We're back! Hello all and welcome back to Beast Wars Prime. Sorry for the wait, but life decided to throw a couple of 'screwballs' that successfully cut into my writing time in the last several weeks. In any case, I hope the new chapter is exciting to each of you who reads it. Enjoy.
(A few days ago)
With a mighty roar of fury, the Dinobot combiner Volcanicus slammed into the ground on the planet Cybertron and shattered back into his core components. Moments later, Snarl shook his Stegosaurus modes' head before standing up. Last thing he remembered was fighting in Las Vegas and hearing Grimlock roar, and then, nothing. Transforming and looking around, the medic realized that they'd somehow ended up back on Cybertron, specifically near Iacon.
"Snarl?" Sludge asked before transforming. "Where are we?"
"Iacon." Snarl answered, seeing Swoop and Slug get back up as well.
"We haven't been here since we took out Shockwaves' old tower." Swoop laughed before realizing something was wrong. "Where's Grimlock?"
The four Dinobots turned to look at the still form of their leaders' dino mode. Slowly, the bot got to his feet and glared at the four of them. However, this was not the glare their leader normally gave in Tyrannosaurus mode. This was a look of savagery, devoid of any intelligence.
"Grimlock?" Snarl asked. He was answered when the Dinobot roared int their faces and took off running toward the horizon, away from the city.
"Boss, come back!" Slug yelled, about to chase after him.
The four were stopped however as the ground around them seemed to explode, enveloping them in smoke. Before the Dinobots could even think to react, the foursome was suddenly convulsing on the ground as electrical current coursed through their bodies, rendering them unconscious once more.
(Today)
"I'm not threatening you Slog; I'm telling you." Onslaught growled as he stared down the Horrorcon leader. "We are taking point on this mission."
"As if we'd allow you five to defile the mind of the greatest of beast bots since Onyx Prime." Slog sniped. This was the third argument they'd gotten into in as many hours and it was grating on all their nerves
"Look sucka." Brawl interrupted, stepping up to the twosome. "Our job is to secure the route; whatever dragon breath wants after that is his business."
"Besides, our hands are kinda tied on this remember." Swindle added, never taking his cannon off of Birdbrain and Wildfly. "As in Galvatron has all of us on a leash."
"We still have morals sonny." Bristleback growled.
"Funny, as one of the survivors of Monstructors' slaughter of the Elite Guard, I find that hard to believe." Onslaught retorted.
"Care for a repeat performance?" Slog growled.
"Uh, colonel." Vortex interrupted before. "Before we have a gun measuring contest between Bruticus and Monstructor, you might wanna look at this." He added gesturing to Blast Off.
"What is it Blast Off?" Looking at him, the surveillance specialists mask changed to a map of the area with several mobile Autobot signatures on it. Giving a sigh, Onslaught turned to Slog.
"You wanna take point? Fine, you got it." The Combaticon leader began. "You six find and secure a route under Paradon. We'll take care of those Autobots and join you."
"And they say military bots can't be reasoned with." Scowl boomed with a laugh.
"We'll see you then." Slog grunted before the group took off. Maybe they could arrange an accident for the mercenary group later.
"Well colonel, what are we gonna do about those Autobots?" Swindle asked once the Horrorcons were out of sight.
"According to the map, they should be coming up on Necrobot pass." Onslaught replied, taking a hit of his Cy-gar. "That's a narrow gulch which will soon be the home of a memorial plaque. Let's go."
"Me and the angry bot can take point." Vortex added, throwing an arm around Brawl.
"Get offa me fool."
At the back of his group, Ratchet was feeling nervous. Ever since they'd arrived back on Cybertron they hadn't encountered a single spark or sign of life. They'd been trailing along the outskirts of Iacon towards where Volcanicus may have landed, and he was growing concerned. He knew that more groups of Autobots besides the Dinobots stayed on Cybertron after the Ark left. Where did they all go?
"Slash?" The old medic called to the groups lone Dinobot.
"Yeah doc?" The femme replied as she ran alongside her girlfriend. The two were running in beast mode and keeping pace with the convoy.
"When was the last time you heard from another of the resistance groups?"
"A few months before Magnus called us." Slash answered. "The Technobots were going to check on the Spy Changers. Nobody had heard from them for a while."
"Anyone else?" Ratchet continued.
"Not really."
"Relax doc." Wheeljack called from the front of the convoy. "Most of the groups are probably just hiding from." He was cut off as part of a ridge exploded, causing a landslide which blocked the road.
"You were saying?" Ratchet griped as he transformed. Around him Whirl Jetfire and Deathsaur landed before transforming as well.
"Now you see chaps, what we have here is what is called a turkey shoot." Vortex called as he hovered into view in his helicopter mode.
"Very well put Vortex." Swindle added, training his cannon on Whirl. He knew that the cyclopean Wrecker was as much of a screw loose as Vortex, and wasn't taking any chances with him.
"Now, as much I want to let you all go and throw a spanner in Galvatrons' plans." Onslaught began, bringing his own guns to bear. "We have our own welfare to think about."
"We ain't going down without a fight colonel." Wheeljack yelled, pulling his swords.
"I hope not." Onslaught replied. "Keeps things interesting."
Before a fight could break out the ground began to shake, catching both sides off guard. The ridge opposite the landslide suddenly exploded outward as what looked like a giant segmented worm with an octagonal shaped drill for a head emerged. Turning towards the two groups of combatants, the drill split open like a flower bud, revealing a leech like mouth full of sharp spinning teeth. The size of it could only be matched by a combiner.
"Aw scrap, Drillworm!"
"Oh great!" Mach Hoof yelled as she deployed her saber. "Alien Graboids!"
Another rumble was felt as a second Drillworm emerged behind Onslaught and a third from the rubble.
"Crikey, that ain't right." Jetfire exclaimed. "These buggers are solitary hunters."
"Tell them that!" Deathsaur yelled, firing several blasts of Nucleon at one worm. This only seemed to agitate the beast.
"You need to aim for the mouth!" Brawl yelled as he transformed into tank mode and peppered another worm with cannon blasts.
"Combaticons!" Onslaught yelled. He wasn't going to let his team go up against three of these megafaunas alone. "Merge into-" Before he could finish, the nearest worm launched a series of barbed cables out of its' maw which embedded themselves into the Combaticon leader as well as Swindle and Blast Off. A moment later an electrical charge flooded their bodies, rendering them unconscious.
Meanwhile the two Drillworms in the gulch were imitating the third, successfully bringing down Slash, Ratchet, Wheeljack and Whirl in the first volley. Brawl attempted to fire another shot but one of the worms bashed the part of the ridge he was on, causing him to roll off it before crashing to the ground unconscious.
"Deathsaur, let's hit them together."
"Coming right up." They replied, charging their own Nucleon weapons. "On three?"
"No, just fire!" Mach Hoof yelled. Together the two fired on the nearest drillworm. Only for their combined fire to reflect off it and into Vortex who was dodging another worm. They watched in shock as the crazed Combaticon crashed down on Jetfire, the force of the impact knocking him out as well.
"More than meets the eye." Vortex slurred as he shut down. Seeing the last of their allies get taken out so easy, Mach Hoof groaned.
"You have got to be." She was cut off as the tail end of the nearest worm slammed into her. She had the vaguest sensation of flying through the air before losing consciousness. Her last sight was of that same worm giving Deathsaur a body slam.
Within the city of Iacon, a lone computer watched the short battle unfold.
"Excellent." It muttered to no one in particular before sending out a command to the remote controlled Drillworms. "Bring them to me. Maybe these players will be more entertaining."
Slowly but surely, consciousness returned to Slash the Dinobot. Shaking her head, she slowly stood up and took a look around. The last thing she remembered was being ambushed by the Combaticons and those Drillworms. Now, she was standing in a dark room with the others scattered around her. Looking to her left, she saw the unconscious Combaticons beginning to stir as well.
"Uhh, where are we?" Mach Hoof asked as Slash helped her up. Around them the other Autobots were getting back to their feet as well.
"Lightbright?" Sparkstalker asked aloud. Looking down at his chest, he noticed that his Symbicon was missing.
"Colonel?" Swindle whispered, sidling up to Onslaught. "Did you see how we got here?"
"No, I was unconscious the whole time." Onslaught replied.
"Sound off, who's not dead." Onslaughts' voice came from Blast Offs' mask.
"Man, that wasn't funny when the colonel did it." Brawl growled as he stood back up.
"What do you think Ratchet?" Wheeljack whispered to the medic. "Take them out now?"
"I think we should suspend hostilities until we're sure of what's going on."
"Oh, but hostilities make for such fine entertainment." A new, smooth sounding, voice exclaimed from the shadows.
"Ohh, mystery speaker!" Whirl exclaimed looking around for the speaker. "Where are you?"
"To say nothing of who." Wheeljack added, drawing his swords and standing close to Slash and Mach Hoof.
"I encompass the entire net." The voice began. "Through it, I observe systems, peoples and cities, from this place. Iacon." A video window appeared in midair showing the wreckage of the former Autobot capitol.
"This guy for real?" Mach Hoof whispered to Slash. The Dinobot shrugged and continued to listen.
"My designation, Mainframe." The hologram screen shattered and the particles reassembled into a head with both a visor and mouth plate. The newly named Mainframe took in the collective bots and cons.
"Let the games begin."
"Mainframe?" Wheeljack asked, looking up at the face. "You mean the Autobot programmer Mainframe who vanished during the war?"
"Ohhh, how nice." Mainframe cooed sarcastically. "Someone actually remembers my name. If only someone had remembered to look for me." He added bitterly.
"Well, what happened to ya mate?" Jetfire asked.
"So glad you asked Jetfire." Mainframe replied. "You see, not long after the Ark left Cybertron, I was captured by Shockwave during a botched raid and assumed dead."
"Obviously we were wrong." Slash mumbled.
"Very wrong." Mainframe acknowledged. "You see, the 'good senator' forced me into my alt mode and removed my T-cog." A new video screen materialized showing what looked like a large old fashioned red and blue supercomputer. "He also installed a mouth flower to ensure that I would die should anyone help me and began using me as secondary data processor in his tower."
Slashs' visor widened a bit. She had a feeling where this was going.
"Wait, you've been here this whole-time man?" Brawl asked. He knew about those mouth flowers. They were actually a spike that if tampered with, would shoot a needle into their victim's brain and kill them. They were also one of Shockwaves more devious inventions.
"Unfortunately." Mainframe confirmed. "However, in the half million years since the Dinobots destroyed the tower, I've been almost entirely isolated within the abandoned city. As consequence, I tend to live my life mostly in my head, augmented somewhat by synth-sims, and self-made games."
Ratchets' optics widened. Synth-sims were a type of immersive full sensory simulation that allowed a Cybertronian to experience whatever their spark desired. Unfortunately, they were also horribly addicting. He had seen bots waste away while hooked up to one. Couple that with a half million years of isolation, it would be enough to drive anyone insane.
Speaking of.
"Didn't you guys check the tower for survivors?" Mach Hoof asked Slash, drawing Ratchets' attention to the Dinobot.
"It wasn't my call." Slash replied. It was true. After the Dinobots toppled Shockwaves' tower, it had been Grimlocks' call to make. He'd reasoned that between whatever experiments Shockwave was conducting and the collapse, there weren't any survivors.
And now that call was coming back to haunt them all.
"What is your game here exactly Mainframe?" Onslaught asked. If he was careful maybe he could find a clue to get his team out of this mess.
"So glad you asked colonel." Mainframe replied cheerily. "You see, in recent cycles, I've actually had some bots to test my skills against. They did poorly."
Suddenly, the room was filled with video screens of various Autobots and some Decepticons meeting gruesome ends in what looked like exotic locations. Suddenly the question of the missing Autobots was no longer a mystery. So many teams had been wiped out by a bot who treated their lives as something akin to a video game.
The Technobots
The Spy Changers
The Pack
The Target Masters
The Sparkabots
The Jumpstarters
The Combaticons recognized a couple of teams too, mainly the Destrons and the Eradicons.
"Hopefully." Mainframe continued, seemingly oblivious to his captive's discomfort. "You can do better."
"You crazy." Whirl began going to deploy his gun only to find that he couldn't. "What the?"
"Ah, ah, ah." Mainframe taunted. "You can't use your guns until I say you can."
"No go Mainframe." Onslaught called to the floating head. "Do what you want with them, but leave my team out of it."
"Oh, but colonel." Mainframe simpered. "Let me show you what you're playing for." The various video screens vanished to be replaced with an overhead shot of the well of all sparks. And within the well was.
"Is that the Ark?" Slash asked.
"Impossible." Ratchet answered. "It was destroyed years ago. I was there."
"You're right." Mainframe added. "He's my other project."
"He?" Ratchets' optics widened to a comical degree. "Sweet Primus, that's Omega Supreme, isn't it?"
"You are correct sir!" Mainframe replied. "I decided to give him a bit of an upgrade using the Arks' schematics as a template. Admittedly, he wasn't all that fond of playing 'operation'." Sparkstalker shuddered a little. It reminded him too much of his time at Tarantulas' mercy.
"I have the reactivation codes for Omega Supreme hidden in five separate games I've designed." Mainframe continued. "Each game shall have one Autobot and one Combaticon attempting to retrieve a key code." A hologram of what looked like an Omega Key appeared. "You have to navigate the level and defeat the level guardian to acquire the code."
"And whoever gets all five wins?" Onslaught asked. "Or at least the majority of them."
"They get access to Omega, and they get to live." Mainframe added ominously. "Oh, and to make sure the teams stay even." An unseen force suddenly lifted both Sparkstalker and Slash into the air and held them aloft on either side of Mainframe.
"Let the games begin!" He called before anyone could protest further. A series of five space bridges opened around him and a similar unseen force pulled one bot and one con each toward them. Once the pairs had gone through, Mainframe pulled up five view screens.
"Let's see how this plays out. Shall we?"
"Alright." Jetfire sighed as he walked across a barren tundra. "Don't know what I'm doing in this blooming deep freeze, but at least I'm not being fired at." His monologue was interrupted by several small explosions going off around him. Looking up, he saw a familiar looking stealth jet pass him overhead.
"Me and my cruddy Yacker."
"Special delivery." Blast Off called in an annoying voice. "Pain!" He added in a deeper tone.
"Alright, time to get airborne and knock this dummy down the dunny." Transforming, Jetfire took off after Blast Off.
"And you were planning to do that how exactly?" Blast Off taunted using a Megatron sound bite.
"Like this." Jetfire replied, letting loose a volley of blasts at the Combaticons' tail end. "Now rack off." Blast off dodged the Autobots' blasts with a barrel roll and when Jetfire went to fire again, they both had to dodge a ball of energy thrown at them from below.
"Crikey! What the-?"
Looking down, Jetfire saw a beast twice the size of both him and Blast Off. It seemed to be a lizard made of ice and had four legs and a tail with two rows of icicle spikes running down its' back. Around its' neck was the key they needed to retrieve. It gave a roar and shimmered in the sun before swinging its' tail and launching another energy ball at them.
The scientist part of Jetfire wondered if this strange creature was harnessing solar radiation. The warrior in him wanted to keep it from being attacked. The Combaticon near him however, decided to divebomb the creature.
"You have to navigate the level and defeat the level guardian to acquire the code." Blast Off called using their captors' voice. Before Jetfire could fly after the Combaticon, he released an oval shaped device from his alt mode.
"Bomb voyage baby!" A femme's voice called from Blast Off as the explosive hurtled towards the monster. Jetfire dived after the explosive. He didn't know where this creature came from or how Mainframe got a hold of it, but it didn't deserve to die like this.
Unfortunately, the scientist was not fast enough and the bomb made contact with one of the beasts' crystalline spikes. The explosion blanketed the immediate area in white smoke and the shockwave knocked Jetfire out of the air, forcing him back to bot mode. Getting back up, he shook his head and looked at the clearing smoke.
"And I will take that." Blast Off called with Swindles' voice as he stepped out of the smoke, code key in hand. Looking past him, Jetfire looked at where the creature was and felt shock to his spark.
"Ohh, no!"
Mach Hoof silently cursed to herself as she ran away from Brawl the Combaticon across a rust red desert. Ever since she and the burly Decepticon had landed in what he called the Rust Sea, he'd been attempting to use his cannon against her. Admittedly this was problematic for him as his tank mode wasn't as suited for the loose easily shifting sand as her beast mode. To say nothing of the fact she was more agile.
However, the angry bot behind her wasn't her only concern.
"Where the heck is the level guardian?" She asked aloud. While she didn't like feeling that she was in some kind of real-life videogame, she would admit that she'd rather win at this particular one.
"Probably waitn' on one of us to off the other." Brawl yelled in response as his tank mode roared over a dune before getting sunk in the sand once again. Transforming, the Combaticon trained his guns on Mach Hoof again. "I may not wanna do this kid, but it's not just our lives on the line." Before he could fire, a nearby dune erupted, creating a cover of flying red sand.
From it, the level guardian emerged.
The creature was mammalian in appearance and overall, resembled a large mammoth. It carried itself on six legs and had a tail, in true mammoth fashion though, there were two tusks and a woolly trunk at the head which also had the key code tied to it. The guardian gave a bellow before a jet of flame shot out of its' trunk at Mach Hoof, who barely got out of the way in time.
"Of course, it just has to breath fire too." She griped as she fired a bolt of Nucleon from her saber at it only for the bolt to do little more than agitate the beast. Transforming back into her beast mode, Mach Hoof began a game of dodging, hoping to possibly wear down the guardian.
From a nearby sand dune, Brawl transformed into his tank mode again. This was perfect, the little sucka would keep the big sucka busy long enough for him to put the latter down. Training his cannon on where he believed the beasts' heart to be.
"I pity you fool." Brawl muttered to himself as he opened fire three times and was rewarded by the sound of three consecutive impacts into the guardian's side. This also had the benefit of knocking the key code off of its' trunk.
Transforming as the guardian keeled over, Brawl observed Mach Hoof use the beast as a springboard to leap into the air and charge up a bolt of Nucleon.
"Aw man!" Brawl groaned as he realized his mistake. Taking the sniper position may have enabled him to make a kill shot, but it also made him the highest thing in the area. A fact that Mach Hoof took full advantage of as she let loose her attack which arced directly to Brawl, causing the bot to begin convulsing before the sand beneath him shifted again, causing him to slide down the dune and crash to the desert floor in a heap.
"I pity the fool." Mach Hoof muttered to herself, remembering a character from a show her dad liked to watch reruns of. Crouching down and picking up the code key, she turned to check on the guardian, hoping that she could find some way to help the poor thing.
What she saw, was worse. Far worse.
Whirl and vortex were able to find the level guardian easily enough. The moment they arrived at what looked like the edge of a mist filled canyon dotted with one-person mesas and jagged stalagmites, they were set upon by what appeared to be a giant bat divebombing the two flyers from an overhead thunderstorm. Transforming and taking to the air, the two were forced to perform increasingly difficult aerobatics to avoid both the storm and the creatures' jaws.
"Ohhh." Vortex sang as he zigged and zagged around in his helicopter mode. "You can rock it you can roll it you can stomp and even stroll it at the hop hop hop hop." He sang as he flew. "When the records start spinin' you chalypso when you chicken at the hop hop hop hop. Let's go to the hop, let's go to the hop." He did a barrel roll to avoid another strafing attack.
"Your aim stinks. Let's go to the hop." Vortex added without skipping a beat.
"Sir, I should sue you for plagiarism!" Whirl yelled as he dove to avoid the bats' wing. "I was doing wackadoo machaca years before you!"
"You'll hear from my attorneys then." Vortex laughed as he finally managed to pull a loop the loop and land on the bats' back in his bot mode. Looking down, he saw the code key attached to its' back. "The law firm of Kicker, Harter, and Indagears."
"They've been out of business for years." Whirl complained. He attempted to follow Vortex onto the creatures' back only for the Combaticon to shoot several holes in the wings, causing it to lose altitude.
"And you're about to join them muchacho." Vortex laughed as he backflipped into the air, key in hand, and transformed back into his helicopter mode. "Happy landing!" He then fired several shots at Whirl to take him out too.
"No sooner done than said." Whirl called. Banking right and putting some extra power in his rotors, the Wrecker shot up to a nearby mesa and transformed. Deploying his guns, he turned to fire on Vortex only for a loud bang to draw his attention.
Looking to his right, he was suddenly flooded by surprise. Impaled on one of the stalagmites was.
"Okay. Now that's a plot twist."
Swindle grumbled as he trudged his way through an oil swamp. The con bot couldn't help but dislike the environment he was now forced to compete in. Ideally, he was suited for a fire fight or procuring materials for whatever plan Onslaught had cooked up. Not jungle warfare.
"I swear, when I get out of this pit stop." He muttered to himself. "I am going to trigger that mouth flower of his out of spite."
A slight cracking sound caught his attention and be barely dodged out of the way of a falling tree.
"I can appreciate the sentiment." Wheeljack called from somewhere above him. "But there's no way we're letting you get Omega Supreme."
"Look." Swindle yelled as he fired his cannon at the canopy. "I really don't care about the guardian. Only about not dying." Okay technically that was a lie. Let's face it, a titan sized Omega Supreme would be quite the catch.
"Nice try." Wheeljack taunted from a tree behind Swindle. "I read up on you guys when you surfaced on Earth. I know you're a skilled liar."
Grinning, Swindle turned and aimed at the oil pool at the base of the tree he heard the Wreckers' voice come from. "Nice to know I'm so well known." Firing his arm cannon, the pool beneath the tree exploded, forcing Wheeljack to jump.
Landing on the edge of the burning pool, Wheeljack then leapt into the air again, swords drawn. As the Wrecker attempted to bring his swords down on the con bot, he spun to the left, dodging the blow and smacking the Wrecker in the hip to boot. As Wheeljack went to attack Swindle again, he realized that the Combaticon did more than smack his hip.
"Looking for this?" Swindle taunted with glee as he tossed Wheeljacks' grenade up and down like a football. Wheeljacks' attention however, was elsewhere.
Behind the Combaticon, the level guardian had just risen out of the burning oil pool. Large and snakelike, it reared up and hissed, drawing Swindles' attention. Looking up, the con bot realized two things.
One, the creature had a large bite and was within striking distance.
Two, the code key was embedded in its' forehead.
Activating the grenade he stole from Wheeljack, Swindle dove back from the pool and lobbed the weapon as the guardian lunged at him with an open maw. The beast clacked its' mouth shut and reared back in surprise.
"Yes!" Swindle yelled before a splash behind him caught his attention.
Looking behind him, Swindle saw Wheeljack dive into another oil pool. Confused, he turned back to the guardian and saw why. While the creature looked snakelike, he realized too late that there was an actual body to it. A body that was still within the burning oil pool.
"Oh scrap!" Swindle yelled as he bolted for another oil pool. Before he could dive in however, the level guardians' body and the pool exploded. The force of the blast blew the Combaticon the rest of the way and into the pool. A few moments later, he emerged spluttering.
Looking around, Swindle saw that much of the swamp was now on fire. Turning back to where the level guardian was, he saw a burning headless carcass. Looking to his left he saw Wheeljack. Code key in hand.
"Oh, you have got to be kidding me!" Swindle yelled as he marched over to Wheeljack.
The Wrecker in question however, was looking at the guardian's head.
"Slash is not going to like this."
"No." Slash whispered in despair. Four of the five games had been concluded, and as each level guardian was defeated, the illusion around them dissipated. On the screens in front of her were not four dead creatures, but four dead Dinobots.
Snarl, blown apart by Blast Offs' bomb.
Slug, body riddled with holes from Brawl.
Swoop, impaled on a stalagmite.
Sludge, blown apart from the inside out.
"YOU MONSTER!" Slash yelled, anger rapidly overtaking her grief. "YOU KILLED THEM!"
"Says one of the ones who left ME to die." Mainframe taunted the restrained Dinobot. "You didn't care whether anyone would survive the destruction of the tower. So why should I care about any of you."
"It wasn't my-"
"It wasn't my call." Mainframe taunted. "Just following orders. The words of almost every second-string war criminal." Slash was spun around to face their captor. "The Autobots have every bit as much energon on their hands as the Decepticons do. I've seen the files."
"We're at war." Slash argued. Sparkstalker on the other hand tried not to look at either of them.
"Acceptable losses. The ends justify the means? Pathetic excuses!" Mainframe took a breath. "In any case that's four games down. One to go." He turned them back to the final screen.
Ratchet was weary as he drove around the ruined city, he now found himself in. It had been almost ten minutes and he hadn't seen flash nor substance of Onslaught. He knew the Combaticon leader was probably lying in wait and had some kind of plan set up.
"To steal a line from First-Aid." He muttered to himself as he drove down another empty city street. "I'm a doctor, not a soldier."
As if to reply to his comment, the foundations of the two skyscrapers at the end of the road he was on. Those two buildings then crashed into the ones next to them, knocking them over as well, and them the next two. This created a literal domino effect on the street.
"I just had to say it." Ratchet exclaimed as he pulled a one eighty in the middle of the street and raced away from the destruction. As he closed in on the other end of the road, Onslaught drove into view in his vehicle mode and used his cannon to take out the foundation to the nearest building to collapse it and block both of them in.
"Welcome to the kill zone doctor." Onslaught began as he transformed and trained his guns on the transforming medic. "I'm sure you know why it's called that."
"I may be a doctor, but I do know basic military terms." Ratchet groused. "And you do realize that the goal is to beat the level guardian not each other, right?"
"I do." Onslaught admitted. "However, I need to ensure that I get the key to save my team. So, you'll excuse me for saying this, but I love it when." He was cut off as the ground beneath them began to rumble. "What the?"
Several blocks away, the ground and buildings seemed to fall away into a giant sinkhole. From the center of the destruction emerged a replica of Trypticon in his battle mode. The replica gave a roar before turning to look at the two combatants that now realized, they were trapped.
"What was that you said about 'how a plan comes together'?" Ratchet yelled at Onslaught who quickly realized his plan had trapped them and left them at the level guardians' mercy.
"MAINFRAME!" Onslaught yelled. "I'm calling foul! There is no way you can expect us to beat this level guardian!"
"Sorry colonel." Mainframes' voice seemed to echo in throughout the area. "My game, my rules." He cackled a little. "KILL THEM!"
The Trypticon replica roared before engaging its' fusion cannon. The two bots quickly began to scale the rubble in hopes of getting out of the kill zone. As the replicant fired, Ratchet and Onslaught managed to reach the peak of the rubble and slide down to street level before transforming into their respective vehicle modes and driving away from the cannons' ray.
"Get in close to it." Onslaught yelled, recalling his knowledge of the real Trypticon. "It can't use it's cannon at close range."
"So instead of getting fried, we get squished." Ratchet snarked back.
"You have a better plan?" Onslaught answered. "It's probably where the key is too." With that the two accelerated, racing the fusion beam towards the replicant.
"You have any other advice?" Ratchet yelled as the beam stopped following them. Onslaught rotated the cannon on his truck mode.
"Yeah." He answered. "Have a decoy handy." Firing his cannons at the street in front of Ratchet, he was rewarded by the sound of tires popping and Ratchet transforming while swearing as he hit the gas in time to dodge the replicants swinging tail.
Arriving at the center of the city, where the sinkhole was, Onslaught carefully stayed between the replicants' legs and tail. When he'd researched what became of Trypticon station he noticed that its' bot mode couldn't do much to anyone directly beneath it. A serious design flaw.
Looking into the sinkhole, the Combaticon leader saw the code key in the center of it. Feeling the ground vibrate, he looked up to see the replicant taking steps back to get them into its' line of fire.
"Time for a leap of faith." He said to no one in particular before taking a running leap into the hole. Hearing the roar of an engine, Onslaught looked up to see a red and white ambulance speed off the edge of the hole on rims and transform back into Ratchet.
"How?"
"I grabbed onto his tail as it swung by you son of a glitch." With that the medic fired his weapons at the side of the hole, the recoil knocking him into the Combaticon leader. The two struggled for a moment before slamming into the bottom of the sinkhole.
At the moment of impact, everything went white.
"A TIE!" Mainframes' voice raged as the light faded. Looking down, Ratchet realized that both he and Onslaught had a servo on their code key. They must've landed on it at the same time.
"Colonel." Swindle called as he and the other Combaticons rallied around their leader and helped him up.
"Ratchet, are you alright?" Wheeljack asked as he approached. Sword in one hand and key in the other.
"At least he's alive." Slash droned out. She was still in shock.
"What?" Ratchet asked.
"The other four level guardians turned out to be four of the other Dinobots disguised to look like monsters." Jetfire supplied, helping the medic to his feet.
"Yes, yes, you all successfully killed my four latest acquisitions." Mainframe said in an offhanded way. To him, no lives mattered. "But how to decide this contest?" The mad programmer was pulled from his musings by the sound of transformation. Looking down, he suddenly found himself optic to optic with Bruticus Maximus.
"I shall take their keys, and you shall release us." Bruticus stated in a no-nonsense tone that would've made Mainframe shiver if he'd been in bot mode.
"I suppose simple fisticuffs shall suffice." Their captor replied. "Commence the bonus round."
"Hey, if they're going up against Bruticus, let us help!" Sparkstalker yelled. He wasn't about to let them face one of the most feared combiners in history alone. Even if he didn't have Lightbright with him.
"Sorry." Mainframe laughed, not sounding it in the least. "My games, my rules."
Bruticus turned his guns on the collective Autobots and opened fire, forcing them to scatter. Both Whirl and Jetfire transformed and attempted to get close enough to shoot the combiner in the visor only to be forced to dodge Vortex' helicopter blade being thrown like a shuriken at them. Mach Hoof let loose a bolt of Nucleon into his foot and it seemed to work as he shuddered and convulsed, only for him to grab the attacking Wheeljack and throw him into her.
"Game Over." Bruticus growled as the convulsing stopped and he began to advance towards Ratchet.
"Not quite yet." A new and familiar nasally feminine voice rang out, stopping Bruticus in his tracks.
"What? Whose there?" Mainframe yelled. "This is my domain!" Suddenly, Slash and Sparkstalker were released from their bonds and fell to the ground.
"My prisoners!"
"My friends." The voice corrected as a flash of light emanated from Sparkstalkers' chest and faded to reveal.
"Lightbright?" Ratchet exclaimed. The sight of the diminutive Autobot on her partners' chest was unexpected, but not unwelcome.
"Sweet byte!" Sparkstalker exclaimed, happy to feel his loves presence once again.
"Trespasser!" Mainframe growled.
"Player two, ready." Lightbright answered. "Ratchet, take a breather. I have a plan."
"This is grand scale cheating femme!" Mainframe yelled.
"You mean like how you have them all thinking this is happening for real?" Lightbright answered, separating from Sparkstalker, but staying close by.
"Run that by us again Sheila." Jetfire asked as Mainframe growled,
"We're all out of our minds at the moment." She replied. "Everything you've seen since waking up is a Synth-sim. He just didn't count on one of us having two minds instead of one."
A new window opened showing the unconscious bodies of everyone present in the room. Each of them had a cable running from the back of their heads to outlets in the walls. Every single one of them also had a collar with what looked like an explosive attached to it. The rest of the room was filled with the headless corpses of the various bots and cons they'd seen die earlier.
"So, my little ruse has been discovered." Mainframe casually sighed. "This is why I don't co-op with femmes. Or anyone really." He turned his head to Bruticus. "Destroy them and your release will still be guaranteed. The explosives will deal with them in reality once their avatars are gone."
Lightbright laughed. "I figured you'd say something like that. You see, I've been active in here since the time they arrived, and I've been busy." Four space bridges opened and four familiars looking Autobots emerged from them.
"Guys!" Slash yelled joyously as she saw Snarl, Slug, Swoop and Sludge emerge in bot mode. She ran up to them and wrapped her arms around Sludge, who was nearest. "I thought you were."
"Impossible! Mainframe yelled in shock.
"Not really." Lightbright laughed. "I just had to slow down the processor a bit and switch out the Dinobots' avatars with empty shells just before their seeming demises."
"Clever." Mainframe bit out. "But Bruticus will still make short work of you all."
"As is yes." Lightbright admitted. She led Sparkstalker over to the Dinobots before recombing with him back into Deathsaur. "However, we have one final trick up our sleeve." They finished together.
What happened next, threw everyone for a loop. The five Dinobots' optics glowed magenta for a moment, along with Deathsaurs before the six of them transformed and began to combine. Deathsaur partially transformed back into bot mode with his beast mode head coming up to serve as a head before its' maw opened wide revealing a visor and faceplate for the combiner as their arms and legs remained folded.
After that, Slashs' legs folded up and her arms raised and pivoted before she attached herself to Deathsaurs' chest flush beneath Lightbright in chest mode. Finally, the other four Dinobots transformed into the same limb configuration they took for Volcanicus and slotted into place, completing the new combiner. The red visor on their face flashed ominously as they stared down Bruticus.
"Mosazaur, battle ready." The newly minted Mosazaur called. Without Grimlocks' rage to blind them, the new, seven-part combiner was fully cognizant and raring to go.
"By the Primes." Ratchet whispered as the others rallied around him, behind their new protector.
"An interesting idea, but ultimately futile." Mainframe taunted. "Attack.
Shoving down their distaste for their captor, Bruticus rushed Mosazaur only for the latter to turn and shoot a jet of flame from the shoulder that was Slugs' mouth. Backstepping to get away from the flame allowed them to deliver a Nucleon charged roundhouse kick to his chest.
"Very well then." Bruticus stated, engaging every gun across his body. "Firing all." With that, he opened fire on the new combiner.
Reaching behind them, Mosazaur drew Deathsaurs' shield and held it in front of them. While it didn't block every shot fired, it did withstand the hardest hits of the barrage. Once the artillery fire stopped, they shifted the shield around and watched as it transformed to fully enclose over their right hand, becoming a kind of sword spike.
Charging forth, Mosazaur found their opening blow parried by Bruticus wielding Vortex' blades again. Leaping back the two combiners began to circle one another. A sudden thought came to mind.
"Bruticus." They began, continuing to circle. "Which is more important to you? Your survival, or victory." There was a moment of silence.
"A victory is any battle you can walk away from." He stated.
"The first thing Lightbright did was deactivate the bombs in the collars and lock Mainframe out."
"WHAT!"
"If you forfeit here, your minds will simply return to your bodies once your avatars are destroyed." Mosazaur explained ignoring the deranged programmers' anger.
"A trick." Bruticus shook his head. "Autobots want us dead."
"Sparkstalker does not." Mosazaur countered. "And even the Dinobots respect you for rebelling against Megatron all those years ago."
Another moment of silence seemed to stretch on forever before Bruticus returned his blades and looked at Mosazaur.
"Proceed."
"NO!"
On his confirmation, Mosazaur raised their sword, both charging it with Nucleon and igniting it in flames. A strong slash from shoulder to hip rent across Bruticus before his avatar shattered in a cloud of pixels.
Looking to the view screen, the collective bots saw the Combaticons jolt back to consciousness before ripping the collars from their necks and the cables from their heads. For a brief moment, it looked like Swindle was going to open fire on the helpless Autobots before Onslaught stopped him. While they couldn't hear what was said, they all breathed a sigh of relief as the five Decepticons transformed and left.
"I believe that's game over." Ratchet said as Mosazaur separated. There was a moment of silence before Mainframe answered with a yell.
"If I lose, everyone loses!" With that, the room began to shake as the few details in it exploded into pixels like Bruticus had done. All around them various video screens appeared for a moment with images of events from Mainframes' life before exploding like everything else.
"What's happening?" Mach Hoof yelled in confusion.
"Oh crikey." Jetfire yelled as he realized what was happening. "The galah is erasing his own mind, and taking us with him."
"Talk about a sore loser." Deathsaur added. "Mainframe, we won, release us."
"Now, now." Mainframe taunted; his voice distorted. "I never said 'I' would play by the rules." He gave a maniacal laugh as the image of his head exploded too.
"Come on." Deathsaur yelled opening a space bridge with a gesture.
"I built an escape route in case he pulled something like this." Lightbright added.
"Everybody out." They finished together.
As everyone ran for the portal, Deathsaur noticed Ratchet and Wheeljack lingering.
"We can't leave without these." Ratchet explained as Wheeljack handed him the last of the code keys to Omega Supreme.
Nodding as the two ran through the portal back to their bodies, Deathsaur shook their head at the rapidly shrinking space they'd been standing in before following them out and avoiding deletion.
A few miles away from Iacon, back in Necrobot Pass, the Combaticons finally came to a stop before transforming amidst the now inert Drillworms. Mainframe must've been controlling them somehow and with his death, they'd been rendered harmless.
"I still say we should've finished them off colonel." Swindle said as he looked his commander in the optic.
"They let us walk away Swindle." Onslaught countered. "Letting them live was just repaying the favor."
"That was still a risk man." Brawl threw in. "They coulda been lying' about the bombs."
"They weren't." Onslaught replied nonchalantly, taking a hit off his Cy-gar. "One consistent thing I've seen in Autobots is that they're usually the honorable types." He snorted. "Even the Dinobots."
"So where do we go from here colonel?" Vortex asked.
"We catch up with Slog." Onslaught replied before transforming, prompting his troops to do so as well. "No need to hurry though."
And with that, the group took off again for Paradon.
Ratchet groaned and shook his head as he regained consciousness. Vaguely, he felt the destruct collar being removed from his neck. Standing up, he looked at his wrist computer and noted that the key codes for Omega Supreme had apparently uploaded at the same time he did. Looking around the room, he saw that most of the other had recovered as well.
"So, we can't form Mosazaur in real life?" Snarl asked Deathsaur on the far side of the room.
"No." They responded with a sigh. "We achieved that primarily by tweaking our avatars in the sim. To do so in real life, we'd need the Enigma of Combination."
"And that's back on Earth." Mach Hoof added.
"We have something more important to do in any case." Slash interrupted. The Dinobots looked at each other in understanding and nodded.
Moments late, the group were standing outside of the wreckage of Shockwaves' tower.
"Alright." Ratchet yelled. "Blow it."
On his command the remaining supports on the old tower were blown apart, collapsing the building onto itself. There had been some debate, but considering the sheer number of dead bodies within the tower (both newer and older) this was deemed the best way to deal with them. A more thorough sweep of the sub levels resulted in them finding mainframes' catatonic body. There was a brief argument about what to do with it before Whirl took charge and smacked it with one of his hooks. The telltale 'shick' before his body turned ashy gray was all they needed to know that the mouth flower had done its' job.
"Now that that's taken care of." Ratchet continued, turning to look at the group. "We need to reactivate and finish upgrading Omega Supreme."
"Finish?" Mach Hoof asked. "The guy is as big as Autobot City."
"Mainframe may have used parts of Metroplex to make Omega titan sized." Ratchet admitted. "But he isn't quite ready to make the trip back to Earth. Jetfire, Wheeljack, Deathsaur and myself will finish the repairs and reactivate him."
"Do you need us for that doc?" Slash asked.
"I don't think so, the rest of the city is deserted. Why?"
"Because after we crashed here." Snarl replied. "Grimlock went feral and took off. We need to go look for him."
Ratchets' optics widened. In all the confusion, he hadn't even registered the fact that the Dinobot commander was missing. Regaining his composure, Ratchet nodded at them. They were the only ones who could bring him back.
"Go." He ordered. "And take Mach Hoof and Whirl with you." Ratchet already knew that the young Maximal would follow Slash regardless and ultimately, she was too small to help with the process. Whirl being gone would simply make everything flow smoother.
Giving a nod before transforming, the Dinobots led Mach Hoof and Whirl out of the city and hopefully in the direction of Grimlock.
"Alright everyone, let's move out." Ratchet announced as he turned toward the location of the well of all sparks.
"We've got work to do."
A/N: And there we have it. Time for some explanations.
I decided to upgrade Omega Supreme into a titan sized body so as to have him on par with Trypticon. Design wise, he is a mix of both the Ark and his Transformers Animated counterpart. Funny story. I didn't know that the 'Teletraan-1' Autobot that came with the Ark was named Mainframe until I was almost done with the chapter. Irony, right?
Mainframe is based on Dr. Jerimiah Surd from the 90's Jonny Quest cartoon (Voiced by Frank Welker) I figured Mainframe being stuck in his supercomputer alt mode would be analogues to being quadriplegic. Sorry if a sub-faction anyone liked was on his kill list, but I needed to drive home just how dangerous he was. To say nothing of how insane.
Mosazaur is actually an experimental combiner of mine. I figured if Hasbro could create a 'new' combiner by switching torsos, I could at least create a good reason why that would be the case. I just hope they were well received.
Now I'm sure you're all wondering about Grimlock. Unfortunately, you'll have to wait until next time to find out because.
Next Time: The King of the Golden Lagoon
Until then, fave, follow, and review. Bye!