Chapter 4: Rescue Time
With Optimus and Ratchet, they looked at the large group of undead cybertronian warriors with aghast looks on their faces.
"Megatron has desecrated the resting ground of our fallen ancestors, and his own." Ratchet spat in disgust.
"Not even the dead are safe from his war mongering." Optimus added gravely. Reluctantly, he deployed his blasters and started shooting them. Megatron looked on and smiled wickedly at the sight.
"Yes Optimus, keep fighting. But once my army eliminates you, you will join my army as well." The Decepticon called down to his archnemesis.
-The Nemesis-
"*Gasp* Jeeze! I thought I was gonna choke!" Miko gasped as Creator finally removed his finger from her mouth after trying to shut her up.
"Sorry, Miko. Just… Try and stay safe, okay?" He questioned.
"I'm not sure there are even any safe spots, but yeah. I get the point." She nodded.
"Let's hope the others noticed you're gone-Speak of the Devil." The Bioformer said as the ground bridge opened. Out of it came… Raf and Jack. This caused the Bioformer to facepalm. "For the love of…" He groaned.
"Is Miko here? We got Sierra in the base ready to bridge us back when we get her." Jack asked as he dashed for cover with Raf.
"What's she look like?" Said Japanese girl asked while popping out from behind Creator's head.
"Miko, come on! It's not safe for us to be here! We need to go, now!" Jack told her.
"Are you nuts? No way! I'm not leaving the action!" The girl protested.
"Hey Miko?" Creator asked her as the ground bridge opened again. "Think fast!" He said as he plucked the girl from his shoulder and slid her on the ground right into the portal.
"Thanks for that! We'll try to calm her down on the other side." Jack said as he grabbed Raf and dashed through the portal with it closing moments later.
"Phew, that was a close one." The Bioformer sighed in relief, before peeking around the corner. "Hmmm, now how to figure out where Fowler is…" He wondered aloud. "... Okay I think I got a plan… but I'm not sure if you'll like it."
"What is it?" Arcie questioned.
"I turn into my human form, and get captured. If I play my cards right I can get myself brought to where Fowler is and then I can break him out." He told them.
"... Yep, we don't like it… but it's also our best shot." Bulkhead sighed.
"Unless we can hack into the computers and find out that way, we have no other ideas." Arcie nodded.
[I got a baaad feeling things are gonna go wrong guys.] Bumblebee told them.
"You're not alone." Arcie sighed as Tiberius returned to his human form.
"Just, wait for my signal." The boy told them as he walked out into the open, and was spotted by a Vehicon. "Hey Con!" He called while wiggling his backside at the robot. "Come and get me ya walking junkyard heap!"
The Vehicon apparently took the bait and started chasing after him, which was short lived as the boy was caught in a few seconds.
"Well, ya caught me." He shrugged as the Con brought him to the ship, and was soon approached by Starscream who was leaving the room where Fowler was.
"Blasted human! He still refuses to-what is this?" The commander questioned as he looked at Tiberius.
"This human was found at the perimeter." The Vehicon reported.
"Boy, Optimus is gonna kill you guys when he finds out you have me." Tiberius taunted.
"Hm, so you are one of the sacks of flesh Optimus is protecting. Let's see how confident you are after some… Let's say 'treatment.'" The seeker smirked darkly.
"Yeah… Joke's on you pal, I have a medical condition that makes me permanently numb to pain." He yawned nonchalantly. He wasn't lying, either; he did have burnt nerve endings.
"...Even if that's true, damage can still be done." Starscream retorted.
"I'm gonna have to pass on that, especially since I can do THIS!" He yelled before transforming and destroying the Vehicon that was holding him. Starscream fell on his backside in surprise.
"SURPRISE BITCHES!" The Bioformer cackled.
"What?! What are you doing here?!" The Con gasped, then he noticed the two masks on his shoulders. "You have BIONICLE relics? How?!" He questioned, optics wide.
"You don't need to know." Creator retorted as he brought out his chest cannon and fired a blast into him that knocked him out. "Have fun explaining this screw up to Megatron." He chuckled. He then started poking around for Fowler.
"Hmmm, here's something of interest right here." He said as he noticed something on a monitor, and it was schematics he recognized from the base. "Hello mama." He said as he deployed his new retractable finger flash drive and plugged it in. Instantly, he started downloading the schematics to look at later. He knew for a fact that Ratchet would want to see this.
As he continued to poke around in the ship, he came across where they stowed the maps to their Energon mines and where Fowler was being held. Acting quick, he got copies of the maps and started heading towards the brig, but as he did, two Decepticons came walking his way.
One had the design of a red Japanese muscle car, and was around the size of Bumblebee. And the second was like a humvee and was just as big as Bulkhead. Upon seeing him, they raised their weapons at him.
"Knockout and Breakdown. Arcie and Bulkhead mentioned you two." Creator snarled.
"Oh, so you're with them, eh? Good. Then it'll be even better when we send you back to them in pieces!" Knockout snarled as he started charging at him with his circular saw arm weapons.
"Yeah, no." The Bioformer said before he went to activate his chest cannon, but this time he summoned a shoulder cannon. "See ya!" He exclaimed before firing. The problem with this? Knockout thought going in close was a good idea against a ranged fighter, and he paid for it.
The blast sent him flying into Breakdown and crashed through the door of the brig, where Fowler was hanging by his arms and guarded by a Vehicon.
Creator smirked as he grabbed the Con's skull and summoned the Mask of Life to his face before pressing their heads together. The mask glowed as golden energy went through the Con and started to change its shape, until what was left in the Bioformer's hand was a writhing mechanical snake.
"Real insulting, isn't it?" He mused before hearing a voice behind him.
"Surrender now, or-" The voice of Starscream started to say before…
"Hey Starscream, catch!" Creator called as he tossed the snake over his shoulder right at the seeker, causing him to scream like a little girl as he flailed about frantically. The Bioformer just laughed at his plight.
Going over to the agent he grabbed him and then started to make his way topside, but once he was on the top, Soundwave stood in his way.
"You will go no further, Autobot." He declared in a deep baritone voice, almost as if he was mimicking both Megatron and Optimus at the same time.
"Great, it's the quiet one." Tiberius groaned as Fowler started going on about wanting pie. "Not that it hasn't been fun, but I gotta jet, see ya." He said as he tossed Fowler in his cockpit and transformed into his jet mode. Immediately, he began flying through the corridors with the expertise of an ace. "Arcie, I got Fowler! You and the others start making some noise out there!" He said into his comms.
"On it!" Arcie told him.
"Here goes!" The Bioformer said as he used his jet form's plasma minigun to blast a hole in the bulkhead of the ship and flew out of it while doing a barrel roll. He then beelined it for his allies while making sure his flying didn't cause further injury to his passenger.
"Sierra! Open the ground bridge, now!" Arcie yelled to the base.
"Roger that!" The cheerleader captain replied before opening the ground bridge. "Everyone in! Move!" She yelled as she ran into the portal followed by Bumblebee, Bulkhead and Creator, who had transformed back to robot form and ran in behind them, the ground bridge closing moments later.
"Gaaaang waaaay!" The golden transformer yelled as he tumbled into the base and crashed into the controls of the ground bridge before spitting Fowler out of his cockpit. "Jesus fucking Christ! If I ever see another Decepticon again, it'll be too soon!" He yelled in his upside down position before turning back into a human.
"I can't believe you made me miss the action like that!" Miko complained with an angry pout.
"Pipe down! I had to fly through the corridors of a ship! Nothing is more stressful than that, as far as I'm concerned!" Tiberius retorted.
(Elsewhere)
With Ratchet and Optimus, they were having a very hard time cutting up all the Cybertronian zombies, the Dark Energon around them was slowly sapping their strength.
"We need to end this fast, Optimus! This Dark Energon is sapping away our strength!" The medic panted.
"We must not waver now!" Optimus said. Ratchet then noticed a limb with Dark Energon in it flail slightly before it went still, giving him an idea.
"I recommend dissection! The smaller the pieces, the better!" The ambulance advised.
"Sound advice, old friend!" Optimus replied as he called out his own bladed weapons.
Megatron couldn't help but chuckle at the site before him, though his thoughts soon wandered to the Autobot Optimus had called his 'student'.
"Perhaps I should give that student a little test." He chuckled darkly. Soon, the Autobot leader had managed to fight his way to the pillar that his archnemesis was standing on and began climbing it. "Excellent work fighting my legion Optimus, but you should know that this is but a prelude for what is to come!" The overlord shouted as he transformed and flew away. Optimus tried to shoot him out of the sky, but failed.
Sighing, he made his way back to Ratchet, who was cradling his wounded arm.
"What on Earth could he have meant by that?" Ratchet questioned.
"Knowing Megatron? Nothing good." The Prime sighed.
(Later)
"And then the next thing I know, the Con turns into a snake!" Tiberius said as he recounted what happened. "You should've seen how Starscream was jumping around! He screamed like a little girl!" He laughed. The others laughed at the tale. Normally, they would've dismissed it as nonsense, but after what they've seen the past few days, they just decided to go with it. Fowler was currently sleeping on a nearby medical bed.
"Oh man, I wish you recorded that!" Miko exclaimed as she held her sides.
"I had heard that the Mask of Life could change one organism into another, but what you just described…" Ratchet said before he pulled up a picture of the same type of snake. "Is this the creature you saw the Vehicon turn into?" He asked. Tiberius looked it over and nodded.
"Yeah. What's it called?" He asked.
"It's an extinct species of proto-Cybertronian life called the Cyberbite Serpent, it's one of the common ancestors of both Autobots and Decepticons." The medic explained. "And it seems you devolved that Decepticon into its most basic ancestor."
"Which means he could probably do the same to humans, I'm guessing?"Raf wondered.
"Possibly." The medic nodded.
"I'll be sure to avoid doing that frequently, then." The golden haired boy decided before he remembered the information he pulled from the Nemesis. "Oh! I also pulled a huge heap of info from their ship while I was looking for Fowler. Interested?" He offered.
"By all means." Ratchet told him as he transformed and plugged his flash drive into the computer and started pulling up the files. The rest of the Autobots looked at the data with wide optics.
"Whoa… This is practically a treasure trove!" Arcie got out as she looked at the locations of every mine the Decepticons had.
"And this… By the Allspark. It's a blueprint for a Space Bridge!" Ratchet gasped.
"Does that imply that Megatron is leaving Earth, or planning to bring something here?" Sierra wondered.
"More than likely he will try to bring his own army of undead warriors here from Cybertron." Optimus told them gravely.
"Not if I have anything to say about it." Tiberius huffed.
"Let's hope you can deal with them when the time comes. That will be a very brutal fight." The semi truck transformer said.
(Elsewhere)
-The Nemesis-
Megatron was currently in the middle of giving Starscream a pretty good trouncing and now had his foot planted firmly on the jet plane transformer's face.
"You fool! I tell you to wait for my orders, and you do something that results in damage to my ship!" The warlord yelled angrily.
"My intentions were true, master! I only wished to rid you of the Autobots!" Starscream told him. "And though my initial attempt failed, I was able to ascertain something of value! The Autobot that wounded you, Creator, is somehow also a human!" He yelled, causing Megatron to freeze at the revelation.
"... How is this possible?" He asked in a tone that said 'choose your words lest they be your last.'
"I am unsure master, but I swear upon the Allspark it is true! And that's not even the half of it, this being is also in possession of not one, but two Bionicle relics!" He added. Megatron immediately took his foot off his subordinate and brought him to optic level.
"Which Bionicle relics could he possibly be in possession of?" He questioned.
"The Masks of Light and Life!" The Commander replied. Megatron then set him down, much to his relief.
"That truly is important information. All of it is. You have managed to redeem yourself with this, Starscream." He told his subordinate. "Do you know what his appearance is in human form? I wish to be on the lookout for him and avoid being caught off guard." The warlord questioned.
"I do Master, in fact Soundwave managed to get a detailed description on file for your reference." His minion replied.
"Excellent. You have done well, Starscream. So I suggest that, for your own benefit, you will continue to do so." Megatron told him as he walked past him.
"Of course, my lord." The jet transformer nodded. Megatron then walked off. He wasn't pleased that his ship had been damaged, even if it was light, but what he had learned about Creator made him feel pleased. Though how he was able to be a human and a Cybertronian perplexed him, along with how he came to possess two important Bionicle masks.
Perhaps he should consider capturing him for study…
Dragon Emperor0: As effective as that jailbreak was, Tiberius wasn't exactly using the entirety of his high IQ, was he?
ThermalsniperN7: No he wasn't. Then again, it might have been overcomplicated in some random way if he did. Plus, you don't really need a high IQ to perform a jailbreak… Do you?
Dragon Emperor0: No but my point still stands, transforming in front of Starscream was a bad move. Now Megatron has him on his radar.
ThermalsniperN7: It was gonna happen sooner or later, let's face it. Better in a situation like this than one where he's forced to do it under hostile conditions, I guess.
Dragon Emperor0: Yeah probably. Though the part where he pulled a Mata Nui was hilarious. Who knew Starscream could dance like that?
ThermalsniperN7: Yeah it was. Along with Starscream screaming like a little girl. That was awesome. Same goes for Tiberius' flying skills. Didn't think he could fly through those corridors like an expert ace.
Dragon Emperor0: Adrenaline and instinct man, it's crazy. Anyway guys, see you guys next week!