Normal Perspective:
It had come as a huge shock to the Decepticons for them to learn that Shockwave, who had been believed to be dead for over three years, had survived the Spacebridge sabotage back on Cybertron before the war moved to Earth, but Megatron was pleased to see the scientist again.
"Lord Megatron." The single-optical 'Con greeted, bowing.
"Shockwave!" The Warlord greeted back in surprise, but was pleased nonetheless. "This is quite an unexpected turn. I thought you'd perished on Cybertron."
"As did we all." Cyclonus agreed.
"Reports of my demise were greatly premature." Shockwave explained. "A pair of Autobots infiltrated my facility on Cybertron, sabotaging my Spacebridge. I gave chase, but failed to accurately calculate the outcome. I awoke in the rubble blinded. It soon became clear that I was marooned on our dead planet with no means of communication. In time, I repaired my wounds and resumed my experiments. The solitude enabled me to make tremendous advances in my research until one day my sensors detected two massive surges of unidentifiable energy. I traveled to investigate their origin at the edge of the Sea of Rust, where I encountered your salvage team and the smoldering wreckage of the Omega Lock, but this was not the search party I had anticipated so long ago, leaving one unanswered question: Why was I left for scrap? Abandoned? Why?"
Silence fell in the room for a few moments as the question lingered, until Thundercracker spoke up.
"I believe I have a theory." He began. "I believe the explosion might've caused the power core chamber to collapse, so the last thing anyone would have witnessed was you running into the malfunctioning bridge, but not come back out, for it could have possibly wiped out any witnesses. That, or they fled before the explosion."
"I find your theory to be... logical." The scientist concluded.
Shockwave then looked around, noticing the unfamiliar other-worldly beings in the room.
They were certainly different, yet very intriguing.
"What are these beings before me?" The single-optical scientist asked.
"These, Shockwave, are only a few of what has become my new army." Megatron replied. "Brought to our world by way of the mystical weapon known as the Keyblade."
He then summoned Tyrant's Desire to his servo, and brought it up to the scientist, letting him study its appearance.
"Such a means of mystical power is unheard of, my liege." The scientist said. "Even among that of the ancients."
"Indeed Shockwave, but recent developments have become apparent in your prolonged absence, such as a weapon capable of sealing away Darkness, and opening doorways to worlds beyond our own." The Warlord replied.
"So, the multiverse does indeed exist." Shockwave said, and looked at the Heartless and other creatures, then back at the Keyblade Megatron was holding. "I wish to study this weapon and these beings for further research."
"My deepest apologies, Shockwave, by these beings and my weapon are off-limits."
"I find your decision to be... understandable."
"As Megatron's First Leuitenate," Cyclonus began, as Megatron and Shockwave began walking away. "Allow me to be the first to welcome you back to the winning team."
Megatron then stopped.
"And allow me to clarify the new chain of command." He said, and turned to face the others. "While Cyclonus will retain authority over military operations, Shockwave will be my First Lieutenant in charge of all... scientific endeavors."
"So, you mean the Shockwave and I will share the role of First Lieutenant, and will each report directly to you when needed." Cyclonus said.
"Affirmative." Megatron replied, and he and the others then left the room, leaving the other-worldly entities alone.
Meanwhile, at an abandoned farm, Arcee, Jack, and Vince were continuing their drive when the blue femme spoke up.
"Hey, you two hungry?" She asked. "There's a town up ahead."
"Uh, I better not." Jack replied. "I'm runnin' low on cash."
"Same here." Vince agreed. "Especially after having to pay for that gasoline."
"Least you don't have to buy it regularly." The femme said with a smirk.
"Very funny." The redhead said, though he then realized that she was right, for he was unsure about the fate of his car, which had been left behind in Jasper at his dad's auto shop.
"I'm pulling over anyway." The femme continued, and did just that, turning off into the farm, which appeared to be abandoned. "Need to stretch my legs."
The trio then stopped, and the two teens dismounted, removing their helmets as they did, allowing the femme to transform and stretch like she wanted, sighing as she did.
The two teens then looked out at the sunset ahead of them as they stopped by a fence, as the full picture of their situation came into view at that very moment.
"Arcee, Team Prime's scattered to the winds." Jack said, voicing the situation aloud as the femme approached, kneeling down next to them and putting her servo on Jack's shoulder. "For all we know, we three could be the only ones left."
"I don't believe that, Jack." She replied. "And I know you two don't either."
"Maybe not." Jack conceded. "But the Decepticons outnumber us a hundred to one. Aren't there any more Autobots out there who could help?"
"The war for Cybertron took a heavy toll..." Arcee replied mournfully. "But there were others who escaped in the Ark."
"So, where are they?" Vince asked.
Arcee didn't reply at first. Instead, she picked up a small pile of dirt, and held it up, opening her servo and letting the wind carry it away.
"Scattered to the winds." She then paused as they looked out to the horizon ahead, then she looked at her charges. "So let's focus on getting back to Jasper. On getting Team Prime back together."
Elsewhere, Bumblebee and Raf were driving along empty country roads, with the preteen looking for the rest of the team through the internet, remembering the previous times their photos had been captured.
"<:Any luck on finding pictures of the other's whereabouts for any leads?:>"
"Nada, 'Bee." Raf replied. "Just the same old rubber masks and bad C.G. But the usual conspiracy websites might be our only chance to- Woah! I found something!"
It was a picture of Ratchet in bipedal mode, and while the picture wasn't in color, it was clear enough for anyone on Team Prime to recognize the grumpy Doc anywhere.
"It's Ratchet." He said, and did further research on where and when it was taken, and it didn't take long to find those details. "The photo was taken yesterday in a junkyard outside Woodland Park." Saving the details and the data, he set about scrubbing it to prevent anyone else, especially the Decepticons, from seeing it. "I better scrub Ratchet and replace him with..."
He then smirked slightly. He had the perfect replacement.
At the same time at Darkmount on the Nemesis, Skywarp was looking through Earth's internet to find out if humans had recently captured and uploaded pictures of the Autobots or their former comrades, yet had come up with nothing so far, and soon became distracted by searching up other things unrelated to his task.
"Earth's internet may be primitive, but it does have charm, and it definitely has humor that Cybertron's Datanet lacks," He said to himself. "though I find it odd how the humans seem to have several million cameras around the world, yet there seems to be no recent images of the Autobots. Oh well, one of them is bound to catch something eventually."
Then he found something, which was the picture Raf had found.
"Oh, what have we got here?" He then turned to look over at Megatron, Barricade, and Shockwave, who were discussing the recent developments and discoveries they had found in his absence in further detail. "Lord Megatron, I have found something that may be of interest to you."
The Warlord, along with Barricade, Cyclonus, Soundwave, and Shockwave walked over to the excited seeker, who then presented his finding.
"I found an Autobot!"
But instead of it being the picture he had found, it was instead the tap-dancing monkey that Raf had on file, which was often used to scrub the Autobot's images, and the preteen had done it once again, much to Skywarp's shock and disappointment.
Barricade and Cyclonus laughed, but quickly composed themselves.
"But it was just here! I swear! Surely one of you saw it!" The black and purple seeker pleaded.
Megatron said nothing at first, but then spoke, unimpressed.
"Skywarp, you would do well to take a cue from Soundwave and our other-worldly beings on occasion, and keep things to yourself!" The Warlord said firmly.
"But- I-.... Yes, my liege..." Skywarp said at last, and went back to doing his search in silence.
Shockwave then spoke up.
"Lord Megatron, surely our prisoners are a better source of information than this primitive datanet."
"Unfortunately, Shockwave, I have been grinding Wheeljack and Michael down for days, and if either of them knew anything, they would have spilled it by now, especially Michael, given his supposed hatred for the Autobots." Cyclonus said.
"Again, some prove to be better at holding their tounges than others." Megatron said, directing the last two words at Skywarp, who glanced away in embarrassment.
"Perhaps you will have better results if, instead of a club, you used a scalpel." Shockwave suggested. "I recommend a Cortical Psychic Patch."
Megatron then remembered a trick Michael had pulled on him with the Patch back when he was still in his comatose state, and smirked.
"Actually, Shockwave, I believe it would be more beneficial if you were to look into both of their memories... in one go."
Shockwave, despite his lack of expression and emotion, became intrigued.
"I'm listening."
Meanwhile, at the meeting spot, Miko and Bulkhead were waiting in the evening sun, but the young girl was having her doubts, for it had been hours since they arrived there.
"I don't think he's coming..."
Bulkhead, who had been looking out into the horizon, looked at his charge.
"Don't worry, Miko." He assured. "Every Wrecker knows the protocol. Jackie'll show... if he's still kickin'."
The Wrecker was, in fact, 'still kickin'', but he, along with Michael, were being put to the test further by being forced to undergo a Dual Cortical Psychic Patch by Shockwave, who had learned of the Patch device they had gained thanks to Michael's original self.
The scientist had, despite his lack of expression and emotion, admittedly been very impressed by the piece of engineering, despite it being made by the servos of an Autobot, and made a virtual note to himself to further expand upon the uses of the device in the future in conjunction with the Patch.
"Do your worst, Doc." Wheeljack sneered from his berth of which he had been restrained upon. "I'm a Wrecker. I can take it."
Michael, who could only stare at the one-optical scientist, said nothing. He found this Shockwave to be very different from the one he knew of.
Shockwave himself was intrigued by the world in which this Michael originated, and wished to do more research on the subject, and found the Patch as a good starting point for it.
He then picked up two ends of each cable, which was plugged into the Dual-Patch device, which was, in turn, plugged into Shockwave's helm, having checked it over for any negative problems before trying it himself. He then walked over to the two mechs.
"Trust me. You, in fact, cannot."
With those words spoken, the torture began.
Later, at Darkmount, Shockwave was speaking with Megatron, who was sitting on his throne with his Darkside guards by his sides, about the information he found.
"The Dual-Patch yielded interesting results regarding the Techno-Organic's memories about the worlds in which he originated, and I wish to do more research on the subject. However, it failed to yield any new information on the whereabouts of the Autobots."
"Hmmm.... I see." Megatron said, surprised that the two mechs were telling the truth after all.
"Then it would seem that Wheeljack and Michael have outlived their usefulness." Cyclonus said with a smirk.
"With your permission, Lord Megatron, I will see to their immediate termination."
-----
Later, after the preparations had been made, and after Wheeljack and Michael had been knocked out, the two had been taken to a smelting pit in the fortress for their executions.
Wheeljack, who was to go first, groaned as he awoke, only to be hit by a Vehicon holding him, jolting him awake.
"Wake up Wrecker." He growled, to which the Wrecker shook himself from their grips. "Time to smelt. Commander Cyclonus wanted you and your friend conscious so you know precisely who ordered your executions."
"Where is Cloney?" Wheeljack asked mockingly. "Doesn't have the bearings to do this himself?"
The 'Cons hit him in response to that remark, nearly making him fall.
Michael, who was some distance behind him with a Vehicon and a Vehicon-Heartless guarding him, could only look on in worry.
Wheeljack looked down into the smelting pit, and purposely hesitated, which only irritated the 'Cons further.
"Jump." One of them ordered, hitting the Wrecker again.
Wheeljack smirked as an idea formed in his helm, and he looked back at the 'Con to his right.
"Hey, you a flyer?" He asked, surprising the 'Con.
This was all the Wrecker needed, for he then back-kicked him, grabbed him, and threw him over the edge and down towards the pit. In response, the Vehicons, Eradicons, and their counterparts around him charged their blasters.
"Okay, I'll jump!" He said, and did so, much to Michael's shock.
Further down, the Eradicon transformed, revealing it was indeed a flyer, and charged back up the pit, with Wheeljack grabbing on and hitching a ride on it.
"Thought so!" He said triumphantly, and began to make his escape, with the Vehicons, Eradicons, and their counterparts giving chase.
This gave Michael the chance for him to also make an escape, and attacked the Vehicon and Vehicon-Heartless guarding him, knocking them aside and running off.
But he wasn't able to get far, for Shockwave intercepted him.
"Please, if you're anything like the Shockwave I knew of, you'll let me go free." He pleaded.
"Your comparison is.... illogical."
Michael could only sigh, knowing they he had no chance of taking him out by himself, especially without his weapons or Keyblade.
"Worth a shot."
Meanwhile, Wheeljack was flying through the air on the Eradicon, as many more, along with their counterparts, as well as Elemental Heartless and Invisibles, as well as Behemoths, Darksides, and Trickmasters that hitched rides on Eradicon-Heartless and Eradicon-Nobodies, along with a Guardian Skywatcher, gave chase to him, firing magic attacks and blaster fire at him in an attempt to take the Wrecker out, but he dodged them all. He then looked ahead, and looked down at the Eradicon he was riding.
"Thanks for the ride." He said mockingly, then he jumped as the 'Con slammed into a support, destroying it, as the Wrecker landed on an Eradicon-Nobody, as the enemies chased him on.
Some of the 'Cons and their counterparts, along with the normal Heartless, looped around one of the supports and fired magic attacks and blaster fire at him. Wheeljack then deployed a blaster and fired at them, taking out some of the Heartless and Eradicons, along with their counterparts, making the 'Cons slam into more supports as he flew along, releasing the hearts and Sparks that the Heartless consumed in the process.
Soon, he made his way to the ground and skidded along it, jumping off the Eradicon-Nobody and transforming as the Nobody blew up behind him as he sped off, as searchlights lit up around the fortress to look for the Wrecker, while the Heartless, Decepticons, Nobodies, and other creatures headed back to help in the search.
"This is how handle things?!" Megatron asked in fury, to which Cyclonus said nothing.
Shockwave, who had subdued and brought Michael to the top of the fortress with him, on the other hand, wasn't so tight-lipped.
"Wheeljack isn't the first prisoner to escape due to incompetence."
Cyclonus only growled, but then smirked.
"Actually, my liege, I allowed the Wrecker to escape." He said triumphantly.
"You what?!" The Warlord asked in anger, as he shot up from his throne.
"But the Autobot's every move and every word will be monitored." Cyclonus added with a smirk, to which Megatron only raised an optic ridge. "Thanks to a simple tracking device implanted while he was unconscious, following the failed Cortical Psychic Patch. Now, all we have to do is wait, watch, and listen. When the Wrecker reunites with the other Autobots and our former comrades, my Armada will strike."
Megatron smirked darkly, while Michael could only look on in dread, worried.
"Return Michael to his cell." The Warlord ordered.
"Yes, Lord Megatron." Cyclonus said, and after yanking the mech to his pedes, took him away.
The Warlord sat back down, thinking about how Cyclonus's idea would work out.
Perhaps the Wrecker still had merit after all.
At the same time as this, Bumblebee and Raf entered the junkyard in which they had seen Ratchet's picture, and began looking for him.
"He's gotta be here." Raf said, hoping he was.
They drove on for a minute longer until Bumblebee instantly braked, jolting the preteen in his seat.
The scout revved his engine, for in front of them, amongst the piles of rusted scrap and broken metal, stood a familiar, clean, red and white ambulance.
Raf then got out of Bumblebee and ran over to him as the scout transformed.
"Ratchet! Ratchet, it's me, Raf!"
Ratchet said nothing.
"Uh, Ratchet?"
"Go away." Came the blunt, yet simple reply.
"<:Ratchet? What are you doing?:>" Bumblebee asked as he knelt down.
"You're interrupting my power down." Ratchet replied, wanting to be left alone.
"<:Ratchet, we came to find you!:>"
"Come on, Ratchet! We need your help to find the others!"
"<:Exactly! We can still stop Megatron if we work together and find the others!:>"
"We can't stop Megatron!" Ratchet replied. "Not anymore... The war is over! And we lost!"
"You're giving up?!" Raf asked in shock, not believing that Ratchet of all people would do so. "We can't just give up!"
Ratchet then transformed, showing that he was serious.
"THEN TELL ME WHAT WE CAN DO!" He snapped, desperation in his voice. "Without communications! Without a Groundbridge! Without a base of operations or resources of any kind!"
"<:Michael's counterpart had all that while he was still against us!:>" Bumblebee said.
"That's right!" Raf agreed. "We know Michael had access to a Groundbridge and a base while he was operating solo!"
"Yes, yes. He'd clearly been using the derelict Decepticon ship, the Harbinger!" Ratchet said, seeing it as the only area with the facilities and resources the Techno-Organic would need during his time alone. "What does that have to do with anything?!"
"It could be full of Cybertronian tech!" Raf said, seeing it as a useful starting point. "And it's probably unoccupied right now since Michael's probably captured!"
Pfffttt... Well! Resources won't be of much use without someone to... lead us..."
"What about Michael?!" Raf asked. "Optimus made him temporary leader when he was in the mind of Orion Pax!"
"Yes, he was, and even though he had been leader for only two days, I trust his leadership. But even with Michael leading us, we have no chance against Megatron, not with his new army of Heartless and Nobodies..." Ratchet said solemnly.
"It's a start!" Raf argued.
"Then you'll have to start without me!" Ratchet said firmly. "This is someone else's fight now..."
"There is no one else Ratchet!" Raf pleaded. "Just us! Just the team!"
Ratchet said nothing, and turned around, transforming and shutting down his engine and systems.
"Please... just let me... rust in peace..."
Raf could only look at the medic sadly, knowing that this was a hard situation for them all, but couldn't afford to give up, and decided to start things off without him.
"Come on 'Bee."
Bumblebee then transformed, and Raf climbed in, and the two left, leaving Ratchet to sulk in peace.
Elsewhere, Cliffjumper had stopped at a pier, not really knowing where else to go, and was looking out into the water beyond him.
Jessica had decided to sleep, and slept in the warrior's backseat. It wasn't ideal, but it was at least comfortable, and at least she had protection around her in case any Deceptions found them.
The red warrior remained quiet, thinking about his missing charge and where he could have ended up, as well as the rest of Team Prime, and hoped they were alright.
"We're partners." He said to himself. "We all are. We'll pull through this... hopefully."
Meanwhile, at the Harbinger, Optimus was resting in the room he had been left in by himself. Just then, Smokescreen and Michael entered the room, having bridged to their old base in search of anything useful to help their leader, but had come up empty-servoed.
"We're back." Smokescreen said. Optimus only groaned. "We combed through every square micron of our old base, but we couldn't find Ratchet's medical kit. Not even a bandage."
"The Forge.... of Solus Prime..." Optimus mumbled.
"It's gone too." Smokescreen said solemnly. "The 'Cons and Heartless picked the place clean."
Smokescreen then fell silent, with the only sound being Optimus's pain-filled vents. Then he realized something.
"Wait... if you had the Forge, you could fix yourself up! Power of the Primes! Optimus, hang on just a little longer. That hammer's gotta be somewhere in Megatron's fortress. Come on, Michael."
The two then left, leaving Optimus alone once more.
Michael was doubtful. Not that they wouldn't get the Forge, but at getting past the increased security of Darkmount to be able to retrieve it, for he and Smokescreen had seen the creatures patrolling the place, all of them being ones he recognized from the various franchises he knew of in his homeworld.
It was worse than what had originally happened, but he wasn't going to give up.
Not now. Not ever.
Elsewhere, morning became apparent, and Miko had fallen asleep, and slept peacefully throughout the night while Bulkhead kept watch.
Things remained peaceful for a while, but the peace was soon broken by the sound of an engine approaching, and the Wrecker got up, making Miko fall over and waking her up.
"Miko, wake up." The green mech said.
"Why?" Miko asked after yawning and stretching.
"Someone's coming." The Wrecker replied, deploying a blaster and a mace.
The sound came nearer and nearer, and Bulkhead charged up his blaster, but retracted it when he recognized the sound of the engine.
"I'd know the hum of that engine anywhere!" He said, and ran over.
The car came to a halt and transformed, revealing it to be Wheeljack.
"HAHA! JACKIE!" Bulkhead yelled in excitement before pulling him into a hug. "Where you been buddy?!"
"Catchin' up with a few old dance partners." The white mech replied, struggling to speak, for he was being squeezed by the green Wrecker, as Miko snapped a picture with her phone, which Wheeljack noticed, and smiled as Bulkhead let him go.
"Go to see ya', kid." The white Wrecker greeted. "Safe to assume we're the only three Wreckers around?"
"So then, what are we waiting for?" Miko asked eagerly. "Let's do some damage!"
"What's our next move Jackie?" Bulkhead asked. "Circle back to base?"
"There is no base." Wheeljack replied. "'Con's blasted it to dust."
As their discussion continued, no one realized that Cyclonus was listening through the tracker he had planted on the white Wrecker from the Nemesis, thinking the mech hadn't noticed it.
"The dimwitted Wrecker played right into my hands." Cyclonus chuckled, and activated the main comm. "All seekers to the flight deck! We have pinpointed the enemy!"
A few Eradicons, old and new, along with a few Eradicon-Heartless and Eradicon-Nobodies, a Guardian, a few Sentries, two Wizzrobes, a Frost Talus and a Stone Talus, and a Hinox were sent out to the location.
"Attack my Armada!" Cyclonus ordered from the comm.
The search-and-destroy team soon arrived, landing by a lake, and scoped the place out, with the Eradicons and their counterparts deploying their blaster and charging them up.
"We are at the coordinate, Commander Cyclonus." One of the new drones said into his comm.
"Hold fast." Cyclonus said from the Nemesis. "They are approaching your position."
The team then noticed a log approaching, and tensed up, but backed down when they realized what it was.
High above, Miko, Bulkhead, and Wheeljack were looking out from a cliff; the white Wrecker realized that he'd been bugged. Bulkhead and Miko were surprised by the creatures lurking amongst the Eradicons and their counterparts, not at all knowing what they were, but not caring since they seemed to be of assistance to the Decepticons.
"Targets in range." Bulkhead said.
The team watched as the log approached them, and the Eradicons noticed an object inside it.
"And boom." Wheeljack smirked, and pressed something.
"GRENADE!" A drone called, but the grenade then blew up, taking out the Eradicons and their counterparts, along with the Sentries and Wizzrobes, but the Guardian, Hinox, and Talus's remained, stunned.
Cyclonus could only look at the monitor in shock as the signals of the team went out.
"He... He tricked us..."
Megatron could only glare at the seeker, not at all happy. Thinking that the Autobots were long gone, he had a Groundbridge sent to pick up the remaining creatures, for he knew that they couldn't be taken out so easily, but wasn't aware of the Talus's regenerative properties.
The trio watched as they left as the smoke cleared, and Miko looked back at Wheeljack.
"How did you know the 'Cons planted a tracker on you?" She asked.
"I figured the 'Cons were up to somethin', so I did a little pokin' around under my hood." The white Wrecker explained.
"Ha ha, that's my Jackie." Bulkhead chuckled.
Before they could continue, however, the sound of a jet filled the air, and the trio tensed slightly, but Bulkhead calmed down when he realized who it was.
It was Dreadwing, who had been nearby and had seen the explosion.
The seeker transformed and landed by them, but Wheeljack growled.
"Dreadwing...!" He then unsheathed his katanas and went to charge at the seeker, but Bulkhead quickly stopped him.
"Jackie! Wait, he's with us!" He said, making the white mech freeze up.
"What did you just say?" He asked, growling slightly and narrowing his optics.
"Dreadwing defected from the 'Cons and joined our side." Bulkhead said, and explained what had happened previously, but Wheeljack wasn't buying it.
"Starscream, Knockout, and Breakdown, I can get behind in changing sides, but him?!" Wheeljack asked. "After what he did to so many Wreckers?! To Seaspray?!"
"I know that I had been the one to take out your fellow Wreckers, but I regret the choice I had made." The seeker said. "Especially after one of your own save my twin from a fate that would have been a disgrace to his honor."
Wheeljack could only snarl.
He hated the seeker. Despised him, in fact, for what he did to Seaspray and possibly many other Wreckers, and secretly wanted to 'watch him fry' as he had said once before.
Bulkhead too hadn't forgotten, but with everything that had been going on, it had been pushed to the back of his mind, and while he was still upset about what he did, he was willing to give Dreadwing a chance.
He did it for the others, so why not him?
"Jackie, listen, I don't like it any more than you do, but right now, we're all in this together, and we need all the help we can get." Bulkhead said, and Wheeljack fell silent for a few moments.
He supposed he could put it behind him, but that didn't mean he forgave the seeker. Not by a long shot.
"...Fine..." He said at last.
Bulkhead was right. They needed all the help they could get, and any help was appreciated, even from those they didn't like.
"Where is Skyquake?" Bulkhead asked.
"He has been hidden out of sight to keep him safe until the time is right." Dreadwing replied. Just then, Miko spoke up.
"What's our next move?" She asked eagerly, and Wheeljack's mood went up.
"I salvaged some munitions from the Jackhammer on my way out." The white Wrecker replied, and transformed. "You thought that made a loud noise? Just wait!"
He then took off as Dreadwing and Bulkhead transformed, with Miko climbing into the Wrecker's cab, and the quartet took off in search of a way to find the others.
Things were finally looking up.
Meanwhile, at the Harbinger, Bumblebee and Raf were working in the lab to get its systems up and running to complete efficiency.
Despite the fact Michael had stayed in the lab, he hadn't made any improvements to it in the time he had been there, for he only required the systems to be up and running, and they weren't at their peak due to the worn out tech and lack of Energon, and the duo were doing their best to fix what the Techno-Organic had neglected to do.
"<:Okay Raf, I'm ready.:>"
"Hold it right there, 'Bee." The preteen said, as he jumped from button to button and pressed the buttons on the console's touchscreen. "And... powering up!"
The room glowed for a moment, then the lights went out, much to their disappointment.
"Keep trying." Raf encouraged. "We'll figure it out."
Just then, a familiar voice spoke out.
"Ep Ep Ep."
The two looked over, and grinned.
"<:Ratchet! You're here!:>"
"You're miscalculating the Energon transducer." The CMO said.
"Ratchet!" Raf said, relief in his voice.
"Now, step out of my way so I can work."
Raf moved to let the CMO work, smiling as he did, and although the medic didn't do so at first, he eventually smiled back.
Things really were looking up for them.
However, the trio was unaware of the other occupant on the half-buried ship, or the condition he was in.
Elsewhere, Arcee, Vince, and Jack were driving through a desert area in silence, which was soon broken by Jack.
"The last time things looked this bleak, Optimus slipped me that Keycard." The raven-haired teen said, remembering what had happened with Unicron and Orion. "Something we could hang our hopes on."
"I know you're feeling helpless, Jack," Arcee comforted. "but this doesn't need to be your burden."
Just then, a large ship flew over them close to the ground, cutting off any further conversation, as the trio came to a halt as the ship landed a few feet ahead of them on the road.
Jack and Vince dismounted the femme, who transformed and walked ahead, deploying her blasters.
"Stay behind me." She ordered
The lift to the ship's interior lowered, the occupant of it shrouded in clouds of steam, but the steps he took as he left the cloud revealed that he was of heavy build.
Arcee aimed her blasters, but backed off when she realized whose side the bot was on, and who the bot was.
"Jack, Vince, I don't think we're gonna need that Keycard." She said, and the two looked up in awe at the mech. "Meet Ultra Magnus."
The two could only stare at him, but were inwardly impressed.
In the skies of Earth, the Nemesis flew.
Inside the ship, Megatron was scolding Cyclonus for his failed attempt at destroying the Autobots.
"So, not only did you fail to destroy the Autobots, but you allowed their number to increase!" He said in anger, then he yelled out as Shockwave walked up. "Is there no one who can bring me their heads?!"
"If I may, Lord Megatron, during my exile on Cybertron, I resumed work on a long-dormant project." He said, as he walked up to the console and brought up his work on it. "One that, I believe, may provide a solution to our current problem."
"Cybernucleic Acid?" Thundercracker asked, surprised.
"The building blocks of all Cybertronian life." Shockwave replied. "This hails from a specimen I excavated on our planet that has yielded promising results."
"The Autobots continue to evade us, even with our increased army." Cyclonus said with a scowl. "What makes you think that we can afford to wait for the answer to our prayers to be birthed in some petri dish?"
"You misunderstand." Shocked went on. "The subject is fully cultivated and need only be transported from my laboratory on Cybertron."
"Then by all means." Megatron said with a smirk, willing to take Shockwave's offer up. "Activate the Spacebridge."
Shockwave soon returned to his lab, and set about transporting his specimen to its new home, and by extension, new life.
Back on Earth at Darkmount, Megatron, along with Soundwave, Skywarp, Barricade, Cyclonus, Thundercracker, and several Vehicons, Heartless, and Nobodies, along with other creatures, waited at the top of the fortress as the Spacebridge opened ahead of them.
Shockwave then came through to present his project.
"I present to you, my liege, the ultimate Autobot hunter."
The project then came through, and it was massive, far bigger than what any of the Decepticons had seen before, as they could only look at it in shocked disbelief, for it was believed these beings had all gone extinct centuries ago.
If the Insecticons were referred to as beasts before, that was quickly taken away in favor of what stood before them.
This was a true beast.
~~~
A/N: Scattered is now done. Not much to say, but the story just keeps getting better. I'm sure the next one will pack a lot of emotion, but what do you guys think of this chapter? Let me know in the comments!
Next Chapter: The Decepticons release their new Autobot hunter to track down and destroy them. Meanwhile, the Autobots, humans, and former Decepticons are able to bring themselves back together thanks to the assistance of Ultra Magnus, and they make a big discovery within the walls of the Harbinger in the processs.