CHAPTER TWO
Cyclonus groaned as his mind emerged from darkness. His optical sensors took a longer time than usual to focus. His entire body felt felt numb to the very nerve circuit.
Where he was, he couldn't tell. He was being held in a small dark room, restrained to some sort of overhanging contraption. A single light shone over him, although it illuminated very little.
As he shook his head to rouse himself further, his vision cleared enough for him to see the figure standing before him. The robot had a lithe, slender frame, with a black and yellow color scheme and kibble indicating a motorcycle alt mode. Her yellow optics narrowed upon noticing the now-conscious Cyclonus and she lifted a hand to her comm.
"Hey, Scourge. He's awake now."
"Finally," came a familiar voice. "I'll send Jhiaxus at once."
"Oh, take your time," Sideways said, a devious grin emerging on her face. "I don't mind keeping him company."
Ending the call, she then strode up to the restrained Cyclonus, her expression halfway between a sneer and a grin.
"Welcome home, bunny ears. We've all missed you."
"Where am I?" Cyclonus growled.
Sideways ignored him. "You know, things just haven't been the same without you. We miss the surliness, the evil glaring, the Galvatron-butt-kissing...." She then snapped her fingers. "Oh! But wait! Galvatron is dead! Such a tragic loss. How are you coping with that?"
Cyclonus said nothing. Responding in any way would simply encourage her to keep at it. Not that it would stop her of course.
"Ah, don't worry," Sideways went on. "He'll always live on in your spark. Anyway, you're probably thinking to yourself: 'Sideways, why are you female all of a sudden? Last I saw you, you were male.' Well, last you saw me, I was also dead. So hooray for reincarnation! I never know what I'll be reborn as. Personally, I'm hoping for an assault tank next time. I've already been a motorcycle twice already..."
Cyclonus maintained his vow of silence. Sideways' expression fell slightly, realizing she wasn't getting her intended reaction.
"Boy, you're a tough nut to crack," she murmured. "You know, I've always wondered what it was Scourge saw in you. He was the only one of us to vouch for your retrieval. The rest of us could have easily done without you."
Remiss as he was to do so, Cyclonus couldn't help but lift an optic ridge at that. Sideways immediately noticed this and grinned wickedly.
"Yes, very curious, isn't it? To be honest, I've always wondered if there was more to your relationship beyond just mere camaraderie--"
"I do hope you're doing nothing to enrage our guest, Sideways."
Sideways turned around to see a hunched-over orange mech enter the room, walking towards her and Cyclonus. "Of course not, Jhiaxus," she said with faux innocence. "We were just having a friendly chat."
Jhiaxus simply grunted as he walked up to Cyclonus, moving behind the restrained ex-Herald. Cyclonus couldn't see what the scientist was doing, but before he knew, he was suddenly freed from the harness and was on his feet again. Without thinking, he seized Sideways by the throat and hurled her across the room, sending her crashing into the door.
Surprised by this unexpected increase in strength, Cyclonus looked down at himself and saw that his frame was significantly larger than he remembered it being.
"What... have you done to me?"
"We have modified your body to meet the requirements for our plan," Jhiaxus replied, matter-of-fact as always.
"Your plan?" Cyclonus asked. "What are you talking about?"
"Save your questions for Scourge," Jhiaxus said, pushing him towards the door, where Sideways had already recovered. "He'll fill you in on everything you need to know."
Cyclonus scowled. "Look, I've already told him: I don't want any part in this--"
"It's too late. Scourge has already made the decision for you. There is no turning back now."
Sideways flashed a sly grin at Cyclonus as the three of them exited the room, clearly not minding the newly made dent in her head. "Seems clear to me who wears the lower plates in this relationship."
"I am going to kill you," Cyclonus growled.
"Good. Maybe then I can get that tank body I've always wanted."
--Outpost One--
"Wow," Rodimus said, staring at all of the data displayed on the large screen before him. "Tarantulas is really bad at hiding his files."
"I wouldn't underestimate him too much," Prowl muttered, standing next to him along with Springer and Minimus Ambus. "I think I was just lucky in breaching his firewalls, since I had known him for so long."
"So what are we looking at here?" Minimus asked, gesturing at the screen.
"It's a complete record of all the experiments Tarantulas had undertaken here," Prowl explained. "Everything from Chimeracon technology to his work in the Noisemaze. It also has all of his communications to the other 'Outposts,' which there are at least three others of."
"We've already been to Outpost Two," Springer said. "I don't believe we left much worth returning to."
"And I believe Quickshadow and Brainstorm have been to Outpost Four," Minimus said. "That base appears to be the central station, seeing as it's since moved to New Kaon."
"That just leaves Outpost Three," Rodimus said. "Do we have anything on that?"
Prowl rubbed his chin. "I did send an operative of mine to investigate the Secret Order's activities there, but I have yet to hear back. Seeing how Quickshadow and... Ricochet are already accounted for, I'm beginning to worry that something's befallen him."
"Is there any indication on its location?"
Prowl studied the scrawl of text on screen. "It appears to be on a planet designated Sol Four."
"That doesn't ring any bells," Minimus murmured. "Is there a Sol system?"
Prowl brought up a navigation chart and input a search for the system. When the results came up, his optics widened.
"No," he murmured.
"What is it?" Rodimus asked.
"Sol Four... it's in the same system as Earth." Prowl turned around to face the others, who all bore shocked expressions. "They're on Mars."
--Lost Light--
"Tailgate? Glyph? Are you in there?"
No response came from the door to Glyph's hab suite. Swerve rang the bell again, knocked a few times, called out their names... still nothing.
Standing behind him, Crosscut sighed. "Look, either they're not here or they don't want to be bothered. Can we just--"
"Maybe they're at his hab suite," Swerve said, already hurrying back down the corridor. "It's not far from here."
Rolling his optics, Crosscut trod after the Minibot, not even bothering to keep up. As he turned the corner Swerve had gone down, he saw Ammo walking in the opposite direction, lugging a box of tools.
"Oh, hey, Crosscut," the blue monoformer said. "What's gotten Swerve in a frenzy?"
"He's trying to find Tailgate," Crosscut muttered.
"Tailgate? Oh, he and Glyph are at my suite."
Crosscut blinked, looking at Ammo in bemusement. "Your suite? Why?"
"They were looking to watch some Earth flicks. I had some lying around that Bluestreak had lent me, so... yeah. You can find them there. It's just a few doors past Rung's office."
Before Crosscut could say anything, Swerve drove past the both of them, speeding towards the turbolift. Exhaling loudly, Crosscut morphed to his alt mode and went after the Minibot.
* * *
"Easy does it...."
Rung bit his lip as he carefully adjusted the precariously tiny fin on the model ship. Sitting across from him, Ariel was also deep in concentration, coming close to finishing her own model. Skids sat in between them both, holding a stopwatch.
The minutes ticked by like hours. Once he was finally pleased with the fin's placement, he reached for the final piece--
"Yes!"
Startled, Rung looked up to see Ariel standing in triumph, proudly presenting the finished model of the Ark I. Skids stopped the watch and whistled at the final time.
"11.3 minutes. That's a new record."
Rung smiled as he set down his unfinished Longbow model. "Well done. And here I thought I knew these models like the back of my hand."
"How many times have you reassembled them?" Skids asked.
"Far too many times to count."
"You know, Que's been working on a subspace hatch to install in the medbay. Once he's done, you can put in a request for new models to be sent in."
Rung shook his head. "Thank you, Skids, but I only collect ships that I've served on."
"Really?" Skids glanced at the Ark I model Ariel was holding. "You served on the Ark?"
"I was recalled at the last minute. The High Council needed my services for--"
He was cut off by a loud screech coming from outside. Skids immediately got to his feet and walked over to the door. As soon as he opened it, there was a loud scream and Swerve went running past. Moments later, Crosscut emerged from around the corner and met Skids' eyes.
"I take it there's a reasonable explanation for this," Skids said.
Crosscut shook his head. "Not really, no."
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