Transformers
Robots in Disguise

112 - Final Run, part 2

by Mike Watson

	"Slapper, report!" Megatron commanded through the commlink.  At first there was no 
reply, but then Slapper's voice came through.
	"Nearly there, sir," Slapper said.  "I have the board cleaned up, it should be online 
again within a megacycle."
	Megatron sat down and smiled.  "Excellent," he said.  "Carry on then."  Megatron 
looked over at Gas Skunk and Dark Scream, who were both working on the tractor beam console.  
They were in the main control room, where the tractor beam could not previously be accessed 
due to some faulty wiring.  "And your task?" Megatron asked.
	"Nearly there, boss," Gas Skunk said, popping up from behind some equipment.  Dark 
Scream, unseen by Megatron, rolled his eyes.
	"Good, see to it that it gets done," Megatron said.
	
					* * * * * *

	"Prowl to Optimus, we're in," Prowl whispered into his commlink.
	"Okay, cutting off transmission," Optimus said.  "Be careful you two."
	"You got it, Optimus," Midnight Express said.
	"Optimus out," Optimus said.  Then there was a click and the link went out.
	"Is it safe to go in here without any outside communication?" Midnight Express asked.
	"Probably not," Prowl said.  "But we can't take the chance of being detected by 
any of Megatron's systems.  Turn the cloaking on."
	Both Prowl and Midnight Express were outside the Vertigo.  It had been decided to send 
two Autobots to the Vertigo in hopes of at least delaying Megatron firing at their base.  
However, with the scanning systems of the Vertigo up again, their Autobot energy signatures 
would be picked up in no time.  For such an occasion Sideburn made two signature cloakers.  
When turned on, whoever they were attached to would have their signature cloaked into a 
Predacon or Decepticon signature.  Actually the two were the same, so it didn't matter too 
much what you called it.
	Prowl and Midnight Express switched their cloakers on and entered an opening in the 
side of the huge starship.  Repairs had not been completed of course, so it wasn't too hard 
to get into the ship.  Getting out, that might pose a problem.
	"So where are we headed to?" Midnight Express asked.
	"The power core," Prowl said.  "We're gonna detonate some explosives in there."
	"Ah, the ol' bomb and run," Midnight Express said.
	"Not quite," Prowl said.  "It won't be on a timer.  I have the detonater, so we'll 
plant it, get out and then blow it.  Much safer that way."
	"Kinda makes you wonder why no one thought of it before," Midnight Express said.
	"Shh," Prowl said.  He had heard something, which was odd since the reports they 
had gotten about the Vertigo said no one had ever been in this part of the ship.
	Midnight Express, a nervous look on his face, drew his weapon as quietly as he 
could.  "What did you hear?" he whispered.
	"Footsteps," Prowl said quietly, without looking back at Midnight Express.  "He's 
over there," Prowl whispered, pointing to one of the many pillars in the dark room they were 
in.  "You go around that way, I'll go that way," he said quietly.  Midnight Express walked 
to the right, Prowl to the left, flanking the pillar.
	Just then Midnight Express was ambushed from behind.  He was pushed to the ground, 
falling on his stomach.  He spun around in time to see Sky Byte, who cracked him across the 
face with his gun.
	"Die, Autobot!" Sky Byte yelled.  Prowl spun around in time to see the whole thing, 
but he was pounced by Bruticus in beast mode, who had been behind the pillar.
	"Oh, look who's back," Prowl said.  He pointed his gun at Bruticus' stomach and fired.  
The blast knocked Bruticus back off Prowl, though he didn't appear to be overly injured.  
Prowl jumped to his feet, recharging his gun at the same time.
	"Bruticus, terrorize!" Bruticus yelled.  He transformed and lunged at Prowl, who had 
his gun pushed up, causing him to shoot the ceiling.  "You will pay for that, Autobot," the 
Predacon snarled.  Prowl and Bruticus grappled, grabbing each others arms, neither able to 
overpower the other.
	Midnight Express, meanwhile, was having a fair amount of trouble with Sky Byte.  He 
had managed to get away from the Predacon lieutenant, but he had lost his gun and Sky Byte 
has taken up simply taunting him by kicking him over and over rather than just shooting him 
and getting it over with.
	"Come on, Autobot scum!" Sky Byte yelled.  "Get up and fight!"  He kicked Midnight 
Express again, who had been on his hands and knees.  This time Midnight Express fell to his 
stomach.
	Midnight Express felt the foot of Sky Byte on his back.  He knew the Predacon had his 
gun pointed at his head.
	"I at least thought you'd be more of a challenge," Sky Byte snarled.  "Ah well."
	Just then he was knocked over by something rather heavy.  Midnight Express quickly 
rolled over to see Prowl, damaged but functioning.  He had managed to overpower Bruticus and 
actually throw him at Sky Byte.
	"Come on, let's get the Pit out of here," Prowl said.  He transformed to vehicle mode.  
"Get on," he instructed.  Midnight Express, who was considerably larger than Prowl, did so with 
little argument, though he was sure Prowl would regret his command later.  The sped off quickly 
before Sky Byte and Bruticus had a chance to get their bearings back.

					* * * * * *
					
	"The tractor beam is complete, Megs," Gas Skunk said.
	Megatron looked over at Gas Skunk, one of his eyebrow's raised.  "What was that?" he 
asked, though Gas Skunk knew very well he had heard the first time.
	"Um, the tractor beam is finished, sir," Gas Skunk corrected himself.  He sheepishly 
took a step backwards.
	"That's what I thought," Megatron said.  He stood up and walked over the the finished 
controls.  "What is the status?"
	"Well," Dark Scream said, closing a panel on the computer and standing up.  "Not only 
were we able to route the controls into here, but we fixed the problem where it just knocked 
the pods out of orbit."
	"Really?" Megatron said, bored.
	Dark Scream narrowed his eyes a bit.  "Yes, we upped the power a little and changed 
some frequency settings.  It should actually pull them into the Vertigo now."
	"Should?" Megatron said.
	"Well, nothing is a hundred percent, we need to test it first, of course," Dark Scream 
said, knowing what was coming next.
	"I don't like percentages," Megatron said.  "It had better work the first time."
	"Why not test it out now then," Dark Scream said.
	"Very well," Megatron said.  "Do it."
	Dark Scream looked at Megatron, both had fairly angered expressions on their faces.  
Finally he turned towards the console and pushed a few buttons.
	High above the atmosphere of the Earth four pods were caught in the beam and slowly 
began to descend into the Earth.
	Megatron, meanwhile, looked at the radar readings of the pods.  "Why are they moving 
so slow?" he demanded.
	"That was the major problem before," Dark Scream said.  "It was trying to pull them 
in too fast.  This time they won't get to the planet for a few megacycles, but they will 
end up here, not in a random location."
	"Ludicrous!" Megatron shouted.  "We could have them in our grasp quicker if we just 
knocked them out of orbit and went to the pods ourselves!"
	"Yes, but now there's no chance of to Autobots getting the pods," Dark Scream objected.
	"Ha!" Megatron said.  "You know little about the Autobots then."  He started to walk 
away.  "Congratulations, you solved nothing," Megatron said over his shoulder.  "Inform me when 
the pods arrive."  With that he walked out of the control room.
	Dark Scream just glared at Megatron as he left.  He'd have burned a hole in the back 
of the Predacon's head if it was possible.

					* * * * * *
					
	"Okay, this isn't working," Sideburn said, quite annoyed.  For the last few megacycles 
he'd been attempting to up the shield power, but it seemed futile.
	"Better give up," Rail Spike said.  "We don't want Sentinel to fry."
	Sideburn looked up at the train-bot.  "Spiker, I know, but leaving it alone isn't 
going to help us at all.  I can at least try, right?"
	"I can't argue with that," Rail Spike said.  "But a little protection is better than 
none at all."
	"Yeah great," Sideburn said sarcastically.  "So now Megs can smack us around and then 
blow us to slag while we think the shields are going to power up."
	"I know," Rail Spike said.
	X-Brawn walked in.  "Any reports from Prowl or Express?" he asked.
	"None yet," Sideburn said, glancing at the comm-link panel.  He went back to working 
on Sentinel.
	"I hope they're okay," X-Brawn said.
	"They'll be fine," Rail Spike said with a small smile.  Both he and X-Brawn weren't 
sure if they believed it though.

					* * * * * *
					
	"Slag, where are we supposed to go now?!" Prowl yelled.  They had been driving around 
the Vertigo for a bit too long for their tastes.  They didn't have proper schematics of the 
ship and a lot of hallways had collapsed, and finding detours wasn't always easy.
	"Try that way," Midnight Express said, pointing to another corridor.  It seemed like 
the entire ship was made of nothing but corridors.
	"This whole place is nothing but hallways!" Prowl said, mirroring Midnight Express' 
thought.  "Wait, I think we found it!" he suddenly yelled.  He came to a sudden stop, causing 
Midnight Express to fall forwards.
	"Ow!  Dude!" Midnight Express yelled.
	"Sorry," Prowl said.  "Maximize!" he said, transforming.  "Look, Express," Prowl said, 
pointing down the end of the hallway.  It was the core.
	"Excellent!" Midnight Express yelled.  They both ran towards the core.  However, Prowl 
was shot at from within it.  He fell over.  Midnight Express ducked as more shots flew down the 
corridor.
	"Someone's shooting at us!" Midnight Express yelled.
	Prowl looked up at Midnight Express, fairly annoyed.  "No slag?!"  he yelled.
	"Sorry," Midnight Express said.  He went to draw his weapon, but it was gone.  "Slag!" 
he yelled.  "I never picked it up from before!"
	Prowl grabbed one of his guns and pushed it into Midnight Express.  "Use mine!"  They 
both fired a few shots at the unseen sniper, and the incoming shots stopped.
	"Did we get him?" Midnight Express asked.
	"I don't know," Prowl said.  He tried to stand up, but he had been shot in the leg.  
He fell back down.  "You go, I'll try and cover you."  Midnight Express nodded and slowly walked 
towards the core, his back to the wall.
	He was nearly to the core and still nothing.  He looked back at Prowl, who had propped 
himself up against the opposite wall.  "I don't see anything!" he yelled.
	"Be careful!" Prowl yelled back.
	Midnight Express looked back at Prowl for a short second then walked into the dark 
core room.  The only light in the room came from the large column in the center, which was the 
core.  It was the biggest room in the Vertigo, covering nearly ten floors in height and four 
floors worth of width.  Midnight Express looked up at the ceiling, which he was barely able to 
make out.  Suddenly a laser blast went over his shoulder, hitting the floor in front of him.  
	He quickly spun around and jumped to the ground, looking for the source of the firepower.  
It had obviously come from this direction, but he couldn't seen anything in the outside of the 
room.
	"Who's there!?" he yelled, though he knew he would get no response.  He fired a shot, 
but it only hit the wall.  There was a clink behind him.  He rolled over and sat up, pointing 
his gun.  Nothing.  He was breathing fairly heavy at this point.  Of course, breathing was 
an unnecessary thing for Transformers, but over time the motions of it had been adapted for 
reasons no one was too sure of.  It probably had something to do with the beast modes of the 
Maximals, and it had been retained by the Autobots.
	Then there was pain in the back of his head.  Midnight Express fell forward, dazed.
	"Why does that never work for me?!" Slapper yelled from behind the flailing Midnight 
Express.  He pelted the Autobot again, this time in the back, with his weapon.  This time his 
opponent fell to the ground, limp.  "Well, scratch one Autobot," Slapper said.  He clicked 
his comm-link.  "Slapper to Megatron."
	"Speak, lizard," Megatron said.
	Slapper didn't bother to correct him.  "The weapons are-AUGGG!"  Slapper fell over, 
smoldering.
	"Should have taken out the other Autobot," Prowl said from behind Slapper.
	
					* * * * * *
					
	"The weapons are WHAT?!" Megatron yelled, enraged.  He looked over at the battered 
Sky Byte.  "Find those Autobots and destroy them!" he yelled.  "And find Slapper to!"
	"Yes, sir!" Sky Byte said, saluting Megatron, though it caused him some pain.  He 
transformed to his flight mode and flew down the corridor.
	"Sniveling fool," Megatron muttered to himself.  He opened the door to the room he 
was about the enter.  The scanner room, as it was called.  "Computer!" he barked.  "Get me 
visual of the Autobot base!"
	"Acknowledged," the computer said.  After a few seconds a picture of the Autobot base 
came up on the screen.  Megatron grinned.  Soon, very soon, it would be rubble.  Then this 
wretched planet would be his to purge of energon and he would be able to return to Cybertron 
and crush the remaining Autobots.  Soon.

CONTINUED...