Eggman and Shockwave were walking past the room of aborted protoforms. Eggman was a little…on edge. “So…” he muttered, “…why are we here?”
“One of life’s greatest mysteries,” replied Shockwave as she typed away at a console. “Why are we here? Are we the product of some cosmic coincidence or is there really a God watching over everything, with a plan for us? I don’t personally know, but it DOES keep me up at night. Some scientists are trying to find God and…”
“What?!” interrupted Eggman. “I mean, why are we here in this chamber of horrors?!”
“Ah,” answered Shockwave, realizing her mistake.
“What was all that stuff about God?” asked Eggman.
“Nothing,” snapped Shockwave.
“Do you want to talk about it?” inquired Eggman.
“No,” replied Shockwave.
“Are you sure?” continued Eggman.
“Yes,” insisted Shockwave. Eggman dropped it, then pursued his original line of questioning.
“Seriously, why ARE we in this macabre place?!” he yelped. “Do you have some sort of creepy aborted protoform fetish?!”
“No, but I DO have a solution fetish,” answered Shockwave. “These aborted protoforms are part of a production line. They house blank CNA and I can generate Pseudo-Sparks after taking a strand of CNA and splicing it with another to create a soldier. Back in the day, when soldiers were running low, we resorted to making our own Transformers out of blank protoforms, those without sparks. I came up with the procedure and we created our men, the Decepti-drones. Now, the default template is still Cybertronian in nature, but I can use another source of genetic material to make new drones. Yours, to be exact.”
“Er…how much will you need?” gulped Eggman, concerned for his life.
“A cotton swab will suffice,” replied Shockwave. Eggman breathed easier.
“You!” he barked at an Egg-pawn. “Get me a Q-tip! Make it snappy!” The Egg-pawn hurried off to obey.
Optimus was doing some reading in his office. He had three pads on his desk, one of them looking more like a book. He was munching on some Energon munchies when looking through the pads. The door chimed. “Come in,” called Optimus. He heard the door open but didn’t look up.
“I thought Bumblebee was the researcher,” joked Jazz’s voice. Optimus looked up to see Jazz standing there. “There’s a party going on at Dancitron,” he offered. “You and the other bots are invited.”
“Thanks, dude,” accepted Optimus. “I COULD use some unwinding. When is it?”
“All night,” replied Jazz. “You can come and go as you please.”
“I’ll head there as soon as I finish here,” assured Optimus. Jazz then noticed the book-like pad.
“Doing a little Covenant study?” he asked as he sat down.
“That wasn’t my original intention, but it just spiraled from there,” sighed Optimus. “I was looking over accounts to see if Teletraan’s problems were dealt with before.”
“You think the Thirteen made an a.i. who went nuts?” quizzed Jazz.
“Probably not, but I wanted to check,” replied Optimus. “After scrolling through, I came across Vector Prime 57:22. Take a listen.” He then went to the chapter and verse and read aloud. “‘When the beast is complete, its dark arms shall encompass the planet, ushering in the end of times. The world, in death, will fall into a deep sleep in waiting for the time of rebirth to come.’ Sound familiar?”
“Isn’t that in the Gaia Manuscripts as well?” recalled Jazz.
“Chapter 4, verse 28,” confirmed Optimus. “And the Covenant of Primus is older than the Gaia Manuscripts. Mobius and Cybertron were isolated from each other at the time, so there’s no way we can sue for plagiarism. After seeing that correlation, I started looking up various accounts of the Dark Gaia incident that occurred a few years before we came here. Sonic’s accounts mainly dealt with this ‘werehog’ form of his, Tails was more into trying to understand the science behind primordial evils, like Dark Gaia or the Chaos Bringer, and Professor Pickle was behind finding the Chaos Emerald Temples, putting the planet back together.”
“You think that Dark Gaia IS the Destroyer of our religion?” asked Jazz.
“A small part of me hopes not, but there are too many correlations,” muttered Optimus. “In any case, I found nothing relating to fixing Teletraan.” Teletraan then popped up on the screen on Prime’s desk.
“I see the beast inside me!” he called. “I see the beast inside the egg! All’s love is lost in mollusks and oil! Green! Green! Green! Green!”
“Teletraan 1!” ordered Optimus. “Hard reset, vocal interface! Make it so!” Teletraan’s nonsense stopped.
“Hard reset in progress,” he reported. The screen went dark.
“The frag was that?!” yelped Jazz.
“A new symptom, I’d say,” muttered Optimus.
The blank protoforms had the pseudo-sparks installed and the genetic material was accepted. Eggman was laughing like the mad scientist he is while Shockwave went through the final checks. It was storming outside, so Eggman felt like quoting. “This storm will be magnificent! All the electrical secrets of Heaven, and, this time, we’re ready, eh, Shockwave? Ready!”
“All checks complete,” reported Shockwave. “We’re ready to begin.”
“Metal Sonic! Throw the switch!” shouted Eggman. Metal rolled his optics and threw the large switch. “Oh, come on!” snapped Eggman. “You didn’t do the Igor bit!”
“I’m not degrading myself,” grumbled Metal. Electricity then started going through the cables connecting to the birthing pods. The protoforms started shaking. Soon, the pods drained and the protoforms landed, kneeling. Their forms then started changing. They expanded and got bulky frames. A beak-like protrusion came from where a nose would be. The torso armor went red and the leg armor went black. White highlights and the straps on Eggman’s jacket appeared around the new bots. Their armor took the parts of heavy combat jets. Their fingers became fearsome talon-style claws. Their optics took the shape of Eggman’s glasses and a headband for goggles appeared on top of their craniums. Soon, they got up as their optics adopted a red color.
“All vital signs stable,” relayed Shockwave. “Initiating cognizance and intelligence tests.” Monitors popped up in front of the drones. First, they were tested to visual acuity, then hand-eye coordination, then their hearing, and finally, their I.Q. They scored 300.
“Like-minded company with brutish strength!” chuckled Eggman. “At last.”
“All tests are complete,” reported Shockwave. “They are ready for deployment.”
“Esteemed Cyber-eggs!” cheered Eggman as he addressed the drones in his image. “Welcome to the world of the living! Welcome to the precipice of glory! Welcome to the march towards the future which I, Doctor Julian Ivo ‘Eggman’ Robotnik, have so tenaciously worked towards!”
“Dynamic rule over this miserable planet!” shouted a voice. It was Eggman’s, but he didn’t say it. Everyone turned to the source. One of the drones spoke and had struck a pose of victory.
“Er…I…am delighted to know we’re on the same page,” stammered Eggman.
“We are as one, Lord Eggman,” replied another Cyber-egg.
“We share your memories,” answered a third.
“Your very feelings,” called a fourth.
“Your insatiable lust for power!” finished the last.
“I…see,” muttered Eggman.