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Episode Fourteen:  Wind, Flame and Fang

            “Whoops…..try again!”  Hot Rod laughed, boosting his jump and flipping over the strange hybrid beast-mech—some kind of mix between a panther and a bat.

            “Sir Hot Rod—please be careful!”  Airrazor called, pulling some feathers from her wings and throwing them at the panther-bat mech like daggers.

            “This’s no problem……….just protect the sparknest!”  Hot Rod ordered, landing neatly behind the beast-mech and grabbing his tail.

            The trembling femme guardian of the sparknest spread her large bat wings and arms over the precious object in the ground that was just flaring into life.   She was incredibly scared when this hybrid showed up, lumbering about out-of-his-mind.   She’d sent out a cry for help on a tone that couldn’t be heard by most audials, except Airrazor had heard it—even while on the Star Voyager.   She told Hot Rod and they rushed out of the ship before saying a word to anyone—the moment Hot Rod heard “Sparks” and “danger”, he was already moving.

            “Lady Echowing, please do not be afraid!”  Airrazor said, firmly.  “We shall protect you and the nest!”   She said, devotedly.

            “I—I trust you!”  Echowing gasped, making sure her body and wings completely covered the precious new Sparks.

            “Hey, big guy………what’s your problem, anyways?”  Hot Rod taunted, spinning on a pede and aiming a kick at the panther-bat mech.

            “So…………hungry………..can’t think!”  The beast-mech moaned mournfully.  “I can smell Energon here……….I’m so hungry!”  He wailed sharply.

            “Hungry?”  Hot Rod murmured.  He pulled his snack container from subspace and found that he still had some premium-grade Energon cakes left in it.  “Hey, big guy—catch!”  The young, flame-colored mech called, tossing it at the beast-mech.

            The panther-bat mech opened his jaws and Hot Rod saw the extra-long fangs, as they chomped into the Energon cake with a loud snap.

            “Sooooooooooo goooooooooooood!”  The beast-mech moaned, lustfully.  “So rich in flavor!”

            “Here, I’ve got two more—will you settle down if I give them to ya, big guy?”  Hot Rod called.

            “Yeah, yeah!   Please and thanks!”  The beast-mech said with excitement, transforming into his primary mode.  His armour was primarily red, with some white in it and the black wings were folded at his back.  The mech’s servos had sharpened, claw-like tips.

            “Did’ja know you were about to trample a sparknest, big guy?”  Hot Rod asked, as the mech took the last two cakes, one in each servo.  Then he alternated taking a bite out of each, savoring them quite happily.

            “Sorry……….sorry—I haven’t eaten in a couple weeks and I can’t sleep ‘cause my tanks are ‘bout dry,” the panther-bat mech sighed, his mouth a mess of Energon filling-paste.  He swept his glossa around his mouth and licked his fingers to get every last bit of the treat.  “Name’s Grotusque—thanks for the food, bro!”  He laughed, jovially.

            “No problem…….but you should apologize to the scared femme watching the nest, Grotusque,” Hot Rod chuckled.

            “Sorry, pretty lady—didn’t mean to rampage like a dumb brute, I was just outta my mind, starving!”  Grotusque said to Echowing, dipping his shoulders politely.

            “O—okay……..as…….as long as the Sparks are safe……….it’s okay,” the bat-femme responded softly.

            “Hey, Airrazor………let’s take Grotusque back to the ship with us.  I can’t let a guy starve!”  Hot Rod said, grinning at the falcon-femme.

            “Lord Ultra Magnus may want to speak with you, first,” she chuckled.  She always addressed everyone very formally—even when Hot Rod told her she didn’t have to.  Well, it would take time and eventually she would relax and be less formal with everyone.

            “Yeah, probably.  But we’ll all be better off with full tanks—so, he can’t lecture me until we all eat!”  The flame-colored mech laughed.   “Oh, yeah……..how do we get back—since we kinda just jumped out of the ship?”  He chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck.

            “Ummm……your comm, sir Hot Rod?”  Airrazor chuckled.

            Hot Rod had been trying to ignore the trilling, because he recognized Ultra Magnus’ comm-code.  Finally he sighed and tapped his audial.  “Yeah, Mags?”  The flame-colored mech asked, staring at the ground.

            Airrazor could hear the tone of upset in the usually calm voice that crackled through the audial, even from where she was standing.

            “I’m sorry, but a sparknest was in danger—I couldn’t let them get hurt!”  Hot Rod cried.  He bit his lower lip as he listened to Ultra Magnus chew him out in his evenly toned voice.   “Mags!   I’m so sorry, but they’re not even born yet!   I couldn’t let them get hurt!”  The young mech wailed.

            Grotusque felt very upset that he was probably the cause of whatever the flame-colored mech was getting lectured for.   “Hey, bro………..look…………tell that guy that I’ll protect ya both until someone can pick ya guys up.  I’m super-strong………that’s why I’ve been able to survive on my own for so long,” the bat-panther mech said, softly, patting Hot Rod’s shoulder.

            Hot Rod relayed Grotusque’s words to Ultra Magnus and said they would get to a safe place and wait for someone to come and pick them up.  The old soldier still had some choice words for the young, flame-colored mech, before signing off…………which included him explaining that both he and Drift were worried that they may have lost their greatest treasure.

            “I know, Mags………..but these Sparks haven’t even found their forms, yet—I just couldn’t leave them alone to get hurt………or worse,” Hot Rod murmured, right before they said good-bye to each other. “We’ll see you guys soon.”
            “Sir Hot Rod…………why don’t we head for the caverns where knight Star Saber was staying—I know that we’ll be safe there and they should be able to find us easily?”  Airrazor inquired, rubbing a servo in the center of his back, soothingly.

            “Okay, that sounds like a plan.  Let’s go,” Hot Rod responded, with firm resolve.  “Echowing—good luck with the sparknest!”

            “Thank you!   And good luck to you all, as well!”  The bat-femme called after them.

            In all, it wasn’t too far to the caverns.   Hot Rod was happy that the generator that Star Saber had been using was still able to produce Energon was still functioning properly.

            “Can you process it?”  Grotusque asked, curiously.

            “Yeah………looks like Star Saber has a distillery here, to get the impurities out and temper the fuel strength.    He’s definitely got survival techniques down—probably from his time in the elite unit,” Hot Rod said, examining the device pretty carefully.

            “Do you have survival skills, sir Hot Rod?”  Airrazor asked, in awe.

            “Meh, a bit……..Mags took us on some ‘camping’ things—I’m more of a ‘I like my berth, bath and kitchen’ kind of guy,” Hot Rod laughed.  “But I always remember everything that Magnus tells me……….”

            Hot Rod sat on the cavern floor and examined the controls and settings of the distillation machine.  It looked as if it were taking ore from a drilled area down below it……..converting the ore and adding water from the tank.   Looked like it mostly just needed to go through the cleaning process of distillation, now—removing the impurities and balancing the strength/richness of the final product.  It was currently set at 80%.

            80%?  Most elite unit members drank high-grade—100%, or even premium-grade—150%.   Was it because Star Saber had been without his armour?   That seemed strange, because Magnus had always drunk high-grade at home.   Maybe it was because he was protecting Airrazor and set the distillation lower?   If that were the case—then he’d been weakening his own Spark by underfueling his own systems!

            “Airrazor?   Did you know if Star Saber were sick or something?”  Hot Rod asked, running the Energon through the distiller and looked around for cups.

            “Sick?   He seemed fine to me…………” the little falcon-femme murmured.  Then she thought back and remembered a few times when she thought he may have looked weak.  “A few times I do not think he was functioning at full capacity,” she said, softly.

            “Hmmm……..” Hot Rod murmured.  He poured three cups of Energon and handed cups to Grotusque and Airrazor before taking the third one for himself.   |Mags.   Keep an eye on Star Saber’s health—he’s only been fueling with eighty-percent all these years.|  He glyph-sent to the mech he loved.

            A few seconds later the “read” was tagged to the message.  There was no response, of course, but he knew Ultra Magnus had seriously read the message.   It wasn’t the type of message that necessarily needed a response, just to be read and understood.  Hot Rod just hoped that his lover wouldn’t be blatant and confront Star Saber on his unhealthy habits.

            Because Magnus would totally do that.  He was far too honest and straightforward.

            “Hey, bro…….does the quality matter that much?”  Grotusque asked, curiously.  He, personally, thought this 80% was pretty rich to him, but he’d also been scrabbling for fuel the past few years now.

            “Kinda, yeah—I mean when you’re hurting, any fuel’s fine, but systems perform better with higher quality fuel.  Also, you don’t burn through your fuel as fast when you constantly use a higher-grade,” Hot Rod explained.  “This planet has lots of sources for conversion into Energon—Star Saber’s using ore, but some villages here may use wind or solar energy to convert into Energon.   To make it liquid for fueling purposes such as ours, especially from an ore source like this………he’s infusing water with the Energon particles that comprise fuel.  The more Energon particles per gram, the higher the quality and the brighter the glow.”

            “How………..how do you know all this, sir Hot Rod?”  Airrazor asked in awe.

            “Basic cooking classes at school…………..since our fuel needs are dependent on Energon, learning how to prepare it for ‘meals’ is actually pretty fun to learn,” Hot Rod responded with a huge grin.  “It’s because ‘meals’ are actually more social than for just refueling—so, you wanna make the Energon enjoyable, so that the social time lasts longer……….right?”  He asked, still smiling at the Gaean natives.

            “Teach me, bro!   I wanna learn how to prep meals and make people happy!”  Grotusque begged.

            “You’d have to come along on our journey…………we’re not staying here too much longer.   We’ve got other colonies to warn about Unicron’s threat and the probability of the Decepticons attacking them,” Hot Rod answered, softly.

            “Gaea………….has very little use for ones like me—hybrid beasts,” Grotusque said, a bit of sadness in the tone of his vocalizer.  “I was cast out of my village and I’m never welcome anywhere else for very long.  I’m not very old……….just like a decade or so………..but I’ve been on my own almost since then.  It’s been hard scrabbling for fuel, so I know what it’s like to be starving.”

            “I’m only a decade old, too,” Hot Rod responded with good cheer in his voice.  “So, yeah!   Come along with us and I’ll teach you about meal prep!”

*      *      *      *      *

            Ultra Magnus and Star Saber came to the caverns and found the three younger ones laughing and conversing cheerfully.   Hot Rod had a winning personality and always got along well with others—even if he only chose to stick close to Blurr and Magnus most of the time, as well as Drift nowadays.   It was good for the flame-colored mech to start reaching out to others.

            “Grotusque is gonna come with us, Mags—I’m gonna teach him how to cook!”  Hot Rod said, brightly, looking up at the mech he loved.

            “All right,” Ultra Magnus responded, nodding down at Hot Rod with a smile on his faceplate.

            “Gentle knight……….have you been ill for these few years that I have been with you?”  Airrazor asked in concern, taking his very large servos (as he was in his Voyager Armour) and placing them between both of her very small servos.

            “No, of course not, my lady………..why do you…….?” Star Saber began, glancing down at her and then saw Hot Rod pointing at the distillery.  “Oh.  That.  My Spark can’t handle high-grade or premium-grade—not anymore, not since………” he trailed off, softly.

            “You Spark-bonded with Deszaras, didn’t you?  Why didn’t you ever tell anyone in the unit?”  Ultra Magnus asked, a lot of concern in his vocalizer.

            If that were really true and they’d been apart—and unable to share their light on occasion to keep the bond renewed…………then they’d both be hurting.  A stressed Spark-bond was worse than a broken one!   However, it wasn’t just that—Ultra Magnus was well-aware of Deszaras’ reputation in the unit.  Except for perhaps only the bonded pair of Black Shadow and Blue Bacchus, Des had interfaced with everyone else in the unit many times.  Often.  Except for doing it with Ultra Magnus, of course.

            “Look, Des’ reputation was what it was.   And, honestly, I couldn’t keep up with his drive.  We both chose to have an open-ended relationship,” Star Saber said with a deep sigh.   “But if we ever achieved that true peace that Sentinel had always wanted—we’d already decided we would settle down and live together.”

            “Is that true?”  Ultra Magnus asked, softly.  He’d kind of kept apart from the “fun times” the members of the unit had together………..and it was likely because of that, now he realized he hardly knew anything about his fellow soldiers at all.   The old soldier, who had once been the very youngest of the unit back then……………he really knew nothing about the personalities or the backgrounds of those he was in the unit with.

            “I bet you don’t even know we’re from the colonies………..do you, Magnus?”  The older swordsmech chuckled, settling down on one of the many flat-topped rocks that he’d made “seats” of in the cavern.   “Hot Rod, pour some of that into a cup for me, all right?”

            The young, flame-colored mech poured a cup of the distilled Energon and handed it to Star Saber.

            “All of us in the unit are from the colonies—except for you.   You are the only member of the elite unit from Cybertron itself.  We were all young, within our first couple decades when Sentinel visited our colonies and took us with him,” Star Saber said with a very fond smile.   “Even Ginrai and Orion are from the colonies—Orion was a newly born sparkling, so he doesn’t remember that he’s from a colony.  Cybertron’s the only home that Orion Pax ever knew.   Sentinel raised us all, all of us orphans—just like he raised you.”

            “Did Sentinel Prime also raise Orion Pax as well?”  The old soldier asked, still a bit surprised to learn all this information.

            “Yes, though stubborn Ginrai made himself more-or-less in charge of his little Spark-brother,” the swordsmech laughed warmly.  “And before you ask how they are brothers at different ages—their Sparks flared in the same spot in the sparknest they came from.  They have similar CNA in their Sparks and frames.  You’ve seen the sparknests on Corona—so you probably understand how it could happen.  There are five sparknests on Corona—Ginrai and Orion are from a sparknest in Vitale.  You were in Lumiere, right?”

            “I’m from the sparknest in Lumiere!”  Hot Rod said with a huge grin.  “So……..what colony are you from, Star Saber?”

            “Meteor,” the swordsmech answered, grinning over at the flame-colored mech.

            “’Scuse me—I dunno anything ‘bout the colonies, but what’s Meteor like?”  Grotusque asked, curiously.

            “They are all microbots—smaller than minibots,” Ultra Magnus said, softly.  “But……….I’ve seen you without your Voyager Armour…..?”  He trailed off, puzzled.

            “Minibots?  Oh!   You mean like Outback and Pipes, right?”  Hot Rod asked, looking up at Ultra Magnus, then he looked back at Star Saber.   “So, you’re smaller than……..well, like you’re maybe the size of your armour’s boot?”

            “That’s right—Des and I both are,” Star Saber responded.   “I have a controller frame, designed for me to interface with the Voyager Armour.   The controller frame is………well, it’s actually hardwired to my real body, only a skilled surgeon can remove mine or Des’ controller frames.   But one thing that we can do—which others in the unit could not—we can disengage our receptors from the controller frame and the armour, to avoid going into frame-shock.”  The swordsmech drank the last of the Energon from the cup in a big swallow.  “Magnus—you suffered frame-shock during what happened in Iacon four million years ago,” he explained, softly.

            “Then……….why didn’t Des use this ability to disengage, to avoid what happened to him?”  Ultra Magnus asked, tilting his head, curiously.

            Star Saber tapped the cup against his other palm, lightly.  “I think it’s because Liege Maximo broke him—he couldn’t disengage to avoid the frame-shock……….and his memories shattered when he broke.   I don’t think he even remembers his memories anymore,” the swordsmech sighed.  “I’m the only one who knows where the real Des is, deep inside that monster they buried him in,” he whispered, shaking his head.  “I’m the only one who can end his suffering………..” he trailed off, sadly.

            “Will you survive the broken Spark-bond?”  Hot Rod asked, kindly taking the cup from the older mech.

            “You don’t intend to survive it,” Ultra Magnus said, darkly.

            “After that—there’s little left for me to do in this world,” Star Saber chuckled, softly.   “The elite unit is almost extinct.  Besides us, here, Greatshot and Dai Atlas may be the only survivors.  Maybe Black Shadow, too………..but that’s something we may never know.”

            “Gentle knight!   But there is so much you can still do!   You should not end your life so tragically!”  Airrazor cried, falling to her knees so that she could look up into Star Saber’s faceplate.  “You should live, so that you can always cherish the love you had.”

            Star Saber chuckled and lightly placed his servos along the sides of her helm.  She was such a sweet little femme.  If he’d had a chance to raise a sparkling—he’d really want to raise one like her.

            “We’ll have to see what fate has in store for me, once I’ve saved Deszaras’ Spark,” Star Saber murmured, leaning his forehead down to touch hers, very fondly.

*      *      *      *      *

            The group was just getting ready to go back to the ship—to make some plans to confront Deathsaurus and his band—when suddenly the party just happened to come to them!

            “You kids keep back until we assess the situation!”  Star Saber snapped as he and Ultra Magnus went to the entrance of the cavern, rifles and guns at the ready.

            “Math says we’re outnumbered, Mags!”  Hot Rod called, as Grotusque pulled him back to the far end of the cavern.

            “Indeed.  But I know that we will win—we still have lots to do, yet,” Ultra Magnus said, smiling back at Hot Rod.

            “Mags, I know you’re awesome and all, but you can’t take on two big monsters by yourself!”   Hot Rod cried, anxiously.  “Mags!   I can fight!   You taught me how………me and Blurr!  You gotta let me grow up sometime!”   He snapped.

            “Magnus—you know he’s right.  You and I—the members of the unit—we were all his age when we became soldiers,” Star Saber said, gazing over at his fellow elite unit soldier.  “Hot Rod!   Blurr tells me you use an energy bow—so, you have a skill of marksmanship!   Give these a try!”  The swordsmech said, tossing the younger mech the twin photon lasers he’d taken from the weaponsroom earlier.  “I’m after Deathsaurus!”  He added, leaping out of the cavern with a rebel yell and drew his sword.

            “Very well.  Do not take foolish risks, Hot Rod,” Ultra Magnus said, very seriously—addressing the flame-colored mech by his designation to prove how serious he was about the situation.   “I will take the garishly-colored one—the Seacons combined.  Star Saber tells me the Terrorcons are brutal, but not too intelligent.  So, outsmart their combined form.”

            “Got it!”  Hot Rod said with a nod.

            “I’ll help ya, bro!”  Grotusque said, clapping a servo on the flame-colored mech’s shoulder.

            “As shall I!”  Airrazor responded.

            “All right………here’s the plan,” Hot Rod began.  “I need you two to fly around him in your beast modes—circle him and confuse him.   I’m going to aim for the limbs’ connector joints and see if we can dislodge them from their combined form.  That should disorient them long enough for us to tie the weaker individuals up.”

            “A sound plan, sir Hot Rod,” Airrazor responded, smiling at him.

            Ultra Magnus had to agree.  “I am off to engage the Seacons.  So, I want the three of you to be careful and do not take any unnecessary risks,” he said to the three youths.

            Once outside the caverns, Hot Rod’s small group turned their focus onto Abominus.  As Airrazor and Grotusque transformed into their beast modes—the femme flew in circles around the gestalt above the shoulders, while the mech flew low around the legs—striking them every so often to prod more distracted attention from the giant mech.   Hot Rod found a ledge and a good position on the cliff face where he could easily snipe his shots.

            Abominus was starting to get angry and upset that there were too many targets harassing him.

            Then Hot Rod took his shot and removed Abominus’ left arm—Rippersnapper.   Quickly, before Abominus could realize what had happened, Hot Rod sniped off the right arm, Cutthroat, as well.   Airrazor tackled Rippersnapper and bound him with stasis cuffs, while Grotusque did the same to Cutthroat.

            Because of the shielding around the knee and hip joints, the hardest part would be the legs.

            That was when Abominus turned his attention to Hot Rod.   Though, without arms, there wasn’t much he could do about where the flame-colored mech was positioned on the cliff.  Until Hun-grr detached himself from the gestalt and launched himself at the cliff………leaving Sinnertwin and Blot both dazed by the sudden detachment.  They were carefully tackled and bound up by Airrazor and Grotusque.

            “Wow, you’re a bold one, buddy!”  Hot Rod laughed, aiming both photon laser guns at the leader of the Terrorcons.  “That was fragging awesome the way you launched yourself at the cliff, though!”

            “Not a game, child,” Hun-grr growled, transforming into his twin-headed monster mode.

            Which might have worried Hot Rod in a dozen other scenarios, except for the fact that in this particular one—the instant the Terrorcon leader transformed into his alt mode, the cliff edge crumbled.  Then, suddenly, Piranacon—who was busy fighting with Ultra Magnus—saw the cliff edge crumble and ran over to catch Hun-grr, before he could crash to the ground.   The gesture puzzled Ultra Magnus, who moved to pursue his target………..but then saw Hot Rod falling, too—and instantly was relieved when Airrazor and Grotusque both caught him.

            “Let alone, dummy!  ‘Spposed to attack them!”  Hun-grr snarled, transforming to his primary mode in Piranacon’s palm and began striking it with his fists.  “Me not get in trouble for you, stupid Snaptrap!”   He growled.

            “D’aww…..” Hot Rod chuckled as the three of them all landed on the ground next to Ultra Magnus.

            “Yes, clearly a lover’s spat,” the old soldier responded with a smile, as it dawned on him just why Piranacon abandoned the battle to save Hun-grr.

            Piranacon growled incoherently down at the raging Terrorcon commander.

            “I actually feel a little bad for doing this, but……….” Ultra Magnus chuckled, glancing down at Hot Rod as he raised his rifle.

            They both took aim at Piranacon’s limbs and shortly had all the component Seacons quickly bound up once the gestalt fell apart.

            “Should we gag them or let them frag?”  Hot Rod quipped as they watched the bound Snaptrap and Hun-grr snarl at each other, with mostly obscenities.

            All of the sudden, Snaptrap stopped yelling at Hun-grr and looked at Ultra Magnus.

            “Hey!   I recognize you!   You’re from Sentinel Prime’s elite unit!”  The Seacon commander gasped in awe.  “Nggh……..I wish my focus were that good when we’re combined!”

            “You’re from Cybertron?”  The old soldier asked, surprised to be recognized by this mech.

            “That’s right.  I was an ambassador to Gaea and on my way back to Cybertron the day that Deathsaurus came through the spacebridge,” the teal-and-magenta mech sighed.   “He’s in a lot of pain, you know.  I don’t know the whole story, but I know that he’s barely living anymore.”

            “It’s partly the ‘modifications’ that were made to his Voyager Armour and partly a strained Spark-bond,” Ultra Magnus responded.

            All their attention focused on finding where Star Saber was confronting Deathsaurus.   The two powerful mechs had dents all over and were bleeding from dozens of superficial wounds all over their frames.

            “Rrrargh!!!   Why will you not give up?!”  Deathsaurus snarled, spitting flames that sputtered out before they could become dangerous.   Without his breath-weapon, he transformed back into his primary mode to fight.

            Star Saber snatched at the split-second opportunity and forced his systems into full overdrive.   He was faster than Deathsaurus expected and had his sword plunged to the hilt low in the blue-and-silver mech’s chest…………so that about a foot of the length to the tip was sticking out of the back, oozing with internal fluids.

            The swordsmech knew he’d hit the target perfectly, when his own Spark reverberated with the death-pain.   Maybe it was because it had been four million years of a stressed Spark-bond to begin with……….but it didn’t make Star Saber’s Spark shatter with ache and loss, as he’d expected it to.

            “Please wait for me in the Afterspark, Des…….” the swordsmech murmured, kissing the dying mech’s lips.

            |Thank you, Star.|  Came the private glyph message at the same moment as the kiss.  |You saved me.|

            The red tempered glass coverings over the optics slowly showed the fading glow of the internal orbs, then they went completely dark.  Star Saber howled with pain and grief………….and Airrazor was in beside him instantly, with Ultra Magnus seconds behind her.  The old soldier took Deathsaurus’ body and carefully pulled Star Saber’s sword out of it.

            Airrazor knelt in front of Star Saber and reached up to cup his faceplate in her small servos.

            “Don’t die, gentle knight—please don’t die!   I don’t want you to die!”  The beast-femme sobbed, achingly.

            Star Saber lifted a gentle servo to rub her head fondly.  ‘Oh, Des………..maybe I can’t join you, just yet………’ he thought.  “I’ll do my best to hang in there, my lady—but right now I feel rather numb inside,” the swordsmech murmured to her.

            Airrazor hugged him, sobbing softly.

            “Come with us, Star Saber…………maybe time and friends will help heal your fractured Spark?”  Ultra Magnus said, softly.

            “Maybe so,” Star Saber chuckled, lightly hugging back the little beast-femme in front of him.