Chapter 3: Drastic Measures
Slipstream and Arcee snaked through the halls of the cavern Tigressa once occupied and scouted for any clue as to where the Metal Heads had gone.
The jet femme didn't trust her surroundings so she had her guns operational. Arcee, however, had a feeling the Metal Heads didn't care about attacking them and were more concerned about their new leader.
A low growl alerted them, and they were surprised to see a familiar set of orange eyes; it was Entity!
Arcee smiled, "Hey, Big Guy, you almost scared us. You've already freaked your twin out, so why are…you…" Her voice trailed off as the orange and black dragon moved into the light.
His pupils were dilated which only occurred when his species were in predator mode, a mode that made their instincts take over which meant if they saw you and they were hungry, guess who they would go after like wild rampaging animals. But unlike in normal predator mode, his eyes had an unusual white outline around his black pupil that made Arcee realize the dark truth; he was being controlled against his will and his own instincts.
Both femmes grew unsettled and backed away from the disturbed monster before them. Entity showed no sign of his usual kind personality, instead he showed off an animalistic thirst for anything living. His teeth were bared towards them and both his wings and claws were ready to tear apart his prey.
Knowing they couldn't take on the former heartfelt beast without backup, both Arcee and Slipstream darted back the way they had come but tried to fool the hunter in the process by navigating around rock structures embedded in the cavern's skeleton.
Entity crashed through each one with determination locked into his primeval state of mind. He roared at them in frustration as Arcee narrowly avoided being caught in his jaws.
"Arcee to Megatron, we've found one of the brothers and the new leader did something to him. Now he's trying to kill us like he doesn't recognize us and we're only bipedal meals. We could really use your help right about no-OW!"
The two-wheeler felt claws rip across her shoulder and back before even comprehending the fact that she had been flung into one of the cavern's natural compositions. She tried to get up but found Energon leaking from the wounds which she was sure was luring him away from Slipstream who was trying to fend the dragon off of her scent.
Slipstream finally bellowed a comment as she raised her missiles to his screeching open mouth, "Don't make me do this, Entity!"
The monster seemed to widen his eyes which made them convert back to normal for a second like he understood and wanted to restrain against his actions, but his optics soon changed back again into the deluded state that they had met him in.
Entity hissed before snapping his dentas into her forearm and tossing her through the cavern wall. He returned his hoodwinked optics on the motorcycle who was struggling to get as far away as possible. He snarled once more at his escaping prey and charged on all fours.
Arcee peered behind her in fear as the dragon closed in. She closed her eyes while she leaned against the nearest rock creation. She was losing quarts of Energon by the minute; she was too weak to fight now but she wasn't one to truly run like a coward.
Suddenly as the dragon reached her, a fist slammed down on the monster's head which then revealed a visible crack spreading throughout his facial armor. Entity's entire frame halted immediately from the impact and his arms, legs, and tail flew over his unconscious processor. From everywhere, the sound of armor rupturing echoed throughout the cavern to where Arcee was sure the rest of their team had heard.
Megatron posed in that position until the dragon's body finally boomeranged back to the cold, murky ground. No one could have awoken from such a hit but there was also the possibility the majority who were hit by something like that died from the results.
The warlord popped his knuckles before cracking his own back and stretching to loosen his tense armor plating the pose sort of inflicted upon him. As he was doing that, Bumblebee went to the injured Arcee who was still in shock about what she had witnessed.
"Whoa, what the hell happened?" Rodimus said behind him.
Bumblebee didn't reply as he tended her wounds the best he could. He immediately backed off to let Megatron carry Arcee when he heard a growl rumble in the warmonger's throat. He knew Megatron felt a hint of jealousy towards anybody who stayed with his "friend" for too long or when she was hurt and someone else tried to woo her by helping her instantly.
However, Megatron was well aware of his attraction to Flare-Up and only considered Arcee as his sister/friend. Still, the warlord proved protective towards her no matter if the others were Autobots or Decepticons.
Rodimus stared at the cataleptic dragon and couldn't help but gulp at the large crack that spanned over the latter's face plates. If pain was a spreadable virus, he would've already felt the outcome of Megatron's punch, and he doubted he would be able to stand it without wanting to commit suicide.
Arcee clung to his chest like a baby koala does to its mother, her protector, as the warmonger carried her in his arms carefully. Megatron nuzzled his face against hers once every two minutes for a response to make sure she was doing alright. Right before he stopped Entity, he had called the Nemesis over and ordered Knockout to stand by for a new patient whom the medic assumed was Arcee since his liege's voice was in an aggressive, possessive tone.
When they finally reached the Medbay on his ship, Arcee was hooked to Energon I.V.s as well as monitors for the time being until the medical staff said different, and Megatron stayed by her side through the entire set up.
Knockout apparently couldn't get him to leave because he was attached to her like a loyal dog, almost like how Firefox still continues to be to Entity.
While Megatron and Arcee were situated in the Medbay, Bumblebee, Rodimus, and Blitzwing were given the duty of moving the half-dead dragon onto the Nemesis and chaining him down until further notice.
"So, could someone please explain to me how the FUCK we're supposed to get a mentally unstable, titan-like dragon onto that ship!?" Blitzwing (Hothead) exclaimed as steam fumed from his vents.
None of the Vehicons responded nor did his own teammates who didn't really want to deal with his fiery persona at the moment.
Rodimus just sat on Entity's tail for the time being until he felt it shift its position. Before he could get off, he found himself peering into the optics of the black and orange dragon who had a confused look across his ruptured face.
"Uh…why are you all staring at me like that, and why does everything hurt so…" His sentence was cut off as the angry persona of Blitzwing knocked him back into unconsciousness by swinging the nearest rock at his nearly destroyed helm. Entity's neck was twisted weirdly but he was still breathing just fine surprisingly.
When the rock met its target with Blitzwing's mighty physical strength pushing it, everyone winced as his victim went down. Some even made small noises like "Oooooo!" and "Oh Primus!" Others just turned away and puked at the sight of Entity's unnatural pose which a lot believed had to have killed him. At least, that was what they though until someone checked without getting killed by the psychotic jet-tank.
Bumblebee gave the triple changer a puzzled look, "Wha…!? Wh-wh-what was that for!? He already most likely gained enough brain damage as it is! Plus, he was conscious and actually spoke instead of just growling and attacking us!"
Blitzwing changed once again from Hothead to Psycho whose red teeth were forced into an ungodly, evil grin while his black, course tongue slithered out seductively and his blood red white-slit eyes observed the receiver of his angry persona's rage.
The insane jet-tank let out a cackle at the broken body but slowed down as his optics sighted Bumblebee. Something inside him snapped which made his normal persona yell "NO!" in the back of his head, and he found himself striking the muscle car across the chest armor.
Bumblebee staggered back but couldn't contain a groan as he noticed four claw marks deep within his protoform. Energon seeped through the gashes in the same way Arcee's wounds did. His eyes widened as a thought hit him.
"That's not the true Blitzwing! He's being controlled by the new leader just like Entity!"
Everyone backed away from the triple changer and prepared their weapons as the crazy persona of Blitzwing kept his optics trained on both the warrior and the Prime. He moved forward slightly almost like a possessed ragdoll that was trying to walk like an actual person, but he stumbled down on one knee and put a hand to his demented face.
"Blitzwing, if you can't regain power over yourself, I'll have no choice but to put you into stasis lock! Blitzwing!" Bumblebee cried as the jet-tank still attempted to go after him.
He seemed to be fighting with himself every time he progressed towards them. Finally, he switched his face to Icy who immediately exclaimed, "Do it! Put me in stasis lo…AHHHH!"
To Bumblebee's horror, Crazy recaptured the shared body and clamped his teeth on the nearest Vehicon who instantly lost his head as Blitzwing tore it off the car's now-lifeless frame.
Before the triple changer could do anymore damage, both Bumblebee and Rodimus grabbed his pede and tripped him. He fell onto the deceased Vehicon's chassis as the warrior did more damage to him.
The muscle car pounded as much dents and fractures into Blitzwing's protoform as he could. The more Energon that leaked out was the hopeful indication that he was soon going to go into stasis lock due to too much blood being lost and the body's natural answer to preserving the remaining fluid.
After a while, the jet-tank's own chassis was horribly disfigured, and he found his vision blocked by the flashing sign: 'Warning: Stasis Lock Inevitable!'
His optics widened for once in fear for the new leader apparently didn't want to go offline and lose his new puppet. As soon as his vision began to fade, Crazy responded in the same way Icy did when he charged. "NOOoooo…."
His voice became distorted as the stasis lock took effect. His red teeth locked together as his optics dimmed into blackness.
Bumblebee panted from exhaustion. This was too much to deal with in one day, or more specifically, three hours.
"Alright, who wants to take Blitzwing up to Knockout? Anybody? Nobody?" He cleared his throat to get the attention of some who weren't acknowledging him, "If nobody's going to take him then the ones who DIDN'T volunteer will carry Entity up to the Nemesis."
He contained a chuckle as the others' body movements froze into place. Before he could say anything, multiple Vehicons battled each other to hoist Blitzwing up and a few kept replacing others by pulling them away from their position and taking over the thrown one's spot under the jet-tank.
It made Rodimus crack up as he followed behind while the Vehicons left from the battle that weren't successful in obtaining a spot struggled to drag the giant dragon towards the awaiting transport.
Slipstream didn't say much to the medic as he disposed of Energon-stained bandages, but she had to give the sports car props for saving Arcee from bleeding internally in less than twenty minutes and doing it perfectly. Most medics usually made the blood stop leaking in forty minutes or more which even ended up sloppy.
As for Blitzwing and Entity, both were quickly placed in special stasis pods hooked to processor monitors for any unusual activity within their minds. That didn't take long either.
Megatron apparently fell asleep by Arcee's side so both didn't bother disturbing him despite Slipstream's urge to scare him. But she remembered Arcee could go into shock if awoken while her wounds were recuperating.
Knockout smiled as they left the two alone and shut the Medbay door. "Don't you think it is nice our Lord finally found someone despite she was a major enemy the majority of the time any of us really knew her?"
The jet shrugged, "Sure, at least she is willing to take care of him, and she has proven to be quite the distraction to him when we do something wrong. She has saved our afts many times and thankfully, he forgets what we did afterwards. It's either her or he's getting old or both."
"Hm…I'm betting it's the third. By the way, have you spoken to ThunderCracker lately?"
"No, why?"
Knockout's grin vanished, "He's missed you since you left him on Panari. Every time I mention something you happen to like or a place you've gone with him before, he instantly talks about you like you're the only Cybertronian in the Universe. It really bums me out to the point where conversing with him is like getting the Cybonic Plague."
"Let me guess, you want me to go back to him to put those relentless thoughts to rest, correct?" She sighed as she stopped walking.
"Well that wasn't what I would've done exactly, if I was you, but it could work," Knockout replied.
Slipstream shook her head before continuing down the hall. "I'll see what I can do."
Optimus paced as Bumblebee told him the story about Entity and Blitzwing's destructive behavior.
"I believe it would be best to transport both of them here for now until we can find the probable cause of their condition as well as a possible location of where the new leader may be," Optimus said immediately after.
The warrior raised a brow, "I'm more concerned about how Entity's still alive right now. If you were to have seen the smack down Megatron gave him, you'd be surprised too, Optimus."
The Prime smirked, "Heh, I've seen enough in my lifetime where I'm hardly surprised anymore. Besides, I think the appropriate term would be 'confused'."
"Whatever you say, 'Dad'," Bumblebee grinned.
The comm. ended as an Eradicon (flying Vehicon) came in with a data pad in his right servo.
"Sir, we're picking up an unnatural energy source on one of Cybertron's moons. For some reason, the scouts we've sent haven't reported back. The Council wants you to check it out if you have nothing else to do in your schedule."
Optimus thought for a second, "Very well, but I don't trust whatever may be up there so I require a squadron to go with me."
The Eradicon bowed, "It will be done, my liege."
As the air-based trooper left, Optimus rolled his eyes. He hated being referred to as a liege, lord, or a ruling name of any sort. He was only a Prime and that's how he wanted it to stay.
He turned his attention to the smallest moon that orbited Cybertron. He formed a frown upon his face when something seemed to appear out of the moon itself.
He squinted to see what it was when suddenly the figure grew massive fast. His optics widened as the unknown form crashed through the window and all he saw were two purple lights on a shadow staring down at him. The purple and black organism growled before it struck him, forcing him to be consumed by darkness.