Chapter Eleven – The Battle For Sherman Dam
Large white letters appear on a flat red and blue background, "NEWS
UPDATE" it reads as it sits there on every TV across the country.
A very stale male voice soon accompanies the bold print as music cues
along with the appearing text.
"We interrupt this show to bring you a live report, here now is
anchorman Dan Murphy"
The picture fades away and soon an Afro-American man with short cut
hair is seen shuffling some papers on a beige desk with red strips
running across it's visible front. The man is wearing a dark blue suit
with a white shirt underneath and sporting a red tie. Blurred
behind him are people working away on computers, moving from seat to
seat and running all around the room that he's sitting in.
Clearing his throat and looking up as he's now shown, the man leans in
and stares out to the camera pointed at him.
"This just in...There are reports of something happening out in the
Texan oil fields not more then a few minutes ago. People are
phoning in about strange explosions in the area and of oil workers
fleeing the site in their vehicles. Nothing is confirmed at this
time...but we've just gotten word that the military has also been seen
driving in to create road blocks."
A red haired young Caucasian woman comes up beside him and places a
sheet of paper in front of his hands. She quickly darts off after
placing it down and the anchorman gives it a quick glance. As he
pauses, he nods and holds the small earpiece on his right side.
He looks up again and starts to talk about what he's just read.
"Uh...yes.... sorry folks, I've just been informed of some breaking
news. It seems there has been another military presence in a
neighboring state not long ago as well. More explosions were
heard and there are reports coming in of people who have eye witnessed
that event. We don't seem to have any statements or video of that
new information, but we will keep you posted about it when it does come
in. In the meantime, we have a live feed with one of our
reporters stationed near that Texas explosion...perhaps he can shed
some light on what this all means."
Turning to the next camera at his left side, the image cuts to his face
as he turns. A new smaller inlet image pops up of the reporter he
is about to talk too. An Asian American man with a dark
mustache and short-cropped hair. The image is in black and white
and looks like a standard stock photo of the man posing.
"Jack Hong, our local correspondent in that area is standing by with an
update...Hello Jack? Can you hear us?"
Jack's voice comes booming in over the airwaves in a slightly
garbled-static filled tone, "Hello? Hello Dan...Yes I can hear
you."
The anchorman once again leans in as he talks to the reporter, "Jack
can you fill us in on what's happening out there? What's all the
commotion about?"
"Dan, there is a lot of activity out here! The road is jammed
with workers running and driving by, all screaming for us to get out as
fast as we can. One female worker was shouting over and over that
there were metal monsters on the loose."
The black man squints as he hears the reporter, "I'm...I'm
sorry...Jack... did you say metal monsters?"
The Asian American reporter nervously chuckles, "Indeed I did
Dan...Apparently some of the screaming hordes of people here are
ranting on and on of metal creatures tearing up the oil refinery and
shooting at them with some sort of weapon. I think perhaps it's
just shock and panic getting the best of them, whatever is going on at
the refinery it appears to be major!"
The anchor rubs his temples and tries to keep up the questions to ask
the live reporter, "Jack...is there any indication that...that this
might be a terrorist attack? Or perhaps a large environmental...."
Suddenly Jack Hong interrupts the news anchor and begins to shout out,
"Hang on a minute Dan. We are seeing something.... there’s....
there’s something in the sky everyone is pointing at. I...can't
see...no...Wait...wait...I do see what they're all looking up at."
"Jack? Jack! Describe it to us.... what is it? What do you
all see?"
"Oh...Oh my god!” the reporter shouts out, "Dan...There are large
objects...metal...things in the air. Some look like military jets to
me...but the others around them as I look closer...they look
like...well.... like large...robots!"
The news anchor's eyes grow wide with confusion, "Robots? Did he
say robots? Jack...Jack did you just say robots?"
Soon the people could be heard screaming over the static filled
airwaves, the reporter begins to sound like he's running along with the
crowd as his breathing becomes heavy. Explosions are heard in the
muffled background of all the screaming panicked people.
"Dan...Dan....We're being shot at! Oh God...those things are
dropping out of the sky and shooting at us all with some sort of
weapons. Ouch! Ow! Dan, people are running for their lives here
and...Oh...OH NO!!"
The laser fire can be heard getting louder and louder, the anchorman
squinting as he listens to the carnage and his reporter friend panting
as he runs. Suddenly, the anchor can hear loud laughter over top
of all the noise happening, like a group of people talking in strange
electronic voice. One of the voices shouts out as the last shot
is heard through the broadcast.
"So long humans! Thanks for the Energon!!"
The signal soon goes dead afterwards and the news anchor takes out his
earpiece quickly as the sound of the laser shot nearly deafens
him. Recovering quickly, and shielding his hurt ear, Dan Murphy
calls tries to call out to his friend.
"Jack?! Jack are you still there?!"
Looking up at the main camera poised on his face again, the anchorman
adjusts his tie and tries keep the show going.
"Uhm.... ok. Well, we'll try to get Jack Hong back on the air in
a few minutes...it looks like we're experiencing some technical
difficulties. We'll have more on this when we come back from
break. See you in a few minutes."
As the show begins to cue the music up, the news anchor sits there and
shrugs his shoulders to someone off camera. In a whisper voice, he
talks to them as he sits there gathering his papers.
"What the hell happened? Somebody better fill me in fast...what
was all that crap about attacking robots?!"
*
* *
* * *
Racing down the long highway in the desert, Optimus Prime and the other
Autobots rush towards Sherman Dam at full speed. Spike, The
General and Sparkplug all sit inside the Autobot Leader and brace
themselves as the tractor trailer barrels down the road. The
convoy of Prime’s fellow car-robot soldiers quickly maintains a pace
behind him; one of the Autobots pulls up beside the big red rig to
talk. Jazz, the white, blue double striped Sportec 996 GT2 SP650
keeps a record speed next to the leader and shouts out to him as he
raises some concerns.
"Hey Prime!"
"What is it Jazz?” the leader says in his deep booming voice.
"I'm picking up Telatran One on the Autobot frequency...T-1 is
reporting that the satellite that was jamming us is no longer in orbit."
Inside the truck cab, the three men can hear the conversation.
General Hank talks to Optimus as if he and Jazz can both hear his words.
"I must have been taken out. Any chance the Decepticons know
about it already?"
Jazz laughs as he can hear the General's response, "I'll take those
odds any day man...Decepticons love to shoot things down for sure."
"If we could spot it, so could Megatron.” Optimus Prime says aloud,
"How long ago did that happen Jazz?"
"Telatran One says just over twenty minutes ago, in fact there's
already some human broadcasts spotting the Decepti-creeps heading in
that direction already...” the white Sportec car says back.
"That means we have about fifteen minutes to reach Sherman's Dam before
they do.” the leader calculates.
Spike sits there in amazement, "My god...you mean they'll be able to
reach it before we do? How is that possible?"
Sparkplug leans over to Spike, "The same way the Autobots can reach a
destination in half the time...only I'll bet the Decepticons don't have
as many obstacles in their way like the Autobots do on the ground."
Optimus Prime is impressed with Sparkplug's guess work, "Correct
Sparkplug, the Decepticons have the unlimited sky to use and don't have
to pre-calculate what lies ahead of their scanners. Some Autobots
are equipped with anti-gravity hover converters, but unfortunately
those that are modified with them aren't even here. A few rocket
packs and some booster rockets are all we have..."
Jazz, still following parallel speaks up again, "I could always send
Sideswipe...he's got a rocket pack handy."
"No Jazz...we ride together, I don't want the Decepticons to catch wind
of us too early. Sideswipe's energy signature from his rocket
pack might alert them and all this would be for nothing. Stay the
course...."
Jazz falls back behind him, "Rodger that Prime!"
The Autobot leader raises his voice so that the entire convoy of cars
riding behind can hear, "Autobots! Trans-boost drivers on....
Engage!!"
The entire car filled road glows as they all build up a green energy
around each of them, as they all reach a bright point in their soft
glow, they warp speed down the road way and soon the highway they were
driving on becomes empty and silent. The noise of their engines
drifts off into the breeze and all that can be heard echoing in the
distance is multiple sonic booms.
*
* *
* * *
In the deep valley, where the Decepticons have made a temporary launch
base, the Constructions continue to work on the new ship. The
bottom section looks almost completed as they focus on building the
next section of the craft. All around the ship, a massive interlace of
metal holds the frame in place; the towering scaffold shows just how
sizable the project will end up being. The Constructicons build
in their robotic modes and their transformed vehicle modes, working
non-stop to complete the next phase. In a small area on the
ground next to the ship, a group of the captured human prisoners sit in
a circle inside the makeshift detention cage. All around them are
small metallic rods that stick out of the ground; each one has an
energy stripe connecting to the one a few meters away from the
other. Each stripe glows a soft pink hue and the low humming
noise of the energy passing through gives the hostages a feeling that
this is nothing they want to touch at all. Eight lines from the
bottom to the top surround them, leaving the only open space above as
the means to be free, but jumping up to it would be pointless, as it
would take an extremely tall human to even get his or her hands above
it. For now they are all trapped. Two of the Constructicons
walking by them in robot form lean in to taunt the frightened group of
humans.
"Not so dangerous without your primitive weapons are
you...Bah-hahahaha", the green and purple colored Decepticons laughs
out loud.
The other one standing next to him simply stares at them in contempt,
"Puny humans...you dare challenge the likes of the Decepticons...let
alone the might of the Constructicons!! We should kill you right
now!!"
The leader called Scrapper looks over at the two workers and shouts to
them as he stands near the ship he's working on.
"Long Haul! Scavenger! Return to your duties! Megatron will
be back soon and we need to complete our work!"
The two transformers snicker as Scavenger flicks the energized barrier
trying to scare the human captives. Both soon return to their
work and transform into their vehicle modes. Longhaul converts
into a massive dump truck and Scavenger transforms into his digger
form. Scrapper looks around the area with his eyes, making sure
there's no one around, and also returns to his work on the ship.
Unknown to him, both Mirage and Carly watch near by on top of the
canyon ridge. They sit and watch from a safe distance and get a
layout of the land, Carly uses her binoculars to see the soldiers
trapped in their cage and the distance between them and the
Constructions.
"There they are Mirage...” She says to him while looking, "Do think we
can sneak up without being detected?"
Mirage laying beside her nods, "Don't worry Carly...I'll come in nice
and slow, they won't be able to see me unless they switch to their
thermal optics. So we'll have to be extra quiet as we ride in
cloaked."
Carly lowers the binoculars from her face, continuing to look out into
the valley, "That's a lot of people to carry back Mirage...I hope you
can manage."
"Yeah, I know...I hope I can too. We'll have to drive extra slow
on our way out again so I don't throw any of them off. This is
going to be tricky. You ready for it?"
Carly looks at him and nods smiling, "You bet!"
Mirage stands up and looks down at her, "Alright then...we'll move in
and when Prime gives us the signal we'll move the people out."
Mirage quickly transforms into a blue and white Formula One racing car,
a large fin spoiler sits on the back of him and the white racer stripe
decals run from his spoiler to the tip of his hood. Carly hops
into the cockpit and attaches the cross-strap seatbelt inside.
Gripping the steering wheel, she looks as if she's ready to peel away
like formula one racer. Mirage revs up his engine, but doesn't
pull away just yet.
"Uh...Carly. Do you mind if I do the driving? Let go of my wheel
sweetie...” Mirage says to her.
Carly looking a bit embarrassed sits back and lets go of the wheel,
"Ooops...sorry. Never been in a car like this...guess I just
wanted to give it a whirl."
Mirage laughs, "No problem. Maybe I'll let you take me out for a
spin when this is all over. But right now...it's time to save
some humans."
The racer peels away fast and head down the cliff road path leading
down into the valley, Carly sits tight as Mirage descends into the
Decepticon territory and suddenly begins to use his cloaking
shield. The soft green outline surrounds the vehicle with Carly
inside and soon vanishes into thin air as it blurs away. The only
thing that can be seen is the dust trail the invisible car is
producing, but that too starts to die down as it reaches the bottom of
the area.
In the sky above the valley where the Constructicons work,
Thundercracker swoops in out of nowhere and lands near the ship
site. Scrapper approaches the sleek blue jet and waits for the
Decepticon to open his cargo hold doors.
"Hurry up and unload me already! Megatron is on his way to the
next target and I don't want to miss it!” The jet speaks out loud.
Scrapper grumbles, "Ah cool your thrusters you hot head! We've got more
important things to do then worry about your trigger happy finger."
"What did you say to me?!” Thundercracker says furiously.
Long Haul pulls up near Scrapper and transforms beside him, "You heard
what he said! We've got enough on our plate, building the ship
and watching the humans, so unload the energon yourself fly boy!"
Thundercracker transforms quickly and the energon cubes drop out of him
as his cargo bay ejects them. The two Constructicons flinch in
fear as they see the cubes hit the ground. But they lower their
arms down as soon as they see they haven't exploded from the
impact. Thundercracker laughs at them and flies up into the air
still in his robot form.
"The mighty Constructicons? Hahahaha...you guys are pathetic!”
the blue jet robot cackles.
Scrapper shakes his fist at the flying Decepticon as he watches
Thundercracker transform and flying back into the distant sky.
"You miserable idiot!! You could have killed us all!!!"
Long Haul begins picking up the cubes with Scrapper as they clean up
the mess, "They give us no respect, they treat us as lower class
maintenance bots. We should crush them all and rule Cybertron for
ourselves!"
Scrapper eyes glow at the thought, but turns to his friend as he
finishes picking up the energon.
"One day we shall Long Haul. But after seeing how greedy
Starscream is...I think we'll have to get in line."
Long Haul nods "Let the fools take each other out. Megatron can
kill Starscream for us...and we..."
"Can kill Megatron afterwards.” Scrapper says finishing his friend's
thought, "Excellent idea Long Haul. But we should wait until we
return to Cybertron, that way we can gather our followers to a true
revolt. For now, we shall do their bidding and when the time is
right...Devastator shall be unleashed to finish Megatron!"
The two lime green Decepticons chuckle at their plans and begin to
stack the pile of energon cubes in order again.
*
* *
* * *
It is a calm blue sky day at the Sherman Dam, the men and women workers
go about their jobs professionally as they maintain the water
reservoir’s daily needs. It is also an open house afternoon,
tourists flock around a young male guide as he gives an exclusive walk
around the various areas of the dam. Young and old are gathered
about, some taking pictures with bright flashes and others looking
tired of dragging their kids along. The youngsters are restless
and begin to play away from the group, but as one falls to his knees
and cries, the parents instantly shout at them to come back and
behave. They all move out to the middle of the dam outside, there
the guide gives them more useless information and lets the people take
a majestic look at the dam they are standing on top of. It looks
more like a big road paved with asphalt and concrete, but looking over
the sides they see that it is a massive wall that holds in the water
where they all stand. More adults take pictures and the children
once again split away from their parents to play now that they are
outside. As the workers pass them by and give casual smiles and
hellos, one of kids stares out into the sky as he perches himself on
the dam's railing. The brown haired freckled face kid squints as
he looks out and begins to point out to what he sees. The guide
is getting annoyed at this boy and calls him back over to the group.
"Excuse me? Huh...hello, little boy? Would you mind coming
back over here? I don't think you should be so close to that railing."
The kid keeps pointing and looks back at the man, "But I want to know
what those things are coming at us. Are they part of the tour?"
The guide looks up to see what the kid is talking about, as do all the
other tourists. He curiously gazes at the incoming objects
rapidly approaching the dam and seems puzzled as to what it is as well.
"I...dunno. What the heck...?"
The other workers all stop and see the incoming shimmering objects, all
of them just as curious as the guide and tourists. But as they
all stare up at it, they soon notice a large array of light coming down
from them. The streaks of light bombard the area they all stand
in and explode into balls of fire, each hit creates another and
another, the people all scream and run for their very lives. Now
fully visible, the Decepticons swarm the entire dam and land down on
various parts of the dam. Megatron hovers near main section of
the building and uses his fusion cannon to blast open the wall of the
main generator room. Starscream and Skywarp transform out of
their jet modes and follow in behind Megatron. Stepping into the
now exposed generator room, the leader watches the humans all scramble
about screaming. He smirks at the sight of the humans panicking
and almost enjoys hearing them howl in horror. Aiming his cannon
upwards he sends out a blast to make the people all pause in order to
hear what he has to say.
"Weakling Humans!! I am Megatron, leader of the Decepticons....
you will do as I command or be destroyed!!"
Now frozen in fear, the various workers trapped inside the room with
the massive metallic robot shiver with terror as his booming voice
echoes across the room. Megatron looks down and sees one of the older
male workers standing near by. He points his arm cannon towards
the smaller being and glares at him with his pulsating red eyes.
"You will assist us without question. Understood? Or do I
have to show you what a real blast of energy can do to your frail
structures?!"
The man nods, "I...I...I'll do what you say! Just...don't hurt
us...please!"
"Then get to work...Slave!” Megatron commands to him.
Starscream and Skywarp corral the other workers back as they point
their side arm cannons at them all. Soundwave flies into the room
with Rumble and Laserbeak, setting down beside Megatron as they
land. The blue minidisk transformer begins to make his empty
energon cubes as each human worker is forced to walk up and take one in
their hands. A slight shock touches them as they each receive
one, but soon it passes as the energy becomes stable in their
arms. Now it feels more like an empty container, but glowing and
feeling more like static electricity. Starscream points his null
ray cannons at the generators and fires at every one of them.
With each shot an engine freezes, giving Skywarp the means to re-wire
each one and attaching new cables to them all. Now they force the
humans to put their cubes up to the various generators and hold them
near the output device Soundwave installs. It was amazing to
watch to some of the engineers, the massive robots managed to do all of
this in the matter of minutes, as if it was like changing a light
bulb. As the workers held up the cubes to them, the generators
kicked in again and began to spin almost at twice the speed. The
energy build up from them began to give off a strange glow, which soon
started to fill up each cube with raw power. The humans flinched
as they held on, the energy obviously increasing the static shock even
more. Megatron looked on with a great pride, it was just as he'd
hoped for and more. When the cube was full, the Decepticons moved
the humans aside and brought up the next one to be filled.
"Generators are at tolerant capacity, Megatron.” the cycloptic yellow
eyed Soundwave announced to him.
Megatron stroked his metal silver chin, "Hmm... It's still not fast
enough though Soundwave. I think we need to double the
production...increase the water pressure and bring it to critical, I
want a non-stop flow of cubes!"
The blue transformer bows, "As you command, Megatron."
Turning to Rumble, Soundwave points out to the water reservoir and
gives him instructions, "Rumble! Activate you pile drivers.
Operation...Tidal wave!!"
The minidisk bot smiles up at him, "Alright! Time to flood this
place...Rumble style!!"
Running out of the room, he jumps out and flies over the water the dam
is holding back. He drops into it like a sinking rock and
transforms his arms into the two large pile divers. They begin to
pound away at the bottom surface, causing the Earth below it to shake
and give off shock waves. The water becomes disturbed and sloshes
around violently, each quake becomes faster and faster, causing the
water to flow out the spillways faster and faster. Inside
the generator room, the equipment rotates at almost critical speeds as
the Decepticons force the humans to work as fast as the energy flowing
out of the generators. The sight frightens the workers, knowing
all too well that if those motors explode it will be the end of them
all. Outside still cowering on the wall, the tourists try to
sneak away undetected. They almost reach the other side to
safety, when the boy with the brown hair and freckles runs back out to
see the action. The boy's parents desperately try to grab him as
he bolts away, but they couldn't catch him in time. The boy
stands in the middle of the dam wall and looks at the Decepticons over
in the generator room. All the while, under the kid's feet, the
water is flowing at an unstoppable rate. The water pressure
begins to crack the cement wall slowly and right around where the child
is standing. The parents can't stay quite any longer and scream
out to their boy to come back. The water is so loud; the kid
doesn't even hear them. He's still too mesmerized by the large
robots forcing the humans to work for them, but as he steps closer to
have a look, the wall gives way and breaks the section he's standing
on. The kid begins to fall to his death as the parents stand
there helpless and screaming.
As the boy tumbles down with the stream of water, a massive object in
red and blue rushes up to him and grabs him with its large hand.
It continues to fly up and land softly back onto the main wall/road,
the parents and tourist stare up at this massive thing, which now
lowers it's hand down releasing the boy unharmed. The boy looks
back at the towering robot and smiles.
"Thank you", he says to it.
"Your welcome, but I think you'd better go with your parental units and
leave this place fast."
The parents run over, hugging and kissing their child. With tears
in their eyes they look up at the metallic robot with glowing blue eyes
and smile.
"Thank you...Thank you...” the mother says, "Whoever you are."
"My name is Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots. And you've very
welcome, but this is no place for you and your family right now.
Go...quickly!"
The re-united family dash off together and continue to leave the area
with the rest of the tourists. The Autobot leader makes sure
they've gone at a safe distance and takes out his large black hand
weapon from the panel opening on his back. He cocks the massive
hand weapon and holds it up as if to make a signal. As he makes
the motion, the group of Autobot vehicles rushes in over the wall
roadway and transform into their robot modes. Each one takes out
their weapon and looks at their leader.
"Remember the humans and aim only at the Decepticons...I don't want any
of these creatures harmed, is that understood?"
They all nod at their leader's words. Optimus Prime touches his
top arm again and the head microphone pops out of the side of his
helmet head.
"Optimus to Mirage...come in Mirage...."
A faint voice is soon heard responding back, "Mirage to Prime...I read
you, over."
"Begin the rescue immediately. And be careful you two...", the
leader says back softly to Mirage.
Carly's voice soon whispers back at Prime, "Don't worry Optimus...just
go and kick some ass!"
"Rodger that Carly...", Prime snickers.
The microphone retracts back into the leader's helmet head and he looks
over at his awaiting Autobot soldiers.
"You heard the woman...Autobots! ATTACK!!"
They all leap from the dam wall and fly into the gaping hole in the
Generator Room, Optimus Prime thumps down inside and stands with his
gun pointed at the Decepticons within. The other Autobots rush in
with their guns blazing and voices screaming. The Decepticons
turn around and all fire back at them, shocked by their foes attacking,
they try to find cover as the laser bolts fly across the room.
Megaton refuses to hide and turns around to see Prime pointing his
weapon at his head.
"You fool Optimus!! You've signed the human prisoners death
warrants! And here I thought you cared about these flesh beings..."
Optimus Prime's eyes flash at him, "I think you'd better worry about
yourself Megatron."
The Autobot leader fired his weapon at Megatron, who in turn quickly
dove out of the way of its strike. As the Decepticon leader rolls
and makes a recovery, he fires his arm cannon at Optimus Prime who
jumps high above and fires his weapon down at Megatron again.
Once more, the Decepticon leader moves out of the way in time and now
begins to fly up to the second level platform that leads outside.
Optimus Prime jumps up to the open balcony Megatron is standing on and
begins to brawl with the evil leader hand-to-hand. The other
Autobots and Decepticons continue to fire away at one another as the
explosions drive the humans towards the exits. Sparkplug and the
General come through the doors and help the various crew escape.
"This way! Hurry!” Sparkplug yells to them all.
The General grabs on to a worker who trips and guides him out the door,
"Easy does it now..."
Spike stands outside and leads the people to a safe point towards the
distance.
"Keep going...don't stop! Just keep running in that direction and
don't look back!!"
Suddenly Hound drives up to Spike and starts to talk to him, "That
water can't be flowing like that by itself...I'll bet even money that
Rumble is down there. Come on Spike, come with me!"
Spike hops into the army green hummer and smiles, "Let's go get that
water rat!"
Hound spins his tires and heads over to the water reserve, Spike holds
on as the ride becomes bumpy and very dangerous, but Hound manages to
keep the young passenger safe. As they pull up to the water's
edge, Spike quickly jumps out and Hound transforms into his robotic
mode, the both peer into the water to see if they can spot little
Rumble at the bottom.
"Anything Spike?” Hound asks.
Spike shakes his head, "I can't see anything. The water is too
murky and violent for me to see...I think we'll have to go in there."
"Better let me go Spike...I don't need oxygen to breathe underwater."
"Ok Hound, I'll watch your back from out here."
The army green robot jumps into the water, and sinks in like a massive
rock straight down to the very bottom of the reservoir. A large
light beams out from the top of his head and he begins scanning the
disturbed water as he walks though it. The light catches the
small minidisk transformer pounding away at the Earthy ground stirring
all the dirt up and making blurring shock waves around him. Hound
slowly walks over and points his gun at the unsuspecting Decepticon,
who apparently has his back facing the Autobot. As Hound gets as
close as he can, he aims the gun at the small robot and makes ready to
shoot. But suddenly Rumble notices him and maneuvers his pile
drivers around to strike a blow at the sneaky Autobot. Hound
loses his weapon from the hit and falls backwards from the shock
wave. Rumble jumps on top of him and continues to use his drivers
on the helpless robot pinned down.
"So you wanna rumble with Rumble, eh? Then here's a few pounding
pointers to change your mind, Auto-scrap!!"
Hound struggles and tries to grab hold of the small robot, "I've got a
pointer for you too shorty!"
The green Autobot flashes his high-beamed headlight at the robot and
causes Rumble to squint. The glare is too much for the little
robot and tries to shield his eyes with his arms; which quickly
transform back to normal. Now the Autobot stands up and gives the
blinded Decepticon an upper cut to the chin, the powerful hit makes
Rumble fly across the dense water and smacks against the concrete
wall. Hound, not one to give up a fight too early, runs along the
muddy soil and heads towards the blue-ish purple minidisk robot with a
fist ready to give him another punch. Rumble shakes off the
affect of the last hit and sees the Autobot speeding his way. The
small robot smiles and activates his pile driver arms again; the ground
quakes and starts to split open right in front of Hound. The
Autobot falls into the massive crack Rumble created and soon becomes
lodged with boulders and dirt pinning him in place. Hound once
again struggles to free himself, but finds it's much more difficult
this time, the boulders are too heavy. Rumble laughs away at the
Autobot's misfortune and transforms his arms back into regular
mode. Taking a gun out from his back panel, the evil Decepticon
points it at Hound's head and gloats.
"Well, well, well...Looks like I caught me a fish in these waters after
all. Should I be merciful? Or put it down before it drowns to
death...Muahaahahah!” the little robot laughs.
Hound looks up and realizes he's too immobilized to do anything, one
arm is stuck below the dirt and his other hand is being pinned by a
heavy rock. With Rumble taking aim with his weapon, it looks as
though he's finally met his doom.
As Rumble begins to pull the trigger, Spike suddenly swims over and
kicks the gun out of his hand. The Decepticon is surprised by the
attack and tries to grab the small human man who quickly dodges his
grip. Hound finds his strength again while Spike keeps Rumble
occupied, and manages to free one of his hands. Spike desperately
swims for the surface as Rumble angrily follows up behind. Spike
notices the robot is gaining on him fast, and tires to increase his
speed as well, but he’s no match for Rumble who nearly grabs him by the
foot.
“I got you now you stinkin’ lousy human!”
Rumble is jerked back as Hound appears and takes hold of his foot.
“We’re not finished yet, get back here and fight like a transformer!”,
the Autobot says to him.
Rumble screams as he is thrown back down to the bottom of the water
reservior. Spike manages to get to the surface and
breathes. He takes in a few more gasps of air and heads back down
to see if he can help is friend.
Inside the generator room, the Autobots continue to fire at the
Decepticons who sheild themselves behind various objects.
Starscream blasts away at Sideswipe and Prowl who quickly dive behind
one of the generators spinning at maximum capacity.
“Good thing Starscream is such a lousy shot!”, The red robots laughs.
Prowl looks at his back and shows Sideswipe his right door sticking out
behind him.
“Oh yeah? Seems pretty accurate to me you chrome head!”
Up above on the platform, Optimus Prime and Megatron continue to fight
hand to hand. The two grab each other into a dual head lock and
try to keep one another pinned down.
“Face it Megatron…you’re not as good as you used to be!”
“Niether are you Optimus Prime…you’re soft when it comes to doing
what’s necessary. These humans are your weakness…and weakness
deserves to be stamped out!!”
Megatron transforms into his gun mode and blasts Prime in the chest,
the leader falls backward and comes close to the edge of the platform
their on. Megatron quickly transforms again, runs over and kicks
the Autobot leader off of it. Prime nearly drops to the ground as
he suddenly grabs hold of the ledge. Now he hangs dangerously
above one of the generators below, spinning so fast it could probably
cripple the leader. Megatron laughs as he stands over him and
sees the predicament Optimus is in.
“You’ve failed once again Prime…and that spinning device below is the
sound of your doom!”
He steps on the Autobot leader’s hand and twists down on it with all of
his might, as Prime growls in pain, as he begins to lose his grip
on the edge. Starscream looks up and sees Optimus Prime in just
the right spot for his blasters. The Decepticon smiles and aims
both cannons at the Autobot.
“Megatron shouldn’t have the honor of killing him…If I do it, the
Deceptcions will follow me and make me the new leader!
Baaahahahaa!!! SO LONG OPTIMUS PRIME!!!”, the Decepticon shouts.
Sideswipe and Prowl see who Starscream is aiming for and both fire
their weapons just as the evil robot fires his. The dual blasts
hit the Decepticon air commander in the arms and he in turn misses
Optimus Prime, but ends up striking Megatron in the face. The
evil leader falls back from the blast and Prime uses the moment to lift
himself back up.
“YOU FOOL STARSCREAM!!”, Megatron yells at him.
Starscream scream up at him, “Megatron!! Forgive me!!”
“Never mind that…finish the Autobots and get the energon cubes out of
here!”, the leader yells back.
Optimus Prime runs over and picks Megatron up off the ground, he holds
him over his head and throws him out of the building.
“Let’s finish this discussion outside Megatron!”
The Decepticon leader falls on his back onto the dam’s wall bridge,
Optimus Prime runs out and slowly walks up to him, ready to finish the
job.
“I’m tired of your games Megatron. Tired of having to lose so
many friends and innocent lives just to satisfy your greed…your
destrctive behavior…and you’re arrogance. Cybertron belongs to
all of us, not just the Decepticons but all Transformers…Primus wanted
us to live together in harmony, not to have one faction dominate the
other, not even to treat other species as slaves!”
Megatron tries to lift his head, “Ahaha…You’re wong as usual. All
lifeforms are below us…we are the rulers of the universe not
them. Decepticons are the only true inheriters of Cybertron,
Primus hid the truth about our kind…we were the ones that liberated
Cybertron…without us, he would have failed miserably!”
The Autobot leader continued to walk over to him slowly, “Once again
your circuits are faulty Megatron…it was both sides that led us to
freedom. You’re just trying to justify your position in order to
fulfill your sick, twisted mentality of how you want things to
be. It’s always been about you…you crave power and
destruction….and it’s caused our planet dearly for your stupid
ambition!”
Megatron’s eyes lower at the Autobot leader’s words, “Your one to talk
Optimus…I’ve seen you do just as much damage as I have. You could
have ended the war long ago, you could have pitted every last Autobot
at my Decepticons and been victorious. It would have only cost
you half of your forces and made you the most powerful Autobot on
Cybertron! But instead, you cared too much about what was
right…you showed compassion and became soft. You never have the
guts to see things through Prime…Never willing to do what is necessary
to win…no matter the cost.”
Prime’s eyes flare, “You still don’t get it Megatron…I’ve always done
what is necessary. Life….life is what must be saved at all
cost. Primus new it….and I certianly understand it. All
life is worth living…Autobots, Humans and Decepticons. It must be
preserved and allowed to flourish….no matter the cost.”
Outside in the bright blue sky, a commercial sized red and white
helicopter flies in with large letters detailed on the side. The
hovering chopper reads—ACTION NEWS 7—and a man opens the sliding door
on the side pointing a large shoulder mounted camera towards the
dam. A caucasian man, middle aged with dark black hair, kneels
down beside the camera operator and begins to speak into a microphone
headset as he describes the scene.
“This is Jerry McLane reporting for Action News….We’re bringing you
live footage of a major conflict just happening at Sherman Dam with
what appears to be massive robots!”
Looking through the video feed of the camera, it shows a grainy shaken
image of the Autobots fighting the Deceptcions inside the generator
room, that soon shows a Jazz, Sunstreaker and Trailbreaker launching
out as the Tri-decepticon group, Reflector, continues to fight them all
in the open. The camera pans over the area and then spots Optimus Prime
walking over to Megatron, who’s trying to get up on his feet again.
“This is incredible! We are witnessing a most unusual event in
the history of our planet. The robots are in a destructive
struggle with one another that is endangering human lives! I begs
the question as to where our military is and why they haven’t come to
stop them? America wake up!! We’re under attack and no one is
doing a damn thing! Don’t stop filming damnit…keep rolling!”
In a dark, hidden underground lair, Doctor Archeville sits in his usual
balck chair and watches the TV monitor. The live feed from the TV
broadcast plays out as he sits there with several other monitors around
it. On each one of those, the faces of each country government
official stares back at him, as they too watch the horror being
televised on their screens at each of their locations. Archeville
continues to sit very calm and slurps on a hot cup of tea that is
placed beside him on a small glass table.
“Ladies and Gentlemen…as you can see the menace is very real.”, he says
to them all as they look horrified on the monitors.
“This is the destructive power I told you about…and warned you would
happen if you didn’t agree to my terms.”
An older asian man begins to speak as he shakes his head at the sight.
“This does not concern the people of China, Doctor Archeville. So
we will not buy into your purposal, nor shall we agree to any terms you
set down.”
The Doctor drinks from his cup again and glares at the chinese
politican, “Minister Quan…if you don’t agree you will suffer the same
fate as any other that opposes me. I have the technology to level
your country to the ground if need be…I have been paitent and allowed
you to make your idle threats to this country and to the world…but do
not even dare to push me any further on not doing as your told.”
The asian man blinks as he becomes flustered by the tea sipping man’s
comments. Archeville sets his tea down and points to chinese man
on the small monitor.
“You will do as I say and you will continue to work for me.
Understood? Think of the possiblities I will bring you once I
have control of this new crop of technology. You can carry on
your wars and spying missions to a whole new level…this is our business
gentlemen…we make the world run the way it should. But when it
comes to world power…just remember who is the TRUE world power.
I, Doctor Archeville am that power and only I know the secrets of this
technology that you all need.”
A caucasian woman begins to speak in a british accent and sounds
nervous as she directs her comments at him.
“You’ve been promising us this for years Archeville, so far the
technology you’ve given us is very limited. When can we expect to
see the main product you told us about? Where is it?”
The Doctor sighs, “My man is on it. Don’t worry, it won’t be too
long now…you’ve waited this long…time is still on your side.”
“Bull”, says the Canadian official on the lower monitor, “Doctor you’ve
had plenty of time to have this done…And now with these massive alien
robots smashing around, we need those weapons and technology more then
ever. There’s no time left! Why aren’t you stopping these
creatures? Maybe we should ban together and attack them with our
armies, we could take the technology for ourselves.”
“I see…”, Archeville says calmly.
The old Doctor looks to his left and stares at one of his dark
suited agents standing beside him in the shadows. Not saying a
word to each other, the agent walks over to a group of phones and picks
up the one that has the country name on it. The agent picks it up
and begins to talk in a low voice that nobody can hear in the room or
on the monitors. Once he hangs up, the agent walks back over and
Archeville turns to face the Canadian man again.
“Goodbye Mr. Daniels.”
On the monitor, the man looks to the right of him as he hears someone
enter the room. As the Doctor and the other world officials look
at their monitors, they see Mr. Daniels’ eyes grow wide as a gun
suddenly is aimed at his head in plain sight.
“NO…NO WAIT!!”, The man screams.
Archivlle turns off the monitor just as the man gets shot in the head.
“Mr. Daniels has been retired ladies and gentlemen….are there anymore
that wish to…retire?”
All of them remain silent as he looks on each face to see if they do
object.
“No? Good…I’m glad to see the line of thinking has finally
stopped. I supply you with everything you need and those that
wish to attempt to go into buisness for themselves will find that my
men are well placed in your governments. Betrayal will be not be
tolerated.”
Looking back at the british woman, the Doctor once again lifts up his
tea and drinks from it.
“You will have what I promised you soon enough…for now…we shall let
these metal mosters take what they want and then after the dust is
settled….we will take them. Who ever finishes whom first.
Thank you all, we’ll talk later.”
The entire group of monitors shut off and all that remains is the main
viewer that has the live TV broadcast of the sherman dam
struggle. The Doctor snickers as he continues to nurse his drink,
the agent beside him bows and leaves the room.
“Who ever wins….and whom ever loses.”, Archeville chuckles, “Either
way…you will be ours.”
.