Starscream didn't comment about Knockout's little trek while he should have been working, apparently having crossed paths with the Autobots and getting a good kick in the ass for it. He could certainly enjoy when his subordinates' transgression gets punished by the same actions they carried.
Starscream hadn't even needed to say anything, just look at the beaten 'con and smirk. And that had been all he had needed to get the man working as he should. It was impressive to see that he hadn't finished polishing his body yet.
"I'll be waking up Lord Megatron now. As the only medical officer on this ship, I would recommend keeping it as short as possible." The red 'con worked on the console before turning to him and Soundwave.
Starscream just smirked and nodded, giving him the go ahead. Knockout shivered before giving Breakdown a nod too, the blue, blocky 'con pulled down an oversized switch.
A loud zap and seeing his
indisposed leader's body spasm made a shiver go down his spine, not that it lasted for more than a couple of seconds before Megatron's eyes slowly opened.
"...Starscream? ...Soundwave?"
"Ah, Lord Megatron. Please, don't exert yourself, you're still weak." Starscream
didn't grovel at his leader, mainly because the 'con was incapable of hurting him at the moment.
"How… long?"
"Just a week, my lord. Your body's been mostly fixed, but the Dark Energon's been keeping us from finishing the work." He rubbed his hands together and turned to Knockout to glare.
The 'con rolled his eyes before stepping forward. "Greetings Lord Megatron, I'm Knockout, current medical officer in the Nemesis. We've fixed everything we had accessible, what only remains is your spine, this is the reason you can't move at the moment." He swallowed thickly. "The problem is that the Dark Energon keeping your Spark inside your body is keeping us from finishing the work. And until we fix that, you're not moving… my lord."
Even in his diminished state, it was obvious that Megatron hadn't missed a single word. The 'con looked around the room, focusing on Soundwave the least of them all. But Starscream was no fool, and he had caught the minute little twitches on the spy's body, and while the meaning was lost on him, it wasn't on Megatron.
"… I'll guide you then." His condition didn't detract from the finality of his comment.
"I! … I understand sir." Knockout swallowed.
Starscream waited to see if Megatron spoke again, when nothing came he stepped forward. "My Lord, I would like to ask you permission to use your name in calling back our forces."
And then Megatron's full attention was on him, making the seeker swallow dryly. Still, he pushed forward and kept talking.
"We- I've found a stasis containing Skyquake, I know you sent him away for his failures. But the Decepticon should be a boon for our current forces. With the underground Spacebridge almost completed, we need to present a strong front, and-"
A huff coming from his leader made him shut up.
"I will…allow it. Don't
betray my trust…Starscream." The growl at the end made his wings shiver.
"Understood, Lord Megatron." He saluted and rushed out of the room, trying to hide how it felt like his Spark was about to pop out of his chassis, and not in a good way.
"...sir?" A Vehicon approached him.
"Yes?!" He glared at the drone, enjoying how it cowed.
"We're finished the Spacebridge."
"Finally, time to see if we can show the Autobots and their pitiful allies what real might is." Starscream allowed himself to laugh. "Tell the drones to turn it on!"
\/AFfMB\/
It was instantly obvious that the shake wasn't a normal earthquake,
everything shook as if the whole planet was shaken side to side. In a moment, everyone that was in the base had reunited at the main room.
"What was that?!" Bulkhead sounded as shaken as the planet.
"I've no idea," Ratchet worked frantically on the console. "But it was felt all over the world." He tapped a few more times and live images of damages all over the world. "It was like the world itself shook."
Athena's face appeared on a corner of the screen. "
It was the whole world shaking, something disturbed the spatial fabric the planet rests upon." They explained.
Everyone listened to her words, but it was Optimus that spoke first. "Do any of you two have any idea of what could have been responsible?"
Ratchet grumbled. "I would bet it's the Decepticons or MECH, opening a Spacebridge could lead to these effects, but they would have needed to ignore
a lot of safety measures."
"
It's likely that they rushed on the construction and may have indeed cut corners, the problem is that it caused some kind of reaction with the planet." Athena added. "
Unfortunately, this had also scrambled any kind of proper scanning I could carry of the planet's core. Even the surface has been shielded by the 'noise' created."
"Could this have been on purpose?" Arcee asked as everyone hung to each word said.
"
No, if the Decepticons were expecting to use this Spacebridge to acquire reinforcements, then they have failed utterly. Right now trying to connect off-planet is nearly suicidal, they could very well end lost in transwarp or simply get Nowhere."
"Will this impair our use of the Landbridge?" Optimus asked.
"
Only slightly, with the base having a Landbridge, you are within safe limits. I would still not recommend aiming off-world, and the Spacebridge behind the Moon is just slightly far enough that it could be properly used. Just don't expect it to be anywhere fast in calibrating it for such."
"Any other subject of importance?" Optimus prompted.
Ratchet and Athena shared a quick look before the medic spoke. "With the help of Athena, I've been scanning this planet's information network for clues about the Decepticon's location. While I've not had anything on that, we've had luck finding signs of ancient Cybertronian presence."
The screen lit up with a series of images, most depicting thousands of years old painting, sculptures and engravings. Many of them depicted giant beings with clear similarity to Cybertronians along with some engravings that were lost in the majority of them, except...
"…it can't be." Optimus' tone was wistful.
"I didn't doubt that you would recognize them, Optimus." Ratchet smiled. "It appears this is not the first time Autobots or Decepticons have come to the planet in ages past. While most of these are just subjects of general interest, a few depict artifacts that we thought lost."
"So what's this? A treasure hunt?" Passion asked, curious about the situation.
"I would like you to visit some of these places and run a scan. I want to say that it's impossible some of the artifacts shown here are just laying around… but it's happened before." Ratchet grumbled to himself.
"
The other thing is slightly more concerning. While we're sure they haven't used their Spacebridge again, it did activate long enough for something to come through." Athena started. "
Multiple things, one definitely came through the proper method, but there were a number of other incursions that my satellites could catch, plus a ship flew in during the peak of the noise."
"And we've no idea of who it could be." Arcee commented by rolling her eyes. "I would bet it's a Decepticon."
Bulkhead snorted. "Yup, at least Wheeljack took one of those deeas systems to keep in touch." The big green bot tsked and mumbled about preferring his friend to hang around for a while.
"So how are we splitting this then?" Rose asked before the subject got too far into a tangent.
Optimus hummed. "I think haste is the current priority, Rose," She nodded. "I want to cover as many of these spots as fast as possible, but sending only one of our forces to each would be opening us for Decepticon attacks. I want an Autobot and a member of the Monsters pairing up."
She nodded. "Sounds good to me, I would guess Ratchet's staying at base?" The leader of the Autobots nodded to her question.
They quickly worked out the pairs, she would be accompanying the Prime to check the dimensional incursion, being the two leaders they were the most capable of making first contact. Meanwhile the other pairs would be Bulkhead and Lily, Cliffjumper and Passion, Arcee and Aster, and Bumblebee and Daisy.
Ratchet activated the Landbridge. "Stay safe, I'll be here working with Athena and the Auxiliary team to search for any other possible leads."
The teams left quickly one by one till only Optimus and Ghost were standing there, even when in her linked-up form, she was still looking to the bot. Not that it bothered her much.
She thanked Ratchet as they left, leaving the Autobot medic practically alone, at least till a moment later Jack and Miko rolled in on his bike.
"Ratchet! What happened earlier? Everything shook!" The teen girl skipped up one of the many structures of the base. "My parents called to see if I was all right."
"Hey Miko, Jack, no Rafael today?" He greeted them. "And we're pretty sure the Decepticons built a new Spacebridge, that caused the shaking."
"Hey Ratchet, and no, he had a hang out with his family and couldn't miss it." Jack parked his bike and wandered up the structures too.
"I see, and yes, everyone left already for different missions." Ratchet quickly explained where they had left.
"Uh…" Miko mused when she saw one of the images. "I think I saw that one before…" She pointed to a Greek painting as she pulled her phone and tapped on it a few times. "Here it is! It's being displayed in the local museum as another stop in its country-wide tour while being lent by Greece."
"…Interesting, I'll have to bring it to Optimus' attention once he comes back. I'm afraid to think about the danger of something like
that to be out in the open." Ratchet said worriedly.
"Why? What could be that dangerous?" Jack asked, leaning over the rail.
"The ancients created many artifacts, from very simple tools to weapons of mass destruction. While the Energon Harvester lacks the destructive element of larger ones, in the hands of the Decepticons it could prove incredibly deadly as there's no defense against it." He noted grimly.
\/AFfMB\/
The white and cyan maximal shifted from her bike form into her full robot, glad that her smaller stature compared to Autobots meant she had a much smaller Energon requirement. It didn't mean she hadn't had to sneak around and steal a few cans of gas from the only fuel station she had found on this planet.
It also allowed her to slip through places a full-sized 'bot would just not be able to step through without previously
making the necessary space. She slipped into the modest hole on the cliff's wall after looking around to make sure she was alone.
"Rampage?" She called her only companion once she was inside.
"...Trans-Mutate?" A hoarse voice replied a moment later, a broad-shouldered, red and orange robot stepped from the shadows into the small amount of sunlight that slipped into the cave through a hole on the ceiling.
"Yeah, got some fuel." She shook the pair of cans and handed them over, snorting softly when the other robot didn't wait a moment to chug the content before even thanking her.
Not that it bothered her much, he could be such a glutton and this kind of refined fuels was nowhere near as efficient as Energon for them.
"...thanks." He mumbled once he emptied the first can and thankfully placed the other down. "Any idea where we are?"
"I think we're in some kind of Human colony world." She sat down before starting to speak. "Though it's pretty weird, the level of technology is nowhere near close to what I read about them, plus there's a lot of
empty space." She was certainly surprised to see so much greenery and more than a few wild animals during her short trip.
Rampage just snorted and shrugged. "Eh, they can do whatever they want."
"I thought you would have more of an opinion, especially after we suddenly ended in the middle of a forest after escaping
Lord Imperious Delirious." Trans-Mutate said.
"My opinion on most people is that I
don't care, as long as they don't bother me and I've food I'm more than happy to be left alone. Humans won the war long ago, that's why Autobots and Decepticons are mostly stuck in Cybertron, that may have led to the creation of Predacons and Maximals, but that's not exactly their fault, right?"
She nodded slowly. "I didn't take you to have thought about it that far."
"Bah! I've had a lot of time to think about things between the experiments." He leaned back, his heavy body hitting the cave's wall. "Any luck with that thing?"
That
thing was the navicomp she had recovered from the prison ship she had been in before it had crashed and she had met Rampage. It had also been the navicomp that had suggested to her to
violently put herself in stasis and wait till Autobot forces recovered her comatose body, repeatedly. She was glad that it had been offline since she had used it to help Rampage, but right now she could certainly use the information it may have.
"It should have recharged enough to be turned back on with the sunlight." She picked the pad hanging from her waist and started to fiddle with it. A groan escaped her lips. "Come on, turn on." She
didn't whine at the thing.
Rampage just snorted. "Here, let me try. Your agony at failing may be delicious, but I know exactly how to make it work." He yanked it off her delicate hands. "See, technology like this needs one thing to work." He smacked it against the wall once, twice, three times, and then the screen lit up. "Done, and not a scratch on it."
He handed her the pad back, the screen was okay, but a piece of the casing fell off the moment the navicom left his hand. She ignored his comment about the damage being already there. Still, it was working now.
"
Prison Ship Claustrum's Prison Pod's Navicom Online." The pad's mechanical voice chirped up, and Trans-Mutate was already reminded of how grating it was. "
Internal Battery: 14 percent, warning, this unit currently lacks a method to recharge the battery efficiently. Error, Claustrum ship not found in-system. Error, prisoner appears to still not be in stasis. Error, second prisoner detected. Error, failed to-"
"Enough you little machine! You tire me with your prattle, be useful and tell us where we currently are at least!" Rampage growled at the pad, making it go silent for a few moments.
"…
trying to find the current location." She smiled as her companion's course of action worked. "
Error, date and location incompatible with previous date and location."
"We're pretty sure we aren't on the same planet anymore," She sighed. "But what do you mean with
date?"
"…
Navicom's internal date appears to be over six hundred years ahead of the current date found in-system."
This made both of them surprised, at least she showed it more compared to Rampage's more impassive features.
"…So we traveled to the past?" Rampage asked before breaking out in laughter. "Oh! Talk about escaping! Now they are really not catching us!"
She couldn't help but giggle. "You said you know where we are, no? Could you tell us?"
"...
Error, Navicom's current location appears to be Humanity's Home Planet, Terra. Location is considered forbidden for any Maximal, Predacon, Autobot and Decepticon, please leave the forbidden area as quickly as possible."
"What?! How can we be in…" The words petered out as Trans-Mutate thought about it. "Though, if we're in the past, maybe it's not that strange to think we're on Earth. It's obvious this is a human planet, and they certainly haven't reached the space age.
"
Autobot signal detected in proximity!" The Pad chirped way too
cheerfully. "
Prime detected, notifying Prime of prisoners' presence."
"What?!" Trans-Mutate's eyes practically popped from their orbits. "No! No, no, no, no notifying the Autobots, even less a
Prime!"
Rampage just chuckled. "Let them come, I'll show them to not mess with me." He exclaimed before he grabbed the other fuel can and quickly chugged it. "I got plenty of energy for a good fight." He crushed the can and threw it away. "Coming?" He wandered out of the cave.
"I…" She mumbled as she looked at the pad and sighed, hooking it to her waist and wandering out. She may not like violence, but she wouldn't go down without a fight. "I'm behind you."
"
Please, remain in your position, prisoners, Prime's location is only two minutes away. It's recommended to adopt a submission position and accept your fate."
Rampage chuckled. "Fuck fate! If I was bound by fate I would have died ages ago." She was pretty sure he was doing the closest thing to grinning bloodthirsty.
On the other hand, all she could do was swallow dryly and wait for the Prime to come to them. Part of her was already dreading what was to come, the
wrong, wrong, wrong carry of justice that had put her in the Claustrum and on the path to spend the rest of her life as a prisoner and without freedom. She wondered if she would at least be brave enough to use her ability again in the fight; it certainly had been effective against Imperious Delirious.
A minute in she started to hear the roar of motors in the distance, and her imagination conjured images of a whole platoon of Autobots ready to lay down
their law. But instead what drove out from the forest was only a truck and a car.
She watched both of them shift, a tall male Autobot and an unknown female robot. The latter surprised her quite a bit, they had a very smooth design compared to most robots her size, they also had an unknown insignia she had never seen before, and she had seen a number of them, but given that figures like Imperious Delirious had created their own faction with the Destructocons, it didn't mean much.
The other was the Prime, it was a pretty obvious thing. It was nigh-impossible to miss a Prime, they just carried themselves differently, they had a
weight in themselves that everyone could feel. And this was definitely a Prime.
"Greetings, I'm Optimus Prime, Leader of the Autobots, and my companion is Ghost, team leader of the Monsters from the Celestial Forge. We're studying an inter-dimensional incursion when your computer notified me of your presence." She
hated how safe his voice made her feel.
"He-hello, I'm Tans-Mutate from the Maximals, and this is Rampage." She presented herself, and before she could keep speaking, her companion interrupted her. Though she noticed some kind of recognition in Ghost's eyes.
Rampage stepped forward, his gatling gun started to rotate. "I don't care if our existence is illegal or some other Autobot bullshit, if you want to lock us up, I'll be fighting you tooth and claw." He growled and she expected the worst.
"I- What Rampage's saying is that we don't want to fight, if you leave us alone we won't bother anyone!" She stumbled on her words.
"Optimus," Ghost tapped the taller bot's arms before stepping forward. "Could I ask you
why you were imprisoned? While I can tell Rampage's pretty violent," she felt like rolling her eyes at the comment, saying her companion was violent was like saying water was wet. "But you don't appear to be the type to break the laws without a reason."
"I… I worked as a historian, and in my time there found a large number of problems in old logs," She felt her mood instantly plummet at those memories, the Prime seemed to react to those words, but she was at a loss at the meaning. "I brought a compilation of these inconsistencies to my superiors. The problem was that they weren't errors, my superiors had put them there themselves. To keep this a secret they branded me a criminal and-"
"That's enough." The Prime cut her off and for a moment she felt like the worst was to come. "It's just that you two come from a different version of Cybertron," Had they not just traveled space and time, but also
realities?! "If you didn't know, Cybertron's currently uninhabitable, the war between the Autobots and the Decepticons has destroyed the planet, and without a home we left to the stars. There's only a handful of us left hiding on this planet, while I would like to ask you to come with us, it's obvious my presence is stressful for you too."
Rampage just snorted and mumbled something that
he wasn't feeling stressful.
"Optimus, would you allow me to talk with them alone?" Ghost asked.
The Prime nodded. "Okay, Trans-Mutate, Rampage," He gave the pair a nod. "I hope you'll believe me when I say I hope we can meet in peace. Navicom, in the power invested in me as a Prime, I declare these two are no criminals."
"
Prime's order confirmed, Tans-Mutate and Rampage's status updated. Have a nice day." The pad's cheerful tone surprised her, but mostly in a good way; at least now it would stop suggesting for her to beat herself into stasis.
Optimus Prime shifted into a truck and rode off as they were left with Ghost. The unknown bot looked at them for a moment, Trans-Mutate was pretty sure they were thinking about how to continue. She wasn't too surprised when she shifted back into a car, it did surprise her when a being only slightly smaller than them walked out.
As the figure walked closer, both Rampage and her looked back and forth from the car to the tiny figure.
"Confused?" They chuckled. "It's still me, Ghost, this is my
actual body. First I want to say that I've
some idea of who you two are, though it's most likely from an alternate version of you two. To make a
very long and complex story short, as you have experienced, alternate worlds are a thing, and some can
peer into others. Now don't take this as a threat, but Rampage, you could also be called Protoform X, right?"
Trans-Mutate gasped at that, but mostly because her partner raged and ran forward, punching down at Ghost. Though the latter instead of moving away, just stood there, allowing the fist to go through.
"I see," Ghost continued speaking. "I apologize if I insulted you-" Rampage screamed again and started to punch again and again, his fists going through Ghost as if they weren't there.
"You're a one-percenter?" She asked, trying to hide the hope in her voice, someone else like them.
"That's Cybertronians with powers, no?" Ghost asked, ignoring Rampage's rampage. "Not exactly, first, I'm not Cybertronian. My kind was created from the marriage between Cybertronian physiology, Human Technology and Magic, the last is what gives me the ability to do this. Could you please stop?" She asked him as her companion had started to pant, obviously burned through the little amount of energy from the fuel.
"Rampage?"
"I…
haaa… going to-" he fell onto his knees. "Beat you once I recover,
haa…"
Ghost rolled her eyes. "Look, it's obvious Autobots aren't the nicest bunch in the Cybertron you lived in. But I can promise Optimus' nothing like that." She snapped her fingers. "Look, how about we give you two some time to think about it, there's Decepticon presence on the planet right now, and they're more likely going to see you as weapons, disposable pawns or subjects of study, and I don't think you two deserve any of the three… Well, maybe this guy will like being a weapon."
Trans-Mutate couldn't help but chuckle when Ghost pointed at Rampage, who was still panting down on a knee.
"Anyways, you two seem to be in a pretty bad shape and completely alone in this world. Now, don't attack me again, this is a gift." She snapped her fingers and a large box appeared next to her. "My sibling was preparing this, you can consider this a care package. Plenty of food, a few computers with stories and movies, camouflaged shelter and a way to contact us safely."
She looked at the box before looking at Rampage, her companion grumbled for a moment before nodding to her. "Okay, we'll take it."
"Great! Also, if you don't want to stay with the Autobots, you can always leave with me and my siblings when we head back home. My dad will happily take you into our large family."
Tans-Mutate wondered what was in this world that made her feel hopeful, she didn't feel capable of speaking calmly and instead she just nodded. This appeared to be enough for Ghost.
"Then I'll leave for now, take care of Trans-Mutate, stay safe and keep this guy from hunting for unnecessary fights. And if he
really wants to fight, contact us, I'm sure some of my siblings wouldn't mind some sparring. Rampage, you don't appear to be an idiot, violent? Yes, but not an idiot. Keep her safe, and don't be afraid to ask us for help if necessary." He just grumbled at her words.
She just waited as Ghost walked back to her car, stepped in and rode off. Only then she moved closer to the box, only to be stopped by Rampage with a glare.
"Don't be an idiot!" He pushed up and walked over. "I can take a hit, you don't." He huffed and opened the box. He spent a few moments rummaging through it, pulling smaller boxes and packages. "Nothing smells like explosives." He grumbled more as he pulled a package open and took a big bite of it, chewed on it for a moment before quickly eating the rest hungrily.
"Hey! Leave some for me." She joined him in checking the box' contents.
As they ate their fill with some of the best food they had ever had, she wondered about their warning about the Decepticons. Were they really that terrible?
\/AFfMB\/
Megatron got up the throne/medical bed he had been laying for nearly a week after using himself to try and stop a warship's main cannon. It was honestly a proof of his resilience that he had survived in its path for more than a few seconds. He also knew that he would have died if he didn't have Unicron's blessing in the piece of Dark Energon currently wrapped around his Spark.
He took a deep breath and laughed. He had
survived; it was only more proof of his correct set of actions.
After cackling he turned to Knockout and Shockwave, the latter having been a surprising addition. He had looked through Starscream's modifications to the Spacebridge, he wanted to laugh more at how unsafe it had become. But he also wanted to laugh more at how it had actually worked and gotten the Decepticon's Science Officer to them. Shockwave had been a helpful addition to his operation; even what made its success possible.
"Lord Megatron, it's good to see you once again standing." Starscream's usual groveling was bothersome, but the seeker had done well in his absence, and he wouldn't allow it to be said he didn't reward good behavior.
"Starscream… you've done pretty well enough." He started speaking. "I've to admit that I wouldn't have allowed those pesky humans in the Nemesis so easily, but I've long since accepted that we do things differently. What are you thinking about doing with them next?"
"Sir… Well, I was hoping to get as much out of them as possible, use them as disposable pawns against the Autobots and the other humans to further our positions. And once that's done… crush them too for thinking they were anywhere near our level." He said with a sadistic tone and a grin on his face.
"Good, maybe you have learned a thing or two under me. You will continue dealing with them for now." The seeker nodded as Megatron turned first to Soundwave, his most loyal soldier stood silent and waiting. He just gave the con a nod, he indeed trusted him to do his best. On the other hand, "Shockwave, it's good to have you back with us."
"Lord Megatron." The cycloptic bot nodded. "It's good to see you back in good health."
"Bah! That was merely a mark of my sturdiness, but that's not important. You've always been one of my most inventive Decepticons, I want to hear what you've been working on… and how it can be used to defeat the Autobots!"
