Chapter Seventy-Eight

Double Vortex

Meanwhile the Autobots drove through the Ground Bridge to where Ratchet had picked up the Dark energon signal.

As soon as they arrived, the Chicago Knights, the Geckolings and Freya and Loki jumped out of their respected Autobot Vehicle forms and the Autobots transformed into their Bipedal forms.

Whilst the Autobot's walked on the lower ground Tyroth lead the way onto the higher ground so they could observe from a safe distance.

They soon saw Starscream standing in front of Skyquakes grave, and the Chicago Knights looked rather confused upon seeing the Decepticon as a tall skinny grey bot.

"That's Megatron?" Sarah asked.

"The Leader of the Decepticons?" Jack questioned "Didn't think he'd be that small!"

"He Doesn't look that threatening either!" Percy said, "I thought he'd be bigger!"

"I'll say!" Loki said flying up so he could see better.

"That's not Megatron!" Pandora called up "That's Starscream!"

Freya and Loki looked at the Hybrid who looked back at them.

"He and I have crossed paths before!" she reminded them to which they remembered when Pandora told them about how she had attacked his ankle with Mr Swinger when they rescued Leonardo, Monalisa and Fowler.

"Yeah," Kemeko agreed "With you almost getting sizzled!"

"Kids!" Tyroth called over his shoulder "Hush back there!"

Freya and Loki looked sheepish and quickly stood close to Kemeko and Pandora.

"Stay behind us alright?" Devina said to which the kids nodded and they held each other's hands in support.

Meanwhile the Autobots stepped closer to Starscream who threw his arms around as he demanded Skyquake to rise.

"Rise Skyquake! Rise!" he bellowed as he looked at the pile of rocks, and as that happened, the ground shook slightly and the Chicago Knights felt it on the rocks they were on.

"Whoa!" Tyroth and Heather used their wings to hover as well as grab anyone who might need assistance, yet Sephie managed to stand her ground with her gecko grip and grabbed Kate and Sharky who were next to her.

"Whoa!" Freya cried as she hovered and held Kemeko and Pandora's shoulders to steady them.

"What's going on?" Kate asked.

Tyroth narrowed his eyes.

"I think Starscream's trying to raise some dead Decepticon!" he said, "I remember Leonardo mentioning how Optimus, Ironhide, and Ratchet fought some Megatron brought to life a few weeks back!"

"Zombie-Cons?" Loki asked in amazement, "No way!"

"That doesn't sound good!" Freya said in a worried voice as she looked over to the Autobots and Optimus put his battle mask on before morphing his hands into his blasters.

"Starscream!" he barked, and the Seeker turned away from the pile of rocks and glared as he saw Optimus, Ratchet, Bumblebee, Bulkhead and Ironhide standing behind him.

"Autobots!?" he exclaimed, furious that once again his plans were being interrupted.

Optimus held up his blaster, and the other Autobots followed his example.

"Stand down!" Optimus ordered.

Starscream glowered then held up his arm.

"You stand down!" he shot back, and he fired one of his missiles on his arm at the Prime.

At once the Autobots jumped to the sides and took cover as the missile hit the ground near them and the Chicago Knights jumped back to avoid the blast as it almost swept them off their feet.

"By the Well's Water!" Heather exclaimed.

"I take it back! He is a force to be reckoned with!" Percy shouted.

"Maybe we should have stayed back at the base?" Jake asked as he sat up then realised his glasses were missing.

"Hey! My glasses!" he cried as he looked around for them, and Amber did the same.

"Got 'em!" Jun's voice was heard as he handed them to Jake who gratefully took them and out them back on to see Starscream standing at the pile of rocks and the Autobots taking cover behind some rock formations nearby.

"You cannot harm me!" Starscream roared "While dark energon flows through my veins!" he boasted.

He then lifted his other arm to fire another missile, and the Knights started to move backwards yet Optimus appeared from behind the rock he was hiding behind and fired at the seeker and the shot found its target as it hit Starscream's arm and shot it clean off!

"Whoa!" Loki cried "Good shot!"

"Bullseye!" Pandora cheered. "What's that he said about the Autobots not being able to harm him because he got dark energon in him?"

"Epic fail!" Loki laughed.

Starscream was rather stunned and as he saw he was missing his arm he realised that he was outnumbered and his un-dead warrior hadn't risen, he had to escape, yet without his arm, he couldn't fully transform and fly away.

Bulkhead had also realised that and as he watched Starscream attempt to flee grabbing his arm at the same time, he looked back at Optimus.

"We could just wait!" he suggested "He's grounded!"

Optimus nodded in agreement and he and the other Autobots ran towards where Starscream had attempted to hide and he was staring at the pile of rocks that was glowing purple, yet no movement could be seen."

"Come on Come on!" he growled "Rise already!"

He looked over his shoulder and he saw the Autobots were getting closer to his hiding place, and he knew he couldn't escape given the place he was hiding was a dead end and he couldn't fly away, there was only one option, and he was furious that he had to make it.

"This is Commander Starscream!" he commed to the Nemesis "Requesting emergency Ground-Bridge to my co-ordinates!"

At the same time, Tyroth was worried after seeing what had taken place and seeing the ground glow purple, he was worried about the Knights being exposed to whatever it was, yet he was more worried for his kids and two nieces.

At the same time, Ratchet turned to the group and Tyroth saw the look in his optics that he felt it best they return to the base, and he agreed before he got on his shell-cell and rang through to Donatello.

"Donnie!" he said as soon as he heard the turtle's voice on the other end "Get Arcee to open up a Ground-Bridge."

"Right away Tyroth! We'll send one through to your co-ordinates!"

"Thanks Don!" Tyroth said gratefully then turned to Pandora, Kemeko, Freya and Loki.

"Kids!" he called "This is getting too dangerous!"

"What?" Pandora and Loki cried together.

"But dad!" Loki protested "I thought you said we'd be okay up here."

Tyroth glared.

"I mean it Loki." He said, "Things could get unpredictable!"

As he spoke a ground-Bridge appeared behind them, yet at the same time, another appeared not far away behind the Autobots!

Everyone was shocked to see two ground-bridges, yet Ratchet quickly turned to the mutants.

"You lot!" he yelled "Into our ground-bridge now!"

Tyroth nodded then turned to the kids.

"You heard him!" he bellowed.

"Yes dad!" Freya cried "Come on guys!" she grabbed Kemeko and Pandora's hands and opened her wings to fly them through, Loki hesitated as he still wanted to see the action, but he soon followed his sister and cousins as he saw Tyroth and Sephie give him that look to follow his sister and cousins.

As they went through their ground-bridge, Starscream at the same time leapt into his.

Optimus glared watching him go and was about to call out to the Knights to run through the Ground-Bridge when he noticed that the two swirling vortex's were starting to merge and it worried him.

"Ratchet!" he demanded "What is happening?!"

Tyroth also noticed and he quickly stopped everyone going into the ground-bridge.

"What's going on!?" Amber cried.

"The duelling ground bridge portals must be feeding back on each other!" Ratchet shouted.

"What!?" Ironide cried.

"Pandora, Kemeko. The twins!" Bulkhead exclaimed in worry "We gotta get the kids outta there!" he ran towards the Ground bridge, yet before he could get near it, he was thrown back as the two ground-bridges merged and let off a shock-wave!

The other Autobots were blown back by the force, as were the Chicago Knights!

"Whooooaaaaa!" everyone shouted and Tyroth opened his wings and grabbed Sephie and Amber who in turn grabbed those closest to them to stop them from going flying back into the rocks!

Meanwhile, Starscream had made it through his ground-bridge and back onto the Nemesis.

As he leapt through, he collapsed on the ground and vented trying to steady his spark.

When he realised that he was safe, he looked up and stood up, yet as he did, he realised he had left his arm behind much to his shock as well as embarrassment when he saw a Vehicon standing at the controls of the ground-bridge in silence.

At once, the seeker pointed a digit at his chest.

"Not a word about this! To anyone!" he ordered before limping back to the medical bay hoping not to bump into Megatron as he did so.

Back at the caverns, the Autobots shook off stars as the wave subsided from the exploding Ground-Bridges and checked each other over.

"Oooowww!" Ironhide groaned "I think I bent my tailpipe!"

"I got dents in my aft!" Bulkhead moaned as he shook his head "As well as a processor ache! What happened?"

Bumblebee whirred then he looked over to where the Chicago Knights were and pointed with a few concerned bleeps.

Optimus looked over and he saw the Chicago Knights standing up shakily, though some were still on the ground moaning.

Despite feeling some pain from being thrown back, the Prime stood up and went to inspect.

"Tyroth!" he said, "Are you and your friends intact?"

Tyroth being the strongest of the Knights shook his head.

"I think so Prime!" he said then looked at the others, "Guys, you alright?"

"I think so chief." Jack said as he stood up.

"Me too!" Sarah agreed.

"And I." Sephie said.

"Ditto!" Sharky spluttered despite spitting out a couple of teeth.

The other Knights stood up and nodded despite a few cuts and bruises, yet Kate hissed slightly as she stood up and cradled her arm.

"I think I've dislocated my shoulder."

"Same with my knee!" Percy yelped.

Amber meanwhile had shielded Jake from getting thrown into the rocks and she was looking rather winded.

"Amber?" Tyroth asked in fear "Are you alright?"

"I think so." Amber gasped then looked at Jake who was groaning as blood was running down his face.

Optimus noticed and his optics widened.

"Jake?" he asked, "You are injured?"

"He's bleeding!" Heather gasped.

Jake touched the blood on his face, and he felt his glasses which were now broken.

"My glasses." He groaned as he pulled them off and winced as he felt where they had caught his skin.

The Knights winced as they saw that, yet Jake seemed more worried that his glasses were damaged.

"Damn!" he said, "These were my spare pair!"

"Why didn't you wear your contacts?" Amber asked.

"I didn't expect to have anything happen like this!" Jake retorted as he stood up and looked around at the knights then at the Autobots seeing them as slight blurrs apart form the rocks a little further away.

"Ugggh! You all look like blobs now!" he complained.

"Hate to be insensitive." Bulkhead spoke up "But what just happened?"

"That's a good question!" Tyroth said "What did just happen?"

"Like we got blown off our feet by two swirling vortex's!" Devina spoke as she used her healing touch on Percy's knee and Kate's shoulder and both Mutopians sighed with relief as the pains subsided.

"I can't be certain." Ratchet said, "But if two ground-bridges sent to the same co-ordinates cross streams the feedback could have triggered a system overload!"

"The kids made it through, right?" Bulkhead asked.

As the wrecker said that Tyroth felt his blood run cold and he looked up at the Autobots.

"What did you say?" he asked, "You doubt that my son and daughter and nieces made it back to the base?"

Optimus frowned and placed his digit to his audio.

"Arcee, did the children make it safely back to base?" he asked.

"Negative!" Arcee's voice was heard.

"What!?" the Prime looked down at the Chicago Knights.

"They didn't make it back?" Sephie asked fearfully.

"How didn't they?" Devina asked as she looked around scanning with her life detect vision.

Jack meanwhile sniffed the air.

"I don't smell them boss."

"And I don't see them!" Devina said.

Tyroth's eyes widened.

"Oh no..." he muttered in fear.

Oh dear, looks like somethign went wrong when the two ground-bridges merged with each other and somethings happened to the kids to not have them return to the base!

Those who've seen the show will have known whats happened! Tune in next time to see how things go!