Chapter 26-Circuit Breaker
Harold the night guard flinched as another lightning bolt raced across the sky, followed by a loud rumble that made him jump yet again. He whimpered pathetically as he walked down the long, empty hallways that made up the facility he was guarding on his nightshift. Sure, acting as a security guard for Horizon Labs, one of the biggest companies in the field of civilian robotics, was a good paying job, but this place was just creepy at night. It was much different than in the daytime, when the place is full of people and moving machinery. Without anyone to fill its halls, to give it a sense of life, the building itself almost felt dead.
Harold questioned why this place even needed a security guard in the first place, seeing as the building itself was outfitted with some of the most advanced security systems on the market; motion sensors, infrared beams, security cameras employing a constantly changing encryption code to avoid getting hacked, automated turrets mounted in front of the more sensitive areas of the lab. It was a bit extreme, but considering more and more amalgams were popping up every week with hostile intentions towards humanity, no one could be too careful these days.
Speaking of intruders, a quick stop by the security room following a bathroom break showed that there was someone on the fourth floor who had tripped the pressure sensors but not the alarms somehow. He had his gun out and slowly made his way to where the intruder was, looking into each room for any signs of life. There had to be a crook somewhere, there was only one way in.
"Really, is there anyone here at all?" Harold sighed. "I swear, is that stupid thing on the fritz again?"
"No, I'd say its working fine." A woman's voice said.
Harold yelped and spun around to see a young woman standing in the doorway. She was a young thing, with strawberry blonde hair and bright blue eyes, clad in a suit made of metal strips that hugged her ample curves lovingly as she smirked playfully at him. Harold raised his gun, but it exploded in his hands before he was hit in the chest by a lightning bolt that blew him into the wall. Hitting the wall with bone crushing force, Harold crumpled to the floor, dead before he even hit the wall.
"Can't say the same for you, though." The woman grinned.
XXXXXX
Sara was never one for reading. She only downloaded information directly into her cyberbrain and learned things instantly as though they had always been within her mind from the beginning. And her 'mother' had taught her about literature and its meaning to humans and aliens alike. She still didn't understand it, but her 'mother' had said that it wasn't something that you could understand by downloading it at the speed of thought, but something you could only truly get by reading the meaning of the eloquent words between the lines. Sara did that to, and she couldn't see anything between the lines other than what was written.
So she tried another approach, watching a play based on this literature she was told of. She sat on the side, watching her human-friends?- companions reenact a play based on a famous playwright while the Minicons watched from the sidelines with Annie and Kevin. From what Sara could tell, things were not going as planned.
"Tis maiden's heart is honest, my lord." Gina said passionately. "Tis not the answer to thy question?"
"The answer it is," Darren said. "I fear though whether 'tis thy truly love or lust."
"My lord?"
"A fair maiden are ye. Honest, warm and caring. Yet m'father a nobleman he is. Many tried to betrothed me for his wealth alone. Does the maiden swear, with all her heart, true love and nothing but love?" He continued.
"I...I…oh stop it, Darren. This is stupid." Gina huffed with a red face. Darren played his part very well, and it was starting to get to her. "This is embarrassing. How can people read this?"
"It's Shakespeare, Gina. It's a modern classic." Kevin said. "You'll find that it is a lot different from the manga you read at home."
"Well I think it's unrealistic. Romeo and Juliet are hormonal teenagers with only one thing on their minds." The blonde said.
"When you turn sixteen, Gina, you'll be like that too. Just give it some time for mother nature to kick you clock into gear." Annie grinned. She was already imagining Gina staking her claim on Darren, making sure the other girls didn't try to sink their claws into him. That was cool with Annie; better her best friend than some skank trying to one up her brother.
"Is this what 20th century literature is like?" Sara asked.
"No, this is much older. But it's so famous that its withstood the test of time and people still read it even now." Kevin said. "It's what we humans call a classic."
"A classic." Sara repeated. Gina had told this once but that was a long time ago. "Are all classics just like this one?"
"Only those done by Shakespeare." Darren answered. "They're a bit hard to understand, and to act out. Took me an hour to memorize this line."
"And it takes months for others to memorize a single scene." Gina said.
"I don't think it's that bad." Grindor said. "It's kind of sad actually."
"And romantic. We don't get stuff like this back on Cybertron. Or we did, but it faded out of practice over time." Sureshock said. "I think the bots from Harmonex still did plays, though they were really hush hush about what they were doing to outsiders."
"Sounds a bit shifty." Kevin said.
"Those guys were always shifty… and snooty… and pompous." Grindor replied. "Not surprising considering Knockout was born there."
"Really?" Annie said interested. "No foolin'!"
There was a knock on the door and it slid open to reveal Jazz, who was giving them little people his trademark grin. "Hello there, friends, family…Road Storm."
"Get fragged."
"Hey Jazz, what's up?" Annie asked.
"Did you guys forget?" Jazz questioned. "It's time for your training session."
The kids let out a collective groan. Optimus was gracious enough to allow them to keep the talos they brought back from Brigadoon as theirs, despite Prowl's avid protests, but only on the condition that they practice daily with them to properly learn how to pilot them. They were still novices at operating a talos, but they were quickly getting the hang of the basic controls of their mecha. Jazz took up the role as their personal trainer, along with Sara, acting as their opponent during mock battles where they had to fight him in their talos. He won every time, but at least they now lasted more than five minutes against him, so that was a victor.
Once they kids went to get their specially made pilot suits (courtesy of Wheeljack), Optimus and Sparkplug were having a conversation of their own about recent events that had them worried.
"Optimus, this is the fourth robbery this month. Someone's targeting those research facilities and are not afraid to leave a pile of bodies behind." Sparkplug said. He brought up a list of the places that were hit on the computer and pointed them out. "Each of them were hit hard, with many of their top secret tech developed for the military stolen, and everything else was left behind."
"Do you think it's the Decepticons?" Optimus asked.
"I thought that, and I figured it might be Leader-1's work since he's known for leaving behind a trail of carnage in his wake, but these robberies are too clean for even Soundwave to be a factor." Sparkplug replied. "And there's also the murder of any possible witnesses, many had severe burns likened to a serious electrical burn that stops the human body's functions in seconds. But get this; a guard who managed to survive an encounter reported seeing a woman shooting lightning to kill a few guards at Dynamic Ultra."
"Then it's possibly an amalgam, there are some amalgams with powers that fit that description."
"Yeah, but he also said that the woman was wearing a high-tech suit that seemed to be the source of her powers."
"A high-tech suit?" Optimus muttered. "There are no public records of the military even having experimental technology such as that."
"But I can think of some…unofficial groups that come to mind." Sparkplug said.
"OZ," Optimus grumbled in his chest. "It seems their possession of your proto-cube to good use."
"Don't remind me." Sparkplug growled.
The Minicons' proto-cube was a cubical mass of sentio metallico harvested from Cybertron and its moons to provide the necessary materials for Sparkless protoforms called blanks, in the off chance anyone onboard the Exodus suddenly started budding. During their first meeting with OZ, the Autobots had seemingly stopped them from stealing the proto-cubes and chased them off. However, it wasn't until they returned to the Ark that Sparkplug learned that three of the four cubes were present and realized too late that OZ might have one of them. It was the first time anyone had seen Sparkplug unleash so many curse words in a single moment.
"According to the information that Annie and Kevin got from one of the Zodiac, these companies are also groups that refused to cooperate with OZ in the past." Optimus said.
"Do you think this is some revenge operation?" Sparkplug asked.
"I doubt they would be so petty, but considering how little we know about OZ, there's only one way to really find out." Optimus stood up and pressed a button on the terminal. "Teletran, have Arcee, Jazz and Wheeljack meet me in the shuttle bay. Also, calculate the most likely target that OZ will hit next."
"Do you have something in mind."
"In a sense." Optimus said cryptically, and that was all Sparkplug got out of him.
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Hybrid Technologies was one of Osea's leading companies in civilian robotics. In addition to developing talos for construction companies and police forces, they also sought to adapt talos technology to increase personal robotics, such as AI and prosthetic limbs. They let other companies cater to the military in making bigger and meaner war machines, they ruled the field where it really counted-the people.
For a company that inspired hope and perseverance, the sight the Autobot strike team came upon was anything but optimistic. Ironhide and his team of Jazz, Arcee and Wheeljack exited the ground bridge into HyTech's production facility and were greeted by what looked like a warzone. Something had barreled through the front doors, leaving burn marks and two dead guards on the ground.
"They were electrocuted." Wheeljack said upon studying the bodies. "Heart failure, most likely, and they were electrocuted so strongly that their skin's burnt."
Ironhide scowled and raised his blasters-he couldn't bring his usual dual cannon system out of fear of collateral damage (Prowl's words, not his). "Split up and keep your eyes open. See if we can find any evidence as to what they stole."
The team split up, each taking a corner of the facility for themselves to explore. They had no solid lead on what OZ even wanted (if it was them in the first place), and they were going in blind without knowing what weapon they were facing. Technology think tanks had a long list of things OZ wanted, so it was touch to narrow down the search.
After fifteen minutes of searching, Ironhide called his team. "You guys find anything yet?"
"Nothing on my end." Wheeljack answered. "Considering how messed up the front doors are, I thought that there would be more destruction, but it looks clean over here."
"Arcee?"
Arcee crawled through a hole in the wall near the rear entrance and saw that the walls leading to the storage area were blasted open, with jagged gouges in the smooth floor and brownish-black scorch marks marring the walls. Much of the equipment in the storage area looked like they were hit by something hot, like fire-or electricity. And yet, it didn't seem like the usual stealth tactics that OZ typically employed when doing these kinds of operations.
"Nothing on my end either, but the storage area looks like it was hit by a lightning storm." She reported. "They're scorch marks everywhere and the equipment here looks like they were overcharged."
"Wheeljack, head over to her position and check out the damage. See what you can find." Ironhide ordered.
"On it."
"Jazz, what about you?"
Jazz had grappled to the upper floors and was making his way through the large halls, thankful that the building was just large enough for him to crouch through. He wasn't anywhere near the areas that were hit. He was looking for something you couldn't see with the naked eye, something invisible. Having switched his visor to infrared, Jazz had detected a trail of electromagnetic energy that permeated much of the facility, but led to the upper floors. Large amounts of it had been found both in and out of the building and he thought that it was just the lead he needed to see what had went down here.
"Don't go radio silent on me Jazz, what did you find?"
"I'm detecting a lot of electromagnetic energy all over the place. Sparkplug was right on the money when he said that high amounts of electricity was involved." Jazz said. "I'm following it now."
Jazz hopped out the window and landed on the steel girders that supported a massive structure that was behind the facility. It was a large glass dome situated over a large field with trenches and bunkers-it looked like a warzone. Seeing that the EM trail was strongest here, Jazz used a small built-in laser to cut a hole through the glass and jump into the dome. He landed in a trench and frowned as he saw the muddy dirt cling to his polished leg armor.
"I'm getting a bath after this is over. You would think that they would air this place out a little." Jazz said and looked around. There was nothing here, but he did see what looked like pieces of burnt armor scattered along the ground. They were black, and hard to see in the dark, even with his advance night vision. "Now what went on here?"
Suddenly, all the lights in the dome switched on and the M4 Murphy talos came to life at once. There were a dozen of them, but they sported black armor and were more heavily armed than the standard Murphys used by the Army and Marines. The talos aimed their weapons at him and Jazz got ready to run.
He grunted as the talos opened fire on him at once, firing armor piercing rounds from their shoulder cannons and machine guns. The Autobot performed a series of flips, ducking and dodging the numerous artillery that was sure to leave some serious dents in his armor. A few rounds caught him in the leg, almost tearing into his sensitive circuitry underneath.
"Guys, I need some help here!" Jazz called his team, but got no replies. "Guys? Cee? Anyone hear-scrap!"
A round caught him in the knee, stumbling him before another round shot his shoulder, sending bits of his armor flying off. He staggered a bit but kept dodging the best he could, looking for a way out. Facing the attacking talos, he took out his laser nunchucks and leapt at the machines, smashing the blunt weapons against the heads of the mecha. Despite being in close proximity, the other units still opened fire on him despite some of their own being in the line of fire.
"Whoa!" Jazz ducked under a missile that blew apart the Murphy behind him. "What the hell, dude? That was your own…"
Jazz went silent as he saw that there was no body in the burning mecha. The cockpit in the torso unit was completely empty. Jazz quickly charged at another Murphy, knocking it over and tearing open its hatch. Like the other one, this talos was unmanned as well.
"Okay, this is getting weird." Jazz muttered. He looked up and saw the remaining M4s start to surround him. "Looks like this is a good time to skedaddle!"
Jazz hopped on a talos and used it to gain some leverage as he jumped up and grappled onto the hole he made to enter the dome. As he pulled himself up, he dropped a grenade down into the dome where the M4s were gathered, still shooting at him. He watched with satisfaction as the talos were blown up by the grenade, scattering their parts across the testing range.
"Good riddance." Jazz sighed and jumped back to the ground outside. "Let's see if my comm's still work-"
Jazz shouted as a lightning bolt tore into his side and blew his left arm off, sending him to the ground. He groaned in pain as electricity surged through his body, feeling like he was on the verge of overloading. He weakly raised his head to look at his attacker and grunted.
"H-Hide," Jazz rasped, hoping that the others got his message. "It's n-not the Cons at all. It's-"
Another bolt to the chest blasted him into a statue, smashing through it as he landed on his back and rolled to a stop. His body jerked and twitched a bit before his visor went dark and he went limp. His assailant stood over him, electricity crackling off her form as she lifted the Autobot's arm in a magnetic field and left the area behind.
"Jazz, you alright? Jazz, answer me, damn it!" Ironhide yelled over the comm.
"Ironhide, what's wrong?" Arcee asked.
"I think Jazz's in trouble. Head over to his position, now!"
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Arcee waited anxiously as she and the rest of the team waited for Ratchet to finish his diagnosis of Jazz's unmoving body. The Autobot was in the CR chamber, his body carefully held within the tank as nanites worked on repairing his wounds. Ratchet ran some scans on him from the outside and frowned at the information he was getting.
"Is he going to be okay, doc?" Annie asked worriedly.
"That remains to be seen, but he's not in any life threatening danger." Ratchet said. "But whatever did this to him overloaded his circuits and sending him into stasis lock. His arm is the least of our worries, since I can replace that, though I can't perform reconstruction surgery until his condition improves."
"What do you mean overloaded his circuits?" Ironhide asked gruffly.
"As in he was electrocuted to the point that his body couldn't handle any more energy and shut down to avoid permanent damage." Ratchet explained. "This weapon probably emitted strong electrical discharges for the sole purpose of disabling or destroying electronics."
"But I got the tail end of Jazz's last message. He said that it wasn't the Cons." Arcee said.
"Which meant that he was referring to someone else." Wheeljack said. "But who else could have something that's strong enough to take out Jazz in a couple of seconds?"
"Who else but the only other enemies on this world?" Prowl said, looming in the back of the room with a dark look on his face. "I think you can all figure out who that might be."
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Josie Beller sat in her seat watching the technicians check her suit over with a smile. As the technicians were hard at work in seeking out the kinks and cracks in her experimental suit, scientists were also poking and prodding the limb of the alien robot she had taken out earlier. They were all entranced by the strange limb, whose unique biomechanics mirrored that of a living organic being in some way. What they would learn from it could hopefully provide some insight to the mysterious mechanical aliens that walked on their world, and allow them to make proper countermeasures for their brave soldiers on the field to use against them.
'Nerds.' Beller thought, smirking at the egg-heads analyzing every part of the limb. 'No wonder those dimwits couldn't get any tail.'
The young blond woman was clad in a plain sleeveless shirt and cargo pants sipping on some coffee as she watched the bright lights and loud noises go on in the research lab. Taking down that Autobot lifted her spirits and she felt unstoppable. If she did a good enough job, then OZ might even mass produce it alongside their talos units to make a new form of weapon both human and alien couldn't hope to contend with. Beller was ready for anything that came her way, and she hoped her superiors thought the same of her.
"You're in high spirits, Major Beller."
Acting on instinct upon hearing the voice of her commanding officer, Beller quickly spun around (almost spilling her coffee) and saluted with a fist to her chest. "General Aries, sir!"
"At ease, Beller," Aries of the Zodiac smiled, which was a rare thing to earn from the man. The Zodiac were hard people to please, harder to impress, and Aries was certainly impressed with her track record so far. "You've been doing a spectacular job, on the last few missions."
"Thank you, sir, it wasn't that hard at all, to be honest." Beller said, smiling. Hearing praise from Aries the hard ass inflated her already big ego.
"Is there any complications with the suit, Beller?" Aries asked. "Any health concerns that should be noted."
"No sir, the docs said that my vitals are fine and there are no abnormalities." Beller reported. "The suit runs like a charm, sir. I feel stronger and faster, like a totally different person."
"That's the whole point behind the project, Major Beller." An elderly voice said, quickly erasing the smile from the woman's face. "If you felt no different than you did before donning the suit, then I wouldn't be doing my job."
Professor Henry Arkeville, one of Osea's leading minds behind advancing talos technology, robotic prosthetics, and the main producer of the ARD's anti-amalgam mechanized units, entered the room behind Aries with that same creepy grin on his thin, bony face as he regarded Beller. The man was on OZ's payroll and was quickly rising through the ranks thanks to the vast amount of knowledge he had at his disposal and his willingness to adapt to the changing times.
Arkeville was the man who came up with what many were calling the Circuit Breaker suit. Using the data obtained from the proto-cube stolen from the Wreckage of the Exodus, Arkeville headed a project to create a suit that used electromagnetism as a weapon. By enhancing the electrical impulses generated by her nerve system, the suit would allow her to control electromagnetic energy at will, enabling her to general electricity and-to a degree-machinery as well. It was a fitting anti-cybertronian weapon, as they were subject to the same limitations and weaknesses that plagued regular machines too. Another unintended side effect was that she was also able to control machines through that electricity, just like the talos she set on Jazz at HyTech's testing range.
Yes, the Circuit Breaker suit was amazing, but Aries wished it covered more than just key portions of Beller's body. Neither he nor Aquarius particularly cared at how skimpy the suit was, but they had to show some decorum when doing their job. It was hardly professional to send out a woman in a skimpy costume to do battle. This wasn't a comic book, after all. Granted, Beller didn't really mind at how much skin the suit showed. If Aries knew her any better, he'd say she enjoyed flaunting her stuff while causing mayhem and chaos.
"Does this mean we can finish building the Circuit Breaker talos?" Beller asked.
"Yes, dear, I'd say we've gained more than enough data to make it a reality." Arkeville smirked. "This field test was just the beginning."
As Arkeville left the room, Aries faced Beller. "Are you ready for the next step, Beller? We're going to need you to test out the actual talos that goes along with your suit. It will be a different experience. Everything the armor feels, you will feel."
"I'm ready, sir. With my new power, those machines won't know what hit them." Beller said confidently. "It shouldn't be too hard fighting a bunch of alien tin-cans."
"Temper that arrogance, Beller." Aries said in a hard tone, making her clamp up. "Those aliens are not to be underestimated. The cybertronians are not just machines, they are living, fully intelligent creatures…creatures who have fought their fair share of battles. When you fight them, take them seriously, or they'll make you look like a damn fool."
"I understand, sir." She nodded. Deep down, though, she scoffed at his warning. These aliens were nothing more than metal and circuits with fancy weapons, and she had power over them. All she needed was time, and those tin cans were as good as dead. No machine can stand against the Circuit Breaker!
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It was quiet in the medibay of the Ark. Despite knowing that OZ was most likely behind this, the Autobots knew there was little they could do, as much as they wanted to get revenge for Jazz. It was late at night now, with the Autobots either resting or patrolling, and the kids were at home with their Minicons.
Arcee sat in the chair next to the CR chamber Jazz was in. It was surreal seeing her friend and mentor inside one of those tanks, motionless and weak. She was so used to seeing him laugh and joke around while kicking ass at the same time. Arcee always saw him as this super strong mech who didn't let the weight of the world hold him down, but she forgot that he was just as susceptible to death and injury like anyone else. This was a sobering and scary reminder she had.
"What are you doing here, nya?"
Arcee looked down and saw Peppercat sitting next to her feet. She hadn't talked to the Minicon since the whole information leak of the Solomus Massacre. She missed Peppercat's company, the femme was a great listener when she wasn't hopped up on excess energy.
"Hey, Pepper," Arcee said. "I was just…keeping Jazz company."
Peppercat tilted her head curiously and looked up at the unconscious Jazz. "He doesn't look like he notices you, nya."
"That's because he in stasis. He doesn't know that I'm here." Arcee replied. "He…won't be waking up for a while."
They sat in silence for a few minutes before Peppercat asked, "Are you alright, nya?"
"I'm…I'm honestly not doing very good, Pepper. Seeing him like this has me shaken up." Arcee sighed and slumped her shoulders. "I mean, I've always had this mental image in my mind of Jazz being this unstoppable mech to me, you know? Like, nothing could touch him. Seeing him so hurt brings back a lot of bad memories."
"Does it remind you of…" Peppercat trailed off, not wanting to disturb Arcee, but the pink Autobot smiled down at her.
"Yes, it reminds me of Moonracer, Pepper. You don't have to dance around that memory. I'm…coping with it."
Arcee had been seeking help from Optimus and Jazz about the vivid memories of her sister's death. She'd have nightmares of the incident back on Cybertron, and those nightmares returned in force when she ran into Flamewar again. Jazz did his best to help her, but he told her that the grief will never truly go away. It will still settle in her heart, in her mind and haunt her. The best she could do was accept it and try not to let it control her life. She was doing fine until this happened, and the experience shook her to the core.
Jazz was there for her every step of the way. He helped her at her lowest moments, kept her from making so many mistakes in some futile attempt to escape her grief. He stayed with her no matter how many times she brushed him off, insulted him, and even attacked him. He taught her how to find her inner peace, and to let go of your worries in the face of danger. Just let things run their course and don't let your struggles weigh you down lest they keep you from moving on in your life. It was a philosophy he shared with many people, from Optimus to Rodimus.
"He will be fine," Peppercat said. "Jazz is too strong to let this keep him down, nya. He didn't survive four million years of warfare just to get offlined by a stinky human, nya."
"Ha, you're right. He'll be fine. This is just me suffering from a bit of anxiety." Arcee chuckled. She held out her hand and Peppercat jumped into her palm, switching to beast mode and curling up. "Thank you for being here with me, Peppercat. I needed someone to talk to."
"Anything for a friend, nya."
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Beller looked up at her new talos, a unit designed to work with her Circuit Breaker suit-the Circuit Breaker MK2. She was in the hanger of the regional OZ base waiting to be deployed to properly test out the Circuit Breaker suit and talos. The techs were doing some last minute checks on the mecha's joints and operating systems, but she was assured that everything should go smoothly so long as she doesn't go beyond her limits.
The Circuit Breaker talos was designed with the same humanoid aesthetic as the other units in OZ's Mobile Armor Division. It was large, standing around 21 feet with thick armor plating modeled after the composite armor used in Osea's Main Battle Tanks, the same armor that the M6 and M4s use, in fact. It was a steel gray color, with a smooth, round face and blue optics. Looking behind the talos, she saw a backpack unit with two whips connected to the arms.
"What's with the whips?" Beller asked.
"They're the Circuit Breaker's new weapon." Aquarius sauntered up to the woman, her indigo eyes glinting like dark sapphires. "Circuit Breaker is equipped with a pair of plasma whips that are capable of cutting through most material thanks to the high-voltage commutators in the forearms powering the ionized plasma channels. The armor itself is reinforced to protect it from self inflicted damages."
"I'm not so green that I'll hit myself with my own weapons, sir." Beller almost sneered. Aquarius gave an indignant snort at her attitude.
"It's a safety precaution, dear. Your superiority complex is safe and sound." Aquarius cooed, making Beller scowl. "This unit doesn't have a conventional control system. It's designed to interface with your suit, meaning you can control it through your electrical impulses."
"That sounds fun." Beller smirked. "Is there anything I should look out for, sir?"
"Only to make sure you don't go overboard with the talos' weapons systems. All it takes is one well placed hit to the engine to make the whole thing go haywire, and you do not want to have your suit going nuts when it's on your body."
"Please, like they'll be able to hit me." Beller snorted. "Those machines will be no match for me."
Aquarius frowned at the excessive arrogance the woman was showing. She read Beller's field report; she was a former talos commander in charge of her own squad. She was a great pilot, but she had a temper and was not above using her own men as scapegoats in the name of victory, even going as far as to make it seem like they were accidents or casualties of war to justify her aggressiveness against the enemy. Though her performance on the battlefield was commendable, the higher ups in the military couldn't get past her general disregard for the lives of her soldiers and she was dishonorably discharged.
Now that Aquarius thought about it, Beller once served under Colonel Jonathan Wraith, an infamous hard ass who was no different from Beller in terms of mannerisms, but he took it a step further by pushing for the forced conscription of amalgams into the military to exploit their abilities as living weapons. And Wraith was a man who valued order above all us, even other people, so she wondered how Beller got away with her out of control attitude.
Aquarius just hoped that this trigger happy G.I. Jane didn't screw things up with her talos. The Circuit Breaker suit and mecha cost a pretty penny to make, and a lot of sleepless nights were spent making it the best talos it could be for urban warfare. The last thing she needed was one woman setting all that aflame because she thought she was Zeus on steroids.
"All Mobile Armor units, move out in ten minutes." The Watch Commander said over the intercom.
"Suit up, Beller," Aquarius said. "It's show time."
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It was late at night when the Autobots got their first lead when Teletran-1 detected an emergency transmission from a local military base that was under attack. Optimus was the first on the scene with Prowl as they listened to the message.
"This is watch command of Hancock military base requesting immediate reinforcements!" The officer sounded panicked and out of breath. Guns firing and explosions could be heard in the background. "We're under attack by an unknown militia that is heavily armed. They have an amalgam with lightning-based powers and-wait, no, everyone take cov-" The transmission ended with a loud boom before cutting off.
Optimus clenched his fists. "OZ."
"My thoughts exactly." Prowl said and turned to Prime. "I never pegged them to attack a military base outright like that with no provocation."
"It's a ploy to draw us out. They're not afraid of getting exposed, since the attack can easily be blamed on Karaba." Optimus said. "And the amalgam he mentioned is possibly the same person who attacked Jazz."
"Orders?"
"Assemble a team and have Bulkhead and Wheeljack on standby." Optimus commanded. "We need to move before they kill anyone else."
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Upon exiting the ground bridge portal, the Autobots arrived to a scene of carnage and chaos. The Hancock Army base was a total wreck, with the remains of armored vehicles and talos lying across the ground in pieces like broken toys. There were a few smoldering helicopter remains and the mecha hangar was in flames. The Autobots also saw the numerous charred corpses of soldiers across the ground, most were burned beyond recognition and others looked like they were dissected by something sharp. Optimus blanched at their last expressions, frozen looks of fear and pain. It was a massacre.
"Primus above." Arcee gasped.
"Ratchet, we're at the base, but there is no sign of the enemy." Optimus said in a tight voice.
"There's no way they would be gone that quickly. We just got their distress call minutes ago." Ratchet said. "Be on your guard. It would be a trap."
"Autobots, form up and be on your guard." Optimus said and raised his ion cannon.
The team got into a circle formation and slowly walked through the ravaged base. Seeing all the destroyed vehicles and bodies lying around, it was clear that OZ did not want any survivors to tell of what happened here. The extermination was thorough. But the real question was where are they? Ambushes and surprise attacks were OZ's forte when dealing with cybertronians, so they could lower their guard lest they get hit hard like Jazz was.
Ironhide heard a loud metallic clang and spun around, raising one of his cannons as he approached one of the undamaged hangars.
"Something wrong, Hide?" Bumblebee asked.
Ironhide looked around a bit before shaking his head. "I thought I heard some-agh!"
A powerful bolt of lightning burst through the door and hit Ironhide in the chest, making him fall back onto a destroyed tank. He groaned and looked down at the smoking hole the blast left in his armored chest. Had he not have dense armor, that blast would've hit him deeper than that.
Optimus, Arcee and Bumblebee faced their attacker, a large grey talos with thick armor and a pair of blue whips on its arms. Optimus stepped in front of Ironhide and addressed the pilot.
"My name is Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots." Optimus said. "Identify yourself."
"Major Josie Beller, proud soldier of OZ, and your executioner." Beller said smirking. "I know who you are, machine. It's the whole reason I came to this dump."
"You mean you endangered and hurt these people just to get us here?" Arcee growled.
"Couldn't find you in the phonebook." Beller shrugged. The arrogance in her voice was evident, even from their position.
Bumblebee growled and almost rushed the strange talos, but Optimus stopped him. "What do you want from us?"
"Your parts." She answered rudely. "What else?"
Spotlights shined down on the Autobots and suddenly they were confronted with five attack helicopters hovering over them. Codarl and Orion talos appeared in the yard and to the Autobots' surprise, the tanks that were left untouched suddenly began to move and take aim at them. Among the talos that appeared, there were two different variants of the Codarl, a red and blue version of the mass produced version. The red Codarl was Aries' personal talos, Krios, and the blue Codarl that actually sported a steel reinforced water tank on its back was the personal talos of Aquarius, the Hydrakoos.
"Great, these two again." Bumblebee groaned.
"Hello again, Autobots." Aries greeted them. He turned to Arcee. "You're looking well, Arcee. How are the twins?"
"Better now that they're away from you." Arcee growled.
"Good, we wouldn't want any interruptions from them, would we?" Aries said. "All units, open fire on the Autobots. But leave enough to be salvaged later."
XXXXXX
It was dumb luck that High Wire got a call from Roll Bar about the huge battle that was going on. Having woke the kids up, the Minicons were urged to bring them to the Ark should they have need of their talos. As tired and grumpy as they were, the children grudgingly went along with their friends, knowing how serious the situation was. One Ground Bridge later and the kids were quickly ushered to the shuttle bay by Sparkplug, where Wheeljack, Bulkhead and Prowl were waiting with Ratchet at the Teletran-1 terminal.
"Kids? What are you three doing here this late at night?" Wheeljack asked.
"Roll Bar called us over in case we were needed." Darren said. "What's going on?"
"It's OZ," Bulkhead answered. "They've just attacked a military base and Optimus took a team there to fight them off."
"The action already started and you guys didn't call us?" Annie frowned up at Bulkhead.
"We're not obligated to inform you whenever we get into battle." Prowl said, glaring down at her. "All you have are talos that you don't even know how to use efficiently."
"Optimus to base," Prime's voice came over the comm-channel. "We're in need of reinforcements! OZ is attacking with heavily armed units!"
"That's our queue." Wheeljack said.
Ratchet switched the ground bridge on and Prowl went in with Wheeljack and Bulkhead. The kids stood there with their Minicon friends looking less than pleased with Prowl's words. Sara especially didn't appreciate his insults towards Gina.
"He acts like you guys didn't help fight off a giant two-headed dragon." Grindor said.
"I do not appreciate the words he used to describe your usefulness, Ms. Gina." Sara said. "He does not seem like a very open-minded individual. Shall I kill him, Ms. Gina?"
"No! No, killing allies, Sara." Gina exclaimed. "That's a big no-no."
"Even if they are dicks." Annie grumbled. She looked over at Darren and saw that he was staring intently at the monitor, where they heard the sounds of the Autobots battling OZ in a very difficult battle. "Darren, what's up?"
"I'm just thinking of something." He said.
"Something cool, I hope." She said. Darren snorted.
"Oh, it's cool, all right…and dangerous." He said, making Annie grin.
"Now you're acting like my twin." Annie said happily.
"Whatever it is you three are thinking, don't even try it." Ratchet said without taking his eyes off the screen. "This fight is too dangerous for you to get involved in."
"Those people made it our fight when they kidnapped my sister." Darren growled. "The Autobots are outnumbered and they need all the help they can get. We have talos more advanced than theirs, we can even the playing field."
"I don't care. Optimus will have my head if I willingly sent you all out into that mess." Ratchet replied.
"Let them go, doc." Jazz appeared in the door, limping as he walked and holding his missing arm gingerly. "They'll go out anyway. Might as well give 'em the keys to the car, now."
"Jazz!" The kids and Minicons exclaimed. Ratchet quickly went over to Jazz to support him.
"Jazz, you shouldn't be on your feet!" ratchet hissed. "I haven't even gotten around to replacing your arm yet."
"That doesn't matter right now. What does matter is beating those stupid megalomaniacs before they do some more damage to boss bot and the others." Jazz said. "Let the kids go out, doc. OZ pretty much knows how we operate and are better prepared to fight us." He grinned down at the kids. "But they have no idea about our three secret weapons."
The kids smiled and nodded. It was time to get to work and prove their spot on the team.
XXXXXX
The battle between the humans and Autobots at the Hancock Army base was in full swing as the two major forces battled fiercely. OZ's armored forces surrounded the Autobots and began separated them, with the attack choppers converging on Optimus to isolate him from his team. This allowed Aries and Aquarius to enter the battle and fight Optimus off while their forces took care of the others.
The unmanned tanks controlled by Beller were engaging Ironhide and Bumblebee, firing kinetic shells and sabot rounds at the two in addition to the Codarls shooting at them with assault rifles. Arcee was fighting Beller herself, but found that to be difficult as the Circuit Breaker talos' plasma whips proved to be very lethal to cybertronians.
Arcee jumped up and brought her swords down on Beller, but the talos dodged her blades and swung her plasma whips. Arcee rolled away as the whips tore into a tank behind her, slicing the vehicle in two like butter. Another crack of the whip left a deep gash in Arcee's thigh, staggering her long enough for Beller to fire a lightning blast at her chest that blasted her into Ironhide. Beller didn't waste a second as she turned her sights on Bumblebee as she fired her bolts at him.
Instead of taking him out, Beller tried to use her suit's amplification abilities to control the little Autobot. Bumblebee gritted his teeth as he struggled to resist the magnetic pull on his body, wincing as electrical surges ran through his body. He felt numb all over, but he resisted her will strongly. Beller frowned at his defiance, noticing how harder it was trying to control the Autobot. They were machines, she shouldn't be having any problems in controlling them.
'Could it be because they're living beings as well?' Bell through and smirked. "It doesn't matter. All machines bow to Circuit Breaker sooner or later."
She sent more electricity into Bumblebee, weakening his body until she was sure he would more receptive to her advances. When he fell to his knees, she raised her talos' hands and forced the Autobot to stand up, pulling out his blaster and pointing it at Arcee. The pink Autobot cursed and leapt to the side to avoid Bumblebee's shots. One of the Orions aimed at her and fired a volley of anti-armor missiles that exploded around Arcee, two missiles hitting her in the back.
"A-Arcee!" Bumblebee groaned. Beller smirked and made one of the tanks point its cannon at the down femme. "N-No!"
Before the tank could fire, a fission blast tore it apart from behind. Ironhide appeared from the smoke, his left cannon smoking as he glared at Beller. Beller growled and fired a bolt at Ironhide, catching him in the torso, but was surprise to see that the red Autobot didn't go down like last time.
"You'll have to do more than that to keep me down!" Ironhide growled, pointing his cannons at her. He was going to blow her straight to hell and end this sick little game.
"Then I'll just have to try harder!" Beller shouted. Her talos extended its plasma whips and lashed them out at her.
Ironhide got hit in the right arm, damaging his cannon while the other wrapped around his leg and started burning into his armor. Ironhide growled and pulled on the whips, dragging Beller forward. Beller tried to keep her talos balanced while pressing a button to increase the outward voltage of the whips. With the amount of plasma increased in the whips, they burned into Ironhide's armor faster, causing more pain.
Arcee tried to help her friend, but Bumblebee opened fire on her again and she was forced to take cover behind a building to avoid the heavy bombardment that was hitting her. She hissed in pain as she felt the sizzling hole in her side where the missile hit her. There was no way she could get to Ironhide or Bumblebee without getting blasted into submission.
"Not so superior now, are you machine?" Beller laughed.
"Arcee, fall back!" Ironhide said. He hissed as he felt the whips get closer to his inner components.
"Shut up you, stupid tin can!" Beller snarled.
Optimus saw his comrades in danger and raised his ion cannon to shoot Beller down, but an onslaught of hellfire missiles fire by the helicopters forced him back. His distraction allowed a blast of water to smack the cannon from his hand and disarm him, and he jumped back to avoid another water blast that froze the ground where he once stood. Aquarius was controlling the water from her spot inside her talos, easily manipulating the liquid to drive Prime back from his friends.
"You aren't going anywhere, Prime." Aries said. His Krios had its adamantium sword drawn and walked towards Optimus. "We've spent a lot of money and resources trying to get you all here, and we're not about to let you waste it all again."
He charged at Prime and swung his sword, but Optimus blocked it with his newly revealed battle axe. Prime deflected Aries' strike, almost knocking his talos over, but he recovered and got into his sword stance. Inside his Codarl, Aries smirked; this was going to be a fun battle.
Before his fun could really start, a ground bridge appeared in the middle of the yard and Prowl, Wheeljack and Bulkhead ran out shooting at everything that wasn't friendly. Caught off guard by surprise reinforcements, many of the Orions were destroyed from direct hits from laser blasts while three Codarls were disabled. Wheeljack leapt forward and fired a shell from his shoulder cannon, which exploded and rained down gyro-inhibitors over the other OZ talos, shorting out the mecha's systems and causing them to malfunction. In just a few seconds, a large chunk of OZ's talos were disabled or destroyed.
"That's what I call an entrance!" Bulkhead charged forward and began smashing the talos apart with his wrecking ball. Bullets bounced off his large form as he batted away the surviving Orions and ruthlessly crushed the heads of the Codarls. He grabbed a tank by its cannon barrel and swung it around, slamming it into two Codarls that ran at him and smacking away an Orion firing missiles at him. One last swing sent the tank flying at Beller, who cursed loudly at him.
"You fucking machine!" She shouted and spun her talos around send a plasma whip at the flying tank. It cut right through the tank and split it in half, sending the two pieces falling to both sides of her. She felt her talos lurch forward as something wrapped around its leg and pulled its leg from under her. "Shit!"
The Circuit Breaker crashed to the ground, with Wheeljack's energo-whip wrapped around its leg. Having lost her control over Bumblebee because of this, Beller was distracted as she saw Arcee charging at her with her fiery swords and channeled more energy into her talos to move it faster.
There were numerous differences between regular talos and Circuit Breaker, one of its most significant changes being its control system. The talos operated on a semi-master/slave system, with its cockpit being a compact harness Beller hooked her arms and legs into. Once calibrated, Beller could move her arms and legs slightly, and the talos would mirror her movements on a proportionately larger scale. With her body's neural system controlling the speed and movement of the talos, it made her reaction time faster than that of even the special Zodiac Codarl models. Beller was pushing her talos to its limits and she had to if she wanted survive.
Moving Circuit Breaker so fast that its joints groaned from strain, Beller channeled more energy into her talos and released a powerful electromagnetic wave from her body that blasted Arcee and Wheeljack away. She immediately rammed her mecha into Arcee and pinned her to the ground.
"Who the hell do you think you are?" Beller snarled. "You machines don't mean shit to me!"
Elsewhere, Optimus was joined by Prowl in his fight against the Zodiac. Optimus and Aries battled furiously, but it was clear that Prime's superior strength was able to keep Aries on the defensive, as his adamantium sword could only do so much against an energo-weapon. Prowl was having a harder time fighting Aquarius, who attacked him with large blasts of water sharp enough to cut through steel.
Prowl ducked under a slash from her and fired his laser rifle. A wall of ice blocked the first volley of laser bolts and before it shattered, Aquarius was already surfing on a large wave of water, her Codarl firing compressed blasts of water at Prowl. Prowl kept shooting at her as he evaded her attacks, but she was faster, moving along the ground on a coating of ice as if she were skating.
"I like you, Prowl," Aquarius giggled. "You're much more fun than I give you credit for."
"This is war! It's not supposed to be fun." Prowl said and lobbed a grenade in front of her. It exploded near her talos' feet, shattering her ice and making her stumble onto her front. "Take this seriously!"
"You want serious? Fine, I'll give you serious." Aquarius spun her Codarl around and fired an armor piercing shell directly into Prowl's face, knocking him back. She shot up and sprinted forward, reaching out with one large mechanical hand to grab Prowl's gun arm and encased it in ice upon contact.
Prowl tried to escape, but Aquarius lifted him up over her unit's head and engulfed his body in a large water bubble, swinging him around in the air before slamming him into the ground. She froze the water around him so that only his head was left open and grinned through her monitor.
"How's that for serious, alien?" Aquarius huffed. She surrounded her Codarl's hand in ice to make a long sharp spike and prepared to run him through…just as a large red axe sank into her talos' shoulder and cleanly severed the arm in a single swipe. "The hell?!"
Aquarius saw her Codarl's arm drop with wide eyes before something large slammed into her talos and jostled her in her seat. Optimus Prime lifted the Codarl above his head and swung it around, slamming it into Aries' unit to knock it away before throwing her into the ground, shattering the water tank on her back. Mounting the Codarl, Optimus prepared to smash its head in when Aquarius quickly had the water spilt from her tank shoot up and grab Prime's arms.
Optimus grunted as he tried to break free, but Aquarius punched him off her and let the water pull him off her and pin him to the ground, freezing his forearms to the ground. Aquarius made sure to freeze his legs as well to take away any leverage he had. Optimus tried to break free but he couldn't properly move to break his icy bonds.
Aquarius stood her damaged Codarl up and glared at Aries. "What the hell was that, Aries? I thought you had him!"
"You fight him one on one and see if you can pin him down." Aries remarked and walked over to Prime. "But that doesn't matter. We have what we came for. Optimus Prime himself."
"Beller's starting to have some trouble with the Autobots, but she's holding her own." Aquarius said. "Good to know that we didn't just waste almost ten thousand dollars on a large paperweight."
"Beller, wrap it up." Aries called in. "We're pulling out."
"What? But I'm not finished with them yet!" Beller yelled from where she was fighting Ironhide and Arcee. Aries' red Codarl spun around and fired a missile at her talos' feet as a warning shot.
"That's an order, Beller!" Aries growled. "I'm not one of those pencil pushing Army commanders you served under, girl. Disobey me and I'll find another more obedient pilot for the Circuit Breaker."
Beller scowled but retracted her plasma whips, ordering the helicopters to open fire on Arcee, Wheeljack and Bulkhead, the only other Autobots who weren't seriously wounded like Bumblebee and Ironhide. Aries may have thought they won, but she didn't see this as a victory until she's killed them all.
Aries radioed the airship that was parked a few miles back. "Transport, we're moving out with two load outs. Ready the scramblers and- "
Aries was cut off when two choppers were destroyed by two large beams of energy. Startled, both generals readied their weapons again, but they didn't expect the third beam to hit the ground in front of them, shot from the sky. Another beam tore apart the third helicopter and the remaining two scattered as the Autobots started shooting at them.
"Where did that come from?" Aries grunted.
"Don't ask me!" Aquarius snarled. "The Autobots might have reinforcements."
Beller also had no idea what was going on, but before she could move to assist the attack helicopters, her talos was suddenly grabbed by an invisible force that restrained her arms and pulled back. "The hell is this?!"
The Circuit Breaker was pulled through the perimeter wall and out into the desert wilderness, away from the reach of her support team. Aries, who saw this, made to aid her but noticed the ice around Prime's hands and feet shatter. Prime jumped up and punched the Krios in the face, almost taking its head off its shoulders and throwing it to the ground. Aquarius spun around to fight him, but her path was blocked by a large shape landing on the ground-a talos. It was black and white with a short, heavily armored frame and sporting a huge weapon load out that could rival an M6 Bushnell.
"You ain't touching the big guy!" Annie hollered through her Enyo's external speakers.
"Annie?" Optimus blinked. "What are you doing here?"
"Saving you, of course." Annie grinned. "Don't worry, I came with back-up."
Optimus saw the ice encasing Prowl shatter as a red and gold talos hovered to the ground on a cloud of green particles venting from its exhausts.
"We're here to support you guys. That's always been our job, right?" Darren said, switching his talos from fight mode to manual mode. "Let us help you just this once."
Aries' eyes widened as he heard the twin's voices coming from the new talos. "Darren and Annie Radcliffe? How…?"
"Don't act so surprised. Did you'd think we'd pass up the chance to get you after you fucked with our family?" Annie pointed her plasma cannons at Aquarius. "Karma's a bitch, ain't it?"
Aquarius scowled and fired three water blasts as Annie, who fired her cannons and dispersed the water. Aquarius was forced to dodge, letting the beams destroy the tank behind her. The surviving Codarls gathered around to aim at the two newcomers.
"Who authorized you two to head into battle? You aren't ready for this." Optimus said.
"Optimus, with all due respect, we were put in danger the moment we met you guys." Darren said, pointing his beam rifle/sword at Aries.
"At least now we're on equal ground with these yahoos." Annie said.
"Equal? There's nothing equal about us, girl." Aquarius hissed. Water blossomed around the Codarl and coalesced into a giant bubble around her talos, with long tentacles tipped with sharpened points flailing around, slamming against the ground. "Step aside or I'll turn your little toy into a pin cushion."
"Go ahead and try!" Annie yelled.
XXXXXX
Beller grunted as she felt the Circuit Breaker hit the ground outside the base and skid through the dirt and rock. Feeling whatever was holding her talos vanish, she pushed her arms forward and got her talos to its feet, looking around. There was nothing that could've dragged her like that, and all she could hear was the sound of fighting going on behind her. Gnashing her teeth angrily, Beller called out to whoever had the audacity to do that to her.
"Who did that? Show yourself, you stupid machine!" Beller roared. "I'd like to see you try that again!"
In response, two green plasma beams were fired from the sky and hit the ground in front of Circuit Breaker, kicking up dust in her face. The woman growled like an animal as her camera's vision was blinded by dust and fired electrical blasts as where the beams came from but hit nothing. Were there more of those Autobots? Were they using some kind of stealth tech?
"Stop playing around and come out so I can beat you to the ground!" She snarled.
"Since you asked so nicely." A girl's voice said.
The air in front of her shimmered a bit before a talos appeared. It was a purple and white talos that appeared from thin air, armed with a large sniper rifle sitting on its shoulder. Beller gritted her teeth when she realized that whoever was piloting that talos was just a girl!
"So the Autobots have kids pulling their asses out of the fire?" Beller sneered. "Could they be anymore pathetic?"
"Big talk for a woman who acts like she's all touch thanks to a fancy suit." Gina replied, targeting the enemy talos. "Why don't you square up against someone who's not susceptible to your powers?"
"You're gonna regret saying that, little girl."
Circuit Breaker lashed out with its plasma whips, but the Athena glided back out of its range. Beller charged forward and fired intense bolts of lightning from her talos' hands, ripping up the ground in an attempt to kill the brat that thought she could fighter her. Gina pressed the trigger on her joystick and fired two beams at Beller. The OZ pilot easily dodged the first one, but the second hit her right in the shoulder, blasting apart the armor and shattering the joint there. Circuit Breaker's arm fell off and the plasma whip snapped in two, sending sparks flying everywhere, mostly into Beller's vision.
"No!" She yelled, seeing her unit's energy levels drop.
Gina saw an opportunity and flew forward, closing the distance between her and Circuit Breaker. As she got close, Gina drew her beam saber and, in a quick downward slash, severed Circuit Breaker's right leg. With the talos hopping on one leg, Gina had her at her mercy, but instead of going for a killing blow, she held the beam saber over Circuit Breaker's head as she gave her warning.
"This is the only time I'm going to say this," Gina said through Athena's speakers. "Leave with your buddies now and you'll save what's left of you dignity."
"Who the fuck are you to be giving me orders?" Beller shouted. "I'm ten times the pilot you will ever be! No one can beat me like this; not those robots and not a little shit stain like you!"
Enraged, Beller channeled her suit's energy through the talos' entire frame, sending out a dome of electrical energy that actually pushed Gina back a significant distance. Startled, Gina held her grip as she brought her beam sniper rifle to bear and fired through the storm of electricity Beller was giving off. A few shots were off target, but one managed to hit and destroy Circuit Breaker's head, effectively blinding her. Two more shot took out the other leg and hit the chest near the neck, sending the talos to the ground.
Gina righted her talos and moved closer to the immobilized talos and breathed a sigh in relief. "Thank goodness, I thought that psycho would neve-"
A lightning bolt blasted through Circuit Breaker's cockpit hatch and hit Athena in the chest. Gina screamed as her talos was hit with enough volts of electricity to short out its systems. Overloaded with energy, the Athena shut down and stumbled back, falling to the ground.
"No, no, no! Don't die on me now, Kirk!" Gina whined. Her cockpit was dark, her monitors off, controls weren't responding, comms were dead. She couldn't even get her Apollo drive to boot up again. The talos would reboot itself given time, but Beller was coming for her and she didn't have an hour to spare.
Beller blasted her talos' chest open in a burst of electricity and climbed out, clad in her Circuit Breaker exo-frame. Bolts of electricity flew off her body, making her hair stand up. Combined with the savage look in her eyes, she looked every bit as unbalanced as she was.
"Come on out, little girl." Beller laughed, floating towards the downed talos. "I want see your face one more time before I burn it off!"
A fist slammed into her jaw from the side and Beller was thrown to the ground face first. Blood spurted from a broken nose and deep cuts caused by the sharp rocks her face grinded against before she rolled to a stop. Spitting out a glob of blood, Beller weakly stood up with a painful jaw and saw a young girl clad in a white dress walking towards her.
"You will not hurt Ms. Gina." Sara said resolutely.
"More jail bait? You freaks are getting on my nerves!" Beller growled. "What are you gonna hit me with, little girl? Shoot me?"
"No," Sara pointed behind her. "She is."
Beller didn't know what hit her as she was hit in the back by a plasma blast fired by Gina, who had her "Gina Blaster" on hand in situations just like this. The plasma beam hit Beller's power pack that was connected to her spine and powered her suit. The minute it was damaged, the device overloaded and to Gina's horror, the woman was violently electrocuted. Gina backed away as Beller screamed in agony as thousands of volts surged through her body, burning her skin and incinerating her hair to the scalp. The thin metal strips on Beller's skin melted to her body as they were heated up to scalding temperatures.
All this took just seconds to occur, and once it was over, Beller fell to the ground with smoke rising off her body. Gina gagged as she smelt burnt flesh and ran back to her cockpit to get away from the horrible sight. As for Sara, before she followed her charge, she looked down at the pitiful sight and shook her head.
"I did say you would not touch Ms. Gina. This is your fault for not listening to your betters." Sara said and calmly stepped over Beller's body, not giving her a second glance.
XXXXXX
'What the hell kind of machine did those aliens give this girl!' Aquarius thought with a scowl as she was forced to dodge another large beam fired at her by Annie. The Enyo was a powerful talos, with two beam cannons and two pulse cannons including its beam bazooka. Annie had no qualms about unleashing her mecha's full power on Aquarius, and the Zodiac could do little else against the onslaught.
Aquarius had been forced on the defensive once Annie got a foothold in their battle. One shot from those weapons was enough to completely annihilate the air support one by one, and could take out a Codarl with ease. Aquarius was forced to resort to using her own water and ice as shields that barely kept her from getting destroyed.
'Where did these talos come from? Our reports never said anything about them.' Aquarius thought. She grunted as the jeep next to her was destroyed by a beam attack and moved to take cover behind a hangar. 'Did the Autobots provide this technology to the children?'
If she was having a hard time, then Aries was getting absolutely trashed. He had to fight the combined might of Darren and Optimus. Armed with only a sword and anti-armor missiles, which were almost depleted, he was also put on the defensive as Darren turned the entire environment against him. Rocks and debris were thrown at Aries, who also had to avoid the dangerous Helios sword that the Prometheus was armed with. If it wasn't that, it was fighting against Optimus, who was just as dangerous with his battle axe. Aquarius could hear Beller's curses over the comm and slammed a hand on her control panel.
"This is getting us nowhere!" Aquarius hissed. She quickly pushed her Codarl to evade a beam cannon blast that tore through the wall of the hangar and saw Annie charging at her. "Where the hell is Beller?"
One of the surviving gunships that managed to escape the Autobots' opening assault called her up. "General Aquarius, I have a visual on the Circuit Breaker unit. It's…" The pilot trailed off, unsure of how to break the news to Aquarius. "The Circuit Breaker is severely damaged, sir. I think it's down for good, and there is another white talos standing over it."
"Fuck!" Aquarius cursed. How the hell did this mission go south so fast? They were winning!
"What about Agent Beller?" Aries grunted over the comm.
"I have a visual on her too, sir. She's on the ground incapacitated, and I think she's severely wounded as well. She might need immediate medical attention."
Aquarius closed her eyes and counted to ten as Aries went silent over the channel. That was it. Their main trump card against the Autobots was most likely dead or crippled, and the weapon that was most effective against the Cybertronians was now in the Autobots' hands. This was a wonderful night.
"Aquarius, we're pulling out what's left of our forces. Retrieval team, get Beller and destroy the Circuit Breaker unit." Aries said.
"Copy that." Aquarius knew better than to argue now.
Aries cut the line and looked forward at Darren and Optimus. Studying the red and gold talos that ruined his operation, Aries held his temper at bay and acknowledged his loss. "You win, Autobots. And you have those children to thank for it."
"They're…retreating?" Darren blinked. He saw the one remaining helicopter fly away as the two or three Codarls and the one Orion trudged out of the base. The red and blue Codarls piloted by the Zodiac stood near each other.
"Make no mistake, boy. This is a tactical retreat." Aries said. "The next time we meet, it will be on our terms."
"And we will win." Aquarius promised.
"And we'll fight you again!" Annie yelled at them, regrouping with Prime and her brother.
"Until next time, Optimus Prime. It won't matter who wins your little war. in the end, the victors will still face the might of OZ-and we will end up with the spoils." Aries said.
They fired two smoke grenades each to cover their escape, and were gone before the twins and Optimus could stop them. The other Autobots ran to see to their leader as Optimus faced the twins.
"Darren, Annie," He began. "That was incredibly risky of you to enter the fight like that. Engaging the enemy who has more skill and experience than you was dangerous."
"Not to mention foolhardy." Prowl said, crossing his arms.
"But your intervention turned the tide of the battle. And you saved my life," Optimus said. "For that, I thank you."
Annie grinned with red cheeks, though no one could see it. Getting a thank you from Optimus Prime made her heart flutter and she felt giddy inside. Darren felt the same way, muttering a shy "thanks". Optimus gave Prowl a look, who stared back at him before sighing and giving his own thanks.
"I want to thank you both as well. Though your methods were reckless, you did save us. Perhaps you three aren't total liabilities as I thought you were."
"That really means a lot coming from you, Prowl. Thanks." Darren said. He sounded so honestly when he said that, that it made Prowl clear his throat and look away.
"Yes, well," He muttered. "Just don't get too carried away."
"Don't worry, guys. You won't get bumped out of the world-saving business any time soon." Annie said. She hummed and looked around. "Hey, where's Gina?"
"Over here!"
The Autobots quickly ran out of the base and saw Gina sitting on the remains of the Circuit Breaker talos, with her Athena lying not too far from them. Sara stood next to Gina, on her guard as always as the Autobots approached them. The blonde girl smiled up at the others and waved them over.
"Does anyone else feel like a beast? Because I certainly do!" Gina said proudly.
XXXXXX
Back in the confines of their regional base, Aries and Aquarius were lamenting over their spectacular failure. Inside the medical ward, Aries calmly sat on a chair watching Aquarius pace around the room like a rabid animal.
"That was a fine mess." Aries said patiently. Aquarius stopped and glared at him.
"A fine mess? That's all you can say about it?" She snapped at him. "That was a disaster! All that hard work spent on the Circuit Breaker project and we lose it all to a bunch of kids in fancy mecha! We couldn't even retrieve the talos because they were guarding it!"
"Getting worked up over it won't accomplish anything." Aries said. "Besides, we still have our test subject in the Autobot arm we have. Their loss is our gain. You can't win them all."
Aquarius snorted and turned away from him. She looked through the window at the person lying in bed on the other side. It was a woman, covered from head to toe in bandages and hooked up to life support. What little skin that remained uncovered was pink and smooth, burns that laced her entire body. Josie Beller, former major and talos ace, was dead to the world, catatonic and unresponsive.
"How is she?" Aries asked.
"Her entire body is covered in second degree burns and the Circuit Breaker suit was practically melted into her skin. She's in a coma and the doctors don't know when she'll wake up, but if she does, then she'll be completely paralyzed." Aquarius said. "She won't be getting up for rehab anytime soon."
"Good," Aries growled. "That's more than enough punishment for ignoring my warnings to take her opponents seriously."
Unknown to the generals, however, Beller's mind was still aware of the world around her. She could not speak, not could she move, but her mind was abuzz with thoughts and memories. She was crippled beyond even OZ's medical miracles, and the Autobots were to blame. Those accursed machines had ruined her life, and she was going to make them pay, even if she had to sell her soul to do it. But it wasn't just their fault-it was that girl. That blonde girl who destroyed her weapon, who humiliated her and destroyed her career and her dreams. Josie Beller vowed on her life, that Gina Harkins will be the first to die by her hand.