The next morning, while the Autobots were still a bit groggy since they’d just woken up, the Autobots were going through their own morning routines. Hot Shot was tuning his engine so he can be even faster, while Siren was occupied writing a list of medical incidents he’s treated. Ironclad was in the atrium of the Autobase meditating under a tree, while Wheeljack was guzzling a few barrels of oil, like he always does. Optimus, on the other hand, was monitoring Teletraan-I. “So, what’s the plan, boss-bot?” Hot Shot had finished tuning his engine and sat down at the table across from Wheeljack, placing his arms behind his head as he leaned back.” Any assignments for me today?” “Not today, Hot Shot.” Optimus pondered a bit. “The ‘Cons haven’t been active lately.” Optimus gestured towards Hot Shot, Wheeljack and Ironclad. “You three take a break today, all right?” “Yeah!” Hot Shot pumped his fist. “I heard the Ocean City street race is being held today, and I’m definitely gonna be on that track!” “Eh, screw the city, I’m gonna try an’ build some new gadgets fer the rest of yas.” Wheeljack leaned on his wrench before walking off to his lab. “I suppose I should get the med bay ready, shouldn’t I?” Siren chuckled to himself, monitoring Teletraan-I alongside Optimus. “Any second now, something’s going to- With a loud explosion, Wheeljack was sent hurtling out of his lab into the wall! “I’M OKAY!” Siren rolled his optics and gave Optimus complete control over the console. “Ironclad, what are you going to do?” Optimus noticed that the large bronze Autobot hadn’t left the base yet. “Hrm…” Ironclad pondered for a few seconds. “I think I’ll go see if Marina’s busy. If she isn’t, then I’ll see if I can bring her over to Furman Park.” Optimus laughed. “All right, then. Autobots, roll out and have some fun for once.” “Let’s see… A few numerical programs here… Some binary coding here… There we go! This’ll be a great new computing chip!” Marina leaned back in her chair – she’d spent the entire night on her computer writing up entirely new code for a new energy plant in Ocean City. “I think I’ve earned some downtime.” She adjusted her glasses and looked out her apartment window – she saw Ironclad pull up to her door in vehicle mode. “Ironclad!” The 23-year-old programmer opened her window. “What’s up?” “I was thinking we could go to Furman Park. Considering how you helped make me my own garden in my quarters, I assume you’d enjoy it.” Marina nodded and closed her window. After cleaning up, she walked down from her apartment to see her best friend. “I haven’t been in Furman Park for ages…” Marina sat down in Ironclad’s passenger seat. “I hope that it hasn’t been trashed again by any ‘Cons.” “Don’t worry.” Ironclad said, communicating with Marina through his armored truck-mode’s radio system. “There hasn’t been any Decepticon activity since the fight Hot Shot and Wheeljack had with Bonecrusher.” “Oof, I remember seeing how trashed that part of Furman Park was.” Marina frowned as she spoke to the Autobot. “Either way, I hope we don’t have to deal with any of them – I just want to relax today!” “So do I, Marina.” After arriving to the parking lot for the park, Ironclad opened his door for Marina. “I can’t accompany you in the park, but I can still see some parts of it.” Marina thought of something. “Don’t you have a holomatter avatar? You could use that!” “… Why didn’t I think of that?” Ironclad chuckled as he materialized his holomatter avatar – an old yet muscular man with a bum leg, much like Ironclad himself. “I suppose we should get going.” “So, Ironclad… What happened to you during the Great War? You know, how you got that replacement leg?” Marina felt a bit uncomfortable asking him a question like that. Ironclad sighed with a weary look on his face. “It was the battle for Garrus-9. I remember it like it was yesterday…” Ironclad’s holo-avatar sat down on a bench with Marina so he could tell her his story. “I was one of the Wreckers, a special squadron of Autobots that were sent out as an absolute last resort. Wheeljack was part of the Wreckers – that’s how I befriended him – and we were commanded by Impactor Prime. The rest of the Wreckers were Whirl, Guzzle, Roadbuster, Rotorstorm, Pyro, Topspin and Twin Twist.” Ironclad flashed back to the battle. “Fire in the hole!” Fisitron threw a proton grenade from a trench, and he and the other Wreckers ducked and covered under the trench, dodging a blast that incinerated some of the Vehicon troopers that were overwhelmingly marching on Garrus-9. “I’m running outta grenades, guys! I don’t know how much longer we can stay in this trench!” Impactor transformed into vehicle mode. “We don’t have to, ‘Fis. All we need to do is tunnel under them for a surprise attack! Twin Twist, tunnel underneath those Decepticreeps!” Twin Twist burrowed from the trench to a point in the ground behind a squadron of Vehicons, single-handedly dispatching them all with his drill-missiles. Impactor followed, and blasted some more Vehicons with his shoulder-mounted cannons. He then gestured to the rest of the Wreckers. “Get up off your skidplates and follow me! Whirl, Rotorstorm, Topspin, provide cover fire from the air!” Impactor lead the rest of the land-bound Wreckers in a devastating charge, with each Wrecker dispatching Vehicons with their various weaponry. “Let’s show these spawns of glitches how we do things downtown!” Roadbuster armed himself with his trademark machine gun, mowing down more and more Vehicons. After defeating every Vehicon in their path, the Wreckers made their way to Garrus-9’s penitentiary, hoping that they’d finally won victory from this battle. There wasn’t any time to celebrate – after all, the ‘Cons might come back with more troops. Just as they were ready to defend the base, however, a sonic boom echoed across the formerly-silent battlefield. A Cybertronian spacejet swooped down from the air, dropping a tank from its underside. Then, the spacejet landed, combining with the tank to form… “Overlord…” Even Impactor Prime was terrified – Overlord was infamous for his sadistic bloodlust. “Wreckers, fall back and wait for reinforcements! “Well, look at that! An entire battlefield littered with corpses.” Overlord smirked at the Wreckers. “I admire your skills, Wreckers, but unfortunately… This is the end of the line for you.” Overlord charged at the Wreckers. “Oh, yeah? Well you can bite my shiny, metal – GRK!” Whirl was cut off after Overlord ripped off one of his helicopter blades and impaled him on it. “Ah, slag…” Whirl’s eye stopped glowing – while the damage wasn’t fatal, it was enough to take him out of the battle. Overlord chuckled to himself. “Would anyone else like to fill his shoes?” Overlord brandished his massive Dark Energon cannon in an attempt to intimidate the rest of the Wreckers. The ground beneath him began to rumble, and Twin Twist erupted from the ground in tank mode, quickly transforming into robot mode in an attempt to ambush Overlord. Overlord simply grabbed Twin Twist by his head, and started crushing it. As he continued crushing Twin Twist’s head, he noticed Topspin transform to robot mode and fall out of the air, clutching his head from the pain Overlord was subjecting Twin Twist to. “Oh, it seems like I might be killing TWO Autobots for the price of one!” Finally, after crushing Twin Twist’s head simply to torture him and his brother, he then ripped Twin Twist in half, and casually ripped one of the drills from his legs to skewer the still-living Topspin. “I’m getting sick of all of this!” Ironclad, visibly fuming from seeing his comrades dying horrible and cruel deaths, rushed at Overlord – he punched the larger Decepticon in his torso. He only found himself being lifted into the air by his throat… “My, aren’t you a brave little Wrecker?” Overlord smirked. “I admire that, so I’m going to spare you from death…” Overlord then grabbed Ironclad’s left leg and slowly tore it off, simply to cause as much pain as possible on Ironclad. “Now, where was I? Oh, yes, NOW I remember!” Overlord dropped Ironclad to the ground and lifted his cannon, aiming it at Impactor. The leader of the Wreckers didn’t even have time to react - all that was left of Impactor was his harpoon hand. “This planet now belongs to the Decepticons! As for some of you…” He quickly dispatched Rotorstorm, Fistron and Pyro with non-lethal blows. “You and the rest of Garrus-9’s prisoners will have the excitement of fighting each other in my new gladiatorial arena!” He then turned to Ironclad, Roadbuster, Guzzle and Whirl, who had pulled his blade out of his torso and was standing up with the support of Roadbuster. “I'll let you live, just so you can tell your pathetic Autobot friends all about how Garrus-9 fell.” Ironclad’s holo-matter avatar had a grim expression on his face. “And that’s how I lost not only my leg – I lost a bit of my own Spark after that.” Marina adjusted her glasses, regretting that she even asked him how it happened. “I… I’m sorry, Ironclad. Maybe we should just go back to Autobase.” Ironclad’s holo-avatar shook his head. “We came here for a walk around the park, and I think we should do so. I need something to enjoy after telling that story.” Marina nodded, and stood up alongside Ironclad’s avatar. “Did you ever tell this to the other Autobots? Besides Wheeljack, of course.” “No.” Ironclad’s expression remained stoic. “I never have. But after telling you, maybe I should.” “Good.” Marina sighed. “I say it’s time we finally walk around.” “Agreed.” Ironclad started walking, and the two of them walked around the park before they both went to their respective homes. -------- Normally, I don't like writing ultra-violent scenes, but since this was basically a fusion of LSotW and TFA's Thrill of the Hunt and the bad guy was Overlord, I kind of had to to get across that Ironclad was intensely traumatized, and that Overlord here is just as nasty as IDW Overlord. And yes, Whirl does live. He might show up in future stories! I also originally had Wheeljack in place of Fisitron, but I decided that I'd rather not have two core Autobots with messed-up back-stories.
