Transformers - Robots in Disguise 205 - Alternating Currents, part 1 by Mike Watson Scourge walked back to his quarters. He had just finished up eight mega-cycles in the CR chamber. The chamber had to reconstruct his chest plate, as the little Autobot had ripped it off. Scourge remembered it quite vividly, the large, powerful beam coming towards him. It had knocked him back a good distance, though a few clicks later he was in stasis. Not the highlight of his career so far. There had to be some way to duplicate that sort of power. He did not take kindly to being thrashed, especially by someone so small. He would get his payback for that. He just needed to figure out a way to do so. The doors to his quarters slid shut behind him. Something was wrong. "Lights," he said. The room flooded with light. The quarters of each Decepticon or Predacon on the Vertigo were fairly small, with enough room for a storage closet and a bench the length of the wall. There was a small charging outlet above the bench, making it an optimal spot to go offline and recharge. There was also enough room in the quarters for a desk, should it be desired. Scourge didn't have one, of course, as he had no need for one. Scourge looked around the room. He walked over to the storage closet and slid it open. A few spare copies of his weapons were in there, but nothing more. They looked different though. Somehow. Had they been moved perhaps? He couldn't be bothered with such things now, though. He closed the door and walked over to the bench. He carefully pulled out one of the wall panels located a few feet above the bench. It was a small hidden compartment he'd made for himself when he first came aboard the Vertigo. Just a safe place to hide anything he didn't want Megatron to find, seeing as how their fearless leader was quite good at searching the quarters randomly. From the compartment, Scourge pulled the golden disc. This would tell him a way. It had to. * * * * * * Hightower glared at Prowl, standing opposite him. "Well?" Prowl said, sounding impatient. Hightower quickly drew his smaller gun, diving towards the ground at the same time. He fired off three shots, but none of them connected. Prowl quickly ran towards Hightower, one of his guns aimed at him. He was about to fire when the crane of Hightower swung out and knocked the gun out of Prowl's hand. Hightower stood up quickly, the crane transformed to a long gun, and he pointed it at Prowl's head. "I win," Hightower said. Prowl raised his hands, muttering to himself. Hightower let down his guard for a second, about to gloat, when Prowl's arms came down hard on Hightower's gun. The forced knocked the gun out of his hands, and Hightower off balance. Before Hightower knew what was happening, Prowl had knocked him on his stomach, pinned his hands together and aimed his remaining gun at the back of his head. "No," Prowl said. "I win." "Excellent work you two," Optimus said, clapping. "With more training and practice, we'll be able to come out of surprise attacks with better results." Hightower shrugged his way out of Prowl's hold. "Great," he said. "Problem?" Optimus asked. "More of a 'Prowlblem'," Heavy Load chuckled to himself. "Shut up," Hightower snapped. "Hightower, we're not expecting you to win every time, and you did quite the excellent job on Prowl," Optimus said. "But you need to realize your mistake." "I lost," Hightower said quietly. "No," Optimus said. "You got cocky. You let down your guard, and Prowl took advantage of it. See?" "Well, what do you want?" Hightower said, transforming. "I'm a Decepticon, we like to gloat," he said as he rolled away from the group. "I really wish he wouldn't say stuff like that," Prowl said. "It makes me nervous." "He'll come around," Optimus said quietly. "I hope." * * * * * * "Autobots!" Hightower muttered to himself. Noble. Annoying is what they were. Always trying to right what they thought was wrong. Still, it probably was better than being a Decepticon, but it's not like he had much of a choice in the matter. "Maximize," he muttered. Hightower looked at the sky. It was getting dark. Dusk. He probably should be getting back to base, but it's not like there was anything worthwhile there. Plus they kept moving the thing because the permanent one wasn't finished yet. The great Autobots, homeless. A shape whizzed over him. Hightower squinted at it. It was a space shuttle. Movor, eh? Well, maybe he'd be able to try out his 'non-gloating' thing after all. He ran in the direction the Decepticon had gone. A few minutes later he reached a small clearing. More than just Movor was there. Armorhide and Mega-Octane were present as well, and Scourge's trailer. Very odd for him to be without it. Hightower crouched behind some trees, out of view of the Decepticons. "Is this all of it?" Mega-Octane asked. "Not all, but what he requested," Movor said, opening up his rear hatch to expose a good deal of energon cubes. "Dump it with the rest," Mega-Octane said. Movor dumped it out behind Scourge's trailer. Just then Hightower heard a truck from behind him. He turned his head to see Scourge approaching. Scourge drove up to the three other Decepticons and transformed. "Are we ready?" he asked. "Yeah," Armorhide said. "But what exactly are we here for? And why did you need the energon?" "Allow me to show you," Scourge said. He pulled out what looked like a small data disc, only it was shiny and gold. Strange. It was really small in fact, the size a Maximal or Predacon would require before the war had caused need to revert back to the original larger bodies of Autobot and Decepticon. Scourge loaded the disc into his reader and pushed a few buttons. A holograph was projected. It was some sort of movie file, shot from a first person perspective. Probably a memory file. Hightower couldn't hear it, but he could see it fairly well. A red Predacon who appeared to be overflowing with energy was firing shots at the viewer. Powerful shots. One shot caused viewer to fall over, and then down a mountain. His body parts scattered around him. Then the screen went blank. "What was that?" Armorhide asked, nearly in shock. "That was a memory from the second Megatron during the Beast Wars," Scourge said. "The Predacon you saw was called 'Terrorsaur'. He apparently found a way to supercharge his systems using raw energon, allowing his to have short periods of extreme power, which allowed him to preform the act you just saw." "And you want to duplicate that?" Movor asked. "You know what that Autobot did to me," Scourge said. "Well now I've found a way to get my revenge. And in the process we can get rid of the rest of the Autobots and Megatron as well." "Oh, oh! Can we kill the other Predacons too!" Armorhide said, sounding excited. "Fine," Scourge said, annoyed. "But not right yet. We first need to put the plan into motion." "We don't have raw energon, though," Mega-Octane said, looking at the pile of energon cubes. "No," Scourge said. "But we have the means to revert these cubes back into raw energon." "How?" Mega-Octane asked. Scourge walked over to his trailer and from inside it pulled out four weapons. "I had Dark Scream construct these," he said. "Not every Predacon is useless." "What do they do?" Armorhide asked, examining the one Scourge handed him. "Well, as you know, raw energon is converted to stable energon cubes by extreme heat," Scourge explained. "The heat realigns the energon on a molecular level. Heating it up again causes a second realignment, thus converting it back into raw energon. Really an amazing substance." "So we just aim these thingies at it and fire?" Armorhide asked, pointing his gun at the energon. "Yes, but only in short bursts," Scourge said quickly, grabbing the gun from Armorhide. "Cubes have less tolerance for heat than raw energon does." "Gottcha," Movor said, taking a gun from Scourge. The four of them then quickly spread out the energon cubes and fired the weapons at them. A stream of flame came out of the gun, heating the energon. After a few cycles, the energon cubes were converted back into raw energon crystals. "Now the fun starts," Scourge said. "Load them into my trailer." The four of them grabbed as much as the energon as they could and put it in the top of Scourge's trailer. However, after a few seconds of that the four began to overload with energon build up. "What's...happening?" Mega-Octane said, struggling to move. "Energon build up," Scourge said. "Revert to vehicle mode, that'll clear it up." The four of them took Scourge's advice and the build up ceased. "How did you know?" Movor asked, hovering above the other three. "The golden disc tells a lot," Scourge said. "Raw energon causes build up, and reverting to vehicle mode protects from that. It goes back to the days of Maximal and Predacon. Now follow me, we have work to do." With that he drove off, the other three following him. Hightower watched them leave. It was apparent he would need to follow them, though he wasn't sure what good that would do. He would need some Autobots to back him up, the only problem was he wasn't overly fond of any of them. But still, whatever Scourge was planning would not end good for the Autobots, including himself, if it wasn't stopped. Hightower rolled his eyes and clicked his communicator. "Hightower to X-Brawn," he said. After a few seconds of delay X-Brawn's reply came. "Uh, yeah, Hightower?" "Can you meet me at my position?" Hightower said impatiently. "Uh, everything okay?" X-Brawn asked. "Yes, just get over here, and quick," Hightower snapped. "Hightower out." Hightower wasn't overly fond of X-Brawn, but he seemed to be the one that kept to himself most. He was nice enough and all that garbage, but what was really what caused Hightower to contact him was just the fact that he'd had the least amount of interaction with him, so there was at least some hope he wasn't an obnoxious jerk like the rest of the Autobots. One could only hope. * * * * * * "Where is Scourge?" Megatron demanded. Dark Scream looked up from his console. "Why would I know?" he said quietly. "He has not reported in for the last two mega-cycles and he hasn't been in his quarters," Megatron said, sitting in his command chair. "What is that Decepticon up to?" "Didn't you already check him out?" Dark Scream asked, tapping a few numbers on the keypad. "Yes," Megatron said. "That little 'capture the Autobot' ploy was perfect. It gave me time to search his quarters, though I found nothing." "Trusting as always," Dark Scream said, more to himself, though it was loud enough for Megatron to hear. "Shut up fool," Megatron said, though his threat was obviously empty. "I have no time for your slag, I have other things on my mind." "Sorry, sir," Dark Scream bit the bullet. Megatron shook his head, and spun his chair around to a security panel. The inside of Scourge's quarters were on the screen. Just his empty quarters. "Computer, when was Scourge last in his quarters?" Megatron asked. "Computing," the computer replied. "Two point six mega-cycles ago." "Play tape of security camera delta from two point six mega-cycles ago then," Megatron instructed. The computer did so and on screen Scourge was seen walking into his quarters. He looked around for a second, then walked over to his storage closet. After inspecting the inside of it for a bit he walked over to the wall and appeared to move something, though his body obstructed what he was doing. Charging probably. Megatron switched off the feed. "Useless," he muttered to himself. * * * * * * "We came as soon as we could!" X-Brawn said, driving up to Hightower, who had been waiting a few cycles. "We?" Hightower asked, turning towards X-Brawn. Indeed, behind X-Brawn were Prowl and Sideburn. "I didn't ask for them," Hightower said. "Well, it sounded urgent," X-Brawn said, transforming. "So I recruited these two." Hightower sighed. It made no difference any more apparently. "Fine, follow me, I'll explain on the way." * * * * * * "How do you know where they went?" Sideburn asked. "They're carrying raw energon," Hightower said curtly. "Easily traceable energon trail." "That's right," Sideburn muttered, slightly annoyed he hadn't thought of it himself. The four of them were following Hightower, headed in the direction of Scourge and company. Currently they were speeding down a dirt road of sorts in an open plain going towards a mountain range. "Any idea why they're going this way?" Prowl asked. "Nope," Hightower said. "So can we take them out?" X-Brawn asked. "Do we have a choice?" Hightower responded. He tired of this useless banter. "There they are!" Sideburn, who had driven ahead of the other three, yelled back. The four skidded to a halt. In front of them on a ledge of the mountain, Scourge and the other three had set up two cylinders. Sticking out from each one was a small handle that was about the same height as Scourge's shoulder. The cylinders were far enough so that he could reach each handle if he outstretched his arms, as he was currently doing. "What in Primus is he doing?" Prowl asked, almost bewildered. "Charging," Hightower said. "We have to stop him! Maximize!" he yelled. The other three did the same and all four of them ran towards the mountain. * * * * * * "Turn it on," Scourge said, looking at Armorhide. Armorhide nodded and knelt down to enter a few commands into the keypad that was on the side of one of the cylinders. "Autobots approach!" Movor yelled, pointing at the four Autobots moving in quickly on the mountain. "I see them," Scourge said. "They don't pose a problem." "It's ready to go," Armorhide said. "Do it," Scourge said darkly. Armorhide nodded again and flipped a switch. A surge ran through the cylinder, then through Scourge's body and to the other cylinder. Scourge tensed up as the energy flowed through him. The pain was great, and after a few seconds he was pushed backwards and fell on his back. Armorhide flipped the switch off. "Is he okay?" Mega-Octane asked, looking down at Scourge, who was motionless on the ground. "I-I don't know," Armorhide said. As if to answer, Scourge suddenly snapped awake and stood up. He felt powerful. There was no other way to describe it. "I'm okay," he said, narrowing his eyes at the approaching Autobots. He reached for his gun, and aimed it at one of the approaching Autobots. "But they aren't," he said, pulling the trigger. The gun let out a massive blast of energy which Hightower tried to jump out of the way of. However, it hit him in the arm, blasting it clean off his body. He was flung, spinning, a good twenty yards from his original position, and the world around him went black. TO BE CONTINUED...