Nemesis Intruder (transformers)

chapter 16: you had a nice life...

October 27th, 5:47 PM.

"Flipsides! Get back!" Max heard the synthesized roar of the cyber-panther as she frantically ran down the barren hall. Despite the speed and agility of Ravage however, Max managed to get to the Groundbridge room, where currently Soundwave was standing.

"S-Soundwave!" Max spoke in a panicked yelp as she grabbed onto Soundwave's uniform and clung onto it like a baby monkey, Ravage immediately halted, maw partially hung open in shock.

The Groundbridge room was quiet, with its steel walls and cold metallic floor, there was a slight echo to the room as if it was a sealed off vacuum chamber. The only thing of note was, of course, the Groundbridge, and then the little side room off to the side that monitored Groundbridge related activities. Soundwave himself was standing next to the control panel, tinkering with the device's coordinates.

He took a glance down at Max, before shifting his gaze up to Ravage, then back down to the child. Ravage slowly padded towards Max, with the intention of prying her off, but Soundwave stopped them, gesturing for Ravage to back off, just a bit.

"m-Flipsides..." Soundwave began as he gently placed a servo on Max's shoulder. "You are prohibited to follow me into the Groundbridge room, is there a good reason for this?" The mech tried to keep his voice a little less stern when talking to the human child, gentle enough to not make her scared, but stern enough to get his point across. Max nodded into Soundwaves uniform before raising her head.

Tears flowed down her visor. If she were to take it off, Soundwave would be greeted with red, watery eyes. "I know, I know, but I don't wanna stay with Soundblaster..." Max pleaded, her words a little muddled at the end as her hands continued their merciless grip onto Soundwaves uniform. "Do you have to go?"

Soundwave held some empathy for Max, just a little. It reminded him of when the other cassettes were a lot... younger, with how they used to plead with him not to leave whenever he had to do any fieldwork. It was a little... endearing in a way.

The mech bent his torso down, waving away Ravage for privacy. Gently, he cupped Max's face, brushing the tears out from under her visor.

"I... know...but, if it makes you feel any better, I'll send Ravage a message to have them stand by your side while I'm out, ok?" Max nodded softly, a slight quiver in her lip. Soundwave sighed quietly before getting up, dusting his uniform off. "Try not to follow me into the Groundbridge room again, at least not without my permission, Understand? It's not safe, the Groundbridge is very unstable and I don't want you to get hurt." Soundwave spoke softly as Ravage padded back into the room, gently biting the sleeve of Max's uniform, guiding her back, away from the Groundbridge as it began to active.

Max gave one last look at Soundwave, before waving goodbye, and leaving. Just before it began to fully activate.

And encompass Soundwave whole.


.................
"Hey Flippy, wanna play...uh.... "MO-NO-POLY?" Squawktalk cawed as Max entered SoundBlaster's room. Although she didn't exactly remember her last time in the room, for better or worse, she did recall how the room has this nauseating feeling.

The walls seemed to be a dark purple with a sort of red ambient light. Disassembled junk laid about the room; gears, hinge-joints and other miscellaneous parts. But aside from the sight, was the smell, which was an odd mixture of flesh-y and metallic odors.

However, thankfully, one thing wasn't noticeable, the sound. As Rumble recalled "had bots screaming every klik". To Max's ease, no screams were heard, only just a sickening buzzing noise.


Max stood over by Ravage, the panther's segmented tail joints circled protectively around her.

Max nervously glanced over at Ravage, who in turn peaked a small optic at her, before closing their eyes again. Max didn't know much about cats, so she assumed that they were possibly trying to sleep.

"Hey Flippy, you hear what I said?" Squawktalk asked, Max looked over at him and shook her head.

"Oh, no... no I'm fine..." Max responded, not sure if she even really could move with Ravage surrounding her. Squawktalk cawed again.

"Oh well, Rumble. Stop dodging the fr-"

"BAWK!" Lazerbeak interrupted.

"Hey chatty, don't you go throwing around that language near Flippy or else I'm telling the boss, got it?" Lazerbeak screeched from the tip of a chair that Soundblaster sat on, a large-accommodating lounge chair covered in leather from some eldritch space creature.

Squawktalk mumbled a few things before Lazerbeak flicked her attention back to Soundblaster, Buzzsaw sat by her side, dozing off as it seemed. The two seemed to be certainly having a "conversation" although it was more passive-aggressive on Lazerbeak's end.

Back to Squawktalk; them, Rumble, Frenzy, Wingthing and Ratbat were all circled around the human board game, MO-NO-POLY (as Squawktalk called it). Rumble trying to underhand the money and Frenzy arguing with Wingthing over who got the cow.

All this, left Max. "In the clutches of the beast" one might say. Ravage was curled up in a loaf position with their optics closed, neck relaxed, and the tip of their tail curled slightly. Max sat awkwardly in their tails grasp, afraid of making some sudden movement that might set the cyber-panther off, somehow.

With not much else to entertain Max, she tried looking around for any sort of device to keep her entertained.

Her options, as one might imagine, were limited...

There was a shard of metal to the left of her foot, a slip of some plastic looking material a bit further and what looked to be a miniscule metal pipe on the side. Max sighed, resting her head on the table sideboard behind her.

"Well... hello Flipside..." Max tensed up upon hearing those exact words, snapping her head towards him.

Soundblaster...

The bot sat on his lounge chair, located to Max's side. He leaned over on his armrest, which made a creak under his weight.

"So... ya Soundwave's new cassette?" Soundblaster rested his helm on his servo, optic gazed down upon Max.

"Yeah, their name's Flipsides, right Flippy?" Lazerbeak interjected, shooting a stare at Max.

"Uh...ye-yeah." Max sputtered out in haste; SoundBlaster's visor seemed to flicker with intrigue.

"Huh? I didn't know Soundwave had another cassette, a bit strange honestly, it's like he's hiding something..." the words made Max's eye go a little wide, although she knew that Soundblaster already knew who she was, after all... he did kidnap her during her first week here.

Sounblaster lets out another hearty chuckle, making Max's spine tingle like a spider walking up her skin. "Although, not sure why Soundwave wanted another pink one after what happened last time" that last bit made Max pause, pink one?

Max shot a quick glance around the room, none of Soundwave's current cassettes were even remotely pink, Ratbat maybe, but even then, he was more purple than anything...

Before Max had the chance to ask Soundblaster what he meant Lazerbeak spoke up. "Ok screw-head, stop messing with the newbies head, Buzz-boy back me up here" Lazerbeak squawked as she thwacked the back of Buzzsaw's back, making him wake up with a stutter, this, for the most part seemed to draw SoundBlaster's attention away.

Max looked back down and noticed that Ravage was shooting death-glares at the mech, before looking back at Max. "Ignore what he says, it's not worth mulling over...'' Ravage spoke, before resting their head and closing their optics. Max tried to heed Ravage, but as you can imagine... it was proving... difficult...


..................

"Primus dammit! Why did I even buy the Trump Tower?! Nobody ever goes there!" Squawktalk cawed as they threw paper money everywhere, the game by this point had been going on for about... Two hours? Max herself wasn't exactly sure, she had fallen... asleep.

"Hah! Birdbrain can't make any good financial decisions!" Rumble teased.

"I'll turn you into a financial decision you New Orleans casino owner" the cyber-bird cawed, throwing the little figures all over the place, wings fluttering as his chest puffed out.

"And I'll gamble you, off to the tourists!" Rumble snidely remarked, causing Squawktalk to screech out some insult, Max couldn't help but chuckle a bit at the Cassette birds melt down.

Ravage got up, stretching out their legs and tail, each segmented joint making a distinct click as the analog panther raised their back. Max took this time to try and shake the pins and needles feeling she had on her legs.

However, the moment was cut short as a horrible blood curling scream sound through the halls, making everyone pause and look towards the door in the back,

the one that led to the laboratory.

Due to the walls, it was slightly muffled and distorted. Almost sounding... familiar? Regardless, it left Max a bit shaken.

Ravage flicked their tail back to Max, making them sit down again. Max didn't have time to ask why, as just then, the door opened.

The door opened slowly, revealing a heavy-set person. Their shoulders were square, and their chest was slightly puffed out with metal armor chest. They wore a white lab-coat, which housed little to few stains, all of which were some variants of a bio-luminescent pink or a hauntingly iridescent red.

The head, however, is what drew Max's full attention.

At least with Soundwave, and what few bots Max saw, their heads were human adjacent. This bot? No. It was completely mechanized, almost built up from the ground with its singular glowing optic gazing down upon all, like a lighthouse shining its beam out to the sea.

The optic scanned the room, before gazing upon Max. It seemed to adjust its focus upon Max, before raising a servo at her.

"Soundblaster... Who's this?" the bot said as it bent down to look at Max, who was now able to fully see its optic. It was far more gruesome up-close. The most comparable thing to the red sphere was a camera, adjusting its focus, opening and closing its shutters.

"Them? Flipsides... Soundwave's new cassette..." Soundblaster said nonchalantly as the bot looked down upon Max, then to Ravage.

"Oh... how interesting..." the mech flicked his attention to Max, "I assume this is most logically, your first time away from your Host after activation, yes?" His voice was more robotic in construction to Soundwave's speech, Soundwave was more... systematic with his words.

"...y-yes..." Max stuttered in her response a bit, a little unnerved. The bot then got up.

"Very well... I just wanted to... check in on things..." the bot spoke, taking one last look, before finally walking over and closing the door.

Silence...

"That was Shockwave" Soundblaster commented "by the way, you really had his attention..." Soundblaster added on as the cassettes went back to their game, Max looked over at Soundblaster, confused.

"Who's Shockwave?" Soundblaster seemed genuinely surprised for a second, before chuckling.

"Soundwave never told you 'Bout Shockwave? The lead Decepticon scientist?" Max shook her head.

"He's the one who made Soundblaster...'' Ravage tugged Max aside and whispered into her hearing aid, which off-putted Max a bit. Having somebody whisper into her hearing aid like that. But that didn't matter now.

Max had a lot of questions...

"Why was he so interested in me?" she whispered back to Ravage, the panther glanced at her, flicking their tail tip.

"He's like that with all of Soundwave's cassettes." Ravage spoke nonchalantly as they looked back towards the group, who continued their, now quiet, game of MO-NO-POLY.

"But-"

"Frankly, Max..." Max stiffened up at the mention of her name, her actual name. Ravage's optics and tail conveyed annoyance as they spoke. "I do not care to know. And I don't think you should, either" Max frantically nodded her head, not wanting to irritate the panther any further than she already had.

"Good." Ravage spoke as they curled back up on the ground.



The mood then was now, more or less, dead. Almost as if the encounter with Shockwave had killed it. Max wasn't sure how much time had passed, although she was sure that it couldn't have been too long...

"Ugh... where is Soundwave??" Max thought, a thought which was gone immediately as the creaking of a chair singled Soundblaster. The hefty-mech getting up, raising his servos over his head to stretch out his joints.

"You fellas done playin' Capitalist?" Soundblaster spoke out loud, glancing down at the group of bots.

"Nah" Frenzy said, although not very enthusiastically


"So, I guess... you just... Aren't very hungry either?" Frenzy, along with most of everyone else, had their intrigued optics laid on Soundblaster. The mech smirked.

"I don't see any Energon.." Buzzsaw sneered, making a broad gesture to the room.

"Oh, but Shockwave has some. In the back room to the west..."

Ravage was the one to leap up, "absolutely not!" Soundblaster, under his mask, seemed to frown.

"Oh, its ok, we can get something for Flipsides too." Soundblaster spoke in a almost pushy tone. Ravage flicked their tail in annoyance.

"Flipsides is a newly-forged, they cannot properly absorb Engergon yet!" Ravage explained, Soundblaster rolled his optics. Everyone in the room knew that Max wasn't really a cassette, but...

He decided to play along with this charade...


"Yeah... true... true..." Soundblaster seemed to back off, their optics rolling from side to side until gazing back down on Ravage again. "How 'bout this kitty-cat; you go get Flipsides here some food, and we'll wait here until you come back..."

Ravage glanced over to Max, then back to Soundblaster, their gears turning on what the next move would be.

"Max, stay here. Understand?" Ravage glared at Max, who yet again, shook her head frantically.

And just like that, Ravage was off. Soundblaster's optics followed the cat as it slipped away, before flicking back to Max again.


Silence...


"Ok, cat's gone, everyone get up, you too 'sides" Soundblaster commanded, Max was shocked.

"Wha? But you-"

"Yeah? I know what I said, so unless you wanna stay alone here, I recommend that you get goin'" the mech spoke with a gruff voice, a far-cry from his personality before.

Max panicked as the cassettes proceeded to all get up, she wanted to follow along, but... but Ravage...

"Wa-wait! Hold up!" Max said as she ran over to Soundblaster as they walked out the door, she didn't want to be alone.

There was a sort of mischievous air in the room as the group left Soundblaster's quarters and headed into the actual laboratory. Large metallic pipes were bolted onto walls like prison cells, some having a small hiss as they released pressurized air. It was like a monotonous factory.

Max followed close behind Rumble, at the end of the group, practically hovering over him.

She was slightly amazed by the sight. Honestly, she had never encountered such an industrialized sight before, with the steel mesh below her shoes that shone to the depths below, to the expansive ceiling above, which had chains dangling from it.

Her moment to absorb the overwhelming sensory details was cut short as she accidentally walked into Rumble while gazing at a metal pipe to the side.

"Oof! Watch it!" Rumble said, annoyed. Max was accidentally knocked back, not realizing how heavy the cassette actually was.

"Ah! Sorry. Sorry Ru-" Max paused...

When she looked up, nothing was there...

"Oh no... no no no no...." Max silently panicked as she got up and turned a corner, she expected to fall behind, sure, but not to completely lose the group! In her haste she raced from one corner, to another, trying to find where they all went. It was like a horrible dream; Max couldn't believe how she lost them!

"No no no no!" Max cried as she ran around for a bit, her shoes making a soft patter on the steel mesh beneath her, only to stop and realize that she shouldn't have ran around so mindlessly in an attempt to look for them because now she didn't even know where she was!

"Oh god!" Max cried as she fell to the ground, back against the wall. "Why didn't I stay back in the room?" Max thought through small tears. After a bit she got up and looked around, trying to maintain her composure.

The first thing she noted was the slight beeping sound that occurred every so often in the... factory? At least that's what she thought it was...

She walked slowly, tracing her hand along the rails and she walked around, the floor beneath her clattered against her shoes softly as the mesh beneath seemed to be the only thing preventing her from falling to her surely, shadow-y demise...

Her heart was thumping heavily, the small signs of a panic attack, however the scenery seemed to take her mind off the fact that she was lost, a detail that she hadn't, or possibly refused, to fully comprehend the full extent of.

She was just about to turn a corner when Max heard something, humming?

She peaked over and nearly felt her heart skip a beat as she saw the mech from before, Shockwave! At first, she wanted to walk up to him, possibly ask him where Soundblaster's room was, but her better judgment stopped her.

Max... didn't fully really trust Shockwave, if anything she got more of a bad vibe from him if anything.

However, she did notice the humming getting closer, at first, she thought it was her hearing aid, was it going out again? No, that was Shockwave getting closer!

Max quietly but quickly tried to look for a space to hide, and settled on what she thought at the time was possibly a closet of sorts...

Of course, looks could be deceiving.

She quickly closed the door with so much as a soft "thump". Pressing her ear to the door. Her aid could just barely pick up the humming getting closer, before seeming to fade, going out of bounds of the hearing aid.

Max let out a sigh, before she turned around...

Horror crept up on her face as her eyes adjusted to the faint light of the room.

Only barely illuminated by these giant green pods of what at first looked to be deconstructed cheesecake, only to take a closer look and to see...

They were vaguely humanoid.

Max gasped, the shapes seemed to be at least somewhat boxy, despite their humanoid figures. It managed to ease her worries a little as her brain rationalized these swallowing bodies as Cybertronians.

But that still brought a question, what on earth happened to these bots?! They looked to have had all the color stripped from their bodies and souls, leaving empty hollowed out husks in their place. Their faces looked aged and elongated in a sort of uncanny way, almost like melted cheese.

The green tanks seemed to be filed into neat little rows, at least... maybe...7 or 8 in total? She sent passing glances at the figures in the tanks, never daring to pay too much attention in case one of them awoke.

"They're just robots... they're just robots..." Max tried to tell herself as she looked from incubator to incubator. There was alien writing on the bottom of the tanks, the same type that Soundwave used to type in, but Max couldn't read it, a blessing in disguise.

As Max slowly tip-toed down the rows, they seemed to get more... grizzly.

Faces got more distorted, one didn't even have a face, almost as if it was a burnt candle wick. The one next to that had its lower half almost... stretched beyond the capabilities of the body, its eyes were a white semi-circle with black pupils, its cheekbones hiked up on its face as it was permanently smiling.

Max looked off to the row adjacent, only to be met with a figure who seemed to have cables sticking out of their head, mouth open like in a constant scream no one would hear.

It wasn't until Max got to the very... very last container... that Max felt something deeply primal in her bones.

The face looked... smooth, almost plastic, like it's been stripped of every defining feature it had. Its body was boxy, beached pale of any color. No eyes, at least not any that Max could see. It was like they had two big, black gaping holes in place...


These black voids for eyes, at least until they blinked!

Max was surprised as the bot blinked; she thought her mind was playing tricks on her.

But then it blinked again! And Max could see two peculiar pairs of... human eyes...

They were white and almost... beady in nature, Max shuddered.

She was about to leave too... until...

Knock

She glanced back to look at the figure. Had it knocked on the glass container? Max was so confused until she saw it press its bleach-white frame against the glace, seeming to mouth out something that Max's hearing aids could just barely grasp.

"M...maahhh...maaaxxxx.....Max....."

The words made her freeze... they truly did... it was a horror that her mortal brain was just beginning to comprehend. A rush of adrenaline began to course through her veins as she felt the urge to fight or flight, an instinct that only grew stronger as the figure began to hammer its balled-up fist onto the glass like a raging ape. The glass began to crack as green sludge leaked out like a forbidden medicine of science.

"Max......Max.....Max.....Max....Max...Max...." it began to scream, yelling out its shredded vocal box as it began to rampage on the glass.

Max began to feel her heart speed up, the urge to run began to force her legs to run, run! Just run! For the love of go-


The glass... S H A T T E R E D


The horrific sound of broken glass and a thumping body began to force Max legs to run, picking up in speed as she screamed louder than she had before.

She RAN! Making the horrible mistake of looking behind her...

The body! Oh god it was catching up to her!

It's disgusting form began to drag its body, awakening the others and making them let out these haunting wails of agony as Max bolted, throwing open the doors and shot out like a bat out of hell, screaming down the halls.

The hairs on her neck prickled up as she felt humid breath behind her neck.

It's trying to touch her!

Max began to pick up speed as she pounded through halls of flickering lights, she found a door that led to a stairway and threw herself down the stairs, causing her knee to scrap and bleed.

She bounded though the brightly lit halls of the Nemesis as she shrieked.

Her screams attracted the sound of other Decepticons, but Max only saw their blurred faces grab out at her.

She continued to scream, she wasn't sure but at some point, her hearing aids went out.

Unable to hear, she relied solely on pure instinct, the thumping of several feet and the vibrations they gave off kept her running,

Max then ducked into an open vent, cramping herself inside the tight space like a mouse running from a cat, servos tried to snatch at her ankles, but she kicked them off...


She doesn't know when she stopped screaming, or really when they stopped trying to get to her...

All she really did know was at some point, she began to cry...

Just cry, and beg and pray, to whatever god was listening in the cosmos...


Authors note:

Hi readers! so sorry this took longer to put out than last chapter! Im posting this one early since the holidays are coming up so heres my present to you!

funnily enough the reason why this chapter was delayed was because of both its lenght (22 pages!) and also the lab scene, i was a bit scared that it was... too spooky, but after a bit of assurance from my beta-readers, i edited it and am much better with the scene now...

anyhow, hope yall liked the new chapter! happy holidays!


.:The TRANSFORMERS will return after these messages:.