Transformers: Eradication

Part 18: Starscream Alone and Silas's Rebirth

Back on Cybertron we get to see how Ironhide, Jazz, and the females outside of Elita-1 are doing.

Chromia: "We need to get out of here and save Optimus and Elita."

Flare: "Optimus is the one who got us in this mess remember?"

Moon: "That's no true and you know it."

Flare: 'Not from where I'm looking."

Jazz: "Ladies please, plenty of me to go around."

Fire: "Poor Smokescreen, he was so young."

?: "Isn't that how the question goes? Why do all the good ones die young?"

The voice belongs to Knockout, entering the room with a smug look on his face.

Chromia: "Knockout, what do you want?"

Knockout: "What do you think? To rub it the glory of victory and show off my fabulous paintjob."

Ironhide: "Nothing fabulous about being a Decepticon."

Knockout: "Oh contraire mon frere. There's plenty to be happy about. I'm on the winning team."

Fire: "It's not over yet."

Knockout: "Don't make me laugh."

Chromia: "Tell me Knockout, when did you finally grow some bearings and started fighting?"

Knockout: "The moment you went off the rag."

Chromia: "Oh you're quick today. You could have used that in the fight."

Knockout: "Who's locked up again? Oh yeah it's you."

Jazz: "Geez man, what's your malfunction? What did we ever do to you?"

Knockout: "You Autobots are all the same. You just don't care about anyone but yourselves. I'm a man of simple needs, and you couldn't supply us with them."

Fire: "Us?"

Knockout: "My little brother Splicer, can't you see the resemblance?"

Moon: "No."

Flare: "You look nothing alike."

Knockout: "Blood runs deeper than appearance you know."

Ironhide: "Are you going to give us some backstory or are you going to keep rambling?"

Knockout: "Splicer and I were very young. He was so young he barely learned how to walk. Our own parents cast us aside like we were garbage. We had to survive on the street with nothing but our love and my wits. As thousands of years passed we began to grow, and eventually I had to teach him how to fight. I would have never have guessed that he would have surpassed me the way he did. After a life of petty thievery we found a job at the Kaon gladiator arena. We discovered we had a natural talent in the medical field. It was the one skill i had that was better than my brother. Then one fateful day we met....him. He took us in and we were part of a cause I initially wanted no part of. I had no choice, and now I'm the most sought after medic for the Decepticons."

Jazz: "But something is missing isn't it?"

Knockout: "Yes, no matter what I do I'm in either Megatron, Shockwave, or Splicer's shadow."

Flare: "Sounds like you have some resentment toward your brother."

Knockout: "No, it's not him. I blame everyone else who doesn't bother to notice me."

Chromia: 'That's a great and all, but why do you hate Autobots so much?"

Knockout: "You're bullies and butchers, always thinking that you're better than everyone else. You always boast about your paint jobs like they're some prize. We tried to join you guys before the war, but we were rejected because we didn't look the part. Now here we all are, and guess what? I'm better and always will be. Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to watch my favorite soap opera and stuff my face with cesium salami."

Knockout leaves the Autobots to their captivity. He looks at his reflection and thinks back to the rough past he and Splicer had to endure. All the bad hands life dealt of him still bothers him sometime, and he punches the mirror, breaking it. Perhaps the shattered reflection is meant to symbolize his view of himself. Symbolism is hard.

Starscream is ready to put his plan into action, but that is easier said than done considering he has no T-Cog. Regardless that's not going to stop his plans, and he knows just what he wants.

"To stop Megatron and his army of idiots I need an army of my own. Those Eradicons I heard Shockwave talk about would do nicely. A combiner team superior to the Aerialbots and Constructicons. What a glorious victory it shall be. I better get started with the tools I have.

Starscream opens up his chest which contains that pocket dimension that he acquired some time ago. He pulls out several items that he had stolen from the Decepticons. He takes out Red Energon, Black Energon, engine pieces, various tools, the welding hammer for Black Energon, the Red Energon converter, the Allspark.. and two doves he captured for some reason. He sets them free to find their home.

"I still have no idea why I captured you in the first place. Never mind that I must make haste.

Starscream immediately gets to work by making an engine. He sets up for the Red Energon converter early because turning it into a liquid form will take many hours to accomplish. He starts cutting the nearby trees with his claws to make a raft large enough to support him and perhaps a few others if he gets the desired army he hopes for. One of the trees hasn't fallen despite getting slashed. Starscream tries pushing, and the tree comically falls on top of him.

"Scrap!"

Starscream builds himself a computer looking for ideal Earth modes for his army, and he strikes gold when he finds a sports car. This car is known as a Marussia B2, another vehicle that is recommended to be looked up after reading. Starscream testes the colors in black and red. He's found what he's looking for. He also looks up human racecars and discovers the formula-1 cars. He likes the way they look in yellow and picks that one.

"Great, but I shouldn't limit myself to just Earth vehicles, and not ground either. I need something big, like a tank. A flyer would serve me well too. Oh the glorious ideas I have."

Starscream uses the spare parts to built an imperfect ground bridge remote. By imperfect the controls aren't up to 100% at the moment. Taking his raft with him, he bridges himself to known car dealerships nearby on the planet and steals the marussia. He bridges again, but not to where he had hope. He's at least a good ten miles away from his island. The frustrated Starscream is forced to row with one of the trees. He sneezes and he accidentally lets go of the tree. It sinks to the bottom of the ocean much to his frustration. Now the handicapped seeker is forced to paddle with his hands. Things get even trickier when a boat of people spot him and start taking pictures. Judging by their appearance Starscream deduces he is somewhere in the Caribbean. The last thing Starscream needs right now is everyone finding out he's alive. He tries to fire his Null Ray at the boat, but since he lost hi T-Cog that's impossible. Luckily for him the missiles don't have to transform to be fired. He fires it and the boat explodes, killing everyone inside. After paddling to the boat he takes pieces of it for future use for more parts. But for now all he can do is wait for that Red Energon converter to complete itself.

"Soon we'll be avenged in due time."

In Ohio, Fowler has finally stumbled upon MECH's headquarters. For the past three days he's been watching from a far to study their security measures, looking for any chinks in the metaphorical armor. His tenacity reveals a discovery having to do with a changing of the guard in the east corridors and a faulty camera with a blindspot in that same area. Now is the time to finally infiltrate the enemy base and see what goes on inside. A random employee leaves for his car, and he drives off into the forest, where there is a secret exit for MECH employees to use at their leisure. The downside is that there are no security cameras near that area. That makes it perfect for an ambush. The man is unaware that Fowler had snuck inside the car prior to when he entered. As soon as they go through the tunnel Fowler emerges and puts a taser to the side of the guy's neck, and he is knocked out cold. Fowler steals his suit, pants, and badge to disguise himself as one of the employees. Fowler uses his own car to park in the lot. Luckily the guard hasn't changed yet, and Fowler goes right on in.

It's certainly not the environment that he had expected. It seems like a fairly normal business. People are working on their computers, delivering mail, and chatting just like any other place he's seen. Despite this he knows in his gut that there is something he is missing. He goes upstairs and just leans on the railing, watching the people go by for about five minutes. What happened next starts changing the game. Savoy comes around and sees Fowler, and starts conversing with him.

"Nice day isn't it?"

"The best."

"How is progress?"

"It's going well."

"Good to hear, and what about your report to Mr. Branson?"

"Oh I gave it to him about five minutes ago."

"Good work, though there is a small discrepancy."

"What's that?"

"Mr. Branson called in sick today."

"Well there must be some mistake."

"Oh believe me, I don't make mistakes. I know every worker, every shift, and every bit of work that goes on here. I know you're not one of us."

"I'm new here, it's my first day on the job."

"Nice try, but like I said I know everything here. So now this is going to play out one of two ways."

Savoy takes out a bell and rings it three times. Suddenly all the employees stand up and leave the building. Fowler now realizes that all the employees that work here are in on the evil that goes on inside.

"Now then, tell me who you're working for and I might let you go. Perhaps."

"I told you I'm just a new guy."

(cracks his knuckles) "Have it your way."

Savoy and Fowler engage in a battle, getting in fisticuffs, and Fowler lands the first punch to Savoy's jaw. Fowler makes a second attack but it's blocked by Savoy. Savoy uppercuts Fowler and makes a second punch straight to the face. He grabs fowler and bashes him against the wall three times. Fowler starts forcing his strength on his enemy and punches him in the rib to force him to let go. He kicks Savoy back on to the stairs, but as he falls Savoy grabs him by coat to force him down. now both of them are tumbling down the stairs. After getting to the bottom of the stairs Savoy gets up to charge at Fowler, but Fowler punches Savoy right in the groin to make him grunt in pain. Fowler starts to run with Savoy chasing after him. Fowler grabs a computer monitor and throws it at Savoy, who only barely dodges it. Savoy eventually catches up to Fowler and manages to pick him up and smashes him over a table, breaking it. Savoy starts kicking Fowler while he's down, but Fowler rolls over on the ground to dodge it. He secretly picked up a leg of the table and smacks Savoy right in the face. Now the dazed Savoy pulls out the knife he had in the movie.

"Not bad, but now playtime is over."

"If I knew this was playtime I would have got some dresses for us and we could be princesses."

(snarky) "Cute, you're a funny guy."

"It's what I do. So tell me, where do I get one of those bells that gets people to leave?"

"It's a grave secret, I'll give you all the details up close!"

Savoy swings his knife at Fowler, who ducks and leaps back from each strike. He backs Fowler into a corner and kicks him into the wall. He would have stabbed Fowler right in the face if he hadn't dodged at the last second. The knife gets stuck in the wall. Fowler darts behind Savoy and kicks him in the back of the leg to force him on one knee. He slams Savoy's head on the handle of the knife, but that just makes him angrier. He reverse-headbutts Fowler to relinquish his grip, and then shoves him into a glass wall that shatters as he falls through. Now with the knife back in his possession, Savoy attacks Fowler again, and know their hands are struggling for control of the knife. Fowler loses the upper hand and gets stabbed in the shoulder by Savoy. Savoy finishes the fight by punching Fowler in the gut, and then grabs his head to knee him the face. He forces Fowler up and starts dragging him to the R&D department.

"I was going to kill you, but I'd rather see what Mr. Attinger has in store for you."

Now Fowler has found what he was looking for and sees everything. he sees Dropkick's body, Skystalker's body, Fearswoop's arm, Terradive's arm, Bombshell's leg, Vehicon parts, Brimstone's crystal, and all other parts. The main point of his attention is the captive Rollbar. MECH has done a number on the poor Autobot. Attinger, Silas, Su, and Emmett come to see their new prisoner.

Attinger: "Ah Agent William Fowler, how nice of you to stop bye."

Savoy: "You know this guy?"

Attinger: "Unfortunately yes."

Emmett: "He sure did a number on you, Savoy."

Savoy: "Care to feel what I did to him?

Emmett: "I'm good."

Su: "So what do we do with him?"

Attinger: "He's obviously not going to leave this place alive. Silas, you can do the honors."

Silas: "Do I have to?"

Attinger: "You have no stomach, this sickens me. I guess I'll do it myself."

Fowler: "So this is the supposedly great MECH you've been working for Silas I'm not impressed. I see you are liars and torturers of an Autobot."

Attinger: "He killed a human the moment he arrived on Earth."

Rollbar: "It was an accident!"

Attinger: 'You're all the same, murderers and liars."

Fowler: " I see your paranoia has to got to you."

Attinger: "You think that's what this is about? The reason MECH exists is to stay one step ahead of the enemy. They're killing our own kind with each battle. It grows each time, and who knows how many it will be next time. This is about safety and security. This is future, and it's either us or them. We'll be ahead of everyone, and nobody will stand in our way."

Fowler: 'Yet you killed Alan Jenkins."

Attinger: "That was not my doing, you're thinking of Silas."

Silas: "I didn't want to."

Fowler: "There is no excuse, you're just like the rest of them."

Attinger: "It doesn't matter. None of the Autobots or Decepticons will be ready for what we have in store for them."

Fowler starts laughing, which is unsettling for everyone else.

Attiger: "What's so funny?"

Folwer: 'You think that you're getting away with this? Now everyone knows!"

Attinger: "What are you talking about?"

Fowler: "Check my coat."

Attinger checks Fowlers coat, and lo and behold he was wired the entire time.

Fowler: "It's over now. In about twenty minutes this place is going down from an airstrike. Your operation is accused of treason, murder, and conspiring to overthrow the government." (breaks wire)

Attinger" "But we aren't planning to overthrow anyone! You lied about that!"

Fowler: -smiles- "The people don't know that. You can try to explain nobody can stand in our way line to the president. A little lie to protect the world from you won't hurt anybody, except maybe you."

Attinger: (gritting his teeth) "It doesn't matter because you won't be alive to see it!"

Attinger is about to shoot Fowler in the head, but Rollbar finally breaks free of his cage, allowing Fowler to make a distraction and punch Attinger in the throat. Rollbar has taken a serious makeover from his torture. All his limbs have very few pieces around him outside of the basic parts like a skeleton. The top of his head is opened up with some wires hanging in front of him. His chest is up exposing his spark. Despite this he still has his guns and is pointing it all of MECH. Fowler moves next to Rollbar to keep himself safe.

Rollbar: "You aren't going to hurt anyone else any more."

Su: "This is impossible, he couldn't have escaped that containment unit. There no way-"

Su didn't even get to finish his sentence because Rollbar vaporizes him. All that's left of the scientist is a pile of ashes.

Silas: (screaming) "SU!"

Rollbar: (bitter) "Looks like you're going to need a new scientist to continue your work, not that there's going to be any left left when I'm done. "

Attinger: "You'll pay for this with your life!"

Rollbar: "Other human, you should get out of here. I'll take care of this."

Fowler: "What about you?"

Rollbar: "I'm dead anyway. Just tell Optimus what happened."

Fowler: "Will do. Good luck, soldier."

Fowler runs out and Rollbar begins shooting up the MECH base. Emmett dodges the gunfire and Savoy swoops down to save the different types of Energon. Rollbar destroys Skystalker's body and all the Vehicon and Autobot parts. He shoots the container with Brimstone's crystal. The crystal remains intact due to being hidden under a table after rolling along the ground. Rollbar shoots and kills other MECH scientists and breaks other equipment to prevent their mission from spreading. Attinger shoots at Rollbar, but the gun does nothing. Rollbar shoots the gun out of Attinger's hand, and he's at the Autobot's mercy.

Rollbar: "It's over now!"

Silas in a panic sees Dropkick's body and climbs up a ladder and activates the guns on his hands. He fires a fully charged blast into Rollbar's chest, and it pierces his spark to kill him. Rollbar falls to the floor, and Silas helps Harold up as he surveys the damage.

Attinger: "Dammit! With the damage he's done and the imminent destruction of our base we're going to be about 20 years behind!"

Savoy: (dry) "Bummer."

Emmett: 'Man I can't believe Su's gone like that. But good shooting there Silas.... Silas?"

Something changed inside Silas that day. An Autobot that he had trusted and befriended used his kindness against him and killed a dear friend. It seems now he understands the damage he's done.

Silas: (angrily) "You were right sir, about everything. They're all monsters, and they do nothing but hurt people. I won't stop until every last one of them is dead!"

Attinger: "I'm glad you finally understand."

Emmett: "So what now sir?"

Attinger; 'We get the hell out of here. But first we need to salvage as much as we can. If anyone else is still breathing, then help out!"

Silas: "But we don't have another base."

Attinger: "That's where you're wrong. We have one last base. it's the same place where we took those fossilized alien dinosaurs the Autobots gave us."

Silas: "Where is that?"

Attinger: "The only base dedicated to alien phenomenon; Area 51. Now hurry and let's go!"

The remaining members of mech load Dropkick's body, Brimstone's crystal, the Energon they collected, a sample of Rollbar, Terradive and Fearswoop's arms, and Bimbshell's leg. In about ten minutes their base is going to be bombed. Back at the Decepticons headquarters Megatron prepares his men for the final step.

Megatron: "The time has come Decepticons. The entire world shall feel our power. The invasion begins now!"