Legends In The Making (TFP x OC)

Darkness Rising Part 2

Ratchet walked over to the computer, "Thank goodness for peace and quiet." He looked at Ava standing next to him. "For the most part. House guests can be such a bother."

Ava rolled her eyes. She heard a metal clank and whipped her head to the sound. Nothing. She felt a sudden wave of paranoia hit her.

"Ratchet, are you sure there's no one else here?" Ava asked.

Ratchet said nothing and tried to go back to looking into the microscope. Metal tapping was heard once more.

"Optimus?" Ratchet called out.

No answer but more tapping was heard. A metal spider-like creature ran to them. It crawled on the ground very quickly with no good intent. Ratchet used his foot to hide Ava.

Ratchet grabbed a metal pipe and started swinging to destroy it. Ava stayed hidden behind the bot, watching as the creature destroyed a claw machine.

"I needed that!" Ratchet shouted.

Ava ran away from Ratchet and grabbed a different metal pipe. The creature jumped onto the ground.

Ava ran to it and hit it with the pipe. It flew up then got shot by something blue. Ratchet and Ava looked to see Optimus with a gun in place of his arm.

Ratchet crushed the creature with his foot. "And stay broken." He said.

Optimus's gun transformed back into his hand.

"You have a weapon?" Ava questioned.

Optimus turned to her. "It seems you do as well." He gestured to the metal rod she held.

She dropped it onto the floor with an embarrassed blush on her face. "Sorry."

Optimus looked at her with intrigue. She had fight in her, it burned like a fierce fire that couldn't be put out. She reminded him of his younger self, young and full of fight.

"Now, what could have caused that?" Ratchet asked.

Optimus turned to his friend, "I have a grave suspicion, Ratchet. Dark energon."

"I thought energon was your blood?" Ava asked.

"It is." Optimus said. "Every sense of evil flows through dark energon. It's powerful, enough to kill thousands."

Ratchet cautiously grabbed the dead creature and put it into a glass case.

"If the residue Arcee found on Cliffjumper brought your broken equipment back to life," Optimus paused. "It would stand to reason that the very same substance brought Cliffjumper back from the dead."

"That would account for his life signal inexplicably coming back online, but..." Ratchet paused, not wanting to Optimus to be correct. "Dark energon? It's so scarce as to be virtually nonexistent. What would it be doing on Earth?"

"It was transported." Optimus said. "By Megatron and Starscream."

"Bad guys?" Ava asked.

Optimus nodded.

"For what purpose?" Ratchet asked him.

"To conquer this planet by raising an army of the undead." Optimus spoke.

Ratchet chuckled, "Well, Megatron will need to break quite a few toaster ovens. I mean, where on this world would he find that many cybertronian dead?"

"He wouldn't have to find any." Ava told them. They looked at her in confusion. "He just has to kill your team."

Roaring engines reverberated around the base as the rest of the Autobots drove in with Miko, Jack, and Raf. Optimus looked at them with worry. They only had to kill his team...