A/N: Yaayy! I updated finally! Sorry for the long delay. School, finals, job, training, writer's block, you know, the usual excuses…Anyways, here is Chapter 13 with some good ol' fashioned throwdowns. And as a side note, there is a clue as to just who is in control of S7. Think you know? Throw me a PM! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Chapter Thirteen: Mind Fight
A black Monte Carlo made its way down a lonely deserted highway, the moon, stars and desert creatures its only company.
Agent Simmon's mind was a whirlpool of mixed emotions and sentimentalities. On one hand he wanted to serve his country, protect her people, and guard her against "outside" invasions. On the other hand his once proud organization was going about it all the wrong way. He had disagreed vehemently when Secretary of Defense Keller and the President issued the disbandment of Sector Seven. It was one of the deciding factors as to why he stayed with Sector Seven when they went underground. But after doing a few missions and listening to the rumors floating around in the rumor mill, his resolution in their cause had begun to dissolve. Things were different under this new command. No longer was their focus on research for the betterment of civilization, but rather on ways to inflict damage on the aliens, whether they were good or evil. Optimus Prime and his brave Autobots had proven to be invaluable allies and open windows of opportunity for alien diplomacy—why classify them as enemies? The excuse that no aliens with that much firepower could be completely trusted was given and for the most part everyone accepted it, even him.
He wasn't present at the custody of the Richards family, but had heard every detail right down to the girl's escape. So what if the family may have ties to a National Security issue? Arrest the suspecting parties, ask a few questions, watch 'em for a while, let 'em go—that's how it was suppose to work, right? Wrong, it didn't work that way anymore. Simmons may not have been on the arresting mission, but he was hand-picked by Miller himself to help cover-up Anaba Richards murder/accident. Soon after the cover-up went down, he discovered that Mitch Richards was the one who had put the family in the crosshairs and in Simmons' book, ultimately committed the murder. It had been the final straw for Simmons. As soon as his schedule allowed, he had slipped off base and made a beeline for the Autobots. He would no longer allow himself to be used as a tool for the destruction of innocent human civilians; he would put a stop to this madness before more innocents were killed. It hadn't been an easy decision for him to make, but it was one he did not regret.
So consumed was he in his thoughts, that Simmons never noticed the black military-style Hummer running up onto his bumper at an alarming rate.
KA-BAAMM!!
Simmons' head hit his car's steering wheel with such force that a large gash appeared on his forehead, blood streaming from the wound. Before Simmons could recover from the hit, his vehicle was plowed into again, this time making the S7 agent lose control completely. His black Monte Carlo careened off the road and began to barrel roll across the desert; sand, rocks and other debris shrouding the rolling vehicle. Finally, it came to rest on its top after seven and a half terrifying rotations, most of the glass shattered and cracked.
Simmons, although beaten up pretty badly, managed to free himself of the seatbelt and was feebly trying to crawl through the burst driver's side window, when a pair of black combat boots appeared in his bloody vision.
The stranger was dressed in a long black trench coat and a black mask with long slits over both eyes obscured his face. The slits began at the top of his forehead and ended halfway down his cheeks, giving the man a snake-like appearance. He held a 9 mm pistol directed straight between Simmon's eyes.
"Whoor you?" Simmon's slurred, head nodding side-to-side as he struggled to maintain consciousness.
The stranger's eyes narrowed slightly before he replied.
"Call me Zartan."
With that he lowered the pistol over Simmons' heart and fired.
Three hours after her mental torture, Dezba awoke to hear the sounds of the large door leading to her prison opening. A brief flash of relief coursed through her body as she hoped it was Thundercracker back from his flight patrol, but tonight, Fate seemed to enjoy playing games with her. The mech that came into view was not the blue Seeker, but the dreaded Communications Officer.
Dezba paled with fear, her sun-deprived skin turning almost translucent. "Stay away from me, you monster!" she growled, terror and anger mingling in her voice. She backed up against the wall, fists balled, body rigid, muscles tense.
"Request: Denied. Rumble, eject and bring human hostage."
It was déjà vu. Just as before, the frightened young woman put up a fight, and just as before she was beaten into submission before being bodily hauled from her cell and into the corridors. However, there was one slight difference.
Through the pain of her physical punishment, she felt a smoldering anger, an anger that was not her own. With each punch and with each brutal slap she felt the rage within intensify and there was nothing she could do to stop it or release it. She knew exactly who it was and silently pleaded for him to hurry.
Rumble had wrestled the girl into a fireman's carry and was walking just ahead of Soundwave as they navigated the twisting corridors. "Please! Don't do this to me!" she sobbed. "Please! What do I know that you could possibly need?"
"Information: Required," the monotone voice replied.
"What kind of information!?"
Her question was met with silence. Dezba decided she would not win this battle and it was best to wait and conserve energy. When they reached the same room as before, where the mind torture first took place, Dezba's rebellion flared anew. She kicked and struggled against the purple mini-bot as he struggled to get a firm hold on her. Dezba knew full well her very sanity depended on this last chance at liberty. She could only concentrate on escape, on freedom. Her legs had turned mostly purple from the bruises and fresh cuts decorated her knuckles and arms. The girl screamed, kicked and fought like a person possessed. Just remembering the last session with the Communications Officer was enough to cause phantom pains to ghost through her nervous system.
Finally getting a grip, Rumble slammed the girl onto the table, taking care to tighten the straps extra tight over her body and gagging her mouth with a piece of cord. He then returned to Soundwave, who had been patiently waiting to begin. Dezba's eyes widened with fear as she struggled violently to break her bonds. She did not want to relive the pain, the horror or the agony that this metal freak seemed to enjoy giving her. Tears flooded her eyes and blood streamed from gashes in her arms, legs and ribcage, the grisly results of her futile struggle against the straps, her screams muffled by the cord. As Soundwave approached Dezba could have sworn his red visor glinted in anticipation; she closed her eyes and braced herself for the onslaught. As Soundwave penetrated her mentality, Dezba screamed in agony, its muffled sound still managing to reverberate throughout the base.
Thundercracker knew time was short. He could feel the girl's growing trepidation; each passing minute it seemed to double in intensity. When the beatings had begun, he nearly stalled as her pain overwhelmed his nervous sensors. Rage quickly drowned the pain, however, as the indigo Seeker ignited his afterburners and seared across the sky, Skywarp right on his wingtips.
When Thundercracker touched down in the base he practically ran over the black Viper Runamuck in his haste to exit the entry bay. The blue Seeker was nearly blind with rage and pain; he could no longer discern whose sensations belonged to whom. He only wanted to stop it altogether.
"Thundercracker!? What are you doing…" Starscream's voice cut through the red haze, the brown Seeker's form blocking the corridor.
But Thundercracker just pushed his Commander aside, slamming the other Seeker with such force against the wall as to leave it dented with Starscream's body print. The brown Raptor stared in shock and outrage at Thundercracker's receding form. Turning his attention to the small gathering of Cons from the entry bay, he viciously pointed a clawed finger at the four Cons—namely Barricade, Skywarp, Runabout and Runamuck.
"Don't just stand there gaping, STOP HIM!"
"If you couldn't stop him, how do you expect us to?" Barricade questioned innocently with one optic ridge raised.
Starscream's optics burned with an unholy light. "DON'T question my orders ground-pounder!" he said, aiming one of his Vulcan cannons at Barricade's spark chamber.
The burly black and white Con took a few steps backward, not really having any desire to look like a human's food known as Swiss cheese. "Yes, Lord Starscream," he replied, a hint of bitterness in his tone. In the background, Runabout and Runamuck were snickering quietly.
"Get moving!" the Saleen roared, clapping the Vipers over the back of their helms. The trio quickly followed after the storming blue jet.
Starscream then directed his assault on Skywarp. "What in the Pit is wrong with him?"
The black and purple F-15 merely shrugged his intakes. "You got me. I've been trying to figure him out for the past few million years without any luck," he said, deftly avoiding the question.
Starscream looked as if he was going to retort, but instead said, "Come on. I want to know what flew up his afterburners. No one gets off that easy without a good explanation or a good beating."
Thundercracker stormed through the corridors, his thunderous footsteps echoing throughout the base. With each stride, the pain grew more intense and the rage continued to grow. He was like a liquid propane tank in the middle of a burning inferno. Very soon that tank would explode from the boiling, lethal gases within, unleashing a devastating explosion that would be lethal to all within range.
Suddenly, a very muffled yet very distinct scream echoed through the corridors. He turned his head sharply in the direction of the scream, hellish optics narrowed. He quickly pinpointed the location of the sound. Dezba's sanity as well as his own depended on how quickly he found her.
Ice cold brutality met red hot rage within the confines of the young girl's mind. She vaguely wondered if this was how people with multiple personalities felt. Soundwave pushed deeper and harder into her mind intent on obliterating her last shreds of resistance.
Suddenly, a deafening animal-like roar filled her ears and the large metal door barring her from the outside was ripped from its hinges. She caught a glimpse of the hulking form of Thundercracker filling the doorway, before the blue Seeker tackled the black Nighthawk, both of them tumbling into the far wall.
"YOU WILL HARM HER NO MORE!" the indigo jet raged, punching Soundwave directly across the optical visor, causing it to all but shatter. The force of the blow sent Soundwave careening into the wall with Thundercracker following through on his attack. Soundwave dodged the next punch and instantly retaliated.
"Interference unappreciated," the Communications Officer said an icy edge on his usual monotone. Instantly, Thundercracker's mainframe came under assault by high intensity harmonic vibrations; to a human it would feel as if someone was blowing a coach's whistle directly into your ear.
The burly Seeker fell to one knee, clutching his audio receptors to try and dull the pain. "Thundercracker, you are requested to leave testing facility. Will you comply?" Soundwave asked, his attack lessening ever so slightly.
"Go…to the…Pit, Soundwave!" Thundercracker ground out between gritted teeth.
"Unable to comply with requested action." The sonic attack intensified.
Thundercracker knew the girl was suffering just as much as he was, he could barely distinguish her screams, but he could not counter-attack Soundwave with his own sonic assault without the chance of killing her. A sonic boom in this close of confined space would definitely injure her, if not outright kill her. Summoning all his strength, the blue jet struggled to his feet and then lunged for the Nighthawk. His unexpected action caught Soundwave by surprise, temporarily disrupting his attack. The two transformers collided and went down into a heap of flying sparks, thrashing limbs, and quivering wings.
A bright flash of purple appeared in the room and Skywarp materialized next to the table. Thundercracker had never felt more relieved. "Sky…Warp! Get the…girl…out…of…here!" he spat, full attention on Soundwave.
The purple and black Seeker nodded his head quickly and began to reach for the screaming, hysterical human.
"Rumble, Ravage. Eject: Retrieve human hostage."
"Oh, no you don't scrapheap!" Thundercracker growled, pushing his full weight onto Soundwave's cockpit to prevent it from opening. More punches were traded. Meanwhile, Skywarp easily snapped the bonds holding Dezba down and snatched her up in a clawed hand. Throwing Thundercracker one last glance, the black Seeker teleported out of the room in a flash of purple light.
At that moment Soundwave grabbed Thundercracker by the intakes and threw the F-15 off of him. Thundercracker was the first to his feet. He crouched low like a lion preparing to pounce, his wings were raised menacingly and the thrusters that would normally lie quietly on his lower back were twisted around and vectored forward, a soft blue-orange glow emanating from their openings.
"Now, it's my turn," he rumbled softly. Suddenly, the engines on either side of the Seeker's waist flared to a blindingly blue-white brilliance, the only split-second warning of what was to come.
The sonic boom shattered Soundwave's cockpit as well as his visor, rendering him visually blind. The force of the shockwave threw him through the wall where he remained motionless. Throughout the base any and all metal sheeting buckled, glass shattered, and concrete cracked. The computer screens in the Command Center burst from the intensity. In the corridors Starscream, Barricade, Runabout and Runamuck fell to the floor clutching their heads as energon streamed freely from damaged audio receptors; Starscream's cockpit shattered as well as the car window's that comprised the other three's alt modes. Sonic booms were not meant to be contained within a tiny, underground room, and the aftereffects showed.
After a breem, the Communications Officer struggled to rise, energon leaking from several damaged fuel lines, but before Thundercracker could continue his attack, he was tackled to the ground by two black and white forms.
"GET OFF ME, YOU FRAGGIN' GLITCHES!" the blue Seeker roared. The two Vipers struggled violently against the Con; it wasn't until Barricade joined the fray that they were able to bring the raging jet under control.
"What is your slagging problem!?" Barricade bellowed into Thundercracker's face, blood red optics inches from each other.
The blue Seeker struggled against the two Vipers, who had him by each arm and were twisting them back behind his back. Thundercracker snarled in pain as they continued to twist, but he answered Barricade's question.
"None of your fraggin' business, ground-grunt!"
Barricade viciously punched the Seeker across his cheek plates while Runabout and Runamuck twisted his arms even more severely. He roared in pain and struggled to free himself, thrusters beginning to glow white-hot once again.
Suddenly, Starscream's broad form filled the doorway and all stopped to stare at their leader. The shattered glass from his canopy prismed the energon droplets from his audio receptors. He surveyed the scene before him with disgust, wings vibrating in anger. His blood red optics searched out Thundercracker's; the blue Seeker met his angry gaze for a second before he raised his head defiantly.
"Thundercracker! What is the meaning of this!?"
