Shattered Team (Rewritten)

Chapter 19: Risky Exchange

The autobots soon got to the omega lock, and transformed into bot mode. "Our head start won't last long." Arcee warns. Smokescreen asks "Th-this is where Alpha Trion said we'd find it. Right?" Bulkhead answers "These are the coordinates."

They walk towards the table in the center. "Doesn't look like much." Bulk remarks. Prime brushes away some dust with his servo, showing the autobot symbol. He then coms his friend back on earth "Ratchet, we have located the Omega Lock." His buddy sighs heavily "At last."

Prime goes on "According to Alpha Trion, the Omega Lock is a conduit to the very allspark itself." Smokescreen removes the key from his back "O-Optimus, an honor like this, shouldn't belong to me." His hand shakes as he holds the key out to Prime. The keys then start shaking and glowing. The omega lock started to as well. It summoned its structures around the autobots, recreating the natural look it held.

Before they could bask in the glory of the sight, a jet sound was heard in the distance. Optimus brings out his star saber once more, causing Smokescreen to jump back, and Prime runs forward, along with the others. The gladiator lands, transforming into bot mode. He then walks forward as his rivals got battle ready.

"Autobots." The warlord starts "I would suggest that you put a halt to your task and hand over those keys." Smokescreen speaks up "and why would we do that?" Megatron laughs a bit "Many reasons, but one in particular." A bridge appears behind him and out walks Knockout, Soundwave, and Starscream, but holding the 3 humans; One in each pod, one pod in each of the cons' grasps. "So that I may hand over the humans!" Megatron explains even though it was pretty self explanatory. The autobots stood in shock at what limits Megatron went to.

Optimus asks "And if we refuse?" Megatron walks forward to his rival "Then I will have no choice but to open the pods, exposing your pets to Cybertron's.... Toxic atmosphere." He embraced the words, emphasizing how horrible their deaths might be. "And then, we can all watch them instantly perish, together." Prime grit his teeth under his mask, knowing he didn't have a choice, and it wasn't anyone else talking. It was him himself. Rage could care less, but he wasn't ready yet, therefore Optimus had full control over himself at the moment in time.

They all stood in silence, staring at each other. Miko broke the silence, kicking the glass of the pod "Not how I wanted to spend my first trip to Cybertron." She whines. Megatron looks to his seeker "Starscream." Said mech taunts the bots and the human "Jack~ it's time to come out and play~!" He runs his claws against the glass. Jack turns around after he stops and says angrily "Go ahead. The autobots were prepared to sacrifice themselves for my planet. I'll do the same for theirs." Miko agrees, turning to Knockout "Me too. Creepy." Raf turns to Soundwave, still in fear. The communications officer never looked to him or turned his head. Raf stutters "M-mhm."

Megatron then turns to Optimus after approval from each kid "Perhaps we should oblige them." Prime replies "If my decision dooms the future of the autobot cause on Cybertron, so be it, but I will never forsake our human allies." Smokescreen says to himself "But you'd try to kill me?" With that he plunges his star saber into the floor by its blade and steps away from it, going back to his team. Smokescreen walked away, going beside Bulkhead to stay away from Prime. Arcee grunts, removes the armor, and tosses it over by the saber. Megatron smiles triumphantly. Everyone removes the relics from themselves and throws them to the pile in surrender.

The warlord holds out his servo "Now if you please, The Omega Keys. One at a time." Knockout steps forward with Miko and says "You first, big boy." Bulkhead walks out to him. As Bulkhead holds the relic near KO's servo, he warns "If I don't get the girl, I'll make you eat this key." Knockout does so, no feeing a bit of fear from that threat. "You're welcome." He says dropping the pod into the wrecker's grasp. As Bulk walks away with his friend, the girl growls "Get scrapped!"

Bumblebee came over next. Raf and him looked each other in the eyes desperately scared of what was happening. He then looked to Soundwave "=<Don't ever come near him again.>=" he beeps furiously as they exchange at the exact second. "=<You're safe now.>=" he assures his buddy, walking away from the cons.

Prime stared Megatron in the optics once more. He knew something was gonna change. Megatron smirked after seeing that he already knew. "If this human was important enough to entrust with the matrix of leadership, he's worth 2 Omega keys. Smokescreen steps forward along with Arcee. Scream calls out "No tricks! The keys if you please." Megatron held out his servo to Smokescreen. The rookie was really hesitant. Jack was one of his best friends.

Megatron cleared his throat, grabbing Smokescreen's attention. The gladiator whispers "You can join if you'd like. I saw how scared of Optimus you were and how quickly you moved." Smokescreen stepped backwards, lowering his arm. Megatron hit Screamer's shoulder lightly. With his foot, he holds the pod down and with his hand, he slightly unscrews the top. Jack saw and his breath nearly stopped. Smokescreen's shoulders raised. Arcee looked to Smoke "Give it to him! What's wrong with you!?" Smokescreen grit his teeth, taking a few breaths, separating his dentas for a second, and then repeating the process. He didn't know what to do...