Thrum... thrum...
The barrels of the heavy repeater spun down to a final, clicking halt.
Skygnaw stared down the smoke-filled tunnel, littered with the burning husks of armored vehicles. Not a single human remained in his line of sight. He retracted his weapon with a mask of cold indifference; crushing a handful of primitive biologicals was a necessity, not a triumph.
He turned and strode back into the AllSpark Isolation Hall.
Inside, Frenzy—now restored to his full one-point-two-meter height thanks to the Cube's energy—was skittering around the base of the artifact. Black Panther stood nearby, a silent sentinel, currently mid-evolution as the blue energy of the Spark coursed through its frame.
Frenzy's optics flickered with suspicion as he watched the unfamiliar mechanical beast.
"Frenzy. You are functional again?" Skygnaw's voice echoed in the vast chamber.
The small spy spun around. "Yes! Thanks to the Spark. Otherwise, I'd have had to beg the Master for a new chassis."
Cybertronians were resilient; so long as the Spark flickered and a technician was available, resurrection was merely a matter of spare parts.
Skygnaw gestured toward the panther. "This is my unit, Black Panther. Soundwave ordered Scalpel to construct it for me."
"I see..." The suspicion in Frenzy's optics vanished. "Skygnaw, did you finish off the human vermin outside?"
"No," Skygnaw replied smoothly. "But they've retreated. They won't be bothering us for a while."
He knew better. Sector Seven wouldn't give up their prize until their base was a smoking crater. Greed was the ultimate human motivator—it pushed them to bypass their survival instincts. They had reverse-engineered their entire civilization from Megatron; they weren't about to walk away from the Source.
"Frenzy, transmit the coordinates of the Spark and the status of Lord Megatron to Soundwave," Skygnaw commanded. "And ask for our next directive."
Skygnaw intentionally deferred the transmission. Let Frenzy take the credit for the report; it made the small bot feel important and kept him from prying too deeply into how Skygnaw had found the place.
Frenzy nodded eagerly, his spindly fingers twitching as he accessed the long-range arrays. "Don't worry, Skygnaw. I'll make sure the Master knows you played your part. You'll get your share of the glory."
Skygnaw offered a thin, mechanical smile. To a lower-tier bot, "glory" was everything. To an Elite-Class Warrior, it was a useless scrap of data. He had already taken his reward from the Cube.
While Frenzy was occupied, Skygnaw opened his own private channel.
[Lord Starscream, this is Skygnaw. The AllSpark has been located. Coordinates locked.]
Outer Space. Geostationary Orbit.
A massive communication satellite suddenly began to buckle and shift. Like a cell dividing, a second, identically sized but strangely shaped "satellite" detached from the main body.
A cold, robotic face emerged from the shifting plates. Two red optics ignited in the void. This was no machine of human make; it was Soundwave, the silent shadow of the Decepticon cause.
For days, Soundwave had drifted in the vacuum, parasitizing human satellites and feeding on the planet's data stream. He had monitored the Autobots' every move since their arrival and kept tabs on his own agents below.
The solar panels rotated toward the sun as Soundwave engaged his thrusters, drifting toward a high-altitude military reconnaissance bird.
[Master! I am with Skygnaw. The AllSpark and Lord Megatron have been located!]
The data stream Soundwave was injecting into the satellite hit a sudden, violent snag. Found him. At last.
[Frenzy. You and Skygnaw are to initiate the extraction of Lord Megatron immediately. I am mobilizing all active units to your position.]
[Understood, Master.]
Soundwave immediately broadcasted a wide-spectrum command to every Decepticon signature on Earth.
[I am Soundwave. All Decepticons: Commencing Operation. Move out!]
The Silver State. Konas Canyon.
A black-and-white police interceptor tore out of a hidden ravine, tires screaming against the dirt.
[Barricade moving out!]
The Great Basin Desert.
A heavy transport helicopter with the tail number 4500X banked sharply, its rotors beating the air into a frenzy.
[Blackout in formation!]
Nashville. Buffalo Military Depot.
At the graveyard of armored vehicles, a massive Buffalo mine-clearing vehicle and a heavily modified M1 Abrams tank smashed through the electrified perimeter fence.
[Bonecrusher on the road!]
[Brawl reporting!]
Back in the Isolation Hall, Skygnaw watched Black Panther finish its evolution.
The drone had learned much through the human global network, developing a distinct, predatory personality. As it detached from the Cube, it looked lethal—its claws resembled monomolecular daggers, and the spikes on its tail hummed with static.
"Master, the evolution is complete!" The panther's voice was filled with a new, dark resonance. It had ascended to a Mid-Class Warrior.
"Good. Stay sharp."
"Skygnaw! New orders!" Frenzy skittered over, but stopped dead as he looked up at Skygnaw and the drone. "Elite-Class... and Mid-Class..."
Frenzy's four optics whirled as he processed the sudden shift in their power levels.
"A lucky break," Skygnaw said, his voice flat. "When I touched the Cube to verify its signature, a surge of raw energy flooded my chassis. It seems the Spark recognizes a true warrior."
He had to play the fool. Soundwave's "Cassette" minions were notorious for eavesdropping and reporting secrets back to their master. He didn't want Soundwave knowing he possessed a specific source code for evolution.
Frenzy's mandibles twitched. He sensed something was off, but he couldn't argue with the results.
"Right... the orders," Frenzy stammered. "The Master says to leave the Spark for now. We are to proceed to the cryo-vault and liberate Lord Megatron. The others are on their way."
Leave the Spark? Skygnaw understood. Soundwave didn't have the compression code to shrink the Cube. Only a Leader-Class Cybertronian—or someone taught by one, like Bumblebee—knew how to condense the AllSpark. Moving a hundred-meter cube was a logistical nightmare; waking Megatron was the faster path to victory.
"Then let us move," Skygnaw said, taking one last look at the glowing relic. "Lord Megatron has waited long enough."
He wasn't about to desert the faction now. Pursuit of "freedom" was a death sentence in this universe. Better to be an Elite-Class enforcer for a winning army than a rogue target for both sides. Besides, Megatron didn't take kindly to deserters.
"Black Panther, take the point," Skygnaw commanded. "Frenzy, stay in the shadows. Let's melt some ice."