Maelstrom Chapter 37
Pilgrimage 1 Part A
Author's note: This story is part of a LONG series called Maelstrom. It is strictly Gen. 1 - sorry, but that was all that was out when I started writing back in the late 1980's. It began as a fan-publication so the first chapters are in the form of a comic book! If you have not read the nine original Maelstrom Comics and the preceding text stories, I strongly suggest you do. This is a complex universe. They can be found at http// illmatar. deviantart. com (I have put double spaces between the URL here or FF . Net eats the link.) The comics and art which accompanies this series are there.
Most chapters of this series contain strong language and violence. Rated M for adult themes! Really! Transformers characters belong to Hasbro. Critiques adored! This scene contains strong language, violence, and sex. Rated M for adult themes!
Transformers characters belong to Hasbro. Story and OC characters are mine. Critiques adored!
Maelstrom Chapter 37
Pilgrimage 1
Part H
Continued from Part G
Char:
By the time Galvatron and Viper were done making spectacles of themselves word of what was transpiring had spread through the base and the Command Center grew quite crowded. Even the Combaticons, who preferred to bivouac about ten miles outside of headquarters came in to watch.
Of course, the Command Center seemed more crowded than it actually was. Rumble and Frenzy had the whole right side of the room pretty much to themselves. Everyone else chose to huddle together on the left. The cassettes would have been delighted to join the crush. True, they had the best seat in the house, and true they were most interested in what Viper was doing, but.... Her discarded body armor, another source of curiosity, was laying right by their feet, and they didn't dare examine it.
Galvatron had thrown it, probably deliberately, to distract Viper's body-guard...and it had worked. Now Adder was coiled up over the piece of her sister like a dragon over treasure and was guarding that... from the cassettes. She was just feet from them, and they stood there, aroused and terrified, and utterly afraid to move while the rest of their so called brothers-in-arms mocked them and watched their leader satiating himself numerous times.
Perhaps it was the audience. Perhaps it was Galvatron's un-matched energy, or perhaps it was simply their perspective at the moment, but it seemed to Rumble and Frenzy that their leader had remarkable stamina, and every time he turned Viper over, or twisted her unnervingly flexible body for another round they cursed him for it.
They wondered where Cyclonus was.
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Cybertron:
"Truly remarkable," Perceptor was muttering. "A most incredible specimen!"
"I AM NOT A SPECIMEN!" Ratchet reminded him. "I am your friend, and I am NOT thrilled to be trapped in this hunk of rock!"
Perceptor's optics brightened, a bit embarrassed, but a bit amused too. "You won't be trapped for much longer, Ratchet. I don't know if we can build you a new body, or if you even want one, but for the time being I can easily wire Med-Lab to respond to your commands. That's what's so remarkable. This crystal not only contains enough energy to sustain you indefinitely, it allows your consciousness...your will, as it were, to connect with things around you. With very few modifications I can engineer limbs for manipulation of tools and equipment. You won't be just able to run Med-Lab...you'll BE Med-Lab!"
Ratchet gaped at him and then a slow, huge smile spread across his holographic face. "Perceptor I could hug you!"
"Not at the moment you can not, but give me a few hours and I will afford you the capacity," Perceptor told him, and for the first time, Perceptor's optics really reflected his smile.
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Cyclonus smiled. He was finally through. Eager and worried about interruption he stepped through his super-heated new "door" and entered the "sacred" Quint lab. Quintissons he was only too familiar with, although he gave only a passing thought to their fate recently. As long as they didn't show up to bother Char again he was happy. He sometimes wondered why they disappeared - not because he gave a broken circuit for their welfare, but because he didn't want to tangle with whatever had caused them to vanish.
If this was a ruse, it was well done. A Quint lab surely, down to the last detail. The control switches for tentacles, not digits. The curved walkways and apparatuses for the Quints floating locomotion. He went to the computer's memory banks and scanned the inventory. Shipping records. Deadlines. Blueprints for early Cybertronians. Orders and invoices. Lots of cost cutting recommendations...including...
Inter-Transformer reproduction.
There it was. Stated in typical Quint avarice. They looked at breeding as a way to cut down on production time and over-head. Slaves begetting slaves.
It made him furious to think of his warrior ancestors, built with the same drive to succeed that he had, bent under the yoke of servitude. If there was one thing he understood about the Autobots it was their desire to chose their own destiny.
That gave him pause.
He thought about the obvious fight around Vector Sigma and the four Autobots he so incredulously suspected.
What if...what if they had found this information first?
What if Vector Sigma had objected?
Certainly he could see how it might not want to give up it's sole right to give life. No one would want to relinquish such power...but the Autobots would want to be free of its monopoly, wouldn't they?
He suddenly could really picture Optimus Prime turning on Vector Sigma. Cyclonus was pretty sure he understood.
A low, soft laugh broke through his reverie.
Cyclonus reeled around and gasped in astonishment, raising his weapon and firing in panic. He hit the wall just inches from the figure leaning on the doorway with its gun pointed.
Blitzwing chuckled. "Your aim's gotten worse Cyclonus. All that bad energon maybe?"
"What do you want Traitor?" Cyclonus snarled. They were at an impasse - both guns locked on target and close enough to kill.
"To see what you were up to," Blitz said smugly. "How do you like our new discovery? Too bad you've only two femmes to help you with it. Do you think Adder will make a good mommy?"
"Your new master has infested you with his sorry sense of humor, Blitzwing. It ill suits a Decepticon."
"Yeah...that's why I've got this new brand and all," Blitzwing mused.
Cyclonus glared furiously, wanting to rearrange that smug look on Blitz's face with his afterburners. He was not unaware that they weren't really at an impasse at all. Blitz didn't need to do anything but call for backup and wait. For a long moment they just stood there sizing each other up, and Cyclonus waited for echoes of running feet to come at them down the tunnel.
It was quiet.
"Your new friends are slow to arrive, Traitor," Cyclonus sneered.
"That's because I haven't sounded the alarm yet," Blitzwing said, still smug.
"Why not? Turning traitor on the Autobots now?" Cyclonus sneered, disgusted.
"I will have you remember that Galvatron betrayed ME, when I was giving him truthful information, and then handed me to the Quints. I cost them victory over all of us that day. They nearly made us slaves again. Going to Rodimus to stop them was my only choice, not an act of betrayal. You know it even if Galvatron doesn't. The Quints were not forgiving Cyclonus. They were not merciful. You may be content to follow the shards of Megatron but I like my chances here. The Primes don't make a habit of shooting the messenger. Plus the energon is better. What should I have done when they rescued me? Gone back to Galvatron so he could give me to the Quints all over again?"
"If you're so committed why haven't you sent for them then?"
"Maybe because I know if I'd come to you with that report you would have listened," Blitzwing said. "You would have made HIM listen...and you tried to get him to spare me."
"Your gratitude is wasted on me, Traitor," Cyclonus snarled.
Blitzwing smirked again, "Well, it could also be you are the only hope the Decepticons have, and I hate to think my heritage has gone extinct, even if you all deserve it."
"You will never defeat us!" Cyclonus shouted defiantly.
Blitzwing laughed, really laughed. "Oh Cyclonus...you're a strategist and a realist. We've already defeated you! What would you do if the Primes decide to launch Metroplex against you?"
"Why haven't they then?" Cyclonus accused.
"Maybe because 'Til All Are One' means something to them," Blitzwing whispered. "Go home! Maybe you can make them into something new, Cyclonus!"
"You aren't going to turn me in?" Cyclonus asked.
"No. We're even. Go home," Blitzwing ordered.
"What did Rodimus Prime take from Viper?" Cyclonus asked in a rush. The way he saw it, he had nothing to lose.
Blitzwing laughed again, the same mocking laugh he used to belt out on Char. "Oh that? Just the model of the RPM Center in Seattle."
Cyclonus blinked at him as if Blitzwing had just started speaking in tongues.
"The Rodimus Prime Music Center...it's a concert hall in Seattle named after him. It's a pun...RPM's...get it? Never mind! The architect gave him the model after they built it...it's like his favorite thing. Honestly...I think he'd trade the Matrix for it. She only stole it to piss him off. It worked too...he's still mad about it."
Cyclonus stared at Blitzwing a long, long time.
"I hate Autobots," he said.
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Earth:
Listening in over Blitz's com line, Rodimus and Optimus shared a good laugh.
First Aid wondered who was next in line for the Matrix.
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Maelstrom:
Edana had traded Claudia's lap for her mother's. Lancer stroked her daughter's hair and tried futilely to get the girl to quit apologizing for not stopping Lancer's fit before Lancer hurt herself, and at the same time also apologizing for knocking her mother out.
"It's not your fault, Dana. It isn't. I'm sorry I upset you," Lancer said uselessly. "God, baby...you are so much your daddy's child. Don't be like him...not this way."
"Don't be mad at him, Mommy," Edana whispered.
Lancer sighed, and tried to control her emotions. It was true. She was a bit angry at her mate at this moment, and it was over something she'd sworn never to resent. He was Prime first. He was dealing with a crisis (not to mention the whole Implant event) and he was Prime first. Always. She and the girls had to fit into the cracks of his life.
Still, Lancer was angry that he couldn't spare even a little of himself right now to help her deal with her emotions and their empathic daughter who was sick and soul-sick because of them. It was all on her right now, to comfort their child, and to help her manage abilities Lancer didn't understand.
Edana's power was opening up, and Lancer felt excruciatingly under-qualified to raise her. Especially alone.
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Cybertron:
Spike went back to the psychiatric hospital for the second time that day, raising eyebrows amongst the staff. He found her as he left her, except that they had turned her and laid her out.
Taking Carly's hand, he sat down next to her and pulled his chair as close as it would go.
Then he started talking.
He told her everything. What had really happened to their son. What had really happened to Rodimus too. What he was doing, what he was feeling, what he wished, what he missed. All of it.
Somewhere over the course of the hours, he forgot she couldn't really hear him. He fell asleep with his head on her mattress, and the staff decided to let him stay.
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Ratchet experimented with his new "arms". They looked more like claws really, but he wouldn't accept Perceptor's apology for their crudeness.
In the few hours it took to make them, Perceptor had engineered limbs with remarkable dexterity...and Ratchet knew they would get better in a hurry. These only had a limited work area but soon there would be more and better limbs all over Med Lab and Science Lab.
Even better, now he could help make them.
He laughed, got started and discovered something else when Perceptor called his attention away from cutting sheet metal into more "fingers" for his next set of arms.
The limbs he was working with would keep right on with their task, just as he wanted, without his complete attention. ... Or was it just easy to split his attention. Yes....one part of his mind was busy cutting and welding, while his hologram self spoke freely with Perceptor.
He interrupted Perceptor to point this out.
Perceptor looked intrigued. "Remarkable...true multi-tasking!" he said. "I may be jealous."
"There are draw-backs," Ratchet said. "I can't feel anything."
"That may become a problem for you," Perceptor mused. "Rodimus, Magnus, and Jazz all suffer sensory deprivation due to their organic morphing abilities. You feel nothing at all?"
"No," Ratchet confessed.
"Well, attaching sensory circuits to some or all of your limbs will be no inconvenience, so we can forestall that difficulty before it begins. What really intrigues me is your ability to double your mental processes, so to speak. We require more data, but my theory is the facets of the crystal act as mirrors on mirrors. Each facet is a refection, but a complete reflection that can act on its own. You are a new life-form Ratchet!"
"What an unnerving supposition!" Ratchet exclaimed. Behind him, the robotic limbs worked faster and faster on their task.
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Earth:
The remaining Protectobots decided, after some debate, to merge. Defensor deserved to know what was happening with First Aid...and what was happening to him. They didn't want him to learn about it for the first time in the middle of some crisis or another.
They combined, and their consciousnesses underwent the merge. The awareness of their missing piece was more acute than ever.
Defensor stood alone in the Protectobots' head-quarters....looking at his one remaining hand.
It was always like this. He was always alone - part of, but forever separate from the brothers that made him up. It was never too easy to think, but he was lucky. His brothers loved each other and got along for the most part. Their trust in each other made them more open to linking minds, which made thinking easier for him than most combiners.
He was glad that they had learned First Aid hadn't abandoned them. He was very glad they had all forgiven the Medic - the anger and confusion were all that he could bear. Defensor was also glad the leaders had come and explained what they could. Hotspot's fears made it clear to him that there was no choice.
It helped...really it did, but part of his mind was still missing.
He felt himself slip. His thought processes stumbled a minute and dissolved into gibberish.
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"Rodimus, I think you should try returning to robot mode now," First Aid said, "but I want you to shift back the instant you feel the headache increase."
"OK..." Rodimus said. He closed his eyes, ignored his upset stomach and morphed back to Autobot form. His pain didn't increase, so he submitted to First Aid's exam.
"The over-heating is falling off," First Aid noted as he hooked up an energon feed. "I think you are just having the regular Implant headache now."
"Ain't nothing regular about those headaches," Optimus Prime said.
"Ain't?" Rodimus asked.
"Yup," Optimus said.
"What did you give him?" Rodimus wanted to know.
"Just a standard neural inhibitor," First Aid said in clear exasperation. "It shouldn't have done anything but calm him down."
"Optimus Prime just said 'ain't' First Aid. I think you calmed him down right through the floor," Rodimus noted.
"I think it just relaxed his...erm...inhibitions...for lack of a better word," First Aid theorized.
"Well, do me a favor. Take Mr. Uninhibited home and stay with him until that stuff wears off or Elita gets back," Rodimus said.
"When will she be back?"
"When she clears up some of the...misunderstandings with our trading alliances," Rodimus sighed.
"Ah...tall order. So...I'll stay with him until it's over then...she won't be back anytime soon," First Aid said.
Rodimus nodded, and was sorry. Then he got up.
"Waitaminute Rodi," Optimus drawled. "Where're you going?
"I have that mission to run, remember?" Rodimus said. The raping was probably done by now...the killing would be just getting started.
Optimus frowned, all trace of intoxication gone in a flash. "You can't be serious. You almost died."
"Almost..." Rodimus smiled, "but not today." He headed for the door.
Optimus blocked him.
"You can't always protect everyone...don't you remember?"
"I remember, but that won't stop me from saving as many as I can," Rodimus whispered. He cloaked, and was gone. Optimus' voice calling him back got no response.
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Maelstrom:
Lancer shielded ferociously as Rodimus headed out. Edana had finally fallen asleep and Lancer wasn't about to let her mate's pain and rage filter back through to their child.
She pressed Robert's code on her wall panel.
"What's up?" he asked.
"We need to reconfigure my quarters again," Lancer snarled. "Edana's room needs the same tele-empathic shields as the ship."
"That'll take some doing. Tell you what...we'll use the empty suites down the hall and we'll move you girls there once we rig it up," Robert said.
"How long will it take?" Lancer growled.
"Two...three days tops," Robert said. "I know we've got spare disrupter nets for the outer hull somewhere.... Talon? Where did we stash those left over disrupter nets?"
"The leftover whozits?" Talon asked.
"The metal nets we used on Claudia's room," Robert clarified.
"Oh..I dunno," Talon answered cheerfully.
"We'll find them Lancer," Robert assured her.
"Bring extra," Lancer hissed. "And hurry.... Thanks guys."
"New digs for the jelly-bean!" Talon said cheerfully, belying how worried he was. "Our pleasure Ma'am."
Lancer couldn't help herself. She smiled.
Continued in Part I