CHAPTER THREE
--Earth--
"So what do we do now, sir?"
It took Nitro Zeus a few seconds to realize he was being spoken to. Breaking his gaze from the rising sun, he looked down at the purple Decepticon who called himself Skip. The smaller mech immediately shrunk under his gaze, tapping his fingers as he looked away.
"Did you...." Nitro's optical sensor clicked as it blinked. "Did you just call me 'sir?'"
"Of course!" The response came from Jack-Knife, who stood nearby with a scanner in-hand. "You told us how you attained the rank of general after cyber-forming Shimazu Nine into New Tesarus."
"Did I?" Nitro rubbed his helm, searching his memory banks for when he had told that story. By the looks of it, it had been one of the first tales he had regaled them with. Now that was attention to detail.
"Oh. Right." He quickly recomposed himself, standing tall and proud. "General Nitro Zeus. Of Helex. That's me. The one and only."
Jack-Knife beamed at him. "So what now, general? How do you suggest we proceed in locating the heir of Merlin?"
Nitro had no idea what those words meant. He hadn't even realized he had been roped into this until Deathsaurus had started barking orders at the lot of them. He didn't even know what a Merlin was, let alone what an heir of it would even be or look like.
Still, he had a reputation to maintain. No way was he going to lose it to some nonsensical words.
"Well," he started, trying to sound like he knew what he was saying. "Let's look at what we know about the heir of Murlan."
Skip nodded. "Right. Well, we know Merlin was a human."
Nitro had not known that. He didn't even know Merlin was a person. "Okay. So naturally his heir must be human as well."
"Except there's a lot of humans on this planet," Jack-Knife said, frowning at his scanner. "Just in that village down below, I detect at least fifty of them. It would take forever to find Merlin's heir and I don't think the Fallen has that kind of patience."
"Well, what else do we know? He's a human and--"
"If only you guys knew how much time you were wasting."
Nitro let out a yell as he spun around and deployed his arm gun. Sitting on a rock behind them was a human female with long silvery hair, a wicked gleam in her blue eyes. Upon seeing her, Skip and Jack-Knife immediately recoiled in disgust.
"Ew! They're even worse up close!" Jack-Knife said. "Please tell me someone packed pesticide...."
"Who are you?" Nitro growled at the fleshling, keeping his gun trained on the disgusting creature. "What do you want from us?"
"Funny. I was going to ask the same of you." She cocked her head to the side; a bit too far to the side for Nitro's liking. Did humans even bend that way? "But, since you asked first, I will answer first. My name is Gemma. And as for what I want... call it morbid curiosity, but I was just wondering what a trio of giant robots were doing on a planet like Earth."
"That is none of your business," Nitro snarled. "Now run along -- I might let you have a head start before I turn you to ash."
"Wait, sir!" Skip hissed, grabbing Nitro's arm. "What if she's Merlin's heir?"
"Merlin?" Gemma's eyebrows shot up. "You know who Merlin is?"
"Shut up! I said it's none of your business!" Nitro snapped. He then looked at Skip. "You think so? Wouldn't that be too... I dunno, convenient?"
"She clearly knows who Merlin is," Jack-Knife murmured. "It wouldn't hurt to check."
Nitro considered the other 'Con had a point. After all, he wanted to get this tiresome search over with as quickly as possible.
Returning his gaze to a bemused Gemma, Nitro said, "You know who Merlin is?"
"Yes," she replied carefully, her eyebrows kneaded in confusion. "How do you know of him?"
Nitro hesitated only for a moment to give her the full story. He figured it was the best way to get answers -- and if she wasn't Melvin's heir, then he could obliterate her without a second thought.
"We have his staff," he said to her, still holding his weapon arm up. "Except it's not actually his but our boss'. And the only way our boss can use it is if the heir of Melren can activate it for him."
He then watched Gemma closely as he waited for her response. He actually wasn't that good at reading expressions, but he figured if he stared at her intently enough it would scare her into telling the truth.
After a moment, the human asked, "Who is this boss of yours?"
"He calls himself the Fallen. I think his real name is, like, forbidden or something."
"Oh." Gemma cracked a huge grin at that, which unsettled Nitro even more than he already was. "I know all about that."
She rose from where she sat on the rock. Nitro quickly readjusted his arm as she took a step forward.
"Anyway, I believe I can be of service to you?"
"Are you Merlin's heir?" Jack-Knife asked.
"No," Gemma said, and Nitro was just about to fire his gun when she quickly added, "But I might know an... alternative means to activating the staff."
"An alternative?" Nitro said. "You mean this whole time we didn't need Marvin's heir?"
"Well, I can't guarantee that. But it wouldn't hurt to try, yes?"
Nitro considered this before finally lowering his gun. "All right," he grunted, crossing his arms. "I'm listening."
* * *
Dreadwind loathed his life.
That in of itself was hardly a new or even recent development. But today so far had only served to strengthen his feelings in regards to that subject.
For the past few months, things had been going fine for him (relatively speaking). After Magnificus' operations were busted by the Wreckers, Dreadwind had tailed out as fast as he could. After tracing his brother Darkwing's signature, he ended up joining the crew of the Decepticon warlord Deathsaurus.
He had been hesitant at first, knowing that the D.J.D. were also on board, but Darkwing had assured him that everyone on the Warworld had been pardoned in exchanged for their services. As long as he kept a low profile, Dreadwind had nothing to worry about.
Until today, that promise had held true. But now, he had come to the conclusion that joining Deathsaurus was the second-worst decision he had ever made (the first having been built in the first place).
In all fairness, he owed it all to one bot. If he had never met them, he wouldn't be wallowing in self-pity, or at least not more than usual. As it stood, he was convinced that they were deliberately doing everything under their power to make him stand here and wait for so doggone long.
"What," he said for the fourth time in as many hours, "the hell are you doing?"
Dauros continued to say nothing as he dragged his knife along the cave wall. What he was making, Dreadwind couldn't tell; from where he was standing, it looked like a bunch of random, indecipherable scribbles.
He glanced at Darkwing, who stood next to him with a remarkably patient, if somewhat bemused expression. If Dreadwind knew his brother, he was probably just as irritated as he was. Darkwing just had a better way of hiding it.
Dreadwind, on the other hand, had had enough.
"I'm gonna kill him," he said, drawing his gun.
"Don't," Darkwing said. "Deathsaurus won't like that."
"Screw Deathsaurus. I've had enough of this loser."
"Come on, bro. Just grin and bear it. We're trying to be productive--"
"If it bothers you that much, then we can make it look like an accident. Maybe if I--"
Suddenly, Dauros whirled on him, red eyes flaring from his maroon face. Dreadwind seized up, caught in the other Decepticon's gaze.
"You're right," Dauros said, raising his knife above his head. "Let's make it look like an accident."
Dauros then lunged forward to end the life Dreadwind so desperately loathed.
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