The Last Spark - Two

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Beta(s) :

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Requested By : Gib

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Shockwave sat in his laboratory, surrounded by the modified plants and lattice of walking paths coming out of the hab-units Kali and Blake enjoyed so often. And Sienna called home. On his other side, a wall of monitors, controls and system feedback repeaters, keeping him appraised of every aspect of Luna's operations. Behind him, and off to the side standing on the lower floor of the garden sector, he could detect several life-forms - the Roses and their Xiao-Long anomaly, here for their protection and his comfort while what were hopefully the dying hours of the opening salvos of the new war were sounded.

And in front of him…?

Mantleain warship air-naval artillery used a cluster of four shells classed, designed and normally utilized to wound and, eventually, bring down Leviathan class Grimm. Each was part of one original shell - a cluster round of four incendiary and shrapnel based explosive warhead rounds. The incendiary rounds superheated to several hundred degrees on impact, to soften Grimm plating, boil away muscle and flesh, and allow the shrapnel of the subsequent explosion to rip through them. Leviathan class plating was several inches of hardened bone, denser than it should have been, and often layered for flexibility and additional protection. As if it had been molded to adapt to Mantle's new toys - and his own children's, as well.

Lazerbeak only had light armor, suited for flight, espionage, and speed…

Most had melted away when the incendiary charges did their work, and that was left had been super-heated to near uselessness. Which let the shrapnel pierce all along his rear torso, ripping through power transfer systems, internal wiring and worse… Into the sections around his Spark chamber in and of itself, exposing some of the raw energy to open air, heat, and a single piece of debris no more than a tenth of a centimeter wide, and half as long, which punched through the outer breadth of it.

Still, he had stayed conscious long enough to reach out for help, and to see him home.

And yet…

"I failed…" He murmured, leaning over the partially disassembled form of the avian Cybertronian. Spare parts, armor plating and tools were scattered across it, between wires that ran into him, that had tried to sustain him.

And, when that failed, tried to revive him.

"Shockwave…" He barely turned his head to regard the Organics, but the slight tilt and flick of his spines was enough for Summer to know he was listening. Quietly, she said, "You did all you could."

"No, I did all I am capable of." He growled, hand curling into a fist that he drove down into the surface of the work-surface. "I am limited! And that continues to hurt those I care about! When I could just-"

"Take over the world?" The voice was quieter, nervous, but brave somehow. And he turned slowly, cannon hanging limply at his side as Ruby smiled softly and fiddled with her fingers. "That's what you're thinking, right?"

"Ruby…"

"What? I'm right." She said simply, turning and rolling her eyes when Summer only sighed and flicked him a nervous look. Quietly, Ruby said, "Maybe you're right, too. If you were in control-"

"This war would, at least, have never happened." Shockwave cut her off, "Soundwave would not be in repair-stasis. Lazerbeak would not be…"

"You don't know that." Ruby argued gently, taking her sister's hand when she stepped up to her side protectively. As if she could do anything were Shockwave to do anything untoward. His splines flicked and she went on, "People might have rebelled, attacked him on patrol or… Whatever. Or a Grimm might have attacked. Anything could have happened, but… This did. And it isn't your fault."

"Perhaps not." He murmured, "But it is my failure."

"Maybe." She shrugged, and he could see and hear the shaky breath she took before she went on and remembered that, to these children, Lazerbeak had been a friend as well.

"But…" Ruby pushed on regardless, ignoring it as best she could while her sister glowered at the floor. "B-But… People fail. All the time. It was my idea, what I wanted, that got him-"

"Ruby, this isn't your fault, either." Her mother cut in, wrapping her arms around the girls.

"I-I don't think- I-I know you feel- That I should- B-but…" Ruby took a breath, and whatever she was struggling with, she pushed it away and said, "What's important isn't any of that. Not right now. Right now, you need to-"

"What will you do now?" The voice that reached him was tired, drained, and Shockwave turned as Soundwave crossed the room.

His back was still damaged, and his leg was malfunctioning so he limped, but he moved in spite of the likely pain. His fellows, what were left of them, moved with him, standing on his shoulders and clambering off when they reached Lazerbeak's ruined form and Shockwave moved away. Made space for them to mourn.

"Shockwave," Soundwave rumbled, leaning over the body with his head hanging while they surrounded their comrade, "I require an answer."

"I…" He hesitated, and that was enough for Soundwave to turn to him, watching him closely. Flatly. But, before he could answer, one of his terminals beeped in a quiet pattern and he moved to answer it. Humming, he rumbled, "Strange…"

"What is it?" Summer called from across the large room, "We… Can't see."

"Seismic activity in the Badlands of Menagerie…" A moment later, an emergency line chirped as well and his anxiety began to climb. Activating it, he said, "Sienna, what is-"

"Get your metal ass to the Badlands now, Shock!" She barked, voice distorted and echoing the way it always was when she was piloting one of her Mobile Units. In the background he could hear the sounds of battle, too - gunfire, mainly. "Something is- -ed to- it!"

"Sienna, move away from combat." He grunted, plugging into the system directly. "Something is interfering with communications-"

"Get here and-" Her comm-line cut out and he leaned back, a drip of dread slowly filtering into his thoughts.

What could take down his comm-lines?

"Nothing good…" He rumbled, turning and moving for the door as he pointed a finger. "You all stay here until further notice. Soundwave-"

"I will be here if you need me." His friend answered quietly and Shockwave hesitated and turned to look at him. He was turned back to the work-table, hands carefully undoing the connectors and strands attached to his partner. Shockwave hesitated for a moment, torn between staying and going, and Soundwave rumbled, "Go to her. You will regret it if you stay and something happens…"

Without another word he turned, headed for the Spacebridge.

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Sienna snarled as the communications died and turned, grabbing a Cybetronian and hurling him into the metallic, hastily dug out and cyberformed into hardened shape trench behind her as mass-accelerator rounds splattered through the air around her and all along the line. They impacted in the Dark Mountains' stone and over the defensive lines' heads and scattered fragments of annihilated stone and concrete that scattered across them. A few Organics - and it was weird to think of them as that, even in her suit, but she didn't have the words - screamed as debris rained down around them and Sienna and a few of the others nearby turned, covering them with their arms and weapons as best as they could. A few still stumbled away, bruised, bloodied and injured by the debris, but…

She couldn't do much more.

"Suppressive fire!" She barked, rising as a Sabyr leapt over the uneven, spined lip of the trench. She backhanded it away and raised her rifle, peppering the swarms of Grimm emerging from the steadily expanding pool of…

Whatever it was.

All along the line, the survivors from the first attacks were fighting, firing on the Grimm and, more importantly, on the shambling machines staggering toward them. She saw a moment where there were less of the Grimm rushing her and raised her rifle, peppering one of the… Abominations as it came. The rounds ripped its arm off and then blew apart its chest like it was barely armored and she frowned as more were blown apart up and down the defensive line. She did the same to a second and shook her head as it stumbled forward and collapsed, legless and lacking half its lower body. It didn't die, though.

It tried to drag itself forward, until its head was blown apart and it went limp.

"Move aside!" A voice boomed in her ears as someone shoved her aside. Heavyset was shaped like a barrel with legs, all over-lapping plates and segmented armor with a little head peering out of a little semi-circle of curved armor around his shoulders, like a turtle.

"Heavy fire, incomin'!" He snapped, slapping down a heavy rotary cannon and pressing a button. A moment later, the heavy cannon whirred to life and roared, carving through the waves of Grimm like a wheat-baler through a field.

"Good work, Heavyset." She sighed, turning and accepting a handful of ammunition fillers from Juryrig as, exhausted, he ran up the line, dragging a sort of… Wheelbarrow full of the stuff behind him.

"Thanks boss!" He grunted in the short moments he stopped firing to let the barrels extend out to the sides to vent heat and steam out and toward the ground. "The fuck are these things?"

"I don't know." She grunted, pushing another Mobile Unit aside as a round caught her shoulder and ripped her arm off. She screamed and fell, and Sienna took her place, lining up her sight on the perpetrator and blowing its head and shoulders to pieces. Lowering her grip for a more liberal spray, she peppered a Deathstalker as it dragged itself out of the ichorous muck and moved towards them. More came, though, more of the steadily larger and larger Grimm dragging themselves up from the muck as time went on. "But we can't keep-"

She cut off as a more… Painfully familiar form dragged itself out of the mire and looked aorund, confused until it saw their line and it raised its weapon. The rugged edges, and rusted red, stood out.

"Boss?" Heavyset grunted, turning and wincing as a round bounced off his reinforced hide. Spraying across the oncoming horde as black smoke began to fill the sky, he elbowed her and bellowed, "Are you hit!?"

"Highroad…" She shook her head, pointing him out, "He's… Out there."

"Piss and damn…" Heavyset followed her pointing rifle and snarled, turning his heavy gun on him. Pure, unfettered instinct made her reach for it, to stop him, to protect the poor, traumatized old bot she hadn't spent nearly enough time with.

Then what was left of her friend vanished in a beam of violent violence that carved across miles, all along the curving edge of the Dark Mountains. As it passed in front of her Mobile Unit's systems detected and tagged an energy signal as it bloomed to life a few yards behind her and she turned, watching Shockwave emerge with a large cylinder on his shoulder and his good arm wrapped around it. His cannon swiveled, blasting a few of the closer abominations while he knelt and set the thing down.

It segmented first, raising up a bit as it broke into ten different circles a foot tall and five wide inside a grey frame. They opened to reveal rotors ringed by small guns about as big as a rifle. They rocketed away at high speed, peppering the Grimm and freeing their forces up to more directly engage the abominations as hundreds of lesserNevermore and Gryphons burst out of the muck and soared up, curving up to evade the automated air defences from the Foundry.

"Shockwave!" She grunted as he stepped forward and dropped into their trenchline, drawing the eyes of every Cybertronian nearby for a heartbeat before she waved their gazes forward with a hand. Shaking her head, she sighed, "It's… Good to see you."

"And I you, Sienna Khan." He rumbled, meeting her gaze for a moment before looking away and raising his cannon. It expanded to let him access a display and, through her comms - and thus to anyone nearby - he said, "Dropping automated turrets. Do not vacate the trench line."

Moments passed before, screaming and blazing in fire from reentry, massive spires slammed down all along the front of the trench-line. They were tall, purple, and smooth, but after a moment opened up. Long legs stabilized and straightened them and the tops shifted and reoriented, transforming into long tubes backed by crystals she recognized after a moment.

"Dust…?"

"I have been… Experimenting." Shockwave answered, working at the displays on his arm as the others held back the oncoming Grimm and another wave of heated fury passed by. "I was unsure of what you were contending with, and the prototypes are… Functional."

As he spoke, a frame surrounded the dark Dust crystals and lasers seared into them, seemingly focusing through and into the long tubes. A second passed and lances of red light cut through the air, melting the Grimm in the air and on the ground as more, smaller spires slammed down in front of them. These opened up into simpler, heavy looking machine guns that rattled off superheated rounds that left trails of smoke in the air as they went.

"Sienna." She turned and Shockwave pressed a sort of pistol looking thing into her mechanized hands, except that it ended in a sort of… Dish, with a display on the back of it. She looked up as he raised his cannon and rested his hand on the lip of the trench. "A target designator. Aim and sweep. My base has enough power stored to fire five short controlled bursts at select locales, or one more powerful burst as I just fired."

"Why would you give me-"

"Superweapons should not be in the hands of citizens." He answered simply, turning to pay her a nod of respect. "You are the commander here, Sienna Khan. The right is yours. As is my trust."

"Shockwave…" In another moment, she'd have said more. But she saw a line of Cybertronian arms reach out of the muck and shook the feeling off, pointing a finger and attaching the designator to her hip. "More!"

"More Grimm?" Shockwave turned and, after a moment, she saw his spines flick and flutter as he pulled himself over the edge and stood. "No… N-Not that."

She had never heard it before, not like this, but… She heard the fear in Shockwave's voice. Saw the anxious way his hand flexed and his weapon came halfway up. Then he took a step back as the abominations rose and stood, still as the grave in spite of the fire carving into them. And reinforcements replacing them. An impossible amount, now that she thought about it…

They'd have noticed this many missing Cybertronians, surely.

"Finally, you appear!" A tortured, echoing voice said, her words carried by every single one of the tortured creatures as the pool stilled for a moment and then bloomed upward. A woman appeared, floating high above even the creatures in front of her. She was pale, and wore a flowing dress seemingly made of the same slurry the creatures had come from. "Shockwave! This time, you will not-"

"What have you done?!" He bellowed, taking another step back and idly turning a dial on his cannon. "How have you conjured corrupted Cybertronians? These are from-"

"I stole them." She cut him off, laughing eerily, airily, and adding, "Your own creations… Turned against you. An army of the dead."

"Not the dead, and not only my creations." Shockwave snarled back, "I did not make enough for this… And they are Unliving, not dead. Puppeteered. And not by you…"

"What do you-"

"Intelligent as always, Cyclops." A new, deep and synthetic voice reverberated across the battlefield as the slurry once more warped and twisted. This time glowing as the abominations parted, making space and kneeling as a new figure simply… Rose, as if on a lift.

This one was no abomination, though.

It was standing straight, hands spread out almost theatrically to either side, with a smooth helmeted head and square shoulders. Long engines, of some sort, spread out around him and his voice boomed once more, "I am Nova Prime… Herald of the End. Of all you dare to hold."

The words hung in the air and, quietly, Sienna murmured, "Shockwave, what-"

"All Cybertronians, initiate emergency contingency one." Shockwave's voice cut her off, echoing throughout the comms as he advanced. "Special Designatory - Unicron Protocol."

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MrMateusz :

Tbf MOST of the 'Bots are trauma beans lmao.

Poofy Ohio :

Oh if only Menagerie were erupting with Grimm…

Lea :

*avoiding eye contact*