Sunset struggled to get her mech to rise up once again, but was having much difficulty doing so. She hadn't driven it for so long that it was locking up some of the servos and just moving plain slow.

"Come on, come on..." Sunset begged. "Please, don't die on me now, Phoenix..."

With one final push, the mech got itself back up on its feet again. Her heart started to pound as she looked all around her. Fighting everywhere, Decepticons and Autobots engaging in one on one, two on one, so many fights to count!

Bumblebee swerved around in car mode, as a pair of machine guns popped from the top of his hood. The guns locked on and fired multiple shots towards a gray muscle car that was racing towards him. One that looked incredibly new out of all the Decepticons they saw.

"Who's the new guy?" Bumblebee asked as he transformed, jumping mid-air. He jumped over the car and landed on his feet.

"Maybe he's just another dronnnneee! OW!" Sunstreaker yelled as he was thrown right past Bumblebee.

The muscle car sat idly, it's engine humming with power. But what surprised them was the strange voice that started bellowing at them like a madman. "The roads belong to me now! Now clear it, or taste the heatseekers!" A pair of heat-seeking missiles whipped up from the top of the hood, ready to fire.

Bumblebee's eyes sunk. "Uh... what?"

Before the car attacked, Jazz slammed right into its side, pushing it away from Bumblebee. Jazz transformed and held a fighting stance, holding a gun up.

"Who is this glitch-head anyway?" Jazz asked.

"I don't know but whoever he is, he looks like he's got Heatseeker's heatseeking missile power."

"Who said he looked like it?" The car snarled. The vehicle transformed and revealed his true form. The Decepticon shared a similar body-type and design to Slashmark's, only having a different change of color. Dark grays and reds and purples all around. "You're trespassing, Autobots. We've claimed this spot for our chief! So get out and never come back!"

Jazz rolled his eyes underneath his visor. "If you wanted Energon, why did you have to kick all the humans out of their work?"

Heatseeker smirked. "Because we don't need an audience." His arms raised up, pointed at Bumblebee and Jazz, and twin missiles opened up from both arms. The two Autobots gulped, realizing what was about to happen. Upon instinct, the two of them transformed and raced as fast as they could, just as Heatseeker fired missiles towards them, intent on blowing them both to smithereens.

Sour Sweet was enjoying shooting everyone around her on Mohawk's back. A little too much.

"Yeah, how do you like that glitches!? Here's a daily dose of Screw You!" Sour cackled as she shot another Vehicon with the arrows.

But as Mohawk made another spin, Shatter's leg came hurling and kicked the motorcycle Con, throwing Sour off of Mohawk and on her back. She yelped from the pain, and watched as poor Mohawk was kicked again, tossed up into the air. The motorcycle grinded against the ground until it flipped itself around, converting back into Mohawk again.

"Alright, now I'm pissed!" Mohawk hissed.

But Mohawk wasn't going to have his chance to slash at Shatter's legs. Bludgeon was driving up, trying to shoot at the mini Decepticon in tank form. He transformed, towering over the fallen Sour and Mohawk.

"Come here, I just wanna tear your face off!"

Bludgeon smirked, moving his arms to grab his swords, only he crossed them over one another. Then with both arms moving at once, clutching his weapons, he made his move. The sharp blades came close together as they slashed right through the middle of Mohawk's body. The slice cut right at the center, separating his legs and upper torso apart. And while he was still in the air being split in half, Bludgeon swung again and slashed at Mohawk's head, permanently finishing him.

With his body laying on the ground in ruins, Bludgeon chuckled before putting his blades away. "And that is why they call me Bludgeon. Now what to do with you?"

Sour tried to crawl away, knowing that she wasn't able to run. But as Bludgeon kneed down so he could grab her, a single shot of a cannon hit his back, knocking him out. Sour turned her head and watched as a cheer of victory raced by in a colorful half-track.

"Whoo-hoo!" Pinkie Pie cheered. "First try!"

"Nice going, Pinkie!" Rainbow cheered as well, racing past Sour.

Sour watched Pinkie race by her and scoffed, crossing her arms. "Showoff."

More vehicles raced by, all huddled together as they ran into the battlefield. The helicopter that hovered above started to transform, rolling into a mech with light yellow colors and pink tinted glass.

"Come on!"

The rest of the cars and trucks transformed, all turning into the mechs in a collaborative manner. Their feet shook the ground as they charged for battle.

"Who are we fighting this time?" Fluttershy asked as they ran.

"I don't know. Escaped prisoners mostly, including a samurai, an unstable patient from a mental asylum, two triple-changers, and Sonata as a Decepticon," Rainbow joked.

"If we did see those Dazzlings again, I imagine it probably wouldn't be on good terms," Rarity reminded them.

As they raced into the fight, all of them came to a screeching halt as they saw the scene before their eyes. They could see plenty of Decepticons they hadn't seen before, but what surprised them more were the familiar beasts that were trying to kill their allies.

"What's with the Terrorcons? Weren't they gone with Megatron?" Pinkie Pie asked.

"Unless they along with Megatron himself decided to turn around and high-tail back," Applejack gulped.

"No, definitely not Megatron!" Sunset grunted as she clinged onto Blackout who was in helicopter mode. "Get out of those suits! AAAH!"

Blackout's vehicle mode swung around until Sunset was thrown up into the air and crashed right into one of the main buildings of the refinery.

"Hey! You think we're going to let our best friend get hurt!?" Rainbow Dash asked before firing at the Decepticon.

"How about you come down and fight like a real Deceptcon!?" Rarity stuck up her dukes.

"Whoop, look out, Terrorcon!"

Blot jumped, ready to tackle them to the ground, but was met with Applejack swinging a fist at his face, slamming his body to the ground. He pulled himself back, finding himself standing closeby to Hun-Gurr.

"Should we release our ultimate weapon too?" Sinnertwin asked.

"Yes... Terrorcons! Form on me!"

The girls sunk in their suits.

"Oh no. I think I know what happens next," Fluttershy quivered.

Cutthroat and Sinnertwin started to converge, transforming into their beast modes. But to everyone's surprise, they didn't just stay there. The beasts began to transform and changed shape into a pair of legs. The legs slammed into the ground, hoisted up by their own power.

Hun-Gurr transformed and he slammed on top of the legs, forming a chest and torso piece. Then Blot and Rippersnapper flew up and hooked onto the sides of Hun-Gurr's body. A head formed at the top of the base of Hun-Gurr's body, a head with horns and a red visor. An enormous growl escaped it's mouth as it gazed down to the Autobots.

"Abominus... returns once again!" Abominus gasped and roared.

The Autobots below looked up in horror at the Gestalt. Bad enough they were fighting Decepticon fugitives, but now the Terrorcons were part of that equation? And worse, none of them had their own combiner teams around; The Rust Renegades were dead, and the Protectobots and Aerialbots had quit the team

"Girls? I think you know what we have to do."

"Release our big guy up against that big guy?" Rainbow Dash smirked.

"Yea-haw! Now that's what I'm talkin' about!" Applejack hollered.

"Girls! Transform into Magicus!"

Rarity and Applejack ran first, both of their mechs transformed into vehicular modes. The two cars then started to transform, shifting parts around until they both formed a pair of legs. Pinkie Pie's half-track rolled up and transformed as well, zipping up into the air and transforming on top of the legs and forming a torso. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy's mechs transformed into their flight modes and both started to converge into arms. Soon both pieces slammed into the sides at the top of the transformed half-track, with hands unfolding. The last piece was Twilight's mech which slammed at the top of Pinkie Pie's, forming some shoulders and a head transforming in place; a purple head with horns and a battle mask in place.

"I live once again!!!"

Abominus roared with fury. "I will rip you apart!"

"Not if my will is strong enough!" Magicus raised her sword, standing in a fighting position.

Abominus charged first and threw the first swing, Magicus moved to block his blade. Abominus readied to swing again, but Magicus swooped her fist underneath and punched him in the chin, pushing him back. Then with her chance open, she started to punch Abominus non-stop, driving her fists into his chest, shoulders, face, anywhere she could strike.

The Gestalt moaned from the punches, feeling Magicus's steel fists punching him away. Magicus reached for her sword again, ready to make the strike but Abominus moved just in time, grabbing both of her wrists, keeping her from making the strike.

"Not this time..."

Magicus tried to move, trying to move her fists to overcome Abominus's strength. But every ounce of effort she pushed had nothing. She couldn't get herself to fight back.

"Come on, come on, fight back!" Rainbow panicked inside of the transformed mech. "We kicked his butt before!"

"Um, Rainbow Dash? Remember when Sunset said that these mechs were out of date?" Fluttershy asked.

"Yeah why?"

"Um..."

At that very moment, Abominus tore off Magicus's left hand from her wrist, throwing it up in the air and letting it slam onto the ground behind them. The former Rainbooms watched as a part of their mech came off, all eyes sunk into their sockets

"... Oh scrap."

Abominus couldn't help but smirk as he threw his attack back at his opponent. Magicus raised her handless arm up to block, but it was no use against Abominus's strength. His punch came a lot harder than before, so much so that it almost made Magicus fall. She threw a foot back to keep herself from falling, as Abominus pushed his dagger against her throat. Magicus tried to push back, but she was having no luck. Abominus was stronger than ever, and the mechs weren't holding together well.

"Keep it together ya'll, we can take him!"

"Oh, Applejack, I don't think we can hold him!" Rarity cried.

Abominus pushed Magicus up even more, making her finally collapse onto the ground, pinned down. He raised his weapon up, ready to strike for the main core of the Combiner. But just as he was about to make the shot--

"You overgrown cosmic clutz! I will crush you into scrap metal when you are done!"

A dose of missiles impacted against Abominus's chest, creating some light damage. He looked up, and swatted his hand at Blitzwing who dodged his attack.

"Nice shootin'," Nitro chuckled as he launched some missiles of his own.

"Yes, if you want to piss him off! Lets make him so mad he'll have to attend anger management! Hahaha!!!"

Abominus was back up on his own two feet as he tried to wipe Blitzwing and Nitro out of the air, while the girls watched in their damaged Gestalt.

"What are they doing?" Rarity panicked.

"They're buying us some time, come on, lets get back up!" Twilight ordered.

"But this mech's falling apart," Applejack pointed out.

"Wait! I have an idea!"

"Yes?"

"What is it?"

"Tell us!"

"When we had these mechs built, didn't we have detonation mechanisms installed?"

"You mean the flashy buttons that say 'self-destruct?'"

"Yes, yes, that! What if we charged them long enough to crash into Abominus, and when the time comes, they all well detonate upon the impact? I mean, it's not much, but..."

"It sounds risky, but at this point, we can't keep fighting. Everyone, separate!"

All of the parts of Magicus separated back into the vehicles again. Nitro and Blitzwing were still hovering around Abominus but he now he was raging mad. With a single hand, he deflected another incoming missle and slapped Nitro out of the air, making him spin out of control. Blitzwing went spinning too, now both planes were out of the sky. The Terrorcon Combiner peeked back, and a gaze of disarray was on his lips.

All of their vehicles were booting to crash into the giant with soul intent of making him fall.

"This mech will self-destruct in 5. 4--"

"Time to bail out!" Rainbow called as she performed a tuck and roll out of her car, watching it continue to speed at Abominus's foot. As soon as it got close enough, the car exploded in a fiery inferno against his leg, creating an impact.

Abominus roared from the slam, making his foot take a step back.

"That's it, harder!"

Pinkie Pie tucked and rolled out of her half-track as tumbled over a few rocks, making it bounce up and explode the moment it was touching Abominus's left foot. Applejack and Rarity's cars came too, ready to end it. As the fashionista and apple farmer came out running for their lives. Just in time too, as both of their cars blew up in smoke, making them both duck and cover from the impact and covered their heads, bracing for the impact.

Twilight Sparkle however had an idea. As quick as she could, she drove her truck as fast as possible so it would charge in between Abominus's legs. Just like the others, she jumped out before it was too late. She grunted as she rolled around from the crash, not used to jumping out of cars to save her own life.

Looking back, she watched as her mech blew up too, making Abominus's legs wobble and shake, like he was about to fall.

"Come on, come on..." Twilight pleaded.

Abominus began to fumble from the explosion under his feet, the ground shaking underneath him. Fluttershy's helicopter hovered closer, ready to crash.

"Girls, I don't know, I don't know if I can survive a jump from this high!" Fluttershy panicked.

"It's okay, we're gonna move to catch you!"

"Leave that to us!" Jazz shouted.

"Jazz?"

"And Bumblebee! And if you don't mind, maybe we can offer Abominus some heat-seeking missiles while we're at it!"

"Be our guest!" Pinkie chirped.

Fluttershy gulped, realizing how much danger this was. But with no other choice, she mustered up the courage to jump and jumped out of her helicopter, still set for impact. As Fluttershy screamed from hurling in the air, she could see down below where Bumblebee and Jazz were... still being chased by Heatseeker's missiles.

"Hang on!" Bumblebee called. "Okay, lets hope this still works!"

Bumblebee transformed in mid-drive, performing a roll and run as he did so. From behind his back, opening up were a pair of rocket boosters, rockets that Bumblebee hadn't used in a long time.

"And... BLAST OFF!"

The rockets ignited and Bumblebee came rocketing up into the air, blasting off to catch Fluttershy. With a quick swoop of his hands, he clutched her just as she was falling for life. Fluttershy's screaming was still continuing, however it quickly calmed down realizing that she was in Bumblebee's hands.

"Ahhhh!--oh. Hi," Fluttershy innocently waved.

Bumblebee giggled. "Okay Jazz, now!"

"Got it, Bee!"

Jazz spun around, luring one of the heat-seeking missiles to follow his direction. He raced towards Abominus's leg as he was fumbling about, trying to stop himself from falling. Once the time was right, Jazz jumped out of the way and the missile penetrated Abominus's left leg, creating a bigger explosion than before.

"Starting a fireworks festival up there?" Wheeljack asked over the communications.

"Yep, love it!" Jazz quipped.

As Bumblebee flew in the air, the guided missile that was after him on the ground started to give chase up in the air. And just like the others, he turned to focus on Abominus's chest, praying that the missile would focus on him. And low and behold, the projectile was honing on Abominus's spark, now leaving Bumblebee's heat trail.

The last projectile was enough to damage Abominus, officially making him lose all control. His feet slipped and he started to fall off the cliff he had been pushed back against. Out of control, he fell off the edge and tumbled down the cliff, splitting up into the five Terrorcon components who were all covered in battle scars and scrapes.

The girls gathered around, watching the Terrorcons lay about, defeated from their fight.

"Whoo-hoo! Take that, Terrorcons!" Rainbow Dash gloated.

"Now that's how you take care of a little pest," Rarity patted her hands, wiping the dust off of them. "Now lets go kick some motherboards!"

The girls surfed down the cliff, with Jazz speeding right behind them, ready to join the fight. All of them screamed with the roars of the battle, hand-held weapons at their sides and ready for action.

---

As the battle continued on, everyone screamingat the top of their lungs, bashing each other and trying to one up another... Spacewarp just sat on the edge of a cliff, humming, watching them fight. A small box rested on her thighs, filled with Energon chips. She took a few and slid them down the front of her mask, munching on them with delight.

"Soo... you're not gonna go down and fight?" Steve asked, sitting next to her.

"Nope. Not my war, not my fight. Besides, my ego only stretches to stealing shit. I can kick some aft, but no way I'm stepping in that ugly mess," she said, munching on another chip. "Want some?"

"No thanks, its okay. Just ate some rocks from the skydive," Steve said, paying more attention to the fight. Spacewarp just chewed on another chip.

"How much you wanna bet the Autobots will kick their butts?"

Sideswipe was seen slamming into the cliff where she and Steve sat on, before watching him fall straight back down, tumbling down.

"I think the Decepticons win this round."

"Where's my gun!?"

Spacewarp and Steve ducked as a long ranged rifle was thrown in the air and thrown right past their heads.

"Did everyone go dipping themselves in motor oil before setting off on this quest?"

Spacewarp watched as poor Bluestreak and Arcee slipped over a vat of oil before slipping and sliding into their own teammates like bowling balls.

"Do you really want me to answer that question?"

A few minutes went by and nothing was really happening. No one was winning, and as far as Spacewarp could see, they were just beating the crap out of each other.

Steve stood up and pulled out a small device that was attached to his hip. The device was a small tracker, with a few glowing blue dots on the screen.

"Found something?"

"I'm not sure... I think there's an Energon deposit under us."

"I did see a cave under this cliff. Maybe there's a ton of Energon that can be mined," Spacewarp observed.

Steve looked back at the fight, watching everyone. Then back down at the tracker.

"Lets see... go out into a battle field with a 100% chance of being slaughtered, or go into a cave and look for some Energon. I think I'm going to take my chances in the mineshaft."

"Whatever floats your boat," Spacewarp shrugged, chewing on another chip. "I think I'm just going to see how this unfolds, let you know what happens."

And with that, Steve started to take a few steps back from Spacewarp. At first she was confused as to why he was taking so many steps behind her when there was a perfectly nice path that just descended down nice and easy. Spacewarp quickly put all the puzzle pieces together when Steve started to sprint and run. He jumped off the cliff in a spread eagle formation, and screamed as he dived. Spacewarp looked down, watching him fall.

But to Steve's luck, his body came crashing down on top of another Autobot who was trying to recover from being pummeled. The Autobot groaned as Steve crashed on him, and poor Steve tried to roll off his body in agony.

"Sorry Grapple..." Steve moaned, throwing himself up to try and get back up. Eventually he got back up on his feet and brushed off the sand on his body. "Oh, that's, um... that's gonna buff out, just wait." He stepped over his body, and immediately dashed for the inside of the cave, avoiding the few gunshots that were almost close to home with his spark.

When he stepped inside the cave, a few headlights from his chest turned on, providing him some light inside the cave. His footsteps echoed as he walked, the sound of heel to toe hitting his audio receptors. The tracker beeped rapidly as he kept swaying it around, trying to find strong sources of energy.

As he turned the tracker to the left, the tracker beeped more rapidly than ever. Sticking out of the wall was a shard of Energon crystals. Steve reached over and pulled one out of the wall, clutching it in his grasp. But one look up was all it took for him to drop the tracker.

"Wait a minute..." Steve gasped.

When he turned a light into another cavern, he saw a wide array of Energon crystals glowing in the dark. But the bigger surprise was the stasis pod laying against the wall. It was badly damaged, and it looked like it had crashed through the top, as some light from the top. It looked like it had been there for some time, with the ashes and rocks laying around and on it.

"What do we have here?"

Steve took a few steps forward, trying to get a better look. He grabbed some of the rocks and threw them off, trying to get the stasis pod clear from the rubble. His claw wiped at the glass, clearing away some of the ashes. Pushing his face against the glass, his visor gazed inside. A small white cassette looking device was inside the pod. Just big enough for him to hold in his arms like a cat.

"Either we have a Cassetticon, or I'm going to die."

Tempting fate, he pressed the button on the stasis cell, starting to open it up. Then with all the bravery AKA fear he had, he jumped behind a pile of rock, taking cover just in case whoever came inside. Steam hissed from the stasis pod as it opened up, like someone had just opened up a freezer. A soft growl accompanied the hiss, just audible enough for Steve to hear it.

A small white panther looking creature came crawling out of the pod. Steve looked carefully, but from what he saw, it didn't seem like the panther was aligned. In fact, there was no sight of a marking; Autobot or Decepticon. All he could see was the panther looked as if it's eyes were yellow, a small medical red plus was near it's head, right where chest fluff would be on a lion, and a pair of rockets mounted on the hips.

The panther stumbled out of the pod, a soft growl escaping its maw. It looked around, trying to see where it was. It didn't look like Cybertron. Not even the moons! Not that Cybertron had any moons left, since both of them were long gone now.

"Whoa..." Steve gasped. "A Cassette Warrior..."

Carefully, he emerged from behind the rock, standing in the cave doorway. The panther looked at Steve, and it stopped in its tracks. It hunched up, backing up from the unknown figure, growling.

"Easy... it's okay. I'm not here to hurt you," Steve said, raising his hands up. "I just wanted to see who was in the pod, buddy."

Steve took one step forward, eliciting a louder growl.

"It's okay," Steve stopped, keeping his hands up.

The panther continued to growl some more, almost sounding like an engine of a motorcycle.

"You don't like Decepticons, do you?" Still no reply other than animal anger sounds. "Yeah, me too. Look... just to show you I'm not going to harm you..."

Steve reached behind his back, making the animal stand in a pouncing position. The rockets placed on its hips started to unwind and unload, pointing at Steve.

"Whoa, whoa! Calm down!"

Steve waited for the animal to calm down, but it didn't. But Steve knew why.

"It's okay kitty... it's going to be okay..."

Steve clutched the Energon crystal he found on the wall, carefully setting it down on the ground in front of the panther. Then as careful as he could, he kneeled down, until he was down on just his knees so he could face the panther eye to eye.

The panther waited for Steve to make a move. Any move. Was he going to make an attack, or strike? But wait... Energon. The Cassette Warrior's head lowered down, staring at the big shard that was offered to him. One paw raised up, and took a step. And then another paw. And then another paw, until he found himself slowly moving up to the faceless Vehicon.

The animal sniffed the Energon spike, and used its fangs to take a sharp bite out of the shard, breaking it apart. It's jaw lowered, and grabbed a piece, chewing on it like a piece of food. And now he was no logner on all fours, and instead sat up like a normal housecat, hind legs down, head up straight.

"That's it..." Steve broke off another Energon piece, and extended his fingers out, offering the piece to the panther again. It's head moved forward, sniffing Steve's three-fingered hand. And with quick moving, it took the piece of Energon from his hand, eating it.

With a single gulp, the animal finished the Energon piece, smacking its lips. Steve still had his hand out, trying to be friendly to the panther. The panther looked down at his palm, and then back up at Steve. He sniffed his palm, sniffing it for a moment or two. But he sensed no real danger.

His silver tongue licked at Steve's palm, making him chuckle a bit. And without hesitation, he allowed Steve to move his hand up and pet the top of the panther's head.

"Good kitty, good kitty... hey, what were you doing in that pod anyway?"

The panther stared up at Steve, letting out a growl of anger.

"Um... I'm not sure I understand, I... wait. Can you understand me?"

The cat's head nodded once. While it wasn't visible, Steve was smiling inside.

"That's great! Nice to meet you, I'm... I'm Steve. What's your name?"

The Cassette Warrior let out another growl.

"Um... I'm not sure, do you...?"

The panther rolled it's eyes and tilted it's neck around. Steve was confused at first until he could see a few small Cybertronian symbols, embedded near it's neck like a collar. Steve's visor hummed as he slowly read the symbols.

"Glit. Is that your name, Glit?"

Glit nodded.

"Oh, well, great. Nice to meet you Glit," He offered a hand out again, this time getting the panther's paw out to shake hands with him. "So, I understand maybe you're a bit confused, and maybe scared."

Glit nodded again.

"That's okay. I'm not going to hurt you, I don't even want to hurt anyone. But I..." Steve droned off until he looked down at one of Glit's paws. His left paw looked badly hurt, scratched even. Like he was bitten and attacked by another panther his size. "Oh buddy... did someone hurt you?"

Glit shamefully lowered his head, growling softly.

"I'm sorry buddy," Steve sympathized, patting it's head. "Hey. Tell you what. If you come with me... I can find someone to help you. My friend, Spacewarp, she knows a thing or two when it comes to animal care. What do you say?"

Glit purred from the patting, and stared right up at Steve's visor. A soft purr accompanied by a nod followed, making a non-visible smile come from Steve.

"Great!" Steve's hands clapped. "So, now what to do..."

Glit slowly stood back up on his feet, and stretched like a cat waking up from a nap. Looking down, Steve watched as Glit slowly began to transform. It formed a cassette tape, much like the warriors belonging to Soundwave and Blaster. But this tape did something else. It started to hover into the air, in front of Steve, and then it slammed straight into Steve's chest like a piece returning to his body.

"Oof!"

Steve looked down, noticing the Cassette warrior transform on top of him, almost like a new piece of armor in a way. And in the center where there was no logo, a Decepticon logo flashed in its place.

"So, I guess this means you want to stay with me then?"

No reply.

"Eh, I'll take that as a yes. Lets go little buddy."

Steve turned around and started to walk out of the cave with a smile non-existent on his face. It turned out after all that coming here wasn't such a bad idea. Sure he almost died from a skydive and was brought into a fight he didn't want to be a part of, but at least something good came out of it.

---

Sunset Shimmer was struggling to get her mech to stand back up ever since Blackout tossed her into the air. Still not functioning properly, and now she was starting to fear that it might shut down for good if she couldn't get it up.

"Come on, come on..." Sunset delivered a swift kick, finally getting it to work once again. Pulling herself up, she dusted the debris from off her mech as she looked around. She could still hear the fighting outside, but the inside of the refinery looked like a whole new world. There weren't any workers nearby, no one. It looked more like a ghost town than it was a functioning facility.

The sound of scraping metal caught her attention, and she rapidly spun around, trying to find the source. She stopped moving when she heard the sound of clanking feet. She turned her head, and right there in front of her was the damaged, broken, walking husk of Pyra Magna. It felt like a bell toll ringing in her ears when she saw her emerging from the dark.

“Pyra Magna… so it’s true. You are the one leading these Decepticons. What happened to you, why are you doing all of this?”

Pyra Magna’s head tilted a bit, eyeing Sunset’s mech. She didn’t say a word, and only smirked devilishly.

“Pyra, what’s wrong? Listen, I don’t want to hurt you, please, I just want to help you…”

But the smile on the former Autobot’s face vanished, and a cold scowl revealed. “Funny, you didn’t help when I needed it…”

Sunset’s heart sank. “You’re not Pyra Magna…”

"But you are Sunset Shimmer," Tempest smirked. "Still siding yourself with the Autobots after all these years I see."

"How do you know my name?" Sunset gulped. Sweat was starting to form on her forehead and her skin turn clammy.

"You really don't remember, do you?" Tempest scowled. "Shame. For you, that is. Especially for this!"

Tempest punched Sunset's face, and with her fists up and relaxed, she performed a jackhammer punch attack against Sunset's chest, trying to beat the mech up. Sunset raised up her arms, but Tempest worked past her blocks by striking the gut of the mech. Tempest did not hold back anything, she threw everything she had at Sunset.

Sunset panicked and struggled inside of the Headmaster unit, trying to get the mech to fight back.

"Alert. Alert. System malfunction. System malf--"

"I know it's malfunctioning!"

One final punch was enough for Sunset's mech to come crashing down again. But there was no getting back up. All systems shut down, with the sounds of whining down engines. Sunset only panicked even more.

"Having trouble with your mech? Don't worry, I can make it into something new," Tempest said, pointing some cannons at the head. A whining sound of power charging up was coming from the cannon, powering up as she was about to decimate the suit's head. Her eyes locked on, ready to finally finish the job--

"Tempest. We have the Energon we need," A Vehicon called on the communication line.

Tempest stopped for a moment, and she moved her arm away, letting the gun die down. The head of Pyra tilted to the side, answering the call. "Understood. Contact all Decepticons to break off the attack. We're leaving." She then smirked at Sunset. "Goodbye Sunset. Til we meet again," Tempest said before her suit transformed into firetruck mode. Screeching against the ground, she pushed through the open wall that had been slammed open, racing outside.

The Headmaster unit transformed, removing itself from the fallen mech. Sunset, now back on her feet watched as Tempest left. Scurrying as fast as she could, she pushed her way out of the debris to try and see where she was going.

By the time she made it outside, all of the Decepticons were seen fleeing the area, with truckloads of fresh Energon cubes collected and in their hands. Well... not all of them were leaving. Thunderblast tried to transform but winded up crashing back down. With the lack of wings, she couldn't take off for flight. She crawled on the ground, trying to get back up, but she just couldn't muster the strength to take off. Nitro Zeus dropping her sliced wings on the ground emphasized the point even more.

"No, no, no! Come on..." She begged.

Steve wasted no time running outside of the cave, dashing away from the Autobots to join the rest of the retreating Decepticons. But as soon as he started to run outside, the entire field quickly turned quiet, as all Autobot eyes focused on him. Everyone looked at him with some confusion as he ran out in the open, running like a penguin.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I'm out of here! This was a slaughter, I'm flying away!" Steve panicked.

Steve threw himself up into the air, arms spread like eagle wings but his body slammed back on the ground with a hard thud. He did not take off, he only collapsed in utter failure.

"I can't fly! What's wrong with my wings!?"

Tracks shook his head in confusion. "He doesn't even have wings, how is he...???"

He scrambled to crawl back up on his feet and just kept running around like a chicken with it's head cut off. Arms flailed as he ran up the pathway to the top of the cliff, running for dear life.

"Steve, wait! Please!" Thunderblast pleaded.

"It's a slaughter Thunder, they won the war!"

"Please!!!"

"Sucks to be you, gotta go!" Steve transformed into his car mode and drove away from sight, making it to the top of the cliff and driving off to join the rest of the departing Decepticons. Thunderblast raised a hand up, silently pleading for them to turn back to save her. But she knew it was too late.

A high pitch squeal emitted when Blitzwing jammed a sword down on the ground, almost a few centimeters close to her head. When she looked back, she was starting to become surrounded by the Autobots who were less than happy.

"You and your team went through a lot of trouble to try and attack us," Sunset said standing before her. "Now I'm going to play this nicely, but if you don't tell us what we want, we may have to resort to extreme measures."

"When she gives a warning, she doesn't repeat it," Rarity warned.

So tell us..." Sunset leaned in closer with an intense glare. "What are the Decepticons planning?"

Thunderblast gulped as she tried to crawl back from the blades. "No, I can't say anything!"

"Thunderblast. Tell us what we want to know, where did they go?" Rainbow sternly said.

"No! I can't!"

"Wrong answer..." Nitro growled. "We know your friends went somewhere. Tell us where they're going, and we might let you live."

"No! It's for the glory of the First! I won't speak!"

Nitro chuckled as he started to walk around her. "You know something... I actually liked you. You're young, sweet, you were actually kinda nice to me when I first met. Even for me of all Cons, me, Shockwave's brother. I can get you what you want..." Nitro kneed down and whispered into her ear with a few clicks of his mandibles. "All you have to do is just tell me. Just one little word that says it all..."

Thunderblast felt a bit squeamish from having his insect-like face so close to her head. It wasn't a feeling she was completely okay with.

"Never..."

Nitro huffed. "Shame. You know something girl... you're brave. And you deserve a better death," Nitro said, grabbing her head, yanking her back so she could peer at his cold souless eye. "But your Cons killed my Cons..." He let go of her head and stood in front of her with a loaded weapon.

"Nitro, wait, what are you doing?" Twilight asked with some worry.

"Nitro, don't even think about it..."

"This isn't going to bring back Mohawk, or any of them!" Arcee pleaded.

Nitro stopped. He turned around to look at his worried comrades who were giving him the most concerned but still stable faces. His singular eye swiveled around, observing them all. And then he looked back to Rigs who stood, still trying to hold onto his arm which was badly wounded. Then back to Thunderblast who was still trying to crawl away.

"I know it won't bring them back. But then again..." Nitro raised up his weapon.

"Nitro, no!"

The single round of gunfire echoed in the skies, turning into eerie silence. The sounds died all around, and not another word was spoken.

Next Chapter: Chapter 23: Old Friends And Memories Estimated time remaining: 41 Minutes