Prologue to Hell part two

Tarantulas was alone. The room was quiet except for the gentle hum of his cyber bugs, which were working on the up-grader.

It was finished, except for minor details, like checking screws, writing names under buttons, touching up scratches with a bit of paint. He basically could try it out. Except, he had to find a test subject first. And he knew just where to look.

“Oh Kyroid? Tarantulas here, I’ve got a little surprise for you… I think you can guess.”

He could hear the telltale clamour of metal feet come dashing down the hallway, and a moment later, Kyroid was standing by the door.

“It’s a beauty isn’t it?” Tarantulas said and patted the machine. His little cyber bugs scampered away only seconds before Kyroid came in.

“And the nice thing is, is that it not only upgrades you, it enhances you so that you are a proper transformer, with a metallic beast mode. I’ve installed quite a few on here.”

Kyroid walked over briskly and stared at the tall, sphere shaped chamber. There was a screen on the side of it with a list of animal names, and a small line drawing of each.

He looked at them with a kind of excitement in his eyes Tarantulas had never seen before. It was almost insane…

Just before Tarantulas spoke, Kyroid turned and opened the door, and stepped inside the machine.

Tarantulas scurried over to the computer consol and watched him as he hit a few keys.

He tapped away on the consol, then returned to the machine and pulled up the switch on it and punched in the chosen beast mode.

After that he transformed into beast mode and scuttled away up the wall, and hovered in the top right hand corner of the room.

The machine wobbled and vibrated, and suddenly a white light shone from the glass front of the machine.

But there was no explosion, just the sound of two or more loose screws pinging off and then a brighter white light. A few moments later, the door hissed open and smoke filled the room. Tarantulas scuttled down and transformed. He switched on the fans in the room and approached the chamber cautiously.

There stood a form, vibrating with blue flashes of energy, dead still in the smoke. Gradually it cleared and before him was the most elegant, powerful looking form he’d laid eyes on.

He was black from head to toe except for his yellow beak, which in robot mode was on his forehead, and his yellow eyes, which glowed in wild contrast. He had metallic like feathers on his shoulders, chest and hips and by his side were two majestic ebony wings. His legs were muscular as were his arms and he had a handsome face with a charming smile, but there was a treacherous look to that face as well. He had a tail of feathers coming behind him, but the most part of his back was smooth with a sphere shaped shield on it, with the symbol of the black eagle painted on in medieval style. Attached to his right leg was a long, modern looking laser gun and there were two tiny little holes inserted in his shoulders, which looked like they could be arrow shooters.

………………………………………………………………………………………….

Diamond wasn’t aware that fate was seeking her. She also wasn’t aware that she had just made a decision that would save her life and change it forever. She wasn’t aware that she was physic, that she was gifted with something someone knew about and wanted. She wasn’t aware that she was one of four pieces to a simple, but powerful puzzle. She was not aware that she had dismissed a very important psychic dream. And not being aware of these things had protected her all this time. But it has its downfall somewhere along the line.

Diamond sighed as she walked up to the departure terminal in the airport. She couldn’t believe how quickly the past two days had gone. To think this was her last moment in Nystrin before she entered Dudier to complete 16 years of hard work. She still didn’t feel ready, but she knew that if she didn’t feel ready now, she’d never be ready. Because she knew at the back of her mind, that she was as ready to fight in these duels as she’d ever be.

She stopped at the exit gate and took a last look around. The airport was bustling with bots, all entering and leaving the airport and coming and going through the gates.

She smiled sadly. She was going to miss this place. She was going to miss the training centre, all her friends, the house, the park, the trees.

She was going to miss Kyla, her bubbly friend that made her feel better no matter what. She was going to miss Rattrap and his pathetic jokes and constant teasing. And she was going to miss Cheetor, my oh my was she going to miss Cheetor…

“Hurry up Diamond! We don’t have all day!” Baytrex called from the end of the exit hallway. He was the only other one ready enough to fight, and not someone she particularly wanted to have come along with her to Dudier. But hey…

She turned and smiled at her father, who looked maybe slightly emotional. He wasn’t one to express his feelings, but at least he let some of it show from time to time. She threw her arms around him and squeezed. The final hug, the longest hug you ever give someone, yet the shortest hug you’ve ever felt. It all ends so quickly.

She held him tightly, embarrassing him, sure, but there were sacrifices he just had to make in life.

The whole trip to the airport all he went on about was how she must ‘watch this’ and ‘do that’ and moves she had practiced a hundred times over. But it was just parental worries, she knew that. Why they always think along the lines of what the worst thing was that could happen, she didn’t know. But she did know that he cared and was feeling guilty for having to miss such an important event.

And yes, it was sad, but she was doing this for herself, and she was going to do it well, no matter who was watching.

She picked up her bag and stood there, not wanting to go, but knowing she had to.

“Fight well, keep a look out for Megatron and don’t miss me. That’s all I ask.”

He hoped she would do well, for her sake, and that she wouldn’t be troubled by anything, especially recurring monsters like Megatron.

…………………………………………………………………………………….

And that was finding Kyroid and Tarantulas up-graded and enhanced. And he had to admit they looked much better. Which is why after Tarantulas had finished up everything with the machine, he and the rest of his troops got upgraded too. And he had to admit he looked much better, and felt much, much more powerful. He had a flight mode (no longer did Optimus Primal have that advantage), he had modernised weapons like his laser hand, which when tested on Blight proved very powerful, and he also had an itch free skin. No more peeling, no more scabs.

But he had an even bigger surprise today when General Pernicious turned up on his doorstep, demanding Tarantulas, Kismet and the machine. His visit was unexpected as he hadn’t contacted the General yet, but he knew that with the scanners, he could watch his every move. Which he hadn’t been, otherwise he would have known Kismet had disappeared. Which was another problem. How do you tell a General of the Predacon rebellion that you haven’t got something you promised him that he wanted very badly?

“The transmetal form looks very nice, the machine is well built and Tarantulas is here just like I asked.”

Megatron closed his eyes for a moment, letting his heart beat just that much quicker.

Megatron was torn on what to say. The truth was he drove her away in a sense, and if he lied, well, he was sure they could replay scanner/camera footage.

“She left when I told her she was to join your ranks. She said she wanted to work as an independent. I tried to stop her, but she used one of her ‘powers.’” He said, a menacing tone to his voice. It literally said ‘I found your motive.’

“She ‘burned’ out of my hands when I grabbed her. You know, suddenly too hot to touch. I couldn’t believe it myself.” He sneered.

“So she had retrieved the amulet. You’re a fool Megatron to have let her go. She is so much more than you know. She was a definite asset, finding her now would be almost impossible. But we cannot let that stop the uprising. Time is running out. I will take just these two, and you will be ready when the attack comes. Understood?”

Pernicious clapped his hands and three bots came in and hauled the machine out, and one of them had to haul Tarantulas out too, who was far from keen to go.

With that, the General turned and exited the house, leaving Megatron relieved at how easy he had gone on him, but not altogether comfortable.

…………………………………………………………………………………………..

Optimus realised that he should have left Nystrin by now to go back and complete his last few teaching days at the airbase. But he had found himself delayed time and time again as he picked up little hints and clues as to what was going on.

Like yesterday. He was in a restaurant that wasn’t very full save a little group of Predacons, when a female Maximal came in and stormed to the counter, demanding to speak to the manager. The waiter, he could see, knew her and argued irritably with her until the manager came out on his own accord. He was also Predacon, big and bulky and with a face like thunder.

“Ok Zaltex, I’ve had it with this secretive layer you’ve been holding over yourself. I want answers and now!” She screamed.

“Busy as a tree! You know something I don’t, Zaltex. How come you’re always out? Never home. How come you won’t let me come wid’ you and the boys ta places anymore, huh? Why you avoiding me?” She asked aggressively.

“Who the Pit do you think you are? Comin’ in and yelling your lungs out at me with slaggin’ accusations? Huh? Has that slag Seeara been puttin’ ideas in your head again you dense piece of work?”

“No Zaltex! It was because today I went to the clinic to check up on our baby when the nurse who had just said goodbye with a gentle smile ta a Pred couple, muttered that I shouldn’t bother because she was going to be born into certain death within the next few days anyway. She was Predacon. Now tell me what’s with that Zal? That she wishes the best of luck ta Pred parents and tells me to go slag off?”

“By Primus, women! You make such a big slaggin’ ordeal out of everything!”

It was at this stage the screaming had gotten too loud for Optimus and he left. But not without wondering about what she had said. If there was anything behind all that or if it was just pure racism. But the latter became less likely as something similar happened in a store the next day, except this time it was a wife complaining to her Predacon husband that Predacon shop owners had been treating her badly. He reacted quietly and calmly and soothingly told her everything would be fine.

There was something up, something lurking below the surface, and he intended to find out what.

………………………………………………………………………………………….

Rattrap ambled up the street to Dinobot’s place. His apartment had been completed yesterday, and he wanted to tell the good news personally to them all, but mainly, he wanted to tell Tourmaline…

The past few days had been stressful, with another murder of a Maximal two streets from his office and with three murders in one day in Relentrax. Sure there were always murders being committed, but just recently, there had been a lot more attention and hype around them. The whole of Cybertron was uptight.

But as the pale sun shone in the sky and that lazy afternoon feel settled around him, he calmed for a moment and for the first time in a while, he let his guard down just a little.

He came up to the front door of the house and rang the doorbell. He waited a little while when suddenly the door swung open and Dinobot appeared in beast mode, still his old beast mode, looking groggy and tired. He’d obviously woken the old lizard up.

“Oh, it’s you.” He snarled and walked away, leaving the door open for him.

“Eh, nice ta see you too Lizard Lips.” He muttered and walked inside. The house was cool inside and the first thing he saw was a wall as he walked straight into a short hallway. He’d never been fully inside Dinobot’s house, only outside the back or at the front door. To his right he could see the hallway opened out into a little section where a bathroom was and beside that little area was another room, a study. To the left of the small bathroom was a staircase which he suspected led up to the bedrooms. He followed Dinobot through the left hallway which opened out into a lounge and if you carried on you’d be in the kitchen, which was where the house ended. Dinobot walked straight into the kitchen and Rattrap popped his head around so catch a glimpse of what it looked like. To his dismay, it was a very nice kitchen. No matter, he’d find something wrong with the place sooner or later. He popped back into the lounge to notice Hyra, splayed across a couch, flicking through channels with the remote control.

“Oh, hi Rattrap.” She said awkwardly and returned to flicking through the channels. He smirked slightly.

“Gee, never thought I’d see a fem within three metres of Dinobutt.” He commented.

He nodded slowly and edged away. Once out of her view he rolled his eyes and walked up the steps. He noticed with interest that there were paintings on the wall, copies of art pieces by famous earth artists. Weird. He never thought Dinobot took much interest in stuff like that.

He came up to the top hallway and at the opposite ends of the short hallway were two bedrooms. One to his right, the door open as well as the blinds, and one to his left, the door closed. He guessed she would be in what was obviously Diamond’s room. There was a poster of a cheetah on the door.

“Leave her alone!” Hyra called from downstairs. He winced at the shout. Primus she had a piercing voice!

The room was about the cosiest place in the otherwise hard, cold tiled ‘home’.

The walls were decorated with posers and there were numerous ornaments and pretty little things on the shelves and tables. Dead ahead of him lay Tourmaline, lying peacefully on top of the sheets. He smiled slightly. There was a magazine on the floor next to her with its pages open on an article titled: Is body paint a bad omen?

Huh. Not like she needed any. He came up to her and sat on the bed, watching her sleep quietly. He’d seen it in the movies. Fems adored being watched while they slept. It was all very romantic having someone you care for watching you sleep. And he managed it for a while. But before long, he grew incredibly bored. He didn’t want to wake her, he just wanted to be there when she did wake.

Eventually he took a plastic ornament of a raptor from the above shelf and studied it. Diamond had a whole set of them in different poses lined up next to each other. He took another, and another, and started to juggle them. After he got tired of doing that he tried to read the body paint article, only to find that it was the biggest load of drivel and got back to playing with the plastic toys. Time dragged by slowly and he almost fell asleep waiting for her. But he was in the middle of making the jumping raptor pounce on the standing raptor when she woke up.

He got a fright and the toys went flying and scattered on the carpet. He swivelled round to see her looking up at him with surprised eyes.

“Ah shut up with the questions will ya? I cam here ta tell ya dat my apartment’s up and running and that ya can come over when ya want.” He said.

“You came all the way here to tell me that? Why didn’t you just call?” She asked.

“Uh...no.” He said desperately. He dug in his sub space pocket and pulled out two ten cyber dollar energon pizza coupons. He tossed them on the bed.

“Don’t try so hard! I like you just the way you are.” She said and sat up, toys and coupons spilling onto the floor as she did so.

“Come on, take me to your apartment and let’s see if I can add any touch ups here and there. I’ve always wanted to be an artist.”

…………………………………………………………………………………………..

Blight turned into another alley way and this time, watched where he was going. Nope, no huge pole in front of him. He continued flying down the dark and dank alley, rubbing his head absently.

The sunlight was weakening as the afternoon headed into evening, and although well armed he still felt a little nervous moving around empty looking streets so late in the day. Primus, he feared other bots like him! Murderers and thieves…

But he had a mission to complete and may the Matrix be with him if he didn’t complete this task. He had noticed with keen interest that Megatron got very annoyed around him. And he still wasn’t sure why.

He landed took another turn and expected to be out in the sunshine and into the roads but realised that he was lost as he yet again turned into another alley way. Damn. He hated city mazes. After much cursing and swearing, he found his way out to the roads, except it was the light of street lamps that greeted him, not sunshine. For it was already night by the time he had found his way. The streets were quiet and empty, yet he still travelled carefully and hid among the shadows as he headed toward the building of his assignment….

He finally arrived at his destination. The security house where all the cameras that we fixed on to walls and poles in the city linked up to. It was here where thousands of screens were littered across the walls and over 100 staff watched then hourly. High tech security, electric fences, cameras, auto guns…

The panther bot slipped through the shadows, undetected. Not only was he cloaked with invisibility devices, he was also in an organic form, which the scanners didn’t pick up on this world of metal and wire.

He approached the gate with a snarl and eyed it over. Blue flashes of electric charges rippled through its thin but stiff wires.

Pity he couldn’t fly higher. He had to fly at a certain level for there was one set of organic sensors on top of a building not far from here that was still functional and scanned the whole city at night for flyers. It had recently been put up in search of Megatron, but yesterday the lower street scanners had been disabled by one of their troops and had not yet been fixed, making it easier for him to move through the streets, but flying low.

The fence was not more than 15 feet high and he glided over with ease. He landed lightly on the cold ground below and sniffed the air. A robo patrol moved past him without even noticing him and Blight shook his head slightly. This was too easy.

He padded softly to the heavily bolted door. There was a card key lock as well as a code. Tricky, but manageable. He let his bat hand open and a little bomb fell to the floor. He picked it up clumsily in his mouth and dropped it by the door. Now he had to program it with his claws. Ok, not a piece of cake…

“No, we want to see the enemy. We want control of it. ‘Sides, the city is being de-maximalfied tonight and we want to make sure things stay in order.” He whispered.

“De-maximalfied? Oh please. You’re going to blow up the entire city. All the cameras on buildings and poles are going to be destroyed. There will be nothing to see.”

“Well, we want to nab control of it now so that we don’t have suspicious security guards breathing down our necks before the city is properly rigged!” He exclaimed in a sharp whisper.

“If I help you, destroy those Maximal guards, then will you help me find someone?” He turned his head to one side.

“Oh? And why can’t you find them? From what I’ve learned, you have magical powers.” He commented.

She sighed and looked around. A patrol guard rolled past and once he was far away enough, she continued.

“Ah yes, I do have, ahem, some kind of magic. But whom I seek needs to be found quickly, and as it so happens, Megatron is after this person too. But, I can’t go back to Megatron, the scoundrel. In actual fact, I need to find four people, and if you keep your eyes peeled for one of them it will take a load off my back.” She explained.

She handed him a photo of a fem bot he instantly recognised as the one who was partly responsible for Switchblade’s death, and who Megatron was after. Except no one knew where she was. She, it seemed, was no longer in Nystrin and for now, the mission had been called off. They had bigger fish to fry.

“A matter beyond your intelligence. Now, do you really want to go through the gruelling process of getting inside only to find that they have heat detectors in the building and that the moment you walk in, your will be fired upon. The others who work here have a special signature that prevents them from being fired upon, but you, despite being invisible, will still be attacked. And if you do make it put alive, I don’t think Meggie two minus IQ will be too please. So, what say you?”

Blight silently processed the information knowing she was treacherous and that it could very well be a lie. But he was not going to take a chance and decided to let her do what she had planned.

“I say…I will try find she you seek, but I will need a means of contacting you, and I would like something else…”

He was silent and she expected the favour to be downright awful coming from him. But Blight was stupid.

“I want you to blow up the organics scanner so I can fly home. I hate being so close to the ground at this time of night.” He said, nervously looking about.

And with that she disappeared and he was left standing alone in the cold wind, confused.

Suddenly screams could be heard from inside, blood curling shrieks of terror. But they were short and seconds later there was a deathly silence. The door ahead of him silently clicked open and warm light poured in from inside. He waited, scared slagless, wondering worriedly what terrible fates she had bestowed upon them.

The air leaking out from the building was beckoningly warm and he was about to step inside when a frosty wind wisped past him. He suddenly felt a hand on his back and his fur stood on end. He spun around with a snarl and looked up to see kismet touching her cheeks gently.

“I’ve done my bit and may the Matrix be with you if you don’t do yours.”

He stepped inside to see the door opened down the hallway where bodies of lay scattered, charred masses of scrap lying cold on the floor. A violent contrast to the flickering lights from the TV screens that littered the walls.

…………………………………………………………………………………………..

It wasn’t late, but he was tired. He had been staring at that computer screen all day, trying to figure out what was causing the glitch on his latest computer game.

“Haaah. There’s always something.” He muttered and switched off the light in the computer room. But as he switched it off, he caught a glimpse of a flashing red light just outside the computer room window.

It was dark outside with the streets alight with poorly lit lamps. But not dim enough to prevent him from seeing a dark figure, dashing into the street and running quickly up it. He frowned and wondered what that bot was doing outside his window at this time of night.

And then it struck him that it could be someone related to Megatron, spying on him

He turned and quickly ran to the phone in the hope that he could warn the others.

But Cheetor was too late. He was on the right track about the figure being involved with Megatron, but what that figure was doing was a totally different story…

…………………………………………………………………………………………..

There were just two days left before she fought in the international Young War Trainee Duels, and here she was, staying over in a hotel with a girl called Scarlet for a room mate, sitting over a table playing poker.

Not something she would really want to be doing two days before the choice of her life, but there was no arena in a hotel.

And Scarlet felt pretty much the same way. She was also going to be fighting in the duels, and so were pretty much all the bots staying in the hotel. This was their accommodation. The actual arena wasn’t far, but they weren’t allowed to go there to see the set up. No one was allowed any advantages of knowing where certain objects were and so forth.

It was late morning on this side of the world, and both found themselves at a loss of what to do. She’d made good friends with Scarlet; they had a lot in common, excluding being female war trainees. She was a friendly, particularly pretty fem who more than often made her laugh with funny little jokes, reminding her a lot of Kyla.

“So, you wanna go down the games arena? Maybe we could fight each other on the virtual boxing ring. It’s good practice.” Scarlet said as she put down her winning hand. She’d beaten her again!

They both left the hotel room and notified the manager of the duels that they were off to the games arena and that they’d be back by lunchtime. There was only so much boxing you could do.

But on the way there, while they walked, Diamond discovered something about good-natured scarlet that left her a little confused.

“Nystrin. I live there with my dad. He owns the arena we were originally going to fight on.”

“Really? That’s fantastic! I wish my dad owned an arena, then I could practice whenever I wanted.”

Then Diamond asked her a question that she never knew she’d ask, as it really didn’t matter. But the question just slipped out, as if she had no control of it.

…………………………………………………………………………………………..

The plan was flawless. He’d gone over it a thousand times, there couldn’t possibly be anything that could go wrong.

Megatron drove into the city with five thieves and killers, playing cars in the back seat. The car belonged to Sting’s sister, and was rather small, so fitting them all in had been quite a task. But he had a cloaking device over it, so that the stupid Maximal police wouldn’t pull him over for crowing. It was such a handy device that had only recently been developed, by Predacons. And they hadn’t shared it with the Maximals yet, which worked very much to their advantage. Finally he pulled over to an area where there were lots of houses and shops. And stopped the cyber car.

“Have you all got your weapons?” He asked, although he couldn’t see whom he was talking to.

“Just hold it boss, I’m on a run here.” Said Blight, shuffling his cards so that he could hear.

Blight dropped his cards irritably and yanked out his gun from under Asphyxiate, he could tell by the painful gasp the Predacon let out.

“Then put down your cards and get out there and cause havoc. It’s time to give the Maximals a little surprise they didn’t bargain on.”

“Wait a second. When we’re finished tearing up the place, how are we going to find the car if we can’t see it?” Kyroid asked.

I told you, I will uncloak just the headlights for a few seconds so you can see where I am. But be quick, we don’t want all the Maximals knowing where we are.”

“Hah ha! This is going to be fun.” He chuckled and a moment later, there were shots ripping through the air.

He knew at that moment the city was being rigged with explosives, and that they had only two hours in which to do this, keep the police busy, and then scram out at the last minute. Very stressful, but quite refreshing at the same time.

“Just two hours before the world crumbles.” He muttered, and watched the windows shatter in the homes around him.

.………………………………………………………………………………………….

Dinobot settled down in front of the television and turned it off. Quite frankly, he though this to be the best channel. The air was silent except for Hyra polishing up the kitchen and dropping plates into the clean bar. He had to admit she had earned her keep around here. It was strange without Diamond. The house seemed so empty. It was hard to believe that 16 years had gone so quickly. He still remembered the day he found her, cold and afraid. And now, she was a beautiful person and someone he loved more than anything. And to suddenly be without her proved more of a shock than he expected.

He gazed at the wall, dotted with the occasional picture Tourmaline had put up. The lounge was now decorated with human art works. A few he recognised and he did appreciate the art. Art had never been a big thing on Cybertron; things had always been done on computers or machines. But what amazed him was a human could make a beautiful bowl from a lump of clay with his skilled hands, and a painter could change a white piece of material into something beautiful and appealing to the eyes. He sat there, slowly drifting to sleep as he entered the painter’s dreamy world. But the scary thing was, and he did recall it later, was that the very last painting he saw was that of Salvador Dali, The Persistence of Memory.

With the clocks drooped over the branches of a dead tree.

…………………………………………………………………………………………..

Harine shifted to her right as she sat on the hill called Firex, watching the dazzling display of fireworks in the distance. From up here, you could see the whole of Nystrin. It was a lovely spot, about a mile from Nystrin itself. Behind her, Dalstal munched energon bites happily.

“You know,” She began. “Fireworks are a tradition that has been used on both Cybertron and Earth. The humans only invented it fairly recently, and they use it for celebrations and things. I heard they celebrate this one day every year which is based on a guy getting burned alive on a stake after trying to blow up a house of parliament. Lovely hey?”

Dalstal nodded nonchalantly and dug into another packet of energon bites. He then looked up and stared at the city, suddenly munching very slowly, his eyes widening just a little. Harine turned to face the city again and saw ahead of her a bright flash of light, followed by smoke erupting from a section in the city.

“Oh Primus! That’s an explosion! Dalstal, give me the key to your cyber car.”

“Dalstal, there’s been an explosion. And where there’s and explosion, there is commotion, and where there is commotion there is police and reporter, who go hand in hand. Give the keys and let’s go!”

“I could leave you here and pick you up the next morning.” She offered in a rush.

Dalstal got up and walked over slowly, crunching on energon bites and sighing.

…………………………………………………………………………………………

Megatron felt his car shudder and he looked around warily. The ground shuddered and the night sky flashed light blue for a few moments. Then it dulled at there was silence. The first explosion sounded off the rest, which meant it was time to move.

The buildings around him were shattered and wrecked, and a few lifeless bodies were scattered in the street, gruesomely rendered and torn. The police that had arrived had been lost and confused as to where the source of the firepower had come from. But now they were all dead, lying shredded on the floor, still wearing that look of absolute shock that could haunt you forever. But not this bunch of terrorists, oh no…

But now the party was over for his wild group of killers and he quickly turned on the headlights and hooted noisily.

They all looked up, some scampered out of buildings with blood dripping from their hands and rushed over to the car. It became visible for a few seconds and they all leapt in through the open door. They piled up on top of each other and Megatron snarled viciously.

“Good, then let’s go! Unless you want to stay and get blown to pieces.” He growled.

“No thanks, maybe another time.” Blight called and Megatron started up the car and shot out at mach 2, leaving the city to its terrible fate.

And as he did so, he smiled a smile that was just as cruel and insane as the rest of them.

…………………………………………………………………………………………

Rattrap narrowed his optics in thought. It had been a while since he’d done this, and he was out of practice. His opposition was stiff, and he feared that for the first time in years he was going to lose.

“Come on Rattrap, make your move!” Tourmaline exclaimed and lay back in her chair.

Cyber chess was very similar to the human chess game. The humans had in fact introduced it to them; they had only modified it slightly.

After much thought, he moved his Lieutenant (the equivalent to a bishop) two squares up and took out a soldier (pawn) of Tourmaline’s.

She smiled a touch vindictively and suddenly took a Colonel (knight) out. It was getting uncomfortably close to his main pieces (the president and his deputy) and there was no one around to take him out.

He moved a soldier. She grinned victoriously and dragged a lieutenant across the board and took out the deputy.

“Wha?! Where’d that come from? I checked dis board three times, no way dere was a lieutenant dere!” He cried.

He stared down hopelessly at the board. Two places for his President to go. Neither very good, nor protective.

Tourmaline would have shut her optics and fallen asleep right then and there. But she had a different idea on how to pass the time.

“Trilan’s place. He’s a pal from work. A real serious dude, but a nice guy. Not ta be men to da guy, but I’m glad being back at my own place with my own things, well, the stuff dat wasn’t burnt to a crisp. It’s amazing how quick cyber builders can work. Five days and da place is as good as new. Course I got da best insurance too, da two should go hand in hand.”

“If only they could repair whole cities at that rate, then Relentrax wouldn’t look as shabby as it is.” She remarked.

“Yeah,” He muttered. “And Hashlyn too. Dat city was still suffering after effects from da Great War, never mind da Gitrix one.”

“Only because you played like a hedgehog. Slow to move across the road, but not thinking as you do so and getting run over in the process.”

Suddenly there was a bang and the table lifted, sending chess pieces flying into the air. The room vibrated and the windows shook, threatening to shatter.

“What was that?” She muttered. Another rumble and a few glasses fell from the shelves.

She darted across the room and looked outside. The streets were dark and littered with broken glass and the buildings up the street were hidden behind huge dust clouds. She caught a flicker of light dead ahead of her and it was then she saw the tell tale red lights in the form of tiny digits at the bottom of the building opposite.

It was then the digits all froze at what looked like six noughts and a moment later her world exploded.

………………………………………………………………………………………….

Nystrin was considered small by Cybertronian standards. But by human standards, it was huge. So when the explosion went off on one half of the city, the other half only felt it as a shudder and heard a distant rumble. They would be fine, the worst experience being a glass falling off the edge of a table, or being awoken from a light sleep, but other than that, they were not yet affected.

…………………………………………………………………………………………..

Dinobot gradually left the depths of sleep and woke up, although he kept his eyes shut. He had been dreaming something, but it was nothing but a fading blur of images and sounds and he immediately shrugged it off and tried to fall asleep again. But as he tried he was disturbed by a distant rumble and suddenly he felt as if he was falling. He thought for a moment he was dreaming again, a falling dream. But this was soon violently proved false.

His world blackened and his body trembled from the blow. Gradually the blackness, accompanied by a heavy chest pain, became grey and he could begin to see objects, tables, chairs and doorframes. He sat up groggily and realised he’d fallen off the chair he’d dozed off in and that the lights had exploded and the glasses had fallen from the shelves and cabinets, hence there being a shimmering carpet of glass all around him.

The whole room was trembling violently and there was the booming of explosions outside as well as the eerie wailing of fire sirens.

Flashes of light flickered through the shattered window and he looked about confusedly.

What had happened? The trembling continued in a series of short rumbles and the sound of thunder grew ever louder. He stood up and crunched through the glass, and stuck his head out the window. And what he saw next shocked to his core. Just in view, at the end of the street he watched a building implode, thick dust rising up around it. But what scared him even more was that a few moments later, the building next to it and closer to him EXPLODED. And on the other side of the street the same thing happened. Buildings were crumbling like a row of dominoes. One by one.

He watched, rooted to the spot in absolute horror and from somewhere in the house he heard Hyra yell: “What the hell?!”

But instinct and adrenaline soon took over and he dashed back into the house, and grabbed whatever he could, alerting Hyra in the process, who had already gotten up, panic-stricken. He grabbed his sword, his keys, his laptop, his record disk and a box of energon. But that was all he dared to spend time on, and a moment later, he and Hyra dashed out the door. As he leapt down the stairs, objects under his arms, the building three houses away imploded, causing the ground to shake and making him almost stumble.

“By the infernal pit!” He snarled and turned and sprinted up to the side of the house, and clumsily inserted the cyber key into the garage. The lid opened and he inserted the key again into his car, with moments to spare. Chucking various objects into the back seat he scrambled in with Hyra literally throwing herself on top of him. He pushed her to the side to he could see, reversed and shot away from the crumbling valley of chaos behind.

…………………………………………………………………………………………..

From a distance, on a lovely little hill called Firex, he stood and watched a spectacular sight of bright lights and multiple colours.

But the light was from explosions, and the colours were that of the scarlet red sirens and the blue warning lights that shot hopelessly throughout the erupting city.

And out of the 2 million terrified citizens on this little blot on the map that scrambled through rubble and blood in a frantic attempt to prolong their paltry existences… he was sure he was the only one smiling.

Pernicious turned to face his tired troops and a mass of frightened but sickly relieved Predacons that had been evacuated from the city. He smiled crazily and summoned Megatron, General Cleaver and Lieutenant Traxline to his side.

And Megatron looked up into the eyes of an even more insane ambitious leader than himself a listened with untrained ears to a line that officially declared this reality.

…………………………………………………………………………………………..

Click here to read the series that follows on from the After Earth series - The Uprising Series

If you are having trouble remembering all the characters I have created, then click here for a mini summary of each one.