Avengeformers

Avengeformers Chaprer 17 (The plot! Oh finally the plot!)

Cap gripped his shield and chucked it forward like a ninja star, letting it charge toward the scorched body of Scoroponok. But Scorponok jumped up and shifted to the right, and he missed the shield by a simple strand of hair’s width.

Bumblebee didn’t even spend a second thinking. He dove toward Scorponok, fired at him several times, and used his free hand to grab the shield. A pincer came at him, but Bumblebee placed his arm up and blocked the attack, then took the other hand and threw a punch. “Cap! Catch!” Bumblebee chucked the shield toward Cap.

“He’s going to miss it!” Ratchet said.

Optimus dove to the side and curled in, tumbling on the ground. He pulled his hands away from his chest and opened them on the ground for Cap to grab his shield.

“Thank you Optimus,” Cap said.

“Starscream, let’s see how you do for your first fight,” Optimus stated. He whipped out one of his swords, then charged forward.

Jetfire glared at Starscream and pointed a finger at him. “Don’t you dare do anything funny or I swear to Primus I’ll bring you back to Cybertron and destroy you in Kaon!” He turned and ran toward Scorponok with his cannon out, then fired multiple times.

“Well!” Starscream said. He sighed and pulled out some of his blasters, then bolted forward. “Let’s see how you can handle my fury!” He suddenly went trigger-happy and blasted at wherever he could see just a fraction of Scorponok.

“Starscream! Watch it!” Cap said. With a sigh, he jumped up and chucked his shield at the legs. He was too occupied with Bumblebee being in his headlock that the shield hit one leg at a time, angled so perfectly that it went and hit four of his legs, making him sprawl out. Cap grabbed his shield, and Scorponok fell to the ground, dragging Bumblebee with him.

Jetfire fired away at the head while Ratchet came in and kicked the side. Optimus took his sword and jammed it into the stomach, a high-pitched scream coming from the bot as it fell to the ground limply.

Cap sighed and looked up at Bumblebee. “Do you think he’s dead?” Bumblebee shrugged, then bent down and picked him up, just in case Scorponok sprung up again.

Ratchet walked up to him, then peered over him. He slowly maneuvered in a circle around him, checking for any vital signs. Finally, he stood up straight, then said, “He’s done. I don’t see any signs of him being al—“ Scorponok’s tail reached up and gripped Ratchet’s legs, then pulled him to the ground.

Starscream fired at him, not exactly being careful of the fact that he had a chance of hitting both Ratchet and Scorponok. “Sorry if I hit you, but take some pain for the team!” He fired a missile out, and a shout came from Ratchet.

“Starscream!” Optimus shouted furiously.

“Sorry! But he’s not dying!”

When the smoke cleared, Ratchet lay on top of Scorponok, pinning him down however he could. “Someone chop his head off or something or he’s going to keep attacking!” he called out.

Jetfire fired a thick red laser out of his cannon, then slashed it quickly across Scorponok’s throat. A scream came, and the ray retracted, revealing the once-again-limp bot with no head. “Let’s hope this guy remains dead this time.”

But obviously Optimus wasn’t too sure himself. He drove his sword into Scoroponok’s center where his Spark was. When he tore it out, Scorponok didn’t move an inch. He just lay there, frozen as a weeping angel. “This battle is over,” he said.

Cap let out a sigh of relief. “I just went for a morning jog and that thing was in the form of a guy, but he wouldn’t stop following me. Then…. then……. his tail…….. and—“

“It’s alright Steve,” Bumblebee said. “When someone uses a holoform to disguise themself as a human, it’s almost impossible to tell that they’re what they are underneath.” Cap let out a sigh and gave a reluctant nod in agreement.

“Can one of you call Nick? He’s got to know what happened,” Cap asked. Bumblebee tuned in his radio to Nick’s watch without a second thought.

Back at the hotel in Nick’s room, a small buzz softly sounded through the air. Nick twitched, then turned onto his right thinking it was just a dream. But the buzzing wouldn’t cease. He groaned, then attempted to ignore it, only to groan louder as it irritated him like a mosquito. When it didn’t stop, he grunted obnoxiously and flipped onto his stomach, shoving his face into his pillow. But the buzzing wouldn’t stop. Finally, Nick shot around and gripped the communicator. “What the hell is it?!” he snapped.

Coulson, who was in the bed on the right, gasped as he awoke from his deep sleep. “Director Fury, is everything alright?!” he asked as he turned to look. He reached over to the small table between them to grab his glasses, then put them on.

Nick sighed. “Yeah. I think so. And Agent Coulson, just keep calling me Nick.” He pressed the button on his communicator and sighed again. “Who is it?” he asked, his words droning on as he said them.

“Nick? It’s me, Steve!” Steve said.

“Steve? Where are you?” Nick asked.

Coulson gave a confused look. “Is everything ok?” Nick shrugged.

“I went out for a morning jog and one…” He hesitated. “I guess you could call him a man at the time. He followed me until he drove me to a backstreet and went out of his holoform to reveal he was a Decepticon called Scorponok.”

“What?!”

“He is perfectly fine Nick,” someone said. Nick recognized it was Optimus. “Scorponok is down and Steve is safe. Although he should have suspected something suspicious when he was led into a dark alleyway.”

“Nobody’s perfect,” Nick said. “Let me talk to him.”

A brief moment of silence passed, then Steve began speaking again. “Nick, I’m fine now. Just… I’m glad it wasn’t near a populated area. Nobody was badly injured.”

“I’m bringing the team over.”

“Alright. We’ll be wai—“

“Nick! I’ll fly in and pick you guys up!” Starscream butted in.

Nick rolled his eyes and sighed. “Starscream, you can’t just go and get seen by everyone now. You may have been careless of who saw you, but we are to all stay low until the enemy makes their move. Then w—“

“Wait,” Starscream interrupted. “You are really going to wait for the enemy to make their move? Pfft. Megatron’s not dumb. He’s managing to stay hidden inside the underground base until you make a move. At some point, one side will have to do something, and he’s not stupid enough to reveal himself just yet.”

Everyone fell silent. Optimus gave a look of utter shock to him.

“What? Megatron told me his plans. I know at least a good portion of them though he said they weren’t final. But considering the circumstances as of this moment, I don’t think they’re at all what he was planning. But it’s definite he won’t make a move until you do. Just think of it! He’s done almost nothing but draw you guys in to attack.”

All mouths hung open and all eyes were wide as the sky. The team stood still as statues, unblinking, and so motionless that a gust of wind wouldn’t make them move.

“You idiot!” Jetfire blurted out. “Do you realize what you just said?!” He stomped his foot forward and leaned into Starscream’s face, making him back up with a strange look. “He’s dragging us all over the place from city to city for something! Something huge!”

“Jetfire! Take it easy!” Ratchet said.

“No!” Jetfire snapped. He glared at Starscream. “Do you know which city they’re going to attack next?!”

“Like I said, the plans might be changed considering all that happened,” Starscream explained.

“Starscream,” Optimus began. “Just think of what he might do next even if the plans were changed. You have been around him for years. Where would he head to next?”

Nick finally opened his mouth. “Everyone stop arguing!” he shouted angrily. Everyone fell silent. After a few seconds he began speaking again. “You’re not asking the essential questions. You’re all just arguing that he might be able to solve this when he doesn’t even think the plans are final. But if we ask the base questions then we might be able to find out what to do.” Nobody spoke once he said that. He finally managed to get them all to agree. “Starscream.”

“What?”

“Do you remember how many places Megatron planned on attacking?”

Starscream remained silent for just a moment. Thoughts raced through his head, and he pondered on whatever he came across. No… he couldn’t have attacked there. Would he have go—no. Megatron’s not dumb. He wouldn’t go there either. He grunted loudly and rolled his eyes. “Sorry, but I can’t think of where he’d attack. He and Slipfang originally planned three cities, but I don’t know where the last one was. I think—“

“Three cities?!” Nick asked. He turned to Coulson. “Coulson, pull up a map and mark Dallas and Atlanta.”

“Got it!” Coulson grabbed the computer beside him. Quickly, he pressed the power button and it turned on. He navigated to an icon on the bottom of the screen and clicked it, opening up a map. With a drawing tool, he marked down Atlanta, Georgia, and Dallas, Texas.

Nick sighed. “Alright. If he was planning on attacking three cities, then what would lead us to the third? Any ideas?”

“Nick,” Cap jumped in. “Wake up Nat.”

“What? Why?”

“Just trust me. Wake her up, give her the map, and fifteen minutes. She’ll find it,” Cap stated. Nick asked how. “She’s got one of the quickest minds I’ve seen. Believe me. Nat will know without a doubt and I can guarantee she will get it correct.”

Nick curled in his lips and tapped his fingers on the table in hesitation. Finally, he let out his paused breath. “Alright. Let’s see what she can do.”

With that, the communication was closed, and Nick headed to Natasha’s room. When he got there, he held his fist up high. He pounded on the door harshly around five times.

“Natasha! I need you to do something!” he called out.

Within a fraction of the second, the door was torn open, and Natasha stood with her hair fully brushed, and she was completely dressed and wide awake. “What is it?” she asked nonchalantly. Nick gave a strange look. “What?”

“Why are you up and fully dressed already?”

Natasha rolled her eyes and sighed, then leaned her left hand on the door frame. “I didn’t sleep much at all last night,” she replied. Her eyes moved to the computer in Nick’s arms. “Let me guess. You need me to hack into something? Research something? Track someone down?”

“Well more or less, a bit of all three,” Nick replied. Natasha gave the strange look. Nick opened the computer and revealed the map on the screen with the two cities marked. “Alright. Steve said for me to give you this. Starscream told me there were originally three cities meant to be attacked, and he has no clue what the third one was. I need you to sort of hack into their plan and use whatever you can to find out where the next place to go would be so we can track down the Slythers and Decepticons.”

Natasha took the computer from Nick’s hands. “I’ll be at your room in fifteen minutes tops,” she said as she turned and closed the door behind her.

Natasha sat down on her bed and placed the computer in her lap. Her eyes darted to the two places that were already marked. She pursed her lips, then let out a sigh and made a straight face. “Alright. Let’s see.” She placed her finger on the screen at Atlanta, Georgia, then it carefully moved down to Dallas, Texas. She then placed her finger on the touchpad and used a line tool to make a line from that area to the next. “Ok. So there’s Dallas and Atlanta. But why would Georgia have been attacked first?”

Suddenly, thoughts flowed through Natasha’s mind. She quickly began to mentally recall all the events that had occurred throughout the time the team had been together. She remembered when they met the Transformers and how everyone teamed up after that. Then when the first Slyther appeared. Then to when Megatron appeared. Then to when the base was destroyed. Her eyes shot open. “That’s because they wanted to distract us and destroy everything we had on them!” Natasha put a small note right beside Atlanta and read it aloud as she typed, her eyes darting back and forth from the screen to the keyboard. “Distraction to destroy S.H.I.E.L.D.”

The next task Natasha had to do was find out about Dallas. “Alright,” she said. “Now for Dallas. It’s down in the south, just at a slight angle if I draw this line. But Megatron wants to attack a third place, and he and Slipfang want to do it so they can make this place their home.” She placed her finger on the screen on Atlanta, then moved down the line to Dallas. She raised an eyebrow. “But there’s nothing in Dallas but the tunnels. The Slythers dug the series of tunnels which Starscream said there was a whole different system to it on the other half. But we have no clue where those tunnels lead.”

Natasha moved down to a digital map of the sonar scan map Bumblebee made. “I guess he sent the map. Thanks Bee.” She gave a small smile and opened it up. The very long tunnel leading up to the hexagonal room with five areas appeared. She moved her finger across the space to where the tunnel split. Her finger moved to the left where the five rooms were. Then she moved to the room with the computer. “I still don’t know what the heck that thing’s purpose is besides nearly getting Tony killed.” Natasha sighed. “So if there are only the tunnels then what purpose does Dallas serve in their plan? There’s nothing there.”

Natasha closed her eyes again and mentally played out the events that occurred there as well. First was when the team arrived there. Then when Bumblebee found the tunnels. Then when Jetfire reappeared. Then when Starscream fought for his freedom. Natasha shook her head and pounded her fist on the bed. “No! There’s nothing! I can’t see any reasons! I can’t find out any reasons unless I… unless I find out where they’re going to attack next.” She selected the sonar map and copied it, then moved to the map of the United States, zoomed in to Dallas, and pasted the tunnels in the ground. Her eyes suddenly widened. “Let’s try this!” She took a line tool, and on the other half of the tunnels, Bumblebee had picked up a straight tunnel on it. Natasha put the cursor on the small bit, then drew a line with the exact same angle and continued drawing. She gasped, then dropped her hands to her sides. Her mouth hung open. “N… no. They wants to make this their home. So of course!” Natasha zoomed in, and the one line landed directly on one object. S.H.I.E.L.D.

Quickly, Natasha tapped the watch on her wrist and scrolled down to Nick Fury. She tapped his name, and  began ringing. “Come on! Come on!!” she said impatiently. She tapped her fingers on the table beside her and bit her bottom lip, practically shivering. Finally, Nick picked up.

“What do you have? Did you find anything?” Nick asked.

“Nick! Slipfang and Megatron want to make this place their home, right?” she asked. Nick responded with a yes. “Well I’ll begin with Atlanta.”

“What about Atlanta?” Nick asked.

Natasha sighed. “We’ve been missing this the whole time! We were dragged to Atlanta before anything. And the reason for that is because Megatron wanted to distract us and get us all away while we went and fought. Then he flew in and destroyed the S.H.I.E.L.D. base in Florida. He had to get us far enough away that we wouldn’t be able to go after him. That got us to lose all of our information we had on the Decepticons and Slythers.”

“So the whole Atlanta thing was just a diversion?” Nick asked. “That means he was just sacrificing his team to destroy the base. How sick!”

“That’s not even the bulk of it though,” Natasha said. “We followed them to Dallas, Texas. That’s where we found out they were digging the tunnels. No, I don’t know what that computer is for. But I took the tunnel map and pasted it into the United States map.”

“What did you find?” Nick asked quickly.

“Bumblebee picked up on a small part of that tunnel on the other half. I drew a line connecting Atlanta and Dallas, and so I drew a line at the exact same angle from the tunnel onward, and listen to this,” Natasha began. “The Decepticons and Slythers want to make this place their home. Well what protects this place? None other than S.H.I.E.L.D. And because of tha—“

“Don’t tell me,” Nick interrupted.

Natasha sighed. “I know what you’re thinking. And you’re right. The line lands perfectly on S.H.I.E.L.D. They’re going to attack it and destroy it, then tear everything apart, leaving this country vulnerable. Then they’re going to take over.”

There was silence for several seconds on the line. Nobody said a single word. Nobody sighed. Even the air we completely still. Finally, Nick spoke once more. “Natasha, connect Atlanta to S.H.I.E.L.D. and see what you get.”

“What?”

“Just do it.”

Natasha didn’t argue. She moved the cursor over to Atlanta, then drew a line up from it all the way to S.H.I.E.L.D. She suddenly gasped and fell silent, frozen.

“What is it?” Nick asked.

Natasha shook her head to snap out of her frozen state. “Nick! There’s a whole triangle! All the places form one giant triangle, and that’s where all of the tunnels are at! The main one leads to S.H.I.E.L.D. while the others are planted throughout the triangle!”

“Well I guess they were remaking the Bermuda Triangle right here,” Nick commented.

“I don’t think we have much time! We’ve got to do something before the attack is commenced!” Natasha stated.

“But I’m not about to put up with S.H.I.E.L.D. in New York,” Nick said.

“Why not?! Tell them to evacuate! Tell them to attack back!”

“It’s going to create a hell of a lot more problems than it will solve!” Nick argued harshly.

“How?!”

“Just believe me! It’s not worth the he—“

Suddenly, the whole building went dark. Screams sounded out from rooms all around the hotel. The call had been ended between the two of them. Natasha tore open the curtains, and all of the signs that lit up the city, all of the lights in every building, all power was shut off. 

“What. The. Hell.” Natasha was stunned in complete silence. She looked to her computer which was also off, and tried pressing the power button. Nothing turned on. She slammed it shut, raced to her door, and opened it up and charged down the hallway to Nick’s room.

With trembling hands, Natasha banged on the door. “Nick! It’s me! Open up!” He voice shook like an earthquake and chills continuously ran down her spine like a centipede. The door opened, and Nick appeared. There was no power in his room either. “What’s going on?”

Nick let out a sigh of relief. “Natasha. Did your power go out too?”

Natasha nodded. “As far as I can see, all power in Dallas is out. No lights. No computers. Nothing. Even wireless objects are out. H… how is that po—“

Agent Coulson suddenly gasped. “N… Ni….. Ni……….” The poor man sat, huddled against the back of his bed, trembling as thought he was a child that had awoken from a terrifying dream. “Ni…”

“What is it Coulson?!” Nick asked as he rushed over to his side. He bent down and placed his hand on Coulson who was pale as a ghost, his finger pointing at the TV in front of him. Nick slowly turned to the screen, then fell dead silent. “Natasha. Get the team! Now!!” Natasha ran out of the room and down the hall to whoever’s room was closest.

“Pitiful humans and inhumans alike!” a hissing voice sounded out.

Nick sat beside Coulson with his arm around him. “It’s alright Coulson. Breathe, ok? Just take deep breaths. Are you breathing?” he said. Coulson began by taking quick, shallow breaths. But with each one, it got longer, and the color came back to him, and his trembling stopped. Everything went normal as soon as he was breathing normally. “Are you alright?”

“Slipfang!” Coulson cried out.

“I know. We’ve got the team on it already. We’re gathering them up and we’ll head out to see what we can do,” Nick stated. Both of them faced the screen where in front of a large building was Slipfang.

“For a while now, we have been preparing an attack. But you may not know what for,” Slipfang hissed. “You have a certain group that has been defending you for quite a while now, am I right? I believe you call them S.H.I.E.L.D. Well I’ll have you know that just last month we destroyed the southern base. But that barely held any value.”

Natasha stood at Bruce’s door. “Bruce! Calm down! It’s alright! It’s me!” She tore open the door, and Bruce sat on his bed, frozen. Natasha raced to him and placed her one hand against his back, her other hand on his heart. It was beating too fast. “Stay calm. Just stay calm.” Bruce turned to her and nodded with a slight look of terror on his face. “Alright! Come with me!” Bruce took her hand and the two of them ran down the hall.

“Let’s get Tony,” Bruce said. Natasha nodded, but looked down the hall, and she saw Hawkeye and Tony and Thor all standing together. Thor ran up to them.

“Bruce. Natasha,” Thor said. “Are you alright? Do you know what is happening?”

“All power’s out, and Slipfang’s taken over every screen in the United States,” Bruce replied hastily.

“All?!” Tony asked. He and Hawkeye stood with the group. “Also, Steve went out for a morning jog and got caught up with a Decepticon. All’s good, but I wonder if he knows what’s happening. And yes, Nick knows he’s there.”

“Yes. Every one. I can already tell,” Bruce replied. His eyes moved to the computer Natasha was holding. “Open that up.”

“Why?”

“Just open it,” Bruce said. Natasha opened it up, and Slipfang’s message continued to play across the screen. Everyone’s eyes widened, and they all crowded around the computer. “Do we listen?”

“Of course!” Tony argued.

“Now take a good long look at the building right behind me,” Slipfang said. The camera switched to a bird’s-eye view of the building he stood in front of. Everyone gasped as they saw it was S.H.I.E.L.D., Decepticons standing all over the roof fully armed, Slythers staying guard all around the bottom of the building, and more Decepticons flew above and around the building. “Your ever so precious protectors have no power here anymore. We have their last hope encompassed in sheer loss.”

“S.H.I.E.L.D. isn’t going to stand for much longer,” Tony said.

Natasha let out a sigh of sadness and looked down to the ground. She curled in her lips, attempting to hold back her feelings. She felt an arm around her, then gazed up to see Hawkeye giving a reassuring smile.

“It’ll be alright,” Hawkeye whispered. With that, Natasha stood up and let him hug her close to him.

Slipfang continued his speech. The camera turned back to him. “Everyone watch. There will be no hope. We will tear down your world’s only protection. Watch its guardians burn in the hopelessness and let them despair over the ideas that they will never win.”

“Is he referring to us?” Thor asked. Hawkeye nodded, and Thor grunted.

“—the days numbered. Where are the so called ‘Avengers’ anyway? Where are the Autobots? Where are the ones you rely on so much that you couldn’t possibly be safe without them? I can tell you. They’re likely hiding so as to hide the fact that they’re withering away in dread as they see how little their chances are t success. To all of United States, this is Slipfang. I cannot wait to see this place become hectic, destroying itself from the inside out. Until then, take time to face your new leaders. Realize that… this world is no longer yours. Bow down to me! And all hail Megatron!!!”

Suddenly, all connections ended. The screen went black, and all the power went on. Natasha’s computer went back to the linking map.

The Avenger stood on utter silence. With wide eyes, they looked at each other, otherwise frozen as weeping angels. Barely a breath was taken.

Finally, Thor spoke up. “We need to speak with Nick. S.H.I.E.L.D. is under siege and we must do something to stop its destruction or this place will fall to pieces like Slipfang said.”

Natasha nodded, slammed the computer shut, and raced off to Nick’s room. The rest of the team followed behind.

Nick and Agent Coulson stood in the middle of the room, discussing the speech from Slipfang. They both turned to the doorway where the Avengers stood. Nick motioned for them to come in, then continued the conversation.

“We’re all ok. Thanks for asking,” Tony mocked. Hawkeye elbowed him hard in the side, making him lean forward a little and cringe. “Ow! Did you have to do that?!” He raised his elbow high to ram it into Hawkeye until Thor stepped between the two of them.

“No one is to argue until we find out the reason,” Thor stated.

“No. I’m sorry,” Nick finally said. “I… I was busy talking it out with Agent Coulson here. About…. about what it is we should do next.” The words were as soft as a feather. Hesitant. He turned to face them, his face full of restrained sadness.

Natasha and Bruce shuddered at the look.

“S.H.I.E.L.D. is done for. Just because I was too stubborn to ask them for help,” Nick said quietly. Natasha quickly ran to his side.

“Nick, it’s not your fault! There wouldn’t have been enough ti—“

Nick sighed. “No. There’s always time. And now all those people are done for just because I was so stubborn.”

“Nick, they surrounded the building long before I found out the whole… triangle of death thing. Just forget it and—“

Before anyone knew it, Tony was right at Nick’s other side. Casually, he said, “Believe me. There wouldn’t have been enough time. And even Optimus didn’t know it. If he’d known don’t you think he would have called us up? If any of them knew, they would have called us up.” Nick turned to him in complete shock. “And if Starscream, knowledgeable of the former plans, didn’t know they’d attack S.H.I.E.L.D., then there was never any chance from the start.” Tony took in a deep breath, then let it out. “Now our only chance is to clear things up. Save the people. Avenger our home.”

Nick fell silent. He was more than speechless.

“It’s not your fault,” Tony stated. He turned around and walked back to the group.

Suddenly, a car horn honked right outside the window. Nick tore open the curtains and looked down, only to see Bumblebee. A buzz sounded out from Nick’s watch, and he looked at the message. All the letters were strangely written. No. They were not even Earth letters. It was some ancient language.

“What the heck?” Nick asked.

Tony walked over and looked at the message carefully. “It’s the language of the Primes from Cybertron. The message says ‘Only you Nick.’”

Nick looked at him strangely. “How do you know?!”

“I saw a few messages written in it. Optimus translated them. I picked up on a bit of it. Filled in what I had to,” Tony replied. Another message came, written the same way. “It says something about S.H.I.E.L.D. I can’t read it all, but something dealing with it.”

“Crud!” Nick said. He turned to the door and began walking out. “Everyone, stay in here until I return. Nobody say anything, go anywhere, and don’t talk to anybody!” They all gave him a strange look as he walked out of the room swiftly and without another word.

All eyes turned to Agent Coulson. Coulson shrugged. “I… I have no clue what it is.”