Author's Note: I know I haven't written in a while, but this semester has been brutal! Today, I finally have a break, so I spent it writing. Hope you enjoy.
Chapter Twenty-one: The Island of Doctor Cyclops
As the group stepped foot on the beach, Perce looked around as a shiver crawled up her spine. The entire island gave off the sensation of things which shouldn't mix being rammed together. Perce fought not to wretch at the sensation coming off the island as she put foot on the sand. Thalia only shivered while Jack's optics narrowed, and he began scanning the tree line. Arcee noticed the mood of the other three but didn't feel anything off besides a slight unease in her tank.
Missy only added to the tension as she closed her optics and vented deeply, "I sense something. A presence I've not felt since…" Without another word, Missy sprinted off to the northwest portion of the island and disappeared into the trees.
Perce and Thalia looked at Arcee and Jack in confusion only for the two-wheeler to shrug while Jack nodded, seemingly understanding why Missy ran off.
"One of her sisters is stranded on this island like us." Jack supplied with a worried and thoughtful expression.
A yell of rage and pain ripped through the trees followed by a metallic roar that froze the group in place for a moment or two. Then, Perce gasped and began to run into the woods as flashes of Bianca sacrificing herself in the desert spurred the child of the Sea as a tear skated down her face with Perce oblivious to all else. Arcee and Jack looked at each other and activated their blasters before they gave chase to Thalia and Perce.
Why does this remind me of Miko? Arcee thought only for her to be tackled by something she couldn't see. Blasters rang out through the forest. Then, Arcee saw it. A snake with the body of a woman as big as Arcee stared at her with a Cybertronian optic, metal left torso and an arm to match. "What The Pit are you?"
"Arcee!" Thalia stopped for a moment. "That's a Synthian Draconus! What is it doing with parts of Cybertronian biology?"
Arcee closed her optics for a moment and vented, "Shockwave!" Then, the two-wheeler drew her blades and stared down the cyborg monstrosity. "Go after Perce!" the femme ordered. Arcee moved slightly to the right a moment later as a bolt from Jack's blaster hit the fusion in its optic. "We can handle this!"
With little thought, Jack summoned his bodysuit and transformed to be even with the monster while she stumbled back and put a clawed hand over her ruined optic. "You will pay for thisss!" The snake-woman's arm then broke apart and revealed a gleaming Imperial Gold blade. The monstrosity slashed and stabbed at the duo even as its arm seared against the blade. The agony is the poor experiment's eyes made Jack's stomach flip before he put a blade through the abomination's chest. Instead of dusting completely, the creature's cybernetics fell to the earth like Spoils of War. Before the thing could evaporate completely, it seemed to smile at Jack's optics with something that almost looked to be gratitude in the monster's eyes.
Jack shivered at the thought of a monster being GLAD to die. The son of Primus almost purged as he bent down to get a closer look at the components spilled on the ground. Something in his processor said that the various parts came from multiple Cybertronians.
That's why it went insane. A quiet femme voice spoke in Jack's mind. The Chaos energies already in it didn't mix well with our Father's essence, even in the comparatively small amount needed to run the component systems graphed into it.
Solus, Jack found even his mental voice shaky in that moment. Why?
Little Brother, the Artificer said gently as she mentally wrapped him in a hug. I can't answer that question, but your friends need you. She gave him a soft, knowing smile. You are still incredibly young by Cybertronian standards, but we are always going to be there to help you. The Key warmed in his chest to enforce the point. Now, be ready. The battle's not over.
Perce ran into a clearing to see a pale young man with a blade darker than midnight in his hand as he fought a group of monsters and seemed to exude terror even as he slashed at the monsters. These creatures looked like metal forms of various monsters Perce knew and a few she didn't as Nico stood with his back against a river of Nectar. The young son of Hades fought like a berserker, but the Stygian blade only bounced harmlessly off the creatures' metal hide. Nico looked terrified and as if he'd been fighting alone for hours. With a final roar, Nico drove his blade into the nearest creature between plating in the wires and joint. Then, Nico teetered as blood oozed from a multitude of cuts and wounds. With a splash, Nico fell back into the river of Nectar.
Perce put more speed into her legs and sprinted for Nico. The child of The Sea dove for Nico even as bolts of lightning crashed into the strange beastly Cybertronians and sent them stumbling back as the massive voltage called down crashed their processors. Seventeen massive bodies slammed into the dirt in mild stasis lock from the overload. Perce scooped up Nico and gently positioned his worryingly light body sitting. Then, she began to feed the son of Hades Nectar.
When Thalia knelt next to Perce, she panted with the exertion of calling on her powers so strongly. "Will he be alright?"
Perce shook her head in uncertainty. "I haven't seen him since his sister died," the child of The Sea whispered with a hint of guilt in her voice. "He's too light, and his pulse is thready." Without really thinking, Perce willed the Nectar into Nico's mouth bit by bit as she talked to keep herself distracted.
When Nico coughed, Perce breathed a sigh of relief while Thalia squeezed one hand. Perce brushed the hair out of Nico's eyes with her other hand. "Nico?"
The boy smiled, "Percy, don't turn into sea foam, please."
Thalia looked at the child of Posidaedia in confusion as said child of The Sea blushed and laughed nervously, "Just rest, Zombie Dude."
"Why do you sound like a girl?"
Perce opened her mouth to answer when the whirring of motors and other signs of life started to come back to the metal creatures. The child of The Sea stood and turned to defend the boy as Thalia stood with her, spear and shield at the ready while Perce brandished Riptide. Out of the woods, a familiar motorcycle and sports car shot out of the woods and transformed with fists ready. Together, the pair slammed into the nearest Predicons. The two which Arcee and Jack knocked back, one like a griffin and the other like a unicorn, turned and began fighting the Cybertronians with ferocity unmatched. Oddly, the fifteen others who took various forms only watched the fight and didn't interfere. Chief among these was a great metal European dragon, its optics yellow-gold much like the river of Nectar that flowed next to Nico.
Drawing deep on the Wisdom of the Primes to stay alive, Jack dodged and rolled while getting in hits where he could. He put up a good fight and likely would have held his own in The Pits of Kaon at that moment. However, these weren't Cybertronian gladiators. They were beasts and proved it with every brutal strike and attack which left Jack's Spark and heart racing as he and Arcee began to flag from the effort of keeping up with the prehistoric beasts. It wasn't enough, and the young Prime knew it.
When he and Arcee rolled away from a blast of plasma fire for the third time, Onyx Prime spoke, My children are capable of reason just as I am, Little Brother, the Prime of Beasts offered. Talk to them.
Jack gritted his teeth. If you haven't noticed, these aren't normal Cybertronians, Onyx. Jack managed to finally land a hit by blinding one of the creatures with a blaster bolt to the optic. Shockwave fueled them with a substance made of Dark Energon. I think he purposefully made them mindless in an effort to create loyal pet super soldiers for Megatron.
Onyx growled in his head dangerously. You are just like Prima, self-righteous and afraid of what you do not understand!
This is what that twisted Con does to anything he finds intriguing or useful! Jack fired back as he showed Onyx memories of the cyborg monster. They are not your brethren anymore, Onyx! It would be an act of mercy to destroy them!
"Jack, we need to go, now!" Arcee's voice cut into the mental argument. "We need to take everyone back to Missy, or these…things will tear us to shreds!"
Jack nodded slowly before he folded down into his vehicle mode and scooped up the three Greeks. Then, he pealed out for the beachhead where Missy's main body waited. As Jack drove away, he suddenly felt fear and anger over the Sparkbond. Arcee?!
Arcee turned and gunned her engines as soon as her tires hit the dirt. In her rearview mirror, Arcee spotted a familiar one-eyed Cybertronian walk out of the mass of Pedacons. He raised his massive cannon and fired. Arcee tried to dodge, but the blast wave caught her. With a grunt, Arcee felt her body tumble end-over-end until she transformed to slow herself and slammed into a tree. Arcee fell to her servos and pedes as her audios rang from the impact. Frag! Arcee shakily stood and readied for a fight. Arcee watched in horror as Shockwave ran right past her. The two-wheeler tried to summon another shot but felt her systems going into protective shutdown as she did. I'm sorry, Jack.The last thing Arcee's audios registered were heavy pedefalls approaching her position.
"A hostage for the negotiation of my lab. This is most…logical."
Jack screeched to a halt at the final words from Arcee. Over his comm, Jack growled, "Missy, did you find your sister?"
"Yes, Jack," she smiled unseen. "I did." Missy then noticed the hard edge in her brother's voice that hadn't been there before. "What is it?
"There's a lab on this island," Jack informed her. "It is likely near a vein of Dark Enegon." He took a deep breath. "I'm going to drop off Thalia, a new demigod, and Perce. Then, I'm going back for Arcee. Once I have her, wipe that lab from this planet!"
A new voice came into the conversation, "It will be done, Bruder."
Jack blinked and shook his head as he raced back to Missy. With the demigods safely offloaded, Jack growled and turned his attention back to the lab, even as he received a data packet from an unknown source. After a quick scan from his antivirus subroutine, the young Prime read the message.
"Come alone. Any attempt to bombard my location from afar and I will offline the two-wheeler which you illogically care so much for."
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