Transformers: Honor and Loyalty

Chapter 11: Risen Stakes

A mech slowly regains consciousness, finding himself in a laboratory, strapped down to a table. He's confused, as last he remembered-wait, what is the last thing he remembered?

Suddenly, several shadowed forms surround him and begin pulling out what looked like tools. "Is he ready for the procedure?" a familiar voice asks. Turning his head, he spots who it belongs to.

One of the other figures speaks up. "He is sir. But with all due respect, don't you think this is a bit extreme? He's done nothing wrong and by all accounts-"

The voice is suddenly silenced as the other voice continues. "Proceed with the operation."

He began to panic, thrashing around violently. Soon, he broke his right arm free. The shadowy figures rushed forward to restrain him again, but as they tried, he threw them off and punched upwards.

Tarn is suddenly pulled from the waking nightmare when he feels something grab his arm. In an instant, he's pulled into the light from under a pile of boulders. Looking up, he sees to his surprise that it was Bludgeon who'd helped him, albeit with a rather disgusted look on his face.

"You should be grateful I even stayed to help you." Bludgeon sneers, helping Tarn to his feet. Tarn doesn't say anything but does give a brief nod of appreciation to the assassin before stepping away.

"Sir!" Tarn and Bludgeon turn to see Helex, battered and dented, but still functioning as if nothing had happened, holding what looked to be Kaon's mangled body in one of his large hands.

He looks offline, but as Bludgeon looks closer, the body is still moving slightly, but his vocal processor had been damaged in the avalanche, something that had gone unnoticed by his other compatriots.

A dark smirk forms on Bludgeon's face as an opportunity presents itself to the assassin.

"So, you found the dead chassis of Kaon, so what?" Bludgeon asks. Unnoticed by the other two, Kaon gives Bludgeon a glare of hatred before Helex continues warily.

"It's not that. He doesn't have the List copy on him."

Tarn tenses in fury before turning away from the group and walking off. Without saying a word, he simply makes a gesture with his hand, one Helex knew the meaning of and the cockpit in his chest springs open.

Kaon's optics go wide in horror as he's suddenly crammed into the cockpit and the lid snaps closed. In the next instant, the cockpit lit up a fiery orange and Kaon screams silently, unnoticed and unheard by Helex and Tarn.

While it's a gruesome sight to witness, Bludgeon can't turn away, watching with sadistic satisfaction as the irritating Decepticon he had come to loathe so much melts away into nothingness.

As Kaon melts, Bludgeon also notices that certain areas on Helex glowed as well, along with the sound of something powering up.

With that out of the way, Bludgeon can't help a question. "What is so important about that copy of this 'List', anyway?"

Helex turns to Bludgeon, an almost panicked look on his face. "That copy has a direct link to the main computers back on Cybertron" he explains. "If the Autobots somehow got ahold of it, they would be able to use it and delete all copies and files containing it." Helex turns back to Tarn, who has his back to the two. "And with Kaon gone, sir, we have no way of tracking down Deadlock's precise location once we've reached the city. How will we be able to find him now?" Tarn stays silent, seemingly not hearing the question, so Helex steps forward with noticeable caution. "Sir?" he asks again.

Still no response. Helex, though nervous, is about to ask again, until he hears, "Etsuko Sasaki."

Helex turns to face Bludgeon, who has his head down in thought. "Come again?" Helex asks.