Chapter 1

Maximum Magnum awoke to pain and flowers.

"What happened?" He murmured as his hands passed over the delicate flowers his that were spared from the crushing weight of his metal body. He finally opened his lone optical sensor, and saw Restore's face above him, looking somewhat worried.

"Good, you're functioning." She started, "That crash sure shook you around." Magnum began to speak but paused, briefly remembering their shuttle getting hit by something and plummeting through the atmosphere, the side tearing off, and getting violently yanked out into the slipstream. Apparently, he thought, there was some sort of planetary defense system in place, but then again…

He sat up, pain shooting through his side. "I suppose the shuttle is repaired?" he asked. Restore nodded, and looked to her left. Nearly a kilometer away, a thin wall of smoke concealed the damaged--but functional-- LONAC shuttle. He scowled, seeing how far away he had fallen from it. He could hardly make out the bodies Lightning, and Patchwork. All four of them had all been dispatched from the Freedom to investigate strange psionic signals coming from the area of the planet they currently occupied. However, all Magnum could see was rolling hills and flowers, no signs of civilization. Then, something caught his one working optic on the horizon, quickly moving towards him and Restore…

"Get down!" he yelled, springing into action and shoving Restore out of the way of the crimson beam of energy fired from the object. Despite the pain, he stood and drew one of his photon pistols. After running a quick internal-diagnostic, he concluded that the damage in his left side would not inhibit him in what was sure to be a short exchange. To his right, Restore was signaling the rest of the away party.

Magnum tightened his grip on his weapon, ready for the rapidly approaching tank-like robot. Thirty more seconds, his internal combat computer told him, and it would be within firing range. With one thumb, he pulled back a small lever on the butt of the gun, charging the weapon to full power. He could get one, maybe two shots out of the weapon now. Hopefully, that would disable the tank. In one corner of his view, a tiny red light quickly flashed, signaling the tank was in range. In a flash he dropped to a firing position, his arm pointed towards the tank and his finger squeezed the trigger, sending a thin fluorescent bolt of superheated light straight through the body of the tank. The beam didn’t simply take a chunk out of the craft: it vaporized a hole right through it, creating a vacuum that abruptly sucked the air in the immediate area into itself, filling the gap. As the air crashed into the vacuum, the rest of the tank's body structure was buffeted from all sides, dramatically damaging its superstructure. Thick black smoke erupted from somewhere inside the tank, and Magnum lowered his weapon.

"Er, nice shot…" Restore said, looking up from her comlink. "Patchwork and the rest are on their way now." As if on cue, Patchwork gave an enthusiastic "Yee-haw!" as he soared overhead and released a pair of missiles towards the already damaged tank. Magnum considered adding his firepower to Patchwork's, but he decided it was unnecessary when the two Air-to-Ground missiles drove into the tank and ripped it apart from the inside.

Chapter 2

Patchwork smiled at his handiwork. To his right, and slightly above him, Restore looked over the remains of the heavily armed tank.

"Sure is ugly, for a transformer." He quipped.

"I don’t think it’s a transformer, Patchwork." Restore replied. "It doesn’t have any circuitry that advanced, nor does it have any transformation mechanics. It's just a tank."

"Looks like some sort of anti-air missile tank," Lightning added, "Judging by those," He pointed to the two still-intact missile launchers--the tanks most prominent feature. "Probably the one that shot us down."

"I'm not too sure," Magnum said "Missiles of these size, even if they were SAM's, wouldn’t have blown a hole in the Frei."

"Well, what then?" Patchwork replied, "Orbital defense system, some sort of laser?"

"I couldn’t tell."

"I think," said Lightning, "That we would do good to return to the Freedom." He grumbled at the prospect of returning so soon.

"Yes, there appears to be nothing here we can find." Restore cut in; "Obviously the natives don’t want us here." She tapped her arm-mounted comlink and was immediately connected to the Freedom.

"Freedom here," came Cirrus' chipper voice "What can we do for ya, away team?"

"Ran into the natives, we think. We're going to head back up."

"Roger that, away team." Cirrus answered. "We'll be waiting up here with some nice warm apple pie and a cup of joe." He added after a moment's pause. Restore answered with a grin before cutting the link.

Once the away team had returned to the Freedom and had been debriefed, they were free to roam the ship again. Magnum, currently, was in the sickbay, recovering from his wounds.

"Overdose," he snapped at the flamboyant doctor, "I'm in enough pain as it is without you messing up my insides."

"Oh? So the great Magnum has a sense of humor!" Overdose sarcastically replied.

"I didn’t come here… for your stupid jokes. Just fix the motivator and let me leave."

"Yeah, you bet." Overdose chuckled. Minutes later, he closed up a panel on Magnums side and told him to stand. "Okay, you're all patched up." Without saying anything, Magnum stood and left. As far as he was concerned, Overdose failed spectacularly as a doctor, compared to Lifeblood or Restore; His head still ached.

When Magnum finally reached his quarters, he had quite a bit of overcharged energon running through his system, results of several hours spent in his usual corner in the Neutral Grounds bar. He closed and locked the door behind him and collapsed on his recharge bunk. Within minutes he was deep in recharge mode, his systems absorbing the low amounts of energy flowing from the bunk. He began to twitch.

***

A bell chimed in Magnums head, and he found himself standing on a beach with no end in sight. Stars shone brightly overhead, and everything seemed to have a bluish aura to it. The palm trees several feet away waved in the slight, cool breeze coming from nowhere in particular.

"I will grant you…" a soothing female voice chimed from behind him "peace of mind…" Magnum both wanted to turn around and to stay put at the same time.

"I will grant you peace of mind…" the woman's voice called out again, in synch with the constant bells.

"What's going on?" He called out, even though he expected no reply. Once again, the female voice repeated, both inside his head and from behind him at the same time. Sweat dripped down his brow. Sweat?!

***

Magnum's optics flew open. A dream? Impossible--he didn’t dream. But… what was that? Magnum forced the thoughts to the back of his mind and sat up. A quick check of the chronometer: it was nearly the middle of the ship-wide recharge time. He groaned and was about to return to recharge mode when a sense of dread rose up from deep inside him. He was afraid of going back to recharge, or of the dream? He spent the next several hours stitching a new layer of his cloak.

Slowly, the months passed as the Freedom sailed the stars. To most of her crew, it seemed as if it was a 'down time', akin to summer vacation on Earth. Events came and went, never really disturbing the crew. Waitstate, sitting alone in the bridge, decided that it was time for a change. He shuffled over to a nearby console and called up several star-charts of the local area. Using a small pen-like device, he located his ships' position and the nearest space station. He let out a sigh--the station was compactly deserted of all life. Suddenly, he had an idea. He set the star-charts aside for a moment and called up a series of galactic derelict laws on space stations. He skimmed through them, hoping that LONAC would be able to gather some essential materials from the station for cheap. There was probably laws against something like that, but the station was in the middle of nowhere, hundreds of light-years away from any sort of civilization. Finally, Waitstate had found their destination.

Chapter 4

Interrogator, detective, and negotiator: the Stranger was all these and more. He was a transformer of many faces and names, but only a scant few throughout the universe knew his true name. His allegiance was to the highest bidder, and currently the highest bidder was the Decepticons. Namely, a Decepticon named Soviet.

"So when do you think you'll be back?" Waitstate asked, via his comlink.

"Oh, should be back at the Freedom in less than half a megacycle," Slipstream answered Waitstate over the comm. "You guys want me t'pick up anything while I'm on the station?"

"No, thanks anyway, Slip. We'll see you in about half a megacycle then. Have fun."

"Will do. See y'later, Wait." Slipstream shut off her Comm and glanced around the enormous station the Freedom had docked at several days earlier, then started wandering towards where the Freedom was docked. It had been to LONACs suprise that, when they docked, they had found there was a small community of traders who had already taken up shop on the direect space station. It would have only taken her a couple of minutes to fly to the Freedom, but Slip wanted to do a bit of looking around. She wouldn't have been so casual about it however, if she'd known she was being followed.

"Are you sure she's part of LONAC?" the white seeker asked quietly, watching the tall black femme wander casually around the station from his position on top of a building.

"Of course I am, Decepticon." The Stranger snapped back at the white seeker. He was the best in his business, and he hated being doubted.

Winter nodded. "All right then. Fuse, Shotlock, get into position. It's time we found out a little more about the League of Non-Aligned Cybertronians..."

Magnum stumbled absently down the corridor, unsure of his next move. He had an old friend to talk to, but on the other hand…. He wandered up to a rather avian creature that appeared to be selling weapons.

"Show me," he stated. Without saying a word, the alien, far shorter than Magnum, lifted up a piece of the bulkhead and revealed a respectable complement of guns. Magnum quickly looked over them, then turned to the creature, "Thirty caliber?" He asked. Again, the creature silently revealed a cache of weapons. He carefully picked up a large, fearsome blaster. It was adorned with blood stains and holes. Magnum frowned; the weapon was in awful condition. He shook his head, and shoved the avian aside. It let out a squawk and grabbed onto Magnum's leg, begging. He quickly considered using his new favorite weapon, a modified rail gun, to simply vaporize the pathetic creature, but decided against it just as quickly. He grabbed the bird-creature by its scruffy neck and tossed it aside into a pile of trash. As he left, a sudden twang of pain shot through his skull. He winced and clutched his head as a strange, alien voice screamed through his mind. In the intense pain, he couldn’t understand what it was saying. The pain stopped just as quickly as it had come, leaving a very confused Maximum Magnum. Whatever that was, he was sure it had something to do with the 'dreams' he had been having of late. Magnum decided it was time to meet up with an old friend.

Slipstream looked up from the storefront she'd been eyeing and frowned slightly. It had suddenly gone quiet, the few bots that had been on the street with her nowhere in sight. She looked around, but didn't see anything that could be the cause of everyone suddenly leaving. Or taking cover... she thought to herself warily, and started back towards the Freedom at a slightly faster pace. Sure, everyone might have just decided to go home; it was kind of late, after all, but something didn't seem quite right, and Slipstream hadn't survived this long by being careless. She briefly debated switching to her alternate mode and flying the rest of the way to the Freedom, but the buildings here were too close together to fit her starship mode's 13-meter wingspan.

"Need to get somewhere more open..." She turned a corner, and was suddenly startled to a halt by a white and ice blue seeker appearing in front of her. "What the-" Without warning, another more seeker dropped from the rooftops above and knocked the femme to the ground. A harsh blow to the head suddenly made her whole world go dark, and she slumped down, unconscious.

"--And I'm telling you, we should kill her now!" The sound of voices slowly brought Slipstream back to consciousness, but she made no outward signs of it, instead listening to the heated debate that seemed to be going on outside the room she was in. Energy binders fastened her wrists and ankles to the wall, and at the moment she seemed to be the only one actually in the small room.

"That won't be necessary, Crosscut," a cold, emotionless voice answered calmly. "Soviet wants us to find out as much as possible about LONAC, and he gave me the job of finding the best way to do it. Which just happens to be this way."

"With any other member of LONAC, sure, but not her!" Slipstream identified this voice as the one belonging to the seeker she'd fought and defeated several times before, and finally had a name to go with the face.

"And why not? Is she the one who defeated you so roundly before? Don't tell me you fear this femme..."

"No!" Crosscut seethed, "I just know her."

"Oh really?"

Crosscut signed and gave in, "I've been trying to kill her for the past I don't know how many stellar cycles, and I'm telling you, it's not safe to keep her alive." Slipstream heard Crosscut sigh in exasperation, and smirked slightly to herself as she continued to listen. "Given half a chance, she'll escape and warn LONAC that we're here. We can't afford to take that risk."

"Don't assume to tell me what risks we can or can't take, Crosscut," the other voice replied even more coldly. "Don't forget who's in charge here."

Crosscut sighed again. "Well, at least move her to the Nimitz, Winter. Her LONAC friends won't be able to find her there."

"Can't do that," Winter sharply cut the other off. "It's too far from the station, we might be detected on the way. At least here there's no chance of scanners picking anything up from all the other signals around."

"You're making a mistake, Winter," Crosscut said flatly. "Mark my words."

"Maybe after we've gotten the information we need, Soviet will let you kill her," Winter replied casually, the sound of footsteps gradually fading indicating to Slip that the two were moving away from the room. She thought through her situation quickly. Okay, I'm with a bunch of bots that obviously have something against LONAC... but at least I'm still on the station. Gotta warn the others somehow... Slip didn't move, but her shoulder compartment opened and released her spiderbot. Scrabble sat on her shoulder and beeped quietly, and Slipstream quickly hushed it.

"Quiet, Scrabble," she whispered. The sound of footsteps approaching the room again urged her to tell Scrabble, "Find somewhere in here to hide for now, and stay there, okay? Hurry." Scrabble jumped off her shoulder and scuttled into an air vent in the wall, just as Winter and a green seeker entered the room. Slipstream didn't react to their presence, still pretending to be unconscious.

"Fuse, wake her," Winter ordered, and the green seeker walked up to the restrained Slipstream and slapped her across the face. Slipstream's optics flashed on, and she glared venomously at Fuse.

"I do beg your pardon for the rude awakening," Winter told her casually, his arms folded across his chestplate as he watched Slip carefully. Slip just turned her glare towards him, and briefly wished she had eyelasers installed.

"What d'ya freakers want?" she growled, pulling slightly at the energy binders holding her wrists to the wall.

"Want? Information, of course," Winter replied with a slight smirk. "Information about LONAC, specifically."

"And what makes ya think I've got any info, or even if I'll give it to ya?" Slip paused, then added casually, "Rustbucket."

Winter snarled slightly at the insult, but kept his temper in check for now. "We know you're a part of LONAC, so don't bother trying to deny it. Anything you can tell us about them will help. As for whether or not you'll share that information, I have ways to... persuade you." He turned to the green seeker still standing near Slipstream. "Fuse, if you will?"

Fuse emotionlessly brought out a large, ominous-looking cannon and fiddled with the settings for a moment before aiming it point-blank at Slipstream and pulling the trigger. She gasped in pain as a stream of electricity lanced out and hit her chestplate, flowing through her structure and setting all her pain receptors afire. The electricity flow stopped after a second or two, but left Slipstream's body tingling painfully.

"That was a mere taste of what you'll have to endure if you don't tell me what I want to know." Winter smirked cruelly, but Slipstream just glared at him, ignoring the lingering effects of the jolt.

"So, we'll get down to business." Winter started pacing the small room, keeping his optics on Slipstream at all times as he fired questions at her.

"How many members of LONAC are there?" When she hesitated, Winter nodded at Fuse, and Slipstream was once again jolted by electricity. She was ready for it this time, and blocked out the pain as best she could, glaring defiantly at the white and blue seeker the whole time.

Winter frowned. "I'll ask again. Don't make me have Fuse turn up the voltage on his little toy there. How many are in LONAC?"

"I don't know," Slip replied sharply.

"Not a good enough answer, I'm afraid." Another nod, and once again Fuse pulled the trigger of his electrogun. He refused to meet Slipstream's optics with his own though, almost as if ashamed of what he was being commanded to do. Not that Slipstream really noticed at the time. She was too busy trying to ignore the sharp effect the electricity was having on her.

"I'm telling you, I don't know," she snarled, optics narrowed to mere blue slits. "It changes all the time, and I haven't even met a lot of the crew yet." No harm in telling him stuff like that, she thought to herself. And if it'll keep him from turning up the power on that zapper, all the better.

Winter paused his pacing and seemed to consider a moment. "No matter. We shall move on to more important things. Like what the Freedom's weapon and shield capability is."

Slipstream chuckled insultingly. "Like I'd know that? Not that I'd tell ya, even if I did. Which I don't. So no point--" She was cut off mid-sentence as Winter nodded to Fuse again, and she clamped her jaw shut against the agony of the electrical blast.

"Wrong answer," Winter said pleasantly, enjoying the pain he saw in the black femme's expression. "Let's try that again, shall we?"

"Let's not," Slip replied rudely. "Was never in a position t'know 'bout that stuff, so why don't ya just go shove it up yer tailpipe, tinbrain?" She braced herself against the expected jolt of electricity, and wasn't disappointed as Winter snarled slightly and signaled Fuse.

"You will tell me, insolent one. By the time I've finished with you, you'll be begging to tell me anything and everything you've ever known. And I'll enjoy every moment of your agony!"

Magnum wandered lazily into the ally way, carefully watching every shadow. He only had one optic, but his radar and ultraviolet senses were beyond the norm. Above him, the massive series of lighting veins that wound their way through the stations spacious roofing were doing their best to penetrate between the tall buildings, flickering on and off. Unfortunatly, they weren't nearly enough in this sector of the station. His flexisteel cloak--made from thousands of tiny energy-absorbing wires stitched together into what was both an excellent defensive shield and, according to some, a fashion statement--fluttered around his body as he ducked between two large crates; a lone transformer slowly walked into the ally. The transformer was mostly a blue color, with green and yellow scattered about. One of his short, stubby arms ended in a large boxlike structure with two holes. His other arm terminated in a regular hand, with a strange, sliding structure mounted around it. His size offered up quite an imposing appearance.

"The sun is shining." He whispered just loudly enough for the second mechanoid to hear him.

"But…" the other robot said in an equally quiet voice, "The ice is still slippery." Several moments passed, before he continued. "Magnum, we really have no need for such codes anymore. Show yourself." With that, Magnum stepped out from behind the crate and looked the Stranger directly in the optics.

"I require your assistance."

Chapter 6

Slipstream snorted derisively and fought down the pain from the last couple of blasts. "Hardly. Y'may call yerself Winter, but your nothin' but a mild summer breeze. All hot air."

Fuse winced; anticipating Winter's rage and backing a step or two away from the femme fastened to the wall. The blue-white seeker snarled inarticulately and stepped forwards, backhanding Slipstream hard across the face.

"Your continued insolence is astounding, given your situation," he growled, glaring at the still-defiant Slipstream.

"Your bad breath is even more astounding," she replied quickly, feeling her jaw pop back into place after Winter's backhand. As long as this nutcase is getting too mad t'ask questions, I won't be forced into telling him anything about LONAC...Winter backhanded her again, then readied his forearm-mounted cannon and fired it at her, not bothering to aim. The blast hit her shoulder armour, instantly freezing it brittle. Slipstream winced slightly at the sudden cold, and Winter smirked evilly. With a blow, he shattered the frozen armor, exposing the vulnerable shoulder joint, and Slipstream winced again, then tried to hide it by glaring at the white seeker.

"Now, before I decide to freeze the rest of you and shatter it to pieces, tell me what the battle-readiness of the Freedom's crew is," Winter hissed, his optics narrowed as he eyed Slipstream and waited impatiently for her response. He didn't have to wait long though. Slipstream rolled her optics in exasperation and bitingly remarked, "Y'just don't get it, do ya? I ain't gonna tell ya anything useful, bolts for brains. Live with it." Winter's growing rage at her insults and stubbornness finally started to get the better of him, and violently smashed his fist into Slipstream's stomach. She would have doubled over if it weren't for the energy bonds holding her to the wall.

"You will submit, and you will tell me what I want to know!" With every word Winter's voice grew louder, until he was nearly screaming at Slipstream. "Now tell me this! I don't believe for a second that LONAC's all just about being neutral! What are LONAC's ulterior motives?!"

Slipstream looked oddly at Winter, genuinely puzzled. "Ulterior motives? LONAC doesn't have any ulterior moti--" Winter grabbed the electrogun from Fuse's hands and turned the power setting to maximum, then shoved it into Slipstream's stomach and held down the trigger. The earlier pain was nothing compared to the sheer agony that ripped through Slipstream now, smashing through the barriers that had blocked out most the earlier torture. Her face contorted in torment as she gritted her teeth together to keep Winter from having the satisfaction of hearing her scream. She almost totally blacked out several times, but her stubbornness kicked into overdrive and kept her online, not wanting to show any weakness to the white seeker.

"You lie! There must be some ulterior motive you're all aiming for! Galactic conquest, power, wealth, what?!"

Slipstream did her best to block the agony out and shake off the darkness that lurked on the edges of her consciousness.

"I'm... tellin' ya... we don't have... any ulterior motives..." Winter's rage and paranoia wouldn't let him believe that however, and he screamed angrily at Slipstream. "Tell me!! Or I swear the pain you've been through so far will be nothing compared to what you'll experience next!!" He jabbed the electrogun into her stomach and squeezed the trigger again, while Fuse looked away, slightly sickened. Slipstream fought back the tide of darkness threatening to overwhelm her again and summoned up the strength to growl a reply.

"I don't know... what you're talkin' about... y'psycho-demented lunatic... but I'm tellin' y'now... takin' on LONAC is the biggest mistake you'll ever make..." Winter smashed his fist into Slipstream's exposed shoulder joint, and her whole arm went limp, rendering it completely useless.

"I don't make mistakes," Winter snarled tightly. He was suddenly interrupted by Shotlock's voice at the door of the room.

"Hate to interrupt, Blueboy, but Soviet's on the main comm. Says he wants to speak with you pronto." The white seeker jabbed Slipstream in the stomach with Fuse's electrogun one last time, before throwing it back to the green seeker. "We'll continue this later," he snarled angrily at Slipstream, then turned on his heel and stalked out of the room. Shotlock followed him quickly, but Fuse paused for a moment. The green seeker turned to Slipstream, but still refused to look her in the eye.

"I'm... sorry, about all this," he muttered quickly, finally looking up at the badly damaged femme, doing his best to ignore the large electrical burn on her stomach and her shattered shoulder. Slip managed to growl doubtfully, but Fuse repeated earnestly, "Honestly, I really am sorry about it..." He glanced around somewhat nervously, then quickly left the room, leaving the black femme alone.

Chapter 7

Slipstream barely felt the familiar sensation of Scrabble crawling up her leg, but managed a weak smile as the little spiderbot settled on her undamaged shoulder and beeped mournfully. "Heya there, Scrabble... need ya... t'do something." Slipstream slumped painfully against the wall for a moment before continuing. "Get back...to the Freedom... find Waitstate... or Lilwall... they need t'know 'bout this lot..." She trailed off as Scrabble beeped acknowledgment and scuttled away, disappearing into the air vent. Once the little spiderbot was gone, Slipstream sighed wearily and finally gave into the welcome blackness of unconsciousness, where pain couldn't find her.

Magnum and the Stranger sat down at a bench alongside what was probably a park, but now was nothing more than a vacant cargo bay. After the Stranger wiped a smear of energon off the armrest, detached his large claw from his back, and sat down. Stranger turned to Maximum Magnum and finally asked, "So, what do you need my help with?"

Because of the treads mounted on his back--remnants of his tank alternate mode--Magnum found it difficult to sit comfortable in the chair. "We haven't seen each other in quite some time, I think you'll agree." The Stranger nodded.

"And, you should understand that I have changed quite a bit, since our last mission together."

"Yes, I know all about the League." He returned, stunning Magnum. "After our meeting on Sabel, I looked into it. And, by the way, I think you'll like what I found out." Magnum twitched with interest.

"Continue."

Winter strode angrily down the corridor after his communication with Soviet aboard the Nimitz. "Crosscut, come with me. Soviet wants us back at the Nimitz. Shotlock, Fuse, stay here and guard our guest. If anything happens, I'm holding you two responsible." The three seekers nodded, then Crosscut followed Winter out of the building they were in. The two seekers quickly transformed and flew towards the large ship hovering in space, just outside of sensor range. Specifically, the sensor range of the LSS Freedom.

"Really now Winter," the jet black seeker colonel, Soviet, said as Winter entered his office, "Did you have to be so harsh on the poor femme?"

"Sir, I felt it was prudent." Winter sneered. "After all, judging by her response to the torture, I don't believe being any friendlier would have helped."

"True, but we still did not receive any information either way." Soviet stood, his large form dominating the office. "You are dismissed, Winter." Winter saluted and exited. Once he was gone, Soviet took a seat in front of a screen.

"Well, LONAC. What are you up to?" With the touch of a button, he activated the screen, and the Freedom appeared. "Brainwashing, perhaps?" The view changed to the room holding Slipstream. He rewound the tape and watched as the femme released a small spider shaped drone. "What is this, hmm?" he smiled.

"Did you see what Winter did to her?" Fuse asked, taking a seat across from his fellow squad member along with a cup of energon. "That was insane."

"Yeah. And you're telling me she didn't even answer a single question..." Shotlock replied, across the table. He took another gulp of energon and continued, "She must have had some willpower. Hey, Remember when we took that one bot aboard? Winter had him on his knees in -"

"Shotlock, Fuse, come in." The two seekers were cut off by a hologram of Soviet appearing in the center of the room.

"Sir!" Fuse replied. Behind him, Shotlock casually saluted.

"I want you two to release the femme." Their commanding officer said flatly.

Shotlock blinked. "Say what?"

"We have no further use for her," Soviet stated. "Make sure she's still unconscious, and dump her back on the station, somewhere where LONAC will find her."

"Uh, of course, sir." Fuse replied.

"Oh, another thing," the commander continued, "Place a tracking device on her. After all, we wouldn't want our friends getting away."

"Sir!" Fuse saluted and the hologram disappeared.

"Getting back on track," the Stranger leaned back in his chair once he had finished explaining to Magnum, "What was it you wanted to talk to me about?"

"Dreams, Bentnose." Magnum stated matter-of-factly, "Dreams."

Bentnose, the Stranger, was stunned by Magnums sudden talk of dreams. Never, in his whole existence, had he heard of Magnum having, or even being concerned, with dreams. "You, realize how ludicrous this all is, Maximum. Transformers have to have the dream protocol built into them." Magnum stared at Bentnose, his face showing no emotion.

"I certainly do not think you're the type of 'bot to acquire the protocol."

"I have not had it programmed into me. And, after a sensory scan, there was no trace of it being implanted without my knowledge."

"Ah, I see." Magnums request was dawning on Bentnose, "I take it you wish me to find out who, or what, is causing you to have these dreams?"

"You nailed it." Magnum replied.

Bentnose sighed. Magnum was actually making sense for once, "Friend, I want you to know this will cost you."

"These dreams disturb me. I will pay whatever price." Having heard that, Bentnose' face twisted into a wicked grin.

Chapter 8

"Move her foot, damn it!" Shotlock yelled out. Currently, the unconscious Slipstream's foot was jabbing sharply into his face, pressing him up against a door and preventing the blue transformer from moving. "And I mean now!" Suddenly, his face was free of the foot and there was a loud crash. Opening his optics, he saw the form of Fuse sprawled out on the ground, Slipstream's inert form on top of him.

"Who would'a thought moving a form like that would be so much trouble, eh?" he joked.

Fuse, on the other hand, did not share his comrades' enthusiasm, "Whatever, just get his deadweight off of me."

"Oh?" Shotlock leaned closer, a grin spread wide across his face. "I thought you would like being in a position like that. After all, it's probably the closest you'll ever--" He was cut off by Fuse's left foot sweeping out and catching him in the ankle, causing the jet-transformer to come crashing to the ground alongside his partner. Fuse sneered at his partner-in-crime and finally managed to get the body off of him.

"I'll have you know, she could wake up at any moment." Shotlock stood up and dusted himself off, "Yeah, and I betcha would really like that, eh?" His gaze met with Fuse's, and he immediately backed off. "Let's find a place to dump her."

Waitstate checked his chronometer. Slipstream said she would have been back nearly two hours ago; he frowned.

"Still no word from Slipstream, Cirrus?" he asked the only other 'bot on the bridge. Cirrus checked a small display and looked at the ship's captain.

"No, not as such." He responded. "And, another thing… I can't seem to find her signature anywhere on the ship."

"Hmm, think we should get someone to go look for her? Backtrack?"

"Yeah, that would probably be a good--" And that was when Scrabble dropped out of the ceiling and onto Waitstate's face.

Sunspot was bored out of her mind. If there was anything to do on this station, Sunspot had done it. And that had taken about half an hour to do. Right now, all she could think of doing was head back to the Freedom to relax in the corner… and then something caught her eye.

Visible through a tiny--at least by cybertronian scales--crack in wall. Through it, Sunspot could see, was what looked to be a huge junkyard. Now that may be interesting!

"Dump her here," Shotlock ordered to his partner as he surveyed the junkyard. "This should be a good place for trash like her."

"Eh, Shotlock," said Fuse as he dropped Slipstream's body to the ground, "Didn’t Soviet say to put her where LONAC could find her?"

"Yeah, whatever. It's not my concern. I wanna get back to the Nimitz, relax on a couch, and watch some TV."

"Right, whatever. We need to stick that tracking device on her, don’t we?"

"Yeah, give it here."

"Give what?"

"The tracking device, fraghead."

"I…. I thought you had the tracking device."

Crosscut stormed into his quarters, seething at Winter. Crosscut had hunted Slipstream for centuries, and when he finally had her right where he wanted her, Winter had snatched her away from him. There was no denying it; Crosscut hated Winter with a passion. He had regretted every minute of his life since he made the stupid decision of joining the Decepticon 803^rd Hunter-Seeker squadron--the Strikers--in hopes that he could find Slipstream easier. Unfortunatly, Winter was an obstacle in his way, one of many.

His quarters were sparse: there was nothing aside from the folding recharge bunk and washroom. He entered the washroom, and pressed "hot" water faucet into the wall. Behind him, half of the wall opposite his recharge bunk depressed and slid out of the way, revealing another chamber. Although the rest of the Strikers knew about it, having it hidden gave Crosscut a false sense of security. He entered, and was immediately filled with a sense of bliss. Virtually every wall was covered in swords. He walked past rows of katanas, broadswords, electroblades, and other various pointy objects until he reached his destination: a large, four-foot tall multicolored crystal. It was a relic he had found ages ago; where it came from and what purpose it served did not concern him. He was only concerned with Slipstream's demise. He placed his hand on the flat top, and removed it several seconds later.

In a maneuver too complex for even Crosscuts' robotic eyes, the top of the crystal shifted and unfolded several times over, tiny facets appearing and concealing themselves amongst the inside. A large opening was left, with a strange glow radiating from the inside. Crosscut reached inside, relishing the feeling of the radiation.

His hand came out holding a sword.

Minutes later, Crosscut burst into the makeshift interrogation room on the station, ready to strike down Slipstream. However, the room was completely empty, even the interrogation equipment was missing. His fellow Strikers must have moved it back to the Nimitz without telling him. His grip tightened around the blade, and he let out a stream of curse words.

"This place is huge!" Sunspot announced as she finished squeezing through the crack in the wall, and right before tripping on a slate of metal and falling flat on her face.

"You're an idiot, Shotlock!" Sunspot blinked as an unknown voice pierced the silence. Who was that? She wondered.

"What, you said you had the device when we left!"

"Hey, now, don’t look at me!"

"Oh, who do you think I should look at, then? Slipstream?"

"Uh, she's unconscious." Sunspot heard little more arguing as suddenly one of the 'bots yelled out and a loud clang followed. Her curiosity got the better of her, and she furiously climbed over the heap of twisted metal and half-built starships. On the far end of the bay she could see a green transformer--a seeker of some sort--lying next to a dark form. Then, in the corner of her optic she spotted another blue, somewhat familiar, seeker climbing back up the pile to the other two transformers. She ducked down behind a hollowed-out bulkhead and continued to watch.

Cirrus was practically rolling on the floor in laughter as he watched Waitstate struggle with the black and blue spiderbot, Scrabble. The arachnid-shaped drone was furiously zapping Waitstate's shoulder with low-voltage electricity, and the LONAC Captain clearly wasn't enjoying the experience.

"Cirrus, get this thing off me!" he yelled out as he tripped over a chair and fell onto the tactical console. Moments later, Cirrus lifted the squirming Scrabble off of Waitstate and set it down on the ground.

"Okay," he summarized to Waitstate, once both he and Scrabble had calmed down; "So Slipstream's apparently missing and we've got a hyperactive spiderbot here. Think it ties in?"

"No doubt about it," Waitstate responded. "I think we should get some help."

"Sure, who should I call?"

"Hmm, I think all we'll need for this one right now is Dark Star and his crew. Tell them to meet me in the airlock."

"Don’t you think Dark Force is a bit extreme?" Said Cirrus as he sent out the orders.

"Maybe, but I've got a feeling we're gonna run into some trouble."

Chapter 9

Dark Star quickly scanned the station's main entrance lobby and turned to the rest of Dark Force, " Amethyst, Ruse, take the north sectors. Diamond Fire, Scamp, you're on south. Drill Master, you're with me." At Dark Star's command, Dark Force transformed into their varied vehicle modes, paired up, and went their separate ways. Behind where Dark Star was standing, Waitstate turned to Admiral Lilwall.

"Now, just to keep in touch with them." Lilwall nodded.

Finally, the two seekers had left. It had been nearly half an hour since Sunspot began spying on them, and she was positive that dark form was Slipstream. A moment later and she was sure of it. Though battered and bruised in many places, and a large chunk of her shoulder missing, the form was clearly that of Slipstream. Using all of her strength, Sunspot lifted Slipstream up onto her shoulder and began the long trek back to the Freedom.

"Captain," Winter began, "The target is moving. And towards the Freedom, no less." Soviet turned to Winter's console and read over it for a moment before turning to the platoon sub-commander and said,

"Good, alert the rest of the team. If we can't find out the required information the subtle way, we'll just have to ask a little louder."

Minutes later, the Strikers were ready for battle.

Sunspot, straining from Slipstream's weight, rounded a corner in the northern sectors of the large station and nearly collided with the speeding form of Scamp's vehicle mode.

"Hey, good lookin!" He gleefully announced as he transformed to robot mode, "What are you hauling there? Need a hand?"

"Uh, sure!" Sunspot replied. Any help with this deadweight was welcomed. "I need to get her, um, Slipstream, back to the ship."

"Yeah, we were looking for Slipstream anyway!" Diamond Fire said as she drove up to Scamp and Sunspot and transformed. "Scamp, call Waitstate. I'll get Slip' back there on the double!"

"You got it!"

Waitstate leaned back in his chair, the Freedom's bridge quiet as usual. This whole business with Slipstream missing was quite a problem; LONAC had notoriously bad luck when it came to space stations. And, more than anything, he was in a bad mood because of it. And, as it always was, his comm link buzzed with urgent news.

"Boss, we've found Slipstream." Scamp's voice hummed through the speakers mounted on his chair arm. Waitstate's optic's few open and he shot upwards, hitting the 'return' button on the link.

"What was that? You found Slipstream? Where was she?" Scamp proceeded to explain what Sunspot had told him only minutes before. When he was done, Waitstate slouched in his chair and sighed.

"Okay, recall the rest of Dark Force." He finally ordered, "Get back ASAP."

"Roger that, Cap'"

Maximum Magnum left the restaurant several minutes after Bentnose had, feeling very good with himself for once. Thus far, his entire stay on the station had been a complete success. Not only had he found out the information he had paid for ages ago, but he also had a way to get rid of those annoying 'dreams'. But one thing still bothered him. If Fuse had become a Decepticon… how had Bentnose gotten that information? His processor ran through several scenarios, all of which were things Bentnose was not known for. As he ran through the scenarios, he transformed to his large tank-like form and continued towards the Freedom.

Finally, he concluded that he didn’t care. Whatever methods Bentnose had used, they had resulted in Magnum getting the information he wanted, so it was of no matter in the end. Magnum had no idea of the mistake he was making.

Chapter 10

Crosscut was in position. As per orders from Soviet, he had hidden himself among the loading docks shortly outside the Freedom's primary airlock. Tightening his grip on the jagged crystalline saber, the yellow seeker peeked out from behind a steel cube; already several LONAC 'bots were converging there. Whatever the reason, it would all be over for LONAC soon enough. He shifted his weight to his other leg, and turned to the jet-black seeker kneeling next to him. To most, Anvil looked like another big dumb brute, but he was really quite intelligent. As Soviet's personal bodyguard, he knew his place and preferred to keep quiet. For being a bodyguard, he didn't stay with Soviet very much. The Striker leader tended to be able to handle himself in combat, instead sending Anvil out where he would be needed more.

"Ready your weapons, Anvil." Crosscut said. Without a word, Anvil put his hands against the steel cube, the dual missile launchers on each arm becoming much more prominent, and shoved it back into its original position.

The bridge of the Nimitz had to be Shotlock's favorite place in the universe. Surrounded in all directions by every multitude of cerebral interface, manual controls, display panels, holographic images, and his personal favorite, the weaponry controls. However, much to his chagrin, he and the Striker sub-commander Winter were poised over a holographic display node, which dominated the upper portions of the bridge.

"A 45 degree thrust in this direction," Winter waved through the image at a now green point, "Should bring us directly underneath the Freedom." Another image appeared, raising the count to three. In the center of the image was the station they were docked at; off to one side, near one of the many docking ports, was the light-blue image of the Nimitz; and on the far side of that, the Freedom's image appeared. "We'll open the gun ports, and wait for Soviet's orders." The Nimitz--their command ship--was a sleek, deadly looking vessel, flat and angular, and covered in what appeared to be warts.

Shotlock leaned back in his chair. Being the chief gunner for an elite platoon of Decepticons had the advantage of being pretty much useless for anything other than shooting--giving him ample time to relax--but it also meant he had to listen to these endlessly long and boring meetings with Winter. As the blue and white seeker continued, Shotlock leaned his head back and proceeded to pay no attention. He closed his optics and ran schematics of various hand held weapons across the tiny screens mounted on the inside of their covers, and…

"SHOTLOCK!" Winter screamed as he violently grabbed the blue seeker by the neck and hurled him across the spacious bridge. "LISTEN to me when I'm talking, slaggit!" he bellowed so loudly that Shotlock was positive his comrades station-side could hear the screaming. He zoned-out again as the yelling continued.

Soviet could see three land based LONAC vehicles approaching the Freedom's airlock. Of course, he couldn’t actually see them--he was watching it all from a tiny screen fed by a camera where Winter was positioned. One of cars, the red one, had Slipstream's body tied to it. A moment later, they arrived at the airlock, transformed, and unloaded her body. A fourth and fifth transformer appeared, one mostly black and the other a sharp red. The red one picked the body up in its arms and took her inside. Soviet could feel it in his circuits. The time for action was now. He pressed a button on the handheld device, which activated a com-link to each of the other Strikers.

Chapter 11

With Scamp and Slipstream inside the Freedom, and the rest of Dark Force returning, Waitstate decided that it was time they left the station. Too much was going on. And he was a little nervous with Magnum, who had arrived several minutes ago, and his cheerful attitude. Either he had set something deadly in action or he had a personality rewrite.

He turned to his second in command, Admiral Lilwall, and said, "Get on the horn to the rest of LONAC still on the station. It's time we left this place."

"Departure time?" asked Lilwall.

"Fourteen hundred hours," which was half an hour from now. Waitstate hoped that was enough time for the dozen or so members of LONAC still on the station to return and to avoid any sort of conflict.

"Alright," Lilwall said, and started to head into the ship. Unfortunatly, things took a turn for the worse when eight beams of variously colored energy lanced out from several different places at once. Two slammed into Waitstate's chest; two struck right in front of Lilwall; Diamond Fire's backside was turned to ice; and Sunspot, mildly lucky, managed to dodge them; Magnum was far enough away from the other four to not get hit.

"What's going on?" Lilwall shouted as he swiftly sidestepped another crimson beam. He spun around and looked for wherever the shots were coming from. He caught a small shape, on the far side of the spacious airlock area. It disappeared as quickly as it had appeared, and Lilwall couldn’t make it out even with his enhanced optics.

Meanwhile, Waitstate had recovered from the stun and activated his beamsaber. The bright purple blade erupted and flared as he skillfully deflected another, and another, blast of energy.

"Damnit," he yelled out, "Someone get the Freedom on!"

The Nimitz's engines roared to life nanoseconds after Shotlock, still on the bridge but to his glee, missing Winter, hit the accelerator. It broke free of its moorings in one swift motion, and the elongated triangle-shaped vessel was underway. Shotlock, both the pilot and chief gunner of his platoon, guided the frigate around and under the huge station, towards the Freedom's dock. Moments later, it's prey was in sight. He thumbed the brakes and reached over to hit a large red switch was marked, with almost childlike writing and in red ink, "Party Time!" on a piece of paper taped to it. Such little notes were strewed all over Shotlocks' station: he never bothered remembering the name so he simply put notes on. The electrical impulses sent from the oversized switch was rerouted, coded, decoded, coded again, and sent down a trillion pathways until they reached their destination. Many of the "warts" covering the Nimitz split down their center, and weapons of varying size telescoped outwards, then shifted their direction to face the Freedom. The Nimitz was transformed from an almost organic looking star craft to what resembled a porcupine with all of its quills pointing forwards and massive engines strapped to its behind. It was the most deadly porcupine in existence. Shotlock couldn’t stop grinning like an idiot. He loved his job.

Admiral Lilwall fired off his heel-mounted thrusters and shot into the sky, colliding seconds later with speeding jet-mode Crosscut. The impact would have stunned him, had he not been prepared for it. With all his strength he dug his hands into the yellow seekers armor, fired his heel-boosters again to stop his movement, and swung the entire jet around towards the ground. Crosscuts' reactions were top-notch, however, and he transformed into his fearsome robot form. Drawing the jagged crystalline sword, he leapt towards the red and blue Lilwall, anger in his optics. The gap between them closed in only seconds, and Crosscut led off with several swift slashes of his blade. Lilwall managed to quickly dodge the swipes, and delivered a kick to Crosscuts stomach. The impact sent shocks through his body, causing him to momentarily lose control of his motor systems, shutting off his anti-gravity generators. Thinking quickly, Crosscut reached out and grabbed his opponent's leg and dragging him downwards. The two smashed into the solid steel floor, and were quickly back on their feet.

"Who are you?" Lilwall demanded as he stood, "Tell me!"

"That is for me to know, " Crosscut returned, before spinning around in place and slashing at Lilwall with his sword. The Admiral was quick enough to duck down before he had his head chopped off. He jerked his foot out, striking Crosscut in the ankle. Instead of falling, however, Crosscut again fired his jets and soared into the air, with Lilwall close behind. For a moment the two chased each other throughout the spacious expanse of the loading bay, before Lilwall caught Crosscut in the shoulder with his rifle.

Magnum took a punch in the stomach from the white seeker and doubled over on his fist. The seeker was strong, but not strong enough to take him out with just one punch. The thing that concerned him was that he had encountered these seekers before, a long time ago on Sabel. Even worse, they were the seekers Fuse was involved in, something that annoyed Magnum to no end. But, now was not the time for thinking about the past, he had work to do. He grabbed the seeker's elbow, and with a twist of his wrist, sent him flying into the wall. He stood up, anger in his eyes, and drew one of his pistols. Whatever had to be done, would be done.

He was about to fire when from right behind him came a burst of binary--sounding like static, but translated as: "X-452 Y-234 Z-23," and a missile drove itself into Magnums back, exploding. The blast was a mix of a minute EMP and regular explosives, scrambling his systems and thrusting him into the floor. He took the blast easily, but what worried him was there was only one person with grid-matrix coordinate missiles. He turned around and his fears were confirmed. Standing only feet away, with his massive claw and missile launchers both pointing at him, armed and ready, stood…

"Bentnose…"

Meanwhile, Waitstate was having problems of his own. Not only was he cornered and weaponless, but before him stood the massive black and red form of Soviet, holding an enormous laser rifle at his head.

"Before I pull this trigger and blow you to pieces, I'd like you to feel the dread of knowing your entire life will be over," He stated in a deep, flat voice. "Of course, I'll probably have this turned against me before I can, so I'll get it over with." Unfortunatly, Soviet was correct. The moment he pulled the trigger, Waitstate extended his left wing--normally concealed in a compartment on his back. It struck the wall next to him and shoving him out of harms way. From the rifle came a thick green stream of particle energy that plowed right through his wing and left a sizable dent in the wall behind him. Waitstate rolled to the ground, picked up his beamsabre, and activated it in a flash.

"Alright," he began, "I don’t know who you guys are or what you want, but you just messed with the wrong robot!"

"Is that so?" Soviet said, throwing the rifle to the ground and taking up a martial arts defensive stance, "We shall see, Waitstate." Silently, he sent a signal to the Nimitz.

The signal was received, and with much glee Shotlock hit a button marked "Boomstick". The enormous cannon lining the Nimitz's centerline opened up with a thick shower of energy which lanced outwards and crashed against the side of the Freedom. Again and again, he smashed his fist into the button, laughing insanely. Millions of megawatts of electricity surged into the Freedom, arcing through its hull and through every being on board. They screamed out in pain as the heat seared across their bodies, and they went limp.

Waitstate didn't care how this enormous seeker knew his name, he knew he had to take him down. He started off with a series of swipes, followed up with several jabs, and finished with a roundhouse slash, and Soviet deflected every single one. He wasn't even dodging the blade, the energy simply bounced off his armor. Waitstate could tell he was in serious trouble.

Chapter 12

"Bentnose…" Magnum was stunned. Never in his entire existence would he have dreamed that Bentnose would fire on him. It was inconceivable, even amongst "scum" such as he! "What are you doing?" he seethed.

"My job, Maximum." The metallic blue transformer replied. And suddenly, everything came together in Magnums mind. Fury swelled up from deep within his spark; Magnum never knew he had this sort of emotion inside him. He had been betrayed by the closest thing he ever had to a true friend! They had been on hundreds of missions together, together they had killed so many… been through so much… and it had all been turned against him. With a deep breath, Magnum silenced the voices screaming inside his skull and drew his pistols. He had had enough. He did not have friends. To him, now, Bentnose was simply another carcass. That scrap pile was nothing anymore.

"Bentnose, you're nothing to me." He screamed, the rage bursting through him like an explosion. He smashed himself into Bentnoses side, sending him into the nearby wall. With the seconds he had, he summoned his cloak from subspace, with a mental command folded and compressed his shoulder blades against his side, and draped the cloak over himself. The shoulder pads, weighted down from the two missiles in each, pressed down on his body, but he didn’t care. With another mental command, the fronts of each blocky pad flipped open, and the missiles fired straight towards the Stranger. The recoil sent Magnum sprawling on his back, but he didn’t need to see the results. Four huge explosions rang in his audio receptors, telling him his missiles had worked. He quickly recovered from the recoil and stood, and a grimace crossed his face. Bentnose was standing in the same spot where he had right before the impact; the eerie blue/yellow glow of a personal shield swirled around him before it disappeared moments later.

"Coy," Magnum commented. He wasn’t aware that Bentnose had a personal shield, nor did he care. "I don’t suppose you have any more tricks up your sleeve?"

"Only one," the Stranger returned, "And I think you'll like it!" He hurled himself forwards, the enormous claw mounted on his right arm opened to its fullest and ready to crush Magnum in half. Magnum jumped out of the way; Bentnose crashed claw first into the flooring, causing it to buckle under the impact. Magnum quickly jumped backwards several times, drew his photon pistols, and fired at Bentnose. Sure enough, the beams were simply absorbed into the shield. Bentnose retaliated by ripping his claw loose from the ground, spinning around, and firing both of his missiles at Magnum. The massive cloaked warrior was too slow, and both missiles hit him dead in the chest.

Bentnose could do nothing but smile at his work. Another one bites the dust, another paycheck. The cloud of smoke was starting to thin, and suddenly it surged upwards as something from deep inside launched up out of it. His optics widened as he looked up and saw Maximum Magnum--the torn cloak and smoke trailing from several gashes in his side giving him the appearance of a demonic beast--erupt from within the cloud and began his long decent downwards to his enemy and friend. Thinking quickly and aiming his claw at the furious robot descending upon him, he did not notice Magnum rip the tank barrel from its housing on his leg and bring it forwards. Seconds before Bentnose's massive claw closed on Magnum, it couldn’t. As Magnum slammed into the ground before the Stranger, he had shoved the barrel between the two sides of his claw-arm at just the right angle, preventing them from closing. He didn’t have a second to think as he felt Magnum shove the tip of one of his pistols through his shield, and up against his much weaker armor.

"Magnum…" he begged, "You cant…" Maximum Magnum said nothing, only pulling the trigger and sending a thin column of energy cascading through his friends' body and ripping out his back. Magnum had fired on a low setting, but it was enough to get the job done. Bentnose staggered backwards, the hole in his chest spewing smoke.

"Magnum…" he repeated, "I… behind you." Magnum was never one to be a sucker for old ploys, but this time he knew Bentnose wasn't lying. He turned around just in time to see the jet-black shape of Anvil's shoulder smash into his chest, and his movement drives froze up.

Anvil hardly uttered a sound as he lifted Magnums body above his head and hurled him into the wall. Perhaps Anvils' strongest facet was his incredible strength and firepower; he sent an arm mounted missile into the wall above Magnum. The explosion was far more than enough to cause several tons of weight to smash onto Magnum, and as far as he was concerned, his part in the battle was over.

Chapter 13

At that moment, exactly four things happened. Waitstate slashed downwards at Soviet, but he simply sidestepped and grabbed the LONAC captain by the shoulder and neck.

"Too bad for you," he said quickly as he brutally smashed Waitstate into the wall with all his strength. Waitstate screamed out in pain as Soviet delivered a powerful kick to his backside, his armor cracking and falling off in places. The scream was enough to momentarily distract Admiral Lilwall and allowed Crosscut an opening. Crosscut took it, and plowed his blade deep into Lilwall's side. He ripped it out, and drop-kicked the second in command into the ground, right before a massive amount of firepower crashed against his side and sent him flying out of control. Finally, Bentnose, enraged that he had not been the one to kill Magnum, threw all his weight at Anvil, moments before the unconscious body of Crosscut smashed into the two, and all three were, for the time, out of service. Admiral Lilwall, clutching his wound, looked upwards and saw the rest of Dark Force flying through the air: they had been the ones to save him from Crosscut.

"Dark Force," Dark Star announced as he transformed along with the rest, "Form unto me!" Following their always-serious leaders instructions, the other members of Dark Force shifted to their respective limb or body structures and seemed to crash into each other. Several other different parts emerged from subspace, and the massive construct known as Razer was formed.

"Decepticons!" It bellowed, "You seem confident in yourselves, but it is time to instruct you in your own demise!" With those words, Razer took aim at the stunned Striker leader and opened fire with an enormous amount of energy weapons. His armor useless against such firepower, Soviet was repeatedly pounded into the ground at the relentless assault. He could not hold it back any longer, and let loose a scream that seemed to pierce the heavens. With his last breath, he signaled the Nimitz.

Within moments, the colossal gestalt had all four seekers in one place; Razer lifted his weapon and aimed at the group.

"Anything to say?" He boomed, "I can wait all day here."

Winter, the only Striker relatively undamaged, raised his fist at Razer. "You, LONAC, may think you have won," he screamed, rage in his voice. "We'll have this one yet!"

"Oh really?" Razer retorted. "I think you'll find you are not in much of a position to negotiate."

"Go ahead," the seeker dared, "fire that oversized pea shooter of yours." Razer was already on edge, and that was all he needed. Without a second thought, he squeezed the trigger. Moments before the weapon hit, however, there was a flash of light; nothing stood where the Strikers had moments ago except a scorch mark.

"Wha… what happened?" Sunspot broke the silence, "That looked like a teleport or something."

"Yeah, a teleportation." Waitstate said as Razer reformed into his individual forms, "Had them right where we wanted them, anyway." He winced, pain tearing through his body.

Drill Master was the first to speak "Not a fun time." The rest of Dark Force, save Dark Star, nodded to showing their agreement.

"Excuse me?" Sunspot chimed in, "But I think Magnum's over there, kinda hurt…" She waved over to where, beneath a pile of debris, Magnum's arm could be seen.

Restore and Lifeblood carefully placed Magnums torn body on the med-table, careful to not damage him further. His left arm was torn almost completely out of it's socket; both of the large shoulder blades were bent out of shape; his leg was twisted completely around and littered with holes and rends; and one of the small antennae on his head was snapped in half. Lifeblood sighed, seeing that he had much work to do. He turned to the table next to him, where the body of Bentnose lay, several dents and a very large hole in him. He went to work.

"What happened to the crew, anyway?" Admiral Lilwall asked, referring to their momentary paralysis during the battle. Aries looked over his screen for a moment, then turned to the Admiral.

"From my best guess, it looks like we were hit with some sort of electromagnetic wave cannon. Did a number on the bridge systems," he replied. Lilwall thought for a moment then called up several of the ship schematics.

He pointed to several places, "Is there any way we could increase the shielding here, here, and here?"

"I wouldn’t know. You would have to ask Panelbeater or someone else in engineering."

"I'll do that," Lilwall said as he left for the door, "Thanks for the help."

Lifeblood hit a switch on his medical console, and Magnums single optic flew open. He slowly leaned forwards, his joints creaking. Lifeblood could see a hint of horror in Magnums optic. He asked if anything was wrong, and was answered by Magnum storming past him out the door. Magnum wasn’t bothered by the fact that Bentnose was on ship; something greater was eating away at his soul. When Anvil had smashed him into the wall and frozen up his systems, a lower level of his subconscious activated itself and he was thrown into a deep trance. What he saw troubled him greatly.

***

Magnum once again had found himself on the starlit shoreline, the ever-present bells chiming away endlessly. It was perhaps the third time he had been to this 'dreamworld', and he abhorred it more than ever. He clenched his fist in anger, ready to lash out at anyone near him.

"I will grant you." the angelic voice began once again, and Magnum finally found himself able to turn around and throw a punch. However, there was nothing there. He looked around, taking up a fighting stance, and screamed something unintelligible.

The voice continued, again from behind Magnum, "All my happiness…" He fought the anger swelling up inside him, and managed calm himself.

"Who are you?" he sneered through clenched teeth, "What do you want with my mind?" Suddenly, there was a flash of light and Magnum found himself standing among the wreckage of a tank--the very same one he had destroyed days ago. Everything seemed stretched out of proportion and hazy. Magnum turned around and came face-to-face with his own face. He twitched and noticed that 'he' was frozen, like a statue. "This does not help," he grumbled. Suddenly, his double seemed to glow with an intense inner light.

"You're an idiot, Magnum," It said. Magnum sent his fist through his double's face, literally. It was like he was a ghost.

"Why don’t you try shining, Magnum?" Patchwork's voice echoed from behind him. Magnum turned around and found himself staring at himself again. This time, however, it was himself lunging up into the air. Magnum was standing in air, like he was flying. Below him, he could see the frozen explosion of Bentnose's missiles, and a little further off, Bentnose himself. Everything had a tinge like he was seeing it through a dirty window. His own memories.

A second time, his own double's head twisted around and faced him, the rest of the body not moving an inch, "You have no life," it said.

"What is going on?" Magnum yelled again, and this time he got an answer.

"Welcome to reality, idiot," Bentnose chimed. Again, Magnum punched right through his ghostly duplicate. Unlike the first time, however, the body exploded and turned into a million tiny dots of color that all spread out and revealed a third location. He was standing in a black room. There were no walls, no doors, nothing but blackness.

"Care to explain?" He asked again, "I'm not happy with your little light show." For a third, and final time, Magnum was looking at himself.

"You're an idiot, Magnum," It said.

"So I've heard. What do you want?"

"You're an idiot, Magnum. All you do is blame yourself for your own problems." Magnum stared his double in the eye.

"This sort of thing only happens in the movies, doesn't it? Talking to your subconscious and things," He sighed.
"I'm far from your own mind, Magnum," With that, the vision of Magnum ripped apart and was replaced by the tall, broad-shouldered Pleiade, the very person who's death had sent Magnum down a road he hated. Suddenly, Pleiade's form morphed into Bentnose, and then again into Fuse, again into Bentnose, and finally into the hulking form of Terminal Pleiade. Magnum had no idea what was going on. The ghostly image looked Magnum over, then continued, "I'm here to show you a little something, private. Once upon a time, there was a cadet named Magnum. He was built and created as a loyal, heroic Autobot. He had his whole life ahead of him until he accidentally killed his commanding officer, one he respected more than anything else. He blamed himself and no one else for this. It's a curse that he lives with to this day. Like any other, he recessed himself behind the only other thing he loved and never opened himself up," Magnum sighed, this was all very boring. Pleiade continued, "And so he ends up fighting his own friend. He doesn’t take it lightly, but eventually everything else catches up with him. And you know what happens?" Pleiade poked Magnum's chest with his finger, "He kills himself. Ruins a perfectly good life. Too bad though, right? So he dies, kills himself, no more Maximum Magnum."

"Who are you?" Magnum didn’t care about the story. He wanted to know why whatever it was had taken the form of Pleiade and why it was telling him all this.

"My name's not important," Pleiade said, "I'm here to look out for you, Magnum."

Magnum started to reply, but before he could formulate his response, he found his perceptions again torn asunder. He watched helplessly as the vision of Pleiade was wrenched away from him. He blinked and discovered his dream world had been replaced by Lifeblood and the medbay ceiling.

Soviet closed down the computer terminal and turned to the large window on the far side of his office, an evil smile growing across his face.

The End