Maxim-al

“Why did you come here, Rusty? I told you I never wanted to see you again!”

“But, Glyph, I love you!”

“It’s too difficult, Rusty. With my brother sick from that computer virus, I don’t have time for a relationship.”

“Please, give us a chance. Why won’t you open up to me, Glyph?”

Speedtrap flicked the controls and the viewscreen faded to black. Warcry threw an empty energon container at him. “Hey, we were watching that!”

“What is wrong with you guys?” Speedtrap rested his hands on his hips. “We should be out there looking for Sideburn, not idly watching old episodes of All My Circuits.”

Chicane walked around the Cadets’ recreation room, his visor recording the argument.

“Did that broomstick fall out of your tailpipe?” Ox said, getting up from his chair. “Because it seems like you’ve got nothing better to do.”

“Ultra Magnus told us to stay in here, out of the way,” said Crosswise.

“Yeah,” agreed Rev. “It was because of Sideburn getting in the way that got him into trouble. We’re better off where we are.”

“Besides,” said Crosswise, “I’d rather stay in here, away from Fire Convoy and the rest of his dysfunctional team.”

“A bit of compassion wouldn’t go a miss,” snarled Speedtrap. “I dread to think what Megatron is doing to him right now.”

Sentinel was working overtime; trying to decode Sideburn’s encrypted memories. Megatron had given up trying himself and passed the task onto Rhinox’s quasi-sentient computer system.

There was a quiet alarm as a red blip appeared on a viewscreen showing the Axalon’s perimeter. It was Bruticus.

“Ah,” Megatron clasped his hands, lowering the shields. “Come in, come in.”

Bruticus bounded up to Megatron, clearly happy to see his master.

“Tell me all about your trip to Paris,” Megatron cooed.

Bruticus unfolded into robot mode, ready to tell his master of his failure. But that strange magnetic feeling washed over Megatron again, hungry for his pet’s spark.

“Not again,” he grunted, his shoulders moving back involuntarily. The sparkfusion inside him was hungry. “Quickly, back to beast mode!”

With a metallic bark, Bruticus transformed into his dog mode and scurried into the corner. He was scared.

“What did merging with the original Megatron’s spark do to me?”

Megatron sat down at the nearest console, exhausted. He then thought for a moment. The original Megatron’s spark was in the stasis hold on the other side of the Axalon. Unless… unless it was—

“The Transmetal Driver!” Megatron snapped his fingers. He slid open a panel under his chest and removed the twisted, glowing orb. The alien markings throbbed with red light.

“Bruticus,” Megatron snapped. “Go and hide this in my old body. We’ll see how I get on without it for the time being.”

The Predacon dog took the driver into his left mouth and padded off towards the stasis hold.

Just then, Sentinel announced: “File hacking, successful. Data retrieval, commencing.”

“Excellent, yes,” said Megatron as he walked over to Sideburn. “Time to see what you’ve been hiding from me, my little friend.”

By all outward appearances, Speedbreaker was sat peacefully at the side of the lake. He held his model of Sideburn in one hand and his knife in the other, making careful scratches into the surface, adding to the detail. Inside his mind, he was travelling at light speed, frantically searching for his new found friend, impatiently waiting for Mach Alert to report back to base with the co-ordinates of the Axalon. There were two things that Speedbreaker hated: waiting and loneliness.

Speedbreaker had always felt alone up there on the Brave Maximus, endlessly orbiting his homeworld. Sure he had his brothers to keep him company, but he never really gelled with them. Mach Alert was too nervous and Wildride was just too grumpy.

On the other hand, there was an instant click with Sideburn. They had a lot in common: both friendly, both into racing. They even had the same flame design on their bonnets!

“One day, my little friend, we’ll have that race.”

Sky-byte stood shivering at the base of Megatron’s “Megabolt” energy storage station on the summit of Mount Chiginagak in Alaska. “Come in, Megatron. Storage cells are prepped and ready and the collection probes are maintaining their integrity through the Earth’s crust.

“The others have reported that the siphon on the island of Java is 89% complete.”

“Above all else, Fire Convoy,” Ultra Magnus said. “I admire your honesty. But I don’t want full leadership of your Autobots. This is your mission, after all.

“I’m just glad you’ve accepted my point of view and are willing to broaden your focus. I’ll call a meeting and we can brief the others. Hopefully by then Mach Alert will have reported the co-ordinates.”

Sideburn’s body lay twisted and burned in a heap in the corner of the room. There were a few sparks of light coming from broken circuits, but it wasn’t clear if they were chip flashes or post mortem energy discharges. Megatron was sat on the floor with his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands.

He had just learned an uncomfortable truth: a gut-wrenching maxim that destroyed his worldview in an instant. Everything about his homeworld was a lie, a dark conspiracy woven into his life by the Tripredacus Council. He didn’t even feel real anymore.

Megatron stood up, clenched his fists, and gritted his teeth. “This pathetic mudball, this planet which I am about to rip open and feast on the energy inside, this planet which was always declared off-limits by the Council, this planet which I travelled back in time to fight the Beast Wars on…” His voiced drifted. “Is going to be cyberformed and turned into what I had always believed to be Cybertron.”

He laughed a little. “This changes everything, and now my fate has taken a new turn. I need a pure technosphere to succeed in my ultimate plan, not some rock with armour plating.”

Outside the perimeter of Sentinel’s energy shield, Mach Alert began transmitting the co-ordinates of his position.

The entire Autobot squad was assembled outside the Aktirak on the runway of the Brave Maximus.

Ultra Magnus addressed them: “This is the beginning of the end, Autobots. Tonight we launch a three-pronged attack on Megatron and his Predacons. The Bullet Team have deduced that the next siphon is in Indonesia. Judging by the tremors and earthshakes over the entire planet, if the Tangkubanparahu volcano blows, the Earth will split open and obliterate itself.

“I will take the Bullet and Build Teams to destroy the siphon before it can block the eruption.

“The rest of you will converge on the Axalon, splitting into two teams. Wildride and Speedbreaker will join Mach Alert and rescue Sideburn. My cadets, Pitstop and Tow-Line will go with Fire Convoy to get the spark from Megatron.

“I know it spreads our forces thinly, but dividing our team is the best way we can work together.”

Fire Convoy spoke up. “Wait, Magnus. We should concentrate more of our forces to retrieve the spark.”

“But what about Sideburn?”

“The others can go after Megatron, I will rescue Sideburn myself.”

The assembled Autobots, including Ultra Magnus, looked at their leader with surprise.

“That would make more sense,” Magnus said quizzically. “But isn’t that bordering on heroism?”

Fire Convoy turned to Magnus and looked at him stoically. “Even dirty water can quench a fire.”