Arc Eleven. Chapter Three-Hundred Thirteen. A Giant Ice Hole

As she stepped off Fury's jet, Liv huffed as Peter hugged her,

"I am not amused Peter, It has been a very long time since I have had any kind of accident requiring my underwear to be changed, and I do not appreciate a joke made about my age."

Peter just smiled and nodded, "Fine. If you dont squeal like a little girl, then I'll be at your mercy for a day. Anything you want," and Liv raised an eyebrow, "but, if you do," Peter leaned forwards and whispered in her ear.

She crossed her arms, "As if you need to bet for that. You only have to ask, but of course." Peter patted her hand,

"Come on then." He waved at Nat who was busy ordering soldiers to unload the box containing the arc reactor parts,

Not ignoring you, this is important, sorry but she waved him off and continued to work.

Liv stood, opened mouthed staring at the half-collapsed robot. "You ass," she shouted and unhooked the reactor from her own harness and watched in amazement as a second interface wrapped itself around it. "You win." and as she lightly touched the robot, it made a strange mechanical grinding noise.

She is here to hook up a much larger power source, she's a friend. Peter neglected to mention she might get a little too friendly as if anyone loved robots more than he did, it was Liv. An idea struck him, "Liv, take this." and the Mind Stone popped out his mouth, "You can talk to her."

Liv raised an eyebrow, "her? Oh this one I will definitely not complain about," and she took it while Peter closed his hand around hers,

No, it's not good, they were using another stone. These aren't cars. And Liv looked around with an excited grin but Peter solemnly shook his head, no Liv, and she frowned and looked at the singular robot,

You mean? and he nodded. Of everything here, this one was the only one with the strange orange ball in its chest. The rest were all empty shells and Liv bit back a swell of grief and anger in her chest,

I used the stone, they are under orders, I-

But Liv raised a hand, "Stopping mass murder is allowed,"

As she swallowed the stone she began to bark orders, while Peter held onto the Soul Stone, allowing the strange sight to cover his own. It was strange looking at Liv, he could see the energy flowing through her, but Octave was strangely dark, as if Liv was covered in a void. The symbiotes don't have souls? He wondered, but he put it down to inexperience using the stone rather than a lack of a soul.

With Nat helping and giving the robot a look the larger Arcstar reactor was soon set up and with the two smaller reactors returned the creature was hooked up, As they watched her dull silver colour filled with lines of pure blue energy and her paint brighten into a light red colour, with salmon pink edges. She nodded and Liv placed a hand on her chassis.

"Upload accepted. I am Arcee. Am I the only Cybertronian on Earth, or do I have comrades?"

Peter could only look at her guiltily. "I'm sorry. You are the only one."

She looked serious for a moment and then nodded. "It is fine. They have returned to the All-Spark, to be reborn."

Peter frowned, "All-spark?"

Arcee nodded, "Cybertronians are immortal. We contain a singular spark but can return to the all-spark to be reborn. Death is not our end." and Peter's shoulders slumped in relief.

Arcee looked around her and her brows furrowed, "I see. Is this to be my fate as well?" and it was Peter's turn to frown.

"I don't understand?"

"You have taken apart our bodies. I can see where at least twenty-five per cent of each Cybertronian has been removed. Am I to be cannibalised as well?"

Peter noticed that a part of Arcee's arm shifted slightly, and there was a build-up of energy.

Shaking his head "No, we didn't do this. We came to find out what was happening. This was wrong. This was a mistake." and the build-up stopped.

Arcee stood and stretched, "Not all who died were innocent though" and she pointed to her chest plate, "Autobot."

Peter noticed the small red symbol on her armour. It was a little face, made up of red blocks.

Arcee pointed at one of the vehicles next to her, it was a black and white police car with 'to protest and sever' written on it in some malicious parody. The badge however was a similar face, made up of purple jagged blocks and looked more insidious. "Decepticon" and Arcee stepped in front of it.

As he had guessed a bright energy blade sprouted from her forearm and she stabbed it downwards through the hood of the car and into the floor below. "Decepticons are not allowed to live. They are conquerors and murderers. You must make sure they are dead."

Peter moved back but raised his hands, "they are. You are the only one who is still alive, the rest are dead." but Arcee shook her head,

"Cybertronians are immortal. Even if the body rusts, the spark can still return. Only by destroying the spark chamber can you be sure."

Peter frowned, "are all your people like that?" and Arcee nodded, "then we might have a problem." Ice Man was in the facility, and if what Captain Lennox said was true, there was a good possibility that it was still alive.

As Arcee lay back, letting Liv and Natasha hook up the much larger reactor to her chest, Lennox took Peter into a storage facility almost a mile away from the main complex.

"We keep it isolated. When Trask removed one of its fingers we got a spike of energy, and we didn't want to repeat the last accident."

As Peter walked into the facility a huge robot, almost 20 meters tall, was encased in ice. Parts of it were smashed and badly dented but it was in remarkable condition. As he allowed the Soul Stone to scan the robot he saw the thin lines of energy throughout the body, yeah, reaction, it was in pain as you cut its finger off, no wonder the Sentinels were pissed, He thought to himself. The whole robot was covered in what looked like several meters of ice, barring the end of one arm, where a finger was missing, and a leg on the other side, where he saw chipped paint and scratches from where they had taken samples.

"This is Ice Man?" Peter asked,

Lennox nodded, "Taken from the arctic. Dating puts it at over a million years old, totally dead."

"Then why keep it in ice?"

Lennox paled. One of Peter's orders to give him full access must have pushed, "We figure while it isn't alive it still gives off a remarkable amount of energy. Without the ice we had issues. The finger we removed seemingly moved on its own, and killed several workers before it stopped."

Yeah, it didn't stop, it waited. Ice Man is still alive,

Liv? And Peter cursed, without the stone he had no idea if Liv would hear him at this distance,

I can hear you, I have the stone, remember. It is amazing though, I see why you like it so much.

Peter laughed. Yeah, restraint though, remember? and Liv laughed back

Yes yes, I know, so, what can I help with?

Ice Man is still alive. Can you ask Arcee if she knows any Cybertronians who crashed here a million years ago?

There was a brief pause, Arcee asks if there is a visible icon on its chest. If it is purple, then but Peter interrupted her,

I know, Decepticon, but no, the ice is too thick, and the upper body and head are completely covered. Only one arm and a leg are exposed.

Then Arcee says unless she sees him then no, they all crashed here at the same time, to escape a civil war and find their ancient artefact,

Yeah, don't tell her about the Soul Stone. I figure it was theirs, and right now I'm hesitant to give it back, considering what it can do.

Peter ran a hand over his face. Ice Man was much larger than Arcee, and if he was still alive as well they could be unleashing a disaster on the Earth. The Sentinels were angry, and if it was because of him, then a fully functional angry transforming robot could be difficult to deal with.

"Captain, what protocols are in place if he ever woke up?"

Lennox pointed and Peter saw two machine-gun emplacements, and soldiers sitting in bunkers with larger cannons. "We have the latest pulse rifles and with Starktech rounds, guaranteed to disintegrate the armour around the Ice Man."

He pointed up and several large cannons that hissed with escaping gas were pointed at the giant. "Liquid nitrogen guns. The stress temperature of the machine is low enough that those will freeze it solid if it ever moved, and," he pointed directly above the robot. "We call it the Sword of Damocles. An EMP. Sure, it'll knock out every system in the building, but not the guns."

Peter took a breath and let it out slowly, if the Sentinels had transformation abilities, and could adapt to the energy powers of Augments then what was keeping Ice Man here? Millions of years to adapt to a bit of ice seemed unreasonable, and as the energy swirled around its frame he saw no reason for it to even be standing still. Even Arcee had a fraction of the energy he saw here, and she was almost dead. Just what did it want?

"Any way I can get closer?" Peter figured it might not have this 'spark' Arcee had mentioned, or maybe it was in some kind of stasis mode, waiting for something.

"Sure, we have scissor lifts to monitor ice thickness. Plus, we have access to the head, it's round that back though."

Peter paused, "Wait, you have access to the head? Any symbols, maybe a purple one or a red one, kinda looks like a face." but Lennox shook his head,

"Nothing like that, although we did notice the markings on the vehicles. Identification?"

Peter nodded, "You could say that." As Lennox led him to a lift, he climbed aboard and the pair were taken up. Peter could see the cloudy ice covering its body had melted and refrozen in several places and as he brushed away a layer of frost from the machine's chest area he still had no idea if it was a Decepticon or not, maybe just ask, it's not like it's going anywhere.

"Can I see the open part of the head? Check that it's actually dead," and Lennox shrugged, and drove the little lift around to the back of Ice Man.

Peter could see where they had carefully removed a section of ice, revealing a dented and split metallic skull.

"Yeah, it was like that when we found it. We removed several thick plates, like armour from there but you can get a pretty good look inside. This thing's brain is amazing. I mean, I'm just a jarhead but I know the human brain is roughly twenty per cent of our bodies, this, it's zero point one. I heard the Oscorp multiprocessor was based on this thing." and Peter inwardly groaned, Osborn was never a good sign.

Peter looked around and felt nothing in the immediate area setting off his technopathic abilities, "uh hey can you turn around, and look down." And under the influence of the Mind Stone Lennox shrugged and did as he was told.

Peter lifted a hand, letting his symbskin cover it and gently touched the inner workings of the head.

Are you okay?

I.

He had gotten a reaction,

Hey, it's okay, Are you okay, can you tell me your name

I, I am.

Take your time, I can get a power source for you, it's going to be okay.

I'm just prime