did not cause you too much of an inconvenience… however, thanks to the Decepticons, Straxus and his followers have been captured and will no longer pose any threat to us."

Sentinel glanced briefly behind Alpha Trion at the Decepticons, and then back at the elder. "So, the blackout was deliberate," he said, realizing the Decepticons' plan to lure Straxus into an ambush by causing a power outage, in the same instance luring Nemesis Prime down from the tower. It had been a clever strategy, and one that was typical of Megatron's adeptness at devising military strategies and carrying them out – the primary reason why he'd kept the Decepticon as his military advisor for so long. "Still, we have no sure way of stopping those drones," he concluded, the unusable Matrix still in his hand as he indicated with a gesture at nearby streets and buildings – the drones' new focus of their destructive impulses. Now that they were without any leadership to direct them, the drones were very disorganized and aimless. Provided a mech did not attempt to confront them directly, the drones would, more than likely, pass him by. However, the city would need to be rid of them soon, before they destroyed everything in sight.

But Alpha Trion did not appear disheartened – rather, he was encouraged. "Perhaps not, however… the Decepticons have been discussing a possible solution," he informed the Autobots.

"To stop the drones? How?" Prowl asked. He and the others listened with interest to what Alpha Trion had to tell them.

The elder looked at him uncertainly. "Well, I'm not altogether clear about the how, exactly." He paused, glancing back at the Decepticons. "Though it does sound like a rather intriguing proposition."

"Well, if nothing else, it's worth a shot," Starscream said, sharing his thoughts on the possible success of Scrapper's proposal. The leader of the Constructicons had presented a last-ditch plan to put an end to the Nemesis Army when it had become apparent to the Decepticons – and, indeed, the Autobots – that the drones would not stop or slow down without some method of forceful intervention. Since firepower was essentially ineffective against the drones, and while energy and resources were already scarce, there appeared to be no other option.

"Of course, there's no guarantee it'll even work – I've only run it through a simulator, but I haven't had the opportunity to put it to the test yet," Scrapper explained. He had offered to try out the experimental project that he'd been privately working on since before the Decepticons were formed. Other than his fellow Constructicons, he hadn't shared it with anyone else, up until now.

"We have nothing to lose if it fails," Megatron replied, giving him the go ahead.

"It's as good a time as any," Hook said, shrugging with encouragement.

"All right then, here goes," Scrapper said, and turned to his team mates. He activated a silent uplink channel to each of them as the other Decepticons watched with interest.

"What now?" Scavenger asked expectantly.

"Let's see, uh, okay, first we transform," Scrapper said, and transformed into his construction vehicle alt mode – that of a front-end loader. All at once, the five other Constructicons copied his action, each transforming into their individual alt mode, and then waited for his next instruction.

By this time, the group of Autobots had stopped to take notice, approaching until they'd come to stand alongside the Decepticons, as they all continued to look on in quiet curiosity.

The next step appeared rather strange, as they had never seen any mech change his form in such a way before. With a brief flash of pink energy, Scrapper rotated to a vertical position so that he stood upright on his bucket, and then form-shifted until he resembled a large leg. "Okay, now, Mixer, you go next," he instructed his team mate, who looked on, hesitant. "Just do exactly what I did." Mixmaster rotated his mixer alt mode into position, but then stopped. There was no pink flash of energy as there had been for Scrapper, and no form-shifting. "That's right, now don't think too much about the next step, just will it to happen," Scrapper guided him. Then, after a second and then a third failed attempt, he added, "You already have all the instructions you need – just focus on the uplink."

"Okay," Mixmaster said, concentrating on Scrapper's advice and then, after a few tentative moments, the pink energy flashed briefly around him, and he form-shifted into what looked like a second leg. "Heh, I got it," he said happily.

"All right, good. Now, it's your turn, Long Haul."

Long Haul was successful on his second attempt, form-shifting in mid-air from his tipper truck mode into the torso of what was starting to look more and more like an oversized Transformer, and automatically combining with both Scrapper's and Mixmaster's forms.

Hook took no time at all to activate his instruction set. With the same pink energy surrounding him, he jumped up above Long Haul whilst in his crane alt mode, before shifting into a new form and combining with his team mate to form the upper body of the large Transformer.

"Scavenger and Bonecrusher, you're last, but not least," Scrapper said, though the last two Constructicons had already begun to form-shift and combine even before Scrapper finished speaking. Scavenger fit neatly onto the gestalt Transformer as its right arm, whilst Bonecrusher served as the left arm. The final phase in the entire process was the emergence of a head from between the shoulders of the giant combiner.

The Autobots, including Sentinel Prime and Alpha Trion, looked up at the oversized, purple and green Transformer in awe, speechless, whilst the Decepticons marvelled at the amazing feat that had just been pulled off by the Constructicons.

When the giant Transformer spoke, it was not Scrapper's voice that came forth, nor did it belong to any of his team mates. The combiner had his own unique sound – a deep, booming voice that reverberated far and wide across the darkened city square. He no longer identified himself as any of the six Constructicons, but as a distinct, new personality – one that had emerged from the gestalt of the six individuals who comprised him. "Ready for extermination!" he announced, looking down at Megatron, clenching his hands into large fists ready to pummel the dysfunctional drones to scrap.

"Impressive. Now, let's see just what he is capable of," the Decepticon leader said to his Decepticons before looking up to meet the giant's gaze. He pointed towards the main street in front of the tower, and then commanded, "Destroy the Nemesis Army."

With that, the Constructicon gestalt turned around and began to track down and eradicate as many drones as he could find, trampling them underfoot or crushing them in his giant hands, intent on carrying out his mission of destruction.