“F-For the record,” Steeljaw stammered out, quite understandably wary of Airazor’s talons that she called hands. “I had no intent on disturbing your slumber.”
Airazor actually laughed at that, somewhat muffled by the deep red battlemask over her faceplates.
“You’re a funny one really,” the Predacon remarked. “If you had no intent on disturbing my slumber, why’d you and your bunch come tromping through my forest when I wanted to be very well left alone?”
Steeljaw filed that information away for later, presuming he survived this. As far as he was aware, he and Filch were the only Cybertronians aside from Airazor for miles around. Well, them and that mysterious tiger who kept on following them.
“And your little friend or mate or whatever, she can stop hiding behind a tree,” Airazor commented, gesturing to a nearby section of undergrowth and forest where Filch in robot mode was just barely managing to hide herself. “Not like I can’t see her anyways.”
Filch blushed red, although whether that was from the mate comment or just being found out it was impossible to tell.
“I’m… I’m not his…” Filch stammered out while Airazor just laughed her head off. “Oh for Onyx’s sake, never mind. Listen, the only reason we’re here and I do apologize if we woke you up from your nap but Thunderclash specifically asked us to come to seek you out.”
Airazor walked over to Filch, actually being somewhat taller than her fellow Predacon. This, combined with those optics of hers and a battlemask that couldn’t help you figure out what she was really thinking all in all gave Airazor this very intimidating posture. Steeljaw looked understandably nervous, and his tail absentmindedly twitched nervously.
“Oh relax… Steeljaw was it, I’m not going to hurt her. If Thunderclash likes you -And believe me, I already know he does, as he normally wouldn’t let intruders to his domain leave alive- then I’m perfectly fine with you two as well. Simple as that.” Airazor replied with a small shrug of her shoulders.
“...Well, that’s a relief.” Steeljaw muttered, and Airazor chuckled.
“What, worried your silver tongue wouldn’t get you out of this one eh, Wolfy?” Airazor laughed, and Steeljaw’s face scrunched up either from such a cutesy nickname or just in surprise. Filch made a hissing sound of possible jealousy. “Oh, don’t look so surprised. I’ve been keeping in touch with radio chatter as of late, seeing what’s going on the world. Your name’s been cropping up a few times, namely amongst your fellow Decepticons wondering where you scampered off to. Who’s afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? Apparently everyone in your squad, and about what you and Quinn King over here would get up to once you went rogue after your little vanishing act in Mexico a while back.”
“...Wow, you’re as observant as the legends make you out to be Devil Bird,” Steeljaw remarked in a deadpan tone.
“By Onyx Prime’s spark DeWitt, I swear…” Airazor muttered with a small shake of her head and a groan. “Me, a devil? I think not!” she huffed.
“I’m just happy to meet you at last!” Filch chirped, sounding almost a bit like a parakeet despite what her bird form resembled. “I mean… you’re a freaking living legend amongst Predacons!”
“My first fan. That's why I spend all of my time lately living out in forests and called some devil bird by the locals, it’s because of the fame and the glamour.” Airazor deadpanned.
“...And I’m beginning to see why she doesn’t get many visitors.” Steeljaw muttered largely to himself, feeling a headache coming on. ...Could Cybertronians even get those, he wondered. For that little comment, Airazor gave him a particularly fierce, downright nasty glare.
“...I get no respect.” Steeljaw grumbled to himself.
“You’ll get that respect when you earn it Dogmeat.” Airazor replied in turn. Filch burst out laughing.
“I-I will not be compared to that dog from that video game series!” Steeljaw exclaimed in a mix of embarrassment and indignity. This made Filch only laugh harder, clutching her chassis in amusement.
“Well, she certainly schooled you!” she cackled, and Steeljaw looked quite put off by this remark.
“...They’re ganging up on me,” he muttered, with a low hang of his head. Ignoring the now quite thoroughly annoyed Decepticon, Airazor walked back over to Filch and studied her. While she couldn’t quite put her finger on it, there was something off about this particular Predacon. Her chassis, it was more streamlined and less beast-like in a lot of respects, which was particularly unusual. And then there were the turbine fan blades in her shoulderpads, something no normal Predacon ever bore. Then again, Airazor had no room to talk about being a normal Predacon really, considering she bore turbines in her wings as well. Unusual CNA mutation in her case really, not something anyone had ever figured out or even really had the time to actually bother to considering how ‘well-loved’ Predacons generally were amongst other Cybertronians. It’d happened before with a Predacon named Sunder, if she remembered her facts correctly. But with Filch, well she suspected something more was afoot here.
“Have to say,” Airazor remarked in a curious tone. “Never seen a Predacon quite like you before. Something different about you really. Actually, something different about both you and Wolfy over there really,” she continued, gesturing behind her with a finger.
“Oh, so you noticed that…?” Filch replied glumly with a small slumping of her shoulders. “Yeah, guess it’s sorta obvious innit?”
“Hey Tweety it’s alright,” Airazor said with a small smile sitting down next to Filch dropping her moderately annoyed demeanor. “We’re all Predacons here aren’t we?” she said, gesturing to the small badge on Filch’s chest plating resembling an orange dragon’s head. Below it, a Decepticon symbol but partially clawed through. Steeljaw’s own, now that Airazor thought of it bore the same distinctive claw marks. It was entirely possible that both sets of claw marks belonged to Steeljaw, given the razor-sharp claws he bore instead of traditional fingers. He, like Filch was rather odd. He possessed quite a few regular Cybertronian features, but then there was that oddity of a tail hanging loosely off his backside and his wolfish face.
“Yeah… I suppose, more of less,” Filch remarked, stifling a chuckle at being called Tweety. Airazor seemed to have a love of witty remarks and a passion for nicknaming bots whether they liked it or not.
“Can… Can we just drop it?” Steeljaw asked not really wanting to get into either his or his friend’s rather painful pasts, before Filch gave him a look.
“No, she has every right to know. Can’t avoid the question every time someone asks it, and I do want to win over her trust so she might as well know what that monster did to us.” Filch told her partner sternly, with a trace of shame in her tone.
“So, what exactly happened to you?” Airazor asked, more than a hint of concern in her tone.
“Well…” Filch sighed. “Suppose I should start at the beginning really. You ever heard the name Shockwave before?”
“You know, you fascinate me,” Shockwave stepped out into the light. “For being a machine, I would have expected a more vehicle-like transformation out of you. But instead, you take the form of a winged creation; but not a sleek and rocket-fueled one like Starscream or Thundercracker; and instead a more beastial form. It amazes me, a Predacon still surviving to this very day.“And yet, still, you disappoint me. You could be something more. Something with potential; a beast with an ambition, a goal, a purpose, even.”
Airazor winced. “Who hasn’t?” she muttered, her chassis shuddering slightly in a mix of disgust and fear.
“Right… stupid question I guess,” Filch sighed and looked away from her fellow Predacon with no small amount of shame. Airazor’s optics widened in realization, and she let out a low hiss of anger.
“Bastard. He… He got to you and Steeljaw didn’t he?” she asked in a soft gentle tone, that didn’t really sound all that right coming from such a rather intimidating bot such as her really. At least in Filch’s opinion. Even now, the memories still came flashing back to Filch. They always did, every time she thought about that moment in her life. That cold, emotionless tone and that pain she’d felt. And the shame of being captured and used as some lab rat.
“What was that?” He leaned in closer to Filch’s ear. “I didn’t quite catch that. Was that a sense of resistance, even when your mind is about to be subdued?”
He turned on the lights and revealed two tanks, where two Autobots rested in some sort of green fluid. One, blue and gold and bearing spikes all over his torso and the other a teal-blue with razor-sharp claws, a wolfish face and a tail hanging limp. “I’ve done this before, only in reverse. See these two? Injected with Predacon CNA. Now I’m going to see what happens when a Predacon is injected with Cybertronian CNA,” Shockwave mused, and if he had a mouth Filch imagined he’d be smiling. Regardless, he took up a syringe filled with said CNA and pointed the tip at Filch. “Just sit back, relax, and let all the bad feelings fade away. Trust me. I’m a scientist.”
“Yeah… He did…” Filch whispered lowering her head in shame and disgust. A proud Predacon, laid low by some lowly Decepticon mad scientist who just wanted to experiment on her for kicks. Shockwave might not have been emotionless as they claimed, seemed to her he had quite the sadist side.
Filch whimpered out in fear as the syringe injected the pure Cybernucleic Acid into her systems, and she felt new programming trying to take control. Her whimpers slowly turned into a loud scream as parts shifted and reconfigured the more beastial aspects of her chassis vanishing. Feathered wings sharpened and became more jet-like before fans revealed themselves with her body becoming less angular and streamlined, less like a regular Corvicon and more like a jet’s.
“Now then.” Shockwave took the needle out once it had done its’ job and set it down on the table. “Let’s give you a chance to break in this new directive, shall we?”
“Violated me, turned my body inside out. Mutated it into… this.” she whispered in shame, gesturing to her body. “Sure, gained a few advantages such as a new alt-mode but I lost my pride as a Predacon in the process. Both me and Steeljaw. While he’s never been a Predacon, Shockwave thought it’d be funny I suppose -fine time for him to finally show some sense of emotion I think- to inject him and another Cybertronian with Predacon CNA.”
Airazor sucked in a breath, and brought the surprised Predacon in for a hug before releasing it.
“I… see,” Airazor sighed to herself. “That explains so much.”
“Every day,” Steeljaw muttered to himself, clenching his fist and making it crackle with yellow energy. “Every damn day I think about that Decepticon, and think about what it’d be like to crush his head casing and watch that life leave that optic of his…”
He quickly regained his composure and took a few deep breaths upon realizing what he was saying, and what part of him was coming to the surface.
“I… I apologize, being injected with Predacon CNA, it brought both me and Gekisoumaru’s more violent instincts to the forefront. We’ve learned to curb them with the help of an Autobot named Drift, but every so often I… I can’t control myself and just want to go on a rampage and rip and tear something to shreds. Even now, I’m fighting back the instinct to just ‘hulk out’ as the humans say and destroy something. Or someone.”
It was clear he was desperately trying to hold himself back, his limbs were twitchy and his tail flicked back and forth, and every so often his eyes darted around. Any nearby wildlife including panthers, it quickly scampered off into the undergrowth in fear of the much larger predator.
“What happened to Shockwave?” Airazor asked. “Did you ever…?” she trailed off, not sure if she really wanted to know.
“No, never got the chance to alas,” Steeljaw said, taking a few deep breaths. “After Shockwave tried to create this Predacon combiner, even Megatron saw him mad and actually teamed up with the Autobots to take him out. He said, and I’ll never forget his words: “I do this only for my fellow Decepticons. It grieves me that you may also profit.” Probably lying through his teeth, master of that but it stunned us all when Megatron turned on one of his right-hand men.” Steeljaw stated, and punched a tree in frustration before the tempest was somewhat calmed as Filch rubbed his shoulders.
“It’s nice to see such loyalty amongst you two, such a rare thing amongst Predacons really. Or Decepticons, or whatever you two are.”
“We’re neither,” Filch stated. “We’re just looking out for ourselves, and that’s the end of that.”
“I don’t entirely believe that really,” Airazor remarked. “After all, if you were looking out for yourself, why would you come all the way here on Thunderclash’s own recommendations no less to find me?”
“We just need a bodyguard, help protect us from Onslaught and his men. That’s it really,” Steeljaw replied. Even he didn’t believe his own words really however, they sounded rather weak even as they left his mouth.
“Heh,” Airazor chuckled. “Yeah, and Primus will appear in his earthly form to bless the Fallen for being a saint. You’re not just looking for a bodyguard, are you? You need an army to fight Onslaught, or you’re protecting your fellow kind. Not sure which yet, although if you need an army go to the Autobots. They’d kindly welcome you two with open arms, they do adore taking in strays and anyone who’ll join their cause. That idiot Repugnus is evidence alone of that little aspect of their occasional bouts of stupidity.”
“Don’t mince words, do you?” Steeljaw remarked, both he and Filch sharing a wince.
“Hey, I just like to tell it how it is at times, life’s done me no favors. I’m a Predacon, part of our lot in life. Primus hates us, or at least the Primes that follow his doctrine at times. Remember Nominus and Zeta, and Sentinel?” Airazor reminded them both. “Such lovely characters to carry the Matrix of Leadership. You know something? Death should be treated with dignity. We're supposed to respect one another's lives. But once we grow out of sparkling-hood, though we should know better all the same we still find ways to cause meaningless death and the shedding of energon. They did to Cybertron as well, devoured her resources to the brink and after all that was over?” Airazor whispered, sounding like she was about to cry herself. “Cybertronians just sought out new places to conquer, casting off those like ourselves that they thought reminders of our brutal past. I used to believe there was this inner god, called possibility, but now…? I’m not so sure of anything anymore. As I said, you’re better off going to the Autobots if you want help. I’m not the Predacon you need.”
Suddenly, Steeljaw flinched as his audio receptors heard something in the undergrowth, and he shoved Airazor out of the way as a teal blue and white blur darted past. If he hadn’t gotten her out of the way just in time, she would have been ripped to shreds by its claws. Steeljaw’s optics narrowed, the thing that attacked them was the tiger who’d been following him since he got here.
“You’re right,” the tiger said as it shifted forms to a bipedal state. “She’s not the Predacon anyone needs, she’s grown too weak. Too soft! She brings a stain upon our entire race.”
“Pounce…” Airazor hissed out as she transformed into her massive beast mode, flaring her wings. “And I’m willing to bet your twin isn’t far behind. He never is.”
“Right you are on that!” Wingspan’s cackling voice remarked as the Predacon landed himself atop a nearby temple ruin. “Nice to see you again, isn’t it?”
“Wish I could say the same for you…” Airazor commented.
“Well, you’re certainly foolish ones,” Steeljaw remarked. “Three on one. Never particularly liked those odds. Bit lopsided for you, isn’t it?”
“Oh, we’ve got friends on the way. That collar of yours,” Wingspan remarked as he transformed and landed next to his brother, looking almost exactly alike Pounce except for a few minor differences here and there. “More than just a fancy fashion accessory. It also serves as a tracking device. See, me and my brother here?” he continued, slinging an arm around Pounce. “We cut a deal with your old boss. Let his boys take you and your new friend out, in exchange for joining the newfound gap in their ranks!”
“So, a cheap shot at me is what you’re really asking for isn’t it?” Airazor snarked as she watched Pounce and Wingspan resume their beast modes. She let out a challenging shriek to Wingspan, who returned it. “Pathetic, I thought you two were above such a thing. ...But then again, you always did flock to the newest guy on the block with all the power. So perhaps I really shouldn’t be that surprised at all. Do you want to see who really rules the skies? Fine, I’ll take you up on that offer, but warning you right now… This lady, she stoops to conquer.” Airazor stated firmly, in a warning tone before both she and Wingspan shot upwards like rockets into the air as a storm broke loose, lightning flashing and rain pouring down.
“And guess that just leaves us,” Steeljaw smirked as he bared his fangs at Pounce even as Filch changed into her bird form, the grass beneath her blowing in the wind created by her twin fans. “You really picked a bad time today to mess with me, cause I’ve been wanting to rip something up. I think you’ll do nicely.”
With a loud roar, he charged into battle claws and fangs bared with Filch right behind him. Pounce smirked, and lived up to his nickname and actually tackled Steeljaw to the ground with a loud thud and a mighty Ka-Clang! as metal met metal before he leaped off of Steeljaw and grabbed Filch by the wing in his jaws. The Corvicon let out a shriek of pain, and because of her current position was unable to actually transform into her jet mode. However, didn’t mean she was helpless in any regard, as she launched her talons at Pounce, and began ripping his chest open as energon spattered her chassis.
Backing off as he roared out in pain, Pounce swore profusely at Filch in ancient Cybertronian.
“Yeah yeah… Blow it out your aft!” Filch shot back, and changed into bot mode before punching Pounce in the face with a solid right hook just as Steeljaw recovered.
“As they say… “Cry 'Havoc!', and let slip the dogs of war!” Steeljaw snarled and transformed with a shifting and whirring of parts into his vehicle mode, engine revving up and kicking up dirt and mud as his tires dug into the ground before finally finding their grip. Giving chase to Pounce through the thick undergrowth, if Steeljaw would have smirked he would have.
“So, little kitty’s decided to turn chicken on me!” he laughed, letting his beastial instincts take over for a brief second longer as he smashed through a ruined wall and then drove up a slight hillside before flipping over in midair his wheels facing the sky where high above the tree canopy, Filch followed and awaited her chance for an opening.
Parts shifting once more as he practically did a barrel roll above Pounce, Steeljaw resumed his robot mode and landed on his back ‘paws’ if you will and struck Pounce across the face only to be surprised when Pounce fired a blast of searing hot plasma from within his jaws. Steeljaw realized just then in that instance what Pounce and Wingspan’s plan was, it was to separate the two of them from Airazor and take care of the more dangerous threats first. And it seemed Pounce was well-suited for that task indeed. He was a turbofox in cat’s clothing really.
“You gotta be-” Steeljaw shouted in shock before Filch swooped down in her bird mode and grabbed him with her talons just in time to keep him from getting charbroiled.
“What would you ever do without me?” Filch teased, her voice taking on a sassy tone for a moment as she set her friend down in a safer spot. Soon afterwards, Pounce leaped out of the jungle and transformed into robot mode in a corkscrew manner brandishing what looked to be a purple scimitar of energy which crackled into life as soon as he pulled the hilt off his hip holsters.
“Well, someone’s overcompensating.” Filch teased as she dodged the sword swings with relative ease, before bringing out a small pistol, and shooting Pounce in the shoulder nicking him and drawing yet more energon. He let out a small growl of anger, and pulled out another scimitar and swung wildly with it nearly cleaving Filch’s head clean from her shoulders.
She let out a yelp, and backflipped a few feet, landing in a small river behind her with a small thud.
“You do know what cats do to birds, right?” Pounce sneered, his blades crackling with energy, before a part on Filch’s arm opened up, and fired a grappling cable at her opponent and pulled one of the swords from his hands.
“Evidently I didn’t get the memo,” she snarked back. “And evidently, I don’t care.”
Blades clashed, and sparks flew before Steeljaw grabbed his partner and tossed her towards Pounce and she aimed a flying kick right at his faceplaces. In the nick of time, and to avoid his head being caved in by his fellow Predacon, he shifted forms once more and ran towards Steeljaw even as Filch rebounded off a tree.
Pounce swiped a powerful claw at Steeljaw’s face, drawing energon before the Predacon spun around and kicked Steeljaw in the chest almost like a horse would before he transformed back into robot mode and impaled Steeljaw to a tree just barely missing his spark.
“Now the odds are a bit fairer, don’t you think?” Pounce smirked. “...All the dirty jobs.” he then grumbled to himself, wondering if his twin was having any better luck dealing with their eternal rival.
He then let out a sharp yell of shock as Filch transformed back into bird mode and used her talons to slam him into a tree, which cracked under the pressure and Pounce was sent flying backwards, the blade slipping from his grasp. It went flying, before impaling itself in a tree. Pounce picked himself up off the ground and managed to punch Filch in the beak and even as she reverted to robot mode, twin parts on Pounce’s legs opened up and two bladed wheels flew into his hands. Fire and Wind wheels, if Filch remembered correctly. Traditional Asian martial arts weapons, which made sense she supposed given where she was. Chakrams probably would have been less surprising, but evidently, Pounce was one of those cultured types. Well, as cultured as a Predacon could get anyways.
“Filch, be careful!” Steeljaw shouted as he tried to pry the blade out of his body and free himself. Sadly, for the time being, there was no such luck.
“What do you think I’ve been doing?” Filch shouted back in return as she leaped backwards to avoid a strike from Pounce’s weapons. “Playing hard to get?”
A loud shriek cut through the air just then as Wingspan flew right by the two, Airazor in hot pursuit firing lasers at him, the two cutting through the forest with their sharp wings. In this brief moment of confusion, Pounce had lost sight of Filch and his eye darted from left to right, but then he was soundly drop-kicked in the face by Filch who’d come from above. His weapons went flying from his hands and into Filch’s own.
“And I thought you were the one supposed to be doing all the pouncing around here…” Filch teased, before her optics widened in shock as Pounce pulled out two more weapons from his back, twin hook swords. “Just how many fucking weapons does this guy even have?” she thought to herself as she blocked the blade strikes with her newly borrowed weapons, just barely managing to hold back the infuriated Predacon.
Meanwhile, high in the sky above both Airazor and Wingspan were still at it, sharp feathered wings and talons like razors just barely missing each other again and again.
“You know, I normally have a soft spot for cats,” Airazor commented as she observed the battle taking below her. “But your brother, well I have to say I gotta make an exception!”
The battle eventually progressed over a small lake, the two swooping down low and leaving behind powerful wakes with their wings. Airazor flew high, and a crack of lightning blinded Wingspan, keeping him from seeing what happened next as Airazor spun like a drill towards him. He just barely managed to avoid the attack and dived beneath the water before transforming and grabbing into Airazor before vibrating his hands. There was something special about Wingspan actually. Aside from being a clone, he was also one of those rare Point One Percenters, which meant his spark had actually mutated and granted him special abilities. In his case, it was literally to vibrate a Cybertronian apart.
Airazor knew of this, of course, and in a flash rapidly transformed back into robot mode and kicked Wingspan in the gearbox, before she bared her talons and pulled him apart wires, gears, and energon floating everywhere away from the now partially bisected Predacon.
Now, there was something you needed to know about Transformers who happened to be twins. Transformers that were twins had a rather special relationship with each other. The two were always intimately linked in such a way that they considered the other to be their other half. And when one of the two twins died, the other would feel the passing of his spark. And it was no different for Pounce, who let out a loud scream of pain as he felt Wingspan get ripped to shreds. In some ways, this was no different than a Conjunx Endura bond but much worse as both would feel what the other would feel.
“She… She killed him!” Pounce roared out in rage, charging directly at Filch his blades bared. “She killed my brother!”
“And you’re soon to follow. You’re both madmen, and the world would be better off without you, I think!” Steeljaw roared, as he finally pried the blade out of his body and ignoring the pain clocked Pounce in the face sending him spiraling to the ground. It was then he heard the sound of camera shutters going off, and he then remembered exactly where he was. On the outskirts of a small village, with all the locals coming out to gawk at the scene. His optics widened as he saw what was on the local news, and he didn’t need to read the text at the bottom of the screen to understand what Stinger and Prowl clashing meant. He read it anyways.
“ඇමරිකාවේ හූවර් වේල්ලේ යෝධ රොබෝ සටන!” it read.
“Hūvar vēllē dævænta robō hǣrīmak!” the newscaster stated in the local language of Sinhala.
“Aw slaggit… Guess the secret’s out,” Steeljaw muttered before being blindsided by a now furious beyond measure Pounce who nearly cleaved off one of his arms with his blades. “Right, forgot about you.” he grumbled, before slamming a fist into Pounce’s body dispatching the second of the two twins.
“...Well, guess that’s that.” Filch commented, as the locals gasped in awe at the two and the gasps and whispers only increased when Airazor landed and transformed into robot mode.
“Good riddance to bad rubbish I say,” she huffed. “Going to have to apologize to the natives for dispatching two of their holy Rakshasa and I doubt this will improve my standing in their eyes as a Devil Bird but…” she sighed sadly before Filch put a supportive hand on her shoulder.
“It had to be done, they would have turned on the humans eventually. They just wanted to rip and tear. With them, it was going to come down to kill or be killed, you know that…”
“Yeah, I know,” Airazor muttered looking away in shame. “Still, my species count drops even lower now…”
Her optics then turned to the sky as her audio sensors picked up something. Steeljaw’s and Filch’s were soon to follow.
“Wait, what’s that?” Steeljaw murmured to herself before the sound of a jet engine could be heard as a red fighter jet flew over the village guns trained solely on the three renegades.
Soon to follow erupting from the undergrowth were four other Decepticons. Two were mostly blue trucks, the third a Ferrari 458 Italia with gold pinstriping and the fourth and final was this massive tank.
Parts shifted and moved as all five Decepticons transformed into robot mode and trained their guns on both the humans and the renegades.
“Should we slag the humans?” Dead End asked. “Not that it matters in the long run, because we’re all going to go to that great rust heap in the sky sometime soon but let’s face it… I’m bored as all hell,” he grumbled out. Steeljaw swore to himself, he knew what had happened, he knew how they’d been found. And it wasn’t because of some damn tracking collars. His optics narrowed, looking at the traitor dead in the eyes.
The jet transformer gave Dead End a pointed look before answering. “No, leave them. They’re not part of this.”
Meanwhile, Steeljaw looked at Breakdown his optics glistening in betrayal. Breakdown couldn’t meet his face, even as he pulled the trigger on his pulse rifle…
BLAM!