Chapter 2 ~ "Surprise!"
Sideswipe let out a sigh of relief, getting up to check the status of the engines when he suddenly tripped over a loose wire on the floor. The said wire just so happened to be connected to the ship's weaponry systems and by tripping over it, Sideswipe had accidently sent a laser blast shooting into the water towards the surface. It created a small explosion of water in the distance no too far from Tokyo's harbor.
"SIDES!!!"
"Oops…AH! " Sideswipe felt himself being yanked up by the crook of his neck and he looked up. Scavenger was holding him, glaring down at him with glowing yellow optics.
After landing the ship below the surface of the harbor, Scavenger, Megatron, and Prime had slipped their way onto the surface while leaving a very disappointed Sideswipe back on the ship.
Silently moving between the warehouses of the marina, the three mechs had finally discovered the heart of the city.
Tokyo was… Tokyo.
With people running through the streets to get to their destinations, traffic backing up, daily shipments to the market and what not. Optimus Prime had stopped on a tall building to catch his breath, Scavenger landed next to him as well as Megatron. Prime looked over the vast, still growing city; from his experience over the past five years, Prime learned that the Cybertronians had made a treaty with Earth and allying with them. They had built cities around the world, forming a mix of different races on the planet. But here, he found nothing but the human race, not one Cybertronian or even a single mechanoid anywhere.
"What do you think?" Megatron asked as Prime stretched his arms behind his head.
Prime grunted, bringing his arms down, "This is beyond strange..." he blinked, looking over the city, "I haven't seen a single ounce of Cybertronian life anywhere..." Prime directed his attention towards Scavenger, "Should we try contacting anyone?"
Scavenger shook his head, "Too risky," his mouth was set in a firm line, "There's no telling what or who could pick up our signals..." His optics looked over and surveyed the city; he saw the many, many buildings that Tokyo was famous for. The ever-growing population needed the bountiful skyscrapers, high ways, and the suburban or urban dwellings. So many structures that were completed to a certain height, except for a select few, but one certain structure seemed to stand out in the distance. It looked to be the tallest building, with an assortment of many other buildings and compounds surrounding it.
Scavenger narrowed his optics, "Let me ask you something Prime..." he cracked his knuckles, "Have you ever seen that building before in Tokyo?" he pointed into the distance at the large building in the city.
Prime blinked, looking in the direction that Scavenger had pointed in. He squinted his optics, scanning over the building, "I've never seen that building before…" Optimus opened his mini holo-screen on his forearm, searching for any information on the strange building. He grunted when his search turned to be a failure, "I've got nothing on this thing…" he looked back up to the building once more, "It might be a newly built Cybertronian structure…"
Megatron sneered, "Don't get your hopes up Prime..." he crossed his arms, "We still have to check to make sure..." The former Decepticon warlord had adjusted the wings on his back; "Well we aren't going to find out any answers just standing around..." By activating his thrusters, Megatron began to hop over the buildings once more, Prime and Scavenger following closely behind.
Optimus approached silently; the tall silver tower looked almost exactly like the tower in Ocean City. But there were more human personnel then he remembered. Maybe they moved the city seeing as it was still a island…sort of. He crept closer, suddenly spotting a pair of robots; one red and the other blue walking into the building. They looked to be the same design… and they looked Cybertronian!
Optimus raised his optic-ridges in high hopes, hopping a few yards along the buildings until finally finding a place to land upon the rooftop. Megatron and Scavenger had followed, landing behind Prime on the white surface of the building.
Optimus was clenching and unclenching his hands; "Now to see if we can get their attention..." looking around the large area of the rooftop, he spotted a large exhaust vent. He smiled, "Ahah!" and thus began walking over and pulling off the circular-fenced vent cap. He looked back at the two remaining bots with one leg dangling over the inside of the vent, "Coming or what?" Before they could answer; however, he flipped inside with gentle skill and grace, making no such sound at all. Megatron sighed and jumped in, Scavenger followed as well.
Landing in a heap of boxes, Optimus grumbled and coughed when the impact from his landing kicked up a cloud of dust in the room around him. He looked up to find himself in what appeared to be a large storage room. It was full all sorts of old electronics, television monitors, spare wires, human-sized tools, metal beams and bricks, hardware, software, hard drives, old servers and… just the right equipment they might need.
Optimus grinned, "Start sub-spacing some stuff," he said once hearing the other two bots hitting the floor, "I'm getting a funny feeling we might need it." Shuffling around the piles of cargo boxes, he made his way towards the door. Judging by its size, there were definitely mechanoids around the facility, either that or the humans of this planet were giants.
There were the sudden sounds of shouting and Optimus stopped midway from attempting to open the door. They weren't pleasant shouts, they sounded as if they were in pain… Placing his audio against the door, Optimus listened in on the voices. More shouting, then the faint sound of whimpers followed. They were not of a human voice that was for sure; the vocal patterns were too mechanized. He heard the sound of feet shuffling, metal clanging against the hard floors of the hallways. More whimpers, more shouting, and then soft cries and sobbing… Optimus was close to opening the door when a loud scream ruptured through the walls from the other side. He jumped, backing away a few steps and optics widening at the metal door.
Megatron stiffened, "What was that?" he shifted his red optics to Prime.
The blue and silver coated bot shook his head, optics winced, "I don't know…"
Reaching out hesitantly, Optimus opened the door to a mere slit. He looked through the small space, looking anxiously around for the source of the agonizing voices. He spotted a group of humans, all holding weapons such as rifles and machine guns, and some holding what looked to be long metal pitchforks. He narrowed his optics, hearing the sound of metal tumble to the floor and found something truly shocking to his eyes. There was a red-coated mech; a particularly young-looking red mech that was down on all fours on the ground. His wrists and feet were shackled, his form was shaking and emanating quiet whimpers. Prime had to suppress a gasp, watching as a human had rushed over with one of the long metal pitchforks and zapping the red-coated mech with an electric shock. The pitchfork was a powerful shocking-instrument, and the shocks to the young mech became more and more frequent when the human was demanding constantly that the mech stand up immediately.
And slowly, so very slowly the red mech stood shakily to his feet. He rejoined a group of other mechs, all in different colors. They all headed down a long corridor, towards a large door that seem to loom over with a dark and miserable presence. It opened as they went inside, and closed behind them. An eerie silence was all that was remained in the hallway, something that only meant disaster.
Prime closed the door, turning back to lean against it and breathed, "By Primus... they were prisoners..."
Scavenger raised an optic ridge, "What? "
Optimus had brought his fist up, clasping his fingers together tightly and placing them against his lips. He shuttered a breath, looking up to Scavenger in his reply, "The mechs here at this facility… they were shackled and being tortured by... by the humans," golden optics narrowed upon his blue-painted face, "They looked like they were just younglings..."
Scavenger's optics widened, "Younglings?" he gasped.
Megatron gritted teeth, "And they're at the hands of those pathetic humans…" A low growl slipped through his teeth.
Prime nodded, "They all went into another room just down the hall," he winced his optics, swallowing hard. Turning his head back to the door, "The humans were all herding them like cattle, pigs to the slaughterhouse…"
Scavenger narrowed his optics; "Experimentation might be the reason, or possibly brainwashing for slavery…" A large purple hand was brought to the elder mech's chin, a finger tapping lightly, "Either way, we can't let this happen to them. If they're really just younglings then they stand no chance in a situation like this…"
Optimus looked up to the purple and green bot, optics narrowed and he nodded, "Agreed…"
Megatron frowned, crossing his massive arms over his chest, "So what do you suggest we do Prime?"
The bot in question did not answer; Optimus stood up from leaning against the door and looked around the room. Looking towards the air vent, he smirked and walked over, attempting to climb back up the shaft.
Scavenger raised an optic ridge, "What are you doing?" he blinked at the bot dangling from the air vent, "The younglings are the OTHER way."
"I know that," Optimus' voice echoed from the vent, "But I'm pretty sure that I saw another air shaft on our way down here. It could lead us to whatever is behind those doors."
Scavenger blinked, sighed then shrugged, "You're the captain," he walked over to the vent, reaching up and pulling himself into the shaft. He looked back at Megatron when he noticed the Decepticon wasn't following, "You coming?" he asked.
Megatron smirked, "I'd rather not be crowded in a tight space with you two thanks," he flexed his green cannons upon his shoulders. "I think it might be best for me to play the 'Party Crasher', if you catch my drift…" a sly grin grew across the Decepticon's face.
Scavenger shrugged, chuckling, "Suit yourself…" he looked back up the vent, following Prime through the maze of the metal shafts.
Metal clashed against metal, the sounds echoing through the air vents of the facility. Prime grunted, crawling through the tight space without making too much of a commotion. The vents weren't exactly cramped, in fact it was just a coincidence the vent was big enough to hold a mech of his size. Moving through the shaft was the tricky part; his shoulder-armor was literally scraping against the vent's walls, creating a line indented in the metal.
Optimus sighed in relief, finally spotting a patch of light at the end of the airshaft. Crawling over as quickly as he could, Optimus came upon the vent-cap that granted him a view into a large room, Scavenger joined him soon after. Tilting the individual vent-strips, the Autobots surveyed the area below; it was a large conference or operation control room. There were numerous humans sitting at a number of computers and just simply typing away. They were overlooking the group of bots in various colors that were shackled earlier; the bots themselves were situated in more of an uncomfortable position.
Each of the bots sat upon a large metal chair, wrist and feet strapped in with metal straps, wires attached at every point of their bodies, and metal collars wrapped around their necks. It was as if they were sitting upon the electric chair for a public execution. And before them was their audience to witness their deaths, a council of humans. A man with blonde hair stood at the top of the conference room.
He was a tall, and what seemed to be a somewhat bulky man, his blonde hair was long and put into a low ponytail. "You all know why we are here…" when he spoke his voice rumbled through the room, "The Zonderians have been defeated and because of that we thank you all."
It would seem a glitter of hope, "However…" the man's voice was low as he closed his eyes and reopened them towards the team of bots, "…the previous actions by cabin fevered Yuusha is unforgivable, too many, many lives have been lost by the stunts you all have pulled…"
Prime had blinked, what did he mean? Haven't they fought by their sides and helped them? He leaned in closer to the vent's edge to hear more clearly, "So…" the tall man spoke again, "by the order of the council: EnRyu, HyoRyu, RaiRyu, FuuRyu, Mic Sounders the 13th, Goldymarg, VolFogg, and the GunMachines must be deactivated." There were a series of gasps and pleas towards the groups of humans, the tall blonde man paid no attention to them, "Begin the deactivation program…" he said slowly, eyes seeming to wince with remorse, "I'm sorry my friends…but you are no longer needed…"
Mechanical cries were heard from above; the two witnesses watched in silence, the sounds of the young pleading voices were unbearable. In the darkness of the airshaft, both Optimus and Scavenger were finding it difficult to contain their rage.
Scavenger's fist were clenched tightly, "This is insane..." his old yellow optics narrowed with a sneer, "Why would they want to deactivate them? And what the hell are Zonders?"
Prime shook his head, "I don't know," his mouth was set into a deep frown, looking up to the elder green and purple coated mech, "but I'm not waiting to find out..." Raising a finger to his comnlink, Optimus directed the frequency to Megatron. Speaking in a hush tone, the former Autobot Commander explained a strategic plan to rescue these younglings in distress.
Fingers tapped at the controls and lights blinked from above, the humans were getting ready to deactivate the robots before them. "Ready?" the Commander with the blonde hair spoke.
One of the officers nodded to the tall blonde and opened a cap to a button that would deactivate the bots. All eyes and ears were now focused on the group of mechanical beings, the humans' expressions hard and firm to prevent any emotions from slipping through. However; some couldn't bear to watch, their eyes welling up with tears and lips trembling as they attempted to hide their faces.
The officer looked up to the group of robots, breathed and began the count down, "Deactivation commencing…" There were cries erupting from the group of colorful robots strapped down to their chairs, however their pleas went unheard by the humans.
The officer continued, "Final shutdown in 3…" he shouted over the screams of horror…
"… 2..." Sobs and struggles caused metal to clash against heavy metal…
"...1..." his finger grazed over the button, about to deliver the pressure to push it until…
There was an explosion and the door was sent flying across the room, hitting the opposite wall and landing in a burning, metal heap. Smoke drifted heavily from the door opening, filling the room and causing a number of humans to cough and gag at the intoxicating smell. There was a silence, everyone standing up from his or her chairs and directing their full attention to the smoking opening of the conference room. No one moved, no one spoke, no one even blinked as each and every human in the room watched the doorway, their eyes widened in shock and fear.
Through the thickness of the smoke, two glowing red orbs appeared from the other side of the doorway. There were the sounds of heavy, metal footsteps creeping closer and closer to the conference room, signaling that whatever had attacked was large and destructive. A series of gasp erupted from the throats of the humans, their eyes finally falling upon the massive attacker as he walked in coated silver and green armor. Large green cannons mounted on his shoulders, wings sprouted from his back, and pair of piercing red optics upon a white-masked face, glaring down at the humans.
"HELLO MAGGOTS!"