I don't own Transformers or the Riordanverse; they belong to their owners.
Chapter 49: Aftermath.
Ratchet in his ambulance vehicle mode raced through the canyon with Sideswipe hooked onto his back by a rope line and being dragged behind him.
Ratchet finally reached his destination, the spot Chromia had called her distress signal from. He saw his female friend sitting in a ditch, holding her side.
Ratchet transformed into his vehicle mode and unattached himself from Sideswipe before running up to Chromia. He retracted his right arm to deploy a welding torch.
"You okay, soldier?" he asked Chromia as he moved to get to work.
"Do you want me to lie?" Chromia grunted in pain.
"I'll take that as a no…" Ratchet muttered. As he kept working on welding the hole in Chromia's side shut, he looked around. "Where's Barricade?" he asked.
Chromia glanced around the field frantically. "I don't know. He was here a second ago," she remarked. "Must have snuck off.'
Ratchet sighed. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised," he muttered. "That bot always had a talent for—"
Just then, the two heard a large CRACK and a boom. They swerved their heads and saw a huge blue explosion expanding more and more nearby.
"What the?!" Chromia exclaimed.
"Hang on!" Ratchet shouted. He motioned to shield Chromia's body with his own and shut his eyes. The impact of the explosion came over them, and they felt the forces pin them down to the side of the ditch.
When the force of the blast finally started to fade, Ratchet opened his optics, got back up, and looked in the explosion's direction.
He didn't say anything at first. He just stood there for several moments, looking despondent.
"No," he finally said in a quiet voice. "He…He didn't…"
"Ratchet?" asked Chromia.
"Can you still transform Chromia?" Ratchet asked.
"Yeah… I think so." Chromia said. She grimmaced as she allowed her body parts to shift into her motorcycle form. She grunted in pain but she succeeded.
"Good." Ratchet transformed into his ambulance mode and reattached Sideswipe to him.
Then the two Autobots started driving towards the center of the blast.
Ratchet and Chromia both needed a minute to take in what they saw when they got there.
A crater stood right in the middle of the canyon; scattered around it were all the Autobots and Decepticons, all laying on the ground and moaning in pain, even Megatron himself.
No one looked in good shape; Sunstreaker had been bisected; Nightprowler had been flown into some jagged rocks by the blast and now was impaled by them; Hot Rod had a wound in his side like Chromia; Hound and Prowl had been knocked back by the blast; and Optimus was missing his right arm.
The Decepticons didn't look so good either. Megatron was missing his left arm, Thundercracker was out cold, Skywarp's right wing had been blown off, Starscream had been thrown into the canyon wall headfirst, and Soundwave was leaning against the canyon wall in pain.
Luckily, Annabeth, Thalia, and Luke seemed to be okay. Their respective Autobot partners had managed to shield them from the worst of the blast.
Ratchet's optics widened in horror. He knew there was only one thing that could have caused an explosion like this.
"Optimus!" shouted Ratchet. He transformed into his robot mode and ran over to his leader and helped him to stand up.
"Ratchet?" Optimus asked as he weakly turned his head toward Ratchet.
"Optimus, what have you done?" Ratchet asked in horror.
"Get mad at me later." Optimus said as he barely managed to stand up straight. "Nightprowler and Sunstreaker need help more than me."
Ratchet took another look at the bisected Sunstreaker and the impaled Nightprowler.
"Yeah…" Ratchet said unceraintly. "I'll get on it," he ran over to make sure both were still stable and online.
As this was happening, Megatron had begun to pick himself up and began to gaze around the battlefield in a panic. He hoped, against hope, that it wasn't gone. It was of no use, though. It was nowhere in sight. "No," he said with a combination of genuine sadness and horror. "No…"
Slowly but surely, the other combatants, Autobot and Decepticon alike, began to pick themselves up from the blast and surveyed the aftermath.
Annabeth rubbed her head as her vision began to clear.
"Are you okay, Annabeth?" Prowl asked, setting her down on the ground.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Annabeth murmured. She looked around the battlefield and saw everyone's despondent and confused expressions. "What...what just happened?" she asked.
Prowl hung his head. "Optimus destroyed the Allspark…" he explained somberly with a twinge of anger.
Hot Rod and Hound were both quiet; neither seemed to know how to think. Thalia and Luke likewise remained respectfully silent.
Quicksand popped out of the ground and looked around. He was the only one who had managed to avoid getting hurt by the blast.
Thundercracker was the only one who didn't get up. He just layed there on the ground, his eyes no longer glowing.
When Skywarp saw his friend in such bad shape, he ran over to him in a panic. "TC!" he shouted. "TC, come on! Get up! Get up, buddy!". He shook Thundercracker back and forth but he didn't wake up.
"It's no use, Skywarp." Starcream commented bitterly. "It appears Thundercracker is offline."
"We will need to get him back to the ship for repairs." Soundwave noted.
Megatron growled seeing all of this and swerved his head toward Optimus. Optimus didn't think he'd ever seen Megatron this angry. "You fool Optimus Prime!" he shouted. "Do you have any idea what you've done!?"
"Yes," said Optimus somberly. "I've doomed our planet to a slow and painful death…"
Megatron scowled. "I hope you're proud of yourself!"
Optimus straightened up and stood firm before saying this next part. "I did what I had to to save the galaxy from your tyranny," he said with confidence. "I can't allow you or anyone access to the power of the Allspark. After seeing what it's power has done to this world...how others have used it... I do not think anyone should have this power."
Megatron frowned. "If you think to slow my conquest of this planet, Optimus, you're wrong."
Optimus's optics widened. "What!?" he asked.
Megatron gave a cruel smile. "What do you think, Prime? With the Allspark gone, this planet is now the only source of naturally occurring energon in the galaxy. It's now the only thing that can stop us all from going extinct."
Optimus was silent as he staggered back; he realized with horror that Megatron was right.
Megatron turned around to address his troops."Decepticons! Begin gathering our wounded!" he ordered. "Soundwave, open a ground bridge so that we may return to the Nemesis."
"As you command Megatron." Soundwave responded as he began the process. Starscream and Quicksand departed to recover Spinister, Barricade, Quake, and what remained of Skytread. Skywarp picked up Thundercracker and went through the space bridge Soundwave opened.
Megatron turned back around to face Optimus. "This isn't over, Prime," he promised. "The War for Cybertron is over... The War on Earth is about to begin."
The Autobots watched as Megatron disappeared through the bridge and Soundwave went off to help Starscream and Quicksand.
Everyone just stood there in silence for several moments with uncertainty hanging in the air.
"So...what do we do now?" asked Hot Rod awkwardly.
Optimus hung his head and sighed. "We collect everyone and get back to the Ark-27," he ordered.
"Yes, sir," everyone said somberly.
A couple of hours later, everyone was in Ratchet's lab. Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, Chromia, Nightprowler, and Optimus were all on recharge slabs being repaired. Hot Rod leaned against a wall while Hound paced uneasily. Prowl simply crossed his arms and stood there stewing in anger. Annabeth, Luke, and Thalia watched all of this awkwardly from there spot off to the side.
Sideswipe was still unconscious but Ratchet had managed to repair Sunstreaker enough to wake him up…only for him to almost instantly flatline when they told him what happened to the Allspark while he was unconscious.
Ratchet seemed to share Sunstreaker's bitter feelings because there was an edge to him as he worked to repair everyone else.
"If you have something to say, Ratchet, say it." Optimus ordered.
"What is there too say?" Ratchet asked. "You've screwed us all, Optimus!"
"The doctor is right, Optimus." Sunstreaker added. "Cybertron's going to die because of you."
"It was the only way Ratchet." Optimus said "I couldn't let Megatron get his hands on the Allspark. You and I both know what will happen if—"
"It was still the key to saving Cybertron!" an angry Prowl pointed out.
"Rachet…Sunstreaker…Prowl…" Nightprowler said weakly from his slab. He and Chromia were the only injured Autobots still awake. "Optimus made the right choice."
"And how do you know that?" Prowl asked.
"Because I saw my home ripped apart because people wanted that damn cube." Nightprowler responded. "It's power is too great for any one bot. If Megatron–"
"What do you care!?"Sunstreaker yelled angrily. "You've never even seen Cybertron! And now you'll never get to!" Sunstreaker suddenly grunted in pain as he gripped his chest.
"Hey Sunstreaker, easy!" Hound said, running over to him. "You're still being repaired. Calm down!" He said, trying to get Sunstreaker to sit still.
"Great." Sunstreaker muttered. "One more thing to blame Optimus for."
Optimus narrowed his eyes. "Sunstreaker, don't blame me for your bad attitude," he said sternly. "I'm not in the mood for this!"
Everyone stood in stunned silence at Optimus's sudden outburst.
"Ratchet." Optimus finally said. "I know the real reason you're upset, so why don't you just air it out?" he asked.
Ratchet hung his head and sighed. "I've lost the only known way to save Quickswitch," he lamented. He put his hand to the bridge of his nose.
"Yes…" Optimus said somberly. "I'm sorry…."
Everyone was silent for another couple of minutes.
"Hey, I know I asked this question back at the canyon," Hot Rod began. "But what do we do now?"
"What else?" Asked Prowl, stepping forward. "Megatron had a point; this planet's now the only source of energon."
"Prowl is right." Chromia remarked, finally speaking up. "We need to start focusing our efforts on mining energon from this planet. It's the only way we're going too–"
"Whoa whoa whoa!" Hound interrupted. "We're going to strip mine this place!?"
Optimus shuffled uncomfortable. "We don't have a lot of options," he pointed out.
"We can't!" Hound said. "Imagine the damage it could do to this planets ecosystem–"
"No one wants that Hound." Optimus added. "We'll just have to make sure we do it responsibly."
"We shouldn't be doing it at all!" Hound protested.
"So what? Should we all just sit down and die!?" Hot Rod asked.
Hound scowled, "We shouldn't have to get another planet involved in—"
"HEY!" shouted Luke.
Slightly embarrassed, all the Autobots turned to face the three kids. In the ensuing argument, they had forgotten all about their human friends who had been sitting to the side watching the whole thing.
"Doesn't our input mean anything?" Luke asked.
"We're a part of this team too, you know." Thalia added, crossing her arms.
"Of course it does." Hound said.
"Then stop arguing over nothing and start focusing on finding out how to stop those Decepticons." Luke suggested.
"Luke is correct." Optimus said. "We can debate about my decision all day; it doesn't matter. What's done is done. What does matter is what we can do now."
Nobody said anything, but everyone present gave a silent nod of agreement.
"For now, everyone get some rest and clear our heads." Optimus suggested. "Then we can figure out our next move."
"Yeah," Hound muttered. "Maybe I'll feel better once I've had some time to cool off."
"Can we watch some TV?" Annabeth asked.
"Sure," said Hot Rod, and he, Hound, and even Prowl walked with the kids to their chambers to cool off.
When they sat down, Luke got the remote and turned the TV on, showing a man in a brown suit with black hair, dark skin, and a bushy mustache.
"This is Hector Ramierez with Twenty Questions," the man on the TV said. "Recently, we've been getting reports from San Francisco, which was recently hit by a massive earthquake–"
"We don't need to watch this…" Luke muttered as he changed the channel.
"Yeah. Let's watch some cartoons." Annabeth suggested.
On board the Nemesis. Megatron watched as Soundwave looked over their injured troops. The other active Decepticons, Starscream, Skywarp, and Quicksand, stood back on the sidelines.
"Status report on our soldiers, Soundwave." Megatron requested.
Soundwave looked up from the bot he was working on, Quake, and faced Megatron. "We have one fatality," he reported. "Skytread. Quake and Spinister were knocked offline, but their repairs should be achievable. Barricade was also heavily injured but retained consciousness. All three of them should be fully operable in a few earth days. Skywarp's wing was easily replaced."
"What about Thundercracker!?" Skywarp asked nervously. "What about TC!?"
Soundwave shook his head. "He is in forced stasis lock," he explained. "The damage from the lightning bolt made his wound to the spark from the human Frederick Chase even worse. For now all we can do is keep in him a CR chamber until he wakes up."
"And how long will that take?" Skywarp asked.
Soundwave hesitated.
"WHEN!?' Skywarp asked, grabbing Soundwave and pulling him closer.
"Indefinite." Soundwave finally answered.
Skywarp looked confused. "What's that mean?" he asked.
"It means he may never wake up you buffoon!" Starscream, who had been seething angrily this whole time, yelled out in frustration.
"What!?" Skywarp exclaimed.
"I'm sorry," Soundwave said, sounding genuinely regretful. "As I said, the best we can do is to put him in a CR chamber–"
"This is all that stupid girls fault!" Skywarp despaired, clenching his fists in anger. "She did this to Thundercracker!
"And it's because of her that those damn Autobots managed to destroy the Allspark!" Starscream seethed. "We've lost the only hope to saving Cybertron!" He pounded his fists together angrily. "I say we strike back at the Autobots right now and make them pay for this!"
"Starscream's right!" Skywarp agreed. "Let's find the Autobots! When I get my hands on that black-haired girl, I'm gonna rip her–"
"No." Megatron said bluntly, speaking up.
"NO!?" Starscream asked in disbelief. "You cannot be serious, Megatron! What the Autobots have done to us—"
"I don't know if you noticed this Starscream," Megatron interrupted dersivly. "But most of our on-hand soldiers are critically wounded. We're in no shape to go after them on a mad quest for vengeance. And even if we were, we need to start focusing on preparing to take this planet's energon if we have any hope of surviving the Allsparks destruction!"
"But the Autobots are weak now as well!" Starscream pointed out. "We should strike at them before they can rebuild!"
"It's not worth the risk." Megatron stated firmly. "We'll have plenty of other chances to make Optimus pay for this."
Starscream looked beyond despondent. "But–"
"That's an order, Starscream!" Megatron yelled. "If you want to throw away your life, feel free, but I will not aid you when my efforts would be better spent elsewhere." He turned to face Soundwave. "Soundwave. Get a link up to Cybertron; I need to speak with Shockwave and Bludgeon."
"Yes, Lord Megatron." Soundwave said.
With that, Soundwave and Megatorn both started heading to the communications room, leaving Starscream and Skywarp on their own. The two sat their in silence before Starscream motioned for Skywarp to follow him outside the ship.
Starscream and Skywarp soon stepped outside, where the Nemesis was parked, in a remote area near the Grand Canyon. The two began to pace and fume now that they were away from the eyes of Megatron.
"This is a load of scrap; isn't it Starscream?" Skywarp asked.
"Indeed." Starscream remarked. "But as loathe as I am to admit it, Megatron may have a point; we don't have the botpower to go after the Autobots and the girl right now."
"So what are we supposed to do!?" Skywarp asked. "Just let them get away with it?!"
"Maybe you need some help then?" said an unfamiliar voice out of nowhere.
Starscream and Skywarp froze. They turned their heads to the side and saw someone who was not there before. A dark-haired human in a gray robe. His facial features were sharp and angular, and he seemed to command attention, even though the two had never seen him before.
But what really caught their attention was the man's size. He was exactly their height. Which didn't make any sense because they hadn't heard anything about humans being that tall before.
"Who the frak are you?" asked Starscream.
"An interested party," the man said.
"You don't look like a party…" Skywarp noted.
"Wrong kind of party dummy." Starscream said.
"Oh, well, what do you want?" Skywarp asked.
The man gave a cruel smile. "I believe you have some animosity towards the girl who injured your friend. Thalia Grace?"
Skywarp scowled. "Yeah. Her."
"I believe we have a common goal then," the man said.
"What did she do to you?" Starscream asked.
"It's not so much what she did as much as what her father did…" the man explained.
Starscream gave a knowing nod. "Ah. I see..." he says.
"So you'll help us get revenge on those Autobots?" Skywarp asked.
"Yes," the man confirmed. "I have some people in my employee who can help with that…"
Skywarp and Starscream each gave a sadistic smirk. "Okay then…let's talk terms." Starscream said.
The Search for the Allspark may be over, but the story isn't over quiet yet!
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