Part 4: Welcome to the Jungle
Maine: Canterlot: Lemon Zest’s House
Chuckling lowly to himself at some joke that was probably funny only to him, Steeljaw advanced. His claws were like razors, and his teeth like swords. Indigo, for all her courage, had to admit she was scared. Seeing claws and teeth that sharp on a robot, just felt… unnatural in some way to her.
The drones behind Steeljaw continued to chuckle, as their blood red visors seemed to look right into the Shadowbolts’ souls. And just looking into those visors, it was like looking into the void.
“Twilight, what have you and your new bird-bot friend dragged Trixie into?” Trixie squeaked in fear.
“Oh, so that’s who I have to thank for helping me find Sunder here…” Steeljaw lied already knowing who they were, a faux-friendly tone in his voice. “Really, I must give a huge thank you, and to human social media for allowing me to find him so easily,” he continued, dropping the liar act and actually being honest for a change. “Now, just hand him over, and no-one has to get hurt. I don’t like hurting fleshlings, honestly, I don’t. Cybertronians are one thing, but you… Well, I honestly don’t like lesser species getting caught up in my hunts…”
“Excuse me?” Lemon snapped, really rather offended by that remark. “Lesser species?”
“Well, when you think about it…” Sour Sweet said, turning to Lemon. “He does have a point. Now, forgive me for sounding like Sugarcoat here, but-”
“Considering we’re probably about to be mauled to death by an alien robot, I’ll take any form of flattery I can get,” Sugarcoat said bluntly.
“...As I was saying, we probably are lesser species to him. Look at us, we’ve barely accomplished space travel, and from what we’ve seen so far, if Sunder is any indication of this robot’s species, then we’re probably ants to him,”
“Well, at least you’re polite, so you’ve got that going for you,” Steeljaw admitted.
“Still, would be nice to know the name of who’s trying to kill us.” Sour Sweet continued.
“Well, not many bots, or people in your case, ever have the decency to ask me that question. Call it a fit of narcissism on my part for being flattered at you being so polite to request my name, but they call me Steeljaw.” the Predacon turned Predacon Hunter said, flashing them a fanged grin to emphasize his point.
“Y-Yeah, I see what you mean…” Sour Sweet stuttered out.
“What the hell are you doing?” Lemon snapped. “We should be running for our lives!”
But Trixie, for all her arrogance, had actually figured out Sour’s plan. She’d noted Sunny going for her phone behind her back -Something which had conveniently escaped Steeljaw and his two flunkies’ notice- and smirked to herself. “Yeah, that’s right. Now, keep him talking Sour… Doubtful, unless we sprint for it, and for all we know cell phone towers have been jammed so calls could be out of the question anyways, Sunny would be unable to call for help. But a simple text, now that’s another matter Trixie thinks.”
“But enough flattery and idle chit-chat. Time for that bird to have his feathers plucked!” Steeljaw snarled as he slowly strode forwards claws extended, but suddenly he was cut off by a loud blast of sound as Sunder landed in front of the girls and extended his wings, revealing speakers in them. Blast after blast of dubstep music hit Steeljaw, and he stumbled back -simultaneously covering his audio receptors with his paws- from the sheer noise.
Sunder smirked, -looking as smug as it was possible for a robot bird- and then sampled a piece of the Kiss track “I Love it Loud”, with Gene Simmons singing the titular lyrics.
“Run for it!” Sunny shouted, having sent her dad a simple one-word message. That message?
“Help!”
“Hopefully he gets it, wherever he is…” Sunny thought to herself as Lemon kicked open the back fence’s gate and the group ran into her backyard and then began clambering up the back fence as Steeljaw and his cronies tried to recover their senses. With a thud, Lemon and company’s butts hit the dirt path in the alleyway behind and they continued running for it. They thought that, by sticking to the darkened alleyways and slinking in whatever gaps and crevices they could find, that they would be safe. But even they knew that Steeljaw and his cronies would be hunting them down, and would even turn the city alight with blaster fire to get to them.
Sunder wasn’t far behind, soaring right over their heads. The roars of his jets blew a bunch of discarded papers and wrappers around, and even played havoc with the girls’ hairstyles. Even though the winds of his slipstream slowly died down, the girls still felt knocked off of their feet by it
“Damn, Twilight, I don’t know where you found that buddy of yours, but he’s cool in so many ways!” Lemon complimented, and Sunder winked at her with one red eye.
They rounded another corner and came to a heavily shaded park, panting and sweating as they tried to catch their breath. The trees there were sturdy, but against a Decepticon, they would stand no chance. There was a small fountain in the center of the park, with a water feature spewing a steady stream skywards. A few flower fields spread across the park too, but the variations of flowers left much to be desired in certain places.
“Oh, dad’s going to be so pissed when she sees what happened to the front of the house… He just finished repainting it!” Lemon trailed off. Indigo stared at her.
“Really, that’s your biggest concern right now?” she asked, her mouth ajar. “Killer robots, and your biggest concern is how mad your dad is going to be?”
“Speaking of dads, wonder if Sunny’s got the message?” Sugarcoat asked, and everyone else looked at her. She adjusted her glasses and raised an eyebrow. “What, don’t tell me any of you didn’t notice her texting her dad behind her back while Sour kept Steeljaw talking?”
“W-Well, to be fair, we were all sorta worried about Steeljaw and his two henchmen… Sorry, henchbots at the time…” Twilight stuttered out.
“For the record, Trixie noticed.” her girlfriend added, raising her hand. “...Just for what it’s worth, putting my two cents in there,”
“Can’t see how Sunny’s dad could help us now…” Indigo trailed off, and just as Sugarcoat was about to say something, Sunny herself spoke up.
“He’s a retired Army Ranger, so I’d think he’s still got some contacts within the government and probably could send a whole squadron of fighter jets down to missile that wolfbot into the scrapheap,” she replied, a tone of admiration present in her voice. “Might be a bit out of shape, but that doesn’t mean he can’t help somehow…”
“Yeah, and right now, we need all the help we can get…” Lemon trailed off, and as if to cement that, a truck’s horn was heard honking along with the roar of an engine as Steeljaw in his vehicle mode smashed through some trees and quickly transformed back to bot mode. The girls’ eyes widened, and they took a quick look to the left to see the two Vehicons in car mode coming down the street.
“Oh, so we’re playing a human game now is it?” Steeljaw snarled, quite irritated by the way things had gone, audio receptors still ringing. Inwardly, he was quite impressed, he’d never expected the hunt to last this long, for him to actually face this form of resistance. “Well, let me introduce you to the Decepticon version. Hide and go shriek!” He laughed, picking up Twilight in his claws and looking her dead in the eyes.
“Clever little bitch,” he remarked. “Finding a Predacon with abilities like those for your bodyguard.”
“I-I swear, I just stumbled upon him!” Twilight stuttered out in fear. “Happy accident, and all that!”
“Let my girlfriend go, wolfy!” Trixie shouted in fear, despite knowing perfectly well there was little she could do at the moment.
Sunder swooped in, and tried to blast Steeljaw with waves of sound once again, but he was having none of that.
“Oh no, we’re not having the same trick done twice…” He muttered, and threw a small metal disk which quickly captured the Predacon in a web of energy. Sunder squawked, and tried as hard as he could to break free. Sadly, it was all for nothing really. Steeljaw chuckled, and smirked. “Oh, don’t think you’ll be getting free of that anytime soon, little bird, as it’s made specifically to capture Predacons. Attuned to your specific type of body signature. Try and free yourself, and-”
Sunder suddenly found himself pumped full of electricity and he shrieked out in pain as the two Vehicons pulled up, ready to transform to bot mode if needed.
“That happens,” Steeljaw continued. “Now, credit where it’s due, I hadn’t expected the hunt to go on for this long, so I’ll be giving you all a quick death for defying me. I don’t like to hurt humans, but there has to be no witnesses in this particular case. I’m a Robot in Disguise, you see. Other humans may be sound asleep at this hour, I don’t know, but you seven… Sadly, you saw me and that means you have to go…”
He looked at Twilight, and then at the girls.
“Now, say goodbye to your friend here. It’ll be the last time you see her, till you join whatever version of the afterlife you have with her!” Steeljaw laughed, and Trixie stifled out a sob.
“Run!” Twilight shouted. “Save yourselves!”
“No, we’re Shadowbolts, and we stick together. No matter what,” Indigo said, walking forwards. “And if that means dying together, so be it.”
“And I’m your girlfriend Twilight, I love you,” Trixie said. “Now, until death do us part. Isn’t that the way it goes?”
“T-That’s not until the wedding…” Twilight laughed sadly, tears in her eyes.
“Well, I really must admire your comradery!” Steeljaw exclaimed, caught off-guard. Humans were herd animals, fleeing in any given direction at the first sign of danger. But these six… They were something else. “But now, it’s ov-”
Then, he heard the distinctive roar of a V8 engine and the sound of police sirens. His eyes widened, and then narrowed. Autobots…
Honestly, Prowl when he’d gotten Fowler’s message hadn’t been expecting anymore than his daughter getting stalked by some creeper in the night while walking home. It was disgusting to be sure, but he honestly hadn’t expected anything more dangerous than something human in nature. Other scenarios ran through his head, others less disturbing, like Sunny Flare getting mugged or just lost in the woods.
What he hadn’t been expecting to say the least was Decepticons threatening her and her group of friends. He cursed himself, he should have known that it was always a possibility, the Cons trying to get through to his team’s human allies through their family.
With that, he poured on the speed, as Steeljaw’s optics widened as he turned to look at Prowl’s oncoming form. Next thing the wolfbot knew was Prowl ramming him in the torsoplate at high speed.
Then, Prowl let out a quiet swear in Cybertronian as he saw a small form slip from Steeljaw’s grasp. His optics widened and he muttered “So much for our cover…” to himself as he engaged his transformation sequence.
Indigo’s eyes widened in abject shock as she saw the oncoming police car approach Steeljaw, and then seemingly fly and ram him in the chest. There was something… familiar about this car, like she’d seen it somewhere before, even if Indigo couldn’t place exactly where.
Then, she remembered as before her eyes, she saw parts beginning to shift and change. While she did that, keenly noted that this car had no driver and bore a marking similar to that of Sunder’s on the bumper of the car. Mind you, this marking bore what looked to be wings but it was basically the same symbol. She knew where she’d seen this “car” before, even if it’s form was different.
Red and blue lights were in the corner of Indigo’s eyes, and police sirens filled her ears. A black and white car came out of nowhere and slammed the mysterious Lamborghini in the side, sending it smacking into the wall of a building. Tires squealed, and smoke rose up as it took its leave, with the police car taking chase after it.
Indigo fell to her knees, and let out a little sob of relief, as sweat trailed down her face. Suddenly she wasn’t so cold anymore. As she picked herself up off the sidewalk, and started her long walk home, she would later realize one crucial detail about her savior.
It was an old Nissan Fairlady Z, something everyone knew wasn’t used as a police car in America…
“No, it can’t be…” Indigo whispered to herself as she saw a massive hand reach out and grab Twilight, with a gray plated face bearing a red chevron on its helm smiling at Twilight as it’s owner gently sat her down.
“It’s okay now, you’ll be alright,” the robot said kindly before his crystal blue optics narrowed as he turned back to look at Steeljaw. “Him, on the other hand…”
Said robot in question was picking himself off the ground, and letting out an animalistic snarl. He quickly tackled Prowl to the street, with a massive thud ringing out as both colossal forms hit the pavement, cracking it underneath their weight.
“So, going after humans now huh Steeljaw?” Prowl asked calmly as he tried to force the massive Decepticon off of him. His quarry chuckled.
“They were just in my way, that’s all,” Steeljaw replied in an equally calm tone of voice. “Just obstacles in the way of my real prize.”
Prowl’s optics then widened as he saw Sunder, in the electro-net, struggling and flailing about to get free. He let out shrieks of pain every time he was pumped full with more electricity. Prowl’s optics narrowed and he grabbed Steeljaw by the chest.
“You shall not have him, he’s an Autobot. One of our own!” Prowl snarled protectively. “Nor shall you harm those kids!” he declared. With that, he threw Steeljaw off of him, tossing him behind him as he did so.
“Maybe not…” Steeljaw growled, flexing his claws as he and Prowl picked themselves off the tarmac. “But the Vehicons? Well, now that’s another story…” he chuckled.
With that, the Vehicons gunned their engines and floored it, heading right for the Shadowbolts ready to run them down. Well, that was the plan anyways. Suddenly, one was blindsided by a pure red Corvette Stingray and sent flying off into the distance. An explosion was heard soon after, and a fireball rose high into the sky.
“Come on Con, you want to dance? Let’s dance!” Road Rage snarled out in challenge. She did a complete one-eighty, stirring up smoke as she did so as her tires squealed against the pavement. A blast of fire came from her mufflers and she floored it with the remaining Vehicon in hot pursuit.
“Savor the daylight. Because things are about to get rather dark…” Steeljaw growled out. With a roar, he then charged towards Prowl.
“Go, run!” Prowl shouted towards the girls as he braced himself for the hit. They took the message, and scattered. Well, almost all of them anyways. Twilight and Indigo ran towards Sunder.
“Not leaving you behind, not in the slightest,” Indigo said. “Saved our lives, so we owe you this much…”
Two things were felt then as Indigo and Twilight bore witness to Steeljaw rake his claws against Prowl’s chassis before the two began grappling for dominance against the other. Indigo, knew at that very moment that her whole life had just transformed into something else entirely, and that this was just the tip of the iceberg.
Twilight, on the other hand, got the distinct feeling that in some way, that this was all her fault...
Meanwhile, Road Rage had led the remaining Vehicon outside the suburbs of Canterlot, and into a chase through a woodland pass. Tall, lonely pines were on either side of the pass, and the full moon shown down. It was a rather beautiful, if not lonely road
The way that the moonlight shone down through the trees gave Road Rage the sense that the land was enchanted, though that was highly illogical given how this new planet worked. But even so, it wasn’t just the trees that gave her that feeling of fiction within fact. The road ahead, and even some sections of the horizon beyond it were illuminated by this twinkling silver ball in the sky, and it made the road she took feel all the more brighter.
There was a lake down by the bottom of the woods, which too was drinking in the light of the moon. The way that the water rippled and shimmered tranquilly in the darkness was somewhat soothing, the state of peacefulness being transmitted from one body to another. There were fishes that swam under the cover of the darkness, creating the aforementioned ripples. And they too barely disturbed the waters with how they nimbly glided through its’ small and almost miniscule waves.
All throughout her journey, Road Rage felt like this forest would be a true safe haven for her, so long as the Decepticons hadn’t followed her into it. Everything around her seemed inviting, welcoming her into a conflict-free twilight which would shelter her for the time being, just until she felt ready to leave and find her way back to the fight. However long it might have taken, one thing was for certain: Here, Road Rage felt like she was free, like she was alive. No longer chained to an endless cycle of battle.
That illusion was shattered when she heard the roar of the Vehicon’s engine behind her.
“Right… almost forgot about you,” she muttered to herself. The Vehicon whipped out its laser cannon, the weapon popping out of the side, and it fired blast after blast of purple energy.
Road Rage swerved to the left and right to avoid the shots, before she did another one-eighty turn and was now staring her opponent in the headlights.
Her V8 roared to life, and her tires squealed once more as she drove right towards the Con.
“She… She really isn’t going to…” the Vehicon thought to himself, but quickly realized Road Rage was deathly seriously as she continued driving towards him. “I need back-up, no-” the Vehicon started over the comms, before he was rammed head-on in the bumper, and he flipped end over end over Road Rage before landing behind her on his roof, and exploding in a large fireball.
Road Rage sighed, calming herself down some. The thing about her was, she had this little glitch in her operating systems. When she turned into her vehicle mode, she became a fire-breathing demon of the road, with little regard for anyone else sharing it. Naturally, it was a point of embarrassment for her, so none of the Autobots saw fit to bring it up.
She then saw a swirling vortex of energy open up and two more Vehicons along with a maroon Aston Martin -With grey detailing and bright yellow rims- drove out of it. Road Rage had to chuckle to herself, she knew only one con who paid that much attention to detail on his finish.
“Knock Out, should have known you’d pop up sooner or later,” she snorted in derision, her engine idling. “Still, surprised you’d pop up out of your lab and risk getting your precious finish… scratched.”
“Well, if it were up to me, I’d leave Steeljaw to rust… But, needs must,” Knock Out replied. “Now, we going to talk, or are we going to drive?”
“Well, in that case…” Road Rage replied, slightly flirtatious in tone although she sorta figured it wouldn’t really work on Knock Out given the way most suspected he swung. “Let’s dance.”
She floored it and drove right towards Knock Out, with the two Vehicons driving right towards her to protect her.
To everyone’s surprise, Road Rage lifted her right wheels off the ground and once she was past the cannon fodder sent to greet her, let them touch the pavement once more. She then flew past their boss, who quickly gave chase with the Vehicons following.
She poured on the speed, with the Vehicons opening fire with their blasters. Road Rage smirked as she saw them close in, and saw a turn that, past the guardrail, lay a steep drop. A plan began to form in her mind and she slammed hard on the brakes and let the two speed past her.
Knock Out’s optics widened as he figured out what was about to happen.
“No, no, you fools! She’s just going to-” he shouted, but to no avail, as the Vehicons couldn’t hit the brakes fast enough and went over the side.
With a sigh of disgust, he soon found himself forced into the side of a guardrail and sparks flew as metal ground against metal.
“No, not my finish!” He shrieked out in fury, before quickly transforming to robot mode and blocking the path in front of Road Rage, with very visible scratches all over his body. The doors had especially prominent damage. He snarled as he pulled out a long staff with an electric tipped prong. “You scratch my body, I scratch yours…” he growled out as Road Rage took her robot form.
“We’ll see…” Road Rage said as she pulled out a sword and switched the radio over to the oldies station and a song began to play...
"How lucky can one guy be?
I kissed her and she kissed me
Like the fella once said
"Ain't that a kick in the head?"
Weapons met, and sparks flew once more as metal ground up against metal again. Knock Out kicked Road Rage in the chest plate before he lunged out with his staff, and filled her body with volt after volt of pure electricity.
Road Rage fell to the ground, her whole body aching in pain before she was knocked backwards by a kick to the faceplate.
“Little maneuver I like to call the shock and drop,” he smirked, but it was quickly wiped off when Road Rage quickly recovered and launched a kick to his face sending him staggering backwards before she scored several swings of her sword, drawing Energon, blue droplets hitting the grass beneath her and forming small pools as they moved up the hill and into the forest.
Knock Out, further ticked off by this damage to his finish, slashed Road Rage across the chest with a saw blade that he’d swapped one of his hands out for, drawing some energon of his own. Road Rage staggered back when Knock Out switched back to his fists and scored a right cross to her face, sending the sword flying from her grip. It impaled itself in the ground nearby after flipping in the air several times.
“While I normally find fisticuffs beneath me, I will not hesitate to defend myself!” Knock Out remarked as he swung again but Road Rage caught the fist and kneed the Decepticon in the stomach.
He growled again, and switched out his right hand for his saw blade again and swung over and over. But Road Rage smirked, and dodged these strikes easily. She could sense her opponent was getting frustrated, and starting to make mistakes. She scored a haymaker to Knock Out’s faceplates, and he loosened his grip on his staff.
“You know how long that’s going to take to buff out?” Knock Out exclaimed, before his optics widened and he let out a small “Uh-oh…” when he saw his staff in Road Rage’s grasp. She swung it above her head several times, before hitting Knock Out right in the chest with the prod end, doing the same to him as he did to her before he found the staff plunged into his chest, just barely missing his spark. He staggered back, resting himself up against a tree.
“Huh, shock and drop. I see the appeal.” Road Rage quipped.
His body aching from exhaustion, Knock Out sighed and pulled the staff out of his torso with no small amounts of pain and energon leakage. He smirked when he heard a distinct screeching sound. He looked up, and saw a dark blue -With orange accents- winged form cutting through the night sky, and illuminated by the moon’s backdrop.
“Well, Autobot…” He said in mock-surrender as a Ground-Bridge opened up behind him and he slowly started walking back into it. “I give into the victor, but one piece of advice for the future… Look behind you!” he shouted as he ran into the Ground-Bridge and something blindsided Road Rage and tackled her to the ground. She found herself fending of the beak of a giant metallic hippogriff, with the Decepticon sigal on his forehead. It raised a claw, ready to strike.
Suddenly, a white and blue form covered in camouflage detailing blindsided the hippogriff themed Predacon and one hand shifted to become a giant hammer which hit the Predacon in the side of his skull.
Another hand helped Road Rage up off the ground.
“Thanks,” she told her savior, but both of their optics widened when they saw the Predacon -Darksteel, if Road Rage remembered correctly- began to charge up a blast of flame. His neck began to glow orange, and that heat traveled all the way up to his beak before a wall of flame came shooting towards them.
Quickly, the newcomer threw up a light blue energy shield with a device on his forearm to block the flames before changing one of his arms into a blaster, and with a few quick shots, sent Darksteel into retreat and into a Ground-Bridge of his own.
“Come, we’ve overstayed our welcome. Just got word from Prowl, Steeljaw’s been sent into retreat.” the second newcomer Cybertronian said. Swordbreaker, if Road Rage remembered the crew manifests correctly.
“Yeah, it’s not him I’m worried about…” Road Rage whispered, her mind drifting off towards the humans and Sunder...
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Awesome
Aww, its no problem buddy. I'm happy to help you.
Paint job works for me. Nice chapter!
8725948
Not exactly, I'm going by the Prime canon's version of Predacons with a bit of RID 2015 thrown in for characters like Steeljaw and Sunder, robots who have Beasts as their alt modes, and a form of Cybertronian wildlife.
8725964
Ok, Could I submit them if I reworked them into a non Six-changer?
8726022
Yeah, send them to me in a PM.
Aww... Knockout's a bad guy? Oh well. Favorite Prime 'con is favorite Prime 'con.
8726029
Yeah, to me, Knock Out was always at his best when he was a villain. Plus, to be perfectly honest, I don't have a lot of material to work with after he switched sides, so making him heroic would be hard to do for me right now. Of course, it could be argued, an Autobot Knock Out wouldn't be much different, just less of a sadist.
Also, interesting factoid for you here, this version of Knock Out is a member of the Stunticons alongside Breakdown.
8726068
Oh? Is Menasor going to be in this story? If so, than which part of Menasor is Knockout?
8726102
No plans for Menasor in this story, least not yet. But I theorize Knock Out, if he was part of the combination, would take either Drag Strip's or Wildrider's place in the combination.
8733936
No, it wasn't published before then. As far as I can see, the rule is barely enforced, and as long as you don't have the full set of lyrics, you're okay.
I liked seeing Sour Sweet's part in distracting the girls' attacker. Good moment for her!
Really enjoyed the scrap between Road Rage and Knockout. That was a joy for me. "Not the finish!" XD
10156479
Yes, well, Knock-Out is a massive diva about such things.