Chapter 5: Ghosts of the Sentry
Blurr steadily stepped around a fallen pillar that once connected to the inner turret's lower level. Its rotting metal seemed to linger on the verse of collapsing despite its sturdy appearance.
He flinched immediately as a loud bang rose up from behind him. He peered towards the cause, only to frown upon the two idiot rivals who weren't happy with each other's company. He saw the item they had knocked over was a loose crate that also happened to rub up against a pole violently.
Smokescreen nudged Wasp away with a shoulder bump but the latter responded with a harder hit in the same way. As each took turns bumping the other aggressively which grew more powerful with each hit, Blurr just sighed and continued as far as he could before he eventually found a dead end.
Out of curiosity, he observed the ceiling which had a hole in it as well as the following seven stories above him. It seemed to resemble what they remembered about the top chamber on the main Sentry and how when it was hit, it was prone to caving it and taking the floors below it down as well. There was only one problem with that theory in this corner turret.
Apparently, if the crown of it did topple, there would have been no roof and a lot more rubble would have covered the ground level and made it impossible for them to even reach this room.
Quickly after his observances, a yell and a crash sounded with a frantic voice calling Smokescreen's name.
"What are you two…?" Blurr started but his words disappeared as he saw Wasp staring shocked at an open wall.
It wasn't exposed before he passed it and the sports car wasn't in sight. He instantly ran to the motionless green mech and trailed his partner's sight to another hole in the wall across from the one recently destroyed.
"W-what happened!?" The blue speedster demanded, "Wasp, what happened!?"
"I-I saw the metal tear apart and a dark shadow with a skull gem on its chest snatched S-Smokescreen and fled into the darkness!"
"Scrap! We need to call for help!" Blurr urged while Wasp continued to gawk at the pitch black entrance.
The blue car tried to activate his comm. link, but only static was present. He turned back to the hole, and for once in his life, he made a life-risking choice: he went inside with his twin blasters online.
Normally, he never put his life on the line, especially when it came to unknown creature capable of killing Cybertronians. Battling in a war was one thing, chasing after a most likely dead comrade and his monstrous kidnapper was what the humans would call a "whole different ball game".
He immediately galvanized his headlights as well as his taillights on his hip plating as he stalked the gloomy, rusted passage way.
Almost instantly, ghostly whispers sounded throughout the halls as he moved towards where he presumed was Smokescreen's location.
"Smokescreen!" Blurr yelled but only heard the whispers grow stronger as he continued on.
Suddenly, jaws latched onto his right gun and swung the sports car into the weak walls.
Blurr tried to get up but felt a clawed foot dig into his back plating. He couldn't hide a whimper of pain but had enough space to turn his head to the side where he caught the yellow slit-pupil creature's optics.
He took the time to scan quickly over the monsters features which made his eyes widen. The skull gem was a dead giveaway but to his surprise, the abomination looked just like…a Cybertronian! Before him lurked something that appeared to be a mixed species of a Metal Head and Transformer, something unnatural even.
The foaming Cybertronian Head lowered itself to sniff the blue car's head. While it explored, Blurr felt drool run off the side of his helm in both directions; he watched as it trailed down his cheek and chin until finally hitting the ground. Disgusting.
The Metal Head's hot breath made Blurr wince until it rose back to its full height. Its tail shifted to where it was mere inches from his spine. It was going to cripple or kill him.
Before it could do anything more, shots hit it square in the chest and Blurr heard something clatter against the floor next to him.
He turned to see the monster's face with its eyes as black as the night. A bluish-purple mixture flowed from its mouth at the same time which Blurr realized was part Energon.
"Need a hand, Speedy?" A voice said instantly.
Blurr moaned as he turned himself to sit on his aft and was greeted by a familiar servo.
"Smokescreen!? How?"
The white sports car rubbed his neck, "Um…apparently, the monster wasn't targeting me so it shoved me into a room and thought I was unconscious then went back for one of you."
Blurr gave the rookie a raised brow.
"To be honest, I don't know what it wanted with you but it seemed determine to get you and you alone. Besides, that fucker began speaking in a tongue similar to the Metal Heads' but the odd thing was, it converted from Horaquan to Cybertronian for a brief second," Smokescreen continued.
"So this…thing is a Cybertronian?" He asked as he shook its leg to ensure it was dead.
Smokescreen shrugged, "Possibly, but we had better get this monster back to Cybertron before more come, if there are more."
A few minutes passed before Wasp finally met them with horror streaked across his face plates.
"What the hell happened? I thought you were a goner!"
Smokescreen lifted half of the dead Metal Head as he shot the muscle car a crude look. "Yeah, thanks for coming after me!" He replied sarcastically.
Wasp didn't respond and stared at the ground in shame. He followed them out after a while and kept his distance between him and the rest until they reached the deserted ship.
Blurr activated a few things before smiling at the ship's progress, "Hey guys, the vessel has repaired itself. It had rebooted completely before we returned. Jetfire was right!"
Both members grinned at the report but Blurr's smirk faded as he thought about the Metal Head and what Elita had said. To his horror, he knew exactly what she meant now.
Jetfire peered down the hole where part of the crown of the Sentry caved in due to the blasts it may have taken.
He whistled as he noticed the hole only showed more holes below it and a black pit. "Damn, it would've sucked to be the bot caught in whatever blew up this place. Hey, Brother, you find anything on your side?"
No one responded.
"Brother?"
Still no sound echoed his way. Slowly, he crept through the peak of the tower, narrowly flying over the large void, and went through the archway that was directly across the chasm of death behind him.
"Boo!"
Jetfire stumbled away before sticking his seeker claws into the nearest support beam. He frantically tried to locate his twin until his optics set on a laughing blue jet who was pounding the ground madly.
Furious, Jetfire slammed himself into his brother who hit the wall with brute force. His laughter immediately stopped.
Jetfire was about to take another swing but stopped as he felt the floor crumble beneath him. He grabbed onto his twin's leg and fell down the bottomless abyss. Before he could transform, he crashed into down into a solid platform and laid there motionless.
With pain engulfing his chassis, Jetfire stood up after a few seconds before realizing his brother wasn't with him anymore. He observed the walls and saw freshly made scratch marks leading all the way down to the pit.
"Oh no."
Under desperation, he turned into his alt. mode and flew down until he finally saw ground level and lifted himself from a skydive position into a horizontal one. He almost drug himself against the floor as he pulled up but luckily, the level allowed him enough space to shift directions.
As he transformed again, he began scouring through every pile of wreckage for Jetstorm. After a few minutes, he sat on a fallen pillar and put his hands on his face.
The love of his twin was the only thing that remained from his family. Both of them had lost their parents during the war and their little sister was another who was forced to pay the price of rebellion. Jetstorm was everything to him and he was gone. The seeker felt the lubricant flood his optics and run down his face.
His twin's death was his doing. Why did he have to fight him? The thought overwhelmed his mind like the Cybonic Plague. He did this to his brother, his best friend.
Jetfire mourned a bit longer but he felt something brush against his shoulder and a familiar voice which made his spark skip a beat. "That'll teach you not to punch me, eh, dear brother?"
The orange and yellow jet's gold optics doubled in size and his form shot at his brother behind him as quick as lightning. Jetstorm found himself trapped in a strong hug that he welcomed despite his twin squeezing the life out of him.
"Alright! Alright already! Yes, I'm still alive but I won't be for very much longer if I can't breathe!" He choked out.
Jetfire realized his blunder and repented to his brother who rubbed his throat.
Instantly afterwards, another voice was heard. This time it was their leader's. "Hello? Jettwins?"
"Over here!" Jetfire called excitedly.
Bumblebee crashed through a wall with Rodimus in tow. Both looked petrified despite their attempts to hide their expressions.
"What happened to you two?" Jetstorm questioned as their leader sat on the floor.
"Uh…we've experienced something that I don't think he'll recover from until his mystery demon is caught," Rodimus explained.
The Jettwins stared at Bumblebee for a good twenty seconds before turning back to the red and orange-flamed car.
Breaking the silence, Bumblebee immediately asked, "So, how was your 'adventure?'"
Smokescreen activated the comm. link on the immobile ship hoping someone could find the signal and respond.
"Ethiopia to Cybertron Command, do you read? Somebody? Anybody?" He sighed as Blurr walked in, "Well, apparently we're NOT going home anytime soon. How's Wasp?"
Blurr paused at the mentioning of the muscle car's name. What surprised him even more was the fact Smokescreen actually showed concern for a former enemy of his. "Um…he's better, why do you ask?"
"Oh, nothing. I just wanted to make sure Bumblebee didn't have to come back to any bad news about his brother."
The blue car eyed him suspiciously but let it slide. "Hey, Smokescreen, can I tell you something?"
"Sure. If you want me to keep it a secret, I will do that too."
"Okay, I've heard something terrible coming from one of our superior officers back on Cybertron. It has to do with Tigressa and her Metal Heads and possibly, this new species as well."
Smokescreen stopped what he was doing but didn't turn to face him. He took a minute to soak in everything his partner had said.
Blurr breathed before he continued, "This officer is planning to not only kill the new leader but she also intends to destroy Tigressa and put a Cybertronian leader in her place. Apparently, she wants to control the Metal Heads because if Tigressa were to turn on us, we'd be on the verge of extinction again and she considers that a major setback.
"She also believes that if this happens, Cybertron would divide again due to beliefs that Tigressa is good or bad. Plus, she told me that there are secrets that have been hidden from Optimus and Tigressa that are among the ranks in the Elite Guard, not even Ultra Magnus knows about them. The secrets are so horrid that it would make Cybertron collapse once again.
"By her words, she claims we don't need Tigressa anymore and that only those capable of holding power should be ruling over anything."
Smokescreen was speechless; any words he tried to say kept slipping through the cracks and coming out as small noises.
Suddenly, the door opened with Bumblebee and the rest of the team moving towards them.
"Blurr, you didn't tell anybody about this before!?" Bumblebee yelled furiously.
"H-how much did you hear?"
Jetfire shook his head while his twin replied, "We just got back right as you began, and we heard a great majority of it while we were walking towards this room!"
The yellow warrior snarled, "You have kept this a secret all this time!? Do you know how valuable this information is!? Tell us the name of the officer, Agent Blurr!"
Blurr grunted a simple, "No, I can't betray her! I'll be fired!"
"You'll be locked up forever if you don't! Now tell us, who is against Tigressa?"
The blue car peered around the room at the angry faces with the exception of Smokescreen whose face was posed in utter shock.
Finally, the speedster cracked, "It was Elita One who was arranging the deaths of both Tigressa and the new leader. She wanted Tigressa's to be an 'accident' which would also sacrifice one of us. She also is scheming on getting rid of anybody who is loyal to the tiger-dragon."
"We have to inform the Council about this, you know that," the warrior said calmly.
Blurr nodded and stayed silent again. He didn't acknowledge that Bumblebee had left until the roar of the engine of the ship echoed throughout the rooms.
Not long after, the vessel took flight once again with occasional backfires. Luckily, Cybertron wasn't that far away so there was a good chance they would make it or stop just outside the atmosphere.
The Metal Heads put on vicious shows whenever they passed him, some were funny as much as he tried to hide the laughter but others grew violent to where one or two would die from their injuries and the survivors would feed on their corpse to show they were dominant.
Optimus had awoken earlier that day, after being knocked out by a 32-ton dragon he recognized as Ghost, and found the Nest was practically deserted. The worse part still was that he was attached to the wall, over what he assumed was the Dark Eco Tigressa had mentioned a few times.
By what he could remember, Dark Eco was sentient in its own way and if you fall in or touch it, it will choose either to kill you or change you, whether it's physically, mentally, or both. A majority of the time, it turns you into something you won't like but it has been reported that it accidentally changed a few into their favorite animal.
Dark Eco had its ups and downs but one thing that was for sure was that it always gave the victim a great amount of strength, stamina, and intelligence for the form they become. It was a dangerous weapon that could be a gift or a curse to those foolish enough to make contact with it. Another thing was how it could affect someone so much when there was only a spot of it on the victim's body. For some reason, a single drop feeds on the life force of the target and grows as it infects the user's blood. Most died from that method because it destroys the blood cells more so than transforming them to match the prey's new form.
The substance was unpredictable though highly effective. It sent shivers down Optimus' spine just thinking about the procedure that went into becoming something else. By what he'd heard before the incident on Earth, the process was painful until a certain point in the transformation, and then it mellowed into bliss.
The Autobot leader just watched as it flowed and shifted dark colors. He waited for anybody, good or bad, to come but he had a feeling they had begun to mobilize their forces towards Cybertron.
The Ethiopia finally reached its destination where a group of guards and a shadowed figure awaited their return. Bumblebee was the first one off, and the others followed shortly after.
The yellow mech smiled as he approached the expressionless Vehicons, but his grin changed as the guards raised their guns to the warrior.
"What are you doing!? Stand down!"
None obeyed. They turned to the dark form who instantly stepped out of the gloomy outline of the building above him.
"I'm afraid they can't do that, Bumblebee. Such a shame you wasted precious time recollecting my newest pet for me."
The figure had a black, white, and red complexion with the red only a highlighted color on his frame. The item on his chest shocked the muscle car and his team, for atop his armor held a red skull gem on a necklace.
Rodimus quickly retorted, "Who are you and what have you done with Tigressa, her siblings, and Optimus!?"
The mech smirked, "My name is Acheron, the new leader of the Metal Heads. I'm afraid Tigressa nor her techno-organic kin cannot meet you at this time; she's…shall we say…no longer the 'alpha' anymore which means she has neither power nor friends now. Everybody's against her and most never believed she would fall."
Bumblebee glared angrily at Acheron as he ordered a Vehicon to fetch something he couldn't make out due to the leader speaking in Metal Head. He gaze went to the Vehicon who was sent to retrieve whatever he was commanded to get and noticed some parts didn't connect together anymore like they were loose or had fallen off before. The way the metal moved when he walked looked abnormal.
Puzzled, he observed the other troops and realized the same thing was happening to them, or already happened. One's arm plating bulged slightly before moving back into place without the trooper even shifting his entire arm. Another's head had something wrapped around the side of his helm that retreated behind him once the Vehicon noticed Bumblebee looking right at him.
The yellow warrior's eyes widened, "These aren't Vehicons!"
"What do you mean they aren't Vehicons?" Wasp whimpered.
Bumblebee saw each trooper repositioning themselves as he said his line. "They are Metal Heads! Acheron made them kill and pose as Vehicons by using their lifeless bodies as puppets!"
Just then, a screech made them jump to see a limping Vehicon approach them. While the others remained where they were, the out of line trooper dropped his weapon and put his hands behind his head. A sickening rip of metal made the Ethiopia's crew wince as the plating was stretched beyond its limits.
The Metal Vehicon pulled off his Cybertronian victim's face and began removing other parts off its body. As it did this, the techno-organic creature inside the "suit" began to grow as slime oozed from its original body while its head was covering its chest. The arms were shattered to reveal horrid claws and dark purple moist skin as well as the legs. When the last of the dead Vehicon's armor was torn from its place on the beast's physique, the monster's head emerged from its hiding spot and all Bumblebee could see was a massive Rhyno Head.
Drool rippled down its jaws at the warrior whose top priority was to protect his comrades. Suddenly, a feminine voice yelled out as the monster backed down slightly but still kept itself upon its hind legs to intimidate its enemies.
"Let go off me, you son of a bitch!" Elita screamed as two "fake" guards pushed her towards the group of Cybertronians.
As she was being restrained, the remaining Metal guards shed their deceased forms and showed their true identities. Most were Rhynos but some were newer species that none of them had ever seen before. One species was like a Venus flytrap mixed with a Piranha Plant from the Mario games Raf used to always play. Another seemed to resemble an octopus with spikes lining its tentacles and head.
"Elita," Jetfire started, "What is going on?"
Acheron sealed her mouth shut with a jaw clamp he stole and replied for her, "I know you seven know what she has planned on doing to Tigressa and me, but you see, the replacement leader she had hired was a double agent for me. He told me everything and I can't let that happen. Oh no, I earned this title after several million years or trying to convict Tigressa for her crimes against not completing what she had started.
"She was supposed to kill off the Cybertronians when she had the chance, instead she let them go and live a miserable, homeless life among the stars. A true leader always finishes what he or she begins no matter if they have second thoughts or not. Tigressa was a fool but when the Fallen was around, I admired her. Her power, her cunning, her army of merciless killing abominations! She had everything in her grasp but she threw it away for no reason whatsoever.
"Ever since I first met her by accident, while she was coaxing the Fallen into an unholy deal, I wanted to be like her but stronger, influential, dominant, and just: the things she lacked or abused greatly. I could conquer the whole Universe with those factors on my side along with the power to control any mindless creature on any existing planet!"
Bumblebee growled, "You're insane! Although you may have hegemony over the Metal Heads' minds, you'll never break their loyalty to their true master! The only reason Blitzwing was affected was because his personas don't have a powerful mind defense due to their rages against each other. Tigressa's siblings are only allowing you to rule over their thoughts because they know that despite her evil ways, she's still their sister and they are forever family!"
Acheron simply laughed at the warrior's little speech, "Oh, boo-hoo. Family may have a strong influence in some places, but others don't care whether their sires or carriers live or die. To them, they're only useful for about a couple years until they can't keep up with the newer generation's ways.
"Like a certain femme fatale said before, there is no more room for the weak, only the ones who have proven to be leader-material and the ones who deserve the designation of…'God'. You have no idea what I've done to reach the top, Bumblebee, but I assure you, Tigressa won't be a problem anymore in about a few days' time. After all, it's best to take out the weak links in the chain of life and let the missing parts be mended by letting the fittest survive and prosper!"