Chapter 8: Kaon, where his spark hurt part 1
Empty land of metal; it was only an empty land of metal. Pedesteps resonated loudly on the metal.
"Where am I?" a voice resonated in the empty land of metal. It was Hercules lost in the land. He looked around and he started to vent faster. "My queen?! Q- Arcee!" Hercules looked around for his queen. He accelerated his march as he looked left and right.
He didn't hear anything and ran.
"My queen! Answer me!" Hercules shouted. He turned around himself and only the empty land was there.
He transformed into his beetle form and flew in the air. He used his powerful optic to search for his queen, but he saw nothing around him, only the metallic ground. He flew for a long time without seeing anything and he transformed back into his bipedal form and continued running.
"Queen Arcee! Please! Say something!" Hercules shouted. His voice was less stable and trembling.
He ran in the endless land of emptiness for a long time until he reached a door. He stopped and looked at the door, standing at the middle of the road. He looked at the two sides and there was nothing wrong with the door.
"What does a door doing here?" Hercules asked confused. He raised his servo and touched the door. It opened and inside, there was a groundbridge. Hercules took a back step: "Wha-la-la! What is that?!"
He looked at the bridge and hesitated to pass through. He raised his servo. He was about to enter when he thought it was stupid. He heard a scream coming from the bridge.
"My queen!" Hercules shouted.
He passed through the bridge and reached a tall tower. He looked at the top and saw a shape of blue.
"My queen!" Hercules shouted. He transformed into his beetle form and flew at the top of the tower. He saw Arcee pinned against a wall by a shadowy figure. He put one blade in each servos of Arcee. Arcee was in stasis.
The shadowy figure raised his claw and looked at Hercules.
Look who's here?
The voice of the shadowy figure was a dark pinch with pure evil. Hercules saw a grin coming on his faceplate.
Hercules.
"Leave my queen alone! Do not touch her with your servos!" Hercules ordered. He charged at the shadowy figure who grabbed him as if he was a sparking and pierced with his left servo the tank of the Insecticon. Hercules shouted in pain. The figure threw him away.
Pathetic. You think you can protect your queen? I'll show you one thing. You can!
"NO! DON'T!" Hercules begged.
He pierced the sparkchamber of Arcee.
"NOOOO! MY QUEEN!" Hercules screamed echoed in the tower.
Hercules went online and detached from the roof. He felt on the ground and screamed. Arcee was already online and saw him convulsing on the ground. He opened his optic and crossed Arcee's one. Hercules smiled and hugged Arcee.
"My queen! You're alright!" Hercules shouted relief. He sobbed for a while until he felt Arcee trying to push him away.
"Let go of me Hercules," Arcee ordered.
Hercules released his queen and he looked at her. Arcee wondered what dream he had, but she didn't ask. She could guess he dreamed that something bad happened to her.
When Hercules was calmer and back to his usual self after a few minutes, they consumed energon and went to the command room. Ultra Magnus was there with Ratchet and Tek.
"Buddy!" Tek shouted. He jumped at Hercules and hugged his chest plate. Hercules watched him and concluded that Tek is a hugger type.
"We should start with the mission," Ultra Magnus said. They three gave their attention: "You already know that you have to go to Kaon and find if the strange sound comes from Insecticons," Ultra Magnus was cut.
"Tek! Will you stop hugging the Insecticon? It's awkward and the face the Insecticon is making proves it!" Ratchet shouted.
Arcee and Tek watched the faceplate of Hercules. They thought his optic had the form of a question mark for a second. Tek let him go and grunted.
"Sorry. I just love hugging Insecticons. Come on! Who doesn't want to hug an Insecticon?" Tek asked. No one replied and he vented: "I'm so glad that we might saw a few others! For now, Hercules is the best Insecticon I met. My other friend hated being hugged, or said that he didn't want to be hugged." Tek dropped his head and sighted: "I missed him so much."
"Let's continue. As I said, you will go to Kaon and checked what the source of the strange sound are. If it's Insecticons, you will try to communicate with them. If they attack you, you should retreat, unless there are not a lot of them and you are close to an escape route," Ultra Magnus concluded.
The group nodded. Ratchet opened the groundbridge and the trio walked in to Kaon. When the bridge closed, Ratchet looked at Ultra Magnus.
"Do you think it will be alright? I'm not sure an Insecticon with them will change something," Ratchet said.
"I know. I'm just respecting Optimus will," Ultra Magnus replied.
Arcee, Hercules and Tex walked out of the bridge and they looked around. They saw that Kaon was left with desolation. There weren't any structures holding on anymore.
"This place is still a depressing place," Tek commented. "I wonder why the Insecticons would like here?"
"Maybe because there's no one to cause them trouble," Arcee suggested.
Hercules transformed into his Hercules beetle form and he touched the ground with his horn. He sent wave on the ground.
"There are underground tunnels under us," Hercules concluded.
"How do you know that?" Arcee asked.
Hercules turned back to his bipedal form: "I'm an Insecticon. Our horn can be a blaster, but it can also to detect path that we can use and those which are blocked."
"This is really useful for mining. My Insecticon friend told me about it, but since my kind were insulting them, they kept it a secret and let the vehicons work their arf off with more trouble than helping my kind," Tek added.
"Alright. Do you know where the entrance is?" Arcee asked. Hercules nodded with a smile. "Lead the way."
"Yes my q- Arcee," Hercules replied.
Arcee sighted in annoyance. Hercules walked forward and they followed him. They continued until they were near the Fortress of Megatron until the destruction of Cybertron. They raised their head and looked at it.
"It's been long since I saw it," Tek commented.
"I always have a chill when I look at it. It reminded me of a dark time and too many bad memories," Arcee said hiding her emotions.
"No need to be sad. I'm here now my- Arcee and I'll be forever by your side. No one will hurt you," Hercules told her. He slowed down and walked by her side.
Arcee was about to reply for how long, but she didn't. Her optics was darker while she broke optic contact. She lost Tailgate and Cliffjumper. She didn't lose Jack, but they were separated with her duty on Cybertron. Bulkhead and Bumblebee also missed their friend on Earth, but they were too busy right now. She looked at Hercules who gave her a comforting and confident smile, believing his words. She noticed a small glimpse in his optic were he lacked confidence that contradicted his smile.
"We should focus on our task," Arcee replied.
Hercules lost his smile and nodded. He wondered if he said something bad.
"Are we getting closer buddy?" Tek asked.
"Yes," Hercules replied.
They reached their destination. Near the ancient fortress of Megatron, there was a big hole. They looked in it and saw how deep they were. They couldn't see the bottom.
They heard a sound coming from the bottom. It was the sound of wings flapping like any normal Insecticons. It wasn't just one weak sound, but the sound of a swamp. They didn't move for a while. Hercules looked at Arcee and waited for her orders, but she said nothing.
After a while, the sound of the Insecticon wings was gone and it was quiet again.
"We have to go down there. We will not venture too far in here. If the Insecticons are trying to fight, we need to get out of here fast and also safely," Arcee said.
"How can we get down here?" Tek asked. "It extremely deep and if we jump, we might end up offline Arcee."
"I know. Hercules," the Insecticon looked at Arcee and waited for her order: "Can you get both of us down here safely?" Arcee asked.
"Yes. I can guide you both down there." Hercules sighted when he thought of his dream and looked at his queen. "My- Arcee. I think you should return to base and let me handle this alone. It will be better that way."
Arcee looked at Hercules.
"I can handle this Hercules. I've known worse with Airachnid," she replied.
Hercules wanted to say something else, but he saw Tek moving his helm negatively. The vehicon told him to say nothing else. Hercules dropped his helm.
"I'll guide you down there," Hercules said before transforming into his insect form.
"You mean..." Tek said nothing else.
"Yes," Hercules said as Arcee sat on his neckplate.
Tek hold his arms closed to his chest plate and jumped: "YES!" He landed on Hercules back.
"Urgh," Hercules grunted when Tek arf landed on a sensible part.
"Sorry," Tek told him.
"It's alright. Hang on!" Hercules warned. Arcee grabbed his horn while Tek grabbed Arcee. He opened his wings and flew down.
Tek was barely containing his joy of flying on an Insecticon, but his pede hit time to time to flank of Hercules. Hercules didn't complain and he continued flying down. It was starting to get darker as they continued there descended.
"Do you need some light. I have two on my chestplate," Tek suggested.
"I think it's a good idea," Arcee replied.
Tek activated his lights on his chest plate and pointed at the bottom. They saw nothing around them except a few metallic parts on a few pillars.
"There's nothing dangerous around us," the vehicon commented.
"Don't drop your guard. You are never sure when an enemy can strike," Arcee warned.
"You mean like when we were fighting against you?" Tek asked. No anger came from his voicebox, only as a comparative.
"Yes," Arcee said, getting the difference.
"Hang on!" Hercules shouted.
"What d-" Tek was cut Hercules suddenly moved left. There was a beam passed by their side.
"Someone's shouting at us!" Arcee shouted.
Hercules moved to the right and dodged another one. After this, the attack suddenly stopped. Hercules stopped descending.
"My queen. We should return to the surface and let me continued by myself," Hercules said with fear in his voicebox.
"No. We keep going down," Arcee told Hercules.
"But...If we have to escape, I'll be a little slower with you on my back. I'll have to be careful so you won't fall. Please, let me do this alone," Hercules replied.
Hercules gasped when he realised he tried to disobey his queen. It wasn't like when he told her he'll be always by her side and she said to leave him alone. He was disobedient. Something an Insecticon couldn't do. He then felt something hitting his helm. It wasn't a hard hit, but it was enough to bring him back out of his thought.
"Hercules. I told you to get us down," Arcee told him.
"But...As you wish my queen," Hercules sighted.
He continued his descent when a blast suddenly hit him at his chestplate, he lost his balance and fall. He saw Tek and his queen felt of his back. He turned back to his bipedal form and grabbed both of them and held them against his chestplate. His arf hit the ground and he then slid on a platform. The sound of the Insecticon arf scratching against the metallic platform made hi screamed in pain.
"MY ARF! ARGH!" Hercules screamed when his pain receptor were on red.
After a few horrible minutes of sliding on a metallic platform and the same time of agony scream coming from the Insecticon and the three finally reached the ground. Hercules let his queen and Tek climbed of his chestplate.
Hercules stood up and screamed while searching to calm his pain: "MY ARF'S ON FIRE! IT'S ON FIRE!" He saw a small pool of energon and he jumped in it, his arf sinking in it. Smoke came out of the energon pool. "Aaaahhh," he said replied that his pain subsided.
"What did you do?! I ordered you not to fire them! There was an Insecticon with them!" a voice said over them.
"He brought an autobot!" another voice replied.
The three raised their optic and saw around 20 Insecticons watching them in their bipedal form.
"I ordered you to let them come you idiot!" Another Insecticon came, but he was a giant among the Insecticon. He looked like the others, but he was twice bigger.
"He must be a high Hive Master," Hercules whispered.
The giant Insecticon jumped down at their level with two others. He looked at the optics of the intruders.
"I am Titan. Hive Master of this small swamp. State the reason of your presence here. If you tried anything, we will not hesitate to offline you. So don't abuse of my generosity," he told them.
To be continued
AC: This is the end of the first part. The next chapter is the second part. The ending is coming and I can say, it's different than what I plan. A few details are useless now that I change the ending because of Arcee and Hercules relationship.
Titan is a minor character in this story, but he'll be more important in the second story.