Bumblebee was getting impatient; he’d been doing curbside duty at Sunset’s house for about three months now, but this was the first time he’d known her to take this long to get ready. Finally, his com-unit toned. “Bee, it’s Cliff. Where the heck are you?”
“Waitin’ on Sunset.” Bee replied.
“Well, she’s almost half an hour late.” Cliff reminded. “What’s takin’ her so long?”
“Stand by; I’m gonna go check it out,” Bumblebee reported and activated his avatar, which stepped out of the car and moved to the door, giving a sharp knock. “Sunset? You in there?” No answer, which worried Bumblebee a little, so he quickly placed his hand on the lock, quickly projecting a holomatter key from his palm that unlocked the door, allowing him into the building. “Cmon Sunset, get up; you’re late.” Still nothing; he moved up to her bedroom and found no sign of her.
But he did find something of interest; a strange footprint in the carpet that definitely wasn’t from Sunset. Quickly, he analyzed it and scowled when he got a match. “Frenzy.” His avatar quickly disappeared as he revved his engine and roared out of town. “All units, this is Bumblebee; Frenzy was at Sunset’s house last night. Repeat; Sunset has been captured by the Decepticons.”
Jetfire heard that over the coms and scowled. “Perceptor, you got a read on the Nemesis?”
“I believe so, Jetfire.” the scientist nodded. “Though it is hardly definitive, I believe the warship is currently at these coordinates.” The coordinates were quickly fed to Jetfire’s computer, so he quickly moved to the aircraft elevator.
“Stand by Bumblebee; I’m wingin’ up. Hope Starscream’s ready for another reunion,” he smirked as he transformed and flew out at full speed, toward the coordinates… though he didn’t actually know if they were correct.
Sunset groaned as she awoke, finding her arms bound in heavy chains in a dark room. If she didn’t know any better, she might’ve thought she was locked in the dungeons of Canterlot Castle back home in Equestria. But since she did know better, it didn’t take her long to figure out that she was locked up on the Nemesis… mostly due to the robotic panther circling below her. “Ravage, right? What do you want with me?”
“It’s not up to me. Your fate on this vessel will be dictated by your worth to Lord Megatron.” Sunset was more than amazed to hear this from the beast.
“Wait, you can talk?!” she asked seriously.
“Of course I can talk, organic scum. What do you think I am, a turbofox?” Ravage snarled.
“Look Ravage, whatever it is you want, I don’t have it, okay?” Sunset insisted. “So please just let me go.”
“I sincerely doubt that. Otherwise, Lord Megatron wouldn’t have ordered Frenzy to bring you to him on your knees.” Ravage assured, just in time for the door to open. “Speaking of whom…” And sure enough, into the room strode a small blue Decepticon almost similar in build to Eject and Rewind, but with blasters on his back and a psychotic look in his optics.
“Lord Megatron wants to see you, girly.” He even spoke like a psycho as Sunset was lowered down next to him, where he released her arms from the chains.
“Big mistake,” Sunset assured as she grabbed her Geode and activated her Armor, suddenly switching to bot-mode only to find Frenzy still clinging to her arm. Quickly, she tossed him off with a simple flick of the wrist and kicked Ravage away before she made her escape… only to be suddenly clotheslined on Swindle’s cannon the instant she made it out the door.
She groaned in pain as she looked up and saw him and Dragstrip looking down at her. “You lose.” Swindle smirked.
Dragstrip just snarled as he handed over a few small scraps of metal; what Sunset assumed was Cybertronian currency. “Get her up.” The two Decepticons roughly grabbed her by the arms and swiftly cuffed her hands as they dragged her down the hallway, finally arriving in the ship’s medical bay where she was locked to a slab, where she was watched by Megatron and his officers.
“Look, what do you guys want with me?” Sunset asked seriously.
“Is it not so obvious, organic?” Starscream smirked cruelly. “Our lord merely wishes to know where the AllSpark is.”
“So why kidnap me? You were at the coordinates the map showed, Starscream, and you ran with your tailfins tucked between your legs.” Sunset reminded.
Megatron narrowed his eyes in anger. “Is this true, Starscream?!”
Sunset smirked when she saw Starscream recoil in apparent fear. “My lord, allow me to explain; Thrust spotted the Autobots mobilizing and I ordered a pursuit. How was I supposed to know it would lead us to the AllSpark?”
“That changes nothing!” Megatron snarled. “If the Autobots have the AllSpark, then we have lost the war!”
“Then why have they not sent any sort of message to their forces?” This pertinent question was raised by the one Decepticon officer Sunset hadn’t seen before.
“Oh, you’re a new one,” she smirked.
“Ah yes, you’re not acquainted with Shockwave.” Knock Out smiled. “He’s been maintaining the Decepticon foothold on Cybertron while we’ve been here. Only recently arrived to help with a little science project.”
“I’ve heard of him.” Sunset shrugged, glancing at the cyclops. “Perceptor’s fairly impressed with the cloaking device you gave this ship.”
“As I was saying, Lord Megatron, if the Autobots have truly claimed victory, then why have they not said so to their forces across the galaxy?” Shockwave asked seriously.
Megatron smiled. “A very pertinent question, Shockwave. And perhaps one which will be answered presently.” He directed his attention down to Sunset who simply scowled.
“Forget it, Megatron. I won’t talk.” she insisted.
“You will not have to,” Shockwave assured, plugging a cable into a computer bank nearby and moving the other end toward Sunset’s head.
“Steady Shockwave; we don’t want her brain fried too crispy.” Knock Out reminded.
“Do I want to know what he’s talking about?” Sunset asked in fear.
“Mm… probably not,” Megatron smirked cruelly as Shockwave approached ever-closer to the girl with the cable. Flatline stepped around to her other side and roughly pulled her head to face to the right, allowing Shockwave to plug the cable in at the base of her bot-form’s skull.
It felt like someone was taking a bladed taser hooked up to a car battery to the base of her skull, and she screamed like that was actually happening. This torturous experience finally ended when the cable was detached and Sunset went limp against the slab, breathing heavily in pain. She barely had the strength to glance over to the screen nearby and see what Shockwave had apparently ripped from her mind. “Lord Megatron, the transcript of the subject’s memories is available for your viewing. There appears to be some corruption, however. No doubt due to the subject’s original organic nature.”
The warlord scowled but read as best he could. He chuckled cruelly as he saw it. “So, Alpha Trion gives his greatest student another test,” he smirked as he looked at Sunset. “I would be disappointed if you did not provide such excellent entertainment,” Sunset growled weakly at Megatron and spit coolant in his face, only to receive a slap in the face from the warlord as a reward. “This is one of the reasons I detest you organics; your mind-numbing insistence that acts of defiance like this will grant you any form of mercy is truly laughable.”
“Humans have survived hundreds of tyrants a lot worse than you, Megatron,” Sunset assured.
Megatron scowled. “What you call tyranny, I call liberation.” He turned away and gestured for some privacy, prompting his officers to move to the other side of the room. “I assume my old friend Optimus Prime has told you of how our war began.”
“He said you were a revolutionary who wanted to eliminate the Council’s caste system.” Sunset scowled.
“Ah yes, the Council.” Megatron nodded. “I still remember the day they fell.”
“And that reminds me of something else Optimus told me about you; a megalomaniac who only ever wanted change so he could be in charge and make the rules himself.” Sunset scowled.
Megatron scowled at her as he wiped the coolant from his face. “Do you know what I did before the war?” he asked seriously. “I was an Energon miner. I didn’t even have a name to call my own; I was enslaved by the Council from the day I was built, based simply on my alternate mode; a plasma driller. That was what the caste system of Old Cybertron entailed; functionism. Pure and simple functionism. One’s rights and duties are dictated by one’s alternate mode. In truth, it was what you humans refer to as a… what is the term, Knock Out? It seems to have slipped my mind.”
“‘Dystopia’, Lord Megatron.” the medic reminded.
“Exactly. Dystopia.” Megatron nodded. “And so yes; I shed first blood in the name of my freedom, and the freedom of all Cybertron. All because a Council official visiting the mine I was working in murdered one of my friends for looking at him the wrong way. I took my revenge and for it, I was arrested. Banished to the Gladiatorial Pits of Kaon, to fight and kill for the amusement of those who considered themselves superior… like your friend Mirage.”
Sunset was actually fairly surprised. “Mirage? What’re you talking about?”
“Mirage is from what you humans call ‘old money’.” Swindle explained. “I even saw him and his so-called friends in a box sipping vintage high-grade watching Megatron fight other prisoners to the death a few times.”
“So you see; the Autobots are not what they really seem to be,” Megatron assured. “If Optimus Prime is willing to allow a being like that to join his ranks, then what reason do you have to fight for him?”
Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Is this a sales pitch? Are you trying to get me to join your side?”
“Hardly.” Megatron scoffed. “I could not stand the thought of having organic filth such as you on my ship.”
“Good. Because I’ve been where you are right now, ‘Lord’ Megatron, and believe me; it’s just gonna destroy you.” The Decepticons could feel the sarcastic emphasis she placed on the ‘lord’ there. “I wanted power once too, and I was too eager to get it, so I turned to duplicity. Eventually, I ran away from home and tried to get what I wanted here. But it didn’t work, and the power I searched for almost destroyed me. It would have if it weren’t for my friends; they saved me from ending up even worse than I was before.” Megatron narrowed his optics at her. “You told me you and Optimus were friends before the war. For your friend’s sake, please… end this war. Help save your world through peace, not through more bloodshed. You can still bring Cybertron back if you just put down your cannon.”
Megatron simply turned to the door with a scowl. “Let me tell you something, human; my cannon is a constant reminder of what I fight for in this war; true freedom for those who are oppressed under the illusion of unity. Only when I have truly conquered those worlds who ascribe to this sort of meaninglessness will my cannon finally fall from my arm.” He turned to his scientists. “Do with her as you see fit.”
“With pleasure, Lord Megatron.” Knock Out smiled as he raised a large buzzsaw, revving it as he drew closer.
“And here I thought we were having a moment,” Sunset smirked to Megatron. “Well, I definitely was, anyway.” With that, she pulled her left wrist violently against her restraint, causing a loud crack and a gasp of pain to escape from her.
Knock Out was honestly somewhat disgusted as Sunset pulled her limp, dislocated hand from her restraint, and knocked it back against the table to get it back into place. “Whew. I saw that in a movie once; I’ve kinda always wanted to do it. And then follow it up with this.” She swiftly decked Knock Out in the face, knocking him into a control panel… where, almost by random chance, he landed straight on the button that released her the rest of the way. “Thanks. Later.” Quickly, she transformed and roared out of the medical bay, followed by a blisteringly angry Megatron who chased after her, firing his cannon the entire way.
Quickly, she swerved into a small chamber where she transformed back to bot-mode, quickly locking the door behind her. Looking around, she was surprised by what she saw; a large server room, which appeared to contain classified information. “Hm. This seems important. Which means I probably shouldn’t let Megatron keep it all to himself.” Quickly she grabbed a data drive and began downloading a large amount of data onto it before she transformed back to vehicle mode and roared out of the main ship… only to transform back into robot-mode again when she made it to the main deck and found an entire army of Decepticons aiming blasters at her.
Megatron was at the head of the group, looking at his massive sword. “You were right, you know; we were having a moment. A moment of you begging for mercy.”
“Yeah, for you.” Sunset insisted as the two circled on the deck. “Seriously Megatron, just surrender and we can deal with this like adults.”
“Ah, the optimism of youth.” Megatron smiled… before he suddenly blasted Sunset over the side of the ship, sending her falling off with a scream. “Optimism is by far one of the kindest words for foolishness, don’t you agree Motormaster?”
“Absolutely, Lord Megatron.” Motormaster nodded cruelly.
Jetfire had been having no luck tracking Sunset down as of yet, having ruled out the coordinates Perceptor gave him and instead simply searching the entire lower atmosphere. “Ugh. This is getting annoying,” he grumbled… before his scanners suddenly picked something up. “Whoa, what? Base, this is Jetfire; I found Sunset’s signal, but she’s in freefall. En route now. Ratchet, Hoist, get sick-bay ready to receive, just in case.”
“Roger that.” Ratchet affirmed as Jetfire swooped toward Sunset’s position…
Which was steadily dropping as she fell from the sky, her metallic hair flapping against her face. Suddenly, she heard something from her back like panels opening and shifting. She looked to either side and was amazed to see wings colored the same as her hair. Then she remembered; when she and the girls shot their music video for that song Sunset wrote about her past, she had sprouted wings similar to these… like a phoenix’s wings.
She smirked as she felt the need to rub her survival in Megatron’s face, ignoring the pain in her shoulder as she flew back up to the Nemesis, propelled by a massive thruster-pack on her back in front of her wings. Naturally, Megatron was more than stunned to see her alive. “What?!”
“Surprised? That makes two of us.” Sunset shrugged, just as Jetfire swooped over and transformed to battle mode.
“Sunset? Since when did you have a jetpack?” he asked seriously.
“Honestly, I only have one idea that makes any sort of sense. But we’ll have to confirm it later.” Sunset shrugged. “Right now, let’s get outta here.” Quickly, she flew over Jetfire and switched back to her human form, which prompted Jetfire to transform to jet-mode and catch her in his cockpit before he kicked throttle straight back to town amid a hail of blaster fire from the Nemesis.
Megatron snarled as fire terminated and he glared out off his ship. “Search the ship. Ensure nothing sensitive has been tampered with,” he ordered.
Sunset, on the other hand, was more than pleased to hand off the drive she stole from the Decepticons to Wheeljack, who was surprised at its contents. “Hello, Dolly. Looks like we hit the jackpot; this encryption is from the Iacon Hall of Records.” he smiled at Sunset as Hoist tended to her bot-mode’s damaged arm. “Must be the coordinates to some of the other things Alpha Trion launched off Cybertron so the ‘Cons wouldn’t get their hands on it. Optimus can break this encryption easy.”
Hoist smiled as he moved away from Sunset and swapped the blowtorch on his right forearm back out for his hand. “There we go. You’re all fixed up and ready to go, Sunset.”
“Thanks, Hoist.” she smiled as she switched back to her human form. “Y’know, I think I prefer your bedside manner to Ratchet’s.”
Bumblebee laughed as he revved up. “You and every other Autobot on this ship.” His door opened and he smirked. “Now cmon, you’re already late enough as it is.”
Sunset smiled as she climbed in. “Thanks, Bee. Let’s ride.” The two rumbled away from the ship each with a smile.
“By the way, I talked to Smokescreen earlier; he said he could hook me up with those poems Optimus wrote if you’re still interested.” Bumblebee smiled.
Sunset smiled right back, but thought for a while; Optimus wrote speeches for Megatron when he began as a politician, and she had seen how well that turned out. She felt the need to forget about Megatron for at least the day. “Maybe later, Bee. I wanna focus on school for now.”
“Suit yourself. I’m definitely thumbin’ through ‘em,” he assured… unaware of what awaited them.
Megatron scowled as he strode into the medical bay, now repaired after the breakout. “Report.”
“The project continues to go well, my liege.” Flatline assured, gesturing to his team’s new work subject; the prone body of Nightbird, now lacking armor and with mechanical flesh across her body. “The cyber-flesh grafting has been a success, though we are still awaiting the final cloned organ systems before Shockwave can work his own magic.”
“How soon before she is ready to be programmed and dispatched?” asked Megatron.
“Assuming we can maintain our current rate of work, approximately 16 quartexes,” Shockwave reported.
“Good. I look forward to seeing the looks on the Autobots’ faces when they see my beloved Nightbird crush them all and bring me their greatest tactical secrets.” Megatron smiled as he turned to the door. “In the meantime, another situation demands my attention.” He left the medical bay and found Onslaught in the hallway. “Onslaught, take your team to Central Africa; scan for Spark signatures. Whatever you find, destroy it and bring me whatever is left.”
“Yes sir.” Onslaught nodded and left to find his team. The Autobots were about to face their greatest challenge yet; hunting wildlife.