Published July 4th, 2013
Chapter Nineteen: Changing Perspectives
As Skybreaker reawakened, he quickly became aware of two things: first, he was waking up, which meant no one had terminated him in his sleep. Second, there were voices outside. Loud voices. He ran a self-diagnostic, found that he was back to full operational capacity, and hit the shutoff switch on the pod's interior. The nano-fluid drained out, and the door opened to reveal the others running out the door. Dark Lance noticed the pod open, and stopped to look at him.
"You back to full functions?" He barked it out like an order, and Skybreaker knew now was not the time for games. He jogged towards the door as he answered.
"Yes, sir! What's going on? The 'cons figure out how to get out of stasis lock?" The corner of his mouth turned up at his little joke, but quickly went back down at the answer.
"Apparently. They're all gone from where they were, and we can't figure out where they went. Worse is that we lost contact with Teletraan-1 during the night. If we don't stop Bloodwing and his crew here, the war may very well be as good as over. Now let's move!" He jumped out and transformed as he took off, with Skybreaker right behind. He directed the scout to head off with Wingshift before turning towards Ponyville to speak with the locals about what happened the previous day and what the current situation was. As they flew, Skybreaker decided to find out the full situation.
"So what happened during the night? And what did Lance mean when he said we lost contact with Optimus? Did the connection break, or what?" Wingshift moved closer as they flew to make sure he was heard.
"I don't know what happened to the Decepticons, only that I took the natives back to town, and returned to find them gone. As for Teletraan-1, the transmission ceased during an alert status, and there were multiple Ground Bridge activations just before the signal was lost. I believe the facility they were using was destroyed, but that they managed to escape beforehand. If they didn't, we may be fighting a war of attrition at this point. I wouldn't think about it too much. We don't know anything for sure yet, and we can't afford to believe that we have already lost. For now, let's focus on finding our enemies."
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Bloodwing awoke to the sensation of something being drained from his body. It was surprisingly pleasant, like a colony of parasites were being removed from him one-by-one. He allowed it to continue for a moment, before making his awakening known with a stretch of his body, arching his back and flexing his joints. He sat up, and looked around to see himself in a large cave, surrounded by several dozen black, quadrupedal animals, each with large, solid eyes ranging from sky blue to toxic green and a single curved horn jutting from each of their foreheads. Their horns were currently all glowing a sickly green, and most of them had looks of pleasure to one degree or another on their face. As he looked around, one of them flew over on a pair of translucent green, insectile wings. It inspected him for a moment, then flew off down one of the many tunnels leading out of the cave. Bloodwing considered his options, then followed after the creature. None of the others moved to stop him, but most of them did follow along as well, with the rest disappearing down other tunnels. After a minute of walking, he came to a crossroads. The creature from before was hovering in the left-hand path, apparently waiting for him. He continued following, and soon came to a large cavern. There was a loud buzzing here, as the sound of the wings of hundreds of the bug-like creatures flying echoed off the walls. When he entered, even more of them moved towards him and started following along, their horns lighting up as they did. Ignoring them for the moment, he moved towards the central area, which had a tower of stone reaching from the ground, all the way up to the ceiling. He entered, and went up the stairs after his guide. As soon as he did, though, he noticed the feeling of being drained leave him, and he figured out what had been happening.
^They were removing the radiation buildup. But how? And more importantly; why?^ He considered various possibilities, but decided that he would have a definitive answer when he got to wherever this creature was leading him. After an exasperatingly long climb, he was finally stopped outside a door. The creature knocked three times, and Bloodwing heard a powerful, decidedly female voice tell them to enter. The creature that had guided him here opened the door, and beckoned him in before exiting again and closing the door behind him. The Decepticon commander looked around to find himself in a large room. On his right was a door that led to a balcony, the back wall had a massive throne and the left wall had another door, which was closed, while the center of the room had a massive carpet made up of three different shades of green leading from the door to the stairs at the foot of the throne. On the throne itself sat a much larger version of the creatures he had seen. She had a long, jagged horn, seaweed-green hair, and her eyes, unlike the others, had deathly green irises, with slitted pupils. When she spoke, her voice had a buzzing undercurrent he had never heard before.
"You awoke quickly. The others aren't expected to awake for at least another few hours. I would guess you're the leader of your little party, correct?" Bloodwing nodded. "And I suppose you're wondering why we brought you here, yes?" He nodded again. "Well, to start off, I am Chrysalis, Queen of the Changelings. And as for why you're here, one of my subjects has turned traitor. He has abandoned the Hive, and I do not take kindly to those who shirk their responsibilities. He has also allied himself with the ones you fight, so my proposition is this: you help me capture him for trial and punishment, and I help you defeat his new friends. How does that sound to you?" Bloodwing thought for a moment before finally speaking.
"You haven't openly assaulted me yet, so you're not doing too badly so far, but I want to see the rest of my squad first." Chrysalis smirked a bit, then nodded and dismounted her throne, leading him back out the way he came. As they exited the tower, the other Changelings once again started following him, their horns lighting up as they drew close. He could feel them somehow removing the radiation again, and he rolled his shoulders as they loosened up, along with the rest of his body. The Queen led him down more tunnels, until they came to a room with Fireburst laying in the center, surrounded by Changelings just as Bloodwing was.
"This one was particularly full." Bloodwing turned to regard the Queen as she spoke. "We brought him back first, and he's had more of my drones draining him than any of the rest of you. Based on your recovery time, I'd say he won't be waking up until nightfall, at best. But honestly, I don't know much about any of you, so I could be completely wrong in that estimation. I'm fairly certain I'm not, but you never know." Bloodwing moved to his lieutenant's side and inspected him. The various wounds Dark Lance had inflicted were covered in some sort of pulsing, green gel-like substance, and a cursory scan indicated that Fireburst's self-repair subroutines were functioning properly. Satisfied the draconian Decepticon would still be functioning by the time they were ready to leave, he turned around and nodded for Chrysalis to take him to the next chamber. They went through several more tunnels to a third chamber with Sharpedge, and Bloodwing repeated the procedure. Finding her to be in acceptable condition, they moved once more. Crosswire, however, was already awake when they got there. He turned as his commander entered the room.
"Sir, I've been studying these creatures for a few microcycles now, and I believe they are capable of absorbing Energon radiation! I don't know how, yet, but I am working on an answer." Bloodwing nodded his agreement.
"I came to the same conclusion. At the moment, though," he turned to face Chrysalis, "I would like to know the real reason you decided to help us. I've seen your forces, and I can take a fairly good guess at your power, so why would you need us to help you? Surely you could take care of this traitor yourself?" He raised a questioning eyebrow, and the Queen gave him with a somewhat impressed look.
"Not bad. Yes, we could catch him ourselves if we wanted to. However, there are two things stopping me. The first is that he is incredibly powerful for a Changeling, and is capable of defeating a massive number of my drones by himself. Defeating him would require time, power, and resources we simply cannot spare at present. The second item is his new allies. If they are anywhere near as powerful as he is, -and I'm sure they are- then we would have no chance of winning, even with the entire hive. So, I ask again: are you willing to work with us?" She put out her hoof, and Bloodwing considered his options.
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Bunker galloped through the trees, Burnout right behind him, as they both scanned the forest with their full array of sensors active. They had been searching for two hours, with no sign of the Decepticons anywhere. The Darksword was empty, the ravine that was previously filled with Energon was abandoned, and both Canterlot and Ponyville were quiet and peaceful. As Bunker moved into a slightly swampy area, populated by copses of mangrove trees, he slowed down, looking around for any sign of the missing Cybertronians. Not finding anything with any of his sensors, he turned back to Burnout.
"I don't think we're going to get anything like this. Let's head back for now, see if any of the others found anything. Hopefully this hasn't just been one huge wild goose chase." They both turned around, and started moving back through the forest to the ship. When they got back, Dark Lance was standing at the holo-table with Wingshift, while Skybreaker was going through another simulation. They both returned to robot mode, and Bunker moved to an unoccupied section of the table to look at the map their commander had been studying. Lance spoke without taking his optics off the projection.
"Did you find anything?"
"No, sir. We went as far as the swamp, but there wasn't even a stray trail of Energon. Wherever they went, they covered their tracks, and they aren't nearby." Dark Lance suddenly slammed both fists down on the console in front of him with a shout.
"Slag it all to the Inferno! We had them, literally incapable of doing anything, and they just disappear while we're sleeping. Blast it! If only another one of us had been able to keep watch, this wouldn't have happened." He slumped over, propping himself up on his arms. "If only Torque was here...." Bunker took a step towards him, but the commander held up a hand. "I know, Bunker. I know. And right now, we don't have time for anything other than finding Bloodwing and his crew. For now, we wait. Burnout, you stay here and call the rest of us if something happens. See if you can figure out where that radiation wave came from, as well. A detonation of the magnitude that ravine made shouldn't have put us all in stasis lock like that. Bunker and I will go into town to make sure it isn't targeted, and to see if Twilight or her friends can help us at all. Wingshift and Skybreaker, keep watch over the Darksword. I don't want them getting back on their feet if we can help it." There were sounds of affirmation from the three in front of him, but he heard nothing from his scout. Turning around, he saw Skybreaker still sitting in his seat, going through the simulation. "Skybreaker, are you listening?" Without vocal response, the younger Autobot leaped over his seat as the word 'completed' flashed across the screen. He flipped, twisting in midair to land face-to-face with his commander.
"Yeah, I heard you. Now hear me. There is no way I'm staying anywhere near that freak! I *know* he's the one behind this, and there is no way I'm gonna put myself where he can reach me." He pointed a finger at Wingshift for emphasis.
"Skybreaker-"
"No! I usually trust you, no questions asked, but this time, I can't. This guy is obviously trying to pull something, and the moment we start trusting him is the moment he scraps us all. I'm not putting myself anywhere near that freaky, mutated pile of sc-"
"SKYBREAKER!" The scout started, along with everyone else, and turned his gaze back to his commander. The look he got in return was one of anger. "That's enough. You have no proof of any kind to support your accusation, and until you do, you have no right to speak like that about anyone. I know you, and I know you're still sore about losing that fight to him, but you'll have to settle that some other time. Right now, there are far more pressing matters to attend to. Not only that, but has it occurred to you that perhaps he has his own enemies that have seen a chance to finally get rid of him by helping his new foes to kill us?" Skybreaker opened his mouth to make an argument, but soon found none to be had. Again. He hung his head, giving a shake in the negative as he sighed. "I didn't think so. And if that is the case, we need to figure out where they are and what they're planning. Any more problems?" Skybreaker shook his head again, and Dark Lance turned back around. "Any other concerns anyone wants to voice before we get going?" The others looked at each other for a moment, and silently came to the conclusion that there was nothing more to be said. With no more complaints to be brought to his attention, the commander turned back to Skybreaker. "I'm fully aware of what you're thinking, and I know this seems like a recurring nightmare, but it's not. Now come on. There's work to be done, and you're best suited for this job. I need you at top performance if we're going to be ready for whatever the 'Cons have planned." He put a reassuring hand on the scout's shoulder, and opened a private comm channel. "Besides, if he is planning something, you'll be most likely to notice it before he actually does anything." Skybreaker looked back up in slight confusion, and Dark Lance smiled, giving him some renewed confidence. "Now let's go." He moved towards the door, and opened it before transforming. The others followed, transforming as they got near. "There's more than enough work to be done. And we need to be ready for the protoform's arrival tonight."
"Is that why you've been so vehement lately, Lance?" The Autobot commander snapped into a fighting stance as Bloodwing stepped out from the brush. "Well then, I guess I'll just have to get ready for it myself, won't I? First, though, I'd like you to meet some new friends of mine." He gestured to the forest behind him, and several dozen pairs of eyes appeared, looking at them from the darkness. The eyes moved forward, revealing themselves to be Changelings, hissing and growling as they came closer. "Normally, I absolutely detest organic life forms, but these ones made a particularly good first impression. They even drained the Energon radiation from us. Thoughtful, aren't they? And quite obedient. Especially since they want your new recruit in a dungeon almost as much as I want you dead. So now what, commander? You won't risk hurting them, so you might as well surrender now." He grinned triumphantly, but Dark Lance quickly found a hole in his opponent's plan.
"You forget, Bloodwing. Wingshift technically isn't under my command until he goes through enlistment, which he hasn't. And since he's a native as well, I have no right to interfere with his vendettas." Wingshift took this as his cue, and leaped forward, tackling the nearest Changeling and throwing him into a tree to knock him out. He transformed, and the rest of the Changelings suddenly flinched, looking at each other and chittering in their own language. Bloodwing watched as the small group he had brought with him slowly started backing away.
"What are you doing, cowards?! He's right there! Fight back!" The bug-like creatures ignored him, continuing their withdrawal. Bloodwing was about to try again, but stopped when a shadow fell over him. He turned to find Wingshift standing uncomfortably close.
"As I told Dark Lance when we first met, these creatures are stupid and fearful. They will not fight for you." Bloodwing growled, but started backing off when he noticed the other Autobots moving to flank him. He jumped up and started flapping his wings to hover in place.
"Fine. You get to live for today, but I will find a way to beat you all yet. Mark my words!" With that, he turned and flew off. Wingshift returned to his alt-mode as Skybreaker came up next to him.
"I guess I owe you an apology, huh?" The mutant Insecticon turned with a raised eyebrow. "I'm sorry for pointing fingers like that. It wasn't my place to accuse you, and it turned out you were innocent anyway. So I'm sorry." Wingshift nodded, then stuck out a hoof. Skybreaker looked at it for a moment, before realizing his intent. Smiling, he clapped Wingshift's hoof with his own before they all turned and went back inside.