Previously...
Decepticon Earth Base
"You what!" Megatron shouted at Starscream as the Seeker commander cowered behind Blackout's larger frame.
Blackout stepped out of the way. He crossed his arms over his chest as he stood next to Soundwave and watched the beating take place.
Megatron grabbed Starscream by the head and threw him into the ground, he kicked him and sent the Seeker flying into the throne.
"I managed to secure the energon," Starscream muttered, "Is that not what matters?"
"And yet with superior numbers you still did not manage to even attempt to combat the enemy!" Megatron shouted.
Starscream curled into a ball as Megatron raised his arm and transformed his hand into his energon flail. The chained weapon fell down to the ground and just as he was about to swing Soundwave interrupted.
"Lord Megatron, we have a hailing," Soundwave said.
Megatron returned his arm to its unarmed state and turned around. He glared at his communications officer, he stepped forward and sighed.
"From whom?"
"Counterpunch, he wishes us to let him into the fortress," Soundwave answered.
Megatron then glanced at the display monitor Barricade was manning, it showed the front of their fortress and in front of the camera was a small Decepticon sending his homing beacon into the air.
The Decepticon had a nervous expression in his optics as he gazed into the camera, it was like Megatron and him were locking eyes at this very moment.
The Decepticon was named Counterpunch, and he had not been seen in quite some time.
Two Weeks Ago
Nebulous
The Ark
Hot Rod sat at the communications deck with his head in his hands, he stared blankly into the screen. It had been two solar weeks since he had heard anything from Prime's crew.
In Earth terms, that was one month.
"Hot Rod, you can't keep hogging the radio sat," Blaster muttered from behind him, "With The Voyager's communications down I need to be able to contact Star Saber if the Decepticons advance any further."
"Right," Hot Rod said, "Send your daily communication with the Victory."
He got up out of the chair and Blaster sat down in his place and linked up to the console, he turned and gave Hot Rod a sad look.
"I'm sure Prime and the others are fine," Blaster tried to reassure him.
Hot Rod nodded and walked off onto the bridge to speak with Ironhide and Magnus. The two were discussing the lack of Decepticon activity in the past couple months.
No mining, no seizing of new territory, no attacks on garrisons on the ground. It was way too quiet, especially since Jolt had watched a cargo ship from Luna 9 supply the Revenge with energon.
They had the resources it seemed.
"Hot Rod," Magnus said, "Any input?"
"Shockwave and Onslaught are being weird, this has not changed in weeks," Hot Rod said disinterestedly, "Why do we keep reiterating it?"
"We have to keep ourselves apri-" Ultra Magnus said.
"Enough with it!" Hot Rod shouted, "In all reality we lost Nebulous months ago, I don't know why we don't pull our losses and regroup on Earth with Prime, considering Punch just informed us that ye' old bucket head is on that world."
"We can't allow Shockwave to subjectgate the Nebulons." Ultra Magnus answered, "As for your tone, I don't know who you think you're speaking to."
"I'm speaking to you," Hot Rod spat, "Saber can take care of things here, send the Ark back."
"Only when Nebulous is secure," Ultra Magnus said, "And furthermore, how do we know that and it pains me to say this, that Prime and his team haven't been taken offline?"
"The fact that that is even a question is precisely why we need to go back," Hot Rod answered.
"Hot Rod," Ironhide warned.
"Sorry that Megatron being on the same planet as Prime when Prime has only six other troops concerns me more than Shockwave does right now," Hot Rod said.
"I'm not saying I disagree, but until Star Saber arrives on Nebulous, we can't leave." Ironhide answered, "I can't in good faith leave only the Voyager crew here when Shockwave has an entire fleet in orbit."
"Jazz!" Hot Rod shouted to the Autobot who had just entered the room.
"If it might help us with this dilemma, Punch just came back from his spy mission on Cybertron." Jazz answered, "Just got done briefing him."
"And what news from that front," Magnus asked.
"Only that Sixshot's forces have pretty much run out of fuel, and were swatted when they tried taking A3 out of Autobot HQ, Elita One should have no problem rounding them up at G-9," Jazz said.
Ultra Magnus nodded, he looked at Primes top three, Ironhide, Jazz and Hot Rod. They were tired of being on Nebulous. But he needed them here. He then looked back at Jazz.
"Tell Punch to return to the bridge, I'm sending him to The Nemesis."
Three Days Ago
Earth
Just outside Seattle, WA
The old Autobot base
A small Autobot ship landed in the woods outside the cave. It was roughly 3:00 in the morning, the air was crisp and had a faint moisture in it.
The night was quiet, except for the rustling in the tree of animals scurrying away from the landing craft.
Once on the ground the cockpit opened and a ladder came out on its side. An average sized mech stepped out and down onto the ground. He stood up and looked around.
Punch, the yellow and blue Autobot approached the door of the base, which appeared to be in bulkhead mode and cut open. Curious he had thought. He activated the lights on his chest and stepped forward into the hole.
He crawled through into the main room of Prime's old base and his gaze wandered over to a lightbox which he quickly turned on. There was not much power inside, but at least enough to have the light on.
Blaster holes lined the walls, as well as tire marks and dried up energon. He looked down at his feet and saw the body of Dropkick. The Decepticon lay there with an eternal gasp on his face and a hole in his forehead.
He stepped over the corpse and walked over to the main computer, where on his way he nearly tripped over another body. This was Crosshairs. He gasped.
"No,"
He knelt down and lay a hand on his comrades cold and limp shoulder. His body was scorched and fried, his mouth hung agape screaming in pain forever and his once blue optics were empty and stared off into the abyss.
Punch sighed, he rested Crosshairs on his back and folded his arms over his chest, closed his comrade's mouth and eyes and whispered a blessing to Primus.
He then stepped away and towards the computer, he powered it on, which then turned off the lights. He hoped that the Con's had not wiped the drive on here. He was dismayed to learn that they had.
"Hmm," He said, as a thought ruminated in his mind. He extend the base and approached his ship. After climbing into its cockpit he hit a small button on its control panel which activated a holo-projector… transforming the ship into a Decepticon vessel.
Present Day:
Somewhere outside Seattle
Cliffjumper sat in vehicle mode on a mound outside the city, overlooking an arena where large trucks and cars were flipping and crushing things beneath them…
He quite enjoyed watching it. What he did not enjoy was Emily and her friend, Mariah, sitting on his hood and spilling soda and food on his paint. He was not a vain bot by any means but… it was irritating since he had just gotten a wash down.
"And seriously Jack took her Greece with them, just because," Mariah spat, "Guess his parents don't mind taking his girlfriends with them on family vacations, because guess what"
"What?"Emily asked.
"I asked his sister, and she told me that they were going to buy me a ticket to their trip to Japan last year but he told them not to," Mariah said, "Said that he had already asked me and that I told him no, he never mentioned the trip to me until he boarding the plane!"
"The hell," Emily gasped.
IS this what teenage girls typically do? Cliffjumper thought to himself… eat junk food and talk garbage about people they don't speak to anymore? Hardly seems like a good use of time.
But what did he know, he was sitting there watching a monster truck rally instead of scouting for energon like he had told Prime he was going to go and do.
As he was pondering this, he heard a rustling in the trees behind them. The girls heard it too and turned their heads. Emily narrowed her eyes and saw two large masses, roughly Cliffjumper's size in robot mode.
She also saw the glowing of two red visors. Decepticons, she thought to herself.
Mariah went on to continue her story, not noticing that they were in any danger. Emily tapped three times on Cliffjumper's hood. That was their code.
Twice for suspecting a threat, and three times if she had a visual if his back was turned.
Cliffumper adjusted his side view mirror and saw the two forms. It was mistakenly Runamuck and Runabout. He'd recognize them anywhere.
He silently watched as the two mechs grew closer.
"Hey, do you hear something?" Mariah asked. She turned her head and gasped loudly as she watched two giant robots emerge from the trees. Both of them shone their headlights at Cliff i vehicle mode and the two human girls.
"Scrap," Runamuck said, "Spectators."
"Not for long," Runabout chuckled, he transformed his left arm into a blaster and aimed it right at the terrified humans on the hood of the muscle car.
Wickenburg, AZ
Punch, in his disguise as Counterpunch, sat in his ship as he flew over the small desert town, he stopped his ship midair and hovered. He turned on his ship's computer terminal and scanned the area.
He was shocked to see the amount of energon that this planet contained, even in just this desert.
"Strange, no wonder Megatron is setting up camp here," He muttered to himself, he then turned his frequency to a Decepticon channel, and started scanning.
"I'm close, very close," He said, his query, the Decepticon base on earth was only about forty miles to the north east of his current location just north of Lake Pleasant.
He then cloaked and landed his ship by the highway and watched as the cars went by. If he was going to be on this planet for a while, best to be incognito.
He waited for a moment, watching each vehicle to assess which would be a suitable shape according to the robot mode schematics of both his Autobot and Decepticon robot forms.
Then he spotted the one, as it raced off into the night he scanned it, once he was sure no one would be able to see him he hopped onto the road and transformed into a 1986 Pontiac Fiero and raced off eastward to the coordinates he had set from the Con's homing beacon.
Seattle
"Cliff!" Emily shouted, before Mariah could express her confusion, she and Emily were thrusted off of Cliffjumper's hood as he shifted into his robot mode and tanked the blaster bolt that the battlecharger fired right on his back.
"Autobot!" Runamuck shouted, taking a step back.
"Not really trying to fight right now boys, but you're interrupting tonight's entertainment," Cliffjumper snarled, he transformed his right arm into his hammer and swung at the Decepticon duo.
Runamuck ducked under the right hook, letting it crash into his brother's face. He then jumped up and punched Cliffjumper in the side of the head.
Cliff reeled back and kicked Runamuck in the chest, he then grabbed Runabout's wrist as the black mech went to punch him out.
He yanked him forwards and threw him into his twin, sending the pair crashing onto their backsides.
Cliff looked over his shoulder for a moment to check on the girls, who had run off and crouched behind a tree. Then right before he was about to approach them, a foot collided with his shin and sent him down to the floor.
He crouched down and as he was trying to get back up, Runamuck grabbed Cliff by the horns and kneed him in the face.
Cliff fell backwards and used the momentum to roll over back to his feet. He transformed his arms into blasters and fired at the Decepticons, he hit Runabout in the shoulder and completely missed Runamuck.
Cliff transformed his left arm into a hammer and swung it at Runamuck as the battlecharger rushed him. He then kicked at his knee and pushed him onto the ground and pushed him with the barrel on one of his cannons.
He went to fire before Ruabout grabbed his arm and yanked him into a left hook right in the face.
"Cliffjumper!" Emily shouted as she watched her metal friend crash into the ground.
"Emily what the hell is going on?" Mariah whimpered, looking up from the ball she had curled herself into.
Decepticon HQ
Maricopa, AZ
Counterpunch kneeled before Megatron in the darkened control room of his underground fortress. His head hung low as Megatron and Soundwave conspired before him.
Counterpunch. He's supposed to be on Cybertron. With SixShot.
"No one has heard from Sixshot's unit in half a decacycle," Starscream mused, "Rumors that most of them are in G9 or dead."
"What of SixShot himself?" Megatron asked, he turned to Counterpunch and glared, "My loyal Decepticon."
Counterpunch's optics widened, he tried not to show his fear. Coming here may have been a mistake. He looked up at Megatron.
"In a cell in level nine, I watched the Wrecker known as Whirl drag him away myself," He answered.
"Whirl is a powerful Autobot, seems reasonable he might have had the chance to best SixShot in combat," Megatron sneered.
"He had the help of Bulkhead," Counterpunch answered, lying straight through his teeth. So to speak.
"That begs the question," Megatron pondered, no longer looking at the 'Decepticon' before him, "Of, how were you able to evade capture?"
"It was not easy," Counterpunch yarned… recounting a false tale of his escape, "We approached Elita One's encampment on the outskirts of Iacon, intent on capturing Alpha Trion."
"We were sure we outnumbered them, 49 to 33, close but not impossible, probable even. What we were not expecting was Star Saber returning to Cybertron."
"Your ambush, got ambushed?" Starscream questioned.
"Somehow, Star Saber had been informed that our forces would soon try and take the ancient Autobot alive, he steered both the Victory and the Xantium back to Cybertron. We were outnumbered 82 to 49."
"We know that much based on Mirage's report," Soundwave said, "You have yet to explain your survival and freedom."
"And how you completely bypassed Nebulous on your way to Earth," Starscream snarled.
"Easy, would you care to answer us that Counterpunch?" Megatron asked.
"When it was clear I could not battle my way out, I allowed the Autobots to damage my frame enough to look fatal, then made the risky decision to fall into stasis, where I would remain for weeks," He answered.
"When I woke in the rubble, I received a pre-recorded transmission from SixShot ordering any of his men who remained online and uncaptured, to report directly to you here on Earth. No exceptions."
"Then why are you the only one who has surfaced?" Barricade growled from the back.
"I, regret to say, I am possibly and most likely all that remains of SixShot's Decepticons," Counterpunch sighed.
Barricade continued to glare at him as Megatron waved Scrapper over to them.
"See to it that any remaining injuries are addressed and settle him in the barracks for now," Megatron ordered the Constructicon.
"Yes sir," Scrapper said as Counterpunch stood to his feet, he grabbed the smaller mech by the arm and clutched it tightly in his large hand. He said not a word, but Punch knew.
He was not trusted.
Nor was he safe.
Seattle
Emily and Mariah ran under the leg of Runamuck as he kicked Cliffjumped down to the ground. In the past several minutes Shatter showed up so now Cliff was decidedly on the losing end of this altercation.
Not that he recognized it.
"Is that," He panted as he tried to collect himself, "All you pit bound- sc- pit bound scavengers got?"
"Give up Autobot," Shatter said, she then shot him in the back sending him crashing onto the ground.
"Only after you kiss my shiny metal-"
Emily stumbled behind a boulder and pulled Mariah down with her, who curled into a ball once more. Emily pulled out her phone and started typing in a number.
"Come on, come on," She begged.
"So you mean to tell me your car is an alien robot, here collecting fuel to go back home," Mariah asked, "Who are you calling!?"
"That would be the cliffnotes for sure," Emily said, she looked up and saw Cliff tackle Runamuck and shoot Shatter in the knee. Doing a little better now that he's pissed.
"And I'm calling back up."
"Back up? There's more of them?"
*Who is this? How did you get this telephone number?* Prowl's voice echoed on Emily's phone.
"Oh my god Prowl, I never thought I'd be so happy to hear your annoying nasally voice," Emily laughed.
*Emily Henderson, did I not tell you that the Autobot line is for emergencies only?* Prowl asked.
"Yeah, that would be the only reason I'd call, Cliffjumper and I just got attacked by the Battlechargers, and now Shatter's here," She said.
*Understood, Wheeljack fire up the groundbridge. I'm triangulating Cliffjumper's position!* Prowl shouted before cutting communication.
"Did he say how long they'd take?" Mariah asked.
"No, but by his tone I figure it will be in," Emily said, and before she finished her sentence a green portal opened in front of the girls and four giant robots ran out of it.
"Are you two alright?" Arcee asked the two humans as she knelt down before them.
Optimus, Prowl and Hot Shot then charged the Decepticons. Hot Shot tackled Shatter down to the ground and punched her in the face.
Optimus grabbed Cliffjumper's battered and injured frame and dragged him back as Prowl and Hot Shot fell back firing on the Decepticons.
"Autobots, we have our friends, fallback!" Optimus shouted.
Arcee grabbed Mariah and Emily and ran through the ground bridge first, Hot Shot followed behind firing his twin blasters on his way out. Prowl saw fit to fire his shoulder cannons at Shatter as she tried to rush them.
He stayed back as Prime carried a kicking and screaming Cliffjumper off of the battlefield.
Prowl then smirked at the Decepticons as he then backflipped through the space bridge as it closed around him.
"Scrap!" Runamuck spat.
Autobot Base
Prowl walked off of the ground bridge platform and chuckled to himself as he watched Hot Shot and Prime try to sit Cliff down on the medical slab for Wheeljack to look at him.
"I had them, I am telling you, I was gonna bring a Decepticon prisoner home online and two in a box!" Cliffjumper whined as he tried to get back up. Optimus pushed him back down and sighed concerndley.
Hot Shot laughed.
"Dude, three to one, and you were blindsided by each of them," Hot Shot chuckled.
"That's kind of not fair," Danny objected, "I don't think you would've done better."
"Not saying I would, but I would have called for back up earlier," Hot Shot said, throwing his hands up in the 'I guess' gesture and walking away to watch whatever it was the human boys were watching.
Mariah looked around in awe, her gaze fell on Prowl, who when he entered chuckled at Cliff and the situation then not even a micro second later hardened his face and reported to the computer.
She then turned to Optimus who was looking down on her.
"Cliffjumper, I see you have brought us another friend," Prime chuckled. He knelt down, Mariah stepped back, unsettled by the titan's kind face.
"What, what are you?" She asked.
"My name is Optimus Prime, what is yours," He asked.
"Mariah Williams," She answered.
"Well, Ms. Williams, I and my team here are Autonomous Robotic Organisms from the planet Cybertron." He said, "We are here on a mission to find a lost relic of our people sent to your planet and protect it from the Decepticons."
"The other robots, the ones who attacked us," Emily said.
"We've been at war with them for 4 million years," Optimus said, "It ravaged our homeworld forcing us to advance our space fairing technology and take to the stars."
"Why are you at war?" Mariah asked.
"That is a long and complicated story but in short over the control of a rare resource once thought unique to Cybertron, energon." Optimus said.
"And unfortunately for our planet, they found some here, buried deep in the crust," Emily said.
"Won't you hold still," Wheeljack muttered as Cliff continued to jerk his arm away from him and his repair torch.
"I'm telling you it's fine, Shatter really didn't get me that good," Cliffjumper sulked
"Right, our one bot army didn't get nailed in a major artery," Arcee said, she sat down on the medical slab next to him and held his hand as Wheeljack prepared to put on the clamp.
Crack!
Cliff squeezed Arcee's hand and pain shot all over his facial expression.
"One bot army, that my friend you are not," Wheeljack chuckled.
"Don't remind me," Cliff said, he then stood up, letting go of Arcee's hand and walking away, refusing to let Wheeljack continue the repairs. He transformed into Camaro mode and raced out of the base.
"Jackie," Arcee scolded.
"Sometimes bots gotta hear things they don't wanna," Wheeljack shrugged as he started to clean up the mess of energon on the floor.
Arcee watched the door as it closed and Cliff's taillights shrunk into the trees while he drove away. She prayed he wouldn't do anything rash.
Decepticon HQ
Counterpunch sat in the barracks in front of the computer, he had locked himself in the room… having told Scrapper he required privacy to mourn his fallen comrades on Cybertron.
He did not shift out of his Counterpunch disguise, and he encrypted the terminal before he logged on with a code stolen from Bitstream, Cybertron's best hacker, and given to him by Blaster for these missions.
He searched through the Decepticon database. He found files downloaded from the Autobot base before Soundwave wiped its drives.
"Prime, online, Prowl online, Cliff, online," He read the status of each of the Ark crew manifest. No discrepancies he could find, Soundwave even updated Crosshair's to being offlined.
This is all kept up to date. And Prime as far as Punch could find was alive.
He exited out of that, then into a private log by Megatron himself.
*Daily log from Earth, my eighth entry… most energon reserves on this world are too deep within its rocky crust to dig too through conventional means.*
Counterpunch narrowed his optics.
*I however have forged a hypothesis, since this rock is weaker than the metals of Cybertron, I theorize that a significant enough surge of concentrated energy should be able to atomize many layers of this planet's surface.*
Counterpunch switched to the next entry, then the next, he read Shockwave's notes on a device already created by humans with nearly a powerful enough yield.
*Hopefully I need not resort to such destructive means, soon Nebulous should be under Shockwave's control and he will be sending his troops aboard our nearly finished space bridge.*
Counterpunch then found the schematics for the space bridge. He studied each frame, note and blue print. He did not hear Ravage slip into the room and stand on his hind legs to open the door.
He did however hear the cocking of a rifle behind him.
"Step away from the computer," Barricade growled, aiming a blaster to his back with Rumble and Frenzy flanking his sides.
Counterpunch turned around and stood up with his hands in the air. He grimaced at the four Decepticons before him and transformed back into Punch.