II - Armada II

Arcee fell out of the bottom of the tunnel and onto the hard-packed earthen floor of the cavern. She charged up her blasters as quietly as possible, padding between the Insecticon pods in plain view. Airachnid suddenly fell from the ceiling in front of her, firing webs at the blue femme. Two were wrapped around Arcee's arms, pinning them to her sides. Airachnid rushed in, rearing her Insecticon legs up for the kill with a sadistic grin on her faceplates.

But Arcee had other ideas. She transformed out the blades on her arms, slashing through the webbing like it was wet clay. Two of Airachnid's Insecticon legs came down towards the other femme's helm but she instinctively raised her blades, blocking them at the last possible second. With a yell, she threw Airachnid off and rapidly fired her blasters at the spider. The black femme collapsed to the ground beneath the onslaught.

"When you extinguish my spark, make it hurt." Airachnid growled, "You know I would extend that courtesy to you."

"I'm not like you." Arcee retorted.

"Very well." The spider purred, lunging at her.

Arcee sidestepped, transforming her blades out again. One of Airachnid's wickedly-sharp tips of an Insecticon leg came stabbing downwards. Arcee blocked it on the edge of her blade, slicing forwards with the other. The spider snarled as it made a shallow gouge on her side. Ignoring the minor wound, Airachnid lunged at her again, but her enemy danced around an Insecticon pod and out of sight.

"I'm not here to toy with you, Arcee." The spider purred, her optics scanning the room. Arcee crouched lower to the ground, nestled in the center of a cluster of pods. "Now come on out, and I'll let you rejoin your partners."

Arcee launched herself at the black femme from behind her with a roar, "This is for TAILGATE!" And she tackled her to the ground in a tangle of Insecticon legs and flailing limbs. The blue femme had Airachnid pinned against the ground, a pede on her chest plate and a blade to her throat. The spider struggled, glowering at Arcee. "Any last words?" Arcee snarled, failing to notice one of Airachnid's Insecticon legs rising up behind her back.

Airachnid smirked, "Rest in pieces." Its tip flashed wickedly in the light as it arced downwards.

Starscream and I cackled as Insecticon chassis crashed to the ground one after another around us. "We make quite a team!" I grinned, ducking to avoid a fist as Starscream put its owner's lights out.

He looked about to agree with me, but then staggered and looked as though he had been punched square in the faceplates. I let my guard down, momentarily distracted by my double's plight. Suddenly I was flying through the air, the Insecticons screeching loudly in triumph. I hit a tree, shattering through its trunk.

I leapt to my pedes and transformed out my blasters, firing bolts of red plasma at the army of Insecticons in fury. Starscream fell to the ground to avoid my shots, crawling away from them as fast as possible for being on his knees. Then he got back up and darted over to me. Without a word, we both rushed over to join Optimus and Bumblebee, who both had acquired numerous gouges in their armor.

"Prime!" Starscream shouted over the din, "Five is offline!" That drew me up short. My helm whipped around, searching for the chassis of the clone. I spotted Five a short distance away, a stab wound puncturing through his chest plate and his faceplates dented in. I looked away.

Two, Four, and Six joined us… or at least tried to. Four and Six made it safely, but a trio of Insecticons managed to trap Two between them. The Seeker transformed, jetting upwards with a blast of fire from his thruster. The Insecticons took off in pursuit, shooting bursts of plasma at him. Starscream and I transformed our blasters out as well and shot at them, but they dodged the projectiles. I snarled in frustration, pressing my assault.

Inevitably, one of their shots clipped Two's wing and he crashed into a boulder. Starscream stumbled and clutched his right shoulder plate. An Insecticon on the ground charged the Seeker, seeing his weakness. Then a clang rang out. The Insecticon suddenly stopped in its tracks, then slowly turned around as if surprised. Four stood behind him, panting slightly.

"Oh, so you want another one then?" He growled, picking up a mid-sized rock. His optics met mine for only a millisecond, but I got the message.

"Those will be your last words." The Insecticon hissed in the garbled tones of its species.

"So be it," the Seeker snarled back. "At least I don't have to speak with those revolting things in my mouth!" The Insecticon screeched in rage and Four hurled the rock at his helm, buying Starscream and I time. From the sound of it, he didn't miss. I helped my double away from the fight, not seeing the aftermath after the rock left his servo. I was pretty sure I got the gist of it, however, from the way Starscream gasped and clawed at his neck cables.

"Hang in there," I muttered, quickening my pace and straining to see the battle over my shoulder plate. The Insecticon released Four, and his chassis crumpled to the ground, energon flowing freely from the lacerations on his neck. Starscream moaned quietly and shuddered, but we kept running. I edged closer to him just in case. I tripped over a rock but quickly regained my balance, urging my double to run faster.

"It's only the three of us now." Six panted from my other side.

"Six." Starscream corrected.

"What?" The other clone hissed.

"No, six, the three of us plus the others." I huffed. "We're wasting time. Starscream, can you walk?"

Six was worried, seeing several Insecticons drawing closer. "Can you run?"

"I can do better than that." he growled, standing up straighter and transformed out his blasters. For the first time, I noticed that between the three of us, only Six had a missile remaining. Starscream noticed this as well and frowned, looking up at the ensuing fray drifting away from us. "It would seem that things are at sixes and sevens."

"By the Allspark, Starscream, is that really necessary?!" I groaned loudly.

He grinned, "Absolutely."

"Six, you shall do the honors." I pointed at a few Insecticons converging on us outside the meager barrier the foliage provided.

"Who put you in charge?" Starscream growled at me, miffed.

I huffed, "I'm the one watching your six."

"Et tu, Seven?" Six gave me an exasperated look and loosed the missile. One bright explosion later, the three Insecticons collapsed, shrapnel from the first's backside riddling the other two. Starscream nodded with approval, grinning menacingly. But we all froze when something long and sharp suddenly sprouted out from Six's chest plate.

Six slowly looked down at the energon already beginning to flow, then back up at us, surprise etched into his features. Then his optics went dark. An Insecticon warrior with white, barbaric stripes across his faceplates and mandibles towered up behind the offlined Seeker. He extracted his claw from Six's chest plate, and he crumpled to the ground in a mess of energon. Starscream fell against me, his optics squeezed shut, panting rapidly.

I helped him back up and he shook his helm, "Better," he mumbled.

The Insecticon screamed and raised its legs, trying to intimidate us. "I have slain countless Autobots!"

"Good for you." I snarled, and we used our thrusters to boost our paces as we fled the Insecticon.

"PRIME!" I screeched as we burst through the brush. "We need to retreat!" Our optics locked for a millisecond and I could tell he conceded, thinking the same thing. He swiped at yet another Insecticon with his sword but missed.

"We must retrieve Arcee!" He shouted over the din of the battle.

Suddenly the noise vanished, replaced by an unchallenged, muffling silence. My audials rang; it had become too quiet, too quickly. The Insecticons had brought their assault to a screeching halt, now they just stood in their tracks, staring at us blankly.

I cackled with glee, and all other Autobot helms swiveled to stare at me as if I had lost it. "Arcee must have vanquished Airachnid, the glitch!" I exclaimed, wings quivering from exhaustion and elation.

Sure enough, the Prime's comm unit pinged. He answered it.

"Optimus, I'll need some help carrying Airachnid out of here." Arcee's voice crackled on the other end.

"Affirmative." Optimus said, walking to the hole and jumped into it.

[What about Starscream?] Bumblebee chirped, tiredly plodding over to see the state of my double. I had to admit, I had momentarily forgotten about him amid all the confusion at present.

"Yes, what about him?" Starscream faced at the scout irritably, looking tired himself.

"He's fine," I translated.

Arcee watched the mouth of the hole high above her in the roof of the cavern, waiting for Optimus. The Prime fell in, landing in a thick cloud of dust.

"How nice of you to drop in." Arcee smiled at him.

He didn't smile back, however, preoccupied with his own thoughts. "Where is Airachnid?"

Arcee pointed at an Insecticon pod behind her with the spider trapped inside of it, locked in stasis and frozen in mid-scream.

My optics fell on the Insecticons, standing around us like sentinels; watching, but not moving against us. I grimaced, seeing Four and Five's chassis lying not too far away. Three's was closer. My pained expression stared back at me, reflected in the pool of energon beneath him. I averted my gaze, tank churning.

Then I noticed they weren't the only ones leaking energon. My right side was wet just above my hip, however, the wound itself didn't look anything like what an Insecticon could inflict and was relatively minor.

"We are unaware of how you acquired that." Seven said.

[Does it hurt much?] Bumblebee asked.

"No," I sighed, "not much. Thank you for asking."

Seven's optics narrowed as he studied my frame, "Are you certain you're fine?"

My optics narrowed as well, "Yes, why?"

"Because you just were polite. But don't fret, it's gone now."

I glared at him, and Bumblebee whirled in laughter. Then I started chuckling a bit too once Seven had joined in. I couldn't tell whether his comment was genuinely humorous, or if my nerves were just that frayed. It could've easily been either.

"What are Prime and that femme doing down there?" I wondered when we had to pause for air, gingerly laying a servo on my throbbing side and looking to them. We all blinked at each other, then burst out in a harder fit of laughter again. I felt my faceplates warm, "I-I didn't mean it like that!"

Seven slapped me, grinning like a fool.

As if I just needed to ask, Prime walked out of the maw of the cave in the cliff face. He and Arcee jointly carried something large and heavy, from the look of it. The three of us joined up with them, and they dropped the thing on the ground. It clanged sharply against the rocks.

"An Insecticon pod?" Seven huffed suspiciously, "Why–" Arcee spun it around so the front was visible.

"Airachnid!" I exclaimed, instinctively taking a step back.

"When the Insecticons ceased their assault, I thought you had terminated her." Seven groused.

"I intended to." Arcee agreed.

Seven yawned tiredly, his wings fluttering slightly as he leaned back against Ratchet's med berth.

"Perhaps we ought to save that for the mechs and femme who require actual repairs." Ratchet's tone was far from suggestive. Bumblebee nudged my clone off the berth. Seven frowned at him but complied, edging out of the way. He took a seat next to me.

"Watch it!" I scowled as one of his wings smacked me in the faceplates.

"Oh?" He smirked and flapped them so the same one hit my helm over and over.

I lightheartedly shoved him off the ledge we were sitting on, but then winced at a sharp tug of pain in my side.

"What now?" Ratchet asked, glancing up and seeing my expression.

"It's nothing." I replied hastily, trying to hide the wound by placing my servo over it. My palm slowly grew sticky.

"If it is nothing, then you should have no issue with me taking a look at it." He huffed and finished applying a patch to Bumblebee's last wound.

"Oh, please," I groaned, twisting away from him, "tend to the others first."

He ignored me, sweeping his scanner over my side. I reluctantly dropped my servo.

"Bug get you?" Bulkhead asked, twirling a mop. Then he fumbled and dropped it.

I noticed the line of red shoe prints was gone with a smug smirk, "No, actually."

"There is no diagnosis that would fit this type of injury that I can think of, except from self-infliction." Ratchet finally announced.

"He did that to himself!?" Bulkhead exclaimed in shock. The others wore similar expressions of surprise and disgust.

"I believe what Ratchet is trying to convey is not that he intentionally harmed himself, but merely tore the weld open from his surgery months ago." Optimus clarified, and Ratchet nodded in affirmation.

"Oh, now that's just grand." I groaned, rolling my optics.

"Tell that to your clones." Arcee said. "They're the ones pushing up lugnuts."

"Plural?!" Ratchet gasped.

"Did I stutter?"

"B-but the technology to create clones—the ability to create malleable protoforms that could, and would, mind you, instantly conform to whichever sample of Cyber Nucleic Acid they were injected with was lost eons ago!" He exclaimed. Seven gave the medic a look and cleared his vocalizer loudly.

"This day's sure seen its share of surprises." Bulkhead quipped.

Seven shook his helm, "Like you wouldn't believe."

"Aww, I missed the Starmada!" Miko groaned, "I bet it was awesome! I can't believe I was buying Oliver here new pants when I could've seen the throwdown!"

"Hey, it was your fault." Oliver replied defensively. My wings twitched in annoyance; with all the quiet, I had forgotten for the moment that the humans were here.

"Starmada? Really?" Jack rolled his eyes and she grinned mischievously.

"Come." Ratchet said. I followed the medic over to the med berth and sat down, he began to stem the leakage.

"That was why you jetted off." Arcee said, a note of disdain evident in her tone.

I cleared my vocalizer loudly, "And if I hadn't, where would we be now, hm?" My voice came out higher than usual, thanks to Ratchet probing my wound with a long pair of tweezers. "Must you?" I snarled at him.

"Yip, ip ip. Hold still and it will hurt less."

I rolled my optics, "Knock Out used to say that after every new round of Megatron's 'discipline.'"

"Wait, back up. It makes sense that Megatron mistreats his troopers, but a high-ranking 'Con like you? Sorry, but I'm not buying it." the femme frowned.

"Oh, I think he loved making sport of me." I spat, "I, his second-in-command, was the perfect scapegoat for everything that went wrong, whether it had been my fault or not."

"He beat you?" Optimus rumbled, concern creasing his brow.

My wings sank, "That is a fact of history, Prime. But I must confess, I thought it was obvious. Do you remember the time I raised Skyquake with dark energon?"

"Come to think of it, you were pretty beat-up at the time." Arcee noted.

"Jeez, Scream." Bulkhead frowned in sympathy, "No wonder you always were such a–"

I silenced him with a glare. "I said it is history," I growled, making it crystal-clear that subject was closed.

Bumblebee cleared his synthesizer with an odd-sounding chirp after an awkward moment of silence, [And was Knock Out right?]

I looked at the green mech, "It was his favorite phrase to use before he wo–AUGH!" Ratchet had stuck his tweezers in deeper and jerked a piece of shrapnel out. He set it under a device on a table and I felt that strange tingling sensation come over my frame again, but dissipated just as quickly.

"… do that." Arcee finished, struggling to suppress a smirk.

"The two of you share a bad habit." I griped, frowning at the medic.

[Your clones… you were saying?] Bumblebee reminded me.

"Ah, yes." I began. Seven crossed his arms, looking at me strangely. "I flew to the Harbinger to find the five other protoforms, and injected them with my energon, my CNA."

"And exactly how much energon was that, dare I ask?" Ratchet inquired.

Will cut in before I could answer him, "Six cylinders, about yea big." He held his arms out as far as they would go.

"And how might you know that?" My optics narrowed. Everyone else looked at him, silently asking the same question.

The human didn't miss a beat, "I saw the place where you'd have to stick them when we made Seven: six circular slots."

"Never utter that again." Seven warned. "If you do, you will feel great amounts of discomfort shortly after."

"That would be quite a bit of energon." Ratchet noted, ignoring my clone's threat.

"However, I did refuel afterwards." I added. "Though, I regret to add that Two, Three, Four, Five, and Six all perished in battle. Tragic, nonetheless, they were highly expendable."

"Oh, I would not be so sure." A voice spoke up from the tunnel, uncannily like my own.

We were all stunned into silence. One of my clones walked into the room, blasters raised and trained on me. I noticed in the split second before he spoke again that his chassis was dented and scraped up all over. The tip of his left wing had been shot off, his right shoulder plate was nowhere to be found, and his missiles were, well, missing.

"But believe me, you are next."