CHAPTER EIGHT
--The Lost Light--
"I don't know about this, Brainstorm."
"Why?" the scientist asked as he adjusted the last plate of armor. "Don't you trust me?"
"No, I don't," Minimus said dryly. "But mainly it's because... how long did it take you to put this together?"
"Depends. I've been working on this off and on ever since launch. Then the time travel stuff happened and... yeah."
"So all this time you were making...?"
"I was bored, okay? Arcana was whispering to me and I was trying make myself busy so I could ignore him... but we all know how that turned out." Stepping aside, Brainstorm hit the panel that opened the shuttle bay doors. "But, hey, it all worked out, didn't it? You were missing your old armor and I just so happened to have this in the works."
Minimus sighed. "I suppose you're right. Let's just hope it does as well as the old armor."
"Oh, it'll do ten times that." Brainstorm shot off a salute as the newly-armored Ambus marched towards the exit. "Good luck, Maximus Ambus."
"I am not using that name."
No more than a minute later, Ultra Magnus was off the ship and descending towards the battle below.
--Outpost One--
"Where is it?! Tell me the location of Doradus!"
"Mate, get... off me!" Chromedome kicked hard with his legs, sending the frog-like Decepticon off of him. Getting back to his feet, he expected the Amphiboid to jump him again, only to see the Monstercon staring up at the sky, optics wide.
"The spirits..." he murmured. "They have come to punish us."
Following his gaze, Chromedome looked up to see a massive shape descending towards the ground. It only took him a second to properly discern it, and by then he was already driving clear away.
Ultra Magnus shook the moon as his feet touched down, bringing all of the fighting to a halt. Amongst all of the petrified Decepticons, one turned to face the new combatant; one that matched Magnus' upgraded size and met his gaze with a defiant sneer.
"New prey," Ragnarok growled. "Splendid."
The Decepticon giant then started to charge towards his opponent. Stoic and silent as he always was in a fight, Ultra Magnus merely raised his fists and greeted Ragnarok with a punch to the face. Rather then falter, the Decepticon simply pressed on his assault and tackled Magnus to the ground, shaking the surface beneath them.
* * *
"Self-destruction in five minutes."
"The portal is this way!" Convoy shouted as he led Prowl and the Wreckers through the twisted corridors of the facility.
"Hubcap and Toxitron are still missing!" Ironfist called back, driving just behind Convoy.
"There's no time, kid!" Impactor shouted. "Hopefully they already got out."
"If only the same could be said for you."
Coming up behind the Wreckers, moving faster than was natural for a spider, was Tarantulas, shooting balls of corrosive webbing at them. In response, Guzzle promptly rotated his turret and shot the spider in the face. This did very little to deter the arachnid.
"You shall not escape me this easily, Prowl!" Morphing to robot mode, Tarantulas shot a web at the ceiling and used it to swing over the Autobots. Just as he let go, Impactor transformed and lunged at him. The two collided and went tumbling to the ground.
"Go!" Impactor cried to the others. "I'll hold him off!"
"You Wreckers and your self-sacrificial notions," Tarantulas growled as he pushed Impactor off of him, holding him in his claws. "If you all want to die, why don't you just let me do my fragging job?!"
With all his strength, Impactor managed to wrench his right arm free of Tarantulas' grip and aimed the harpoon end at the arachnid's face. Tarantulas screamed as the weapon went straight into his optic, causing him to release his hold on the Wrecker. Disconnecting himself from the harpoon, Impactor reverted to his vehicle mode and drove to rejoin the others.
Just as the intercom counted off the station's final minutes, the Noisemaze portal finally came into view, its arch already glowing with the promise of freedom. Prowl could still hear Tarantulas close on their tail, cursing his name.
"You guys can go through first," Convoy said. "I'll stall him if necessary."
"Not you too," Kup muttered. "Just shut up and keep driving, kid!"
But Convoy was not listening. He let off on his speed, allowing the others to drive past him. One by one they went through the portal: Prowl, Ironfist, Kup, Springer, Rotorstorm, Impactor, Guzzle, Roadbuster....
Wasn't there one other?
Convoy felt something nudge against him. "Go," Pyro said, converting to robot mode. "I'll handle him."
"Are you crazy?" Convoy exclaimed. "What do you think you're--"
"I was made for this! This is my destiny! Now go!"
Tarantulas was closing in now. The facility was about to blow up at any moment. It was fight or flee at this point.
Convoy wasn't sure what had pushed him through the portal. Maybe it had been Pyro, or maybe he had gone through it himself. All he knew was that he was back with Prowl and the others, and that the portal had closed behind him, cutting them off from their comrade and former captor.
All was silent for a long time. Convoy let out a heavy sigh as he emerged from his alt mode, looking forlornly at the now empty archway.
"So... now what?" he heard Ironfist ask.
"We find a way out of this hellhole," Springer muttered. "Let's hope they've got some spare ships laying around."
"Anyone else hear fighting?" Rotorstorm asked, looking towards the ceiling. "I'm pretty sure I hear fighting."
His comment was punctuated with the station suddenly shaking. Springer's face twisted into a grimace.
"Yes, I do believe there's a lot of that going on out there."
"Um, guys?" Guzzle said. "Impactor's gone."
The others turned around to see that the former leader of the Wreckers had indeed gone missing. Springer's expression became even more grave, but rather than comment on his predecessor's absence, he instead strode towards the door out of the room.
"Let's just find a way out of here," he said as he converted into his alt mode. By the time the others had transformed as well, he was already driving down the hall.
* * *
Counterpunch realized he was not alone.
It wasn't until after the shuttle he had stolen had exited the hangar bay and was several parsecs away from the moon did he come to this conclusion. At first he thought it had been his mind playing tricks on him again, but after he had a moment to think about it, he realized that the sickly green clone of Optimus Prime sitting next to him was indeed real.
For a long time, neither of them spoke. He wondered if the clone was ever going to wrestle control from him. However, not once did Toxitron even so much as glance at him. Counterpunch wondered if the clone even knew he existed.
Eventually, the silence was broken by neither he nor Toxitron but by the purple and yellow mech standing behind both of them.
"Set a course for Abraxas," Impactor said, resting a hand on Counterpunch's shoulder. "It's just off Leonicus' Belt. Shouldn't take too long."
Rather than question everything he knew, Counterpunch simply acknowledged with an "Aye" before making the jump to lightspeed.
No comments:
Post a Comment