Transformers MHA, Arc 2: Earthrise

by The Omni-Remnant

After a rather intense adventure and the U.A. Sports Festival approaching fast, Izuku and his friends have two important things to do; improve their Quirks in time for the festival… and hide a bunch of giant alien robots. That proves to be easier said than done, especially when enemies on Earth and from beyond the stars end up coming for them…

74. Prehistoric Panic, Part 2

A/N: Morning, one and all! Welcome back to Transformers MHA and hoo boy, do we have QUITE a bit to discuss before we get into the chapter itself.

Because indeed, the second trailer for Transformers One has dropped as of yesterday, and OH MY GOD! Now THIS is kinda what I was hoping for when it comes to the overall tone of the movie. A healthy balance of humor AND serious moments, and thankfully it doesn't have "Start Me Up" playing in the background to offset those serious scenes. And man, this trailer was WAY more focused on what the plot of the movie is about. Combine that with the positive things I've been hearing coming from those early screenings, and you can consider me officially hyped for this movie. …Now we just gotta wait two more months.

But, with that said, I think it's time we got into the chapter proper. Prepare yourselves for some Dino-Might, everybody, because this is…

Chapter 74: Prehistoric Panic, Part 2

…..

Kaida couldn't believe what she had just witnessed. Of all the things they had expected Grimlock to do, none of them could've guessed THIS. He not only dispensed with probably the four strongest Autobots in their group… but also transformed into the beast that Kaida and her parents had mistaken him for. Standing before all of them was a gigantic, robot Tyrannosaurus, heat pouring from its maw after literally breathing fire upon transformation. And, if that weren't enough, he spoke with what could only be described as "caveman talk", which astonishingly made him even more terrifying. "Grr… Me, Grimlock… DESTROY!"

Another roar made everyone cover their ears again, but even so, they couldn't help but be astounded by what they were seeing. "Oh no." Kaida uttered.

"Not gonna lie, I was expecting a giant car." Eijiro emphasized.

Izuku shook his head in disbelief. "Th-That's… he's a…"

"A MOTHERFRAGGING T-REX!" Mina screamed, being the only one who was finding this completely awesome.

Momo quickly clamped her hand over the pink girl's mouth, silencing her. "Mina!" she whispered harshly. "Need I remind you that "Motherfragging T-Rex" just tossed Bulkhead away like he was a chew toy?!"

The Acid user recoiled away and thrust her hands up at Grimlock. "Well, yeah, of course I'm worried about Bulkhead, but come on! You gotta admit, this is cool!"

"No, NOT cool." Kaida grimaced, leading everyone to doubletake at her seriousness. "Don't you guys get it? Grimlock just transformed into one of the most vicious, most dangerous, and most feared apex predators to ever walk the prehistoric world. And he can breathe fire. We're SCREWED."

However, Denki saw it quite differently. "Hehe, oh no we're not! Kaida, even YOU should know this; we're gonna be fine so long as we don't move!" He craned his head up to the remaining Autobots, advising; "Guys, a T-Rex's vision is based on movement. Just stand perfectly still and Grimlock won't see you." The Autobots were left perplexed as Denki… struck a strange pose with his left leg up and arms extended, staying perfectly still.

…Much to Kaida and her parents' chagrin. "Young man, that comes from an almost two-hundred-year-old movie and was debunked at the time it came out." Kaito emphasized.

The now horrified Denki slowly craned his head to the family, breaking out into a nervous sweat. "…Huh?"

"Grrr… Grimlock CRUSH!" With staggering speed, the dinosaur robot charged forward, his jaws open and ready to bite down on his prey. Denki quickly screamed and fell out of his pose, instead letting out a million-volt shock straight to Grimlock's head. "GRAAAAUUGHH! Lightning BAD!" Rearing his head back, Grimlock breathed out even more fire down upon them, forcing the group to scatter.

Denki found himself running beside Kyoka and Tenya, both glaring at him. "Nice one, Bolts for Brains!" the punk rocker chided.

"Indeed, now he's even ANGRIER!" Tenya added, the normally patient boy now quite done with his classmate's shenanigans. "Now what do we do?!"

As Grimlock continued to rampage, the Autobots made their own attempts to subdue him, with Sideswipe and Sunstreaker leaping onto his legs while Bumblebee managed to transform and ramp his way up the T-Rex's tail. Once he came up to the head, he latched himself on and didn't let go. Strongarm landed on his back as well, slamming her fists down with as much force as she could. It managed to make Grimlock go down… by about a hair. Still, it was enough of a pause in his thrashing that gave Jazz the opportunity to come in and latch his grappling hook around Grimlock's neck. "Haha, gotcha no—WOAH!"

…But even then, that only delayed the inevitable. Even with Bee covering his eyes, that didn't stop Grimlock from battering them all off of him, tossing the Lambo Twins and Strongarm off like they were nothing. Bumblebee still clung on for dear life… but that would prove a mistake as Grimlock RAMMED his head right into a rockface with reckless abandon, leaving Bumblebee embedded in the stone. "BEE!" Izuku exclaimed.

"You're tellin' me—EEEEE!" Grimlock managed to bite through Jazz's energy grapple and then flung him into the air, where he sailed at least half a mile out.

"JAZZ!" Kyoka cried out, wincing as he landed and kicked up a cloud of debris. That could NOT have been pleasant.

As Grimlock went to keep barreling forward, he was suddenly halted again when an airborne attack began pelting down upon him. "GRAAAHH!" He reeled back as he was peppered with blasts, only to hoist his head and see Windblade zooming over him.

The City Speaker darted back around, preparing another volley. "I'm sorry, Grim, but you're leaving me no choice here!" She dove down and unleashed her attack… but made the mistake of going in too close. Grimlock whirled around, whipping his mighty tail up and hitting Windblade with a potent SMACK. "AUGH!" The Autobot jet quickly lost altitude and went careening to the ground, losing a wing in the process.

Momo gasped in horror. "AH! Windblade, no!"

"GYAAAOOOOORRR!" Grimlock roared and once again went to stomp off… but one last Autobot managed to stand in his way.

"Grimlock, STOP!" Arcee hollered, spreading her arms out as she glared up at him defiantly. "You don't want to do this! Don't you remember us?" The dinosaur robot growled as he lowered his massive head down, tilting it so that he could look her in the optic. "…You at least remember me, right? Arcee?"

Watching the scene from a safe distance, Ochako had to resist biting her nails in apprehension. "Oh god, oh god, Arcee's gonna be next…"

"Wait, look!" Eijiro pointed, seeing that Grimlock seemed to be calming down a little. "I-I think it's working!"

Sure enough, Grimlock's optics seemed to be fading from red to blue as Arcee kept talking. "Your team and I got stranded on that freaky jungle planet on a mission, remember? Our ship was swarmed by Air Hammers. We had to mimic Bantor calls to avoid an angry troop of them!" At that point, Grimlock began shaking his head, his tiny arms trying to grasp it as memories came flooding back. "Yeah, that's right! You've gotta remember that!"

"Ar-Ar… Arcee—" *CRACK* "RAAAUUUGHH!"

Arcee gasped as a red energy tether suddenly whipped around Grimlock's neck, and all at once, his optics faded back to the same color. She snapped around and saw the culprit; Signal Flare, using his radar arm to try and lasso Grimlock. "Excellent work, Arcee!" the energon expert commended. "Now we've got him!"

"Signal Flare, NO!" the femme shouted. "That wasn't what—"

Just then, Grimlock swung his tail around again and batted Signal Flare with it… which in turn sent him straight into Arcee. The energy tether was snapped as a result and Grimlock was free to finally get away, charging straight down the mountain side. …And in the distance, they could see the nearest town was in his path.

"Zrkt—Housten, we have—zrkt—a MAJOR problem!" Bumblebee announced after plucking himself out of the rockface.

Jazz came limping his way over, clearly hurt from the fall he'd taken. "Ugh… you got that right." He set his gaze down to the dazed Signal Flare, who was already on the receiving end of a glare from Arcee. "Bro, what the frag?! Arcee had him where she wanted him!"

The Omnicon leader lowered his head, feeling genuine regret for his actions. "I-I'm sorry, I… I-I thought we were still to subdue him."

Arcee got up and placed her hands on her hips. "We don't subdue our friends, Signal Flare. That might be how Decepticons handle things, but not Autobots."

"So what do we do now?!" Sunstreaker exclaimed. "Grim's on a rampage and the closest we've come to calming him went up in smoke."

"AND none of us are strong enough to get him under control!" Sideswipe added.

Strongarm, though, was more concerned with what the leader of the Lightning Strike Coalition Force had become. "More importantly, though… what happened to him? Grimlock's alternate mode was NOT a Tyrannosaurus back on Cybertron."

That managed to take the humans aback. "W-Wait, so… that means he's not a Maximal like Airazor?" Izuku asked.

"Gah… no." Windblade answered. She had assumed robot mode, but was carrying her severed wing in her hands. "When it comes to Maximals, all of them have a mixture of technological and organic elements. Granted, when it comes to ones that're native to Cybertron, they do tend to lean more on the robotic side, but even so, they still have some organic parts. I've never seen a fully technological Maximal, and Grimlock certainly wasn't one of them."

Kaida stepped forward and pointed up to the City Speaker. "I'm not entirely sure what you mean by all that, but it sounds like Grimlock must've been changed to HAVE that T-Rex alt. mode in some way."

"That's highly improbable." Red Alert piped up, with him, Bulkhead, Springer and Jetfire having recovered from their violent encounter. "The only way such a thing could've happened was through reformatting, and as far as I know, Grimlock hasn't received anything of the sort."

"Or… it could have been through a different process." The voice of Optimus Prime made everyone set their attention squarely on him. One of the antennas on his head had been bent and his faceplate was slightly cracked, but overall, he seemed none the worse for wear. "Namely… an experimentation process."

That left every bot confused… at least for a moment. "Experimentation? Prime, what're you—oh… oh dear Primus, no." Bulkhead uttered.

"By Trion's beard." Red Alert brought a hand to his head, clearly overwhelmed by the though just as everyone else was. "I-I didn't even consider, but… Shockwave, you monster."

The humans, though, were still lost, especially the newly initiated amongst them. "Uh, excuse me, but… who's Shockwave?" Krista asked.

Windblade wore a disgusted sneer as she explained; "A very dangerous Decepticon. One of Megatron's top three and his lead scientist. …A MAD scientist, to be specific. There's no lengths he won't go to in the name of "logic", and a long time ago, he managed to capture the Lightning Strike Coalition Force."

Jazz nodded grimly. "Yeah, an' I remember it all too well. It was right before the launch of the Ark, an' Grim's team were on sentry duty. But then, one day, they disappeared, which left the Ark open to attack."

"We initially thought they'd deserted their post." Jetfire chimed in. "But in reality, they left for a pretty good reason."

"Shockwave was conducting experiments within the Sea of Rust, ones which involved peering to other worlds via a SpaceBridge." Optimus picked up. "Grimlock had concluded that Megatron must have been searching for a world with plentiful Energon to plunder, and so led a secret mission to stop it. …Unfortunately, they were ambushed and taken prisoner by Shockwave… who then experimented on all five of them."

An audible gasp rang through the crowd. "Ah! Y-You're kidding." Kaida uttered. "And you think that's how Grimlock got his dino mode?"

"Precisely. Thankfully, they were able to make an escape, but after that experience… Grimlock had changed." Optimus lowered his head. "No longer was he the cheerful personality we knew him to be. Ever since his return, he was… much more violent. More inclined to lash out at others. He and I even got into more… disagreements than usual." He rose his head back up to gaze at the stars. "Ultimately, after a particularly bad argument when Unicronus first began staging calculated attacks against us, he chose for him and his team to accompany the Ark's expedition, saying that he would much rather be off of Cybertron and away from my "poor strategic planning"."

The humans visibly winced at that. "…And let me guess, that was the last interaction you guys had?" Izuku guessed, to which Prime solemnly nodded. "Gah… we need to get Grimlock calmed down and back here so we can put him back in his right mind."

Tenya approved, but raised a point of contention. "I agree, but how are we to go about it?" He stiffly gestured out toward the direction Grimlock took off in. "If you haven't noticed, Grimlock is significantly MUCH more powerful than any of us, he's been aggravated to the point of not being reasoned with and—"

"ALREADY HALFWAY TO TOWN!" Fowler shouted, making everyone whirl around and see the space T-Rex closing in fast on the human settlement. "By Lincoln's Hat, he's gonna flatten that whole thing if we don't DO somethin'!"

"Scrap!" Strongarm threw her hands up. "How're we supposed to catch up to him at this point?!"

Windblade immediately volunteered to go after him. "I can get to him. Just gotta reattach my wing and—AGH!" Just then, though, her back sparked where her wing was blown off, making her fall to one knee.

"No! Windblade, you can't do anything the way you are now!" Momo insisted.

Red Alert came up and placed a hand on the City Speaker's shoulder. "She's right. This isn't just a quick patch job. Windblade, you're coming with me back to base." A frustrated grumble passed Windblade's lips as the medic directed his attention toward their other flier. "Jetfire, think you can catch up to him?"

"Pretty sure, but I dunno if that's a good idea." Jetfire placed his hands on his hips. "My thrusters will probably cause even MORE human attention to come our way. And besides, we still don't even have a plan to get Grimlock under control."

"Much as I hate to admit it, Jet's got a point." Springer concurred. "Even my chopper mode is pretty loud. We need a quiet way to… I dunno, soothe Grimlock in some way."

Hearing that, Kyoka's eyebrows shot up, an idea entering her head. '…Soothe.' That one word prompted her to reach into her back pocket and take out her phone, raising it up to the Autobots. "Guys! I think I've got an idea!" Garnering their attention, Kyoka continued. "Ever heard the expression "music soothes the savage beast"?"

The suggestion took them off guard… but it also intrigued the bots as well. "Woah, you think it actually could?" Sideswipe asked.

"I mean… anything's worth a shot." Kaida shrugged. "I know music always calmed ME down while I was a kid."

"Exactly! And if we play our cards right, I think this could work out pretty well." Kyoka smirked knowingly. "I just need to get in close… and I think I know just the bird for the job."

…..

Grimlock's mind was in a haze. A haze of nothing but red that was brought about by anger and confusion. Nothing made sense to him. What were these creatures that were so small and fleshy? Where were his friends? And why did those larger bodies seem so… familiar to him? He couldn't remember. In fact, he couldn't remember much from before the… the… *KRA-CHA-BOOM* That sound seemed to echo in repeat in his head, which only caused him more pain. Grimlock briefly stopped, writhing in agony while trying to reach his head with his tiny arms. Why did he try to keep doing that? And why did it feel he needed to use his legs for that? He didn't know, and right now, he didn't care. All he cared about was destruction, and hunting for prey. And, with his senses in overdrive, he could tell that many targets were just ahead of him.

*SCREEEE*

All of a sudden, heard a loud screech from overhead caught his attention, and when he looked up, he immediately put his guard up. It was a large, winged beast of some kind. Not as big as him, but then again, rarely anything was. And it wasn't the first time he had seen a beast with wings that big… though it had a much shorter face than the ones he'd seen before. Whatever this winged thing was, though, it was gliding its way down to him, so he immediately breathed fire at it.

"AH! Goodness!" Airazor let out a gasp as she narrowly avoided the stream of flames. "Stop, please! I am only trying to help you!"

"Air, we can't reason with him using words." Kyoka said as she and Izuku clung to her back. "Remember the plan."

The Maximal nodded as she circled around the robot dinosaur. "Hm, right." She rapidly came in from behind and flapped to a halt, keeping herself level with Grimlock's head.

Grimlock stepped around and was about to attack again, but it was time for Kyoka to enact her plan. She selected the most calming music she could find on her phone; her personal study playlist and then plugged it into the speaker that Momo had made her. "Grimlock, wait! H-How about instead of rampaging, we listen to some pretty music?"

The beastly bot wasn't about to take her advice… but then, the music started playing; a soothing, Lofi beat. Once it reached Grim's audio receptors, things began to get a bit… clearer for him. The steady and soft music was helping to lift the fog from his mind and, within moments, he felt much more relaxed. He was still very confused, but the rage within had at least been quelled for the time being. To the point that his optics even changed back to blue. "Grrmph… Grimlock like pretty music."

"Hah… oh yeah, ya do." Kyoka sighed in relief.

"You okay?" Izuku asked. "You looked like you were gonna be sick for a while there."

"Izuku, I just got a T-Rex under control with the power of Lofi Beats. I feel like a freaking queen right now." Kyoka peered down to the bird bot below. "Alright, Airazor, let's take this guy back to the others, nice and slow now…" With an affirming nod, Airazor did just that. She flew low and slow, making sure that Grimlock didn't fall far behind as he kept following the gentle, Lofi music all the way back to camp.

And needless to say, everyone was astounded by the sight. "Hehe, well I'll be." Jazz folded his arms over his chest. "Knew ya had it in ya, Kyo!"

Ochako nodded in approval. "That is just amazing. …So, um, now what?"

"Now, we do a scan of Grimlock's processor." Optimus incentivized. "To see what exactly is wrong with him."

While Grimlock was distracted by the music, Signal Flare slowly approached him from behind. "Leave that to me… time to make up for my mistake." Using his radar array, he ran a scan on Grimlock's head, analyzing his central processor. Once the scan was complete, though, the readings he got… weren't what he was expecting. "Oh… oh Primus."

"What?" Bulkhead questioned. "What's wrong with him?"

"Well… technically speaking, his processor is still working… but it's been altered in this form." Opening the panel on his chest, Signal Flare showed his internal screen to the others, which displayed the inner workings of Grimlock's head. "It would seem that Shockwave rerouted Grimlock's higher cognitive functions in order to enhance his physical strength in this form."

Kaida furrowed her brow. "Wait, so… what does that mean?"

Signal Flare put the screen away, his voice taking on a rather serious tone. "If I had to guess… it means that Shockwave was intent on changing the Lightning Strike Coalition Force into fearsome, beastly war machines for the Decepticons to use against the Autobot forces." Another round of gasps echoed through the crowd as Signal Flare looked to the soothed robot T-Rex. "Thankfully, they managed to escape before they could be fully brainwashed."

Optimus lowered his head, clenching his fist in anger. Most was directed toward Shockwave for what he had done… but a little was also directed toward himself. If only he had seen what the mad scientist had been plotting, maybe he could've prevented this. His mind flashed back to the transmission he'd received from Grimlock when they had made their escape, a message that had stuck with him for a long time since;

"You're WEAK, Optimus. You RUN when you should FIGHT!"

'Well… if that is true, then I shall not run any further from my mistake.' Prime craned his head down toward Kyoka and ordered; "…Kyoka, stop the music now."

The Earphone Jack user did a doubletake. "H-Huh? Are you sure?"

"If we are to get any answers out of Grimlock, then we must do so now." The Autobot leader reasoned. "Now that he is calmed, perhaps he will be more inclined to listen to reason. So please, if you would, stop the music." While Kyoka was hesitant to do so, she knew not to disobey a direct order, so she went through with it. At first, Grimlock was startled when the Lofi stopped, but his attention was garnered by Prime within seconds. "Grimlock… can you understand me? This is Optimus Prime… your friend."

"Grrr… Op…ti…mus…" Grimlock uttered, his head beginning to clear more and more with each passing second. He craned his head around to the others, and to his shock, he actually recognized a few of them. Of course, though, the femme that spoke to him before stood out the most. "Ar…cee…"

The pink femme beamed ecstatically, glad to know her friend at least recognized her. "Yes! That's right, Grim, we're here to help—"

"Grah! Friends!" Without warning, Grimlock stormed forward, though not in an attempt to run away again. Instead, he seemed to be… searching for something. After a couple moments of looking around, the robotic T-Rex spun back around and asked; "Where are friends?!"

"W-We're right here, Grim!" Sideswipe assured. "You're among friends!"

But Sunstreaker shook his head. "I don't think he means us, bro. I'm pretty sure he means Slug, Snarl, Swoop and Sludge." The yellow bot stepped forward and explained it to the beastly Autobot. "I'm sorry, Grim, but I'm afraid we only found you. None of your teammates are around here—"

"NO! Not Team Friends!" Grimlock bellowed. "OTHER Friends! Dino Friends!"

His outburst took everyone by surprise, most of all the Kiryus. "Wait, does he mean… like actual dinosaurs?" Kaito inquired.

"It wouldn't surprise me, dad." Kaida affirmed. "I heard Grimlock's message, and in the background, I could clearly hear a bunch of dino roars." She placed a hand on her chest. "And I should know, I've made some of those sounds before."

Shoto cleared his throat, feeling somewhat awkward. "Well… if that's the case, then who wants to break the bad news to him?" He received nothing but silence at the suggestion. "Yeah, figured as much."

As they discussed this, though, Grimlock gasped again and ran right up to Arcee. "Crown! Where is crown?!"

The intelligence officer furrowed her metal brow in confusion. "C-Crown? Grim, I-I'm not sure what you—"

"Give me crown NOW! Must find friends!"

While nearly everyone was left perplexed, though, Krista seemed to catch on. 'Wait… didn't I see…' In her mind, images of the scans she'd taken of Grimlock in the ground flashed by, and she recalled seeing something else directly underneath him. It was small, so she didn't think much about it. It could've been a rock for all she knew… but the shape of said rock was starting to come back to her. She made a dash back over to the bot-shaped hole in the ground where Grimlock once was… and sure enough, there it was. "AH! Everyone, over here!"

Every bot and human followed suit and gazed straight down into the indent… where they could see a gold and metallic grey crown sitting directly in the middle of the site. It had eight points to it; four longer, golden ones and four smaller, grey ones. And on each of those points, there was a light installed; four red, four blue. "Huh… well, that was surprisingly simple." Mina noted.

"CROWN!" When Grimlock saw it, he immediately tried to grab it… only to literally come up short thanks to his tiny arms. In the end, he wound up falling over on his face, into the same hole where he'd been for millennia. And the worst part? He was only mere inches away from his prize. "GRAH! Grimlock can't reach crown!"

Arcee chortled a little and took hold of the cranial ornament, plucking it out of the rock and gently putting it upon the tyrannosaur's head. "There you go, pal. A crown fit for a king!"

"AH! Good!" Grimlock managed to get to his feet and, to everyone's shock, the lights on the crown began flashing. At first, all of them did, but then it centralized into one light on the right side of his head. Grimlock did an abrupt turn in that direction, which made the light move to the front of his crown. "Friends!"

"Huh… it's a crown AND a homing beacon." Bulkhead surmised. "Clever."

"Yeah, but where's it homing to?" Springer asked, only for Grimlock to go stomping in that direction.

Before he took off entirely, though, Grimlock peered back to the group and beckoned them. "Ragh! Come! Follow Grimlock! Find friends!" And with that, he was on his way, traversing further down the mountain and into the flatlands.

Everyone eyed one another awkwardly, knowing this would be a fruitless effort for him. "Well… I'm not certain we'll find his friends." Momo muttered. "But I have a feeling we'll probably find something if we follow him."

"You are correct, Momo." Optimus supported. "If Grimlock is following that homing beacon, that means that there must be a signal emanating from somewhere that only he can follow." He set his optics down to the resident energon expert. "Signal Flare, return to base and help Red Alert monitor things from there."

Signal Flare saluted dutifully. "Of course, sir. Best of luck."

"Thank you, my friend." *Whrr-tschzz-tschzz-tschzz-chkt* On that note, Optimus transformed into vehicle, prompting the remaining bots to do the same. "Autobots, Roll Out! Let's follow Grimlock!"

Kaito clasped his hands together eagerly. "Haha! Alright, let's—hey, wait, is that my Hummer?"

All eyes were directed at Bulkhead, which only made the Wrecker feel squeamish. "Uh… I can explain."

…..

Meanwhile, further up north in the ship known as the Darksyde, Thundercracker was trudging his way through the ship's halls, thinking to himself. It had been a little over a week since "The Battle of The Rockies", and in that short time, it had been regarded as one of the most humiliating losses suffered in the war. Starscream's team of Decepticons, consisting of some of the best operatives the faction had to offer along with a LEGION of Vehicons… had been defeated by a group of ragtag Autobots and a bunch of lowly humans, both fully grown and juvenile. Now, granted, those Autobots WERE led by Optimus Prime, and the humans were all gifted with powerful Quirks that allowed them to go toe-to-servo with the Decepticon forces, but still, a loss was a loss, and Megatron had seen that as the last straw. Not to mention the fact that JETFIRE of all bots had made a surprise appearance near the battle's conclusion, and that did nothing to improve their leader's mood, especially with Sky-Byte and Starscream.

The two aforementioned Cons were still licking their wounds after the defeat, especially Starscream. The Seeker commander hadn't left his quarters in at least five Earth days, and while some were concerned, Flatline had made sure to make daily visits to him to make sure he was still functional. "I surmise zis has to do vith Lord Megatron sending his away team." the doctor had deduced. "We all know how much he detests… ze leader of zat team, after all."

Eventually, the Cons had reserved to let Starscream get his sulking out, and since then, they had decided to lay low. They didn't need any sort of conflict happening with the Autobots so soon after such a defeat. Though they were at least confident that, when the away team arrived, they'd be getting a HUGE advantage over the Autobots. …But even then, some were still hesitant about the whole thing, such as Thundercracker himself. The blue Seeker knew of his brother's apprehension, and honestly, he couldn't blame him for it.

'No doubt that walking audio mixer is gonna help turn this place into a well-oiled machine, but… gah, Starscream's gotta be short-circuiting because of it." His brother's position as co-leader of the Darksyde was in jeopardy, and he needed a BIG win in order keep it. "Hah… but opportunities like that don't just fall into your lap."

"What's wrong, big guy?" The question managed to stir Thundercracker from his thoughts, bringing his focus down to the Mini-Con Air Assault Team. As always since he had awakened them, they were hot on his heels, which made a small smile appear on his face. Runway had asked the question, which she followed up with; "You look like you're pretty down."

"Yeah, what's eatin' ya?" Jetstorm crossed his arms as he and Sonar eyed him curiously.

Thundercracker sighed and rubbed the back of his head. "Ah, well… I'm just tryin' to think of a way to help my brother out, you know? With Lord Megatron's away team coming and his co-leader position at risk, I just… want to be of use here, ya know?"

"Ah, I see." Runway nodded in understanding. "Yeah, Commander Starscream's been kind of in a losing rut as of late, hasn't he?"

Sonar let out a brief chortle. "Heh, yeah… kinda makes you wonder how he got the position of second-in-command in the first place."

Narrowing his optics at the shuttle Mini-Con, Thundercracker pointed down and chided; "Hey, my brother proved himself worthy of that position during the war. He aided Megatron in taking over an Autobot satellite by leading a bunch of us fliers in and obliterating Sentinel Prime's forces from within." His gaze trailed off as he winced. "He's just… not been on his game lately."

"And so he needs a big win." Jetstorm concluded. "Problem is, somethin' like that ain't just gonna come outta thin air—"

*SSHHHCKT* All of a sudden, the door to the bridge opened up nearby and Barricade poked his head out, his optics wide as he wore a smile of anticipation. "Ah-ha! Perfect, it's you all. Come inside." he ushered them to follow. "I've got something BIG to show you."

"H-Huh? Barricade?" Thundercracker steadily followed him in. "What's happening?"

As Barricade sat down at the control console, Frenzy stood by his feet, cackling the whole time. "Eehehehehe! Oh, you'd better hold on to your screws, guys, 'cause we've got some BIG news. Show 'em, Barry!"

Wasting little time, Barricade brought up a map of the United States… where an Autobot signal as plain as day could be seen. It was flashing near the upper left corner of the map, quite close to Canada at that. "Heh, see this?" Barricade swiveled around, pointing up at the red insignia. "This signal just appeared outta nowhere and the signature doesn't match any Autobot we've come in contact with."

"Wait… are you saying…"

"That we might have a bogey on our hands." Barricade finished Thundercracker's thought before standing up, clasping his hands together. "And ya know what, if we can reach this signal before the Autobots can, we might have no problem catching this bogey for ourselves. Then we can hand 'em to Starscream on a silver platter."

Runway took a bit of issue with that. "…But then he'd take all the credit."

Barricade briefly glared down at her. "That's the point, small fry. I dunno about you, but I'd rather not be taking orders directly from Unicronus and Megatron's sentient subwoofer. At least Screamer's an entertaining commander."

That was really all it took for Thundercracker to agree to the plan. "Yeah, no doubt about it. I'd rather get no recognition than have a bunch of dark and serious guys in full control of this ship."

"…Ya know what? Point taken." Sonar affirmed. "So, should we tell the others?"

"Eh… let's keep this to ourselves, actually." Barricade advised. "It'd make for a nice surprise for Screamer, and the less we have Unicronus huffing down our necks, the better."

Thundercracker nodded in agreement. "Right. I'll just gather up a handful of Vehicons and maybe a Leaper and we'll be on our way." With everyone on the same page, the six Cons were on their way out of the bridge to depart… but when the automatic doors flipped open, they were met with an alarming sight.

There, standing on the other side, was none other than Swift. The Decepticon lieutenant had been fully repaired since the battle, and she had her arms crossed over her chest, a disapproving glare etched into her features which left the other two paralyzed. And it was obvious that she had heard everything. "I cannot believe that you were about to go and do a mission under Unicronus' nose, all so that he wouldn't be in the know about you trying to help Screamer…" There was a brief pause as the six other Cons were shaking in place… but that wouldn't be for long. "…WITHOUT ME!"

All at once, happy smiled broke out all around as the larger bots began to share high-fives with one another. "Hahaha! Yes! Now it's a party!" Barricade celebrated.

"Wouldn't miss this for the world, boys." Swift chuckled. "Now c'mon, let's go save Starscream's job, eh?"

…..

As it happened, the team ended up following Grimlock for a while. For at least three hours, they kept after him, and needless to say, they were getting a bit apprehensive. The sun was just beginning to rise over the horizon, meaning that it was likely getting dark in Japan. It also meant that curfew was coming up, so Izuku, Kyoka and Momo needed to get back within at least an hour and a half to make the deadline. "Mmph… just where the hell is Grimlock leading us?!" Kyoka exclaimed, anxiously bouncing her leg.

"Dunno." Jazz admitted as he and the Autobots kept driving through fields of grass. Thankfully, no other humans had passed by, save for a few close calls. "But wherever it is, it's WAY off the beaten path." Just then, Grimlock made a very hard pivot to the right when they approached another clearing, taking the Autobots off guard. "WOAH! Hold on!"

In tandem, the bots pulled their own sharp turn, much to the chagrin of their passengers who found themselves plastered against the windows. However, as they followed Grimlock, they all saw that they were headed directly toward a massive bluff in the center of the valley they were in, one that towered over everything in sight. "Oh wow…" Krista uttered, her and her family riding inside of Bulkhead along Mina. "Could that be where he's leading us?"

"But why?" Mina tilted her head. "It's just a mountain."

"Mina, by now, you should know that there's a LOT more to your world than meets the eye." Bulkhead advised.

Sure enough, Grimlock came to a halt at the very bottom of the bluff, the lights on his crown all glowing at once. "FRIENDS!" he shouted before rushing in to start digging into the side of the hill with his face. The remaining bots came to a halt and allowed their passengers to disembark before transforming all equally curious as to what the space T-Rex's goal was.

Jetfire, Airazor and Springer came in for a landing from above, equally as baffled by what they were seeing. "Uh… why's Grim hitting his head on a mountain?" asked the former.

"Ya think he's digging for his friends' fossils?" Denki guessed. "OOF!"

Kyoka elbowed him in the gut for his troubles. "Shut it. Don't joke about something like this!"

"Zrkt—Reckon we should help?" Bee proposed. However, no one would get the chance as Grimlock took a step back and raised his foot, bringing it down with a mighty STOMP. A concussive energy wave was unleashed from his foot and made the mountainside rumble, causing a portion of it to collapse. And there, revealed under the debris, was large doorway with the Autobot symbol emblazoned upon it. "Zrkt—Uh… never mind."

Optimus was completely flabbergasted. There was absolutely no way that this could be real… but here it was, plain as day. "This… this is an Autobot reconnaissance craft."

"You serious?" Springer asked. "How can ya tell?"

"Those markings just above the door." Prime pointed out, which to the humans, resembled a bunch of up and down arrows. "There's no mistaking it, this was the Ark's recon ship." His optics shifted back to Grimlock, who by this point had reached the door and placed his tiny T-Rex hand to upon the scanner next to it. To everyone's surprise, the scanner was still operational and it allowed Grimlock in, the door shakily shifting open.

Their tyrannosaur comrade wasted no time in charging in, the others trailing behind him. By the time they reached the bridge of the craft, Grimlock was already going around and activating various panels, typing away as best he could with his small hands. Still… there was something quite strange about all this to the Autobots. "Uh… why do I recognize this place?" Sideswipe spoke up.

"Yeah, it seems so familiar." Sunstreaker noted as well.

Prime stepped further in and nodded. "It should. This vessel's bridge is a scaled down version of the Ark's bridge. Both this and the Ark's escape ship were designed as such."

"Wait, so the Ark had both an escape ship and a recon ship?" Tenya scratched his chin. "Tell me, what was the difference?"

"The escape ship was MUCH bigger." Prime explained. "While this recon ship was only made specifically for small scouting missions." Out the corner of his optic, Optimus saw Grimlock come to a sudden halt, completely unmoving in front of one of the glowing panels. "…Grimlock? Are you—"

"GRAAAAHH!" The robot dinosaur suddenly charged straight up to Optimus with a harsh glare, though there was less anger behind it and more… desperation. "Friends not here! Where are Grimlock's friends?!"

By that point, Optimus knew that the truth couldn't be denied any longer, a sentiment that rang true throughout the rest of the team. With a heavy sigh, Optimus reached out and placed a gentle hand upon his friend's shoulder. "Grimlock… I'm sorry, but… there was a massive asteroid impact. You were the only one who managed to survive. The dinosaurs… are all gone."

Grimlock's face visibly fell when he heard that. "…Friends?" He turned away from Prime, his head lowered in sadness. "…All gone?" Dejectedly, Grimlock threw the crown off his head before sulking off to the front of the bridge, wanting to be alone.

The gloomy sight was enough to resound with everyone, especially the humans. "Oh… the poor dear." Krista lamented, placing a hand over her chest.

"Is there… any way we could cheer him up?" Kaida suggested.

Shoto wasn't so sure. "I don't know. How do you cheer up a giant, robot T-Rex?"

Letting out a sigh, Fowler took to the front of the group. "Ah, I dunno, but what I DO know is that we gotta get the big guy in his right mind and back to Japan before—"

*CHA-KOOM*

All of a sudden, the entire place began shaking all around them, forcing the humans to duck and cover as pieces of the ceiling started to fall from above. The Autobots protected them and Grimlock was already on high alert, his eyes flashing between blue and red. "RAAGH! What is noise?!"

"…before somethin' like THAT happens." Fowler finished.

"W-What WAS that?!" Kaito shouted, keeping his family close to him.

From out the doorway, a threatening voice chimed in; "That was your only warning shot, Autobot! Come out with your servos up and your weapons on the ground!"

All the bots did a doubletake when they heard the familiar voice, though Bulkhead wasn't too thrilled by the unwanted company. "Ugh… Decepticons."

The Kiryus audibly gasped. "Ah! D-Decepticons?! Here?!" Kaida exclaimed.

"Hold on… isn't that Thundercracker?" Strongarm pointed out.

"Yes, and I can only guess that he isn't alone." Airazor surmised. "I doubt he'd be able to cause a blast like that himself." The Maximal craned her head up toward her leader. "What do we do, Optimus?"

"…Airazor, remain here." The Prime ordered. "Make sure the children are well guarded… and keep a sharp optic on Grimlock. We will handle this." He nudged his head toward the others, ushering them to join him. "Autobots… if we cannot reason with Thundercracker, then I suggest you prepare for battle." Optimus' proposal was heeded well, with several Autobots already bringing out their weapons as they went back toward the door. Before he left, though, Prime nodded down to the humans reassuringly. "Do not worry, we will be back."

As he left, though, Kaito felt a little unsure about that. "N-Not that I don't doubt Optimus, but… w-we'll be okay, right?"

Izuku sent the man a determined gaze. "Of course we will. If worst comes to worse, we can always contact headquarters and GroundBridge our way back to Japan. But for now…" The green-haired boy set his sights back on Grimlock, who was now back to sulking. "…We need to find a way to improve Grimlock's mood. And fast."

…..

Back outside, meanwhile, Thundercracker, Barricade and Swift stood with their battalion of Vehicons at the ready, all of them armed and prepped to invade… whatever this place was. By the entry way, they could at least tell that it was a ship, even if it was buried in the side of a mountain. Still, they couldn't help but be curious as to HOW it got there in the first place. "So, Barry… think that ship can still fly?" Swift smirked to her shorter compatriot.

"Ha! You kiddin'?" Barricade balked. "That think probably hasn't moved in eons and it's stuck under a mountain. It ain't comin' outta there any time soon." He clasped his hands together eagerly. "Still, think of all the info that could be on the computers in there. If they're still intact, I'm bettin' Nightra could get a LOTTA data off of 'em."

"Ssh!" Thundercracher shushed. "Don't blow her cover! And look alive, someone's comin'." With the all three Cons resuming their serious demeanors, they kept their optics locked on the doorway… and were quite astonished by who came out. Nearly the entire Autobot team, Optimus Prime included. "W-What?! Prime?!" Thundercracker's optics narrowed when he saw Jetfire amongst them as well. "And you."

With a nonchalant wave, Jetfire let out a laugh. "Haha! TC! Good to see you're back up on your struts after our last encounter." But then, the second-in-command's grin turned into a frown. "So, what the scrap are you all doin' here?"

"D'oh, for the love of—" Swift threw her hands in the air and whirled around to Barricade, pointing an accusing finger at him. "See?! I TOLD you we should've taken a GroundBridge, but NO, you said it was close enough that we didn't need to!"

Barricade glowered back at her, placing his fists on his hips. "Well, how was I supposed to know that the Bots would get here this fast?!" He brought his arm up and showed her his radar, which wasn't picking up any other Autobot signals. "Ya see? They're even masking their own signals! So really, we wouldn't been able to tell either way!"

Before the argument could go on any further, Optimus interjected. "Enough!" That one word was all it took for the duo to silence themselves, thankfully. "If you are here following that Autobot signal, you needn't worry about it. The bot in question is now under our care, so if you have no other business here, I suggest—"

"Oh-ho, no, NOT this time, Prime." Thundercracker insisted as he brought out his pulse rifle and charged it up. "I didn't come all this way for nothing. You can have your Autobot pal… so long as WE get that nice little ship that's buried behind you."

"Sure, like we'd just hand it over." Arcee rolled her optics sarcastically as she and the other Autobots began to raise their weapons. "Not on your life, Blue Boy."

"Stop." Optimus urged, raising an arm to signal his Autobots not to fire. "Autobots, do not escalate the situation. This can still be resolved without conflict…" His gaze trailed back over to Thundercracker, extending a hand toward the youngest Seeker brother. "Thundercracker, you and I both know that this conflict is needless. Leave this place peacefully and we won't need to further this any more than we have already."

A sigh passed Thundercracker's lips and he shook his head. "Normally, Prime… I'd accept that kinda offer." He raised his arm up to the sky and the Air Assault Team came flying down, combining into the Cyber-Caliber which he then caught in his hand. "…But not this time. Not when my brother's aft and his leadership position is on the line."

That last part took everyone by surprise. "Woah… hah, ol' Bucket Head is THAT disappointed in Screamer, eh?" Bulkhead chuckled. "Lemme guess, he didn't take us whupping your afts in the Rockies all that well, huh?"

Barricade snarled at the mention of the battle. "Grr… no, he did not." His optics zeroed in on Bulkhead, all while ejecting Frenzy from his chest. "So, if you know what's good for you, you'll back off."

"Exactly." Swift added as she also brought Drill Bit out from the cockpit on her chest. "Otherwise, this'll get nasty." She snapped her fingers and, all at once, the Vehicons took aim with their own arm blasters.

"Damn, they brought their Mini-Cons." Jazz grimaced. "Wish we'd brought the Council along… what's the word, Prime?"

Optimus' optics closed regrettably, visibly upset that conflict seemed unavoidable. "…I suppose there is no avoiding it. Roller!"

Not far away, Prime's trailer unfolded into its Combat Deck configuration, with Roller transforming into robot mode to man the turrets. "Ready on your mark, Optimus!"

"Autobots… engage the enemy!"

…..

Back inside the ship, the humans had huddled into a corner with Airazor, the Maximal standing protectively over them as the fighting outside began. Once in a while, a stray shot would hit the mountain and make the entire place shake, which only served to make the teens even more worried. "A-Are you sure this is the safest place to be?" Denki quivered. "W-Why don't we all just bridge out of here?"

"We can't leave yet!" Kyoka chided, thrusting a hand over to the still brooding Grimlock. "Now without Grim, remember?"

"And how exactly are we s'posed to do that?!" Mina shouted, her eyes darting up to the ceiling as the place shook again. "And is it REALLY worth it to stick around here when we know that Grim can probably survive a mountain getting dropped on him?" Her response was a slew of deadpan glares from the team, all of them quite disappointed that she'd even think of leaving a teammate behind. "…O-Okay, I get it, sheesh…"

*CHA-KOOM*

"AAH!" A particularly potent explosion managed to rock the place so hard that everyone went stumbling, Grimlock included. The robotic Tyrannosaur ended up tripping back into one of the control panels and his tiny hand hit the holographic board, which brought up another holo-screen above it. At first, there was nothing… but then, a video began to play, which caught everyone's attention.

There, much to everyone's astonishment, was not only Grimlock in robot mode, wearing the crown he had on before… but also a slew of ACTUAL dinosaurs! Kaida and her parents were particularly astounded, seeing the likes of Triceratops and Parasaurolophus… coexisting with Stegosaurus and Brontosaurus. There was even a Pteranodon amongst them, which threw them ALL for a loop. "W-W-WHAT?!" Kaida exclaimed. "How?! Since when have—"

But Kaito and Krista were both equally as lost for words as she was. "I…I-I don't know, sweetheart" The professor uttered, taking off his glasses and cleaning them to make sure he was seeing things right. "This… this could be a massive breakthrough in the fossil record."

However, Grimlock's voice on the video brought them out of their stupor. "And so, my friends, we send our message to the future. Even as the asteroid hurtles toward this planet, we stand together in the face of catastrophe… with courage, and good cheer!" He turned away from the camera and raised a fist to his dinosaur friends, bellowing out a mighty; "GRAAAAAAAHHH!" The five dinosaurs all responded in kind, roaring in solidarity with him.

"Me… Grimlock?" his present-self uttered.

"Yeah, that's you, big guy." Grimlock craned his head around to see Kaida approaching him, and while he kept his guard up, he could see that her expression was one of sympathy. "And I gotta say… it looks like you had some awesome friends."

Grimlock gave a low growl and turned away from her again. "Friends… gone."

"I know… and trust me, I know the feeling." Kaida cautiously went up and placed a gentle hand on Grimlock's foot, which thankfully he didn't shy away from. "I… moved around a lot as a kid. To some good and bad places. Along the way, I've made a lot of friends that I ended up having to move away from after a short time of knowing them." Out the corner of her eye, she could see Grimlock tilt his head back down to her. "But, while we may not see each other again, I always keep them right here." She placed a hand over her chest. "In my heart. Trust me, Grim, it's okay to be sad that your friends are gone… but at least you know what you can always keep them close to your spark forever. In that way… they're never truly gone."

"Friends… in… spark?" Grimlock placed one of his tiny hands over his chest, and just like that, his thoughts started to become even clearer than they had before.

Kaida smiled brightly up to him. "Yeah! And hey, you're not alone either. All of us are here, Grimlock, and we want to help. …If you'll let us."

Blinking down at her Grimlock could suddenly feel a massive weight being lifted from his shoulders… and in turn… *Tschzz-whrr-whrr-tschzz-chkt* He reassumed his robot mode, his legs unfolding from his tail as his hands popped out from his dino feet. The T-Rex head folded onto his back along with the wings that made up his upper dino torso, allowing his golden chest and his robot mode head to emerge. The teens, Fowler and the Kiryus were all astounded by the scene, though they were also quickly concerned when Grimlock had to take a knee to regain his bearings.

But, even so, he seemed to be in good spirits. "Hah… hah… thanks, kid." Peering down to Kaida, his visor met her eyes his tone of voice much more jovial and relaxed. "I needed to hear that."

"O-Oh my god!" Izuku cheered. "She did it!"

"Ah! Way to go, Kaida!" Momo celebrated as well.

Kyoka pumped a fist. "Yeah, that's the way to do it!"

Kaida herself couldn't believe it either. "A-Are you… okay? You're ALL there, right?"

Grimlock chuckled and brought his large hand down, gently patting her on the back. "Haha, I am, small fry. Tell me, what's your name?"

The grey-skinned girl bowed as she introduced herself. "Kaida. Kaida Kiryu."

"I see. Well, Kaida, you and your friends might want to follow me." Standing to his full height, Grimlock towered over almost everything in the room, all while he gestured to the doorway. Outside, clear signs of battle were still going on… and the warrior was just itching to get into it. "As you can see, there's a buncha Decepticons on my property… and I intend on dealing with them personally."

"A-Are you sure, sir?" Airazor piped up, jogging up to the bot… only to find that she barely reached his waist. "Er, um… I mean, far be it from me to dictate your actions, but—"

But, to her surprise, Grimlock merely let out a laugh and extended a hand to her. "Not to worry, m'lady. By the way, just who are you, rookie?"

Airazor saluted and introduced herself. "My name is Airazor, sir. A newly recruited Maximal to the Autobot cause. It's an honor to meet you."

"I see. Well then, Airazor, if it'd make you feel better, you can come along. Make sure that the little organics are protected." He proceeded his way toward the door, but not before peering back to them over his shoulder. "And allow me, Grimlock, to handle the rest…"

…..

Back outside, the immediate area around the bluff had transformed into a warzone. Parts of the ground had been upturned thanks to gunfire impacting it, with scorch marks burned into the grass and dirt. The single Leaper that the Cons brought was contributing to this as well, though Bulkhead was doing his best to try and deal with it. Trees had been carelessly uprooted and singed thanks to Vehicons, and up above, Springer and Jetfire were attempting to shoot down the aerial Vehicons, their stray shots peppering the Earth.

But even so, two of the three main Decepticons were responsible for most of this destruction, along with their Mini-Cons. Barricade and Frenzy were tearing through foliage with every swing they missed against an Autobot, and Swift and Drill Bit were very much the same. "Hahaha! You Autobots even paying attention?!" Swift teased. "Or do you just not care about what happens to all the pretty green stuff?"

"Yeah, here we thought you were all about "preserving" this planet!" Barricade teased… only to then get blindsided by a kick from Strongarm.

"Shut it, traitor!" the former cadet barked.

Arcee came zooming up from behind Swift and transformed, delivering a hard kick of her own to the lieutenant's back. "Yeah, you're saying that like WE'RE the ones causing all this!"

Thundercracker, meanwhile, was fighting directly with Optimus Prime, going sword to axe with heavy yet quick strikes. "Stop this, Thundercracker!" Optimus implored as they struggled against one another. "This valley is suffering because of our conflict!"

"You want it to stop?!" the blue Seeker bellowed. "Then surrender the ship, or else—"

"HEY!" Right then and there, everything stopped, and every bot's attention went straight to the ship's entryway. There, in the darkness, they could see a certain blue visor shining brightly, and stepping through the doorway came none other than Grimlock. Behind him, the humans and Airazor all stood and watched, while the towering Autobots roared out; "Just what the PIT is goin' on out here?! Who allowed you CONS to mess up MY property?!"

All at once, every Con present was shaking in their armor plating, the very sight of the gladiator leaving them petrified. "G-G-G…G-G-G…" Barricade tried to speak, but his voice was caught in his throat.

"G-GRIMLOCK?!" Swift managed to get out. Frenzy and Drill Bit were so frightened that they transformed and detached from their partners, running to hide while screaming their heads off. "That signal was fragging GRIMLOCK?!"

As humiliating as it was… Thundercracker knew that he'd sprung an oil leak. "Oh… scrap me sideways."

"He… He's back to normal!" Sideswipe pumped a fist into the air.

"YES!" Sunstreaker celebrated as well, while the other Autobots simply stared in silent awe. "Ho-ho, you all are in trouble now!"

After not hearing a satisfying answer, Grimlock kept demanding one. "Well?! I'm waiting!" He crossed his arms over his chest. "I'm counting you Cons down from three, and if I don't hear a good answer…"

"W-Wait, Grimlock! It's not what you think!" Swift insisted.

"Three…"

Barricade waved his arms frantically. "W-We were just passing through the neighborhood and we thought we'd stop by for a visit! Hehe, n-no bad intentions or nothin'!"

"…Two…"

The Cons were galled that he was still counting down… and that was all Thundercracker needed to drop the pretense. "…Ah, screw it. ATTACK!"

"WHAT?!" Barricade and Swift shouted.

But it was too late. While the Vehicons and even the Leaper were all hesitant, they knew that they had to follow orders. They all gave a battle cry and charged in toward Grimlock, who merely kept his arms crossed as they closed in on them. He wasn't worried. They had just sealed their own fates. "…One." Pumping his arms, Grimlock unleashed a barrage of firepower from the missile pods in his shoulders upon the incoming Vehicons, blowing nearly all of them away. Some were blown up completely while others were scattered, but the only one that wasn't affected was the Leaper.

…Even then, though, it was stopped in mid-leap when Grimlock raised his left arm, bringing out an absolutely MASSIVE energon shield. It was almost as big as his entire body, and the Leaper crashed face-first into it. Pulling his shield back with a huff, Grim raised his foot and delivered a hard kick to the Leaper, sending it stumbling to the ground. "Hmff, nice try. But this was over before it began." And then… it happened.

Flicking his right hand, Grimlock opened a compartment in his forearm that stored… some sort of handle. None of the humans could tell what exactly it was, though they DID see that it had a rather jagged hand guard. It was only after Grim got a good grip on it did its true nature reveal itself. Because, from the end of the handle, a metal beam extended… and shifting out from it came several energon blades that merged together to create an absolutely incredible sword. It was a single-edged blade and glowed an intense, blood red, the sight of which made the humans' jaws dop.

Denki was practically wheezing, trying to form coherent words as he pointed frantically at the weapon. "Ha-chi-pa-chah—Ha-ti-pa-tah—GIANT SWORD!"

"Oh… this is gonna be good." Kaida smirked, rubbing her hands together.

The Vehicons' strategy quickly changed from charging toward Grimlock to running away from Grimlock as he stalked forward. They were still shooting at him, but they all knew it was a fruitless endeavor as he kept his shield raised. And then, once he was in close range, he came out from behind it and started slashing. His swings were wild, yet amazingly precise, cleaving and stabbing through the Vehicons like a hot knife through butter.

"No, no, no, PLEASE! I don't want to—URGK!" Their pleas all fell on deaf audio receptors, with one Vehicon in particular getting stabbed in the back… before Grimlock grabbed his head and pulled it out of his body, metallic spine and all.

"OH MY FREAKING GOD!" Kyoka, despite the horrific execution, couldn't help but laugh as she watched Grimlock use the head as a bludgeon to batter other Vehicons away. "It's so bad, but I can't look away!"

"It's like a train wreck… a beautiful train wreck." Mina uttered, watching as Grimlock picked up a Vehicon and relentlessly stabbed it multiple times, before then swinging off another one's head clean off like it was a baseball.

All of a sudden, once Vehicon decided to be brave and come storming toward Grimlock again… which the gladiator decided to entertain. He put his sword down and grabbed the now regretful foot soldier… "GRRRAAAH!" …Wherein he then pulled off each of his legs in a painful upside-down split, tearing the Vehicon in half in the process. Grim then kept using the legs as bludgeons again, batting the heads off of the remaining Vehicons.

Airazor was completely speechless and horrified. Thankfully, Arcee had come back to the ship's entrance and was there to comfort her a little. "…So the stories WERE true about him."

"Yep." Arcee uttered. She and the other Autobots were more used to seeing this, so while it was still disturbing, she was at least a bit numb to it. "Grimlock's a gentlebot in every other occasion… except on the battlefield. Here… he's a beast."

By that point, the Leaper had returned, now the only obstacle left for Grimlock to take care of. He rolled along the ground, picking up his sword along the way, and then swung it, only for the Leaper to counter by raising one of his arm-mounted blades. "Ah, think you're clever, eh?"

"Y-You big bozo!" The Leaper shouted desperately after watching the others get slaughtered. "I-I-I'LL KILL YOU!

"…Bozo?" Grimlock raised his foot and unleashed another seismic stomp attack, blowing the Leaper away. He then SLAMMED his legs on the ground and transformed back into his Tyrannosaurus Rex mode, letting out a mighty roar and astonishing the Cons in the process. "RRAAAAAUUGGGHH! Me Grimlock no BOZO! Me Grimlock KING!"

Kaida practically jumped a foot off the ground, her fists flying in the air. "WOOO! YEAH! That's what I'm talkin' about!"

"Chomp 'em to BITS, Grimlock!" Eijiro supported.

Sure enough, once the Leaper jumped at him again, Grimlock opened his mouth wide and caught the footsoldier in his maw. Then, he tossed it into the air and raised his spiked tail, impaling the Leaper through its metallic gut. Finally, for the piece de resistance, he breathed fire directly into its head, melting it before its whole body exploded off his tail. Lifting his head, Grimlock unleashed a triumphant roar… "GRRAAAAUUGGHH!" …and then turned his attention back to Barricade, Swift and Thundercracker, his optics flashing red at them. "Grrr… Leave. NOW."

The trio, all of whom were paralyzed with fear, suddenly found their sense of movement again while being fueled by that SAME fear. "N-No need to tell me twice!" Barricade exclaimed, transforming into his police car mode as Frenzy hopped in the driver's seat.

"Y-Yeah, I just remembered, I-I've got to um… r-reapply my tailfin wax! SEE YA!" Just like that, Swift had transformed as well, taking off after Barricade with Drill Bit clinging into the underside of her cockpit for dear life.

That left only Thundercracker, and while he didn't necessarily WANT to give up… he knew he was now very outmatched. "…I watched a movie recently that said sometimes, you've gotta know when to hold 'em, and know when to fold 'em." The blue Seeker threw his sword up, allowing the Air Assault Team to go back into their jet modes. "And right now… it's foldin' time." Thundercracker backflipped up and transformed as well, blasting off into the distance with his Mini-Con partners. "BUT I WON'T FORGET THIS!"

Once everyone was sure that they Cons were completely gone, nearly every Autobot broke out into victorious cheers. They all regrouped around Grimlock and began singing his praises. "Haha, YES! Nice one, Grim!" Bulkhead nudged the T-Rex's shoulder.

"Now THAT'S the Grimlock we know!" Jazz commended as well. "Glad you're back in your own head, man!"

"Hah, so that's the famous Grimlock in action." Springer huffed. "Gotta say, seein' it in person is a LOT different than watchin' it on tesserburst signals."

Optimus stepped forward through the crowd, craning his head up toward his old friend. "Grimlock… I am glad to see you are—" But just then, Grimlock suddenly turned away, skulking his way back toward the ship's entrance without a single word. Optimus and the others were all left taken aback, as were the humans when he wordlessly passed them by. "Grimlock?"

"W-Woah, Grim, what's up?" Kaida asked, though she didn't receive an answer even when Grimlock transformed back into robot mode, his visor still very much red.

Instead, he approached the crown that he had discarded earlier, kneeling down to pick it up off the floor. By this point, everyone was back in the ship, and they watched as Grimlock placed the crown atop his head and sat down in the central chair of the bridge, as if it were a throne. After a few moments, though… he began to chuckle. "Hmhm… hehehe…" And that slowly morphed into a full-blown guffaw. "Hahaha! AHAHAHAHA!"

At first, everyone was confused, but as he kept laughing, Grimlock's visor changed back to blue, and eventually, he was able to calm himself down. "Hahaha… ah… what can I say? Sometimes I'm such a brute, I forget myself." His words managed to make everyone smile and, once again, let out a collective cheer to see him doing alright. "My friends, we are reunited!" Grimlock stood up and extended his arms out. "Welcome to my headquarters! The crowning jewel of Dinosaur Civilization."

…..

A/N: And I think that's a good place to leave things off. Yeah, I know, this chapter was a bit shorter compared to the last one, but to be fair, we had to get a LOT more done last time, namely Kaida and her family's introduction to the Autobots. Here, we were able to get right into the thick of things with Grimlock, and in terms of that, I think it went over rather well! …Once they were able to actually calm him down, that is. As we can see, Signal Flare's still got a bit to learn about being an Autobot, but thankfully Grimlock was able to get wrangled up before any humans in town could be hurt. Let's hear it for Kyoka bringing the power of calming Lofi music!

Then, of course, we come to Grimlock leading the bots to his old headquarters, where things finally set in for him that his dinosaur friends are indeed gone for good. Thankfully, that's where Kaida comes in! Because while her past of getting bullied is quite prominent, she also made plenty of friends whenever she moved around, and she knows how hard it is to say goodbye. And with this, her words were able to get through to Grimlock and bring him back to his senses. What better way for these two to make friends, eh?

But of course, leave it to the Decepticons closest to Starscream to want to try and help him out of the jam he's in. With Megatron's away team coming to Earth, the status quo around the ship is already gonna change, and it seems Thundercracker, Barricade and Swift don't want TOO much of that. …Unfortunately for them, Grim's not too thrilled that they're destroying their property, so it's time for the SWORD to come out! Because let's face it; if you've played the Fall of Cybertron game, you know EXACTLY the kind of feeling you had when you first saw Grimlock bring out that thing. Ah, so satisfying, and I hope I was able to recapture that feeling here.

And now, the Preview! Now that Grimlock is officially back, it's time to learn exactly what happened to him when the Ark landed on the planet. How did he get separated from the ship? What did he do while he was stranded in the age of dinosaurs? All of these answers and more Next Time in; Grimlock: The Dinosaur King! Thanks for reading, everyone, and I'll see you all next time! Stay safe out there, and remember;

GO BEYOND! PLUS ULTRA!