The Road to Awe

&lt;M-Decepticon&gt; Red Alert says, "Interecepting unusual signals, from the general direction of &lt;co-ordinates that would point to the location where Cybertron had been in 2005&gt;."

&lt;M-Decepticon&gt; Wildrider says, "Impossible."

&lt;M-Decepticon&gt; Red Alert says, "It would appear not! I'm receiving them! Why would it be impossible?"

&lt;M-Decepticon&gt; Fusillade says, "Hnn. Can you sort 'em?  S'not something that'd be laid out just to lure us in..."

&lt;M-Decepticon&gt; Fireflight says, "want me to investigate?"

&lt;M-Decepticon&gt; Wildrider says, "...Cybertron was destroyed in 2005. Only things out there now are Autobot patrol ships and rubble."

&lt;M-Decepticon&gt; Red Alert says, "... Fireflight. How? And... they don't /sound/ Autobot..."

&lt;M-Decepticon&gt; Fireflight thinks a long moment, then ohs "Space coordinates. Nevermind."

&lt;M-Decepticon&gt; Red Alert says, "Closer to Decepticon signals, I'd say."

&lt;M-Decepticon&gt; Fusillade says, "I miiiiiiiiiiiight be able to assist."

&lt;M-Decepticon&gt; Red Alert says, "As in, your ship?"

&lt;M-Decepticon&gt; Fusillade says, "Well, I'd like to satisfy my curiosity about whether or not energon and other potent potables are just as different from each other as the robots have been..."

&lt;M-Decepticon&gt; Soundwave says, "I'll take potent potables for 1000, Alex. Ha ha ha. What's potable mean?"

&lt;M-Decepticon&gt; Fusillade says, "You can chug it without blowing up."

&lt;M-Decepticon&gt; Soundwave says, "Uh-huh."

&lt;M-Decepticon&gt; Soundwave says, "Um.. and potent?"

&lt;M-Decepticon&gt; Red Alert says, "Take what Fusillade said, and add 'barely' in front of 'chug'."

Oceania -- Mirror Universe

Containing Australia, New Zealand, and a great deal of islands, Oceania is known for its marsupials and a plethora of extremely poisonous animals. The war has barely touched this area, due to the Transformers mostly overlooking the land down under. As such, refugees from other, less-fortunate areas have spilled into Oceania.

Contents:

Astrotrain

Red Alert

Fireflight

Kup

Fusillade

The Silver Mako

Obvious exits: &lt;Up&gt; leads to Earth Orbit -- Mirror Universe. &lt;East&gt; leads to South America -- Mirror Universe. &lt;North&gt; leads to Asia -- Mirror Universe. &lt;South&gt; leads to Antarctica -- Mirror Universe. &lt;West&gt; leads to Africa -- Mirror Universe.

(Missing some poses here. If anyone has them, please add them?)

"Because if I /didnt/, He'd run rampage across the countryside and do more damage to this planet, and it doesnt need it." Fireflight explains to Kup, just standing there between the Autobots and Astrotrain. He looks then to Red Alert "I... I agreed to get him home with us. After you were knocked out. Its complicated. But he'll help us if we need him to help achieve home." The aerialbot explains.

Red Alert snorts. "Listen. We help him, and the moment we're back in our home reality, he's shooting us in the back, or throwing us out an airlock, or taking us prisoner to be tortured and questioned, or..." Red Alert throws up his arms. "I could go on all day!"

Astrotrain firmly stands -behind- Fireflight, which is a bit odd looking considering the triplechanger is much bigger than the Aerialbot. Even as Kup wields his makeshift pointy stick, and Red Alert produces his weapon, Astrotrain places his hands on Fireflight's shoulders as he explains and offers out a, "Short-stuff here even said he'd refuse to go back if I didn't get to go back too!" Oh yeah, he's gonna quote -that- one more than once.

Fireflight flinches a little.

With his free hand (the other one's holding a rifle), Red Alert covers his face.

&lt;M-Decepticon&gt; Catechism says, "A Decepticon signal, eh? Sounds like we ought to investigate," and she hopes that maybe these ones know how to fight.

Kup's lip twitches. "Bah! We don't fraggin' have time for this. Ok, you wanna make a deal, Astro? We need to investigate those transmissions Red picked up. But they're at Cybertron, or what's left of it. So you can either transform and fly us over there, or we're just gonna frag you and have HER fly us over there." He thumb-points at Fusillade. "That's my deal, Decepticon. Take it or leave it. And trust me, you wanna take it. Been in a bad mood all day."

&lt;M-Decepticon&gt; Red Alert starts with, "I..." He pauses. "Agree." He sounds like he really hates to be agreeing with Catechism.

&lt;M-Decepticon&gt; Fusillade says, "Working on it!"

Fireflight looks from Red Alert to Kup and back again with a sigh. "I'll explain later. IT was excrutiating circumstances." he explains simply. "So uh... Signals from Cybertron. I'm in." "Don't you mean extinua-" Red Alert begins, then cuts himself off. Actually, Fireflight could very well mean 'excrutiating circumstances' in this case.

Fusillade ahems a bit, whisking enermarshmallow ash off one shoulder. "Well, it's not like have anything else better to do in this reality. I'm sure it will provide you a nice chance to dodge this reality's Autobots. Literally, if we run afoul of a blockade." She can't help but grin a bit at the prospect of adventure.

Astrotrain listens to Kup, then makes a motion with one hand. "Keep it in yer access hatch, ya old geezer! It's simple." He gestures around himself. "This place sucks. Pure and simple.I want to go home. Yeah, I get back there, I'm gonna happily shoot ya in the face too. But I'd rather do it there, than here. Fine?"

Kup sighs. "Fine. Now transform, already. Headache's gettin' worse." He looks meaninfully at Fusillade. "We'd like you to follow us there, if you can. We might run into trouble." Under his breath, he mutters, "And 'sides, that guy can't be trusted for an instant."

XF-35B Astral Lightning &lt;Catechism&gt; has heard that there is some sort of a signal gone out around Cybertron. She returns from space, a ball of fire, red-hot. her search for Shockwave has been unfruitful. Still cooling with clinks and pops, she touches down near the group. The jet looks over at Astrotrain with some curiosity- she doesn't even bother to transform - perhaps she'll have to fly escort for the Grey Lady's ship.

Fusillade's lips press into a moue. "You make it sound like you'd actually be able to keep me away."

Astrotrain eyes Kup, pointing a finger for good measure, "Watch it with the orders ya old codger!" Nevertheless, he does indeed transform a moment later, shifting and spinning in place before slamming down on his eight huge wheels, his rear access ramp coming down with a heavy *TOOM* onto the ground, all the while making some commentary about weight and jettisoning...

Spinning and shifting parts result in Astotrain's heavy locomotive form taking shape.

Fusillade raises wrist to shout into a comm radio at Cabin Boy Switchblade. "Get the last of those repairs made! We're about to embark!" She then whistles sharply in the direction of the base. A low rumble of engines firing can be heard, and soon, the chromed spaceship swims through the air to their location, a few workers still dangling from service lines. Fusillade turns, and d'awww, "Good boy."

Red Alert mutters, "Don't you mean 'mass'?" even as he climbs on board the shuttle.

Fireflight nods and relaxes. Just a little bit. He rubbed his head somewhat and looked then to Red Alert and Kup "... Shall I uh, take the train then?"

Red Alert has left.

Kup stomps up into Astrotrain, stopping only to poke his head out and say, "We're leavin' for Cybertron. You might wanna follow us," to Catechism before he ducks inside the shuttle. "Time to get the frag outta here."

Kup has left.

Fireflight has left.

Fusillade has left.

Fusillade enters the The Silver Mako.

The Silver Mako has left.

(travel spam of spam)

Ruins of Cybertron -- Mirror Universe

Cybertron is a scattered asteroid field, made up of detritus that once composed the seat of the Autobot Republic. According to the party line, Decepticon terrorists destroyed the planet but were summarily captured, beaten, and disposed of quietly. However, according to Decepticon folklore, a massive bringer of terrible judgement arrived to pronounce doom on an irredeemable world of sinners. Whatever happened here, the wonderous cities, winding tunnel complexes, and ruined planetary engine components can now be seen in little chunks. This artificial asteroid field would be a scavenger's paradise, if not for the Autobots' quick wrath at anyone who dares desecrate their homeworld. The only ones brave or foolish enough to try are plucky Decepticon rebels.

Contents:

The Silver Mako(#555)

Obvious exits: &lt;Out&gt; leads to Cybertron Orbit -- Mirror Universe.

Fusillade leaves the The Silver Mako.

Fusillade has arrived.

Astrotrain has arrived.

Fireflight has arrived.

Red Alert has arrived.

Kup has arrived.

Kup has taken up the pilot's station on Astrotrain only to find that it's mostly for show. Still, it does have a nice view... of Cybertron. "Geeeze. What the frag happened here?" he asks aloud and over ship-to-ship frequencies.

Fireflight had remained quiet the way here. Acting much like he did whenever he knew he was in trouble. He stared out a window, just sitting there and rubbing his head. Red Alert stares out the window, mouth agape at the ruins of Cybertron. "I... oh, Primus," he murmurs, then shakes his head, and reports in a firmer voice, "The signal's definitely getting stronger."

Decepticon Shuttle &lt;Astrotrain&gt; simply cuts through space like he's always been designed to do. First time he's ever carried a bunch of Autobots inside though...he better not tell Blitzwing. A small light on his control panel in the cabin flashes in tinme with his voice as he speaks, "Ya know, I was out in the middle of space lookin fer the Boss when I got sucked through this thing..."

Asteroids spin and whirl, too thickly packed for any natural asteroid field and too purely metallic. Navigation is extremely difficult here, and Catechism jinks and spins to avoid getting smashed to pieces. Some of the chunks here - they chow circuitry and gears. This was a planet! This was Cybertron. Her lasercore sinks. So it's true. Cybertron is dead.

&lt;M-Decepticon&gt; Red Alert says, "Fusillade... do you know what happened here?"

Having departed the ship, Fusillade cruises alongside the Decepticon shuttle in her bomber mode. She idly pulls foward, and swats a small orange-hued chunk of detritus in his direction, although once Red Alert asks, she sobers up a bit.

Shockwave has arrived.

Decepticon Shuttle &lt;Astrotrain&gt; doesn't seem quite as choked up as some others might, in light of things. He's too busy suddenly trying to maneuver his huge bulk amongst the debris to avoid getting bashed up. What hecan't go around, he simply blasts to pieces with his undercarriage plasma projectors to clear a path. So much for respect for a sacred place. "This better yield somethin..."

&lt;M-Decepticon&gt; Fusillade says, "Well, I suppose 'it blew up' would be a bit too obvious..."

Kup chuckles down at the flight panel. "Ha, oh, yer boss is here, all right. You should see 'im. He's a busted up hermit that wouldn't even put up a fight against Bumblebee. Yeah... well, maybe I shouldn't laugh. He seemed like a good guy."

&lt;M-Decepticon&gt; Fusillade says, "Approximately four vorn ago, Cybertron was destroyed. We had been judged -- and found lacking.  The planet was doomed.  I... pretty much went through the same thing you guys are going through right now, I had been out on the lanes when it happened.  Decepticon transmissions dying in radiation static carried a name that chills me to the core to this day.  Unicron.  It strengthened the resolve of most Decepticons to resist passively, but only angered the Autobots further. They claimed that Decepticon rebels were responsible for cracking the planet open, hnph.  I think they're just sore because they could no longer take it for themselves."

Fusillade's bomber mode dips one wing to avoid a tektite. On local broadband, she announces, &lt;&lt;Approximately four vorn ago, Cybertron was destroyed. We had been judged -- and found lacking. The planet was doomed. I... pretty much went through the same thing you guys are going through right now, I had been out on the lanes when it happened. Decepticon transmissions dying in radiation static carried a name that chills me to the core to this day. Unicron. It strengthened the resolve of most Decepticons to resist passively, but only angered the Autobots further. They claimed that Decepticon rebels were responsible for cracking the planet open, hnph. I think they're just sore because they could no longer take it for themselves&gt;&gt;

Fireflight shifts a little at the story and sighs. A sad sigh. He stares out the window. "... Pillars built so high. " he murmers simply.

Red Alert mutters, "Unicron." The word is spat out. He... should have guessed. Then he shakes his head and adds, "That passive resistance is going to see your side defeated, Fusillade. Dedication to peace is all well and good, but sometimes you've got to fight for it."

"Wait you guys -lost- to Unicron?" Astrotrain grunts over the radio waves, growling as he swoops around another piece of debris. "Cause we've blown him to pieces what...three times now!?"

Kup replies to Fusillade, &lt;&lt;What? Unicron did this? Is he... is he still around? In our universe we managed to stop him before he destroyed Cybertron, but I guess you folks weren't so lucky.&gt;&gt; Sighing, he leans back in Astrotrain's pilot's chair, causing it to creak a bit. Glancing at the radar display on Astrotrain's flight panel, he scowls at a blinking blip. &lt;&lt;Huh. Guys, hate to say this, but I don't think we're alone out here.&gt;&gt;

Lightspeed arrives from the Cybertron Orbit -- Mirror Universe.

Lightspeed has arrived.

XF-35B Astral Lightning &lt;Catechism&gt; growls, "Unicron. Why couldn't /he/ be some pacifist who, I dunno, spits out planets like an energon candy machine?" She jinks, avoiding a jagged sheets of metal the size of Texas that comes careening at her. So, radio signal... she looks over at the others, seeing if they have a better idea of where their target is.

Fusillade hisses softly. &lt;&lt;I've tried telling them that, Red Alert. The idea is a good one, but ultimately flawed. I do what I can, but ultimately I can only operate on my own recognizance so far. Three times? We have only encountered him once; I suppose that is all he needed. We were not able to destroy him. Damaged, yes, but he remains unchallenged. Pacifist? No, Catechism. His methodolgy is quite pragmatic, rendering his judgment by devouring the most wretched and sinful of planets.&gt;&gt; Her nose canards twitch as she laughs, &lt;&lt;Which means the monastaries of Monacus would be an ideal refuge spot, if I could get the scratch to get my crew there.&gt;&gt;

Fusillade says, "He is the Chaos-Remover."

"Monacus is a MONASTARY!?" Astrotrain digests that in silence. "I hate this place."

Fireflight flinches at Astrotrains' non-silent comment. He rubs his head and looks across to Red Alert, confused "... A monastery? ' he asks, having not really paid attention

Prowl has arrived.

Prowl

EVIL PROWL

===========================[ +ICfinger for Prowl ]============================ Prowl, Inquisitive Autobot! -- Species:            Transformer Faction:            Autobot Function:           STRATEGIST Rank:               8 - Imperial Police / Head Inquisitor

Quote: "Logic is the ultimate weapon."

Note: PROWL will keep at a task for as long as it takes. Strives to find reason and logic in everything. His love of the Autobot Empire has achieved a zealot-like state. Constant apologist for the "necessary" brutalities of war. A master strategist, he will stop at nothing to get the job done. PROWL essentially has no morals -- the end ALWAYS justifies the means. Brutal commander of the Autobot Praetorian Guard. Once Optimus Prime's right-hand bot, rumors of his involvement with his death still circulate to this day. Fires wire-guided missiles and high-corrosive acid pellets.

Skills: Tactics, Repression, War Crimes, Atrocities

=
=================================================================

Red Alert brings his palm up to his forehead. "Wait. Wait. Unicron... Chaos /REMOVER/?!" He shakes his head. "This is too much!" he exclaims desperately, then points. Hopefully Astortrain can tell what direction he's pointing. "That way. Seems to be coming from there."

A voice speaks from all around, quietly but unmistakeably present. It's not a voice in one's head, it's there, above and behind and before and beside each listener. "Thank you for coming," says the voice. It is a cultured, thoughtful voice, slow and warm. "I was hoping that you might. You are in some degree of danger, but everything is all right. I sense your agitation. Yes, there is danger, but you need not fear. Red Alert will know the way."

Kup grumbles, "If the Autobots take over the Earth completely then it's a safe bet Unicron would stop by there, too. Ehm..." He glances at the radar panel again. "I'm still worried about that blip I noticed a while ago, too, guys. Keep an optic out and--" He trails off as a voice speaks to him in his head. "Uh, ok, so now, instead 'a just havin' a headache, I'm losin' my mind. Hearin' voices."

MEANWHILE... on board the Autobot Imperial patrol ship "JUSTICE"

Prowl paces across the aft section of the bridge, "Lightspeed! Primus damn you.." he pounds a fist on the holo-display next to him, "Get a lock on that signal! I KNOW some of those "newcomers" are out there. I swear I will bring their disembowled servos to Rodimus Prime on a PLATTER!!" his optics turn to the display below him, constant lights blink and flicker as he tracks the movement of the entire fleet, "We are closing in... this is the only place left to hide."

Fireflight whimpers a little. Not from fright, but form discomfort. He just remains quiet, staring out the window

XF-35B Astral Lightning &lt;Catechism&gt; stares over at Fusillade, rotating slowly on one axis. Chaos... /Remover/? Well, that's weird enough to be true in this land, she supposes. Then, she hears a voice in her head, and her flaps - useless in a vacuum, twitch. She lets her reaction jets take her closer to the Silver Mako, and she opines, "I have a bad feeling about this."

Decepticon Shuttle &lt;Astrotrain&gt; offers his own genius insight to the development of voices in his head along with the most recent revelations! "This place -really- sucks and I want to go home."

"Yes sir! Right away!" Lightspeed said. When commanders are around, Lightspeed doesn't hesitate. This is mostly a reflex for him now though, to preserve his laser core and the like. He tries to pin down the location of their prey. "But why come here, of all places really? There something here that we never knew about or something?"

"Not just you, Kup," Red Alert says, looking up, then around, obviously very disturbed at being unable to identify a /source/. He finally straightens and rubs the bridge of his nose. Then he murmurs, "Uhm... adjust your course, Astrotrain. Up and to the left about four degrees."

If Fusillade had been on board the ship, she'd have to take a seat. Such as it is, the space bomber slows a bit as she flanks Catechism and The Silver Mako. &lt;&lt;I... know that voice. It... no. Noooooooooo. I... we had thought him physically lost with the planet?&gt;&gt; Her voice lilts upward in doubt, before she slips a quick radio toward Kup. &lt;&lt;Is the blip you detected in the same direction as our current bearing?&gt;&gt;

Red Alert seems to be directing Astrotrain towards a particularly large chunk of what was once the interior of the planet.

Decepticon Shuttle &lt;Astrotrain&gt; grumbles, "I'm goin. I'm goin." And he does indeed adjust his course as per the directions he's given, sensors panning all about, and half listening as Fusillade speaks. "...what're you goin on about?"

EVIL PROWL paces away from his war-display with crisp, even steps. Making his way to the bow, he looks out onto the vast emptiness of space, the twin doors from his alternate mode frame his head like the blackened wings of the angel of death. His optic's flare briefly as he crosses his arms, "Simple logic Lightspeed. We have so many ships, and our sensors can go a certain distance." he breaks his stance to bring one open hand up in an explanatory gesture, "We can use rudimentary simulations to determine the most probable avenues of escape and.." he clenches a fist, "Well... the rest should be obvious."

Kup replies to Fusillade, &lt;&lt;No, the OPPOSITE direction, Fusillade. And I don't think any other Decepticons from your world are following us. They'd at least have the courtesy to let us know if they were.&gt;&gt;

&lt;&lt;One of our great philosophical leaders had left to seek a resolution to our struggle with the Autobots. He left the planet. Some rumors stated that he looked within for a solution to our troubles. Shockwave was a master of contemplation, but that doesn't do much good if it removes them completely for the equation, now does it? Kup, let us focus on our goal, my crew will try to buy you time.&gt;&gt; Flying in space, Fusillade squeezes into a tighter flanking formation with Astrotrain, taking up a protective escort stance, even as she continues to puzzle over why she's helping them without securing some form of compensation first.

A flash of chrome darts about the periphery of The JUSTICE's sensors, slightly below and to its port.

Kup transmits back as he instinctively ducks under space debris hurtling at the viewpanel. &lt;&lt;Damn, I hate not being the pilot. Alright, thanks Fusillade. But please, I don't want none of your people dying on our account. They should break off if they take too much heat.&gt;&gt;

"Well, yeah Prowl. I'm not stupid. Why does everyone act like I'm stupid or something." Lightspeed said. There's an attempt to roll his optics just after he finished his line there, but it fails due to him having a visor instead of individual optics. "I mean, its not that hard to find them and then close a trap around them. But... why would they come all the way out here? Ships and sensors aside, there's not a thing out here but debris and rocks." He tries to keep the shuttle sensors going, locking on to anything that moves around way too much or fast for what should be out here.

XF-35B Astral Lightning &lt;Catechism&gt; is getting nearer to the planetary core, following that odd call. She muses, "So... is this a common thing, here? For command elements to just up and wander off for whatever reason?" Evidently, even her own mirror self did that. It kind of makes her want to smack herself. Now... what's that terribly interesting-looking bit of golden rubble?

Red Alert continues to give minor course corrections as needed - he's /really/ hating not piloting. He shakes his head at Fusillade's orders, though, and mutters, "Decepticon pirates risking themselves to protect us... I guess it's a good thing that one way or another I won't have /time/ to get used to this place."

MEANWHILE... on board the Autobot Imperial patrol ship "JUSTICE"

Evil Prowl steps over towards Lightspeed's station, "There! You have it... off to the port!" his optics narrow, "Set an intercept course at once." he chuckles, "Why, they are trying to /escape/ of course. It's the only logical option available to them. They'll try to get help from those hideous cast-off Decepticon scum, and escape back to wherever in Primus's rusted corpse they came from."

Finished with Lightspeed, he leans across to the next console unit and presses a black button, "Send word to the repair bay. We have have prisoners soon enough." he grins, "I may have need of First Aid's particular... "talents" before too long."

Decepticon Shuttle &lt;Astrotrain&gt; keeps doing all the piloting, mainly because he just might give someone a few thousand volts if they touch his control module without permission! "This is ridiculous...."

Kup nods, watching Astrotrain negotiate the asteroids with trepidation. "I know what you mean. It's worse for me, I think. Everything I know tells me that those guys will stab me in the back and put my head on a pike, but they seem like the real deal. They put you to shame, Astrotrain. Haha."

"Yes sir! Locked on and intercepting." Lightspeed said. Then he grabs the intercom. "Hey First Aid! Prowl's going to want you to operate and torture some prisoners that we shall be getting soon here! This includes the wimpy Autobots that we're after!" Getting up, Lightspeed made sure his own weapon was ready. Never know when you might need to shoot someone.

The voice and reassuring presence can be heard again briefly. "That's good, you're all quite close now. Please approach the asteroid and come into the vault. There's still a little gravity. Be careful that the Autobots don't destroy your ship too soon. The time would not be quite right for that. Do come inside."

At this point, it should be obvious where Red Alert was directing Astrotrain towards, as close as they are, so the just stands behind one of the seats in the cockpit, his fingers digging into the back of the chair. If one watches them, they might notice his lips moving as he mutters to himself too softly to be heard.

&lt;&lt;Command Elements? Shockwave was highly regarded, revered, but he did not have much in the way of any sort of military oversight. It's... a silent acknowledgment that the existing structure is a failure. I'm not Command. Never was. I made myself useful, carved a fiefdom out for myself on that ship back there, but could never be publicly rewarded for what I did. Too much like the Autobots they'd say!&gt;&gt; Fusillade rebuts. Some of the sections of debris get larger, until Fusillade too gazes upon the golden fragment. &lt;&lt;Is... is that just the material or is that just energ....&gt;&gt; The voice speaks. &lt;&lt;Oh,&gt;&gt; she aspirates into the radio comm. Then, she is compelled to call off The Silver Mako. The notorious blockade runner halts its sprint toward The JUSTICE, and instead begins a silent run along the sensor shadow of iridium-laced space flotsam.

XF-35B Astral Lightning &lt;Catechism&gt; impels closer to the asteroid and grumbles, "There's never a right time to have a shuttle destroyed by Autobots." As soon as she senses the gravity as being strong enough, she transforms, using her robot mode control jets to stay firmly on the ground. With a look over her shoulder - what if it's a trap? - she enters the vault. It doesn't matter if it's a trap, really. She only has a week to live. Catechism calls out, "That's a crying shame, Grey Lady. Wish me luck!"

XF-35B Astral Lightning transforms into robot form. Catechism's feet unfold, her arms unfold out of her body, her nosecone rotates through her body and ends up on her shoulders to expose her face, and her wings rotate into position.

The asteroid in question is a massive chunky thing of black rock striped with metal ore, planetary structural elements and enormous pistons and cables projecting from it here and there. A large rounded plate of golden metal is exposed where something has pulled away the rock. There is a door in the side of the colossal, spherical vault revealed.

"Well you're not going alone. Mech owes me money," Fusillade purrs after Catechism, before also transforming to her robot mode with a whisk of scimitars intended more for display then defense, some would likely think.

MEANWHILE... on board the Autobot Imperial patrol ship "JUSTICE"

Evil First Aid looks up from his lab table as the gumbibot delivers his report, "Yes. Of course I had my com off." he gestures down at the vivisected auto-mech, "I need to concentrate!" he frowns, setting down his lascapel for the time being, "Very well. Tell Praetor Prowl I will prepare the brig for our prisoners. I wonder..." he trails off, "The acid-torch? Or the molecular dislocator?" he stands up from his desk and strides towards the aft section of the repair bay, "Damn. I knew it -- I leant Hazard the acid-torch... oh well."

Lightspeed doesn't say anything to Prowl about how they may or may not have just lost that which they were after. He just keeps the ship on its course to where it would have intercepted its target. Nope. Nothing isn't there where it shouldn't be. Yep. All is where it should be.

Decepticon Shuttle &lt;Astrotrain&gt; follows the directions given by the 'reassuring voice', but it's hard for him to really feel reassured, given the situation. The giant door lights up on his sensors, and it is inevitably his destination, as he bears in after Catechism.

Fortunately for Lightspeed, Prowl is too caught up in a rather heated coversation with Autobot Command over the com relay, "Yes. I have them!" a pause, "Well, NO. Not HERE here. On the scanners. Yes." he chuckles darkly, "Our first catch of the day."

Kup waits for Astrotrain to settle down on the strange object, then stands up, revealing his laser musket. "Alright, guys, we have no idea what we're gonna find in there, but hopefully this "Shockwave" is as friendly as they say." Soon, he is hopping out of Astrotrain's back hatch, onto the core of the planet, and inside the Vault. "Let's do this."

Inside the vault there is a golden sphere and a golden man. Well, a golden robot, but the kindness and wisdom of his face, the comfortable, natural way he has of moving and the sheer vitality of his presence make him seem something more. A warm glow, like sunlight, emanates from his chest through a translucent plate.

The sphere is made of many rings of gold metal, looking more than anything like an astrolabe, and is engraved throughout with mysterious glyphs in an unknown language. The entire interior of the circular vault surrounding the giant astrolabe is similarly inscribed, carved with signs and symbols both arcane and beautiful.

The voice can be heard again. It comes from the golden man's mouth this time, though there isn't any air for it to propagate through. "It's good to see you, friends and strangers both. I'm Shockwave, and I know the way home."

Fireflight contiues staring out the window without speaking or even noticing anything.

Decepticon Shuttle &lt;Astrotrain&gt;'s response to all of this, as his passengers disembark, and he lays his gaze for the first time on the benevelant and golden visage that is this universe's version of Shockwave? "...oh f*BEEP!* off!"

Red Alert attempts to grab Fireflight's shoulder. "Fireflight. Time to disembark." Then he turns and follows Kup out the back hatch, his own rigle in hand. His optics and other sensors scan the area constantly as he heads into the vault. Despite the air of kindness, of gentleness, he is concerned. His optics widen and his mouth drops, however, as the golden mechanoid reveals himself to be /Shockwave/.

THAT gets Fireflight's attention, the Aerialbot jumping a little bit in his seat. He looks around, then yelps in suirprise as Red Alert grabs him and pulls him to his feet "Okay okay. I'm going. Where are we? OH!" he stops short, staring as well. "... Uhhm... It makes sense actually."

Fusillade sheathes her blades as Shockwave reveals himself.

She basks.

"It is good to see you again."

Catechism chuckles at Fusillade's proclamation that Shockwave owes her money, but that is before she really aees what's inside. She stares at the gilded interior and the golden robot, her optics wide, and her jaw slack. It's... amazingly beautiful. Even Catechism can appreciate beauty, however little use she has for it. She says quietly, dumbly, "Home..." Catechism has just about resigned herself to never seeing it, but here, in the ashes of an alternate Cybertron, maybe...

Kup feels the urge to smack Astrotrain over the head, but refrains from doing so. Wouldn't want to offend what is likely to be another pacifist, would we? He settles for scowling at the triple-changer, instead.

"Shockwave, huh?" Kup says, stepping towards him. "Uh, nice to meet you. Yeah, we don't belong here. Not just because we were displaced, but, uh, because your universe seems to be at odds with us. It's killin' slowly. Uh. So..." He looks around doubtfully. "Do you have some kind of invention that'll get us back? And please tell me it won't blow up Europe in the process."

Astrotrain rises up, transforming as he comes up behind Kup, standing a good head taller than the old mech. "Ignore the geezer. I don't care if it blows up Europe in the process, I wanna go home."

"Even you, Astrotrain," says Shockwave, and one could swear he was winking under that blindfold, from his merry smile. "Thank you, Fusillade. I apologize for my long absence. I have not solved our troubles yet, but I have solved our visitors'." He opens his hands in a humble shrug and turns to address Astrotrain and Red Alert. "You don't belong here. I don't say it to be unkind, only because it's true. You're not a part of this Creation. Time passes differently for you here. The vibrations of this universe are discord in your atoms. You are decaying. If you stay here you will cease to be. Therefore you have need of this." He gestures at the golden astrolabe. "Vector Sigma; it knows the gate; it is the gate. I have rebuilt it, as much as I can, and with a new purpose. When I activate it, it will briefly become the center of all things; the axis upon which the wheels of many universes will spin. I hope you have brought your friends, because only through an effort of my own spirit can I control and guide the gate." He glances past the gathering and adds, wryly, "And I hope you are ready to defend yourselves, because the Autobots of our world would dearly love to possess such a thing."

Shockwave

It looks sort of like Shockwave, but gold instead of purple, and with two hands, and a *face*. The large Cybertronian wears a rough sort of blindfold over his eyes, but the features below it are gentle and wise.

Carrying:

Shockwave's datapad

Red Alert takes an instinctive step /back/ from Vector Sigma - hey, he's had bad experiences with Vectors lately! - but realizing this isn't the... wrongness of Vector Z, he nods. Then he spreads his arms, one palm open and up, the other still clutching his rifle. "Beside Fusillade's ship, what you see is what's here." Oh. And probably Avalanche and Springer, too.

Fireflight just keeps staring at Shockwave. Then at Sigma. Then he blinks a little, looking at the thing which had created him over thirty years ago. He tilts his head now... having not gotten a good look last time, not even paying attention to the rest of the conversation

It looks quite a bit different. The first time Fireflight saw it, it was a solid geodesic sphere with a slot for a key. Now it's a hollow sphere made up of dozens of interlinked concentric rings and engraved with mystic symbology.

Fusillade inclines her head deeply, chin touching her wingcloak. "Our inaction has cost the Decepticons much already, Shockwave." She fixes her gaze on Vector Sigma, optics pale in comparison to the concentrated intensity of its cadmium hues. "The journey from this point forward is meant for them. I am where I belong, though I wish for happier circumstances." She takes a long, sliding step back, and bustles down the hallway to find out the strength of the Autobot forces bearing down upon them.

Yes, yes the Autobots would love to possess something that could allow them to take over other universes! And thus, that's also when the group of assembled Good Autobots and Decepticons (and Evil Decepticons too), come under fire. "Remember! Those Autobots aren't your allies! Take all of them prisoner! Never Give Up, Never Surrender!" Lightspeed calls out as the Evil Autobots advance. He couldn't help but smile some as he watched the scene unfold. "I wonder if that thing can re-make me..."

Sunder arrives from the Cybertron Orbit -- Mirror Universe.

Sunder has arrived.

Kup points at the device incredulously. "*THAT's* Vector Sigma?" He leans in towards the thing, squinting at it up close. "Looks... different. Pretty, though." Straightening, he says, "Alright. We won't let THOSE Autobots get this thing. Trust us. Not even if Rodimus Prime himself beats down the door. Hell, I hope he does." Kup cracks his knuckles loudly. "And if he doesn't, I'll settle for anyone else stupid enough to barge in."

Then, of course, laser bolts start randomly hitting things inside the room. "Right on cue. Shockwave, do whatever it is you have to do! We'll hold them off!" Kup yells before he headshots Evil Pipes.

"GYAAAAAHHHH!" Evil Pipes screams as corrosive smoke blasts out of his ruined head, and he runs about like a decapitated chicken.

Astrotrain ducks suddenly as several shots fly past, and he immediately lunges to find the nearest cover to get his big bulk behind. "It'd be a cold day in the pits before any Autobot-clones would ever think themselves more badaft than -us-. They wanna try invading I say let em! We'll kick their sorry skidplates right back through the gate!" With that, he turns and fires several blasts from his rifle into the mass of gumbies. "C'mon you Autoscrap! You ain't got nothin!"

"Wonderful," agrees Shockwave. "Then I'll begin, and hopefully you will escape or prevail before the Autobots kill you. Some of your destinies lie elsewhere than here." He turns to the giant astrolabe and begins singing to it, a multi-throated song from deep in his glowing chest somewhere, many voices overlapping and harmonizing in a deep, resonant hum.

The glow increases.

The astrolabe begins silently to spin in a complex dance, accelerating. Rings pass over rings. A pulsing light like a tiny sun appears in the center of the structure, glowing brighter each time all of the rings align. Suddenly it flares brightly and all of the rings lock together into a single open circle. A voice declares from the solar light filling the circle: "I AM VECTOR SIGMA. BEFORE CYBERTRON WAS, I WAS. ENTER AND PASS THROUGH TO YOUR OWN WORLD."

Red Alert turns the moment the other Autobots enter the room, but he's still scrambling to get his weapon up as the first lasers fire. He fires several times at the oncoming troops, trying to protect the Vector Sigma-thing from these enemies who wear the faces of his friends. Red Alert goes into automatic for a moment, picking a target and then firing - it's only after he's landed a shot that he realizes that last red Autobot he fired at was Inferno. This bothers him for two reasons. One: it's Inferno. Two: it wasn't a kill shot. "Scrap!" he mutters.

Catechism frets over the Vector Sigma. She had to deal with her whole faction making a deal with a second, heretical Vector computer... and with disagreeing. That's why she's here. For being a traitor. But betrayal's not the sin, is it? Being a traitor is /fine/, as long the traitor gets away with it. That's what she has a chance to do here, right? Get away with it!

What lies on the other side of the dimensional gateway is unclear, barely visible through the blinding light that fills Vector Sigma, but perhaps the spires of Cybertron... or the rolling fields of Earth... or somewhere else? To each viewer it looks different, their own idea of home. A finer world.

Fireflight whirls about as laserfire streaks around him. He drops to a knee, moving to Red's side and lifts his wepaon - the gun though, wavesr uncertainly. Then he grimaces, and lifts his gun to fire once more into the crowd, trying to pick out whoever was closest, for now. His optics keep drawing to Vector Sigma "Red! The portal is open!"

"Don't pay attention to the headless Mini-Bot! Its not as bad as it looks! Get back in there!" Lightspeed said. He's a lot more focused right now than he has been for a long time now. He even shoves the headless Evil Pipes back towards the group. "What? Vector Sigma? Oh my, Rodimus Prime would so love to have you, you know." Lightspeed said.

More Evil Minibots advance on the Autobots and Decepticons. Such as Evil Seaspray! "Haha! Now I can finally show you how useful I am!" He says, charging straight towards Shockwave and Vector Sigma.

Fusillade had made it almost outside when the wall of weapons fire forces her to leap for cover behind a shredded series of conduits. She curses softly to herself, pulling out a small disruptor, doing her best to not get shot from behind by Kup and Astrotrain. As Seaspray makes his dive, Fusillade shouts, "NO!" and leaps to tackle him down to the ground. "It is not for me, it is not for you, it is NOT for any of us!" There's a long hiss of metal as she slides out her main gauche to pin him.

Grimlock has arrived.

Foxfire has arrived.

"Yeah, but we can't let /these/ Autobots get to the portal!" Red Alert shouts back at Fireflight. "Could you imagine /them/ with access to interdimensional travel?" He keeps firing, now aiming for Cliffjumper. That's pretty easy, actually, because when he left, Cliffjumper was still on the Reaver list, anyway.

Astrotrain pulls out his own sword as he stands up from his cover, spinning about in place and gutting another evil Autobot attacker! A minibot soon follows as he's all but punted away by a big triplechanger boot, and a moment later, Astrotrain spies the portal now open.

Kup glances over his shoulder as the portal opens up, frowning. He begins to back up towards it, firing as he goes. "GET IN THE FRAGGING PORTAL! All of you! I'll be the last one to go. That's an order!"

Just then, Evil Wheelie flings himself at Kup, and offers a mid-pounce haiku:

"Your death is at hand

First we will torture you, Kup

Then--OH GOD MY FACE!!!"

Catching an acid pellet to the face, Wheelie falls to the floor, clutching his wounds and rolling around in pain. "Shaddup," Kup growls.

Catechism draws her whip. In this universe, it is a symbol of oppression - an overseer's lash, crackling with electric oppression, more than a mere odd choice of weapon. She cracks it out at Bumblejumper, who foolishly draws too near, and now, the Minibots feels the lash's bite as Catechism knocks him over.

A Sweep descends upon the ruins of Cybertron! And as he descends, he fires at minibots. But then, he lands and pounces, seeking to give Fireflight a good-bye hug. He's going to miss the quirky little Aerialbot!

"Tsk tsk. To send minibots on such an important task as this one? It's ridiculous!" So says Grimlock as he strides onto the scene, his sword-gun balanced casually on his shoulder. "This looks like a job for I, Grimlock!" And with that said, he surveys the battlefield- and immediately takes action! With one hand, he swings his blaster down into play, and snaps off a heavy-duty energy blast at Kup! (Stupid old man won't stay dead). And with his other hand, he brings out...a tape. Which he throws at the enemy. "Foxfire, kill them!"

"But... but Kup!" Red Alert protests. Then he bites his bottom lip. He pauses in firing at the onrushing Autobots - but only to fire the rocket that's et on his shoulder at the cavern/vault/doorway roof above them. Then he starts backing towards the portal, as ordered.

There's a flurry of moving parts, and Grimlock changes to his robot mode!

"I know Red! I-GACK!" And Fireflight finds himself tackled by a Sweep again. Knocked forwards to his stomach, he blinks a few times. At least he can't reflexively shoot at this angle. Reinforcements! He lifts his gun to fire from the floor, shouting "Sunder! Thank goodness! Help us! You have claws, you have a growl. I know you do! Show us the fearsome sweep! If they win, they get into MY dimension and who knwos how many others! If you want to win this war, you gotta find your inner warrior! Do it Sunder!"

Was that a camera flash he saw from somewhere? Fireflight scrambled to his feet, starting to back up as well, once Sunder was off.

Grimlock strikes Kup with Double-Blaster!.

"Well, its not like we don't have enough of them Grimlock." Lightspeed said when the Dinobot Commander actually showed up. Smiling, he fired off his own Light-Burst Gun at Kup as well, aiming to stun. "I'm sure we could gift wrap the old guy for Prime and give him a nice gift of being able to kill him personally." The Technobot said. "Now, where is Hot Spot and his team? They should be here!"

Lightspeed strikes Kup with his Light-Burst attack.

The tape transforms into a distinctly vulpine form, bearing much resemblance to a certain cassette that the real-world Autobots would recognize. But this is not *their* Foxfire. He is larger and clearly far more dangerous, his optics flaring as tongues of flame spark in his mouth. A deep, bloodthirsty snarl escapes him as he chooses his target. The small flames erupt into a full-blown blast of fire, heading straight for Red Alert!

Foxfire strikes Red Alert with Fire.

At the swoosh of an arriving Sweep, Fusillade looks up. Reinforcements? Too bad there weren't more. As Fireflight exhorts Sunder to fight the Autobots, Fusillade winces a bit, and springs into action, this time unsheathing both scimitars, and nimbly darting behind rubble for cover, feet scraping as she pivots to change direction in order to avoid the blasts, before running a mini-Bot through on her way to engage Lightspeed. She even manages to get off a wild "Nyah-HAH!" of triumph in there as she appears with a whirl of dervish blades before him. "Have you not heard what I said? No -- leave it to you to simply not heed. Call off your minions," she warns.

Red Alert hates fire. He really, really hates fire. With a cry of, "Gaaaaah!" the blast hits, scorching paint and melting the edges of the armor on his left arm. He turns his rifle towards the charging tape and fires quickly. "Sit! Stay!" he shouts at the creature. Once he fires his blast, he continues to back towards Vector Sigma.

Red Alert strikes Foxfire with Rifle - Medium Setting.

A wayward missile careens towards Shockwave. Although blindfolded he somehow seems to sense its presence; he raises a hand. "Not yet," he says, and the missile turns aside and slams into the wall of the chamber.

Evil Gears hurls down his missile launcher in frustration, transforms and revs his engine, charging for Shockwave across the floor of the vault.

"You may not interfere with this," says Shockwave, turning slightly towards the oncoming truck. Gears suddenly flips backwards and is hurled out into space through the vault door by some invisible space. "It is not the time for that," concludes Shockwave.

Sunder nuzzles Fireflight quickly before getting off and baring his claws at the approaching Evil Autobots. "I shall!" he says, growling savagely at the evil mini-bots. He pounces, this time at the enemy, lashing out with claws. "You shall not thwart us!" he hisses.

Kup gets tagged in the shoulder, and upon spying the culprit, he snarls, "Grimlock! I wish I had more time to "play" with you but I don't." Aiming carefully, Kup prepares to hit him with an acid pellet. "But when ya get back to Rodimus let him know that if I ever see his worthless hide again I'll strangle 'im with my bare hands." Just as he's about to squeeze the trigger, he is blinded by a brilliant burst of light. "AAAGH!" he screams, stumbling forward. "Can't... see!" He accidentally walks into Pipes, and they both fall over.

"Kup!" Fireflight states, distracted from Sunder's purring. He mutters "I want a copy of that."A nd turns now to the oldtimer's assistance, darting across the floor quickly. He skids to a halt by the two, then turns his weapon to Grimlock, aiming at him. His blue optics narrow and he goes still - not in fright, but simply staring at the Dinobot, as though daring him to come closer.

Astrotrain has apparently had enough. He turns about, whipping the head off of a random Autobot gumby. He then turns and aims into the mass again, firing another blast from his rifle, which hits mirror-Brawn in the shoulder, causing the minibot to spontaneously combust and explode into itty bitty pieces! "Move it or lose it, losers!" Astrotrain howls, suddenly transforming and turning to thunder towards the portal at full speed. Woe be to anyone that gets in the path of the runaway locomotive...

Spinning and shifting parts result in Astotrain's heavy locomotive form taking shape.

As Fusillade lunges for Lightspeed, a large blade of glowing gold & black swishes out, catching her blades mid-swing! "I'm sorry, dear. They're -MY- minions." And Grimlock steps forward, twisting his gunblade around in an attempt to take a chunk out of the pirate's sword-hand! "I, Grimlock, shall attend to you soon enough!" he growls at Fireflight- and then bellows over the din of battle. "Autobots! Slay them all! We must have Vector Sigma!"
 * CLANG!*

Grimlock strikes Fusillade with Riposte!.

Foxfire snorts and takes a few steps back, the weaponfire leaving a few dents in his metal flesh. Needless to say, he ignores Red's attempt to order him around. He crouches for a split second, then takes off at a full run, lunging at his intended victim once he's close enough, trying to tear into him with his claws. Foxfire misses Red Alert with his Slash attack.

Lightspeed laughs a bit, smirking at Fusillade. "Call off this mob? Sorry, but that's not how it'll go. You are dead just like the rest of your friends. Should have joined us. You would have made an excellent warrior for our cause." He lets Grimlock handle Fusillade now, walking over towards Kup. "So, I'm sure you're betting that you just wish you stayed dead now, or died, huh? If not now, you will so." He said, kicking at the blinded Autobot.

Lightspeed strikes Kup with Kick.

Red Alert manages to scramble out of the way of Foxfire's attack, though he almost drops his rifle in the process. Almost. When he's done, he notices that he's holding onto the muzzle, not the hilt. He frowns, then swings the thing like a golf-club, trying to hit Foxfire's side with the other, heavier end of his weapon. "Get /back,/ doggy!" he exclaims.

Red Alert misses Foxfire with his Down Boy, Down! attack.

Fireflight glares back at Grimlock and... does not back down. A shock perhaps to those who know him. The GREEN mech turns then to fire at the other Minibots, muttering at how he wished he could fLY in this room to drop a few missiles. Then Lightspeed walks up. He whips his gun around to fire instead at THAT mech "Hey! You louse!"

Fireflight misses Lightspeed with his disruptor attack.

Foxfire promptly ducks back! In a rare occasion, he speaks, his voice low and almost a growl. "I am...a FOX," he hisses. "And your death!" In normal circumstances, this means that someone is going to die. But Red may just be the only mech to ever survive hearing the beast's voice. He ducks down and snaps his jaws at Red's leg.

Foxfire strikes Red Alert with Bite.

Kup is kicked in the gut while he's down, but this turns out to be a mistake. Many Decepticons have done the same to Kup only to have the tables unexpectedly turned on them, and today may not be any exception as the ancient warrior grabs for Lightspeed's ankle. "Yer gonna wish that you did kill me with that shot, Lightspeed, because yer in for a world of hurt!" Then, if he managed to get the Technobot's ankle, he gives it a vicious, servo-tearing twist.

Kup strikes Lightspeed with Sprained Ankle.

"You're certainly /not/ worth being called an /Autobot/!" Red Alert hisses back and swings the leg that Foxfire has latched onto, doing his best to kick the little monster off his foot as forcefully as he can.

Red Alert strikes Foxfire with Bad Puppy! No Biscuit!.

&lt;M-Decepticon&gt; Red Alert says, "Wildrider. Are you still listening?"

&lt;M-Decepticon&gt; Wildrider says, "Yes."

-*SHINKT!*-

First two, then three blades meet as Fusillade brings up her second blade to better handle the Dinobot's onslaught. "You wouldn't even know where to start with me, Speedbump," Fusillade hisses between fanged teeth at Lightspeed. With Vector Sigma's presence as a gateway to worlds, this has taken on a even bigger meaning beyond just being nice to the lost tourists, or satisfying her own curiosity. However, with weapons locked like this, the favor is distinctly in the favor of brute strength. Fusillade doesn't have the leverage to deflect the inexorable crush, and the weapon bites down into her left wrist. With a snarl, she drops her shoulder, and tumbles to the side in order to take advantage of any overreaching that Grimlock might have done. "Why the big rush, Buttercup?" She spears forward.

&lt;M-Decepticon&gt; Red Alert says, "Do me a favor. /Do/ something with your freedom."

Shockwave's head tilts slightly as if, although the majority of his attention is occupied by concentrating on keeping the portal open, he had heard something that interested him. "I would recommend more respect for your elders, Lightspeed. Now- be still a moment."

Shockwave strikes Lightspeed with its Contemplation of the Path attack.

Foxfire releases his hold, backflipping through the air and landing gracefully on his paws. He spits out another stream of flame, this time aiming for Red's face.

Foxfire misses Red Alert with his Fire attack.

&lt;M-Decepticon&gt; Wildrider pauses. "Motormaster is dead. I shall erect a library in his honour."

Fusillade strikes Grimlock with The Gay Blade.

&lt;M-Decepticon&gt; Red Alert audibly facepalms over the radio.

"I ain't waitin for the rest of you losers!" Astrotrain states, hurtling through several Autobot gumbies and sending bodies spraying in all directions. At the last second, he transforms and hurtles through the air, heading straight for the portal! As he's doing so, he flies right past Shockwave and....snaps a picture of him at point-blank range with the camera he's holding. "HAH!" The triplechanger's last words can be heard as he hits the portal and vanishes out of sight. "...Shockwave's gonna FLIP at this..."

In a chorus of shifting and spinning parts, Astrotrain's body spins and lifts up into his large robot mode.

&lt;M-Decepticon&gt; Wildrider does a difficult linguistic feat. "?"

&lt;M-Decepticon&gt; Red Alert mutters, "While the value of knowledge is immense, I was hoping for something more proactive with regards to the local Autobots."

Catechism spins and twirls, at home in the lowered gravity of the core-chunk on which this golden vault is situated. Her whip catches on something - something invisible? Mirage! She laughs, nastily, as the electricity crackles over the spy, before she looks to the next Autobot - she can't let these creatures gain control of that portal!

Fusillade's attack strikes home! It skates across Grimlock's chestplate, leaving a furrow in his bronze armor. "Hm." Grimlock muses- more curious than actually hurt. "Under nominal circumstances, my dear, I, Grimlock, would like nothing further than to engage in a proper bit of swordplay..." he says, attempting to grab hold of the femme by any handy grabbable bit. "But I, Grimlock, have better things to do!" And with that said, Grimlock tightens his grip lifts Fusillade up above his head- only to attempt to slam her back DOWN into (and possibly through) the floor!
 * SCCCHRING!*

&lt;M-Decepticon&gt; Wildrider says, "I... see. Something more than releasing public safety videos?"

&lt;M-Decepticon&gt; Fireflight says, "SHOOT them."

&lt;M-Decepticon&gt; Wildrider says, "A novel idea, that..."

Lightspeed manages to avoid Fireflight's shot at him, though mostly because Kup had grabbed and twisted his ankle a bit painfully, falling over some. "Tch! Fine, if that's how you want to b... eeeeeeee..." Lightspeed says, trailing off as he suddenly finds himself lost in his own world. This isn't anything new really, save that it was really nice. He falls over and on to his rear in reality, staring off into space, optic visor dimmed. "Wow... its full of... earth..."

&lt;M-Decepticon&gt; All my dreams torn a Sunder says, "indeed, shoot them."

Red Alert, still managing to hold onto his rifle, instinctively flails, covers his face, and ducks at the gout of flame coming from Foxfire. This seems to be enough. He twists his weapon in his hands to bring the correct end (that being the shooty end) up towards Foxfire and returns fire.

Grimlock strikes Fusillade with Out of the way!.

&lt;M-Decepticon&gt; Fireflight says, "Seriously.. *oofs* If you guys want to stop the Autobots, you'll have to be a bit more violent. you dont have to LIKE it, but you need to sometimes fight fire with fire."

Red Alert strikes Foxfire with Rifle - Low Setting.

&lt;M-Decepticon&gt; Red Alert coughs. "Of course, it can hardly be called /freedom/ if what you're doing is against your will. But Wildrider. There's a saying. All it takes for evil to win is for good mechanoids to do nothing. And you... and this place... /evil is winning./"

Foxfire snarls. This battle isn't going as well as he'd hoped. He is damaged, but his fighting spirit is not in the least dampened. He intends to kill this mech. He lunges again, claws bared!

Foxfire strikes Red Alert with Claw.

&lt;M-Decepticon&gt; Fireflight says, "I didnt mean it like that. I meant 'sometimes you gotta do stuff you dont like if you want to win'"

Kup stands, assessing Lightspeed with a glare. The Technobot seems... distracted, so he decides to leave him alone. Fusillade, on the other hand, doesn't seem to be doing so well, and Kup scoops up Evil Pipes's half-dead body by the leg and charges at Grimlock. "All of you, GET THE FRAG OUT OF HERE!" Kup yells, soundingly suspiciously like the guy in horror movies who sacrifices himself so everyone else can be saved. "Gaaaaaahhhh!" Kup yells at the top of his lungs as he tries to brutally bash the Dinobot back, using Pipes's body like a flail.

Kup strikes Grimlock with Evil Pipes.

&lt;M-Decepticon&gt; Wildrider sounds pained, "I think I've read that line somewhere, Red Alert."

&lt;M-Decepticon&gt; Red Alert says, "It's a good line. Think about it. Just don't spend /all/ your time thinking about it."

EVIL PROWL has finally arrived at the scene. "Sometimes." he scowls, leveling his pistol at anything that moves, "You just have to do things yourself!" A small legion of praetorian guards go before him, shielding his frame from harm, some of the "off-worlders" will barely recognize a one-eyed battle-scared Streetwise as the head of this unit, a blackened and burnt Hot Spot is also among the guard brought from the ship. Their precision is amazing -- cutting through the rag-tag "mirror Decepticon" resistance like a heated beam of rebar peirces a Cybertronian exo-skeleton. "Pitiful!" Prowl remarks, "I always expect more from such guerilla tactics -- I mean, they were bred for war, weren't they?" he dispatches a particularly weakened Decepticon with a quick twist of its neck, "I don't know why I get my hopes up." *snap* "I am ALWAYS disappointed."

Approaching the main group of survivors, Prowl slows as the glowing astrolabe comes into view, "SHOCKWAVE" he growls under his breath, "I was wondering when you were going to show your *face* again." he gestures dramatically, "Stop them! Leave Shockwave to me!" *PEW PEW PEW*

Prowl strikes Shockwave with Police Brutality.

Shockwave falls to the ground unconscious.

Shockwave stumbles back, struck in the translucent portion of his chest. He sinks to the ground in what seems like slow motion. The portal slows, the light emanating from it dimming!

Fireflight freezes, seeign the dimming lights "Kup! Red Alert! THe Portal!" he calls, and rushes to it... stopping only to grab at Red and pull him that way too "Kup, come ON!"

Astrotrain is first through the portal! Or rather, just as he's starting to vanish from sight, he gives a wave to the Autobots from his own universe. "Last call, losers! Either come on, or don't, I don't care either way!" Subtly, he reaches out and smacks something onto the metal beams of the unit conducting the portal before he suddenly vanishes from sight. It beeps ominously.

Fusillade's handy grabbable bit is grabbed by Grimlock, woe to her.

There's a wild spin of the world and stars around her, followed by the sharp painful crack of armor against metal and circuitry of the floor. There's a grunt from the adventurer, but Fusillade maintains her white-knuckle grip on the slender, recurved blades. Even as the behemoth strides past the crater in which she resides, Fusillade can't help but seethe at the idea that every effort of hers, while relatively dynamic for this universe's Decepticons, was fell short. In comparison to the other reality's Decepticons, in comparison to this reality's Autobots, it was short on efficacy in dealing any real progress-making blows. The one thing, however, that Fusillade is never short on, this universe or otherwise, though...

Tenacity.

There's several howls and creaks of metal behind Grimlock as she hooks fingertalons on the flooring, and hauls herself out. With a *whoomph* of igniting plasma dancing over the blade's surfaces, she states emphatically to the Dinobot's back...

"I am Fusillade The Grey Lady. You killed my creator. Prepare to die." With a flash of heel thrusters, she surges forward, arcing the weapons in a hungry figure eight pattern aimed at Grimlock.

But then... a brightness gleams out of Shockwave's chest, a figure as of a tall man, perfect in form but hard to make out, full of light, rises from the prone golden robot which is slowly turning grey. "There is more to me than this mere matter," explains the spectre gently, and reaches out to touch Prowl with one blindingly incandescent hand.

Fusillade strikes Grimlock with Swashin' Some Buckles.

With a sound as of gentle wind, Shockwave assumes his Astral form.

Shockwave strikes Prowl with The Eightfold Death Gate.

Prowl falls to the ground unconscious.

Red Alert once more swings his rifle, attempting to throw Foxfire off and away from him with all his force. "Get /back!!/" he exclaims, before stumbling back towards the Portal.

Prowl's arrival freezes him in pace for a moment, leaving him open mouthed with shock at the sight of the ghost. "P... Prowl..?" then he shakes himself out of it as Prowl's attack connects on Shockwave, Shockwave stumbles... and the portal starts to dim. "Kup! He's right! If it falls after us, they won't be able to follow!" With that, he starts to stumble towards the portal himself.

Red Alert strikes Foxfire with Get BACK, Doggy!.

Foxfire falls back, heavily injured by now. He rights himself, jumping back to his feet, irritated that his latest plaything is now escaping. He starts to run after him, but stops, a wound in his right front leg preventing him from going much farther. Angry, he can only watch...

Sunder snarls savagely as Prowl and Shockwave take each other out. Standing near Evil Prowl is Evil Streetwise, and the Sweep hurls himself at the Evil Autobot, claws bared to their fullest and energizing, ready to tear his opponent to shreds. "You will not pass!" he cries dramatically, remeniscent of some old wizard in some other universe.

&lt;M-Decepticon&gt; Wildrider says, "I think... it is time I added a new word to my vocabulary."

Lightspeed stands back up, but he still looks very out of it. "So wonderful... so peaceful here... its so earthen and nice..." The Technobot says. As he says this, he stumbles around a bit, managing to slip around and by shots and attacks made at him rather impressively. That is, until he comes upon Grimlock, where he trips and falls at the Dinobot Commander. He misses the Dinobot, but lands smack on his face on the ground. "So rocky... so beautiful..."

&lt;M-Decepticon&gt; Red Alert says, "Yes?"

"Gah!" Grimlock says, bludgeoned both by Kup, and stabbed by Fusillade! Curses! "...You'll find it takes more than that to fell the likes of I, Grimlock!" And with that, Grimlock transforms! He growls at Kup, and snorts a bit of flame at the old campaigner. "You, I'll get to later!" And then...Fusillade. "Hn." he says, "...It was Arachnae that built you, wasn't it?" he says, swaying his tail from side to side. "I suppose the day I killed her was the most important day of your life. But for me..." Grimlock rushes forwards, lowering his head as he thunders towards Fusillade- his actions a savage counterpoint to his civilized words! "It was tuesday."

With a grunt and a growl, Grimlock changes into a robot T-rex! Watch out.

Grimlock strikes Fusillade with ram.

Prowl staggers backwards as his acid pellets do NOT have their usual effect on the Decepticon, "What? No.. stay back!" he SLAMS one his smaller guardsmen into the ground (was that Groove?) His optics search wildly for an escape, locking briefly on Red Alert as he makes his way towards the portal, "Help me damn you!! You're Autobots! No." his optics flare brilliantly and then die, where his chestplate was, purple energy comes streaming outwards, "..." his mouth opens but only acrid magenta smoke curls out. Prowl collapses -- rather undramatically -- to the floor.

Catechism blinkablinks as Shockwave falls - and Arachnae was Fusillade's creator? And then he... turns into an energy being? What. WHAT. She shuts off her optics as her processors aches, and she makes a run for the portal, murming, "Good luck, Decepticons." Maybe they'll learn how to fight. Maybe. Stranger things have happened. They happened just now. Her optics flicker back on his in time to see Fusillade fall to Grimlock. She snaps off a salute for the dead, and she steps through.

&lt;M-Decepticon&gt; Red Alert says, "Words are a fine thing, but remember: some things are louder. And I'm not talking safety videos."

Astral Shockwave looks for a moment at Prowl with an expression of tender regret, then turns to the slowly fading portal and steps into it, merging with it. The wheels spin back up to full speed and the portal shines forth, promising hope. "There is always a finer world for those who have hope," comes a voice from within the portal. "If your path ends here, have no fear; death is not an end but merely a beginning. We will meet at that clearing beyond, in a sunny place."

A few cherry blossoms float forth from the portal along with a warm breeze.

Prowl lies on the floor of the autobot shutt-- er I mean, rocky crags, lifeless.

Somewhere out in the void, Astrotrain jettisons some weight.

Red Alert draws near the portal, taking a last moment to activate his radio, and pray that someone listens. His expression is pained at other-Prowl's death, and for a moment he does seem ready to step towards him, and help. Then he pulls back, and looking away.

"Fireflight! Kup! Come on! The... the Decepticons have this!" And with that, he dives for the portal.

Kup snarls as he literally busts Pipes open as he uses him to bash Grimlock. Since the minibot is now useless as a blugdeoning instrument, he discards him. He looks around for another weapon to attack Grimlock with, and, oh, look, here comes Outback! "'Scuse me, I'll be needin' that," Kup tells him.

"Huh? Need what?" Outback replies, baffled.

Then Kup plants a foot on Outback's chest as he violently rips off his arm. "THAT. Alright, Grimlock, ready for round two?!" He advances towards the Dinobot, ready to apply another vicious beating... but then, his comrades call to him. He looks back to them, the slowly fading portal, then to Fusillade, fighting for her life against a huge enemy. How can he abandon her? That would be cowardice! "What do I do...?"

Lowering his head, Kup says, "Fusillade... I'm sorry." And so he turns, fleeing for the portal, smashing aside Evil Technobots and Evil Minibots alike as they stand in his way. With one final leap, he dives inside, Outback's arm clattering to the ground just behind him.

Sunder finds a picture of himself hugging Fireflight somewhere on the ground. He picks it up and tosses it to the Aerialbot before continuing to maul the other Evil Autobots.

Lightspeed picks himself back up, and then reaches out for Grimlock. "Grimlock... its you, right? You've so got to join me in the earth... its so peaceful and nice down here... everyone should go underground... its so... so... perfect! There are no words that can describe this! None!"

Lightspeed succeeds in grasping Robot T-Rex! &lt;Grimlock&gt;, throwing him off-balance.

Fireflight flinches, watching PRowl fall. He looked a little shaken himself and then stares at Kup. Then something was thrown at him. Reflexively he catches it, staring at the picture, then looks up at Sunder. THen he grins and waves "Good luck, Sunder. And remember:

There's a fire inside of everybody... Burning clear and bright.

There's a power in the faintest heartbeat... That cannot be denied

Go on and trust yourself, You can ride the wind.. Your gonna take your dreams where they've never been!

There's a hero

In everybody's heart."

And with that, Fireflight turns and darts to the portal. He pauses, then leaps through it head first!

Evil Streetwise manages to fend off Sunder's vicious attack before she breaks away towards the portal, "Primus slag it!" he wipes some energon from his chest, "Vicious Sweeps! I am SO not getting used to that." then, turning around after his brief battle to find Prowl dead on the ground, he pauses for only one brief moment.

Then, Streetwise leans down, and tears the ancient police insignia off of Prowl's door, "This.." he chuckles darkly, "Is gonna be good." he rises to his feet and gestures dramatically, "Praetors! To me! Don't let them escape!! Through the portal!"


 * beep*

Only moments after Fireflight passes through the portal, a deceptively small explosion where Astrotrain planted a bomb on the gateway snaps one of Vector Sigma's rings. The gateway unlocks, spins crazily, and suddenly implodes, vanishing into another dimension and sucking Streetwise's upper half with it. His hips and legs clatter to the suddenly darkened floor. Only a single sparkling mote of golden light drifts away, out the vault door and into space.

A spray of ruptured cooland and hydraulic lines decorates the walls as Grimlock's saurian form mows over Fusillade. "Where are you going?! I'm not done with you yet! You're yellow! Get back here, I'll bite your ankles off!" Still doggedly pursuing the Dinobot, Fusillade huffs and grunts a bit as she staggers back to her feet, scowling some as one of the wings that form her cloak clunks to the ground uselessly. "Not looking so much like swords or play now," she murmurs, gripping both hands onto the handle of the stained scimitar. Even as Lightspeed shakes Grimlock, she lunges forward once more in a final drive to delay them. She dares not look into the portal for whatever nirvana would be conjured up for her, and instead lurches forward to stab the blade through Grimlock's foot, and into the ground to hold him -- even if only for a few seconds more. She squeezes her optics shut, the platitudes exchanged between Fireflight and Sunder ringing in her audials...

Fusillade misses Robot T-Rex! &lt;Grimlock&gt; with her Wingblade Spear attack.

"Wot! Off, you!" Grimlock shakes his foot as Lightspeed gets onto it- attempting to dislodge him- it's ironic, then, that this very shaking prevents his foot from becoming trapped, hitting in that space right *BETWEEN* his toe-claws! The dinobot takes a few long, long moments to peer into Fusillade's face, so close, his wickedly sharp teeth gleaming in the scant light, his red optics burning malevolently- nothing to say he can't savor the situation... "And now, dear, you die." Pity Grimlock's little distraction has allowed Vector Sigma to shut down! That's what he gets for playing with his food.
 * CHOMP!*

Something clatters to the ground where the portal used to be. Something small enough to be held in one's hand, and... key-shaped?

Grimlock strikes Fusillade with The End..

Fusillade falls to the ground unconscious.

Fusillade is cleft in twain! So much for there being any proactive Decepticons in THIS universe anymore.

Lightspeed does let go, coming out of his trance, looking around a bit. "This isn't right... no... the path... the Path of The Earth declares otherwise!" The Technobot cried out. He bolted for the JUSTICE, more than ready to just leave the Autobots there as it was. "No! The Path of The Earth requires no more battling like this! There shall be no more fighting as such! So declares Lightspeed, First of The Earth's Disciples!"

"Hm." And Grimlock, still picking bits of Fusillade from his teeth, looks over the battlefield. "Hm...at least a dozen dead Autobots...and perhaps as many again Decepticons. Vector Sigma is lost, the alternate universe creatures have vanished..." And he bows down, picking up the last little glowy bit of metal- holding the Key to Vector Sigma up before his eyes. "But this might not be a total bust after all..."

Ending theme plays!

Credits roll

Licensed Slipknot song

Fusillade goes home.

Fusillade has left.

Lightspeed heads back to the boring REGULAR UNIVERSE.

Lightspeed has left.

Grimlock heads back to the boring REGULAR UNIVERSE.

Grimlock has left.

Foxfire heads back to the boring REGULAR UNIVERSE.

Foxfire has left.

Prowl heads back to the boring DEAD UNIVERSE.

Shockwave flies away as an energy being all swoosh by the camera like Neo or something.