Here's the big one I've been working on. I mentioned it when I first got here. It's in the Energon universe, with a couple changes -

Cyclonus is still Cyclonus, he hasn't changed over yet (this pretty much reflects when I started this thing)
Some renames, to avoid confusion:

SWAT Prowl: Stockade
Emergency Team Minicon Prowl repaint: Smokestreak
Emergency Team Minicon Firebot: Pyrocitor (hell, Firebot just sucked as a name.)
Air Military Team Thunderwing repaint: Gaiden

The story's end has been finished, but the middle battle is still being worked on. I will post the story in chunks up to that point, and post the battle as soon as it's done. (Battles are the hardest thing for me to write.)

I tried to write a story that "just happens" to be about Transformers, so that non-fans could enjoy it as well.


A quick nod to PrincessArtemis, whose story "Collateral Damage" in the G1-verse found at Lexicon.tf had some really good bits about Transformer body language that I applied in here in parts. Credit goes to her!!
Anyhoo - here goes!! (next post)

ENERGON: THE COLDEST DISH
Chapter 1

© 2004 Stu Franks

"At last...I've found it. Cyclonus, help me dig this out," Megatron instructed his minion.
"You...you want me to...touch that?"
"Don't be absurd, you fool. This is nothing but raw material now, to help bring my plan to fruition. Now, get to work!" Megatron barked.

Cyclonus's fists retracted, and piledrivers sprouted from his wrists. With the slightest hint of trepidation, he began pounding on the wall. An hour and a half had passed, and a significant portion of the digging had been complete. Cyclonus brought his hands back out. Megatron had left him to his devices, so he was all alone in this particular innard of Unicron. With his fingers, he started prying away at the rubble that remained from his piledriving. His left hand unearthed a tank tread, while his right revealed a panel with the crown of the Decepticon sigil peering out from behind the rock. He stopped, and just blankly stared at the sigil. He wiped away the rest of the rubble by his right hand, until the panel was completely uncovered. Jutting out of the wall in front of him, a little above his eye-level, was the centerpiece of Megatron's chest. But not just Megatron's chest; Megatron's old body's (correct that: CORPSE'S) chest. Specifically, it was the switch that would rise to activate his face-cover in vehicle mode. 'Not that this body needs any facial protection now,' thought Cyclonus. He finished unearthing the rest of the chest, and stopped for a second. He closed his eyes, stood tall, took a deep breath, and cleared out the section directly above.

Now, staring down at him, was the face of Megatron's corpse. He looked back and forth, making sure no one was coming. He fidgeted with the face-cover switch, trying to raise it so that he wouldn't have to look Megatron's face in the eye. But ten years of disuse and complete lack of energon flow through the circuits and components made this a much tougher task than Cyclonus was prepared for, and before long (and well before reaching the halfway point in the ridge the switch was designed to rise up) he broke the switch off. Surges washed over his body like tidal waves. "Oh no oh no oh no...Megatron will KILL me if he sees this..." he whined to himself. He tried to jam it back in, when he heard the familiar footsteps of his fearless leader.

"Oh, Cyclonus, well done!" Megatron intoned.
Cyclonus quickly turned around to stand in front of the now-empty ridge, while subspacing the switch component.

"Yes... it appears I won't have to shoot you into the sun after all... Finish this up and meet me at these coordinates on Cybertron. It pleases me that for a change you are able to work unsupervised." With that, Megatron turned, and walked away from Cyclonus. When he reached the mouth of the tunnel, he transformed, and flew off into space.

Every time he saw this, Cyclonus longed for the days long past when simply transforming and staying in the air would keep him away from Megatron's physical tirades. He summoned the switch from subspace, brought out the welding torch located in his index finger, and carefully re-attached the component. This still didn't solve the problem of looking the dead Transformer in the eye while he worked, but a simple temporary halt on his alarm systems took care of that.

Now another full hour of digging had passed, and Megatron's corpse was uncovered from the waist up. Cyclonus started to chip away at Megatron's right leg, when the sound of whining metal mixed with falling rumble invaded Cyclonus's audio receptors. Unfortunately, his alarm systems were temporarily shut down, so he thought nothing of the sound. Skywarp would later admonish him at training, saying, 'A more brave Decepticon would have been able to muster the courage to get this done on the strength of his spark alone, without circumventing valuable sensory systems.' But at the moment, he was concentrating on a particularly difficult vein of rock, when Megatron's corpse finished the job on its own (due to its tremendous mass) and promptly fell on top of Cyclonus. Cyclonus's windshield gave way and then shattered. The corpse fell on him in such a way that only his forearms were free to move. Power was automatically diverted to emergency activation of all his sensory equipment, so he was momentarily sapped of his strength. He was, quite literally, face to face with Megatron's old body. He screamed in terror and frustration. He then felt a piercing grasp on his right forearm, and in his current state of heightened sensory sensitivity, the pain was excruciating. He was summarily dragged out from under the lumbering Transformer body by none other than Alpha Q. Now, Cyclonus was face to face with Morteus, the death face of Alpha Q. He was frozen. With power that their diminuitive size belied, Alpha Q's tentacles slammed Cyclonus against the wall a couple times, to jar his brain functions. He then stood him on his feet.

"What are you doing here? -- Something secret, no doubt -- WHAT USE HAVE YOU OF THIS CARCASS?" three of the faces of Alpha Q interrogated the hapless Decepticon. The sage face remained silent.

"Nuh-nuh, n-nothing special, A-Q!! M-meh-Megatron wants to have it melted down and u-used for weapons bolstering!!" If there was one thing Cyclonus was good for, it was reasonably sound excuses on the fly. This more than anything has kept him alive all these millions of years. To be honest, Cyclonus had absolutely NO idea why Megatron was obsessed with his old body; he had not yet re-earned Megatron's trust yet.

To Cyclonus's relief, Alpha Q provided him with a giant case with which to carry the corpse back to Cybertron. In reality, this only helped Alpha Q rid himself of the pest, but he kept that to himselves. Within minutes, the cargo was loaded, and Cyclonus was off.

ENERGON: THE COLDEST DISH
Chapter 2

Leader-1 and some of the other Targetmaster Minicons were engaged in some off-duty research. Coincidentally, most Minicons who volunteered for reconfiguration as Targetmasters were also usually thirsty for knowledge, and these several were no exception to the rule. Leader-1 was accompanied by Prowl, his brother Smokestreak, and Over-Run. Being off duty, the four mechs each were researching their own pet projects; Prowl and Smokestreak were learning how to apply sub-space principles to ammo placement for their weapon modes, while Over-Run was looking for technology that would grant him flight (and thus, autonomy) while transformed into a blaster.

"If I could only remember the mech's name who pioneered that...Slag! Why do Decepticon records have to be so encrypted!? I know it had something to do with... 'wave'... hmm," Over-Run spoke to himself. Prowl and Smokestreak looked up from their terminals. Normally, other mechs in the library would be annoyed at Over-Run's habit to speak to himself, and in no hushed tones. But the brothers were used to it, and were both very close friends with him, so granted him the benefit of the doubt. At the moment, they were waiting to see if Over-Run actually would come upon the name today, as he had this conversation with himself more times than he could remember.

"Hmm.. was it.. Shackwave? No, that sounds stupid...I know it wasn't Soundwave, because he didn't turn into a gun...Blast!"

Prowl and Smokestreak snickered to themselves. Leader-1 sat away from the others, as she wanted the utmost privacy for her research. It wasn't that she distrusted her friends, but just operated on the theory that the less mechs who knew, the less chance her secret has of slipping out. And it was a juicy secret indeed, she thought.

Leader-1 was researching the possibility of a reversal of the synaptic flow that occurred when a Minicon powerlinxed with a larger Transformer. The synaptic flow, or brainwave-transmission, flowed from the Minicon to the Autobot/Decepticon upon powerlinxing. This bereaved the Minicon of his/her upper mental functions for the duration of the powerlink. For a Minicon that turned into a bladed melee weapon, or a forearm mounted blaster, or for the Race team which turned into a shield, this protected the Minicon from the consequences of being aware of their immediate surroundings. The Skyboom Shield's effectiveness would greatly decrease if Mirage, Downshift and Dirtboss flinched with every incoming volley. So, this technology was installed to improve the alt-mode's effectiveness. It also gave the larger Transformer control of the Minicon's motor capabilities (for instance, Thunderwing's shuriken-spinning ability).

This was a lot for Minicons to handle, psychologically, and why the trust between Minicons and their partners is not so quickly forged. Leader-1, having been Megatron's lackey for countless years, wanted some sort of failsafe against this technology that inhabited her very shell. She theorized that if she were able to reverse the synaptic flow, she would then gain motor control of whichever Transformer she powerlinked with; the added bonus being that when the Transformer turned into robot mode, she would also gain control of the mech's senses (a side-effect bypassed by the Autobots and Decepticons, since they themselves were in robot modes, and the Minicons in alt-mode).

Essentially, the next time she powerlinxed with Megatron (a fate that seemed inevitable to her, despite Megatron's apparent demise in the maw of Unicron), she would usurp control of Megatron's body itself. She would be able to speak, act, and move in an exact likeness of her tormentor. She would, for all intents and purposes, be Megatron!

As her mind meandered, he found a page of information that made her visor glow brightly with anticipation. Her circuits bristled. She read on.

"Cyclonus returns with the cargo, my liege," Demolishor reported.
"Excellent. Now go fetch me my erstwhile sycophant."
"Sir, yes, sir, Megatron, sir!" Demolishor barked, and ran off. A smug grin played on Megatron's face as he thought of Demolishor. "Ah, if only all my warriors were so obedient," he thought. Cyclonus landed, and transformed.
"Megatron, my sovereign, I brought the, er.. body."
"Good work, Cyclonus."
Cyclonus stood there, his eyes darting back and forth, his hands behind his back.
"Well?" Megatron intoned impatiently.
"Uh... er... IthinkIbrokeapieceoff" Cyclonus spit out as he brought the face-cover switch out of subspace, tossed it on the case, transformed and high-tailed it out of Megatron's throne room.

"Grr, of all the incompetent -- ah, it's of no matter, now. I have what I need to bring the Autobots to their knees," Megatron said to himself. He picked up his old corpse, and carried it off to the repair bay. To any Decepticon who happened to spy this, it surely looked very strange indeed, watching Megatron carry himself off.

Several mega-cycles later, Demolishor walked into the room, with Leader-1 in tow. The Minicon avoided Megatron's gaze while being otherwise helpless in Demolishor's grip. Demolishor was a little shaken to see Megatron's old tank shell in pieces across the room. The turret assembly had been removed, as had the head. The head lay unceremoniously on its side, on the floor. The body, on the repair table, lay half transformed. The arms and legs' armor had been bisected, and the circuits, servos and other components were exposed to the light, their various LEDs, gears and mech-fluid tubes working in a facsimile of their former living state. Demolishor hadn't seen this body in ten stellar cycles; he had certainly never seen it in this condition. Though he'd never admit it, the sight gave him the surges.

Megatron, deep in concentration over the opened turret assembly, looked up to see his most loyal soldier.

"Ah, excellent, Demolishor, bring her here," Megatron ordered. Demolishor timidly walked over, careful not to step on anything, especially the head.

"Errraah, what's the problem, Demolishor, are your caution circuits overloading? Get over here now!"

"B-but, sir, your --"
"Oh, by the Pit, is this what you're frightened of?" Megatron accused as he pointed at his old head.

He then walked over and crushed it beneath his foot. Demolishor watched as the optic lenses strained against the pressure, almost seemed to expand, then burst. Crystalline shards sprinkled the floor. Behind the lenses lay the optic sensors, which shot out from their orbits and lay across the face. The helmet cracked open, and the cranial casing inside burst at its junctures as it spilled out. The jaw broke off at both ends, and flipped over onto the floor, chin up. Finally, the face split open at the nose, spilling the rest of inner workings of the head. Megatron picked up the mess and threw it at Demolishor. It hit Demolishor along his chin and his chest, and spilled its contents all over him.
"You're pathetic. What kind of Decepticon are you?" Megatron continued.
Demolishor composed himself. "My apologies, sir."
Megatron shook his head slightly. "You're free to go. I'll alert you when I need you. That is all, Demolishor."
Demolishor left the room before his leader's temper worsened.

All optics were glued to the viewscreen that took up the entire south wall of the computer lab in the library. The middle of the west wall had been completely destroyed, and the raw edges of the hole spilled wires and hydraulic tubes onto the floor. A pool of fluid had amassed on the floor, and the occasional spark flew from the exposed wire ends. Pyrocitor and Makeshift, Prowl's teammates on the Emergency Rescue Team, were busy coating the area with flame-retardant chemicals.

The viewscreen was playing surveillance footage. From a viewpoint perched in the northeast corner of the room, the last mega-cycle's events replayed themselves on the screen. Prowl, Smokestreak, Over-Run and Leader-1 were seen at their respective computers. Almost in unison, the four Minicons looked up from their monitors, then looked back and forth.

"Pause it," Hot Shot requested.
Tow-Line, who sat at the playback machine, stopped the footage. "You want I should bring up the sound, dere, boss?" he asked.

This was Hot Shot's first mission with his new team, which included Tow-Line, Downshift, Checkpoint and Stockade. He noted that Tow-Line's time spent undercover in New York on Earth had had an affect on his speech patterns. "Yeah, I wanna know what got their attention. Back it up half a cycle."

Signal lines played like ribbons across the screen as the Minicons' movements played backwards. The sounds of chipmunks scratching records came out of the speakers. "Right there," Hot Shot said.

The tape resumed.

A low rumble was heard. It got louder, and then the wall caved in, followed by an explosion of rubble. When the smoke cleared Demolishor, in tank mode, came barrelling through the debris. He transformed, and cleared a bigger passage into the room with his arms. While Over-Run, Prowl and Smokestreak jumped up and started running towards the east side of the room, Leader-1 typed furiously at her console. She slipped a disk into the unit, then after a second, slipped it out and slipped another one in. She collected the second disk, put an electronic thumbprint on it, then tossed it under the desk. She put the first one inside her torso compartment, and sprinted towards her friends, who were screaming for her, "Come on! Leda, what are you doing, let's go!!" Demolishor swooped down, and plucked Leader-1 off the ground. "Long time, no see, gobot!" he sneered.

As Over-Run watched the tape, he thought to himself, "Y'know, that gun-mode autonomy info would've come in real handy right about then..."

Over-Run said a couple things to the brothers, and then transformed. Prowl and Smokestreak balanced him on his grip, and fired on Demolishor. But without being able to aim from their position and size in relation to Over-Run's blaster mode, their shots flew wide. They only succeeded in knocking out a couple ceiling lights and a vent grate. Demolishor laughed, then powerlinxed Leader-1 to his forearm.


Stockade saw this and winced. He and his partner Checkpoint were partnered with Prowl's ER team during the Minicon conflict. He knew that to powerlinx without the Minicon's initiation sequence not only caused the Minicon a lot of pain from the cold-boot, but was the cause of severe psychological trauma.

Downshift, who was performing analysis on Leader-1's computer terminal, looked up momentarily at hearing Leader-1's scream.

Leader-1 cried out in pain at this forced powerlinx, then reflexively transformed, and went dormant. "See ya later, microchips!" Demolishor yelled as he walked through the hole, transformed and rolled off.

"Stop the tape."
Hot Shot knew when Optimus sent him to investigate the break-in, that it would be bad. He just didn't know how bad.

"Hot Shot! I've found something!" Downshift called. Hot Shot and Stockade rushed over to Leader-1's terminal, where Downshift was laying on his side. He was reaching under the desk, using a pair of cyber-forceps that sprout from the back of his hand. He slowly shimmied away from the desk, ignoring what scraping along the ground was doing to his paint-job. He sat up on the ground, and activated his microscoptics while holding the artifact near his face. "It's a disk," Downshift said, matter-of-factly.

Downshift never left a detail out when he was on duty. He was the forensics expert on Prime's team, and while Red alert was more of the medical tech-head, Downshift dealt more in theoretical research. He had an entire lab full of different devices, a good portion of which didn't work. But for every device that didn't work, there were two or three components that Downshift introduced into the Autobots' general cache of technology.

"There's an electronic thumbprint on here, but it's in Minicon, I can't decipher it." Downshift knew he could easily learn the Minicon's secret written language; he didn't out of respect for their need for clandestine communication.

He walked over to Prowl, who was consoling his brother in the far corner. "This must be for one of you." He crouched down, and held out the disk in his forceps to the brothers. Smokestreak plucked it out, then held it in both hands. "I... I can't look at this right now. Prowl, we've got to get her back, we've just GOT to get Leda back--"

"'Streak, I know, we'll get her back," Prowl tried, but Smokestreak broke off and took a few paces. He had formed a special bond with Leader-1 after Megatron's death. Prowl walked over, and saw that Smokestreak's rear wheels, which sat over his shoulders, were spinning. He grabbed Smokestreak's arm gently, and said, "Go 'head, bro. Let it out. It's ok." Smokestreak's wheels started to spin faster, and he turned to embrace his brother.

"Listen guys, why don't you come back to Autobase with us," Stockade suggested.

Prowl looked up at his old partner for a second, looked back down, and nodded. "C'mon, 'Streak, let's go." Prowl and Smokestreak transformed.

Hot Shot and his team transformed, and they left through the hole Demolishor left, with Over-Run coasting overhead.

Leader-1 lay on the floor, against the wall, in a Decepticon holding cell. She looked down at her powerlinx port, which had been pulverized when Demolishor forced powerlinx with her. Without her initiation sequence, the outer rim hadn't expanded, the inhibitor components hadn't retracted, and the powerlinx circuits themselves had not been activated in preparation for their connection with the inner components of the powerlinx peg some larger Transformers (mostly Decepticons) still maintained. Specifically, Demolishor's forearm peg. She knew Demolishor didn't know any better, but that didn't stop her from feeling a deep, searing hatred for him.

The cell door opened, and Megatron walked in. He bent down, and picked her up the way one would pick up a wrench. "I have plans for you, my dear... yes..." Leader-1 turned her head to look at Megatron's new body. She felt an overwhelming sense of dread. He took her into the repair bay, and laid her on a table. After a cursory evaluation, he flipped up the adjacent console, and with a few buttons, summoned a medicroid to repair her port. "I shall return shortly. Don't, heh, heh, go anywhere!" Then laughing to himself, he left the room.

The medicroid was a small, sparkless robot. Megatron had commissioned a dozen of them built to repair the Minicons injured in his battles; he felt his medical officer had better things to do with his time.

The next thing she knew, the medicroid had Leader-1's entire powerlinx assembly removed. She wasn't sure, but she could swear that time had jumped forward ever so slightly. The broken components were placed on a tray, and the medicroid whizzed off. Laying on the table, with a gaping hole in her torso, she felt very exposed. She pushed that thought out of her head, then went to thinking about the medicroid. She chuckled a bit; this sparkless robot didn't know it, but it was going to be instrumental in Megatron's downfall. At least, Leader-1 hoped. She didn't know why Megatron wanted her, he seemed to be devoid of powerlinx pegs. All this time spent researching might not be worth a blown diode if she doesn't get a chance to powerlinx with him.

Before she knew it, the medicroid had returned with a fully repaired assembly. It looked brand new, even. "What, do you guys keep eviscerated Minicon parts around, just in case?" she probed the medicroid defiantly. 'Ooh, Leda, real tough. Easy to be defiant to a lifeless computer program,' she thought to herself.

"NEGATIVE - ORIGINAL PARTS RECONSTRUCTED IN NANOCYBERNETIC REGENERATION DEVICE," the medicroid sparklessly replied.

Then, after the powerlinx port was reinstalled, and without warning, the medicroid's hand retracted, and a powerlinx peg took its place. Leader-1 started up, but she was restrained (hey, when did that happen?). "PLEASE TRANSFORM AND INITIATE POWERLINX SEQUENCE. NEW COMPONENTS REQUIRE TESTING." The medicroid floated there, motionless. It waited for what could be the only logical response. She hung her head, and the restraints deactivated. She laid on her side, and transformed to vehicle mode. Her port opened, and the medicroid powerlinxed with her. She felt the customary dormant phase kick in, and immediately woke back up after separation. She checked her chronometer; only 25 nanocycles had passed. She turned to look, and the medicroid had already started for the door. Evidently, she was in perfect shape. She sat up, and threw her legs off the table.

She stared at the entrance to the repair bay, which started to waver. She shook her head, wiped off her optics, and looked again. The spot in front of her continued to waver, and with a high-pitched flanged whine, a bright pink energy blast exploded in front of her. When she opened her optics again, Skywarp was standing there. He grabbed her by the upper torso, and they warped out of the room. For a split second, the colors around her swarmed without pattern. Her equilibrium chip neared overload. When it all stopped, they were in Megatron's throne room. Megatron sat on his throne, a satisfied look on his face. Skywarp put Leader-1 on the ground with characteristic care, then stood there, at attention. Leader-1 stood on her own two feet for the first time in what felt like an eon. She promptly fell over; her equilibrium chip had not finished recalibrating from the warp. Skywarp didn't look, but knew the circumstance well; this always happened when he warped someone with him, especially Minicons. It took his partner, Thunderclash, several decacycles to acclimate to it. Now that his thoughts had wandered to his erstwhile partner, he took a nanoklik to rejoice the moment Thunderclash took off for parts unknown. His new partners, Thunderwing and Gaiden, were much better suited to him.

"That will be all, Skywarp," Megatron said. Skywarp replied, "Thank you, my liege," and warped out again.

After a cycle, Megatron broke the silence. "I know what you're thinking, you know. I'm sure you've noticed my lack of powerlinx pegs. I've far outgrown any power boost a lowly creature such as yourself could provide me. But, have a look over there..." He gestured to his left. In the corner of the room sat a very familiar shape - it was Megatron, in his old body, in tank mode! Megatron pulled out a remote control device, and caused his tank to move towards Leader-1. The turret's barrel lowered to aim at Leader-1's face. "What do you think? I extricated it from the interior of Unicron. Sadly, it does not possess the power it once held," Megatron said with a feigned look of forlorn, which twisted into a smug grin, "..naturally. Not yet anyhow. It still, however, maintains access to the black hole which powers its fusion cannon. Climb atop the turret, if you please." Leader-1 climbed up on top of the turret. She was beginning to get the surges; she had no idea now what Megatron had in mind, but she knew she didn't like standing on a corpse. Which, no matter what Megatron (or anyone, for that matter) told her, is exactly what this tank was - a corpse. She looked down, and noticed the head was missing. In its place was a remote control receiver pane. It pulsed with a purple glow. She turned to look at Megatron, a look of confusion on her face. "You know what to do, Leader-1." And then, it all became crystal clear to her. She wouldn't be powerlinxing to him at all. She'd be powerlinxing to this corpse. Primus knows what would happen in the interim. She looked down at the peg atop the turret. She shut her eyes, prayed that this was all just a bad defrag. "Well, get on with it!!" Megatron ordered.

Leader-1 took a deep breath, and then transformed and powerlinxed. She interfaced with the corpsetank. She felt her consciousness be dragged down, and with her last thoughts, pleaded for her new programming to kick in...

...which at last, it did. She was awake. She was awake!! She was connected to a larger Transformer (albeit, a dead one), and she was awake. She had forgotten to reboot her powerlinx initiation sequence with the new programming when she was with the medicroid, but managed to take care of that right before Skywarp took her to Megatron. She had to test it - so she waved the turret barrel a micron. Yes! She was in control of the corpsetank! Still, she knew Megatron could not know, so she feigned her usual dormant state. She heard someone come into the room, and was taken aback. After a nanoklik, she realized this must be part of her new powerlinx status. She had never received any sensory stimuli while in this state. "Wait,' she thought, 'let me activate my optics!!' She did, and her vision went from dark to blurry to perfect. She almost jittered with abject joy, but maintained her cover. Coming into the room was Slugslinger. "Ah, Slugslinger. Whom am I speaking with today?"

Slugslinger had a personality glitch - when he came online, his personality catalyst circuits interfaced with his spark twice, instead of the usual single interaction. What this created was two personalities that were exactly the same, but could not maintain control at the same time. Quite literally, the left hand didn't know what the right hand was up to. They were also unaware of each other's existence, until Medical Officer Dirge performed a diagnostic on him, and noticed the redundancy. They designated the personality currently online as Alpha, and Dirge gave Slugslinger a datatrack requesting his presence at his first diagnostic. This way, Dirge figured, Slugslinger Alpha would read it and recognize it, and his flipside would read it as new information, come to the diagnostic and be designated. This ocurred in time, and soon Slugslinger Prima was named. Dirge gave each personality a top-rank surname to avoid a personality having an inferiority complex from being a Beta to no known Alpha.

"Alpha, reporting for duty, sir. What's with the corpse?"
Megatron put up with Slugslinger's genetic duplicity for some very good reasons. Namely, his total desensitization to violence. This, along with his utter professionalism provided Megatron with a warrior who would unflinchingly perform his every command, and perform it well. If this meant constantly providing him with datatracks, so be it.

"I had Cyclonus retrieve it for me from the bowels of Unicron. it will now serve me in battle by remote control. I felt that if there was one of my powers I would want duplicated on the battle field, it would be my old fusion cannon. As you'll notice, Leader-1 is perched atop the turret. She will serve as an excellent power source."

Slugslinger walked over to the tank and, caressing the turret, whistled. "This'll slag scrap up, boss!"

With a hint of sarcasm, Megatron replied, "I'm so glad you approve. Now, here's your datatrack. That will be all, Slugslinger."

Slugslinger took the disc, saluted, and walked to the exit. He stopped just short of the hatch, and turned about face. He saluted, and said, "Prima, reporting for duty. What's with the corpse?"

Megatron rolled his eyes, lazily pointed at Slugslinger, and said, "Datatrack."

"Oh! Right. Thank you, sir." With that, Slugslinger left the room, and the hatch shut.

'Great,' thought Leader-1, 'aside from getting to be awake while powerlinxed, I'm still right back where I started.'

That's it for now, I will post the rest when the battle scene is finished. Yes, Megatron *does* still have minicon ports, on the ends of his wings. I know. Leader-1 hasn't seen them yet. Megatron's not being entirely honest with her...imagine that.

What do you guys think so far?

Very interesting.....

I like it.

I finally got all the way through it.

Nice work buddy. Some of it was hard to follow cause i am not very well versed in the A/E/C universe - but i understood the gist of everything.

The stuff about minicon culture and the "Transufomah!" analogy was well done.

the thing with Slugslinger's multiple personalities was really well done.

I dont know if i quite undestand L1's motivations though. Why hide the secret so that its only readable if she dies?

Why wait until megs has decimated all the autobots before helping out?

why do the minicons have to piss off Tidal wave at the end? wouldnt it be better to have simply taken ahold with out the bowwww bow bow bow bowww?

some very nice character work though!

I look forward to readign more of your stuff when my schedule calms down.