Chapter 17: Hard Way Out

Waitstate sighed. "All right, I’ll play along. How do YOU plan to get out of here?"

Again, Starax chuckled. "Come now, this is starting to sound like a horrible Saturday morning cartoon."

Angry, Waitstate slashed at Starax’s left arm with his beam saber. "Enough of this game!"

"Heh, I thought you’d suspect more of me," Starax said with an evil grin. "Besides, don’t you think you should wait for some of your crew to show up before you challenge me and my friends?"

Waitstate squinted at Starax. "Friends?"

Waitstate was struck to the ground from behind. "Hello Wait, remember me?"

The bot was the same bot that attacked him when he first arrived at the station.

Starax jumped over the bar. "His name is Cyron. You met him at the bar. You’ve also met my Stardrive, I heard you had a little fun with him."

"The best part is, it’s not over yet" Stardrive said with a smile.

Xaraxus continued with his introductions. "These two you haven’t met." Xaraxus pointed to a bot that was almost completely black; standing next to another bot that very much resembled a bat. "They are Dominion and Bataract. Last but most certainly not least, here’s one more I made myself, I hope you like it."

Starax slowly stepped aside, revealing his creation. His form was fairly basic, but his face was unmistakable. The very emblem of LONAC had been brought to life, and it was out to destroy its creator. "I like to call him Toom, considering he isn’t much more than a brainless drone."

Waitstate tried to stand up, but Cyron and Dominion held him down.

"Oh, and I forgot to introduce myself. You’ve known me as Starax, the husky bar tender. My colleagues however know me as Xaraxus, leader of this small group, Spectral Death." Slowly, Starax’s form faded and a very different form appeared. The now black, green, and gray robot stepped closer to Waitstate and picked up his chin. "You have no idea what you’ve gotten yourself into. Of course, it’ll all be over soon anyway. Too bad, I wanted you to meet the rest of the family."

Xaraxus started to pace casually. "I like to have a little fun with my victims before I kill them." Xaraxus turned to Cyron and Dominion with a smile. "Let him go"

Bataract, Cyron, Dominion, Stardrive, and Toom all stood around Xaraxus and Waitstate so as to form an in-escapable ring.

Xaraxus pulled out a sword, seemingly from no where. Taking a few slow steps toward Waitstate, he picked up Wait’s beamsabre and threw it to his feet. As Waitstate was picking it up, Xaraxus charged at him. A nanosecond away from becoming a Cybertronian cross-section, he was able to activate his beamsabre just in time to block the shot. Xaraxus’ sword started to glow. There was a momentary pause, then Xaraxus spun around and repeated his attack. Waitstate kicked Xaraxus in his gut causing him to fall back a few paces. Standing up, Waitstate gestured with his hand for Xaraxus to come at him again. Getting to his feet, Xaraxus couldn’t have looked happier. As soon as he was close enough, he grabbed Waitstate’s arm and twisted it behind his back and brought him to the ground.

"Ready to give up Wait?" Xaraxus was sure he had won.

Waitstate did not answer. With all of his might he flipped Xaraxus over onto Toom, knocking them both over. Just barely breaking away from the other four, he transformed to car mode and fled towards the nearest corridor. "Looks like you need a bigger army!"

Waitstate received a communication over his comm system. "Junky here, seems we have ourselves a bit of a problem. I can’t explain it, but all of the exists in all of the docking bays have been sealed shut, I’m not even sure if we can blast our way out."

With no warning, a strange looking jet flew into Waitstate’s side. Both of them transformed into robot mode. It was now apparent that it was Xaraxus.

Xaraxus picked up Waitstate by his shoulders. "Don’t worry Waitstate, I assure you my army will get much bigger"

"I wouldn’t count on it!" A voice yelled from behind.

Xaraxus and Waitstate both turned around. All other members of LONAC had surrounded the other members of Spectral Death.

"If that’s the way you’re going to be, I think we’ll be leaving" Xaraxus said with a slightly angered expression on his face. A glowing light surrounded the five members of Spectral Death and they quickly faded away.

Admiral Lilwall shouted to Waitstate. "Care to explain what’s going on Wait?"

Waitstate pointed to the orb sitting on the bar. "No time for that, we’ve gotta defuse that bomb."