“Come, we’ve overstayed our welcome. Just got word from Prowl, Steeljaw’s been sent into retreat.” the second newcomer Cybertronian said. Swordbreaker, if Road Rage remembered the crew manifests correctly.
“Yeah, it’s not him I’m worried about…” Road Rage whispered, her mind drifting off towards the humans and Sunder...
A few moments before...
“So, going after humans now huh Steeljaw?” Prowl asked calmly as he tried to force the massive Decepticon off of him. His quarry chuckled.
“They were just in my way, that’s all,” Steeljaw replied in an equally calm tone of voice. “Just obstacles in the way of my real prize.”
Prowl’s optics then widened as he saw Sunder, in the electro-net, struggling and flailing about to get free. He let out shrieks of pain every time he was pumped full with more electricity. Prowl’s optics narrowed and he grabbed Steeljaw by the chest.
“You shall not have him, he’s an Autobot. One of our own!” Prowl snarled protectively. “Nor shall you harm those kids!” he declared. With that, he threw Steeljaw off of him, tossing him behind him as he did so.
“Maybe not…” Steeljaw growled, flexing his claws as he and Prowl picked themselves off the tarmac. “But the Vehicons? Well, now that’s another story…” he chuckled.
With that, the Vehicons gunned their engines and floored it, heading right for the Shadowbolts ready to run them down. Well, that was the plan anyways. Suddenly, one was blindsided by a pure red Corvette Stingray and sent flying off into the distance. An explosion was heard soon after, and a fireball rose high into the sky.
“Come on Con, you want to dance? Let’s dance!” Road Rage snarled out in challenge. She did a complete one-eighty, stirring up smoke as she did so as her tires squealed against the pavement. A blast of fire came from her mufflers and she floored it with the remaining Vehicon in hot pursuit.
“Savor the daylight. Because things are about to get rather dark…” Steeljaw growled out. With a roar, he then charged towards Prowl.
“Go, run!” Prowl shouted towards the girls as he braced himself for the hit. They took the message, and scattered. Well, almost all of them anyways. Twilight and Indigo ran towards Sunder.
“Not leaving you behind, not in the slightest,” Indigo said. “Saved our lives, so we owe you this much…”
Two things were felt then as Indigo and Twilight bore witness to Steeljaw rake his claws against Prowl’s chassis before the two began grappling for dominance against the other. Indigo, knew at that very moment that her whole life had just transformed into something else entirely, and that this was just the tip of the iceberg.
Twilight, on the other hand, got the distinct feeling that in some way, that this was all her fault. None of those thoughts running through the girls’ heads, of course, mattered to Prowl at the moment.
Right now, his only concern was the Decepticon known as Steeljaw. Ignoring the energon dripping from his torso plates -That, if he lived through this fight, could be dealt with later- Prowl set about the more pressing problem at hand.
That was, the Decepticon currently grappling him for dominance. Prowl broke out of the grapple by flashing the front headlights on his chest and Steeljaw shielded his optics with his hands to avoid permanent blindness. Taking advantage of this brief moment of confusion, Prowl opted for punching Steeljaw again and again. But the ‘Con was remarkably quick to recover and slashed Prowl again and again before his opponent had a chance to counter. Quick and brutal, that was his style. Animalistic as it was, it was brutally effective.
“Not so cocky now, are you?” the Decepticon taunted. “Think of this fight as a short, sharp lesson in not underestimating your opponent. Take one thing from this fight, if you wanted to win… You should fight as I do. Like a beast.”
Thanks to Steeljaw’s almost incredible speed and the fact that he currently had a hostage in Sunder and those girls, it was going to be almost impossible for Prowl to get the upper hand. Keyword, almost.
So, true to form Prowl set about what he was known for doing best. Subconsciously, he prioritized every bit of information available to him at the time.
Steeljaw. Sunder. The human girls. Road Rage. The Vehicons.
He removed Road Rage and the Vehicons from the equation entirely, he knew Road Rage was a fine Autobot in her own right -She hadn’t become a member of the Elite Guard and the personal bodyguard to an ambassador without very good reason after all- and so barring any unforeseen circumstances, she should be able to deal with the cannon fodder.
Of course, on the battlefield, unforeseen circumstances were all too often a common occurrence. Prowl knew you couldn’t plan for every aspect of how a battle would go. He was soundly knocked back to reality by a right cross from Steeljaw and then a powerful kick to the chest.
“Right…” he reminded himself. “Ignore Road Rage, for the time being, focus on your current problem. Analyze the situation, and deal with it in the best way possible.”
Observe. Prioritize, Analyze, React. Those were often Prowl’s internal thought processes. As of right now, he was on the react stage.
This was proven when he caught Steeljaw’s next punch and responded with one of his own, a powerful one to his faceplates sending the lupine Decepticon stumbling back. During this, Prowl noticed Steeljaw favored his left side, and when fighting, always left it open for attacks for the briefest of moments.
“Your arrogance blinds you Steeljaw,” Prowl said as he -predicting Steeljaw’s fast recovery- dodged to the left almost at once and pulled out his rifle and fired a few shots into Steeljaw as he lunged again. They were never intended to be fatal as Prowl aimed to capture the Decepticon, not kill, but they would still disable him. Groaning out in pain, Steeljaw fell to the concrete with a powerful crash. “Logically, you could theoretically beat me. However, by fighting like a beast, you allowed yourself openings,” Prowl commented. “Fast and dangerous, yes, I’ll give you that, but your fighting style grew predictable. Recover, then strike before your opponent has a chance to attack again. But you allowed yourself to grow arrogant. You exposed a blind spot in your defenses. That’s why you lost this fight. As you said, think of this as a short, sharp lesson,” he said in a definitive tone. But to his surprise, Steeljaw managed out a chuckle.
“You’re not the only one who’s arrogant…” the Decepticon laughed, a small smirk gracing his face. “For all your analysis, and logic, there was something you failed to consider,”
“Oh, and what’s that?” Prowl asked, eyebrow raised.
“...That I never came alone, I had a partner just like you did. I’ll admit, I never expected more Autobots to show up, but there’s always unexpected variables in any hunt.”
A roar of a jet engine was heard from above, and Prowl looked up to see a midnight blue form cutting through the darkened skies. An F-15 Eagle, with VTOL fans fitted to its wings. The jet’s parts quickly began to shift and change -As it fired twin missiles at Prowl- into a giant crow-like Predacon known as Filch.
As Prowl quickly dodged the oncoming missiles, Flich took her chance and grabbed Steeljaw with her talons before a blue-green swirling vortex of energy opened up and they flew through it.
Prowl cursed silently to himself, almost had him had that Corvicon partner of his not interfered.
“What was that you were saying about unforeseen circumstances Prowl?” the Autobot law enforcement officer asked himself with a wry chuckle. He then contacted the other soldier under his command he knew to be in the area.
“Swordbreaker, Steeljaw is no longer a threat,” he said over the comlink.
“I assume he’s been… apprehended?” the Bounty Hunter asked. As much as Prowl hated relying on a normally unsavory lot, he knew Swordbreaker was a trustworthy sort even if he didn’t care for either Autobot or Decepticon.
“If it were only that. He got away, with a little bit of help…” Prowl trailed off, a small growl in his tone. Swordbreaker sighed.
“That’s to be expected, when the going gets tough, the cowardly always flee. I’ll be heading to your location soon. Swordbreaker out.” he replied. Prowl nodded in understanding, before he turned off the commlink…
Now:
His attentions then turned to the humans, and Sunder. After all, right now, there were more important worries that needed attending to. Honestly, Prowl didn’t care at the moment they’d been exposed, nor was he worrying about the probable explosion from Fowler about both this and his daughter being put in the line of fire. In all honesty, Prowl had been expecting Sunny or one of her friends to stumble across them sooner or later. He’d been keeping tabs on them, just to alleviate Fowler’s worries, and he’d learned they were quite the intelligent and inquisitive bunch.
“Come on…” Twilight muttered, seemingly unfazed from her experience with Steeljaw-Through Prowl knew better, she was just hiding it for the time being most likely- and trying to get that electro-net off of Sunder, who she seemed to have struck up a friendship with if the Predacon’s concerned glances in her direction was any indication. “Getting you out of there Sunder, don’t worry…”
“Not by yourself, you’re not,” Prowl stated. “Steeljaw’s traps are state of the art. I’ll give him that, his Predacon Hunter tools are very good at what they do. Now… Twilight Sparkle is it?” he asked, looking down at her, and the human nodded.
“Okay, good,” Prowl smiled slightly. “You’re going to need my help if you’re going to get that thing off of Sunder,”
“Oh yeah?” Trixie piped up. “Why can’t you get it off yourself? This is your level of technology, and he’s your comrade I’m guessing so you do it! Trixie almost died tonight from Steeljaw and whatever his race is called, so way she figures it, she’s not sticking her neck out again for somebot they’re likely to go after again and put Trixie in their sights as well!” the stage magician snapped, and Prowl groaned to himself, getting a bit of a headache.
“I can see why Fowler thinks teenagers are such a pain in the aft…” Prowl thought to himself before sighing. “Listen, as much as I’d love to help out Sunder, I’m no minibot. See that little disk on the net? One right in the center of, where everything seems to come out from?” He asked, pointing towards Sunder’s restraints.
“Yeah, Trixie sees it,” she replied. “Why?”
“Open it up, both you and Twilight. You two are the only ones here about the right size to do it. Hurry now. I don’t want Sunder to be in any more pain than he already is,” Prowl directed.
Trixie, sharing a nod with Twilight, carefully pried open the disk to reveal a selection of multi-colored wires.
“Ah, Trixie sees the problem…” she continued. “You would be rather over-sized for this task, wouldn’t you?” she admitted. “Now, I assume it’s as simple as cut the red wire? That’s how it always is in the movies, isn’t it?”
“Trixie,” Twilight replied, rubbing her temples. “I highly doubt Steeljaw’s seen any of our films, and even if he has, I doubt he’d make the way of disabling his device so obvious. He strikes me as the type to be genre-savvy about these sort of things…” she trailed off in thought.
“Actually…” Prowl began -And if a robot could flush, Twilight would later swear Prowl did- and Twilight and Trixie stared at him.
“You gotta be kidding me,” Twilight muttered before she searched her pockets and sighed. Nope, no wire cutters or anything of the like. She flushed briefly, why’d she even think she’d even have such a thing on her? “Right, this isn’t going to be big on dignity, but here goes…”
Reaching out with her teeth, Twilight bit down on the wire and pulled hard as she could, before eventually it snapped in two and the electro-web dissipated, freeing her Predacon friend. He trilled in happiness and flapped his wings slightly before giving Twilight a thankful nibble to her hair, making her let out a small giggle.
Nearby, the rumble of two engines was heard as a military camo colored Toyota Tundra and the Corvette from before pulled up and transformed to the robot modes of Swordbreaker and Road Rage respectively.
“Vehicons scrapped?” Prowl asked at once, not wanting any running about loose and putting humans in danger.
“Yes, but…” Road Rage trailed off.
“But what?” Prowl inquired.
“It seems the Decepticon presence on this rock is larger than you led me to believe, and more dangerous,” Swordbreaker said. “I expect a larger payment.”
Prowl sighed and rubbed the equivalent of his temples, he couldn’t deal with that right now.
“We’ll talk later about that,” Prowl told him. “Now, Road Rage, as you were saying?”
“Yes, I managed to take care of the Vehicons, but as Swordbreaker here was beginning to explain, they had back-up. Some Predacon, and Knock Out. I dueled and tried to apprehend Knock-Out, but...” she trailed off.
Prowl’s optics widened slightly at the new information of yet another Predacon on the Decepticon side, and filed that information away for later. “But what?” he asked.
“My… condition took over slightly when I transformed, more than I was expecting,” Road Rage admitted in shame. “I was nearly overcome by it, and almost slagged Knock Out.”
Prowl nodded in understanding. “When we get back to base, we’ll have you looked over. See if we can halt the urge of it’s spread.”
“Sir,” Swordbreaker asked. “Should we really be discussing what I presume is top-secret information in front of the natives?”
He then gestured to Lemon Zest, who looked ready to burst from excitement.
“Okay… she began, visibly shaking. “That was awesome! Seriously, two giant robots going head to head like that? Badass, seriously badass!” she exclaimed, nearly squeeing while the Autobots looked on in confusion and bewilderment.
“Are all humans like this on your planet?” Swordbreaker had to ask, and Sugarcoat sighed to herself.
“No, just Lemon as far as I can tell,” the Crystal Prep student replied in her usual blunt manner of speaking before letting out a mutter of: “Thankfully…”
“Seriously,” Lemon continued. “You were like: “This ends here!” and he was like “Never!” she babbled in excitement while throwing a few punches and kicks at an invisible foe for good measure.
Indigo chuckled and rolled her eyes good-naturedly.
“Never change girl… Never change.” she smiled. Lemon was always the one to bring the excitement and perkiness to the group, never letting anyone stay down for even a moment. At first, back during Principal Cinch’s reign over CPA, Indigo had found it an annoyance, as all she wanted to do was be the best at playing soccer, and Lemon’s constant outbursts a distraction.
But now, honestly, she could safely say that she was grateful for having her around. She supposed it all started not too long ago, about a month before the fateful Friendship Games.
Indigo, with a snarl, punched a locker with a fist denting the metal slightly and swearing to herself quietly.
She never lost, never! And yet, somehow… Today, she did. All to that one rainbow haired girl from that boonie school CHS.
A simple mistake, that’s all it had to have been. She messed up somewhere. Yeah, that was it, Indigo thought to herself as she grabbed a wet towel and used it to wipe the sweat off her face.
As she wiped away the sweat and dirt from her face, she heard a very familiar voice along with the sound of rock and roll coming from nearby and groaned as she remembered it. Lemon Zest, of course.
Sure enough, as Indigo peeked her head outside the locker rooms, there was Lemon brazenly dancing to tunes, headphones over her ears and seemingly not caring if she got caught by anyone. Indigo chuckled, even if she found the girl an annoyance with the fact that she seemingly didn’t care if no one else wanted to listen to rock and roll at the same volume she did, she had to give her credit for sheer bravery.
It would have been all too easy for Principal Cinch to swoop down and take the headphones away, and throw Lemon in detention.
Speaking of Lemon, she finally took notice of Indigo staring at her.
“Oh, hey Indigo, want a listen?” Lemon asked.
“I’d rather not, thank you…” Indigo sighed, but her protests went ignored as Lemon pulled her in close and put one part of the headphones over Indigo’s ears. Almost at once, she was hit with a wall of sound and squealing guitars as Lemon did a air guitar solo.
“Man, Slash Monkey is the best!” Lemon exclaimed, seemingly not noticing -Or caring- as Indigo pried the headphones away, ears ringing. “Can’t believe they’re coming here! I mean, do you know how long I’ve been waiting to see them? Like, forever man! And I got tickets to see their only U.S. tour date!”
“Well, there's a shock,” Indigo deadpanned. “I mean, who doesn't love obscure Bulgarian shriek metal?"
“Boy, you seem to be down in the dumps today…” Lemon remarked. “C’mon, don’t tell me you’re letting that one loss get to you?”
Indigo’s small growl gave her all the answer she needed.
“Hey, like I said,” Lemon replied reassuringly. “Just one loss. What’s the thing about us Crystal Prep students?”
Indigo smirked.
“We never lose… And even if we do, we fight twice as harder next time.” she remarked, a new confidence filling her. She may have lost today, but next time would be different. That much she was sure of.
Lemon slapped her on the back. “That’s the spirit, girl! Now, next time skittles shows up, show her what we stand for as a school!”
Indigo smirked, and thought ahead to the upcoming Friendship Games. Oh, she would alright…
“Listen, if you don’t want us to know about all of this, promise we won’t blab a thing,” Indigo said. “First rule of super secret Robot Fight Club is don’t talk about super secret Robot Fight Club,”
Prowl chuckled. “If it were only so simple as for things to be a “Fight Club” as you put it,” he remarked.
“So what, you going to remove our memories like the characters do in the Men in Black movies with their Neuralyzer?” Trixie squeaked out nervously.
“Hardly, we’re not so… crude,” Prowl said. “Of course, obviously we can’t just live and let be. You know about us now. I have no doubts you won’t say a thing. After all, who’d believe you if you did?”
“...Got a point there.” Trixie admitted.
“But, we will be taking you back to our base for safe-keeping for the time being,” Prowl continued. “I don’t think the Decepticons would be so inclined to just live and let be with this defeat. Especially Steeljaw. So, because of that…”
Road Rage held up a hand to stop him.
“Hey, it’s their choice to make. Not ours. I say we let them make up their own minds. We can’t exactly force them to do what we want. We’re not tyrants,” she pointed out.
Prowl sighed to himself.
“Alright, fine,” he said, finally relenting. As much as he didn’t like the idea of the girls out there alone, Road Rage was right. They couldn’t force this choice on them. Reaching for a small panel on one of his arms, he pulled a holographic cell-phone number. “If you do decide to come to our base, call this number.”
Indigo nodded in understanding, as all three Autobots transformed and drove off into the night…
Canterlot Skate Park:
The next day, after classes let out for the afternoon, the whole group met up at the local skate park. Not Twilight’s ideal choice of venue, she had to admit, but it would do for the time being.
As she and the rest of the group from a picnic table watched Lemon Zest grind her skateboard up against a railing before doing an ollie onto a nearby half-pipe, Twilight frowned to herself.
“Hey, something wrong?” Trixie asked her girlfriend, whose eyes seemed to be just watching the sky and just drifting off into space. It wasn’t like her at all really, Twilight was always seemingly on-task and always focused on something. But right now…
“I… No, it’s nothing…” Twilight mumbled.
“Twilight, you’ve been acting like this since last night,” Trixie remarked before pointing to the math homework in front of her. “Seriously, you’ve been ignoring your own homework. That is so not like you. You’re… You’re starting to freak me out here.” she continued, in a worried tone of voice.
“It’s… Well, it’s just about last night,” Twilight murmured, and Trixie’s eyes widened in realization as she figured out what was keeping Twilight so distracted. “Can’t help but think some of it… No, all of it was my fault.”
Trixie looked at her in the eyes, giving her girlfriend a harsh look.
“Twilight, look at me, none of it was your fault, you understand?” she told her sternly. “Not one bit of it. All of it, it was on Steeljaw and his cronies, nobody else.”
“But… But if I hadn’t found Sunder, he wouldn’t have come after us…” Twilight trailed off. “We almost died that night, and so did he for that matter!”
“So, it was just a result of your curiosity getting the better of you,” Trixie shrugged. “The Twilight Sparkle I know, and fell in love with, she always wants to explore and learn new things, no matter what the risk! What was that old saying from that show you told me you and that babysitter of yours used to watch together?”
“Take chances, make mistakes, get messy…” Twilight mumbled.
“That’s what you were doing right there!” Trixie exclaimed. “Taking a chance, and sure you may have made a mistake and got in a bit of a mess for it, or maybe you may not have. There was no way in Hell you could have known Steeljaw was going to come after you! Now, pull yourself together Twilight Sparkle!”
“Thank… Thank you, Trixie.” Twilight whispered, hugging her girlfriend.
“Hey, that’s what I’m here for. To slap some sense into you, when you need it,” Trixie replied with a slight smirk. “Not a complete bitch, you know. ...Despite what everyone else likes to think.” she joked.
As Lemon walked up, resting her Kamen Rider Gaim themed skateboard up against a tree, she pulled out a can of an energy drink, popping it open.
“Hey, so you guys decided yet?” Lemon asked, and everyone looked at her in confusion. “Aw come on, don’t tell me you guys have forgotten yet? Certain group of giant fighting robots we met last night? Hello?”
“...I hardly think we can forget that, Lemon,” Sugarcoat deadpanned. “It’s just… well, it’s not an easy decision really. I mean, if what we’ve seen so far of their power is correct, it’d be very easy for us to get killed if we got involved in their little war.”
“Yeah,” Sour seemingly agreed. “Except the problem is, we’re already involved as it is. I mean, chances are that Steeljaw bot won’t forget about us anytime soon. That’s one wolf who needs serious anger management control…”
“Yeah, look who’s talking…” Trixie deadpanned, and Indigo and Sugarcoat had to physically restrain Sour as she tried to reach across the table.
“What was that!?!” Sour snarled, before she sighed and remembered what her psychologist had told her. “Deep breaths… Deep breaths.” she reminded herself as she refrained from trying to strangle Trixie.
“I think we’re forgetting the important point here,” Sugarcoat said. “Something Sour just brought up, even if she didn’t realize it,”
“Oh, what’s that?” Sour asked, intrigued.
“Robots, with living thinking minds of their own, and by that logic, robots with emotions,” Sugarcoat stated, having realized the full extent of the Cybertronian similarity to humankind. “Robots, who can bleed. Robots…”
“Robots,” Indigo finished, swallowing nervously. “Who can… die.”
“Alright,” Lemon proclaimed, reaching for her phone. “That settles it! We’re going. Those big guys, they won’t be able to bail Sunder out every time. They need our help!”
And before anyone could raise a hand to stop her, (And later on, they’d realize they probably wouldn’t have, as they all shared the same feelings) she dialed the number Prowl had given on her phone.
“Hey, Prowl? This is Lemon Zest, we’ve made up our mind. We’re coming to the base.”
And not even an hour later, Swordbreaker in vehicle mode showed up, and his door opened with a gruff: “Get in.”