Promotional Artwork: tigressa101/art/Arcee-and-the-Isle-of-the-Allspark-Cover-931607333
The Energon-stained corpse of King Midas hit a low formation on the way down before toppling into the river, its giant wings only partially submerged and one of them hit the side of the canyon wall. Some of the rock broke free and caved in on part of the body.
Arcee made the distiller dragon dive toward the dead pyrobeak and forced it to land. When she jumped off it, she expected the creature to fly off immediately. Instead, it sniffed at its predator, giving a small trill of excitement realizing the terror of its home was now gone.
Arcee's main focus wasn't that Midas was dead; it was because Megatron was still inside the dreaded beast. She climbed onto its breastplate that had a sizable hole in it and saw scorch marks where its spark once was. The tubing that led to its storage chamber partially seen through a small visible section below the spark placement was noticeably ripped open. Following the damage upward, the pyrobeak's neck armor was relaxed enough to make out the remaining tubing. Several puncture marks were visible as well. Megatron must have sliced the Predacon from the inside out before freeing himself or at least his arm cannon enough to destroy the spark. Clever.
"Megatron! Megatron, please! You have to be alive! You can't leave me, not after everything we've been through!" She pleaded.
She didn't hear the rustling of metal against her own scrambling of tearing apart the armor to search deeper for Megatron. When she felt a servo on her shoulder, she gasped.
Megatron held a smirk though he was covered in Energon and something off-color, "Don't worry, it'll take a lot more than that to kill me."
Arcee immediately hugged his abdomen, barely reaching it but Megatron chuckled at the gesture until she punched him right in the thigh. "Don't EVER do that again! What were you thinking!?"
"Ow! I was thinking of killing the Predacon. Their armor is tough. Their interior is a lot less guarded structurally, so their organs aren't just closer but easier to breach and attack. Usually, that's why they kill their prey before eating them unless they know they aren't in any danger. Pays to listen to Shockwave every once in a while, yeah?"
The blue bot shook a digit at Megatron but took a deep breath and sighed, "I'm just...glad you're alive, okay!? Just don't scare me like that!"
"I make zero promises, now can I go wash off this blood or do you want me to continue our quest smelling like moldy dragon mincemeat? I just cut myself out of its stomach which was surprisingly its own safety net during the fall. The...contents of it also helped."
Arcee took a whiff of Megatron and abruptly gagged, "Oh, ah, yeah-yes, please do! Water's right there!"
"You might want to clean off too, you hugged me after all," he grinned.
Optimus and Bumblebee approached Crystal City's palace, Arcee's throne among Cybertron. The first thing they noticed were the guards. Arcee's usually had hints of blue among their armor but they were now bronze-colored.
When they approached the gates, a guard stopped them. "Halt, no unauthorized visits at this time."
"Unauthorized?" scoffed Bee. "We're Arcee's friends! Don't make me get Grimlock to tear down this gate!"
The guard growled, "Threats, huh? The Queen wouldn't take kindly to that. Now, you have three seconds to get your titanium gears out of my sight or so help me, I will arrest both of you."
Optimus held up a servo. "Please, we just want to talk with Arcee. It is of great importance."
The other guards seemed to be contemplating until one began talking in his commline. Once he nodded, he walked up to them. "Very well, the Queen is ready to see you."
"That wasn't so tough now, was it?" Bee sneered in the direction of the aggressive guard who merely gave him a dark stare in return.
"Bumblebee, easy," Optimus said.
The yellow Autobot shrugged, "I'm still young. I'm prone to bouts of anger and snark, comes with my model."
As they were led into the palace, one fact began to stick out more than anything.
"Is...is it just me or has Arcee taken a liking to brown and topaz coloring a lot more. I mean the oranges are nice...but not what I was expecting from her," Bumblebee stated, peering around the room at the banners and décor.
Rockrider appeared before them, poised and respectful. "Are you here to see the Queen?"
"Yes," Optimus said, "we have a few questions to ask of her."
"Anything I can relay? She's pretty busy right now hence why the lockdown on visitors. I'll be happy to direct all information to her from here."
Suspicious, Bumblebee frowned, "No offense, but isn't that Haywire's job and where is he?"
Rockrider's optic twitched slightly, and Bee tilted his helm a little when she replied, "Unfortunately, he left earlier today. He was sent out to talk to Shockwave over territory. The Decepticons are asking for rights to the Cybertron Underground."
Optimus was the first to respond, now suspicious himself. "I'm sure that deal would go over quite well...except one problem with that. We have already talked to Shockwave and his issue would be, if anything, about the new policies Arcee has implemented, not territory."
The cocky expression on Rockrider's face fell, alerting both Autobots of the ruse. As soon as she tried to defend herself, Bumblebee grew aggravated and pointed his weapon at her. The guards immediately retaliated by pointing theirs at him, but Bee didn't back down.
"Where's Arcee?!"
Rockrider slowly grew back her smile and sighed, "Just can't get anything past you, scout. She's not in charge anymore...I am. Haywire went mad trying to find her like the hero he wanted to be and you certainly are. But this world doesn't need heroes, Bumblebee, it needs the right judgement. Sure, you paved the way to a new beginning with your oh-so-heroic deed of slaying the demented and destructive Decepticon Leader, but where did that put you?"
While Bumblebee was fixated on her, one guard snuck up on him and clocked him in the back of the head. Instinctively, she sidestepped in case he misfired. He fell hard but was still conscious. Optimus tried to rush to him, stopping only when a few spears were poking at his abdomen.
Rockrider approached Bee and stood over him as he growled, staring up at her on his servos and knees. "You have your ingenuity, I have mine. Perhaps, you'll see things better from a humbler point of view. You want to know where Haywire is? I can arrange that."
"Whatever you did with Arcee, we will find out and we will see to it you are removed from power...by any means necessary," Optimus frowned.
"Yeah, I know," Rockrider scoffed. "Which is why I can't let you leave now. There's going to be a time when I make myself known and it'll be when Arcee's legacy, and yours, are buried beneath hundreds of lawsuits and a vindictive Cybertron."
"If you think avenging Megatron will work-"
The bronze femme clicked her tongue distastefully. "But I'm not avenging that loser. I'm not here as a Decepticon. I'm not even an Autobot; I'm just doing what Autobot morals should stand for. I'm kind of improving the basic formula, so to speak. To hell with Megatron. And you? Alpha Trion would be very disappointed in you."
Bumblebee snarled as he was restrained and dragged away with Optimus. "When we get out, I'll kill you for what you've done to Arcee!"
"Save your breath, Bumblebee. You won't get the chance. I'll make sure of it."
"You smell better...that's for sure," Arcee smirked, sitting in the water as Megatron rolled in it.
The warlord laughed as he maneuvered to sit up finally. "Oh, I hope so! I'm not very fond of these types of baths."
"Ew."
"Water baths, I should have said. Oil baths are fine; water is not my favorite element."
Arcee thought about it and given past experiences with a certain water-based planet, she couldn't blame him for not liking it much. She stroked the surface of the water bored but relaxed as she would rather be here than dealing with whatever other terrors lay in the canyon.
Hira hyenas and rock wolves were already checking out the corpse of the fallen Predacon. But then she noticed something beyond it. Where its wing had hit the cliffside, the rock that fell had opened what appeared to be a cavern tunnel. The original entrance to the tunnel was nowhere in sight but if it led somewhere, or perhaps to the shield gem itself, it was worth investigating.
"Once again, you two have exceeded my expectations. How you aren't dead is beyond me. But while you were playing with Midas, I managed to narrow down the location of the gem. It's due north of you, near the canyon's delta where the water splits off."
Arcee frowned, "Not in a tunnel?"
"No?" Bolt sounded confused. "This island was only built by the Allspark's power in the past few years, so there's no civilizations to build such things nor would the Allspark go through that much effort to build tunnels if it's not going to use them. You're probably seeing the remnants of a natural arch or something."
That didn't seem right to Arcee. The tunnel looked carved out. But if the gem was back in the northern part of the canyon, it was best not to go wasting time figuring out why they existed.
"We're on our way north then."
Megatron popped sore armor back in place before gesturing toward where the river was heading. Given how far the Predacon had landed after eating Megatron before dying, they weren't incredibly far from the delta.
"Due north, though remind me not to go running into any other creatures' jaws. You take point," he huffed.
"Took a lot of energy, huh?"
"You have no idea."
Arcee just laughed as Megatron followed behind her. It was getting dark out, the sun setting in the west hidden by the canyon walls and the Black Mountains where the Allspark's Citadel shadowed them.
They followed the river, watching the wildlife breathe a new sigh of relief with the pyrobeak Predacon no longer terrorizing the canyon. The distiller dragons were flying up ahead in multiple flocks and seemed to give playful growls every time they got near them as if to say thanks. Hira hyenas kept their distance but chuckled in warning if they got too close to one of their dens.
"It's funny; we know about the other colonies, other planets that are like us, yet we never bothered to look at what they had. Destructive life but also complex and kind in their own way," Megatron said.
"Yeah, makes you wonder why our planet looks quite plain in comparison. I mean Junkion has dragons! What do we have?"
"Nitrotigers, Hydrax hawks, Drillers. We have quite a few, we just destroyed our planet and with it, the wildlife it had. But I was told Preceptor planned to help fix that by starting cloning trials to recreate the various species. We'll eventually have our home back in order, someday."
Suddenly, the ground gave off a small rumble. It lasted only a few seconds and died out but they both froze in uncertainty.
"What was that? An earthquake?"
Megatron shook his helm, "No, too brief and it was isolated. If it was an earthquake, wouldn't those trees on the canyon cliffs be shaking too?"
Sure enough, when Arcee looked up, none of the vegetation seemed to have moved.
"Hey! Are you guys alright?!"
"We're fine, Bolt. It was just a small tremor. It was noth-"
"NOTHING?! There's a third energy signature with you! And it's right on top of yours!"
The tremors started again beneath them, and both Arcee and Megatron exchanged fearful glances. If that wasn't an earthquake...
"Move now!"
As soon as they sprinted, the spot where they were prior crumbled as a long thin form burst out of the ground with a hiss. They saw it twist, four mandibles clacking against rows of circling fangs in a round jaw structure. Blue optics, eight in total, spanned around its head leaving no blind spots to exploit. Its dark green armor was thick, lined with razors capable of shredding rock. Part of its body at the neck and in crevices was cyber-organic skin outlined by blue bioluminescent spots.
"That's not a Driller," Megatron mouthed in horrified bewilderment.
The creatures' eyes, the ones that covered their direction, narrowed as it posed like a cobra ready to strike. Now all eight were trained on them. An insectoid beak covered the fangs, but the mandibles were only tucked against its jaws as it studied them. It didn't attack, only peered at them with unknown interest. Neither Megatron nor Arcee dared to move.
"Bolt, you need to see what I'm seeing right now!" She snarled in a whisper.
"Let me look, let me look! Oh...do you want the bad news or the worse news?"
It was Megatron's turn to growl, "Bolt!"
"That's a Caminus oil leech and that thing is looking to see if you are edible judging by the way it's staring! Normally, they don't go after bots like us in favor of syphoning oil from wells hence their name...but there's no oil fields out here...yeah. The worse news is...oil leeches have predators known as titan crosswings that are large birds the bots of Caminus have tamed as air mounts and their very own pest control. It probably thought the pyrobeak was one, so it stayed underground in fear...and you just killed the only thing keeping it from feeding on every creature in this canyon!"
The oil leech blinked all its eyes around its head before turning it to the side for a few of them to get a better look as it purred curiously. There was evidence of frills being kept close to its neck, but it had yet to display them in an aggressive manner.
Bolt then mused, "Huh, it's female."
"What relevance does that have to the situation?"
"Female oil leeches are larger than the males and this bad girl is pretty big for an oil leech. Also, I can tell by the mandible size; those choppers are enormous!"
Arcee gulped, "What do we do?"
"Running will alert her but staying still might make you easy to strike down if she wants to. Whatever you do, keep eye contact with her. If you look away or show any weakness, she will take advantage of that and mistake you for immediate prey. Hang on, I need to investigate her species a bit more. I know what her appearance and history of her title is, but I don't know how to deal with her. Try backing up slowly and see if she follows."
"Bolt, hurry!"
Arcee heard the shuffling of data pads as she backed away with Megatron. The oil leech's frills slightly twitched but still showed no sign of aggression, but the stare of eight eyes didn't help the tension. The creature didn't move so far as they kept walking backwards.
"Mm mm mm, ah ha! Um, it says here 'Oil leeches have a disdain for rapidly changing temperatures and environments; fire is most unpleasant to them and will avoid smoky areas preferring fresh air. However, this will not stop them from tunneling into oil wells beneath factories for sustenance'...yada yada yada...'if crosswings are not available for hunting or cannot pry an oil leech from the ground, explosives can be set to force them out towards the surface.' That's all it says about them; fire and explosives are your best bet."
Megatron grunted, "We don't have any-!"
"Wait! The Rozarian blood grenades! Will they be powerful enough?" Arcee interrupted.
"Should be. Nice thinking. You know the drill. Get rid of Shredder before she gets rid of you. Tag 'em and bag 'em, baby!"
The oil leech gave a growl, slowly slithering towards them. Still keeping eye contact with it, Arcee brought out two of the grenades. It seemed to have made up its mind on whether they were prey or not. Perfect.
"Megatron, prepare to run."
"Don't need to ask me twice."
When it opened its beak to let all its teeth out, its mandibles wide and twitching, Arcee scoffed, "You picked the wrong bot to mess with, bitch."
As soon as the oil leech roared, it released its frills. Webbed like appendages outlined by metal barbs rattled a threat as Arcee chucked a grenade straight at it. The grenade hit dead against its jaw and to her surprise, a sudden green flash boomed as the oil leech squealed bloody murder. Arcee was knocked on her aft by the force of the explosion.
"Primus! This is someone's blood?! They're a damn walking time bomb!" She panted in concern.
Megatron was kneeling in shock but quickly sprang to his feet. "Whatever keeps that thing from eating us."
The oil leech bellowed. One of its lower jaws ruptured, sagging limply with a mandible also detached. It lay on the ground severed. With a whimper, the leech took a nosedive into the ground as its body began circulating the razors it used for tunneling. It submerged beneath the rock and dirt without any hesitance.
Quick on her pedes, Arcee and Megatron knew it was only a matter of time before the leech would return. It had nothing to lose upon chasing them and as most sentient life on cybernetic planets went, everything had the capability for a vendetta.
They still headed north but they could feel small movements in the ground. It was trailing them. Abruptly, the oil leech jumped out of the canyon floor with an angry bellow behind them before diving back down. Both bots were booking it, not daring to look back.
"So, what's your brilliant plan now?!" Megatron scoffed.
"Lure it to the delta! The delta must be attached to a bigger body of water, right? Let's see what it does when it can't hide anymore!"
Rock wolves howled in distress upon seeing the oil leech emerging and diving back into the ground after them. They were ahead of Arcee and quickly did a one eighty to run away. She didn't know how fast they were running but the fact that they were keeping up with the wolves at a set distance made her realize if they ever stopped, they were dead.
"I'm beginning to get the feeling the Allspark made this a haven for the universe's most deadly creatures and I, for one, am going to kill it when I meet it!"
Megatron nodded, "Agreed!"
The rumbling of the oil leech's movement shifted to the canyon walls and when Arcee looked to her right, it jumped at her. It missed but slid behind them, only to immediately submerge again. It was getting bolder. If it figured out that tunneling ahead would be more beneficial, they were definitely screwed.
Arcee saw the delta just up ahead. Various birds and organic life drinking its water turned their heads towards the commotion. Deer and boars were the first to flee. While there was a cougar among them, a mother of two cubs, it quickly made the smarter decision to leave to protect its babies.
As the water was becoming more abundant, Arcee took note of the oil leech splashing about and whining. It detoured to the side, slithering up the bank with a hiss. When they were in the clear, both bots slowed, keeping within the deeper waters of the delta. Behind them, the delta curved down a slope to the ocean.
Megatron suddenly was shivering, "Why is water so cold here?"
"Deltas go straight to a different body of water, usually stagnant. They start to change when merging. This is still fresh water but it's different from the river's original temperature...and oil leeches don't like rapidly changing temperatures."
"Well, look at you. You're becoming a cyberbiologist too."
"No, I just pay attention."
Arcee prepared the second blood grenade she had been clinging to, surprised all the running didn't shake it unstable. The oil leech tried going into the water after them, but the cold water made it reluctant. Using the brief moment, Arcee launched the second grenade right at its torso.
The explosion ruptured some of its armor but otherwise left it unscathed and livid. It was enough to push it to its breaking point. It snaked into the water after her, temperature be damned, and even though it grew sluggish, it still managed to rear up in a terrifying manner.
Snapping its mandibles at her, Arcee dodged it, dancing around it as it recoiled faster than she could recover. One strike almost caught her, almost making her leech food. She reached for another grenade and the leech's eight eyes went wide, recognizing the movement. It quickly tail-whipped her across the delta instead.
The grenade rolled into the water but thankfully, the water was cold enough to not set it off by accident. While the leech narrowed down on Arcee, Megatron grabbed the grenade and gave it a bounce off his servo before holding it curiously. He noted the creature always had its jaws open when attacking...he wasn't going to go running into the belly of a predator with that many teeth but maybe it was time for it to eat something that will curve its appetite forever.
He made sure he was out of focus. Arcee peered back at him, and he gestured with the grenade with a sinister smirk. It was all the signs Arcee needed to draw the leech to an open position for attack.
The blue femme did a backflip as the leech brough down its tail where she stood. It then swung said tail toward her from the side trying to swipe her off the ground. She was wiser this time, jumping as it did so to its fury. Jaws opened wide as possible with frills shaking, the oil leech lunged. It tore chunks of rock and spit them out each time it missed her as she continued dodging it.
Megatron lined himself behind Arcee as it reared again. He saw the femme duck.
"Megatron, now!"
"With pleasure!"
He lobbed the grenade directly at the mouth of the oil leech with its entire mouth exposing its rows of fangs. The eyes of the creature grew wide as the grenade was too close to counter. It knew its mistake. Megatron was smiling, Arcee was neutral, and the oil leech for once had nothing but terror in its eyes.
A roar, louder than the pyrobeak's and mightier than the oil leech, echoed above them all. The oil leech was suddenly bombarded by claws sinking through its spined armor and yelped. The grenade that had once aimed true for its jaws, bounced off a new form and exploded, the blast hardly fazing the recent arrival.
Megatron stared in shock and disappointment with his mouth hung open while Arcee went wide eyed staring up at a giant beast.
The oil leech whimpered, struggling to squirm out of the encounter's grip. It gave another blood-curdling cry when the claws crushed its neck. Its dead body was lifted to be inspected; the larger, imposing creature sniffed at it. A cruel, jagged smile played on the creature's scarred lips.
Giant wings spanned more than half the delta. Strong thick legs and muscular arms with claws the size of Megatron's cannon, neck long and spiky, and armor of various parts molded together like a jigsaw puzzle. Its tail swung cautiously as it eyed the dead leech then the bots. Red optics bore down on them like they were nothing but ants.
Arcee noticed smaller creatures circling it. The distiller dragons. "Remember what Bolt said about the dragons, that they usually hung around a much larger one for protection?"
Megatron was dumbfounded looking up at it. He answered weakly, "Yeah?"
"I think," she gulped, "that's a Junkion scrap dragon!"
AN: I just hinted at two species that will be making their debut in the series as well. Can you guess which ones?
Featured Monsters:
Shredder the Tunneling Oil Leech (Caminus)