CHAPTER THREE
The stream of data reflected in his visor, Highbrow closely scrutinized the heavily-encrypted info Rewind had recovered from Polyhex. Standing on either side of him were Ultra Magnus and, much to his discomfort, Shockwave, both observing the data with him.
"Straxus clearly treasured this particular piece of data more than anything," Highbrow mused aloud. "It would take forever to decipher hit."
"Straxus is still among your forces, is he not?" Ultra Magnus asked Shockwave.
The mono-eyed Decepticon shook his head. "Lord Megatron dispatched him and other warlords to worlds far away from New Kaon to stall any attempts to overthrow him. No one knows his current location but Megatron himself."
Ultra Magnus raised an eyebrow. "I would think someone as highly ranked as you would have the privilege to know such information."
"Our command hierarchy is not exactly similar to yours, Autobot."
Highbrow cleared his throat, hoping to diffuse the tension. "So, er, how do you propose we figure this out?"
"I believe we can save this until another day," Shockwave said dismissively. "I highly doubt it is relevant to our conflict with the Fallen."
"I... agree," Ultra Magnus muttered. "We should attend to that piece of info later and continue our search for the Fallen."
Highbrow frowned. "But what if Straxus does know something about the Fallen? This could be vital data."
"Straxus never believed in such myths," Shockwave said. "Part of why he did not accompany Nova Prime on the original Ark despite having been part of his inner circle; he did not believe in what Nova ventured for."
Highbrow looked doubtfully at the one-eyed Decepticon but merely shrugged in consent. Once the two leaders had left his side however, he opened a private comm channel to one of his agents, whom he thought would be ideal in handling a case like this.
"Nightbeat, I have a job for you...."
* * *
Hardhead grunted as his Decepticon opponent slammed her fist into his abdomen. Staggering back, he tried to regather his thoughts quickly before the 'Con could attack again. As the massive tank of a Cybertronian threw another punch, Hardhead dodged it by jumping to the side.
Watching the fight from nearby, a spindly, maroon-colored Decepticon cackled. "So much for being the 'toughest Autobot ever.' How 'bout bein' the lamest Autobot ever?"
Hardhead scowled. "No one asked you, Roadkill."
"And no one asked you to pick a fight with me," growled his opponent Blockade, the smokestacks on her shoulders blowing out steam. "And yet you consider us to be the oppressors."
"I wasn't trying to pick fights, just wanted a challenge is all. A little fighting practice never hurt anyone."
"Except the loser." Blockade charged and rammed into Hardhead, sending the latter flying off his feet and landing hard on the ground. As he scrambled to get up, the larger Cybertronian pummeled him with her mighty fists, preventing him from rising.
"Okay," he shouted in between punches. "I concede. You win. Just stop pounding me!"
"What's the matter?" Blockade said tauntingly. "Whatever happened to Mr. Toughest Autobot Ever?"
"He was waiting for an opportunity."
Before Blockade could react, a cannon folded out of Hardhead's right shoulder and fired a missile into her face. The silver and black 'Con reared back as she recoiled from the attack. At the same time, Roadkill jumped in between the two combatants and unfurled his saw-flail.
"Wanna play dirty, eh?" he cackled. "Fine by me!"
"That's enough fighting for one day."
The three combatants turned to see a blue and yellow mech standing there, hands planted firmly on his hips.
Smirking, Hardhead said, "Hey there, Nightbeat. What's up?"
Frowning, Nightbeat said, "Picking fights, I see."
"Challenges," Roadkill said with a maniacal grin. "And if you don't mind, we would like to finish this one here."
"Not today," Nightbeat said coolly. "If you don't mind, Hardhead, I'd like to speak with you."
The large green Autobot shrugged. "Okay."
The two Autobots moved away from Blockade and Roadkill, and once the troublesome duo were out of hearing range, Hardhead said quietly to Nightbeat, "So, what's up?"
"Highbrow wants to find out Straxus' current whereabouts," Nightbeat replied. "Apparently he's not on Cybertron with Shockwave's forces, nor on Lucifer, but somewhere else in the galaxy."
"Not even Shockwave knows where he is?"
The detective 'bot shook his head. "Only Megatron does, and he sent Straxus away shortly after the war broke out. Who knows what he's been up to since then."
Hardhead slowly nodded. "So you need me to help find him?"
"You and others. There's a good chance Straxus is cooking up something to take out Megatron and I cannot begin to fathom handling this on my own."
Hardhead cracked a grin. "Then you can count me in. Who else is coming along?"
Nightbeat returned the smile. "That's kind of why I need you; to be a recruiter."
* * *
"Are the charges ready?"
The Pyrobot he had hired nervously nodded his head. "Y-yes, sir. They're all primed for detonation."
"Excellent," Bludgeon hissed, rising from the cross-legged meditative position he had been in. "I am grateful for your services, though I have no way to repay you...."
"Th-there's no need," the Pyrobot said. "Really. I just want to go home...."
"'Home?'" Bludgeon spoke the word with spite. "This isn't our home anymore. Why else would we have ravaged and torn it apart so much?"
Before the Pyrobot could respond, Bludgeon unsheathed a blade and plunged it through the mech's chest and into his spark.
"We don't belong here anymore," Bludgeon murmured into his audio receptor. "Cybertron doesn't want us."
As the Pyrobot's lifeless corpse slid off his blade, Bludgeon brought out the detonator connected to the bombs placed around Nova Point, one of the few remaining structures still standing in the once-beautiful city of Iacon.
"Let it burn."
No comments:
Post a Comment