Hi-Q kept up his weapon’s fire as his visor fed the battlefield data directly into his brain. The Omnibots were going toe to toe quite handily against the Novacons. Black Scar was flabbergasted at Cerebros’ new fighting prowess. “This is impossible!” he protested as he grappled with his opponent. “You’re a pacifist! How are YOU swinging those blows?!”
“I had to learn to put my pacifist ideals aside, since they were doing more harm than good,” explained Cerebros. Hi-Q looked over the data again and was flummoxed at the readings.
“Bu…bu…I mean, this…this is against ALL the scenarios!” he protested.
“Can we focus here?!” snarled Trema as she threw Amy at Weirdwolf’s head. The pink hammer girl swung her signature weapon onto his helmet repeatedly!
“STOPSTOPSTOPSTOP! YOU’RE GIVING ME A DOUBLE HEADACHE!” wailed Weirdwolf.
Up in space, Megatron forced his way into Scorponok and transformed into robot mode. Clench disengaged from him and the two ran through the Metrotitan’s corridors. “All intruders shall be eliminated!” growled Scorponok’s voice. The internal defenses then came online. They were mainly security drones, humanoid in shape from the waist up and armed with a gun replacing the right hand and an electric prod replacing the left. They moved by a pair of wheels, like a Segway, and fired on the Decepticon Lord and his Mini-con partner. Megatron activated his arm blade, still only on concealed in his right arm, then spun around like a tornado and mowed the drones down! Once he stopped, none the worse for wear, Clench goggled at his partner.
“Did you just pull a Crash Bandicoot on them?” he asked.
“Yeah, I know!” chuckled Megatron. “I’ve played his games since Earth, really wanted to try his usual whirl attack!”
“Please don’t do that again.”
“My fight, my rules!”
“Hey! MEGATWERP!” called another voice. Megatron groaned.
“Because, of COURSE, the situation wasn’t dire enough for me!” He and Clench turned to see Optimus and Sparkplug. Clench rolled his optics.
“Hey, Sparky, Floptimus,” he called, “maybe this isn’t obvious to you, but me and Megatron are sorta in the middle of something! If you were to come back another time, we’d be a great deal less annoyed! Unless your intention WAS to annoy us! In which case, well done…BECAUSE NOW WE’RE ANNOYED!”
“This is an internal Decepticon affair, Optimus!” warned Megatron. “Do NOT interfere!”
“Oh, no!” replied Optimus. “Internal affairs ALWAYS boil over to becoming headaches, so I’m nipping this one in the bud! OPTIMUS PRIME, SUPER MODE!”
“MEGATRON, CONQUEST MODE!” The two bots achieved their super modes and clashed while keeping the security drones off their backs.
“Pelazon gas bomb prepared!” cheered Scorponok over the battle. “Launching!” Optimus and Megatron stopped fighting briefly, then resumed their fight as they made their way to his bridge.
Outside, a turret on the shoulder of Scorponok’s right claw fired some sort of canister. It exploded and a purple gas spread throughout the atmosphere before dissipating.
On the surface, Hi-Q got a reading on the gas and gulped. “Pelazon!” he explained. “It’s undoing the mechano-toxin in the air!”
“It’s time!” cheered Black Scar. He then turned his head slightly as if someone was speaking. “…I know, Zarak! It’s gonna be a whopper! Still, I wish Scorponok would change his own activation code. …You’re right, It WOULD be appropriate, given what we’re trying to accomplish!” Scorponok then lowered himself into view and Black Scar adopted the same transformation poses as Zarak. “Master…HEAD ON!”
“SCORPONOK, TERRORIZE!” Scorponok’s claws lowered as his sides split away and swung towards the tail while sprouting feet. The head of the scorpion revealed an empty space on its underside. Black Scar transformed, but his spinnerets folded to the top of his spider mode and split to reveal a pale-yellow face with a red visor. The new head then inserted itself into the empty space, connecting with the Metrotitan’s robot mode. The face then moved as ours would and roared to the heavens. “A perfect fit!” Scorponok chuckled.
Inside Scorponok, Optimus, Megatron, and their Mini-con partners made it to the bridge. They got read-outs of atmospheric conditions, giving them pause. Megatron then chuckled. “Who would have thought Scorponok had the antidote to a poisonous atmosphere?” he remarked.
“Oh, Primus, NO!” groaned Optimus. He then got a call.
“Optimus, what’s going on?!” asked the caller, Tails. “We saw Scorponok touch down and transform!”
“He fired an antidote into Nebulos’ atmosphere!” explained Optimus. “Now both sides are able to touch down!” Megatron then got a call from Eggman.
“Okay, given that you’re picking up just fine,” he observed, “I can surmise it’s safe for everyone! We’re touching down!”
“Belay that!” ordered Megatron. “Scorponok has a massive supply of fuel and parts to get us to Animatros! We just need to take out his head to make him more compliant!”
“I heard that!” boomed Scorponok’s voice. “Rest assured, no one will be killing Black Scar!” The intruders were then caught up in a teleport beam with an endpoint right under Scorponok’s foot! The four rolled out of the way towards the fight on the ground. Cerebros looked in the direction Scorponok was going, then groaned.
“I have no choice!” he muttered. He then stopped as if someone spoke to him. “…Llyra’s gonna have you sleeping on the couch for this! We never really activated him since you became my partner! …Fine, I guess there IS no time like the present.”
“Cerebros, what are you and Galen talking about?!” demanded Llyra.
“Gotta dash!” replied Cerebros. He then jumped into the air and flew past Scorponok. Llyra then realized what was going on.
“They never did it before!” she wailed. “The mental strain could be too much!”
“If they’re doing what I think they’re doing,” muttered Hi-Q, “then it’s because Scorponok robbed him of choice.”
Cerebros landed on Fortress Maximus in city-mode. Scorponok was getting closer by the second. “Fortress!” called Cerebros. “We need to unite! Scorponok has reawakened!”
“…Then it is time,” rumbled a voice. Cerebros then adopted the same poses Galen did.
“Master Head on!” he announced.
“FORTRESS MAXIMUS, TRANSFORM!” The front ends of the city folded up to make feet, the rear ends then swung forward and sprouted hands as the tower in the center split in two and folded down. The headless robot then pushed itself up as Cerebros transformed into shuttle mode, then the canopy folded up to act as a sun visor while the wings pointed to the rear of the shuttle. A white face then appeared under the visor and activated thick blue optic lenses. Fortress Maximus was online, and he decked Scorponok in the face, surprising both him AND the crowd below!