//------------------------------// // Ultracon (2) // Story: We Need A Medic // by Onomonopia //------------------------------// Ultracon (2) Ultracon may have not been the biggest Con in the world, but he was still a full head and shoulders above Ratchet. Ratchet didn’t let the size difference intimidate him and held his ground as he glared up at the Con that he had been fighting to bring down. Unfortunately, Ratchet knew that he was in a bad situation. Ultracon was flanked by the two Cons that the Autobots had been keeping prisoner, including the one that Fluttershy had begged Ratchet to save. He wouldn’t make that mistake again. “Where is Redheart?” Ratchet asked right away. “Gone, Ratchet. She never made it off Cybertron,” Ultracon informed Ratchet in a smooth voice, but one that held danger in every syllable. Ratchet’s fury shot through his body, but his logical mind restrained him from lashing out. “Poor thing, she was so excited to be working with you. But I knew that if I could take her place, then I would have an easy time getting into your base and learning all of your little secrets.” “So that’s how you always knew where we were and what our plans were,” Ratchet snarled, only a few pieces of the puzzle missing. Ultracon smiled to show Ratchet that he had guessed correctly. “But if you were here the entire time, then why not kill me or Optimus when you had the chance? We would have never seen it coming?” “Simple. For as good as I am, I knew that if I killed one of you in here I would have never made it out alive. And I couldn’t go on missions with you, for I chose to replace a bot that was non-combative. Didn’t realize that until after I was already in,” Ultracon said with a shrug of his shoulders. “And besides, I don’t believe Optimus ever fully trusted me. He never gave me any important tasks or let me in on any Autobot secrets. He certainly lives to his legendary status, doesn’t he?” ‘Just got to keep him talking a little longer,’ Ratchet thought to himself as one of his optics was keeping a close eye on Red Alert, who was slowly coming back to his senses. ‘The Autobot’s will be calling in soon and if we don’t answer they will know something is wrong.’ “Then what about the girls? Why go through all this trouble, reignite a war that had finally be extinguished, to get your hands on them?” Ratchet asked. “You know the answer to that. The Neo Cybertronian Council,” Ultracon snarled, showing his first real signs of emotion since his reveal. Ratchet didn’t need any further information; he knew exactly what Ultracon was talking about. “As for the girls, I stumbled across their magic by accident when I freed Soundwave from his prison. Seems that he had been tracking them and their magical powers ever since his imprisonment on Earth. He was going to give them to Megatron to use in the war against the Autobots, but I brought him up to speed.” “So we were right. You did free Soundwave. But he would never follow you. He is loyal only to Megatron,” Ratchet pointed out. “Correction, he is loyal to the leader of the Deceptacons. Which, as I tragically showed him, is no longer Megatron,” Ultracon corrected once more. “He knows that Megatron gave up on his ambitions to free the oppressed of Cybertron and that Megatron is no longer with us. So now he works for me. And I must say, it’s nice to have an actual competent Con working with me.” “But you gave up the girls,” Ratchet continued on, hoping that Optimus would be able to repel the Con attack soon. “You had Sunset and Rainbow Dash and yet let them fall into our hands. What could possibly convince you to let us have them?” “Because at that point it was clear that I was never going to get all of them for myself. At most I could have caught four of them, but Fluttershy and Pinkie were safe in your care. And I know Prime would never trade the two of them away, not for anything. So I thought it best to let the Autobot’s have the complete set and then take them when I felt like it, much like I have now,” Ultracon said as he looked over at the girls, only to raise an eyebrow when he saw Fluttershy standing on the outside of the cage. “Fluttershy. Out of all of you and your friends to be the most problematic I never anticipated it to be you,” Ultracon said with a sly smile, only to be met by Fluttershy’s could stare. “When Soundwave first told me about the six of you, he said that Sunset was the most powerful and heroic. Hence why I went after her first. Had I known you’d be the biggest thorn in my side, perhaps you would have been my first target.” “Glad to see that I’ve caused you so much discomfort,” Fluttershy replied in a cold tone, one that made Ultracon chuckle. “That is not a look I expected to see out of you. I thought you were supposed to be shy, reserved and a coward.” “Shy, yes. Reserved, definitely. A coward? Seems Soundwave made a terrible assumption,” Fluttershy whispered before she activated her harmonic form, summoning forth her wings and magical aura. Ultracon seemed amused by her power. “But by being the biggest thorn in my side, you actually helped me to confirm what I’ve been trying to do since I first showed up on this rock,” Ultracon continued, this time talking directly to Fluttershy. “See, Soundwave theorized that we could take your magic and combine it with our Deceptacons to create unstoppable warriors. But we could never figure out how to get it to work. We couldn’t force them to combine, we couldn’t extract the magic from the girls. For a while we were at a dead end. And then you combined with Ratchet. You proved that our hypothesis was correct.” “Sounds like you really want to see Ratchet and I combine. Don’t worry, we’ll give you a full demonstration of our power,” Fluttershy promised. Ultracon smiled before his left arm became a double barrel shotgun and he fired a twin burst of energy right into the chest of Ratchet. Fluttershy let out a scream as Ratchet staggered backwards before collapsing to the ground, motionless. “Sadly, I don’t think you will. However, you can still show that demonstration to me, back at our base,” Ultracon said with a cruel smile to Fluttershy, who glared back up at him. Ultracon then made a move towards Shy, but in an instant Ratchet was back on his feet and he slammed himself into the side of Ultracon. “What in the name of the All Spark?!” “Overshields, Con! You really think that I wouldn’t have preparations made for the next time I ran into one of you fools?!” Ratchet asked before driving a fist into the face of Ultracon. Ultracon staggered back and the two Cons flanking him began to move towards Ratchet, but energon fire caught one of them in the back and the other spun around to see that Red Alert was back up to a knee, his left arm an energon pistol. “Fluttershy, let’s put an end to this!” Ratchet called over to Shy. She nodded her head, spread her wings and kicked off of the table, hurling herself towards Ratchet with all of her speed. She reached out to Ratchet as he reached out to her…only to gasp in terror when a metal had clamped down on the girl. Fluttershy let out a cry of pain and shock as the air was crushed for her lungs, before looking at her captor to find it was the Deceptacon with the hole still in his chest plate. The very one she had saved. “Alright, this fight is over. Unless you want to see any harm come to your precious little human?” Ultracon asked Ratchet, who stared at the captured Fluttershy with fear and fury. He turned his gaze towards the ground and sheathed the scalpel he had drawn, surrendering the Con. Red Alert lifted his pistol, but Ratchet held up a hand and Red Alert lowered his weapon. “Ah, glad to see that we’re all on the same page. Riptire, go grab the other girls, would you,” Ultracon instructed the other Con, who walked over to the cage with the girls within and lifted it. The girls screamed and used their own magic on the energon walls, but the walls blocked both their magic and their voices. “As I said Ratchet, it was so much easier to let you gather them all and then I take them from you. See what happens when we work together?” “You haven’t won yet, Con. I swear that I will tear you apart if you lay a finger on them,” Ratchet seethed. “Well then, I’d fear for my safety, but fortunately for me Soundwave will be the one performing the experiments, not me. So he will be the one you will be tearing apart, if you can,” Ultracon smirked back at Ratchet. “Come along Riptire and Drift. We have much work to do. And careful not to squeeze too hard, Drift. We don’t want to injure our esteemed guest.” Ultracon and the other Cons walked over to the ground bridge and punched in the coordination, activating the giant spiral of energon. Ultracon took Fluttershy and tossed her into the cell with her friends, before he and the cage walked through the vortex. Riptire followed suit, but before Drift left the base he planted an explosive on the ground bridge panel. Then he threw a dozen more around the room before turning to leave. “She saved your miserable excuse of a life, Con!” Ratchet roared at Drift, who glanced over his shoulder at Ratchet, who was consumed with his fury. “She did! The Cons would have left you to die, I certainly would have left you to die, but she believed that your worthless life was worth saving! And this is how you repay her?!” Drift stared at Ratchet for a long moment before he turned and walked into the vortex. And right before he vanished, he pressed a button on his wrist and the entire Autobot base exploded into flames.