CHAPTER FOUR
"Boy, are we on a roll today."
Fistfight excitedly rolled through the Autobot Mausoleum, eager to find another subject for Ore-14. He had just sent the revived Impactor on his way back to Cybertron; they had recovered the veteran Wrecker's remains following Luna 1's destruction and, like Strongarm, he had proven quite a challenge to resurrect.
As he wheeled his way to the control room, Fistfight stopped for a moment to peer into the room containing the Junkions they had also recovered from Luna 1's debris. They had long since rebuilt themselves but Shockwave had requested they be kept confined for future study. After all, if Junkions could self-repair themselves after having been blown to smithereens, why couldn't regular Cybertronians? What was their secret?
Cataloging the question for another time, Fistfight continued his way to the control room. Upon entering, the first thing he did was check on the deactivated form of Depth Charge, which repair drones were working to put back together. As he watched them work, Fistfight's sensors detected movement behind him and he rotated his head around to see a spindly figure standing behind him, clad in a cape decorated with a moving field of stars.
Fistfight did a double-take as he turned around fully to face the newcomer. He then relaxed as he recognized the bot's featureless, visor-covered face.
"Oh, hey, Viral!" Fistfight waved a clawed hand at him. "Long time no see! I, uh, didn't even realize you were still around. Like, I thought you'd at least be in jail or something."
Viral was unreadable as ever as he stared back at Fistfight, inclining his head towards Depth Charge's remains. "You seem to have quite the operation going on here," he said coolly.
"Uh, yeah," Fistfight replied. "It's going great. Been bringing a lot of bots back to life."
"So I've noticed." Viral took a step closer to Fistfight, forcing the smaller bot to back up. "Do you happen to know what I do these days?"
"N-no?"
"I catalog the living and the dead. Like the Necrobot before me, I keep track of every last Transformer and record each and every last death." Viral glowered at Fistfight. "Needless to say, you've been making my work very difficult."
"This... this wasn't my idea!" Fistfight protested. "This is all Shockwave's doing! I'm just... I'm just following orders!"
Viral tilted his head. "Shockwave, you say? Now that's a name I've not heard in a long time. What has he been up to lately?"
Fistfight tapped his claws together. "Well, he's currently a sitting member of the new High Council...."
"And he can still find time to bring people back from the dead?"
Fistfight stammered for a moment before saying, "What's the meaning of all this? Why are you here?"
"To stop a certain someone from playing god," Viral snarled. "I'm aware of his Regenesis scheme. I know what these ores are capable of. Their powers are beyond even the strongest Cybertronian's control. This...." He gestured around at the Mausoleum. "This is not a game anyone here should be playing."
"Well, what are you gonna do about it?" Fistfight said snidely. "Wave your cape around viciously?"
Before Viral could respond, a groan sounded behind them. Both robots turned around to see Depth Charge stirring on his berth, slowly reconnecting his arms and legs.
"That's... unexpected," Fistfight murmured. "I hadn't even applied the ore yet."
"I just recorded his death," Viral said. "He died the same time as Protoform X."
"Protoform X?" Fistfight felt his oil turn cold as Depth Charge rose up, his body having reformatted itself into a more bestial appearance. A green spark pulsed beneath his chest plates as they resealed themselves. Carefully stepping down, Depth Charge straightened himself before regarding the two bots in front of him with narrowed red optics.
"Where am--" Before he could finish, Viral reached out and pressed two fingers to Depth Charge's neck. The reborn Autobot convulsed before collapsing onto the floor. Viral then whirled to Fistfight and grabbed the drone by the head.
"Take me to Shockwave. Now."
* * *
"Roadbuster, stop!" Scoop desperately climbed out of the shattered window and ran onto the Iaconian street where Roadbuster and Impactor had taken their fight. "He's one of us!"
Roadbuster paid no heed to Scoop's pleas as he continued to pummel Impactor into the metal ground. Impactor made little effort to fight back; whether because he was still weak from being resurrected or because he did not wish to harm his comrade, Scoop was not sure. Either way, he wasn't having it.
With Whirl and several other patrons close behind him, Scoop ran over to the brawling Wreckers and tackled Roadbuster from behind.
"Stop this, 'buster!" Scoop cried as the larger bot continued to thrash around. "Have you lost a rivet or something?"
"Shut up!" Roadbuster barked. "I must appease my master!"
Master? Thrown off by this statement, Scoop wasn't prepared when Roadbuster grabbed him and hurled him away, sending him crashing into Whirl. This gave Impactor the opening he needed and he fired a harpoon into Roadbuster's shoulder.
"Snap out of it, soldier!" Impactor shouted. "You got over this once before, you can do it again!"
Roadbuster chuckled as he grabbed the harpoon wire and used it to pull Impactor closer to him, seizing his former leader by the help. "You reap what you sow, old friend," he growled.
Impactor blinked, caught off-guard by how eloquently the Wrecker was speaking. "What are you...?"
"Funny how everything comes back around, isn't it? You throw me into the Noisemaze, Prowl owes you a favor, I come back and manipulate Roadbuster, Prowl releases Roadbuster early to fulfill his end of the deal...."
Impactor's optics dimmed with dread. "Mesothulas...."
"It's Tarantulas, now," the voice said through Roadbuster's voicebox. "And I hope you kept the receipt."
With that, Roadbuster's head burst in an explosion of energon and metal. Impactor cried out as he was dropped to the ground, watching in horror as a giant, eight-legged creature crawled out of the rest of his comrade's now-headless body. Scoop and the others all deployed their weapons, but before anyone could fire, Tarantulas shrunk himself down again and squeezed himself through the cracks in the ground, vanishing from view.
As Impactor uneasily rose to his feet, Scoop rushed over to Roadbuster's remains, looking up expectantly at his former leader.
"What are we waiting for? Let's take him to the Mausoleum so he can be brought back like we were."
Impactor frowned. "It's not that simple, Scoop."
"Why not?" Scoop snapped, scowling. "Who are you to decide who gets a second chance at life?"
"Not everyone deserves a second chance--"
"But you do?!" Scoop was back on his feet, storming up to Impactor. "After everything you've done? Like slaughtering Squadron X?"
Impactor's face twitched in annoyance. "You weren't there for that."
"No, but I know what happened -- what really happened, not the cover-up High Command pulled out of their afts." Scoop jabbed a finger in Impactor's chest. "I don't know who decided it was a good idea to give you a second chance... but I'll be damned if I let you decide who can and can't be give one."
With that, he turned on his heel and walked back to Roadbuster's body.
"Whirl... or anyone, really... help me carry him."
After a moment's hesitation, Whirl walked over to help Scoop, sparing a single glance at Impactor. The former Wrecker leader simply watched as his ex-comrades loaded their fallen friend's corpse onto a volunteering hauler-bot before driving away.
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