Inside the Decepticon's underwater base, moments before the unexplained "event" occured...
"Why me?” Starstream asked himself as he stood infront of the entrance to the Decepticon's holding cells. It is here that enemys of Megatron are held captive until an appropriate fate can be decided (most of the time, that fate is death.) And here Starscream was, stuck with guard duty. A few hours ago, the Decepticons managed to achieve their greatest goal; the defeat of the Autobots. They prepaired a sneak attack on their base, where Autobots were either killed or captured. They never saw them coming, Megatron had Soundwave jam all their radars so they couldn't detect them. It was the perfect attack, and here Starscream was stuck with guard duty. Megatron assigned him to make sure all their newly captured prisoners made it to their cells without any trouble.
"How dare he?” Starscream began to complain again, he was now pacing back and forth out of anger, "How dare Megatron make I, the great Starscream, be a stupid prison guard! I want to fight the Autobots, not babysit them! I helped him take down Optimus Prime himself! And he returns the favor by sticking me as a guard in these stupid holding cells? This is grunt work! If I were in charge..."
Starscream unleashed his frustration by punching the wall as hard as he could, leave a gigantic hole. Starscream was now recieving glances from both Decepticons and captured Autobots, who had stopped what they were doing to stare at what Starscream just then.
"What are you all staring at? Get back to work!"
All of a sudden, a fellow Decepticon, Swindle, ran up to Starscream and yelled, "Starscream! We're having a problem with one of the prisioners!"
"Oh great, what now?" Starscream thought to himself, "Which prisoner is it?"
"The Dinobots sir!"
"The Dinobots? They managed to capture the Dinobots?" This was just too good to be true. If there were ever a select group of Autobots that caused Starscream any trouble at all, it would be the Dinobots. Starscream's bad mood instantly disappeared; he's wanted a crack at those Jurassic park rejects ever since they first defied him.
"Show me where they are."
"Yes sir Starscream!"
Swindle took Starscream around the corner where in fact, the Dinbots(Grimlock, Slag, Swoop, Snarl, and Sludge) were being held captive. An evil smile grew across Starscream's face as he saw how helpless they were. The energon cuffs that bonded their hands together were keeping them from turning into their dinosaur modes and breaking free, so they were stuck in their less than impressive robot modes.
"So it is true," Starscream started, "you did manage to capture them..."
"Yes Starscream, but we've been having trouble with the one called Swoop. He's been trying to break free from his cuffs ever since we got here! We've had to stop at least twice now to get him to stop. I was hoping maybe you could-"
"Let him try," Starscream interrupted with an overconfindent grin, "those cuffs are unbreakable!"
"But Starscream I-"
Swindle's pleas went unheard, as the guard Decepticons tried to stop Swoop from struggling, Starscream walked over to Grimlock. He went straight up to the Dinbot leader's face and said, "Oh how the mighty have fallen. If it isn't my old friend Grimlock! How have you been?"
Grimlock did not answer, as he seemed to be trying to ignore Starscream. He was too busy thinking about his defeat and capture. Grimlock had a huge ego, so whenever his pride is hurt, it hurts bad.
"Not talkitive today I see.” Starscream joked, "Why are you in such a bad mode?"
Grimlock continued to say nothing, and just stared.
Starscream continued, "Oh is it because you were beaten? Is it because the mighty Grimlock and his Dinobots have finally met defeat at the hands of the Decepticons?!"
Starscream was now right in Grimlock's face, his evil smile instantly disappeared, as he was now annoyed by Grimlock's silence, "I've waited for this day a long time Grimlock. You and your ego will finally know the concinquences of messing with Starscream!"
Starscream has never raised his voice this high before, his voiced echoed throughout the hallways, causing Swindle and the Decepticon guards to gaze at him in surprise. Even Swoop stopped struggling to watch. Starscream wanted some type response out of Grimlock, something to let him know that he was suffering. He still said nothing.
"Say something!"
Starscream imediantly back handed Grimlock across the face, this caught his attention. The Dinobot gave Grimlock a dark, cold stare. He gave him a small disembodied growl, and ended with a snort. Swoop was now in full on panic mode. He began thrashing about, nocking any and all guards that tried to restrain him away.
"Me Swoop can't take this anymore!” he yelled. The Dinobots have been known to have speech implement problems. Whenever they talk, they almost always refer to themselves and others in the third person. They were built with more or less "simple" minds. So they can't really help it.
Swoop pulled with all his might, and to everyone's surprise, he managed to break free. Swoop immediantly made a run for it, he transformed into Dinosaur mode (which for him would be the form of a Pteranodon) and flew away as fast as he could. He didn't know where he was going; he just wanted to be as far away as possible from here.
Starscream didn't have time for distractions such as this. He aimed his trademarked null ray at the now hovering Swoop. When he got the shot, he took it. Sending Swoop to the floor, stunned. Swoop tried his best to move, but he couldn't. It hurt him to even think about moving now; he was completely and utterly paralyzed. Starscream's null ray can take almost any machine, no matter the size or power.
"That fool...” Starscream mumbled to himself. He then turned around to Swindle and ordered, "Kill him!"
"W-what?!” answered Swindle in a confused manner.
"You heard me; he tried to escape, so I want him dead!"
"B-but Megatron said that he wanted all the prisoners alive!"
"I dont care what Megatron said, I want him dead! Do you really think that this is a good time to question me Swindle?"
Swindle was torn; he didn't know what to do. Normally, any Decepticon would jump at the chance to end the life of an Autobot, but Megatron's orders were clear. Keep all prisoners alive until further notice. No one would ever dare defy the leader of all Decepticons, or the consequences could be dire. But the look Starscream was giving him, it was almost as terrifying as the look Megatron normally would give to a Decepticon who was disobeying orders. He had to make a choice, either get killed by Starscream now, or killed by Megatron later.
Seeing as how Swindle wanted to live now, he carefully took aim with his laser rifle, and pointed it straight at Swoop's face. He could see the fear in the Dinobot's eyes, begging him not to shoot.
"Do it!” Starscream comanded.
Swindle pulled the trigger and a blast of energy bursted from the rifle, connecting with Swoop's face, and sending bits and pieces of him everywhere. It was done. The other Dinobots were apaled. They couldn't believe what had just happened. One of their own had just been finished off right in front of them.
"There," Starscream said as he patted Swindle on the back, "now was that so hard?"
Starscream spun back around towards Grimlock, and approuched him once again.
"Do you see now?” he asked as he pointed towards Swoop's remains, "Do you see what happens when you mess with the might of the Decepticons?"
Grimlock answered with a dark glare. He wanted to hurt Starscream, no; he wanted to end his pathetic little life right then and there. You could see it in his eyes. Any minute now, Grimlock would break free of his cuffs and tear him a new one. But, strangly enough, he didn't. Instead he bent down closer to Starscream's face, now facing him eye to eye. And then he finally spoke, "Me Grimlock... now has Starscream's scent... when Grimlock get out of these cuffs... he will track Starscream down... and Starscream will pay..."
Starscream didn't really know what to say. He never expected Grimlock to say something like that. He didn't let it show, but he was now scared straight. He knew Grimlock would keep his word, as all Autobots do. Grimlock stomped his foot, causing all the Decepticons nearby to jump nearly straight to the ceiling.
"Hehe...", Grimlock chuckled, "Decepticons funny..."
Suddenly, red lights started flashing all over the base. A loud alarm could be heard as Soundwave's voice appeared to be coming out of the intercoms, "WARNING, WARNING, LEVEL 4 EMERGENCY. REPEAT, LEVEL 4 EMERGENCY. ALL HANDS ARE REQUIERD TO EVACUATE IMMEDIANTLY. AN UNKOWN INT-"
His voice was suddenly cut off, leaving only static to be heard.
"A level 4 emergency?!” cried out Swindle, "We almost never have to call one of those! This must be bad!"
This was Grimlock's chance. He didn't try to escape before because he knew that he would end up like Swoop. But now, seeing as how almost all the Decepticons were distracted, this was the perfect oppertunity. He pulled with all his might, and shattered the energon cuffs that once held him.
Grimlock immediately transformed into his dinosaur mode (a Tyrannosaurus) and began to approach Starscream. Starscream took notice of this, and all he could say was, "Uh, oh..."
Starscream tried to fire his null ray, but he panicked. Instead he turned he ran down the hallway, wanting to get as far away as possible from Grimlock.
"Hey! Where are you going?", asked Swindle.
"Look behind you stupid!", answered Starscream as he ran further.
"Behind me?"
Swindle heard a growl from behind him; he turned around to see a less than amused looking Grimlock standing there.
"Oh... that's what he meant..."
Grimlock began to close in on Swindle, remembering that he was the one who shot Swoop.
"Swindle... killed Swoop..."
Swindle was now backed up again against a wall, scared stiff, "N-now Grimlock, come on now. D-don't do anything that you would regret.
"Don't worry... me Grimlock won't regret this..."
Grimlock opened his massive jaws, and bit down on Swindle's head, tearing it from Swindle's shoulders. He immediantly spit the head out, proclaiming, "Bah! Decepticons no taste good."
Grimlock turned to his Dinobot comrades, and precceded to help get free from their cuffs. One by one, each Dinobot's cuffs were shattered by Grimlock.
"Dinobots, transform and find the other Autobots! Meet back here when you're done.", ordered Grimlock.
"But, what about you?” asked Sludge.
"Me Grimlock is going to go find Starscream, and have a speacial "talk" with him. Now go!"
They all complied, as each Dinobot transformed into their Dinosaur modes and set off to complete the task that was given to them. Grimlock embarked on his own mission; find Starscream, and kill him.
Grimlock used the monitoring devices located in his nose to pick up on Starscream's scent. He had trouble finding it, where ever the Decepticon ran off to, it was really far away. Grimlock lost his concentration when the wall beside him exploded, sending some sort of object crashing into him, causing him to lose his footing and fall on the floor. Grimlock looked down to see that it wasn't an object that hit him, but the Autobot Sideswipe. Something caused the poor guy to get blasted through the wall, and crash into Grimlock.
"Sideswipe?"
"Grimlock! Thank Primus it's you! You got to help me! There's something after me and- gah!"
Sideswipe clenched his head in pain. He was now back up on his feet and was thrashing all about.
"What Sideswipe doing?"
"Help... me... something's... messing with my..."
Then, Sideswipe's head detached itself from his shoulders, causing his body to plummet to the floor. The head also landed right in front of Grimlock.
"Me Grimlock is confused. Why Sideswipe's head do that?"
Before Grimlock could get an answer, something made him black out
***
When Bumblebee first took his first step out of that cave, he was a bit surprised. He didn't really expect to see an entire forest outside that cave! It wasn't just any forest, it was a beautiful one. There were trees as far as the eye could see, tall mountains riding along the horizon, plants and animals Bumblebee had never even seen before. This was a rare sight for him, because back on Earth, most of the ecosystems had been disrupted in some way shape or form by the humans. But here, there didn't seem to be any form of civilization at all, besides all the animals.
"Hey Bumblebee, look alive!"
Bumblebee snapped out of his gaze to see Prowl standing before him.
"C'mon rookie," he scolded, "you heard Optimus, we're rolling out!"
"Oh, uh, sorry Prowl..."
Bumblebee liked Prowl, but he could really get on ones nerves. Whenever Optimus put him in charge, he had to let everyone know about it. He would always go around and assert his authority and always following standard procedures. Bumblebee could tell him where to put his procedures...
"Cut the kid some slack!” said Jazz, "He's just checking out the sights, can't blame a guy for being distracted by a forest as huge as that!"
Jazz was like a older brother to Bumblebee. He was always looking out for him. Whenever the other Autobots would tease or make fun of him (mostly because of his height), Jazz always had his back. He was also a cool guy to hang out with.
"Well, unfortunately, we don't have time for sightseeing!", Prowl stated, "We've got to find the nearest human settlement and call for help."
"Well then how about we stop yammering and get going!", Jazz suggested.
"Right, Autobots, transform and roll out!"
They all complied, as one by one, each Autobot transformed into theri respective vehicle modes. Prowl into a police car, Jazz into a Porche 935, and Bumblebee into a Volkswagon. All three drove as fast as they could into the large forest before them, with high hopes that they will find someone (or something) who can help them.
***
Twilight and her friends didn't know how they've been running. The only thing that was on their minds was to get away from whatever it was that they just saw. Moments ago, Twilight Sparkle, Rarity and Spike wandered into cave looking for gems, but instead, they found something entirely different. In the cave, the three entered bodies of creatures none of them have even seen before. The only thing they could think of to call them would be robots or cyborgs. Robots are normally something they would rule out, mainly because the only time a pony would see a robot would be in a book or a comic, but after their recent encounter, the existence of robots may be something they may need to rethink.
What amazed them the most was their size. They could give an Ursa minor a run for its bits! (Although an Ursa Major might still out class them.) At first, they seemed to be dead or asleep at least. But they were quickly proved wrong. After one of them woke up, they decided it was high time to get the hay out of there. They took a break from running. They may have wandered into the Everfree forest, and stopping there would be a bad idea but their bodies just wouldn't let them move one more inch.
They found a tree to rest by and catch their breath. There was sweat dripping of all of their exhausted bodies. There was a bit of a silence between them, but who could blame them? They just found a cave full of giant talking robots, what was there to say? The silence was eventually broken by Spike. He jumped up with his arms flailing all about while yelling, "Did you guys see that thing?! It was so huge, and it could talk! Aw man, what do we do if it comes to Ponyville?! It could cause so much trouble! That... uh... er... what was its name?"
"Optimus Prime.", Twilight answered, not even looking in Spike's direction.
"Right, wait, how do you know that?"
Twilight thought back to when she examined the creature's bodies. She remembered that each one had strange sounding code names engraved on them, "It was written on him. Almost all of them had names like that engraved on them. Also, he said it out loud, multiple times."
"Oh."
"Well", Rarity started, "They defiantly were interesting, especially the colors on that Optimus fellow..."
Spike face palmed. He couldn't believe that even in a situation like this, Rarity was still thinking about fashion. Then again, she was Rarity.
"Ugh, Rarity, I love you, but is this really the best time to think about the fashion sense of a giant robot?"
"Yes well... wait, did you just say you love me?"
Spike's checks flushed. That wasn't really something Rarity was supposed to hear. He had to think of an excuse fast, "Uh... yeah. I, uh, love the way you're... sitting there?"
Spike gave the fakest smile he could give, trying to look sincere. Rarity continued to give him suspicious looks.
Twilight ignored them, trying to get her thoughts together. Suddenly, she got a slight headache. She also began to get a little dizzy. Until, a ghostly form began to form in front of her. She couldn't really see it, as it was all white and see through. She could barely make out a humanoid form.
The mysterious apparition held out its finger and pointed straight at her, and began to speak in a soft disembodied voice, "So... you are Twilight Sparkle... apprentice to Princess Celestia... am I correct?"
Twilight slowly nodded her head in agreement, not sure what was going on.
"Good... then I've found the one I've been looking for..."
"Looking for?", Twilight questioned, "Why were you looking for me?"
"That's not important... what's important... is that you manged to alter the future... by waking up the Autobots... you have avoided the confrontation with Soundwave that was for told in your dream... but beware... there are still dangers that you must face... the greatest of them... death."
"Autobots? Soundwave? Who are you and what're you talking about?"
But before she could get an answer, the apparition disappeared, leaving a very confused Twilight.
"Uh, Twilight, Who are you talking to?"
Twilight looked over to see both Spike and Rarity giving her concerned looks.
"You didn't see it?" Twilight asked while pointing her hoof where the apparition was.
Rarity and Spike both exchanged glances before Spike turned back and answered, "No. Uh, what exactly where we supposed to be seeing?"
"Huh," Twilight thought out loud, "They couldn't see it, must've been a hallucination... but still..."
Now Rarity and Spike were very worried about her friend. She now seemed to be talking to herself, had all these years of being the student to Princess Celestia gone to her head?
Twilight stood up, now with a more confident look on her face, "Alright, we'll talk about this later. Now, it's our duty to get to Ponyville and tell them about what we just saw!"
They all nodded their heads in agreement, and took off towards Ponyville.
***
It had only been a few moments since Prowl, Jazz, and Bumblebee had departed on their mission, all three were crusing along a path they had found in the forest they were in. Already was Prowl stating to give orders, "Alright, this is how it's going to go down. Jazz, I want you to take the lead. Head north while me and Bumblebee will take to the west."
"What?” Bumblebee began to protest, still in vehicle mode "Why do I need to stay with you? I can take care of myself!"
"Because," Prowl answered in a strict tone, "you're just a rookie. Besides, I know how you can get, sending you by yourself could jeopardize the mission!"
As much as Bumblebee hated to admit it, Prowl was right. He had a sort of adventures attitude. Whenever the Autobots were on a mission, Bumblebee was always the first to jump straight into the war zone. It's not that he wants to show off; he just wants to show the others that just because he's young (and relatively short) doesn’t mean he's weak.
"Come on Prowl, just let the kid go.” said Jazz, sticking up for Bumblebee yet again, "It's not like we're fighting the Decepticons or anything. He'll be fine."
"Are you sure Jazz? Logic dictates that-"
"Just let him go! He needs the experience anyways."
Prowl was a bit reluctant, he didn't want to risk failing the mission or worse, have Bumblebee get hurt somehow. But then again, Jazz had a point; it’s not like they’re doing a combat mission or anything.
"...alright. Bumblebee, take the lead and head north. If you find anything, let me know. Me and Jazz will take to the west, got it?"
"Yes sir!" Bumblebee answered in an excited tone. He quickly drove in front of their group and quickly gained speed. He then headed north to complete the task given to him. He also blew out alot of smoke out of his exhaust pipe, completely covering Jazz and Prowl in the process.
"Damn kids...” Prowl muttered to himself.
***
Optimus Prime felt useless. He ordered three of his Autobots to go into a mysterious forest about a half hour ago in order to go look for help. He wished he had gone with them. But he knew he couldn't, his place was here, in this cave with Ratchet. He was surrounded by the unconscious bodies of his Autobot comrades. It was his duty as leader to make sure his troops were ok, and he was doing a poor job at that.
"Sorry Optimus," Ratchet said as he got threw examining another Autobot, "but it seems they're stuck in stasis mode. They've lost a lot of energon, and waking them up now could severely harm them. If only we just had little bit of energon..."
Optimus put his hand on Ratchet's shoulder in a reasuring manner, "It's ok Ratchet, I know you're doing your best. I'm sure Prowl and the others will find help soon."
Ratchet couldn't help at Optimus. He always kept his cool in almost any situation, even ones as dire as this.
"Thanks Optimus, I'll keep trying. Hopefully I'll at least find out why we all went into stasis lock."
Optimus simply gave an approving nod. But then, a thought came to him. If they needed energon to wake up... then how did he mannage to come out of stasis? He also recalled that he had an overwhelming amount of energon before he used it to wake up Bumblebee and the others. Optimus could only scratch his chin as he pondered. He also couldn't help but notice the small blood stain located on his chest...
***
If you'd ask anypony exactly who the diamond dogs were, they'd always tell you the same thing. That they were theives, cheaters, liars. And they would be right. Yes, Rover, Spot, and Fido have no clean record. They've pulled many things over the years, like kidnapping unicorn ponies to force them to find gems. But recently they've heard rumors of a cave located somewhere on the outskirts of the Everfree forest. And they wanted nothing more than to find it. So they and their diamond dog minions had been searching almost every cave in the Everyfree forest as possible.
They were now in an underground cave, searching every inch of it. They were very tired, but it didn't matter. They wanted those gems more than anything in the world. They don't call them "Diamond" dogs for nothing.
"Argh! I can't take this anymore!” complained Spot, possibly the shortest of the dogs, "We've been in almost every cave in this stupid forest! Are you sure there's one filled with gems somewhere?"
If dogs could sweat, than Spot would've sweated a whole river by now. He was the most tired out of all of them. Fido, the leader, had taken notice of this. He walked over to Spot and smacked him upside the head.
"Ow!” Spot cried, "What was that for?!"
"Listen," Fido started while pointing at Spot's chest, "you let me worry about that stuff. What you need to worry about is finding those gems! Now get back to work!"
Spot muttered a swear word under his breath as he complied. Suddenly, Rover, the largest of the group, ran over to Fido while shouting, "Hey boss! I think I found something!"
"What'd you find, Gems?"
"Well, not exactly. I don't really know what it is. I was sort of hopping maybe you could figure it out."
Rover held out his hands to reveal that he had strange little rectangular objects. Fido picked up one to get a better look at it. He carefully examined it, turning it over a few times to see all of its sides. He noticed a weird looking purple symbol on the front of it.
"Hey...", he said, "I've seen one of these before. Yeah, I think they're called cassette tapes or something... I've seen ponies put these in stereos to listen to music."
Fido looked closer at the tape to see if there was a song title written on it later. He only found one word.
"Ravage... that's a weird name for a song..."
He examined the other ones as well to see that they had similar words written on them as well.
"Rumble... Frenzy... Laserbeak... Buzzsaw... hmph. Must be some dumb punk music..."
Fido threw the tape he had picked up back to Rover, "Here, put 'em with the other junk we found. Maybe we can sell this stuff on the black market later."
After just barely cathing the tape, he answered, "Uh... sure thing boss."
Note: Sorry this chapter took as long as it did to come out. I've been a little busy with a one shot I'm writing. Check my blog for a list of future projects I'm doing, including a possible spin off to this story. Also, sorry if this chapter seemed a bit padded. I was going to have something else happen in this chapter but I didn't want this to be too long. Also sorry if this seemed rushed or if there is any grammar mistakes.