"Tempest... I introduce to you... The Terrorcons."

Tempest's eyes blinked a few times, just trying to make sure she wasn't seeing anything. "Terrorcons?"

"Beasts, aren't they?" Barricade said with some disgust.

The leader of the pack stomped his foot into the ground. "I am no beast. And neither are my pack."

Tempest let the Decepticon speak, and took a few steps forward so she could be face to face with the leader of the pack. She showed no fear, but only curiosity. A soft growl could be heard from the Decepticon who's personal space she invaded.

"Who are you?"

"The bigger question I think needs answering, is what are you doing here, Autobot?" The leader growled.

"That's no Autobot," Dropkick piped up. "She's dead."

He looked towards the triple-changer, and then back to Tempest. "You say she's dead... but yet, here I am standing before her. And she stands alive."

One of the Terrorcons next to him moved a little closer and sniffed the air. His eyes locked onto Tempest and sniffed some more, much to Tempest's own dismay.

"Organic... An organic is in her spark... she's a shell! A human... a human, wears this Autobot like a shell. Innards scooped out, to make room for this human's body, and their technology," the white and blue Terrorcon said.

"The analysis of the aroma is correct," Shockblast interrupted. "But our query requires answer. Who are you?"

The leader spoke. "I am Hun-Gurr. And this is my pack; Rippersnapper, Blot, Cutthroat, and Sinnertwin."

The Terrorcons all growled and screeched in harmony.

"B-B-But wait, you were... I... I saw you brutes leave with Megatron. How are you back here, on Earth? ... Is Megatron here with you?"

Hun-Gurr raised his left hand up, which made Barricade stop talking. Politely, he put his hand back down and spoke. "Megatron is not with us, or are any other of his compatriots. We come alone..."

---

"We stayed with Lord Megatron after our battle against Unicron, and were content with spending some days without fighting. But alas, our impatience, and lust for the hunt began to crave. Megatron's focus was intending on hunting down the one who took away half of his forces; Cy-Kill."

In the depths of space, two massive ships in the forms of cities were orbiting outside an unidentified planet. A ring of asteroids surrounded the planet, and its sphere was in a shade of baby blue.

"We were excited to hunt, but alas, our chance never came. Our energy, our resources were squandered, in attempt to find the last remnants of the Renegade Gobots. We grew tiresome, and our loyalty to Megatron began to diminish. So with a single vote, we all decided to leave the Decepticons to go on our own way. With Unicron destroyed, we didn't have to fear what would become of any more worlds..."

A soft boom pounded on the back of one of the cities, and a single shuttle was found exiting. A trail of fire escaped its thrusters, and it fled the surrounding atmosphere. And not a single city moved from its current position to try and track, or follow. All of the Terrorcons sat in their assigned chairs, buckled up, preparing for light speed. When the shuttle was far enough from the cities, it began to prepare to leave.

"Terrorcons, prepare for light speed," Hun-Gurr announced, adjusting one of the levers.

And with one BOOM, the ship vanished from the planet's atmosphere, and entered hyper-space.

"Cybertron was slowly being rebuilt, and the Autobots had taken over since the Decepticons departure. It became clear that Cybertron's atmosphere wasn't an option. So we came to the only other planet that was inhabited with Autobots to hunt; Earth."

The Terrorcons all stomped and charged through a series of swamps, looking for their prey. Rippersnapper sunk into the water, and swam as fast as he could. Just up ahead, there was a robot running from the pack. A Guardian, to be exact. He struggled to try and run from the pack, but it was slowly getting harder. They kept up the pace, and he was barely able to keep up the run. He turned around, and he readied his blasters by clenching his fists. An action, he would soon regret.

Rippersnapper jumped up, and pounced on the Guardian like a panther, pinning him to the ground. The Guardian fought to try and get off, but it was no use. The rest of the Terrorcons surrounded like vultures, and all of them pounced at once, tearing him apart. Limbs were being chewed, armor was being mashed up into iron fillings, and big bites were taken out of his side.

Cutthroat spit out a small circuit, but when he moved his head up to spit out the circuit, he caught something. His beak slowly opened up, and a small piece of a gear dropped into the swamp water. The little splash was all it took for the Terrorcons to stop feasting on the remains of the cyborg. All of their monster heads raised up and focused on the three Vehicons in front of them. All jaws opened up with fangs and teeth bared. Now a new prey had just walked right towards them...

"We didn't care what became our prey. The only thing that mattered to me was making sure that my pack had gotten the energy they need. If all members of my pack are functional, then he is functional."

The Terrorcons came running together on the empty roads, brisking through the wind. But as they charged, Hun-Gurr lead the pack. In his beast form, he ran on all fours, claws kicking and digging up the road as he ran. The two double-heads swayed back and forth like a horse as he ran. Hun-Gurr let out a mighty roar that pierced the skies, making the rest of his pack roar with him. But their roaring of the wilderness stopped as soon as Hun-Gurr used the heels of his feet to try and stop running.

He flipped forward, transforming into his robot mode in the process. Everyone else converted as well, freezing in front of Bludgeon, Thunderblast, and Waspinator. Hun-Gurr studied Bludgeon's expression the moment he gasped. A little bit of shock, but no fear. Was a mark of a Con that wasn't someone that should be fought so quickly. No running away either.

"We went on the run for awhile, until we ran into Bludgeon. I would have sent my pack to rip him limb from limb, but Bludgeon gave us an offer that we couldn't refuse. He told us highly that you were putting a plan together that included hunting down any remaining Autobot refugees on this planet. That sparked the interest in all of us..."

---

"Which leaves me to ask this; if you truly want to keep more troops... perhaps we could join your team. We would be more useful with you than against you, and it would be unwise to unleash the inner beast inside all of us."

Tempest sat in silence, listening to Hun-Gurr's entire story unfold before her eyes. To be frank, she coudln't really care, in fact, it mostly irritated her that more Decepticons came down onto the planet. But to know that they were responsible for some more Autobot demises? That tidbit made that little dark part of her willing to listen.

Tempest...

Tempest's head jolted. "What?"

Hun-Gurr paused. "I said, perhaps we could--"

"--Shut up!"

Tempest turned her head to listen again.

Tempest...

She looked back at Hun-Gurr who was a little insulted by her interruption. "You're in. If you can hone your hunting skills to the Autobots and not your own allies."

Hun-Gurr bowed. "It will be done."

"Good. Now if you'll excuse me, I need a moment. Everyone else... make our guests feel more comfortable," Tempest said before brushing past some of her troops.

As soon as she was out of the hangar, she moved herself under a patch of trees that provided some shade from the moonlight.

Tempest.... Tempest...

"I hear you, Megatronus. Show yourself."

A ghostly apparition manifested itself before her, created out of nothing. She only could look at the Decepticon logo shaped face that was Megatronus, but nothing else.

"You have done well, Tempest. I am pleased with your progress. You move quite efficiently."

Tempest didn't smile at the compliment, but she kept a straight face.

"Let me ask you something, Megatronus. Why do you wish to leave this, realm, so badly?"

Megatronus's face didn't change. Not that she could tell, since the only emotion that could be seen conveyed on his face was his eyes.

"That is a question I never thought you would ask. My history ages back to nearly the dawn of time..."

Before Tempest could say a thing, a strange blast of energy phased right into her body, coming from the specter in front of her. She jolted her body back as her mind was slowly getting sucked into the visions in front of her. Her eyes within the suit went blank white, as all she could see in front of her were the visions of Megatronus's past.

"Before the dawn of time, there were two gods. Unicron and Primus. Primus believed in creation and life, but Unicron believed in destruction and chaos. Unicron wanted power, more than he could ever want. So Primus, with his last dying breath, created the 13 Primes, one of them included myself. We fought together, and Unicron was left defeated... he ran for good, but we stayed. But our time of peace came to an end... The Primes, my very own brothers, were left corrupted and vile... Unicron left a curse upon them, and they wanted to spread chaos. I had no choice but to fight. I fought with all my spark, but they gained the upper hand. I was cast into an alternate dimension, one that would not allow me to escape. I couldn't do anything but watch as everything unfolded before my optics."

New images flashed in front of Tempest's eyes.

" But the passing years, decades, centuries, millenniums to come, only would get worse... The Allspark... was destroyed..."

Seven teenage girls were surrounding the Allspark in a lab that looked like it was inside a public school somewhere. Without warning, all of them were being zapped with beams of blue energy, shooting from the cube shaped obstruction, going right through their bodies, making all of them collapse onto the floor and black out. But what they didn't see is that the cube suddenly made a small explosion and it fell apart into several pieces onto the ground into little shards.

"... I watched the strongest Decepticon, the one who resurrected the Decepticon branding, the one who tried to coin my title, die..."

A fiery colored Transformer with a body-type similar to that of the leader Optimus Prime stood above a beaten, wounded, and hurt Megatron who was begging for mercy.

"You've terrorized my home, kill many of my friends without mercy, and now you're here, begging me for mercy? Well... You don't deserve it. I'm not going to let more innocent people and worlds fall to your hands."

No one saw her shoot, but Megatron's body was seen being thrown off the roof of Canterlot High, slamming onto the ground with a loud slam. The Decepticons surrounded the fallen leader and looked at the Autobots with deathly stares.

"You may have won this round Autobots, but we will be back. And you will pay for this insolence!" Starscream shrieked. "Astrotrain, Octane, transform for transport modes and get us out of here!"

"... Even those who tried to take control as leader, could not stand and rise to power!"

Starscream was heaving in utter anger at the failure of their battle. Even an entire army brought onto Earth all the way from Cybertron couldn't defeat Optimus Prime and his Autobots.

"We will be back Autobots... and unlike our failure today, we'll gain victory next time. You won't always have your pets to come to your rescue!"

As the city of Trypticon took off for the sky, the Autobots accompanied by the Rainbooms and the Crystal Prep Shadowbolts watched them leave.

"They've left, but they'll be back. And we'll be ready..." Optimus murmured.

A flash of white light flickered in Tempest's eyes as a new image appeared on screen. A purple armored Decepticon, standing before a robot of similar size; blue boots, red chest, gray tube-like arms, and a dome-head with a nasty face with yellow eyes.

"You Renegades are a disgrace to the Decepticon cause. The Decepticons need a new leader, one who can actually destroy the Autobots, the Guardians... and Sunset Shimmer," Galvatron griped.

"Let me guess who you have in mind," the other robot said.

"Yes... me."

"This is absurd, I am the one and only leader of this outfit."

Galvatron unfazed, aimed his cannon at the Renegade and fired a laser round, trying to obliterate his body. But the Renegade leader quickly moved out of the way just in time to avoid the fire.

"You were the leader," Galvatron said.

Cy-Kill moved back on his feet and snarled, "I'll crush you Galvatron, you're nothing!"

---

"These new Decepticons, and those Autobots... they desecrated my very name. Tempest Shadow... do you seek to free us from your world?"

Tempest slowly gazed up at the specter and growled. "I do..."

"Then listen to my words. You and your army must create a machine... but its not just some machine. You need specific parts to help create it. In my seemingly limitless spare time, I was able to track down some alternative components here on Earth for this contraption to work..."

A surge of energy phased from the apparition and straight into the chest of Pyra Magna, going straight for her forehead. Tempest's eyes went completely blank, but only for a moment. Then her iris's returned to normal.

"I understand."

"Very good. I will speak to you, when the time comes..."

And like that, the spirit of Megatronus before her eyes just vanished into thin air. Tempest chuckled to herself, the knowledge of the parts and the locations now embedded in her brain; like a ghostly imprint. A ghostly imprint that only she received. And tomorrow, the hunt for the parts would begin...

---

Some hours had gone by since the Terrorcons arrival, and things were calming down. Tempest decided that she'd tell everyone the plan for the next day, now it'd be time to recharge. Even for herself. So while she went to go sleep, everyone else just went to do their own thing. Some of them went to power down, some of them continued to do some work, or some other activity to keep them stimulated during the night.

The moon radiated the night sky, providing some light. But some of the torches mounted also helped with visibility as well. The beach that was just outside the hangar was empty. Only the waves crashing were the sounds heard. And all that could be seen was just the waves, and the little boy sitting by himself, near the water. Feet bare to feel the cool water, while head rest in his crossed arms.

Skyjack stood underneath one of the palm trees, watching the poor child sit by himself, all alone. Behind her, Steve and Spacewarp were gathered around a burning campfire they had going to provide some warmth, if Betamax ever came back to them. But none of them had a feeling he'd be coming back to them anytime.

Cyberwarp during all of this, was flipping through several screens and images displayed on a holoscreen. She had been scurrying to try and find something, anything that would be helpful with her situation.

"Really? Still flipping?" Steve asked, watching Cyberwarp's finger continue to flip through the screens.

"Yes."

"Can't you just talk to him?" Spacewarp said.

"Its not that easy," Cyberwarp replied.

"Cyberwarp."

Steve put his three-fingered hand on Cyberwarp's massive wrist, stopping her. She stopped moving the screens and turned turned her head to the Vehicon.

"Do you want my advice?"

Cyberwarp sighed. "Sure."

"I may be a generic Vehicon, but I know a lot of stuff. This situation right here, isn't different from any other. The kid is dealing with a loss, and he needs someone right now."

"Its not that easy. I can't just--"

"--Just what? Talk to him, interrupt his alone time?" Steve interrupted without regret. "Listen to me. He's just like you. He's a living, breathing thing, with emotions inside and out. Talk to him, get him to open up. Kid's gotta let all of that stuff out."

Cyberwarp adjourned herself, and thought. She looked at Spacewarp, who gave a nod. She looked back to Steve, who gave a nod. She turned her head forward to her sister who gave a single nod as well.

"Alright. I'll see if maybe that'll work."

"It will. I'm sure of it."

Cyberwarp walked past Skyjack and paced down the beach to the water where Betamax continued to sit. Her footsteps slowly shook the ground as she walked. Taking a few more steps, she stopped on the left side of Betamax. She looked down, seeing the boy unmoved from his current position.

Slowly, she bent down, until she lowered herself all the way to the ground and sat down, stretching her legs out so they were touching the water. The splashing waves made the water move up to her knees, but that was as far as they went. Her arms slowly dropped, resting at her sides and on the wet sand. Her body relaxing as she sat still. Optics locked onto the splashing ocean, watching them crash against the rocks.

She looked back down, and Betamax still wasn't moving.

"Hey."

She waited for a moment or two. Not audible response, or anything. But a few moments later, Betamax lifted his head up, seeing Cyberwarp sitting right next to him.

"What do you want?" Betamax sulked.

Cyberwarp frowned. "I noticed you never came back to sit with us, or, even had dinner."

"I'm not hungry," Betamax said, facing the ocean.

"Max."

Betamax stopped talking, but he didn't look back up at her.

"I know its hard to take all of this in. Really, I do. But I want to make sure you're okay, I promise to make sure you stay safe. Please... just tell me what's going on."

Betamax's fists clenched a bit, and a soft growl escaped his lips.

"You want to know? You want to know!? Today, I just lost both of my moms! They were all I had, and now I have no one! My home is gone, and I have no where else to run! No one knows that I'm even here and a prisoner of evil robots from outer space, no one's out there looking for me and you think I'm okay!?"

Betamax felt like exploding, right there, right now. Cyberwarp didn't flinch, and could only listen as he burst. But Betamax couldn't bring himself to say anything else. Just like with Sour Sweet, the reality pounced on his heart, hard. He was all alone, on Hawaii, and with no one around that even knew what had become of him. He was now prisoner of alien robots, and no one even knew. No one would come to find him, no one would come to try and save him. He was alone... all alone...

The truth sunk in like an anvil to the foot. The pain, the anger, the reality all rolling into one. His fists just dropped, and he sunk his face into his knees.

"Max?"

She listened, and could only hear a soft whimper.

"Are you okay?"

"... Noo..." Betamax whimpered.

"Oh, Max..."

Cyberwarp slowly moved her fingers around the child and lifted him up and held him in her lap. She moved close and gave him a hug, to wit, he reciprocated. His arms wrapped around her neck, and rested his head on her shoulder. Cyberwarp patted his back, hearing him cry.

"Mommy's gone... and Mama... I don't have a mama anymore..."

"Shh..." Cyberwarp stroked his back, giving him the most comfort she could. "I'm so sorry..."

For a good seven minutes, she did not dare break from the hug. She let him release the feelings he had bubbled up inside, finally freeing what had hurt. She had never had to handle this kind of situation before, not once. She comforted friends when they were dealing with losses, but a child? That was another story.

Once Betamax had calmed down a little, she pulled away from the hug, looking at his sad face. Cheeks red, eyes puffy and watery, he had let out a lot. With just the tip of one of her fingernails, she wiped a small tear that had escaped from his eye.

"I'm so sorry Max... If I could, I would go back and make sure that never happened, but... I can't."

Betamax whimpered some more.

"Max?"

The boy looked up.

"I know what its like to lose someone you love. I do. But I'm here to tell you... you're not alone. I'm here for you."

The child wiped away another tear from his eye and nodded. "T-Thank you..."

"Its not just her."

Betamax looked behind Cyberwarp, and saw another robot approach them; Skyjack.

"I mean, I was kind of hesitant to the idea of her bringing you here but... maybe it'd be nice to talk to someone who could maybe teach a thing or two to us aliens."

Betamax for once, smiled. Skyjack smiled back, along with giving him a little boop on the nose, giggling at him scrunching up. And Skyjack wasn't alone either. Steve was also found, walking towards the small huddled group as well. He bent down, so he could be a bit more eye to eye with the human.

"I'm a punching bag, but I'm not blind. I'm here if you just need a guy to hang out with," Steve smiled, invisibly.

"And you got me too."

The three Decepticons looked back and watched as Spacewarp was now approaching them. Just like Steve, she took a knee out so she could see him eye to eye.

"Kid, I'm sorry about what I said before. I knew you were hurt, and I didn't help. Forgive me?"

Betamax didn't say anything, but instead, got off of Cyberwarp's lap and started walking to her. He just simply hugged her foot, trying to show his understanding.

"Umm... is that normal, or is he secretly a leech?"

"Its just a hug, Spacewarp."

Spacewarp looked back down. A soft chuckle escaped from behind her mask, and she patted Betamax's head. "Reminds me of Howlback, he was a nice kitty."

Spacewarp waited for a moment or two. Betamax should have gotten off her leg by now. But he didn't. She bent forward to take a closer look, and could only hear the sound of soft snoring.

"Um, Betamax?"

Cyberwarp smiled. "Poor guy must have tuckered out."

She reached for him, carefully picking him up with her fingers. As gentle as a fawn, she cradled him in her arms, and got back up on her feet. She turned around to the small patch of palm trees where their campfire was set up, underneath the shade. But as she and her friends were walking back, they saw something small run away from the patch and towards the Decepticon base. At first, they were alarmed, but they could recognized that charcoal colored skin and white mohawk.

Cyberwarp pushed through some of the trees with her shoulder pads, and stopped. Near the campfire was a beach lounge chair, set up with a pillow and blanket sitting on them. She looked back to see Grubber struggling to get away as fast as he could so he wouldn't be seen, but he knew they saw him. He looked back to see Cyberwarp's smiling face, and gave a nod to her, looking back to the almost bed-like chair. She nodded back, and Grubber rushed away to get back to his own activity.

Her metal digits placed the sleeping child on the bed, and pushed the pillow under his head for comfort. Her fingertips grabbed the blanket, draping it over him to provide some more comfort in the cool air. She patted him, with a sigh of relief.

"I'll protect you Max. I promise."

Next Chapter: Chapter 19: Truth Bombs Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 50 Minutes