Hunters - 30B of 52

   Back on the surface, the hordes of clones were thinning, thanks in no small part to the weapons fire from Cannonball’s ship.

   “Chromia, do you copy?!”

   “I hear you Crosswise!” the Autobot femme replied as she blasted apart a clone. “What’s up?!”

   “Good news and bad! The bomb’s set and we’re good to go!”

   “I’m guessing that’s the good news!” A clone rushed towards her, prompting Chromia to stomp at one of its multifaceted eyes with her high-heeled foot. “What’s the bad?!”

   “We’ve got a mess of clones flying up after us!” the Autobot mercenary explained. “Prep for an orbital jump; we’re getting out of here, now!”

   “Roger that!” Chromia deactivated her comm.-link, and then turned to her newfound ally. “You catch all that?!”

   Astrotrain nodded as he activated his own comm.-link. “Cannonball, move to safe distance; we’re blowing this hive!”

   The ship above them continued firing even as it ascended. Meanwhile, a series of explosions coupled with a flash of blue light signaled Crosswise and Sharkticon’s exit from the lab facility. The two continued firing on the oncoming drones as Crosswise said, “Any time you’re ready!”

   “Teleport in five seconds!” Chromia yelled.

   Crosswise activated his planted explosives just before he, his allies and their quarry disappeared in a flash of blue light. Mere seconds later, the ground where they’d stood rumbled, explosions sounding out from within the complex below. The ground crumbled and collapsed, creating a depression and burying what little remained of the labs beneath.


   “Looks like whatever they were fighting on got blown up,” Blastcharge observed. He turned to his commander, eagerness in his facial plates. “What now?”

   “There be buried treasure there, lad,” Cannonball declared with a wide grin. “That means we start digging.”


   “Techno organic clones.” Optimus shook his head in amazement. “I’m surprised anyone would go through with it.”

   “I’m not.” Starscream grimaced in anger. “Deathsaurus was many things, but ethical wasn’t one of them.”

   “The lab’s at least been destroyed, along with any genetic samples they may have had. Whatever’s left is buried under a kil’s worth of dirt.” Crosswise crossed his arms confidently. “It wouldn’t be worth going back and rebuilding.”

   “Let’s hope everyone else thinks the same.” Optimus turned to Astrotrain and said, “You have our thanks.”

   The Decepticon bounty hunter shrugged it off. “Don’t get too sentimental on me, alright? All I want right now is to get my business finished and get going.”

   The Autobot commander nodded. “Now, how did you find out the Mini-Cons were on Earth?”

   Astrotrain mulled through his memory banks for several moments. “I was on Regulon Four, between jobs. This mech approached me, told me about this planet called Earth. He gave me some computer records saying that the Mini-Con ship went there, what Mini-Cons were in what stasis pods and where. Naturally, I went. Not everyone liked the idea of them leaving Cybertron and all.”

   “Do you think you could identify him if you saw him again?” the Seeker asked.

   Astrotrain nodded, and Optimus activated a holographic display. Four holograms appeared, showing the familiar forms of Soundwave, Nemesis Prime and Sideways’s two incarnations. The Decepticon’s optics widened, and he pointed to Soundwave’s hologram. “That’s him, the blue one.”

   The two leaders looked to one another, sharing the briefest of glances before turning back to their guests.

   “Thank you Astrotrain,” Starscream said quietly. “You can go now.”

   The Decepticon rose to his feet, turned and departed the room, his Mini-Con partners waiting outside. With his departure, the two leaders turned to the successful hunters.

   “Well done,” Optimus congratulated. “Get some R&R, ‘bots; you’ve earned it.”

   Crosswise, Chromia and Sharkticon all saluted and departed. Both brothers turned to face one another.

   “This can’t be good,” Starscream said quietly.

   “We already knew that the Exodus had been sabotaged,” Optimus consented, emotions conveyed through his voice and optics. “But I thought it had been done by someone loyal to Megatron. But if a herald of Unicron knew about the ship, where it was, what Mini-Cons landed where, then we may be dealing with something far worse.”


   “Well, I’ll say this for the two of you, you sure know how to keep a lady entertained.” Chromia cast a sly grin back at her two former passengers. “If you ever need me to lug your butts out of the fire again, you two know where to turn.”

   Sharkticon and Crosswise both gave her thankful nods, the shorter mech adding a grin.

   As Chromia walked out of sight, Sharkticon shook his head. “I’ll say this much; you Autobots have a bad habit of getting the job done right, even if you are a little stubborn.”

   “It’s not something that goes away easily.” Crosswise turned to the Decepticon, crossing his arms behind his head in a human gesture he had picked up. “So, up for celebrating our coming back alive? I know a good place just outside Iacon.”

   Sharkticon looked at him before smiling a bit. “You know, this might just be the beginning of a...useful partnership.”


The End