Chapter 36-The Tempest part 3
Optimus sat at the head of the table, silent and serious as he listened to Ratchet's report of Temperantia's rampage. The rest of the team was also sitting in the command center with an air of defeat and solemnity hanging over them. Though healed in the CR chambers, the knowledge that they failed when it mattered most hurt more than any physical wound. Things had reached a critical point and they were running out of time.
"Temperantia destroyed three towns in that one attack of his. The casualty numbers can best be described as being almost the accumulated population of the settlements." Ratchet reported. "As for Temperantia, he's already passed through the Candia border and is passing through Jasper into Manitoba. Within a few hours, it will reach Dakote."
"Thank you, Ratchet." Optimus sighed and rubbed his forehead. He looked at his team and got down to business. "Autobots, we need to stop Temperantia before he can get as far as Manitoba. Once he crosses into Dakote, things will only get worse. Any ideas on how to slow it down?"
"What we need is a strategy that doesn't involve us shooting wildly and hoping for a miracle." Prowl said and brought up a 3D image of Temperantia on the holo-display. "We need to know its full capabilities, on top of his weak points. We can't screw up like we did earlier or we're all dead."
"So what do we know?" Jazz asked. Wheeljack highlighted the Cardinal's hands.
"Well, it can fire huge flaming rocks from its fingers like cannons. I assume that if its weapons systems work like ours, then it can grow its weapons the same way humans grow hair and finger nails." Wheeljack said.
"That's totally unfair." Bumblebee grumbled.
"Nothing's fair in war, kid." Ironhide said. "Let's not forget those damn punches. It turned that forest into a perfect copy of the moon."
"I don't think we need to mention that giant beam that almost slagged us." Bulkhead said. Just thinking about that powerful attack made him shiver. So much destruction, so many lives lost, it was unreal. "I can't believe we made it out alive."
"From what I've observed when I wasn't trying to avoid getting incinerated, this beam acts like a high powered photon beam." Wheeljack said. "It's basically a focused beam of light that burns through almost everything it touches. The fact that it managed to take out towns 200 miles away show that its range is longer than that distance."
"Don't photon lasers like that need to recharge a bit after firing because of energy consumption?" Bulkhead asked. He knew from experience that photon cannons were rarely used on battleships because they relied on a lot of power with varying recharge times.
"Yes, a large photon beam would require a lot of energy and would definitely need to recharge before firing at full power. From what I've seen, Temperantia's speed has slowed significantly after that little light show he gave us."
"That would explain why it took him so long to reach the border." Prowl said.
"Which means we have a grace period before it can use that beam again." Bumblebee said. "I can work with that. At least it gives us a window to operate through."
"A small window." Arcee sighed.
"But that still doesn't answer our question; what are his weaknesses?" Prowl folded his hands and leaned on the table. "We know that the spheres connecting his arms to his body are vulnerable, but the rest of his body can take more damage than a gestalt. We need another alternative before we become predictable."
"Agreed," Optimus nodded. "I doubt Temperantia will allow us to get a few hits in like before. He will be more on his guard now that he's recharging his energy. We just need vulnerable points to hit in the meantime."
"Perhaps we can help with that."
The Autobots looked to the doorway to see the children and Sparkplug standing there, with Sara standing a little behind them. "I take it you're still thinking of a solid plan of attack?" Sparkplug asked.
"Sparkplug," Optimus was glad that the Minicon leader was offering his help, as well as the kids. "I take it you have a suggestion?"
"Possibly, the kids and I did some behind the scenes work and we may have found something that might help."
"Oh really? I wonder what miracle you have up your sleeves." Prowl said skeptically.
"Prowl, we don't have time for your bullshit." Annie said. "Could you please just work with us once, you idiot?"
"Let them speak, Prowl." Optimus said. "Go ahead, children."
Gina nodded. "Well, I had Sara download some info from Teletran-1 about the Cardinal and-"
"Whoa, hold up," Wheeljack held up a hand. "You're saying that Sara infiltrated Teletran's systems?"
Gina gave them an apologetic smile. "Yeah, sorry."
Wheeljack wasn't mad, if anything he looked intrigued. "How did she do that? Teletran has firewalls that even Soundwave would have trouble getting past."
"It's quite simple actually. Sara just had to mimic an Autobot signature Teletran was familiar with and…"
Annie put a hand on the blonde's shoulder. "Gina, could you save the techno-jargin until we're not facing the threat of total annihilation?"
"Oh, right, sorry. As I was saying," Gina cleared her throat with red cheeks. "Sara reviewed the data Jolt gave us and we had Roll Bar help us out with analyzing the Cardinal, and we found some interesting things."
Sara hopped onto the table and plugged herself into the holo-display, manipulating the image and show video footage of the Autobots attacking Temperantia. She paused the video and showed the points where their laser blasts and missiles impacted Temperantia's body.
"See how the missiles and lasers don't do as much damage to his body? It wasn't just because you guys had small guns," Sara slowed the footage down to where the missiles hit the body, showing that when they hit the Cardinal's skin, the energy from the explosion was diffused along the surface of its body. "The Cardinal is absorbing the energy from your attacks to the point that it does little damage to him."
"Now that's just hax." Jazz groaned.
"How is that possible?" Skyfire blinked. "Wait, how the hell did we not notice that?"
"Because this field only activates when the main body is attacked," Gina replied. "It acts as a force field that blocks and absorbs the kinetic energy that's needed to deal damage to his body. Your attacks do hit, but deal less damage than they're supposed to."
"Then we realized that if it works like your barrier technology, then chances are that this localized field must be maintained by something in its body." Darren said.
Wheeljack caught on to that. "Like…a makeshift generator? Yes, an anchor to power this kinetic barrier and maintain its integrity along Temperantia's body!"
"I assume you also found a way around this barrier?" Arcee asked.
Sara zoomed out of the holo-image and focused on the red spheres along Temperantia's body. There were three ruby spheres on its lower body, two in front and one in the back. "Scans show that these spheres emit a steady pulse of energy that travels along its body. We believe that this is the source of the barrier." Sara said.
"Which means that if we want to deal some real damage, we're gonna have to tear out those fancy jewels." Ironhide grinned. "I like this plan."
"This is a risky plan, though." Prowl said. They made a lot of good points, but most of this information were rough estimates and speculation, and Prowl was wary of anything type of info that wasn't concrete. "I'm not trying to burst everyone's bubble, but it's risky to place our bests on rough estimates. It lowers our chances of survival by 35 percent."
"We don't have time to deliberate." Ratchet said. "We might just have to take a chance on this one, Prowl."
Prowl grumbled but accepted that fact. He hated making plans based on estimates and guesses that had a high percentage of going wrong. Taking risks like these put everything in jeopardy.
"We will have to attack these spheres and the orbs within a short amount of time before it can launch a counterattack like last time." Optimus said.
"And that's where we come in." Annie said proudly.
"No way, Annie, fighting that thing's too dangerous." Bulkhead said.
"Gotta agree with Bulkhead on this one, kids." Ironhide said. "That thing put us through the wringer. It'll make short work of you guys."
"You don't have a choice. You guys need air support and Skyfire can only provide so much help." Gina said. "We can fly in our talos and our weapons are more than enough to deal serious damage. We can handle the danger; we know what we're dealing with."
"Most of us, anyway." Darren muttered, earning a glare from Annie.
Optimus found it hard to deny their points. Most of this plan relied on quick and powerful attacks from the air and if Skyfire got hit, that was that. And the talos were very powerful as well, including Mjolnir. His only problem was that the children would be in the thick of it.
"Still," Prime muttered. "We'll be putting you three in serious danger."
"Optimus, thousands of people are in danger." Darren said. "What happened in Canadia can't happen in Tranquility. We need to end this now."
Optimus looked at them, noting their intense expressions and willingness to jump into the fray to save not just their home, but their entire country and beyond from this threat. It was a need to fight for their home and loved ones that Optimus saw in many new Autobots these days. Seeing that they were dedicated to helping them, Optimus sighed and nodded his consent.
"You may join us." He said and turned back to his Autobots. "Prowl, formulate a plan of attack with the information you just learned and do it quickly. The less time we spend here, the more time we'll have in stopping it."
"I'm already working on it, Prime." Prowl nodded and got up. "It'll take a lot of effort, but I'm predicting that our chances of winning have increased with this information."
"Now we're back in business!" Jazz hollered.
Ironhide looked down at the children. "You better suit up, kids. You're coming with us straight into hell."
XXXXXX
Knockout thought he had died. It was all so quick and sudden that he didn't know what happened. Seeing that energy beam shooting at the Nemesis literally made his life flash before his eyes before the ship shook violently and he hit his head on the console. When he came to after blacking out, he heard loud noises and shouting as well as feeling the floor shake underneath him. It took him a moment to realize someone was dragging him through the hall.
"Get up!" Someone yelled.
"Huh?" Knockout could barely tell what was going on. A hard slap to his face brought him back to his senses and he saw Barricade's face leaning over him.
"I said get up you fool! We need everyone to quell the flames!" Barricade yelled.
But Knockout was more concerned with something more important. "Did you just slap me, with those fingers?"
"Focus, Knockout!"
"I almost got blown to scrap, you daft bastard!" The medic shouted and wretched his arms free of Barricade's hold. "The last thing I need is having my flawless features scarred forever by your claws Edward Scissorhands!"
"Would you two idiots help us out over here and stop your stupid comedy routine!" Flamewar hollered as she sprayed foam sealant over the flames spreading from the lower deck. Knockout was horrified to see that there was a massive hole in the side of the ship.
'Primus, that beast nearly blasted apart the entire lower deck!' Knockout thought in shock. Then he realized that his lab was down there in the line of fire. "No, the medibay!"
As Knockout ran to see if his lab made it, Soundwave and the twins were hard at work trying to keep the Nemesis from crashing into the ocean. Having taken a direct hit from that beam, the ship was spinning through the air out of control. Ravage was busy gauging the amount of damage they took and from the sound of it, this ship wasn't going to stay in the air for very long.
"Rumble, Frenzy, get us over to the island for an emergency landing." Soundwave ordered.
"How? The thrusters are barely working and I'm pretty sure the engines are completely destroyed! We on the verge of free falling here!" Rumble said.
"Then try a controlled landing. We cannot let this ship hit the water!" Soundwave said.
"Soundwave, bad news," Leader-1 said. "Much of the lower deck was badly hit. The engine room was blown open and half the fuel lines were destroyed, so we're losing power fast. There's a large fire spreading from the rear of the ship. I think the energon storage vault was hit as well, along with the medibay. We're running on reserve power, but our power levels are dropping steadily."
The Nemesis was designed to be a siege engine, able to literally smash through enemy defenses and deploy troops within enemy lines while also laying down a heavy bombardment of its own. Thus, it was equipped with its fair share of weapons that can do a lot of damage in little time. But that one blast had destroyed half of those weapons and forced the ones still operational to run at half power. For a ship that could take fire from other warships of its kind, this was a disturbing moment for the Decepticons.
Eventually Soundwave managed to direct the ship's thrusters to level the ship somewhat and steer it towards the island. By some miracle, the Nemesis remained in the air long enough for it to crash into the beach and slide along the ground, sending sand and dirt everywhere as it ran over trees and skidded to a stop.
"Are we dead yet?" Frenzy groaned.
"Shut it, bro." Rumble grumbled.
Soundwave looked at the static ridden monitor and saw Sapientia swimming straight for the island at full speed with the Seekers attacking it with everything they got. He even spotted Nightshade in the flurry shooting arrows at it, but he couldn't see Megatron.
"Are our weapons systems online?" He asked Leader-1.
"The particle cannons are still kicking, and we still have one of the missile batteries left. The other was destroyed."
"Target the enemy and fire at will." Soundwave commanded.
Out at sea, Megatron still held on to Sapientia's right ring with all his might as it swam through the rough waters at speeds dwarfing an aircraft carrier. In the water it was nimble and agile, and it had already dodged three of Nightshade's arrows, which seemed to be the only thing that could do serious damage to the creature. As it was, she was too busy trying not to shoot Megatron.
"Megatron, get off! We can't hit it properly if you stay in the line of fire!" She said.
"I said I'd tear its heart out and I stand by that promise!" Megatron roared. "This beast will pay for attacking my ship!"
Nightshade tried to protest, but Starscream cut her off. "Let him go! If he wants to go out in a blaze of glory, then let him!"
"It's attacking again!" Skywarp announced.
The panels on Sapientia's back opened up and its eye stalks slid out, firing light beams at the flyers to scatter them. Nightshade, whose patient already ran out a long time ago, began shooting arrows at the tendrils along with Starscream. One of the tendrils took a few direct hits and exploded in a cloud of red powder. Thundercracker flew over another tendril and unleashed one of his signature sonic booms, which blasted apart one of the laser shooting eyes.
As they fought, two giant beams came from the island and hit Sapientia dead center, right in his front leg and shoulder. The blast knocked it over and staggered it, allowing the flyers to unleash a massive assault on the beast.
"How do ya like that you freak?" Skywarp shouted.
As if in response, Sapientia leapt out of the water and smacked him out of the air, sending Skywarp crashing into the water, where he didn't resurface. The Cardinal fired another beam from its mouth, though this one was slightly weaker than the blast that took down the Nemesis.
"Fools, you cannot kill me!" Sapientia roared. "I am protected by Jubileus. You're only prolonging your inevitable death!"
Gathering more energy into his mouth, Sapientia fired another beam at the island, right at the Decepticon bunker. This fight was going to be finished one way or another.
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In the Ark, the children were gearing up to head out with the Autobots in their talos. Wheeljack had gifted them with newly made pilot suits called exo-frames. They were form fitting and increased their physical abilities in the same manner as muscle fibers to increase strength, while also being protective enough to negate some small arms fire like Kevlar. Once they had their suits on (and Annie retrieved Mjolnir from the weapons locker) they went to their machines, only to be confronted by Debbie.
"Absolutely not!" Debbie yelled, crossing her arms. "None of you are going out into that chaos!"
"Debbie…" Darren sighed.
"Debbie, please," Gina pleaded. "That monster is tearing through the country for our home state. Tranquility is in trouble and we have to do something before more people get hurt."
""I don't care. The Autobots are more than enough to handle that thing."
"No, they're obviously not." Annie replied. "Sis, with our help, they can take that thing out and-"
"No! I already lost mom and dad to a war and I'm not losing you two to another." Debbie screamed. She was starting to cry, trying to stay strong but failing. "I won't be able to go on if I lost both of you as well. I can't go through that again…"
Darren and Annie walked over to their big sister and hugged her tightly. Debbie hugged them back and didn't let go for a few minutes.
"We have to do this, Debbie." Darren muttered. "For our home and for you."
"But you're kids, you shouldn't have to be involved in all this." She whimpered. "You're all so young, too young to be fighting for your lives."
"We know, but we have the power to help stop this." Annie smiled and kissed her big sister on the cheek. "We'll be careful, sis. That's a promise."
After another hug the twins broke off from their sister and walked to their talos. Debbie stepped back as the three talos powered up and started to move, walking past her and out of the room. Debbie walked over to the Street Action Team and bowed her head.
"High Wire, Grindor, Sureshock, please take care of them." Debbie requested tearfully. "Keep them safe."
"Don't worry, Debbie, we'll protect them with our lives." High Wire said.
The three Minicons transformed and combined into the towering gestalt Centurion, who looked down at her and nodded. "They will not be hurt while we still function."
Debbie stood in the doorway watching the three talos and gestalt leave for the dangerous mission. She closed her eyes and prayed to Gaia or whatever god was listening to her that they all made it back safe and sound.
XXXXXX
Temperantia crossed the border into Manitoba, the storm circling around his body like a living typhoon. He had managed to recharged half his energy since chasing the Autobots off and he was well on his way to the Ark's location without any interference from the aliens. Along the way he passed through a rocky area with towering stone pillars that reached hundreds of feet into the air, named the Thunderhawk Forest by the local Manitou tribes who believed this place to be shaped by the legendary thunderbird of local folklore. It wasn't a forest in the traditional sense, instead it was just a reference to the abundance of stone pillars that formed naturally.
During his transition, Temperantia scolded himself for making such a foolish move. That one blast used up a good portion of his power and slowed his progress considerably. Quintessence, the source of his and all the dolems' power, was not infinite. A being like him could not run out of quintessence, but he still needed to recharge it. As plentiful in the mysterious energy this world was, he still needed time to get his reserves back to full strength.
"Temperantia!"
The yell came from below and Temperantia stopped to see Optimus Prime standing on top of one of the pillars before him. Powerlinked with Sparkplug, he had his ion cannon in his other hand, ready to fight once more.
"So you've come looking for another beating, Prime, even after witnessing my power." Temperantia said mockingly. "I thought you were smarter than that."
"You'll learn that I'm not one to give into a higher authority without reason." Optimus said, pointing his cannon at the Cardinal. "Case in point!"
He fired an ion blast that hit Temperantia's left sphere, making him recoil in pain. Growling, the dolem glared down at Optimus and shot twin beams of light from his eyes. Optimus rolled under the beams as they swept over him and he heard the surrounding pillars get obliterated by the powerful attack. Getting back to his feet, he saw Temperantia's massive first flying at him and jumped off the pillar. He used the other pillars to land safely on the ground and transformed, driving away from the massive being.
"You'll not escape me this time, Prime!" Temperantia roared and fired his eye beams at Optimus.
Optimus kept driving before making a hard left and changing forms, hiding from sight as the beams left behind a trail of flames in their wake. Looking over at Darren across from him, Optimus gave the signal and the red and gold form of the Prometheus took to the air, with four large boulders flying after it.
Darren flung the boulders at Temperantia, slamming tons of rock into his body with enough force to shatter a tank. Blocking the rocks with one of his arms, Temperantia turned to face Darren and raised his hand to shoot his fireballs from his fingers. But he wouldn't get the chance to eliminate the esper boy as a cry came from below.
"Surprise!"
Jazz appeared from just under the Cardinal, grappling onto his arm and leaping up into the Cardinal's path. He pointed his cryo-blaster at Temperantia's fingers and shot a volley of cryo-blasts that instantly froze over the being's fingers, blocking the nozzles. Flipping in the air, he landing a strong kick to one of his fingers, smashing them apart into tiny crystalline shards. It took only minutes to smash Temperantia's fingers apart before Jazz grappled onto his other hand and froze the fingers there too before swinging away.
"Cee, it's your turn!"
Arcee raced up a pillar and leapt onto the Cardinal's right hand. She grabbed onto his massive hand and began cutting away his frozen fingers. She shattered most of his fingers before Temperantia smashed his arm against a pillar, forcing her to jump off.
"Most of its fingers ae gone, Optimus!" Arcee yelled.
"Time for phase 2." Optimus said. "Bulkhead, Ironhide, Bumblebee, take out the arms!"
The three Autobots were positioned in three locations nearby. Equipped with thermos-rocket launchers and a magma-grenade launcher for Bumblebee. They aimed on the closest target they could find, which was Temperantia's right arm and fired at once. Their combined artillery fire tore into the sphere connecting its arm and bombarded with explosive force. Temperantia groaned and tried to move, but Optimus and Darren attacking its left side pinned him in place. The team didn't let up their assault and kept shooting with everything they had, even when their rocket launchers were in danger of overheating. Their persistence paid off, as the sphere could no longer maintain its integrity and exploded in a burst of red dust.
Temperantia's roar was deafening as his sensitive organ exploded and his right arm fell to the ground, smashing into a nearby pillar and sliding onto its side. Ironhide's team cheered as they saw the powerful creature in pain and seriously wounded.
"Hell yeah, we finally did some damage!" Bulkhead hollered.
"It's not over yet, Bulkhead." Ironhide said. "Jazz, Arcee, time to take out the other arm."
"Got it, Hide." Jazz said. "Cee, you ready?"
"Always am, Jazz." Arcee replied.
She leapt off the pillar and grappled onto another, swinging around over to the Cardinal's thrashing body. Just as she got in position for a clear shot at its shoulder, Temperantia swung his arm at her faster than she could react.
"Arcee!" Darren shouted.
Arcee had no time to dodge and she was almost hit by the large fist, but something blocked her vision. It was Jazz. He covered her body with his own just as the hand slammed into them and sent them crashing into the ground. Both Autobots rolled along the rocky crag and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
"Bumblebee, go see to Arcee and Jazz." Optimus ordered. "Darren, standby for Prowl's signal with the girls. We can't let up the assault!"
Just two miles away, Wheeljack and Prowl were setting up another powerful weapon of their own; one of the Ark's starblitz cannons, fully charged and capable of punching through a battleship's armor. As Wheeljack made sure it was operational, Prowl was keeping an eye on the battle. The others were leading Temperantia straight towards them as according to plan. They only had one shot at this, as once they fired the cannon, their position would be revealed.
"They're almost at the designated rendezvous point, Wheeljack. Are you ready?" Prowl asked.
"Yup, just got down calibrating the laser targeting system." Wheeljack said. "But, Prowl, this thing wasn't meant to work as an independent weapon. This thing only has two shots in it, so we better make them count."
"Copy that." Prowl nodded and watched the Cardinal inch closer and closer into their line of sight. Wheeljack got behind the cannon and held his finger over the trigger, waiting for Prowl's command. Prowl waited until he could see Temperantia's large body in the reticle and swiped his hand down.
"Fire!"
The cannon charged up and fired a blinding white particle beam that cut through the rain like a lightning bolt. Temperantia saw the bright light of the beam coming towards him, and just as he turned, it hit the sphere of his left shoulder. A large burst of flames engulfed his entire left side and Temperantia crashed into the pillar next to him. His altitude lowered as he slowed to a stop, bending over in pain.
Darren, now in hiding with Annie, Gina, Centurion and Sara, saw the explosion from his position and moved his talos.
"That's our cue, people." Darren said, his heart beating rapidly. "Let's go!"
XXXXXX
Nightshade didn't know what to expect when she fired an arrow from Gandiva. She had no idea if shooting Sapientia again after watching him tank all of their attacks would make a difference, but she was moving on autopilot after watching him gear up for another attack at the Nemesis. She didn't survive hundreds of years of oppression under the Senate and millions of years of warfare across the galaxy just to be done in by some freak with a large mouth and fancy wings.
She let her arrow go just as Sapientia fired his beam, and there was a flash of light that forced everyone to look away. When the flash died down, Nightshade found that Primus was with her that moment. She actually wounded Sapientia! The Cardinal let out a gargle groan as his lower jaw hung loosely under his upper jaw. It hung crooked on his head and swung lifelessly like a broken door on a loose hinge.
"You hit it?!" Starscream gaped. How did Nightshade's magic bow even manage to damage that beast after they've spent all their ammo just trying to slow it down for the past hour? "What the hell is going on?"
Sapientia swung his head and reattached his jaw to his skull before glaring up at Nightshade. "So you wield a quintessence weapon, fate must be laughing at me for failing to kill you all. That bow and others like it was given to man for their servitude to my kind, not for you to play around with! No matter, against me, it's useless in your hands!"
"Wanna bet?" Nightshade challenged.
Sapientia didn't both trying to attack again. He ducked back under the waves and increased his speed towards the island. Its speed was amazing, and the damaged Seekers could barely track him through the waters below. Megatron kept hanging onto its head to avoid being swept away by the current pushing against him.
Thanks to his speed, Sapientia made it to the island unrestricted. Reaching the shore, he smoothing leapt out of the water onto the beach and stomped towards the small forest that separated it from the bunker built into the side of the volcano.
"You should consider yourself lucky to be here with me, Megatron." Sapientia said as he smashed through the trees and crushed them under his large feet. "It's not everyday someone witnesses the destruction of everything they hold dear. All your accomplishments, all your hollow victories, are nothing in the eyes of God."
"You're no god," Megatron spat. "You're a freak of nature spawned from this planet like a festering tumor. And you will know your place when fighting me!"
"No, you will know yours!"
A hard thrash of his head threw Megatron off its skull and into the air, where he snatched the Decepticon leader in his teeth and tried to snap him in half. Megatron held his jaws apart with his hands and feet. He channeled energon to his legs and arms to keep the jagged teeth from crushing him, even as they cut into his hands.
"Give in." Sapientia's voice rumbled around Megatron's body. "You have no place in this world. Give up this futile struggle and She will be merciful."
"Never…" Megatron hissed, his arms and legs burning from the strain. He couldn't hold on much longer.
"You know it's true. Lay down your arms and bow down to your superiors!"
"Megatron bows to no one!" The warlord roared.
Starscream and Thundercracker appeared behind Sapientia and opened fire on his back. A few well-placed laser blasts blew off his wing, and Sapientia growled. Megatron felt his jaws loosen and used the chance to climb out of his mouth and back onto his spine.
"You persistent fools!" Sapientia smacked Starscream aside with his claws and spun around, slamming his tail into Thundercracker. Skywarp teleported right in front of his face, but he too was smacked aside by the Cardinal.
"Just die already!" Nightshade shot another arrow into his shoulder, making him stumble as a large chunk was blasted off his body. Still, he was too enraged to worry about his wounds as he leapt at Nightshade in a fury.
Large jaws snapped at her, but Nightshade flew out of his reach and fired another arrow into its jaw, shattering its teeth. Sapientia retaliated with a charge, slamming his head into Nightshade and smashing her into a tree. As she crumpled to the ground, Sapientia spun around and focused his sights on the bunker.
"Witness the end of all hope!" He declared and opened his mouth, revealing the bright ivory jewel in his throat that began charging up for another devastating beam to destroy the bunker, and the rest of the volcano.
But as he charged up for the final strike, Megatron jumped off his head and spun his body around to face the Cardinal's gaping maw. Pointing his fusion cannon directly at Sapientia's open mouth, Megatron fired his weapon just as Sapientia fired his own beam.
XXXXXX
Bumblebee tried to ignore the heavy fighting and explosions going on behind him as he raced towards Arcee and Jazz's location. He needed to trust the others to stay safe while he saw to his comrades.
Temperantia had gone into a mad rage after losing his arm. He smashed apart the stone pillars and fired beams from his eyes at anything that moved. While the ground based Autobots took cover, the vanguard of the assault rested with Skyfire and the children.
They were like fireflies compared to Temperantia's immense size, flying around him and shooting beams at his body. Darren and Annie took point in their assault, with Darren providing telekinetic protection to Annie and Skyfire as they attacked. Skyfire dropped bombs on Temperantia's shoulders and fired her laser cannons at him when she had the chance, while Darren flung large rocks at his face in addition to firing his beam rifle. Annie was the arsenal of the group, and attacked with the full force of her beam cannons, bazooka and Mjolnir's thunder, which was more powerful in the storm.
Gina hung back, standing atop a pillar as she brought out her talos' agni cannon and took aim. She waited for Darren and Annie to give her an opening before firing the cannon, releasing a powerful red beam that hit one of the spheres on Temperantia's lower body. The blast shattered the sphere with a direct hit, and once it was gone, a piece of Temperantia's body crumbled to dust.
In the meantime, Bumblebee reached the spot Jazz and Arcee had fallen and transformed to climb over the rubble. "Arcee, Jazz, sound off if you're okay!"
He heard Arcee's voice. "Bee, over here!"
Bumblebee ran in the direction of her voice and found the two Autobots sitting inside the crater they made upon hitting the ground. Arcee was mostly fine, nursing a broken arm and Peppercat and Roadstorm were unconscious but alive as well. But Jazz took the worst of it, sitting against a boulder with damaged armor and pieces of sharp rocks stuck in his body.
"I'm so glad you two are alright." Bumblebee breathed, relieved. "But how are you guys not scrapped? I saw you get hit."
"Ask Jazz, I blacked out after were hit the ground." Arcee said.
"Mind over matter, Bee. First rule of Circuit-Su." Jazz chuckled, giving a weak cough. "Perfect for tanking hits that could kill ya. Nearly did me in though." He chuckled again but winced when he felt a sharp pain in his left side. "Ow."
"How's the battle going?" Arcee asked.
"The kids are making progress is fighting that thing. They've already taken out one of the spheres in the front and now they're trying to attack its back." Bumblebee said. "Right now, they're success is riding on how much Lady Luck is willing to give us a hand."
"The kids will do fine. They've been through worse spats than this." Jazz said weakly.
"Don't talk, Jazz, you need some rest." Arcee said.
"Jolt," The red Minicon detached from Bumblebee's back and hovered in front of him. "Tell the others that Jazz is okay."
"Got it." Jolt said and flew away. Bumblebee went over to check his friends over; their part in this battle was over, and now it was up to the others to get this done.
Darren grunted as Temperantia's eye beams hit his telekinetic barrier, pushing his talos back with strong force. Unable to right himself, he crashed into the ground with the beams still pushing against his barrier.
"Centurion, do it!" Darren hissed.
Hanging onto the leg of the Enyo, Centurion let go of the talos and jumped onto Temperantia's body, stabbing the omni-saber into his flesh and sliding down onto his back. The sphere pulsated like a beating heart in Temperantia's back and Centurion wasted not even a second before stabbing the blade into it. Temperantia gave an enormous scream as the sphere shook and broke apart, along with the armored pieces surrounding it. Centurion jumped off and onto Skyfire as she passed under him.
"That's the second sphere down!" Darren said, shooting at the Cardinal once more. He was pleased to notice that his attacks were actually doing more damage now that the localized force field was weakening. "Annie, you're up!"
Annie called upon Mjolnir's power and moved Enyo into position. Raising her arm, she fired Mjolnir like a bullet and the hammer flew through the air like a missile, gathering static electricity as it flew. It crashed into the sphere of Temperantia's left arm dead center and exploded in a bright burst of electricity, vaporizing it in a white flash. The explosion was enough to stagger Temperantia and sent his remaining arm falling to the ground.
"Hell yeah!" Annie cheered. She recalled Mjolnir to her and grinned. "That's how you do it!"
Her mirth turned to horror as she saw three energy lances shoot from Temperantia's forehead at her. Two lances hit Enyo's left arm and leg, while the third hit her in the chest. Annie was protected by the heavy armor of her cockpit, but she was blasted out of the air and hit the ground hard.
"Annie!" Centurion landed on the ground and ran to check on the girl. He hopped onto the talos and banged his fist on the hatch. "Annie, are you alright?"
"Y-Yeah, I'm okay." Annie groaned, rubbing her head. "At least, as okay a girl with nine fingers can be. But I think I'm grounded, guys."
Having shot down one talos, Temperantia turned his attention to the other two, though his gaze was focused on the Prometheus, which he knew was piloted by an esper. Why do you fight me, children? Why do you spurn my attempts at granting your people salvation?"
"Don't even bother. We already heard your argument from that one shot wonder we snuffed out last time." Darren growled.
"This temper tantrum of yours is doing nothing but threatening the lives of thousands of people and destroying everything." Gina said. "You shouldn't be surprised that we're attacking you like this when you're threatening our homes!"
"We molded you humans from clay and breathed life into you, we granted you fire to give you warmth, we granted your kind with the power to conquer the world as you see fit." Temperantia ranted, his voice rising in tone as his anger grew. "We gave you the secrets of science and technology to better combat the world's dangers, and yet you still turn your weapons at us! Such insolence will not go unpunished! I will show you the error of your ways!"
"Just shut up and fight!" Gina shouted and fired a blast from her agni cannon at his face. To her surprise, Temperantia deflected the beam before it could reach his face.
Temperantia advanced towards Gina, but was suddenly assaulted by a barrage of weapons fire from below. The Autobots were attacking all at once from different locations, now able to do more damage now that the Cardinal's shield was severely weakened. Chunks of his body were blown off, and pain erupted all over its form as laser blasts, missiles, neutron beams and ion bursts hit it all at once. Eventually, Temperantia had enough and flared his power.
"DIE!"
Temperantia roared and his halo shined brighter, to the point where it looked like a star. From the halo, almost a dozen beams of light were fired from it and shot at the Autobots. Like missiles they hit the ground and hunted down anything that move, and the Autobots were forced to scatter as explosions blossomed around them. The stone arch Ironhide and Bulkhead stood on was destroyed and they fell along with the rubble that collapsed. Prowl and Wheeljack were blasted apart when a beam hit near them. Optimus de-linked from Sparkplug and they drove away to avoid getting hit by the beams as they hit the ground.
Temperantia's heavy barrage ravaged the area, blasting apart the stone pillar and blasting craters into the ground and canyon walls. When he was done, much of the land within a mile of Temperantia was nothing but rubble and craters.
"Will you creatures persist in fighting me or have you realized the futility of your struggle?" Temperantia growled.
"Here's our answer!" Darren appeared out of the rubble with six boulders hovering his talos like small planets. He threw them at Temperantia's face, but the Cardinal hardly seemed concerned with the lackluster resistance.
"Was that supposed to make a difference, human?" Temperantia asked, not amused.
"No," Darren smirked. "It's supposed to provide a distraction."
A red beam shot from an unseen source and hit the sphere right under Temperantia's chest. The sphere shattered and Temperantia howled furiously as pain erupted along the front of his body. With the final sphere gone, the force field protecting him completely dissipated, leaving him vulnerable.
"They did it." Prowl whispered in surprise.
"Children, get out of there!" Optimus yelled.
Temperantia's howl was more deafening and terrifying than an actual thunderclap as he fired another barrage from his halo at Darren and Gina. Darren tried to dodge them, but they followed his movements and he encased his talos in a telekinetic bubble as they all slammed into him at once, slamming him into the ground and pushing him into the earth. Gina had to zigzag to avoid the beams, but they were gaining on her quickly and she could lose them. She stalled to let several of them fly past her and exploded against each other, but some still chased her through the air.
Darren could see through the barrage assaulting him that she was losing ground and his heart stopped when he saw a beam destroy one of her legs. "Gina!"
That first hit staggered the Athena and Gina was left open to the other beams. Most of them hit the Athena's blast shields that took the brunt of the damage, but two beams hit the talos' shoulders and sent it spiraling into the ground. The machine bounced off the ground once before rolling around the ground until it slid to a stop. It didn't get up.
Darren saw that Temperantia was gearing up for a finishing blow and pushed his talos to fly to her aid. He already knew that he was too far away from her and his talos wasn't operating at full power like earlier. "Shit, I'm not going to make it!"
Temperantia fired another beam right at the downed Athena to destroy it, but before it could reach her, Optimus jumped in front of the talos. His Matrix glowing like the North Star, he raised his battle axe and blocked the beam head on. The Cardinal, and everyone else present, were shocked at Prime blocking the powerful attack, a blue aura surrounding his body. The Matrix chose this moment to lend its power and Optimus was going to make good use of it.
"No more people will die today!" Optimus roared. His arms buckled under the strain of the beam and he felt himself being pushed back. "No more!"
"If you want to die for humanity's sins against us, then so be it. May the Creator bless your soul." Temperantia increased the power of his beam and the energy surged blasted Optimus and Gina away from each other.
Optimus bounced across the ground and crashed into a pile of rubble. No longer concerned with killing Gina, Temperantia flew over to Optimus and opened up his forehead, collecting energy into the jewel in his head. Optimus wearily stood up and raised his axe. He knew that blocking a blast like that was next to impossible, as was outrunning it, but he wasn't going to give up right at the end!
Temperantia fired his beam and Optimus braced himself for the powerful attack. But as it shot towards him, something blocked his view of the beam…it was the Prometheus!
"Darren?!" Optimus exclaimed.
Raising Prometheus's arms, Darren channeled his powers through his talos to summon his most powerful force barrier just as it reached him. The beam slammed into his barrier and Darren felt the strain of the attack as it pushed against his barrier. He struggled to keep his talos in the air while maintaining the barrier. It was like trying to stop a bullet train with his bare hands, but his determination kept him from giving in to the need to pass out.
The Prometheus was slowly pushed back, but its barrier didn't falter. Temperantia wasn't too concerned, as he increased the power of his beam and that did the trick. There was a bright flash of light and the beam exploded into a shining white dome of energy, engulfing Optimus and Darren.
XXXXXX
Time seemed to stop as Megatron and Sapientia faced each other, both poised to attack, with only the fastest one to make it out alive. And Megatron was just a fraction faster.
He fired a beam from his fusion cannon into Sapientia's mouth just as he was about to fire and it caused a violent reaction inside the Cardinal's mouth. An explosion went off in his mouth and he choked on it, belching flames and smoke between his broken teeth. Roaring, Sapientia charged at Megatron, who landed on the ground and reverted to tank mode, driving back in reverse. He circled around Sapientia to let him run past and flanked the Cardinal.
"I believe in no gods, just as I do not believe in Heaven and Hell," Megatron fired his cannon repeatedly, blasting chunks out of Sapientia's body. "There is only one god I believe in, and that is death!"
"Then you shall meet your god!" Sapientia howled.
Sapientia swiped at him, but Megatron changed forms and jumped aside to avoid the claws. He fired another blast into his leg, destroying it at the wrist. Despite this, Sapientia still fought furiously.
Unseen by the Cardinal, the Nemesis had targeted him and at Soundwave's command, fired its particle cannons into its right side. Sapientia staggered to the side, and was open to the rain of anti-ship missiles that slammed into his bod, riddling him with explosions. As his body slowed down and began falling apart, Sapientia still continued to fight.
"You know, even if you had torched my ship, I admire your tenacity, your will to live. Not many can fight like this while on the verge of death." Megatron said. "But you tried to kill me, and no one attempts that without expecting to be slain where they stand."
Sapientia gave a deep chuckled. "You still your inferiority behind a façade of bravado. You and your little war is nothing compared to what my kind has been through, what we've achieved as a species. We have ascended and are just one step away from achieving the ultimate evolution, and that is what keeps us going. You have nothing to fight for-no home, no people, not even a cause. That reality will catch up to you, Megatron, and when it does, it will snatch you up…and devour you!"
Sapientia leapt up and opened his mouth, not to attack Megatron, but the Nemesis. Firing a low powered beam from his mouth, he hit the second deck of the ship, near the bridge, and took out its remaining missile pods. Then it spun around and lunged at Megatron.
Then, as it coming down from the heavens itself, a silver arrow hit Sapientia's back, blasting another hole in its spine and destroying its other wing. Like an angel of death, Nightshade descended upon the Cardinal in robot mode, pointing Gandiva at him and pulling the string back.
"Fall."
She released the arrow and let it engulf Sapientia's head in silver light.
XXXXXX
"No…" Annie gasped as she saw Optimus and Darren disappear in the dome of light caused by the explosion.
No one moved or said a thing as they all thought two of their comrades had been destroyed right before their very eyes. Temperantia thought he had won and prepared to turn his sights on the other Autobots. But then the dome started to trembled before the energy began to distend, like something was growing inside it. Temperantia's eyes widened as he saw this.
"Impossible."
The dome of golden white energy exploded and Optimus, bathed in a silver aura of telekinetic energy, flew out of it with Prometheus' beam saber in his hand. Propelled through the air by Darren's powers, he shot at the Cardinal like a bullet. Optimus gave a mighty roar and raised the saber before stabbing it into the middle of Temperantia's head, digging the blade of ionized plasma into the jewel inside Temperantia's forehead.
Temperantia gave a deafening howl as his halo exploded in a shower of sparks and a pulse wave of power emerged from his body. Red sparkles of energy spurted from his head from where the beam saber cut into his brain and Optimus stared right into his eyes as the Cardinal's body started to fall.
"This world will never be yours, Cardinal." Optimus said. Temperantia laughed at him.
"Foolish alien, this planet already belongs to us. You are the invaders here." He said, his strength rapidly leaving his body. "Everything on this world belongs to us, the world just forgot that simple fact."
Optimus held on tight as the Cardinal's massive body crashed to the ground, falling onto his back. The ground shook from the impact and causing rubble to fly everywhere. Optimus pulled the saber from Temperantia's head and stepped back as his face slithered out of his chest like a malformed snake. Temperantia looked down at Optimus with something akin to amusement.
"Do not think that you have won by killing me, Prime. This alignment has brought forth a change across the world and mankind will feel its echoes for decades to come. My kind, the dolems, awaken across this planet and will serve Her Grace's command. They will seek you out, hunt you without rest, and smite you for the sins committed against us today. All the world shall be your enemy, and you will get no reprieve."
"And we will fight you for as long as we have to." Optimus replied, not looking away from Temperantia's soulless gaze.
Prowl climbed up onto his body and glared at the head. "You seem oddly happy for someone whose seconds away from dying."
"Unlike you lesser beings, I do not fear death. For far too long I have been separated from Her warmth, her light, and now I shall be with Her again." Temperantia said. "She will have this world, Optimus Prime. Jubileus always gets what she wants."
"She's welcome to try." Optimus replied.
"I look forward to the day when She strikes you down for interfering in the destiny of all life in the universe." Temperantia laughed, as if Prime's resistance was amusing beyond measure. As the light faded from his eyes, he gave the Autobots his last words. "May the creator, Jubileus, bless you…"
With those last words, Temperantia finally died, his head falling to the side. Optimus and Prowl jumped off Temperantia's corpse, and Prime allowed himself to relax, dropping the now powerless beam saber to the ground.
"It's finally over." Optimus breathed.
Prowl crossed his arms and looked at the Cardinal's now eroding corpse. "For now, at least."
XXXXXX
Darren made an unsteady landing near the still motionless Athena and pushed himself out of his cockpit before the hatch was fully open. Centurion and Annie were already there when he climbed onto the talos.
"It won't open," Centurion said, Sureshock's personality rising to the surface. "Gina isn't answering our calls!"
Darren pushed them aside and telekinetically force the hatch open and looked inside. Gina sat unconscious in her seat, having been knocked out after hitting the ground when she crashed. Darren slowly climbed inside the cockpit and unclipped her seatbelt, pulling off her helmet and gently shook her.
"Gina, wake up." He whispered. "Come on, Gina, wake up for me."
After a minute, Gina's eyes fluttered open and she let out a little groan. She opened her eyes and saw Darren leaning over her with Annie and Centurion behind him. "Darren? Ow, my head hurts."
"Easy, Gina," Centurion cautioned. "You took a bad hit. Are you okay?"
"My head hurts, but nothing serious." Gina said weakly. Then she straightened up, eyes wide. "The Cardinal! Did we…?"
"We won, Gina. We did it." Darren smiled.
Gina let out a shaky sigh and hugged Darren tightly, which he returned. Annie climbed in and joined in as well. All three friends were relieved to the point of tears and happy that everyone made it out alive.
"I was so scared." Gina whispered. "I didn't think we'd make it out."
"When you have some of the best warriors the galaxy has to offer, you find it hard to be worried." Darren said cheekily.
"Liar." She chuckled. Looking over his shoulder, she saw the sky outside. "Guys, look, the rain's stopped."
The twins and Centurion looked up and saw that the heavy rain had indeed stopped, and it looked like the clouds were starting to break apart as well. Everything was calmer now, different from the fierce tempest that ravaged the continent moments earlier. It was almost symbolic in a sense; the danger had finally passed and nature was in control again.
"It has, hasn't it?" Darren whispered, smiling.
XXXXXX
The Decepticons stood around the ravaged, fallen form of Sapientia, who was in no condition to life a claw as he finally stopped moving. Most of his torso was a smoking wreck, two of his legs were missing, and some of his head was blasted off. Now, after an arduous battle, the Cardinal was in his death throes.
and a hole burned into its head. Now it was in its death throes.
"Where is your god now?" Megatron asked.
Sapientia gave no answer.
"I asked you where is your god!" Megatron kicked its golden plated head. "You were spouting all that slag about divine retribution earlier. Where did all of that fearlessness go? Or are you just afraid of dying?"
"Death brings me closer to my Goddess, which is more than you can say about your god." Sapientia said. "I may have failed, but She will still accept my immortal soul, but you, Megatron, you have no god. Your god died long ago, and now you fight an endless war with no purpose."
"Can I shut this thing up already?" Skywarp pointed his cannons at it, but Starscream forced his arms down.
"Stand down. Let it speak." Starscream said. He wanted to hear what point it was trying to make.
"You have no goals, no cause to fight save for fighting itself." Sapientia continued. "Whereas I fight for the glory of Jubileus, you've lost your cause. Now you fight, because you know that if you stop fighting, people will realize that all the sacrifices made, all the people who've died for you, was all for nothing."
"Are you done?" Megatron snapped. "If you are, then do us all a favor and die already. It's been a long and infuriating day."
Sapientia chuckled. "Your dream will crumble around you and in the end, all you'll have left is a dead world with nothing to show for it. That is your reality, Megatron, and you are too slow to realize it." It let out a raspy groan and its head slumped to the side. "May the creator Jubileus, bless you…"
Megatron glared at the lifeless monster that nearly destroyed everything he built on this planet. He turned to the Nemesis and scowled at the damage it had taken. This warship had survived thousands of battles on Cybertron and beyond and this one monster nearly destroys it in a single day.
"So…what do we do now?" Thundercracker asked.
"Now? Now we survey the damage we've taken and make repairs!" Megatron glared at his troops. "What the hell do you think we're going to do?"
"We'll get right to work, Megatron." Starscream said and flew over to the Nemesis with his Seekers.
Megatron and Nightshade stood in front of Sapientia's corpse, which was now starting to crumble away. Nightshade sighed and turned to Megatron, saying, "This isn't over, you know. More will come."
"Then we will kill them all. I've faced worst monsters than a bunch of talking statues with a god complex." Megatron said. "I'll kill them all and keep killing them all the way to their precious goddess!"
He shot a blast at Sapientia's head, blasting a hole in his skull and further breaking apart his body. "These beings will regret the day they ever heard my name. This means war!"
XXXXXX
The Autobots returned to the Ark victorious. The Autobots and their allies celebrated their victory, and recovered in their own ways. With their wounded recovering in the medibay, the rest of the team celebrated in the Rec Room.
Optimus stood apart from the group, watching everyone laugh and converse. Even Prowl took a minute to relax for once. Looking over at the humans and Minicons, he saw that they were also celebrating in their own way. Debbie was hugging Darren and Annie, Gina was being doted over by Sureshock and Sara, and the Minicons crowded around them, happy that everyone was alive and well.
He smiled (mentally of course) and walked into the hallway, down the familiar corridors of the ship that had become his home away from home over the course of the war. He entered his quarters and shut the door, pressing a button on his desk to switch on some good old Mozart to help him relax. Sitting at his desk, he thought back on everything that's happened since arriving on this world and the discoveries made.
We came to this world with a mission, hidden amongst its populace as robots in disguise. Though most of the natives are unaware of our presence, those that do not know of us have proven to be valuable allies, strong in both mind and body. But we have also made powerful enemies both human an otherwise, and they, too, have a part to play in this world's conflict. The Decepticons still remain a threat to this planet's safety, and Megatron's ambition to conquer this world has grown, I know it. There are still Minicons hidden across this world who need our help, and I will not rest until they are all safe and sound.
But we must remember that this world holds more secrets that we know of, and is involved in something far grander than our war. I know that, at some level, we are connected to these mysterious beings, the dolems, and this battle was simply the first chapter of a much larger saga. There are many secrets to be uncovered, and many questions to be answered, but I do know one thing-there is more to this planet than meets the eye.
I am Optimus Prime. I send this message to our brothers and sisters fighting for the preservation of life out there amongst the stars. Though we are separated, know that we are always with you and will never forget your sacrifices.
We remember.
Book 1-End
That's the end of the revision of book 1. It was long and hard, but totally worth it, seeing as I had a lot of grammar mistakes that somehow my word document failed to notify me about. Granted I was often half asleep when finishing the old chapters, so that might be it too. Still, I hope everyone enjoyed the new and improved story and stay tuned for the revision of Book 2: Escalation, which isn't as bad as the first book, so hopefully I can get through that quicker than Awakening.