CHAPTER NINE
--The Axalon--
"Oh, mama, I'm in fear for my life from the long arm of the--"
"Not now, Wreck-Gar," Elita-One snapped as she shouldered her way through the very crowded bridge of the Axalon. Coming to stand next to Primal Major, she said to the Maximal leader, "Any sign of them?"
"Scanners aren't picking up anything," Primal replied. "Still, I advise we lay low for another few hours in case they're just hanging around."
"And communications are still down?"
"Actually, we appear to have received an alert from private channels," said Rhinox. "Protocol 113 is in effect. Contact with Sector Seven is to be avoided."
"I think we already figured out that part for ourselves," Sideswipe remarked.
"Well, that's just great!" Rattrap threw his arms up. "So what are we s'posed to do now? Is there anywhere we can go without these guys creepin' up on us?"
"We could just leave this planet," Depth Charge grunted.
"Not an option," Elita said firmly. "Earth still needs us. There's clearly something at work here, and we need to get to the bottom of it."
"That still leaves us with nowhere to go," Bumblebee said. "We can't go back to Earthbase; we can't go back to, heck, anywhere in America...."
"Couldn't we at least contact Cybertron?" asked Strongarm. "Or would that be too risky?"
"At the moment? Probably," Elita said. "Knowing Sector Seven, they're sure to be monitoring all channels. This whole situation had to have been calculated by them beforehand."
"But why?" Bumblebee asked. "What reason would they have to turn on us like this?"
No one had an answer for him. The entire ship was quiet for a while, until the silence was unexpectedly broken by Fistfight.
"I, uh, I might know a place we can go to."
Rattrap rolled his eyes. "Oh, do go on...."
"During the Dark Age, Shockwave set up a number of outposts on this planet while he monitored the progress of his Regenesis ore," Fistfight started to explain. "Most of them were destroyed, one way or the other, but I do believe there is still one remaining, in a place called the Laurentian Abyss."
"You mean it's underwater?" Bumblebee asked.
Fistfight nodded. "Yup. Deepest point on the planet."
"Actually, the Mariana Trench is twice as deep."
"Okay, second deepest."
"That'd be the Tonga Trench."
"Look, it's just somewhere deep where no one would find it!" Fistfight snapped. "How do you know so much about this dirtball anyway?"
Bumblebee smiled. "I'm a scout. It's part of my job."
"All right," Elita said. "The Laurentian Abyss it is. Once we're sure Sector Seven's cleared the area, we'll head there next."
"Then what?" questioned Grimlock.
Once again, no one had an answer.
* * *
"Still nothing."
Night had fallen in Washington. Springer and his team remained sheltered in the Onyx Warehouse; Ironhide and Bulkhead kept watch over a comatose Guzzle while Walker and Simmons continued to work at the Machination computer, with little success. And Springer was having just as much luck in raising the others at Earthbase.
"We've been cut off," Kup grunted when Springer tried again for the nth time. "Just like that time in... in...."
Springer glanced at the old timer. "You mean the Second Vorsk Offensive? When we got trapped in White-Noise's isolation chamber?"
Kup shook his head. "No, no, no. That was nothin' compared to Operation: Mandatory Silence."
"I wasn't there for that one. Care to share it with me?"
Kup sighed as he looked away. "Ah, it'd bore ya to death."
"Coming from you?" Springer smirked. "I highly doubt it."
Kup met his optics for a moment before allowing himself to smile back. "All right, but you asked for it. See, it was the seventh chord of 9205. We were cornered on Sonorosia by Soundwave and his goons, and Reverb was down for the count...."
* * *
"...And that was just a small demonstration. You won't believe the things we can do now!"
Gnashteeth regarded Garrison Kreiger with a look of indifference. His fellow Predacons stood behind him, sparing uneasy glances at the animated corpse of Domitius Major and the alert Centurion, while Steel Jaw stood crouched nearby observing them all.
"Was that honestly the best you could do?" the Predacon leader remarked. "Mutate a bunch of humans and have them scare the Autobots? Am I really supposed to be impressed by that?"
Kreiger chuckled. "Ah, but you are not seeing the bigger picture. You see, that entire incident was just broadcast to the rest of the world. As far as the general public is concerned, those were not mutants but innocent humans that the Autobots were attacking. With this as leverage, the powers that be now have an excuse to use the Talisman against all Cybertronians -- not just Decepticons, but Autobots as well."
"Is that so?" Gnashteeth murmured. "If anything, I'm more impressed that you went through all this trouble to engineer an excuse."
"It's dishonorable," Dinobot snarled. "You have manipulated facts in order to further your vision. That is underhanded and--"
"Not now, Dinobot," Gnashteeth snapped at him. He then turned back to Kreiger. "So tell me, was this all your doing or are you perhaps answering to a higher power?"
"I would rather not use the phrase 'answering to,'" Kreiger replied. "However, I have been working with like-minded individuals to bring about this very moment; to rid our world of these alien invaders."
"So, uh, does that mean we're screwed?" asked Quickstrike. "'Cos, uh, we're Cybertronians too... right?"
"Indeed you are. However, like my old friend Centurion here, some of you Cybertronians do have a use. Perhaps we could arrange some form of agreement so that--"
Without warning, Gnashteeth raised his tail weapon at Kreiger and fired, vaporizing the human in an instant. At the same time, Steel Jaw pounced onto Domitius Major's back, digging his claws into the robot's neck as he tore off its head. Centurion -- formerly the Autobot "Goldwheels" -- stood dazed as a result of Kreiger's control wearing off, allowing Inferno and Scorponaut to subdue him.
While the other Predacons dealt with the rest of Kreiger's minions, Gnashteeth stepped into the next room and at last came face to face with the large obelisk that had been his pursuit for over a century.
"At last," he murmured to himself. "After so long, the Talisman is finally--"
A howl alerted him to the presence of Steel Jaw. Turning around, Gnashteeth raised his weapon and fired as the lupine Decepticon began to charge towards him. Two shots struck Steel Jaw but that did little to impede the Monstercon as he collided into Gnashteeth and pushed him into the Talisman.
The obelisk flashed with energy in response, bathing the entire room with light....
* * *
"Is he still out there?"
Diac parted the window blinds to peer out into the night. He could still see the assembled humans cheering on Garrison Blackrock as he went on with the presentation.
"Yup," the Titan Master murmured. "Gotta admit, he can sure work a crowd."
"Probably the one thing he's good at," muttered Apex. "I still don't see the point to all this; appeasing these primitives with technology that will make them indolent."
"It's a distraction," Diac said. "Something to keep them preoccupied while we work towards recovering the rest of the Underbase."
"And just how are we going to do that?"
Diac hesitated. "I'm not sure what Sovereign has planned, if anything. However, I have come across a... potential solution."
"Oh?" Apex raised an optic ridge. "You have my attention."
Closing the blinds, Diac turned to face his fellow Titan Master. "Tell me, Apex... what do you know about the Warren?"
TO BE CONTINUED
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