THE ROAD TO HELL: NITRO CONVOY'S TALE
Velocitron, Cycle 9514
On Velocitron, the word “stop” was a foreign one. The best way to get a Velocitronian’s attention and get them to slow down was to get ahead of them and prove yourself to be a faster racer. Naturally, only other Velocitronians were capable of doing this, leaving those not local to the planet having to find some other means to get their attention or to simply just give up.
At least, that was how things normally went. Cybertronians would just give up and not even try to catch up with the Velocitronians. That was how it had always been ever since the colony world joined the Autobot Commonwealth and opened itself up to visitors.
Today was different, however. Today, the Cybertronians were not just making the effort to catch up with their Velocitronian counterparts… but they were actually succeeding.
And trying to run them over.
Clocker prayed to all of the deities he knew the name of as he sped down Velocitron’s never-ending, all-ending roads as he tried to create as much distance as he could between himself and the massive black truck that was on his tail. Such efforts were in vain however as the truck continued to close in on him, honking its horn as it let out a maniacal laugh.
“End of the road for you, ya little dipstick!” Motormaster cackled. “There’s no one around to save you this time!”
Clocker could feel his engine starting to strain from the stress of him accelerating at such high speeds; speeds that his small frame could barely handle. His glowing blue wheels were also beginning to wear out, since they were not exactly made for high-speed chases that spanned pretty much the entire planet. Especially chases that had been going on for nearly an entire day now….
“Give up yet?” Motormaster continued to taunt him. “Sooner or later, your engine will, whether you want it to or not. Then there really will be no escape for you!”
He tried not to listen to the truck. Just keep your eyes on the road, he kept telling himself. As soon as he reached Delta, he would be home—
An explosion suddenly launched him into the air, flinging him several feet across the road he had been traveling. He transformed to robot mode and tucked himself in as he hit the ground, though the impact still did quite a bit of damage to his small body. So much in fact that he was unable to move from where he had landed, all of his joints and pistons aching like hell. The truck slowed down as it reached him, its cab splitting open and unfurling to take on the form of a massive gray robot with cold red optics and a menacing grin. In his hand was a large purple sword that was practically the length of Clocker’s entire body.
“That was fun,” Motormaster said in a low voice. “But all good things must come to an end eventually. As much as I would love to chase you for a few more days, I’ve got other things to attend to.”
He raised his sword above his head, the sun gleaming off its violet finish.
“Don’t worry. I’ll make this as quick and painless as— ARGH!”
The Stunticon lurched back as a blaster bolt exploded against his chest. Clocker’s optics went wide as a gray and red shape came out of nowhere and collided into Motormaster, the force being strong enough to push the Decepticon back a few steps. The figure then bounced off of him and landed right next to Clocker, separating him from his assailant.
“When will you ‘Cons learn,” Nitro Convoy said as he drew a twin-barreled cannon, “to pick on people your own size?”
Motormaster snarled as he reoriented himself. “I should be asking you the same thing, Autobot. What makes you think you’ll fare any better against me than this minibot?”
“The fact that I have a weapon as well as experience in kicking Decepticon aft should be enough,” Nitro Convoy replied.
Motormaster chuckled darkly. “We’ll see about that,” he said as he swung his sword arm down onto Nitro.
The lithe Autobot ducked to the side, letting the blade strike the ground, as he pointed his weapon at the Stunticon and opened fire. Motormaster growled in annoyance as he raised a large arm to shield himself from the attack. While Nitro Convoy continued to shoot at the large Decepticon, he looked over to where Clocker was laying.
“Get out of here, kid! I’ll hold him off, but it won’t be for long.”
Clocker groaned as he struggled to get up. “I… can’t. Can barely… feel my transformation cog….”
“Ah, scrap.” Raising a hand to his helm, Nitro said, “Convoy to all available units. I’ve got an injured civilian here. Can someone come and pick him up while I try to deal with—”
He let out a cry as Motormaster swung out an arm and knocked his weapon out of his hands. The Stunticon then raised his sword and brought it down onto the Autobot, delivering a slash across his chestplate.
“NO!” Clocker cried out as he watched Nitro Convoy crumple to the ground, unmoving.
As Motormaster cackled with laughter, he turned his sights back onto Clocker. A ruthless grin split across his face as he stormed towards the wounded Velocitronian, gripping his sword with both hands as he prepared to deliver the fatal blow. Left with no other option, Clocker closed his optics and prepared for the end.
“There is no need to fear death, little one,” Motormaster rumbled. “We all must die some— …eh?”
Clocker dared to open his eyes and saw Motormaster still standing over him, a look of confusion on his face. The Stunticon lowered his sword and raised a hand to his helm’s comm unit.
“Are you kidding me? I was just getting started! Do you have any idea how— …eh? Say that again? Well, why didn’t you just say so?!”
Before Clocker could speculate as to what the topic of conversation even was, Motormaster transformed back into his truck mode and peeled away, leaving behind a cloud of exhaust in his wake. No more than a few minutes had passed after the Stunticon’s departure when Clocker the sound of car engines fast approaching him and the injured Nitro Convoy.
“There they are!” a voice called out. “I see them!”
A blue blur shot passed him, transforming into a slender robot as he rushed over to where Nitro lay. He was soon joined by three other cars, who converted to robot mode as well. While one joined the blue one in attending Nitro, the other two made their way over to Clocker.
“Did you get hurt bad, pal?” asked a bot in yellow and blue, his armor plating suggesting a dragster alternate mode.
“No,” Clocker muttered. “Just had a nasty fall. Nitro Convoy is worse off than me.”
“Even so, we need to get both of you to a repair shop, asap,” said a teal and red Autobot. “Hopefully Thunderclash is nearby so he can help us carry them back to Delta.”
As the pair helped Clocker to his feet, the Velocitronian looked up to see the other two Autobots doing the same for Nitro Convoy. Thankfully, Clocker’s savior was still functioning; however, the expression on his face made him look as gaunt and empty as any lifeless body Clocker had seen.
It would be an image that would haunt him for years to come.
* * *
“I could have stopped him. He was right there. I could have stopped him.”
“This isn’t gonna be a new mantra of yours, is it?” grumbled the small green and white bot as he patched up Nitro Convoy. “’Cos it’s already starting to get old.”
“I can’t help it, Autolander,” Nitro replied, laying on his repair berth. “I know I’m better than this. I’ve done better! I’m one of the few to have looked a Destructon in the eye and live! And yet I get my actuator handed to me by a freaking Stunticon.”
“Motormaster is pretty much in his element here,” pointed out Getaway, standing nearby with his fellow Autobots Slapdash and Joyride. “He and his Stunticons are all about ruling the streets, and Velocitron is… well, its all streets.”
“Even so, this is my home,” Nitro Convoy said. “The Stunticons — as well as you guys — are all from Cybertron, and no offense, but you guys aren’t exactly the fastest bots in the universe. Fast for Cybertronians, maybe, but not fast enough for Velocitron. But Motormaster… he was driving at speeds that I didn’t think Cybertronians were capable of. He was practically tailing poor Clocker.”
“To be fair, Clocker isn’t exactly the fastest among Velocitronians either,” Autolander said, eying the small white and orange bot who laid on a repair slab across from Nitro.
But Nitro shook his head. “No, there’s something going on here. The speeds Motormaster was driving at were simply not possible for a Cybertronian… at least not without enhancements.”
“Enhancements, huh?” Autolander paused in his work to scratch his chin. “Y’know, I have heard some scuttlebutt about some illegal trading going on in the Underroad. My brother Brakedown overheard some folks talking about it at the fueling station he works at. It’s possible that some of those black market bots are selling some kind of tech to the Decepticons to give them an edge in their campaign.”
“The Underroad, huh?” Nitro’s optics lit up with interest. “That sounds like something worth looking into.”
Autolander gave him a disapproving look. “I wouldn’t go there, lad. Even for a bot like you, the Underroad is a dangerous place. There’s all sorts of trouble you could find yourself winding up. Why, there’s stories I could tell you from my days as a young racer myself.”
“Oh, spark, please don’t,” said Slapdash, covering his audio sensors with his hands. “Listening to Kup drone on is bad enough. Hell, you’ve even got his colors!”
“Sounds like someone I could get along well with,” Autolander said. “Anyways, even if you did go into the Underroad, I’m sure Motormaster’s given them your description by now. They would recognize you in a nanoklik.”
Nitro smirked. “Not if I get a different paint job.”
“That’s not gonna—”
“My body-type is pretty commonplace here on Velocitron, Autolander. My sister Override’s got it. There’s also that fangirl of mine — I forget her name — she even goes around wearing my colors!”
“That’s not creepy at all,” Getaway muttered.
Autolander sighed. “Well, if you’re really set on doing this, I’ll set you up with Excellion for a makeover. I still think this is dangerous.”
“Yeah, but you can’t really stop me, can you?” Nitro quipped.
“I don’t think anyone can….”
* * *
“This had better not be a ploy, Ransack.”
“Hey, relax!” The small red motorbike-bot held up his hands in a placating gesture. “I know better than to cross you guys. ‘Specially after I saw what you did to that one guy. I don’t think that poor sod’s ever gonna get his fuel pump realigned, eh, Crumplezone?”
“Nope,” replied the large green mech.
The pair and their benefactors stood in the shadows of the Navitas Overpass. The area which laid beneath the roads of Velocitron, seldom trodden by the natives, was collectively known as “the Underroad,” where seedy criminals and shady bots like Ransack and Crumplezone made illicit deals and trades to get their servos on illegal enhancements that would give them boosts in the races above. While none of these enhancements would ever get the bots that operated the Speedia 500, the race which determined the leader of Velocitron, it often slipped under the radar of those running smaller races, allowing the duo to compete and win and get away with their earnings.
Today, however, these very enhancements were going to be used to help the Decepticons win a war. Neither Ransack nor Crumplezone knew how exactly that was going to work, but neither of them really cared enough to question it. So long as it resulted them in getting compensated, that was all that mattered.
“Trust me, it wasn’t easy to get my hands on this,” Ransack said as he hefted the large case of energon boosters, setting it down at Motormaster’s feet. “The Dirt Boss drives a hard bargain, and I’ve already had to donate a quarter of fuel just to keep him happy.”
“Wait a minute, did you say ‘Dirt Boss?’” asked one of Motormaster’s Stunticons, a twitchy white and blue bot named Breakdown. “What’s a Constructicon doing on a planet of race cars?”
“Different Dirt Boss, moron,” muttered Dead End, a red and black Stunticon. “Velocitronians don’t need to keep track of what names are already taken on Cybertron.”
“Yeah, besides, don’t we already know, like, ten different Ransacks?” said the yellow and purple Drag Strip.
Ransack cleared his processor. “Yeah, well, his real name’s Inch-Up, anyway,” he murmured. “Anyways, that’ll be fifty thousand credits.”
“Fifty thousand?!” rumbled Motormaster, his red optics flaring. “We agreed to twenty-five!”
“That was the cost for the boosters,” Ransack said, his mouth twitching into a smirk. “The additional twenty-five is compensation for my acquisition of the boosters. I mean, I’ve gotta make a profit somehow, right? You’re not just placing the money I’ve already spent back into my account.”
“You’ll be lucky to exit this transaction with your spark chamber intact,” Motormaster growled. “Make it thirty thousand.”
“Thirty thousand? Are you kidding me?” Ransack looked up at Crumplezone. “These guys can’t be serious. Can they? No, it’s gotta be a joke. This must be what Cybertronians thinks jokes are.”
“Fifteen thousand,” Motormaster snapped, taking a large step towards Ransack which caused the small red bot to yelp in fear. “Plus you and your friend's lives. Coming from me, that’s a deal of a lifetime.”
“It really is,” cackled the gray and red Stunticon known as Wildrider. “Seriously, you should’ve seen the last guy who tried to bargain with him. I don’t think they’ve found all their parts yet.”
Shaking, Ransack looked back up at his partner. “I think fifteen thousand sounds good, don’t you?”
“Yeah,” Crumplezone said meekly. Evidently his size and fanged jaw were just for looks. “Yeah, fifteen thousand is good. Great, actually.”
Motormaster grinned. “Excellent. Dead End, transfer the money to their accounts.” He then reached down for the case and picked it up, opening it to admire the contents within.
“The roads will be ours, boys,” the Stunticon leader said. “The Autobots won’t know what hit them.”
* * *
“Motormaster, eh?” The purple and green bot leaned against the support beam of the overpass he was standing under, eying the sleek black and blue bot standing across from him. “That’s an odd name to bring up. Why do you think I would know anything about them?”
The mysterious bot shrugged. “Sounds like someone you’d get along with. You do call yourself ‘the Dirt Boss,’ don’t you?”
The purple bot laughed. “Ah, my reputation precedes me! Most people on Velocitron just know me as Inch-Up; only my brothers and sisters here in the Underroad call me Dirt Boss.” He narrowed his optics skeptically. “Though I can’t say I’ve ever seen you around these parts before.”
“I’ve been around; you’ve probably seen me before in a different body-type. I like to… change things up now and then. Keeps people off my trail, you know?”
Dirt Boss chuckled. “You sound like my kind of bot. If you’re looking for a job, I’ve got some available positions for ya. I’m sure we’d get along fine.”
“I’ll consider it,” the stranger said. “But first, I need to know about Motormaster.”
“I don’t know him.”
The stranger showed him a handful of credit chips. “I think you do.”
Dirt Boss’ optics practically bugged out as he counted the amount in the stranger’s hands. After recomposing himself, he straightened up and took the credits from the stranger’s hand.
“You didn’t hear it from me,” he said in a low voice, “but Motormaster and his Stunticons are using energon boosters to get an upper hand in their campaign against the Autobots here. No idea how exactly they plan on using them.”
“Any idea where they are now?” the stranger asked.
“I may have heard rumors that they’re gathering near the outskirts of Delta. But they’re just that though: rumors. Make of it what you will but don’t take my word for it.”
The stranger smiled, something which unsettled Dirt Boss for some reason. “Thank you for your help. And I promise to consider your offer.”
With that, he transformed and peeled off into the night, kicking up dust in his wake.
* * *
“Did he say when he would be back?”
Joyride shook his head as he adjusted the scope of his blaster rifle, situated on a ledge that extended from Delta’s capitol building. “I don’t believe so.”
Getaway frowned behind his faceplate. He looked down from the ledge, watching as his fellow Autobots and their Velocitronian allies went about setting up defenses for the city of Delta. They had just received a call from Nitro Convoy, telling them that the Stunticons were planning on storming the city and were using energon boosters to increase their speed. However, while their commander had given them directions on how to prepare for the Stunticons’ arrival, he had not said when he would be returning to Delta to help them, if at all. It was Primus’ guess as to what the Convoy was even thinking.
After a moment, Getaway said, “You don’t think he’s doing anything stupid, do you?”
“Define ‘stupid,’” Joyride replied.
“I just mean… he was pretty worked up about that incident with Motormaster. Kept kicking himself over it and everything. Do you think he would try to get even with them or something?”
“Do you?”
Getaway thought for a moment. “Honestly? Yeah, I do.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s what I would do.”
From down below, a red and teal Autobot approached the ledge that Getaway and Joyride were standing on. As leader of the Axelerators unit, Rapido was next in line of command of the Velocitronian-based Autobots after Nitro Convoy. He even took precedence over Thunderclash which Getaway found strange, though he wondered if that had to do with Thunderclash being a humble bot who preferred not to embrace the hype surrounding him whereas Rapido… wasn’t so much.
“Have you two finished setting up defenses?” Rapido called up to them.
“Just about,” answered Joyride.
“Good, because Windbreaker’s just spotted the Stunticons on his macro-binoculars. They’re approaching pretty fast, so be ready to start firing at any moment.”
After making some final adjustments to his weapon, Joyride got down on his chestplate and situated his weapon on the edge of the ledge. Getaway crouched down beside him, raising his own rifle as he peered through its scope. He twisted a knob to get a better visual of what was up ahead and quickly saw exactly what Rapido had said: all five Stunticons roaring down the road that lead into Delta, moving at speeds that were unusual of typical Cybertronians.
“Battle positions, everyone!” Rapido called out. “Vroom, take the left flank! Skram, Turbofire, you take the right! Thunderclash, you and your team—”
The rest of his orders were drowned out as the Stunticons came roaring into the Velocitronian city. In the lead was Motormaster, his giant truck form barreling towards Rapido and colliding into the red and cyan Autobot commander. Skram and Turbofire quickly abandoned the orders they had been given and moved to help their leader only to be tackled from behind by a crazed Wildrider. Without awaiting for any further commands, Getaway and Joyride opened on fire on any Stunticon that entered their line of sight. A golden blur passed before Getaway’s optics and before he knew it both he and Joyride were falling from the ledge they had been perched on, crashing into the ground below.
As Getaway struggled to pull himself back up, the golden blur returned and slowed down enough for him to make out a yellow and purple Decepticon standing in front of him, a cruel grin on his faceplate.
“Bet you didn’t see that one coming,” Drag Strip cackled.
Getaway groaned as he struggled to raise his weapon at the Stunticon. Before he could properly aim it, Drag Strip was gone in a flash. Looking around, Getaway saw that his comrades were faring no better; Vroom was driving around in circles with a crimson blur that was likely Dead End; Windbreaker and Slapdash had been brought down by a hyperactive Breakdown; and Thunderclash was standing his ground against Motormaster, only to then be brought down by a large purple sword coming out of the black blur that was the Stunticon leader.
“Give it up, Autobots!” Motormaster bellowed. “The roads of Velocitron are ours! You are not fast enough to stop us!”
“They might not be,” a voice called out. “But we are!”
Out of the blue came even more colored blurs that Getaway’s processor could not slow down enough to actually process. The Stunticons’ cheers of victory quickly turned into cries of surprise as they were knocked this way and that, spinning around in circles as they were chased by these new fast-moving bots. As Breakdown ran past him, Getaway got a close enough look at the red blur chasing him to make him out to be the bot known as Excellion.
“You Stunticons may be fast,” the voice that had spoken earlier continued; only now did Getaway realize that it was none other than the voice of Nitro Convoy. “But your speed is artificial, not natural. Artificial…”
Wildrider let out a cry as he tripped on his feet and fell face-first onto the ground, allowing his pursuer Hightail to apprehend him.
“…and temporary!”
Almost at once, the Stunticons began to gradually slow to normal speeds, allowing the Velocitronian reinforcements to quickly overwhelm them. One by one, Breakdown, Dead End, Drag Strip and Wildrider were quickly dispatched, leaving Motormaster as the last one standing. Gripping his sword in both hands, the Stunticon leader scowled as the Velocitronians all came to a stop to stand before him, with a sleek black and blue bot standing front and center.
“If you want to rule the roads,” Nitro Convoy said, “then you have to play by the rules. Here on Velocitron, there are only two: Be fast, and no cheating.”
“Screw your rules!” Motormaster snarled. “I don’t need to be fast or to cheat! I can win just by crushing you all with my bare hands!”
“You can try that,” Nitro Convoy said with a smirk. “But you’d have to catch us first.”
“Yeah,” said Blurr, grinning widely. “All of us.”
Motormaster narrowed his optics as he looked from one Velocitronian to another. He then looked over to where his four Stunticons laid, with Getaway and the other Autobots now standing over them. His face then twisted into a scowl as he sheathed his sword.
“This isn’t over,” he growled. “I’ll be back, this time with reinforcements. Then you will all rue the day you trifled with the Motormaster!”
“Okay,” Nitro Convoy shrugged. “Just make it snappy. We Velocitronians tend to get impatient pretty quickly.”
“Especially when around you slow and cumbersome Cybertronians,” Excellion said, feigning a yawn.
With one last glare, Motormaster transformed into his truck mode and drove away, kicking up a cloud of fumes in his wake. The gathered Autobots and Velocitronians watched him depart from the city before directing their attention to the four captured Stunticons. Nitro Convoy walked over to them and got down onto one knee, flashing a grin.
“Bet you didn’t see that one coming.”
“Go frag yourself,” Drag Strip muttered.
* * *
Motormaster had not been lying. A matter of days after the Stunticons’ defeat, the Decepticons returned with reinforcements led by General Clench. They proceeded to assault the city of Delta, a disastrous battle during which the other four Stunticons were liberated and rejoined with their leader. While the Autobots were eventually able to turn the tide in their favor and drive the Decepticons off… by that point, there was little left of the city that was still worth protecting.
While the central building was still mostly intact, save for a few dents and scratches, all of the roads leading to it had collapsed in on themselves and any buildings that had been on the city perimeters had been obliterated. Across the planet, several other roads and settlements had suffered the same fate, if not worse. While such roads and buildings could be repaired, it would be a process that would take several years, even for as fast as how Velocitronians typically moved.
Nitro Convoy stood on the edge of a slope that oversaw the ruins of Delta, a grim expression on his face. Hearing the sound of footsteps from behind, he turned around to see the Autobot commander Thunderclash approaching him.
“We’re all set and ready to go,” said the white and teal Autobot. “You coming?”
Nitro Convoy shook his head. “No. I’m staying.”
Thunderclash’s optics widened in surprise. “You are? Why?”
“This is my home, Thunderclash.” Nitro Convoy gestured to the ruined city below. “This is my home and I let it get ravaged by the Decepticons. I could have prevented all of this if it wasn’t for my arrogance.”
“Come now, Nitro. You couldn’t have predicted any of this. No one could have. You can’t be too hard on yourself for something like this.”
Nitro shook his head. “In any case, it’s time for me to take a break from being a ‘valiant war hero’ or whatever it is I’ve been doing for the past seven hundred years. It’s time for me to actually makes a difference that matters not only to myself but to my people.”
Thunderclash inclined his head in acceptance. “If that is your desire, then I shall not dissuade you from your decision. I take it that this is goodbye, then?”
“Yes. At least for now.“ Nitro transformed into his race car form, revving up his engine. “Tell Optimus that it’s been an honor serving under him… but I have a city to repair.”
With that, he drove down the slope and sped his way back towards the city of Delta, never once looking back.
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