Author's Notes: No time to explain! The fight is ending in a less than expected way! Can our heroes hang on until help arrives?!
Please drop a comment, favorite, and enjoy!
Part 15
I Think it's Time to Phone a Friend!
Heatwave
He felt like he was in stasis lock. Unable to do anything but stair in total shock, Heatwave watched as the notoriously brutal ex-Wrecker put out the last of the fire on himself.
Whirl, their Whirl, sauntered smiling into Heatwave's line of sight. "Everyone, this is a friend of mine! His name is Whirl too… So that may get a little confusing. But he's helped me learn how to fight. He's good at it!"
Grimlock rumbled a dark chuckle, "No need to explain, I know who this lunatic is…" He stepped forward, and that caught Big Whirl's attention. Did these two have a history? Going by the glare from the one opticed bot Heatwave assumed so. "A victim of the old world's Empurata if it weren't obvious from the missing pieces. He was a freak long before they took his helm though."
"What's, Empurata?" Hoist asked innocently. He wasn't the only one of the recruits and humans who were confused by the saying. Other than their own Whirl. Heatwave didn't want any of them to know about the barbaric Cybertronian punishment from the past.
Big Whirl closed the distance between him and Grimlock as if the Dinobot didn't dwarf him in size about ten times over. His optic narrowed angerly and unbroken on the Dinobot's smiling faceplate. "You talk a lot for a beast. And you're also one to talk about freaks, coming from Shockwave's biggest lab rat. I hear you ain't riding with the Autobots these days… And last I mentioned," He shifted a blaster out within a nanosecond, shooting a Decepticon that just landed in the open entrance, all without him breaking his stare down with Grimlock, "I'm here to sign up for the Con killing Club."
To Heatwave's horror, their small Whirl had run up between the two, moments before they were about to brawl. The newcomer's crazed aura exploded with pure joy when she appeared by his side. He reached out for her, seeming to forget the Dinobot at his back. "Star princess!" She jumped into his awaiting servos, and he spun them around in a lopsided circle.
"You didn't have to come just to help," their Whirl insisted, still sat in his embrace.
He pulled back in shock, "And miss your first Con fight? Not even an option! I'd rather lose my helm again!" He said and placed her down gently. He appeared finally ready to address the rest of the group. Or maybe, he had just noticed they were all there, gawking at him, "So, I don't really grasp the whole issue going down in this neck of the woods, but that is hardly a problem for me. This little bud here," he nudged their Whirl playfully, "said there was a fight, so here I am! As I'm sure you have caught on, we share a name… you can just call me Papa Whirl to avoid any confusion." He insisted.
Heatwave finally found his voice again, "I will not be addressing you as that."
Big Whirl shrugged, "Eh, your loss… Now let's get down to business. How many Cons we still have to take care of- Primus! Girl, are these your friends?!" He almost jumped over Chase to get to the other recruits. He shook each one of their servos while rambling on about something or other he heard about them personally. He even laid on the ground to reach Hotshot, who, much like he was with Grimlock, was star struck.
Only their little Whirl's quiet assurance kept Heatwave, or any of the other professors from stopping the spectacle. Hotshot was injured, and now he was being jostled around by a known killer, "Look at all of you! You're just as short as she is! Nice to finally meet ya! I hope Girly Whirly hasn't said anything about me, I'm a walking nightmare!"
"She did tell us about you!" Hotshot promised with a wide grin, trying to hold himself upright, "I've read all about you! Ya know, from the war. What's your kill count?"
Of course, Hotshot couldn't' help but blurt that out. It was one of the worst things to ask a veteran. But unlike any type of normal survivor of a war, big Whirl seemed happy to oblige with far too much enthusiasm, "Ha! I have no clue at this point! I'm guessing in the triple digits! But the day's still young, we can add onto that count!"
He flung both servos around Wedge and Hoist's shoulders, glancing back and forth between them, "The two-engineering wiz's! You're the weapons guys in training then? You can think of all sorts of ways to make something or someone explode! Good for you!"
"Um, nice to meet you," Wedge managed to say somewhat politely. Hoist just continued anxiously smiling. Medix was the only one who actively tried to avoid the Ex-Wrecker's formalities but wasn't quick enough. Their young medic was scooped up in a hug and then was spun around like their Whirl had been.
"Won't your crew notice you're gone?" Whirl asked her bigger counterpart once Medix fought his way to safety.
He shouted a laugh, startling the already frazzled Medix, "I doubt they would care even if they noticed I was gone. I'll be back before they get around to looking for me."
Secundus shook, causing everyone to brace against the turbulence, "The Decepticons who remain have landed on my upper haul." He reported.
Heatwave glared at the newcomer, "Fine, you can help. But we are trying to maintain our cover and fight none lethally. Can you manage that?"
"None lethally?" Big Whirl echoed. "What in the pits is that?"
Heatwave couldn't tell if he was joking or not. He sounded legitimately confused.
Their Whirl took him by the servo, grabbing his attention, "It means you don't kill anybot."
He blinked down at her, "I… Like, I shoot them, and only half of them explode?"
Small Whirl shook her helm, somehow maintaining an unreasonable amount of patience, "No. It's when you shoot them, softly. Like we were talking about before? So, they can wake up later?"
Another Decepticon landed in the open entrance, blasters ready to fire into the group.
Big Whirl's servo shifted, and he shot the Con before they could. But he only blew off their wings, sending them back into one of Secundus' internal supports gasping in shock, "Like that?"
"That was perfect!" Little Whirl praised.
As Medix and Blades hurried over to handle the now severely damaged Con, Big Whirl beamed pridefully at the group.
Grimlock was snickering again, leaning down next to Heatwave to whisper, "I bet you'll miss my tactics by the end of the day."
Chase beat Big Whirl to the first question, "Do you care to know what we are even fighting for?" He sounded on edge, worried by the maniac's close proximity to their small innocent Whirl.
"Nope!" Big Whirl cheered, "I don't even almost care! Now, let's get down to clown!" He knelt down to little Whirl, who was still smiling at him, "Important question, Little Spark. Does this planet have music broadcasts that are worth listening to?"
"Sure does," She assured him. She shifted her own radio out of her chassis, disconnected it and handed it over.
The Ex-Wrecker brightened even more as he accepted it, "Thanks Starlight!" he incorporated her radio into himself. Then he stood there, just switching through songs for a solid minute. All while Swoop continued fighting off the airborne Decepticons behind them, still by himself and overwhelmed. "Got it!" And without another word he bolted for the exit, taking to the sky, and tackling the nearest Decepticon while blasting Miley Cyrus's Wrecking Ball at full volume.
"Whirl?" Chase asked very carefully. Their little Whirl flinched as she turned to him. Her smile was long gone. She looked ashamed as she tried avoiding Chase's direct gaze. "Was that the individual you didn't want me to know about?"
She gave a curt nod, staring at her peds. "I was worried, you would think less of me for having him as a friend."
Chase approached her. He got down on one knee joint and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. "I would never think less of you for who you chose to be your friend. As long as to much of… that one, does not rub off on you. And you no longer lie. I would support you no matter what."
It looked like a massive weight lifted from her Spark. She jumped forward and hugged him. "Thank you, Professor. And I promise."
"Alright everyone," Heatwave said to get the fractured group back on track. He had to try and talk over the Crazy Whirl laughing like a maniac in the skies behind them, chasing some poor Decepticon down, "We have a new distraction, and a chance to refocus on those broadcasting machines. How do we do it?"
"We have a way to bring them both down from a remote hack," came Cody's answer. "I know we didn't want to reach out to many outside sources… But it'll work, trust me."
Heatwave gave him a very tired, half sparked smile, "We are so beyond keeping this between us at this point. If you think bringing more people into this will end the fighting and save Earth from tragedy, I am up for it. We'll deal with the fallout from Team Prime later."
Frankie jumped right in, "It's already done as a matter of fact. We just need to manually hook the virus into the machines and run the code."
"The humans could sneak by without being noticed," Wedge pointed out. "In fact, we could too. With those on the towers distracted," He glanced off into the distance. A lot of Decepticons in the air were retreating down to the ground level, taking their chances with the Dinobots over facing the doom from the sky that was 'Papa Whirl.' "It's just about getting a good chance to sneak in." He concluded.
There was no more time to hesitate. Heatwave trusted his team. Humans and recruits. "Alright, let's break this infiltration plan down."
"I can - enlist - ASSIST!" Fixit all but screamed as he launched to an upright position like he had just been zapped with a thousand volts of electricity. He got up on wobbling wheels and swerved to almost hit half the team before he arrived at Heatwave's peds.
"You can help by going back to rest. We can handle this," Heatwave told him.
Fixit's usual happy-go-lucky, somewhat naive daily attitude was muted. He was more than a little unsure as he continued, "I should have mentioned, or at least, I would have, if I knew about it… Which I do now." Fixit pulled up on one of his Servo screens a schematic Heatwave had to kneel to see. "The Alchemor crash damaged my core processor and forced many of my systems to go into a sort of functioning stasis… I still don't know how that works. But, Steeljaw's blow to my helm may have knocked something back into place, because I now have access to a last resort protocol that could come in handy. Think of it sort of like, how to describe this… It's an overdrive mode that should have kicked in when the prisoners were escaping. It makes me a rolling Decepticon defeating machine. I would be able to face a small army by myself."
"You didn't feel like mentioning this trick to us like, a week ago when we were hunting down Decepticon's one by one and almost dying each time?" Wedge snapped. "Also, if you knew about a program you didn't have access to due to damage, we could have fixed it for you, and saved who knows how much Spark ache."
Fixit pondered that. He nodded, in total agreement with Wedge once it clicked, "I suppose I should have?"
Wedge threw up his servos and just walked away from the conversation in total frustration.
Undeterred, Fixit spun on his wheels to face Heatwave again, "You said we need more help, I can actually help now… Though, once this mode is activated, somebot will have to be there to stop me. I'll no longer be my normal, reasonable, adorable self."
"Is 'adorable' the right word for what he is?" Hotshot whispered not so quietly to Wedge.
"I have a stun bomb handy," Doc Green piped up. He dug into his lab coat pocket to display it, "I never leave home without it! You never know when you'll encounter some dangerous rogue tech on the rampage, or pushy solicitors… It's far too small to be much use against the larger foes we have been facing… But if we needed to knock out a fellow Fixit's size, it'll do the trick!"
Heatwave scanned the minicon's determined little face. He didn't appear put off that their only means of snapping him out of this conveniently arriving guard protocol was to zap him back into stasis. His optics gleamed with a spark of confidence Fixit had been missing since they had saved him from the Alchemor shipwreck.
"Alright, we'll trust you. We're in this together," Heatwave said.
Fixit brightened even more, "Excellent! But before we switch me to 'kill mode' I'll need a quick Bridge back to base to get some back up." Heatwave was notably confused, which Fixit must have picked up on when he clarified, "Another small detail I forgot to mention. I am not the only one who can activate this protocol."
Steeljaw
Once he spotted the notorious Autobot maniac screeching across the sky, Steeljaw decided he had to switch up his strategy. He did this while backing away from the edge and making himself harder to snatch from the roof if the mad copter decided to head his direction. How to handle this turn in events?
He took inventory of what they had left. Needler was almost done recalibrating the machine. And not a moment too soon. The minicon looked like he was one more disaster away from a full-blown meltdown. There were ten Decepticons lingering tensely on the rooftop with him who lacked flight. They could do nothing but wait for the fight to be brought to them.
But these few stragglers of Glowstrike and Saberhorn's army wasn't the last resource Steeljaw had to fall back on. He and Thunderhoof had been slowly turning the minds of many of the poor starving Cons in their company, in addition to more they had found from the crash. These Decepticons were all flight frames, and remained on the outskirts of this brawl until they were otherwise summoned. They were integral to overthrowing Saberhorn and Glowstrike. Thunderhoof was unfortunately under the impression he would still be around to help lead this small flying cavalry once the time came.
Once Needler's invention fried all of Earth's lowly tech, the ensuing worldwide panic would slow down the Autobot's attack. That was the new objective. Destroy Earth's grid, which had the Autobot's own systems interwoven into it for some beyond insane reason. Then Steeljaw would retreat from this losing fight and regroup with his forces. But fate was more on his side than he first anticipated. Saberhorn was knocked out and Glowstrike was doomed somewhere in the skies with the Autobot butcher. Riding on the winds of that good fortune, it was probably time for Steeljaw to start his second phase now that most of the work was done for him.
That second phase was the Voice and its unknown agenda. It promised him power, and he would need that in the coming cycles to maintain his hold on this world. If that power came at a cost, then he supposed he would find a means of paying for it. Or getting sombot else too. Maybe it was worth keeping Thunderhoof around just in case this promised power required a sacrifice.
Steeljaw had laid out his plans. Subjugate Earth, leave the Autobots in pieces and head for their Groundbridge tech… That Titan would have a well charged Groundbridge. Now, how would he get up there?
Glowstrike almost didn't land on her peds when she fell out of her transformation before him. Steeljaw had a hard time not frowning when she returned. He had been banking on her termination so he could take over the few forces they had left and weave them into his own.
"Are you alright, sister?" he asked, stretching the meager supply of fake sympathy he still had left. He also didn't have to ask. She looked far from alright.
"We must retreat," She gasped a vent as she took stock of her damage. "gather those who are left and make our way from the city-"
"But we are so close!" he hissed. He shook her by the shoulder, basically forcing her to take in Needler's work with a rough handed turn, "If we can just hold on long enough, the tides will shift again in our favor! Look below!" Peering down, they took in the sight of one of Thunderhoof's men, the Dinobot Scowl engaging in a full on Energon soaked brawl with the Dinobots under the Autobot's control. "We will use Thunderhoof's forces as a distraction to assure our own victory. We are safe, as long as we stay up here."
"And what about the flying Autobot menace?" She snapped back. She was far too exhausted to really back up her tone with any more venom.
"Simple," Steeljaw promised, "We shoot him down when he edges to close. His alt mode lacks thrust. We will escape once we have secured our victory."
Had he convinced her? He didn't really care at this point. He was almost ready to take command.
"Alright, this scrap's about done," Needler huffed. "Five more kliks, and then it can fire. "Then I am going to put myself back into stasis to recharge this whole fragging day off, and NOBOT is going to wake me up."
Steeljaw gazed skyward again as they waited for their moment of triumph to commence. Beyond the spinning force of death that was the blue Autobot copter, Steeljaw could see a small portion of the Titan hanging above. Its shielding was waning in power. Good. The Autobots appeared so caught up with staying hidden, their most valuable asset was busy acting like a tarp thrown over the local human's helms to keep them ignorant. He would hardly complain. Whatever kept that Titan out of the fight until they won.
'Steeljaw!'
He couldn't risk answering the voice, even as it grew more hostile. Not with Glowstrike so close to witness. It carried on its griping regardless, 'You must abandon this fool's errand and fulfill your promise to me.'
"Busy," He muttered.
He felt the shove of phantom limbs into his back plating. 'No more of your excuses! In a moment, I sense a Groundbridge about to open… You will go through it to its source and utilize the staff with what little power it has left to free me!'
Steeljaw stood straight up from where he had been hunched over pretending to tend to Glowstrike. "Why is a Bridge opening here? Who is coming through?" he demanded, forgetting he had an audience.
Nobot had the chance to question his odd outburst, because the vortex ripped open right before them on the roof. Those left shifted out their blasters, taking aim at which one of the foolish Autobots would decide it was a good idea to take a direct attack for a second time after their initial retreat.
Far more than 'one' Autobot came through the portal, and each identical faceplate was hauntingly familiar to the ex-Alchemor prisoners. Within moments, a sea of orange poured out of the Groundbridge, all lock step with one in the front who appeared to give off an occasional glitching twitch.
Needler gasped out, "Gah! What are the Alchemor stewards doing here?"
The tiny obnoxious creatures would not have been a threat in any other circumstances. But Steeljaw quickly noted their once blue optics now illuminated red, matching expressions molded into a cold and determined frown.
"Alchemor Prisoner Escape protocol has been activated," the Steward swarm said as one terrifying legion, "Contain and neutralize the Decepticon threat," then they all charged forward. Even more came pouring out of the portal after the first wave to overwhelm those on the roof. Armed with weaponry fit for a fortress, the once annoying little minicons were now an unstoppable wave consuming the few remaining stragglers on the roof. Needler and even his larger partner were included in this tragic statistic.
"Since when could they fragging do this?!" Needler shouted before vanishing under the swarm. The broadcasting tower came down with a barrage of blasts from the minicon force, only a few nanokliks before it would have activated.
Steeljaw backed away, Glowstrike right alongside him. They had only escaped the initial attack due to their proximity far from the portal at the edge of the roof. But the little orange monsters were closing in.
'The portal!'
Steeljaw startled, surprised he could hear the Voice over the chaos and Glowstrike firing madly into the orange wave. 'Go through the portal and activate the Staff within the Bridge to set me free!'
"We need to go!" Glowstrike shouted back to him, still firing to keep the swarm at bay.
"After you," Steeljaw shoved Glowstrike off her peds from behind. She probably didn't even register his betrayal before falling into the awaiting servos of a hundred Alchemor Stewards who dragged her down and out of sight.
Steeljaw took her advice and jumped from the building to the next nearest ledge. He managed to clasp his claws onto the edge, securing him from falling to his doom. Grunting, he hoisted himself up. He now watched as their tallest tower fell. Not exactly how he planned overthrowing Glowstrike, but whatever worked.
'Steeljaw!'
He winced away from the sharp accusing tone in his audios, "What did you expect me to do!" He snarled into the air, "Go through that hoard to get to the Bridge? I never would have made it!"
'I would have assured you made it through,' it hissed.
Steeljaw was sure that was the case, but now he only shrugged, "Well, you should have said that at the time. Let's move on," he turned away from his doomed team and found the slightly shorter tower Thunderhoof had claimed. He wondered how close their broadcasting device was to its completion. He started forward to find out.
Kade
"This is a restricted area! You can't cross into the park!" He snapped at the growing crowd of people loitering right outside the edge of Secundus' invisibility cloak.
He was still grumpy about losing against Danni in rock paper scissors, which banished him down here away from the action. He would have demanded another rematch if they had more time. He almost challenged her to an arm wrestle to settle the score, but he decided against that. She normally won those too.
But then fate or karma or whatever you would call it started to rain down Decepticons onto the park that surrounded the main skyscraper. Kade got his wish to be more involved in the action then he had pictured being. High Tide and Slash were almost overwhelmed until the rest of their Dinos decided to finally show up.
Kade had a personal connection in the local fire squad, and that gave him the assumed authority in the foreign region. Danni said he gained connections from being a loudmouth. Kade knew the real reason was his winning personality.
Thankfully, the rumblings a few buildings over were still distracting authorities. From outside Secundus' cloak while he was dealing with civilians, Kade couldn't see the action inside their radius either. The sounds were even muffled. They were passing for some sort of natural disaster, like a string of odd earthquakes. And that was what he was going with when dealing with the public. At least this gave him a shining opportunity to practice his Australian accent.
He further roped off the area, somewhat assured when the crowd hurried home with the most recent rumble. He crossed the invisible line into the park, and the chaos revealed itself to him once more.
More Cons crash landed from the sky brawl into the awaiting claws of the Dinos. "Swoop's really going at it," Kade noted as he gazed upward.
"Just wait," the grumpy Dinobot Snarl grumbled as he shoved an unconscious Con into the containment field High Tide had set up. "Swoop'll find a way to frag this up. He usually does."
"Or he'll get kidnapped," Sludge pointed out, merrily flinging another Con onto the growing pile in the containment box.
"How's everyone buying the earthquake rescue, Kade?" His uncle Woodrow asked as he zoomed by on Slash's back in hot pursuit of a Decepticon minicon trying to roll away.
Kade snatched the hose from his firetruck and pulled back the lever, aimed at the frantic little Cybertronian ball. The high-pressured water jet spun the small Con off course. The minicon let loose a string of alien curses until he hit a tree. "So far nobody's come passed the tape or asked any more questions. We'll see how long that lasts," he explained with a sigh.
"You'll keep 'em out, champ," Woodrow assured him, "With that nifty accent they probably think you're a local!"
Kade laughed through his nose, "Thanks uncle Woodrow," He knew the accent would be a good idea.
Slash picked up the Decepticon ball in her mouth and tried smiling around him, "auch is," she tried to say. She spit the Con into her hands to free up her mouth, "I said, watch this!"
Like a pro basketball player, she took aim from her invisible foul line and launched the cursing ball into the air. The small Con landed into the opened rim of the energy field. The pile of other Cons broke his fall.
Kade threw his fists up into the air, "Score!"
Sludge transformed back into bot mode just so he could raise Slash up onto his shoulder like that score just won the season championship. Slash laughed along with his antics, blending right in with their Dino boy club.
"Statis report, crew?" High Tide demanded, marching out from the shadows of the park.
Sludge quickly deposited Slash back on the ground, both dropping the celebration before they were caught having fun in front of the old buzzkill bot.
Thankfully for them, Kade had police Chief Charlie Burns for a dad. He knew how to pacify the authoritative type without getting in trouble. "We have this area secure, sir. Now it's just up to the upper teams to chase down more for us to detain," he even added in a salute to really drive home the point.
High Tide gazed skyward, not yelling at their previous antics. That meant Kade had nailed the update. "The longer this lasts the more there is more opportunity for failure." His glare came back to land on them, "So keep focused!"
Kade winced alongside Sludge and Slash. Welp, he tried.
"Come on High Tide," Woodrow hummed, "Sometimes I find keeping morale up is most of the battle!"
If looks could kill, Kade would be burying his uncle right now. But odd circumstances saved Woodrow from further scrutiny.
"Is that music?" Kade said.
Every Cybertronian which made up Kade's current company gazed skyward. It wasn't hard to spot the helicopter zipping by Swoop and slamming into one of the Decepticon's of the swarm overhead, all while blasting pop music from the recent decade. There was no way that was Blades.
"Dear Primus, what is he doing here?" High Tide asked in abject horror.
"Friend of yours?" Woodrow wondered.
High Tide's face turned downward. Those steely optics of his narrowed at the spectacle above them, "Hardly. That's a bot who I wouldn't even call an Autobot if he wasn't far too useful to throw away during the war. Cold Energon killers among our faction are hard to come by."
Snarl snickered knowingly, "He was voted most likely to defect from the Autobots by his own teammates, and I think that was before he was disgracefully discharged from the Wreckers for almost killing his commanding officer. Whirl's his designation."
"Whirl?" Kade repeated, "Like, even spelled the same as our Whirl? Great, that won't get confusing at all."
At that moment, a purple race car's headlights cut through the dim lights in the park. Blurr transformed in a hurry, "Anybot up on the new guy?"
"Were you relieved of your look out post?" High Tide snapped instead of answering his question.
Apparently used to the old man Bot's abrupt attitude, Blurr shrugged him off, "Fixit and about a hundred of his identical friends just stormed what's left of the main tower, and I'd imagine the second one's next. It basically solved the problem of us just waiting around for them to come down here. Sort of made my look out role obsolete."
The killer copter above them was shot by a well-aimed blast from a Decepticon still up for a fight in the sky. It didn't even slow him down. Not pausing to assess the damage he took, the rogue Autobot flipped basically upside down to turn around, something Kade didn't even know a helicopter was physically able to do. Then the once bold Decepticon was on the run as new Whirl screamed after them, blasting gunfire from both turrets and Lady Gaga from his radio.
"Not good!" Kade gasped as the Con was chased right out of the invisibility cloak.
"Who has that lunatic's com frequency?!" High Tide demanded, fumbling to call Heatwave to find out.
Kade didn't waste time with that. He yanked his megaphone from his truck and rushed to the edge of the cloak's limit. "Hey crazy!" his amplified voice boomed up into the arial brawl.
The music cut, and new Whirl's copter form stopped, a grappling hook having snatched the Decepticon jet by a booster. "Yeah?" he said, answering to 'crazy' without complaint.
Kade waved him backwards with an angry flail, "Back under the cloak! This is a stealth mission!"
"We on the same team?" he wondered.
"Yes!"
"Okey-doke!" The music started up again and the copter dragged the Con back under the cloak.
The green vortex of a Groundbridge opened and the lumbering form of Grimlock stepped out. He was smirking, so he was probably in the loop already. "You ladies having fun with the easy work down here?"
High Tide didn't even acknowledge that. He walked back to inspect the Decepticon containment box while grumbling about 'dwindling respect'.
"Only lady down here is Slash, boss." Sludge pointed out sincerely. He was oblivious to the previous mocking as per usual.
Grimlock rolled his optics, "You're lucky you hit like a meteor strike in fights. It's the only reason I keep you around, Sludge."
"Everyone still in one piece?" Slash inquired of him. Grimlock had been sent to respond to the emergency com from the younger recruits, hence why she asked him.
"Yeah. And between the tiny swarm going on up on the main tower and now crazy rotors up there, I think we have this pretty much cleaned up."
/Boss! This is the third time this wingnut has shot at me!/ Swoop complained into their open chatter.
"Well, you introduce yourself as not a Con yet? I keep tellin' you to make more friends Swoop. This is one of them perfect opportunities." Grimlock insisted. He then hung up just as Swoop started screaming, he and new Whirl having finally run out of aerial Decepticons. So new Whirl was now chasing after him.
"I'm not a Con!" Swoop screamed as he fled.
"That sounds like what a Con would say!" New Whirl surmised, right on his tail.
If they were goofing off, then they had arrived at the turn in the fight where they had clearly won. Kade decided it was a better time than any to start rolling the hose back onto his truck. It was a chore he didn't miss. What he did miss, was working with Heatwave, who did this part automatically. His uncle jumped down from Slash to give a helping hand. Kade was more then happy to accept his help.
"Not a bad brawl, considering the numbers," Grimlock hummed and watched the arial shenanigans idly, "A bit anti-climactic of course… Considering how much they talked up these hard hittin' Cons," he added wistfully.
"Well, they were going up against all of the Rescue team plus a bunch of Dinobots," Woodrow pointed out with a smirk. "Did they really stand a chance if they couldn't match that?"
The whistling of metal on the wind drew Kade's gaze upward. What was the crazy Whirl up to now?
His heart jammed up into his throat as he saw the shadow falling onto them fast. "Head's up!" He snatched his uncle by the arm and yanked them both backwards.
The massive shadow crashed onto the firetruck, flattening it in a twist of steel and flashing lights. Kade had just avoided being part of that. He and Woodrow were now only a few yards away in the grass moaning, but alive.
Slash was by them in an instant to see if they were ok. Once she established they weren't dead, she stepped in front of them, acting as a glaring shield. Kade stood on his own. He watched as the looming Decepticon stood from the wreckage with a grin, taking in the group. This one was more then a 'hard hitter.' Crimson red with yellow spines along his back and down on all fours like at least two of the Cybertronians that made up Grimlock's party. It was another Dinobot who wore the Decepticon emblem on both spiked shoulder plates.
Two more bulky Cons landed behind the new Dinobot, shaking the ground on impact. They had come from the second tower, apparently sick of being ignored.
The Dinobot Con scanned the group while his fangs shimmered with excitement. "I done lucked out… Boss said there was a fight to be havin' down here and he was right!"
"So," Blurr spoke up in the tense silence that followed the Dinobot's statement. Kade saw it was in response to High Tide's very hostile glare aimed Blurr's way, "I'll just say this is my bad. As I am coming to realize, these guys wouldn't have snuck up on us if I had been still at my post."
The Dinobot charged at Grimlock, who met him halfway with a punch and his own excited smile.
Cody
"Sorry about the piggyback rides guys," Cody said from Wedge's shoulder. As they rushed up the steps of the skyscraper he had long since lost track what floor they were on.
"Not as sorry as I am," Hoist groaned behind the pack as they raced up the steps. His shoulders were occupied with Cody's dad sporting a high-powered rifle Cody had never even seen before. It was also rigged with a Cybertronian addition Boulder had affixed to it before they left.
Apparently, even Cybertronian's had their endurance limit when faced with running up a skyscraper's worth of steps as fast as possible. And the stairs were too small for them to really step on properly, so they were slipping a lot. And they had to crouch to not bump their heads as they ran. And they only got into the building by squeezing through the doorway to the back service staircase. Cody assumed his weight along with the other humans tagging along was inconsequential compared to the previous list of hardships Wedge, Whirl, and Hoist had already faced.
"Not like we could have fit in the elevator anyway," Whirl pointed out, maintaining the ever the optimistic perspective. She was baring Frankie and Graham in her arms. "Lift? They call it a lift in this part of the world. Kade has been practicing his Australian accent this whole time. I need to practice mine too."
"This way we stay out of sight," Wedge reminded them all, "The Cons who are left may see us climbing up the side of the building. And a Groundbridge is just a little too obvious."
"And no way the bigger bots would have fit in the stairwell," Graham sighed. He had measured anyway. Twice. He was clearly nervous to go into the battle with such a small team. Small in more ways than one.
"With so much chaos in the air, I doubt they will even see us," Cody tried to assure his brother.
"And it will be quick," his dad promised, still fiddling with his gun. "We attach the device, then get back out. We aren't there to fight."
"And we couldn't bridge the army of Fixit's onto this second roof top, because?" Hoist carried on complaining.
"They were totally unresponsive to orders," Cody reminded him. "Fixit was right. When that 'kill mode' switched on the little guy we knew switched off."
"No worries," Frankie hummed, "my dad will zap him and his friends back to normal any moment now."
Wedge vented a sigh, "Just imagine, all of this chaos wouldn't have happened if they had just decided to go Terminator mode when the Alchemor first started crashing."
Whirl turned around as best she could in the confined space to beam excitedly at him, "Yay! Terminator reference! You got around to watching the 80's action movie list I gave you!"
"I haven't gotten to Robocop yet, so no spoilers," Wedge said.
"What floor are we on?!" Hoist whimpered, falling even farther behind.
Cody jumped off Wedge's shoulder when they got to the most recent bend in the staircase. He shined his flashlight onto the sign by the door leading into the building. "90. Ten more to go."
Hoist groaned at the update.
Frankie leapt off to join him, pushing open the large door and peeking out. There was a big dark office lobby with an impressive window not far from the stairs. With all the lights off for the night, the window was the only light source, save for Cody's flashlight.
"How's it looking outside?" Cody heard his dad ask from the stairwell. The bots were peeking in, sort of stacked over each other to look into the office. Cody pressed a hand to the glass, sort of able to see the commotion above. "There goes Blades with your dad, Frankie," he said.
Blades lowered over the taller building. Cody couldn't' make out the small device Doc Green dropped from the cockpit into the Fixit swarm, but he saw the electric aftermath. Every orange chassis crumbled down and out of sight. Blades landed, a Groundbridge opened, and more bots jumped out to start collecting the unconscious Fixit's and save the remaining Cons up there from the tiny orange flood.
"One tower down," Frankie said with a grin. "Just this one to go."
They both stopped before they could return to the stairwell when a dark blur blew by their window. A Decepticon had slipped by Heatwave's team from their rooftop rescue and was making their escape. It was Glowstrike, by the distant look Cody managed to glimpse. 'Papa' Whirl was on her before she even managed to transform. He tackled her out of the sky. They fell right into an awaiting Groundbridge Secundus must have opened under them before they crashed onto street level and into visibility.
"Well, that's one Decepticon leader down, no pun intended," Cody offered with a shrug.
Their Whirl still stuck in the doorway smiled, "I'm glad he's making friends. He really struggles with that."
Cody and Frankie hurried back to their team so they continued climbing.
The stairs ended, and the group quickly refocused at the final door. Cody took a step out of his dad's way as he unholstered the augmented rifle from his back and edged close to the roof access. As quiet as he could manage, he pushed the heavy metal door open.
Cody spotted two Decepticons from behind his dad. The one with the big antlers, and the other… Steeljaw was just arriving from another building over. He was the one with insanely good hearing. Also, the one who almost killed Chop Shop. But at least the Dinobot and the other goons weren't there. They only had these two to get around. They were already distracted, arguing about something happening below.
Cody focused on the broadcasting tower at the Decepticon's backs. It was left totally by itself.
Steeljaw
"Abouts time yous showed up, Jaws," Thunderhoof grumbled.
"Sorry for the delay, brother. Betraying Glowstrike took longer than anticipated." He reported with a shrug. "Plans have changed, so I have summoned our army waiting outside. I suspect we will need their assistance to escape."
"Good. My boys went down theres to handle business… With that crazy one in the sky, I assumed they was comin' here's next. But my boys are just hanging on. We could use all's the help we can gets," Thunderhoof growled.
Steeljaw peered over the edge into the square of foliage they humans had quarantined from the rest of the concrete city. There were the Dino brutes ripping away at Scowl and Thunderhoof's other goons. They were in a bind, totally outnumbered, but Scowl appeared unaware of that fact. Or, he was having far too much fun to notice he was losing. The Dinobots were all slamming their tails or fists into each other's faceplates, spraying Energon into the grass and laughing like this was the best day of their simple lives.
Thunderhoof vented a sigh, "That one was always a loon. Would rather wreck scrap than follow orders. Don't knows why I kept him around."
"How is the device?" Steeljaw asked, gazing behind them at the beeping construct. This one was even more rough than Needler's had been. He should have probably grabbed the tech savvy Minicon before he bailed.
"Still calibratin'," Thunderhoof reported stiffly. He was still hyper focused on the battle under them. "My tech guy said it needs a supercharge to hurry up before he jumped down there to help. But we don't got nothin' that can do that, so we just has ta wait."
Steeljaw hummed thoughtfully, "Hyper charge?"
"Any power source'll do he said," Thunderhoof said with a shrug. "But again, all out of that. We don't even gots a Groundbridge no more."
Steeljaw couldn't help but be aware of the Staff within his subspace. It pulsed with the faintest hint of ancient power. "You should probably go down there and help out… If only to buy more time."
Thunderhoof laughed out loud, "Nope. I'm ain't that stupid. Infact, this may be a fight I'm walkin' aways from. Autoblokes wants the device so bad, Imma let em' have it and callin' my guys back so we can head out of-"
Steeljaw slammed Thunderhoof from behind, bending him at his center of mass and sending him hurtling off the tower. "Nope. You will not ruin my plans because of your cowardice," He made sure to maintain his smile as Thunderhoof fell, cursing him all the way down.
Steeljaw didn't stay to witness the impact. He wasn't into the gory details. Instead, he summoned the staff from subspace and it unfurled in his grasp, "Could I use the staff to hyper charge the device?" He asked the Voice. He just assumed it was listening. It always was.
'No!' it hissed. Steeljaw assumed that would have been its answer, 'There is very little power left within the staff! All of it is required to set me free! And beyond that, I must use it for my own task once I am again within your dimension!'
Steeljaw pursed his lip plates at that. Then with an innocent smile, he continued to the device, "Sorry, I'm afraid I didn't quite catch all that. The rage of battle around us is deafening." He pulled off the front panel to see the Energon core. He knelt, retrieving wires from within the machine's frame and hooking it up to the staff.
'Do not waste this power! You cannot fathom what will come to pass if you do so!' The Voice howled in his audios, flinging curses so ancient even Steeljaw didn't recognize them. As he ignored it, it grabbed at him with invisible digits, yanking him back to try and force him to stop. He maintained his grip on his work.
"I have no interest in cosmic plots or enemies of the Primes," Steeljaw hummed, feeling the righteous victory flowing already, even before he finished his good work. "This world is what matters to me! I can rule over it in the name of all Decepticons. Once this activates, I will have all I desire, then maybe I will release-"
He heard the smallest of metallic tinkering over the Voice's griping. The sound had interrupted his grand victory speech. That hadn't been him, or the Voice. Steeljaw stopped, pointed audio receptors twitching. He narrowed his optics, standing ever so slowly from his work. The broadcasting device and EMP bomb had been leaned against a boxy construct attached to the tower for some human purpose. That was where the noise came from.
Steeljaw slammed the portion of building away, unveiling a cluster of shocked and terrified little Autobots who had been hiding behind it. "Ah, of course this wouldn't have been simple!" Steeljaw laughed. Among the interlopers was one of the little bots he had seen before. The light teal one with scared green optics. "You're little Dino friend is busy below… Nothing left to save you this time. But at least you brought more friends for me to snuff."
He noticed the infestation of humans just at that moment, all tinkering in the wiring of the back of the device. He recognized one of these humans too… His cracked optic lens pulsing as the human took aim and fired at his faceplates for the second time that cycle. Steeljaw protected his faceplates, intending to wait the little creature out. It would run out of ammunition like before. Then he would crush them.
His chassis protested in the face of a sudden and painful jolt. The human shot again, and he was hit with another zap. Steeljaw retreated with confused alarm. He zoomed in on the Cybertronian addition melded to the outdated weapon. That had to go!
"Vermin!" He snatched off a chunk of the building and hurled it at the humans. He would fix whatever damage it did to the device after he had crushed the organic filth.
The orange Autobot jumped into the projectiles path. He must have been built for construction because he smashed it into pebbles with a fist. The other two leapt in to shield the humans. Their fear was still palpable, but they were steadfast, little optics glaring at him.
"Then you all wish to fall this way?" Steeljaw snarled at the tiny fledgling bots. He stomped forward, claws ready to render them to pieces. They stood their ground. "At least you can say you were loyal in your broken ideologies until the end."
The littlest blue bot, the one with helicopter rotors on her back plating lost her glare. She was beholding him, not in fear, but more… intrigue. Maybe not even him. She was trying to glimpse around him. "That's real intimidating and all, but should we maybe have this fight when you don't have company over?" She asked.
W-what?
The woosh of rotors, followed by the sudden STOMP STOMP STOMP echoed behind him. It gave Steeljaw just enough warning to spin around in time to see Thunderhoof charging right at him.
"NAC!" Thunderhoof bellowed, jutting his antlers forward to try and spear Steeljaw through. He snatched his staff from the machine and managed to roll out of the way.
"How are you still online!?" Steeljaw snarled as he backed away from the fuming Con.
Thunderhoof snorted through his vents like a raging animal. So, then they were beyond talking this out.
"That would be my handy work," volunteered a stranger's voice.
Steeljaw risked a glance. The little blue Autobot appeared very happy too. Casually laid out along a jutting piece of the building was that crazy bot who had been picking off the arial forces while blasting a hideous collection of local music. He currently still had his servo raised, just in case Steeljaw hadn't noticed him. The one opticed Autobot appeared very intent on receiving the credit, "I saw him plummeting, as Cons who can't fly tend to do, and I thought… Wow, that one Con pushed that other Con, and I should just let him splat on the ground… Buuuut I do kind of wanna see where this goes. So, I dropped him back off here."
Steeljaw grabbed Thunderhoof by the antlers mid charge. He slid backwards, pushed toward the edge of the tower.
"I's surrounded by nacs and back stabbers! Yous is gonna say hi to the ground next, Jaws!" Thunderhoof huffed, shoving him closer to his doom.
"You are blinded by your own inflated confidence, brother!" Steeljaw managed to shake him loose by throwing himself out of the way before he was hurled off the building. Thunderhoof spun around to charge again, but Steeljaw was quicker. He aimed the staff for his charging ex-ally. Even with its dwindling power, the blast knocked Thunderhoof backwards. It sent him smashing along the roof and almost rolling back off to his death. He didn't stand again, servo and limp helm hanging off the edge.
He heard the copter transforming to jump back into action. Steeljaw wheeled around and fired again. The power of the weapon was desperately depleted, but it still hit its mark. The Autobot went down, not unconscious like Thunderhoof but at least incapacitated.
The littlest Bot gasped and rushed to her crazed friend. Amusingly, the other two little bots had broken off to pull Thunderhoof's dead weight up from the edge before he rolled the rest of the way off. They were taking the high ground to the end. Steeljaw found that disgustingly endearing.
He straightened, huffing from his vents, "Well now… I had a whole grand speech planned and everything. Then you all came and interrupted. Where was I?" He panned slowly back to the humans clustered around his device. He gave them a playful smile, "That's right. I remember."
The vermin scattered. Even the armed one who cracked his optic left his post. Whatever tampering they had intended was unfinished. He assumed so anyway because the device continued to hum with energy. He knelt to link the staff back into the machine. He could feel it had so little power left. But it had just enough for this. "My ambition, my vision, is the last to endure. I will rule this world. And no Autobots or Gods will stand in my way!"
The machine buzzed with the boost of power, and Steeljaw felt the excitement of victory course through him. "Now, one last thing to deal with before I take my place among legend…" He snatched at the humans still standing to close, "I can think of no better way to wait for my plan's completion but to squash you interlopers!"
He almost had them. He managed to endure the zap of the augmented gun and reached out to snatch up the closest human in a crushing grasp.
He stumbled to a stop when a fire red chassis crashed right into his path.
Heatwave
The kids were in trouble. From his lookout at the top of the main tower, he saw Hoist, Whirl, and Wedge standing off with Steeljaw to protect their human friends.
He started running for the edge without a second thought. He slammed the side of his helm to activate his commlink. "Secundus, open a Bridge at my location! Send me to the Recruits!"
He jumped off the edge. He was in free fall for mere moments, but it felt like an eternity as he saw Steeljaw closing in. The green light of the Spacebridge opened at his peds to engulf him. He landed hard in a crouch, cracking the cement roof of the second building in front of a very startled Decepticon.
Heatwave stood, glaring at the stalking Con and flaring out his aura as if his energy field alone could rip Steeljaw apart. But he called on all the restraint he had and stood his ground. He remained a blockade, protecting those behind him. He wasn't alone in the task for long. Boulder's massive form stumbled through his own Groundbridge, soon followed by Chase. Blades arrived on the wind, transforming and standing guard next to Hoist and Wedge who had been trying to save an unconscious Thunderhoof from plummeting to his death.
Jumping from the cloaked Sigma as it reappeared was Quickshadow with Brushfire on her heels. A stunning weapon buzzed in Quickshadow's clutches, her glare daring the Con to move so she could use it.
Steeljaw spun around, snarling like the cornered animal he was.
"Stand. Down." Heatwave ordered. He shifted out his water cannons, energized them, then aimed them at Steeljaw, "Final warning."
Steeljaw grit his fanged denta and returned his own poisonous glare. His mouth plates twitched. Beyond that, he didn't dare to move. He was trying to calculate his way out of the mess he had gotten himself in.
Then he started to laugh. It began forced and quiet. It soon morphed into a haunting bellow of pure confidence. "You're a little late for a grand entrance, Autobot! I'm afraid my victory is already at hand!"
The Broadcasting and EMP bomb reeled with a jolt of energy. An aura of blue light spinning around the top antenna flared. A tell tail sign it was ready to rip down all of human civilization.
"I've called my final wave." He cackled, spinning around to face as many of them as he could. "I've been building my own forces… They will be here any moment to destroy you all! But at least you will survive long enough to witness the beginning of my rule, and this planet's subjugation!" Steeljaw cried out in victory as the machine shook with impending doom.
The machine choked with a sudden wheeze. The light went back down, until it was dark, the strange weapon Steeljaw had affixed into the front panel the only part of it retaining any light. It had stopped, as had Steeljaw's victorious laughter.
The Decepticon appeared the one most shocked, but he was in good company. All eyes and optics remained fixed on the now silent and smoking machine.
Brushfire snorted a little laugh from her vents and broke the silence, "Well crikey. That was a bit anticlimactic."
"What in all of the deepest pits did you do?!" Steeljaw roared, his anger aimed at the cluster of humans.
"Not me directly," Graham admitted. He adjusted his glasses and went to reference his work pad as if ready to start a class lecture. "I didn't have the right equipment with me to shut it down. I just affixed the broadcasting machine with a remote link for someone else to log into its main subroutine. Not that complicated."
"Here," Frankie pulled out a holographic display from her bag and threw it between Heatwave and Steeljaw. He jerked as it rolled to a stop. "They will be able to explain it a lot better," Frankie dialed her cell phone. Her call linked up with the holographic display and a ringing phone projected in the center of the battlefield.
The image changed when whoever she was calling picked up their phone. Two young humans, both seen through their laptop cameras. Heatwave recognized them immediately, even if he had never had a direct conversation with them. Cody and Frankie had. And exchanged phone numbers, clearly. They were from the Autobot base when they saw Team Prime off to Cybertron. Before all the Decepticon nonsense exploded into their daily lives.
"Well, all of the tech grid didn't explode, so that must mean it worked," said the girl in the hologram. Rhea, Heatwave recalled her name being. The girl who was friends with the secret breaking Decepticon.
"Worked like a charm!" Cody reported with a thumbs up, "Thanks again guys. I know this was short notice…"
"Hey, thanks for getting the remote link in place," the other teen, Rapheal said from his computer. He adjusted his glasses up the bridge of his nose, much like Graham did often.
"It looks dark. What time is it over there?" A second girl flopped into the frame of Rapheal's image, trying to get a good look. "You're in Australia, right? It's like, late afternoon over here!"
"That is how time zones work, Miko," sighed a second male teen right out of frame. "You go back to Japan like, every few months. You never noticed the jet lag?"
Miko blew that off, "Please, I don't need planes anymore. That's what Groundbridges are for."
Steeljaw exploded with a ferocious snarl. The humans in the hologram looked at him when he tried slashing at their image, and of course just waved right through. "You insects dare to stand in the way of my greatness!?"
Rhea turned to fix him with a very pointed look, "Dude. What is your actual issue? Could you have chosen the worst possible time to channel your inner dictator? The Autobot's and Decepticon's are trying to do a peace thing here."
"More of this rubbish?" Steeljaw started to hiss. "I will never believe-"
"What actually are you?" Rhea interrupted. She cocked a brow, her eyes studying him in scrutinizing detail, "Are you even Cybertronian?"
Steeljaw finally looked taken aback, "Y-yes? Why wouldn't I be?" he demanded.
"You kind of look like a wolf," Rhea said.
"He does, doesn't he?" Rapheal agreed. "I wasn't going to say anything, but yeah he really does."
"Is that normal?" Miko butted in, pressing too close to Rapheal's screen. It made her hologram distort and magnify her nostrils. "He's got like, a tail and everything. Like a Cybertronian werewolf pretty boy."
Rapheal sort of pushed Miko away from the camera, "Actually, it wouldn't be a 'werewolf.' The word, 'wer' is derived from the old word 'man' so that makes, man-wolf. It would be more accurate to call him Cyberwolf or-"
"NERD ALERT!" Miko proclaimed, flopping on the couch next to Rapheal.
"You know what? This is rude. We're judging," Rhea realized with a sigh, "Let's just shut the machine down the rest of the way for good measure. Overloading the power core should do the trick…"
"No!" Steeljaw stumbled forward as if he could somehow stop them without touching them, "This world will be for all Decepticons to be free! Two insignificant organics cannot take this from me!"
Miko leaned in again with a scoff, "Go back to Cybertron, wolf boy! That's what its for!"
"Cybertron is gone, you human fool!"
The teens went quiet. They exchanged confounded glances before coming back to look past Steeljaw, focused now on Heatwave. "How long have you guys been dealing with this?" Rhea asked seriously.
"The whole time," Heatwave huffed a tired vent. And he was soon not the only one to air their grievances over the situation.
Multiple weeks of secrets and frustrations burst out, with Blade's taking the lead, "They don't believe the war is over! We've told them about a million times!"
"They've set miles of the Australian outback on fire," Boulder grumbled.
"I can attest ta it," Brushfire added bitterly.
"They have not paid any mind to the posted speed limits of any region!" Chase said with an indignant huff.
Ok, now they were getting a bit off track, so Heatwave stepped forward to conclude the update, "We have most of the Con's contained. This one here is one of the last hold outs."
It was around this time Thunderhoof was coming back around. Boulder and Chase had to jump to stop him from getting up and charging at Steeljaw again, "Toss me off a buildin' then zap me?" He shouted at Steeljaw and struggled against Chase and Boulder, "Imma send you straight to the pits from here!"
Blades, who had helped pull him back up and kept him from falling now gave the betrayed Con a mischievous smile, "So he pulled off a deceptive-CON if you will? You didn't have anything that hinted he may be lying to you?"
Thunderhoof glared daggers at him. But maybe he got the point because he stopped talking.
"Alright…" Rhea said while taking all that in. She looked back to Steeljaw with a disappointed shake of her head, "I'm going to patch you guys through to Soundwave. I assume you'll believe him. You wait right there, Jacob Black."
"Again, with this Soundwave scrap!" Steeljaw snarled at her. She wasn't listening as he continued to scream. She carried on typing away on her laptop and ignoring him.
The approaching sound of jets zeroed in. As Steeljaw promised, his 'final wave' came circling, transforming, and hovering on their boosters. About twenty arial Decepticons were ready to continue the fight.
Steeljaw pointed a sharp digit at the holographic girl and laughed victoriously. She still didn't acknowledge him, "The war is raging on, and we shall win it! As if some human would even be able to speak with-"
Before the new Cons could attack, or Steeljaw could finish his sentence, a third screen popped up between that of the two humans. And despite what Steeljaw alleged to be impossible, it certainly was the Decepticon lord, Soundwave.
Heatwave had never seen a more Con looking Decepticon in his life. Dark, foreboding optics that looked sharp enough to cut a black hole to the core. Mouth plates pursed line thin and a gaze that could probably kill. Blades had been correct. Objectively, he was scary as the pits.
Scary or not, Rhea had his unhindered attention as she started talking. "Sorry to bother you, Soundwave. I know you have been busy with cease fire negotiations. But apparently a group of Decepticons crash landed on Earth and the Rescue Bots patrolling in Team Prime's place have had one hell of a time getting them to not make total idiots out of themselves in front of the whole planet."
Soundwave remained stoic, but intently listening.
On their side of the universe, Heatwave wondered if Steeljaw was going to collapse backwards from shock. And it wasn't just him. Steeljaw's backup who just arrived for a final showdown took turns landing like rocks onto their peds. They were all gob smacked, forgetting any notion of fighting as the reality they had all been denying about the war came to hit them right over the helms.
"Holy scrap," Thunderhoof cursed. His own optics were as wide as over inflated tires, "They wasn't kiddin'."
Big Whirl was laughing so hard he was almost falling off the roof. He was already uneasy on his peds from the blast he took, which didn't help. Their small Whirl had to hold him somewhat steady, so he didn't kill himself laughing.
But no one was more stunned than Steeljaw. He could only stare, jaw hinge hanging open in total shock.
"That's at least all I know," Rhea admitted after bringing the Decepticon leader into the loop.
Cody and Frankie hurriedly stepped forward to fill in the rest. They were talking over one another and wasting no time at all tattle-taling on the Cons around them right to the big Con himself.
"This has almost undone all the progress we made to calm the people of Earth down!" Frankie explained.
"They attacked a nuclear power plant and almost eradiated a whole city!" Cody added.
"They've tried to kill us so many times I've lost count!"
"They almost killed Hotshot and Chop Shop!"
"They set Australia on fire! Did we mention that yet?"
"They won't believe us that the war is over!"
Until then, the Decepticon Lord had been silent as stone. First listening to Rhea's explanation, then Cody and Frankie's emotional rant. Heatwave wondered if he even was paying attention. It was hard to tell. His expression was an emotionless mask.
Finally, he stirred. Soundwave's gaze panned away from the humans, his expression twisting down until the most horrifying glare was affixed to a now trembling Steeljaw. "In a moment," he hissed with a voice deeper than the Mariana trench and just as dark, "I will be opening a Spacebridge to the Kaon Capital back on Cybertron. Once it opens, you will all go through it without a single complaint."
A portal burst open behind Steeljaw, making him and all the other Con's present jump.
"NOW!" Soundwave snarled.
"Yes sir!" Steeljaw agreed meekly. He fumbled to a stop before entering the portal. He almost looked like he intended to run away instead of facing whatever awaited them on the other side. No, he wasn't running. He had nearly forgotten his weapon in his previous haste. Steeljaw snatched his staff from inside the broadcasting device and quickly subspaced it away. Then with optics downcast, he hurried into the Spacebridge along with the others who once came to support him. His assumed leadership now dried up in the face of an actual lord who looked like he could kill them all with his gaze alone and from across the universe. Even Thunderhoof limped into the bridge, shaking off Boulder's offer to help.
Heatwave's commlink activated with an external frequency. A Decepticon frequency.
/To all Decepticons marooned on Earth,/ Soundwave's voice boomed in his helm. And it would be doing so in every Con's comm too, /This is Soundwave, ordering you to stand down immediately. Broadcast your current location on the Decepticon frequency, and a Spacebridge will be sent to your location. This is not a choice. Return to Kaon./
The order was very effective.
Under Secundus's cloak, the sound of struggle and hold out gunfire ceased. Then the green portals started popping up. No Decepticon argued. Those still conscious appeared very happy to leave.
"Thanks for the help," Rhea's voice snapped Heatwave back to reality. She was talking to Soundwave again. His terrifying presence didn't appear to bother her. His once harsh gaze had softened when he focused on her again. He gave her thanks a simple nod. "How are things going with the peace talk?" She went on to ask casually.
"Adequate," Soundwave offered, voice soft now, like a haunting whisper, "I will see you again soon when deliberations are over."
"Oh really? I thought you were still banished from Earth forever?" Rhea reminded him with an arched brow.
The ghost of a smile graced the Con leader's lips before his image vanished.
"WHY did we not do that the first day?!" Wedge shouted. But he wasn't really heard over the sounds of victory among their teammates. In fact, Whirl tackled Wedge in a crushing embrace, soon snatching Hoist in the hug before he could escape. Then big Whirl snuck up to hug all three of them, lifting them off the ground.
Cody and Frankie bid a gracious thank you to Rhea and Rapheal before the phone hung up and their images vanished. They too joined in the celebration. Cody even rushed to his dad and basically demanded he teach him how to shoot like him. Frankie was calling her dad excitedly to fill him in. Blades had just decided to lay on the ground and moan.
Heatwave found himself laughing. He felt mad like Whirl's killer friend who shared her name, but at this point who cared. His chassis ached; his helm was spinning from the few good hits he received. He looked forward to a very long recharge. But taking in the rubble and piles of Decepticons needing to be thrown through the portal's curtesy of Soundwave, he knew there was a lot to do before he could land faceplate first onto a berth.