He has a big, big secret   And remember, Stormjet knows the secret too! And two other people in the story that haven't let on that they know it, but the hints have been dropped.

Remember ... Alpha Trion has something planned for Optronix (who we all know becomes Optimus Prime just because of the name and the story). And Stormjet re-built Magnus into Ultra Magnus, just to try and screw with Alpha Trion's plans.

This story is just getting interesting ... and when they FINALLY go to Earth, that's kind of the final story-arch ... because something happens while they're there, to start the sequel story!

Bwahahaha.

 

Ask and you shall receive!

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12.




Ultra Magnus slammed his fist onto the table in the meeting room, causing the room to shake and the table to crack where his fist had landed.

“So that’s it, huh?” he angrily asked. “We just give up because Cybertron can’t handle the battle? How about we just take the battle to the stinkin’ Predacons and finish it once and for all, LIKE I’VE BEEN SUGGESTING FOR THE PAST SEVERAL WEEKS!?”

“Please,” Alpha Trion said, his hands out in a calming gesture. “I understand your frustration, but we must keep in mind that our planet is the only home we have. If we destroy it trying to defeat the Predacons, what have we won?”

“Didn’t you START this slagging war?” Ultra Magnus asked, slouching back in his seat. “You unable to finish what you started? Are you unable to make the hard decisions? This is exactly why I should be calling the shots…”

“Yeah that’s exactly what we need,” Hightower chimed in sarcastically. “A vigilante with a chip on his shoulder.”

“So what are our options?” asked Optronix, trying to remain calm and collected while everyone else went off the handle. “We can’t surrender and we can’t just give up…so what are you suggesting we do?”

“Form an alliance of sorts,” Alpha Trion explained. “Come to some truce in this war. Give up half of Cybertron to them and keep our half. Pool resources and try to come to some sort of economic and civil union between factions.”

“Until they decide they want more,” Ultra Magnus interrupted, rolling his optics. “Look, if this is the way you’re going to handle it, then I’m out. I won’t be part of something that won’t stand up for itself.”

“Magnus please…” Alpha Trion pleaded.

“Ultra Magnus,” responded the arrogant youth of Alpha Trion’s creation. “Magnus died the day you left me to rot with Cryotek.” And with that, Ultra Magnus rose from his seat and exited the meeting room, leaving the other four Autobots to themselves.

Ultra Magnus walked down the corridor that led from the meeting room, his face a dead give away at how angry he had become. He couldn’t fathom why there should be any reason to give up a planet that was invaded by the Predacons in the first place. And he couldn’t fathom how Alpha Trion, who ran from battle more than anything, continued to lead the Autobots away from victory and into the hands of uneasy defeat time and time again.

Waiting for Magnus was the one who had saved him and rebuilt him in to the war machine that he was now.

“I’m assuming the meeting didn’t go well?” asked Stormjet, his arms crossed.

“Shut up,” Ultra Magnus said, walking past him. “I’m not in the mood to talk destinies and legacies with you.”

“But don’t you see?” Stormjet continued. “The fact that you have now broken away from the rest of them guarantees your right in the histories of Cybertron as the greatest hero to have ever functioned.”

Ultra Magnus stopped walking. He had to admit, he did enjoy the sound of that.

“Your suggestion?” he asked, turning to look at Stormjet.

“Find others as frustrated as you,” the red and white jet suggested. “Form your own band of warriors, lead them to victory and Cybertron is yours to hold in your hand.”

“I’m not in this to rule,” Ultra Magnus corrected Stormjet. “I only want revenge.”

“That’s how it starts…” Stormjet whispered. “Conquer the Predacons, take control of Cybertron, and we each have our revenge fulfilled.”

“Our?” Ultra Magnus asked, curious if he heard Stormjet correctly.

“My apologies,” the flying Autobot said. “I meant your. Must be a few circuits scrambled from the last battle, it won’t happen again sir.”

“Indeed. Gather whomever you can and meet at the hangars,” Magnus ordered. “We’re going to have to borrow a shuttle to prepare our first counter-measure against the Predacons. Let’s roll!”

Within the ruins of the city of Iacon, the Predacons held a meeting themselves.

Inside what was once considered a decorative throne room sat Cryotek atop the golden throne, it’s sides deteriorated from war and the color fading at parts. Standing at the base of the throne were his loyal followers – Skybyte, Dark Scream, Gas Skunk, and Slapper. At the far end of the room, shrouded in darkness, stood Megatron, his back against the wall and his arms crossed.

“The Autobots will no doubt make an advance soon,” Cryotek announced. “Unfortunately, our energy reserves are running extremely low. We cannot sustain more than a few more battles before we are so depleted we cannot re-energize.” Cryotek turned to Megatron, then to his four loyal warriors. “I am open to suggestion.”

“Then we should take the offensive to the Autobots!” hissed Dark Scream. “If we’re low on energy, they must be too!”

“And if they’re not?” Cryotek asked.

“Then…then…” Dark Scream stuttered, unable to come up with a decent reply. “Then we’re slag…”

“Can we build something to absorb some energy?” asked Slapper.

“What would we build?” Cryotek asked. “And how would it work?”

“It could be a pylon that sucks the energy out any purely mechanical beings that enter within a certain radius,” Slapper thought out-loud. His scientist mind was at work every available moment. “We could then harness the energy in to a conductor, and siphon that energy through a filter that would allow us to be able to absorb it!”

“And I suppose you have the materials, the energy, and the man-power available to you at this very moment?” Cryotek asked, annoyed at the grandeur scheme.

“Well, no…” replied Slapper, his tone quieting off as he realized his idea was simply but a dream.

“Underground,” Megatron piped up from the shadows.

“Pardon?” Cryotek asked, intrigued.

“We go underground,” Megatron continued. “I have sensed a source of energy from beneath the surface. Autobot interference has not enabled me to investigate, but I am certain of it.”

“No,” Cryotek replied quickly. “There is nothing to gain by going underground.”

“There is everything to gain,” Megatron snapped in response. “You are just afraid of what we might discover.”

Cryotek was shocked. Could it be that Megatron had figured out everything?

“Impossible,” Cryotek thought to himself. “Megatron wasn’t even sentient at the time of his creation. Though the choice of spark I used is questionable, looking back, but it is simply impossible for him to have pieced together everything to have it make sense now. Unless someone informed him…”

“And what, Megatron, do you seek underground?” Cryotek finally asked, breaking the silence.

“I am uncertain,” Megatron responded, moving away from the shadows and stepping out into the light. “But the energy source is great, enough that it lingers every time I am even within visual distance.”

“Visual distance?” Cryotek asked, his curiosity growing.

“Affirmative,” Megatron replied. “I have come across what appears to be an abandoned excavation site, complete with an entrance to corridors that run below the surface. I believe the answers we seek, not just for our lack of energy, but for everything, lie below…”

“Absolutely not,” Cryotek stated, standing up from his throne.

“Slag,” Cryotek thought to himself. “The odds he’d find the entrance…”

“I agree with Megatron,” Skybyte finally spoke. This announcement shocked not just Cryotek, but the other Predacons as well. Skybyte had always been blindly loyal to everything Cryotek had decided on in the past. “At this point, what do we have to lose?”

“Energy,” Cryotek snapped at Skybyte. “Sending a force of troops underground because Megatron’s circuits are malfunctioning is hardly worth the effort to discuss, let alone execute. I forbid it.”

With the words ‘I forbid it’, something snapped inside Megatron. His optics began to glow a deep, dark red, and his fists clenched. With a flash of light, Megatron took to the air and knocked Cryotek to the ground behind the throne, his knees on Cryotek’s chest and his fist ready to strike.

“You FORBID me?” Megatron asked, a deep and sinister voice escaped his vocal processor. “Nobody tells Megatron what to do….”

And as quickly as it started, whatever snapped inside Megatron came to an end, as he lowered his fist and realized what had happened. He stepped off of Cryotek and simply stared at his commander.

“What in the name of all that is unholy and unjust!?” Cryotek shouted as he rose to his feet. “I am your commander! How dare you challenge me?!” he snarled, pushing Megatron as he walked towards him. “I will have you melted down for spare parts for this!!”

“I…I don’t…” Megatron stuttered. He was unable to complete a thought let alone verbally communicate it. “My mind…something…I cannot… …”

“Skybyte! Slapper!” Cryotek shouted. His two loyal warriors saluted and ran to the steps of the throne. “Remove this filth from my site!”

Skybyte and Slapper each grabbed an arm of Megatron and pulled him away from Cryotek. They walked to the door, then turned and looked back to Cryotek.

“What shall we do with him?” Skybyte asked.

“Disable his weapons systems,” Cryotek ordered. “Then, feed him to Bruticus…we haven’t fed our pet in awhile.”

“Bruticus…” Megatron whispered allowed as he was drug away. “Bruticus…Bruticus…”

“He’s gone completely bonkers,” Slapper stated the obvious to Skybyte. “What the slag happened back there?”

“I am more curious as to what is underground that Cryotek is so afraid of,” Skybyte said. “It is unlike our commander to be so against something, it’s as if he knows there’s something down there and he doesn’t want us to find it.”

“What are you suggesting?” Slapper said with a smile.

“Let’s take Megatron to this underground power source,” he said quietly. “We’ll bring Bruticus just incase Megatron gets rowdy.”

Slapper laughed as let go of Megatron and walked towards an abandoned and shattered energy silo. He lifted up a small piece of metal on the framework of what used to be a door only to reveal a keypad. With a few punches on the various colored buttons, a hissing sound followed with the opening of a floor panel inside the silo became apparent. Now Slapper quietly tip-toed his way inside and peered down into the hole.

“Oh Bruticus,” Slapper said with a happy pitch in his voice. “You wanna go for a walk, you ugly piece of experimental Predacon trash?”

A loud and thunderous growl erupted from the hole inside the silo, sending Slapper cowering back towards Skybyte, who stood laughing with Megatron slouched over his arms, the mighty warrior slipping in and out of a state of stasis.

“Your courage is astounding,” Skybyte continued to laugh. “Just activate the collar, the leash, and let’s go! Cryotek will soon learn that we are not where we said we’d be…”

Slapper pulled out a small electronic device and pushed one of two buttons. The first button he pushed sent thirty-thousand volts of electricity searing through the Predacon known as Bruticus, causing a loud yelp followed with constant whimpering. The second button was pushed, creating an energon-leash that connected to the remote Slapper held. With a slight tug, the beast known as Bruticus crawled out of his hole. He was truly a piece of Predacon trash, as his body seemed to be falling apart. He had three heads, though two of the three looked to be in a constant state of stasis, never moving, never looking around, simply hanging lifeless while the third and larger head did most of the growling, grunting, and howling.

“Why did we create this thing again?” Slapper asked as the duo and their companions made their way from the silo towards an area just to the east of the ruins of Iacon. The interference from recent battles would block them from any radar equipment, and they could travel at a comfortable pace until they were out of tracking range from Iacon.

“Cryotek likes to dabble in creating life,” Skybyte explained. “Megatron was only the beginning … Bruticus is the failed attempt of putting three sparks in to one body, in hopes that the being becomes stronger and more intelligent.”

Slapper laughed.

“So instead they got a giant dog that drools, eats his own kind, and can’t decipher the difference between Predacon and Autobot?”

“Not quite,” Skybyte said with a smile. “I like to think of it more as he doesn’t really care, he just wants to kill everyone and everything.”

“My hero,” Slapper gagged.

The four Predacons made their way through the ruins of Iacon, searching for the secret that had captivated both of their superior officers.

Half a world away, literally, stood the Autobot known as Ultra Magnus. He was standing at the front of the shuttle repair bay along with his cohort Stormjet. Two large solid steel doors that were over five-hundred feet tall stood in their way. The two of them had schemed to steal a shuttle and build their own force of Autobots to conquer the Predacons once and for all, seeing as the rest of the Autobots had decided that winning the war was impossible. But now they faced a new crossroad to their mission.

“How difficult is it to steal a shuttle?” Ultra Magnus asked Stormjet. “I mean, can’t we just blast our way in through the doors and jump on one and take off?”

“Well,” Stormjet stuttered briefly. “First we need to find out which shuttles are in a condition to fly, and then we need to make sure it’s fueled up, and then we still need a crew to help fly it…”

Ultra Magnus was visibly annoyed.

“What about the shuttle we first arrived in?” he asked Stormjet, tapping his fingers across his forearms. “You didn’t just abandon it somewhere, did you?”

“Of course not!” Stormjet snapped back. “We took a hit that disabled some of our systems, but the ship itself was structurally sufficient.”

“So…where the slag is it!?” Magnus finally snapped.

“We abandoned ship, do you not remember sir?” Stormjet sneered back. “You were in such a rush to battle Megatron and Cryotek that you did not care for the ship at all … it probably crashed somewhere in the area of the battlefield.”

“Then that’s where we’re going!” commanded Ultra Magnus, throwing his arms up in frustration and walking away from the repair bay. As if by design, the doors slowly began to creek open, air that had been sealed within escaping with a hiss, and after a few moments of waiting, a lone figure stood at the entry way.

“Is there something I can help the two of you with?” asked the blue and white robot. His body was old and seemed to be made up of various scrap-parts. His optics suggested he was old, but he seemed intelligent beyond his years. “It’s not very often I have two Autobots discussing stealing a shuttle…”

“I am Ultra Magnus of the Autobot Elite Forces,” Ultra Magnus announced. “I am in need of a shuttle to launch an offensive against the Predacon forces. If you are not able to provide me one, I shall simply take what it is I need!”

“That’s not a very Autobot-like thing to say,” the old robot whistled. “Name is Scavenger. And I know for a fact the Autobots are not preparing an offensive on the Predacons, because they’ve recently announced their desire to find a peaceful end to this war.”

“WHAT!?” Ultra Magnus shouted. “They’ve already made the announcement!? Alpha Trion … he doesn’t waste any time, does he?” he growled to himself.

“Lucky for you,” Scavenger continued to whistle, leading Ultra Magnus into the repair bay. “I just happen to have a battle cruiser that has been outfitted with the latest weapons and navigational systems.”

“Lucky for me?” Ultra Magnus asked, confused.

“Yes son,” Scavenger said with a chuckle. “I hate those slaggin’ Predacons with all my rusted spark. Makin’ peace with ‘em isn’t going to bring back my friends, my shop, or any of the things I built. You want to wage a war? You’ve got one more on your side.”

“Excellent,” Ultra Magnus smiled. The self-proclaimed commander stood silent for a moment, then leaned forward to the older robot. “You…know how to fly this, right?”

Scavenger chuckled.

“Of course I do, kid!” he continued to chuckle, but with a wheeze. “I build these slaggin’ things, wouldn’t built somethin’ I couldn’t use, yanno?”

“Then let’s gather what materials we need and prepare for departure,” Ultra Magnus ordered. “We’ve got a war to win.”

Half a planet away, far from the ruins of Iacon and at an excavation site unearthed by the war, Slapper and Skybyte, with their pet beast Bruticus and their ‘captive’ Megatron, prepared to enter the dark and rusted cavern that held more secrets than they were prepared to face.

“This place … kind of spooky,” Slapper said, looking over his shoulder. “I’m getting a weird vibe, like we shouldn’t be here…”

“Stop cowering and prepare to descend,” Skybyte snapped back. The rather harsh and quick-witted Skybyte was something new to Slapper. He always considered Cryotek’s right-hand-man to be more of a suck-up, the type of warrior to say what you wanted to hear yet never managed to achieve what you wanted him to do. Nevertheless, the change was … refreshing, compared to what he was used to.

“My sensors are screaming,” Slapper continued to complain as they edged their way into the darkness. Even with infrared activated on their optic sensors, the Predacons were unable to see more than a few hundred feet ahead of them. The walls were covered in dust, the ground wet from the combination of moisture and stale air that had been undisturbed for Primus only knows how long. “There’s an energy source in here all right, but it’s not coming up like normal … it’s distorted, different…”

“I am getting the same readings,” Skybyte replied. “There’s so much interference that it’s hard to figure out exactly what type of energy source it is. Switch your defenses to high and ready available weapon systems.”

Megatron let out a slight groan as he slowly came to.

“Welcome back from stasis,” Slapper said half-heartedly, tapping Megatron on the forehead. “We’ve decided to play hooky and find out what it is you and the boss are so eager to have for yourselves.”

“Shut up,” Skybyte said through the darkness. He held his hands out to feel the walls in front of him, trying to find some sort of entrance or hint of an entrance to continue searching the caverns. “Can your acid dissolve some of the grime so I can figure out what our next move is?”

“Only if you write me a poem,” Slapper said with a smirk. Skybyte shot a glance back at Slapper to show his lack of enthusiasm for the comment. Slapper shrugged. “What a sore-bot. Fine, fine. But you hold Megatron,” Slapper said, passing over the bound Predacon warrior to Skybyte. “BEAST MODE!” he shouted, his arms and legs folding as skin covered his body. In mere moments, he had transformed from a robotic figure to that of a toad, his eyes blinking as his tongue hung out of his open mouth.

“Be quick about it,” Skybyte requested. “The more time we’re out of tracking range of Cryotek, the better the chance he’ll figure out what we’re up to. And if there’s nothing worth finding down here, we’re going to be food for that stupid dog we’ve got leashed up.”

“One batch of acid coming up!” Slapper announced, swishing liquid between his cheeks. He took aim at one of the walls in front of them and let out a massive spit. The acid hit the wall, green in color, and lit up the entire corridor they were in. The acid quickly dissolved not only the grime, but also the wall itself. A hissing noise echoed throughout the tunnels.

“I said the grime,” Skybyte stated annoyed. “But I guess the whole slagging wall works too. Get back on your feet, the readings have picked up.”

“No…” Megatron groaned.

“Keep silent,” Skybyte stated. “You’re here by my mercy. Put up a fight and the walls won’t be the only thing corroding around here.”

“My hero,” Slapper chuckled. “Slapper, TERRORIZE!” he shouted, the voice-command causing his body to shape and shift back to his robotic form. He grabbed Megatron again and connected the electro-leash holding Bruticus to Megatron’s waist. “Now puppy and nutso can play together.”

Skybyte stopped dead in his tracks and put his hand out behind him to signal to Slapper to stop moving. Slapper stopped, put his head down and quickly shot it back up, grabbing the handle of his tongue-mace, ready to energize it in a nano-second’s notice. Whatever got Skybyte’s attention also got that of Slapper’s.

“Second reading,” Skybyte whispered. “Not as strong, but getting closer…”

“Alpha…Trion…” Megatron groaned again.

“What?” Slapper whispered to Megatron.

“He said ‘Alpha Trion’, Predacon,” said the familiar voice of the older robot. “And your journey ends right here, right now.”

 

I actually didn't mean to make it last that long. I just started writing the dialogue like I was watching the actual cartoon and the sarcasm and humor just kept flowing and flowing.

When I finally reveal everything (might be the next chapter, or maybe the one after it, still unsure of how to pace it) I hope it'll make sense and hook in a few more regulars to the thread  

 

Thanks!  

Been working on the next update. It's big and been tricky, want to reveal things without just coming out and saying what it is I'm revealing. So it's a tough chapter to write, but it's a huge turning point in the story and sets up the sequel and the remaining point of this series. This is probably only a 16 chapter story.

 

Update REAL soon. Just gotta finish up the ending of the chapter after the meeting at work. KTHXBYE