29- Dark Emissary (part 2).
"Optimus, Optimus! Come on, Elita, wake up!"
Both Autobot leaders went back online, seeing Ratchet and Ultra Magnus in front of them.
The Autobot medic sighed in relief. "Thank the Allspark you two are alright. I found Ultra Magnus lying in the floor a couple steps from you."
"Ratchet, where are we?" Elita asked.
"The Sinjoh ruins, in Johto. Fortunately the big meteor which brought you back didn't crush you." He said helping them get up.
While the medic checked if the leaders required any treatment, Ultra Magnus took a look at whatever grabbed Optimus: surrounded by dark energon crystals, lied a huge white with black and purple touches cybertronian.
"Whoa, he's a big one, maybe the same size as Omega Supreme. Is this giant the source of the dark energon?" Ultra Magnus asked as he approached to examine him.
"Ultra Magnus, get back! He's dangerous!"
But Optimus's warning came too late: the giant cybertronian started to move his free hand and pushed away Ratchet and Magnus before trying to crush Optimus.
"The…the matrix!" He shouted as he hit the ground, sending Optimus and Elita backwards with a wave of energy.
"No, it can't be." Optimus said pulling out his cannons as he saw the big cybertronian, looking at him with his red eyes.
"Optimus, what's wrong? Who is him?" Elita asked concerned.
"I think he's one of Unicron's followers."
"What? Are...are you certain?" She asked, getting a serious look from her sparkmate, sign that he was certain. "We cannot let the Decepticons get control of this monster. It has to be destroyed here."
"I support that choice. Give us a nano click, we'll get over there and back you up." Ultra Magnus said by com-link.
Optimus and Elita started to fire at him, but looked like the giant's armor was stronger than they thought, which made him laugh.
"I will crush you!" The giant yelled.
"Your master is gone. There is no reason for you to fight."
"Optimus, it's pointless to try to reason with him." Elita argued.
"Target his head, that should weaken him!" Ratchet advised.
The Autobot leaders proceeded with Ratchet's strategy, but they also had to be aware of the cannon located on the giant's free hand, which charged and fired a huge purple blast. They dodged it, knowing it might be impregnated with dark energon, and cause as much damage as a turret of the Nemesis.
"Is that the best you can do?" The giant mocked.
The giant hit the ground hard, making his hand get stuck. That allowed Elita to inflict some damage to his hand with her swords.
"You! You did this to me! Prepare for meltdown!" The giant cursed before launching a dark energon fire beam from his mouth.
Optimus managed to deflect the beam with the Star Saber, protecting his sparkmate. "Who are you?"
"I…am…Thunderwing. I am Unicron's instrument of destruction!" The giant introduced himself before trying to crush Optimus another time.
Suddenly, Thunderwing received fire from above: it was the Nemesis, which was firing its turrets at him. The Autobots looked up and saw Xiaxus standing at the front of the ship's deck, looking down at them.
"Decepticons, attack!"
The warship started to bomb the area with its weapons, forcing Elita and Optimus to jump out of the area.
"Optimus, are you guys okay? Arcee and I are on our way." Hot Rod called suddenly through com-link.
"No Hot Rod, hold your position. We're about to bridge out of here." Elita stopped.
"Arcee, Hot Rod, you're alive. Thank Primus. Optimus, Magnus, Elita and I are on our way back." Ratchet reported.
"Optimus, the ground bridge is ready." Blaster said as he stood next to the portal, guarding it with his Minibots.
They saw the portal at the distance, but reaching it was not going to be easy, it was a long way for it: at the other end of the ruins. And the Decepticon warship was bombing the entire place.
"We need to make it to the other side the fastest we can. Autobots, roll out." Optimus declared as everyone changed to vehicle form.
"Nothing will keep Thunderwing from the matrix!"
"Let us show you the might of the Decepticons!" Darkscream shouted to the giant. "Concentrate your fire. Open every gun port!"
"Now is our chance. Let's get out of there while its busy fighting the Nemesis." Ultra Magnus advised.
One of the impacts made a blockade on their way, but Optimus managed to charge and bring it down. Unfortunately, some Vehicons decided to land and fire at them.
"Blaster, cover us." Elita requested.
The Autobot communication officer fired his sonic cannons, now upgraded thanks to the Resonance Blaster, at the Decepticons, pushing them out of the leaders' way.
They changed to robot form to jump up the wall under the portal, entering Blaster the first, followed by Optimus, Elita and Magnus. Ratchet was about to follow them, but a shot's impact sent him flying backwards. Optimus returned to help him, but since that Thunderwing was shooting back at the Nemesis, one of his shots impacted in front of Optimus, sending him into the ground bridge before it closed.
"Optimus, are you alright?" Elita asked going for his need.
"What happened back there?" Ash asked, reunited with the returned members of the gang.
"Ratchet didn't make it to the ground bridge. An impact sent him backwards." Optimus answered.
"Then I better go and take him back." Predaking offered.
"Is not a good idea, the place turned completely into a battlefield." Ultra Magnus objected.
"And what about the kids? The Cons may have them in their warship."
"We will take them back, Warpath. And Ratchet as well." Optimus swore.
"Looks like the Cons are retreating from the ruins, and the dark energon signals are gone as well." Fixit saw in the terminal.
"Do you think they took him with them?" Elita asked.
"Him? Who are you talking about?" Ritchie asked.
"The cybertronian we found inside the meteor composed of dark energon. The one who responds to the name of Thunderwing." Optimus revealed.
Back to the ruins the conflict already ended, even Thunderwing's crash site was clear, the titan was no more, and the Nemesis already took off back into the space. The reason: the Decepticons managed to transport an unconscious Thunderwing into the ship, now he was inside a huge chamber while the Decepticons finished removing the dark energon crystals around his body with the help of moving platforms, revealing he had huge engines on the shoulders and claws on his feet.
"Knock Out, your analysis." Xiaxus demanded.
"He's definitely incomplete. Once we pull him out of that meteorite, I'm afraid he'll look like a puzzle with pieces missing."
"Your ability to state the obvious staggers the imagination." Darkscream complained.
"Hmm, how intriguing. Most likely some of the missing components may have been embedded in fragments of the meteor that split off and fell in other locations." Shockblast deduced.
"I see. Wake him up." Xiaxus requested.
"Yes sir." Thundercracker nodded pressing a button.
That made Thunderwing to open his optics, and he took a look to his new surroundings. He also saw that his feet were chained by electric cuffs.
"I am Thunderwing. Release me immediately."
Darkscream steeped forward. "We are the Decepticons. I'm Darkscream, and these are my comrades Shockblast and Xiaxus, we are the leaders."
"Your names mean nothing to me. I exist only to destroy the matrix. Release me so that I may find its host and complete my mission." Thunderwing demanded as he hit the floor, near to Xiaxus, but he did not look surprised.
"Seems to me that you are in no position to make demands, Thunderwing. Ever if we did release you, your body has taken on too much damage to function. However, if you swear your loyalty to the Decepticons, then I promise you we will have you repaired and provide you with the opportunity to destroy the matrix. We have an enemy in common, I'm sure we all can benefit from this opportunity."
Thunderwing laughed at their offer. "You? Repair me? You cannot even comprehend how long I have existed. The technology of my construction is beyond your grasp."
"On the contrary. The knowledge of cybertronian physiology at our disposal is unparalleled. The Autobot Ratchet will assist us in restoring your full functionality." Shockblast explained as a door opened and a handcuffed Ratchet came in with the other Seekers forcing him, revealing that they captured him.
"You're out of your mind, Decepticreeps. I'll never cooperate with you again." Ratchet responded immediately.
"I would reconsider if I were you."
"What? Darkscream? Since when did you…?
Ratchet couldn't end his phrase because of what Darkscream showed him. He pointed to above them, revealing a chamber where the Insecticons took the four kids the Decepticons kidnapped, Clemont tried to cover his little sister, the same as May with Max.
"Oh no." Ratchet lamented.
"So be it." Thunderwing agreed. "But understand this, Decepticons: once the matrix is gone, my loyalty will return to my one true master: Unicron, the Destroyer."
"We shall see." Darkscream smirked before turning at his fellow Seekers. "Find all the locations where the fragments of the meteor fell to Earth."
Moments later, Sideswipe, Bumblebee, Smokescreen, Hot Rod, Arcee and Moonracer were inside the Kalos Canyon.
"Autobots, have you reached your destination?" Optimus asked through com-link.
"We're almost there. No sign of trouble, yet." Moonracer reported.
"Be on guard. Those Decepticon signals you're tracking are just ahead." Elita instructed.
"Intercepting and decoding them is our only hope of rescuing our friends." Blaster reminded.
"Looks like we already found them." Sideswipe said pointing at some Decepticon snipers guarding the entrance of a passage of the canyon.
"We Wreckers will stay ready in case for immediate mobilization." Ultra Magnus reported.
"Understood. You're having any luck?" Bumblebee asked.
"Warpath and we have arrived. It seems the Decepticons are after something buried in the ground here." Elita informed.
"I bet it is possibly something to do with that Thunderwing guy." Hot Rod deduced.
"We're moving in to investigate."
"Be careful back there, Optimus." Smokescreen wished.
"You too, my friends. Be careful."
"Okay, so any ideas to how to take care of those guys without sounding alarms and mess up everything?" Sideswipe asked.
"Hey, hey, we need help right here!" A Decepticon called, far that the ones the Autobots were seeing.
"Let's go, they need us." The squad leader announced before all went into the canyon.
"Looks like we don't have to worry about that." Hot Rod concluded.
The team followed the Cons' trail inside the canyon. Moonracer was the first one to reach the point, but she stopped suddenly after sighing in shock.
"Guys, look." She advised.
For when the Autobots arrived they saw a shocking image: there was a lot of Vehicon corpses lying on the ground, some of them completely tore apart.
"What has happened here?" Bumblebee asked.
"Who or what could have taken down so many Cons so fast?" Arcee added.
"By the looks of this mess, I can only think on one guy." Smokescreen said after checking some big claw marks on the chest of a Vehicon.
"You may be right, because we are not alone." Hot Rod announced whispering.
Suddenly the Autobots heard sounds of chewing and crystals being shredded. They advanced a little until they saw the origin at the next opening: it was Protoform X, feeding on the dark energon crystals of the asteroid. He seemed like he was enjoying it.
"Protoform X? What is he doing here?" Arcee questioned.
"Having the lunch of his life." Sideswipe guessed.
"This explains why he didn't devour the Decepticons' remains." Moonracer noticed.
"And he's eating our clue!" Bee observed.
"Not on my watch!"
"Smokescreen, wait!" Hot Rod warned.
After eating the last crystal, X used his claws to dig into the meteor in search of any remaining pieces of dark energon. Instead he found a piece of metal.
He took it and smelled it. "Hmm, it smells the same as those crystals. More sweet tasty stuff to savor."
But before he could take another bite, Smokescreen fired at him, making him to activate his propellers and take flight between the canyon's walls.
"Scrap, we've been spotted. We can't let him escape!" Bumblebee shouted through the com-link.
"If we let him get away, we'll never get May, Max, Bonnie and Clemont back." Arcee reminded.
"Maybe we can catch him along the cliff. Bumblebee, Smokey, let's take the bottom of the cliff, the girls and Sideswipe will follow from the upper road." Hot Rod instructed.
"Sounds good to me. Just don't lie behind us!" Sideswipe ended.
The Autobots changed to vehicle form and went after the monster and his prize.
"X, wait, we only want to talk!" Bee shouted.
"Well well, we meet again Autobots. Thanks for leading me to this tasty bunch of sweet metal. I barely can eat things like this everyday." X talked back as he checked his new meal.
"Sorry but we cannot let you eat that, we need it." Smokescreen objected.
"I let you alone after discovering this new kind of meal, so don't disturb me now."
The three Autobots started the chase through the walls of the canyon, but X was not going to let them catch up with him so ease. He started to cut parts of the canyon with his claws, dropping rocks all the way he passed. The Autobots had to dodge the rocks all the way.
"This is going to delay us for sure."
"Not all of us, Smokey. Use your special gadget to pass through all what he throw on us." Hot Rod advised.
"You got it."
Smokescreen changed to robot form for just an instant, turned on the phase shifter and transformed into his car form again. He phased through all the fallen rocks without problems, except when he had to accelerate and jump over a precipice.
"Go for it, Smokey. Show him what the Elite Guard is made off." Sideswipe encouraged.
"We need that trinket you have to get back out missing friends." Moonracer begged.
"I'm sorry for you, but as the universal motto says: finders keepers." X answered.
Smokescreen continued driving while Arcee and Moonracer fired their alt form's guns at the top of the walls, making fall rocks that forced Protoform X to fly to the higher parts of the canyon. Sideswipe drove to a ramp and jumped on X, while the girls jumped and changed to robot form and fired at him, forcing him to stop his flight to cover himself. That allowed Smokescreen to climb on the rocks and hooked himself to X. Once on top of him, Smokey punched him on one of the propellers, making a hole that left out smoke and made X fall into the canyon. Once on the floor, Smokescreen approached Protoform X, lying unconscious. Or that's what he thought, because he suddenly got up and tried to bite him, but Smokescreen dodged and X ended tearing apart a piece of rock.
"I would have just enjoyed my lunch and let you go in peace, but now you made it personal! I'll tear all you apart in pieces and swallow them all!" Protoform X cursed before roaring.
"Smokey!" Moon said firing a little to X, joining Smokescreen. "He can't get us both, lets split up."
Both Autobots fired at X, forcing to cover his face with his hands, but that didn't stop him from advancing at them. Once he was close enough he tried to strike them with his claws, but they dodged without much problem. Moon took a chance to jump onto his back and inserted her blades, causing him to roar in pain. He tried to shake her off until he thought of rolling on the floor, which worked. Moonracer lied on the floor, a little affected by what X did, and saw he was about to crush her with his feet' claws. She rolled from on side to another to dodge them, ending getting between his feet to get away. X was about to get her, but Smokescreen kicked him backwards first, but X managed to grab him next.
"Smokescreen!" Moon yelled.
X was about to bite him on the neck, but when he did he did his jaws only passed through.
"What?" He said in disbelief.
"Surprised?" The young Autobot said, revealing he turned on the shifter when X grabbed him and slipped from his hands.
Then X had enough: he went next to a large column and hit it until it was brought down. The Autobots managed to dodge the falling debris, specially thanks to Smokescreen, who covered Moonracer and with the phase shifter's effect they disappeared. X checked the area when the cloud dissipated, but found no trace of them. Then, from beneath the ground, both Autobots emerged and fired at another column, causing another collapse which fell above Protoform X, burying him.
"That maybe would not hurt him, but it will buy us enough time to get that thing and return to base."
"Thanks for protecting me, Smokey. You are such a gentleman." Moon appreciated, giving him an unexpected kiss in the cheek, which caught him by surprise.
The other Autobots were also witnesses of the event, leaving Sideswipe without words, almost as Smokescreen, while Arcee, Hot Rod and Bumblebee chuckled in amusement.
"Please, could you please get a free room around base when we are not busy on a mission?" Sideswipe asked in annoyance.
When they turned at the piece, they got surprised to see Spacestream picking it.
"Thank you Autobots, for deliver us what we need in order to take over the world." She said sarcastically.
They shot at her, but he immediately changed to her alt mode, with the piece hooked to her, and flew out of the canyon, dodging all the shots.
"Scrap!" Arcee cursed.
Meanwhile, other piece of the meteor landed on Sinnoh, at the Solaceon Ruins. Right there, Darkscream and Quake approached the meteor, which had embedded another metal piece.
"Finally. This is Thunderwing's power core link. With this and the generator cog, Thunderwing can be restored." Darkscream said.
Behind a wall, Optimus and Elita were hearing their conversation when Warpath approached them.
"What are they doing?" Elita asked.
"They are probably checking which part they have discovered." Optimus guessed.
"That scraplet chow of Quake is in there. We should grab him and make him tell us where May is." Warpath said mad, hitting a pillar by accident, making too much noise.
Optimus knew it, and also when Quake jumped above the wall they were hidden.
"Warpath, again? How tiresome."
"Quake, get May back to me."
Warpath responded firing at Quake first with his chest cannon and tried to punch him next. Quake evaded his attacks and prepared himself to fight back, but Warpath hit him first and sent him flying through the wall.
"I'm not gonna let you go until you tell me where she is." He said before jumping out of the room and getting after him.
"Warpath, stand down!" Optimus ordered, but it was useless.
"Optimus, we got company." Elita announced pointing at a hole in the ceiling, where some of Darkscream's gang were aiming at them. "Take care of Darkscream, I will handle them."
Elita One jumped over the rocks, dodging their shots and getting closer until she got out through the hole, kicking Nova Storm and dragging the others' attention.
Knowing that with all that fuss Darkscream already know he was there; Optimus came out from his hiding place. "Darkscream, you have changed, again."
"I have never felt better, Prime."
"Return the children to us."
"Let me think about it. Hmm...no!" He answered pulling out his double chainsaws.
Surprisingly, Darkscream didn't hesitated in clashing his weapons with Optimus' axes.
"Thunderwing is ours to command! And those children are the advantage we need to force Ratchet to cooperate since he already proved himself important enough by his work with the synthetic energon formula." Darkscream revealed. "Give up, Optimus! Our plan is already entering its final stage."
"Optimus, leave Quake to me. You should focus on Screamy." Warpath said though com-link.
After a long time focusing in blocking Darscream's aggressive attack, Optimus pushed him back and punched him hard, sending him against the meteor, making it to break and lose the last piece. As obvious, Darkscream transformed and left the area.
"Elita, I lost Darkscream. How is the situation there?" Optimus asked.
"Still in combat here with his Seeker lackeys, no news from Warpath. I'm in the biggest building, on the cliff."
"Understood. I'm on my way to your location."
"Be careful Optimus, I have seen the way's state up from here, it's really steep."
"I will have my jet-pack ready."
Optimus saw the building Elita was referring to, so he made his way to there. Of course, the Decepticons were not going to allow him to go easily: a few Decepticons soldiers tried to stop him, but Optimus managed to dispose of them at once with his gatling gun. One Decepticon engineer, with his back's engines fully charged, tried to tackled Optimus, but Optimus jumped aside and made the Con to jump to the deeps. Optimus almost reached the temple, he only needed to cross a bridge. But when he was crossing it, the bridge collapsed and Optimus feel to the bottom. Fortunately, thanks to his quick reaction activating his jet-pack, he landed without problem.
"Optimus, are you okay?" Elita asked.
"Thanks to Primus. I need to approach more carefully."
"Told ya. Be careful, Optimus. That's a tricky road. Watch out, some of those supports are already weakened."
But the unstable bridges were not the only danger. Some Decepticon snipers tried to shot at Optimus from the upper levels. Optimus decided to change to vehicle form and pass over the bridges as fast as he could, dodging the snipers' shots. Once again, a few Decepticon engineers tried to block his way. Optimus responded with his vehicle form's cannons, taking them down with a few fully charged shots. The only thing he needed to do to meet with Elita was to climb up to the building. Unfortunately, Darkscream appeared out of nowhere in his jet form, transformed and landed above Optimus, with the last piece at hand.
"Darkscream."
"That close and still not enough, what a pity." The Seeker leader said firing his new signature weapon: throwback blasters, one attached at each arm; at him, making him lost grip and fall.
Next, Darkscream launched a storm of missiles from his back which caused a whole cave-in, to bury the leader of the Autobots under tons of rock and dust. His fellow Seekers met with him and saw his work.
"Know that Darkscream was your doom, Prime!" He proclaimed before transforming and leaving with his Seekers.
"Optimus, what was that noise? Do you read?" Elita called, until she found where he was buried. "Optimus!"
She started to remove rubble, trying to reach where her sparkmate was and free him, unaware that some rocks next to her moved a little. Moments later, back at the Nemesis, Ratchet was locked in the prison block, with his legs chained with electric cuffs. Then, the cell's door opened and Shockblast and Darkscream entered, with the final piece at hand.
"All right, medic. Time to make yourself useful." Darkscream declared.
"This is Thunderwing's power core link. With the install of it properly on his canalization port in his chest our job should be complete." Shockblast added.
"General Darkscream, general Shockblast, Quake has returned." One Decepticon reported through com-link.
The Decepticons saw in a screen Quake coming out from a ground bridge, but he looked like he was being forced by someone. Warpath came behind him, with his gun aiming at him. It was clear that Warpath managed to catch him and forced him to take him to the Nemesis.
"What is that fool doing?" Darkscream asked mad.
Seeing that the door was open, Ratchet pushed the guard aside and ran out of the cell, closing the door in the way. That forced Shockblast to bring down the door.
"All hands, eliminate the intruders!"
As the alarm sounded, Ratchet found lots of security lasers on his way, but he managed to dodge them in vehicle form.
"Warpath, Warpath, do you read? He's not picking up. This blasted ship is jamming the com-signal. At least I can rescue the children." Ratchet decided.
Ratchet continued his way dodging the lasers until he reached the room where Thunderwing was sleeping.
"How did he get here?" One of the Decepticons that were guarding Thunderwing asked surprised at seeing Ratchet.
"Don't worry, he's the medic. He's harmless."
"I will show you how this medic managed to survive the great War for Cybertron." Ratchet said as he pulled out his swords.
Fortunately, the Cons underestimate him, so Ratchet could defeat them with not so much difficulty. Some engineers tried to stop him too, but he changed one of his hands for his laser weapon and fired at the Cons. Since they tried to approach him, Ratchet did not to aim much to shoot them down. All the fuss made the humans look at the lower room through the bars.
"Guys look, it's Ratchet! He managed to escape." May announced, making everyone to go and see it.
"Ratchet? Ratchet, over here!" Max called from the room they were locked.
"Hold on. I'm on my way." Ratchet reassured them.
"Well, now's the perfect time to do it. The full ship's in chaos." Clemont noticed.
"You just need to find some other way to get up here." Bonnie added.
Ratchet started to make his way to the children by driving at full speed.
"Capture that Autobot." Darkscream's voice sounded all around the area. "Where are you, Autobot? Your attempt to save the children is futile. You will never reach them."
But Ratchet didn't listen Darkscream's provocations. He had other things to handle, like reaching the children, and pass all the Decepticons that he found on his way. Fortunately, this time they were only a flyer and two light scouts, so he simply ran them over.
"Call for reinforcements." One of the Cons suggested.
Continuing his way, Ratchet reached to the same room where Thunderwing was, but at the upper level.
"I need to reach the other side."
"Ratchet, use those platforms!" Clemont suggested.
"Come on, Ratchet. You can do it." Max cheered.
"Ratchet, be careful. Don't fall off." Bonnie warned.
Fortunately, Ratchet had no problem jumping over the platforms and reach the other side.
"Ratchet, those Cons have taken our poke balls and Clemont's weapon." May revealed.
At the cell's entrance, Ratchet spotted two Vehicons guarding it, one which the kids' items at hand. He disposed of them quickly with his blades before breaking the door.
"No time to explain. Get in." He instructed transforming.
The kids did what Ratchet said as they recovered their items. They left before any Decepticon reinforcement could arrive, reaching some kind of cargo lift.
"Ratchet, how glad we are to see you." Clemont said relieved.
"Hey Ratch, check this out. I was bored, so I made a lot of pictures of that giant." Max told showing a notebook.
"Ratchet, I know they forced you to work on that big guy, but did you really repair him?" May asked.
"Of course I did, and brilliantly if I might add."
"What? Ratchet, what were you thinking?" Bonnie asked worried.
"Had you fooled, didn't I?" He said, surprising them. "Actually, I found a serious design flaw when I was working on him."
"Really?" Clemont asked.
"Yes, I did. And I need to tell everyone about it. This elevator should take us to the ship central computer room."
"How do you know for certain?" Bonnie asked.
"Did you forget we took control of this vessel during our stay on Cybertron?"
"Oh, right. Hehe, I forgot."
Suddenly, the elevator received some impact that damaged it a little.
"Oh great, now what?!" May demanded.
"Guys, incoming!" Max pointed to the elevator's path, showing a pair of Decepticon helicopters coming at them.
"You guys find some cover till the shooting stops." Ratchet instructed.
"Target located. All hands to the cargo lift. The human children are also here." One of the Cons reported.
"Here they come." Max signaled.
Ratchet managed to shot down most of the attackers when they flew right at him, but more were coming.
"Concentrate fire on the fugitive."
"Oh no, they're coming up from below too." Bonnie saw.
And Ratchet was still busy with the ones from the other side. Clemont knew he couldn't handle all of them, so he readied his weapon, made it change form and when the first Cons were about to land he surprised them with a surprise of shots like fired by a shotgun, surely the weapon's mode.
"You take care of the ones of the front, I will handle the rearguard."
"Much appreciated, Clemont." Ratchet thanked before kicking out another.
With the combined effort of the two partners, the number of Decepticons started to decrease, not even a single one aboard the lift.
"The Autobot might be heading to the main computer room. Get onto the lift and engage the fugitive." One of the Cons advised.
Suddenly, the lift stopped.
"What?!" Ratchet exclaimed.
"They have blocked the lift." Clemont observed.
"Force the lift to stop, now! Stop the lift and swarm them." One Decepticon ordered.
Some of the Cons directed their fire to the two cylindrical structures at both sides of the lift.
"This is not good. They are trying to cut the lift's power generators." Max deduced.
"Now what we are gonna do?" Bonnie expressed worried.
"Then we will have to move it ourselves." May decided pulling out one of her poke balls. "Beautifly, use Psychic to make this lift move."
The little pokémon used the move on the whole structure, making it to continue advancing, slowly but steady.
"What? How are they making the lift move? It is supposed to be blocked." One Vehicon exclaimed confused.
"Nice one, May." Ratchet said.
While they continued their way up, not as fast as it should, they disposed of the remaining Cons. Once the last one was down or out of the lift, it started to move by its own again, allowing May's pokémon to rest.
"Thanks for you help, Beautifly. Take a deserved rest." May thanked retrieving her pokémon.
"Hey guys, I can see the end of the rail." Bonnie spotted excited.
"We made it. I can't believe it." Max expressed.
"We can get out from here, right?" Clemont asked.
"I think so. There should be a safe exit from the main computer room." Ratchet deduced.
Once the lift reached its destination, Ratchet went ahead to make sure the coast was clear. He signaled the kids that there was no sign of enemies, until he stopped them.
"Something's not right." He said.
"What do you mean?" Max asked.
"All these Cons coming straight at us."
"Like if somebody knows exactly where we are." May deduced.
And just in the moment the door opened, Ratchet saw the responsible one operating in the room's terminal.
"What? How useless are some troops unable to scrap not even an old rusty Autobot?"
"Skywarp. He must have been monitoring us the whole time." Ratchet said as firing at him, but the shots were deflected before hitting him. "A force shield?"
"Haha, you can try all the times you want, but this will endure anything you can throw at me." The black Seeker mocked.
"Ratchet, I'll hack into the system from this side and try to drop that shield." Clemont said typing into his wrist terminal.
"Do it, Clemont." Ratchet encouraged as the door closed.
"Are you sure you can do it, big brother?"
"Bonnie, after all his experience with cybertronian informatics and you still doubt your brother's capabilities?" May asked.
"I got it. Ratchet, the generators in that room are what's powering Skywarp's shield. You got to destroy all those generators to get to him. I'm gonna try to deactivate the shields around the generators one by one. Once the shields are down, blast the generators behind them." Clemont reported through com-link.
"Ready when you are." Ratchet answered as he started to shot at the Decepticons guards of the room behind some cover.
"Make yourselves useful and take care of that Autobot." Skywarp commanded.
Ratchet contained the few Cons present until the alarm sounded. In that instant, he saw the generator next to him without protection.
"Oh, for the love of Primus, now what?" The Seeker demanded.
"One shield is down. Aim for that generator." Clemont reported.
Ratchet went for it and cut it with his swords.
"One down." Ratchet announced.
"Good work. Now take out the rest of them."
"Are you guys really trying? Eliminate him at once!" Skywarp yelled.
With the Cons still trying to hit him, Ratchet changed to vehicle form and headed for the next generator. As he went straight for it he fired the weapons of his vehicle form that destroyed it.
"That's two."
"Way to go, Ratchet. I think Skywarp's starting to sweat." Max congratulated.
"I'll try it this way, whoever manages to get that Autobot will earn a rank promotion with a plus of free energon ration." Skywarp encouraged.
Ratchet was heading for the next generator, when it suddenly got its shields back.
"Clemont, the generator's defenses are back online." Ratchet reported.
"Is he serious? After all that work even puts the shields up again?" May complained.
"Haha, looks like fun time is over." Skywarp announced.
"Ratchet, hang on, I'll deactivate it again." Clemont said.
As Clemont started to hack again, Ratchet focused on the Decepticons. Since there was a lot of them, he chose to use his energon repair ray, taking them down rapidly. He managed to eliminate them all when Clemont spoke again.
"The generators' shields are down. Aim for them now."
Ratchet ran over the next one, with the last standing Con after him, and decided to grab him and throw him against it, destroying it.
"Alright, one generator down. There is only one more." Ratchet announced.
"Stop him already, you fools! Don't make me throw you all against him!" Skywarp menaced.
"Hum." Ratchet started, seeing a Decepticon engineer survivor in front of the last generator. "Thanks for the idea, Skywarp."
"Thanks for the...excuse me?"
Ratchet ran at the Decepticon, tackled him against the floor, used his energon repair ray to overload his generators and pushed him against the generator, causing a huge explosion which destroyed them both.
"The generators are all disable." Ratchet announced.
"Then the shield's down. Now you can get to Skywarp." Clemont said.
"Oh scrap." Skywarp cursed, seeing the shield no more, as he jumped over the terminal, looking at Ratchet. "It never fails, that I must do everything if I want it done right!"
Ratchet tried to shot at Skywarp, but he immediately jumped backwards and disappeared. Ratchet looked around him, not realizing that Skywarp appeared behind him in vehicle mode and started to fire at him with his vehicle mode's weapons. Ratchet managed to dodge the shots, but he couldn't hit Skywarp because he teleported again. Next, he appeared right next to him and kicked him on the torso before disappearing again. Next, he appeared flying around the room in vehicle mode and shot missiles that despite not hitting Ratchet totally, the impact area effects affected stunned him enough to allow Skywarp to hit Ratchet a couple of times before vanishing again.
"Hahaha, no matter how hard you try you will never see me coming." Skywarp mocked.
"Is no use. Skywarp is using his teleport ability to attack me from every direction. I can't know for certain where he could appear."
"That's not fair, he's playing dirty. What a cheater." Bonnie cursed.
"Hmm, maybe I can figure out a way to counter him advantage."
"How Clemont?" May asked.
"I'm sure that ability of teleporting Skywarp is using may be related with the ground bridge technology. So maybe with a few alterations, my equipment may be able to track it."
"And that way being able to prevent where he will appear next time. Ratchet, are you hearing this?"
"I do Max, it's worth giving it a try."
Clemont proceeded with his plan while Ratchet keep his guard up about Skywarp, who teleported himself again.
"Okay, let's see." Clemont saw on his terminal. "Ratchet, try to watch your back."
Ratchet followed Clemont's advise and managed to evade Skywarp's attack.
"Clemont, it works. Keep it like that." He reported.
Following Clemont's warning, Ratchet not only managed to dodge another attack from Skywarp from behind, but also countered by punching on the torso.
"Above you." Clemont said, making Ratchet to dodge and hit him with his energon repair ray. "Right." He said next, allowing Ratchet to hit him on the face. "Left." Clemont warned next, so Ratchet made Skywarp slide off and grab him by his wing next before launching him against the ceiling.
"How...how is this happening? There's no way you can…"
Before Skywarp could end his sentence, Ratchet hit him two times more and kicked him with both feet, sending him flying to the other side of the room. He went there, trying to find him, but he only saw him next to another door, in which he jumped into before it closed. It was clear that Skywarp had enough fight, and like Darkscream decided to run away. With everything in calm now, the kids met with Ratchet.
"Ratchet, you are one tough hacker." Max pleased.
"You were amazing." Bonnie added.
"Thank you Clemont, I couldn't have done it without you." Ratchet clarified.
"No doubt you guys make a good team." May complemented, making Clemont blush. "Hey, do you think we can contact the other Autobots from here?"
"Probably. Especially Warpath, since he's on board the Nemesis right now." Ratchet confirmed as he walked to the terminal Skywarp used before.
"He is? Great."
"But we'll have to deactivate the jamming first. Clemont, get me a hand with this. Let's see what we can do." Ratchet said as he started to operate the terminal and Clemont helped inserting a cable from his backpack.
Thanks to Warpath's actions, the other Autobots, expect Elita One and Optimus Prime, managed to ground bridge themselves into the Nemesis. They arrived with guns ready, fortunately there were no Decepticons to receive them, probably still busy with the mess Ratchet and the kids caused.
"No welcoming party? Now that's a surprise." Sideswipe noticed.
"It seems the new intrusion against cloaking shielding works, specially to track friendly life signals." Blaster deduced.
"Let's split up, we must cover as much of this ship's area as we can if we want to find our human friends. And don't hesitate to engage the Decepticons." Ultra Magnus instructed.
"It appears someone has gone ahead of us, chief." Wheeljack called looking at the front.
In front of them Warpath was still forcing Quake on their way inside the Nemesis.
"Guys, about time."
"Warpath. How did you get in here?" Hot Rod asked.
"I managed to pull someone's servos until I made him see things from my point of view. He was taking me there right now."
"In that case, how much longer until we get to the kids?" Predaking asked.
"Where do you have them?" Moonracer added.
"Not long. See? Here we are." Quake said, looking at the door in front of them.
Everyone was looking to the door of a room in front of them, not aware that moments before other eyes spotted from inside. The team entered some kind of storage room. Suddenly, lights turned off for a moment and when they returned Quake was gone and the doors closed.
"What's going on?" Seaspray asked.
"It's a trap." Ultra Magnus realized, making everyone ready their weapons.
And they were going to need them, because at the other side of the room, on an upper level, Quake, alongside other Decepticons, were smirking at them.
"Dah, you tricked me!"
"And that surprises you? You are really dolt, Warpath. Prepare to be scrap, as all your fellas!" Quake said as he and his fellow Decepticons prepared to attack.
"Bumblebee, get out! Search for the kids and Ratchet! We'll hold them off!" Magnus instructed.
Immediately, Predaking brought down the door after changing to dragon form, allowing Bumblebee to get out in vehicle form and make his way through the warship.
"Oh, you want a tour around our warship? In that case you should have asked!" Knock Out said before transforming and going after Bumblebee.
Predaking was about to stop him, but he was forced to deal with the Insecticons. The same way, the rest of the team engaged other Decepticons: Magnus was focused fighting Shockblast, who joined recently although not with that intention; Blaster and his Minibots managed to keep the Seekers at bay, Wheeljack engaged Stinger while Seaspray battled Roadkill and Hot Rod and Sideswipe decided to confront Dropkick and Nightbird.
"You came all the way here to see us? I'm flattered." Nightbird expressed.
"I know I shouldn't be asking this to you but, wanna dance?" Sideswipe asked.
"What a gentleman, as you wish."
Arcee and Moonracer were going to support them, but Shatter got in their way.
"Enough with your games, where are the children?" Moonracer demanded.
"The children? Hum, what did I do with them? Maybe they're already…"
Arcee feared the worst. "We will tear you in half!"
The girls started firing at her, forcing Shatter to change to her air alt form and return fire.
"I guess I'll just have to focus all my attention on you!" Shatter shouted as she started flying around them.
"Arcee, remember the trick we employed during the Kaon infiltration with Elita while Optimus and the others pretended to be captured?"
"Nice idea, Moon."
Arcee placed herself with her feet right to the ceiling, and when Moonracer ran at her jumped and Arcee used her feet to launch her, making her rise above Shatter, landing on top and allowing her to inflict some damage with her wrist blades.
That annoyed Shatter and forced her to return to robot form. "Urg, you're like a leech."
Shatter attempted to hit her, but Arcee ran over her in vehicle form, allowing Moon to kick her against the floor during the trip. They employed the same trick over and over again, one time being the other the vehicle running over her, until the female Decepticon couldn't keep fighting.
"I should have…made you…suffer more, by harming those...insects...when I could." Shatter said hardly.
"What? That means…" Moon started.
"They're alive." Arcee ended.
Before they could ask or interrogate her more, a trio of two-wheeler Vehicons approached them, forcing them to shot them. When they disposed of them, they saw Shatter was gone. At the same time, Bumblebee was still searching in other side of the ship, with Knock Out after him. Both of them started to push the other aside in vehicle form, until Knock Out managed to push Bee hard enough to make him get through the wall. That sent him out of the ship, but managed to transform and hook himself to one of the warship's wings. Knock Out jumped in front of him.
"That will be quite enough of that, thank you very much. I'm maybe better at destroying things than repairing them." Knock Out said as he changed his hands for buzz saws. "But I'm still the one who have to clean up this mess."
Knock Out was about to terminate Bee when he noticed something.
"Hey, wait a minute, something's not right. Where's the blue one, the rookie?"
In that moment Smokescreen touched him in the back, making him to turn at him, right when he was about too punch him. "Think fast, Doc Knock!"
The punch let Knock Out stunned enough time for Smokescreen help Bumblebee.
"About time, Smokey. Had any luck?"
"No Bee, I've searched all the rooms suitable of being cells and they are in none of them, not even Ratchet."
"Then they must be somewhere roaming around the warship."
"Bumblebee, just the Autobot I was looking for." Stinger announced arriving.
"Excuse me, I was going to deal with him."
"You can have the other one, Knock Out, he and I have a pending account."
"Where are the children?" Bumblebee demanded.
"Why you bother? They are only humans." Stinger as he charged.
Both scouts jumped down to the upper deck while Smokescreen remained up with Knock Out.
"I guess it's just us."
"As you wish, kid. I will enjoy performing my most extreme personal procedure on you." Knock Out said preparing his buzz saws.
Knock Out started to spin around, moving all around the area, trying to hit Smokey with his buzz saws. Smokescreen simply used his phase shifter to allow Knock Out pass through him, until he stopped, really dizzy. That's when he took action and tackled him to the floor. Smokescreen pushed him against the ground and grabbed the buzz saws, making them to hit Knock Out's chest a few times, until he decided when that was enough. Knock Out could see Smokescreen's doing on his chest when he recovered from the dizziness.
"You scratched my paint! That was a big mistake!" He said getting up and trying to slice Smokey again.
"Yeah? And what are you gonna do, Doc Knock?"
"Don't call me that!" Knock Out yelled changing to vehicle form and charging against him.
Seeing Bumblebee was still battling Stinger below them, Smokescreen waited until the last moment, and when Knock Out was close enough, he simply jumped over him, making him to fall off and right against Stinger. Both Decepticons ended at the other side of the deck, a little stuck with their limbs.
"What a fool you are made." Stinger cursed before hitting Knock Out's head.
"That was hilarious. Let's met back with the group." Bee decided before joining back with Smokescreen.
Back to the room of the fight…
"Are you simply going to hide and fire that cannon of yours all time, Warpath?"
"What's the matter, Quake? Are you scared of fighting me in person? Because you must already know that even the Wreckers have considered me a tough as them. It seems you don't have the spark to act not even a small portion like us." Warpath provoked, expecting Quake to have little temperament.
"What?! Are you calling me a coward?!" Quake demanded before jumping down and start looking for his rival.
Quake inspected each corner, not carefully, trying to find Warpath. As he was about to look around other corner, suddenly, the body of a fallen Vehicon was thrown against him, crushing him against a wall.
"Surprise Deceticreep, Kaboom!" Warpath announced.
Warpath bombed him with lots of shots of his chest cannon. When the smoke cleared he saw the Vehicon's body completely scrapped, but no sign of Quake. Then he looked to the door and saw him getting away. It seemed the attack left Quake hurt an unable to keep fighting, so now he was dragging his feet, heading for Thunderwing's room. He saw the giant, still dormant, and his power core link close, so an idea came to his mind. He went for it and took it. But he did not realize that Darkscream and Xiaxus were also there.
"Well Quake, not only did you let the Autobots in, but you also lost us one very important medic. Please, tell me, what were you thinking?!"
Quake put the device between them, trying to hid from his annoyed leader. "Uh…just a mislead, general Darkscream. I'm sure Knock Out and Shockblast could have performed as well as Ratchet. Besides, we have this power core link now, so we won't need a medic."
Quake went to one of the platforms, which started to move at Thunderwing, who started to wake up.
"Once the Autobots are defeated, none of us will need repairs." Quake continued, until suddenly, Thunderwing took the device, shaking off Quake from it in the process.
He opened his chest, placed the device inside it, and roared as he felt himself powering up.
"Finally, I am complete."
"You owe your life to us, Thunderwing. You will call us masters!" Xiaxus proclaimed.
"I am the envoy of Unicron, the Destroyer. Unicron, who summoned me across the vastness of space. Unicron is my one and true master. You…you are nothing."
"What?! We had a deal! We gave you back your freedom!" Darkscream complained.
Thunderwing revealed two huge wings made of metallic purple panels which came from his back and took flight. "Consider this a show of gratitude."
Thunderwing launched a huge shot of dark energon from his mouth at the Decepticon leader. Darkscream reacted by putting Quake in front to receive the shot instead of them, who only covered himself, expecting the pain. Quake ended very weakened when Darkscream pushed him aside, before seeing that Thunderwing made a huge hole in the room's ceiling. Thunderwing's effects started to cause havoc on the entire ship, something everyone sensed.
"Whoa, what was that?" Wheeljack asked.
"The Nemesis is being attacked. We must check what's going on." Shockblast decided.
"Agree. Everyone, retreat." Spacestream declared.
The Autobots joined together while their enemies left them.
"Have you felt that too?" Smokescreen asked arriving with Bee.
"I don't know what caused it, but the shakes come from inside the Nemesis. Something must have disturbed it from the inside." Blaster suspected.
"Warpath, this is Ratchet. Do you read me?" Someone called him through com-link.
"Ratchet, thank Primus you are alright." Ultra Magnus saluted.
"We were afraid you were scrap." Hot Rod said.
"The Decepticons had tried hard enough. The kids are with me too, by the way." Ratchet revealed.
"Hi Warpath."
"May, how glad I am to hear you."
"Guys, are you feeling those shakes too?" Max pointed.
"Yeah, and I don't want to figure out what is causing them." Seaspray admitted.
"Ultra Magnus, it feels like this ship is about to shatter itself to pieces. Meet us on the deck and let's get out of here." Ratchet instructed.
"You heard our friends, time to take our leave. Now!"
"Okay, the deck should be just ahead. I'll activate the ground bridge and get us out of here." Blaster added.
The group transformed and went to the rendezvous point. Moments later everyone was back at New Iacon.
"Bonnie, I'm so happy to see you're safe. I'll never let you depart on a mission without me again." Moon said hugging her little friend.
"Hehe, glad to see you too, Moon."
"We are all happy to have you back at home." Ash proclaimed.
"We were so worried once they told us you were captured." Serena added.
"Hey Blaster, do you think you could perform the same trick with our Pokétchs as you did with Autobot life signal through the cloaked Nemesis?" Ritchie suggested.
"With the proper time I think I could do it."
"Regardless, the nightmare is over." Misty said in relief.
"Not at all. The Decepticon warship may be out of the game, but we still have a problem." Ratchet disagreed.
"What? What happened back there, do we missed something?" Fixit asked.
"Is Thunderwing. It seems he's a follower of Unicron, and he came to Earth in order to destroy the Matrix of Leadership." May explained.
"You mean that giant cybertronian who crash-landed on Jotho?" Serena recalled.
"Then we must warn Optimus at once." Tracey suggested.
"First we must locate him. And so Elita One." Ultra Magnus corrected.
"Well that's a problem: I can't seem to isolate Prime's life signal. One nano click is there and the next is gone. Where is he?" Blaster reported.
"It also looks like Thunderwing has left the Nemesis." Fixit saw on the terminal.
"So he's the reason the warship was feeling like it was going down." Smokescreen deduced.
"Oh, this is going from bad to worse. I can feel it." Sideswipe said worried.
"You're right. We need to lure Thunderwing to some deserted location and deal with him there." Predaking decided.
"How about if we sent Omega to face him head-on? They are around the same size, right?"
"Actually Bonnie I'm going to agree with Predaking's idea about dealing with him by ourselves." Ratchet said, surprising everyone.
"Deal with him? Even if we haven't found Optimus yet?" Iris asked.
"You got a plan, I hope." Clemont suspected.
"As a matter of fact, I do. I took a good long look inside that beast when I was repairing him. And one thing I learned was this: Thunderwing is virtually made of dark energon. So I'll build a device that will attenuate his internal power and weaken him." Ratchet explained.
"Oh, the same way you deduced how to use energon's properties to counter the blood of Unicron." Fixit realized.
"We know it works, so let's do it." Misty supported.
"I've plotted Thunderwing's course since he left the Nemesis. He'll be crossing over the volcano of the Almia region in 20 minutes." Clemont reported.
"Then we don't have much time. We'll have to delay him until Ratchet get this device built." Ultra Magnus told to the rest of the Autobots, who nodded.
Minutes later, the Autobots took positions in a stable area, waiting to see Thunderwing coming.
"If I may sir, the strategy to follow should be a surprise attack with the goal of taking him out of the sky. Then place a lot of bombs around to open a hole in the floor and make him dive into the lava. No matter how big and tough he is nothing can endure a hot and sticky smelting pool." Wheeljack suggested.
"Autobots, where are you?" Someone called by com-link.
"Elita, is that you? Thank the Allspark, we were wondering where you were." Arcee saluted.
"We are on Almia, ready to engage Thunderwing for when he arrives." Bumblebee responded.
"Is not Thunderwing who is coming at you. Watch out!" Elita warned.
Suddenly some kind of missiles impacted near where the Autobots were stationed. Predaking took flight to see who was attacking them, only to see one of these missiles to impact at him as well. For his surprise the missile took him down as well. The reason: all these missiles stained purple the impact zone, they were dark energon missiles. And only one was tenacious enough to be equipped with such weapons: Darkscream flew around, seeing Team Prime affected by the dark matter. Elita arrived in vehicle form and fired his weapons at him, but he turned at her very fast and ran over her, making her return to robot form before lying in the floor. The Decepticon leader transformed and landed right next to an unconscious Elita.
"So much for the Autobots." He said pulling out the Dark Star Saber, ready for the kill.
In that moment, a ground bridge appeared behind him and Optimus appeared. He activated his jet-pack and pushed Darkscream hard before checking his sparkmate.
"Prime, you made it." Predaking greeted approaching him.
"Sorry I couldn't get here sooner." Optimus apologized as he grabbed Elita with both hands. "Predaking, take care of Elita and check the others."
Darkscream recovered in no time. "Optimus, you're more persistent than rust."
"I will never stop until you and all Decepticons are defeated. Never."
"Would you stop that pontificating, Prime? Yours are just words." Darkscream said pulling out his sword, as Optimus did with the Star Saber.
"One shall stand."
"Yeah yeah I know, and one shall fall. That motto may worked on Galvatron, but not on me!"
Both rivals charged again and clashed their swords.
"I warned you about Thunderwing, Darkscream. You've only got yourself to blame now, and I should have stopped you by now."
"Optimus, Thunderwing is almost here!" Blaster reported. "This battle is not about the Cons anymore."
"I know, but we can't allow them to get away."
"Are you gonna talk or fight?!" Darkscream suddenly interrupted unleashing an energy wave from his sword. "How interesting, to be holding the same power Galvatron once did."
Darkscream started launching more waves at Optimus, who dodged them or dissipated them with the Star Saber and tried to return it to him. But Darkscream jumped high and nailed the saber into the floor, generating a dark shock wave which caught Prime off-guard.
"Hahahaha, checkmate." Darkscream announced laughing.
But that allowed Optimus to recover fast and hit him with one wave of his, sending him on a hill at certain distance.
"Lord Galvatron should have shut you down earlier." Darkscream expressed, a little tired.
"And you should have reflected about your actions long before." Optimus answered back.
"One thing I know, I'm not my master." Darkscream said, before he was covered by a purple aura, sign that he was using his link to the dark energon. "I will finish you off once and for all!"
With the propellers of his back fully charged, Darkscream charged against Optimus at high speed, tackling and dragging him a long distance until he escape using his jet-pack. Darkscream started chasing after him, this time launching direct energy beams from the Dark Star Saber.
"See the great Prime flee!" Darkscream mocked.
Optimus dodged them, except one which hit one of his wings, taking him down. Darkscream, determined to finish with his enemy, charged the Dark Star Saber again before launching another beam at Optimus, who did the same with the Star Saber, summoning a red beam fired from the tip which collided with the other, causing a clash of beams. The tried to push the other beam back using their own, making the epicenter to move one way to another, until Optimus decided to use the power of the matrix to boost the Star Saber, making his beam to push the other back very fast, causing an explosion which surprised Darkscream. When the explosion ended, Optimus found Darkscream on his knees, weakened by the explosion.
"I'll give you one chance to surrender, Darkscream. For the sake of your own life, take it."
As cheater as he was, Darkscream was preparing to pull out one of his chainsaws to surprise Optimus. But before he could do it…
"Optimus, behind you!"
Optimus and Darkscream saw what Arcee spotted: it was some kind of cybertronian war cruiser, which fired all its turrets at Optimus. The shots were purple, so they got dark energon. Optimus and Darkscream were forced to cover behind the nearest rocks, until the ship launched a huge missile at the center of the area, causing a huge shock wave that sent everyone flying. Darkscream landed at a safe distance, and fortunately for him someone came to his need.
"Darkscream come on, let's get out of here. Leave the Autobots deal with that non-trusted monster and dye trying."
"Spacestream, you came. For me?"
"Of course, I couldn't let you on your own." She confirmed helping him getting up and taking him into a ground bridge.
On the other hand, Optimus landed on the shore of an area surrounded by lava. The cruiser continued approaching until it transformed, revealing to be Thunderwing.
"Optimus Prime, holder of the matrix!" Thunderwing identified as he landed. "Your destruction is imminent!"
Optimus prepared himself, this was not going to be an easy fight.
"I am the instrument of Unicron's wrath!" Thunderwing pronounced as he charged one his cannons and fired a stream of big shots.
Optimus moved the opposite direction of the stream, until he was cornered, and because he couldn't activate his jet-pack because of Darkscream's attack he was grounded. Fortunately, he jumped out of the way very close.
"Optimus, are you okay?" Elita called through com-link.
"Elita, thank the Allspark you are fine."
"Don't push yourself too hard."
"He's only shooting at you. Hold on until Ratchet gets here." Hot Rod advised.
"We will try to reach you and give you support as fast as we can." Bumblebee added.
Thunderwing tried to crush Optimus with one of his hands. He took the chance to use his axes to made some damage there. Thunderwing laughed, thinking his efforts were not going to be worthy. But, using that strategic, and dodging the hug shots from his cannons, Optimus managed to cause consistent damage to Thunderwing's hands.
"I am no longer bounded in stone, weak and shackled. I will tear you apart, molecule by molecule." Thunderwing proclaimed as he powered up with his shoulders' engines and his core.
"I'm so sorry, I got here as quickly as I could." Ratchet apologized through com-link.
Ratchet arrived with a ground bridge. Elita One saw him.
"I'm here, I'm here!" He called.
She and the other girls reunited with him. "Is the device ready? Delaying this guy has almost got us scrapped."
"Elita, please listen carefully. I didn't have enough time and could only make a device that generates a weak pulse." He told, showing the device on his hand, which she took. "For this thing to work, it has to be inside Thunderwing when it goes on."
"What? That's…that's impossible."
"It's not impossible, Arcee." Ritchie voiced sounded.
The Autobots looked behind Ratchet, discovering that Serena, Iris, Ash, Clemont and Ritchie followed him.
"What are you doing here?" Arcee demanded.
"They volunteered to assist from safe distance, so I allowed it." Ratchet responded.
"Look, Max noticed an aperture right here." Clemont said, showing one of the pictures Max took from Thunderwing's torso.
"No Clemont, that doesn't do us any good. I can't fit through that, and I'm the smallest Autobot here."
"Maybe not you Moon, but we can." Serena surprised.
"And honestly I believe I'm the best option since I'm the best when it comes to climbing."
Optimus hear the entire conversation, even still in the fight. "That's not an option, Iris. Is much too dangerous."
"He is right. You all are finally safe now. Go home, this is our battle." Elita insisted.
"No, it isn't." Serena objected.
"If the Autobots lose, that will be the end of Earth. This is our battle too. Elita, this is bigger than just one human." Ash reminded.
While the Autobot leaders thought about that, the rest of the team was supporting Optimus, earning Thunderwing's attention. Warpath fired his cannon assisted by Ultra Magnus, until the giant was about to strike. Predaking managed to push Warpath aside while Magnus retreated, grabbing Bumblebee and Seaspray along the way, who were already unconscious. The impact almost hit them, but was strong enough to send them flying. As the medic, Ratchet went to assist them while Blaster deployed some automatic turrets to distract Thunderwing.
"Optimus, Ultra Magnus is down!" Elita informed.
"Please Optimus, let us do this." Iris begged.
"The human spirit never ceases to surprise me." Optimus admitted as he saw Thunderwing coming through the smoke. "Moon, can you get Iris to that opening?"
Moonracer nodded as she handed the device to Iris before changing to vehicle mode. "Hop on, and hold on tight."
"Thanks, guys."
Ash and Pikachu also rode on Arcee next to them. "We will clear the road for you two."
"Pikachu."
"Watch out out there." Serena wished before they departed.
"Girls, remember that the kids' safety is your primary mission." Elita reminded.
The way to Thunderwing was not easy, of course: even as he was battling Optimus, Thunderwing launched some shots to the distance, causing a bombing all the way to him. It was not hard for the female Autobots to evade the shots, even with Pikachu and Fraxure countering some with Thunderbolt and Dragon Rage, but some of them caused some rocks to block part of the way, worsening the conditions. Fortunately, Arcee used the weapons of her alt mode to make their way through, assisted by Ash who used his cybertronian weapon. They were almost at their destination when Thunderwing unleashed a huge shot from his mouth. Arcee, Ash and Pikachu attacked him to draw his attention while Moonracer speeded up and managed to dodge even the shock wave with a jump. In the air, she changed to robot form, grabbed Iris and Fraxure and threw them into his core. Of course, Thunderwing punched her aside as result.
"Now, Optimus Prime, we come to the heart of the matter." Thunderwing proclaimed, but then faint light started to shine from his chest. "What, what is this? I'm…losing power. I…I feel…cold."
Thunderwing felt to his knees, causing Iris and Fraxure to lose grip and fall through the aperture, but Smokescreen took action and grabbed them in time.
"Thanks, Smokey." Iris appreciated.
Immediately, the shoulders of Thunderwing overcharged and exploded, revealing two weak points.
"Yes! Those reactors are vulnerable." Clemont spotted.
"Target them, target them everyone!" Ritchie shouted as he and Clemont were about to use their cybertronian weapons to assist the team while Ratchet and Serena watched.
Optimus ran to Thunderwing, jumped and punched one of the reactors, affecting Thunderwing much than before.
"Yes, it worked! The device weakened him. Target those reactors on his shoulders, they are his weak spots." Ratchet advised through com-link.
The remaining members of Team Prime still capable of battle, Warpath, Predaking, Sideswipe, Blaster, Wheeljack, Arcee, Moonracer and Elita One, besides the humans, fired all their arsenal to assist their leader, not giving Thunderwing vision enough to see where to attack.
"Rarg, burn, insects!" He said covering his face before launching another beam of dark energon from the mouth.
Fortunately, Predaking transformed and fired a beam of fire which collided with Thunderwing's, allowing Optimus to destroy one of the reactors with his cannons. Thunderwing, now injured, tried to smash Optimus with his hand. Optimus dodged it, and seeing that arm was where the remaining target was, he climbed on the arm and used his axes to destroy it.
"I will turn you to ash." Thunderwing said as he prepared to strike again, but Optimus fired first his gatling gun and one of his cannons, stunning him and making him retreat as few steps. "Urg, no, no, I will not be defeated. If I must spend every bit of energy in core to destroy the matrix, so be it." He said spreading his wings and opening his chest, revealing his core.
Optimus decided to do the same, summoning a blue aura of energy, with the power of the Matrix of Leadership. "You want the matrix so badly? Here it is."
Thunderwing took flight and launched a rain of huge shots from his chest. Optimus could only dodge most of them, but the matrix's influence made Optimus more resistant, so he received no damage. And also, it powered him up that his cannons' shots were now stronger, causing more damage to Thunderwing's weak point. Totally furious, Thunderwing tried to stomp on Optimus with his feet, but he managed to climb on his wings and cut them off with the Star Saber, powered up.
"Hey! What are you doing back there? Get off me, you parasite! No one defies Thunderwing! I'll smash you to atoms!"
Optimus changed to vehicle form at landing and fired some missiles at Thunderwing's chest, hitting his weak point hard. Thunderwing groaned in pain as his chest started to glow, but Optimus wasn't finish yet: he was finally capable of activating his jet-pack, so he took flight and canalized the energy of the matrix to the Star Saber.
"You are finished, Thunderwing!" Optimus declared firing a beam of energy from the sword, hitting right at the center of Thunderwing's chest.
Thunderwing walked backwards to the edge of the volcano crater, lost balance and fell into the lava. That caused an earthquake that sent flying rocks of dark energon from a newborn volcano nearby. Optimus retreated and went with the team, which observed the eruption from the distance. After a while on the surface, the dark energon rocks stopped glowing, sign that the dark matter was gone, the same as Thunderwing. Time later after everyone settled down, the gang surprised Team Prime of revealing their families about their secret, after taking some time discussing Delia's advice. The reactions were different from what they told them: like Iris expected, her village welcomed Smokescreen, not asking many questions, which he found strange, even Predaking noticed the local dragon pokémon acted like welcoming him; Bonnie and Clemont's dad was out of words first, but after meeting Moonracer he calmed down and admitted it was similar to his secret identity; when Misty talk to her sisters they didn't believed her at first, but when she introduced them Seaspray they told her they were jealous of her; May and Max tried their best to settle things down for their parents at the moment of they meeting their Autobot guardians, but for their surprise they were pleased, specially their mom; Dawn's mother' reaction was obvious, freaking out the moment she saw Wheeljack, until Dawn talked about all things they passed through together, ending her to accept him; for Serena's case Ash decided to ask his mother for help intervening for Arcee's introduction, which at the end she didn't found as exciting compared to the fact Ash and her daughter were dating; Ritchie and Sideswipe decided to not share their case with anyone. The Autobot leaders and Predaking stood at the beach of New Iacon looking at the sunset when they saw the rest bringing their friends with them, enjoying during activities together.
"The Autobots are privileged to have allies such as these: valiant young humans and fearless pokémon, without whom this day would have been lost. They are the bravest of us all." Optimus proclaimed looking at the sun. "I am Optimus Prime, and I send this message to every Decepticon or similar who would bring war and tyranny to Earth: whatever scheme you attempt or threat you might offer, know that it will be at vain. This planet is now our home, and as long as we stand united, the Autobots will protect the Earth."