CHAPTER ELEVEN
--Earth--
Sari had always heard that great things went by fast while horrible things seemed to last forever. She now had cause to doubt that last bit as it very much felt like her last moments were passing her by in increasingly rapid succession.
No sooner had the Autobots begun driving towards the city when the ground erupted beneath them and sent all three of them flying into the air. Sari remembered screaming as Bumblebee spun around only to abruptly stop as a giant purple claw seized the yellow and black car. She remembered hearing Bumblebee himself scream as the claw tore into him, ripping apart his roof. She remembered being grabbed between two pincer and violently wrenched out of the car, terrified yet also surprised that she hadn’t been snapped in half already.
Now she was staring into the visage of the giant metal monster that was holding her in its grasps, a wicked grin stretching from one side of its face to the other. Below, Jack and the others had gotten out of their respective rides while the Autobots Sideswipe and Strongarm rushed to the injured Bumblebee’s side, pointing their guns at the monster. The evil machine did not seem to be bothered by their presence as it continued to regard Sari with a look that made her squirm uncomfortably.
“Look at you,” it said. “So convincingly human. Even I would have been fooled if I hadn’t known better.”
“I am human!” Sari protested, trying in vain to get out of the robot’s claw. “I wish everyone would stop telling me I’m not!”
“You mean you still haven’t figured it out? Not even your Autobot friends?” The robot seemed genuinely surprised by this. “My, I suppose the results turned out better than expected.”
“Let her go, Scorponok!” Sideswipe shouted, training his gun on the large Decepticon. “Before we frag your head for a third time!”
Scorponok laughed. “As if that threat could ever be effective on me. Tell you what, though: I’ll make you an offer.”
“We don’t make deals with Decepticons,” growled Strongarm.
Scorponok pressed on as if he hadn’t heard her. “In exchange for your ‘human’ friend, I will have my associates release the three Autobots they’ve captured.”
“Not happening,” Sideswipe growled. “You release them and her, and then we’ll blast your cranium to pieces. Again.”
“Hmph. And here I thought I was being generous.”
Suddenly, a large gray panel opened on Scorponok’s chest, revealing a compartment within his chest. Before Sari knew it, she was thrown into the compartment which closed up as quickly as it had opened. As darkness engulfed her, she could hear the Autobots shouting and shooting at Scorponok only for those sounds to be drowned out by a loud warping noise. Then, nothing but silence – save for the sound of her own heavy breathing.
For a moment nothing happened, though she could feel Scorponok moving around. Then the Decepticon stopped and the panel opened again, blinding her with light. A large claw gingerly extracted her from the compartment and placed onto a solid surface. When her eyes had finally adjusted, she found herself being stared at by not just Scorponok but several other robots as well. She doubted any of them were Autobots, given their red optics and malicious looks.
One of the robots, a tall red one with a vaguely feminine build, regarded Sari with mild disgust. “This is what you had to leave for?”
“Ugh, I’d hoped to never see one of these things again,” muttered a shorter blue Decepticon.
“Ah, but you two do not understand,” said Scorponok. “This one is much more unique than all of the other humans on this planet. Because this one....”
He pressed a switch on his claw and Sari instantly seized up. Before her terrified eyes, her entire body began to change: metal plates appeared out of nowhere to cover her up from head to toe; a pair of protrusions extended out from her back; a mask and helmet fell over her head, concealing her face as her brown eyes began to glow with blue energy. As this happened, all she could think of was what Wheeljack had been saying about her back at Metroplex.
The first ever techno-organic Transformer.
When all was said and done, and Sari was now standing in her new (true?) form, the Decepticons were all staring at her in utter disbelief while Scorponok simply smiled like a proud father.
“This one is one of us.”
--The Lost Light--
“Come on, Rung. You gotta get back on your feet.”
Brainstorm gently tugged on the despondent Rung’s arm but the psychotherapist refused to budge, still staring at the floor in utter devastation. The scientist looked to Nautica and the others but was met with either shrugs or head-shakes. With a sigh, he gave up on trying to coax the small orange bot and straightened back up.
“Okay. We should probably go outside and see what’s up.”
“You sure we won’t get murdered if we step out there?” asked Anode.
“Oh, there’s a very high chance of that happening. But I’m starting to get sick of being left in the dark.” Turning to the door, Brainstorm walked over to it and pulled it open. After looking both ways down the corridor to make sure Medusa was gone, he gestured the others to follow him. With some effort, Nautica and Perceptor both lifted Rung to his feet and dragged him with them as they, Anode, and Lug followed the scientist.
The ship was still shaking as it had been earlier and the group of six went in the direction in which the stomping was loudest. As their lights did not illuminate the path ahead of them far enough, they almost had not noticed the huge hole in the floor until Brainstorm nearly tripped and fell into it. As the scientist recovered his balance, Anode moved ahead of him and looked down into the opening to see what was happening below.
“Well, there’s our giant,” she said as she watched the large combiner – made up of what appeared to be rescue vehicles – lumbered past them. “I didn’t even know combiner tech was commonplace again.”
“Neither did I,” murmured Perceptor, adjusting his shoulder-mounted scope in front of his optics so he could a closer look at the gestalt. “It would appear First Aid and the other Protectobots are serving as its components.”
“Do you think they’ve willfully merged or is this another Galvatronus situation?” Nautica asked.
Perceptor grimaced as he moved the scope away from his face. “The latter.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Lord Imperious Delirious is with him.”
“Oh, frag.” Brainstorm stepped away from the hole. “We are so screwed.”
“Is there nothing we can do?” Lug asked. “I mean, I thought you guys have gone through all kinds of situations. Thunderwing, Primes, even Unicron. Shouldn’t this be a piece of chrome-alloy cake?”
“We solved all of those problems when we had literally every help we could possibly muster,” Brainstorm muttered. “We don’t have that kind of help here. We don’t have any Matrixes or combiners or any other kinds of cool new toy we can use against them.”
“Maybe you do.”
The others blinked before turning in surprise to look at Rung. The therapist carefully removed himself from Nautica and Perceptor’s hold and stepped up to Brainstorm.
“I’m going to transform,” Rung said quietly, “and I want you to use me against Lord Imperious.”
“Uh, and how exactly is that going to work?” Brainstorm asked. “We don’t even know what you turn into; even you don’t, right?”
“Correct. But if what I’ve been told while I was in Tyrest’s captivity is even remotely true... then it just might be something we can use. And since I know you’ve had your experience with all kinds of weapons and gadgets, I figure you would be the best bet at figuring out how I can be used.”
Brainstorm awkwardly rubbed his neck. “I’m not sure if I’d go that far....”
“It could be our only hope, Brainstorm,” said Perceptor. He then added with a small smile, “Besides, I’m confident you would be able to make anything work to your advantage.”
At those words, Brainstorm immediately straightened up, his face lighting up. After seeing a similar look of encouragement from Nautica, he looked back to Rung and said, “All right. Let’s do this.”
With a curt nod, Rung began to change shape. His arms tucked behind his back as his legs fused together and his entire body extended, causing his head to fold away. The end result was a long, pole-like object with a rounded top which held the glowing light that was commonly in Rung’s chest. To everyone present, it didn’t look like it had any purpose whatsoever, but that hardly concerned Brainstorm as he picked up the odd cylindrical, holding it in his arms like a blunt object.
“Yeah,” the scientist said. “I think I can make this work.”
Without wasting another minute, Brainstorm jumped down into the hole and landed on the deck below, right in front of Lord Imperious Delirious himself. While every node in his processor wanted him to either freeze up or run away in fear, Brainstorm stood his ground as the leader of the Destructons loomed before him, his massive wings sweeping behind his maroon body.
“More of you?” Lord Imperious huffed in an almost petulant manner. “Listen, I understand that you all wish to play the Hero, but I have more interesting matters to attend to. Can we make this quick?”
“We can make it as quick as you want,” Brainstorm muttered, trying to sound as tough as he could. For some reason, it was easier than he expected; he almost felt empowered but by what, he wasn’t sure. “But first, do you know who I am?”
Lord Imperious regarded him with a disinterested look. “No.”
“You might know me better as Genitus. I helped the Logicons cook up the dimensional barrier that they used to seal you and your buddies up.”
“Evidently, your efforts were not as effective as you had hoped,” Lord Imperious said dryly.
“Maybe so. But the point is, I was the key to kicking your afts eleven hundred years ago.” Brainstorm tightened his grip on the weapon (or whatever it was) in his hands. “And I’m about to do the same thing again.”
Unfazed, Lord Imperious redirected his attention to the transformed Rung. “And what is that you’re holding?”
“He’s a friend of mine. He’s gonna help me kick your afts again.”
“Is that right? Do you even know what he is?”
“Let’s find out together, shall we?” With that, Brainstorm charged towards the Destructon leader and swung Rung at him. Without so much as flinching, Lord Imperious caught the cylindric tool mid-swing and wrenched it out of Brainstorm’s hands. The scientist barely had a second to process this before he was kicked to the floor and pinned there by the Destructon’s foot.
“If I’m not mistaken, you are supposed to still be in Tyrest’s captivity,” Lord Imperious said to Rung. “A minor setback, but one that can easily be—”
A cry from above interrupted the Destructon as Lug dropped down from the opening in the ceiling and landed atop the back of his head. Caught off guard, Lord Imperious removed his foot from Brainstorm and stepped away from the scientist, lifting an arm to remove Lug from his back. Brainstorm seized this opportunity to draw his gun and shoot the Destructon in the chest; the force of the blow caused Lord Imperious to release his hold on Rung and drop the orange Autobot to the floor.
Snarling with rage, Lord Imperious finally got a hold of Lug and pulled her off of him, throwing her into Brainstorm. As his wings extended to their full width, the seams in his arms hissed as they began to split apart into groups of three, all ending with long blades. Brainstorm and Lug could only watch with fear as Lord Imperious strode towards them, his eyes gleaming with malice.
“You said we could make this as quick as I want,” the leader of the Destructons growled. “Well, for that, I’m going to draw this out as long as possible.”
With that, he raised his bladed arms... only for a giant black fist to close over his entire body. Lord Imperious’ startled yell was muffled as Defensor picked up and slammed him back into the floor. The effects of the Destructon’s “Delirious Fire” having worn off, the Autobot combiner was now very clear on who its enemy was as it began to repeat this motion until Lord Imperious was well and truly embedded into the deck. The gestalt then tore off a piece of the wall behind him and pounded it over the Destructon’s head, sealing him within the floor.
Satisfied with its work, Defensor pulled back and looked over to see the other three Destructons standing there, their faces covered with shock. Upon making eye contact with the combiner, Medusa made a gesture to the other two and as one the trio turned and fled from the scene. Once they were gone, Defensor began to lower himself to the floor as, one by one, his individual components disconnected from one another and returned to their robot forms.
“That was insane,” said Blades, wobbling on his feet. “I can’t believe we just did that to freaking Lord Imperious Delirious of all people.”
“Don’t celebrate just yet,” said Hot Spot. “He could be getting back up any minute now; plus, who knows where the other Destructons are heading.”
“They could be heading for the bridge,” said Velocity, emerging from the medbay along with Swerve and others. “We should probably go that way and check on Star Saber and his team.” She then glanced over at Brainstorm and Lug, who had since been joined by Anode, Nautica, and Perceptor. “Are you guys in any need of patching up?”
“No,” Brainstorm said as he got back to his feet. He looked over to Rung who was still in his alternate mode, not moving. After exchanging a worried glance with Nautica, he went over to the immobile therapist and picked him back up. “Come on,” he then said. “Time to be the cavalry again.”
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