A while back, I began writing a Transformers based fanfic, and it currently has about 17 parts, with hopefully the 18th part being the final installment. But anywho, I figured it would be a good idea to post up what I've written and see what people thought of it. I hope you enjoy.


TRANSFORMERS: THE UNIVERSE WARS

CHAPTER 1:


Optimus Primal was leader of a small group of Maximals that had crashed on prehistoric Earth. He and his crew were explorers, before they ran into Megatron and followed him through a portal that took them through space and time. A maniacal leader of a band of Predacons, Megatron's goals at first were simple, rule the planet Cybertron. These goals quickly escalated from ruling a planet, to ruling the universe. The war the Maximals and the Predacons fought back on ancient Earth was known as the Beast Wars, named so for the animal modes they chose. Megatron was eventually defeated in the Beast Wars, and was bound and imprisoned to be taken back to Cybertron to stand trial for his heinous acts. But due to an accident that occured whilst going back through time and space, Megatron managed to escape captivity and make it back to Cybertron earlier than the Maximals. He conqured the planet, ripping out the sparks of every single Transformer there and creating an army of mindless, Vehicon drones. When the Maximals arrived back on Megatron ruled Cybertron, they went into hiding and did they're best to try and retake the planet. During the final battle, Megatron was defeated and the planet freed. Optimus Primal died alongside Megatron that day...or so he had thought.


Optimus Primal awoke and looked around. He had no memory of how he had gotten here, or how he was even alive. He appeared to be in a seemingly unihabited wasteland, on a planet he couldn't identify. For as far as his optic sensors could scan, there was nothing but rock and sand. He tuurned around and found that he was at the base of a moutain. A big mountain. There appreared to be a large metal door leading into the mountain itself. There was an ancient Autobot insignia on the door. Optimus went to investigate. He might find some of the answers he was looking for in there. As he approached the door, he saw his reflection, which only raised more questions. It appeared he was back in his old body, the one he had back when he had first arrived on prehistoric Earth, back during the start of the Beast Wars. "But Megatron had destroyed this body." Optimus thought. "I was forced to transfer my spark into another one. How am I back in this body?" Then he thought about the Autobot symbol on the door. Autobots were much larger than Maximals, but this door was just his size. Then he realized that the door wasn't the problem, he was just bigger. So this wasn't his original body, just a giant sized replica. But that still didn't explain why he was in this body, not to mention why he was here, or why he was alive. He placed a hand on the door. At his touch, it slid to the side with a hiss. He walked in.


Inside was an expansive and very well equipped base. Computers, scanners, quarters to house soldiers, and enough energon to run an army. Optimus was in awe of it all. This mountain was almost better equipped than the Cybertron Defense Force. And what was odder, everything was almost brand new and ready to use. What was this place? After a few minutes of exploring, he found the command room, a large room filled with monitoring equipment and a large round table circled by chairs. There was a holo-transmitter in the middle of the table. There was a blinking light that indicated a prerecorded message. He pushed the play button. The image of a large, ancient looking Transformer appeared above the table. He appeared to be partially made of clockwork, and his face resembled the Autobot symbol. The image began the speak..."Optimus Primal. I am Vector Prime, guardian of space and time, and one of the Original 13 Transformers created by Primus. I wish I was there to greet you in person, but I had other pressing matters that needed my attention. I have used my strength to bring you back from beyond, and to give you a new body. Optimus Primal, you are one of the greatest heroes Cybertron has ever known, and your leadership skills are greatly needed. The Fallen, another of the Original 13, who allied himself with Unicron, is planning a war. He is abducting Transformers from across all planes of reality, from different dimensions, to serve him in some evil army. Why, I know not. He is gathering his forces here, on this planet. I am not powerful enough to stop him alone, so I have supplied this base for you, and a teleporter you can use to recruit troops. The computers are programmed with many realities, and the teleporter can take you to any of them for you to recruit your team. But be warned. Overusing the teleporter in a short time period will burn it out, and you will be unable to get any other reinforcements until it is repaid and given time to cool down. I'm sorry I can't do more, Optimus Primal. Farewell, and chose your team wisely. I will communicate with you at another time."


"Wait!" Optimus yelled as the image of Vector Prime vanished. Was he really expected to do this? Was he really supposed to create a multi-dimensional army of Transformers to combat another army of the same? This was all too much for his processor to handle. Optimus hit the table with his fist, denting it. "This is insane! I've had enough of wars! Enough of killing! I will not be responsible for any more deaths!" he was about to storm out of the base when he began to think about it. If he didn't try to stop this now, even more innocent lives could be at stake. This evil being, The Fallen, might turn out to be another Megatron. Might not stop with Cybertron, but attempt to conquer everything. And with the ability to travel through dimensions, more than just this universe was at stake. He lowered his head. There really was no other alternative. He would have to stay here, and fight. He turned around and walked back to the command center. He sat down in front of a computer terminal, and started to browse. If he was going to do this, he would have to chose his forces quickly...


*Meanwhile, roughly 50 miles to the south of the Autobot base...*


Scourge, for the lack of a better word, was a clone (if robots could have such things). He was a dark copy of his universes Optimus Prime, brought online by the Megatron of the same universe. He was put in charge of a small group of Decepticons. In his universe, the Decepticons were nothing more than a mere subset of the Predacons. But deep down in his spark, Scourge always thought the Decepticons were meant for more. Scourge, along with the rest of his team, were in transit to Cybertron to stand trial, following their defeat at the hands of the Autobots. And that's when he met The Fallen, an ancient and powerful Transformer who was constantly engulfed by flames, and who was one of the Original 13. The Fallen had snatched Scourge from captivity, and had told him that he was to be his top general, that he would be in charge of not a mere group, but an entire army. An army that would eventually be used to conquer the univere, correction, universes. And to think, Scourge would be right there at the top. He would have more power than he could imagine.


All Scourge had to do was help build, train, and lead the army. And so here he was, in a large bunker under the sands of a desert of some unkown world. Humble beginnings for so grand a scheme. Scourge sat back in the command chair, overlooking the war room of the Decepticon base. His top four generals were before him, bickering as usual.


"Our skills are wasted just waiting here for The Fallen to come and give us orders!" Scorponok was saying. In his universe, he was killed and later resurected. He was a triple-changer, possesing three forms.


"We have no choice!" Starscream was saying. "Even if we wanted to, we simply don't have the means, nor the capabilities to start this campaign." Starscream was second in command to his universe's Megatron, and a capable leader in his own rights. But like most Decepticons, he was not to be trusted.


"Tankor want to pulzerize enemies!" Tankor yelled. He was a simple-minded but powerful Transformer. In his universe, he was a Vehicon General under the control of a Megatron. 'Was' being to key word. Here, everyone was Decepticon.


"Might I say what an honor it is to be in the presence of such great military minds." Said Sunstorm. Sunstorm was another clone, but was based off of his universes Starscream. Somehow, he had recieved all the bootlicking, sychophantic tendancies of the original.


Scourge was about to silence them all when Scrapmetal, one of the Decepticon scouts, cam rushing in. "Lord Scourge sir!" he saluted. "I was out on patrol when I detected an unkown energy signature. Sir, it was coming from the abandoned Autobot base."


That silenced his generals. "What?" Scourge said. "You mean to tell me that the abandoned Autobot base is now somehow being occupied?"


"Yes sir! But scans show that there are currently no more than one Autobot occupying the base."


"Hmmm..." Scourge thought. What would an Autobot be doing out here? Then is occured to him. "Generals! Transform and prepare to depart. We must destroy that Autobot before he has a chance to discover us and report back to his superiors."


"Yes sir!" His generals replied in unison.


"No one must know what we are planning. No one..."

_________________

Chapter 2:


Optimus Primal had been searching the computer's database for the past hour, and he had barely scratched the surface. There were literally billions of choices. How did Vector Prime expect him to choose his troops? At random? He didn't even know how many Decepticons he and his supposed army would be facing. He would need to find some scouts. Then there was what Vector said about the teleporter breaking. He would at least one mechanic. And that's what Primal was looking for first, because he did not want to be cut off if he needed reinforcements. But the numbers were starting to get to him "By the Pit, this is hopeless!" he said hitting the console. The computer began to beep, and a voice said "Confirmed. Retrieving subject now." Primal looked up. "Wait, what? No! I haven't decided yet! Blast it!" He must have hit the selector when he hit the console. He shouldn't have let his emotions get the better of him. But there was nothing he could do about it now, the teleporter was already warming up. "At least it'll be a mechanic..." Primal thought as he checked to see exactly who he had selected. An Autobot engineer by the name of Quickmix. Oddly enough, his profile in the computer stated that he wasn't from Cybertron, but from another world called Gigantion. Apparently, the Transformers who settled there were all builders. Primal had never heard of it before, more than likely because it was in a different dimension than his own.


Primal looked to the teleporter. It looked basically like a large, empty chamber. Large enough that it could accomodate even the largest Transformer, within reason of course. There was a bright flash from inside the teleporter as the new recruit arrived. Quickmix was still in vehicle mode as Primal entered the chamber. Quickmix's vehicle of choice appeared to be some sort of cement truck. Suddenly, the cement truck stood up and transformed, revealing Quickmix. The mixer barrel of his vehicle mode was were his right hand should be, which gave the Transformer the appearance of holding a club. Quickmix looked around and yelled "Ey! Who are you? Where am I? I want answers, ya hear me!" pointing his cement barrel at Primal.


Primal held up his hands to show he was unarmed. "Easy there. I can explain. My name is Optimus Primal. I'm a Maxi...er, I mean an Autobot." Primal decided that this Quickmix might react better if he wasn't confronted by a faction he had never heard of. "And I brought you here because your skills are greatly needed. Just let me explain..." Primal told Quickmix all that Vector Prime had told him about the situation they had found themselves in.


Quickmix was skeptical. This 'Optimus Primal' character seemed familiar. He reminded Quickmix of the Optimus Prime he had met back on his own world, but he definitly wasn't the same bot. "That's the most ridiculous story I've ever heard. I've buit some crazy things in my time, but an interdimensional teleporter that can snatch up Transformers? You'll excuse me if I find that rather hard to believe."


Primal looked Quickmix in the eye and said, "I know it's hard to believe, but you have to. There is so much at stake here. We have to..." he was interrupted as the base was shaken by the force of an impact and warning sirens blaring. "What was that!?" Quickmix asked.


"I have no idea." Primal said as he ran to the nearest computer console. "Computer, report!"


"Warning. Decepticons detected at perimeter of base." The computer said in an annoyingly calm voice. "Enemy fire detected. Minimum damage sustained to outer defenses. Initiating shields and automated defenses."


"Decepticons!?" Primal and Quickmix said at the same time. "Computer, visual. Main monitor." the biggest screen in the room flashed to life. It showed five Decepticons attacking the base. One of them looked somewhat like Optimus Prime, but different. He looked...evil. Quickmix looked to Primal. "Okay, I might be starting to believe you."


Suddenly, automated turrets popped up from the surrounding rocks and began firing on the Decepticons. It drove them back a little, but failed to chase them off. Optimus stared at the screen. "We have to get out there."


"What? Are you serious?" Quickmix gave Primal a look of disbelief. "Have you seen their number compared to ours? There's only two of us and five of them! We go out there, and we're as good as dead!"


"Not if we can bluff them." Primal elaborated. "We just got here. They don't know how many there are. And besides, our firepower combined with the automated defenses of this base might be enough to drive them off. Now let's go!" Primal grabbed his ally by the arm and led him to the exit. "Computer. Cease automated fire and hold for my command."


"Acknowledged." was the computer's only reply.

Optimus and Quickmix then stepped outside. The sunlight reflected slightly off the force shield that had erected around the base. From here, they were protected by the shield from enemy fire. Optimus and Quickmix looked around. Their attackers had taken cover from the automated defenses. One of them sneaked a peak at the two Autobots.


"Tankor thought there be only one bot. Tankor count two."


"It's surprising Tankor can count at all." Starscream said in a mocking tone. He looked to Scourge "But the simpleton is right. Scrapmetal said there was only Autobot in this base."


"Our reports also stated that this base was empty." Scorponok put in. "It would appear that our intelligence isn't as good as we would have liked to believe."


"Silence you three!" Scourge ordered. Something wasn't right here. This base should have been empty, and not 15 cycles ago, their scanner did show only one Autobot. The most rational explanation would be that the Autobots had a way to mess with their sensors. And that meant that they could no longer trust any of their sensor intel. But that still left the question 'How and why were there Autobots here?' Who could have sent them? Scourge's thoughts were interrupted by one of his generals. It was Sunstorm.


"Mighty Scourge, might you please give your humble servant the chance to interrogate these Autobots?" Sunstorm asked. While Sunstorm's aft kissing did get on everyone's nerves a bit, everyone did understand that he couldn't help it. It's hard wired into his processor. In the universe he came from, that Starscream had created several imperfect copies of himself. Imperfect in that each one only represented one aspect of the originals personality. One was a coward, one was an egomaniac, one was pathelogical liar. Sunstorm got stuck with original's suck up nature. He sucks up and compliments everyone, regardless of rank or even allegiance. Even in after a fight, he will compliment his downed opponent on the good job he did.


Despite of these perculiar and sometimes irritating quirks, Scourge still had a fondness for Sunstorm, due to their shared origins of both being more or less clones. Scourge looked at Sunstorm and simply stated. "Permission granted." The only reason being is because an Autobot would never fire on an enemy coming to talk peace.


Sunstorm nodded and used his jets to rise above their cover. "Great and powerful Autobots!" he addressed Primal and Quickmix. "I am Sunstorm, Decepticon General! I am honored to have been given the privelage of negotiating with our most respected enemies. I..." Suddenly, a small window in the shield opened and Quickmix's cement barrel arm split in half and launched a missle that hit Sunstorm directly in the chest. The Decepticon fell to the ground, heavily damaged, but still alive. The opening in the shield then closed. Primal looked at Quickmix with a shocked expression on his face. Quickmix shrugged "What? He was getting on my nerves. Besides, there wasn't enough explosive in that charge to kill him."


Primal shook his head and called out "Decepticons! That was your warning shot! Leave now, or we'll finish blowing you to scrap!"


Scourge couldn't believe it. One of the Autobots had fired! Obviously, these Autobots were different to the ones he had been used to dealing with. Scourge looked at the unconcious body of Sunstorm. "Scorponok! Take Sunstorm back to base and get him into the repair chamber. Starscream, Tankor, and I will follow shortly."


"Yes Scourge." Scorponok said as he Transformed into his land mode, a scorpion based, tank like vehicle. He grabbed Sunstorm with his claws and began to drag him back to the Decepticon base. Scourge looked back at the Autobots. "You will pay for your insolance, Autobots! As well as your interferance! Pay for it with your lives! You will not stop us! All realities belong to The Fallen! They shall be his!" And with that, Scourge transformed into the semi-truck that was his vehicle mode and began to drive off. Tankor followed suit in his tank mode, and Starscream transformed into a jet and flew off.


Primal let a sigh of relief go. This was going to be even harder than he originally thought. These Decepticons were fanatical, and that was the worst kind of Decepticon. He and Quickmix stepped back into the base. Quickmix looked around. So all the stuff that Primal said was true. Decepticons from all sorts of dimensions were gathering here to form an army. And it was up to the Autobots to stop them. "So now what do we do now?"


Primal looked to Quickmix. "We repair the damage to the base, and then we start building an army. You up to it?"


Quickmix laughed. "Doesn't look like I have much of a choice, does it?" The two then got set to work...


*At the Decepticon Base*


Scourge stood staring at the repair chamber Sunstorm was currently in. The Decepticon's cheif medical and science officer, Brushguard, walked up. "That was a bad missle wound he took, but he'll recover, given time."


"Make sure that he does." Scourge said as he walked away. He next went to his private quartes and locked the door. He stepped up to a large communicator and keyed in a complex code. Then a large, feiry, mechanical face took up the screen. It was The Fallen. "Report." he said in a dark, menacing voice.


"My lord! Autobots have arrived here." Scourge began. "They've taken up shelter in the old abandoned base, and have gotten it fully functional in less than a day! They have also wounded one of my generals. I have no explanation for this."


The Fallen scowled. "This is the work of Vector Prime. It appears as though he has uncovered out plans and wishes to put a stop to it."


"What do you wish me to do?"


"You worry about the Autobots. I'll shall deal with Vector Prime myself. This is only a minor setback, Scourge. Do not let the Autobot's arrival and the injury of your general distract you from our main goal. Stay to the plan and destroy the Autobots, at any cost."

Scourge nodded. "Understood, my liege. Scourge, Out." The screen went blank. He stood there several more moments before walking away. Everytime he spoke to The Fallen, Scourge was always left a little shaken. It was just something about his very presence, whether in person or over the communicator, was awe inspiring. Scourge balled his fist. He would not let his newfound master down. These Autobots, wherever they came from, would be destroyed, at any cost...

_________________

Chapter 3:



Quickmix was busily repairing the damage the Decepticons had caused to the outside of the base. The computer had been right when it said that only minimal damage was sutained. This mountain the base was built into had extremely dense rock, denser than any Quickmix had seen. Whoever had originally built this place had known what they were doing. He finished filling in the holes with his cement and climbed back down to examine his work. Quickmix could still hardly believe he was in some sort alternate universe, drafted into some war that really had nothing to do with him. Most Transformers from his planet were pacifists, preferring to build things rather than destroy them. Of course, there were some exceptions. Quickmix liked to think of himself as nuetral in that area. He didn't care to much for fighting, but would be more than happy to defend himself when under attack. Speaking of defense, Quickmix wondered how Optimus' hunt for more troops was going....


Optimus Primal sat on the floor of his quarters, meditating. It has a habit he had picked up when he fought Megatron and his army of Vehicons back on Cybertron. It always seemed to calm him and help clear his thoughts. He was currently in beast mode, a gorilla. Back on earth, he had used it as disguise, like all other Transformers. But here, disguise was somewhat of a moot point. Besides, since this body was the size of a large truck, his beast mode wasn't really good for disguise. But it always helped him think better when he meditated in beast mode. It had been twe days since the Decepticons attacked, and he still hadn't recruited any more troops. He really wished some of his old crew were here. Especially Dinobot. The former Predacon turned Maximal was always the military minded one..."That's it!" Optimus said as he transformed back to robot mode and stood up. "I can use that teleporter to bring Dinobot in!" Why hadn't he thought of that before! He made his way to the teleporter room. He went to the console and said "Computer. Seach universal database for 'Dinobot'."


"Searching....there are approximatly 20,251 results for 'Dinobots'." The computer replied.


"Wait, not Dinobots. Dinobot, singular." Optimus corrected. Back during the Great War in his universe, the Dinobots were a group of powerful but primitive Autobots. They were violent, but loyal to the Autobot cause. How could the computer mistake his command? "I want to to look up Dinobot. Dinobot. From my universe. You hear? Dinobot." The last time he repeated it slowly to make sure it would make the correct search.


"Acknowledged. Three Dinobots located. Transporting now." The computer said.


"What? No!" Optimus yelled. That punch he delivered to the computer a couple days ago must have scrambled its cuircuts somehow. Now the computer had selected a version of the Dinobots from an alternate universe. Obviously, there were only three Dinobots on this team. Optimus shook his head. He would have to talk to Quickmix and see if he was good with computers. If he kept picking bots at random like this, there was no telling what might happen. He turned to the chamber to watch as they arrived. One by one, three robotic looking dinosaurs appeared in the teleporter chamber. First, a pteradactyl, then a triceratops, and finally a T-rex. Optimus checked their profiles . The pteradactyl was Swoop, and the triceratops was Snarl. Grimlock, the T-rex, was the leader of the group. Well, at least that was the same.


He was about to enter the chamber to greet them when they started to go berserk. They broke out of the chamber and began to smash and demolish any piece of computer equipment unlucky enough to get in their way. Optimus looked on, horrified. He had to put a stop to this! At this rate, they would completely destroy the teleporter, and then there would be no way to get any backup. Optimus opened the comm on his wrist. "Quickmix! Get in here! We have a situation!"


"Optimus, what's wrong?" Came Quickmix's reply.


"There's no time to explain! Just hurry!" Optimus yelled as he turned off the comm. He turned back to the rampaging Dinobots. If he remembered his history correctly, the only things his universes Dinobots had respected was force. He popped out the hidden gun on his left arm and opened fire on Grimlock. The shots hit Grimlock dead on, but didn't do any noticable damage. Grimlock turned to glare at Optimus. "Oh slag." Were the only word Optimus could come up with.


Grimlock transformed into his imposing robot mode and grabbed his sword. He pressed a button on the hilt, and the sword was engulfed in flames. Grimlock then, without taking his eyes off of Optimus, held up a hand and the other Dinobots, Snarl and Swoop, stopped their rampage. That was obviously the command to stop and watch your leader pound this bot into scrap metal. Grimlock then opened his mouth to speak. "Me Grimlock not know how you brought us here, or why, but me Grimlock am going to slag you now."


"Wait, calm down Grimlock. I am not your enemy." Optimus tried to explain. "If you'll just listen to me and hear me out..."


"Me Grimlock not listener, me king!" He exclaimed as he ran towards Optimus with his flaming sword. Optimus reached behind his back and pulled out the two swords he kept tucked away there and blocked just in time to keep Grimlocks flaming sword from splitting his head down the middle. He pushed the flaming sword back and tried to slash at Grimlock's midsection, but was caught in the side of the head by punch from Grimlock's free hand. As he fell to the ground, Optimus had to admit that the Dinobots might be primitive, but they knew how to fight. He got up just as Quickmix entered the room. "Okay Primal, what's so important that....Holy lugnuts! What ahppened here!? Who are they?"


Optimus was about to answer when he had to block another swipe from Grimlock. Quickmix was about to step in and help when the other two Dinobots stepped in his way, brandishing flaming weapons of their own. Snarl held a flaming club and Swoop a flaming chain flail. Apprarently, the Dinobots wanted this to be a one on one fight. Optimus slashed at Grimlock and followed up with another shot from his hidden gun. Grimlock dodged and knocked one of Optimus' swords out of his hand, leaving Optimus with the single sword. Optimus was going to have to end this fight and end it fast if he had any hope of survival. It was apparent that these Dinobots were just too unruly. Even if Optimus won this fight, which he wasn't sure he could do without killing Grimlock, he didn't think he would be able to trust them. There was too much at stake. It was either get rid of the Dinobots, or forfeit the cause. Optimus knew what he had to do. He swung his sword one way to distract Grimlock. When he fell for the feint, Optimus leveled his gun at Grimlocks head and fired...


"STOP!"


Optimus suddenly found himself unable to move. Even stranger, it appeared as the energy bolts that left his gun had been...frozen, in the air. Suddenly, a portal opened to the side and out stepped Vector Prime himself. "Stop this fighting at once! You are supposed to be fighting the Decepticons, not each other. Optimus Primal, since when do you resolve conflicts with violence? Hmm? Well aren't you even going to answer me?"


If Optimus could move or talk, he would have pointed out how ridiculous that question was. Vector Prime seemed to catch on too. "Oh my. I'm terrible sorry. Let me take care of that." He waved a hand, and time seemed to reverse. The bolts Primal fired seemed to go back in his gun and he and Grimlock seemed to move away from each other, to positions they were a few seconds ago. Then Vector snapped his fingers and Optimus could move again, as could the others. Grimlock looked around, confused. "How you do that?"


"My dear Grimlock." Vector Prime started "I am Vector Prime. Guardian of Space and Time as appointed by Primus himself. There are many things I can do." he turned to the others. "Now, this is not how you should be expending your energy. Optimus Primal, why have you not chosen more troops? Is there a problem with the teleporter?" Vector paused as a piece of flaming machinery toppled over. "Besides what you all have done to it."


"Vector Prime, why did you put me in charge?" Optimus asked. "Why? Out of all the different realities, there must be a better leader than me."


"Me Grimlock would like to second that." the Dinobot leader put in.


"Silence Grimlock!" Vector snapped. He turned back to Optimus. "Optimus, I chose you because you are a wonderful and very competant leader. Now, admitadly, I should have given you more instructions on this teleporter, but time simply didn't allow it." Vector chuckled a little. "Imagine me, short on time. Oh such folly. Ahem, but anyway. Quickmix, come forward."


The Autobot engineer reluctantly stepped forward. Vector Prime produced a data disc from a slot on his arm. "On this disc are the schematics for the teleporter. Follow them exactly, and you should have it fixed within a week. In the meantime," he faced Primal again "Since you seem so apprehensive about recruiting, I will be bringing you troops of my choosing until the teleporter is fixed. I know I don't have to remind you how crucial it is that you succeed here. The Fallen now knows of my involvment here, and will do everything in his power to stop me, so any futher visits may be sporadic at best. Goodbye for now Autobots. May you fight bravely. Till all are one..." And with that, Vector Prime stepped though another time portal and disapeared.


The Autobots stood in the ruins of the teleporter room. Optimus walked over to Grimlock and extended his hand. "Truce?"


Grimlock looked at the hand skeptically, but nodded and shook Optimus' hand, hard. "Me Grimlock say...truce."


Quickmix looked at the other Dinobots, who stared back at him in silence. "Oh, I can already see that this is going to be fun." he muttered sarcastically. "Well, if this love fest is over, I think I'll get to fixing this teleporter you all helped reduce to slag."


"Okay." Optimus said. He waved the Dinobots to follow. "Come one, let's leave him to his job."


Grimlock nodded and signaled for Slag and Swoop to follow. "So, where me Grimlock sleep?"

_________________

Chapter 4



*At the Decepticon base*


"Scourge is not going to be pleased." Scrapmetal thought as he entered the Decepticon base through a hidden tunnel. "Not pleased at all." The small scout Transformer was currently in vehicle mode, a sort of four-legged spider tank. Ever since the Autobots had shown up at the other base, Scrapmetal had been on near constant scouting duty, scoping out the Autobot base. He had been given strict orders to report back only if the Autobot's activity increased. And did it ever. Scrapmetal's sensors had suddenly picked up the energy signatures of three additional Autobots within the base. This was not good. Not good at all. Scrapmetal didn't understand how they could spontaneously aquire three additional troops when not five minutes earlier there where only the two. And even those two were a mystery. There was no logical explanation for how the Autobots were coming here...unless they had someone on their side like their leader, The Fallen. But Scrapemetal was only a scout, and not privy to such high level information. His only job was to scout and report. Scout and report. Unless there was a large scale battle, then he would fight. But with currently only five Autobots, there wasn't much chance of that.


Scrapmetal stopped outside of the command room and transformed to robot mode. He paused there for a moment before entering. Going in front of Scourge and the generals always made him nervous. Any one of them could blow him to...well...scrap metal. And almost any one of them would do it without a second thought if given a bad report. And Tankor would probably do it in response to a wrong look. That's how Tankor was. Violent and unpredictable. Combine that with his rather low intelligence, and he was very dangerous individual. He finally built up enough courage to enter the room. When he went in, the generals were arguing, again. Scourge usually just let them yell out their frustrations, and intervene only when it got physical. Scrapmetal stepped before Scourge's command seat and knelt on one knee. "Scoure, sir. I have grave news to report. The Autobots seem to have aquired three additonal troops. I know not how they have accomplished this."


Scourge looked down at the scout. Scrapmetal was not alone. None of the generals really knew how the Autobots were getting new troops. Scourge had an idea of how, but didn't have the specifics. The Fallen had already told Scourge that Vector Prime was involved, but that didn't mean they got their troops directly from Vector Prime like the Decepticons got theirs from The Fallen. Scourge thought this over. There was only one way to find out. "Tankor. I want you to take Scrapmetal and Cyclonus and go on a scouting mission. I want you to map out the exact boundaries of the Autobots' defensive grid."


"Tankor pulverize Autobots! Tankor smash Autobots to powder!"


"No! You are not to engage them." Scourge ordered. "Do you understand? Use some of that itelligence you keep tucked away in your processor. Now go get Cyclonus and be on your way."


Tankor merely saluted and and walked away, with Scrapmetal in tow. The intelligence Scourge had been referring to was...complicated, at best. Tankor appeared to be dumb, but in reality, 'Tankor' was merely a shell program suppressing his true identity. In actuality, he was a Maximal known as Rhinox, who was apart of Optimus Primal's original crew. Rhinox was a very intelligent, very strong, yet somewhat gentle bot. It was only once during the Beast Wars that everyone learned what would happen if his dark side was unleashed. He was once kidnapped by Megatron and turned into a Predacon. He kept all of his intelligence and strength, but turned completely evil and power hungry. The process was eventually reversed, and Rhinox became his old self again. But after the Beast Wars, when the Maximals returned to the Megatron conqured Cybertron, Rhinox was one of the first to fall. Megatron ripped out his spark and used it to create the Vehicon General Tankor. The Maximals didn't know this, and had unwittingly reawakened Rhinox without deactivating the Tankor shell program. This mistake made him eerily similar to when he was a Predacon for a short time. He was eventually defeated, but at the cost of his life. This Tankor was taken from before Rhinox had been reawakened, but still somehow suffers from flashes of his other half's personality, and not the gentle one.


Tankor and Scrapmetal went down to the Decepticon's firing range. That would probably be where they would find Cyclonus. That's where he spent most of his time anyway. And that's where he was now, they found out. They looked through a window into the firing range. Cyclonus was currently in his helicopter mode, firing missles and laser bolts at several targets. After those had been hit and more popped up, he transformed into robot mode and continued to fire, all the while cackling like a madman. Cyclonus really liked the firing range. Once he was done, Tankor walked into the range and yelled "Cyclonus come with Tankor! Scourge give mission!"


"Yeah, yeah, hold your horses." Cyclonus said without looking back.


"I am your superior you half crazed piece of scrap and you will follow my orders!" Tankor replied as he brought his cannon over his shoulder and pointed it at Cyclonus. Apparently, some of the evil Rhinox personality was seeping though right now.


Cyclonus held up his hands in defense. "Okay, okay. Easy does it big guy. No need to fly off the handle like that. What's this all important mission?"


"Tankor let Scrapmetal explain." And just like that, it was back to the Tankor personality. Scrapmetal stepped forward and said "Scourge has entrusted us with the task of mapping out the Autobots defensive grid."


"Great!" Cyclonus said in excitement. "It has been ages since I last blasted away some Autobots!"


"Well you're going to have to wait a while longer. This mission is purely recon. We are under strict orders not to engage them at this time. If we encounter Autobots, we are to return to base."


"Seriously?" Cyclonus asked in a disappointed tone. "Man, Scourge has no sense of fun."


"Quiet!" Tankor yelled. "Come! We go now!" He then transformed into tank mode and led the way out of the base. Both Cyclonus and Scrapmetal transformed and followed the general out.


*10 minutes later.*


"Wow, do you think The Fallen could have chose a bleaker place? I mean, come on!" Cyclones rambled on. He had been like this since they had left the base. Apparently, he was a mototmouth and a trigger happy psychopath. "Were stuck out here in the middle of a desert, on some unkown world, waiting for him to come pick us up and start ravaging worlds. You would think that you would want your troops to be more well informed."


"As for the desert part," Scrapmetal began "I suspect he picked such a remote location is because of it's stategic value. As for informing his troops, we are mere soldiers. We only need as much information as it takes to do our jobs, which isn't much."


"Quiet it down, you two!" Tankor said in his more intelligent voice. "If I hear one more word out of either of you before we reach the perimiter, I will slag you both and tell Scourge the defenses took you out. Understand?" Neither of them spoke. "Good." It didn't take them much longer to reach the first signs of the Autobots early warning system. They were difficult to detect, but there where sensors buried in the sand. Scrapmetal marked their coordinates on a map of the desert. He then began to carefully dig up one of the sensors without setting it off. "Hmm, not very sophisticated, but these sensors are effective nonetheless. Had we passed over them, the Autobot would have been alerted to our pesence."


"What, you mean if I was to pass my hand over it like this," Cyclonus ran his hand over the sensor "It would go off?" The device began to beep.


"Cyclonus you moron! Now they know we're here!" Scrapmetal yelled at him. He then turned to Tankor and said "General, may I suggest we turn to base? The mission must be put to a premature stop."


Tankor transformed into robot mode and glared at Cyclonus "Right...after...this..." He pulled his cannon up and blasted Cyclonus. He fell to the ground, damaged severly. "Tankor want you stay as distracton." He transformed back to tank and told Scrapmetal "Come one." then they both headed back to the Decepticon base. Cyclonus tried to yell at them "Wait!" but the best he could manage was a moan. Before he blacked out completely, he saw a large figure stand above him. He heard the indistinct figure say "Well, look what me Grimlock found." before he faded into unconciousness...

_________________

Chapter 5



Cyclonus woke up in a dark room. Well, almost dark. There was a bright light shining directly into his face. He tried to put his hand over his optic sensors, but found that he couldn't move it. He found he couldn't move at all. It took him a while to realize he was immobalized on an upright table. It took him longer to realize that he was surrounded by several figures. And that those figures were Autobots. He was in an Autobot interrogation room! He had been captured! "Let me go, you slagging rust buckets!" he yelled as he struggled against his restraints. The center figure walked into the light, "Ah, good. You're awake. My name is Optimus Primal, and I have a few questions for you."


"I'm not telling you Autotrash anything!" Cyclonus said defiantly. He was starting to remember how he had gotten in this situation. He had iccidentally set off one of the Autobots early warning sensors, and Tankor flew off the handle and blasted him unconcious. That schizophrenic half-witted excuse for a general! If Cyclonus ever got out of here he was going to....well, he wasn't sure what he would do, but he would cross that space bridge when he got to it. "I'm not talking and there's nothing you can do about it! I know how you Autobots are, you don't torture your prisoners." Cyclonus said smugly. It was true. Autobot interrogation rooms were merely empty rooms, as opposed to Decepticon torture chambers, which had all sorts of fun toys to squeeze information out of bots unfortunate enough to find themselves prisoners. "You just waste valuable time asking nicely and waiting for your captive to spill his guts about all the bad things he did. Well it's not going to work!"


"You're right." Primal said, nodding his head slowly. "But technically, I'm a Maximal, and we've been known to bend the rules a bit now and then." he then turned to the other three Autobots in the room. "You see my friends over there? They known as the Dinobots, and they're not your typical Autobots. Now, I don't have much control over what they do. So if they suddenly decided that they were, say, hungry? There wouldn't be much that I could do except watch." He looked Cyclonus in the eyes "Now, I want the location of the Decepticon base, number of troops they have, and their defensive and offensive capabilities. If not, I might just have to leave the room and let the Dinobots here do whatever they feel like doing to you."


"Me Grimlock want to munch Decepticon metal!" The Dinobot leader exclamed.


Cyclonus looked at the Dinobots, then back to Primal. "You're bluffing." He stated.


"Am I?" Primal asked. "Grimlock, I forgot my notepad in the other room. Do you and the other Dinobots mind watching the prisoner while I go get it?"


In response, Grimlock smiled and pulled out his sword, igniting the flames. Primal was walking away when Cyclonus said "Wait! Wait! Wait! I'll talk, I'll talk!" Primal walked back to the table. "Yes?"


Cyclonus sighed in defeat. "I don't really any thing about our troop number, or our defenses, or any of that slag. But I can tell you that our base is approximatly 50 miles to the South. It's hidden beanath the sand. That's all I know. Honest!"


Optimus nodded his head. "Thank you for your cooperation. Dinobots, please take the prisoner back to his cell."


Grimlock lowered his sword and gave a look of disapointment. "But me Grimlock wanted to munch metal."


"Fine." Primal relented. "You can munch him, but only if he gives you trouble."


The Dinobot leader perked up at this, and he, Snarl, and Swoop unshackled Cyclonus from the table and led him out of the room. Primal exited soon after and met Quickmix outside the door. "You got a little rough in there, didn't you?"


"I wasn't really going to leave him alone in there with the Dinobots." Optimus said. "I just wanted him to think I would."


"You think his information can be trusted?" Quickmix asked.


"I don't know. There's really only one way to find out. I just hope Vector Prime comes with extra troops soon so we can find out. It also be comforting to know we had a few extra bots around to keep help keep watch of the Dinobots. Speaking of extra bots, how goes the teleporter repair?"


"Slowly." Quickmix said bluntly. "That was a delicate piece of technology, and you lot really did a number on it. It'll take me at least a few weeks, maybe more."


Optimus nodded gravely. "Let's just hope Vector Prime can keep bringing us reinforcements during that time." Suddenly, a time portal opened up in the hallway and out stepped Vector Prime, flanked by two Autobots. Quickmix nearly jumped out of surprise. "You know, you really should warn people before you do that!" he snapped. "You can give a bot a spark attack doing that teleport-out-of-nowhere thing!"


"I'm sorry Quickmix." Vector apologized. "But I felt the timing to be appropriate, since you were just talking about me."


"By the Pit! How does he do that? You know, never mind. I don't think I want to know. I'm going to go work on the teleporter." Quickmix said as he walked away. Optimus shook his head and turned to Vector. He then looked at the two Autobots flanking him. "Care to introduce me?"


"Oh, yes, certainly." Vector said hastily. "I would like you to meet Ironhide and Silverbolt." He said indicating his companions. "They are here to help supplement your troops." Optimus eyed the new Autobots. Ironhide was a name he recognized from history tapes as an Autobot that had fought in the Great War, but this didn't seem to be the same one. He had a pair of giant cannons attached to each arm, making him an imposing figure indeed. Silverbolt, however, he did recognize. Not as the Maximal Silverbolt that Primal had fought with during the Beast Wars, but Autobot Silverbolt who had fought during the Great War. He had been in charge of a group of flying Autobots known as the Aerialbots. Optimus shook each of their hands. "It will be an honor to fight along side both of you. I assume they've been briefed about the situation?" He asked Vector.


"Why of course. We wouldn't want a repeat of what happened last time, now would we?"


"What...what happened last time?" Ironhide asked.


"Uh...nothing. Absolutely nothing." Optimus said. He turned to Vector Prime and quickly changed the subject. "When do you think we can expect our next batch of reinforcements?"


"I've already lined up the prospective candidates and will be off to fetch them as soon as I leave here." Vector assured him. "Speaking of which, I must depart now. Till all are one." he said as he stepped back through the time portal. Optimus watched as the portal closed behind Vector Prime, and he turned to Ironhide and Silverbolt. Well, please allow me to show you around the base." As he lead the two newest members of their ranks down the hall, he heard Ironhide say "I want to know what happened last time."



*The Decepticon Base*



"Once more." Scourge said. "Explain to me why you had to abort the mission and why Cyclonus didn't return with you."


Tankor knelt before Scourge's command chair. "Sir, Cyclonus alerted the Autobots by moronically setting off one of their sensors. We had no choice but to abort, as per your orders."


"And of Cyclonus?"


"Tankor slag Cyclonus!"


Scourge rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Get out of my sight! You split personality annoys me." Tankor rose, saluted, and left the command room. Scourge rose and began to pace the currently empty command room. It seemed that most of his generals and troops were mentally disturbed in some way, shape, or form. But that also made them good Decepticons. And no matter how deranged Cyclonus was, he was a good soldier. Scourge didn't believe that Cyclonus was offline. Tankor more than likely just disabled the crazy copter as a distraction for the Autobots. But that also meant the Autobots now had a prisoner. And Cyclonus wasn't known for keeping his mouth shut. This left Scourge with only one choice. No matter how much he disliked the idea, no matter how much it went against his programming....he had to mount a rescue operation.



*The Autobot Base*



"And finally, this is the teleporter chamber." Optimus said to Ironhide and Silverbolt. "At least...what's left of it." He motioned to the debris in the room.


"So this is what you meant by 'last time'." Ironhide said as he surveryed the carnage.


"What happened here Optimus?" Silverbolt asked.


"The Dinobots is what happened." Optimus stated simply. "Not the Dinobots you know, but no less destructive. I'll introduce you to them later. And this is our chief engineer, Quickmix." Quickmix picked one of the intact computers and set it upright. "You mean your only engineer." He said to Optimus. "It was a good thing you brought me here first, otherwise, you would be royally slagged right now."


"Pleasant fellow." Silverbolt stated sarcastically.


"I like him." Ironhide put in.


"I wish there was more time for you to get comfortable, but I'm afraid there isn't time. We've just recieved valuable information from a Decepticon prisoner. The location of their base. This information, combined with access he can grant us, and the extra firepower you represent, we can launch a preemptive strike that might just be able to end this conflict here and now. What do you say?


"Oh, you had me at firepower." Ironhide said. "If there are Decepticons to smash, I'll be there before the order is given to move out."


"You can also count me in." Silverbolt assured him. "If things are as bad as Vector Prime told us, then there's no time to waste."


"Glad to hear it." Optimus said. He then activated his arm mounted comm unit. "Grimlock, you and the Dinobots bring the prisoner up to the command room."


"Monkey no tell me Grimlock what to do!" Came the reply.


"We're going to attack the Decepticons, and we won't be able to do that without the prisoner." Optimus said.


There was a long pause. Finally, the reply came "Me Grimlock have decided to bring prisoner up to command room. Me Grimlock out."


"I think I'm getting the hang of these Dinobots." Optimus said as he and the rest of the Autobots left the teleporter room to meet the Dinobots in the command room. They were waiting there when Optimus and the others arrived. And there was the Decepticon prisoner. But something was wrong. The Decepticon was missing his left arm. Optimus shot an accusatory look at Grimlock and asked "What happened to the prisoner!?"


Grimlock gave Optimus a sheepish look. "Well, me Grimlock got hungry earlier, so me Grimlock bit his arm off." Optimus gave him a look of utter disbelief. "What? Him not using it at the time." Was the only excuse the Dinobot leader offered. Optimus shook his head "Never mind. Just...never mind." He then stepped forward and looked at the group as a whole. "Autobots, today we are heading out on a dangerous mission. A mission that some of us might not come back from. Now, I know none of you chose to be here. But we have to think about what is best. We are not just fighting for our own freedom, we're fighting for the freedom of everyone everywhere. And I mean that literally. This conflict we are in isn't just about one planet, or one solar system, or even one galaxy. We are fighting for the freedom of all realities. I'll let that sink in for a moment. What is at stake is my reality. And your reality, and your reality, and your reality. All of our realities are at risk. Everyone here has a stake in this. And everyone out there was a stake in this. There is no failure option here. We must succeed. We must win. Now, what do you say?"


There was a long silence as the Autobots thought it over. Grimlock was the first to break the silence. "Me Grimlock say we kick Decepticon skidplate!" as he said this, he pulled out his sword and set it ablaze as the other Autobots cheered and said similar words of encouragement. Optimus smiled. "Then Autobots. Let's Transform and Roll Out!" As they each transformed into their respected modes, Cyclonus shook his head and muttered "We're all gonna die..." Ironhide, who transformed into a blue pick-up truck, latched a cable to Cyclonus and began to drag him out of the base. "Sorry Decepticreep," Ironhide said. "But you're a flight risk in every sense of the term. We need you, so we can't have you transforming and buzzing off."


"Just when I thought my day couldn't get any worse..."



*En route to the Autobot Base*



Scourge led Tankor, Scorponok, Starscream, a freshly healed Sunstorm, and Scrapmetal through the desert towards the Autobot base. Starscream and Sunstorm were flying lookout overhead as the others made their way on the ground. The plan was to retrieve Cyclonus and cause as much collateral damage to the Autobots as possible. Their last intelligence reports stated that there was a total of five Autobots, but that way the intel was now a days, that number didn't amount to a load of scrap. Scourge was thinking about how to get around the Autobot's defenses when Starscream suddenly yelled "Autobots incoming!" which Sunstorm followed up with "A brilliant strategy! Meeting us head on. What clever Autobots these are!"


What!? How did the Autobots know they were coming? They're sensor net didn't extend this far out. Unkown to Scourge, the Autobots were having a similar conversation.



"Silverbolt! Swoop! What do you see up there?" Optimus asked though his comm. Swoop answered by saying "Me Swoop see four by land and two by air!" Optimus looked down at his comm. This was the first time he had heard the flying Dinobot speak. Up until now, he had always assumed he was either mute, or just too dumb. Obviously he had been wrong. Optimus transformed to robot mode "Autobots! Transform and prepare for attack!" All except for the fliers complied. They would remain in their vehicle\animal modes for better manuverability. As Ironhide tansformed, he pointed one of his oversized guns at Cyclonus and asked "Primal! What should we do with the prisoner?"


Optimus looked at the Decepticon. "He's tied up and has one arm. I don't think he's going anywhere soon. Just leave him there for now. Grimlock and Snarl transformed and pulled out their respective flaming weapons. "Me Grimlock say charge!"


"Wait!" Optimus said. "We can't just go rushing into battle blindly without a plan. We need..." He was interrupted by Grimlock yelling "No one tell me Grimlock how to fight! Me Grimlock king!" and with that, him and Snarl charged over a dune to face the Decepticons head on. "Blast it Grimlock! Quickmix, Ironhide. Follow me. We need to provide the Dinobots with backup." Ironhide and Quickmix followed Grimlock's path up the dune while Optimus used his jetpack to jump straight over it and land on the other side. When he got there, Grimlock and Snarl had already engaged the Decepticons, and where actually holding their own, for now. Snarl was fighting a smaller Decepticon, possibly a scout, with his flaming club. Grimlock was currently engaging one of the Decepticon generals. He looked like...No, it couldn't be. The general looked just like Tankor. The last time he had met Tankor, it was Rhinox. If this was somehow the same...his thoughts were interrupted by a Decepticon coming up behind Grimlock. The Dinobot didn't see the attack coming as he was too preoccupied with Tankor. It was the Optimus Prime look-a-like that had lead the attack on the Autobot base several days ago. The evil Prime raised a sword to strike at Grimlock, but Optimus used his hidden gun to blast the sword out of his hands.


The Decepticon leader turned and stared at Optimus. They locked eyes, and the fight was on. Optimus pulled out his swords as the Decepticon retrieved his. Optimus came running at the Decepticon and slashed with both swords, but the Decepticon blocked. "Well, if it isn't the insolant little Autobot who would try to interfere with our plans."


"Who are you?" Primal asked in confusion.


"I am Scourge! Remember the name, for it shall be your doom!" Scourge said as he pulled his sword back to take a swing at Primal. Optimus sidestepped and hit Scourge in the back with his fists, knocking the Decepticon down. "You could use some fighting lessons, Scourge." Optimus mocked. Scourge stood up and charged at Primal in a rage.


The rest of the battle was more of the same. Ironhide and Quickmix had engaged Scorponok, shooting at the Decepticon general, but having their shots blocked by Scorponok's claws. Grimlock and Tankor continued to battle each other.


"Tankor Smash!!!"


"No, me Grimlock smash!"


It was a physical and mental stalemate. Snarl was having better luck fighting Scapmetal, with the Dinobot easily overpowering the smaller Decepticon. In the air, Swoop and Silverbolt had teamed up on Sunstorm, who had been able to distract them with his endless praise of their combat abilities. He did this to buy time for Starscream, who had bypassed the battle to look for Cyclonus. When he found him, Cyclonus was never happier to see Starscream. "Oh thank the Matrix you came! Look what they did to me! The big one bit off my arm! HE BIT OFF MY ARM!!!"


"Quiet you babbling stooge!" Starscream ordered. He cut the cables that bound the Cyclonus. "Can you transform?"


"Hello! No arm!" Cyclonus yelled, pointing to Grimlock's teeth marks.


"Fine! I'll transport you back to base myself." Starscream opened communications to Scourge. "Sir, I have found Cyclonus. I repeat, I have found Cyclonus. He is injured, but online. I am going to take him back to base."


Scourge had managed to turn the tide in the fight with Primal when his comm beeped. He heard Starscream's messeage and said "Copy. Return to base, we'll follow you shortly." He looked down at Primal, who he had managed to knock down. He wanted to end this miserable Autobots life right now, but right now his troops were being overwhelmed and they had gotten what they had came for. "Looks like you get to live today, Autobot slime. Decepticons! Fall back to base! I repeat, fall back!" Scourge transformed into truck mode and drove off. Sunstorm broke off from his dogfight with Silverbolt and Swoop. Tankor and Scrapmetal weren't so fortunate. Scrapmetal had been beaten unconcious by Snarl and Tankor had had his cannon ripped off by Grimlock. Tankor transformed into a cannonless tank mode while Scorponok picked up Scrapmetal as he left. Some of the Autobots had suffered minor damage, but nothing too serious. The fliers landed next to the ground troops. Grimlock, Snarl, and Swoop were currently celebrating. Grimlock pointed at the retreating Decepticons and said "Look at them run! Dinobots RULE!" Quickmix then yelled from the top of the dune, "Hey Optimus! The prisoner's gone!" Ironhide walked up next to Optimus and asked "Should we follow them Primal?"


"No, this battle's over." he looked at his troops. "They got what they came for, and we still have the location of their base. The status is now quo. Autobots, transform and return to base. And remember today. Remember it well, for today's 'victory' was just the first of many battles...of the Univerese Wars."

_________________

Chapter 6




"My job was so much easier before these Autobots came along." Brushguard mumbled as he began to attach a replacement left arm to Cyclonus. "One minute I'm giving routine tune-ups, and the next I'm replacing limbs. How did you say you lost your arm again?"


"He bit it off." Cyclonus said. "He just BIT IT OFF! Said something about being hungry. My memory is kind of fuzzy..."


Brushguard shook his head as he began to weld the seam. Brushguard wasn't a large Decepticon. He wasn't that much bigger than Scrapmetal really. He was currently the Decepticon's only medic, and he also doubled as their science officer. "So he said he was hungry, and without preamble, just bit it off?"


"Yep." Came Cyclonus' response.


"That's brutal." Brushguard said as he finished the weld. "There, good as new."


"Brutal is right." Cyclonus said as he tested out his new arm. "The same one ripped off Tankor's turret from what I hear."


"Great." Brushguard said, rolling his eyes. "That's means I have to attatch a new one. I hate working on him, he always switches personalities during my examinations. But at least it's nice to know we're not the only ones with psychopaths. It seems the Autobots can make them too."


"Yeah, well, thanks for the new arm Doc." Cyclonus said. "I'll leave you to your next patient." As Cyclonus left the room, Tankor walked into the med bay and sat down. Brushguard steadtied himself and walked over to Tankor. "So, got torn off by an Autobot, eh?"


*Decepticon Command Room*


"We need to stop underestimating these Autobots, Scourge." Starscream stated flatly. "Especially the one with the flaming sword who seems to have made a habit out of dismembering Decepticons!" Starscream paced the room. "Ever since they arrived here, we have been doing nothing but playing games! 'Find their sensor radius', 'Rescue Cyclonus', enough is enough!"


Scourge stared at Stascream without blinking. "Are you saying that you are...unhappy with my leadership?"


"That is exatcly what I'm saying Scourge!" Starscream looked the Decepticon leader in the eye. "I think it's time for a change in leadership. A much needed change."


Scourge made a motion with his hand and Scorponok came up behind Starscream and held him in place. Scourge stood up from the command chair and began to walk towards the immobilized Starscream. "I don't care for your tone Starscream. And as you can see, I am still very much in charge. It would seem you're the only one with complaints." He came face to face with Starscream. "Now, if I hear one more word of dissent from you, I will personally tear you apart and spread your pieces across so many dimensions that Primus himself won't be able to put you back together!" He leaned in closer. "Do I make myself clear?"


"Yes, lord Scourge." Starscream said.


"Good, now take him out of here." He said to Scorponok. After the two left, paced around the empty command room. No matter how insubordinant Starscream was, did have a point. The time for playing was over. He walked over to the communicator and keyed in his special code. The Fallen's face appeared on the monitor. "Speak." he said simply.


"My liege." Scourge started. "We are in need of a special soldier. We are in need of a spy. Someone who can infiltrate the Autobot base and gather information."


The Fallen stared at Scourge for a long moment. "As you wish. Your new soldier will arrive within the hour. Use his skills wisely."


Scourge nodded. "Thank you my lord." And with that, The Fallen terminated communications. Scourge turned around and went back to his command chair. He had no idea what kind of Decepticon The Fallen would be sending, but Scourge was sure his leader wouldn't disapoint.



*Autobot Base*



Grimlock stood back from the wall to admire his work. On the wall hanged the turret he had ripped from Tankor, and next to it was what was left of the arm he had bitten off Cyclonus. "Me Grimlock like." The Dinobot was currently in his room, trying to put a personal touch to it. "Me Grimlock need to fight more Decepticons to get more parts. Maybe me Grimlock make new friend from pieces!" Suddenly, the comm unit near his door began to beep. Grimlock stepped over and pushed the button. "Hey Grimlock! This is Quickmix. I need your help in the teleporter room."


"Why me Grimlock come help you?" he asked.


"If you come help me, I'll give you a piece of Decepticon for that collection I know you're building." Quickmix taunted.


"Me Grimlock on way!" he said before leaving his room and making for the teleporter room. Once he got there, he asked "What cement bot need me Grimlock's help for?"


"I need you to help me move some of these computer terminals back into place. You know, the ones you helped break."


"That not me Grimlock's fault!" he started to prostest.


"Stow it, just help me out." Quickmix cut him off. "You weren't my first choice for this, but seeing as how everyone else is busy, I have no choice. Now I need to move this, over there." Quickmix said pointing to a wall. He grabbed one side and Grimock grabbed another. After they had moved the terminal, Quickmix looked around and said "Ah slag! I forgot and left my tools back in my room. Grimlock, you stay here and wait for me to get back." As Quickmix began to walk away, he turned around. "And don't...touch....anything!" he then left the room.


Grimlock watched as Quickmix left the room. "Me Grimlock no take orders from cement bot. Me Grimlock touch what me Grimlock want to touch." He walked over to the main console and started pressing buttons. "Me Grimlock want more Dinobots here. Ooo, here a Dinobot named Dinobot. He must be greatest Dinobot of all. But me Grimlock greatest Dinobot of all! Me Grimlock bring Dinobot named Dinobot here to prove me Grimlock am greatest Dinobot!"


"Confirmed, retrieving subject." The computer said weakly. It was at this time Quickmix came in. "Grimlock! What did you do? I told you not to touch anything!"


"Me Grimlock bring other Dinobot here to prove me Grimlock am greatest!" he declared.


"Wait, you're transporting ANOTHER Dinobot here!" Quickmix got on the comm. "Primal! We have a situation in the transport room! Grimlock fired up the teleporter and is bringing another Dinobot here."


"I'm on my way." Optimus said on the other side. In a matter of minutes, he joined Quickmix and Grimlock in the transporter room. "Grimlock, what were you thinking?" Optimus asked.


"Me Grimlock wanted more Dinobots here." He started to explain. "And then me Grimlock see Dinobot named Dinobot. Me Grimlock thought him be greatest Dinobot of all. But then me Grimlock remembered me Grimlock am greastest Dinobot of all. So me Grimlock bring Dinobot named Dinobot here so me Grimlock can slag him."


"Wait, wait. Slow down. You said you're transporting a Dinobot named Dinobot here?" Optimus asked. There was a hint of hope in his voice.


"That what me Grimlock say."


Optimus ran over to the main console to check the profile. "Yes...YES! It's Dinobot!" This is who Primal had been trying to get when he had brought the Dinobots here. He turned to explain to Quickmix "Dinobot was a Predacon turn-coat. He joined my team and became a Maximal when he was unhappy with Megatron's command. He was a good soldier, and a good friend. He later went offline after recieving critical injuries while defending a valley of proto-humans from Megatron. He was who I was trying to get when I accidentally transported the Dinobots here."


"Primal," Quickmix started. "That is a very confusing story."


"Just trust me." Optimus said as he turned to the teleporter. There was a flash, and there was Dinobot. But something was wrong. He was on the ground and he wasn't moving. "Oh no, the teleporter must have gotten him right after his final fight!" He ran over to Dinobot. "Dinobot! Dinobot! Can you hear me? Say something!"


Dinobot, badly damaged, looked up. "Pri...Primal...? Where....where am....."


"Don't try to talk, we're going to help you out. We're going to save you this time." He turned to Quickmix and Grimlock. "Help me get him to a repair chamber! NOW!"


"Me Grimlock help you, but me Grimlock only help him get better so me Grimlock can slag him later."


It didn't take them long to get Dinobot to the medical bay and get him inside a repair chamber. Quickmix walked up next to Optimus. "He's stable for now, but that repair chamber won't keep him alive. You where right when you said he was badly injured. If we don't get a medic in soon, he's not going to make it."


Optimus nodded gravely. "Finish fixing the teleporter quickly. I know of just who to get. Someone I read about in the history tapes. The best slagging medic there was in the Great War. Ratchet."

_________________

Chapter 7



Quickmix was hard at work at the teleporter. Optimus and Silverbolt watched on. Silverbolt looked to Optimus and asked "Primal, why am I here?"


Optimus, who had been pacing, looked at Silverbolt. "If my history is correct, you and Ratchet served together under Optimus Prime during the Great War. I'm hoping he won't freak out too much if he sees a familiar face."


"Oh, I see." Silverbolt said in a somewhat disapointed tone. Optimus looked at him again. "You're also a fine soldier. And that teleporter isn't the most reliebale piece of machinery around. If something goes wrong, I want some backup, Understand?"


"Yes sir!" Silverbolt responded in a slightly more upbeat tone. Both him and Primal turned their heads when they heard Quickmix say "Done!" he closed a panel on the main console and turned around. "It's not as good as I would want it to be, but it's the best I can do for now."


"I understand." Optimus said as he went to the selector and typed in the search. After a few minutes, he found what he was looking for. He looked back at the other two Autobots. "Fingers crossed everyone..." he pushed the button.


"Confirmed. Transporting now." the computer said. After a few moments, there was a flash inside the teleporter, and for the first time, there was the Autobot Optimus had actually meant to get. Ratchet. Optimus motioned for Silverbolt to come with him, and they both stepped into the teleporter. Ratchet, a moderate size Autobot, was naturally confused. "Where am I?" he asked. He spotted Optimus and Silverbolt. "Silverbolt? What are you doing here." Before Silverbolt could answer, Optimus spoke up. "We'll explain later. Quickly, follow me. We have a badly wounded bot that won't survive much longer." Optimus began to walk away, but Ratchet stayed put, looking reluctant. Silverbolt placed a hand on his shoulder. "It's okay, you're among friends here." Ratchet stared at Silverbolt for a long time, then nodded. "Where is he?"


"This way." Optimus said as he led the way to medical bay. There, Ironhide had been watching over Dinobot, who was still in the repair chamber, in stasis. Ratchet walked over and opened the chamber. There was a hiss as the seal opened. He examined Dinobot. "What was he doing when he recieved these wounds?" Ratchet asked.


"Long story."Primal stated simply. "Can you repair him?"


"I'll have to start now, and it may take a while. But he just might pull through." Ratchet extended a scalpel from his forearm. "I'll need someone to assist me."


Optimus looked to Quickmix. "Would you...?"


"Sure thing Primal." Quickmix said as he walked over to help Ratchet. Optimus wanted to stay, but felt it would be best if they left Ratchet to do his work. "C'mon guys, let's go." Optimus, Ironhide, and Silverbolt then left the medical bay.



High above the mountain that served as the Autobot base, flew a bird. A robotic bird. It completed a few more circles, and then began it's descent. It landed a few miles south of the Autobot base, on the arm of it's master. The Decepticon Soundwave. From the same universe of the Dinobot team the Autobots currently had, this Soundwave had been nearly destroyed by an Autobot, being knocked into many pieces. The Fallen had helped him reassemble himself, and had then recruited him. Apparently, the Decepticons had need of someone who could infiltrate and hack into computers, and Soundwave fit both categories. His bird, Laserbeak, extended a data jack into his arm and showed him the scans of the Autobot base he had taken while circling above. Soundwave nodded and said in a very robotic, monotone voice "Laserbeak. Begin operation: Autobot Infiltration." Laserbeak sqwaked and flew off in the direction of the Autobot base. It was unlikely that Soundwave himself would be able to get into the Autobot base undetected, but Laserbeak was small enough to go undetected and could gather all the data the Decepticons would need.


Laserbeak flew to the Autobot base, but didn't go in through the main entrance. During his scans, he had found a small air vent that led into the base and would be far more stealthy than going though the front door. He entered the vent and followed it until he entered a large room. This was where Laserbeak began recording what he saw. It appeared to be a large room with an empty chamber and a lot of computer banks. The room was currently empty. He flew from the air vent and landed on what looked like the main console. He extended his data jack into the computer port and began downloading. What he got was the schematics for some interdimensional time portal that could not only transport any Transformer from anywhere, but could also adjust their size. Very interesting. He downloaded the data, unplugged his jack, and exited the room. He stopped short of turning around a corner, as his sensors detected a grouping of Autobots. Laserbeak landed on the floor and stuck his head around the corner. It appeared as though most if not all of the Autobots were gathered outside of the medical bay looking in. Laserbeak decided this gathering was of no concern and went off in the opposite direction. He found his way to the command center of the base and landed on the main console, extending his jack. This is what he had been looking for. The base layout, defensive capabilities, passcodes, the wholes works. Laserbeak finished downloading and flew off to where he had entered. It was a successful and flawless mission. He flew back to his master and landed on his arm, extending his jack into Soundwave's arm. Soundwave examined the data Laserbeak had brought him and uttered one word. "Excellent."



Back at the Autobot Base, Ratchet and Quickmix walked out of the medical bay and Ratchet began to speak. "It was tough, but that bot in there is a fighter for sure. He'll live, but it will take some time for him to heal completely." He looked to Primal. "He's awake now if you wish to speak to him, but please keep it brief. He needs to conserve his strength."


Primal nodded and walked into the bay. No one followed him in. They understood that Primal and Dinobot needed to talk. Dinobot was on one of the medical beds. He looked over to Optimus and rasped "Optimus. What happened?"


"You saved the day." Optimus said. "The Beast Wars are over friend. We won."


He growled and looked around "Where are we?"


"It's a long story. We're not on Earth. To tell the truth, I'm not sure where we are. But Ratchet said you need to rest now."


Dinobot's eyes widened "Do you mean...?"


Optimus nodded. "Yes, the Autobot Ratchet from the Great War."


Dinobot closed his eyes. "That must be one long story..."


Optimus laid a hand on his shoulder. "Rest now. We'll talk later." Optimus then left the room to meet with the other Autobots. He didn't speak for a long while. He finally broke the silence by saying "I'll be in my quarters. Alert me to any changes in his condition." and with that, he walked away. Grimlock looked to the others. "What his problem?"


"That," Ironhide said and he put a hand on Grimlock's shoulder. "Is the look of a bot who just got a friend back from the grave..."

_________________

Chapter 8



Scourge, sitting in the command room, surrounded by his generals, reviewed the data Soundwave had retrieved. He watched as a hologram of the layout of the Autobot base hovered above the room. Then the schematics for...an interdimensional teleporter? 'So that's how they keep getting reinforcements!' Scourge thought. He looked to Soundwave, who waited at the doorway to the command room. "Come forward." Scourge said. Soundwave complied silently. "You've done a superb job, Soundwave. Better than some of the generals in this room, in fact."


"Thank you Commander." Soundwave replied. "I live to serve the Decepticons."


"You shall be rewarded for your efforts. You are now dismissed. The generals and I have to discuss these...new developments."


Soundwave bowed slightly and left the room. The doors closed behind him, and the debating started. "We should attack now!" Starscream said. "Attack while they are still unaware that we have this information!"


"I say we should attempt to replicate this teleporter technology." This from Scorponok. "That way we will be able to overwhelm them with numbers and no longer be reliant on The Fallen for our troops."


Scourge raised an eyebrow to this. "You wish to be more independant, Scorponok?" he asked. "You sound rather ungrateful. If you remember correctly, it was The Fallen that ressurected your rusted chassis and brought you back online. He might think you weren't happy with your current position and decide to return you to your previous state. I would watch the independence talk if I were you."


"Of course Commander Scourge." Scorponok said. "My apologies."


"Now," Scourge began. "While this teleporter technology is interesting, we should be thinking more of how the existing one could be used against the Autobots. How can we make it work for us? Turn it against the Autobots somehow."


"Great Commander." Sunstorm spoke. "Since we obviously have an excellent hacker, would it not be but a simple matter to reprogram this teleporter in some way. Reprogram it to transport Decepticons instead of Autobots."


"Excellent idea, Sunstorm." Scourge said. "Anything else?" he asked the others.


"If we could get it to retrieve Decepticons, we could plan a dual assault." Tankor put in. For some reason, Tankor seemed to be using the intelligent side of his personality more often. Not that it wasn't welcomed, it was just unexpected. "The next time they go to transport more troops, the get Decepticons. While there is pandemonium inside, we rush the front gates with our stolen passcodes and CRUSH Autobots!"


Scourge noted how Tankor had used his more intelligent side longer than usual. He would have to look into it when he got the next chance. "Very good." he pressed a button on his command chair. "Soundwave. Return to the command room. We have another mission for you..."



*The Autobot Base, several hours later*



Ironhide was in the firing range of the Autobot base, practicing his aim. Even though the size of his guns rendered aiming almost unnecessary, he still didn't like the idea of getting rusty. It wasn't long after the Autobots of his universe had defeated Megatron and the Decepticons in a battle over the Allspark that Vector Prime had recruited him. Vector had told him that his skills with weapons were sorely needed in this war they were in. Ironhide thought about saying no, but then thought of the consequences of the Autobots had lost the Allspark to the Decepticons, and how much worse it would be if the Decepticons won this war Vector talked about. How could he refuse?


He finished his practice and left the firing range, only to nearly be knocked over by Grimlock. "Hey! What's the big....what are carrying?"


Grimlock held up some sort of mechanical bird with a Decepticon symbol on its back. The bird seemed to be unconcious and slightly charred. "Me Grimlock find him messing with computers in teleporter thingy. So me Grimlock...apprehended."


"Messing with the teleporter?" Ironhide's eyes went wide. "Well c'mon, we have to go tell Optimus!" Ironhide then beagn to run towards Optimus' quarters.

"That where me Grimlock was going, before someone got into me Grimlock's way." Grimlock said as he chased after Ironhide.


Optimus was meditating in his quarters when he heard a lound knock on his door. He stood up, transformed back to robot mode, and answered. Grimlock and Ironhide were outside. "Yes?"


"Primal, we need to talk..." Ironhide was about to say before Grimlock cut him off with "Me Grimlock want to tell story!"


"Wait, talk about what?" Optimus said, clearly perplexed.


Grimlock held up the unconcious Laserbeak. "Me Grimlock found him messing with teleporter thingy. Can me Grimlock keep him?"


"That's a Decepticon symbol!" Optimus said, surprised. "Come on, let's get him to the medical bay and have Ratchet and Quickmix take a look at him."


The three were in the medical bay in no time. Ratchet and Quickmix had Laserbeak opened up on the table. "He's definitly Decepticon." Ratchet said. "And by the looks of him, he's from the same universe as Grimlock."


"Wait, I think I see something." Quickmix said. "Here, let me hook up to his processor and...." he paused as he recieved a stream of data from Laserbeak. "Well, well, well. Looks like what we have here is a spy. This little sucker has already downloaded our base layout and teleporter schematics and delivered them to the Decepticons. This is his second trip here. He's supposed to be altering the teleporter right now to deliver Decepticons instead of Autobots. Sneaky little..."


Optimus thought for a second. "We might be able to use this to our advantage. Did he complete the alterations?"


"Not from I can tell." Quickmix replied. "Looks like Grimlock stopped him before he could really do anything. The littler guy is them supposed to signal back to the Decepticons next time we use it."


"Quickmix, can you send that signal out while you're linked?"


"Sure Optimus." Quickmix said as he looked at Primal. "You're not thinking...?"


"Yes, I am." Optimus said. "They'll be expecting to catch us off guard, and we'll be ready to strike..."



*The Decepticon Base*



"Scourge." Soundwave said to the Decepticon leader. "Laserbeak has sent the signal that he has completed modifications and that the Autobots are attempting to use the transporter now."


"Excellent." Scourge said as he stood up from the command chair. "Soundwave, go get Brushguard, Scrapmetal, and Cyclonus. I shall take the generals and wait for you outside the base."


"Yes Commander." Soundwave said as he exited the room. Scourge looked around the room. "Decepticons, prepare for destruction."



*The Autobot Base*



Grimlock stood back to admire his new trophy. After the others were done with him, Grimlock had Laserbeak deactivated and mounted him on a pedastal, wings spread wide. He had then put the pedastal between Tankor's turret and Cyclonus' arm. The Dinobot leader smiled. "Me Grimlock like new trophy. Me thinks it add class."


Silverbolt, who had helped move the pedastal into Grimlock's room, shook his head and said "You are a sick, sick bot. You know that don't you?"


"So me Grimlock is told." He answered without turning his head. Suddenly, both of their comms beeped. "Autobots." The voice belonged to Optimus. "Our early warning sensors have been deactivated. Get to your battle stations and wait. The Decepticons are on their way..."

_________________

Chapter 9



The Decepticons gathered outside the main door to the Autobot base. Using the codes Soundwave had aquired, they had disabled all the sensors and security measures. Scourge punched a security code into the panel next to the door. It hissed opened without complaint. The Decepticons entered the base cautiously, fanning out. They all remained quiet, until Soundwave spoke "Scourge, I am not detecting Laserbeak. He was instructed to rendezvous with us once we had entered the base, but he has failed to do so. My only conclusion is that he has been captured."


"But if he had been captured," Starscream began. "Then that would mean they knew we were coming..." As if on cue, the main door closed and locked behind them. Starscream managed to state the obvious conclusion "It's a trap!" before the Autobots began their attack. Coming out of seemingly nowhere, the Autobots descended upon the Decepticons. Right now, the Decepticons were at a tactical disadvantage. Not only had they lost the element of surprise, but they were also stuck in one room. Scourge ordered "Decepticons! Scatter! Spread out through the base and divide their attention! Move!" the Decepticons complied, splitting off to go in several directions, with many of the Autobots following. The only ones who didn't leave the room where Primal and Scourge.


"We meet once again, Autobot." Scourge said drawing his sword. "Let's see if we can make this the last time."


Primal drew both of his swords. "You don't have to do this Scourge. We can stop this madness here if you would just lay down your weapon and surrender."


"You're right." Scourge said as he moved closer. "I don't have to do this. And believe me, I wouldn't. Except that I really, really like power and destruction. The Fallen has offered me both. So the only way you will stop me, Autobot trash, is to kill me." he pointed his sword at Primal.


Optimus looked Scourge in the eye. "My name...is Optimus Primal!" he then clashed swords with Scourge, and their fight began.


Scorponok, in scorpion\tank mode, swiftly made his way through the base with the t-rex Autobot close behind. "Why did I have to get stuck with this one?" Scorponok thought as he rooled through the hallways at his maximum speed. He had seen how violent this Autobot was. He seemed to be just a few lines of code short of being Decepticon. From the aftermath of the few battles the Autobots and Decepticons had fought thus far, Scorponok had learned this particular Autobot liked to take parts from his opponents. That was not something Scorponok wanted to find out firsthand. He turned another corner, but it was a dead end. He turned around to see the t-rex Autobot standing behind him in robots mode, flaming sword drawn. "Me Grimlock have you now!" he said.


Scorponok transformed to robot mode and pointed his stinger cannons at the Autobot. "I will rip out you spark and eat before your dying eyes Autoscum!"


"Me Grimlock not Autoscum, me king!" he said just before charging.


Silverbolt had one of the Decepticon general cornered in the firing range. The yellow-orange jet complimented Silverbolt on a job well done in traping him here. "Don't patronize me Decepticreep! Lower your weapons and stand down!"


"Ah, all business and to the point." Sunstorm said with his arm mounted laser cannons pointed at Silverbolt. "You must be an excellent commander. I prince among Autobots! Oh, how it will sadden me to destroy such fine leadership." he began to fire.


Silverbolt took cover behind a wall used for target practice, firing his gun around the corner in an attempt to supress his opponent's fire.


Brushguard had managed to avoid being followed somehow. This was insane! Slag it, he was a doctor, not a common foot soldier! In reality, he wasn't even technically a doctor, but a scientist. But apparently, he was the closest thing they had to a doctor, so he did his best to fill the position. He stumbled into a room that appeared to be the Autobot's medical bay. It was empty save for one bot laying on a table, seemingly unconcious. Brushguard walked over to the table and looked at the sleeping bot. Now this kind of fighting was his speed. He charged up the built in blaster in his chest and prepared to fire when the sleeping Autobot sat up and, with a sword he pulled from seemingly nowhere, stabbed Brushguard in the abdomen. "Never underestimate your enemy." Dinobot snarled into Brushguard's ear as he pushed the Decepticon off his sword. He got up off the bed and wiped the oil from his sword. It was only an hour ago or so that his repairs were complete and he had become fully healed. He looked at the damaged Decepticon laying at his feet. Dinobot was originally a Predicon, who were descended from Decepticons, until he realized that his code of honor would not allow him to remain Predacon. So during the Beast Wars, he switched sides to the Maximals and fought against his former bretheren. He looked up. "Now, let the battle be joined." he said as he left the medical bay.


Ironhide confronted Tankor in a storage room. Ironhide had both of his oversized arms cannons pointed at the Decepticon. "Surrender now Decepticon, if you understand the concept."


Tankor looked to the left and right. Then said "In your electronic dreams, Autobot!" He then leveled his cannon at Ironhide and fired. Ironhide managed to dodge and return fire.


Cyclonus flew through the hallways of the base. He was being chased one of the Autobots that had helped interrogate him. Unlike the big one that bit off his arm, this one could fly. "Not another dinosaur!" He turned around and, now flying backwards, began firing the numerous guns he had in helicopter mode. Swoop responded to this by launching out a plume of fire from his mouth. "Gah! It breaths fire too! You have got to be slagging kidding me!" Cyclonus turned and began flying straight in an attempt to lose the Autobot.


Soundwave ran though the Autobot base in an attempt to locate Laserbeak. He was beginning to get a faint signal. He turned a corner and ran straight into a stocky Autobot holding a large, flaming club. "Me Snarl will give you 5 second head start." he said as he brandished his club. "No!" Soundwave simply stated in his monotone computer voice, opening his arms wide and blasting the Autobot with a sudden blast of sound. The blast was stong enough to snuff out the flames on the Autobot's club and knock him over. "Soundwave: Superior. Autobot: Inferior." Soundwave said as he walked off to search for Laserbeak again. Not long after that, Ratchet came up and found Snarl unconcious. Ratchet examined the Dinobot and found no permenant damage. He extended a small prod and gave Snarl a small shock to bring him to. Snarl sat bolt upright, looked at Ratchet and asked "Which way him go?"


"I don't know what you're talking about." Ratchet said. "I came along and found you unconcious." Suddenly another Decepticon turned the corner, some sort of spider tank. Snarl grabbed his club, ignited it, and said while standing up "Him will do."


"Uh-oh." Scrapmetal said as he turned a corner and spotted two Autobots. One picked up a flaming club and began to make his way to Scrapmetal. He transformed to robot mode, and began to fire his shoulder cannon "Die Autobots!" Snarl blocked the shots with his club and began to advance. When Scrapmetal realized his shot weren't doing much of anything, he extended two large spikes over his hands and prepared for close quarter combat.


Dinobot, the individual, came across another Decepticon attempting to break into a room. "Prepare to defend yourself, Decepticon!" he called out, drawing his sword and spinning shield.


Soundwave looked at Dinobot. He had followed Laserbeaks faint signal to this room, but it was locked up tight. And now this Autobot was here to interfere. Soundwave reached behind his back and pulled out what appeared to be a black keytar. "Ratbat. Prepare Operation: Sonic Attack." he seemed to be speaking directly to the keytar. He began to press keys and blasts of sound came at Dinobot. He held up his shield to block the majority of them, but he was unable to fight in this position. Dinobot peered his head around his shield slightly, and blasted Soundwave in the shoulder with his eye lasers. This stopped the attack for a few moments, moments Dinobot used to rush Soundwave and begin to attack. "Ratbat, deploy!" Soundwave said as his keytar transformed into a robotic bat. This was literally and metaphorically a sound strategy, Dinobot thought as he was now forced to fight two foes.


Starscream found himself in the teleporter room of the Autobot base. The teleporter truely was a thing of beauty. "Why, the Decepticons would be nearly unstoppable." Starscream mumbled as the examined the computers.


"That's far enough, Decepticon." Quickmix said from the doorway. "I just finished fixing this thing, and I don't need you in here messing it up."


"You dare presume to order me?" Starscream asked. "You, and the rest of your kind will bow down to the Decepticons! You will be our slaves! You..." Starscream was cut off by Quickmix rushing him and hiting the Decepticon in the gut with his cement barrel arm. "What was that?" Quickmix said mockingly as Starscream staggered back. "I didn't quite catch that last part."


"Catch this!" Starscream yelled as he transformed his hand into a missle launcher and fired at Quickmix. Quickmix managed to jump out of the way, but the missle hit the console of the main computer that controlled the teleporter.


"WARNING! WARNING! POWER OVERLOAD!" The computer voice blared over all speakers as red lights began to flash around the base. "CRITICAL TELEPORTER FAILURE IN 10 SECONDS...9...8...7..."


"Oh slag." Quickmix said. "That doesn't sound good."


"3...2...1..." Then, a silent, bright white light began to expand from the center of the main teleporter chamber. It quickly expanded out to engulf the entire Autobot base and every Transformer inside it. Then, there was silence...

_________________

Chapter 10




Optimus Primal opened his eyes. This was the second time in as many weeks ha had woken up not knowing where he was, why he was here, or how he was alive. He sat up and looked around. "Oh yeah..." he said as his memory came back. He had been drafted into some sort of interdimensional war against the Decepticons. He looked around. He was still in the base he had been given. Scourge was gone. He stood up and walked through the base. It seemed all the Decepticons were gone. He turned a corner and ran into Ratchet. "Primal, what's going on?"


"I...I don't know." Was all Optimus could say. "Gather the others and meet up in the teleporter room."


"Copy." Ratchet said as he left to look for everyone. He went by Grimlock's room and found Dinobot, the individual. He was just coming to when Primal helped him to his feet. "What happened?"


"That's what I'm trying to figure out." Optimus told him. "Come on, we're meeting in the teleporter room to see if we can figure this out." Optimus and Dinobot made their way through the base. It was mostly intact, except for the signs of the battle. When Optimus had heard the alarm that there was a power overload, he thought that would be the end of it. Apparently he was wrong. They finally got to the teleporter room, where the other Autobots were gathered, except for one..."Where's Grimlock?" Optimus asked.


Suddenly, the Dinobot leader rushed into the room carrying something. "Look what me Grimlock got for collection!" he said holding up one of Scorponok's arm\claw. Optimus shook his head. At least everyone was now accounted for. "Are there any signs of Decepticons still in the base."


"No sir, Optimus." Silverbolt said. "We gave the place a pretty thourough sweep before coming here. They must have woken up before us, took their wounded and left."


"Well," Ironhide began. "Now that that's out of the way...What the slag happened!?"


Quickmix raised his hand. "I might be able to explain somewhat. I chased one of the Decepticons in here and started a fight. He fired a missle at me, I dodged, and that missle hit the main console, causing some sort of overload with the teleporter. What that overload did besides knock everyone out, I don't know."


"I'll give everyone a complete checkup, just to be safe." Ratchet said.


"Good." Optimus said. "Quickmix, do a damage assessment on the teleporter...again. Dinobot, Silverbolt, you two come with me outside. We need to see if there's any damage to the base's outer defenses."


"What Dinobots do?" Grimlock asked.


"Just...try not to break anything else." Optimus said as he left the room. They made their way to the main entrance, and once they opened it, they were greeted by a wall of rock and dirt. Not the kind of rock like that caused by a landslide, but a giant slab, as if they were somehow underground. Optimus stared at it, trying to make some sense out of it. "What do we do now?" this from Silverbolt.


"Let's go to the command room, see if we can make sense of it." Optimus said. But once they got there, they're questions remained unanswered. All the sensors were blacked out, as if they were no longer connected to the computers, and all the camera's were blocked by dirt. Optimus then had an idea. He commed Quickmix "Quickmix, what's the highest point in the base?"


"That would be...in the firing range." Quickmix replied. "Very high ceiling, lots of space to blow stuff up in."


"Thanks." Optimus said. "Primal out." He turned off the comm. He looked to Silverbolt and Dinobot. "To the firing range. I have a feeling that's where our Decepticons friends made their exit." And he was right. In the cieling of the firing range was a very large hole. Sunlight spilled in through it.


"What do you suppose happened?" Dinobot asked.


"I don't know, but I'm going to find out." Optimus replied. "Prime Jets, on!" His built in thrusters lifted him up in the air, closer to the hole. Once he cleared it, he stopped to look around. And what he saw made his jaw drop. He was in a somewhat open field, with nothing but grass and a small hill behind him. But that's not what shocked him. In the distance in front of him was a city. A human city. "By the Matrix...." he lowered himself back into the hole. After he landed, he was quiet. "Well," Silverbolt asked. "What did you see?


"We're....we're on Earth." Primal finally said.


"What!" Dinobot yelled. "Again!" He shook his fist in the air. "Curse you Primus and your cruel humor!"


"Somehow..."Optimus stammered. "Somehow that...blast from the teleporter must have...must have transported the whole base and everyone in it here....That means the Decepticons are now on Earth!"


"Yes, but which Earth?" Silverbolt pointed out. "Remember, that was an interdimensional transporter that blasted us here. We can be anyhwere."


Primal thought this over. "We have to go inform the others. Let them know the situation." Optimus called all the Autobots on the comm and told them to meet up in the command room. After they had gathered, he broke the news.


"Wait, you mean we're on Earth?" Ironhide asked. "THE Earth?"


"AN Earth." Optimus corrected. "We don't know what universe we're in, but I do know one thing. The Decepticons are out there. There's no telling what they might do."


"The cowards will most likely use the humans as bargaining chips." Dinobot put in. "You of course remember the valley?"


"There's no way to forget what happened there." Optimus said. "Dinobot has a point, the war just got a lot more complicated. We must not only stop the Decepticons, but also protect the Humans that live here."


"Me Grimlock no protect puny humans!" Grimlock exclamed.


"You will do as you are told, bolts for brains!" Dinobot snarled.


"Me Grimlock no take orders from raptor bot!" Grimlock said, drawing his flamesword. This was answered by Dinobot bringing out his own sword and spinning shield. They were about to go at it when Optimus yelled "ENOUGH!" Dinobot and Grimlock actually paused. "We do not have time for this petty bickering! The Decepticons are out there and regrouping as we speak. If we don't stop them, more than just the lives of Transformers will be in danger. And I'm telling you now, we are NOT going to stand around wasting energy fighting each other! And that goes double for you Grimlock!"


The Dinobot leader turned his head. "Humph, me Grimlock am going to room to hand up new trophy." he then stormed out of the command room, Scorponok piece in tow. Optimus hung his head in mild defeat. He looked back up and said "For now, everyone rest. Go to Ratchet and get your wounds repaired, and prepare yourselves for tomorrow, because tomorrow we're going Decepticon hunting..."


*The City*


Scourge drove through the human city he had found himself in. It was about an hour ago the Decepticons had blasted out of the Autobot base and realized the whole thing had somehow been transported to Earth. "Or some version of it." Scourge kept telling himself. It didn't really matter. Humans from one universe were just the same as humans from another. An annoyance. The Decepticons had to find a place to set up a temporary base and heal. The Autobots had gotten the drop on them back at their base, and the Decepticons were currently in no shape to fight. Suddenly, his comm went off. "Scourge, this is Starscream. I've found what appears to be an abandoned factory that will suit our needs for a temporary base. I'm sending you the coordinates now."


"I copy. Inform the others. Scourge out." He shut off his comm. From what he understood, Starscream might be the cause of their current location. If that was true, then Scourge would see personally that Starscream was crushed into a paperweight. Scourge made his way to the coordinates Starscream provided. Yes, this would serve as a decent temporary base. Until they could rig a communicator and contact The Fallen. Scourge entered through a door large enough to accomodate trucks, and the door closed behind him. He transformed to robot mode and surveyed their new quarters. They were cramped, but they would do. He looked at the troops he was now stuck with. He had more troops back at base, but these were the only ones he had taken on the raid of the Autobot' base, and so these were the only ones that had been transported here. Most were badly injured or unconcious. Cyclonus had scorch marks, Brushguard had a large stab wound, Scorponok was missing an arm! That one Autobot, the one that kept taking limbs, Scourge would have to deal with him one day. Aside from being defeated by the Autobots of his own universe, this was perhaps the worst day in Scourge's life.


Scourge walked around their new, temporary home. He looked around and paused when he saw something strange. A strange, small glowing...panel of sorts. It had a faint green glow, and had a large letter 'M' on it. Scourge picked it up to examine it. Cyclonus walked over. "Whatcha got there boss? Hey, that reminds me of these Mini-Con panel thingamajigs we had back in my universe. In fact," Cyclonus took a closer look. "It looks exactly like those Mini-Con panel thingamajigs we had."


"Mini-Cons?" Scourge asked. He had never heard of such a thing. He was about to ask Cyclonus what a Mini-Con was when an explosion rocked the factory. Through the hole that had just been blown in the wall came the last beings Scourge had wanted to see. Autobots. But not the Autobots he had been fighting. Instead, this was another group of Autobots, led by what looked like Optimus Prime. "Hand over the Panel Decepticons. We won't let you enslave another Mini-Con." The Optimus Prime said. Then it occured to Scourge. These were this universe's Autobots. It was then that Scourge decided, that even including the day he was defeated by his own universe's Autobots, this was by far the worst day in his life...

_________________

Chapter 11



Optimus Prime and his team of Autobots, Hot Shot, Red Alert, and Smokescreen, had detected the presence of a Mini-Con panel in this city not too long ago. They had tracked it to this seemingly abandoned factory, but upon closer inspection, they had detected several Decepticon signals inside. The Decepticons were obviously after the Mini-Con, a small Transformers that could be used to enahnce the abilities of larger Transformers, and had somehow gotten here first. Smokescreen used his Mini-Con partner to blow a hole in the side of the bulding in hopes to catch the Decepticons off guard. But when the Autobots entered, it wasn't what they where expecting. With the exception of Cyclonus, none of these Decepticons looked familiar, and most were badly damaged. The one who seemed to be in the best shape, and also appeared to be in charge, looked to be a black, evil version of Prime himself. In his hand, the evil Prime clutched the Mini-Con panel. "Hand over the Panel, Decepticons." Optimus ordered. "We won't allow you to enslave another Mini-Con."


Scourge cursed his luck. On top of their loss to the Autobots they were fighting, they had to encounter this universe's Autobots. And Scourge still had no idea what these 'Mini-Con' things they kept rambling were, but they were apparently very important to these Transformers. Even though his Decepticons outnumbered these Autobots 2-to-1, hardly any of them were in any shape to fight. If Scourge wished to survive, he saw no other option but to give these Autobots what they desired. As much as it pained him to do so, Scourge forced himself to say "We...surrender." Oh, how he despised that word! "Decepticons, lay down your weapons."


"But Scourge!" Starscream was about to protest this plan of action when Scourge snapped "That's an order!".


Optimus Prime could hardly believe his eyes. These Decepticons were...surrendering? They were! They were laying down their weapons, the ones that were still concious at least, and surrendering. Prime suspected a trick, but if this was true, the couldn't afford to pass up the opportunity. Prime stretched his hand forward. "Now, hand over the Mini-Con, and we can all leave here fuctional."


Scourge reluctantly stepped forward. Handing over the Mini-Con is not what bothered him. He didn't even know what they were. It was the whole concept of surrendering is what made him sick. The fact that he was being forced to do this, that the choice was really taken out of his hands. He was mere inches from placing the Mini-Con Panel into the Optimus Prime's hand when a second explosion rocked the factory. "Now what?" Scourge thought as dust began to settle of the opposite side of the factory. Through the hole came yet another surprise. Decepticons. Two tanks rolled in and two jets flew in through the large hole in the wall and transformed once they were inside. The larger of the two tanks spoke "That Mini-Con rightfully belongs to us, Autobots!"


"Not a chance Megatron!" The Optimus Prime said as he made a fighting stance, temporarily forgetting the Panel in Scourge's hand. So these were this universe's Decepticons, with Megatron up front. "How typical." Scourge thought. He tunred to his Decepticons. "I'm retracting my earlier surrender order. Any of you that are still strong enough to wield a weapon, do so and aid these Decepticons."


There were a few acknowledgements as Scourge's Decepticons began to fire on the Autobots.


"I knew it!" Optimus said as they were now being fired upon from two sides. "This was a trap. Autobots! We've been outflanked. Retreat!" The Autobots obered their leader, transformed into vehicle mode, and sped off. Optimus gave one last look to Megatron. "This isn't the last of this, Megatron." he said as he transformed and left. The Decepticons continued to fire on the retreating Autobots until they were out of sight.


Megatron tunred to Scourge and gave him an odd look. "You are...Decepticons?"


Scourge nodded. "We are in great need of repair."


"Where did you come from?" Megatron pressed.


"I will explain later." Scourge insisted. "Take us to your base, help us with repairs, and I will explain all. And as an added bonus," Scourge held up the Mini-Con Panel. "I will give you this Mini-Con you so obviously want."


Megatron's eyes widened. He reached for the panel "Give me that!"


Scourge palmed the panel and held it away. "No, no, no." Scourge said shaking a finger. "Repairs first, then the Mini-Con."


Megatron scowled at Scourge, and grumbled "Fine." he turned around and said "Follow us." before transforming back to tank mode and driving off.


Scourge let out a chuckle before looking at the panel. Whatever these Mini-Cons were, they certainly held great sway over the Transformers of this universe. He would have to keep that in mind. "Decepticons! Help your wounded bretheren and follow me." he said as he transformed to truck mode and followed after the other Decepticons.


Several hours later, Scourge and his forces wound up at the Decepticon's base, which happened to be on Earth's moon. The base itself appeared to be made out of the wreckage of a crashed ship. Scourge, who had very little damage to begin with, was now fully repaired, with the rest of his forces currently being tended to. Scourge, along with several of his healed soldiers, Starscream, Cyclonus, and Soundwave, stood in front of Megatron, who sat on some sort of throne. At his side, was what Scourge assumed to be a Mini-Con. It was such a tiny robot, no larger than a human. "They must be more powerful than they appear." Scourge thought.


Meagtron stood up and walked in front of Scourge and his troops. He looked to Cyclonus. "Well, Cyclonus. I guess I now know where you've been all these weeks."


"Uh, yeah, Megatron." Cyclonus began. "You see, I was out on patrol, and this giant, flame covered bot came and..."


"Silence!" Megatron snapped. "I care not for your pathetic lies. You abandoned us, and you will suffer the consequences!" Several of Megatron's soldiers came up to Cyclonus.


"I don't think so." Scourge said softly. "No matter what he was before, he is now MY soldier. And the only who punishes my soldiers is me."


"You will mind your place, you Prime look-a-like." Megatron said to Scourge. "I no longer care where you came from. Your troops are now my troops." Megatron got in Scourge's face. "Is that understood?"


Scourge looked straight into Megatron's eyes. "I understand." he said. He held out the Mini-Con panel for Megatron to take. Megatron reached for it, but before he grabbed it, Scourge had pulled out his sword. And the last thing this Megatron saw was Scourge's sword swinging towards his neck. As Megatron's head hit the floor, Scourge said "I understand that you, like most Megatrons, think much too highly of yourself."


The native Decepticons stood in shocked silence as the body of their leader fell and Scourge took a seat on Megatron's throne. "All of you are now under my command." Scourge stated to the native Decepticons. "If you are unhappy with this arrangement, then speak now and you will be allowed to join your former master in oblivion." Not a single one spoke. "Very good. Now, my new soldiers, we have some work to do. Soundwave! Show our new friends the teleporter schematics..."

_________________

Chapter 12




Optimus Primal was once again in his quarters, meditating. He thought about how complicated this war had now become, not that it was that simple to begin with. The Autobots had their work cut out for them. There was no telling where the Decepticons had fled to, but the city would be the safest bet. His thought were interrupted by a time portal opening up in front of him. Predictably, Vector Prime stepped forth and the portal closed behind him. Optimus stood and transformed to robot mode. "Thank Primus I've found you!" Vector said. "How did you end up here?"


"There was a Decepticon attack." Optimus explaned. "The teleporter was hit and damaged. There was a power surge, and somehow it transported all of us here." Optimus tilted his head. "How did you know to find us here?"


"There was a great disturbance in the time stream." Vector explained. "I felt it as I was attempting to pinpoint the location of The Fallen. Something terrible has happened. This universe's Megatron has been slain."


"What!" Optimus exclamed. "You mean there are Transformers here too?"


"Oh most certainly." Vector's tone suggested he found it a foolish question. "This is a very significant universe, and this Megatron's premature death may have damaged it's timeline permenantly. A similar event almost happened during the Beast Wars, when that Megatron scoundrel almost killed Optimus Prime."


Optimus held up a hand. "You don't have to remind me. I was there." Megatron had broken into the Ark, an ancient Autobot exploration vessel, and had nearly blown a sleeping Optimus Prime's head from his shoulders. If Prime had died, the Autobots would have most certainly lost the Great War, and the Decepticons would have ruled Cybertron. "Do you know who killed this universe's Megatron?" Optimus asked, even though he had a feeling he already knew.


"Why, it was the Decepticons you had been fighting." Vector said. "That fiend Scourge did the deed himself, and he has now taken command of the native Decepticons. I can not yet tell what he has planned, but it surely won't be good." Vector looked Optimus in the eye. "I truely hate to ask this of you, but you must stop Scourge from causing any more damage. I will be unable to assist you, for I must continue my search for The Fallen."


Optimus nodded and placed a hand on Vector's shoulder. "I understand. And you don't have to ask. I decided not long after you first recruited me that I would see this war ended as swiftly as possible. We will stop these Decepticons from doing whatever they have planned. You have my word."


Vector nodded. "Thank you, Optimus Primal. I have one last thing to say. You must contact the native Autobots here and form an alliance. It is only with their help that you will be able to stop Scourge and his Decepticons. Farewell, Optimus Primal. Until we meet again, and till all are one." Vector Prime then opened another time portal and stepped through, closing it behind him.


"Till all are one..." Optimus whispered.




*The next day*



"Everyone has been repaired and are in perfect shape Optimus." Ratchet said to the gathered Autobots. They were assembled in the firing range, which was now where the only exit from the base was. "I would have been done sooner, but Grimlock kept giving me a hard time."


"Me Grimlock did not like look of probe..." Grimlock said in his defense.


"Very good." Optimus said, ignoring Grimlock. "Now, Vector Prime has informed me that Scourge has taken control of this universe's native Decepticons. He's also instructed us to make contact with the Autobots here, and get their help in tracking down the Decepticons." he looked around at the motley group of Autobots. "Now, since going out into the city unnoticed will prove...problematic for some of us, I've asked Quickmix to construct a communicator we can use to contact the Autobots. How's the progress on that?" He asked Quickmix.


"It's done actually." Quickmix said. "All we need to do is hook it up to a power source and we're good to go."


Optimus nodded. "And how's the teleporter?"


Quickmix laughed. "That's gonna take a little longer. That missle hit it took pretty much trashed the control panel. Calculate that into all the previous damage it's taken, the only way to salvage it may be to reduce the size of the teleporter as a whole, but I make no promises."


"I understand." Optimus said. It was understandable. That teleporter had been abused ever since it was first turned on. "Power up the communcator and see what you can do with the teleporter. I'll try and make contact with the Autobots here."


"Will do Primal." Quickmix said as he left the room. Optimus then said "Everyone else, we need to start making an invintory of what we have. How many and what kind of weapons, how much energon we have, that sort of thing. Ironhide, I want you and Grimlock on the weapons. Ratchet, you and Silverbolt go check the energon. Swoop and Snarl...uh..." Optimus wasn't really sure what he could assign the other two Dinobots to. Grimlock usually told them what to do, and they stayed so quiet Optimus wasn't really sure what they were good at except for fighting.


Swoop looked around the room, then looked up and said, pointing "Me Swoop watch hole, make sure no one come in." Snarl then nodded "What him say."


Optimus nodded, satisfied. "Okay, you two will stand guard. Finally, Dinobot. You're with me. Let's go see if we can't track down some Autobots." As everyone left the room to do their assignments, Swoop and Snarl stayed in the firing range to stand guard. Both were silent for a long time, when Snarl said "Me Snarl think monkey just making everything up as he go along."


Swoop nodded his agreement and said "Me Swoop think he should remove stick from exhaust port. Him too serious all the time."


Optimus and Dinobot made their way to the command room, where Quickmix was hooking up the communicator. Quicmix looked up from his work and said "Ah, just in time. I was making the final calibrations to the communicator now." he finished turning several knobs and pushed some buttons and stepped back. "There! With that, you should be able to call all the way to this universe's Cybertron if you want."


"Thanks Quickmix." Optimus said as he gave the Autobot engineer a pat on the back. "Now see what you can do for the teleporter."


"I'm already on it." Quickmix said as he grabbed his tools and left the room. Optimus walked over to the communicator. "Now, let's see here..." he flipped a switch and began broadcasting on an open frequency. "Attention Autobots." He began. "My name is Optimus Primal, leader of a band of Autobots. We are in need of your assistance. We have tracked a group of Decepticons here, and have reason to believe that they had taken control of the native Decepticons. We must work together if we are to stop stop them. I repeat, my name is Optimus Primal, leader of..."


"Optimus, we are getting a response." Dinobot said from another station. "I'm zeroing in on the signal...I've got it! Putting it up on the main screen." The montior shot to life, showing the face of Optimus Prime, or at least this univere's native Prime. "I am Optimus Prime." he said "And I think we need to talk."


Primal nodded "Indeed we do, but not like this. I'll send you the coordinates to our base, we can talk more here." Optimus Primal sent the coordinates over the same signal he was using to communicate with Prime. "I'm sure you have many questions." Primal said "And I will be happy to explain everything to you. Just follow those coordinates, and hopefully I can clear several things up."


Optimus Prime didn't say anything for several moments. He finally said "Very well. Me and my Autobots will be arriving in several hours. I look forward to meeting you."


"And I you." Primal said as he terminated the link. Dinobot walked to Primal's side. "What do you plan on telling him?"


"The only thing I can Dinobot, the truth." Optimus said as he left the command room. "Come on, we better get outside and prepare to meet the Autobots."


"Why do I get the feeling things would be much less complicated had I just died in that valley?" Dinobot asked himself as he followed Primal.


*Outside*


Optimus and Dinobot stood in the open field, next to the hole in the ground that led into their base. Dinobot snarled his displeasure. "I feel so exposed out here in the open, just waiting."


Optimus sighed. "We don't have much of a choice. The combined forces of Scourge's Decepticons and the native Decepticons leaves us outnumbered. We need the help of these Autobots if we are to have a chance of defeating them and ending this war."


"I did not ask to be recruited." Dinobot hissed.


"None of us did, Dinobot. None of us did." Optimus said as he spotted several object approaching. "Here they come. Try not to act aggressive." Coming in the distance was a truck, a yellow car, some sort of ambulance, and an orange rescue vehicle equipped with a crane. When the Autobots arrived, they Transformed into robot mode and Optimus Prime and Optimus Primal met face to face. Primal extended a hand "I'm glad you could make it."


Prime shook the offered hand and nodded to his Autobots. "These are my troops." He said, pointing to them one by one "This is Hot Shot, Red Alert, and Smokescreen." Primal nodded to each of them. "This is Dinobot, my second in command." Dinobot let loose a barely audible snarl in reply. "Let's go inside, and I'll explain everything." The assorted Autobots dropped down the hole into the firing range, and Primal began the long explanation. "This is going to be a bit unbelieveable, but there is an interdimensional war going on right now. A Transformer known as The Fallen, one of the Original 13, began by abducting Decepticons from different realities. He was building this army on some unkown world, away from prying eyes. Another of the Original 13, Vector Prime, discovered this and began to build an army of Autobots to counter this. And that's how it was for several weeks, until during a battle in our base, a malfunction with our interdimensional teleporter transported us, the Decepticons, and our entire base here, to your universe. Now from what we understand, Scourge, the leader of the Decetpicon army, has somehow killed this universes Megatron and siezed control of the Decepticons here. We don't know what he may be planning to do, but he's been cut off from The Fallen, so contacting his master will probably be first on his list of priorities. This is why we need your help. We have a chance to end this war here and now, before any more harm is done." Primal looked Prime straight in the eyes with dead seriousness. "Please, help us end this now."


Prime let the information he was just given settle in a bit. It seemed impossible, but this Optimus Primal seemed to be telling the truth. Prime was silent a few more seconds before saying "We will help you Optimus Primal. What do you need us to do?"

_________________

Chapter 13




Scourge sat on Megatron's throne, or what used to be Megatron's throne. It belonged to Scourge now. Scourge held the mysterious Mini-Con panel in his hand, examining it. He had to admit, he starting to become intrigued by these Mini-Cons. "Cyclonus! Come here." Scourge called. Cyclonus was supervising the new Decepticons, Thrust, Demolisher, and this universe's Starscream, who were busy building a replica of the Autobot's teleporter. Cyclonus, who was relishing his new authority over his former teammates, quickly came to Scourge's side. "Yes, lord Scourge?" he asked enthusiastically.


"Tell me about these 'Mini-Cons'." Scourge said holding up the panel.


"Oh, yes sir." Cyclonus began. "I don't know too much about them myself, but I do know that if you get partnered with one, they can unlock great power within you. When you find them, they're stored in those panel thingies, and when you awaken them, they become partnered to you....but I'm not sure if they would work for you sir, seeing as you're not from here, if you know what I mean."


"I do." Scourge said unconcerned. "How do you get them out of these panels?"


"Well, that's kind of hard to tell." Cyclonus began to sound unsure. "Sometimes you just have to touch em, and they pop out. Others are a little more stubborn. Maybe if you concentrated?"


Scourge eyed the panel. He stared at it, almost as if willing it to give up it's secrets. Then, the panel began to glow, and a second later, instead of a panel, Scourge held a Mini-Con in his hand. It was a small, tan colored robot. It then transformed into a jet, and then into a gun that Scourge weighed in his hand. "Interesting." He aimed the gun at a wall and blasted a hole straight through it. He examined the gun, wich then transformed back into a tiny robot. "Very interesting." He looked back to Cyclonus "And you say this Mini-Con is now bonded to me?"


Cyclonus stood with his mouth agape. He shook his head to clear it. "Ye..yes sir, I believe so. No one else will be able to use that Mini-Con now."


Scourge nodded, pleased. "Excellent. I believe I shall name him...Run-Over." Cyclonus simply nodded, imagining how much more powerful Scourge would be with a Mini-Con, and shuddering at the thought.


*Elsewhere in the Decepticon Base*


Brushguard had tried his best to improve this sorry excuse for a medical bay when Tankor walked in. Brushguard looked up at the Decepticon General "Yes?" he asked nervously.


"I want you to continue the treatment." Tankor said in a well modulated voice.


"Continue?" Brushguard asked. When Brushguard had attached Tankor's replacement turret, the General had asked about Brushguard helping him rid himself of his duller personality. Brushguard had really no choice in the matter, seeing as how Tankor was pointing his newly attached turret directly at him at the time. So since then, Brushguard had been hard at work attempting to Vehicon programming from Tankor's mainframe. It was going successfully, with each visit removing more and more of the 'stupid' Tankor and leaving the 'smart' Tankor behind. But with the teleportation, and Brushguard leaving all his proper instruments back at the old Decepticon base on that Primus forsaken dustball, he thought the treatments would have to be put to an indefinant stop. "General, I can't continue the treatment...here." he said motioning around. "I don't have the proper equipment to..." Tankor suddenly grabbed Brushguard and pulled him up to eye level. "CONTINUE TREATMENT NOW!!!" he yelled.


Brushguard held up his hands. "Okayokayokay!" he said panicking. "Just put me down and I'll see what I can do!" Tankor uncerimoniously dropped Brushguard on the ground and laid down on one of the medical tables. Brushguard grabbed several medical instruments and walked to Tankor's head. Pressing a hidden button, a hatch on the general's head popped open and Brushguard went to work, trying to remove more of the proper programming.



*Autobot Base*



Ironhide and Grimlock had been categorizing the weapons...well, Ironhide was. Grimock was more or less playing around, attempting to try out every new weapon he came across. "Grimlock, would you put that down and please help me! We've barely catalogged half this stuff."


Grimlock, who was wielding a giant, bazooka-like weapon, replied "Me Grimlock thinks we should make sure weapons work." He then began to point it in various directions, making firing noises as he did.


"Primal told us to cataolg this stuff, not toy around with it." Ironhide said.


"Me Grimlock no like taking orders from monkey. Him too serious." Grimlock said, putting the bazooka-like weapon down.


"That, and he beat you in a fight, from what I heard." Ironhide remarked, chuckling a bit.


"Him no beat me Grimlock! Me Grimlock king!" Grimlock objected. "Besides, if gear man hadn't come along, me Grimlock would have scrapped monkey."


"Yeah, yeah. Whatever." Ironhide said, tuning out Grimlock's excuses. "Just come and help me with this." Ironhide grabbed on to a tarp that was covering something big and pulled. What was under the tarp was slightly surprising. "Well I'll be a rusty...."



*Elsewhere in the Autobot Base*


'This is the teleporter I was telling you about." Primal said as he explained things to Optimus Prime. "And, in what has become the norm, that is Quickmix attempting to fix the teleporter. How goes things, Quickmix?" Primal asked.


"I'm definitly going to have to reduce the size of this thing, Primal." Quickmix said, not looking up from his work. "I might have to turn it into one big mobile platform, and reduce it's energy output significantly, that way we don't have the whole base move with us next time there's an accident."


Primal nodded when his wrist-comm began to beep. "Primal here."


"Hey Primal." The voice was Ironhide's. "You won't believe what me and Grimlock found here in the basement. We were catalogging the weapons, when we stumpled across a ship."


"A ship?" Primal asked. "What shape is it in?"


"Aside from a little dust, practically brand new...Don't touch that!" there was a lound bang from the other side of the comm. Ironhide came back on. "Well, it was brand new until SOMEONE put a big hole in it!"


Primal heard Grimlock yell "Him did it!".


"Wait a minute." Quickmix said as he walked away from the teleporters control board. "This may work out to our advantage. I think I can build this teleporter into that ship, and fix her up at the same time. And I might be able to do it in a way that we can not only teleport seperatly, but teleport the whole ship. That way we would have a mobile base that was actually meant to be mobile."


Primal listened, interested. "Ironhide," he spoke into his comm. "Get Grimlock out of there, and clear the floor. Quickmix is going to come fix ship and add a few...modifications."


"Copy that Primal." Cam Ironhide's response. "C'mon lugnut! Help me move some of this stuff."


Before Optimus swithced off his comm, he heard Grimlock say "Me Grimlock not lugnut! Me King!" Primal turned to optimus Prime and said "Sorry for that. Some of the Autobots can be quite a handful."


"Sounds like it." Prime said.


"I've been meaning to ask you, where are your Decepticons located here." Primal asked, trying to get back on strategy.


"We're not entirely sure, but our intelligence points to the moon."


"The moon?" Primal asked. "I hate moons..."


"Why?" Prime asked.


"Lets just say that I've had a rough history with moons." That was putting it mildly. Primal had lost his first body when a false moon turned into some sort of Planet Buster, a device created by an alien species known as the Vok. The Vok had been running mysterious experiments on prehistoric Earth, and the aliens claimed that the Maximals and Predacons had contaminated the planet while fighting the Beast Wars, so they decided to ignite the energon deposites they had seeded on the planet with a device they had disguised as a large moon. Optimus had been able to stop it, but at the cost of his own life, until Rhinox had been able to retrieve his spark and transplant it into a blank protoform. "Do you know of any way to get there?"


"No, but if your mechanic there can fix that ship you just mentioned, we could just use that." Prime pointed out.


"Excellent point. Quickmix, you really need to get started on...." Primal turned around to tell Quickmix to try and hurry, but the Autobot had already left. Primal laughed. "Always busy, that one. This whole place would fall apart if it wasn't for him." He turned back to Prime. "Now, let's start planning how to surprise the Decepticons..."

_________________

Chapter 14




Scourge was outside the Decepticon moon base, overseeing the construction of the teleporter when they recieved an unexpected visitor. In a rush of heat and flames, The Fallen suddenly appeared on the surface of the moon. Despite the lack of oxygen, the flames that surrounded the ancient Transformer continued to burn. Scourge immediatly dropped to one knee and bowed his head. "My lord, you have found us." Scourge said without looking up.


"You were not difficult to locate." The Fallen said in the deep, menacing tone that was his voice. "Your killing of Megatron was like a signal flare leading me to your location."


"I am sorry for my carelessness," Scoure apologized. "But he was quickly proving himself to be a nuiscance. Killing him was my only option."


"Do not apologize for a sign of strength." The Fallen told him. "You did the right thing by establishing your superiority. But I have not come here to praise your efforts. We have been forced to deviate from our plans."


"My lord?" Scourge asked, genuinely curious.


"As soon as you complete this teleporter, you will depart on a mission." The Fallen explained. "I am sending you to retrieve a very important artifact. It is there you will also find a ship. I want you to repair, install this teleporter into that ship. Come forward."


Scourge stood and walked closer to his master. The Fallen held out a hand and touched Scourge on the forhead. Scourge immediately tensed as information shot straight into his processor from his master. The Fallen removed his hand, and Scourge understood what his master wanted. He nodded. "It will be done."


"I would expect no less from you." The Fallen said as he dissappeared in a second vortex of flames. Scourge turned to the other Decepticons. "Finish the teleporter quickly. We have much work to do."



*Autobot Base*



Ironhide and Grimlock were busy clearing the area around the ship while Quickmix moved teleporter equipment into the ship. As they moved one of the larger crates, Grimlock asked "How cement bot planning to move ship out of room?"


Ironhide nearly dropped his end of the box out of surprise. "Wow, Grimlock, you actually came up with an intelligent question." he turned his head to shout back to Quickmix "Hey, how are we supposed get that thing out of here anyway?"


"If I get this teleporter installed correctly, we can just zap it out of here." Quickmix's tone suggested the answer should have been obvious.


Ironhide looked back to Grimlock. "What he said."


"Me Grimlock no get it."


Ironhide nodded emphatically. "That figures."


Quickmix hummed to himself as he began to patch up the hole Grimlock had blown in the ship. It seemed to him that Grimlock caused more damage to the Autobots than the Decepticons at times. Then there was his habit of collecting Decepticon parts. What was that about? Quickmix, hearing something behind him, suddenly turned around and opened his cement arm to reveal the missle contained there. He pointed it at the intruder, but relaxed when he saw it was one of the native Autobots, Hot Shot, if he remembered correctly. Why were they getting free run of the base? "Don't sneak up on me like that, kid. Some of my team mates have given me cause to be paranoid."


"Sorry." Hot Shot said, putting his hands up in front of him. He then looked around curiously and asked "Is it true that you're all from different universes?"


Quickmix didn't look up from his work. "Some of us do share common universes, but more or less, yeah."


"I want to help." Hot Shot then blurted out.


This time, Quickmix did look up. "What? You mean with repairs?"


"No, I mean I want to help you fight your Decepticons." Hot Shot explained. "I can be useful! And I don't want to just sit here and only fight in this universe when there's bigger things going on! I..."


"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Quickmix interrupted. "Slow down kid. First off, you're talking to the wrong bot. Second off, are you insane! You actually want to be dragged into some cataclysmic war?"


"I just want to help." Hot Shot said in a lower tone.


Quickmix shook his head. "Look, if you're serious, you need to go talk to our respective bosses. I'm just the mechanic around here." another small explosion rocked the ship a bit. Quickmix looked out the hole he was currently repairing "Primus-slaggit, Grimlock!"


"Him did it!" Grimlock said pointing to Ironhide.


"Oh, real nice!" Ironhide shot back. "You're the one holding the slagging rocket launcher!" as the two continued to argue, Quickmix turned back to Hot Shot. "You better put some extra thought into wanting to come along. It's bots like that who are going to be your teammates."


"I think I'll live." Hot Shot said confidantly.


Quickmix sighed. "Fine, just go talk to Optimus, mine or yours, I don't care. I have to get those two out of here before they turn this entire ship into a smoldering skeleton."



*Later*



"You want to what?" Primal and Prime asked Hot Shot at the same time.


"You heard me." Hot Shot said. "I want to join Optimus Primal in the Universe Wars. I feel I can do more good with him than staying here."


"Absolutely not." Optimus Prime said. "You're needed here."


Primal nodded his agreement. "I have to agree. " Prime then held up a hand to stifle Hot Shot's protest. "But, depending on how the upcoming battle goes, I may change my mind. That's the best I can offer."


"But..." Hot Shot was about to argue.


"Dismissed." Prime and Primal said at the same time. Hot Shot huffed and stormed out of the command room. Primal looked to Prime "You would really let him join us?"


Prime took a deep breath. "He's young and headstrong, but I think he deserves the right to fight for the survival of his universe. So yes, I will let him go, regardless of the outcome of the battle."


Primal gave him a confused look "Then why...?"


"If I had told him just then, he would be so excited, he wouldn't be able to focus on the more important matters." Prime explained. "And the last thing we need is a distracted soldier."


Primal nodded. "Point taken." Primal's comm beeped. "Primal here."


"Primal! You better get this lead brained t-rex out of here before I don't have a ship to repair!" Quickmix yelled.


"Me Grimlock not lead brained! Me king!" Primal heard Grimlock yell on the other side. Primal switched channels. "Dinobot, could you go take care of Grimlock? He's slowing down Quickmix."


"Affirmative, Primal." Dinobot answered, maybe too enthusiastically. Primal switched back to Quickmix. "Dinobot's on his way to help."


"Oh, just great. Another dinosaur." Quickmix said sarcastically before switching off his comm. Primal was silent for a few seconds. "I think I may have just made a mistake...."



Dinobot walked into the basement\hangar where the ship was. Grimlock was busy fooling around as Quickmix and Ironhide attempted to minimize collateral damage. Dinobot called out "I'll take it from here. Come on, Grimlock! You've wanted to fight me ever since I arrived here. Now is your chance, unless you're...afraid." Dinobot baited.


Grimlock dropped whatever he was carrying and looked to Dinobot. "Me Grimlock not afraid! Me King!" he said before running at Dinobot. Dinobot stepped out of the doorway and lured him out into the hall, pulling his sword out as he did. Grimlock turned the corner with his flaming sword out to attack. Dinobot redirected Grimlock's slash. He couldn't block it directly, since Dinobot's sword was much smaller than Grimlock's. Dinobot also surrendered a great deal of power to his opponent, but Dinobot had more finess than Grimlock. And that's what he would have to do if he was going to prove his dominance. Dinobot dodged several more of Grimlock's powerful slashes, which began to annoy the larger Autobot.


"Raptor bot hold still so me Grimlock can slag you!" he yelled as he forced Dinobot down the hall.


"Not likely." Dinobot replied as he sidestepped again, and punctuated it by hitting Grimlock with a blast from his eye lasers. This angered Grimlock even more, and he managed to hit Dinobot with his his fist, knocking him into the wall and denting it. This scrambled Dinobot's circuits, and gave Grimlock enough time to grab Dinobot by the chest and lift him from the ground.


"Me Grimlock have you now!" he exclaimed.


"That...you have." Dinobot said as he lunged his sword into Grimlock's shoulder. Grimocok howled in pain and dropped Dinobot. Once landing on the ground, Dinobot swung his legs under Grimlock, tripping the larger bot. Grimlock landed on his back, and Dinobot pulled out his spinning shield, holding at Grimlock's throat. "Now," Dinobot said. "Who is the top Dinobot?"


Grimlock was stubbornly silent. Dinobot held the spinning shiled blades closer. "I'll ask again. Who is the top Dinobot?"


Grimlock moaned "You am top Dinobot." Dinobot nodded. "Very good." He then helped Grimlock to his feet and helped him to the medical bay. Dinobot activated his comm "Ratchet, Grimlock has had an...accident."


Ratchet sighed on the other end "I'll get the arc welder heated up...."

_________________

Chapter 15


*Meanwhile, in a secluded pocket dimension*

Six figures watched as the events of the Universe Wars unfolded. Malevolence reeked off of them into the emptimess of space as they considered the developments that unfolded before them through a one-way viewing portal.

"What does The Fallen hope to accomplish by starting this conflict?" Nemesis Prime asked his fellow Heralds of Unicron. His companions were Sideways, Ramjet, Dirge, Thunderwing, and Cyclonus. "We all know he's our master's first and favorite, so what does he hope to gain?"

"More power for himself?" Sideways offered. "Isn't that why all of us became Heralds, for the power, the glory, the..."

"The eternal servitude." Dirge put in sarcastically.

"Watch your mouth!" Cyclonus interjected. "If it wasn't for our master, all of us be doomed to oblivion."

"Oh, we're already doomed to oblivion." Ramjet said soberly. "All of us. Becoming a Herald of the Great Destroyer only delays the inevitable."

"Quiet, all of you!" Nemesis Prime said, cutting them all off. "We're getting off topic. What are we going to do about this? I for one refuse to stand by and watch The Fallen wreak this sort of havoc under our master's nose."

"What makes you think Unicron is unaware of his actions?" Thunderwing asked.

"Because if there are two things Unicron despises, it's the Autobot Matrix of Leadership, and it's his Heralds having their own agenda."

"Agreed." Said Ramjet. "The Fallen starting up this kind of conflict with another of the Thirteen shows he's clearly gone rogue. But for what reason?"

"Power." Sidways said again. "It's the only thing that makes sense."

"There's only one way to find out." Nemesis said. "We'll confront him, and if he doesn't reveal his intentions to us, we'll just take control of his precious little war and bring it to the attention of Unicron."

"And what makes you think that will work?" Thunderwing asked. "He's one of the original Thirteen. He controls and safeguards entropy and decay across the multiverse. The primal energies contained within him could destroy any one of us."

"But not the six of us." Nemesis informed them. "As long as we concentrate out efforts, we can easily hold him off. Are we agreed?" As the other Heralds nodded their agreements, Nemesis closed the view-portal and they made their plans....


*At the Autobot base*


"So Grimlock, how exactly did you get Dinobot's sword lodged into your shoulder?" Rachet asked as he welded the wound closed in the ships repair bay.

Grimlock looked away and said "Me Grimlock don't want to talk about it."

"Look, I have to make a report for the medical log, it's SOP."

"Me Grimlock said he no want to talk about it!" He yelled at the Autobot medic.

"Okay, okay! Take it easy!" Ratchet said in a calming manner as he could. "Nasty tempers must be a universal constant in Grimlocks..." he muttered as he continued to patch up Grimlock's shoulder. Dinobot, who had been watching the exchange, and who had brought Grimlock in, walked over and said "It was a...sparring accident, Ratchet. We shall be more carefull in the future."

"You better be." Ratchet warned. "Last thing we all need is you killing each other while trying to take care of the Decepticons."


*At the "Vector's Folly*


Optimus Primal stood by Quickmix and looked at the completed ship. "So she's fully operational?" he asked the Autobot engineer.

Quickmix pantomimed flippng a coin. "Who's to say? Can't really tell until we start her up and get her in the air. But the diagnostics all say she's in the green."

Primal nodded. "And everyone's aboard and ready to set off?"

"All except Rachet, Grimlock, and Dinobot. The latter two had a scuffle when leaving the ship."

"Prime." Primal said in an exasperated tone. "Just please make sure they're aboard, we've put this off long enough. It's high time we put an end to Scourge and whatever he has planned. We must end this before it escelates any further."

"No arguments from me, boss monkey." Quickmix agreed. "Lets just hope we're up to it..."

_________________

Chapter 16


*In the Void*

The Fallen hovered in place, deep in thought, in the Void, an emptiness that was left after Unicron completly devourd a select universe. The stillness and nothingness were one of the few things, one of the only things that The Fallen genuinly enjoyed. Suddenly, though, his meditations were interrupted by visitors.

"Hello Nemesis Prime." The Fallen said. He didn't even bother turning around to face the other Herald and his entourage. Not only could he sense their very presence, but things like spatial orientation meant nothing in the Void.

"No Pleasantries." Nemesis Prime said curtly. "We demand to know what you are planning with this multiversal conflict."

"You DEMAND?" The Fallen asked, almost incredulous. "What makes you think you have the right to demand anything of me? Any of you?"

"We all serve the same Master." Nemesis countered. "And we have reason to believe that he is unaware of your actions."

"Your right." The Fallen said, finally decided to face the other Heralds. "I may as well come clean, because your arrival here is actually very convenient for me. You see, for my plans to come to fruition, I need something you specifically have, Nemesis. Your Dead Matrix."

"What?" Nemesis Prime asked, genuinly surprised. He lghtly touched his chest, where he kept the Dead Matrix, the complete and total anti-thesis to the Autobot Matrix of Leadership. If opened in the presence of Primus, it would destroy the Creator.


"Yes, and you see, my little army is already set to get the other half of the equation..."

Nemesis thought about what The Fallen was saying, and fought back the shock as realization of what The Fallen may have planned dawned on him. "You've gone mad."

"Comes with the job." The Fallen shot back. "Now," he stretched out his hand "Give me the Dead Matrix, and you can be on your way."

Nemesis Prime exchanged looks with the other Heralds with him, and with a nod of his head, Cyclonus, Thunderwing, Dirge, and Sideways shot forward and restrained The Fallen.

Taken aback, The Fallen said "What is the meaning of this!? Unhand me you weaklings!" He struggled against their grip, but for the time being, he was subdued.

"I can see now you have bugs in your proscessor." Nemesis Prime said as he turned. "I know we can't hold you there for long, but it will be long enough. Long enough to derail your plans and get your pet, Scourge, out of the way. Once he is out of the way, we will finish off the rest of your little 'army'." As Nemesis Prime and Ramjet turned to leave the Void, The Fallen cried out, "When I get out of here, and I shall, I will not only slowly and painfully snuff out your sparks, all of you, but I will do the same to every single version of you across the Multiverse!"

Nemesis nodded. "If that is how it must be..." And he and Ramjet left the Void.


*At the Decepticon base on the moon*

"Hold still Tankor!" Brushguard said. "I'm almost done removing this shell program of yours, but if you don't hold still and I my hand slips, then your just a hunk of metal and I'll have alot to explain to Scourge."

Tankor grunted his agreement. Ever since he had arrived in the Decepticon army, a small part of him had urged him to seek the assitance of the medical officer Brushguard to help remove the shell program keeping his real personality at bay. His real personality being that of the Maximal Rhinox, excpet that the years under the influence of the shell program had corrupted and turned that personality evil, although Tankor\Rhinox didn't view it that way. He saw it as an awakening.

"And here we.....go!" Brushguard said as he finished the last adjustment, shutting off the shell program. To Tankor, it was like turning on the lights in a dark room after all you had was a small candle. He only had small snippets of inteligence at first, but now he was one with the Rhinox side of himself. "It worked." He said, looking down at his hands, in a voice that wasn't quite what it was a few minutes ago. He practically jumped up and shouted "It finally worked!"

"What has worked Tankor?" a new voice said from the entrance of the makeshift medbay that they had set up.

Tankor and Brushguard looked over to see Scourge standing there with his arms crossed and a look that suggested he knew exactly what was going on.

"Tankor just get repair bot to fix.."

"Don't even try that, Tankor." Scourge intterupted. "Or would you prefer Rhinox now? Did you really think I didn't know what went on in my own army, with my own generals? Don't allow your newfound intelligence to insult my own."

Tankor stood there for a moment. "Fine." He finally said. "What of it? So I decided to reawaken a part of me that should have never been shut down! What are you going to do? Punish me? Destroy me? Have me drawn and quartered and sent to that scrap-happy Autobot to finish his parts collection?"

"Nothing of the sort." Scourge said with a shake of his head. "You were a valuable part of my forces before, and now youve made yourself indispensible. I really should commend you. Now I know that you are the perfect Con for"

Tankor narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean?"

Scourge snapped his fingers and Starscream and Sunstorm came in to flank Tankor. "You see, we're nealy done with the interdimensional teleporter, and we needed someone to test it out, to make sure it works properly, and think of the moarle boost the troops will get once they hear that one their own commanding officers has decided to brave the risks of this untested teleporter to make sure it was safe for the rest of us. Your popularity will be unrivaled, if you survive, then you will just be a martyr."

Tankors eyes widened with shock. "You..you can't be serious Scourge!"

Scourge's tone hardened "Tell me Tankor, have you known me to be the joking type? No? Then come along. And please try not to put up too much of a stuggle. I would hate you to meet your fate with anything but dignity."

Tankor looked as though he considered making a run for it, but he realized he wouldn't make it very far, and he just hung his head, and allowed himself to be escorted to the teleporter. As they left the room, Scourge turned to face Brushguard, and began to walk towards him. Brushguard held up his hands, palms forward, and said "Lord Scourge, I am so sorry! I had no idea what the results of my tampering would cause! Please forgive me, I'm not even a proper medic! I'm just a botanist! A BOTANIST!" he then cringed as he was backed against the wall, waiting whatever might happen.

Scourge just loomed over him and said "I will keep that in mind later, when we discuss this in further detail. But for now, you are still valuable to us, so I will allow you to live. But if I find out about any more unauthorized procedures, I will strand you in the furthest, most isolated dimesnion I can find. Do I make myself clear?"

"Completely transparent, my lord." Brushguard said.

"Good." With a nod of his head, Scourge turned and left the medbay and headed outside the base to where the teleporter had been erected. Tankor, Starscream, Sunstorm, and several other members of the multidimesnional Decepticon forces were gathered around waiting for Scourge.

Scourge walked over to the controls next to the teleports' platform and motioned for Starscream and Sunstorm to escort Tankor onto the platform. Once he was in place, Scourge typed in the coordinates The Fallen had provided him. Then, without any fanfare, he started up the teleporter. In a flash of light, a portal appeared and Tankor dissapeared into it. After waiting a few seconds, he attempted to contact Tankor over commlink. "Tankor, report. Did you make it to the other side?"

A few seconds delay, and then a static filled response "Affirmative. The portal you sent me through is directly behind me, and I seem to have arrived at a location vaguely similar to prehistoric Earth, not dissimilar to where I participated in the Beast Wars."


"That's good, because that's exactly where you are, Tankor." Scourge said with a nod.

Another pause. "Is this how you planned to get rid of me? By stranding me here?"

"Not at all." Scourge reassured him. "But you more than any of us would have been able to identify the destination as the correct one. Now that we know everything works, step back through the portal so we can finish preperations for departure."

"As you wish...Lord Scourge." Tankor replied. A few seconds later, he stepped back through the portal and Scourge shut down the teleporter. He turned to several of the other Decepticons. "Run your final diagnostics. Make sure the mass teleport feature works. This won't do us any good if we leave it in this dimension. The Fallen has ordered us to take it with us, and that we shall."

Tankor approached Scourge and asked "Why are we going to the prehistoric Earth from my universe? There's nothing there but maybe some wreckage from our battles and a bunch of slobbering apes."

"Oh, on the contrary." Scourge said. "There is an artifact there that our master needs, and until we retrieve it, that's all you need to know."

Before Tankor could say any more of the subject, Scrapmetal, their head scout, came running to Scourge. "Lord Scourge! There's a ship approaching! It appears to be of Autobot make."

Scourge narrowed his eyes. "So, they bring the fight to us..." He turned to the Cons working on the teleporter. "Finish you work, everyone else, prepare for battle! They cannont touch this teleporter! If it is destroyed, then we have failed. And failure means our own destruction!" Scourge pulled his sword and Mini-con, Run-Over. "We must hold them off until the teleporter is complete. Now, to battle!"


*The Vector's Folly, en-route to the Decepticon camp on the moon*

Optimus Primal and Optimus Prime stood on the bridge of the Vector's Folly, surrounded by their respective Autobot forces. "Sensor scans show that they've completed their teleporter and have used it at least once, probably for a small test run." Quickmix explained. "Now, believe it or not, that's the good news. The bad news is we can't take it out in the relative safety of this ship. With the limited timespan I had to get her opperational, I wasn't able to get get her weapon systems online."

"Which means, Autobots, we're going for a ground assault." Primal said, taking over the briefing. "Grimlock, Snarl, Ironhide, along with Optimus Prime and his team will make up our ground forces. Silverbolt, Swoop, and myself will be air support. Quickmix, Dinobot, and everyone else will stay aboard and pilot the Folly. Make sure someone is on sensors. If they manage to escape with their teleporter, I want their whereabouts tracked. We cannot lose track of them."

"Optimus!" Ratchet called out from the sensor alcove.

Primal and Prime looked up at the same time and said "Yes?" Then they exchanged an embarrased glance.

"I mean, my Optimus, no, wait, slaggit, I mean Primal!" Ratchet finally clarified. "The Decepticon base is coming up. I'm reading a lot of signatures out there. They're ready for us."

Primal sighed. "Quickmix, open the docking bay. We'll be leaving from there. Okay Autobots, let's hit them fast and hard. Roll out!"

Scourge stood on the front lines, watching the Autobot ship approach. Starscream stood by him and asked "Why don't they attack?"

"That's a very good question." Scourge replied. "Why DON'T they..." as the ship approached, he saw why. "They plan on fighting us on the ground." He hefted his sword towards the advancing Autobots. "Decepticons, attack!"

Primal tried to lead the air team straight for the Decepticon teleporter, but was cut off by Sunstorm and other Decepticon air units.

On the ground, Grimlock took the initative and went straight for Scourge. They locked swords and Scourge said "You're strong, but you are nothing but a primitive simpleton!" he then raised his mini-con gun to fire into Grimlock's midsection, but before he could fire, Grimlock ignited the flames on his sword, parried and sliced through Scourge's wrist, severing his hand and causing both it and the Mini-con to fall to the ground. As Scourge fell to his knees grasping his stump,Grimlock looked down at him and said "Me Grimlock may be simply-a-ton, but me Grimlock have baaad day, and me Grimlock have been waiting to vent on first Decepticon me Grimlock see. Guess who me Grimlock saw first?" He raised his sword to deliver the final blow, but was knocked back by missle from Starscream. "My lord! It isn't safe for you anymore! I suggest you fall back to the teleport-ugh!" Starscream was cut off by a sneak attack by Snarl and his club. Scourge nodded, then grabbed his sword that he had dropped and ran to the teleporter.

Optimus Prime and his Autobots fought with the native Decepticons fiercely. As Prime locked up in a fistfight with the native Starscream, Prime asked "So, where's Megatron? Off hiding somehwere. That's very unlike him."

Starscream blocked a ounch and said "Megatron is dead. Killed by that black monster that wears your face."

Prime's eyes widened in shock. "What do you mean..." his moment of distraction opened up for Starscream to land a blow into Prime's temple, knocking him off balance, but Prime soon recovered and went back on the offensive.

Ironhide exchanged fire with Tankor, with the latter gloating "You fool! You cannot defeat me now that I have my mind has been repaired. Prepare to be destroyed!" But Tankor's gloating was cut off by two cannon blasts by Ironhide that managed to blast Tankor's shoulder cannon loose. "Slag, not again!" Tankor said retreated back to a more defensible position. Ironhide walked up to Tankor's cannon barrel, pick it up, called Grimlock over the comlink, and tossed it to him. "Hey buddy, got you another souvineer!"

Grimlock caught the barrel and examined it. "Me Grimlock already got one of these, but me Grimlock appreciate thought." Grimlock then promptly used the barrel to crack Scorponok in the head, who he had been fighting.


As Scourge reached the teleporter, one of the technitians said "My lord, the final adjustments are done. We are ready to teleport out of here at any moment.

"Finally!" Scourge said. He then activated the commlink to all his troops. "Decepticons! Fall back to teleporter! We're leaving. Native Decepticons, cover our rear. Make sure the Autobots don't follow!"

As the Decepticons began to fall back, Primal saw what was happening. "Autobots! Back to the Folly! We're following them!" Prime contacted Primal over the comm "We'll cover you Primal. Scourge is leaving the native Decepticons here to cover his retreat, and we can certainly handle them. And Primal, we're counting on you. Everyone is, whether they know it or not. Be careful."

"Understood." Primal said as boarded the Folly. "You too. Vector Prime told me this universe has been altered irrevocably. Try to keep it together. Primal out."

As soon as Scourge's troops had gathered on the teleporter pad, he switched the setting to "Mass Teleport", punched in the coordinates, and flipped the switch. In a flash, the Decepticons and the teleporter were gone.

Primal reached the bridge just in time to see the Cons dissapear. "Please tell me we got a fix on their destination."

Dinobot nodded and said gravely. "Affirmative. It would appear that they are headed to Prehistoric Earth, roughly one month after the Beast Wars ended."

Primal gave him a confused look. "Why would they...The Ark!" he said in sudden understanding. "They must be after the Ark. Can we follow them?"

Dinobot looked to the controls. "Affirmative. Coordinates already entered."

Primal nodded and looked forward. "Then let's go, back to our old stomping grounds..." The coordinates were entered, and the 'Vector's Folly' dissapeared in a flash of light...

_________________