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

Bolt had researched through their battle with the gorgegulper on their squid sighting. It concerned him more than a giant mechanical hippo did. There were a few species of squid he knew of but there was also only one haunting species that looked like a squid but wasn't. Red bio lights, over four to six optics and a very techno-organic disposition, he prayed to Primus and any other god that could possibly hear him that it wasn't what he was currently looking at.

It had been thousands of years since they dealt with the remnants of the most destructive, entitled species in the galaxy and if they were here on the isle...the Allspark had truly lost its mind bringing them back. Hated, cruel, and a Cybertronian's worst enemy, the Quintessons were no laughing matter.

Suddenly, his scanners indicated that the lake was beginning to surge with a very foreign energy signal, then another popped up before five more appeared in tandem like a virus. They were all alien...and infused the gem's unique signature on top of that. Bolt was horrified as he saw the energy spread with his radar going nuts keeping up with it.

He the muttered to himself in a shaky voice, "Ooohhh, we're fucked."

"Moonhunter!" Arcee yelled out. She ignored the strain on her damaged leg. It could wait over a lost teammate.

Megatron was more skeptical than she was and sighed, "Arcee, I don't think Moonhunter is coming back."

"No! We can't give up yet! He has to be around here somewhere!" She begged.

The warlord looked saddened by how distraught she was. He hated that expression; it made him want to comfort her.

"Arcee! Megatron! Forget the cat! You need to get out of there now!"

A ground bridge appeared as the lake started to bubble, an eerie red glow cracking among it. All the Earth-based animals scattered frightened. Both bots grew scared as well as the lake rumbled. Megatron began walking toward the bridge but noticed Arcee didn't. He roughly grabbed her arm and tried to pull her without hurting her, but she wouldn't budge.

"Arcee, Bolt is serious! And when he's serious, that means we might be dealing with something we can't fight! Moonhunter is gone! You need to get in the portal!"

"I'm not going!" She grunted, pulling at his grip.

Megatron grew furious at her child-like behavior. "This isn't a choice, Arcee!"

"I'm not leaving him! Not after everything we've been through together!"

"You're being foolish!"

"And you're being a coward!"

That hit a bit low even for Megatron and he forcefully stayed calm to say back, "I know the difference between cowardice and strategy. Don't you dare confuse the two to try and get your way. Sometimes you have to face the reality of when you lose someone that they are gone and there's nothing you can do about it. I can tell you're still hung up about the deaths of Tailgate and Cliffjumper, and now you are too scared and too brash to admit you can't let go of Moonhunter when your own life is at stake. It's that type of thinking that gets people killed, Arcee, as well as yourself. Let it go."

Arcee wouldn't meet him eye to eye and gave one last experimental tug of her arm held by him. It didn't budge and she closed her optics. "I just...don't want to lose another I care about."

Megatron kneeled, ignoring Bolt yelling at them. He moved his servos to her shoulders and gently rubbed them. "There's a chance Moonhunter is still alive but only after we deal with this can we confirm or not. Please, Arcee..."

"Seriously, you need to get inside the portal! The Quin...jamming the...zzzzhhhhh...ggifdf...kvnjb-"

The ground bridge glitched profusely and caved in on itself to their shock. Then Megatron sent a half-glare, half-deadpanned look at Arcee.

The femme met his optics with a wide-eyed expression and pursed lips before shrinking in place. "Sorry..."

The sound of mechanical hissing emitted from the water turning their attention toward it cautiously. Backing away, the red light of the lake seemed to overwhelm the natural colors of the scenery around it. The fish were even moving frantically everywhere but unable to leave.

Abruptly a large black armored mass shot out of the water, twirling its tentacles clockwise to slow its descent before hovering. Five pure red organic-esque eyes blinked alongside ten tiny bulbs lining the eye ridges which neither bots could tell if they were separate smaller eyes or just extensions of the existing. Alien jaws like a hagfish mixed with a fringehead opened with an organic fleshy interior layered with horrifying rows of fangs but had an armored exterior to fool others into thinking it was a regular cybernetic species. It had six tentacles and looked like a squid and an anglerfish somehow crossbred.

Three more shot out, hissing at each other and then started to speak in a garbled language, changing colors based off their moods.

"Oh my god, those things are ugly! What the hell are those things?!" Arcee said worried.

Megatron was in his own state of horrified but not for the same reason. He immediately answered in a petrified voice, "The Quintessons!"

Arcee stared at him then back at the beings responsible for Aquatron's fall. "Damn! They look nothing like what Optimus described. I thought they were like you and I just...more fish-like? That's, uh, not what I want to meet on a desolate planet...or this isle."

Megatron frowned, "You weren't on the Ark when we went to Aquatron and Cybertron was nearly invaded by Sharkticons under Quintesson rule?"

"Nope, I was still on Cybertron. I saw the Sharkticons and helped Perceptor lock down the remainder of the base, but I never knew about the Quintessons until Optimus told me when he recounted everything you all went through after I escaped to Earth with Cliffjumper."

"Well then, you are about to endure a history lesson. These are Quintesson soldiers, not the big bad monstrosities we had to deal with. I just hope we can survive what these abominations have in store for us."

Arcee gulped as the four Quintessons revealed their organic jaws which looked so out of place for an armored body akin to a cybernetic being. Even techno-organics didn't have that, just more flexible protoform and almost similar organic organs like, in some cases, lungs but they were called such mainly because of the normally organic forms they took. They transformed into forms commonly like animals and other types of living nature against the typical vehicles or machinery as most other cybernetic beings. Seeing real flesh, the same structure as a human inside a machine-based form, was ghastly to both Arcee and Megatron.

Their tentacles coiled and rotated their clawed feelers as they growled in tandem in a unified voice, "You are not welcome here, inferior lifeforms!"

Megatron was slightly taken aback and glanced at Arcee for a second before addressing the Quintessons. "Inferior?! Last time I checked, we fried your little takeover of Aquatron and eradicated your precious Sharkticons! You even made me their leader like the idiots you are! Did you really think I was going to let some squids command me to kill my oldest enemy? That's a right I reserved for myself on my terms!"

Arcee frowned a little, "Reserved? You make it sound like you did succeed at killing him."

"Don't break the dramatic speech," he whispered. "I got to have something going for me in the seafood's presence or my boast is, you know, not as effective."

"Insufficient! You are nothing compared to the might of the Quintesson empire! We will rise again!"

Arcee interjected, "Ah, pardon me, fish bait, but if you failed to kill two ship loads of Cybertronians when there was a whole planet full of you...things, then how can you speak of superiority if you got your asses handed to you TWICE by us? We beat you before Cybertron lost its Primes and beat you at your home base. We'll do it again."

"Our defeat was merely a setback! You do not comprehend the numbers we have throughout the galaxy! We will take Cybertron even if we have to pry it from your inferior, mechanical hands!" They growled.

The warlord smirked, "And how long is that going to take? Another billion years?"

The bots could tell the Quintessons were glaring at them with knives, if looks could kill, as their eyes narrowed. "You will be eradicated on this day for your insolence. That is our final judgement!"

"Over my dead body," Megatron hissed back. He reached behind him to retrieve his messer swords as one of the Quintessons jittered in rage.

Arcee brought out her gatling gun, a weapon she had been neglecting for some time, and pointed it at one of them, catching said Quintesson off-guard as it made a stunned grunt. "Come and get me, you big, ugly bastards!"

That seemed to poke the squid-like beings the wrong way as they each let out a loud hiss. They were probably so tired of Cybertronians screwing with their operations by now, they couldn't tolerate snark combat as they had done previously.

The first one that had emerged from the lake quickly shot its tentacles at Megatron. The mech countered them one by one, blocking the feelers' intent to try and jab him while also swinging his sword to attempt to cut off said tentacles in return. A second Quintesson hovered around him to cover his back and he scowled at it. He caught one of the attacking tentacles of the first Quintesson and made a brutal swing with it. It collided with the second and sent them scarring the ground with an upturned trail of dirt.

Arcee opened fire on the others. One Quintesson protected itself with an activated shield while another merely placed a tentacle over its optics to keep it from being blinded. It growled and reached over to grab Arcee. She backed away until it was too close, backflipping over it and opening fire again. She managed to hit the joint of one of the limbs and it started to spark, making the Quintesson snarl. However, in her moment of victory, she forgot how quick the tentacles could move and was sideswiped by another which sent her crashing onto the grass.

She bounced a few times but corrected herself upright just as the claws of two of them came at her. Arcee dodged both tentacles as they embedded themselves in the ground before ripping out chunks of grass to try again. The Quintesson they belonged to was very determined to tear out her spine as she had to dance around the oncoming assaulting limbs.

Suddenly, one snagged her right leg, the same one she had hurt earlier and pulled her back, tripping and dragging her back toward the alien invader. She was nearly under it when two of the tentacles' claws turned to spears and flew down at her ready to impale her. She activated her arm blades and sliced off one but the second she had no time to stop. Arcee screamed as it sank into her upper arm and when the claws started to expand, threatening to sever it, she froze with wide optics.

The Quintesson gave a sinister laugh until a blast of Megatron's cannon point blank at the side of its head made it go lifeless in seconds. Its hovering capabilities immediately shut off and it hit the ground before toppling away from Arcee. Feeling the tentacle go slack, she grabbed its tip and yanked it out of her arm with a grimace.

Megatron helped her up, "Are you okay?"

"Infidels!" A voice roared, darker than the remaining three Quintessons ever sounded like. "You will not win! Never again!"

The water bubbled up again and this time instead of a Quintesson flying out, a giant tentacle emerged and slapped the water. Several more appeared like a kraken from the depths before a massive Quintesson shook the water as it rose slowly. When it came to only hover just below the ripples with its body fully emerged and tentacles moving across the lake's surface, it gave a deep bellow that made the other three Quintessons cower. It had more green-tinted black armor than the normal black the others had.

"You never said they could get bigger," Arcee said, holding her arm.

Megatron was staring just the same as Arcee and muttered, "I didn't know either."

"You dealt with them before, right?!"

"Not at this size!"

Arcee instantly heard the yowl of a cat and saw in one of the tentacles Moonhunter who was struggling like mad in its grasp. One of the Quintessons must have sneaked by during their battle with the gorgegulper and stole the Nitrotiger as bait.

"Let him go!" Arcee snarled.

"This pest? I think not," the larger Quintesson spoke. "Like it, you will be eradicated from existence. But I will see it through personally."

The femme gave a forced laugh, "You better pray to whatever god you squids have that you kill me, or I am going to tear you to pieces! Greater bots than you have tried, calamari!"

Megatron swiped her up and gave a broken, fake smile to the giant monster. "We, uh, need one moment."

He then set her down, keeping her from having any visual of the Qunitesson. "Not very wise."

"It has Moonhunter! What do you mean not wise? I'll bash that thing's head in!"

"Let me take point. I don't know if you noticed while you were ranting but it has the gem!" He harshly whispered.

"It has...the..." Arcee paused and took a sneak peek around Megatron's form and peered up to the Quintesson's crown of armor up top its elongated head. Sure enough, the gem lied in the middle of it, but it was corrupted, blood red like the rest of the bio lights on it. "Ah, I see. What's the plan?"

Megatron smirked, "You in for some up close and personal action?"

Arcee hit her fists together in response despite the uncomfortable pain in her arm.

"Exactly. Aim for the gem and hit it as much as possible."

"But wouldn't that shatter the gem and we're trying to get the gem?" She asked.

"Yes...but if it's a remnant of the Allspark..." he started gesturing to her.

Arcee met his smile and finished, "...then it can't truly be destroyed. The energy isn't disposable. It must go somewhere. If it has a piece of the Allspark's power, which is built on a collective conscience and a part of Primus, it will reform because it's technically just another branch of Primus' soul therefore indestructible the same as its greater counterpart."

Megatron mused, "There you go. If we overload the gem, it'll take out that squid for us. The Allspark's power is just as devastating as it is creative, and we can use that to our advantage. Follow my lead."

The warlord turned on a dime and retained his cheap, courteous smile. "Fine, you win. We surrender. We put up a valiant fight but even we Cybertronians know we cannot go against the likes of you. We do ask that if we are to die, it would be together...all three of us."

The Quintesson Commander, at least what Megatron perceived it as, seemed courteous even in its aggravated state. With a rotation of its claw at the end of its tentacle, a mystical platform of sorts appeared at the edge of the lake. They were both hesitant to go near it.

"Finally, Cybertronians who know their place. Good. To cease this unnecessary hostility is wise."

Both bots stepped on the transparent platform and stuck close as the tentacle holding Moonhunter stopped just near the front of the Quintesson. The platform shifted and brought them upward until they were eye level, somewhat, with the invader. The tentacle released the Nitrotiger and he hit the platform, quickly darting to hide behind them with a whimper.

The deep mechanical voice of the Commander resonated around them, "Twice we tried to take Cybertron and twice we have been denied. Your efforts are impressive but only for so long can such luck hold you safe. The age of our resurgence is nearly upon us and to have the mighty warlord, Megatron, and the daring queen, Arcee, at our mercy will leave Cybertron vulnerable again."

"Megatron," Arcee whispered, "how does it know who we are?"

"Quintessons are...creeps. They knew about Optimus and me when we went to Aquatron. They are all-seeing, or at least they have some good intel."

She shivered, "That's just not right."

Megatron then said to the Commander, "True, but you mistake our surrender with vulnerability. Just because we'll be gone doesn't mean Cybertron will be helpless. We have plenty of surprises still."

"And what, pray tell, would Cybertron hold against us that we possibly could not counter?" The invader cackled in a very odd way.

The ex-Decepticon gave a glance to his partner and nodded. Arcee also returned with a small smile. He then stared directly into the Quintesson's eyes with a mischievous grin. "Well, how can you go against an entire planet of Cybertronians if you can't even manage the two unwieldy Cybertronians at your so-called mercy?"

All three Quintesson soldiers grew confused hovering beside the larger one while the Commander narrowed its multiple eyes.

"Go!" Megatron shouted.

Arcee jumped onto Megatron's servo, and he threw her up to the tentacle that once held Moonhunter before it could retreat to a safe distance. As she grabbed a claw as larger as she was, she scaled it quickly as its mechanical components and organic flesh started to shake. While she navigated the limb, Megatron took the direct route with Moonhunter and leapt right onto the face of the giant Quintesson. Even though the latter species held no pupils, he could tell by the awkward movement of the armor, it just went cross eyed trying to pinpoint his location.

"Pest! Get off me!"

As the Nitrotiger climbed to its eye ridge, Megatron heard the swooshing sound of a tentacle in motion and saw its left one coming at him. He smirked and started clawing his way up the sensitive metal. The tentacle swiftly hit its owner right in the face and Megatron had to laugh at the stupidity of such an action.

For an intelligent species, Quintessons were very prideful but also calculative, but not in a good way, which meant their actions were based on probability more so than real strategy or natural instinct. True, swatting him off with a tentacle would have been effective...had he not moved. Their greatest asset was also their greatest enemy and that's exactly what Megatron aimed to exploit this time now that he knew it.

As Megatron took the harder but faster way up to the gem, Arcee ran up the tentacle that swayed slower thanks to its greater size. However, she immediately saw the Quintesson soldiers bearing down on her. One got close enough that she sprang onto its face to kick it back, knocking it off balance and the other she opened fire with her gatling again. This time, it was ill prepared and several of the bullets hit crucial areas including multiple joints and part of the red orb in between all its tentacles on the underside of the body that regulated its ability to hover. Upon striking that, the orb broke and the Quintesson screeched as it was spiraling out of control down to the water below.

Megatron watched from afar and laughed as he saw that. Moonhunter whined at him to hurry before hopping from armor ridge to armor ridge up the forehead. As the Quintesson Commander had shaken off the slap of its own limb against its face, it changed its tactic to instead try and grab him. He looked behind him and his smile faded.

"Uh oh..."

"Come here!"

Tentacle claws were all he could see coming right at him. In a split-second decision, he let go of the ridge he was latched to and dropped down a few feet. The claws hit the Quintesson Commander between the upper eyes and he was quick to jump on them while they were available. As they pulled away leaving him without a secure way of getting to the gem, he perched on the thicker part of the claws to come up with a fast solution to getting where he needed to go. When the claws tried to wave him off, he timed a particular swing and launched himself directly at the gem. Extending his pede, he hit it right on the mark.

A vicious crack appeared and the Quintesson Commander gave a machine-like groan. The energy seemed to surge more, crackling down the body in defense as its bio lights glowed brighter.

"You will not get the best of me! I am superior!"

Moonhunter ran up to the gem after seeing Megatron aim for it and bit down trying to tear it off. He didn't see a Quintesson soldier sneaking up on him as he growled at the difficulty of pulling such an object. He saw the shadow but before he could hiss or attack, someone smacked the invader away and landed beside him. It was Arcee.

"Move over, sweetie! Mama's got this!"

Aiming Dagger Prima at it, she brought it down and the weapon began to glow as bright as the gem. A strange empowering noise pulsed as the two forces of the Allspark's supposed creation met. The energy rippled like a bomb waiting to explode. She didn't know whether or not taking the dagger out was a good idea, but she needed the weapon. With a grunt, she tore the dagger out and an array of energy spewed out. Suddenly, it died and the Quintesson Commander became faster than previous.

"Traitors, maggots! All Cybertonians must die!"

The claws of one of the tentacles grabbed both her and Moonhunter faster than what she was used to. But she noted Dagger Prima's continuous pulsing. Instead of letting the claws take her wherever, she took action. Using the extra power, she was quick to slice through one of the claws that held her, causing the other two to twitch and let both her and Moonhunter fall into the lake.

Upon seeing both of them move faintly near the shore, Megatron knew he just needed to cause some more damage to get the gem into absolute critical mode. His previous hit had sent him a considerable way back down the ugly mug of the Quintesson Commander and with the two remaining soldiers spotting him, he had no choice but to give his all to win.

Fast climbing up the Quintesson was a workout but nothing new. As one soldier started shooting him through lasers hidden among its tentacles, he aimed right back with his cannon and fired. Two of the shots missed but the third blew up part of the limbs and it began to short out with its hovering ability until it died completely. That soldier fell to the water with a loud smack. The second Quintesson, however, rushed over and coiled its limbs on his legs before suddenly ripping him off. He dangled helplessly upside down and peered up at the invader with malice.

"Oh no, you don't!" Megatron growled.

He reached up and forced himself upright to climb the tentacles to reach the Quintesson's front. He was met with open organic jaws hissing at him. They shut in pain when he made a swift punch hard enough to break some of its teeth. Grabbing its head, he forced it to steer to the Quintesson Commander's side where half its tentacles lay and aimed the soldier's laser right at the joints of the larger. Giving another punch to its face, he made the Quintesson soldier fire in its daze and lasers cut right into the crevice between the joints and the internal endoskeleton.

Several explosions appeared in unison as two of the tentacles of the Commander's lost most of their power, sinking into the water and struggling to regain control. Part of its side began to rupture too for the intense heat and the assault of system failure. Megatron remembered that Quintessons, for all their bragging and armor, were very delicate beneath. Had this been a fully mechanical squid monster, the laser attack wouldn't have done anything really, but Quintessons were vulnerable, more so than they appeared. It was just about exploiting those weaknesses at the right time that made everything so sweeter.

Megatron realigned himself after breaking off one tentacle of the soldier and hung on its side. Aiming true at the gem as the Quintesson gave him a startled look, he smirked, "Personally, I never regarded your species as a threat, merely an inconvenience."

The Quintesson went wide-eyed as Megatron shot out its hovering orb before pushing off it at the exact same time to make it spiral directly at the gem. As soon as it exploded against the pulsing energy, that was the last straw for the gem itself.

Megatron dived straight into the water, this time enjoying himself a bit more than he normally would have as the Commander roared upon the assault. As he reached shore, he was met by Arcee and Moonhunter. Their reunion had to wait as they heard an unnatural rumble. They backed near the thin line of trees away from the lake.

The Quintesson Commander whined, its mechanical parts screeching as some of its tentacles stopped working while others sparked trying to move. It slowly dragged itself onto land in pursuit of the Cybertronians as its remaining two soldiers had to crawl back to let it through. They all looked distraught at their commander's misery as they themselves were grounded.

Arcee crossed her arms victoriously. "Not so powerful now, are you?"

"Though they are certainly wishing they were in their prime again," Megatron smirked.

Moonhunter hissed at the Quintessons, swiping at the air in warning before retreating angrily behind Arcee.

The giant mecha squid monster collapsed upright on the grass with a groan, unable to crawl any further. Its green tinted black armor was cracking and when it lifted its damaged front tentacle, the whole first section of it suddenly snapped off.

"This is not...right. I am...in command. You are only delaying your...doom. The Quintessons will rise, and you will perish. It is written in the stars. Your fate is ours to wield...and we will return when you least expect it to enact our revenge."

Arcee shrugged with a grin, "Maybe you shouldn't believe everything you hear, squid-face. We keep beating you each time you've tried to take our lives, and we will continue to do so. Send everyone you want, we'll be ready. Thanks for the tip off."

The Commander seemed to growl at her until some type of charging noise outweighed it. Both bots looked around confused trying to place its origin but then they realized what it was. Large cracks of bluish white light ran up the armored skull of the larger Quintesson from the Allspark's gem on its forehead. At first, the Quintesson Commander seemed to laugh in its mechanical baritone thinking it was receiving more aid but when its eyes lit up the same color as did its bio lights, its expression changed abruptly.

"It's too...much power! Abort! Too much! Critical overload! Must...purge...energy!"

A rumbling sound grew in strength and any movable tentacles it had remaining coiled across its head like it was experiencing a massive headache. Beams of light shot through the cracks as they continued to spread across its hybrid body. All its eyes, including the smaller ones, widened as the energy's noise grew louder. The other Quintessons didn't move from beside the larger as they were too incapable of fleeing. They seemed to know what was about to happen and they groggily peered up as the light became blinding.

"Arcee! It's going to blow!" Megatron said, grabbing Moonhunter and sprinting toward the edge of the Black Mountain base to get as far away as possible.

Arcee hesitated as the Quintesson Commander gave a terrifying alien scream that sounded like a real sea creature, finally accurate to their appearance. When she snapped out of her daze upon the light going critical, she sprinted as fast as she could behind Megatron. Given she was always faster than he was, she caught up in no time. As soon as she reached him in his run, that's when they heard the most antagonizing sound ever.

"Too much! Failure! Critical power! Abort! Abort! No! No! NO!"

The gem went nuclear, and its energy turned the Quintesson Commander into a supernova. The Quintesson soldiers could only grunt in surprise when they were engulfed. All of its body ruptured at once that could be seen from over a hundred miles away. The shockwave of the blast made trees rattle like whips backwards and a lightning-fast pulse of water soared across the lake like a miniature tsunami. It even lifted both Megatron and Arcee off their pedes, sending them flying. The sound alone was petrifying.

Both Cybertronians landed on the rocky terrain of the Black Mountains and were slow to get up. Megatron still had Moonhunter who was clinging to him breathing hard and shivering. That made the mech kind of smile at the tense situation. Arcee shook off debris on her servos and knees before peering back.

What remained of the Quintessons looked nothing less than an airplane wreckage. There was a sizable dent where the Commander had been that was starting to flood with water. Pieces of it lay...everywhere, some buried in the ground with upturned grass. Others were just scattered, still landing among the wilderness as they saw pieces falling from the sky at a slow pace. They couldn't spot the remains of the soldiers, not that there was anything left being so close to a blast like that.

One notable problem with organic beings that had metal armor, not an actual techno-organic, was that they couldn't take as much damage. Their interior was incredibly fragile. The Quintessons were clever but not indestructible, and that's what they always failed to learn with each encounter.

Still, it made the bots wonder each why Quintessons were even on the isle. They were no creature that could be used as a defense; they were leeches, monsters, and cons of hatred against anything that wasn't them...a similar comparison to what Tigressa had told Arcee about Cybertronians. That was a bit of a sour note upon realizing that had Cybertron continued to be as cruel to each other as they had to other species, they would have ended up like the Quintessons. Megatron was, in the overall view, right to do what he did. It stirred them from their oblivion not a moment too soon and now Arcee understood why after almost a lifetime he was technically Cybertron's savior even though Optimus was Cybertron's anchor. Two halves of one whole that, foremost, saved Cybertron in the long run.

A burst of light made them flinch from the wreckage of the Quintessons and the gem in all its glory rebuilt itself and shot toward the sky. It floated down to rest over part of the head of a Quintesson unbothered. As the animals of the lake returned gradually, called back by the mystic forces of the gem, both Arcee and Megatron could breathe a sigh of relief.

"Ar...can...hear me? Arcee? Megatron? Can you hear me?!" Bolt's voice broke through. "Please respond!"

"Bolt? We hear you! Oh, it's so good to hear your voice again!" Arcee said.

"Now you listen to me. But I heard the explosion from the marshlands, so I take it the Quintessons are no more? Please say they aren't."

Megatron laughed, "No, they aren't. You can say they're a bit...scatter-brained currently."

Bolt seemed to make a noise like grimacing. "Nasty. Anyway, I'm quite surprised you two managed to kill those squids. The Quintessons are evil incarnate. They consume every planet's resources until they get what they want. It's why they went after Cybertron long before and claimed they were our creators, which they aren't because they are Quintus Prime's creations instead. We somehow dwindled their empire to scraps back then and recently, we fought them on Aquatron leading to their failed rise to power again. Now? I find it strange they came back but maybe the Allspark was so desperate to kill you, it brought in the Quintessons in the hope to finally have something you couldn't out-fox and gave them a gem to feed on. Guess it didn't work."

"What happened back there, Bolt? Did you find out?" Arcee asked, scraping off any remaining debris.

"What? Why the ground bridge went haywire? The gem allowed the Quintessons to hijack the signal causing the system to temporarily falter. They blocked me from contacting you and I couldn't do anything except wait. Once you destroyed them, my systems acted like nothing was wrong. I'm still a little pissed at how you ignored me. Next time if I say get in the ground bridge, get your aft in the ground bridge!"

"I-I'm sorry. I just felt bad leaving Moonhunter."

Bolt sighed, "Well, what's done is done. And I'm glad you two...er, three are alright. Please tell me you have the gem and something of the Quintessons you could bring me? Swansong trophies, no. Quintesson trophies? Give me all of them. Those slavers deserve every embarrassment they get."

Rockrider was stressing out. Several new attacks against the palace had occurred, all of which her troops were able to stop but it was a sign of her losing control of Cybertron. She knew she had to make do with the surprise of her reveal by Optimus, but she couldn't handle much more. Then she got wind of the moving leaders.

Dinobots and Predacons were converging toward Iacon, Minicons were quitting their duties spontaneously at the same time, Sentinels were disobeying orders in their hub and leaving without authorization, and the combiners of both factions were going mad with rage. This all had to do with the Autobots and Wrathzone reported to her biggest fear: the Decepticons were now on high alert and getting ready for something big.

A massive influx of activity meant something angered their current leader and although she knew the Autobots were a sizable force, the Decepticons were the most dangerous to antagonize. When she set up the Decepticons to fail by altering their rights and halting trade, she did it through a more subtle approach, that way they didn't go into an immediate frenzy. Her plan was to make Arcee the enemy and then "kill" her so the Decepticons wouldn't go after her. But now all that planning was for nothing, and all the sources of her ire were coming into fruition.

"Release my army. We know the inevitable is coming, might as well set things straight while we have the chance," she growled.

Wrathzone nodded, "Yes, your Majesty. If I may, there's been a small discovery upon the isle I think you should be updated to."

That caught Rockrider's attention, distracting her from her already over-thinking trance. "Oh? Arcee then?"

"We never did get word back from that cloaker we sent. But recently, a huge energy signature appeared for a brief second and it wasn't the Allspark itself, something else with a common power in a small quantity. Do you think that means...?"

"Of course! What else can get in my way now?! Arcee still lives and she defeated the cloaker! Surprise, surprise! Ridiculous," Rockrider sneered. "I knew I should have just killed her. But the isle looked so promising with all its strange activity. She always was crafty and unmatchable, and you would think someone of her size would bite the dust so easily."

"Size isn't everything," Wrathzone said calmly.

"No...but everything else is."

The faded gold mech gave her a raised brow as she wagged her digit and gave a sinister smile. "Do you remember when Kanjis had a war and they played with inter-dimensional travel? Remember that unusual robot that was teleported through a bridge created by them over Cybertron, kind of looked like a Cybertronian Predator but more like us physically instead of a techno-organic? Bronze-colored? Weird weapons system? The one with the artificial intelligence instead of an actual processor?"

Wrathzone frowned, "The first Council hid that thing beneath Iacon. You're not thinking about unleashing that upon Arcee, are you? It's been in old Quintus' lab used by the Council since before the war. No one ever could figure out what it was, if it was an alternate version of a Predator or how it would react to anything Cybertronian. Everyone was afraid to turn it on much less use it as a weapon."

Rockrider laughed, "Then maybe it's time we give it a test run."

AN: Yes, the Allspark would be that much of a dick to send in the Quintessons. Rest arrused, they are nearly extinct here due to the chaos Optimus and Megatron caused on Aquatron in the canon novel Retribution.

Featured monsters:

Quintesson Commander (Aquatron)