On the surface of a world of metal, three massive structures lay in an area covered in rust. The structures were intended for flight, but the action was clearly impossible now. As they lay in the rust, robots searched them. Three of them, all built the same, with jet parts, oversaw the search. One was white with dark reddish-orange trim, one was black with purple trim, and one was corn-yellow with dark red trim. The white one looked angry. “You’re telling me you can’t find it, even with your equipment tuned for its power signature?!” he snapped at a bot with jet parts that looked like a gryphon.
“I’m sorry, Lord Starscream,” apologized the bot, “but the Heart isn’t here!”
“There’s no way that they could have taken it after that ruthless of an evacuation,” remarked the black jet-bot.
“Primus is not looking too highly on you,” mused the yellow bot.
“Get back in there, Deathsaurus, and find the Heart of Cybertron!” screeched the white bot, Starscream. “I won’t have us lose the greatest weapon of all time!” The gryphon-jet bot, Deathsaurus, bowed and returned to the search. Starscream ran his hand down his face.
“And to think the tax-money goes to pay for jerks like him,” chuckled the black bot.
“Not one more snide remark, Skywarp,” grunted Starscream. He then turned to the yellow bot. “Sunstorm, go aid in the search. Perhaps your mystic tuning to artefacts like that can help speed up the search.”
“You ask me to do Primus’ work,” cheered the yellow bot, Sunstorm, “and I shall obey!” He joined in the search.
“Screamer,” remarked, “you DO remember that’s all in his head, right? I mean, you and him WERE two sides of the same bot once.”
“Don’t be absurd, of course I know that,” dismissed Starscream, “but it might encourage the others to search faster.”
“Lord Starscream!” called a bot with the alt-mode kibble of a snow-terrain truck as he ran up to him. “We found it! We found it! We found it!”
“Specifics, please.”
“My Lord, we found the Heart!” Starscream goggled in surprise.
“Are you sure?!”
“I have it right here!” The bot opened his hand and revealed the Heart of Cybertron. Starscream grinned wickedly as he took it.
“Snow Cat, you have performed admirably!” praised the Seeker. “You and Demolisher are welcome to stay at Kolkular Castle.”
“Thank you, Lord Starscream! …Er, what are you gonna do with the Heart now?”
“Implant it inside me, of course. Inform the medical staff to have me prepped for surgery.”
“That’s not happening, Screamer!” challenged a new person.
“…I know that voice,” muttered Starscream.
“I know that body!” yelped Skywarp as he pointed to the crash site’s edge. “Specifically, that shade of blue!” Standing where Skywarp was pointing was a small, organic creature with blue fur, green eyes, white gloves, and red sneakers. The creature grinned in a cocky manner.
“Hey, Starscream! Long time, no see!” greeted the creature.
“SONIC?!” screeched Starscream.
“So you DO remember me!” laughed Sonic the Hedgehog. Starscream then smirked.
“I’m afraid our economy isn’t prepared to accept refugees at this point in time.” Sonic snarled at that.
“One, heartless much? Two, I’m not a refugee.”
“Why else would you be here? Unicron managed to make your world his body, didn’t he?”
“Actually, he failed miserably. Optimus, Megatron, and Goldbug, you knew him as Bumblebee, took him down with the Three Powers.”
“Nonsense!”
“It’s true! I saw the Star Saber, Skyboom Shield, and Requiem Blaster combine into the Hydra Cannon! Mobius still lives!”
“Impossible! They were destroyed eons ago! They can only be reforged with the Forge of Solus Prime and the Creation Lathe!”
“You mean the Magnus Hammer and Optimus’ desk?”
‘ENOUGH! Decepticons, ATTACK!”
“Let’s do it to it!” At Sonic’s command, every single being from Mobius and Nebulos flooded out of the cracks and unleashed hell! Starscream’s forces fired their weapons, though they clearly weren’t taking them seriously.
“What are you idiots doing?!” snapped Starscream. “Stop underestimating them and actually kill them!”
“My Lord, they’re just organics,” replied a soldier. “What harm can they do?”
“They’ve caused near Spark-failure for me on numerous occasions! Now treat them like Autobots and eviscerate them! At the very least, hold them off while I report for surgery!” The soldiers then started taking Sonic’s forces seriously.
“CHAOS SPEAR!” called Shadow. He flung his signature ranged attack and made a few heads explode. Starscream and his trine managed to leave. “HEY!” Shadow called to Sonic. Sonic looked up and spotted the Seekers. He then made a call.
“Optimus, this is Sonic! The Heart’s in Starscream’s possession! He’s heading north!”
“Understood, Sonic!” replied the young, yet commanding voice of Optimus Prime.
The call, sadly, was intercepted by Sunstorm. “I don’t believe you’ve ever let me out around him,” he chuckled.
“No, I didn’t,” confirmed Starscream.
“And Optimus is alive,” reminded Skywarp in an uncharacteristically serious tone. “That HAS to mean Unicron’s been beaten.”
“Beaten for now, but he’s probably asleep in Mobius’ core again.”
“Hold it, they’re still talking!” called Sunstorm.
“-join us in Kolkular,” continued Optimus. “We need to secure the Space Bridge.”
“We can’t let them do that!” yelped Skywarp.
“Sunstorm, get to Kolkular!” ordered Starscream. “Skywarp, follow me back to Iacon! We have a Heart to implant inside me!” Skywarp’s holo-form grinned, then he launched into a song.
“When a man’s an empty kettle,
He should be on his mettle,
And yet I’m torn apart.
Just because I’m presumin’,
That I could be kind of human
If I only had a heart!”
“STOP THAT!” snapped Starscream.
A passenger train went along its journey to its next stop. All sorts of bots sat inside the coaches. Outside, a navy-blue vehicle was running alongside the train. Its front then split in half and became legs with the front bumper becoming feet. The rear wheel wells became shoulders as the arms swung from the undercarriage and pushed the bot up while the rest of the rear folded down to reveal a femme’s head. She wore her battle mask, so one could only see her determined red optics. During her transformation, she jumped between cars, then stood up straight. She was ready to open the door, then it opened from inside the car! She was slow enough for a purple, yellow, and gray femme with the sides of a speedboat acting as wings step out and grin at her. “Thunderblast?!” yelped the navy-blue femme. Her optics then narrowed in annoyance. “What in the Pit are YOU doing on this train?!”
“Well, it’s nice to see you too, Nightbird,” replied the boat-femme, Thunderblast, as she shut the door.
“There’s never been anything nice about you,” hissed the navy-blue femme, Nightbird.
“Now, now, let’s not get nasty, Nightie.”
“Call me ‘Nightie’ again and my sai goes into your head.” With surprising speed, Thunderblast grabbed Nightbird and slammed her into the other car, forcing her mask to drop and reveal a scar running from under her right optic to past the left-most edge of her mouth.
“Well, stop acting like an idiot!” snarled Thunderblast. “I know what you’re up to! You’re shadowing Deadlock in the hopes to kill her later after she killed the entire D.J.D!” Nightbird swatted Thunderblast’s hands aside.
“What business is it of yours?”
“She’s MY kill!”
“Deadlock? Falling at the hands of a dropout like you? Yeah, right. I’ve already claimed the contract.”
“You couldn’t touch her!” Nightbird reactivated her mask, shoved Thunderblast aside, and opened the door. “She’s better than you!”
“I’m the one who took over the dojo after successfully killing Bludgeon. Nobody’s better than me. You ought to know that at the very least.” Nightbird then entered the coach, then turned back for one last barb. “Besides, the court says you aren’t supposed to come within a hundred fifty metrons of any and all students of the dojo, so back off!” She shut the door.