CHAPTER TWO
--Luna 1--
"And the man in the back said 'everyone attack' and it turned into a ballroom--"
"Mate, shut up!" Skids shoved the rambling Junkion out of the way as a beam of energy lanced over his head. Setting his sights on the tank drone, he deployed his shoulder cannons and fired at it. The tank was instantly consumed in a fiery explosion.
"Cheap knockoffs," Skids remarked to himself. "If they hadn't made so many, this would have been over ages ago."
Quickly moving on from the destroyed drone, Skids scanned the battlefield for more trouble. Whirl, as always, was having no difficulty in that regard as he was presently gunning down countless jet drones. Getaway was playing chicken with some cycle drones, Impactor and his Wreckers were having their fun with some artillery units....
And no sign of Rampage. Which was never a good sign.
With a roll of his optics, Skids transformed and drove off in search of him.
* * *
"This is some welcoming."
"I'll admit, I expected the Junkions to be better than this," Optimus Prime commented as he cut down a drone with his axe. "I never had them pegged as people who'd set up traps."
"Trust me, this isn't their doing," Megatron said, destroying two more drones with his arm cannon. "They've been set up, just like we've been. Someone else is behind this."
"Boltax?"
"It's possible. Skids did say he had made drones like these in that alternate timeline he told us about."
Optimus straightened up and searched around for a particular silver and blue bot. "Have you seen Depth Charge lately?"
"No. But right now, I'm more concerned about that."
Megatron pointed towards the horizon. Optimus followed his gaze and spotted a group of green tanks and white jets advancing towards their position. Their design was familiar but nothing like the other drones they had been facing.
Optimus narrowed his optics. "Are those...?"
"Overcharge troopers," Megatron muttered. "The plot thickens."
"As if it hadn't already been thick enough," Optimus remarked. "You take the jets, I'll handle the tanks."
Megatron smirked. "Sounds like a plan, brother."
* * *
"110! 111! 112!"
Whirl cackled as he shot down yet another jet drone. No matter how many times he saw it, it was still just as funny as before. Maybe it was the fact that they were drones and not living bots that made it easier for him to condone killing so many at once in as many different ways as he pleased.
Cyclonus wasn't doing half-bad as well, much as Whirl was loathe to admit it. The ex-Herald had left a trail of deactivated drones in his wake and was still at it. After taking out one last drone, Whirl rushed over to join the purple jet.
"Hey, Cyclonus!" he called out. "What's your count?"
"I haven't been keeping track," Cyclonus morosely replied. He shot towards the ground, firing upon a tank drone before transforming and finishing it off. Whirl followed suit and joined him on the battlefield.
"Say, I've been wondering." Whirl stepped up to Cyclonus, idly shooting down an attacking cycle drone. "Do you think, maybe, if... like, let's say things get really bad for us here. Like we get so overwhelmed that we don't have any chance of winning."
Cyclonus glanced at him but said nothing, silently inviting him to continue.
"Would you then be able to, like, awaken your inner Galvatron?" Whirl finally asked. "Like, as a last ditch effort, to save us all, you merge with some random bots and go on a combiner rampage."
Cyclonus was quiet at first, as if considering the question. Then, in a low voice, he said, "Let's say I could. Why, then, have I not done so already?"
Whirl shrugged. "I dunno. To savor the surprise?"
"I'm generally not one for surprises."
"Then how about this one?"
The question had not come from Whirl, but from behind the pair. However, before either could turn to face the new arrival, they were both hit by stun bolts. Rendered immobile, Whirl and Cyclonus could do nothing as numerous drones began to close in on them....
* * *
"Is Chromedome still out there?"
"I don't know. Now pipe down." Brainstorm pushed Rewind aside only for the archivist to push back.
"We can't just sit here and wait, Brainstorm! Not when everyone's getting overcome by these drones!"
"I hate to break it to you, Rewind, but none of us here are really fighters. You, me, Rung, Tailgate, Swerve--"
"I'm a fighter!" Swerve protested. "I can use a gun! You even made me one!"
"...So I don't see how much help any of us could be."
Rewind huffed but did not argue the point further. He turned to rejoin Rung and the minibots, only to stop when he saw a sixth of their number doing something particularly odd.
"Ariel? What are you doing?"
"Digging," the silver bot replied, scraping away metal and dirt with her bare servos. "I felt the ground rumble."
"Oh spark!" Swerve hugged his knees. "Don't tell me there are Driller worms here!"
"I felt something too," Rung murmured. "Ariel, I think you should--"
Suddenly, the ground exploded from beneath them as a massive drill erupted. The Autobots all scrambled back as the machine crawled out, carrying with it a black and red bot with an Autobot sigil printed on his chest. The small bot looked around before setting his sights on Rung, to whom he pointed.
"You. Come with me if you want to live."
* * *
Skids' search for Rampage had not yet yielded any results. Instead, he had come across something far worse.
"Chromedome!"
Spark extractor in hand, the cycle drone turned away from Chromedome's deactivated body as Skids came charging with guns ablaze. The drone was instantly shredded to scrap and Skids dived to catch the extractor, which already held Chromedome's spark.
"Scrap." Skids scrambled over to his friend's prone form, prying open its chestplate. "Scrap scrap scrap."
"Language, my friend."
Skids scowled but did not look up. "I swear to Primus, the last thing I need right now is--"
"An extra hand?"
Still scowling, Skids lifted his head... and immediately grinned.
"Oh, you do not know how happy I am to see you guys right now."
"Step aside, pal," Dion said, lowering his palm to let down two very familiar robots. "I'd say these two are experts on replacing sparks."
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