Transformers: Eradication

32: Watch The Birdie!

Back on the island Starscream and the Eradicons are preparing to leave. Motormaster is the only one that hasn't tested his abilities. He scratches the spikes on his shoulders and discovers they can be detached. They even have a handle on them. He throws them like knives, and he unknowingly uses magnets on his shoulders that make them return to him.

Vortex: "He gets all the cool stuff."

Scream: "I see you admiring that sword.'"

Motor: "It's a fitting weapon. With this I will claim the lives of Optimus Prime and Megatron."

Scream: "Before we leave I have one last test for you. I want you to flick that boulder."

Motormaster finds the largest boulder and flicks it. The top half is instantly splits off and bounces violently across the water before sinking. Starscream claps for the success of his most fascinating creation.

Scream: "Well done, Motormaster. Your strength is more than enough to defeat Optimus Prime and Megatron."

Swindle: "And those trailers of yours have quite the benefits. Mind if I buy them?"

Vortex: "Yeah I'm ready to go. I can do this by myself."

Brawl: "You can?"

Vortex: (flexing) "Yep, I'm just that good."

Drag: "You're not going without me, buster."

Brawl: "I thought his name was Vortex."

Scream: "This is wonderful, an army loyal to me and me alone."

Dead: "Loyal is a stretch."

They all leave on a raft big enough to carry them all and go through a ground bridge. Something happens with the portal when the device explodes. It turns out they're about 50 miles away from the coast New York. Brawl and Vortex volunteer to row the raft thanks to some oars Swindle provides them.

Scream: "Useless technology, it only works when it wants to."

Dead: "Are you sure it isn't user impaired?"

Scream: "Silence yourself!"

Motor: "Nature can delay me all it wants it can't prevent me from killing Optimus Prime. I feel him drawing closer."

Swindle: "I wonder if he'll like my deals."

Vortex: "At this rate, Swindle, I think the rest of us will be broke from your amazing deals."

Swindle: "You flatter me too much, good sir."

Dragstrip impatiently taps his foot, and gets bored. To entertain himself he is streaking around on all four corners of the raft.

Drag: "Are we there yet?"

Scream: "No."

Drag: "Are we there yet?"

Motor: "No."

Drag: "Are we there yet?"

Brawl: (nervous) "I don't know stop pressuring me!"

Drag: "Are we there yet?"

Dead: "Ask that again or it's lights out."

Drag: "....Are we-"

Dead-end knocks Dragstrip out with one punch. He sits down afterwards not wanting to be bothered.

Vortex: "Ah the practical approach, that one never gets old!"

Scream: "Keep rowing you fools. We are still quite a distance away."

Motor: "It matters not, I will slay him, just you wait and see."

Motormaster is revealed to have a mouthplate of his own. It fades away to the next scene which has the rest of Megatron's team back in the main part of the city. As they walk along they hear rumbling underground, and the Driller jumps out in front of them and stops. Mixmaster screams and jumps into Soundwave's arms, and he drops him instantly. Shockwave and Knockout emerge from the top of the Driller. Splicer is so happy to see his brother in person and violently hugs him. His sharp blades nearly cuts Knockout's sides.

Splicer: "Knockout!"

Knockout: "Watch the paint!"

Splicer: "Sorry!"

Megatron: "Well isn't this an unexpected surprise. It's Shockwave and my second favorite son."

Knockout: "There are only two of us."

Megatron: "Precisely my point. That also makes you my least favorite."

Megatron and Knockout get into an argument, and during the chaos Mixmaster whispers to Splicer to get an understanding of the situation.

Mix: "Are they doing alight?"

Splicer: "Believe it or not this is when they're the happiest together. It all works out."

Mix: "Well I can't judge your family, but I can keep Scrapper up to date on everything."

Megatron finishes his squabble with Knockout to give Shockwave his full attention.

Megatron: "Not that I'm unhappy to see you, but why have you come so far to Earth?"

Shockwave: "I would have called you over the communicators but the tower was destroyed."

Megatron: "Destroyed?"

Shockwave: "The Insecticons are loose and are on their way to the city. I brought The Driller and Knockout to assist you."

Megatron: "That's very flattering, but I do not need assistance in handling the Insecticons."

Shockwave: "That isn't the full reason for being here. Optimus Prime and the Autobots have escaped, and Elita-1s team is loose once again on Cybertron."

Megatron: -growls- "What?! How did this happen?"

Shockwave: "An Autobot with a Phase Shifter freed everyone, and all the experiments are loose too. As a small consolation the Driller killed one of Elita's followers."

Megatron: "What about the other plan you set up?"

Shockwave: "Still currently active."

Megatron: "Then it isn't a complete loss. Shockwave, you and the Driller start tearing down buildings to draw Optimus out. The more populated the better."

Mix: "That's pure evil and I love it!"

Megatron: "Soundwave, rally our defenses, we need everyone on the same page."

Soundwave: "Affirmative."

Megatron: "Mixmaster, rendezvous with Scrapper immediately."

Mix: "On it!"

Megatron: "Splicer... go have fun with Knockout."

Splicer: "What about you?"

Megatron: "I don't need help. I can do this on my own."

Splicer: "Good luck."

Everyone splits off to do their own thing, meanwhile Scrapper is alerted and deviates from the rest of the Constructicons. They are ordered to wait for something, but for some strange reason it hasn't arrived.

Scavenge: "This is weird. The package of new weapons should have arrived five minutes ago. I wonder what is taking it so long?"

Overload: "Overload pawned it all for crack money."

Longhaul: "That sounds like something you would do."

Overload: "The life of a crack hoe is a mysterious adventure."

Rampage: "That it is."

Scavenge: "Well with Mixmaster and Scrapper gone I guess I'm in charge now."

Rampage: "What are your orders?"

Scavenge: "We should all stay together. I suck at fighting and you guys don't. Plus it would be harder to take us down together instead of alone."

High: "Oh yeah!"

Rampage: "Agreed."

Longhaul: "Yes strength in numbers and all that good stuff."

Scavenge: "How about you Overload? .....Overload?"

Overload has mysteriously vanished to parts unknown. Meanwhile on board the mothership the Autobots are alerted to troubling news."

Road: "Well I got good news and bad news."

Topspin: "The good news is we've all been discovered."

Tailgate: "Explain to me how this is good news."

Topspin: "The bad news is that we're all going to die."

Slag: "Yayyyyyyyy!"

Silver: "What are we going to do?"

Mirage: "We have to evacuate immediately. All humans report to the lower hanger!"

Ace: "You got it."

Mirage: "Aerialbots, Tomahawk, Sideswipe, Jolt, Swoop, you're all in charge of evacuating the humans."

The Autobots named help out with getting the Autobots out of ship through a hidden passage.

Mirage: "What's it like outside?"

Road: "I'll answer that with a question: Are you a fan of the Coneheads?"

The three Coneheads are heading their way, and the perspective briefly changes to them.

Thrust: "Is that the ship?"

Dirge: "Buzzsaw is never wrong."

Ramjet: "I got first dibs."

Thrust: "I got last."

Dirge: "Fire a full assault and end this battle before it begins!"

They Coneheads fire a barrage of missiles into the mothership. Their combined firepower blows a hole into the left side of the ship and makes it crash down onto the road. It's rather quiet.

Dirge: "A job well done gentlemen."

Thrust: "Glad that's over."

Dirge: "But just to be sure you should check it out, Thrust."

Thrust: "Why me?"

Ramjet: "You're expendable."

Thrust: "No I'm not!"

Ramjet: "Just do it you red Breakaway!""

Thrust: "That's not a fair comparison and you know it!"

Dirge: "Do it now."

Thrust. "Fine."

Thrust walks to the crashed ship looking around. Dirge and Ramjet look away and have a small chat.

Thrust: "Any Autobots there?"

A shadow looms over Thrust, and before he can scream for help a hand grabs and silences him, taking him away from his friends. Dirge and Ramjet notice the lack of Thrust and goes in to investigate. The sound of a jet engine roars above their heads, and they see a giant black object blocking out the sun. The object gets close, and it fires something that hits Dirge square in the chest and it knocks him out instantly. Ramjet dodges the first two shots and fires back, but even he is overwhelmed. The Coneheads are defeated, and the other Autobots come to investigate, and to everyone's joy it's Optimus Prime with Jazz and Ironhide in tow.

Bee: "Optimus!"

Ratchet: "You're back!"

Tyrone: "You picked a hell of a time to show up."

Airraid: "Yeah.... great."

Mirage: "Optimus, we've been so lost without you."

Prime: "I owe all of you an apology. I should never have left."

Ratchet: "What matters is you're back."

Side: "Now we can't lose!"

Prime: "How are the humans?"

Fowler: "All of us are present and accounted for. A few cuts and bruises, but we're ready to fight with you."

Jazz cuffs the unconscious Coneheads together, and The Autobots take refuge to a nearby building to hear Optimus's plans.

Prime: "Listen carefully. The Insecticons are coming and Soundwave's pets are blocking the front entrance. We need to split into teams."

Jazz: "I'd hate to be that guy, but that doesn't sound like a good plan."

Prime: "We can't afford to be all captured and killed at once. If even one team survives we still have a chance to save Earth."

Swoop: "I call dibs on being on the living team."

Prime; "Wreckers, you and the Dinobots will blast your way through the barricade so the rest of teams can go through. After that the Wreckers will join me in bringing down Shockwave and the Driller. The Dinobots can wreak as much havoc as they can."

Grimlock: (sharpening his sword) "Me Grimlock like this plan."

Prime: "Aerialbots, as soon as they make a hole you will combat their air force, and if you need to combine at some point then do it."

Silver: "You got it."

Prime: "Ironhide and Blaster will take the human infantry and take their forces from behind."

Blaster: "Sounds good to me."

Prime: "Jazz, can you fly that drone ship Blaster commandeered?"

Jazz: "Of course I can, I'm Jazz!"

Prime: "If you are lucky you can sneak past Buzzsaw's brigade and provide additional air support to the Aerialbots. Bumblebee, Ratchet, Jolt, Tailgate, and Tomahawk will be making a straight line through. Mirage and Sideswipe will follow them as a secondary team."

Ace: "What about us?"

Prime: "Choose your ride."

Fowler: "I got Mirage."

Mirage: "An excellent choice."

Ace: "Looks like we got Sideswipe."

Tyrone: "Fine."

Side: "And your ride is even finer!"

Prime "Autobots, let's take back this planet!"

Jazz: "We can do this!"

Airraid: "Except for Snarl!"

Slag and Sludge instantly break out with laughter, even Swoop couldn't help but let out a giggle. Snarl clenches his fist in anger and calms down for now. Jazz activates the drone ship that Blaster stole and gets in a formation with other drone ships. Buzzsaw however senses that something is fishy.

Buzzsaw: "I don't remember there being five ships in this line. There should only be four."

With his special vision he looks through the cockpit of each ship and discovers Jazz at the very end.

Buzzsaw: (roaring) "It's Jazz! All fliers report to me!"

It's most fortunate that Jazz was at the end of the line, because he destroys them with the smaller cannons, and he has yet to find out how to activate the big ones. Laserbeak, Squawktalk, and Ratbat join Buzzsaw in attacking Jazz's ship. Buzzsaw tears off the smaller cannons while the rest start tearing it apart. In the distance they see the Dinobots and Wreckers heading toward the barricade with Grimlock leading the charge.

Buzzsaw: "The rest of you man your positions and take this trash out!"

Rumble and Frenzy combine the power of the piledrivers to trip up Snarl and he goes down. Ravage fires right at Grimlock's head but they do absolutely nothing. Grimlock and Swoop spew out fireballs, Sludge fires his eye lasers, and Slag sends out the lasers from his horns. They all make holes in the barricade but they still haven't arrived yet. Rumble and Frenzy switch to their guns and Beastbox's massive rockets hits sludge in the back, and his massive neck hits the side of a building. The Wreckers come in from behind and start pelting Frenzy with their fire, and then Slag manages to get out in front and ram him with his horns. Frenzy frees himself by whacking his piledriver on Slags head. The Wreckers shoot him up until he is unconscious. Slugfest transforms into his robot mode and trips Slag, and Overkill sets him on fire. while Slugfest swings him into a window with his ax. Grimlock launches a fireball at Slugfest to knock him out, and while the are distracted the Wreckers make it through and drive to Optimus, who has just flown through while everyone else was distracted. Rumble tries to intervene but Swoop snatches him up and takes him higher. Rumble breaks free by shooting Swoop in the face. He transforms into his saucer mode to hover, transforms back with a piledriver out, and does a falling punch into Grimlock's head and it knocks him down. Swoop tries to dive bomb Rumble, but Beastbox grabs him by the feet and slams him down on the road. He starts beating on the flier, but slag gets up and attacks him. Overkill attacks Grimlock with Rumble, but Sludge gets up and swings his neck into Overkill, and he skyrockets and lands on the roof of an adjacent building. He's knocked out from the fall. Ravage shoots up Swoop with Beastbox knocking him out, and the both help Rumble fight Grimlock, but Sludge has other ideas and uses his earthquakes to make Rumble fall into a pit. Ravage understands the gravity of the situation and cloaks himself, running as fast as he can out of there. Beastbox still beats on Grimlock but is now forced to deal with Slag and Sludge. He decides to retreat too.

Beastbox: "Wait for Beastbox!"

Meanwhile Jazz is getting his ship torn to pieces and Buzzsaw's team is wasting no time.

Buzzsaw: "I will end you Jazz, and I will do the same for every Autobot in the name of Megatron!"

Jazz: "You're one crazy-ass bird!"

Buzzsaw tries to bite at Jazz, and his jaws are only barely missing Jazz's face. He frantically searches for the big cannons and eventually finds it. Upon noticing Jazz finding the button Squawktalk instantly flies away for self-preservation, leaving the others to fight. Jazz spins the ship around to shake the others loose, and he crashes it into a building to get Laserbeak off and he retreats. Ratbat and Buzzsaw continue tearing the ship apart and Jazz positions the cannons to fire, but Ratbat barely swings it aside to miss, so he retreats afterwards. Now it's just Buzzsaw vs Jazz, and he destroys one of the engines. The ship starts spiral down for an impact, but Buzzsaw can't help one last taunt.

(triumphant) "You won't survive that fall, and I shall return to Megatron victorious on this day! Farewell you parasite!"

Buzzsaw flaps his wing and goes up, but something has happened. He can't seem to fly away. Buzzsaw looks around and sees that his left foot has been caught in a crevice on the ship.

Jazz: "If I'm going to hell I'm going to ask Unicron for forgiveness about the inconvenience of bringing you with me!"

The cannon points at Buzzsaw, and within that moment he understands. He closes his eyes accepting his fate, and BOOM! Buzzsaw explodes into millions of pieces from the shot. The only recognizable part left is the foot that was stuck. All hope seems lost for Jazz, but Swoop rescues him and brings him down to safety. He thanks him and drives off. The rest of the teams split off as planned to take back their city. The Autobots have won this battle, but the threat of the coming Insecticons looms over their heads. With Buzzsaw's death signifying a change the battle will take an even more chaotic turn when the Eradicons finally arrive.