Promotional artwork: tigressa101/art/Arcee-and-the-Isle-of-the-Allspark-Cover-931607333

Bolt clapped his servos together with a laugh as Arcee set the gem, Wyverntail's tail, and a few sharp teeth of Doomsday onto the table. Moonhunter was quick to lean against the table to peer at the newfound scents and their origin.

"That's pretty impressive! Wow! A vortekia and a Driller in the desert. Never thought I would see them here. And I haven't forgotten about those omni-scorpions. Still don't know why the Allspark brought them here if they weren't going to destroy you."

Arcee laughed, "I still think their A.I. was faulty. Maybe they sustained so much damaged when they were destroyed the first time that even though the Allspark brought them back, it wasn't a complete revival of their mental processor, or physical capabilities weren't at optimal efficiency."

"Fair theory," Bolt said.

Megatron cracked his servos before cracking his neck. He then yawned, "I think we should get some rest before heading out to...whatever the next destination is."

Bolt gently tapped Arcee's shoulder. "Great work out there. Get some rest and I'll get these three little gifts into their rightful spots and I'll see about refining your weapons while you're here if you could kindly leave them on the table. I got some good ideas."

They didn't think twice and pulled out all their weapons sans Arcee's arm blasters and blades that were a part of her form. Both Arcee and Megatron retreated to their respective chambers with Moonhunter eagerly following Arcee. Bolt merely stretched and sat in his chair with a sigh overlooking the weapons on the table.

Arcee kneeled down and cuddled Moonhunter, rubbing behind his ears sweetly, "Yes, I missed you too. Did that Driller scare you? It won't bother us anymore."

Moonhunter licked her faceplates and jumped up on her berth at the foot of it awaiting her, meowing happily. As she lied down and drifted into recharge with the Nitrotiger curling at her side with a purr, she could only think of how they were almost halfway done with their predicament and yet, it seemed like forever that she would be stuck having to destroy all the isle had to throw at her.

Optimus was unsure if it was the right choice to oust Rockrider this early, but Bumblebee had said it was necessary now.

"Is the announcement system active?" He asked politely.

Perceptor and Haywire tinkered with the controls of Nova Point's abandoned broadcast hub and the former waved him off. "Give me like five more minutes. This is an old system. It will either work or it won't. I'm surprised it's even attempting to connect with my instruments given how outdated it seems to be which is funny because Nova Point was one of the best planetary broadcasters until the war then no one did anything with it. It was also an open feed too meaning anybody could hear it, so that's probably why."

Haywire frowned, "You realize if we do this, there won't be any coming back from this. Cybertron's either going to rally with us or against us, and it will be a circus either direction."

The Prime sighed, "We have no choice."

"Done!" Perceptor said gleefully. "This one little wire was just being stubborn. It was glitching the system from reading the rest of the code. Other than that, everything is responding like it was yesterday when it was last active."

Turning on the console to prepare for broadcast, Haywire put his thumbs up. "Ready when you are, Optimus."

He cleared his throat and gave the signal as Perceptor activated the feed. "Showtime."

Across Cybertron, his face was on almost every screen, personal or public. Even Rockrider had a gracious view of his visage with her spitting out the Energon she was drinking with a horrified gasp. Wrathzone threw up his eyebrows thrown off by it but not as shocked as she was. Autobots and Decepticons, neutrals, citizens, and even Councilmembers all had Optimus' broadcast live.

"To all of Cybertron, this is Optimus Prime and I require your immediate audience. It has come to my attention with great sorrow that the rise of taxes, the curfews, and the unjust laws that we have been plagued by are not an act of our queen."

Bots on the streets looked between one another confused while some put servos against their mouths in shock.

"The Queen of Cybertron and my trusted colleague, Arcee, is not the one in charge. She has been overthrown by the Councilmember, Rockrider, and is missing in action. The ex-Decepticon leader, Megatron, is also missing and my sources have proven that he too has been deceived by Rockrider. All these incidents in our system were done by Rockrider under Arcee's name, a fraudulent attempt to make you, the citizens of Cybertron, turn your back on her. We are trying desperately to find our true queen, but we require your help to put an end to this madness. Rockrider has taken the Crystal Palace and labeled Haywire and Scythe as traitors. I can inform you that their status is another act of lies placed to distract you.

"I am now calling all Autobots and Decepticons alike to stand up against this threat to our home and the oppression that has befallen us. Rockrider, if you can hear this, I will not tolerate your crimes against our world any longer. I will see to it Arcee is brought back home no matter how long it takes as well as Megatron. You will not win. I am coming for YOU."

Panic and chaos throughout the cities upon hearing that spread with expressions of disbelief and horrified glances. Bots like Ratchet, who was in the middle of a procedure, were so stunned, they accidentally did regrettable stuff. He dropped his scalpel in shock inside the chassis of a patient only to gasp and quickly try to retrieve it. Predaking was lounging about when he saw the broadcast overhead and swiped his tail abruptly, accidentally knocking off Skylynx from his spot on the edge of a building with the latter yelping.

Even the Decepticon leader curled their fist into a ball at the news as their subordinates in front of them didn't know how to take the information. Soundwave, who had been freed from the Shadow Zone, and Lugnut stood by the new leader's side unsure of how to take the news.

"That femme took out Arcee?"

"We've been lied to."

"And Megatron was trapped in the middle of it. Rockrider must have disposed of them both!"

"Unacceptable."

"We have to do something, right?"

"That's tyranny!"

"I knew something was wrong. I know Arcee. That never seemed like the Arcee I remember."

Optimus, Haywire, and Perceptor could all see the distraught bots even from Nova Point down in the streets below. Everyone was trying to wrap their heads around the sudden announcement. As people scrambled across the street, on the street, and wherever the street wasn't, Haywire couldn't help but speak up.

"Maybe we should have planned this out better."

Perceptor smirked, "Heh, yeeaah. I'm probably about to get some fun calls here in a minute, so if you guys would excuse me, I'm going to be in my office mentally preparing for whatever may come. If I don't get back to you in about five hours, tsk, assume I'm dead! Bye!"

Both bots looked at Perceptor silently as he left.

"Rise and shine, you two! I just got a new signal in the Roughridge Mountains! And I have some surprises for both of you! You don't want to miss this!" Bolt sang tauntingly before laughing.

Arcee poked her head out of her room with a sneer. "I would and I am going to! Ten more minutes at least."

"Come on, it's a good one! I promise! Hey, wake up sleeping beauty in his room too while you're up."

She bowed her head with a sigh as Moonhunter sluggishly passed her with an estranged purr and she knocked on Megatron's door. "Come on, Megatron, time to get moving."

When no response came, Arcee pursed her lips before looking around. Debating her options, at this point she hardly cared much, she opened the door manually to see Megatron lying on his front with his arms crossed as a makeshift pillow, head in arms, and he was obviously in very deep sleep. Guess he was as tired as he acted.

She gave a smile and shook her head. Walking up to the berth, she pushed against him with her shoulder on his side.

"Alrighty, come on, up and at 'em! Let's go, big guy, we don't have all day," she grunted.

She finally heard him moan. "Unless someone's dying, it is not my priority to be awake right now."

"You are awake! Megatron, seriously. We need to get going here. Either you do it when I'm here or you know Bolt's going to come up with some insane method to make you jump out of your armor and that berth." She pointed towards the door with growl, "Let's go."

She jumped on his back and waited. He growled but knew she was stubborn enough to stay there all day until he complied. As he dragged himself to an upright position, Arcee started to slide off his back. She somersaulted off him and crossed her arms upon landing.

"I get the feeling you are not a morning person."

"Nope," he quipped.

As they made their way to the main room of the Endeavor, Bolt slammed a bunch of familiar weapons down on the same table as Arcee had put the remains of Wyverntail and Doomsday as well as the gem. However, they were now situated on their respective shelves.

"Here you go!" He proudly said, "I took the liberty of extending a few features on your weapons. Arcee, you had the gatling gun, right? I improved its rate of fire with a larger hold of ammo. Megatron, your falchion sword, although it lost its twin over a week ago, was resharpened. You should be able to slice through practically anything with this."

He set a rope down of Rozarian blood grenades. "Another batch for you though I got to warn you, I've been noticing less bloodhawks around so maybe go easy on how much of these you throw out until I can find some more. And Dagger Prima I didn't touch. I did, admittedly, try to get it to communicate with the gems again but it only seemed to speak to them via humming. It didn't want to do anything else and all it did was fix the shielding. I found none of the controls to fly out of this hellhole of an isle work still. Maybe it just doesn't have enough power."

"You've been amazing, Bolt, for everything. We will eventually get off this island. I promise that," Arcee assured him.

The Vehicon slowly nodded, "I know. Being with you, the impossible has become possible. I don't doubt now that you will make that happen."

She turned to Megatron. "Ready to get this show on the icy road ahead?"

The warlord smirked and cocked his black cannon back into place on his arm. "Of course."

Bolt rubbed his servos together. "Alright, let me show you guys what you are working with. There are numerous caverns in the Roughridge Mountains. They are colder outside than they are inside but it's still going to be cold so don't get your hopes up about that."

He showed a sky view of the mountains past the desert on the north-east top side of the island. "Desert, mountains, and on the other side is Crystal Lake. Obviously, most all the water of this lake is from the mountain, freshwater only since it's isolated from the ocean. What you need to worry about is loose snow, so you don't accidentally cause an avalanche and alert what lies within these caverns. I, unfortunately, couldn't pick up anything except at the heart of the largest mountain where a signal has become prominent enough to be identified as a gem."

Bolt then gestured and said, "I don't know what lies in them. You will be going blind. Most likely, everything will either be organic or techno-organic because not many pure cybernetic species can survive cold like this for long periods of time. I will take more precautions than normal, and I will use the extra powers of these gems to keep the ground bridge ready to go in an emergency. I want you to tell me immediately what you see before you engage, not after like we've been doing. Immediate no matter what."

"You seem a bit paranoid this time around," Megatron said.

"Call it a hunch but something doesn't feel right about the mountains, but we need that gem by any means necessary. If you two don't feel comfortable going-"

Arcee waved off his worry. "We'll be fine. How different can it be from the other five environments and their surprise encounters?"

Bolt chuckled at that and activated the ground bridge. "Have at thee, brave warriors! And don't forget, be careful with your supply of grenades! I'm running out of resources here."

Arcee and Megatron ran into the portal and appeared on the side of the mountain where even though the sun shined, the air was crisp and thin. Above all, it was freezing.

"And I was complaining about the desert at night?! Oh Primus, this feels awful!" Arcee shivered, "Reminds me of the time Optimus and I got stuck in the arctic after we found a transport of scraplets!"

Megatron glared at her, "You had scraplets?!"

"Not by choice. Don't worry, we iced them when we got everything under control. Scary little things."

The snowy mountain looked like a giant iceberg and was creaking every so often that Arcee tried to listen if the noise was exterior or from the interior in the hidden caverns. There were a few walls of ice and some that curved on walkable areas, so their interior was visible though warped. As they passed one sheet of ice, Arcee was trailing behind Megatron who was using his heavier stature and weight to trek through the snow and create a path for her to follow.

She held onto her arms to try and preserve the little warmth she had when in the corner of her eye in, she thought she saw a dark shadow move quickly past her behind the ice wall. She paused and stared long and hard at it. Nothing was there.

"Are you okay? You need me to carry you?" Megatron asked.

Arcee jumped to attention and shook her head quickly, "No! No. I just...thought my own shadow was something. It threw me off."

The warlord didn't seem to buy it completely, but he let it go with the higher concern of finding the caverns. She ran a bit to catch back up with him and stayed close.

Suddenly, they heard a roar and took a stance in preparation...only to see a great grizzly stopping short of encountering them. Behind it, two cubs were peeking out from a snowbank. She was a mother. They backed down and simply walked slowly around, careful not to startle her. Mama Grizzly watched them but as her cubs moved past her to safety, she slowly let her guard down and began wandering down the mountain.

"We have grizzlies here, Bolt. Weird."

"Told you organic life were probably the main inhabitants of Roughridge. They can survive the cold. Our systems become immobile in strong freezing environments."

Megatron frowned, "Which I never got because space produces ice, yet we don't feel cold nor are we affected."

Bolt huffed on his end, "Ice isn't just a result of cold technically. It's a multitude of conditions that have to be just right to form, and moisture isn't the only thing that it can form off of. It's a type of ice, yes, but it's not the only variant of it. Space is a whole other ballpark of how physics works. Atoms don't move in the pockets between planets and stars, so there's no friction or play in temperature so no true hot or cold effects. It just does things, and space is all about things just doing their thing. We can observe it, we can describe what we see, but we can't truly explain what happens and why all the time. We can guess as much as we want but unless we recreate it ourselves, it will only ever be a theory.

"Ice forming in space isn't because space is cold, which is an absolute myth but maybe not to a human. I don't know; I've never stuck a human out there to die and observe them though to really know. But then again, they would suffocate at first so pretty useless test subjects. Anyway, it's just the perfect shaking of atoms and the factors of the object it forms on with remnants of space's finest grains of its past that form it. Completely harmless really. I'm surprised you didn't know this, Megatron. Shockwave told us this."

"Astrology, yes. Astrophysics and anything regarding the formation of spatial objects and whatever else there is...not my forte. Also, since when did I have time to listen to Shockwave when I was running an empire through a war? If he was building a super weapon or a beast capable of hunting Autobots, I was all ears. Give me a lecture on something not war related and I'm not going to stick around."

Arcee shrugged, "Hell, I didn't even know that. I just thought it happens because why not?"

Megatron was quick to end the conversation as he pointed to a divot in the mountain wall. "There. I think that's the entrance to a cavern."

When they reached it, it was indeed a cave space and the whistling of air flowing past its mouth made for an eerie whistle that echoed. The ice was lit enough from the reflecting sun but still not a favorable enclosed space. But like every other option or route they encountered in their journey, they had no choice but to go through seeking the gem in the caverns they disliked.

"Arcee, you have headlights. I don't so I need to ask if you can take the lead here."

"You mentioned you had abnormal heightened senses including sight, right?"

Megatron rolled his optics, "That's not the point. The light is for your own safety. I'll be fine but I don't want anything sneaking up on you or taking you out when I can see it, but you can't."

"Ah...got it," she mused.

Turning on her high beams, she walked into the cavern with Megatron right behind her. The caves were becoming a bit darker away from the entrance to the exterior but then they started lighting up again, not by her headlights but by Energon crystals of all different colors growing among the ice. It was becoming so bright that Arcee was quick to turn off her headlights as soon as she put them on. They were both stunned to see such a phenomenon.

But before they could even ask why to Bolt, they heard a growl deeper in that sounded like a mixture between a baritone grunt and a howl. Megatron made a gesture of silence and Arcee nodded. Both creeped forward until the tunnel entered a giant space layered not just with ice and Energon. Glowing yellowish colored warts with dark roots covered the space like a physical manifestation of a virus. Smaller, more lively yellow bulbs rattled in groups which they soon noticed were eggs as more were planted beside them by the most unusual creatures they had ever seen.

With a metallic exoskeleton and gems on their exterior metal skulls that were the same color as the large, planted warts festering on the walls, the creatures had four yellow pupil-less eyes and organic skin seen between naturally grown armor plating. Various forms of them, from bipedal to quadrupedal ones, wandered the icy terrain mixed with whatever overgrowth that was associated with them. Some looked humanoid but only in stance.

It was like something out of a creature feature that Jack showed Arcee except the creatures looked like they were living nightmares. She didn't know if they were even a real techno-organic species or something entirely different. Both she and Megatron made the executive decision to retreat for the time being to think about what they encountered.

Arcee was quick to call up Bolt. "You are not going to believe what we saw."

"Mmhmm?"

"We don't know what these things are, but they seem to be techno-organic...almost. They have metal skeletons on the outside of their body and these gems, yellow in color. It looks like the gems are embedded in their skull like a brain or something. Some walked on two legs, others on four. I've never encountered anything like them! Bolt?"

The vehicon seemed dead and made only a confused sound. "Uuhhh, I have absolutely no idea what that describes. Can you let me see your feed? Go back near them and show me."

She crept back into the large area and let her eye wander slowly to give him a good visual then retreated back. "Well? Any ideas now?"

"..."

"Bolt?"

His voice came close to screaming. "What the fuck are those things?!"

"You mean you don't know?" Megatron asked afraid.

"'Don't know?!' No, I don't know what they are! I've never seen anything like them! They aren't from any of the inhabited cybernetic worlds I've visited! Oh my g-those things look like the monsters from Attack the Block, the Xenomorphs from Alien, and the Kaiju from Pacific Rim crossbred three times over! Those things are a sin against the universe, not any god. No god in any state of mind would have created them and said, 'these things look like a plague, let's release them just to see what happens.' This isn't the work of a god. No god exists in this scenario. Someone mortal screwed up is what this is!"

"So, not even you know what they are. Great," Arcee scoffed, "we're running blind all the way."

Bolt gave a growl, "I can try to see if any cybernetic planet has even a mention of such a creature but there's nothing I can do otherwise. Look, you have to get around them and go deeper into the heart of the cavern. The gem is farther in the center, and you are on the south end of the mountains. I'll let you know if anything comes up."

The comm with silent with the sound of data pads being shuffled about. No doubt Bolt was trying his best to do his research.

Both Arcee and Megatron snuck back into the large chamber with the creatures wandering about...except they were gone aside from the warts and alien vines that crept up the icy walls. The bots froze and slowly glanced at one another.

"Do...do they know we're here?" Arcee asked innocently with a gulp.

A screech to their right made them flinch and a herd of small black and white bat-like creatures flew by. They didn't support the same metal exoskeleton but rather they were all metal with only two orange optics instead of four.

"Bellbats. Ignore them. They are from Velocitron and live within caves on the surface of the planet. I know for a fact those things aren't related to those monsters. They are quite harmless really. I've held one that was with a professional handler over there. They love chewing on rust sticks and you have not lived until you feed a bellbat rust sticks. They are so adorable!"

"Adorableness aside, did you find anything yet? These creatures just walked off while we were talking. They disappeared!"

"Nothing. There's no mention of anything matching their description yet. Nothing on Aquatron or Junkion. I'm still looking at Kanjis, Velocitron, Chaar, and Caminus. Why would the Allspark bring such an unknown species here to guard its gem. Granted, if it was to throw our afts off, it worked. Like, this is not what I expected."

It was so silent and vacant in the chamber that Arcee didn't even feel like she was being watched. They couldn't have been invisible, and they would have most likely attacked by now in the bots' current bewildered state if they were protecting the gem. It made no sense.

"Death to all who foolishly penetrate my domain uninvited!" The guttural roar of a voice echoed. It sounded almost like it had a fancier accent, more refined and noble than most of the talking enemies they had ever encountered.

The origin of the voice was unclear as upon observing the ceiling of the icy cavern did they notice there were plenty of other tunnels along with thick hanging stalactites surrounding each. The voice could have come from any of them. So, they were aware of their presence after all. There was a temptation to answer back but there was no telling what would happen if the creatures were made absolute that there were foreigners in their home.

Then they heard the growl of the creatures again and saw a few roll out of one of the tunnels. The grunting monsters saw them and gave a hiss before creeping around the chamber to their higher ledge. They suddenly shifted from quadrupedal fast crawling to a bipedal run before leaping up to the bots' platform.

"You think you're so clever? My Horaquan have dealt with fools brighter than you. I see and hear everything. Do you think you can enter my nest unopposed? Well, allow me to welcome you as our special guests. Don't get too comfortable though."

The creatures, the Horaquan as the voice dubbed them, roared and charged. Some were as big as Arcee, many were larger, and she brought out her gatling gun to start firing at them. She found that they were faster than the bullets, slinking out of the line of fire to leap at her with their fanged mouths wide open. She delivered one brutal to kick to push back one while Megatron slammed another into the ice, smooshing it.

One managed to jump onto Megatron and he was pressed against the wall, snapping its jaws ferociously at his face. He barely was able to hold it back and it was close enough for him to feel the teeth ghosting over his cheek. Activating his cannon, he snarled and pushed it off with all his might before blasting several holes into it as it whimpered before growing silent. Its skull gem popped out and slid on the ice with a few bouncing clink noises.

Arcee kicked one and shot the gatling gun directly under its throat, pulverizing its head to pieces except the skull gem which shot out of it unscathed. By the time each Horaquan against them was shot to death, a whole field a skull gems lied pulsing with no hosts.

Carefully, Arcee put her weapon away and picked one up, examining its odd pattern of energy. "Strange. Bolt, what do you make of this and the name, Horaquan?"

"I honestly still don't know. Kanjis, Caminus, and Velocitron have no mention of any dark creatures like that and the name 'Horaquan?' Non-existent. Chaar has had visiting species but nothing suggests they were one of them. We're dealing with something out of our realm of control. Send those gems in and I'll take a look at them."

When the ground bridge opened, Megatron was quick to enter with a handful then returned, this time with Moonhunter. The cat stretched and shook its head eager to follow.

"Good morning to you too, buddy. You're in for some scrap today," Arcee said.

An evil cackle rumbled through the caverns as the ground bridge closed. "Having fun? I certainly hope so, because I have a playmate for you. He's just dying to meet you!"

Immediately on cue, a hulking triceratops-like Horaquan came barreling through the lower tunnels below them but continued to run past their line of sight until suddenly, the whole platform shook. The ice started cracking, shaking the chamber and all three were sent toppling down to the level below. Arcee glided on the ice on her side as Moonhunter and Megatron landed on the ice pieces with grunts. She slid just under the monster and regained her composure in a sitting position. She peered up and felt steam blow in her face from the large Horaquan's nostrils.

Its neck cabling against its organic blue speckled skin stretched as it lifted its head to give an ice-rattling bellow before standing on its hind legs to try and crush her under its fore legs. Arcee gave a yelp as she was dragged backwards as the paw of the creature smashed down just where she was. She came to a halt with Megatron hovering over her protectively and Moonhunter growling at the beast at her side.

"Didn't know they came in dinosaur formats," Arcee huffed.

"Well, I don't know what this thing is called but this Titanotops or whatever needs to go! Good news, it doesn't look like it bites. Bad news, looks like it crushes. Maybe stay clear of the body and tail...and the horns if you can."

The Titanotops surged forward with its head in ramming position. Megatron grabbed Arcee and slid her to the side while he jumped over the large beast. Moonhunter dodged the attack as it slammed into the fragments of ice, shattering them. He then doubled back and began gnawing on the ankle of it. The Horaquan roared and kicked the Nitrotiger who gave a whine before rebalancing himself and hissing.

Arcee brought out her arm blasters and began shooting at the armored creature. She wasn't aiming to kill it as she saw her shots bouncing off it but rather lure it away from her pet. It worked. Titanotops growled, all four yellow eyes glaring at her as its skull gem lit up. It stomped its feet against the slick surface angrily, causing the stalactites above to shake. Arcee glared back as the creature narrowed its eyes.

That made a bulb in Megatron's head switch on as he saw the icicles dangling above. They were quite large and solid. If a few were to fall on the Horaquan...

"Hey!" Megatron called out.

The Titanotops curled the lips at the edge of its metal beak, changing its attention to him.

"You want to kill us so bad, why don't you start with me?! That is, of course, unless that gem of yours is large to compensate for something you don't have," jabbed Megatron with a smirk.

It took a second for the insult to be picked up but when the Horaquan understood, all hell broke loose. It slammed its tail down before rotating clockwise, smacking Megatron with it into one of the walls and leaving a sizable crack in the ice. It used Megatron's brief stun to charge again, only for a sudden explosion under its feet that made it jump in surprise and land funny.

Megatron looked past to see Arcee had rolled a blood grenade. He then watched as the Titanotops couldn't regain its footing and like something out of a cartoon, danced horribly on the ice slipping everywhere with no traction. It managed to push up to stand awkwardly in a bipedal stance, but its heavy body and unstable legs made it fall on its back with a loud thud and cracking noises from the icy floor.

Getting a running start, Arcee used her momentum to skate past the downed Titanotop's head and taunted it without missing a beat, "Ha ha! Who's not made for the cold now?"

It growled at that and waved its legs frantically trying to turn itself over. The armor on its back made it difficult to do so with the spikes and flat edges preventing it from tipping. Finally, after a hard roll, it shook them loose and hit its left side onto the ground. It took a breather and shifted its body upright to stand again.

However, both bots were quick to notice the damaged floor. The ice was slowly forming cracks from the armor digging into it combined with the weight of the beast.

"The ice can't take much more force and I think there's an empty pocket of space beneath this floor. If we can trap it down there, we may have a better chance."

Suddenly, the Titanotops whipped around without warning hit Arcee past Megatron before nearly ramming the warlord with its nose horn. The ex-Decepticon dodged to the left and grasped the Titanotops' head to try and choke it. However, he couldn't get a stable grip before he was mercilessly squashed against the ice wall by its body.

He yelled out from the strain it put on his back and as the beast went to pounce at him to impale him, Arcee jumped in front of the two and ran to slide underneath, this time going in fast intentionally. Bringing her blasters out, she fired up across its neck, chest, and belly leaving scorch marks, but the dense cabling and armor barely hurt it. It was enough to make the Titanotops try and donkey-kick her once she reappeared on the other side among its tail. She hopped back repeatedly from each kick.

"Is that the best you can do? I've seen Predacons with better aim!"

The Titanotops did something she wasn't prepared for. It brought its tail down directly onto the floor. The impact caused a whole web of cracks to form beneath them but made Arcee bounce up against her will from the force, leaving her at the whim of gravity which landed her on her aft. She realized the danger she was in being caught off guard and scrambled backwards only to find little grip to actually move with. It lifted its tail again to crush her when her winglet was caught by Moonhunter and he dragged her to the side.

Arcee panted at the close call but pet Moonhunter in relief. "Man, I'm just getting moved around today. Thank you, sweetie."

Her joy was short lived when the cavern made an odd sound. The noise seemed to come from everywhere but as soon as she looked down, she immediately knew what it was. Cracks sped underneath her and up the walls to the ceiling. Air pockets let out tiny geysers of compressed air as the ground caved slightly, upturning some of the ice and making other fragments bend under. She and Moonhunter didn't hesitate to rush to Megatron. The minute they reached him, the ice gave out.

The cracked floor of ice burst and crumbled, dragging the bots and the Titanotops downward. Moonhunter managed to catch a ledge near a tunnel and scrambled to lift himself, pitifully watching them fall. The Horaquan hit several ice formations on the way down until it hit a dense section of the cave hard enough to make the metal on it split from the force.

Megatron clawed at any platform he could reach. It took three tries but he finally caught the third above the Titanotops. Suddenly, he saw Arcee coming down in front of him and about to slide off. He dislodged one arm and extended it to her. She caught it and clung like her life depended on it.

Various other pieces of ice followed them down, bouncing off the wall leaving cracks and hitting the ground where they became even tinier pieces. Once everything settled and the ice stopped creaking, Megatron paused as he hung there with Arcee in his arm.

He gave an uncertain chuckle, "Well, uh, that could've been worse."

A rumble above made both bots peer up to see the giant icicles still shaking. Cracks ripped around their base attached to the ceiling, threatening to fall.

"Uh oh," Arcee muttered.

They suddenly heard the Titanatops. The beast stood with wobbly legs, parts of its armor breaking off and clattering onto the icy floor with an echo. It had a broken jaw that had detached on the inside, leaving it to hang like dead meat in its mouth with its tongue barely capable of staying in it. It grunted and whined before growing angry and looked up at them. Roaring, they could tell it was no longer thinking right and didn't stop to think that maybe hitting its head against the ice wall wasn't such a good idea. It did so anyway, making flakes of ice fall from above and the cavern shake even more. One of its horns embedded in the wall which it ripped off its head by pulling away too quickly. Then they all heard what they feared would happen.

The snap of icicles falling resonated for all to draw their attention to it and several thick stalactites were on their way down. Megatron tried to cling under the platform to protect both of them as they heard Moonhunter yowl for them to be okay. One icicle hit close to the platform but missed them. The others flew right by more in the center of the newly created hole direct towards the Titanotops.

The Horaquan was still fuzzy from the fall, then even more so from the rage-induced strike. It peered up as a shadow grew larger over it. It hardly tried to move as it was too tired to. It didn't even feel the stalactite pierce its body.

The largest icicle went straight between the shoulders into the middle of the exposed armorless spine, coming out of the body just below the throat. A secondary icicle breached the hip, missing the armor and slicing right through part of the joint. The force of the stalactites pinned the Titanotops to the floor and the collapse pulled on the strands of flesh around the icicle to nearly sever the head completely.

Its eyes faded to mute yellow as the weight of its head made it turn on its side against what the neck allowed, snapping the remainder of the spine. Its jaw lay crooked on the floor alongside it. With a loud pop, its skull gem was shot upward before coming down on its head crest and rolling off onto the ground to a stop.

Arcee and Megatron positioned themselves to slide down the ice wall at an angle when all the icicles were confirmed to be non-hazardous anymore. They both walked up to the deceased Horaquan and Arcee crouched beside it. Looking into the dead colors of its eyes and the metal surrounding it, she could tell this was a species unlike any other.

"Arcee, Megatron, come in."

"Go ahead, Bolt," Megatron answered, grunting as he pulled the Titanotops horn out from the ice wall and looked over its metallic shine.

"You remember the omni-scorpions, right? The desert machines with the screwy A.I.?"

"Yeah?"

The Vehicon seemed unable to speak at first but soon gained his voice. "I think...by Primus...I think I know what King Kronos' omni-scorpion tanks were originally built to go to war with."

AN: Icicles (type of stalactite, not a stalagmite) may sound like a lame way to die but I assure you, they are quite deadly. At least five out of a hundred people who get hit by falling icicles usually die or are life-threateningly injured. So, the next time you see icicles on a tent, roof, window, overpass, etc, think before you walk under them. Just because you have a decent chance of surviving doesn't mean it can't happen to you. This has been a PSA.

So, for those of you curious as to what these creatures are. They are the Metal Heads, also known as Horaquan, from the Jak and Daxter franchise. I'm making a jab at a very old fic I wrote in the early 2010's that featured my main OC, Tigressa, and how the Jak and Daxter universe and the Transformers universe are parallel. Most of the main Metal Head monster bosses that are and will be featured are original types created by me like the Titanotops as Bolt ends up calling it, which is not a real species of Metal Head in the games, which is something I made up years ago that I never used for the origin story I made.

To summarize this story, it explains why the Metal Heads exist in the first place and how they get into the Jak and Daxter universe (the Eco Realm) because in canon for J&D, the Metal Heads are considered a foreign entity. They are madly invasive, but it was never touched upon why. It basically dives into the plot of Tigressa growing into a fallen princess of Kanjis and how she tries to defy her father, King Kronos, only to be banished and drag her siblings down with her despite them being innocent. She's responsible for the myth of Adam and Eve, tampering with creation and why also the Rift Ring in Jak and Daxter exists as well. It explains Kanjis itself too as a planet.

In a later chapter, I am going to mince a piece of the past story in a mention in a future scene because the events don't align right for one of the key plot elements of this story. I'm going to retcon a portion of my old story is basically what I'm going to do. It didn't age well in certain areas that I'm just going to get rid of.