"The plan is simple, open a Bridge here," Starscream placed a claw on the map that the monitor displayed. "so Blitzwing and I can deploy at a strategic point. From there, Blitzwing will cause a distraction to draw out Slipstream and her seekers so I can enter the ship without any trouble. Blitzwing, destroy anything that seems useful to the enemy."
"This looks like a communication tower, it would seem they desire to-"
"What about us?" Dash asked, only for Applejack to bop Dash on the back of her head.
"In case you don't remember, the moon doesn't have air! Best we can do is just sit and hope all goes well."
"But we can help!" Dash reasoned. "We just need something to deal with the no air problem."
Starscream scoffed. "Why are you so insistent on helping us? If it were up to me, then I would keep you all in a safe pen, or a terrarium."
"Dash, face it," Sunset held the athlete by the shoulder, a serious look on her face. "We all have our limits, and besides, we can't just put ourselves in danger like that. Especially now with the problem being off the planet."
"But Arcee needs us! We can't just sit idly by and do nothing while some group of villains is out there doing who knows what!"
Smokescreen kneeled. "Rainbow Dash, if this is about feeling useless, then I know what you're going through. Sometimes it's important to know when or where you're needed. We're all limited by our own power. And Sunset is right, you're just not the right one for this job."
Rainbow Dash looked away, for a moment she thought about his words. She glared at Starscream who had a look of disinterest, Dash gave one last huff before she marched off to who knows where. Sunset tried to follow, but Applejack stepped in her way before she could even take a step.
"Best let the girl blow off some steam, she was always the difficult one and hard-headed."
Once she was gone, the Decepticons continued their business, all except one.
Dash walked about the base, the halls were more enormous than what she was familiar with. And it would seem that they had been working on the base after they left yesterday. It was a surprise to discover that there were more rooms to accommodate the new bots.
And as she remembered the fact that soon there would be more Cybertronians, she realized how minuscule she was. Before, she and her friends were just girls with supernatural abilities that had their own problems. Now, they're part of something far bigger than dimensional hopping and magical threats. The stars brought themselves to Earth, her home, and with the growing evil from a world with a history of great suffering. Dash felt useless.
A terrible feeling she despises the most about human weakness. She stopped in her tracks right in front of Starscream's room. A thought ran through her mind as she wondered about someone similar to Starscream.
Slipstream.
"You're not as stealthy as you think you are," Dash commented.
"Oh, hey there little... Rainbow Dash?"
It was Thunderblast, the seeker had thought that she could shadow Dash around. But since her heels were as loud as a suppressed pistol, Dash immediately discovered her before Thunderblast rounded the corner.
An awkward silence was shared between the two as they simply stood there in the middle of the hallway. Dash tried to walk away, but the clicks of Thunderblast's heels continued to follow her.
"Do you mind?" Dash faced Thunderblast with a look of displeasure.
"Not at all!" She said cheerfully. "So I saw you all sad and stuff, I figured that I should try and cheer you up. Even though you're a very icky human and have tiny little hands, which is gross BTW. I mean, why would anyone design humans so small? You guys are like Minicons, have you seen them? Their tiny little hands are so gross, they could just put them anywhere. Like, they could just reach into my Spark chamber and touch it. Gross, isn't it?"
Dash stared at the Decepticon oddly. She heard words, they were in English, yes. But Dash barely understood anything that came out of Thunderblast.
Rainbow sighed as she rummaged through her pocket.
"Hey, what are you doing? Oh, do you have some kind of gift for me? I mean, I am very pretty and deserve all the gifts on Cybertron. So what did you get me? No, don't tell me! Wait, actually, tell me, I love surprises!"
Dash revealed what she had and it was one of Swindle's trading cards. A card that was about Thunderblast.
"Oh, thank you... I love it!" For a moment there, she had a dejected look, but then her mood changed as she stared at the card with a look of adoration. But as she reached for the card, Dash pulled it away.
"Thunderblast, the Siren of the Great Skies." Dash read aloud with the card in hand. "The weakness of all mechs, and envy of all femmes. While most Decepticons use sonic weapons that could decimate their opponents, Thunderblast instead uses hers as a way to lure in victims to traps. Though she is at odds with her trine leader... Slipstream?"
Dash had to take a second glance at the card to confirm it; it did in fact say that Thunderblast was Slipstream's trinemate. Now that she recalled it, Slipstream did mention Thunderblast before but Dash didn't think much of it. Which meant...
"Is that why you're following me?" Dash finally connected the dots. Her hand then pulled out the card of her Cybertronian doppelganger. "I'm not who you think I am, I'm human as far as you can tell."
Thunderblast stared at the card that Dash now held towards the 'Con. "Oh hey! That's Dashie! Wow, now that I actually had a good look at you, and my best friend, you two have so many differences!"
"Well that's good to know," Dash said as she pocketed her cards. "Why are you even following me?"
"As I said, you looked really down, and Dashie always feels better hanging out with me! She loves to listen to all my problems and junk!"
"That doesn't sound like me." Dash pointed out.
"Oh my gosh, that's what she would've said! Wow, you really are just like her!"
"Wait," Dash suddenly had an idea, she had with her a clue about this mysterious doppelganger that could shed some light. "You know who she was, right? Could you tell me everything about her?"
"Well... I don't normally talk about others since I know everyone prefers to know more about me instead. I mean, look at me! I am by far, the prettiest seeker in all of Cybertron! I've even won Miss Decepticon fifty times over, and am still undefeated! Well, I was the only participant since everyone else was busy with the war. Also, I kinda cheated with having Steve as my only judge-"
"Thunderblast!"
"Oops, sorry, let's take this to my room."
Smokescreen stuck to the shadows, the Decepticons were all in a panic as they rushed to find the escaped prisoners. And while this happened, Starscream was somewhere else on the ship. All three of them had an objective, and Smokescreen was tasked with the easiest job for all of them. And that was to find Knockout and break him out. Pun intended.
What he didn't intend was to come across Dropkick.
The Decepticon tackled Smokescreen from his blindside, and before he could even counter, Dropkick had thrown him against the wall.
"Smokescreen, Hero of Cybertron." He laughed. "I would ask for an autograph, but a souvenir from your carcass will do."
"Big talk, let's see if you can own up to it."
He needed the fight to be finished quickly, so he armed himself with his trusty tasers to deliver one good attack. Smokescreen needed to land a good hit and then the fight was over. But it would seem that Dropkick was someone he shouldn't underestimate.
And while he fought with Dropkick, Starscream had managed to get a trace on Arcee's Spark.
The seeker flew past every line of defense and zeroed in on Arcee's location.
As that happens, Shatter entered the medbay and discovered Knockout's body on the floor. She gave him a nudge with her foot only to receive no response. So she pulled back her foot to deliver a heavier kick, somehow Knockout sensed the oncoming danger and sprang back to life.
"I'm up, I'm up!"
"You were not responding, you're needed up on the bridge!"
Knockout scoffed at her. "Well, I'm sorry if I got blindsided by an Autobot! I was hoping that I didn't have to fight just after I got my paint scratched!"
"You are such a child, Knockout, we are under attack yet you continue to bicker!"
"Excuse me!? Don't you see this damn bruise on my face!?"
"I'll add another if you don't take your aft up to the bridge!"
Knockout suddenly smirked. "How about you kiss it better, maybe then I'll move?"
Shatter would've unleashed her wrath upon him if it weren't for the dreadful aura that seeped into the room. It would seem that Knockout noticed that something was wrong as well, as he was the only one who could see the door. Slowly, she turned to whoever had interrupted their little argument. But soon she regretted her decision as a shadow towered over them.
Shatter's words were caught in her throat as this being clamped its claws on her.
Knockout was quick to grab a tool off the table and rushed towards the intruder with it. The being used Shatter as a weapon and bat Knockout to the wall.
The medic struggled to his feet, he managed to dodge in time as Shatter crashed into the same wall.
And to make things worse, the lights died on him. He tried to use his headlights but his vision was limited to one angle. He snapped around in search of the enemy but he found no trace of them.
"Shatter, wake up!" He called out to her, and thankfully she responded.
After a short groan, Shatter lifted herself back up and activated her headlights as well. "Damn it, never thought we'd be caught by one of Starscream's lackeys."
Knockout turned towards the table and felt greater dread as he realized something was wrong. "He took the Void gun!"
"Curses, that's what he was after! Be on your toes, this traitorous junk pile could still be in the room."
Knockout was about to say something to Shatter but found himself speechless. An arm was hovering just above Shatter menacingly. He threw the tool in his hand at it as soon as it was discovered. The arm retreated into the shadows.
"Have you gone mad!?"
"He's still in the room!"
Just as he notified Shatter, Knockout was pulled back by an unseen force. Shatter raised her blaster but couldn't get a clear shot at the culprit. A tentacle emerged from the shadows and pinned her against the wall.
Knockout caught himself and resisted the pull. He spun around to finally face this shadowy figure. That's when true fear settled in. The visage of Megatron was present in the room, who's wrathful scowl focused solely on Knockout.
Though he was scared down to his core, Knockout chose to fight whoever this being was. And it would seem that they were surprised by Knockout's bravery as they flinched the moment his fist connected with them.
That's when everything turned upside down.
Right where Knockout's hand touched, on their left cheek. It was revealed that there was indeed someone else in the room, but what Knockout had not expected was that there was a second layer underneath this image of Megatron.
"A hologram...?" He croaked out as the truth set in.
A familiar face glared at Knockout, despite being faceless. A hologram that hid the true identity of this bot.
"Soundwave!?" Shatter exclaimed from her side of the room.
All went black as a hand descended on Knockout. No questions could be asked as the medbay grew silent.