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Shattered Glass Animated Season 1 Episode 7 - Thrill Of The Hunt

Blackarachnia is forced to re-live a traumatic event from her past when Megatron is kidnapped by a mysterious mech named Lockdown.

“Can you believe the depravity of some humans? This so.. primitive and vulgar! I think I’m going to regurgitate just from looking at it.” Blackarachnia looked down on the crate in front of her with barely veiled disgust.

Megatron raised an eye-ridge beside her putting down an identical container. “It is merely a box of spare parts, Blackarachnia.”

Blackarachnia huffed. “You mean the Resistance actually uses those for their machines? That’s even worse!”

The metal parts in the box glinted innocently in the moonlight shining down on the old warehouse. Following a tip from the Resistance, the Decepticons had searched the place out in order to provide their human allies with some much needed materials. Not all of it could be taken of course, but the Decepticons had resolved to transport as many of them as possible.

“Well, they don’t have much of a choice now, do they?” Blitzwing chuckled, walking over to lay a hand on Blackarachnia’s shoulder. “Try not to think too much about it. Just enjoy the temporary silence.”

Megatron nodded. “Blitzwing is right. I know things have been stressful lately and I have been demanding a lot from you and Starscream in particular. A simple errand like this might be the closes we will come to resting for a while.”

Blackarachnia ex-vented, crossing her servos. “Fine. I’ll try. It’s just...” He bent stingers twitched on her back, eliciting a couple of small sparks. “I’ve been having a bad feeling ever since we got here. My stingers are aching worse than usual. Normally, that means trouble.”

Megatron looked at her, optics growing sad. “We... have never spoken about that mission since, have we? It must still trouble you.”

Blackarachnia stiffened. “It doesn’t matter, because I still don’t want to talk about it,” she snapped, glaring up at Megatron.

“W-Well, you don’t need to,” Blitzwing said quickly, laying a calming servo on the smaller femme’s shoulder-plate. “Like I’ve been saying, perhaps we should just enjoy the quit night.”

Just then, the sound of an engine tor through the air. At almost the same time, a red light flared up, across the field. The Decepticons whirled around. The source turned out to be a black and dark-blue muscle car, flashing it’s headlights right at them.

“So much for silence,” Blackarachnia remarked, clenching her hands into fists.

Megatron raised a hand to placate her. “Easy now. It might well just be a human who lost their way.”

“I don’t think so,” Blitzwing said nervously, optics never leaving the muscle car. “Aaron told me this district has been vacated for solar cycles.”

Megatron frowned. “Perhaps we should-”

Before he could finish, the car jerked forward. It raced at the three Decepticons, on a clear collision course. They jumped aside, the car narrowly missing them. The muscle car didn’t stop, instead driving onto the road and towards the city.

“Do you think it’s one of Sumdac’s?” Blitzwing asked, staring after it with wide optics.

Megatron’s optics narrowed. “If it is, we cannot risk it getting away. Both of you, transform and rise up!”

Blackarachnia, Blitzwing and Megatron transformed. Megatron informed Starscream and Lugnut about what happend over the comlink, while Blackarachnia jumped onto Blitzwing’s vehicle mode, digging her pincers in to not fall off. The followed the car from the air as it sped through the streets, it’s driver evidently not caring whether or not the citizens were fast enough to dive out of their way.

A human man and woman attemtped to cross the street, as the car turned around the corner, making no effort to slow down. Megatron quickly transformed into robot-mode. He landed on a nearby rood, cut the billboard off with one of his swords, then jumped down onto the street with the board on his back, creating a makeshift-ramp.

The muscle car neither slowed nor stopped. It raced up the ramp and jumped right over the terrified humans, landing and driving on as if nothing happened.

“Perhaps you should look both ways before crossing the street next time,” Megatron joked to the humans, setting aside the board.

The humans nodded hastily, then quickly made their way to the sidewalk.

A few streets away, Blackarachnia and Blitzwing scanned the ground for the muscle car. Blackarachnia jumped off of Blitzwing’s back, transforming into he robot-mode and planted herself firmly in the car’s way. The car didn’t stop. It drove at her, engine’s howling.

Blackarachnia stiffened. The sound was familiar, somehow. It seemed to drown out everything else around them. She thought she heard someone call her name, but by that point she wasn’t in the present anymore.

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Blackarachnia made her way through the dark alleys of Central City as silently as she could manage, optical sensors always vigilant. Although she had studied the citiy’s map extensively and so far the infiltration had been going smoothly, her pessimistic nature prevented her from cooling it a little just yet. After all, she had rather painful past experiences with running out of luck at the worst time possible. For what had to be the hundredth time this solar cycle she silently cursed Megatron for having chosen her for this particular mission.

“You have been on Cybertron more recently than all of us,” he had said, almost apologetic. “And your organic half makes it impossible for them to pick up your energy signature. I know of no other bot I could entrust this mission to. Please give it some thought.”

In the end she had caved, with grumbling and more than a few words that some would call unbecoming of a femme. After all, Megatron rarely asked a fellow Decepticon to put themselves in danger if he wasn’t absolutely sure they could handle it. Or if he didn’t have a choice. With this, it was a mix of both. Blackarachnia had to admit, she had already been half convinced to go when he had told her it was an extraction mission.

One of their spies, who had been penetrating the Autobot Intelligence Office for some time now, was said to have been compromised. He’d apparently run into trouble trying to escape the Elite Guard and was now stranded somewhere around the area she was currently sneaking through. Hearing this story, something in her spark just...reacted. Blackarachnia knew, probably better than anyone else, what it was like to be alone on a hostile planet, with seemingly no one coming to your aid. Merely remembering the feeling of despair and fear made her flinch.

But she had been found eventually. And so would their spy.

A re-assessment of the area’s map on her wrist-monitor told her she was getting close to the rendezvous point. Keeping her optical sensors open for any hints of a trap, she stepped out of another alley and onto a deserted cross-road between four large structures. If their intel was correct, the area was largely deserted, so there was no risk of a random Cybertronian citizen suddenly sticking their helm out of a window and surprising her or her target. Speaking of…

There was no sign of another bot here. Had she come to the wrong place? Just as she thought about risking a scan of the perimeters, she heard clunky, uneasy steps coming from her right. She whirled around, stingers at the ready. Across from her stood an Autobot, about two times shorter than her, stocky in build, with a strange, blue ornament on his helmet right above his piercing red optical sensors, leaning heavily on the wall to his right.

Blackarchnia was about to jump him and give him a good taste of her narcotic venom, when he raised a hand.

“Wait! I’m the one...you are supposed to meet.”

His voice sounded exhausted, like he was in great pain. Blackarchnia halted in her movements, giving him a skeptical look. “You’ll excuse me if I find that hard to believe.”

The Autobot chuckled sheepishly. “I am deeply sorry for my appearance. Normally I would change and show you my real form but you see...I’ve had a few altercations on my way here.” He stepped out a bit further into the light. Blackarachnia flinched.

His right leg had been ripped off from the knee up, leaving nothing but a couple of sparking cables. That was enough to dispel most of her leftover doubt. She highly doubted any Autobot would go so far as to dismember themselves on that level just to fool a potential infiltrator. Letting some of the tension go out from her body, she made her way over to the spy, supporting him on his free shoulder and getting a closer look at his leg. The cables shocked her when she attempted to examine them manually, making both of them hiss in pain.

“Well, that’s gonna be a real fixer-upper later on,” she remarked with grim humor.

The spy-bot groaned, sinking into her shoulder a bit. She nudged him lightly.

“Hey, stay with me! You can take all the stasis naps you like later, but right now I need you to stay online. What’s your name?”

The question seemed to at least partially pull him out of his pain induced daze. “They… gave me the name Longarm… when I came into their ranks…but…my real name is…Shockwave...Ma’am.”

That got a smile out of her. “Don’t give me that ‘ma’am’ slag. We’re both Decepticons, aren’t we? Call me Blackarachnia.”

“Y-yes, ma’am – yes, Blackarachnia,” Shockwave quickly corrected himself returning her smile. She couldn’t help but notice it looked a little weird on that Autobot face-plate of his, like he wasn’t used to making expressions. Nevertheless, it was nice to see he was comfortable with her presence. She had expected at least some comments about her organic parts, but she supposed his situation gave him little room to complain.

“Good. Now that that’s out of the way, I need you to listen Shockwave. You see those two antennae on my back?” He nodded. “They’re stingers that release a strong, narcotic venom when applied. I’m going to use them on you, so I can patch up your leg.”

“N-no!” Shockwave exclaimed, optics wide with fear. He tried to straighten himself in order to look at her, which proved to be both difficult and painful with his damaged servo. “I carry valuable…access codes...in my processor. They are too important...to be lost!”

Blackarachnia sighed, adjusting her position so he wouldn’t fall over. “Cool your crankcase, will you? It’s just a small dose. I’d need to administer ten times that much to damage your memory core.”

That seemed to calm him down a bit. After thinking it over a little, he gave her a nod. Blackarachnia had to suppress a relieved vent. Repairing him while he was still fully online would have been extremely unpleasant for them both.

She shifted her arms so she was now holding him around his shoulders. “This will sting a little,” she warned him, gently touching her stingers to the spots between his shoulder plates and his helmet. When she released her venom he flinched a little, but then slowly went numb in her arms, his optical sensors slowly offlining themselves.

She lowered him to the ground and leaned him against the opposite wall, pulling out the tools she needed to work on his leg. It took quite a bit of time, since she didn’t have exactly the right spare parts on hand. The defaults she’d packed for emergencies would have to do for now. With their help she at least managed to re-build the base structure of a leg.

Just when she was about to adjust her handiwork a little, she heard a noise down the street. Blackarachnia turned around quickly, putting herself between the direction she thought she’d heard the sound coming from and Shockwave’s motionless chassis. She strained her optical sensors to the max, but try as she might, she couldn’t make out anything in this darkness. Then someone called her name...

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“Blackarachnia!”

She flinched. Someone tackled her, throwing her to the side. They rolled around, her ending up on top.

The muscle car sped by, backlights slowly disappearing into the night.

Megatron touched down next to them. “Are you alright?“ he asked, bending down to offer them his hands.

“I’m fine,” Blackarachnia snapped, slapping away the hand offered to her and jumping off of Blitzwing.

A whirring sound informed her that Blitzwing had switched.

“You call that fine?” Hothead yelled. He, too, ignored Megatron’s offered hand when he pushed himself onto his pedes. “You froze up like it was december and you still had a crankcase!”

Blackarachnia whirled around, glaring up at Hothead. “I didn’t freeze up! I just...” She paused, stingers on her back twitching. “My Cybertronian parts must have glitched.”

“Well, you’re evidently not the only one glitching,” Hothead huffed, glaring in the direction the muscle car had disappeared in. “What was that human’s malfunction?”

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The muscle car drove down the streets. It had dimmed it’s lights for the time being. Inside, a small monsitor lit up, showing images of the three Decepticons that had chased it a few moments ago.

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Back at the mines, Blackarachnia stared intently onto a screen in fron tof her. It displayed a scan of her stingers. The venom-flow was irregular, but that wasn’t new. There was nothing else out of the ordinary. That should have calmed her down. Instead, the feeling of dread in her tanks only grew. That muscle car had awakened memories. Memories long buried. It send off wanring bells in the back of her processor. She didn’t want them to be right.

“If I’m not mistaken, this marks your tenth self-diagnostic tonight,” someone said behind her.

Blackarachnia turned. Megatron was standing in the doorway, smiling slightly. “How many more will there be?”

“As many as neccessary,” Blackarachnia answered curtly, turning back to the screen.

“Do your stingers bother you that intensely?” Megatron asked.

Blackarachnia stiffened. “Still don’t wanna talk about it.”

“You should.” She heard Megatron stepping closer. “Believe me, I understand better than anyone the need to surpress the darkness in ones past. But sometimes, it might help to open up. To a friend, or an unbiased third party. You know I am always there if you wish to get something off of your chestplate.”

“Are you done?” Blackarachnia snapped.

Megatron ex-vented. “Apparently I am.”

She heard him walk out of the room. Part of her felt guilty. She knew he’d only wanted to help. But the part of her that dreaed the possibility of re-living that one solar cycle again, after having successfully buried it for so long wanted to stay put and find something else to blame for what had happened earlier.

Her optics stayed glued to the monitor. Eventually she gave up, switching off the monitor. She crossed her servos and tapped her pede in thought. She should apologize. Perhaps even voice her suspicions. There was nothing to gain from hiding in the med-bay.

Determined to get over herself, she walked out into the tunnels and made her way to the main room.

She heard Professor Black’s voice before she entered to see the group assembled in front of the monitor. He had chosen to settle in the Decepticons’ base, instead of accompanying the rest of the humans, reasoning that if anything were to happen, the Decepticons already knew of a way to “contain” him.

“-so I have been monitoring the local traffic police. And I’ve come across these surveillance recordings.” He had to have done something after that Blackarachnia couldn’t see.

The screen displayed footage from the view of a police drone’s in-built camera, chasing a familiar muscle car. Blackarachnia stiffened as soon as she saw the dark blue headlights. The omnious glow filled out her vision, until suddenly the walls of the mines were once again replaced with the streets of a small, cybertronian city.

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Cursing under her breath, Blackarachnia turned back to her patient.

“Change in plans,” she murmured, although she doubted he could hear her. “We’re moving out now. Sorry in advance for the next part, but I think you’ll agree I’m a little out of options.”

She produced a long spider threat and wrapped Shockwave up tightly, giving the string a few tugs to make sure it wouldn’t come off. Then she changed into her spider form, using her hind-legs to lift Shockwave onto her back and secure him there. He was heavier than she’d anticipated and she briefly wondered if that was because he had to compress his true size and mass into this presumably smaller Autobot chassis. She made a mental note to ask him about it later.

“I’ve got our escape route all mapped out,” she told him, keeping her voice low in case her audio sensor hadn’t been acting up earlier. “Hang in there, I’ll have you home in under an orbital cycle.”

Swift as can be she crawled into the narrow street behind her. She would make her way back to the nearest sewer plate, use her string to get herself and Shockwave down and from there it was only a few clicks to her small, but fast ship. If she was lucky, Shockwave should have rebooted himself again once they were on board and she wouldn’t have to spend the long ride home in complete silence. She was rather curious to hear his story.

What could have possibly been important enough to break off his mission, steal from the Autobot Elite Guard and try to make a run for it on the same orbital cycle? If nothing else, having these questions answered would satisfy her curiosity. If he was even allowed to tell her, she mused.

She was torn out of her thoughts by the unmistakable click of biolights being activated. Right behind her. Blackarachnia cursed internally. The next moment, a piercing blue light flared up all around her, making her squint and slow down. Fortunately, her training prevented her from stopping in her tracks entirely. It also caused her to come out of her daze way faster than a civilian would have.

“Go find someone else to play with, Auto-bastard!” she snapped, spitting a sticky spider-threat onto the nearest structure and pulling both her and Shockwave upward. She regretted the decision almost immediately. It was one thing to swing around when she was alone and had all her servos free, it was another thing entirely to be doing it with a Primus knew how many tons heavy fellow Decepticon on her back.

Both of them ended up smacking against the structures wall far lower and harder than she would have liked.

No time whining over spilled oil, she thought, clenching her denta when her sensitive belly protested against the rough impact.

With a determined vent, she started climbing, using two of her hindlegs to check on her passenger. Fortunately, the string securing Shcokwave’s chassis to hers seemed to hold tight for the moment. Dragging him and herself on top of the structure, she took a quick look around. Going into the sewers where she had intended to was not an option anymore. But she was good enough at terrain assessment to relate the structures around her to the map she’d been studying before her departure.

The area was densely cultivated enough for her to jump from one structure to another, even with Shockwave on her back. The Autobot had no way of following her up here fast enough to see where exactly she went. Taking as much of a run-up as she could with the weight on her back, she jumped onto the structure to her right. Her joints began to ache from the impact but she paid it no mind. She could work out her dents when she was back on the ship.

Repeating the process a few times, she made her way over Central City, optical and audio sensors sharp. She had no desire to be jumped like that again. Eventually, her internalized map of the area told her she was close to another sewer entrance. It was farther away from the ship than her original access point, but certainly safer to use for now. She carefully crawled down the side of the structure she was currently on, grunting with effort.

“You owe me big time for this,” she whispered, forelegs scraping as she tried to prevent herself from slipping.

It became easier to walk when they were back on the ground. Then trickier again, when she had to use her pincers and forelegs to open the duct cover. Then even more tricky when she had to rope Shockwaves’ still motionless form down into the dark, without making too much noise. At least she could climb down in robot-mode this time.

Her steps seemed to echo unbearably loud on the ladder, only barely drowned out by the sound of muck and oil rushing by. When she had made it all the way down, she took some time to check up on her charge. He was still not fully online. Good for him.

And then she heard the roar of an engine. Blackarachnia cursed. She transformed back into her spider-form and clumsily heaved Shockwave on her back. When the pursuer came around the corner, she was already scurrying down the pipe. Suddenly, a row of spikes protruded from the ground. If she’s still had tires in her alt-mode, they would have been shredded. As it was, one of her spider-legs merely stepped unlucky, coming directly on top of one of the spikes.

Blackarachnia hissed in pain, using her seven intact legs to make a turns. She let Shockwave slide off her back. She had no chance of out-running this Autbot with an injured leg and a massive weight on her back. There was no other option but to fight. She transformed into robot-mode, quickly laying a hand on Shockwave’s servo, not letting her optics leave the Autobot.

He was about a few steps away from both of them. When he saw she had transformed, he stopped and did the same. Blackarachnia clenched her denta. He was taller than her, but a lot of ‘Bots were. There were spikes all over his shoulder-plates and neck. His optics were a strange tint of blue. Not as light as a Decepticons, but not entirely dark either.

“Now what are you hiding, spider-bot?” he grinned. “Wouldn’t be a Decepticon-double agent by any chance?”

He raised an arm. His fist came loose, shooting right at her head. Blackarachnia pulled up her arm, hoping that donwloading Shockwave had provided her with something useful. It did. There was now and arm-canon mounted on her servo. One shot and the Autobot’s projectile exploded into tiny pieces.

Blackarachnia lunged forward, stingers out. She didn’t want to give her opoonent time to recover. Unfortunately, he hadn’t needed it anyway. The Autbot grabber by her unarmed servo and threw her over his hip and on her back, hard.

He made a disapproving sound, off-set by the ever-present, smug grin on his face-plate. “That all you got? You’re gonna put me to sleep.”

Blackrachnia glared at him. “I’ll put you to sleep alright.”

She bent her stingers down on his arms. When he pulled back, she raised her arms cannon and shot at his head. He dodged. The beam his the ceiling instead, making rubble rain down on her. Balckarachna grunted, trying to pull herself out. The Autobot looked down on her triumpahtnly.

He pulled his intact servo back. The last thing she saw was his fist coming down on her face-plate.

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“Blackarachnia?”

Her optics activated in a snap. Blitzwing was standing in front of her, already in vehicle mode.

“Did you hear what Megatron said? We will be searching the human in the muscle car from the sky.”

“Yeah, yeah, don’t throw a rod,” she snapped at him. She rubbed her servo. There was no arm canon.

“Blackarachnia,” Megatron’s voice pulled her out of her thoughts. “If you feel unwell, you can monitor us with Professor Black from here.”

“I’m fine!” Without waiting for a response, Blackarachnia transformed into her alt-mode and jumped onto Blitzwing. “Let’s ‘rise up’ or whatever.”

She could feel the others were not entirely convinced, even without seeing their face-plates. Her irritation grew. Why couldn’t they just drop it? It was her problem, not theirs.

The Decepticons took off towards the city. It didn’t take them long to find the muscle car again. It wasn’t particularly hiding. When Lugnut spotted it engaged in a police chase, several droned in hot pursuit.

On Megatron’s orders, Lugnut took care of the drones. Megatron flew closer to the ground.

“Human,” he called out to the still dirving car. “This does not have to get violent. We only wish to talk.”

Instead of answering or stopping, the car’s exhauts port released two strange little balls. Upon touching the ground, they released a thick black smoke, clouding the Decepticon’s vision. Megatron barely managed to stop himself after almost ramming into another human vehicle coming down the street.

It’s humand river hit the breaks as soon he saw Megatron’s robot-mode, but couldn’t prevent his vehicle from ramming tino the Decepticon’s leg. Megatron bent down to eye-level with the human.

“I apologize for the damage to yor vehicle. I believe something called ‘insurance’ will take care of it?”

The human nodded silently, eyes wide. Megatron gace him what he hoped was an ecouraging smile, then transformed and took off again.

Meanwhile, Blitzwing and Balackarachnia were already on the muscle car’s tail again.

“Lugnut,” Blitzwing called. “We are sending him your way!”

Lugnut’s red biolights flashed up in fron of the muscle car.

The car’s hood slid open,and a strange looking contraction rose up from it. It turned to Blitzwing, then to Lugnut, shooting out two strange projectiles while doing so. The two Decepticons had not time to evade. Both of them were hit.

Blackarachnia hurt Blitzwing make strange sound underneath her in warning. His vocalizer sounded glitched and slow. Thinking quickly, she shot a thread out to a nearby building and drilled her legs into his armor-plating, just before his engines gave out.

The thread caught them mid-air, enough for Blackarachnia to lower them down to the ground slowly. She jumped off and both her, Blitzwing and Lugnut transformed back into robot-mode.

“Coward!” Lugnut huffed. “Relying on such dirty tricks...”

Blackarachnia didn’t answer. She was starin at nothing i particular, optics wide.

“That car...,” she croaked, slowly wrapping her servos around herself. “That weapon just now...No, it’s impossible!”

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She came back online slowly. The first thing she noticed was a strong ache in her stingers. When she tried to move them, pain shot down her back and she hissed. She was lying on a metal floor, the room around her dimly lit. Shockwave was nowhere in sight.

She scrambled to her feet, still only barely conscious and limped towards the light. It turned out to be a forcefield-door. She was in a cell. Blackarachnia fought down the panic that threatened to overwhelm her at the realization. If the Autobot wanted to kill her, he’d had every opportunity to do while she was in stasis.

She was still online. And sicne the Autobot had shown an interest in Shockwave, he probably was too. They could still escape. She laid her servo on the field, only to retract it immediately when it shocked her.

“Those copy-powers of yours won’t work here,” a familiar amused voice informed her. “That’s a modified stasis field. Organic or not, touching it’s gonna sting pretty bad.”

The Autobot stepped in front of her cell, grinning. He had replaced the hand she’d destroyed with a hook.

Blackarachnia glared at him, hands curling into fists. “You Autobot-bastard!” she spat.

The Autobot chuckled. “Oh, I’m not one of them. Name’s Lockdown.I’m what you’d call... a bounty hunter.“ Lockdown took another step forward to allow her a good view of his chest insgnia. Or lack thereof. Where a faction-insignia would normally be was nothing but emoty soace and a black spot. “Autobots pay real good for info,” he continued in a conversational tone, leaning on the wall. “Battle plans, access codes. Your friend should net me some sweet upgrades.”

Blackarachnia kept glowering at him, but mentally she made an ex-vent of relief. So Shockwave was still alive.

Lockdown’s voice pulled her attention back. “Of course you know what I really live for.“ His grin widened. There was something in it that she didn’t like at all. Apart from everything else. “Hunting trophies. Now you didn’t really have anything, being a part-organic freak and all.” He pulled out a flask containign a deep purple liquid. Blackarachnia felt her tanks freeze at the sight of it. “But that neom of yours? Not too shabby either.”

She suddenly felt very ill. Her stingers. He had.. he had...

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The sound of an all too familiar engine pulled her back to reality. She saw Megatron fly over the roofs in his vehicle mode. She doubted he would hear her if she called out to him now. She would have to try and catch up to him before he caught up with the ‘muscle car’. Blackarachnia shot a string up to a near-bay roof and pulled herself up, not even hearing Blitzwing calling after her.

Megatron had caught up to the muscle car in the meantime. He landed in frot of it, blockign it’s way and transformed back into robot-mode.

“I belive that is enough damage for one night,” he said, coldly looking down at the car. “Now please, step out of your vehicle human.”

“Just one problem,” A metallic voice responded. The car jerked up. Two legs formed, followed by a torso and a head, smirking. “I am the vehicle.”

Megatron’s optics went wide. “Lockdown?”

“The same,” Lockdown grinned, lifting his right arm. A strange gun rose out of his upper servo. Before Megatron could react, a strange vial-like projectle shot out of the weapon, hitting him square in the chest-plate.

Megatron made a glitched noise. He dropped donw to his knees and collapsed.

“But save the reunion-talk until we get to my ship,” Lockdown said, steping over and pulling Megatron’s limp body over his shoulders.

Blackarachnia saw what was happening when she touched down on the street. She raced towards Lockdown and Megatron. Lockdown turned around to her. A hidden compartment in his chest-plate opened, dropping two of his smoke balls. Him and Megatron were onscured from view in seconds.

Blackarachnia ran into the smoke desperately trying and failing to make out two shapes in it. When the smoke dispersed, she was alone on the street.

She shook, gripping her helm with her hands. “Megatron... no...”

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“My scans show no signs of Megatron or the muscle car,” Starscream said.

His ervos were crossed and he was tapping his pede. Both signs that he was anxious, Blackarachnia knew. Understandable. She felt like her armor-plating would crack from all the tension in her body. And her and Megatron weren’t nearly as close as Starscream and Megatron were.

When the rest of the team had arrived at her location, she had told them in quick, short sentences what had happened.

“How does a human just disappear with Megatron and mask his energy signature?” Blitzwing asked no one in particular.

Lugnut turned to look at Blackarachnia, his single optic unreadable. “Would you happen to have an answer to that, Blackarachnia? You saw him last.”

Blakcarachnia flinched. “How should I know?” she snapped, fingers gripping her arms even tighter. “I’m a medi-bot, not a field commander!”

The others stared at her in surprise.

“Is there something you are not telling us about this human?” Blitzwing asked.

Unwanted images flashed before her optics: The cell, the vial with her venom that he’d stolen, Shockwave...

“It’s not a human,” Blackarachnia said slowly. “And it’s not a car. It’s an Autobot, sorta. His name’s Lockdown. He captured me while I was on an undercover extraction-mission lots of stellar cycles ago. He’s... the one responsible for this.” She gestured to her bent stingers. “He’s a bounty hunter. Delivers ‘Cons like us to the Autbots in exchange for upgrades. And takes our personal modifications as trophies.”

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While Blackarachnia told her story, many miles away Lockdown stepped onto the main room of his ship. He was content. The hunt and extraction had gone off without a hitch.

He walked over to the berth he’d laid Megatron on. The Deception was a great deal bigger and stronger than his usual bounties. But the carbonfiber cables holding his arms and legs to the berth could have held a raging warframe for stellar cycles.

Megatron was online, but didn’t struggle like most who had found themselves in his position. His optics just wandered around the room, as if looking for something. Or someone. When he noticed Lockdown had entered, those optics turned to look at him.

“Why?” Megatron asked. “You helped us back in the Great War. What happened?”

Lockdown shrugged, crossing his servos. “Times are changing Megatron. The ‘Bots started to crack down harder on any ‘sympathizers’ to you ‘Cons. I’m just doing what I have to to stay online. And to get upgrades to help keep me stay online.,” He hesitated for a second. “For what it’s worth, it’s nothing personal. I always liked you, Megatron. You were one of the few mechs who put their credit chits were their intake was.”

Megatron snorted. “I’m flattered. I suppose that admiration is the reason my swords are gone?”

Lockdown chuckled. “Ah, you noticed huh?”

He walked over to one of the shelves on the wall. Dozens of modifications and trophies were arranged on the boards, each from a different bounty. Lockdown didn’t need to search long. He knew his trophies well. Giving an almost rueful smirk, he pulled out two long-swords.

“I’ve been thinking, maybe I’ll send them back later. Y’know, leave your ‘Cons something to mourn ya’ with.”

“They will find you before you even leave this planet,” Megatron said, optics hard.

Lockdown put the swords away. “Good. I could use some spare parts.“

----------------------------------

Blitzwing, Starscream, Lugnut and Blackarachnia touched donw on the ground again, transforming back into their robot-modes.

“We have been searching for mega cycles,” Blitzwing said disheartened. “Where in the world could they be?”

Blackarachnia snarled, fists shaking. “How did I not see it? Lockdown was chasing us the whole time! Hiding in plain sight. And we bought it, bulk, cable and-”

“Wait!” Starscream interrupted. His optics had lit up. “Hiding in plain sight... That’s the answer!” He put a hand to his helm to activate his comlink. “Professor Black, could you overlay the sattelite image of Old Detroit my scan produced with an older one?”

“Of course,” Professor Black answered. “Just let me call up the map from three days ago... huh, that’s strange. There’s a warehouse on your scan that wasn’t there before. Is that of any help?”

“It most certainly is!” Starscream said. “Thank you, professor.”

“A holographic cloak...” Blackarachnia said quietly, optics wide.

Starscream nodded, expression having turned grim. “Masking the bounty hunter’s ship, no doubt. Clever.”

Blitzwing’s faceplate switched to Hothead. “Not clever enough!” Hothead grinned, cracking his knuckles. “Let’s go kick his tailfins in!”

Him, Starscream and Lugnut transformed into their vehicle modes. Blackarachnia stayed where she was.

“I...” she looked down on the ground, arms wrapped around herself again. “I can’t go back there.”

“Are your circuits crossed?” Lugnut shouted. “That scum has our leader!”

Blackarachnia didn’t answer. She couldn’t look at any of them.

“No time to argue,” she heard Starscream say. Her spark sank at the barely hidden disappointment in his voice.

Their engines activated and when she finally found the courage to look back up, they were already disappearing into the night sky.

------------------------------------------

“You have the leader of the Decepticon rebellion?” Sentinel Prime’s faceplate was full of disbelief.

“Sure do,” Lockdown responded, leaning back in his chair to look up at the monitor. “And I hope your payment’s gonna be proportionate to the occasion.”

Sentinel Prime frowned. “You will get your upgrades, bounty hunter. So long as I get results. Though I am surprised you would sell Megatron out in this manner, considering your history with the Decepticon-faction.”

Lockdown’s grin dropped and he leaned forward. “My reasoning’s none of your concern. Just send me the coordinates I can deliver him to and have my reward ready.”

He ended the call before Sentinel could say anything else.

---------------------------------------------------

Starscream, Blitzwing and Lugnut landed a few feet away from the false warehouse’s ccordinates, changing back into robot-mode as they did so.

Starscream looked up at the ‘building’, frowning. “Lockdown is smart. We have to be smarter. Be careful when apporaching.”

“To the pit with that,” Lugnut snarled. “Let us seize the traitor!”

Before Blitzwing or Starscream could stop him, he charged at the warehouse with a fierce battle-cry, explosives-servo raised.

-------------------------------------------------------

The alarms inside the ship blared. Lockdown observed the camrea footage on his monitor, showing the three Decepticons outside.

“For a race built for fightin’ you’re predictable as ever,” he told them. He pressed a few buttons on the control panel, then headed outside, readjusting his hook.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Outside, laser-guns rose out from the false building’s roof, firing at the approaching Decepticons.

Starscream and Blitzwing barely dodged the first few shots. Blitzwing hissed in pain when one of the laser-projectiles hit his left wing.

Starscream propelled himself into the air, skillfully dodging the barrage. Quickly he touched down behind on of the canons, then cut it loose with his claws and shot down the remaining canons.

Lugnut had barely noticed the bombardment. He stubbornly charged for the wall, trampling one of the downed guns without even realizing. He crashed through the wall and into a dark room.

A pair of dark-blue biolights flared up at the other side of the room.

“Come to face your punishment, traitor?” Lugnut growled, readying his explosive.

Lockdown transformed into robot-mode. “Bring it on, Decepticon,” he said, raising his arms.

Lugnut roared and ran forward bringing his arm down on Lockdown. Lockdown jumped aside. Lugnut’s arm hit the wall behind him. The explosive set off, thrpwing him backwards. Lugnut goraned, trying to push himself back up, only to be surrounded by a thick, black fog.

“You think this can hurt me?” Lugnut shouted into the nothingness.

Lockdown appeared at the edge of his vision, dark-blue optics piercing through the fog. “Don’t have to hurt you.”

The fog spread and solidifed, trapping Lugnut in place. Lugnut roared in anger, trying to tear himself free. “Coward! Fight like a Decepticon!”

But Lockdown had already exited the room.

--------------------------------------------------

Blitzwing patrolled the perimeter, sensors at their all-time high. He flinched, whe he heard Lockdown’s engine. Looking around, he saw the bounty hunter’s vehicle mood sped past a nerbay corner.

“I have optics on the bounty hunter,” he called over comlink, transforming into his jet-mode.

He tailed Lockdown through several streets. Hothead took control, changing their vehicle mode from jet to tank.

“You can’t run from me forever, Autobot-scum!” he shouted, turning his canon on Lockdown. A stream of fire shot out of the barrel. Lockdown swerved sideways, narrowly avoiding it.

As if in response, Lockdown transformed his the right door of his vehicle back into an arm, hand clutching a familiar sword.

The tank halted for a moment. “That is Megatron‘s sword!”

Lockdown cut through a nearby pipe on a building. Oil spilled out onto the street. Hothead’s treads slipped, causing him to spin around. He crashed into a nearby wire fence. The impact made him transform into robot-mode, throwing him onto his back, hard. Hothead groaned in pain.

Lockdown appeared in his vision, sword still in hand. “M-hm. Megatron’s sword. And soon I’ll have your flame-thrower.”

He raised the sword over his helm, preparing to cut Hothead’s canon off. He heard a noise behind him. Lockdown whipped around, just in time to see a metal elbo coming towards him.

Starscream rammed into te bounty hunter, throwing him away from Hot head. He landed right between the two, putting his body in front of Hothead. His optics were deadset on Lockdown.

Lockdown stumbled back to his pedes, laughing and rubbing the soot from his face-plate. “Almost forgot about you. Figures Megatron’s number two’d be just as scrappy as him. Gotta say, I’m impressed, Starscream. Been eons since anybody got the drop on me.”

Starscream smirked. “Next time will be much sooner.”

He raised his arm and shot a null-ray at Lockdown. Lockdown blocked it with the sword in his hand, then transformed his left arm into a chainsaw and lunged at Starscream. Starscream dodged his first two strikes, then got both of Lockdown’s wrists. He transformed his intake into the sonic canon and shot Lockdown right in the chest, propelling him onto a scrap-heap.

Lockdown pushed himself up, glaring at Starscream, who was holding Megatron’s stolen sword in his hand. Starscream walked over to him, then grabbed his chainsaw servo and yanked him up, bringing them face-plate to face-plate.

“Where is Megatron?” he asked, voice dangerously low and optics narrowing.

Lockdown grinned at him. “You’ll see him very soon.”

Starscream frowned, then flinched. He looked down. Lockdown was holding a strange gun to his chest-plate. A small vial, obviously just fired from the same gun, was sticking out of it, now almost empty. Starscream felt numbness spread to his limbs. He dropped Lockdown and passed out.

“You still got it Starscream. Always liked your style,” Lockdown told him, rubbing his wrist. “You and I could probably teach each other a few tricks.” His smirk widened and he reached for the sword. “If I wasn’t about to, you know. Hand you over to the Autobots.”

“Step away from the Decepticon.”

Lockdown turned around. Blackarachnia was standing in the entrance to the alleyway. Her optics were steely.

“Wait, I know you,” Lockdown said, tapping the gun in his servo. “My ahdny little venom, right? I’m not good with names and faces, but I never forget a trophy. How’re the old stingers? Still dented?”

Blackarachnia glared at him, gritting her denta.

Lockdown chuckled. “Maybe I should break’em off for good this time.Seems to me there not much use to you know anyways.”

“You’ll never take another trophy from a Decepticon ever again,” Blackarachnia said coldly, sliding into a fighting position.

“No?” Lockdown asked. “Who’s gonna stop me?”

Blackarachnia held his gaze. “Me.”

Lockdown snorted. “You couldn’t stop an oil leak! But don’t worry. I got all I wanted from you a long time ago.”

Blackarachnia screamed and threw herself at Lockdown. Lockdown merely raised the strange gun and shot. The vial hit her straight in the chest-plate, Blackarachnia made a glitched sound, then collapsed.

Lockdown huffed in amusement. “Now that was just sad.” He truned around to leave, but then suddenly felt something wrap itself around his pede. He looked down just in time to see a white thread before he was aprubtly thrown into the air and against a wall. He jumped up, only to see Blakcarachnia standing across frm him, seemingly unfazed.

“What the-?” He exclaimed. “I shut you down!”

He hastily pulled up the gun and fired another shot. Blackarachnia raised a servo and easily caught the vial in her hand, crushing it. Before Lockdown had time to react, she opened her intake and transformed it into a smaller version of Starscream’s sonic-gun, taking a straight shot at Lockdown and hitting him square in the chest-plate.

He flew backwards, hitting a nearby streetlamp with a yelp and crushed down on the ground.

“Humans call it playing possum,” Blackarachnia said, walking over to him. Don’t ask me what a possum is.”

She opened her intake again, shooting a clump of thread and pinning his body to the ground.

“I guess it never occurred to you that the venom wouldn’t work on the one ‘Con who produced it,” she told him bitterly.

When she was sure he couldn’t get up again, she turned and ran over to the ‘warehouse’. Their was only one door and it was several times smaller than her. She wouldn’t fit, even in her spider-form.

“Think,” she mumbled to herself, feeling the walls around the door. “It’s a ship. There’s an air lock, not a door.”

Here hand brushed over a strange bump where only smooth wall should be. She gripped into it and pulled. The area around the door tore off, revealing an air lock just about two helms taller and wider than her. The ‘bump’ turned out to be a panel for access. Blacjarachnia pressed her palm against it and activated her download.

The acces protocols flooded into her processor and back into the panel. A siren sounded from insde and the air lock opened to a dark hallways. Blackarachnia looked into the nothingness in front of her. She vented deeply, then stepped inside.

For a while there was only her and the silence of the horribly familiar ship. Memories came back to her and every time they did, she supressed them just as quickly.

She heard Lockdown brag about how good Autbots payed for info. She heard her own voice, desperately calling Shockwave’s name. The worst was the memory of Shockwave’s own pleading voice, asking her to-

There was another door in front of her. Blackarachnia tore herself out of her thoughts and picked up her pace. The door opened to admit her into a larger room, illuminated only by a few ceiling lights. They shone down onto a wide berth. And tied to it was-

“Megatron!” Blackarachnia exclaimed.

Megatron raised his helm, weakly, as if he had trouble moving. “Blackarachnia?”

She ran over to his side and pressed a button on a panel next to the berth. The cables holding Megatron down reatreated: Megatron pushed himself up into a sitting position, grimacing slightly. Blackarachnia felt a mixture of shame and anger. Lockdown had used another venom dart to make sure Megatron couldn’t escape while he fought off the rest of them.

She pulled her emergency-scanner out of her storage compartment. “Hold still,” she told Megatron, letting the scanner wander over his upper body. “And don’t try to talk. I need to make some adjusments.”

Warning sirnes started blaring through the room. The ground underneath them started to shake.

Blackarachnia cursed. “Launch sequence starting. We gotta move!”

She pulled Megatron off the berth and onto his pedes. He was leaning onto her heavily, but still doing his best to walk. They made their way over to the door. Just as she was about to reach out to the panel, the door slid open, revealing Lockdown.

He grabbed her around the neck, puleld her out of Megatron’s grip and threw her across the room before she could react. Blackarachnia crashed into one of the shelves, trophies flaiing down aroudn her.

“Playing possum, huh?” she heard Lockdown snicker through her daze. “Gotta remember that one.”

--------------------------------

Outside, Blitzwing was treated to a rude awakening when the ground started to shake under him.

He gave a pained groan, pushing hismelf up and putting a hand to his still aching helm.

“Why do I have the feeling I will not like what I am about to see?” he mumbled to himself, looking up. The warehouse in front of him folded in on itself, revealing a I-G 200 class starship. The ship lifted off the ground and into the sky.

Blitzwing ex-vented. “I knew it.”

---------------------------------------

Blackarachnia jumped to her pedes. Using the last of her download, she brought out the sonic gun in her intake and fired at Lockdown. Lockdown dodged and pulled out Megatron’s sword, preparing to swipe at her. Blakcarachnia flinched and stumbled backwards, falling onto her back.

Lockdown placed his pede on her mid-section and grinned down at her, sword raised. “Y’know, I’m really starting to warm up to those copy-powers and strings of yours. Pitiy your a half-organic freak. Maybe those mods would’ve even been worth clearing some space on the trophy case.“

Blackarachnia glared up at him. “You like trohpies?” She bent her helm backwards an spat a long thread onto the nearby shelf. “Have your fill!”

Before Lockdown could react, she grabbed onto the threat. I collided with Lockdown, pushing him off of her and burying him underneath it. He let go of the sword in the process. Blackarachnia caught it ba the handle when it fell, getting back up and walking over to Lockdown.

“Time was I would have used my venom to end this fight painlessly,” she said icily, watching him writhe in pain. “Too bad I can’t dose it properly anymore, huh?”

She turned to get Megatron, when she heard a gltiched noise coming from Lockdown. When she looked at him he was raising his hook-servo. The strange gun, the one he’d used her venom with, rose out of his arm.

“Cyber venom,” he rasped, looking at her with pleading optics. “Use it. Please... please!”

She stared at him. His words were familar. Terribly familiar.

---------------------------------------------

As soon as the bounty hunter was gone, she started to search her cell. It didn’t take a long to find a spot next to the door close enough to the control panel for a partial download. A few nanokliks later and she was sneaking down the ships hallway.

Voices in the distance led her to a bigger room. Light spilled out from underneath the door.

“You must have some primo-info in that processor, spy-con,” she heard Lockdown say. “Cause you’re gonna get interrogated by Ultra Magnus himself. Now don’t go anywhere. I have to set up the call.”

She jumped up to cling to the ceiling just in time before the door slid open. Lockdown walked out, fiddling with a device on his wrist.She waited until he disappeared down the hallway, then jumped down and quickly entered the room.

Shockwave was tied to an up-right standing berth. He looked tired and in pain. The proto-leg she’d assembled for his destroyed one looked wrong on him. He perked up when he heard her enter.

“Blackarachnia?”

She motioned for him be quiet, and threw a quickly look back at the door. Lockdown wasn’t coming. She hurried over to Shockwave and started to pull on the cables tying him down.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“What’s it look like?” she hissed. “I’m getting you out of here!”

Shockwave shook his helm. “There is no time! He will be back any nanoklik.”

“Well, I’m not leaving here without you!” she snapped up at him. Her servos started to shake. “I’m not leaving you here.”

Shockwave shook his helm again. “Your stingers. Use a heavy dosage. Destroy my memory core.”

“What?” Blackarachnia stared at him, horrified. “Shockwave, no-”

“Blackarachnia, the access codes I’ve loaded into my processor are crucial for the Decepticon’s continued survival!“ Shockwave’s voice was pleading. “We can’t allow Ultra Magnus to get them back!”

Blackarachnia hesitated. It would tae her more time than she had to get through these cables. But her stingers were still hurting and she had no doubt Lockdown had damaged them when he had extracted venom from her. Was she evne able to produce venom anymore? And if so, how could she use it to hurt a fellow Decepticon?

“Blackarachnia,” Shockwave said, looking at her with pleading optics. “Please!”

In that moment, they both heard steps outside the door. Blackarachnia gulped, then nodded. She laid her servos on Shckwave’s shoulderplate and lowered her stingers, flinching. It felt like she was trying to move a damaged servo.

She knew something was wrong as soon as she started to insert the venom into Shockwave’s body. Instead of a steady flow, the venom rushed through her stingers all at once. When it sepped into Shockwave’s system he jerked and then screamed in pain.

“Shockwave!”

Blackarachnia pulled her stingers back immediately, but it was too late. Shockwave had stipped screaming. He was hanging limply from the berth, optics havin offlined themselves. The blue orb on his upper faceplate had gone dark.

Blackarachnia started shaking.

“Shockwave...?” she asked, voice sounding strangely small in her audials.

Instinctively, she scanned his body. She couldn’t pick up an energy signature.

“No...,” she whispered. She stepped back from the berth, shaking.

“What the-?!”

She whipped around. Lockdown was standing in the door. She didn’t give him the chance to react. Blackarachnia dove right under his grabbing servos, running out into the hallway and out of the ship.

Later she wouldn’t remember how she managed to find her own ship.Or how she made it home to New Kaon. All she would remember was Shockwave’s lifeless body.

------------------------------------

In the present, Blackarachnia glowered down at Lockdown. She curled her hands into fist so tightly they shook.

“You want me,” she said, slowly apporaching Lockdown. “To use that venom to make your pain go away?”

Lockdown grabbed one of his ‘trophies’ , a whip, from the ground and swung it at her. Blackarachnia caught the lash in mids.air, then stomped on the shelves lying on top of him, hard.

Lockdown screamed, letting go of the whip.

Blackarachnia leaned down to him. “I used that venom for medical purposes,” she told him, voice shaking with rage. “Thanks to you it’s nothing more than a weapon now.”

She grabber the gun still mounted on his servo and ripped it off. Lockdown roared in agony, thrashing around but unable to free himself. Blackarachnia slid open a panel on her own wrist and attached the gun to it. She turned around and shot a vial at the nearby control panel.

“No!” she heard Lockdown shout behind her.

The panel threw sparks. The ship lurched. Lockdown, unable to grab onto anything, was thrown against a wall.

“That was for Shockwave,” Blackarachnia hissed.

She ran over to Megatron. He was barely online, but he moved when she pulle dhim to his pedes. Together they ran to the exit. Blackarachnia slammed her fist into the panel. The door opened, allowing Blackarachnia to see just how far above the ground her an Megatron were.

“No turning back now,” she mumbled.

She jumped down, pulling Megatron with her. When they came to building-level, she fired several threats at a nearby roof, wrapping them around herself and Megatron.

“Hold on, Megatron,” she shouted over the wind. “That’s gonna hurt a little!”

The strings holding them pulled taught a few meters over the concrete, aprubtly halting their fall. Then it snapped, resulting in them both painfully landing on the ground with a smack.

Due to the venom still preventing Megatron from more comlicated movement, and the rest of the Decepticons too far awaythey had to walk back to the mines. Slowly and painfully.

----------------------------------

Blackarachnia finished her medical scan and stuffed the scanner back into her compartment.

“How are you healing?” she asked Megatron.

When they had finally arrived in the mines in the morning, she had ushered him into the medbay right away. The others hadn’t come back yet. Professor Black had been worried when he’d seen them pass by, but Blackarachnia had managed to put his questions off for later, reasoning that she would have to see if Megatron had sustained any injuries from his time with Lockdonw or her escue attempt.

He hadn’t, but she had scanned him anyway, just to be sure.

“The venom is almost out of my systems,” Megatron replied, briefly letting a servo hover over the spot in which Lockdown tranquilized him. “But I am grateful you took the time to look over me.”

Blackarchnia shook her helm. “Not what I meant.”

Megatron ex-vented. “Let us just say I have a better understanding what you went through stellar cycles ago. And why you do not wish to talk about it.”

Blackarachnia flinched.

“Actually,” she said, crossing her servos and looking down on the floor. “It’s not that I don’t want to. It’s just... not easy for me. To remember. But maybe I should.” A little quieter she added: “He deserved better than this.”

She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up. Megatron was smiling at her softly.

“Then I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to talk about at least parts of it sometimes? With a trusted friend?”

Blackarachnia hesitated. Then she ex-vented and let her servos drop to her sides. “What do you want to know?”

#shattered glass animated #sga #episode 7 #transformers animated fan-write

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shatteredglassanimated · 4 years

Note

So wait... the Dinobots are still Autobots? I just got confused because of their... not entirely hostile relationship with the Decepticons, but I did just realise that the canon Dinobots had a rocky relationship with the Autobots... so I’m not sure, haha!

For the moment, they’re neutral^^

They just learned to transform.

#sga questions #mun answers

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shatteredglassanimated · 4 years

Text

Shattered Glass Animated Season 1 Episode 6 - Blast From The Past

Overlord Sumdac is preparing a new kind of battle-drone to take out the Resistance and with his new unholy alliance, the threat is getting greater. Meanwhile, Blitzwing tries to teach Lugnut to be more amicable.

“Aw, come on!” Penny pouted up at Lugnut, hands propped on her hips. Miles was cowering at his usual place behind her. He threw nervous glances up at the Decepticon. Unlike his human companion, he was well aware of Lugnut’s annoyance.

“I am busy, human,” Lugnut snapped. “Find someone else for your rituals.”

Penny threw her arms up in frustration. “Who? All of you are always busy talking to Aaron or Cyrus lately! It’s boring.”

Lugnut turned away from the platform he’d put his damaged arm on to give Penny a one-optic glare. “Hard as it may be to believe, we all have more important things to do than participate in meaningless activities for your enjoyment! If that is a problem to you, I suggest you find a way to make yourself actually useful and leave me be.”

Penny stared at him for a moment. Then her eyes started watering. She sniffled, turned on her heels and ran out of the room, Miles hot on her tail. She passed Blitzwing on her way out. The Triplechanger looked after her with a worried expression.

“Did something happen?” he asked.

Lugnut shrugged. “Organics. Always leaking over every little thing.”

Blitzwing frowned. “What did you say?”

“Evidently something she didn’t like,” Lugnut grumbled, turning back to his arm on the table.

Blitzwing ex-vented and leaned against the door-frame, crossing his arms. “Lugnut, would it really put you off-line to be a bit more friendly?”

Lugnut huffed.

“I am just saying, it might be hard to get the rest of the humans to like us if you keep being so hostile.”

“I do not need to be liked,” Lugnut snapped.”What use is bonding with them in any case? We’ll be leaving this planet eventually.”

“But we still don’t know when that’ll be,” Blitzwing retorted. “Megatron, Blackarachnia and Professor Black are still working to establish a way for us to communicate with New Kaon. We need what help we can get.”

Lugnut said nothing, though his movements grew a tad more aggressive. Blitzwing walked over, picked up the bigger mech’s arm, ignoring his protests and firmly put it back in Lugnut’s empty socket.

Lugnut stared at him for a bit, then moved the arm around. It stuck.

“..Fine. What would you have me do?”

Blitzwing smirked. His faceplate switched over to Hothead, who gave a bellowing laugh. “Oh, you will hate this next part!”

---------------------------------------

“I’m failing to see how this relates to my new body,” Optimus Prime said drily, his single intact optic narrowing.

Sumdac chuckled, tightening another screw on the gigantic, metal structure before him. “Oh, quite a lot my decapitated friend. What I am constructing here, is a new form of battle-bot. Once it’s finished, it will give us the edge we need to overpower the resistance and your metallic “friends” aiding them.” He took a few steps backwards to admire his work. Three gigantic metal bodies stood against one wall of his laboratory.

Optimus narrowed his optics at the things. To him, these creatures looked laughably boorish.

The one in the middle was the biggest, with a square body, ending in a long tail, two powerful hind legs and, as if to offset them, two very small arms with three claws on each one. It’s head was almost as big as it’s body with jaws the size of a scrap press. The one to the right was smaller, with more equal proportions and stood on all fours. It’s head was framed by a shield-like plate. It had two horns on it’s forehead and one were it’s nose should have been. The one to the left seemed tiny compared to it’s companions. It was barely two heads taller than Bumblebee, with two long winged arms and a narrow head that seemed like it had been pulled apart on both sides, forming a pointy beak and a crest. It stood upright on two spindly legs with sharp talons on it’s pedes.

“Stunned speechless, I see,” Sumdac said, grinning. “Not that I would fault you for that. These new models were made to resemble creatures from our earths’ Jurassic era. Roughly two hundred million years old.”

“That’s hardly impressive,” Optimus replied bluntly. “Cybertronians have existed for ten billion years.”

Sumdac’s face grew red and he took a deep breath. It was at times like these that the concept of just pulling the plugs connecting the head to his building’s systems grew ever more tantalizing.

“In any case,” he continued through gritted teeth, “These dinosaurs, as we call them, especially the three I modeled these drones after, were apex predators and fighting machines. If properly motivated. Luckily, all the motivation my creations require, is the push of a button. And once they defeat and capture the Decepticons, I will have all the blueprints I need to construct you the body you so desire.”

With a self-assured smirk, Sumdac stepped up to a control panel positioned in front of the drones and pressed down a few buttons.

The drones’ eyes lit up red. They started to twitch, moving their limbs. Then the drone in the middle let loose a roar that echoed off the walls of the lab. Sumdac’s grin grew downright manic as he watched his creations come to life.

Then the drone on the left flapped it’s wings a few times and rose into the air. Sumdac’s grin vanished.

“Not in here you imbecile,” he shouted, waving his arms. “This room is nowhere near big enough to-”

The drone, in it’s eagerness, shot up and crashed right into the ceiling. It’s head got stuck in the countless cables in the air. It flapped, screeching furiously. Finally, it’s thin neck snapped under the unevenly distributed weight. The screeches subsided. It’s body crashed into the drone in the middle, taking one of it’s small arms off. The middle drone roared again, stumbling to the side.

It stumbled over the right-most drone and buried it beneath itself, completely crushing it’s body in a mess of bent metal and sparks. Smoke filled the laboratory. Right on cue, the sprinklers set in, immediately extinguishing the small flames coming from the mangled bodies.

Sumdac quietly stood there and watched the mess, fists clenched so tightly they shook.

“Evidently there was a reason they died out so soon,” he heard Optimus snark behind him.

---------------------------------

“Alright,” Blitzwing announced, hands propped up on his hips. “Before you start being friendlier to humans, I believe we should practice with you being more friendly to fellow Cybertronians!”

“I’d just like to remind everyone that I have things to do,” Blackarachnia spoke up, arms crossed and a scowl on her faceplate.

She, Blitzwing and Lugnut were standing in one of the mine’s empty tunnels. Blackarachnia and Lugnut were standing across from each other, with Blitzwing positioned in the middle.

Lugnut’s optic narrowed and he opened his intake, but Blitzwing quickly stepped in front of him. “Which is why Lugnut is very grateful you took the time to help us anyway.” He elbowed the bigger mech slightly. “Right?”

Lugnut rolled his optic, but relented. “Yes, my gratitude knows no bounds.”

“Well that didn’t sound very nice,” Blackarachnia said, giving a mocking pout.

Lugnut’s optic narrowed again, but Blitzwing shot him a warning look and he ex-vented, shoulders drooping. “Thank you, I suppose.”

Blackarachnia shrugged. “Eh, it’s a start.”

“Alright, let us begin,” Blitzwing said quickly, clapping his hands together. “We’ll start with something simple. Lugnut, imagine Blackarachnia had done something to irritate you. Something like, taking the last energon cube. What would you do?”

Lugnut gave a long vent. “Blackarachnia, I wanted to take that cube. That was quite rude of you.”

“Didn’t see your name one it, big guy,” Blackarachnia smirked.

Lugnut’s optic narrowed. “Why you-!”

“Lugnut,” Blitzwing said warningly.

“I... suppose there is some truth to that,” Lugnut said through gritted denta. “Still, I really wanted that cube. You know I am a flight frame. I need more energon than you.”

Blackarachnia put a hand to her chin as if in thought. “Hmm, you’ve got a point there.” She let her servo drop to the side and grinned. “But then again, you could stand to lose a few megatons. Maybe you would actually hit something, if you were lighter.”

Lugnut lunged at her before Blitzwing could stop him. Blackarachnia jumped out of the way with ease, grin never leaving her faceplate. Lugnut crashed against the wall. The impact knocked several rock loose. The three of them managed to vacate the tunnel just in time before it came down.

They were still busy padding off dust from their frames and peeling smaller rocks out of their systems when Megatron, Starscream and Professor Black came running around the corner, the two Decepticons with their weapons raised and the mutant with one acid-dripping arm out of the sleeve of the special suit he’d taken to wearing.

“We heard an explosion! Is everything alright?” Megatron asked.

“Yeah, we’re good. That was just Lugnut trying to be nice,” Blackarachnia answered drily, flicking a pebble off her shoulder plate.

-------------------------------

Optimus let his optic wander over the destroyed bodies of the drones, deep in thought. For all his taunting, he had to admit the drones were commendable for what they were. Though he wouldn’t be caught off-line admitting that to Sumdac.

The human had stomped out in a huff after his inventions had chosen to destroy each other instead of their shared enemies. Which had given Optimus ample time to study what remained of their body and circuitry. Like everything else on this planet, they were far too primitive as constructions to serve as potential new bodies for him.

But they were formidable enough to serve as his arms, metaphorically speaking. All they needed was a steady servo to guide them. Also metaphorically speaking, given his current situation.

Optimus let parts of his consciousness seep into the laboratories’ computers and machinery. It didn’t take long to reassemble the bodies and implant a signal beacon. They would be at his beck and call at a thought now.

When Sumdac re-entered the room, he found his drones fully repaired and operational.

“Spare me the thanks,” Optimus said, feeling a smug satisfaction at the sight of Sumdac’s disbelieving expression. “I suggest you have these things brought to the city. I’m sure our heroic friends would just love to meet them.”

------------------------------------------------

Blitzwing looked out over the water from the spot on the beach he was standing on. He had to admit, the way this planet’s sun reflected off the gleaming surface made for a very calming sight. Almost peaceful. Neither the Cybertronian colony he had been forged on nor New Kaon had a sun as bright as earth’s.

The sound of Lugnut barrelling through through the thick foliage behind him tore him out of his thoughts.

“Oh don’t complain,” Blitzwing said, as Lugnut opened his intake. “I told you to land on the beach. This island will be the ideal place to train you. No humans to watch us and nothing else you could break or cause the collapse of.”

“I suppose,” Lugnut huffed, bending a small tree out of the way.

“Since practicing doesn’t seem to agree with you, I guess we’ll just.. talk about this.” Blitzwing scratched the back of his helmet nervously. He had to admit, this hadn’t been going how he’d planned it out to. “Let’s star with, um... why do you feel you have to be so harsh to the humans?”

“I am not being harsh, I am being straight-forward,” Lugnut said, crossing his arms. “Would you want me to tell them sweet lies and deceive them, like an Autobot?”

“No, of course not! But Lugnut, there is a middle ground between lying and being polite.” Blitzwing ex-vented. “Humans have feelings and thoughts just like we do. And perhaps you should consider that the next time you speak to them. A little empathy can go a long way.”

Lugnut went quiet for a short time. His optic expanded a little. “Blitzwing-”

“Lugnut, Blitzwing, come in!” Both Decepticons flinched slightly at the sound of Megatrons voice in their comms. They both reached up to their aduials.

“Where are you?” Megatron asked.

“At an island not far from the city,” Blitzwing responded.

“What? What for?”

“That is.. a bit hard to explain,” Blitzwing said, fiddling with his insignia and hoping the embarrassment didn’t seep into his vocalizer. He had completely neglected to tell anyone but Blackarachnia about his and Lugnut’s little trip.

“In any case, we need you back here and fast! It seems Sumdac’s machines are attacking the city!”

“Understood,” Blitzwing replied. “We’ll be there immediately.”

Him and Lugnut nodded to each other, then transformed and took off.

-----------------------------------

Downtown was chaos. Civilians were running through the streets in a panic, screaming and crying. Three humongous drones were rampaging through the streets, overturning vehicles and trampling everything in their way.

The drone who resembled a Tyrannousaurus, turned it’s head back and forth, as if looking for something, even sniffing the air a few times. It completely ignored the panicked young woman trying to dodge it’s claws. Before it could squash her, a laser-blast collided with it’s chest throwing it back.

Megatron lowered his arm cannon and turned to Blitzwing and Lugnut, who had just touched down a few feet away, already turned back into robot-mode.

“Blitzwing, Lugnut, evacuate the humans! The rest, help me contain these drones!”

The other Decepticons nodded. Blitzwing and Lugnut split up, each leading a group of humans away from the fight. Lugnut suppressed an annoyed growl. It was like these organics didn’t want to be saved! Every few steps they would stop to turn back and gape at the fight. Some managed to stumble over their own feet so often, Lugnut wondered if they perhaps hadn’t been assembled right at forging.

“Will you move, humans?” he finally snapped, when one of them once again threw a hasty look over their shoulder instead of running. They stared at him, eyes big and fearful. Lugnut flinched a little, remembering Blitzwing’s words.

“Now look,...The situation might be less than ideal, but, um...” He was no good at this. And now what little movement he had managed to bring into this group seemed to have stopped entirely.

He heard a noise behind him and extended his right arm just in time to catch a van that had been sent flying by the fight.

“Lugnut, what are you doing?” he heard Megatron shout behind him. “Get those humans away from here!”

“Do you think I haven’t tried?” Lugnut snapped back, turning around with a narrowed optic.

His anger lowered his spacial awareness. The servo currently clutching the damaged van collided with the wall of a nearby building. A part of the wall broke in, with a couple pf brick raining down on the streets and the still terrified humans. The sight of several heavy objects seemed to kick them into gear at least.

The humans started screaming in fear again and ran into the alleyways and side-streets. Lugnut stared after them, feeling somewhat guilty. He hadn’t meant to frighten them or put them in danger. At the very least they weren’t in harms way anymore. He turned to go back to the fight.

Megatron was busy engaging the drone with the enormous jaw, holding it back with his swords. Blackarachnia and Blitzwing were trying to subdue the other two, together with the humans. Starscream was currently chasing the sole flying drone through the air, trying to shoot it down with his pulse canons. being a seeker, Starscream was a fast flyer, but the drone was small and very agile, dodging his shots at every turn.

When the drone bearing three horns on it’s head tried to snap it’s jaws around Blitzwing’s servo, Lugnut punted it in the stomach, sending it flying into it’s companion and away from the Decepticons and the humans.

“What are those things?” Blackarachnia asked, looking down on Cyrus and Amicable Archer. “I thought you said this planet didn’t have any Cybertronian life-forms except for us.”

“It does not,” Archer responded, setting in an explosive arrow. “‘Tis another ploy of Overlord Sumdac! He built these vile beasts in the image of animals long perished.”

“Just without the skin,” Cyrus shrugged. “We call ‘em dinosaurs.”

“And what weaknesses do these ‘dinosaurs’ have?” Megatron asked, readying his sword at the sight of the two drones slowly picking themselves back up.

“Err, I dunno. They died out, like, billions of years ago,” Cyrus replied, assuming a battle-ready stance.

“Then we shouldeth repeat that process,” Archer grinned, letting his arrow loose.

The explosive hit the three-horn in the head, but did little but make it stumble. Starscream touched down beside the group, frowning.

“I hate to admit it, but this thing is too small for me to hit. You’d think fighting Autobots for stellar cycles would have prepared me for that.”

“And those other two seem particularly stubborn, for all that they have no combat skills, “ Blitzwing added, rubbing a new dent on his side. “We should-”

The tyrannosaurus charged without warning, aiming right for Megatron. Megatron pulled his sword up just in time to block the drones jaws. The drone let out a furious roar, before clamping down on the blade, tearing it out of it’s owner grip and tossing it across the street. Before Megatron could react, the drone buried it’s jaw into his now weaponless servo, biting hard enough to make the plating crack and draw energon.

“Get away from him!” Starscream shouted. A bright light flashed from his eyes and the next second, his intake shifted. A sound-projector-like device assembled itself inside of it and shot a mixture of a strong acoustic wave and proton blast right at the drone.

The drone screamed as the blast hit it, letting go of Megatron. The blast threw it backwards, right into the three-horned drone who had just started to get up again.

Starscream’s intake transformed back to normal. The Decepticons and humans stared at him in shock. Starscream himself seemed just as shaken. He brought a hand up to his now regular intake, as if to make sure it was still there.

“Wow. Guess I know why they call you Starscream now,” Cyrus joked, crossing his arms.

“Starscream” Blitzwing said, “I’ve known you for stellar cycles and this is the first time I’ve seen you use this power. How did you do that?”

“I..I don’t know,” Starscream admitted. “I suppose I was just really angry and then... this. But, that never happened when I fought before!”

“In any case, it is a useful power to have,” Megatron said, laying a hand on Starscream’s shoulder-plate and giving him a smile. “I would have been short of a servo if not for you.”

“Ha, yes,” Starscream chuckled, face-plate flushing a little. “Though we were pretty lucky I made the thing let go before blasting it into a wall.”

Megatron looked thoughtful for a moment. “Do you think you could do it again? At will?”

Starscream hesitated for a second. “I think so.”

Megatron smirked. “Then I believe we just found a way to deal with these ‘dinosaurs’.” He turned to the others. “Round up the drones in one place. Make them as easy a target as possible. Starscream, do you think you could do the same with the flyer?”

Starscream grinned. “I said I can’t hit it. I didn’t say I couldn’t scare it.”

With that, the Decepticons and the humans took off.

Lugnut lowered his arm to allow Blckarachnia to download. When she was finished, the two of them with additional help from Cyrus, surrounded the three-horned drone. It lashed out for Cyrus, only to be kicked aside by Blackarachnia. When it tried to lunge at her, Lugnut and Cyrus tackled it towards the middle of the street.

The drones with the large jaws tried it’s luck with Blitzwing, only to slip on a pool of ice suddenly appearing under it’s feet. It screeched and dug it’s claws in, trying to anchor itself. A blast of energy hit it in the side and propelled it towards the same spot the three-horned drone was currently busy fighting off Blackarachnia, Lugnut and Cyrus.

The flying drone was back to dodging Starscream’s proton-blasts, though it’s movements were a fair deal more frantic now. When a shot grazed it’s right wing, it let out an ear-shattering screech and dropped down onto it’s two companions.

“They’re all together! Now, Starscream!” Megatron shouted.

Starscream opened his intake. There was no light this time, but the sonic canon appeared anyway, firing a blat that seemed even stronger, now that it’s owner knew what he was doing.

The drones screeched, trying to cover their non-existent ears. Sparks jumped over their frames and they collapsed on top of each other, motionless.

“Sumdac’s really upping his game,” Cyrus commented, walking over to the drones to get a closer look. “That’s the first time he tried Dinobots.”

Blackarachnia raised an eye-ridge. “‘Dinobots’?”

Cyrus blushed a little. “We gotta call ‘em something, don’t we?”

“In any case,” Megatron said, re-sheathing his swords. “We should retreat back to the mines fro now. These things don’t pose a threat anymore.”

“Shouldeth we not take them with us?” Archer asked. “They seemeth to resemble your kind a great deal.”

“Not exactly,” Blitzwing said, picking up his human friend. “They have a semblance of a spark in them, but... they don’t have free will like we do.” He hesitated for a second. “I think.”

“Decepticons, transform and rise up!” Megatron commanded.

The group transformed into vehicle mode and took off towards the woods. Blitzwing couldn’t help but throw a glance back at the seemingly lifeless bodies of the Dinobots before following.

-------------------------------------------

Optimus scowled at the pathetic scorching husks that had once been his attack drones. When the one wit the large jaw had sunk it’s teeth into Megatron he had almost been able to taste victory. But then came that annoying second-in.command and his sonic pulse.

Through their link, Optmius had felt it when it hit the drones. It had been... unusual. There was something else behind the sonic waves, an energy comparable to a spark. But as his connection with the drones had been severed shortly after, he hadn’t been able to analyze it further.

Sumdac had raged and huffed and thrown tools around and in the end he had retreated to his private quarters, not even bothering to look at the re-captured drones. For once, Optmius couldn’t fault him for his behavior. If he’d had a body, he would have done the same.

The drones had been the closest he’d come to being mobile again in solar cycles. Now they wouldn’t even twitch at his signal.

“If even the greatest mind of this planet can only produce you,” he told their still bodies, “Then my chances of ever getting my body back are grim. Locked in this lab-”

“’Grimlock’? I do say, ‘Grimlock’... It’s quite a nice name.”

Optimus’ optic widened. The drone with the large jaw had talked. And now it moved. Slowly, carefully, like a proto-form making it’s first steps, the drone pushed itself back onto it’s legs and turned it’s head from side to side, as if seeing the room for the first time. It’s two companions followed suit.

“Looks like the Decepticons didn’t destroy you after all,” Optimus said slowly. “So what did they do?” His optic lit up for a split-second, then dimmed again. “You don’t respond to my Cybertronian commands anymore either. But you still function. As if you had sparks.”

The big-jawed drone, tilted it’s head from side to side. “Yes, that’ll do nicely. I am Grimlock,” it muttered, as if it hadn’t heard.

Optimus fought down a surge of annoyance at the thing ignoring him. “Well, Grimlock, my name is Optimus Prime. And I am your leader.”

Grimlock turned to look at Optmius, his own, small, blue optics narrowing just the slightest bit. “Beg your pardon my good Sir, but I am quite certain that I, Grimlock, am the leader of our trio. Though I admit I do not know much else...”

“Obey me!” Optimus snapped, optic lighting up again.

To his anger, the drones once again did not respond. But one of the many screens on the wall switched on, rattling off a documentary.

“-and so the remnants of the dinosaurs, known as fossils, serve as fuel for today’s cars, trucks and air transports. Furthermore-”

“Not you!” Optimus groaned.

He prepared to retract from the system to shut the voice down. But then he noticed the drones. All of them seemed focused on the screen now. Grimlock’s expression, what little of it could be read, seemed apprehensive now, almost disturbed.

“How barbaric!” he exclaimed, the other two drones squawking in agreement. “So these... ‘cars’, ‘trucks’ and ‘air transports’ consume our kind?”

If Optimus still had an intake, he would have grinned. “They do! Airs transports especially consume a lot of fuel. They feed off your fossils and at the rate they’re currently going, you’ll be extinct in no time. Your only chance of surviving is to destroy them.”

Grimlock’s optics narrowed. “It would appear so.”

“And do you want to know what’s worse than air transports?” Optimus asked amiably. “Air transports that transform into robots!”

He pulled up the security camera feed, showing the Decepticons in battle. The Dinobots seemed to believe him.

“It makes you angry, doesn’t it?” Optimus asked. “Use that anger. Let it out!”

Grimlock and the other two drones roared and opened their jaws. Three streams of fire surged through the air, consuming the screen on the wall until their was nothing left but melted metal.

“My word!” Grimlock said, examining the said remains of the monitor. “Were we always capable of such destruction?”

“Yes,” Optimus lied. “I built you like this. And if you manage to destroy the air transport robots, I’ll built and entire army of drones just like you. What do you say to that?”

Grimlock drew himself up to full height, snorting out a small fire ball. “I say, to battle, fellow Dinobots!”

--------------------------------------------

The gate to the Terrordome opened. A procession of huge vehicles exited the building, driving towards downtown. The few civilians that had come back to garner what was left of their belongings saw the ironclad trucks and quickly retreated.

The trucks stopped side by side in the middle of the streets. The police drones that had accompanied them stood aside. The trucks transporters opened.

The Dinobots stepped outside, looking around curiously, as if they hadn’t been there only hours ago. Captain Fanzone exited one of the driver’s cab and looked up at his cargo with a wide grin.

“Well fellas,” he said. “Knock yourselves out! Just give us a call once your done!”

He re-entered the vehicle and gave the driver the sign to drive off. As the trucks rolled back towards the Terrordome, Fanzone heard a roar behind him. When he turned, he saw the Dinobot he had been told was named Grimlock pick up one of the parked cars and sever it in half with a single bite.

Fanzone chuckled as he settled, shaking his head. “This is why I love machines.”

------------------------------------------------

“Don’t these things ever learn?” Lugnut asked, irritated, as the Decepticons once again made their way through the sky and towards downtown.

Below them the Dinobots were on a rampage, tearing up streets and throwing cars around.

“No longer shall we, the Dinobots, be food!” screamed the one with the large jaws.

“Apparently they learned how to talk,” Blitzwing said nervously.

In that moment, the flying drone opened it’s beak and released a stream f fire into a nearby car underneath it.

“As well as a few other tricks,” Megatron commented.

“Well, what’re we waiting for?” Cyrus spoke up from withing Lugnut’s cockpit. “Let’s give ‘em the old sonic shout and send ‘em back to the stone age!”

“Wait!” Lugnut called. “Perhaps we should lure them away from this area first. I’ve seen a few humans who have not yet evacuated when we flew over these buildings.”

“That... is a very good idea, Lugnut,” Megatron answered, sounding surprised.

Lugnut huffed, hoping his vocalizer wouldn’t give away his embarrassment. “I simply think the humans would be very grateful if their housing units stayed intact this time. And it will be easier for us to fight without them getting in the way.”

“Aww, no worries big guy,” Blackarachnia cooed mockingly from her sitting spot on Blitzwing. “We won’t get any crazy ideas about you having a spark after all.”

With that Megatron swooped down close to the ground Starscream and Lugnut following after him. Each of them rammed into one of the Dinobots, hard enough to knock them over, but not hard enough to do damage.

All three of the Dinobots let out infuriated roars.

“You wish for a fight?” Grimlock growled. “You shall have it!”

The Dinobots spit fire at their attackers, but the Decepticons had already taken to the air again, easily avoiding their attacks. Letting loose irritated snarls, the Dinobots followed suit. The Decepticons led them well outside of town, onto the road.

There, they touched down to the ground and transformed back into robot-mode, weapons out and at the ready.

The Dinobots stopped dead in their tracks, seemingly dumbfounded by this chain of events. Their optics wandered over their opponents, then came to a halt at Blackarachnia.

“Um, wereth they not going to attack?” Archer whispered to Blitzwing, confused.

“They were supposed to,” Blitzwing said.

“And what are they staring at me for?” Blackarachnia asked indignantly. “It’s not like I’m the only organic thing on this planet!”

The Dinobot in the middle perked up at her voice, then shook his head. “Ah, you must forgive me, fair spider-lady. I, Grimlock, seem to have been awestruck by your beauty.”

Blackarachnia blinked. “What?”

The three-horned Dinobot and it’s flying companion made a sound that sounded a lot like gurgling and pressed themselves on the ground.

“But how can this be?” Grimlock asked, seemingly talking more to himself than anyone else. “How can such a lovely creature be accompanying the vile flying transport robots who consume our kind?”

“Er, I’m confused,” Cyrus admitted, scratching his bald head. “Are we gonna fight or what?”

“We might not have to,” Megatron said grimly. he turned to Starscream. Starscream, do you think you could hit all of them at once with that new power of yours?”

“Starscream blinked. “I... yes, I think so but...will that be necessary? They’re fairly peaceful now.”

Megatron shook his head. “We don’t know if it will stay that way. We need to at least put them out of commission for now.”

Starscream hesitated, the nodded. He took a step forward. His intake transformed into the sonic gun. The blast hit the Dinobots with full force. With a pained screech, they stumbled backwards, then collapsed.

“Blitzwing, freeze them,” Megatron called.

Blitzwing lowered his ice cannons and encased the Dinobots in a wide block, big enough to take up most of the road.

“Well that was easier than I thought,” Cyrus commented. He looked up at the frozen Dinobots, frowning. “What do we do with ‘em now?”

“We destroy them,” Megatron said curtly.

Blitzwing flinched and turned towards his leader, optics wide. “Wait, what?”

“Blitzwing, you’ve seen what they can do. What they did. They are dangerous. We can’t allow Sumdac to find and repurpose them again,” Megatron said gravely.

“But...but,” Blitzwing stuttered. “Isn’t that a little extreme? You heard them, someone clearly told them we were some sort of threat! And besides that...” He looked at the Dinobts, optic thoughtful. “I felt like something was different about them this time. They seemed like they were aware. Like... like they had sparks. What if they’re more than simple attack drones?”

Megatron shook his head. “These are far too many ‘what ifs’ than we can afford right now. I would be lying if I said it didn’t irk me a little bit, but it has to be done.”

“I agree,” Lugnut spoke up, stepping forward. “I propose me, Blitzwing and Blackarachnia stay behind to take care of matters. You and Starscream should fly Cyrus and Archer back to our base in the meantime. Just to be safe.”

Megatron gave him a surprised look, then quickly got ahold of himself and nodded. “Thank you, Lugnut. I’ll believe we’ll do just that. Come along, Starscream.”

Starscream nodded, throwing a suspicious glance at Lugnut as he did so. Lugnut didn’t blink. Starscream shrugged, transformed and let Archer enter, before following Megatron, who had done the same with Cyrus, into the air.

Blackarachnia, Blitzwing and Lugnut watched them fly away.

“Now,” Lugnut said, when the two of them were out of sight. “I believe we have work to do.”

-----------------------------------

“Gotta say, big guy,” Blackarachnia commented, looking down the edge of the giant crater into the lush, green valley before her. “I really wasn’t expecting that.”

Donw below her, the Dinobots were roaming around through the grass, sniffing here and ther and letting out a joyful squawk or screech now and again.

“Me neither,” Blitzwing admitted, smiling slightly. “I was sure you would actually destroy the Dinobots, when you proposed it to Megatron.” he turned to look at Lugnut, who was watching the Dinobots as well, expression unreadable. “May I ask what made you change your mind?”

Lugnut huffed, crossing his servos. “I have seen Cybertronians like the Dinobots during the war. Young, naive, still barely protoformed. Easy to manipulate in their youthful zeal. It was obvious they had no idea what it was they were getting into when they fought us.” He lowered his head a little. “Had we destroyed them, Sumdac would have found their remains and rebuilt them eventually. And then they truly would have had a reason to despise and fight us. What good will it do us to make more enemies on this planet than we already have? This island is remote enough to be a good hiding place from Sumdac. Here, they’ll be able to carve their own path, their own identity. Far away from any wars.” He looked up again. “A respected fellow Decepticon once told me ‘A little empathy can go a long way.’ I suppose I decided to heed that advice today.”

Blitzwing’s smile widened a little.

“Welp,” Blackarachnia said, stretching. “Since that’s all wrapped up for now, we should get going. It’s been a long day and I have a comfortable berth back at the mine with my name on it.”

“And I need to find a certain small organic,” Lugnut said quietly. “Whom I owe an apology.”

Lugnut and Blitzwing transformed, Blackarachnia jumped onto Lugnut’s wings and the three of them departed.

Back in the valley, the Dinobots were still wandering around. Grimlock looked around.

“I, Grimlock, must say I quite like this ‘nature’.”

He took another step forward. The humming of machinery inside of him intensified. His claws retracted. His massive jaw pulled in and onto his chest. His small, scrawny arm stumps were pulled into his body to be replaced by two mechanical arms. A helm with a red visor and a riffled intake popped out where his jaw had been pulled down from a second ago.

“But I must say. I like this even more,” Grimlock said, grinning.

He pulled a sword out from his back and watched as it engulfed itself in flames.

#shattered glass animated #sga #episode 6 #transformers animated fan-write

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shatteredglassanimated · 4 years

Note

You know how original Random’s face is so dark that it looks like a void? What if SG Random has a face so bright that in comparison to the rest of Blitzy it looks like it’s glowing? It’s not, but ya get me?

I get it and that sounds great!

It adds to how unsettling and at odds his entire existence is. SG Blitzwing doesn’t like to stand out and is quiet and polite. But Random is everything he tries to repress, consciously or not, so Random is disruptive and attracts attention in every way.

#sga questions #Mun answers

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shatteredglassanimated · 4 years

Note

Would any domestic type episodes be in this SGA reimagining? Unlike the Autobots, the Decpticons don’t have as much freedom to be domestic, or at least in the way the original let the bots hang out in Detroit proper.

Yeah, they certainly don’t.^^’’

They do take whatever time is available to relax now and again, but sadly, they’ll never be able to have fun in Detroit like the Autobots did.

At least, not as long as Sumdac’s in control.

Since they have hideout and friends though, they can still have at least a bit of a domestic life.

#sga questions

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shatteredglassanimated · 4 years

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Haha, I meant it as an interesting concept not as an insult. Just don’t mind me too much, perhaps a little too curious for my own good.

Aww, thanks!^^ Not at all, you’re allowed to ask questions, that’s what the ask box is for!

#mun answers

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shatteredglassanimated · 4 years

Note

You’re the first SGA person to give Blitzy the same faces (or at least, not making them completely different). Are there anymore SG headcanons you have for this story that aren’t as obvious?

Is that meant to be an insult? It kinda feels like an insult^^’’

But in case it isn’t and I’m just being overly sensitive; I don’t really have headcanons, as much as I have a clear idea what my version of this AU is going to play out like. So every ‘headcanon’ I relay here would basically be a spoiler, especially since we’re only like five episodes in.

#sga questions

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shatteredglassanimated · 4 years

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I’m sorta new to Shattered Glass, not just SGA, and am wondering what goes down. I get the mirror verse idea fairly well, I mean I have read the fic, but do the events change perspective or switch from one faction to the other entirely. Of course, don’t reveal anything that you deem spoilery, if I’m not pushing it already (constructicons and space bridge talk from canon as examples of what I mean).

Hmm, so the general gist of Shattered Glass is pretty much what you said; it’s a mirror-verse in where the Autobots are evil and the Decepticons are good. That’s how it is in SGA. So, yeah, the perspective is going to be mainly on the ‘Cons, since they’re the protagonists now.

#sga questions #mun answers

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shatteredglassanimated · 4 years

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Original Blitzwing has purple accents and has red, blue and black faces. The SG Blitzwing you imagine has green accents, so does that mean Hothead is yellow and Random is white?

...I’m gonna say “yes”, because that’s way cooler than what I imagined.^^’‘

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shatteredglassanimated · 4 years

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Are there any artists’ designs you implemented for the shattered glass humans or are they just your personal ideas (for lack of better term)?

Aside from Sumdac and Sari, they’re personal ideas!

Since, like I said, I’m not an artist, here are some general descriptions of what the humans look like.

Angry Archer: The same, just with a blue outfit instead of a green one.

Cyrus: The same, only his suit is now white and the technical devices on his back glow blue, not green.

Prometheus Black: The same. I liked his original design and there’s nothing you’d really have to change to make it more “good guy”. I guess his facial features would be a bit softer and more affable?

Penelope “Penny” Princess: I’d imagine she’d look a bit more tomboyish and wouldn’t wear a mask. Probably shorter hair and a more practical outfit too.

Sumdac and Sari have their “canon” SG designs.

#sga questions #Mun answers

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shatteredglassanimated · 4 years

Note

What SG designs are you using for your fic (aside from the obvious)? I read whatever descriptions are there but sometimes my imagination is a little lacking haha. Tried to do a bit of research on my own but there’s no one specific answer (understandable, of course).

Megatron, Starscream, Optimus and Bumblebee all have their “canon” SG-designs.

Blackarachnia’s design was inspired from @badlydrawnseekerwings‘ version of her. Just imagine her stingers slightly bent out of shape and a little messed up.

Blitzwing, in my head, has @pastelpaperplanes‘ design.

Lugnut is orange with one blue optic.

Bulkhead is purple with red optics.

Prowl is as the description in episode 1 says: stark white, with black stripes and red optics.

Ratchet has @kabuki-akuma‘s design.

I wanted to put pictures in there, but

1. I’m no artist.

2. As you can see, most of the designs I envision the characters to have were already posted by other artists and it would feel too much like theft for me to use them. Don’t steal others’ ideas, kids!

Hope that helped!

#sga questions #mun answers #you didn't specify who you meant by 'the obvious' so i just put them all in there

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shatteredglassanimated · 4 years

Text

Shattered Glass Animated Season 1 Episode 5 - Nice To Melt You

The resistance receives a distress call from their spy in Sumdac’s ranks. With the help of the Decepticons, will they be able to get him out in time?

Overlord Sumdac was not having a good day.

The robotic creature he’d had restrained in one of his labs had gone into some sort of internal lock-down after his first accessing of it’s database, making the retrieval of new data nigh impossible. Not to mention the weeks it had taken to to clean out his private laboratory after his first disastrous attempt to re-animate the robotic head. The cleaning drones he’d sent were efficient and quick (he had designed them after all), but even they could only do so much.

He hadn’t been able to work on any private projects for a week and it would cost him a fortune to replace the equipment lost in the failed extraction-attempt. The resistance kept eluding him and his police-bots proved utterly incapable of tracking them or any other giant, metallic creatures.

If he had been able to, Overlord Sumdac would have isolated himself in his private quarters for the rest of the day, doing nothing but working on simpler, smaller robots as he had often done in his youth when the world seemed determined to undermine his efforts.

Alas, today marked the final test run of a batch of new and improved police-drones. Taller, sturdier and with much more advanced recognition software. For the moment, they were his best bet for nailing the resistance-scum. And thus, too important a project to leave overseeing the tests to one of his underlings.

Especially to one specific underling.

Standing behind the railing of the platform overlooking the assembly hall, Sumdac took a sip from his coffee, noting with annoyance that it was rather cold already. From up above he could see the human workers, scurrying about like mice and throwing nervous looks at him every now and again. They knew he was in a bad mood. And it was never good when Overlord Sumdac was in a bad mood. The only smile in the room came from Fanzone, who was standing to his left, eyes wide with anticipation, like a child about to receive birthday presents.

“Man, this is exciting! Those machines are gonna do so much good on the street sir, I can tell! Dunno what my wife keeps whining about, I’ve never seen those bad boys target anyone they weren’t s’posed to-”

Sumdac did his best to blend out the man’s ranting, gave half-hearted wave. “Begin the final test run.”

The scientist working the console to his right, a nervous man with blond, long hair that made Sumdac keenly aware of his own bald crown and ridiculous sunglasses turned to push a few buttons.

The light signaling the drones being active flared up and the machine straightened from it’s motionless slump and raised its arm cannons. It’s build in police sirens blared as it moved forwards toward the target set up for it across the room. Sumdac huffed approvingly. At least some machines wouldn’t disappoint him today.

But then it happened.

The drone twitched, stopping in it’s advance. Then, all of a sudden, it began to turn away from the target, arm canon still raised.

Sumdac frowned. Fanzone nervously shuffled his feet next to him.

“Deactivate it,” Sumdac ordered, pointing at the malfunctioning drone.

A few hasty typing-noises came from behind.

The drone didn’t stop. Instead, it’s canon whirled to life and fired - right at the wall behind the terrified spectators. Bullets tore through steel and metal, sparks flying everywhere. Workers screamed in a panic, running for the emergency exists.

Sumdac barely managed to dodge a shot. He heard Fanzone give a panicked screech as he dove down.

“What are you doing you incompetent buffoon?” Sumdac barked at the scientist. “Deactivate it!”

“I’m trying, Sir! It’s not reacting!” the man yelled back, frantically pushing button after button on his console.

He needn’t have bothered. The drone suddenly stopped dead in it’s tracks. Sparks flew out of it’s joints, making it’s body twitch. Smoke billowed out of it’s back, followed by a small explosion that made it jerk forward, before, with a last, pathetic creak, it fell in on itself altogether, a sad pile of burning, sparking, smoking metal.

Sumday watched it all, the grip on his mug getting tighter with every second. A small crack formed itself on the mug as the robot burned away.

“How could this have happened?” he growled, slowly turning around to the scientist on the console.

The man flinched under his boss’ piercing glare. “I-I don’t know, Sir. Probably a glitch. I’ll have it disassembled an thoroughly checked for bugs!”

“I’ll do that,” Sumdac snapped. “Evidently I am the only scientist around here worth his salt!” He whirled around, heading for the exit, ignoring Fanzone who was currently whimpering on the floor in a fetal position, mumbling something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like “I’ll never doubt my wife again.”

Sumdac snorted. How easily humans were cowed by minor setbacks. He would never have gotten so far in the world, had his enthusiasm been as easy to curb as his chief of police’s.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Prometheus Black watched his ‘boss’ leave, feeling as if a huge weight had been lifted off his back. Sumdac hadn’t suspected a thing. He’d been worried he’d been too obvious this time.

Though he suspected most of his luck in that regard was due to Sumdac being utterly uninterested in keeping up with his human subordinates beyond the most necessary interactions.

It was this attitude that had gotten Black into several high-ranking position in the first place. He’d merely had to show enough aptitude to be promoted and simultaneously be subservient enough to not get Sumdac’s attention too much. It was easier than it sounded. And it certainly made his job as a mole all the easier.

Though his latest maneuver might have possibly changed that. Prometheus wasn’t really happy with it. The new police drones would have proved disastrous to the rest of the resistance if he’d allowed them to be released at this point in time. He rarely got away from his job long enough to see to Aaron’s equipment and Cyrus’ mutation-device often enough these days. Penny was a good student and did maintenance well enough whenever he wasn’t available, but she was still only a child and it would have been irresponsible to put the work on her full-time. So he’d decided to take one for the team by risking his anonymity - and sabotaged Sumdac’s latest work.

It hadn’t been easy. It had taken him days to develop the acid he’d carefully applied to the drone before the final test and he hadn’t anticipated that it would affect the thing that much. The acid was developed from the blood (?) of the giant metallic creature Sumdac was currently housing in one of his bigger labs. Prometheus had snuck some of it away while his colleagues hadn’t been looking, after witnessing how some of it eat right through one of the toughest surveillance drones patrolling around the body.

Thinking about it now made him remember that his own laboratory still contained the vial he’d used to concentrate it. He’d have to clean that up first things first. Sumdac never visited his employees at their workplaces, but now was probably not the time to rely on a tyrant’s bad habits. Especially when said tyrant had loudly announced that he would investigate the matter himself.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Failures! All of them!”

Sumdac brought his fist down hard on the table, shaking up the pieces of metal in front of him. At his orders, the drone had been disassembled and delivered to his private laboratory. He no longer trusted the scientists from combat-drone development to not completely muck up their investigation. And the ever-growing suspicion of sabotage had flared up again as well.

The drone had been working perfectly before the fateful test run this morning. It simply could have been bad luck that a machine that would have brought him closer to wiping out his fiercest enemies just happened to break down on the day he’d wanted to determine if it was actually suitable for field deployment. But only fools believed in abstract concepts like luck. And Sumdac was anything but.

And so he examined. Upon closer inspection he managed to isolate a foreign substance unlike any of the fuels used to power the rest of his army. But no matter how he analyzed it, what methods he used to determine his origin, he found nothing. It was like the substance had appeared form thin air. There was nothing on earth even closely resembling it’s structure, no components that seemed in any way familiar. It was maddening!

“This is hopeless,” he grumbled, letting himself fall back on his chair and massaging the bridge of his nose. “There is no being on earth who knows of this substance.”

“I do.”

“Well, no being on earth but you-” Sumdac stiffened. He whirled around, eyes wildly searching the room for an intruder - only to land on the disembodied head behind him, still hooked up to a multitude of cables. It’s eyes were glowing a piercing red. And it was watching him.

Sumdac blinked. “You... you spoke.”

It wasn’t his most astute of observations, but it was the only thing he could think of at the moment.

The head’s eyes narrowed a little and Sumdac got a feeling if it’s mouth had still been complete it would have given him a derisive smirk. “I did, Professor Sumdac.”

Sumdac felt an involuntary shiver run down his spine. “You know my name?”

“I know a lot of things,” the head answered nonchalantly. “Things that would surely benefit you. For example, that fluid you spend the last two hours analyzing. It’s concentrated energon.”

“And you know this how?” Sumdac asked, frowning.

“Because it’s an essential part of every cybertronian. Cybertronians like me or the Decepticons. And those last ones, for your information, are the ones that have been causing you so much trouble as of late.

“Fortunately for you, I have a score to settle with them. Specifically with their leader. So we’re currently, as you humans would say, in the same boat. You need information about... everything, really. And I need a body, so I can rip Megatron apart with my own servos. I’m sure you can see where I’m going with this.”

Sumdac was silent for a moment. His mind was reeling. In just a few seconds, this talking head of an alien creature a, a “cybertronian” had answered almost every burning question that had plagued him for over ten years. And it was offering more. Still, his paranoid self remained skeptical.

“And how do I know,” he said slowly. “That you aren’t in some way associated with those ‘Decepticons’? That you’re not just feeding me lies, to trick me into repairing you and then have your big friends out there break in and tear my empire apart?”

The head made a sound that sounded a lot like a snort. “I would have to care about your empire to want to break it.” It’s eyes flashed for a moment. “And do not compare me to the Decepticon-scum! My name is Optimus Prime and I am an Autobot. We are infinitely superior to them.”

Sumdac nodded and allowed himself a small smirk. Interesting. There was more to those aliens than he’d realized. Evidently some sort of conflict took place between the two factions, the ‘Decepticons’ and the ‘Autobots’. And his guest seemed very invested in it. It was not much information to go on, but he’d built his empire from less. For now, he would have to gauge how serious ‘Optimus Prime’ was about cooperating.

“Let’s say I believe you,” Sumdac started, getting up and walking towards the head. “It still seems as if you are more dependent on this relationship than I am. I will need something from you, to know you really are as useful as you claim to be.”

“I can tell you the identity of the spy in your ranks,” Optimus replied.

“And how would you do that?”

“You’ve connected me to your entire network when you first tried to wake me up. My audials and optics are practically everywhere in this building. And they just so happened to pick up how one of your trusted employees sabotaged that primitive drone you tested this morning.”

Sumdac’s eye twitched at the insult to his robotics, but he suppressed his anger and kept his face neutral. “Tell me more.”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Prometheurs sighed. cleaning back in his chair. It was still hours until he could call it a day and he steadily found himself more nervous. He’d had no time to remove what remained of the acid from the drone before it had been delivered to Sumdac’s private lab. There was nothing about it that could have linked him to the failed test, but he was still on edge.

Sumdac would find it, that was for certain. Meaning he’d have to think of another way to keep the new drone from release. Maybe he could plant a signal-disruptor on it, to mess up it’s recognition software? Behind him, the leftover acid dripped away into a chemical waste container. It would take some time until he’d be able to dispose of it safely.

A blip sounded from his computer. Prometheus frowned and turned to face the screen. On a normal Sumdac-device, the sound would have been a reminder to get his computer to maintenance. Prometheus had tweaked his a little. Now it was connected to a private encrypted channel that would allow him to safely contact the outside world and be contacted safely in turn.

He pressed a few buttons and a video chat opened, showing a frowning,rotund man in his fifties wearing blue sunglasses and a grey suit.

“I was just informed that the new Sumdac Police Drone failed it’s final test run,” he said, not even bothering with a greeting. “You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that?”

Prometheus sighed, dragging his hands down his face. He should have anticipated a lecture, really. “Look Mr. Powell, if those new drones would have gotten released, we would have been in big trouble. Their recognition software-”

“Prometheus,” Powell interrupted. “I’m well aware you wouldn’t take such risks unprompted. But I need you to realize what’s at stake here. Currently you’re our only inside man. And we’re thinly staffed as it is. I think Sumdac’s been suspecting me as of late. If he gets wise to you, I won’t be able to help you. Do you understand?”

Promtheus gulped. “Yes, Mr. Powell.”

“Watch your back, Prometheus.” The video call ended before Prometheus could answer.

Only a second after, a blip on the official message channel for Sumdac-employees popped up. Prometheus stiffened, before forcing himself to relax. It was most likely nothing. Probably a subordinate asking for advice. He would get those every now and again. He had a reputation for being surprisingly lenient for one of Sumdac’s inner circle.

His hopes were dashed as soon as he opened the channel and was met with Sumdac’s grinning face.

“Professor Black,” Sumdac said, tone cordial enough to make the hairs on Prometheus neck stand up. “I am afraid some issues have come up with your personal file.”

“R-Really?” Prometheus gripped the arms rests of his chair to keep his hands from shaking.

“Indeed,” Sumdac nodded. “I will need you to report to my office.”

Prometheus knew an order when he heard one. His left hand wandered into his pocket, coiling around a small quadrangular device with a single button on it.

“Sir, I really think I should supervise the reconstruction of our new drone model-”

“I did not ask what you were thinking,” Sumdac cut him off waspishly. “And neither do I care. You will report to my office, now. Do not make me wait.”

The video feed was cut off. Prometheus wasted no time. He pressed the button. He had approximately a few minutes before Sumdac would send security drone to collect him. If he hurried, he’d be able to grab a few of his makeshift emergency weaponry and fend them off enough to escape.

Prometheus turned around, only to stop right in his tracks, eyes widened. Unnoticed by him, the acid had eaten itself through the container, to the point the ground was about to give in. And it did. Warning sirens flared up as the acid hit the ground, noxious gas rising into the air and engulfing the lab.

Prometheus coughed, feebly trying to close his nose and mouth with his hand at the same time. He felt the gas seeping into his skin. It burned, a thousand times worse than any of the burn- wounds he’d ever gotten while working on gadgets for Sumdac or the resistance. It was all he could do to keep himself from screaming. Teeth clenched he frantically felt for the door, stumbling into the corridor, one hand still clasping the frame.

He couldn’t die yet. Who would supply Cyrus with the vitamins he needed to keep his body stable? Who would do maintenance of Aaron’s bow? Who would read stories to Penny? With newfound determination, Prometheus let go of the door and stumbled onward, unaware that the part of the frame he’d gripped had started dissolving.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Several miles away, in an abandoned mine in the woods, in the Decepticon’s medical bay, Aaron Archer looked at his communicator with a worried frown.

“Is something wrong?”

Aaron looked up at Megatron, who had made his way over upon seeing his on his human ally’s face.

“I feareth it is so, friend,” Aaron said gloomily. “Our scout stationed in the despot’s castle haseth send me a distress call on a secure channel. He would not doeth that, unless he was in dire peril.”

Cyrus gave an apprehensive grunt and looked over his partner’s shoulder. “If the prof’s in trouble, so are we. Our equipment’s been lagging behind for a while now. We’ll be hanging out dry if Sumdac get him into his hands.”

Blackarachnia, who until that point had been busy knocking a dent out of Lugnut’s leg, perked up at that. “You think he’s been compromised?”

“Optics on the repair-job, woman!” Lugnut snapped, nervously eyeing the small but solid hammer hovering over his leg.

“I should tell you that,” Blackarachnia fired back, turning back to him. “What kind of malfunction was your processor having for you to think exploring one of the oldest, most broken tunnels would be a good idea? You’re lucky you’re heavily armored or you’d have been scrap-metal when it came down”

The bigger ‘Con huffed. “I was participating in an honorable organic ritual with the young organic, called ‘hide-and-seek’. That tunnel seemed like an ideal hiding place.”

Blackarachnia chose not to comment on that and went back to her work.

“What will you do now?” Megatron asked.

“Get him out, what else?” Cyrus growled, rubbing the back of his neck. “Won’t be easy though, ‘specially if Sumdac’s already gunning for him.”

Megatron nodded. “We will support you in any way we can. I will inform Blitzwing and Starscream as soon as they and Penny return from their ‘hide-and-seek’-ritual in the woods.”

“The woods!” Lugnut shouted, smacking the medical berth with a servo. “Of course! Why did I not think of that? Truly, the small organic called Penny is a genius of strategy.”

“No, she’s just not a complete bolthead,” Blackarachnia mumbled, finishing up the repairs.

A few hours later, the Decepticons were standing outside the entrance to the mines, waiting for their two human companions to finish their preparations. Cyrus and Aaron had agreed to fly with Lugnut and Blitzwing respectively, instead of their own vehicle.

“He has no way to track us and we are sturdier than your glider,” Megatron had told them. “If we have to confront Sumdac’s forces in the air, you will be safer flying within one of us.”

Penny stood by the entrance, arms crossed and tapping her foot, Miles standing by her side quivering anxiously. He still didn’t fell safe around the Decepticons without her and even with her present he had a hard time keeping it together.

“Why can’t I come?” Penny questioned, pouting. “Miles and I can fight too!”

“We needeth you here to protect the metal knights’ base, Penelope,” Aaron said, giving her a smile. “Someone haseth to protect it from Sumdac’s metal fiends!” I wasn’t entirely a lie. In an emergency, Penny would have the skill needed to use the base’s defenses to their full effect. And she’d be as far away from Sumdac as possible.

“Transform and rise up!” Megatron called.

The Decepticons transformed, and the humans entered their partners’ vehicle mode, while Blackarachnia used a thread hold onto Lugnut. They took off Penny waving at them from the ground until she was out of sight.

After a few minutes of flying, the Sumdac Tower came into view.

“I say we break right through!” Lugnut shouted, immediately ramping up his thrusters.

Blackarachnia yelped, digging her legs into the metal to hang on.

“Lugnut, wait!” Megatron called.

Before he could react, Lugnut crashed into what seemed to be an invisible wall and slammed down on the ground, almost flattening Blackarachnia, who managed to jump off his back barely before he hit the ground.

Lugnut’s cockpit opened and Cyrus stumbled out, falling to his knees and taking deep breaths. “That’s it, I’m flying with the red one next time,” he wheezed.

“What the spark was that?” Lugnut complained, transforming back into robot-mode and rubbing his helm.

Blitzwing, who had touched down behind him and transformed as well after letting Aaron out, walked over to the sizzling blockade and laid a servo on it, frowning.

“It appears to be a force field. And it looks like it is going around the whole tower.”

“Pardon us, dear knights we shouldeth have told thee,” Aaron said sheepishly. “The tyrant possesseth an automatic shield that activates whenever his tower cometh under attack.”

“Great,” Blackarachnia grumbled, ambling to the group and rubbing her posterior. “Because we didn’t have enough trouble already.”

“Worry not! We hath prepared for just this instance!” With an elegant movement of his arm, Archer pulled out a small, rectangular card from his tunic. “Our noble scout hath given us this to trick the fiend’s foul, dark magic! It shouldeth allow us to break a hole int his shield and enter with nary a scratch!”

“That’s awfully convenient,” Starscream remarked. “What’s the catch?”

“The catch is that it only works for maybe half an hour,” Cyrus replied, having mostly recovered from his nausea. “After that we’ll be trapped like rats, unless we can turn it off for good.”

“Then we should not waste time,” Megatron said. “We will look for your scout, collect him and evacuate immediately.”

Archer nodded, then walked towards the field, pressing the card against it. A small current of electricity sparked up from the area around it and in the next moment, a small hole began to expand from the card, growing bigger until it was about ten times the man’s size.

“Err, hate to be the bearer of bad news, but that doesn’t look big enough for us,” Starscream pointed out.

Megatron frowned, kneeling down next to the opening. “It will have to do. Blackarachnia, you and the humans will enter first. The rest of us will transform into our vehicle modes and try to enter that way.”

“I think not,” a heavily accented voice said.

The group collectively jumped, before realizing it had come from a loudspeaker attached to the front of the building.

“Sumdac,” Cyrus snarled, clenching his fists.

“So this is the famous resistance I’ve heard so much about?” the voice said, sounding amused. “How disappointing. Though I would be lying if I said I’d ever had any interest in you. Humans, even insolent ones, are beneath my attention. Your companions, however, are another matter entirely. ‘Decepticons’. What a silly name for such an advanced species.”

The Decepticons stiffened. Blitzwing’s face shifted to Hothead who gave a menacing growl, Blackarachnia’s stingers twitched, Starscream readied his blasters and Lugnut’s optic narrowed.

“How do you know of us?” Megatron demanded, keeping a calm face, but reaching for his swords.

“Ah, let us just say I was ‘ahead’ of you this time,” Sumdac chuckled. “You will have ample time to figure it out - once I have you in my possession.”

“Thou wilst not lay a hand on the metal knights!” Archer shouted. “We shan’t allow it!”

“I thought so,” Sumdac said, voice taking on a disinterested tone. “Which is why I will have you disposed of first. And do not count on your little spy to save you. I have already send my drones to take car of him.”

With a crackle, the loudspeaker turned off, leaving the group to let Sumdac’s words sink in.

Archer turned to Cyrus, shaking slightly. “Cyrus, do you believeth-?”

Cyrus shook his head. “If the prof was dead, he would’ve lorded that over our heads. He said he send drones after him. That means he could still be alive. We’ve gotta get in there, now!”

With that he dashed through the hole in the shield, not waiting for any of them to follow. Blackarachnia groaned.

“What is it with my allies and running helm-first into danger?” With a bit of difficulty, she maneuvered her body through the opening.

Just as Archer was about to follow, the sound of screeching metal pulled everyone’s attention to another part of the tower. Another door had opened, admitting a swath of police drones to exit the building. The drones headed out of the force field and opened fire.

Blitzwing jumped forward, scooping Archer up in his servos and carrying him out of harms’ way.

Lugnut roared, bringing his explosive servo down on a cluster of drones. But he misjudged. The explosion destroyed the drones, but the recoil threw him backwards - right towards the hole. His body went half-way through, then stopped.

“This was not supposed to happen,” Lugnut snarled, trying and failing to pull himself out.

“Move your overgrown thrusters!” Hothead shouted, grabbing Lugnut’s arm and pulling. “You’re blocking our only way in!”

“What do you think I am trying to do here?” Lugnut snapped back.

“It’s no use, “Megatron shouted. “Blackarachnia, you will have to help Cyrus on your own.”

“Lucky me,” Blackarachnia murmured. She turned around to Cyrus. “You heard him, it’s just you and-”

The human wasn’t there anymore. When she looked up she could see the entrance door was open.

Blackarachnia ex-vented. “This just isn’t my solar cycle.”

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cyrus ran through the halls, doing his best to blend out the blaring alarms and not sure where exactly he was going, but also to angry to stop. Every now and again he’d rip open a door, find the room behind either completely deserted or out of spare parts and then slam it closed again. He finally screeched to a halt in a circular room, a huge elevator in the middle. In front of the elevator stood a sleek, white reception desk, with, Cyrus noted with annoyance, a robot behind it.

“Identify yourself,” the machine said in a monotone voice.

“Yeah, sure,” Cyrus growled, approaching the desk and cracking his knuckles. “Lemme just hand you my calling card.”

The robot gave a peep. “Voice scan does not match up. Intruder identified. Calling security.”

Cyrus froze. “Aw, slag.”

Suddenly a stream of a dark green acid hit the robot, immediately melting it down to a clump of deformed metal.

“Have a nice daayyyy...,” the robot slurred, before it’s voice box liquefied as well.

Cyrus jumped back, eyes wide and slowly turned his head into the direction the attack had come from. In front of the now open elevator door stood a human-shaped.. thing.

It was smaller than Cyrus (then again, most of his allies were) and seemed to consist of a slimy green fluid. It was wearing t remained of a modified lab coat with a ridiculously wide collar and a pair of goggles where Cyrus supposed it’s eyes were.

“I dunno what kind of sick Sumdac-goon you are,” he sneered, assuming a fighting stance. “But you picked the wrong day to mess with me, buddy.”

The thing took a step back, holding it’s palms up. “Cyrus, wait! It’s me!”

Cyrus eyes widened and he abandoned his stance. “Professor?”

Before either of them could say anything more, a white stream of web shot up from behind Cyrus, pinning the thing he now knew to be Professor Black to the wall.

“Do organics just have no survival instincts whatsoever?” Blackarachnia snapped at him, running into the room. “That thing would have slagged you, if I hadn’t found you in time! What were you thinking, running ahead?”

“Hey whoa, chill spider-lady,” Cyrus said, quickly positioning himself in fro of Professor Black. “Sorry for ditching you, but this guy’s on our side! He’s the spy we told you about!”

Blackarachnia gave Professor Black a skeptical look. “That’s him? No offense, but are humans supposed to look like that?”

“Normally not, no,” Cyrus admitted, turning around with a frown. “What’s the story behind that, Prof?”

“It’s not something I’m proud of,” Prometheus sheepishly. “But I think we should focus on getting out of here first. If you would please tell the nice lady to cut me down, then - oh, wait, I suppose that’ll take care of itself.”

While he was speaking, the acid that made up his body had managed to eat itself through Blackrachnia’s string, allowing him to drop down to the floor again.

Balckarachnia whistled, impressed. “That’s some pretty strong stuff.”

“I could do without it,” Prometheus replied sourly, making his way over to the reception desk. “Cyrus, come over. I’ll need you to press the buttons for me. We have to deactivate that force field, if we want to make it out.”

“U-Uh, yeah! Coming!” Cyrus stumbled after the professor, awkwardly standing beside him on the other side of the desk. A multitude of buttons, levers and dataports greeted him when he glanced at the desk’s surface. Professor Black already seemed to be searching for something in particular, though how he could make out any sense of coherence in this overly complicated device was beyond Cyrus.

Eventually, Professor Black pointed at a specific lever. “This one.”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Outside, the rest of the Decepticons and Archer were still fighting off the drones.

“They just keep coming,” Starscream shouted, blasting a drone that had just attempted to shock him to smithereens.

“Let them!” Hothead snarled. “I nee to let off some steam!”

A yelp came from behind them.

“Either I am growing bigger, or this shield is growing stronger,” Lugnut grunted.

Megatron hastily put a servo to his helm. “Blackarachnia, whatever you are doing in there, stop it! You are strengthening the l!”

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

“It’s not working,” Blackarachnia told Cyrus. “Try something else!”

Prometheus tsked impatiently. “He must have changed the layout.One moment, I’ll have this figured out...” He leaned over the panel, eyes scanning the different levers, until they landed on a specific one, a little to the left of the on he’d told Cyrus to pull. “This one! I’m sure this time!”

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A slight buzzing noise was the only warning Lugnut got before the force field holding him up flickered and disappeared, letting him drop to the floor.

“It’s open! We should move!” Blitzwing called.

“No! These drones keep on coming,” Megatron answered, shooting a couple of drones attempting to surround him. “If we retreat inside, they’ll block the exit. Lugnut! Go and help Blackarachnia and the humans! We will hold Sumdac’s forced off here and secure our escape route!”

Lugnut gave a curt nod, then stomped into the building.

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“That should have done it,” Prometheus said, satisfied. “Now we should be able to-”

The rattle of metal joints interrupted him mid-sentence. A swath of security drones spilled out of the adjacent halls.

“Aw, slag,” Cyrus cursed, instinctively putting himself in front of the professor.

“Guess I didn’t interrupt the call fast enough,” Prometheus said, awkwardly putting his hands up. “I don’t think I can melt them all.”

Blackarachnia’s optics flipped between the crones and the panel. Ina few seconds, she made a decision. “You won’t have to.”

The drones got into position. Blackarachnia jumped forward and planted her servos on the panel. Her upper arms sprouted devices reminiscent of magnets. She lifted her arms towards the drones and just as they started to fire, a barrier closed around her and the two humans.

“Fascinating!”Prometheus exclaimed, watching her with awe. “You duplicated that advanced technology in less than a second? Just by touching it?”

“It’s kind of my thing,” Blackarachnia replied. “Any idea how we get out of here?”

Before Prometheus could answer, loud thundering footsteps rang down the hall and in the next moment, Lugnut entered the room, clearly in a bad mood and smashing every unfortunate drone in his way.

“Well that takes care of that,” Cyrus remarked.

Balckarachnia lowered the shield and Lugnut came to a halt in front of them. When he noticed Prometheus, his optic narrowed. “What is that?”

“The spy,” Blackarachnia cut in, before Cyrus or Prometheus could answer. “No time to explain, I bet there’s more of those things-” she pointed at the smashed drones on the floor,”-already on the way.”

Lugnut nodded. The four quickly made their way through the hall and back outside. The other Decepticons moved out of the way a Blackarachnia’s urging and she erected a barrier similar to the one she’d use inside, protecting them from the drones’ gunfire. Now in a safer environment, Megatron, Lugnut, Starscream and Blitzwing transformed into their vehicle modes, with Cyrus and Archer entering their previous rides.

Prometheus hesitated. “I don’t think I’ll be able to board any of you in my current-”

He felt a light buzzing under his feet and yelped when he was lifted up in a bubble consisting of the same material as the force field in the next moment.

“Already thought of that,” Blackarachnia called, steering the bubble on top of Lugnut and positioning herself beside it. “Can’t melt what you can’t touch!” She wasn’t looking forward to making the ride back in robot-mode, but in this case she’d just have to bear it. She knocked on Lugnut’s armor-plating. “Hurry up! I don’t know how long my download’s gonna last!”

The Decepticons took off, leaving the tower and the drones behind them.

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Sumdac watched his foes slip from his grasp on the monitors, shaking with rage.

How? How could this be??? He’d had the advantage this time! Victory should have been his! The resistance should have been crushed then and there! And yet they had again managed to elude him!

Snarling, he wiped the documents from his desk. For a moment, he considered activating the canons on top of his tower to try and shoot them down. But they were already too far away and he didn’t want to waste ammunition. Besides... he was not completely beaten yet.

Sumdac smirked. he still had an ace up his sleeve. Slowly, he stood up from his chair, calling upa few cleaning bots and then making his way to his personal labortatory.

Optimus Prime was following him with his eyes as he entered the room. Sumdac tried not to let him see how much he still unnerved him.

“The information I gave you turned out to be correct,” Optimus said. It wasn’t a question. “So? Do we have a deal?”

Sumdac didn’t answer immediately. He took his time comfortably settling himself in his chair, before looking up at Optimus with a sinister smile on his face. “Yes. Yes we have.”

#shattered glass animated #sga #episode 5 #transformers animated fan-write

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shatteredglassanimated · 4 years

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The Decepticons head out on a rescue mission on July 30th!

Let’s hope they don’t have an.. acid-ent along the way.

#shattered glass animated #sga #preview #hey look this series isn't dead!#had you worried there for a while didn't i

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shatteredglassanimated · 4 years

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Shattered Glass Animated Season 1 Episode 4 - Tunnel Vision

In order to avoid being discovered again, the Decepticons relocate to an old, abandoned mine outside of town. However, the tunnels aren’t as vacated as they appear to be...

“There we are!” Archer proclaimed, standing proudly atop Blitzwing’s shoulder and raising his arm to present the crumbling entrance to an old mine shaft.

“Stellarcycles ago I fought wars against tyrants. Now I am forced to huddle beneath the earth like a coward,” Lugnut grumbled, optic narrowing at the dust and cobwebs lining the tunnel’s walls. “What Lugnut meant to say,” Megatron said quickly, shooting a warning glare at his companion. “Is that we are grateful for your help in finding a new temporary home on this planet. The carbon deposits in this mine will shield us from detection and it is not far from your city.” “T’was nothing!” Archer laughed. “I think it looks cool!” Penny chimed in, leaning forward to get a better look from where she was sitting on Starscream’s shoulder. “A real secret lair!” Starscream chuckled at her excited tone and brought up a hand to steady her, so she wouldn’t fall off. “Can it be considered that, even though we all know about it?” “Well the bad guys don’t!” Penny said proudly, still grinning from ear to ear. Starscream shrugged with his unoccupied shoulder. “I suppose that is true.” “In any case,” Cyrus walked forward, squinting up at the mountains. “We probably won’t be seeing each other for some time now. Sumdac’s drones found our last hideout and getting a new one is gonna take some time. You guys gonna be alright on your own?” “We should be asking you that,” Blackarachnia said. “If this Sumdac is so pit-bent on getting you, we should stick together, so we can protect you better.” “They have been fighting against him for far longer than we have, Blackarachnia,” Megatron chuckled. “I believe they are more than capable of looking out for themselves.” “And us,” Blitzwing added sheepishly, shifting the AllSpark’s weight on his shoulders. “We won’t be seeing each other?” Penny looked down at Cyrus, expression sad. “But I just got to meet them!” “Sadly, we haveth no other choice, Penelope,” Archer said, giving her an understanding smile. “Our presence wouldeth only lead the tyrants vengeful knights to them.” “And vice versa,” Cyrus added. “I’d rather not risk fighting again until we have a proper base of operations to retreat to.” The girl thought about that for a second. Then her face lit up all of a sudden. “Do you need me to find a new base?” “Errr...no, not particularly,” Cyrus answered, scratching his neck uncomfortably. He hadn’t meant for that to come out like it did. What if Penny felt useless now? But he needn’t have worried. If anything, Penny seemed delighted to hear those words. “Awesome! That means I can stay with Starscream and the others, right?” Cyrus gaped. “What? Now, hold on-” “You said you didn’t need me,” Penny grinned. “And you just told them that you and Aaron attract the bad guys, yeah?” “Uh...” Cyrus stuttered helplessly. “Sooo, wouldn’t I be much safer here?” Penny asked, grin having grown positively smug. Starscream laughed. “I believe the human term for that would be ‘played’.” “Do not worry,” Megatron said assuredly. “We will watch over her as if she was one of our own.” “That’s what I’m afraid of,” Cyrus murmured. He had all kinds of objections to this arrangement, but he also knew when he was fighting a losing battle. And, as much as he loathed to admit it, Penny did have a point. A mine in the woods, away from town, inhabited by a group of gigantic warrior robots probably was the safer option for her. Him and Archer would be going right back into the fray. If something were to happen, at least he’d know she was safe. Still, did the Decepticons even know how to properly take care of a child? Did they have children or the equivalent on that planet they came from, Cybertron? And even if they had, what if caring for a robot-child included incredibly dangerous things that a human child wouldn’t be able to withstand, like, drinking oil or something?

Cyrus stole a side glance at Archer, part of him hoping his partner would object, only for his shoulders to slump when he saw the other man’s face positively aglow. It seemed Archer, too, had made up his mind on the matter. “We taketh you at your word, brave knights!” he said, tipping his head to Megatron, who seemed mildly confused by the gesture and attempted to reciprocate by mildly tapping his helm.

Using one of his rope-arrows, Aaron made his way off Blitzwing and grabbed Cyrus by the arm, dragging him towards their skipper. “Come, Cyrus! We mustn’t lose time!”

They both took off, Cyrus throwing a last, nervous look at Penny who was smiling and waving at him from her place on Starscream’s shoulder. The Decepticons watched their human friends fly away towards the city.

“We should get to building the equipment for our base,” Megatron said eventually, turning to look at the others. “We may be able to use parts of the machinery already here for materials.” “I’ll help!” Penny chirped, earning a surprised look from every Decepticon except Starscream. “I’m real good with machines!” “I can confirm that,” Starscream smiled. “Well, we would appreciate every help you can give,” Megatron said, after a moment. The group entered the entrance to the mines, disappearing into the tunnels.

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Some people had good mornings, but Isaac Sumdac doubted they’d ever been as fantastic as his had turned out to be. The moment his secretary-bot had woken him from sleep, reporting that the drones had been successful in their search, every hint of drowsiness had all but vanished from his body. Now he was leaning heavily on the railing overseeing what had formerly been one of his greater laboratories, now partially repurposed into a cell, single eye wide with manic glee as he looked upon the slender, still chassis of a giant robot, not unlike the ones Fanzone’s video had recorded. The thing was in stasis, courtesy or the stun-guns the drones were built with. Sumdac congratulated himself on the hindsight to keep them even after they had proven fatal on the human test subjects. It’s body was restrained to the wall across from him, connected to multiple machines and monitors via a multitude of cables.

The robot was massive, but, Sumdac noted with slight disappointment, not nearly as tall as the ones on the video had been. No matter. He would find and bring in those sooner or later. For now, this one would more than suffice for what he planned to do. After barking some orders at the scientists and assistants overseeing his new price, Sumdac quickly strode down the halls to his private lab, secretary-bot trailing right behind him. The doors slid open and locked themselves behind them, as Sumdac walked over to the center of the room, barely glancing at the grotesque display of a giant, robotic head, hooked up to cables in a similar manner as the unconscious robot in the other lab. No human employee had ever set foot in this room, and Sumdac fully intended to keep it that way. He did not need some nosy intern finding out that Overlord Sumday had had some...assistance with his sudden rise in the field of robotics. It was bad enough he’d had to share this latest discovery with them. Sumdac walked over to a console and pressed a few buttons, making the rest of the monitors in the room flare to life. He pressed a button connected to his intercom. “Do you have the data?” he barked, impatience making him testy. “Y-Yes, Sir,” the scientist in charge of Sumdac’s new guest stuttered from the other end of the line. “Sending it now.”

A few seconds later, a ping on the main monitor heralded the arrival of a new message. A data-package, to be exact. Sumdac shook with anticipation as he fed his computer the new information. Never in his life would he have even dreamed for this moment.

The discovery of the robot head 50 years ago had hugely changed his life for the better, but it had always irked Sumdac that he would never get the opportunity to find out where it had come from or who had built it. It had irked him to no end that one of his most valuable belongings continued to hold secrets from him. Now, with the arrival of so many new robots on earth, doubtless the same species, he would finally get the answers he so desired. What sort of weapons of mass destruction would he be able to reverse engineer from what he would find in the circuits of these beings? Perhaps he would even manage to build one of them for his own army?

The buzzing of an alarm tore him from his fantasies and Sumdac threw a glare at the offending pop-up window, informing him that there was a dangerous increase in energy. Sumdac rolled his eyes. Even computers had to be drama queens nowadays. With a few short tappings on the keyboard, the alarm switched off and the download continued. For five seconds, until sparks began to fly. Sumday backed up, shrieking, as the console and monitors he had sat right next to moments ago flared up and flickered, dispensing electricity and smoke in equal proportions as if someone had lit a massive fireworks. Before Sumdac could try and rectify whatever had led to this, a flash of light engulfed the room and everything went dark. After a moment, the secretary-bot’s built in flashlight lit up. “Should I call a clean-up crew, Professor Sumdac?” it asked in it’s usual cold, indifferent tone. Sumdac didn’t answer. He stared at his ruined equipment, mentally fuming with it as he did. It would take weeks to repair it all. Worse still, whatever data had been extracted and sent was most likely gone forever. And after this latest display, a repeat of the experiment was out of the question. The head had managed to withhold it’s secrets from him once again. Snarling, Sumdac turned and headed for the door, shoving the secretary-bot aside. He had other matters to attend to. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Just as the door closed, the cables above the head flared up again and sparks flew along, until they connected with it’s helm. The optics, which had been dark and empty a few seconds ago, flickered with a piercing, red light, as the head’s vocaliser activated and stuttered it’s first words since it had been ripped from it’s corresponding body fifty years ago. “Op-Op-Opti-mus Prime-I am Optimus Prime.” The flickering stopped and the optics came into focus, only to widen and race around in their head. Optimus’ vision, hearing and speech came back to him all at once and it was disorienting, to say the least. After, what he assumed, was a long time in stasis, his systems scrambled to make sense of what happened, only to draw static from the moment he had been thrown off the pod and entered the atmosphere. The fact that he was in an environment completely unfamiliar to him didn’t help. “What? Where am I?” Optimus tried to stand up, only to realize that there was something missing. Something rather essential. “Where’s my body? How long have I been offline? What kind of antiquated system am I hooked into?!” Apart from a propped up hand to his right that he had no way of knowing if it belonged to him, there was nothing in this room but incredibly primitive machinery. Any other Autobot might have panicked. feared for his life. Optimus felt neither of these things. The only thing in his mind was rage.

He didn’t know what underdeveloped species had had the gall to pillage his parts and bring him here. He only knew that the second he’d get his body back he would make them pay. Painfully. Right after he found and finished off the one responsible for his predicament. Megatron. Optimus felt his remaining circuitry heat up at the memory of the Decepticon and the nonchalance with which he had thrown him out of the escape pod. Only a few cycles more and Optimus would have held his still beating spark in his servos. One of the small monitors in his view suddenly turned on, showing a video recording. The Decepticons. Battling some kind of hideous, organic creature in what seemed to be a city. The footage had been recorded from a bird’s eye view, giving Optimus a good look at each of their faceplates. He noticed with disgust that they seemed to be protecting the locals. Typical. Decepticons and their pathetic heroics. And then the camera swung around to reveal- “Megatrooon!”

Electricity rushed through the cables, destroying the lamps hanging over the head’s podium. The monitor short-circuited and went out with a last pitiful crackling. Optmius’ eyes were still set on the now dark glass surface. If he’d still had his servos, he would have smashed it into pieces. If the Decepticons were on this planet, so was the AllSpark. It was so close to him, closer than ever before and he had no servos to grasp it with. At the thought of grasping, a small spark jumped over into a nearby mechanical arm hanging from the ceiling. The claw clamped shut and opened in short succession. Optimus watched it closely. He thought of wringing his servos around Megatron’s neck, ripping his helm clean off. The claw opened and closed.

“Looks like I’m not as immobile as I thought,” Optimus’,face-plate twisted into what might have been a smile, had his faceplate still been complete. He lowered the claw towards a console and concentrated all his energy onto it. The next thing he knew, he was flowing through the network. The entire city was laid out before him. He was in every computer, every motherboard. Every camera. His body might be gone for the moment. But Optimus had never been one to let himself be defeated by setbacks, not matter how big they may be. Spreading his influence further and further, he went in search of his enemies.

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“This place is sooo cool!” Penny watched the high walls and strange stone formations around her with wide eyes from the console she was currently standing on. Her and Starscream were currently in a vast, circular room, directly underneath the mountain’s opening. Both of them had been assigned to set up the main console and all it’s corresponding machinery. Since Penny’s size prevented her from actually building, she had taken care of the circuitry. “The temperature isn’t that low,” Starscream chuckled, adjusting the monitor above it. Penny giggled. “Nooo, Starscream. I mean it’s awesome! And you guys really get to live here now?” “For the time being, yes,” Starscream answered. He gave the monitor one last push, then stepped back to survey his work. “I think this should work.” He brought his servo up to his helm, activating his comlink. “Blackarachnia, Megatron, we are ready to start the equipment. Are you all set up?” “Lugnut and I are ready,” came Megatron’s answer. “We explored and cleaned out the last of the tunnels and the machinery is dismantled for the most part.” “Human technology is ridiculously fragile,” Lugnut huffed. “It is like they want it to break.” “Or maybe it’s just been here for a while and you wouldn’t have been able to make even a dent in it when it was still in it’s prime?” Blackarachnia snarked. “Blitzwing and I are pretty much done with the medbay too.” Starscream nodded. “Alright. Penny and I will turn on the power now.” “On it!” Penny called, running over to the center of the console. She pulled out a wand-like object from her pocket and lowered it down into an exposed part between the cables. The wand lit up, sending a flicker of energy into the machine. Penny gave Starscream a thumbs-up, grinning. Starscream pulled a lever and the monitor, as well as the electric lighting. “Anything irregular?” Starscream asked over the comlink. “Nope!” Blackarachnia answered. “The medical equipment is all up and running.” “No anomalies in our section as well,” Megatron spoke up. “Good work, Starscream.” Penny gave a pout. “Hey, I helped too!” Megatron chuckled. “My apologies. My thanks to you too, Penny.” Penny huffed, satisfied and looked up at Starscream, only to see her friend cover his faceplate, which was suspiciously more colored than it had been before. Penny tilted her head in confusion, then a knowing grin spread across her face.

“Starscream,” she started innocently. “What do you think of Megatron?” Starscream jumped a little, but quickly composed himself and gave her his usual friendly smile. “He is our leader. And I am his second in command. I admire him.” Penny nodded, grin still on her face. “Do you like him?” “Er..,” Starscream looked away, nervously rubbing his neck. “Well, of course I do! He is a great ‘Con, he’s kind, an inspiration to our people-” “No, not like that,” Penny giggled. “I mean do you like-like him?” “Oh.” The seeker seemed unsure of what to say for a moment. When he finally spoke again, he picked his words carefully. “Megatron and I have...discussed that matter once. And we both decided it would not be wise to get...distracted, during these times. We may come back to it again when Decepticon-kind is, you know. Not on the brink of extinction.” He half expected Penny to needle him further, but instead, she listened to him carefully and nodded solemnly when he had finished. “That’s smart,” she said. “Cyrus and Aaron do it like that too.” Starscream gave her a surprised look for a second, then shook his head, mentally scolding himself for his reaction. It had been easy enough to see, all things considered. Penny looked glum all of a sudden. “This fighting stuff really gets in the way, huh?” “It does,” Starscream agreed. Sensing that the girl was in need of some cheering up, he continued. “I should check on the other devices in this room. Would you like to assist me?” Penny beamed, hopping onto the offered servo almost at once. “You betcha!”

They set off into one of the adjacent tunnels. Not noticing as a lone miner-bot in the corner of the room suddenly gave off sparks.

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Blackarachnia gave the berth and medical equipment in front of her an approving look, servos on her hips. She’d worked with worse on New Kaon. This was not bad at all for a makeshift medbay. “The human machines we found are more advanced than we thought,” Blitzwing spoke up next to her. “It’s almost like a more primitive version of our circuitry.” Blackarachnia looked up at him, thoughtful. She had all the tools she needed set up in this part of the mines. And there was nothing else requiring her immediate attention at the moment. “Blitzwing,” she asked. “How’s the firewall doing?” She tapped a digit against her own helm for emphasis. Blitzwing smiled down at her. “Well, all things considered. Though I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t at least a bit worn out. Hothead has been complaining a few times, but he always does-” His faceplate rotated. “Because if it were up to you, we would only ever ask for it to be renewed when it would already be too late!” Hothead shouted, before swiftly rotating back to Blitzwing, who gave a small exasperated sigh. Blackarachnia couldn’t help it, she let out a chuckle, quickly covering her intake with her servo. “Alright, we have a little time off. Let’s take a look at it. Wouldn’t want you to switch any further.” Blitzwing nodded gratefully and took his place on the berth at Blackarachnia’s inviting gesture. She stepped around the berth, lying her servos on his helmet and slowly removing it, revealing his processor. Her spark stung a little when she saw Blitzwing automatically tense up at the procedure. She quickly shook it off and proceeded to connect him with her medical computer, booting it up and starting to access his processor. “If I hurt you or if anything feels wrong, tell me,” Blackarachnia said, catching Blitzwing’s optics with her own to make him realize she meant it. He nodded, doing his best to give her a reassuring smile. “I will.” The medi-bot tried to fight down the ever-growing feeling of dread in her tanks as she started clicking herself through the data. Unwanted memories flashed through her mind, as they always did when she had to access Blitzwing’s processor in this manner. Of a decimated lab, many fellow medi-bots strewn about, offline or in stasis and a servo around her neck. Blackarachnia bit her lip-plate. It wouldn’t happen again. She knew better now and she wouldn’t let it escalate. She hadn’t let it when she’d programmed the firewall in the last few times. She wouldn’t now. Blackarachnia ex-vented a bit, then continued to program.

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“Is this what organics call a furnace?” Lugnut squinted into the room he and Megatron had just come across. His voice echoed around the three metal walls, his blue optic reflected on the opposite wall. “This is nothing compared to the mines on New Kaon!” “It is deactivated, Lugnut,” Megatron said dryly. The bigger Decepticon gave an indignant huff. “I knew that! It still doesn’t compare.” He squeezed himself through the entrance, letting his critical optic run over the interior. Megatron followed, slightly uneasy. The mines were long abandoned, true, but rogue signals and malfunctions could still cause problems with the machinery. Apart from that, he just couldn’t stop the feeling of being watched. It was a feeling that had saved him quite a few times during the Great War and he had learned to trust it. But there was nobody in here, except for him and his fellow Decepticons. Was it only paranoia?

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The little miner-bot spasmed a few times, before fully activating, it’s two optical sensors positioned on the sides of it’s small head that adorned it’s cylindrical, long body, held up by four appendages, flashing a deep red. Optimus never would have found this place, if the sudden power surge hadn’t called him here. It was no AllSpark energy signature, but it served his purposes well all the same. The small, primitive robot had been easy enough to access. From the data stored in it, Optimus could tell it had been used to manage this facility when it had still been active. It’s new purpose would be much more significant. Under it’s new master’s control, the miner-bot struggled to stand on spindly legs. Stumbling and swaying, it made it’s way towards the gigantic console and monitor bearing the Decepticon-insignia Optimus had seen one of Megatron’s underlings and his organic pet depart from. As soon as the bot had managed to pull itself onto the surface, Optimus had it connect itself with the machine, while making it look up at the monitor, now showing video feed from every one of the security cameras in the mines. What he saw pleased him greatly. If he played his cards right, he would be able to rid himself of all the Decepticon-scum infesting these tunnels and look for the AllSpark in peace. From there on out, well, he would just have to improvise. The mine-bot let himself into the mine’s network, ready to wreak havoc on it’s unsuspecting inhabitants. First, it headed for the systems of the medical bay...

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Blackarachnia was rather pleased with herself. By now she had renewed roughly 80% of Blitzwing’s processor-firewall and had even managed to reinforce a few weakspots and possible leaks on the way. “Talk to me, three-face. How are you doing?” she asked, without looking up from her task.

“Never better,” Blitzwing answered cheerfully, though she could still hear some strain in his voice. “Will...will you be finished soon? I trust you, I do, but this position is a little...unpleasant to be in.” “Almost done,” Blackarachnia said reassuringly. She couldn’t blame him for being at least a little nervous. But she’d finish up soon. And then it happened. The monitor flickered and glitched. Blackarachnia frowned. That wasn’t supposed to happen. She gave the device a light slap on the side. The picture cleared up again. Blackarachnia shrugged. The cables in this place were old. Nothing to worry about, surely, as long as they didn’t give out entirely. A strange, choked noise from the berth made her look up. Blitzwing’s servos had curled into fists and he was shaking slightly. Blackarachnia’s optics widened slightly. “Blitzwing? You okay?” He shook his head.

“No, I-something’s not right. I can’t-!” His body stiffened, as if in great pain and his vocaliser gave up. Blackarachnia whirled around back to the monitor. Had she messed up with the firewall? But it had seemed fine... Except that it wasn’t locking up what - or rather, who - it was supposed to. Somehow the program had been reversed. Blackarachnia cursed, hastily typing away at it to interrupt the process. She had to stop it, before-!

The hum of a canon lowering warned her just ahead of time. She leaped away from the computer, narrowly avoiding two energy beams ripping up the same spot on the floor she had been standing at only a few seconds ago. She jumped to her feet, staring at the berth. Through the smoke, two large, piercing purple optics stared back at her, accompanied by a demented giggle. “Hello, little spider,” a shrill voice cooed mockingly,as the Decepticon pushed himself of the berth, ripping out the cables still connected to his processor while doing so. “Did you miss me?” Blackarachnia grit her denta, shifting into a battle-ready position. “Can’t say that I have, Random.”

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“And I’m telling you, no self-respecting miner would ever-” Lugnut’s rant was interrupted by the sound of a canon being fired echoing through the tunnels behind them. Both of them turned towards the furnace’s entrance. “What was that?” Lugnut asked. Megatron’s optics narrowed. “I believe it came from the direction of the medbay. We should-” The door closed with a loud clang, locking the two Decepticons in. For a moment, both could do nothing but stare, then Lugnut stomped forward and hammered his servos against the door, narrowing his optic angrily. “Starscream, if this is your and your human’s idea of a joke it is in poor taste!” he roared. “I am in no mood for this!”

“I do not think the two of them had anything to do with it,” Megatron said slowly, letting his optics roam around the room. The feeling of being watched was stronger than ever, as well as the creeping suspicion that the watcher was not benevolent. As if to confirm it, the wall separating the actual furnace gave a foreboding creek before it ever so slowly began to lift. Megatron’s optics widened.

“Lugnut!” he called, rushing over and leaning against the wall with all his might to keep it down, warmth already rushing against his pedes as the heat started to built up behind it. Lugnut joined him a second later. Together they managed to press the door closed again, making it screech in protest. “What is going on?” Lugnut shouted over the audial-piercing wail of the door dragging itself upwards against their combined hold. Megatron didn’t answer, digging his digits into the metal. He had no idea either.

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“What was that?” Penny asked, anxiously looking in the direction the sound of a canon had just come from.

Starscream frowned, following her gaze. “It sounded like Blitzwing’s heat-canon,” he said slowly. “Why would he use those?” Penny’s eyes widened and she unconsciously shrunk back behind one of Starscream’s shoulder plates. “Did..did the Bad Guys find us?” “No, I don’t believe so,” Starscream said, turning his helm to give her a reassuring smile. “Still, we should check on him and Blackarachnia from the main console-” The sound of several heavy steps and the unmistakable humming of a machine booting up brought their attention to a dark corner of the room. One green light flickered on, then two, then three, until a fourth of the room was illuminated in green. A legion of miner-bots, roughly half of Starscream’s size ambled out of the shadows, arms swinging pickaxes, shovels, drill and the like. Starscream took a cautious step back, raising his left arm to aim his sonic pulse canon. “Did we activate the worker-bots in this mine?” Penny shook her head, face pale. She reached for her wand with a hand that shook slightly.

The bots’ ‘eyes’ began to flicker, growing darker each time - until their once green lights were a piercing red. They raised their weapons higher and spread out, forming a half.circle around Starscream and Penny.

“Oh, that can’t be good,” Starscream said, nervously lifting his canon even higher.

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Blackrachnia dodged to the side, as yet another blast fired into the wall behind her. She jumped to her pedes again, not about to let her attacker out of her optics for longer than she needed to. Random’s all black faceplate had been the stuff of her nightmares for stellar cycles and now, for some fragging reason, he had managed to break through again. Because she had overestimated herself. Just like back then. Random’s grin widened, jagged intake twisting with the effort. “I’ve missed you, Blackarachnia,” he said, stalking closer. “It’s so boring staying in Blitzwing’s head all the time. I can’t even talk to him because of that stupid little blockade you put in his head!” “That was kind of the point,” Blackarachnia answered, backing up into the tunnel. She had bolted out of the medbay as soon as she could to lure him out, not wanting any of the equipment to take damage but now she had to think of how to actually deal with Random.

The bent stingers on her back ached, like they always did when a situation felt much too big for their owner. Blackarachnia’s servos coiled into fists. She wouldn’t use them. Not until she was absolutely sure that there was no other way. And there had to be another way. “Blitzwing, Hothead,” she called. “I know you two are still in there somewhere. Don’t just let him do what he wants. Fight back!” Random laughed and lunged at her, forcing her further back.

“Worth a shot,” Blackarachnia mumbled. If she didn’t want Random to finish what he’d started deca-cycles ago she needed a plan and fast.

The others! They had to have heard the blast! No time to waste! Blackarachnia transformed into her organic alt-mode and ran off into the tunnel as fast as her eight appendages could carry her. She heard Random growl in frustration. The tunnels were big, but not nearly big enough for him to go into jet-mode and chase her and he was even slower as a tank than he was in robot-mode.

He would have to come after her on pede and, seeing as she currently had eight legs while he had only two, it would take quite a lot of time for him to catch up.

Whens he was sure she was out of his sight, Blackarachnia shot a thread at one of the upper beams, dragging herself up and into a dark corner. Not a klik to soon. Random charged through just as she settled herself, manic grin still on his face-plate, though as she’d hoped, he was way too caught up in his lust for energon to notice her dark, huddled form above him. She waited until she could only faintly hear his steps, then transformed back into robot-mode, raising her servo to her helm to activate her comlink.

“Hey, I don’t know if you guys heard the several explosions in the medbay,” she hissed, keeping her voice low. “But if you didn’t, then let me tell you I could really use some help over here!”

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“We’re a bit busy at the moment,” Starscream snapped back, shooting down a miner-bot in the middle of attempting to bury it’s pick-axe in the seeker’s helm with the canon on his right servo, while holding another miner-bot jabbing at his legs back with his left one.

Penny was leaning over his back, swinging her little wand at a couple of miner-bots trying to get at them from behind, sending small energy beams at them. Each hit caused the target to vibrate wildly, before going limb.

“That’s right, you leave us alone!” Penny shouted, a triumphant smile on her face. “Oh busy, huh?” Blackarachnia snapped. “Whatever it is, I don’t think it’s quite as important as our friend’s crazy side running loose around our new base!”

Starscream froze. “Random is out?” One of the miner-bots used this temporary distraction to bury it’s drill into Starscream’s left leg. Starscream hissed, shooting the machine before it could do any more damage.

“How did that happen? I thought Blitzwing and Hothead were supposed to be in control?” Blackaracnia sighed. “They were. I have no idea what happened. My equipment had a glitch all of a sudden and...well, you know the rest.”

Starscream perked up. “A glitch? The miner-bots we found turned hostile after what appeared to be a glitch. Could it have come from you?”

“Doubtful,” Blackarachnia answered. “The program I ran shouldn’t have influenced the systems in this mine that severely. Heck, it shouldn’t even have influenced Blitzwing’s processor that severely!”

“Maybe someone hacked us!” Penny chimed in, having stood close enough to Starscream’s audial to listen in on his and Blackarachnia’s conversation.

There was silence on the other end for a while, as Blakcarchnia thought about the girl’s theory. “I guess it’s possible. But it’d have to be pretty strong signal and it’d have to be send from a place where it could reach close to every system in the mines. And that means the only place it could have come from is...”

“The main terminal,” Starscream finished grimly. “Which is currently a bit out of reach for all of us.”

“All of us?” Blackarachnia asked. “Where are Lugnut and Megatron?”

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“This is ridiculous,” Lugnut barked. “Is it possible to be that incompetent at repairing?”

Megatron didn’t respond, partially because he had learned long ago there was no arguing or talking in general with Lugnut when he was on one of his tirades, partially because he was still concentrating all his strength into keeping the furnace door shut. Despite their best efforts, the thick, metal plate was steadily rising, mechanometer by mechanometer. And although the heat already breaking through wasn’t enough to damage either of them, it was already intense enough to be slightly painful.

Megatron didn’t dare imagine what it would feel like should they fail to hold the door closed.

The tell-tale sound of an in-coming communication signal sounded through his audials and he quickly raised a servo to activate his comlink and receive it.

“Megatron, where are you two?” Blackarachnia’s voice was hushed, but she sounded frantic. “We have a situation here!”

“So do we,” Megatron grunted in response. Holding this damned door down with only one servo was already proving to be straining. He would have to cut the conversation short. “Lugnut and I were investigating the furnace. It somehow activated and locked us in. You wouldn’t happen to know why that is?”

“Let’s just say we have a slight idea,” Starscream chimed in. “Someone’s been hacking several of our systems from the main console. And whoever it is seems to be pit-bent on getting rid of us. Hold on, you’re trapped in the furnace?”

“If what you say is true, then that does not matter right now.” The door started jerking upward again under his servo and Megatron quickly leaned his full weight against it. “If the intruder is acting from the main console, you might be able to reach him and regain control of the base. Starscream, are you and Penny still at the mine’s center?” “Yes,” Starscream answered hesitantly. “But we’re having a tough time with the miner-bots. If you give me your exact location we might be able to-” “No! You would not arrive here in time. You have to take care of the intruder It is the fastest way to resolve this predicament.” The door screeched in protest and Megatron realized it was somehow opening faster than a few nanokliks ago. Evidently their attacker was trying to accelerate things. “Lugnut and I should be fine for a few more cycles,” he said, gritting his denta from the effort. “Do not worry about us. Find and stop whatever has infiltrated our systems, Starscream! That is an order!”

There was silence on the other end of the line, before Starscream responded, reluctance in his voice. “Understood. We will do what we can to reach him in time.”

“Why did you do that?” Lugnut snapped. “We will not be able to hold this door much longer.”

Megatron turned to glare at him. He was a patient mech, but Lugnut’s complaining wasn’t doing anything to alleviate the stress of the situation. “If you had bothered to listen or pay attention in any manner, you would have noticed that whoever is trying to send us to the Well of AllSparks is currently out of our reach! Starscream and the human child are the only ones of us who might have a chance of stopping him. If I’d had them come and search for us, they might well have walked into another death trap. And then our fates would have truly been sealed.” Lugnut’s optic narrowed. “And what if they do not find the intruder on time?”

“They will,” Megatron answered steadily.

Lugnut huffed. “You do not know that! This is a fool’s effort!”

He leaned back, retreating his servos from the door. “I will attempt to blow the door open-”

A dark-blue servo grabbed his arm and yanked him back. Lugnut turned around with a glare, intake opened and froze when he was met with a pair of furious blue optics.

“Come to your senses, Lugnut! This mine has been abandoned for stellar cycles. What do you think will happen if you set off an explosive here? The whole complex will come down on our helmets!” Megatron pulled him down, so they were faceplate to faceplate. “Whatever your issues with me or my command, if you dare endanger the others in this manner, you’d best hope the furnace is hot enough to melt you before I get to you. Hold. The door. And wait. That is an order. Understood?”

Lugnut said nothing, only giving a silent nod and re-assuming his position beside Megatron.

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“So we’re on our own,”Blackarachnia said dejectedly. “Great. Would have been nice to have the big guy as backup.” Starscream nodded, before remembering she couldn’t see him. “Yeah. We’ll just have to make do.”

“I’m good at making do!” Penny chirped, raising her wand for emphasis.

“I’ll try to get to you as soon as possi-” A loud crash could be heard in the background of the transmission and Blackarachnia cursed. “Or not. I’ll have to lure Random away. Don’t know how long it’ll take. We’re counting on you!

And with that, she cut herself off.

“Great. No pressure,” Starscream muttered, shooting a pair of miner-bots who had gotten dangerously close to landing a blow on his already damaged leg.

“It’s no biggie! We just have to get to the main control panel, right?” Penny asked, trying hard to sound cheerful. “We can do this!”

We’ll have to, Starscream thought, Out loud, he said: “Hold onto me! We’re breaking through!”

When he felt Penny’s small fingers curl around his shoulder plate, he activated the thrusters on the heels of his pedes. The two of them burst through the wall of miner-bots, leaving a trail of machine pieces behind.

“I can see the entrance to the main room!” Starscream shouted over the noise. “We’re almost there!”

Penny yelled something in response he couldn’t quite hear. The next moment, he felt a piercing pain on the leg one of the miner-bots had damaged. The corresponding thruster flickered and went out and Starscream crashed into the ground, sliding through the dirt.

He groaned, lifting his helm. The damage to his leg had been more serious than he’d suspected. The hole had widened, whether during or before their escape attempt, he couldn’t tell. The cables were laid bare, though not recognizable due to the amounts of spark and smoke emitted from the wound.

A moments of panic followed, as he realized he couldn’t feel Penny on his shoulder anymore.

“Penny?” he called, sitting up and searching the tunnel around him. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine!” a small voice answered from behind him. When Starscream turned around, he saw Penny pushing herself up from the ground, indignantly padding dirt of her shorts.

When she looked up and saw the state he was in, her eyes widened. “Starscream, you’re hurt!”

“Just a scratch,” Starscream said with a grin. He propped himself up on his arm and get up, only to sink back with a pained groan when he accidentally put weight on his damaged leg.

Penny pouted, putting her hands on her hips. “Don’t lie to me. I know what you look like when you’re hurt!”

Starscream chuckled. “You certainly do.”

Scrambling noises coming from the tunnel behind them made them both perk up. Starscream frowned.

“Slag! I hoped they’d take longer to catch up.” He turned to Penny, optics serious. “Go to the main control panel. I’ll distract them.” “What?” Penny squeaked. “But... but you can’t fight like this! And what am I supposed to do when I get there?”

“Deactivate and restart the console. That should throw the hacker out of our system for long enough to get Megatron and Lugnut out of their predicament.” Starscream dragged himself up on a wall, gritting his denta when his leg sparked in protest. “Go! We don’t have much time.”

Penny gulped, obviously still not completely convinced, but then nodded, a determined look on her face. She turned an ran towards the entrance to the main room.

Making your way through a gigantic main hall was much easier when sitting on the shoulder of an equally gigantic robot, she noticed. By the time she reached the console, she was sweating profusely and not just from the run.

She still had no idea who or what would wait for her up there, but she wouldn’t let her friend down! Sticking her wan into her belt she climbed up the box, pulling herself on top carefully.

She frowned. Part of her had expected a giant robot tapping away at the keyboard. Instead, a miner-bot, about her size and only a head bigger was standing there, one arm connecting to the console via some sort of USB-drive connected to it’s arm. Penny tilted her head in confusion.

This miner-bot seemed... different from the rest. For one, it’s eye-lights were purple instead of red like that of the other miner-bots. There was it’s significantly smaller size too, of course, but also it’s more delicate arms and hands.

Penny wondered just what it’s purpose had been before the mines closed down. No time to wonder about that now.

She pulled herself up all the way, pulling her wand out from her belt and taking, what she hoped was an intimidating battling stance. She had to shut off this console and if it was only this single drone that was in her way, she might be able to handle it.

“H-hey!” she called, trying to sound braver than she felt. “You better leave my friends alone!”

The bot’s head whipped around, piercing purple eye-lights now entirely on her. After a tense moment of silence, it ripped out it’s arm from the console and transformed it into a taser-like appendage, advancing on Penny with a threatening hum. Penny gulped, holdingher wand in front of her.

The bot stabbed at her with it’s taser. Penny leaped to the side. She fired her wand at the bot’s chest. Its stumbled backwards,slightly dazzled. Then stood back up again. Penny gaped. Had she miscalculated, when she’d adjusted the wand a few weeks ago? The beam should have incapacitated the machine at the very least.

There was no time to further dwell on it, as the thing moved in to attack again. Penny squealed, dodging another jab. Her legs seemed to be made out of jelly all of a sudden. She tripped and fell,wand falling out of her hand. The miner-bot buzzed triumphantly, raising it’s taser-hand over it’s head to strike.

The wand suddenly gave a stark, white glow form where it lay. The bot stopped in it’s movements. For a second, it’s eye-lights seemed to flicker from purple to a friendlier blue color, like the ones of the Decepticons. Penny’s eyes widened wandering from the bot to the wand.

The thing jumped as if shocked by it’s own taser and the blue was gone. Penny didn’t waste time. She grabbed the wand, still glowing brightly, aimed it at the bot’s head and fired.

A strange energy engulfed it for a moment, making it freeze, then convulse, eyes flickering wildly - before stopping dead, eye-lights blue. It stood there for a moment, then lowered it’s taser-hand and tilting it’s head to look at it. There was a strange, child-like curiosity to the act, as if it was just now realizing that it had it.

Penny watched it with wide eyes, before slowly getting up, not letting it out of her sight. She had no idea what had just taken place, but the miner-bot (or whatever it was) didn’t seem keen on killing her anymore.

“Um, that’s better! I’ll just... help my friends then,” she told it, walking towards the socket it had used to connect itself to the network. The robot stopped looking at it’s hand to stare at her, but didn’t do anything else. Penny turned to look down at the panel, still throwing nervous glances over her shoulder. She placed her wand’s tip onto the socket. Nothing happened. penny frowned and took her eyes off the robot to glare at her tool.

It had worked just fine a minute ago! Had she damaged it in the fight?

A strange clicking sound came from behind her and she jumped, realizing the little robot had come over to look over her shoulder. It made the strange clicking sound again, but now it sounded inquiring.

“I’m... I’m trying to re-start the console, so I can make the mine stop attacking,” Penny explained, not sure why.

The robot perked up and started chattering at her, using one of it’s hands to gesture at itself.

Penny blinked. “Do you... do you want to help me?” she asked cautiously, taking a step backwards just in case.

The robot nodded enthusiastically.

“You tried to hurt me before,” Penny started slowly. “Why do this now?”

The robot hung it’s head, making a dejected sound. Penny looked at it, still unsure what to do or say. Starscream and the others were in serious trouble and she couldn’t shut off the console in time without her wand. This robot was obviously responsible for everything that had happened over the last few hours, but now it seemed like a completely different person.

Was it just pretending? Could she trust it?

An explosion shook the mines and Penny whirled around to look at the tunnel entrance she had come out of. The miner-bots were getting closer. She had to make a decision and fast.

Gathering her courage, she turned around to the little robot.

“Okay,” she told it. “Do it. But I’m watching you!”

The robot’s head shot up and it chirped with glee, running over to the socket. It’s hand transformed into a form fit to be plucked in and it connected to the console.

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Blackarachnia crawled along the ceiling. She had transformed back into her organic alt-mode after ending the call. It was smaller and therefore easier to maneuver through the mines. And it’s size made it harder to spot.

Random had gotten steadily more impatient in his search for her. He’d fired several heat lasers to make more room for himself and in order to keep him from collapsing the entire mine on their helmets, she had decided to show herself and lure him closer towards the exit.

Now she was beginning to regret that decision.

A manic giggle echoed from the walls behind her, along with the sound of heavy steps.

“You know what’s funny? After all those stellar cycles of being locked out of my own body, I get my freedom by the very thing you forced into my head!” He let out a shrill laugh.

“You were out of control, Random.” Blackarachnia shrunk back against the ceiling, hoping she was too far in the shadows for him to look up and notice the blue light of her optics. “We had to do something.”

“Is that what you tell yourself so you can recharge?” Random asked,a tinge of bitterness in his voice.

He was almost directly underneath her now. If she timed it right, she would be able to get the drop on him and download at least some of his modifications. From there on out, she’d just have to make it up as she went.

She waited until he was right under her. He turned his helm, searching his surroundings. She dropped down, transforming back into her robot-mode mid-fall. At the last second, he turned sharply. His servo shot up to grab her by the neck. She hissed, grabbing at his digits. He slammed her into the wall, making her vision glitch.

Random grinned at her.

Blackarachnia gritted her denta. He was holding her at arms-length, preventing her from touching him and using her download. She wasn’t sure what he had planned for her, but she doubted it was pleasant. And without her, there would be no-one to fix the firewall and bring Blitzwing and Hothead back. He’d be allowed to run free.

She couldn’t allow that. She had no other choice. His overconfidence was making him careless. He had been locked away fro stellar cycles. He didn’t know about her stingers.

Slowly, ignoring the pain immediately surging through her system, she lowered her stingers down to his servo. Random tilted his helm a little, amused. “Are you going to give me a scratch with those things?”

“Don’t, Blackarachnia.”

Both of them turned, to see Megatron and Lugnut stand in the tunnel, both of their weapons raised.

“Let her go, Random,” Megatron said calmly.

Random chuckled. “What if I don’t?”

“We do not want to hurt you.”

“Too bad. I want to hurt you!”

Random let go of Blackarachnia and turned to face the other two Decepticons, lowering his canons. A blast from Megatron’s arm canon struck him in the chest, throwing him onto his back. Before he could recover Lugnut rushed over, using both of his claws to pin him tot he ground.

“That is enough,” he growled.

Megatron walked over to Blackarachnia, kneeling down to her. “Are you alright?”

Blackarachnia grinned at him sardonically, massaging her throbbing neck. “Takes more than the crazy split-personality trying to rip my head off to put me off-line. You’re here, that means Starscream and Penny made it?”

Megatron nodded. “Penny has managed to deal with the... drone the intruder used to hack int our systems. Starscream is in need of some repairs. Do you feel up for it?”

“Yeah, just gimme a nanoklik.” Blackarachnia pulled herself up on the wall. She turned her helm towards Random and Lugnut, frowning. “I’ve got to deal with him first.”

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“I had them! They were right there and they just slipped through my digits again!”

Angry currents of electricity raced through the already abused panels and monitors, matching Optimus’ temper.

He had been so very close! A few nanokliks more and they all would have been sent to the pit were they belonged! But then that little organic had interfered, done something to make his drone break away from his control with that primitive tool of hers!

He had completely lost contact after she shot at it and now he wasn’t able to re-connect with the systems at all. Supposedly the had rebooted everything. It was doubtful he would fint their hide-out again through that method, now that they were properly integrated into this city’s systems.

“Well, looks like I need a body if I ever want a good shot at them,” Optimus muttered. An idea propped up in his processor. During his tour through the data streams of this place, he had come to know a lot of things. Among else that this primitive settlement was under the leadership of one Isaac Sumdac.

A pitiful organic who had undoubtedly used clumsily reverse-engineered Cybertronian technology to construct a poor bot’s version of an army. It wasn’t much to work with and from what he’d found about the human from his recordings and files, both private and public suggested that he was a pitiful, easily angered man with a megalomaniac streak. But for the moment, he would do nicely, if Optimus played his holo-cards right.

Optimus grinned. “Maybe it’s time I have a talk with Professor Isaac Sumdac.”

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“You sure your leg got damaged to the point of ceasing to function?” Blackarachnia, set aside her blowtorch to look skeptically at the part of Starscream’s leg she had just wielded back together. “I mean, there was damage there, but I wouldn’t say it was enough to make your thruster give out.”

Starscream chuckled sheepishly, scratching the back of his neck and swinging his legs off the medical berth, putting a bit of weight on them. “You know, I thought it was that bad, but in the heat of battle I might just have strained my systems too much.”

“Well, I am glad you were not actually hurt that badly,” Megatron told him, resting a servo on his shoulder and giving him a warm smile.

Starscream looked up at him, the same expression on his faceplate. “Likewise.”

Lugnut cleared his vents audibly. “Now that that is settled, what of this thing?” He pointed a claw at the small miner-bot, sitting beside Penny on a nearby table. “Are we really allowing it to keep functioning? What if it turns on us again?”

The little robot chittered timidly and ducked behind Penny, who raised a protective arm in front of him.

“He won’t! Miles is on our side now!”

Lugnut’s optic narrowed. “Miles?”

Penny shrugged. “I have to call him something, don’t I?”

“And you are certain we can trust him?” Megatron asked.

Penny nodded. “Yeah, I am. He saved you all, didn’t he?”

“After he almost caused our destruction,” Lugnut muttered.

Megatron hesitated for a bit, then ex-vented. “It has been a long solar cycle. If you say he is safe for now, I trust you. We will discuss this further tomorrow.” He turned to Blackarachnia. “How is Blitzwing?”

Blackarachnia shrugged, crossing her arms. “He’s fine, at least his body and systems are. He locked himself up in his room for the moment. Told me he wanted ‘to make sure’.”

A gloomy silence filled the room.

“He will join us again when he is ready,” Megatron said finally. “until then we should give him time to recover.”

“Speaking of recover,” Penny said, beaming. “I’m starving! What’s for dinner?”

The Decepticon’s shared a frantic look.

“I, err, neglected to ask Archer and Cyrus what organic children eat,” Megatron muttered.

Blackarachnia groaned, putting a hand on her helm. “Good thing we’ve already gotten our communication system online.”

#shattered glass animated #sga #episode 4 #transformers animated fan-write

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