The Beauty and the Predacon {ON HOLD}

Chapter 26

As the Autobots look at the screen, they see Megatron's life signal suddenly pop up, "Megatron's life signal."

"So, somewhere in that new body armor, he's still alive?" Arcee asked in disbelief.

Ratchet turns to look at her, "He's perished and returned before. A phenomenon no doubt aided by the blood of Unicron which has coursed through his veins."

"The coordinates indicated he has left Darkmount," Bumblebee points out.

Ratchet turns back to the screen, "Triangulating his exact position."

They all watched as Ratchet brought up Megatron's current position, "We were there, earlier today," Bumblebee says.

"Predaking's refuge?"

"Unicron's retracing our steps?"

"Whoa, hold on," Smokescreen says as he steps forward, "What in Alpha Trion's beard is that?" He asks as they watch a big energy mass form on the screen.

"Seeing as we're dealing with Unicron, the big energy mass can be only one thing, Dark Energon," Ratchet explains, "But for what purpose?"

"We all saw it, the valley was filled with Predacon bones."

"Unicron's raising an undead army." Predaking's not gonna like that. He just cannot catch a break.

Not gonna like what?

Predaking, are you okay?

Of course I am. But I am sorry that you had to feel that pain. Now answer my question.

Unicron is at your refuge and seems to be raising an undead army with the Predacon bones that are there.

I'm gonna kill him! Predaking said as he growled to himself. Arcee could feel his anger and hatred for Unicron through the bond.

"...towards the well of All-Sparks." Arcee hears Ratchet saying as she tunes back into the conversation, "The most direct route to Cybertron's core, and Primus. Unicron clearly seeks to access our planet's core from the same point of entry that we used to restore it."

"No doubt with every intention of undoing our efforts."

"So, what do we do?" Bulkhead asks.

"We put ourselves between Unicron's army and the well," Bumblebee replied, and everyone looked at him with uncertainty. "Our strongest assets are this warship and whatever relics might be stored in its vault."

"Last time I looked, just the polarity gauntlet and the immobilizer," Smokescreen states.

"Hopefully, the genuine article this time," Arcee says, looking at Smokescreen.

"I'll round up the secret weapons," Smokescreen says before walking off.

"Bulkhead, think you can pilot this ship?" Bumblebee asks.

"'Con engineering. User-friendly, right?"

Bumblebee turns to look at Ratchet, "Ratchet, you've given your all to save this world once already."

They drop off Ratchet and Ultra Magnus somewhere safe before flying off to meet Unicron's army of the undead.

~~~~~~~~~~

As they're flying towards their destination, Bumblebee checks the weapons of the ship. "Primary fusion cannons, null rays, ion blasters, everything we need to stand a fighting chance against Unicron's army."

"'Bee, in case I never get another chance to say this, you've really proved your metal."

"I'd like to think my actions always spoke louder than my words, Arcee. But it didn't hurt to watch and learn from the best."