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

After Bolt looked over Arcee and confirmed no permanent damage was done by Aurora, he released her. "Never thought I would ever see a Swansong or even know of people who survived to tell the tale. Quite an offense and defense they have, don't they?"

Arcee grimaced, "Yeah, tell me about it. It was the sweetest voice and I felt warm, comforted like someone was holding me and then it started to suffocate me like I was drowning."

The Vehicon nodded, "Sounds about right. Sirenism, as the Kanjians dubbed it, is very rare. Not a lot of species have it. There's said to be three classes. C-class sirens are like mermaids in human folklore from what I gathered thinking about those myths based off the description and the most common type. It manipulates your emotions into believing you want something, and you can act on it. If you have a strong mind, it is easy to break or resist. B-class is the real dealer of panic like Swansongs. They have all the abilities of a C-class but can take control of you if they entomb your mind with their tune. They can talk through you but it's so obvious; it couldn't fool a sparkling. A strong mind can break through it too, but you better hope you are strong enough because it's extremely difficult and not a guaranteed thing."

Megatron mused, "And I suppose there's an A-class?"

"God-level monstrosity of a power," Bolt said with a hazardous tone. "Unlike C and B-class sirens, this is the ultimate control. They are said to change frequencies in their voices to control different species at once, they can talk through them without giving away anything is wrong, they can keep control of their victims without continuously singing, and it is believed though never really proven that...once they take control of you, their trance can never be broken even if they die. Only the siren itself can cure the tune's alluring call and if they are gone, nothing will stop the tune until it destroys its host in an endless sleep. B-class like Swansongs's merely take energy from controlled victims; A-class sirens can wipe out your whole soul in seconds if they wanted to."

The femme shivered at the thought. "A waking nightmare."

Bolt shrugged, "Well, thankfully, there have only ever been five A-classes in existence or at least that were ever found, two of whom were bad people. And, unlike the other classes, A-class sirenism is random. Anyone can get it among any species, but it doesn't carry over to offspring. All five known sirens were all different species, none of which were sirens, no offspring of said sirens had the ability or their family beyond that, and none of the family tree of each of prior generations ever met a siren to begin with. As you can imagine, if someone pure evil is born with that power, it would be so easy to enslave a whole galaxy when everyone is susceptible to your song."

"I assume you found that among the Swansong information," Megatron said. "They must take that threat very seriously."

That made Bolt laugh, "Well yeah! King Kronos would be a fool if he didn't. There was a whole four pages of information on sirenism. It was awesome to read!"

"While we were being controlled and almost killed each other by a siren's power?" Arcee scoffed, crossing her arms.

"What was I supposed to do? Go out there and get myself hypnotized by opera or get killed by you two in your trance? I'll stick with being your voice of reason on the other side of the battlefield and the nerd that relays all important information to you so you don't get killed...at least not blindly."

"Gee, thanks Bolt," she sarcastically responded.

Megatron smirked, "Well, we don't have to worry about them any longer because look what I got."

He held up the rainbow-tipped wings and Bolt stood there with a servo on his chin and an obvious concerned glare despite having no expression to be seen on his visor plate of a face.

"You killed Aurora...and you brought back...their...Megatron, we are going to get into so much trouble having those wings," Bolt scolded. "It's bad enough you had to kill them. Taking their wings is evidence that can lead to a huge liability for killing an endangered species and let's not forget illegal to have in general!"

"You said you wanted trophies of creatures and monsters," Megatron argued.

"Yeah, legal trophies, not something that can get us all arrested and-or banned by the freaking king of the entire goddamn galaxy!"

Arcee scoffed, "And having his daughter's servo in our trophy case wouldn't?"

Bolt raised a digit with an audible sucking of air through the slot that was his mouth as he tensed. "That's...a little different-look, just...if we're going to keep them, I'm holding you two accountable. If we get caught, it's your asses! I'm not going down for this, especially not for your questionable train of thought as to why you would do such a thing when I explicitly told you it was a criminal offense."

Megatron growled, "Alright, fine, I'll bury them with the body."

Bolt sighed, "You can bring me back anything as a trophy except the body parts of a Swansong. I didn't think I would be saying that, but I did. Now, return to the lake...and take Moonhunter with you this time in case you run into any more surprises."

The blue Nitrotiger looked between all three before sniffing at the severed wings curiously when Bolt reactivated the ground bridge. As Arcee and Megatron went back in, so did Moonhunter.

All the Autobots were anxious and not the good kind. None of them had ever met the current Decepticon leader or at least, not that they knew of. Perhaps it was someone they knew but they never put it together or the bot had been pretending not to be the leader, fooling them the entire time. So, when they heard of Shockwave's return, they all awaited whoever they were about to meet.

Shockwave was the first to enter the room, his audial fins perking up at recognizing such uncertainty in his former enemies and past teammates. "May I present to you the esteemed leader of the Decepticons."

He walked aside and a decent sized form appeared through the door. Bumblebee's optics widened as did everyone else's. A Vehicon, far larger than the norm, strode in through the shadows of the doorframe with a horrific number of scars littering their chassis. Bulkier, stronger, fiercer, and crueler than any soldier of the Decepticon empire, everyone knew who she was. The Matriarch. A powerhouse of the Vehicon faction and Megatron's most damned soldier ever built. She was a marauder of bloodshed and the commander that trained bots like Blackout and Grindor into the merciless warriors they were. Nobody was more feared than her other than Megatron and Tarn.

The Matriarch stomped past Shockwave who gave her a brief bow and so did Scythe upon instinct, not that Bumblebee could blame him. She was larger than Bumblebee which was something he was not used to as Vehicons and Eradicons were only slightly bigger in height by a foot; he only came up to her mid-chest.

"Did you miss me?" She chuckled darkly.

Ratchet was a bit stunned and asked, "We-we thought you perished?"

"The reports of my demise were greatly exaggerated."

Bee could tell Shockwave was beaming at that and by how he was acting, the yellow mech could assume they were a bit more than leader and second-in-command. Her markings had changed though. Instead of the normal purple, silver, and black color scheme of a Vehicon, she had red painted lines decorated over her purple armor with a red outlined Decepticon symbol on her chest and two lines across her optic visor going vertically down. If he had to guess, it was a show of individualism to stand out as the leader...although that scars and size technically did that for her already, but he wasn't one to judge.

She then grew stern. "I heard about this Rockrider, is it? So, that is the little rat who thinks she can mess with my exports and resources?"

There was an edge to her saying that which Bumblebee could tell meant she was deeply furious but still being civil. "Yes, she's...she's the one who broke your deal with Arcee."

Abruptly and to the shock of everyone, the Matriarch slammed her fist down on the nearest table that broke under the amount of force she exerted. They were staring at her as she yelled, "I WILL TEAR THAT BITCH TO PIECES!"

It was so loud that Bumblebee had to rub over his audios blinking dumbfounded with a groan. "Mmm, yeah, I get it."

Optimus approached her instead with a heavy tone. "Matriarch, we require your help. If we are to defeat Rockrider and secure peace to our home, we must get all the support we can or we will be overrun by her army."

The Matriarch briefly glanced at Shockwave before tilting her head, "Is that so? Well, I certainly haven't fought a good battle in a while. This should be fun."

Haywire smirked toward Scythe, "Yeah, I bet she hasn't fought for over a millennium given how old she is. Might slow us down."

The green mech laughed whispering, "If she even makes it a few feet in battle."

She caught their words and was quick to growl, "What did you say, you little-!"

She was about to charge and both mechs skidded across the room to the far corner to avoid her ire with Haywire nearly jumping on top of a console. Tyrus merely rolled his optics at their stupidity. It was Perceptor, however, who held out a servo to stop her.

"Hey now, look! We need your help, and you need ours. Do you know any other leaders that we can rally with that would help us overthrow Rockrider?"

The Matriarch calmed herself as Shockwave put his servo on her shoulder in reassurance. She said, "I may. I'll give you their commlinks. You just let me know when the war starts. I'll be there."

Crystal Lake was peaceful...again. The animals didn't mind their presence as they walked past the herd of zebras that looked at them curiously, unfazed by the Nitrotiger walking among them. After burying Aurora, with their wings this time, they both turned their attention to the possibility of the gem being in the lake itself. Fish of all sorts came swimming close, most likely because they saw the light reflecting off the bots' armor. Then an unknown species emerged.

Glowing like the sun, a partial-mechanical fish with exotic flowing red fins and a yellowish body appeared to surface. Its scales shifted color by the position of light to show off hidden oranges and light reds among its body. Definitely not Earth-based.

"I see what you're looking at. Those are Patreci glowfish from Aquatron. They actually stay near the surface to harness the sun's rays for energy, kind of like how butterflies here on Earth do. Gorgeous creatures and they make excellent pets I've heard. If you see one, there's probably a whole school in there and they get along with most everything. Even shark-types found on Aquatron don't eat them but will follow them while mesmerized by their colors. They can survive most all climates as far as I know as well as water variants, like salt and fresh water is not different to them unlike Earth species who either survive in one or the other but not both usually."

The glowfish shimmered swimming past tetras and angelfish unbothered, flaunting its colors which made the other organic fish clear a path for it like it was royalty.

Arcee smirked, "Very flamboyant species I see. I kind of want some now."

Megatron shook his head, "You already have a cat; you don't need fish too."

Moonhunter brought his nose close to the water near the glowfish and to their surprise, the Aquatronian breed approached with little fear. The creatures were almost snout to snout as the glowfish turned pink to show its emotion before it suddenly sprayed water from its mouth directly into the optics of the Nitrotiger. The cat fled back and rubbed his face against the grass trying to get the moisture out while the fish retreated.

"Sorry, Moonhunter, I don't think it wants to be your friend," Arcee said amused.

Megatron scanned the lake. "So, you want to go in?"

"Me? Why me?"

"I'm not going in."

"This weird hydrophobia thing you have is really throwing me."

He scowled, "I'm not afraid of the water! Again, I don't like the water. There's a very big difference."

Arcee gestured confused, "I got over my fear of heights doing what needed to be done in Paragon Canyon. You can't just jump in the water and help me find the gem because you simply don't like it? Come on, Megatron, that's a little stupid."

Megatron gave her a dark glare before sighing angrily and muttering to him before he began walking into the water without her. She followed, slightly shocked that her little speech worked and slowly eased into the water. They both found it to be decently warm which lightened Megatron's mood about it. When it was getting chest deep for him, he peered back only to see Arcee completely submerged. He gave a laugh as he spotted a faint blue form moving past him before he reached down and pulled her up.

"Maybe the water's not as bad as I said but watching you walk through it makes it a whole lot more tolerable," he chuckled.

Arcee crossed her arms as she was held by waist dripping wet. "You might be larger than me but don't forget, I move faster. That applies in water as well. Put me back down and I'll kick out your shins, you son of a-"

He obeyed and let go, watching her sink back into the water like a rock still glaring at him the entire time. He gave a snort of amusement before it turned to another boisterous laugh, placing a servo over his optics. Seeing bubbles scolding him from below the surface and rising didn't help his fit but he got over it and submerged himself. Moonhunter paced at the water's edge with a whine before crouching a few times. He jumped in despite his displeasure and dived to join them.

There were benefits to being a mechanical species, no reliance on any type of gas to breathe was one great factor. Being underwater, however, made it very clear they were not meant for it...aside from Moonhunter who could actually swim somehow past them without a care in the world. Megatron tried to wave his limbs beneath him to doggy paddle, but his density quickly made him sink. Arcee passed him too laughing at his pathetic attempt until he playfully pushed her away.

The water was semi-clear with it most visible near the surface but murkier toward the bottom. Glowfish and various Earth fish swam around them curiously as they walked the lake floor.

"Hey, Megatron," Arcee's voice said through his comm line, "how's the water?"

"I will punt you across this lake," he joked with a slight edge to his tone.

"You're going to have to get in range first."

As they maneuvered on the lakebed, several things caught their eye. Metal remains lay half-buried among muck and mud that looked a bit shinier than they anticipated, like the pieces were recently placed there. If they were remains of one of Arcee's missing vessels or a Cybertronian from said vessels, it was hard to tell but it was fresh. Larger pieces were discovered in the deeper areas and just as they saw a piece of exterior metal that was taller than Megatron, they briefly saw something perched on it.

Something up top it they couldn't identify lit up with red bio lights and seemed to have five optics but neither bots could even begin to assess what it was when like a streak of black and red, it released itself off the metal and quickly darted into the background. Tentacles were barely seen but distinguishable among its form as it blended into the far stretches of water.

It made both Megatron and Arcee freeze while Moonhunter stopped to slowly sink beside the latter. Megatron grew suspicious. "Bolt, is there anything that lives in water that has red lighting? Like a squid or something?"

"A squid...in a lake? Makes no sense but at this point, we've seen stranger, I guess. Kanjis has octopus types that come in an assortment of colors, but the bio lights are usually gold or green. Chaar, no. Caminus, yes but only squids as big as a human and they are bio illuminated and live deep in the center of the planet. Aquatron...ffffff-ugh-uhmmm, did...did you say squid and redlights?"

"Yes, Bolt, that's exactly what he said," Arcee stated.

"I...I...I'm going to have to get back to you on that, just to make absolutely sure about what I think it might...be. Just don't rush me. Trust me, it's something I really need to look into."

"Bolt, really?"

"Yes, Bolt really!" The Vehicon seemed to growl. "I'm telling you now that if it's what I'm looking at, and I'm not one hundred percent sure, you're going to need as much data on this as possible. It's either really good if you're lucky or really bad. Keep searching for the gem and I'll do my best to get every ounce of important information on this thing as I possibly can!"

The comm line was cut and both bots were stunned by the sudden fear Bolt was demonstrating. If he was that scared so fast over a mention of a robotic squid, there was something they weren't seeing. But Arcee didn't have time to think about it and continued on.

"Bolt knows best, Arcee. If he thinks we're in danger, he's not going to let us die without having a chance as he was very clear on."

Moonhunter waddled in the water past her again, navigating through the metal ruins. Just then, he paused and Arcee was quick to hold out her servo for Megatron to halt as well.

She frowned, "Think it's the squid thing again?"

They couldn't see anything, or at least not what Moonhunter was so distracted by. Abruptly, the Nitrotiger jettisoned like a torpedo at them and flew past with an audible gargling yelp. Both of them turned from watching Moonhunter swim away to the direction he left. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary until...

"Arcee! There's something coming at you!" Bolt yelled.

A giant bulky blue shadow of a creature barely definable even as it approached trotted across the lakebed just as fast as that Nitrotiger could swim, and Arcee didn't have time to move out of the way when it butted into her. She found herself bent over its snout, her chin on its armor and opened her optics to see herself staring into two cross-eyed green optics before she heard it rumble angrily. It opened its jaws to roar, pushing her upwards and she slid onto its head. Megatron was behind it trying to catch up.

Immediately, Arcee was forced against it as it swam upward at a seventy-degree angle fast right to the surface. Upon breaching, she was launched over a hundred feet and landed in the water right next to the shoreline. She spit out water before eyeing what exactly hit her.

A hippo-like creature of a very heavy mass opened its gaping mouth with its tusks bulbous and ready to maim. Green bio lights ran across a midnight blue body with lighter blue highlights upon the tips of the armor. Arcee could now understand why it was so hard to see. The blue of its armor blended with the water and mud present among its lower half as it stomped to shallower shores meant it also blended with the murkier water below making it nearly invisible.

It eyed her angrily. Moonhunter appeared by her side and tried to tug at her arm in warning. She stumbled back out of the water onto the grass. With a growl and a wide-open mouth capable of crushing her, the hippo lunged. She waited until it was close before somersaulting over it onto its back and then again to land a pose on the ground.

"Bolt, hippo! We have a hippo here! Blue armor, very big!"

Bolt chimed in quickly, "Uh ah, that sounds like, I know this, a...gorgegulper! That's it! Caminus has these things, and they are vicious suckers. They are so territorial and will kill you if you even look at them wrong. They live in Caminus waterfront core but have groups on the surface as well. Anything that cools them off in Caminus' natural heat, they will use which has led to incidents where they have been found in bots' pools and personal ponds. Stay clear of their tusks, they are designed to impale anything that gets in their way!"

The gorgegulper turned upon realizing Arcee was not trampled beneath it. It watched as Megatron emerged shaking off the water and heading to Arcee's side. With saliva building in its mouth and dripping down from its large jaws, it stubbornly stood its ground.

"Ew, it's drooling," Arcee winced.

Megatron huffed, "That's your biggest concern here?!"

Bolt somewhat chuckled and said, "That thing looks like a personification of the word 'tsunami'...and that's what I'm going to name it. Unfortunately, Tsunami already has you in its sights, Arcee. It thinks you're a challenger and it's not going to let you run. I hate to say it, but you need to stop this thing before it permanently stops you."

Tsunami roared and charged, stomping fast with its jaws ready to puncture their armor. Megatron stepped in front of Arcee and caught them, shaking as he used all his strength to keep the mouth steady while it pushed back. Given he could practically see down its throat, he was a bit unnerved by how many tusks it had.

Moonhunter tried to play his part by gnawing on the protoform of the beast's side but found the metallic skin far too hard to bite through. He then just started hissing and clawing at anything he could reach until the gorgegulper gave a swift kick to him. He yelped and Arcee growled.

Arcee jumped on his shoulder to crouch before unleashing Dagger Prima and leaping over the creature. With a cry, she brought the blade down into its snout. The tip went through the mouth out the other side and broke part of its tusk off that fell onto the muddy ground. The gorgegulper bellowed in agony as green Energon leaked from the wound. It immediately backed off and threw Arcee, shutting its mouth with a whine.

Both bots hoped that would deter the beast as it retreated into the water, but it seemed it was hardly done with them. It appeared at another angle in the water when the lake had settled, catching Arcee off-guard as she was putting Dagger Prima away and snagging part of her leg. One of the tusks went through her foreleg but didn't go entirely through. She cried out before she was suddenly dragged back into the water with Megatron shouting her name.

Arcee didn't know how far it went into the lake with her, but it finally unlatched, ripping its tusk out to her chagrin. It bounced across the lakebed circling her before turning quickly and aiming for her again. She pulled out a blood grenade and without thinking, sent it through the water. It didn't go far but the gorgegulper ran into it with its right side with enough force to activate it. Unfortunately, Arcee realized too late that such a powerful blast in a contained space like water had a bit of backfire to it.

The grenade exploded on its side, sending pieces of armor falling to the lake floor while it pushed Arcee back quite a few yards from the shockwave. She used the distraction upon recovering faster to attempt to swim back to the shallower area. She could hear the rumbling of Tsunami's anger at such an attack but couldn't pinpoint its direction. When she got close to the ground starting to curve upward, a faded tentacle suddenly pulled out of sight, and it made her pause.

A muffled roar was right behind her and all she saw was the gorgegulper's tusks until a loud splash and the large form of Megatron jumped to clamp it shut before it reached Arcee. He struggled to hold it as it tried to leave his grasp, but he was determined to keep it away from her.

She then had an idea. Gorgegulpers seemed to prefer the advantage they had in the water over versing others on land. If they could get it to surface, they could counter it better and be able to prevent such dastardly sneak attacks.

Breaching the surface, she limped onto shore with her bleeding leg. Although the damage wasn't too extreme, it hurt like hell. She winced at every step she took. Megatron suddenly clambered onto the ground before running as Tsunami tried to bite him. It missed and gave the warlord enough time to focus on it so it couldn't catch him while his back was turned. Arcee went to his side as the gorgegulper was a bit hesitant but still furious enough to stomp towards them. It seemed it would rather continue the fight in unfavorable conditions that admit defeat.

The hole in its snout was turning its saliva into a faded green and very liquified from the amount of blood still trickling down along with it being washed out by the water. It stained parts of its lower jaw with how much it bled.

Arcee held a second grenade behind her back until it charged again. She didn't run at it but instead exclaimed, "Megatron, throw me!"

The ex-Decepticon wanted to argue but seeing the beast nearly upon them, he didn't. Holding her foot and letting her take her launch position, he threw her over the creature, and she timed a throw to its backside with the grenade. It ruptured a part of the spine of its exoskeleton causing it to lose coordination and sway off to the side.

Megatron took advantage of its distraction and ran to catch Arcee. He leaped to embrace her and did a roll protecting her before landing upright. She laughed and brought out two more grenades.

"We're just getting this party started!"

Megatron grinned, "Alright then."

She perched on her his shoulder returning his expression back at him, "You navigate, I shoot. That will keep the pressure off my leg."

"Yes, my Queen," he said in a playful mockery.

Tsunami was quick to still chase after them despite the physical damage noticeable on its right side and spine. Megatron ran at it to meet it halfway and side-stepped to catch its head. Arcee took the opportunity to throw a grenade against its other side, blowing a hole in the armor. On cue, Megatron snarled as he used his might to drag the gorgegulper around and flung it almost fifty feet. He panted at his chassis' groan from such a heavy lift, but it was nothing he couldn't do again if he needed to.

The creature whined but still wouldn't back down. It got up again with a rumble, Energon now bleeding from everywhere the grenades impacted and running down its sides like lava. It still had the audacity to run at them. With a swift punch to the already damaged snout, Megatron's fist collided with it and made part of its lower body go higher than its upper upon being stalled. He could tell it was weakening, unable to keep up with them and now was the time to send the final blow. He let Arcee down seeing the limited danger the gorgegulper possessed and sneered.

"Time to finish this. On your lead, my dear."

"Why thank you, my Lord," she mocked as she threw another at its neck, rupturing several critical cables which began shutting down the pumps of its cooling system that regulated its internal temperature.

Tsunami grunted in pain and wobbled weakly toward them. With its side missing chunks of armor and smoldering protoform as well as various other damages that were present because of the grenades, its chassis seemed to be unable to take any more. Its green bio lights flickered as its fans and gears grinded trying to keep up with the body's demand for proper function.

Arcee grabbed one last grenade and flung it lightly in the air before catching it. She then said, "This...is my territory now."

The gorgegulper still gave her a defiant growl, struggling to keep its systems from crashing at the same time. She chucked the grenade directly at it and as its last act of power, it raised up on its hind legs to let out a massive bellow to show it was still superior. The blood grenade collided with its underbelly and a plume of fire ruptured sideways. Metal around its abdomen and chest flew off, most of which was burned and full of cracks. When the fire dissipated to smoldering imprints upon its body, visible damage to the abdomen protoform left cabling and sensitive organs destroyed or broken.

As gigantic and terrific as Tsunami had proven as Arcee would give it credit, the monster fell lifeless onto its back. The lake even rippled from the motion as other animals looked at the carnage presumably with mixed emotions. Green Energon oozed from the large hole in its abdomen and bubbled upon exposure to the warm air.

Arcee shook her head sadly as killing such a wonderful beast. It was protecting its home, what it could call home at this point. Since there only seemed to be one, it was also lonely. She couldn't imagine how paranoid it was to attack anything that may have come close to it. At the same time, she kept thinking about the squid-like creature and how the gorgegulper never went after it. Maybe they were in league with one another?

Megatron patted Arcee's shoulder after grabbing the fallen tooth tusk of the gorgegulper. "Excellent shot! I assume we can now proceed with our deep diving?"

"After you," she mused. "Get you hydrophobic aft into the water and I'll follow."

His face dropped to a condescending sneer, "You aren't ever going to stop saying that, are you?"

"Ha! Are you kidding me? I'm going to ride that train forever! You signed up for it when you became my partner."

"And slowly but surely...I'm beginning to regret that," he huffed.

Arcee hit the side of his thigh with a giggle, "Oh, come on, I have to poke fun at you somehow. You just set it up for me."

A crack was heard behind them from a twig and when they peered back, something retreated its limb but left a trail of artificial lubricant on one of the branches. They both were cautionary to approach but when they did, Arcee touched some of it. It wasn't like anything she had ever seen. Its composition felt like a type of slime a cephalopod or a snail would leave yet it looked also like a type of saliva.

Unable to see anything lurking among the trees or on the ground, she gave Megatron an unsure glance. "Creepy."

Then it dawned on her that Moonhunter was not around. Normally, the Nitrotiger either returned when it was safe or kept close. He never came back. She grew concerned as she pieced together the squid, the slime, and a missing pet couldn't all be coincidence.

"Moonhunter?!"

Haywire was quick to activate a beacon signal across Cybertron to all meant to receive it. Between him, Scythe, Tyrus, Optimus, Perceptor and Bumblebee, they could only hope the leaders of the various groups would heed their call.

In the Cybertron Underground, the Dinobots roamed in peace. Alongside the original five born of Shockwave's tampering of the Lightning Strike Coalition Force, more had joined them from a mixture of natural and artificial birth. Their leader and prideful warrior, Grimlock, walked around in his t-rex alt mode unopposed watching over the others.

Suddenly, an incoming signal was detected, and he growled at the annoyance only to examine the contents of a message sent by the one Autobot he ever respected. Optimus was calling him for aid. Who was he to deny a request for a bot who sought to help him when he was in trouble? Grimlock peered up with a quivering mouth as he let out a deep sauropod-like grunt towards the constant overhang of clouds that prevented sunlight from reaching the Underground. Narrowing his deep blue optics, he let out a fierce rumble which raised the attention of all his Dinobots.

Elsewhere in the Sea of Rust, Predaking lied regally among the wreckage of an old tower like the king he was. In his dragon-esque form, he had his optics closed sitting on all fours with his neck upright like he was a statue. A signal popped into his feed, and he slowly opened them unconcerned but as he read the encrypted message and saw who sent it, he rose to his feet and roared.

Several other Predacons, including Skylynx and Darksteel, that Shockwave so graciously revived for him to rule over grew alerted and sent out their own cries. The ones who were in their robot modes transformed into their Predacon modes to circle over the tower and the others already as Predacons either joined them or quickly scaled the tower with their claws. Predaking acknowledged them as they came to wait for his commands. He gave another bellow and flew up in the middle of the circling herd before expanding his wings in dominance.

From Windblade, the leader of Cybertropolis, who was already aware of the situation to Ultra Magnus, the leader of the Elite Guard, they both received Prime's calling and were quick to organize their responses for their friends. The leader of the Insecticons and brother of the late Hardshell, Shrapnel, was less so upon hearing the Autobots asking for help. But upon knowing who was now in charge of Cybertron and how the planet had been suffering, he agreed. He would rather side with Prime than whoever this Rockrider was that was damaging his ability to operate his business and hurting his hive under the classist system trying to be implemented.

Ratbat heard the call to arms too. As the leader of the Minicons, he knew it was his duty to respond to any threat against Cybertron as a Councilmember. As much as he would rather con out his services for credits, he heard Prime's speech and with his fellow Minicons losing their rights of a normal life promised to them by Arcee, even he found it hard to ignore their pleas to do something to help. He found that the system turning back to the caste nightmare it had been was forcing him to consider resigning from his position among the Council which he was promoted back to under Arcee's deal that he at least didn't accept bribes while under oath. He obeyed...mostly. Normally, he could care less whether he was a Councilmember or not but to be pushed out like this? That meant war.

Other leaders like Devastator and his six Constructicons of the Combiners and Omega Supreme of the Guardian Sentinels all received Prime's message and all were eager to help by any means necessary. From the five bots who combined to form the apex Devastator to navigate faster on Cybertron's surface alongside Bruticus and Menasor to the massive Omega Supreme who transformed into a vast spaceship that flew straight for Iacon from Polyhex with the other Supremes following, they all made their way to the origin of signal.

AN: So, yes, those are all the current leaders of Cybertron in their various factions. How do I explain the Insecticons surviving after Airachnid and the mutated vampire she turned into last seen sucking the life out of all of them?...I have no clue, but I refuse to believe those were the only Insecticons remaining out of what was described to be over a million in Shockwave's care. Also, Ratbat as the leader of the Minicons was a necessity because not only is he a canon Councilmember but he really does have leadership over a group, but it was the Ultracons which is a subgroup in unison with the Decepticons. I didn't want to bring in subgroups because there would be far too many leaders to keep track of so I just went the easier route and changed his position to the Minicon leader.

City Titans were on my list but there was a bit of a problem I had bringing them out as a separate group so I'm just going to maybe have them as part of the Autobots or Decepticons to save time. And I may have retconned a few things because I didn't want to make all original characters have leadership positions, so some presumably dead bots are back in action so enjoy this shoutout to them. And I brought back the Matriarch because she is one of my favorite OCs I think I ever written in my previous works that she appears in, one of which is rated E for Explicit because she does have something with Shockwave.

Featured monsters:

Tsunami the Gorgegulper (Caminus)