The Return of the King: Part 2
A fanfic by Bill T. Taylor
a.k.a. RedStreak
Menasor loomed over the desert sands, the sun glinting off the side of his head. With a roar he threw up his arms and with a force that could crush a mountain slammed his fists against the side of the golden pyramid. Its sides rang like a gong, thunder echoing to the horizon, and yet the pyramid remained standing, its shimmering slopes unblemished.
Menasor, Bruticus, Devastator, and Predaking banged hard against the monstrous
structure with their bare fists, devoting every ounce of their might towards
bashing it apart. On the ground, Blitzwing in his tank mode blasted over and
over again, Octane and Astrotrain flying above also raining their firepower down
on the pyramid. Against all odds the pyramid seemed invulnerable, but no one
could guess for how long it could maintain such a facade against such force.
Cyclonus, standing behind in his robot form, jeered his squadron of Decepticons
on. “Come on you walking piles of aluminum scrap! Rip it down if you dare call
yourselves Decepticons!”
Away, in Cairo, Rodimus Prime helped the winged and majestic Isis up. “Isis, what’s going on?” he asked.
“It is terrible,” Isis moaned, regaining her balance, “Even now your enemies threaten to bring Ra down. The other Enneadmons must also sense Ra is in danger by now. Come, we must….”
Rodimus Prime restrained her. “Wait, Isis. Before we can act, you must explain this to us. What are you…who are you and what is this ‘Ra’ and ‘Osiris’ you keep talking about?”
Isis sighed, her wings flapping as her shoulders slumped. “Time is not a commodity we Enneadmons keep in stock...but if you insist, Matrix-Bearer.”
Isis stretched out her wings, the tips of them curving over her head. As the sun shined through them, her wings glowed blue-green. From the tips two beams shot out, merging together on the ground to form a hologram of the pyramid.
“For eons, as measured by this world’s time, Ra traveled through the void in madness.” The pyramid spun about wildly, and then approached a blue sphere clearly modeled like the Earth. “Ra fell from the void to this world.”
Skydive looked to Isis. “But where did Ra come from? Who created him?”
“Such knowledge,” Isis said, not even batting an eye toward the Autobot, “Is beyond my knowing. Only Ra itself would know its origins and creator, which I do not. All I can tell you is what I do know….”
“Please, continue,” Rodimus Prime asked, watched Isis’ holograms.
Isis made a new image, of the pyramid,
Ra, by the shores of a great river. “Ra’s madness was the instigator of our
creation – the creation of the Enneadmons.” From Ra’s entrance stepped forth
five transformers, each one identical to the ones the Autobots had already seen,
in addition to a fifth. “Once the Enneadmons numbered five: Set, Annubis, Horus,
Isis…and…and….”
There was a trembling in Isis’ voice. “And Osiris…the light of us all.”
For a moment it seemed as if Isis would weep. Instead her arms stiffened, her
fist balling up. “Come!” she blared, “We must find and restore Osiris before all
is lost!” Like before, Isis arched her left arm up, about to wave it to
transport them all.
“Wait!” Rodimus Prime stopped her, “Take only me. The Aerialbots I’ll send to
safeguard…Ra…from whatever threatens it now.”
“But Rodimus….” Silverbolt tried to protest.
Without further debate Isis flung over her energy bubble. Rodimus Prime was now
caught within it, separated from the Aerialbots. “Do as I say,” he said as Isis
began to float upwards with him as well, “Aerialbots, you have my orders.”
Inside a glowing white bubble, Isis and Rodimus Prime flew off
In the west amid dunes and rocks, a battle was at hand. Dark Annubis crashed, or
rather, ‘splashed’ into a large dune, sand spouting out. He quickly dug himself
out, then launched himself into the air. The jackal-headed transformer flew
foot-first into Set, kicking him hard in the jaw.
Set was, in turn, launched into the sky. He was nearly out of sight before he
managed to halt. His jaw, hanging loosely, he reset with his hand. His teeth and
fist now clenched hard, Set flew back to the desert below.
“Where is Osiris to save you now?” shouted the bronze monster. With his staff in
both hands he swung and slapped it against the sand, sending out a shockwave
through it. Sand moved in giant waves, racing toward the fleet-footed Annubis.
RedStreak, Scamper, Six-Guns, and Sandstorm jumped to one side as Set’s sand
wave blasted by. They got up, nearly half-buried in sand themselves. “Man, I
feel like a target out here between these two guys!” Sandstorm said, coughing up
sand.
Six-Guns stood to his full height. Clenching his fists, the giant suggested,
“Then let’s not be targets anymore!” He stretched out his arms, his fists
retracted inside, in their place twin cannons emerged. Six-Guns swung them
about, firing twin lasers at Set.
Preoccupied with Annubis, Set was caught off guard by Six-Guns’ blast. He was
tossed up, landing face-down against another sand dune. He grunted, slow to
emerge from the sand.
“Hey! Six-Guns has the right idea!” Scamper said joyously.
“Yeah! Let’s annihilate him!” Sandstorm cheered, taking out his blaster.
RedStreak did the same, firing alongside Sandstorm. Scamper transformed to car
form, the mounted blasters on him aiming and firing as Six-Guns bent down,
launching two red missiles from his back.
The total blast was immense. Annubis watched with surprise as four interlopers
boldly fired on Set. He held his spear for a moment, watching with his eyes and
listening with his great ears as they shouted aloud.
“Autobots united can take anyone!” RedStreak yelled triumphantly.
A
second explosion went up, but one not made by the Autobots this time. Set sprang
from the sand, spewing out angrily “FOOLS! YOU DARE ATTACK US?! YOU METTLE IN
POWERS YOU CAN’T COMPREHEND!”
Set opened his mouth, a ball of purple fire blasting out. It hit right between
Six-Guns’ feet, sending the tall Autobot stumbling backwards. Set spat out a
second, this time directed at Scamper. The black car shifted to reverse,
throwing up sand as he drove away, barely missing the blast.
“Holy crap!” RedStreak blared, “And I thought the Dinobots had bad breath!”
The sound of RedStreak’s voice drew Set’s attention. Again the evil Enneadmon
pointed his staff, this time right in the path of both RedStreak and Sandstorm.
Set gave a deep growl, a potent orange glow already forming around his weapon.
In that moment Six-Guns arose from the sand. His eye perceived the obvious
danger poised by Set to his two friends. Lumbering with all the speed he could
muster, Six-Guns yelled out, “NO!” As he rushed forward, he aimed his massive
arm-lasers at Set.
“Six-Guns!” Sandstorm blared.
Set turned on Six-Guns, orange lightning shooting out in a bright flash.
Six-Guns groaned in agony, every circuit in his body absorbing the blast. For a
full minute Six-Guns was lit up like a Christmas show until, at last, Set
released the giant, smoke rising from the Autobot’s tortured body. Limp like a
doll, Six-Guns fell to his knees, then landed flat on his face.
“And now,” Set confidently smirked, “It’s your turn.”
Before Set could turn on the functional Autobots, a familiar black blur pounced
onto him. In the split second before, Annubis’ body stretched out, transforming!
With a metallic ‘WHAM’ Set stared up at a snarling black jackal, its blocky paws
tipped with claws sharper than razors.
“Go ahead,” Set boasted, “Try and rip me apart! I’ll only turn on you all the
more….”
Something shuddered through the Enneadmons. Set and Annubis both gazed to the
east, their eyes fixated on something distant. “Ra,” they both murmured. The
brief revelation was momentary – given a second Set kicked the black desert dog
off him, quick to fly off. Annubis got up, looking skyward with a toothy frown
on his face. Strangely, he glanced back at the interlopers, now tending their
wounded. Annubis just hesitated for a moment, and then bounded into the air.
Scamper rejoined Sandstorm and RedStreak as the tried to turn Six-Guns over.
Transforming, Scamper muttered, “Oh no. This is bad, very bad.”
“That’s not a joke either,” Sandstorm agreed, opening a plate in Six-Guns’
chest. Peering inside, he told RedStreak and Scamper, “His rectifiers and
energon chips are shorted out. Laser core cracked big-time! I dunno if he’ll
last long, even in stasis lock!”
“Man, we’re supposed to be a rescue mission, and now we need rescuing!”
RedStreak exclaimed, “Ugh…better contact base. Ultra Magnus is not going to
be…hey…..”
Just as he was about to activate his com-link, RedStreak spied something in the
sand a few yards away. He walked over and went to the ground, trying to dig it
out. “There’s something in the sand!” he said, Scamper and Sandstorm just
looking over their shoulders.
A
bit of metal stuck out from the ground – silver, gold, and iron welded together.
When the Autobot uncovered it fully, he couldn’t believe what he saw. “What the
heck?” RedStreak muttered in confusion. It was a hand! Just like the hand of a
transformer, even with wires and a gold cog poking out of the end where the
elbow would be. RedStreak leaned toward it, about to pick it up….
The fingers on the hand grabbed RedStreak’s wrist.
“AGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!”
It was in darkness that Galvatron awoke. His eyes turned a bright red once more,
peering out into the depths of the chamber around him. “Ugh…w-what happened?”
the Decepticon mumbled, feeling dizzy and weary at once.
There was a deep, deep drumming echoing all around. A few trails of dust fell
from the ceiling, disturbed by a distant rumbling. “What’s going on out there?”
Galvatron asked himself. The answer immediately followed. “My Decepticons!
They’re attacking the pyramid! Those fools!” Galvatron shook his fist, “I can
not allow them to destroy so powerful a source of energy!” He then put his hand
to his chin, pondering “But how do I harness the power of this…thing?”
As the pounding continued, the walls around Galvatron began to pulse with light;
faint at first, but slowly growing brighter with each passing minute. It was
almost as if the pyramid itself was awaking, realizing it was in danger as
massive as it was. As the light became brighter, Galvatron backed up, towards
one of the supporting columns.
It zapped Galvatron, causing him to yell out in pain and tumble forward.
Stumbling, Galvatron smacked into a second, zapped by an even larger jolt. “Agh!
This place is…is….”
The Decepticon commander then realized it. He looked at the walls, the columns,
the central platform he stood upon. “This place is the heart of the pyramid!
It’s control center…yes!” Galvatron quickly stood at the center of the platform,
stretching out his arms and legs as best he could.
Simultaneously, four beams of energy blasted out of the four columns surrounding
him. He gasped, feeling the lightning flowing through him. “Yes…yes….”
A
fifth beam descended from the ceiling, hitting squarely at Galvatron as his
yells grew louder. “YES! YES!"
Outside the Decepticon attack continued. Still there was minimal damage to the
pyramid, aside from a few burn marks contributed from Blitzwing, Astrotrain, and
Octane’s laser fire. Cyclonus continued to yell out to his troops, shouting,
“Keep at it! It shall fall long before Galvatron himself will fall…AGH!”
An orange beam hit Cyclonus in the back, sending him tumbling into the pyramid’s
wide crater. The Decepticons halted, turning behind to see Set flying over the
site, his staff aglow with orange light.
“WRETCHED BEINGS! FIRST YOU DEFILE MY PRESENCE, AND NOW YOU DARE TO DEFILE RA!”
Set hoisted his staff above his head, a great sphere of orange light now at its
tip. “BY OUR WILL AND MIGHT, YOU SHALL ALL BE DESTROYED FOUL….”
Suddenly Set’s light vanished. He clenched, an aura of the same orange light
forming around him, as if the power he drew on was feeding back on itself. Very
quickly it faded, turning from orange to a faint, light gray surrounding him.
Set then tumbled to the ground, thudding hard.
He trembled, suddenly finding himself weakened. “What? How can this be? The
strength of Ra has left me!” Set gasped.
A
tremor in the ground caught them all by surprise. All the Decepticons backed
away, the pyramid itself rising out of the ground. An aura of bright yellow
enveloped the gigantic structure, unbridled energy coursing through its very
fiber. The glow quickly changed, darkening from yellow to green to blue to
violet. The once golden sides then changed, becoming cold, dark steel.
Blitzwing transformed, Astrotrain and Octane landing and doing likewise. Before
their optics they saw a giant symbol rise out of the pyramid’s side, just below
the great eye at its apex. “Am I seeing things?” Blitzwing asked his companions.
The pyramid’s eye shined bright green. “No, Blitzwing! Not at all!" a
booming voice came from the pyramid, “The might of Ra is now the might of
the Decepticons!”
Cyclonus rose up from the ground, looking up at the pyramid. “G-Galvatron?”
“Indeed!
And now, Cyclonus, for you foolish act of attacking this pyramid! " The
pyramid’s eye fired a giant green beam down towards its base. Cyclonus was flung
two hundred feet away before he knew what hit him. The eye still on Cyclonus,
Galvatron’s voice boomed, “Thus is the punishment for attempting to destroy
what I desired!"
The eye turned, now focusing on the Enneadmon. “Ah, how fitting. Set. The
tables are now turned, aren’t they?"
“No! The power of Ra is not yours to command!” Set yelled out.
Set’s outburst was met by another blast from the eye. Set resisted, the sand
melting, burying him deeper and deeper. As he sank to his neck in molten rock
and glass, Set warned, “We will not be denied! Ra shall be ours again!” Set then
vanished into the Earth.
The Gestalts and triple-changers looked to each other, and then to the pyramid.
“What do you want us to do Galvatron?” Astrotrain asked.
The eye turned toward the Decepticons. “Return to Char, all save Devastator
and the Constructicons. Gather all the energon cubes and prepare for the final
battle against the Autobots! With the power that is now me, we shall at last
conquer the universe itself and vanquish all who oppose us!"
Isis and Rodimus Prime flew across the desert. Three-quarters of the way to the
pyramid, Isis halted for a moment. “Oh,” she moaned, putting her hand to her
head as if a migraine was coming over her, “Ra.”
Rodimus Prime quickly caught Isis, just as she was about to collapse. The bubble
they resided in slowly began to descend to the ground. “What is it?” Rodimus
asked her.
“Our worst fear, more so than Set,” Isis stated, “Another has power over Ra now.
The need for Osiris grows once again!”
She gasped, the energy bubble fluctuating for a second. “Are you alright?” the
Autobot asked.
“No,” Isis said, struggling to stand back up, “We Enneadmons draw strength from
Ra – Ra’s life force keeps ours alive; we a part of Ra and Ra a part of us.”
“And now that Ra is under alien control…” Rodimus began to say.
“We will all die,” Isis finished.
Isis managed to maintain her energy field
until the pair landed. She leaned on her knees, moaning more loudly, but able to
stand and walk. Rodimus Prime transformed, offering, “Here. Save your strength;
use me for a ride.” Isis promptly crawled onto his hood, Rodimus Prime driving
toward the small group ahead.
There Scamper and Sandstorm stood, Six-Guns lying unconscious on his back.
RedStreak was on his knees, one arm sticking out as he yelled out “AHH! GET THIS
THING OFF ME! AHH!”
“RedStreak!” Rodimus Prime drove over the next dune and transformed, leaving
Isis and his trailer as he ran by foot up to him. On the young Autobot’s hand
was a strange, twitching gauntlet. Silver and gold construction, yet nothing
like any Rodimus Prime had seen.
“It…it just grabbed onto me and literally merged with my hand!” RedStreak
explained, waving his possessed hand around, “It won’t come off!”
Isis’ eyes lit up. With renewed strength
she flew over beside RedStreak and Rodimus Prime. Scamper and Sandstorm drew
their weapons, but Rodimus Prime raised a hand for them to stand down. “Relax,
this is Isis. She’s on our side.”
Isis gleamed over the gauntlet on
RedStreak. “By Ra! The left hand of Osiris! You’ve discovered it!”
“Yeah,” RedStreak said wearily, still trying to shake it off, “Now I wish I
hadn’t!”
“No, no, no,” Isis said, holding the arm with her hands, “You don’t understand!
This is a piece of Osiris, the lord of the Enneadmons. It is the first we have
discovered in centuries.”
“Piece of him?” Sandstorm spoke up, overhearing the conversation, “What happened
to the rest of him?”
Isis answered, “Set. From the moment we
arrived here, Set was the rival of Osiris. In one final battle, Set tore him
apart and scattered his remains across the deserts. He would have done the same
to all of us were it not for my plan to trap him and the rest of us within Ra.”
Still grappling with the parasitic gauntlet, RedStreak grunted, “Why is…(ugh)
Osiris so…(ugh)…important? How could he help us now?”
“Until Set vanquished him, he held prime control over Ra,” Isis stated, “Which
is why Set killed him, so he could inherit that power.”
“POWER THAT LORD GALVATRON NOW COMMANDS!” Devastator’s voice boomed. The group
turned around…a huge shadow coming down at them.
“JUMP!” Sandstorm yelled.
Devastator’s right foot slammed into the ground where everyone stood. Devastator
grinned devilishly, looming over them all. “Galvatron has sent ME to dispose of
you, Autobots! Nothing withstands the might of…DEVASTATOR!”
Rodimus Prime ran, doubling-back behind the Decepticon titan. There his red
trailer sat. Clicking on the Autobot icon on his chest, Rodimus Prime yelled to
it, “Trailer: battle-station mode!”
On command, Prime’s trailer unfolded. A large, double-barreled cannon deployed,
guard panels fixed on either side. Rodimus Prime quickly jumped on and got
behind the cannon, aiming it up towards Devastator’s backside. “Withstand this,
Devastator!”
With his hands on the handles, Rodimus Prime launched two electric balls
straight at the Decepticon. They both hit, sending a shock into Devastator’s
hide, but the giant did not react. Instead, Devastator turned around, his grin
wider. “Ha! My armor is tougher than you thought, Rodimus! Let’s see how tough
yours is!” From Devastator’s cycloptic eye fired out a broad laser beam,
knocking Rodimus Prime’s trailer and the Autobot himself over.
Devastator began to laugh, but that wasn’t the end of it. Another blast hit him
from behind, something strong enough to get his attention. A burn mark left in
his back, Devastator glanced behind to see Isis gasping on her knees, smoke
coming from her hands. The Decepticon growled, rushing upon her.
A
loud shriek came from above. The Autobots and Isis all looked up, seeing a large
mechanical hawk descending from high above. Its claws dug into the shoulders of
Devastator, grasping with incredible strength. Before Devastator could even lift
his arms up to grab, the great bird ripped the top half of his torso and his
head off.
In the bird’s talons the mess of metal wiggled, transformed. Hook found himself
dangling from his feet, yelling woefully, “Whoa! Put me down you devious lump of
beryllium feathers!” From his shoulder compartment, Hook grabbed his gun and
tried to fire at his captor, but dangling upside-down did not help his aim. Hook
managed two shots, neither successful, before the hawk dropped him into a rocky
ravine, the Constructicon crashing loudly.
What remained of Devastator wobbled around deaf, mute, and blind without a head
to guide it. Getting to his knees, Rodimus Prime shouted to his soldiers, “Now!
Transform and ram him!” In that moment he, Scamper, and Sandstorm changed into a
truck, car, and dune buggy. RedStreak jumped up and tried the same, but the
gauntlet only let him transform halfway, his arms dangling from where his hood
should have been.
“Damn! This…thing won’t let me transform!” cursed RedStreak.
Rodimus Prime, Scamper, and Sandstorm rammed into Devastator at eighty miles per
hour with a loud metal crunch. Like a failing tower, Devastator tumbled
backwards, smoke rising from his wreck.
Transforming, Sandstorm wiped the oil from his brow. “Phew! One less problem to
worry about!”
The hawk fluttered down from the sky, its wings folding as its body transformed.
A jackal bounded over in the blink of an eye, also shape-shifting before the
group. Now pair of a humanoid shapes with the heads of a bird and jackal stood.
Isis approached them as the Autobots watched.
She placed her hands on them, a flash of white penetrating from her palms. “Be
still, and understand, my brothers,” Isis
said to them. The Enneadmons then looked to their Autobot host, with Isis
saying, “These are the Autobots, our allies. Autobots know these as Annubis and
Horus.”
“Strange, but noble beings,” bird-like Horus looked upon them.
Annubis stepped forward, his spear in hand. Looking specifically upon RedStreak,
Scamper, and Sandstorm, he quoted, “You are the ones who challenged Set during
my quarrel with him. Despite your numbers, the fight was not in your favor, as
the loss of the one proves.”
“The one?” Rodimus Prime looked to Six-Guns. He rushed over, finding him still
in stasis lock. “This is terrible! How bad is he?”
“Very,” Scamper told Rodimus straight-forward, “Laser core fracture, fried
circuits. How his spark stays online is beyond me.”
Rodimus Prime looked to the Enneadmons. “Can you heal him, like you did me,
Isis?”
Isis shook her head, leaning on Horus’
side. “No. My power is…too drained. Without Ra to power me, and the blast I
delivered to that giant, I am…far too…weak to aid you.” Sighing heavily, she
added, “I may not be able to last much longer than a few days, even if I
conserve my strength.”
Horus looked to Rodimus as Isis rested against him. “None of the Enneadmons will
survive as long as the might of Ra is severed from us. Not even Set, wherever he
may be.”
Scamper suggested with an open hand, “What about the Matrix Rodimus Prime
carries? Could it not heal and energize you much as….”
Isis immediately jerked up. “No! No it
can not!” Strained, she fell back, Horus catching her in his arms. Looking to
the Autobots, Isis softly said, “It…it is like poison to…us. Ra alone is our
source of power, nothing else.”
“Well,” RedStreak said, still annoyed by the gauntlet on his hand, “What ever
happened to Ra itself?”
Annubis, his gaze on the horizon, now pointed to it. “Look to the Southeast for
your answer, Autobot.”
In the direction of the orange, late afternoon sun was a black triangle. It
seemed to grow larger and larger, and larger still. A low, yet deep hum sounded
as it approached. As it grew closer, a green, glowing eye was visible at its
peak, fixated upon them. Rodimus Prime, in turn, became fixated upon the icon
engraved onto the floating object’s side.
“No! It can’t be!” he said, seeing the icon of the Decepticons on the pyramid.
“Ra,” Isis weakly said, “Has now become possessed…by the one you call…Galvatron.”
Annubis raised up his spear, the tip of it glowing bright gold once more. To
Rodimus he said “Matrix-Bearer, take Isis and the crimson one….”
“Hey, it’s red, red! My name is RedStreak for crying out loud!” griped RedStreak.
“…away,” continued Annubis, “Horus and I will stall the tainted Ra while you seek out Osiris.”
Sandstorm and Scamper pulled their weapons out. “Well we’re in too!” Sandstorm said, clicking his blaster.
“No, you can not stay!” Horus said to him with sickle in hand, “This foe is beyond your skills.”
“Alright, we better roll then!” Rodimus Prime suggested, “RedStreak, you and Isis load into my trailer! Sandstorm, Scamper, you two just transform and get the heck outta here….”
It was too late. The dark pyramid was already hovering over them all. The great
eye was upon them all. Its power grew more intense, the sand and ground lighting
up in jade light.
“ENNEADMONS ATTACK!” Annubis and Horus cried out together.
“AUTOBOTS TRANSFORM AND ROLL OUT!” shouted Rodimus Prime.
The eye was quicker. The beam hit them all at full strength. The Autobots were scattered in all directions, Annubis and Horus and Isis alike flung hard to the ground. Rodimus Prime grunted, sand in every crevice of his body. He cast one of his eyes up to the pyramid, the eye of Ra, now the eye of Galvatron, gazing down at him.
“Long have I awaited this day, Rodimus Prime,” Galvatron’s voice echoed, “The day of the last Prime…the last…Autobot!"
The eye charged up, preparing for one last strike….
To Be Continued….