I know right? Another one...

Reworked just about the whole thing. Let me know if it's 'action-y' enough for what's going on. I am terrible at action... haha

Enjoy!

Astrotrain had been outside when about fifteen minutes later, he saw who appeared to be Megatron himself make a landing. He froze. Part of him was thinking Starscream was exaggerating. "Me… Megatron?" he stammered in disbelief.

His optics went wide as he saw the tyrant raise his arm at him and fire. The triple-changer leapt to the side, out of the way, rolling to a kneeling position to look where the shot hit. "Holy slag, what!"

The firepower that was used blew a rather large hole in the mountain where their base was hidden. Astrotrain looked in surprise to the hole, and then back to Megatron, who looked pissed. He scurried to his feet and ran back to the main doors where Starscream was now standing.

"Starscream!" Megatron called, furious. He looked around quickly and then grinned darkly, seeing the mech standing at the doorway. Hearing Megatron, immediately everyone went on alert, preparing to defend against an unknown number of enemies.

Starscream watched the tyrant with a frown. He would do everything in his power to not let that tyrant ruin everything he had worked so hard for. He would die to protect his 'Cons.

He inwardly sighed, for today, he just might.

Watching, he sized Megatron up. He was faster than Megatron. He was nimbler. But he definitely wasn't stronger.

What the fuck was he thinking?

Seriously.

The young leader's optics locked on Megatron and Megatron's locked on his. "You shouldn't be alive." he called.

"Oh, I am very much alive, Starscream." The tyrant snarled with a wicked smile. "I'll give you one chance to bow down before me and relinquish what you think is command of the Decepticons…"

"Not in your worst dreams!" Starscream hissed in defiance. "They're mine!"

"Oh, how I was hoping you'd say that." Megatron paused as he watched mechs lining up behind Starscream. At first, he smirked when there was Skywarp and Thundercracker. Then Thrust and his trine lined up. Cyclonus and Astrotrain with Blitzwing stood beside them… His optics furrowed in anger at the sight of Soundwave, who stepped up right next to Starscream. He growled at them all, "All Decepticons! Bow down to me! Your true leader has returned!"

All of them on Starscream's side raised a fist to the air, "All hail Starscream!"

Hearing that only pissed Megatron off more. As he proclaimed his own leadership, Megatron began broadcasting his own codes, trying to force Starscream's men to accept them. He growled when not one of them would accept.

"He's trying now," Soundwave told Starscream, having already been prepared.

"You can fully block it?" Starscream asked, keeping his optics on Megatron.

"Affirmative. Unless they want to join his cause, they will not."

"Thank you,"

Starscream was genuinely surprised and awed by his men. He grinned at Megatron and flipped him off, uncaring if the tyrant knew what it meant. The rest beside him followed suit, "You see, Megatron, this is what true leadership is about."

"True leadership," Megatron echoed wryly, "You don't know how to lead!"

Starscream glanced back at his men, then back to Megatron. He shrugged saying, "Must be doing something right. I was chosen. You were never chosen, Megatron."

"You lie. They would never choose you,"

Starscream nodded to the ones standing with him, then glared back at Megatron. "They don't want you. Somehow, I find this very ironic…"

"Then they will die, just like you!" After he said that, his own mechs began lining up behind him.

Megatron figured he had the upper hand, since the mechs he had with him were stronger than most of Starscream's. Plus, he had the added bonus of two combiners, where Starscream had none. The tyrant shook his head with a grin, "I should have killed you vorns ago, Starscream. Today, you die."

Starscream flicked his right and left upper arms, his mini gun spun on both of his forearms, preparing to fire and his Null Ray formed down his left forearm next to the minigun. If it was a fight Megatron wanted, it was a fight he would get. "The Decepticons belong to me now." The Seeker told him. "You won't force them into servitude for you again…"

"We'll see about that!" Megatron growled, activating his own weapon.

"Enough talk. Combaticons!" Megatron called, "Combine!"

Starscream looked around suddenly in fear, "Combaticons?" he asked in quiet surprise.

"Yes, Starscream," Megatron sneered. "Bruticus."

Swindle walked out from where he was previously unseen. He smirked at Starscream. "You heard him," Swindle called to the other Combaticons all the while staring at Starscream. Brawl stepped up beside Swindle. "Time to combine." With that, he transformed into his form for Bruticus. The other's following suit.

"Fuck," Starscream said, watching in apprehension.

The mechs around Megatron raised their weapons. On their link, which was undisturbed, he addressed Snap Trap, "Let's give them a treat. Summon your beast as well…"

In the heat of a summer evening, in the Mohave Desert, the fight of a young Decepticon's life was about to start. But this time, it wasn't a fight over territory or world domination. It was a fight for freedom.

Starscream's attention was diverted from the Combaticons to where he saw Snap Trap step forward with Tentakil and Skalor. He cringed at seeing them. They were ugly, there was no doubt about that… Overbite and Seawing stepped out from around Megatron with deep grins as they approached their leader, staring at him.

Just then, he realized just how bad his luck was. "If there's a god, he hates me." He stepped back in surprise at what he was seeing. The mechs were starting to change, taking their proper forms to combine. Two combiners! He knew one combiner could do more damage than a small army, as they were hard to kill, and their ordinance was more powerful.

No way…

They were all dead. He was sure of it.

Starscream watched in silence as it made the full-sized creature. It was uglier than the five of them separate. It stood on four legs instead of just two and… well, it was ugly. The sight of the unknown combiner temporarily stunned the tattooed Seeker.

Megatron laughed at him. "I don't think you two have met…"

"Uhh… not until now." Starscream said, seeing the immense size of it. It was clearly taller than Bruticus.

"Feast your optics on Piranacon."

"It's ugly." Starscream said, but he couldn't hide his fear.

Megatron saw the fear, feasted on it. "We have the combiners. You have none. As soon as the Constructicons find Hook, we will also have Devastator."

Starscream glanced at Megatron while he goaded him, but his attention was still on Bruticus as it continued to form and on Piranacon that was now looming over them. He turned his full attention onto Megatron, seeing he'd gotten closer.

"Now you see who really is in command."

"Would you stop," Starscream groaned. In the back of his mind, he knew Sixshot was somewhere. He also knew he took down combiners. He didn't say that he knew where he was, however.

As if reading Starscream's mind, Megatron asked, "Where is Sixshot, hmm?"

So, he knew about his being here. He'd hoped that his presence would have been a surprise. Double fuck.

Not waiting any longer to try to kill Starscream, Megatron seized Starscream's surprise and went after him, upper cutting him and knocking him back with enough force he was knocked off his feet. Starscream quickly got back up, his full attention now on the tyrant as he crouched. The Seeker flicked his wrist, releasing his missile launchers. He fired a missile right at Megatron, but the tyrant moved too quickly for it to hit, making Starscream growl.

"Grown yourself a spinal structure, I see… Too bad it will be for nothing!" Megatron said and lunged, grabbing the Seeker; he knew Starscream was weaker than himself, so he decided he would toy with him. Injure him slowly. Let him see how weak he really was. He held him still and formed a fist, he aimed the fist at Starscream's mid-section, right at his would-be canopy. Starscream let out a noise when the membrane of his canopy cracked but didn't shatter.

Megatron was forced to let him go when Starscream reached with his own fist and attempted to backhand him.

The Seeker held his hand over his injury and reeled back from the hit and took another step, putting some room between him and Megatron.

Behind Starscream, where she had been observing, Soundwave sensed something that made her stop and look around. It was a bad feeling that made her turn to her own Sparklings, "Leave." Her voice droned, "Something is very wrong."

The four of them looked at each other with confusion. They were expecting an order to fight. "What? Why?" Buzzsaw asked.

"Go." Soundwave commanded. "Go to the Autobot base. Wait for me there."

"Come on," Ravage called. "You heard the boss,"

Following the order they were given, they moved away, turning their hands to watch Soundwave. They knew to trust her on these things and headed out a different way where they couldn't be seen, wondering why Soundwave was sending them away. They were used to fighting, why was this any different?

The CO watched them go and then looked back toward Megatron when she saw him go for Starscream. Her optics then spied Shockwave, who seemed to be sneaking around the two thoroughly delighted in the fight taking place. To the left of them, Blackout also looked like he was going after Starscream. Her wave sensor rose and spun strangely, then grew into a large what appeared to be a gun with five barrels. Using the sensor as a weapon, the ends lit up in light blue and continued to grow in brightness.

Shockwave saw the telepath preparing to shoot and he fired at her with a simple laser at first. Soundwave dodged the attack and focused on her target. The sound resonated from her at first as a low toned rumble. The energy grew until the air around her and the five cannons began shimmering. She fired at Blackout, trying to distract him.

Blackout, upon seeing the weapon-fire, moved swiftly. One of his rotors had been hit and he squealed. He watched as the energy whizzed by him and exploded in a hill. He turned with his own weapon and fired upon the telepath. He wasn't sure if he should be amazed or scared that the wave of his weapon didn't faze her much. Getting over his initial shock, he charged at her. What appeared to be the tail rotors of his alt form came to his hand and began spinning, as he prepared to use them to chop at the telepath.

Soundwave readied for the collision. Blackout was an idiot if he thought he could take her on, and she would show him just how much of a mistake he was making.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Mikaela said, looking down at the unfamiliar dash on the truck as they drove. She couldn't get rid of the butterflies in her stomach that were nagging her. There was no explanation for the feeling, just that something was wrong. "We should have stayed."

"Starscream was right in sending you with us, Mikaela. You would only be in the way," Hot Rod told her, trying to console her. "They can't fight effectively if they're worried about you,"

"I know… it's just…" Her voice trailed off.

"Hey, come on, he's got a strong defense." Mirage broke in, hearing the girl. "And they have Sixshot, he's an army unto himself."

"Have faith in them, okay?" Miles held her hand. "I'm sure 'Star and his 'Cons will be alright," he told her, even though he was also trying to reassure himself. He was also worried. He too felt a strange unease about the situation.

"I don't think so…" Mikaela's eyes fell on the berm beside them as Hot Rod drove on, "Can't you go faster, Hot Rod?"

"Not without being dangerous. We are entering civilization."

"Listen, when we get in range of our base, we will alert Optimus. He will send his troops to help," Mirage told her, having heard the urgency in her voice.

The six-changer had seen the combiners and knew Starscream's forces were seriously outnumbered. He knew he needed to do something. He leapt in the air from behind Starscream and by the time he had hit the ground again, he had taken on a form very few had ever seen before.

He resembled Ravage, only he was stockier, had a longer neck, with a wicked looking, barbed tail, and he looked like he had wings. The tail swayed dangerously behind him as he stared down Piranacon. He stole a glance at Bruticus which hadn't moved yet.

Megatron saw Sixshot and pointed, "There you are… Bruticus, Piranacon, attack!"

He figured this would happen as soon as he made his presence known. The assassin glanced at Megatron. He couldn't be serious. Taking on two combiners at once would surely be too much. He'd never tried. He took a moment to analyze the situation, then looked over at the young leader. He lowered his head, glaring at the combiner closest to him.

The damage he'd taken from the Predacons wasn't enough to slow him down to begin with, but he was definitely injured by them and Hook's work wasn't complete. Handling a combiner was dangerous but he knew what he was doing. Starscream's forces depended on him taking them down. "Over here!" he called, firing a small particle gun at Piranacon to get its attention.

Sixshot watched Piranacon turn for him. Bruticus had started for him but became distracted by multiple weapons hitting him from behind. Good. He turned for Piranacon, preparing to take the mech on, guns and cannons forming. He began firing wildly on it as he bounced around making it difficult for the combiner to get a good shot in. He succeeded in getting its attention on him instead of Bombshell, whom it had already crushed.

Suddenly, one that seemed similar to Sixshot's beast form leapt at the six-changer from the side, surprising him, and knocking him sideways and off his feet. "You killed my other team members!" Razorclaw yelled at Sixshot as the two crashed.

The assassin felt the smaller beast mech gnash at his shoulder, ripping one of his guns almost off. This only pissed him off. He reached around with his tail, knocking the other mech to the side and in range of his maw. Sixshot bit down as hard as he could, the sweet sound of metal snapping and breaking under the pressure was satisfying. He yanked and pried at Razorclaw and then impaled him in the side with his tail. The other mech squealed in pain as Sixshot yanked his tail hard, back, the barbs in the end ripping Razorclaw up from the inside out. Moving to stand, he growled darkly, "That's what happens when you send amateurs," the mech said, watching Razorclaw as he got back to his feet.

Razorclaw paid little mind to his injuries, his focus on Sixshot and bringing him down. "You got lucky! You will pay for what you did!"

"That wasn't luck. They took on a combiner killer alone. I'm the only one of my kind." The mech then actually laughed, "The fact any of you thought you would be able to defeat me is laughable. Besides, you work for Shockwave, the one who enslaved me."

"And he will have you again!"

"Yeah, nah, that's a hard pass." Sixshot said, approaching the mech. He fired two missiles at the mech, causing him to jump out of the way. As he jumped, Sixshot lunged at him, grabbing his neck in his jaws and piled the mech over, pinning him to the ground.

"You can't defeat all of us," Razorclaw said, straining to look at Sixshot.

"All?" Sixshot raised an optic ridge behind his visor and looked around then back at Razorclaw, "Three of you are dead already. You don't have the means to create another team. You won't be doing any of that by the time I'm done with you."

Sixshot was distracted by Razorclaw, and didn't see, nor hear the combiner coming up behind him. He did, however, see a look of fear in Razorclaw's optics as the mech looked at the combiner ready to step on them. That look made him turn his head to see, and he waited until the last possible second as Piranacon raised up to stomp. He quickly jumped out of the way, releasing Razorclaw.

"Piranacon, no!" Razorclaw yelled just as the mech came down. He wasn't able to move in time, and both of his back legs and part of his chest were crushed. He wasn't killed, however. The combiner didn't see that it had crushed Razorclaw, its optics following Sixshot.

Razorclaw struggled to stand, "Shockwave… made us into what we are… today."

Sixshot scoffed and eyed the combiner then looked back to Razorclaw's smashed body. "Isn't much if you ask me…"

"He designed us with upgrades to be stronger than you!"

"Did he now?" Sixshot asked cynically, still keeping an eye on the combiner, who was coming around to stomp again. "I'm thinking he didn't know what he was doing."

"We'll see!" Razorclaw smirked as he, too, watched Piranacon. He didn't think the mech would go unnoticed again, however it was arming a weapon and preparing to fire.

The six-changer had also seen the weapon powering up and moved out of the way. "Oh, no, no, no… you're gonna have to do much better than that if you think you're any match for me…" he said to no one in particular. Seeing that Razorclaw was disabled, he used one of his wings to impale the mech through the Spark chamber. "And just because I'm pissed off and to make sure you're dead…" He reached with his jaw and clamped down on Razorclaw's head and twisted, taking Razorclaw's head off.

Sixshot turned for the combiner, which was powering up a cannon to fire at him, he growled menacingly, "Your turn, now, motherfucker."

The six-changer leapt out of the way of a shot from Piranacon's phase cannon, which packed a powerful punch. It left a gaping hole in the ground where Sixshot had been standing. As Sixshot leapt out of the way, he fired several missiles at the combiner mech to distract it and lunged. "Gonna have to do better than that, I'm afraid,"

It was time to bring that giant down. He got to its side while it was busy trying to fend off a couple of Seekers who were distracting it, seeing Sixshot dodging its firepower. Sixshot clung to Piranacon's side and clawed his way to the gestalt's neck. He used the momentum of Piranacon's sudden shift in weight to flip himself up, landing on the back of Piranacon.

Sixshot aimed his cannons at a weak point in its neck and used an overpowered blast to melt as many servos as he could and get to the combiner's central nervous system.

"Stand still, you fucker." Sixshot snarled. "I need to separate you. Or kill… Preferably kill."

Piranacon, not being the brightest thing in the world, only knew it felt pain and it needed to get rid of it. It swayed and swiftly moved, trying to free the mech from itself. It then reared up, just in time to take a shot to the chest by Dirge, who took the opportunity given to him by said combiner. It reached up at what was firing into the back of its neck. Sixshot managed to dodge many of the swipes and shots at himself while he continued his careful aim and attacked it viciously. One swipe he hadn't seen coming, he hadn't been so lucky, and it took some armor and it disabled weapons and threw him almost off the mech. He managed to hold onto the side and start climbing back up to attack it more, but it didn't stop him.

Others attempting to help Sixshot, fired on Piranacon as its attention went to him almost fully. It let out a horrible, digitized scream from the many aerial attackers upon it as well. "They call me a combiner killer for a reason…" Sixshot stated between gnashing at the mech and firing as many of his weapons as he could. In attempts to get Sixshot off, Piranacon reared up and attempted throwing him, but to no avail. It then went down and tried slinging massive amounts of dirt into the air in hopes of confusing its attacker. This only made the fighting more difficult for anyone else around it. Sixshot continued his assault on the combiner, aiming at a precise spot where he knew the connection of the combiners was, he knew he was getting close. The Tardacain and Energon were pooling where the spinal structure met the back of the head. So far, he'd managed to get to delicate parts of the neck, now he attempted to sever the connection of the combiner's Sparks.

There was a loud scream from the combiner from Sixshot's assault. Piranacon began breaking apart into the mechs that made him what he was. The mechs scattered to avoid Sixshot and went after other prey.

Sixshot hit the ground in another form, looking even more like Ravage. He turned his attention to Bruticus, who had been busy fighting off Seekers. He watched the gestalt swing at Lightstream and hit him, sending him flying into the side of the mountain where he literally exploded.

In the air there was a scream and another crash. He looked toward the noise, seeing Acid Storm standing up from settling dust, "Slag…" he said to himself. The mech's head turned in Bruticus' direction. It wasn't as stupid as Piranacon, and it was far more vicious.

Mixmaster looked around frantically as he shot at Drag Strip, who was coming at him in his alt form to trip him. He was searching for Hook, "Where is he? He was here not too long ago!"

"No one saw him leave?" Scrapper asked, looking around himself.

"He's gotta be around here somewhere." Mixmaster replied, spinning to shoot at Drag Strip as he zoomed by, having missed his legs.

As Scrapper turned to search another area, he saw none other than Bonecrusher. "Bonecrusher!" he called.

Bonecrusher's attention was diverted long enough to notice the other Constructicon. "Scrapper?"

"We have Devastator!"

"Not until we find Hook, we don't!" Mixmaster informed. "Find him!"

Meanwhile, while the two leaders were going at it, Megatron had seen the marks on Starscream when he'd first arrived, but he hadn't given them much thought. He swore he recognized a few of those marks. He had to look twice at one of them. Determined to get a better look, he quickly grabbed the Seeker by his chest and lifted his face to his own, growling. In a way, he was jealous, as he knew what most of them meant. "What are these marks on you?"

Starscream glanced down at himself, taking a second to realize Megatron was asking about what had been done to him. He pointed to one in particular. One that marked him as leader of the Decepticons, "Oh these? What do they look like to you?"

"They look like slag!" Megatron snarled, the claws on his free hand pointing to one of the marks. He held Starscream firmly as he dragged the claw across one of the marks, destroying it.

Starscream whimpered lightly, trying not to give into the pain. He felt Megatron grate another claw down another mark, the claw going deeper into his armor than before. From his left, he saw a weapon aimed right at Megatron. He needed to distract him even though the pain was agonizing. Ignoring the pain, he said, "Defacing them won't deny what they are."

Just as the weapon aimed true and got him in the shoulder, Megatron was forced to drop Starscream in surprise and anger. The tyrant reached for the injury with one hand; with the other, he swiped out at the Seeker angrily, who jumped back out of his reach. "You did this to yourself for why! You only wish you were half of a leader, Starscream!"

Starscream offered a nod to the one who shot Megatron. He did his best to hide the pain he was in, not letting Megatron believe he'd hurt him as bad as he did. "I didn't do it… wouldn't put myself through that kind of misery, but I'm touched that you care…"

"You think too highly of yourself."

"Do I?" Starscream snorted, "to be honest. Soundwave oversaw the procedure, which was done as chosen by my 'Cons," he replied condescendingly, putting emphasis on the chosen part.

"I do not believe this for one second! You're the last mech Soundwave would choose as leader, liar!" Megatron snarled and lunged.

Starscream was quick enough to step away, getting claws raked over his side. If only this jerk knew what he knew about Soundwave. "I guess you should have paid better attention to your 'followers', then, huh?"

Megatron again swiped out, this time a large blade formed from his forearm. Starscream hadn't ever seen that weapon before. With a look of surprise, he went backwards, moving himself out of the way of the axe and fumbling. The Seeker caught his balance and gave a thoughtful second to his life, which distracted him enough that Megatron saw an opening and went for it.

Deep down he was terrified. He figured there was no way he would be able to subdue Megatron. He would have to outsmart him. Or wear him down. Starscream saw him coming and swiftly dodged his attack.

"If this is true, then it was you!" Megatron hissed as he went to hit Starscream with a left hook, "You corrupted Soundwave!"

Starscream stumbled backwards, barely missing the blow. He gave Megatron a skeptical look. He really didn't know anything about Soundwave, did he? "What? I didn't corrupt Soundwave! Are you fucking kidding me?" His optics quickly darted, looking for an opening. He aimed a clawed fist at the tyrant, firing his mini gun at the same time. Megatron reared from the hit, his side taking damage from the weapon and fist attack.

The young leader stole a second to glance for his mate while Megatron fumbled. She was engaged with Overbite. She was beating the hell out of him. This would have been so much easier if she had listened and left. Why didn't she listen? Keeping an optic on where Barricade was in the mess, his attention was between her and Megatron. "Why are you even here, anyway?"

Megatron scowled at the Seeker. "Why I'm here to kill you, of course. Something I should have done eons ago."

Starscream glanced back at Barricade again to make sure she was all right. So far, she had been holding her own and the Stunticons had been backing her. He'd have to thank them later. Barricade was doing damage herself and was thankfully steering clear of the combiner, using the anger of her missing Sparkling. Nevertheless, Starscream was becoming increasingly worried about her. She was smaller than most of the mechs.

Megatron grabbed the Seeker by his neck in his distraction. He squeezed and tightened his grip as Starscream struggled. He could feel servos and other metal starting to crash under the pressure, "You. Die."

A missile suddenly hit Megatron on his back, forcing him to release the Seeker. The larger mech stumbled forward, surprise evident on his face.

Starscream grabbed his neck, hissing in pain. That was too close. He watched Megatron fumble, quickly scampering back. He hadn't seen who'd shot him.

Megatron quickly regained his footing and went after Starscream again. He quickly grabbed him from the side, lifted him and threw him harshly, slamming Starscream into the ground on his side. At the same time, he aimed to stomp on him. Starscream grunted from the impact to the ground and scooted just in time to get missed by the foot. His HUD was showing damage, but he ignored it for now. The tyrant hissed at him with a smirk as Starscream went to stand back up. "You're as crazy as Prime if you think you're going to kill me!" The tyrant said as he reached out to strike the Seeker with an open clawed hand. "You seriously need to reconsider who you think you are, Starscream. You couldn't beat me before, and you can't do it now. Give up!"

Starscream dodged the incoming fist, watching Megatron fumble a bit off balance. "I'm not crazy… the voices tell me I am perfectly sane." He used that moment to fire at Megatron with his minigun, hoping for more damage quicker.

Megatron avoided the brunt of the weapon fire, only losing some armor from his side. He glanced down at the damage and then lunged at the Seeker, screaming, "You'll pay for that!"

Seawing immediately saw and went after Runabout, who was closest and taking on Skalor. He barreled the mech over, giving Skalor the advantage he needed. Skalor came down with a lance type weapon, spearing the mech through the chest. There was a loud shriek from across the way, closer to the base entrance where Runamuck, who'd been running after Snap Trap, stopped instantly, grabbed for his head, "NO!" Runamuck cried.

Barricade turned at the sound of the scream. Being it wasn't all that far away; she saw that Runamuck was the one who had screamed. She looked around to see why, and saw Runabout laying on the ground, Skalor extracting a large weapon from his chest.

Meanwhile, a mech flew through the air rapidly in another area. He was on a mission away from the battle taking place at the Decepticon base. Having gathered information when they first landed, both Predacons and Seacons were surprised to find that the Aerialbots were around. That meant that Superion was a real threat. After Shockwave had successfully resurrected Megatron, Dive Bomb was given orders to destroy at least one of the Aerialbots to ensure Superion wouldn't be an issue. They knew that if they didn't cripple the team, they would have a real fight on their hands. Superion was no laughing matter. He was the other combiner Sixshot didn't want to meet head on.

After Hot Rod and Mirage had been taken into the Decepticon base, Jetfire and the Aerialbots had since turned back for their own base to do their own thing, each going a different way. The five Aerialbots split up to patrol different areas while Jetfire chose to go higher into the sky to monitor happenings from a distance.

Fireflight never even saw the mech coming, as the Predacon had been cloaked somehow. The next thing he knew, he felt pain and weight from something literally landing on top of him. He faltered and cried out. Immediately he spun, trying to whip whoever it was, off. When he straightened out, he found a dark blue unknown mech on his back. It looked like some kind of earthen bird, but it was awkward in a way. He transformed to fight him off.

The mech used his weight against him as he transformed to throw Fireflight out of control and confuse him. He forced the Aerialbot down to the ground. When they hit the ground there was a large plume and the ground had been indented, "Holy Pit! Ow!" Fireflight called. "Get this slagging thing off of me!" He called, trying to fight back.

The Predacon was merciless in his attack, ripping at the disoriented Aerialbot until he shut up. Hearing his teammate's cry, Silverbolt headed in his direction. As he saw another Aerialbot coming to his assistance, he bolted, leaving the injured Fireflight on the ground. Dive Bomb left for the Decepticon base hopefully unseen; his mission successful.

As Silverbolt got closer, he saw Fireflight on the ground and pretty scratched up for the amount of time between his call and his arrival. Silverbolt did see something leaving, and it was to be assumed it was Cybertronian. It was dark blue and looked nothing like he'd ever seen.

Silverbolt lifted his friend carefully to his feet; the other Aerialbots, who had heard Silverbolt's transmission, had also come to help him. "Who did this?"

"I don't know. I never got the chance to see it. Though he was blue, if that helps," Fireflight responded, looking at his damage in annoyance.

"Let's get you to base, yeah?" Slingshot said as he helped Silverbolt help him up.

Starscream was still heavily engaged with Megatron. Still ignoring his accumulating damage, he reeled back from another slaughtering hit, this time to his wing where Megatron raked his claws. The hit was so forceful it knocked him down and his sensors blacked out for a hot second as they worked to calibrate for damage. Every time he thought he hurt the tyrant badly enough, Megatron seemed to be unaffected. Megatron just didn't seem to want to go down! The Seeker went for a hit to Megatron's side, using his mini gun as he did so. Megatron buckled from the hit, but to Starscream's surprise, he reached around, catching the Seeker by the arm and threw him violently to the ground. Starscream cried out and quickly got away and made his way to his feet again.

Further away from the action, Soundwave stood over an injured Blackout. They had made themselves quite a distance from the fighting, as he had actually tried to run and she had chased him. She hadn't destroyed him, but she sure put a hurting on him. He wasn't going anywhere…

Shockwave grinned as he saw Soundwave standing in the clearing dust. "I have something of yours…" his eerie voice made the telepath look up at him. Her reflective visor flashed. He was responsible for all this. She lunged. Shockwave grabbed Frenzy who was previously locked in his hold. He held him out in front of Soundwave, who was readying to tear into him. The sight of the hacker caused Soundwave to stop dead in her tracks. Blackout, seizing the opportunity Soundwave was distracted, scurried away before she completely destroyed him.

"Frenzy," Soundwave droned. Her voice held no tone, but her surprise was evident. Rumble was right. "You live,"

"Yes… yes it does, for now." Shockwave answered, glancing down at the small mech. Frenzy tried to get free to get to his creator, struggling in Shockwave's deadly grip. "I know how partial you are to your drones." Shockwave said with a grin. "It was always your one weakness."

The ex-commander's hand began closing on Frenzy, the little mech cried out in pain and one of his little arms reached between the vicious claws for her and Soundwave twitched. "What would you do if I just crushed it here and now? You are so cold and ruthless, you shouldn't care…" His hand tightened more, making Frenzy squeal again. "But you do…"

Soundwave hissed at him as she heard Frenzy's armor begin to buckle and Shockwave squeezed harder. She was in not only shock at Frenzy being alive, but also the fact Shockwave was threatening to kill him again.

"Well, well, well, look at you…" Shockwave grinned darkly at the telepath. "The impenetrable Soundwave," Shockwave said as he watched Soundwave's stance change. "Now that I have your attention… you will do as I say, or I will rip this slagging thing into many pieces one servo at a time."

Soundwave had never been confronted with such a thing. No one had ever used the life of her Sparklings against her – not even the Autobots. Not like this. The ex-commander's other hand changed into a barrel that was charging with what appeared to be static energy.

"Now, stand still. You will bend to my will, Soundwave." He aimed at her, the air around the barrel turning an intense white and a dark purple ball of lightning shot from it, as he fired. Thunder resonated throughout the desert from the immense power. This was a color Soundwave was sure she'd never seen in his weapon arsenal.

Forced to take the hit, lest Shockwave kill her Sparkling, Soundwave let out a scream from hell as her wave sensor was nearly blown off. Disoriented from pain and the damage to her sensitive sensors, she dropped to a knee, stunning her. It wasn't enough to fully damage her systems, but it did a big enough number on her that she had to give it a moment before she could even move. Her body shivered and sparked all over her upper right side. She had never seen him use that attack before.

"Packs quite a wallop, doesn't it?" Shockwave asked with a snide grin as he looked at the weapon then back at Soundwave. He was pretty satisfied with the damage it did. "My master has given me some of his power."

Soundwave didn't respond. Though she considered what he'd said about his master. "Who?" she managed to ask.

"Never mind that now. See, with this power, even the great Soundwave bows before me," Shockwave laughed at her as she knelt in pain, "now that's a sight to behold." He hadn't expected the reaction he got from the telepath from the hit and wondered if another weapon with a stronger attack would bring her down… permanently. From his left hand, something began lengthening from it. It continued to extend until it hit the ground and coiled at his feet. It, too, was dark purple, and dark lightning coursed all over it, "Megatron doesn't even know about these little tricks. Starscream has landed you in this position. If you had stuck by me, you would be on top still. As you can see, Megatron has returned to take his rightful place. Too bad … you were so useful, too." Shockwave used the moment the telepath was down, spun the weapon several times in the air, and then aimed it at her once again. Soundwave didn't even see it coming; her visor was nearly blinding her with errors. The whip like extension wrapped about her neck. Soundwave reached for the coil, involuntarily squealing in pain as it shocked her repeatedly. He yanked forcefully, pulling her forward and to the ground completely.

Sixshot's attention had gone to the cry of Soundwave. He'd never heard her cry out like that before – ever. He leapt from where he had been taking on a couple of the Seacons and headed to her aid, ignoring their weapon fire until they' stopped, finding other targets.

With a glint to his optic, the ex-commander forced Frenzy back in his hold, and then left for others seeing how useful the little thing was against Soundwave. Shockwave was satisfied that he'd known about the impenetrable Soundwave's weakness. He hadn't seen Sixshot headed for them.

By the time the six-changer arrived, Soundwave was alone on the ground. She'd managed to flip herself over and she was bleeding badly from her right shoulder, around her neck and all down her arm. Her main sensor was sparking and bleeding just as badly, which made him look at the damage more closely. He reached for the femme he so desperately protected and pulled at her, trying to get her to her feet, "Come on, Sounders, you gotta get up," He watched around warily for others to come, prepared to take them on should they think that bothering him or her right now was smart.

Soundwave came out of her stupor and gathered herself wordlessly. She pushed her body up, straining against the pain in her right arm and shoulder while liquids squirted from it. She glanced as it spurted and let her weight off that arm.

Sixshot quickly went to her shoulder and held her still so he could get a look for himself. Noticing that it was a main line that had been ripped, she twitched away when he touched it. "Listen… I'm sorry, but you're going to bleed to death. I gotta do this…" Soundwave knew he was right and stiffened. The second time he placed his fingers to the wound, she didn't move, showing him that she would cooperate. He reached his fingers into her until he felt her lines and began pinching them off, staving the flow to a lesser serious one. He finished with lines to her sensor and staved the flows as much as possible, noting that they seemed to be more severe than what he initially believed. The telepath didn't make a sound as he did this, even though the pain was out of this world. "What the pit…?"

"Shockwave." Soundwave strained to say.

"I got that. What the hell did he use, Sounders? He's almost completely torn you apart!" He did what he could, though she was still losing a lot of fluid. "Dammit," he murmured as he worked, "You need a medic – there's too much damage."

Soundwave's only thought was on that creature who had Frenzy. What was that she sensed from him with that last blow? "Starscream?"

"Really? You're worried about him while you're here bleeding to death?"

"Starscream's status." she demanded.

"Still one on one with Megs. Holding his own right now. It's as if Megatron is toying with him. I can't believe he actually took him on. There's no way he can win, you know."

While the fight raged on below, lighting up the night with energy blasts and missiles from technological beings that were not of Earth, in the air, somewhere over the Decepticon base, trouble was brewing for a certain black Seeker.

Skywarp had no chance of taking his pet back to the Autobot base when the actual fight broke out. He was busy shooting at the other Constructicons, who decided to take the moment Blitzwing and Cyclonus were distracted by Bruticus to attack him. He fired two missiles at the combiner and turned away, rounding for another shot.

What the teleporter didn't expect was one of the previously unknown mechs known as Dive Bomb, who had since returned from grounding an Aerialbot and targeted Thundercracker. The last of the Predacons was hot on her tail, firing missiles and lasers at her in an attempt to get her to the ground. He'd only hit her lightly, nothing too damaging. He was told he wasn't allowed to kill her, but he could sure make it painful to fly.

Skywarp did an actual flip in the air when he saw Dive Bomb going after Thundercracker. To protect his future mate, the black Seeker went after the mech. Skywarp didn't know it was also a diversion. Moreover, he didn't see Sunstorm coming up behind him, his attention on Dive Bomb. Acid Rain was fast behind trying to get an aim on the Tracker before he could actually fire off a shot.

Seeing the danger from below too late, and not banking in time, a shot from the ground hit Skywarp in his underbelly. He recognized it as Bonecrusher who'd shot him. The mech shimmied hard and then seemed to smooth out. Jess looked around the inside quickly, "You alright, bud?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." The Seeker replied, playing off the shot as nothing. He'd been hit numerous times before in the heat of battle, so ignoring them was common, "It was Bonecrusher's impulse weapon, I think. Nothing big. I'm more worried about TC,"

Jess leaned when he felt Skywarp bank, "I know you are, bud." As the jet banked, he looked out over Skywarp's left wing. He'd never seen a war zone like this. It was brutal in a way he couldn't explain. Humans killed each other. These aliens were literally tearing each other apart limb from limb.

The jet suddenly barrel rolled the opposite direction, avoiding more missile fire while firing at the mech who was after Thundercracker. The man learned early on when flying with the Decepticons that they should not eat anything before doing so, as their erratic and sometimes impossible moves can make one sick. His head spun, catching up to the movement. He didn't think he'd ever get used to their sudden movements. Jess looked over both wings, his eyes following where Thundercracker banked off in an attempt to lose her tail.

"Get ready, 'Thunder!" Skywarp called as he proceeded to follow. He was devising a plan in his head that could get the Predacon off her. If he could teleport in its way, it could be distracted and in theory, an easier target.

As if it had been orchestrated, Skywarp teleported, reappearing in front of Dive Bomb. His body taking the brunt of impact as Dive Bomb hit him head on. Jess made some kind of groan as he felt the jolt of the bodies hit, "Hey, sorry 'bout that," he told his rider.

"Jesus, 'Warp. Some warning next time, eh?" Jess joked.

"Yeah, sure. I'll get right on that."

Dive Bomb lost control and began falling out of the sky, and just as it fell beyond hitting Skywarp, Thundercracker fired her prime weapon at it, literally obliterating the mech. "Shit, Skywarp, she just vaporized it!"

"Scary, isn't she?"

"Hey, 'Warp, watch! There's a Seeker behind me!" Acid yelled. Sunstorm had somehow managed to switch roles and now was hot on Acid's tail.

"What the?" Skywarp asked, wondering why Acid would refer to one of them as such. He took off from his spot where he was hovering, looking around to see what Acid Storm was talking about. When he got a good look, he internally groaned. "That's Sunstorm, Starscream's brother!" The teleporter said as the green Seeker came up behind him. "'Screamer killed him once already."

"Oh yeah?" And as he said that Acid shot past the teleporter with none other than Sunstorm on his tail.

He couldn't help but snigger at Starscream's luck, "'Screamer's gonna be so pissed when he sees him." The teleporter banked and while Acid went up, Sunstorm maneuvered a flip and headed for Skywarp.

Sunstorm flew past Skywarp and then went straight up and came back down, at first, it appeared he'd veered off for another target, but instead, he'd managed to get behind the black Seeker and fired with his main weapon too quickly for Skywarp to dodge, A strange golden colored fireball flew from the Seeker and hit the teleporter through an air duct, leaving a golden hole where it had gone.

Skywarp let out a shrill scream unlike anything Jess had ever heard and jolted upwards and sideways, his elevators, flaps and rudder seizing from the pain. The erratic movements made Jess gasp in surprise. He'd never felt anything like that in his life. Jess yelled from in the cockpit as the feeling of all the hair on his body was standing on end and a strange shock followed. It felt like his chest had been hit by something and the sensation of hitting his funny bone rang out from there to all his limbs. Just as suddenly, he started feeling the Gs and feelings of being in a regular jet. That wasn't good. "Shit, 'Warp!"

Seeing that he hit Skywarp, Sunstorm grinned. He watched the black Seeker teeter as he began falling from the sky. "What was it that humans say? If ya can't join em, kill em. Oh wait…" the tan Seeker watched with a grin as the hit vibrated down the trine link.

Skywarp jounced and barrel rolled in the air strangely, alerting Jess to problems. Jess then heard his thrusters fire differently, as if he was out of fuel, which was impossible. "Hey, 'Warp?" He felt dread when Skywarp didn't answer and started to shake. The pilot yelped when he felt something like electricity go over his body. Skywarp leveled out and began to shake worse than before. There was the sound of a turbine winding up, and Jess thought it might have been him powering up after the hit. "Skywarp!"

The teleporter never responded, and Jess looked around to find the black Seeker smoking from under his wing. Armor was falling off of him and there was a fire, but it was strangely, red. What the hell was that? Red fire?

"Holy shit, 'Warp, answer me!" the man called out in a panic.

Skywarp buzzed something incoherent. They began falling out of the sky. The F-22's nose headed downwards in an uncontrolled spin. In an automatic reflex, Jess grabbed Skywarp's controls to pull him up. The Seeker's controls were more sluggish than they were supposed to be, "'Warp, answer me damn you!" the man yelled between hitting the dash and trying to fly the jet. He panicked even more when Skywarp's manual controls became even more sluggish. "Fuck, fuck, fuck!"

Jess did his best to comprehend everything that was happening, though the only thing that came to him was fly! He looked up as the jet started rolling and going downwards. As he stopped the roll and pulled the control on the jet to bring his nose and the rest of him up, Skywarp's teleporting screen lit up, catching Jess' attention. It is never randomly activated. He heard Skywarp's teleporting system activate. "Skywarp, what are you doing!"

There was no answer.

He looked it over with confusion when it began running teleporting protocols. The unconscious Seeker never replied, and the man had barely made out what was showing:

System Engaged.
Mixers Ready.
Dimension Grid System: Entrance (Cybertronian) 54.7GR5_
(Cybertronian) Grid Destination: 4K967.8_
Error. (Cybertronian) Error.

Skywarp never mixed Cybertronian and English like that. He was sure glad to have been able to read the Cybertronian when it had flashed over the screen. He was used to Skywarp's jargon by now and that which came across the screen made no sense. Normally the words were coherent, this was a mix of words and numbers, and that never happened.

"Shit!" he cried. He had no idea what the Seeker was doing at this point. When he felt the teleporter begin to warp, he shut his eyes, hating the experience.

Sunstorm stared a long moment watching the teleporter disappear in chaotic lightning and sound. He'd expected him to reappear near him, but Skywarp never did. A satisfied smile crossed his face.

Until next time...