Promotional artowrk: tigressa101/art/Arcee-and-the-Isle-of-the-Allspark-Cover-931607333
The Allspark wanted to facepalm so badly at watching the Quintessons be destroyed as well as Snapjaw and its fellow predators in the swamp. Although, it was a bit relieved to see Arcee take out the mysterious robot. It could sense it was not of this universe but of a parallel dimension from a planet akin to Earth. A shame such an amazing technological advancement had to be disassembled and now lay at the bottom of the reef slowly losing its functionality with water seeping into its parts. It was still alive, so to speak, but without a head, it was utterly useless.
There had to be something that could stop them. They couldn't be this lucky forever! Thinking long and hard, the Allspark contemplated its options. The Cybertronian Predator was wandering about, but they already knew it was roaming so the element of surprise was no longer available. Megatronus and Tigressa were pretty devastating but with them gone, that was just unfortunate. No one else it could think of matched what it needed to counter Arcee and Megatron.
Then, it had an idea. The Quintessons were very deadly and currently, the two bots were facing down the Leviathans, another horrifying creation in nature that held residence on Aquatron. Perhaps reliving history could sway the mockery of fate into its favor. Hydrophobia was common in many war-surviving Cybertronians because many dealt with the Quintessons who had taken over Aquatron when both factions had visited to get supplies. If it could rig the ground bridge from Bolt's control again, it could send Arcee and Megatron to Aqautron and let them suffer among the last of the Quintessons still there.
The Allspark created a portal and went through to Aquatron. The buildings and platforms supporting them were all specialized metal designed to withstand rusting, constant waves and attacks from any creatures that dared to try and take a bite out of it. All the undersides of the platforms had a specific number of layers so no Leviathans or other monstrous sea-dwellers could break through just in case.
Pillars holding the platforms above the vast ocean went down to the ocean floor a good 24,000 meters which originally were on floats only 2,000 meters down until construction began to make the pillars permanently stable. The construction job took almost 5 million years because the creatures that lived in the depths could attack at any point and the time it took to do each segment without error made it a lengthy process. A master design of ingenuity, the Aquatronians were quite the geniuses of construction and still have not been rivaled to this day. Each pillar was spaced away enough to let even the largest creature on the planet, the Tyranquentor, maneuver through them.
The Allspark laughed at the thought of the Tyranquentor. Omega Supreme was 110 meters and most Leviathan Queens reached 150 meters with the largest ever recorded almost 250. The Tyranquentor was a massive 750 meters in length and over 250 meters in width. If it was a land dweller and lived on Cybertron, it would devastate the planet in less than a day. Thankfully, the Tyranquentor species lived deep in the depths and fed on things around its own size than bothering with the likes of near-surface species. Seeing one was frightening though; its thick, black armor made it impossible to see even if it was right in front of a person only a few feet away. Its pitch-black optics made it the ultimate hunter and the worst creature to hide from as it could see in the dark whereas most species could not. Only it and a few others ever saw one to tell the details. Even it refused to bring a Tyranquentor to Earth. A Leviathan Queen was one thing; a Tyranquentor was a death sentence that even it wouldn't wish for anyone to be eaten by and it would destroy Earth more than any other monster could. Instead, it had someone else in mind.
As the Allspark floated across the abandoned city of Hydronix, purged by Quintessons years before of its civilians, it sought out the leader of the invasive race.
"Quintessa, queen of the Quintessons, I call upon you to heed my request," the Allspark said.
There was movement to its right, a shadow hovering past an alley between two buildings. It could sense her. Quintessa always loved to be undisturbed even if her kingdom was in ruins when the Autobots and Decepticons band together to usurp the Quintesson rule over the planet.
"And what makes you think I should listen to what you have to offer? I already dealt with Cybertron once and they destroyed my empire. You are a part of their culture and nothing to me," Quintessa's voice echoed.
"I can give you the revenge you seek. The Queen of Cybertron, Arcee, and the Decepticon warlord, Megatron, are imprisoned upon my isle. If I send them to you, will you kill them?"
A ripple among air suddenly had Quintessa herself teleport in front of it. She twirled gracefully and opened her purple optics with slight disdain but some curiosity. "Megatron? Alive? Hmm, how peculiar of you to request such a thing. Why would you want to harm your own citizens?"
"It's my one last chance to...I need them gone in order for my plan of absolute solitude to be complete. Without the queen, Cybertron grows restless. With the current leader of Cybertron on the throne, the planet is weak and divided. You take care of my problem and I just might see to it you get a fair shot at taking the planet of Cybertron itself."
The Quintesson Queen seemed to smile at this and laughed, "Maybe you aren't that bad after all, Allspark. And I'll be finally able to repay Megatron for what he did to my army. If I do this, I want your guarantee that you will give me access to Cybertron's space bridge network so I can send the remainder of my legions there in person."
"We have a deal."
"Excellent," she hissed. "Bring this queen of yours to me and I'll take care of the rest."
The Allspark, however, lied. It wouldn't let Quintessa take Cybertron. Megatronus deserved some redemption for the cruel justice he was handed, but the Quintessons were abominations through and through. It had another plan and knew Quintessa couldn't read its mind like she could many others. It would vaporize her and her legions once her task was done.
The Leviathan Queen Ceto roared at them, expanding her jaws as wide as they could go to emphasize her anger about the death of many in her hive. Her fins twitched as all four of her green optics narrowed. This was revenge in its most dangerous form and neither of them had any idea how to stop Queen Ceto from outright murdering them. The large head crest that spiked out from atop her helm looked like a wide, elongated, jagged crown from their point of view and it never fit better for such a marvel as her.
Megatron immediately grabbed Arcee's wrist when she remained staring as the Leviathan Queen lifted her arm and was about to crush her. Forcing the femme to run, they both looked back in horror as the beach was dusted with her fist in the sand before the giant Leviathan crawled after them. Her powerful servos, as she stomped her way towards them, shook the ground like an earthquake.
Given Arcee's size, she was practically bouncing each time the servo of the queen came down before one of them made her tumble. Shaking off the sand, she peered up in shock as the Leviathan's servo was about to crush her again. Suddenly, Megatron wrapped his arms around her and rolled out of the way as the servo came crashing down with a boom. They both found themselves under the Leviathan Queen in a temporary blind spot.
Queen Ceto growled peering around her to see where her prey went to as dusk was practically gone, and the moonlight didn't help much. She felt a shot against her abdomen and growled. Bending down to look beneath her with her head upside down, she saw Megatron with Arcee on his shoulder and his cannon posed pointing up at her belly with a prideful expression and smoke coming out from the barrel.
"Now that I have your attention, come and get us."
The Leviathan Queen snarled and reached under to try and snap her jaws at them. As they ran through the elbow and hips of her lower half, she dragged herself to turn around after them again.
Megatron ran back towards the water much to Arcee's confusion and panic. "Uh, what are we doing?!"
"Putting her back into the water."
"You realize she can swim better than us, right?"
"Yes, but she can't maneuver well in cramped reefs and rocks now, can she?" He smirked.
Arcee merely clutched his shoulder spikes as he jumped into the water, sinking down to the sediment-covered sea floor and dragged himself into deeper water to hide among the coral beds. Taking a right, he went for the bases of rock formations past the rock stack they had toppled early. But then they heard a loud splash.
In her fury, Queen Ceto stomped right where the water met the sand before making a mighty leap back into the ocean. Hitting the water with such a low amount of space between the surface and the floor made her crush a portion of the reef with a grunt. With her fins still breaching the surface, she swam quickly and scouted the area for any sign of the Cybertronians.
"Oh, you better have a plan," Arcee said.
Megatron let her jump to stand on his forearm and replied, "Certainly, I'll distract her, and you climb onto her. Aim for her head and chest-"
She glared at him with a deadpanned expression. "That's your plan?! Use me as the heavy hitter here?!"
"You didn't let me finish. While you're scouting for a weakness, I'll try and shoot at potential spots you can use to your advantage. The main targets are her head and chest. I can try and blow a hole in her armor around those areas but to actually kill her, someone needs to be in close range to it and with you having Dagger Prima..."
"It can take out a full-grown Leviathan Queen with ease compared to our normal weapons."
"Exactly," Megatron said.
Both bots smiled at each other once they were on the same page, then they sneered at Queen Ceto as she turned towards them upon catching a glance of the moonlight upon their armor. The massive queen hissed at them before approaching and as she reached out to at least grab them, Megatron launched Arcee right to her shoulder. Queen Ceto immediately tried to swat at Arcee climbing up but missed as the femme got over the barbed area onto the backside. Furious, Queen Ceto bucked and turned any chance she could.
Megatron fired upon her in her distraction hitting her chest and neck. The Leviathan Queen roared and spun around before twirling in the water twice to torpedo at Megatron and also to shake off Arcee. The warlord hid under some of the rock and continued firing as the queen passed by.
Arcee struggled to keep her balance and made her way through the elongated head crest using natural holes in it to reach the forehead of the massive being. She grabbed ahold of the ridges on the Leviathan's forehead and brought herself upside down to peer into the four optics of the creature.
"Hate to say this, but you chose the wrong people to mess with, you know."
At first, Arcee didn't know whether or not the queen could hear her given her voice could only be heard via commlink, but seeing Queen Ceto narrow her cat-like optics at her made her think otherwise very fast.
Suddenly, the Leviathan Queen changed direction and shot straight up towards the surface forced Arcee to be pinned to the spiked head crest as the momentum wasn't something she could fight. The surface came rumbling at her and she closed her optics for a second as the air hit her and the water was forced away. Queen Ceto roared upon jumping out of the water high above the surface.
At the same time, Arcee reopened her optics after the breach and saw the night sky but also the fact that she was in the air slowly tilting back downward. Startled, Arcee quickly crawled back through a hole in the crest and across the spine of the queen as the latter made an arch. Running to the side of the giant webbed fins the Leviathan supported, she followed them right to the symmetrical tail and upon reaching the tip, she chose to dive off it in the opposite direction.
Arcee hit the water the same time as Queen Ceto and paddled desperately downward until she found Megatron before slapping him on his arm. "Never make me do that again!"
"I thought it would work! At least we tried."
"You two alright?" Bolt asked. "Look, if the queen's still a problem, maybe I can help. The fastest way to hurt her is through direct damage which means getting up close and personal with her as in tearing out her armor then firing. Yes, there's a chance you will die but if you're going to go out, what better way that a Leviathan Queen, right?"
"Alright then," Megatron said, "Plan B. Arcee, you be the distraction and I'll get to meet her Majesty. I'll make a hole in her chest if it kills me, you just aim and shoot at her."
"So, basically same plan just switch our roles...guess I got nothing else to lose," Arcee scowled.
"Never said it was my greatest plan but it will work this time, I promise." Megatron gave her a soft expression. "You trust me, don't you?"
Arcee couldn't say no to his puppy dog eyes but she still wasn't pleased. "You can't make this a regular thing! Quit looking at me like that!"
He smirked, "You find it irresistible, admit it."
"Hush," she playfully scoffed.
Queen Ceto did a barrel roll and corrected herself with a grunt of disapproval before madly peering at them. However, she didn't come close. Instead, she swerved to the right and made her way through the field of rock bases embedded in the sea floor. In spite of them, she suddenly slammed herself into the bases, taking out a majority of each one's support. The rock began to crack with little to support the weight of the formations as the mighty Leviathan seemed to laugh.
"Change of plan again, run!"
Arcee and Megatron started to sprint as one base collapsed and rock came down extremely close to where they once were. More of the stacks broke and one by one, the coral reef was flooded and damaged by rock. Queen Ceto followed them, breaking any rock or other formations in her way.
Megatron aimed backwards right as the Leviathan Queen as she met his optics. At first, he aimed at head but upon seeing a circular pattern on her chest among the ridges, he considered that his target of interest and adjusted quickly. Right as he used a coral bed to jump off of, he turned around completely and fired. The blast went right past both her arms attempted to cover the spot and hit dead center on it.
Queen Ceto cried out as the blast blew off part of her chest among a sensitive area as well as it being thinner than her backside. She paused in her pursuit to clutch her chest worried as she bellowed at them retreating back to shore. She glared at them, twitching her lips over her fangs before she got it in her processor to attempt something risky.
The Leviathan Queen sped at them even as the water was becoming shallower to move among. Arcee happened to look back and pushed Megatron out of the way to save him as she herself leapt up to avoid being impaled by the teeth. But she was pushed upward again as the queen breached the surface, nearly within the large mouth of the Leviathan about to eat her. However, both queens had shot straight up and slowly started to fall back down without correcting themselves for a smoother landing. Arcee slipped out of the mouth trying to engulf her as Queen Ceto fell slightly faster than her and clenched her jaws right as Arcee was safe with a look of regret.
They both hit the sandy beach bouncing hard with Arcee managing to correct herself last second to a half slide to prevent injury. The Leviathan Queen, on the other hand, landed on her chest and her chin slammed against the ground with a jolt painfully. She turned upon one last bounce and flipped over to lie on her back. A piece of fin from her spine ripped off from the drag much to the large Leviathan's displeasure.
The landing itself seemed to leave Queen Ceto stunned as she hardly moved from her position, only tilting from left to right with a whine. Arcee stumbled back up and brought out Dagger Prima which began to glow. Using the queen's lack of movement to her advantage, she climbed up the tail to the abdomen and then to the barren chest that last some of its armor. She could see the light mesh guarding the spark and lifted the dagger up in anger at the distress the Leviathan had caused her and Megatron.
Sinking Dagger Prima right into the spark of the Leviathan Queen, Arcee scowled, "There can only be one queen on this island!"
Queen Ceto roared with a distraught expression as her clawed servo was about to snag Arcee off of her only to freeze up in agony and shake as her internal systems went haywire from the wound on her spark flickering like mad. Her helm rattled as she peered down at Arcee with all her optics upturned and saddened, making another whining noise.
Arcee met her optics and the femme lost her anger, but she knew the damage was already done. The only thing left to do was put the queen out of her misery or let her pass in an antagonizing way from spark failure as the spark would rupture indefinitely. But she also knew it was a necessity. Queen Ceto might have been a beautiful natural predator, but she posed a great risk for Earth's animals, ecosystems and humans. It was like being between a rock and a hard place on how Arcee should go about this. Even worse, she was partially responsible for also taking away the queen's hive which hurt the creature psychologically, not having a school to look after and rule anymore. She basically drove it to insanity. At the same time, Queen Ceto and her Leviathans hunted everything without mercy like monsters therefore the riddance of the hive was necessary too.
Placing a servo on the edge of the handle of the dagger, Arcee realigned her pede to hover over it. "You were a good queen, but I can't let you hurt people. Forgive me."
Right as she said that last sentence, she brought her pede down on the dagger and it was forced directly through greenish white orb that was the Leviathan's spark. Queen Ceto jolted from the energy cascading out from the impalement, arching upright for a second as Arcee was forced to sit on her chest from the movement. Then, with outreaching servos and a monstrous cry, the Leviathan Queen's optics faded as did her spark as the dagger fell to the back of the chamber with the dense energy of the spark no longer keeping it afloat. With a creaking sound, the giant body of the Leviathan collapsed back down as her head fell sideways onto the sand and her tail stomped on last time onto the edge of the shoreline splashing water up in her wake.
Arcee stared down at her before reaching into her broken chest cavity and taking the dagger. Walking up the broad, rigid armor was like walking a tightrope, but it was no struggle for her, and she kneeled on the neck of the beast to get a better look at the Leviathan Queen.
At rest, the queen seemed to give off the famed beauty mermaids were known for just like the Leviathan Arcee killed prior. She felt a twinge of guilt having to kill her. Placing a cautious servo up to the large faceplates of Queen Ceto, she mapped out the tiny scratches and marking on the chin and jaw line. Through the mesh of the protoform, she could feel the outline of fangs almost as long as her forearm. The elongated crest that appeared like a mixture between a crown and the head of the Xenomorph Queen from Alien Jack had her watch once looked fitting on a creature so regal.
Megatron climbed up the side of the Leviathan's abdomen and walked to the side of Arcee. Glancing down, he contemplated the situation, recognizing the guilt on Arcee's face. He assured her, "You did what you had to do. She's probably with her hive now in the Well of the Allspark...or whatever the Aquatronians believed in."
"I can't help but think: could we have persuaded her to stop?"
"No, some beings are just too wrapped up in their little worlds to deem any sense of reasoning with their perceived enemy as a waste of time. They would rather destroy everyone that isn't them than win them over because in the end, the only thing an enemy is, for the most part, is just a roadblock. It wouldn't matter to one so powerful whether an enemy yields to their superiority when they just want them gone...I...can say that because...it's what I did, and this Leviathan did it too."
Arcee honestly forgot for a second who she was partners with given they had been working together for some time now. When she stared up at him remembering that those words were something he once lived by, against her faction specifically, she got a sense of just how universal such a mindset was through many species where death was a common motive in everyday life. No matter what species showed the most kindness, there would always be one or so among them that could and would hurt others for no gain other than just because or that those they deem enemies were in their way; the definition of a monster. Megatron was one of Cybertron's monsters; Queen Ceto was one of Aquatron's monsters.
"When you fought us, when we were on Earth...did you have any regrets back then?" Arcee asked, turning towards him with slight uncertainty.
Megatron grunted solemnly, "Plenty, but by that time there was no going back. I pursued you and your team that far, I wasn't going to give up having done so much even if I did believe deep down, I made a mistake. The damage was done and a part of me hoped I would either be destroyed, or I would destroy you. Funny how things work out."
Arcee thought upon that before her mind drifted to something said prior. She then said, "Before this, you asked what I did for living but you were going to say something else. Were you going to say something similar to me or was it an entirely different question? You seemed hesitant."
"Arcee, I hardly think that it's important right now. It was just me thinking about something. Can we get back to mourning the dead Leviathan? She was a magnificent queen, let's be honest," Megatron said in a faux cheery tone.
"You're dodging the question."
"Why are you asking the question?"
"Because what else were you going to tell me?! You obviously needed to say something else, but you changed the original question to stuff about my first career. Now's a perfect time to tell me! I didn't press it when we walked along the beach because we got onto a different subject, and you made me laugh. I rarity, I know, but still."
Megatron growled, "It's not a concern. Please, just let it go. It was wrong of me to attempt to go for it and leave it hanging. My bad. Just focus on what we established now between us and what I want to establish later once we get off this isle!"
Arcee grew confused and said slowly, "Established? Between us?"
The warlord froze up mortified at the slip up and pressed a servo to his neck awkwardly trying to correct his blunder. "W-well, you see...uh...that's not what I meant. I-I-I was just...um..."
She realized what he wanted to say and smiled, "You like me, don't you?"
He grew flushed and tried to make it sound like he didn't care that much. "Now, I never was thinking that. You are an attractive bot, but I don't think it's going to work between-"
"You already said that when you slipped up mentioning sparklings by accident our first day on the isle, remember?" She said smugly.
Megatron paused in a half smirk, half deflated look and slowly winced when he knew he was caught. "This...this wasn't supposed to happen. I apologize. It's just that you are strong, beautiful, clever...everything I ever wanted in a relationship. I never found anyone who could put up with me and keep my moods relatively good, not even Optimus or Soundwave could."
"Perfect, Megatron?" Arcee asked before scoffing, "That's a fake word and you know it. No one is perfect and the problem with perfection is there's no challenges to overcome, nothing to learn from and when everything works, there's nothing to do. If our situation was perfect, if our world was perfect, we wouldn't even exist because none of the hardships us as a species faced would have come about therefore no growth equals a very boring and gradual decline of prosperity then death. You say I'm perfect but I'm not...and that's why we work out as a team."
"You still are though...to me," he said with a sigh. "So, when this all blows over, would you like to go out to Maccadam's?"
"You are asking me out on a date?" Arcee was kind of amused by the soft tone but given Megatron's genuine look, she wouldn't turn him down.
The warlord bore his sharp teeth in a massive grin, quite charming from Arcee's perspective and said, "Yes, I am. At least, I wish to try and be someone of worthiness to you if that's okay. I can understand if a genocidal warlord isn't exactly appealing to you."
"I think that sounds delightful," she said. "Besides, I assassinated people for a living before officially joining the Autobots, good and bad people depending on who paid me. I'm not any more innocent here."
"So...you two are hooking up after killing the Leviathan Queen, I see," Bolt muttered. "Didn't expect that today but good for you."
Arcee blushed like mad then yelled, "You were listening THE ENTIRE TIME?!"
"...You never turned your commlink off. But, it's-it's cool, totally ship you guys."
There was something slightly off about his voice, but she was a bit too preoccupied by his snooping to really pinpoint it. "Alright, well, don't do it without my permission. This was a bit private. We have a few souvenirs for your collection to make you happy. How does a robot head, a Megalodon tooth, and pieces of fin sound?"
Bolt seemed to contemplate that before saying, "Oh, it appears I may have forgotten the whole conversation prior to this. I think I'm going deaf. What happened again?"
Arcee and Megatron both rolled their optics with equally amused grins and Megatron hopped down to collect said remains. Then they suddenly heard a familiar yowl.
Moonhunter came trotting back upon the danger of Dark Rock Bay being removed indefinitely. However, they both saw a pack of seals and both sand lions trailing behind. When Moonhunter stopped to sit just at the base of the Leviathan Queen's body, the seals pressed close to the Nitrotiger who seemed to sigh in annoyance.
"Made new friends?" Arcee laughed.
Moonhunter almost looked as if he was about to protest with a meow when his helm was forced down by a sand lion resting its head upon his own engulfing the top of his face with blubber-like metal and a happy rumble.
"Alright, you take the northern half, I'll look for Optimus in the south end," Bumblebee stated. "The rest of you, pick any direction you want and find him or kill whichever leader of this coup you find."
After he called off the Sentinels and the Combiners and half the palace's exterior was damaged, Bee and Windblade took to storming it. However, he decided to head off too quickly that The Matriarch and Grimlock weren't ready to follow. The only one remotely up to his speed was Tyrus. He didn't even notice he accidentally lost his escort aside from the Head of Council when he turned a corner to go to the southern area of the palace. Worse, he didn't notice a shadow following them.
Windblade, on the other hand, was talking to Predaking when Bee headed out of sight with presumably The Matriarch and Grimlock as she began to head north. The Predacon, Haywire and Ultra Magnus followed.
"If Rockrider's got any brains, she would surrender," Windblade mocked, "but I think she already fled or she thinks we're still outside."
Predaking snorted, "Sounds about right. She hid behind Arcee's unknown status as a guise and won't even step out to face her people. A leader she is not and will never be."
Haywire smiled, "I can't wait to bash her head in. It'll feel good."
Windblade couldn't help but smile at that as Ultra Magnus said, "Yes, but we at least need to try her for treason. No unjust deed should go unpunished."
"Or," the red mech frowned, "we could just kill her? I highly doubt anybody at this point in time would care if we arrested her or not with the stuff she's already done against Cybertron. Everyone would probably be more upset if we didn't kill her."
"Just trying to keep some order here," the Magnus sneered.
"Take your orders and stick them up your-!"
"Alright, enough!" Windblade stopped them after passing an archway of a doorframe and it sat as a divider between them and her. "Grow up, guys, come on. Predaking, if they yell at each other one more time, knock them out."
The Predacon gave a toothy grin, "With pleasure."
"Now, we have to work as a team or do you know how easy it might be for one of them to get the jump on-"
Suddenly, the archway's hidden doors slammed shut, cutting Windblade off from the others. She hit the door frantically but to no avail. As she heard them bitch and moan about the circumstances, she herself grew suspicious and slowly peered around to see if anyone was expecting them...or rather her.
"Windblade, warrior of Caminus, divine Seeker of justice," a voice said. Then Wrathzone stepped out, letting his servo fall from his arm where he no doubt called his soldiers to close the door in the first place. "This is as far as you go freely."
She brought out her purple swords and scoffed, "Really now? I hope your fists do better to convince me of that, assuming you'll have them when I'm through with you. Where's Optimus?"
"Safe with the others...for now."
"Others?"
"Oh, did Shockwave not meet you yet? He was the only one who we failed to secure...my fault really but I was hoping he would at least warn you, so it'll be funnier to beat you while you were afraid."
Windblade narrowed her optics. "You're nothing but a bully and a strongman for hire, second fiddle to a coward."
Wrathzone chuckled, "Perhaps, but it's worked for me."
Scowling, Windblade ran at him and brought down her swords. Wrathzone managed to guard himself by blocking them with his arm from going right into his head. He swiped to throw the blades off and attempted to punch her, but she flipped backwards. He pursued.
The mech punched several holes into the crystalline wall trying to get her and Windblade didn't have much of a chance to attack because of his fast movements. But she saw an opening during a brief stumble when his fist's armored knuckles cracked under the pressure of so many swings, probably from his fight with Shockwave and the others. A brute he was but indestructible he was not. Windblade took her chance and swiped upward with her blades aiming for his head. While she failed to decapitate him like she hoped, she got the next best thing.
Wrathzone clutched his face for a second before lowering his servo that held blood to glare at her, a nasty slice from his chin to his eye visible. Part of the optic flickered from a very prominent crevice from the sword tip. He growled and Windblade knew she had only enraged him.
He suddenly reached out and caught her fleeing arm as she tried to go back. Without any hesitation, he swung her in his iron grip right against the wall with a loud boom. Cracks formed among it from the force and Windblade found herself on the ground struggling to catch her breath in pain. A clanging noise and her agonized grunt made both of them look to her right to see her wing break and fall.
She was petrified at the rage. He had no more witty talk, no smugger attitude to him. To see him in his fury was like versing Megatron in his prime and no one ever had more regret than those who tried to take the Decepticon leader before. This felt similar.
Before she could even get up, Wrathzone sent a swift fist right down on her helm and she fell unconscious. He peered down at her with disgust and a snarl before hitting the side of his head when his optic acted up from its damage. He felt no joy in it, not like he wanted to.
AN: I realize now the fight between the Leviathan Queen and Arcee is a bit shorter than I thought it was when I wrote it...but I would imagine keeping track of smaller targets would be more difficult, especially when being tricked to surface where she doesn't have as much motor control as in the water. Ah well, my favorite fight scene is coming up though within the next three chapters so maybe that's why I neglected this one a bit despite having my favorite creature in it. And yes, I made Quintessa of Bayverse fame come to the Aligned universe. I actually saw potential in her character but, of course, Bay didn't use her wisely. I'm about to give her fair "justice" if you know what I mean.
Featured monsters:
Leviathan Queen Ceto (Aquatron)