Chapter 25

Preparations

The next day, the Avengers were tired. They had just assaulted one of the most heavily defended places in the world, Area 51.They were catching their breath at The autobot base when bumblebee beeped in the distance.

"What did he say?" Natasha asked. It had been just over a year since Bumblebee's If we take voice box was damaged Beyond repair. Since then He had been talking through bleeps and bluups.

Tony put on the Mark 46 helmet and several words Appeared on the HUD Translated with bumblebee said into English, "He said 'you guys might want to see this'."

Steve got to his feet and said, "Well let's not keep him waiting."

The rest of the Avengers got on their feet and walked to where Bumblebee was. He was Looking at a control terminal which appeared to have the news of playing but it was paused.

"All right, Bee Why did you call us here, To congratulate us on our Recently completed Mission perhaps," Tony quipped.

Instead Bumblebee simply rolled his Optics, and pressed play.

"President Matthew Ellis has declared the Avengers terrorists," This caused The Avengers to freeze in shock. They had expected this of course but they hadn't Put any actual thought into it. They all wanted to stop listening right at that but couldn't like the news was some kind of hypnosis, Keeping them locked in. "Yes you heard that right here the Avengers the saviors of the world several times over have been declared terrorists, Causing many to become outraged."

The footage cut to the president Giving a speech in front of a large crowd of photographers and reporters, "Yesterday at exactly 11:17 The Avengers attacked the military Outpost thankfully There were little to no casualties With the majority being caught up in the following explosion that destroyed most of the base. We must take Swift and decisive action against them. By wiping them off the face of the Earth we will Secure America and her people," He finished.

After that everyone began to ask questions. "What's the first plan of action against them?"

"Do you have any idea what could have provoked them to attack?"

"Do you have any on-" the sound of a Repulsor blast Screamed through the air And slammed into the screen destroying it.

Bumblebee and the Avengers Turned to face Tony who's Repulsor Glove was powering down, "What," Tony defended himself, "You wanted to hear them talk smack about us!"

Ratchet ran up and assessed the damage before screaming at Tony, "TONY I NEEDED THAT!" Ratchet then sighed and said "Just get out of here before you break anything else." And the Avengers did just that.

Updraft stood in front of teletran one as It continued to analyze the tox-en, Meanwhile his mind Wandered. He Wasn't a cybertronian At least not a real one.The other Autobots talk about fighting to restore a world he had never even been to or seen. He was created by Tony Stark as nothing but an Expendable transport for The Avengers, Brought only to Life by a Decepticon That was attacking the Avengers base. Yet when he revealed he was alive the Autobots welcomed him with open arms. He couldn't thank them enough.

"Updraft, UPDRAFT," Arcee said to him, bringing him Back to reality.

"Huh, oh hi Arcee,What is it," Updraft said, turning to face the Autobot sniper.

"Are you feeling okay," She asked Her voice full of Empathy.

"Yeah why do you ask," He responded.

"You were staring off into space. Are you sure you're okay," She asked, placing a hand on his shoulder.

After that he began to tell her everything, "I'm not even a real cybertronian. I was created just to be an Expendable transport You know what you're fighting for. you know the world that could be restored if you win. But I don't. It's been just over years since I was created and the things I've seen since nobody should have to have seen those things, should ever see those things. I was put in this war without ever being given a choice. I don't even know why this War started!" Updraft slammed his fist against Teletran one, " Sorry, just had to say that."

"I understand," Arcee said, "Let me tell you why the war Started."

"The waning days of the golden age of Cybertron, It was time of Cruelty and slavery, Slaves would spend all day and all night mining for the Riches of Cybertron, And it was a deadly business Thousands of slaves dying every hour And millions per day, Yet the Richer class did nothing about it or just forgot about it entirely. Few actually realized what was going on and Tried to stop this, However it didn't do much. Eventually a Gladiator Who went by the name of Megatronus Garnered a large audience and support as he revealed how bad it really was. They hadn't even been given names, only numbers," Updraft listened carefully; he had Never heard of this before.

"Eventually Megatronus left the pits for the political he became something of a mentor for a librarian called Orion pax, Eventually Megatronus stood before the cybertronian High Council as Megatron," Updraft was shocked he had heard so many tales about how evil and cruel Megatron was but hearing this it didn't make sense, "He gave a speech about Destroying the old way of life creating a new one of peace with no slaves, And no suffering The High Council was moved by this idea and sent him down to the core of Cybertron to receive the Matrix of leadership. Megatron took Orion and Descended into the Core of Cybertron alone."

"What happened after that," Updraft asked Arcee.

"No one really knows it's just that when they came back up It was just Megatron, But something was different his Optics were no longer the comforting blue they always were instead they were dark red, And waged a war on Cybertron Finally Orion arrived to help now known as Optimus Prime the leader of the Autobots." Arcee finished. Updraft stood there in stunned silence. Optimus and Megatron Had been friends Close friends and worked together to bring peace to Cybertron before the war. It didn't make sense. What could have caused Megatron to become like this. He didn't know and he doubted he never would know no one would ever know but he now understood why they were fighting.

"I'll leave you here to think about it." Arcee said And walked away as updraft continued to stare into Teletran one trying to figure out what happened.

Tony stood in front of the Avengers cybertronian suits, All of them had seen Many battles over the past year all of them except for of course Wanda and Pietro's suits which were still in the Prototype phase. They were getting a bit out of date for his liking. A few months ago he had begun to integrate smaller bits of nanotech into his suit. He planned on making a full suit made of nanotech eventually. But right now he had to figure out how to upgrade Their current suits. Steve's Shield was beginning to break; he doubted that it could withstand many more blasts. Natasha's right hand was missing Lost while Accidentally getting her hand caught in a transforming Decepticon. Hawkeye's bow string was about to snap. It was a miracle that it lasted this long. Vision didn't really need a suit since he could infiltrate any Cybertronian and rip them apart from the inside. And his suit's jet boots failed to activate several times already Causing him to fall flat on his face more than once While trying to take off. He had a feeling that if he didn't upgrade these suits or straight up Start building some new ones, the Avengers would be back with a start when they entered this war, Useless.

Man he hated feeling useless, Worse it appears the Decepticons were Either getting tougher And faster or His suits were getting weaker and slower, He chose to believe the former. So he started brainstorming ways to upgrade Their current ones or build some new suits. Each and every way required a lot of money and a lot of time. Since he was declared a fugitive They lost Control of Stark Industries and well a most of his money. (he had at least a few Million in the bank Still a lot less than he usually did.) So as he saw it the Avengers were pretty much screwed in this war.

Just then ratchet appeared behind him and said, "Hey Tony." Nearly scaring the life out of him.

"Oh, hey Ratchet," Tony said, trying to catch his breath.

"You know When teletran one identifies Where the tox-en is being produced Both the autobots and Avengers will Rush the facility right," Ratchet pointed out.

"Thanks Captain Obvious," Tony retorted, "But the Avengers won't be of much help if I can't even somewhat repair Our suits."

Ratchet looked over the brutally battered Avengers suits and said, "Well then let's Get started."

Tony sighed, "Love the enthusiasm but it's just not possible. We need to find something to repair or Replace Steve's Shield. we need to find a completely new hand For Natasha, We need an extra strong Bowstring for Clint, And we need to find a new rocket boots for me. Unless you got a few spare body parts laying around the Avengers are out of commission for quite a while."

Ratchet chuckled And said "Well about that."

Tony looked up to ratchet and confusion and said "What about it."

A few minutes later both ratchet and Tony stood in front of a giant cart containing various body pieces of cybertronians. "I'm sorry, why do you have several pieces of your own kind!" Tony paused for a second and then asked, "Wait how did you get the pieces?" However before ratchet could respond Tony simply said, "Never mind I don't want to know, Let's just get this over with."

Few minutes later the repairs began, And while they worked they talked. Ratchet held up a Cybertronian hand Has Tony began to connect it to Black Widows arm, "So I read up a bit about your history your company used to be A weapons manufacturer,"Ratchet said as Tony fiddled with the circuitry trying to make the cybertronian tech work with The human attack.

"Yup, best of the market." Tony replied as he connected two wires together Causing a small Spark.The index finger shifted a tiny bit.

"So what made you stop?" Ratchet asked.

"Well several years ago I was testing and showing off my newest missile To several high-ranking generals, the Jericho Missile, l called it. However on my way back we were ambushed by a terrorist group. They Kidnapped me and forced me to continue making those missiles," Tony said as he continued to fiddle with the hand, And finally as he connected the two wires he got a small shock, "Aah, that should do it, Friday give it a try."

Black widow's suit arm moved up and the cybertronian hand opened and closed. With the hand firmly attached and working they moved on to Tony's feet.

"Yeah like I was saying," Tony continued as he diverted more power to the new feet they are working on getting attached, "I met a man named Yinsen, Together we built the first Iron Man suit. It wasn't much but it managed to get me out," Tony looked down as he said, "Yinsen Died in the Escape, I had seen with my weapons do to people first hand so I shut down the industries and well here we are."

"I see," Ratchet said as he finally fully connected the left leg, "Try activating it now," Tony lifted up his left leg and fired the thruster, Instantaneously it roared to life.

Tony watched the power reading rise and the level out as he deactivated the booster. "Since that's good I've already told you about me. What about you what was your life like before the war,"

They begin to work on Steve's Shield, They repaired it by well not repaired but completely built a new one By melting down multiple parts of cybertronians and forging The molten sludge into a shield, "Well before the War I was One Of the best Medics on Cybertron, I was the most renowned doctor on the planet but when the war first broke out I felt useless just being a doctor so Joined the Autobots and became a medic a combat one, and then well the rest is history." Ratchet said.

Tony Dumped a bunch of water over the molten slag, "But that doesn't explain your technical skills you know creating teletran one and all that."

Ratchet chuckled as he poured more molten swag into the casting iron, "Well during The early days of the war I met someone an autobot named bulkhead if you ever saw him you wouldn't take him for an engineer, But he was great with his hands he Could repair even the smallest mechanical malfunctions,"

Tony chuckled as he said, "Sounds a lot like me,"

"He was, but he was actually funny And kind-hearted,"

Tony did a Double take as he heard that "Ha- Wait what."

Ratchet just continued, ignoring Tony, "Doing the battle for the all Spark when we were all Dragged here Bulkhead was there but I don't think But I don't think he made it Through though."

After that The two sat in silence for a little bit, Until Tony said, "I think that's good, come on let's finish this up and attach it to Steve's suit."

Ratchet nodded as he pulled a lever and a massive tub of water that was suspended just above the forge Opened up and dumped tons of water onto the shield rapidly cooling it unfortunately it also nearly washed Tony away. Tony sat up, coughing up water, "Next time you do that give me a warning."

"No." Ratchet simply said as he picked up the newly Forged Shield, Examining it, "This will do, come on," Ratchet said to Tony who was still coughing up water.

"Yeah sure, coming." Tony said, picking himself up and chasing after Ratchet.

Optimus looked over An entire map of Earth. It displayed Decepticon positions and movement, But something was different,It wasn't the Typical Decepticon strategies, They were slowly taking ground And fortifying their defenses. Typical Decepticon tactics Involved Hitting defenses hard and Securing all nearby areas before moving on, And they never made alliances of any kind at least not that Optimus knew of. The way they were conducting themselves made him think that they were waiting for Something or someone to arrive, And given that Megatron is never one to sit back and away from the battles, it's pretty clear he's Off planet doing Primus knows what. Where they were about how an attack could lead them to Megatron, And if Megatron's been working on this plan for Stellar Cycles They had to stop him before He could set his plan into motion.

Behind him Steve approached Optimus and said "Hey Optimus I have a question for you."

"What is it, Steve," Optimus responded, not taking his Optics away from the Earth.

"We've Been battling the Decepticons for years now And we still have not seen Megatron on the battlefield. What if Megatron isn't on Earth?What if he was never sucked into that vortex" Steve stated.

Optimus remained silent, because that was exactly what he was afraid of, "If Megatron was indeed not sucked into that vortex that worries me even more."

This confused Steve of course,If the greatest enemy wasn't on Earth why would that make Optimus more concerned. "What do you mean?"

"Megatron was Not present on Cybertron nor Is he present on Earth I could only mean one thing, Megatron is up to another one of his schemes and possibly his biggest yet. And we don't even know what it is." Optimus explained.

Steve understood and nodded, "Well whatever it is, When Megatron Arrives to Earth we will be ready."

Optimus nodded and understood and Steve walked off but under his breath Optimus said, "I hope you are right," He knew that when Megatron arrives it could Spell destruction for the very planet.