TRANSFORMERS: Eye Of The Storm

                                                 Chapter 1 - Life and Times

           “I could have told you that this idea of yours had flaws.” said a voice approaching from down the way, his voice echoing throughout the quiet of the large facility, devoid of others for the evening. He knew who it was without even having to turn around and face them. With a 
calm voice, he replied immediately. 
           “Tell me Cal, is it always your policy to show up unannounced and interrupt people’s work? Eh?” he queried, hoping for a reply.
           Cal stopped moving towards him and spoke again. “Look Jim, I said I wanted to help you, and I do. Is that not good enough for you?” asked Cal to his comrade. Jim pushed a hand through his salt and pepper coloured hair, and with the other hand  put his tools down, turning to face his old friend of many years. 
          “It is, it is. Just....stop complaining and start helping.” he implored. Cal just nodded and proceeded to take off his jacket and pick up some tools. Jim Whitmear knew nothing but his work, having been a scientist since graduating from university some time ago. He had met Calvin Freidrich at a technology convention in Germany a short time later, and the two men had been best friends and partners in science and technology ever since, even founding their own company that produced robotic equipment for the home and workplace.
           Both men began working away at the large metallic form that was laid on an equally large table, much longer than anything they would normally use. But this project required big tables and big resources. If they were going to pull off their plan, they would need to get this form operational again and reprogram it to suit their needs. Jim stopped for a brief moment to stare at the gargantuan being, a robotic form left behind by the two factions from their war.
           Not sure if it was good or evil, the men decided to take a chance on it the moment they had found it, entombed in ice near the Arctic circle. It took considerable resources to have it excavated and brought here to their lab, never mind find the appropriate parts to repair it and getting it to function once again. It was an ambitious project that both men hoped would bring them money and especially power, their days of toiling in obscurity brought to an end.
           Picking up a special tool used for scanning electrical components, Jim opened a small door on the robot’s midsection and began scanning some circuits, trying to find any blockages that might hamper their work. Even with all their combined experience and expertise, it didn’t take much to miss something critical that could stall the project. Finding no problems, he closed up the cluster, and looked over to Cal. 
          “Are we ready to install the new power source yet?” he asked. Cal frowned as he worked the controls trying to check it’s status. 
          “I think so, Jim, providing we don’t short it out or the robot when we plug it in.” he answered.
           Jim nodded his approval. “Very well. As soon as you are ready, we’ll put it in and hope for the best.” he explained, the seriousness in his voice sticking out. Cal walked over to the controls for the magnetic lift, and positioned the small crane arm over the power unit, while Jim unlatched the robot’s chest plate to accept their power source. 
          “Here goes nothing!” Cal yelled at the lift whirred into service, the power unit slowly being positioned over the chest cavity and lowered slowly. Sweat slowly began to run down Jim’s face as he awaited the activation with baited breath.

           Knowing that there was nothing else to do at the moment, and that he would never get any peace and quiet until he answered the question, Skystorm gave in and decided to grant the other Decepticon’s request. 
          “All right, all right. What do you want to know?” he queried, hoping it would be  something simple. The smaller Deception turned his chair to face Skystorm, both seated next to each other in the cockpit of the shuttle, on their way to find some energon in more remote systems.
         “Whatever became of Windsweeper?” asked Crankcase, his red optics flickering wildly, hoping for a good story en route. Skystorm turned to him briefly, before swiveling back towards his controls. 
          “If you’re talking about his disappearance, I know nothing of it.” replied Skystorm, not wanting to have a conversation based on supposition and speculation. Crankcase was about to criticize his comrade’s inadequate answer, when Skystorm’s left hand came up in front of him and filled his optics.
          “Look,” explained Skystorm. “All that is known is that he was on a mission with the Autobot Jetfire to map an unknown world. Jetfire came back, barely in one piece, but Windsweeper didn’t. The end.” he finished, trying to bring some kind of false closure for his naive friend. Crankcase looked down at his controls quickly before turning back to Skystorm. 
          “That’s all then?” he asked quietly. 
          Skystorm nodded. “Even Kup doesn’t know any more, and Kup usually knows most everything.” he said.
          Turning back to his controls, Crankcase nodded in agreement. There was hardly a thing that got past old Autobot Kup. Checking his screen revealed that their shuttle was closing in on the current target, a solitary asteroid that had trace amounts of energon being picked up by the scanners. He wished that instead he was heading to that mysterious sector of space where Windsweeper had disappeared, hoping to help solve the mystery once and for all. Crankcase
loved modern mysteries, and was bored by his current assignment.
           He continued to work the scanners, making sure he didn’t make any mistakes. It might be a boring mission, but it was still a mission nonetheless, an he had a job to do. Still, his mind wandered back and forth to the missing Decepticon. Would he ever play a part in finding him? He wondered. 
          “Probably not.” he mumbled to himself, as the asteroid drew nearer, the shuttle charging on.

           It stood there like a sentinel, immovable and stoic, it’s large form towering over the two of them. They stood there, in awe of it’s sheer size and grandeur. The power unit had fit perfectly, and was activated. The large robot was still inoperable for the time being, as it needed a new core processing unit. Jim had heard that these robots, when ‘alive’, contained things known as ‘Sparks’ that were basically a life force. He wasn’t sure how that worked, but hopefully the robot would explain it once it was activated again.
           Jim then motioned to Cal, who was again at the controls of the magnetic lift, this time using a much longer crane arm to lift the processing core into the cranial cavity of the robot, having had his head opened for the delicate procedure. He had decided to stand the robot up before doing so. While he waited for Cal, he followed the robot’s symmetrical body with his eyes, noting the craftsmanship and attention to detail that had been given.
          “The creator of this was surely an advanced being.” he quipped out loud, not expecting any kind of answer, as Cal was busy finishing the installation of the new core. Within minutes, it was in, and Cal was moving the magnetic lift crane away from the robot’s head, having closed it up now. This is it, they were ready for activation. Jim checked his controls once more, then activated the power flow to get the core online. Minutes passed by, and nothing seemed to happen. The power flow was stable, there was no issue with the equipment as far as he could tell. Just as he was about to turn towards his scanner, he noticed the large robot’s eyes begin to glow red softly, before fully brightening. His large head moved to look down at the little beings below him, confused at his surroundings. There was awkward silence for a few seconds that was broken by the booming voice of the robot. 
           “What is this place?” it asked. Before anyone could answer, it asked another question.  
           “Why don’t I remember anything?” asked the robot. 
            Cal ran over and addressed the being. “Um, you we’re damaged and frozen. We....um, we fixed you.” he explained. The robot swung it’s head back and forth, looking about the structure it was in. Jim had his finger on the kill switch button, which would fry the robot should
things start going wrong. The robot’s optics blinked once before he spoke again. 
           “Indeed.” he started. “What are my orders?” 
            Cal shot a quick look over to Jim, who had prepared for this near the beginning of the project, and was already inputting instructions into the computer to be transmitted to the new processing core. 
           “Soon my large friend,” started Jim to himself, “Soon...”

           The asteroid was a quiet, barren place that existed in the cosmos according to it’s own rules. No one knew where it came from, or why it floated all by itself on it’s slow journey. No one was really sure where  it was going either, due to the fact that no one really cared about it. For that matter, neither did Skystorm, but he had a job to do. He could have easily assigned someone else to do it, but he wanted to get away from Cybertron for a short while, as things we’re relatively dull for the moment, and the trip here took a long while itself.
            Finding a small crack in the asteroid’s surface that was easily a few metres wide and barely a hand wide, he motioned at Crankcase to bring a scanner and see what lies beneath, hoping for a small energon deposit. Crankcase arrived at the crack and began scanning, hoping something would beep sooner rather than later. It took a few quick cycles before the scanner crackled to life with a dull beep. Disappointment soon followed. 
            “Just a few chunks of useless metal stuck in there.” said Crankcase, as he put the scanner away and began walking back to the ship.
             As his comrade walked away, Skystorm looked down at the crack again and used his optics to give him an infrared scan of the metallic bits that lie buried in the rock. They were nothing more than old chunks of something blown off a ship perhaps, or something that collided with the asteroid eons ago. Finishing his scan, he also began walking back to the ship to disembark from the rock. As he approached the gangway ramp and began to make is way up it, Crankcase reappeared at the hatch door. 
             “Boss, there’s a comm signal from Cybertron coming in for you.”
             Skystorm hurried to the cockpit, and activated his viewing screen almost immediately. The familiar image of Minirod came into view, and he could also make out two members of the Constructor Squad in the background. 
            “Go ahead.” he said into the comm screen. Minirod replied almost instantly with some urgency in his voice. 
            “We have a problem.” he said. Skystorm’s optics blinked once before he replied.   
            “What is the nature of the problem?” he queried. Minirod’s tone was serious.   
            “Windsweeper was sighted by our listening post near the human’s planet.” he explained.
            “How do we know it was Windsweeper?” asked Skystorm, confused.
            “Because,” began Minirod. “He attacked the listening post and fled immediately.” he finished, now awaiting a response. 
            “All right.”  started Skystorm. “Crankcase and I will be returning to Cybertron at once.
Assemble some troops, I’ll have a plan by the time I arrive.” he explained to his second in command. 
            “Affirmative. Cybertron out.” said Minirod as his image faded off Skystorm’s screen.
             Crankcase slid into his seat in the cockpit quickly. “Ramp is up, we’re ready to go!” he exclaimed, knowing business was about to pick up significantly. Skystorm slid into his own seat, and worked the controls.
             “Contact!!” he yelled as he pulled down on the lever that ignited the main engines, with the ship lurching and leaving the surface of the asteroid. Shunting all available power to propulsion, he did what he could to get home as fast as possible. As the ship careened towards Cybertron, he couldn’t help but think about how and why Windsweeper had suddenly and miraculously returned, and couldn’t understand why the Decepticon would assault a listening
post, and then disappear just as quickly. 
             ‘Soon, I’ll hopefully have some answers.’ he thought to himself.

                                                  Chapter 2 - Hide and Seek

           Getting up early was something he could never get used to, no matter how hard he tried. Regardless how much work he had to do, it just seemed wrong to leave the warmth of his bed every morning before the light started each new day. As he got dressed and thought about the day’s work, he  decided to skip breakfast and check on some of his handiwork from the night
previous. A simple man, Jax Jindezar was a blacksmith that specialized in bladed tools, and the occasional sword, which he would sell at market.
           He really wanted to check on the new sword he had started forging beforehand, as it might just be something the military might be interested in once it was finished. The sooner he got the sword finished, the sooner he could set up his stand at the market in Tarsis and make some money. Out here next to the great forest didn’t help, as his little house was off the beaten path, away from everyone else. Jax preferred it that way, not really wanting to get caught up in everyone else’s affairs.
           Entering his workshop, he lifted the heavy sword out of the cooling barrel and inspected it, making sure there were no defects. After a few more minutes, he decided it was good enough, and slid it back into the barrel. He would finish the handle and polish it later. In the meantime, he felt like taking a walk into the forest to pick some wild mushrooms for later. He went back inside his house, grabbed his shoulder sack, and some bread to munch on, and his canteen before leaving for the forest, it’s tall trees towering over everything.
           After only a half-hour of walking, he had found his first grove of wild mushrooms, some of them standing up in the grass like little soldiers about to march off to battle. Most of them were too small, so he only picked a few of the bigger ones, and moved on, hoping for more. Jax walked further and further down the trail he knew well, never straying too far from it, as it was easy to get lost even for the experienced woodsman. A few minutes later, he spotted more of the larger mushrooms, and began picking them, filling up his sack quickly.
          Taking a break to munch on some bread, he sat down on a fallen tree trunk and put the sack on the ground next to him. The bread was moist and tasty, and it kind of made up for his missing breakfast. Bite after bite disappeared, and soon the small loaf was gone. He took a quick gulp from his canteen to wash it all down, then got up, picked up his sack full of wild mushrooms, and set off for home. It was then that he suddenly heard a loud whine from behind him, not like any wild animal cry he was familiar with, that stopped him in his tracks.
          Jax turned around, expecting to see an animal, but instead was both shocked and scared at what stood before him. A towering creature the size of which he’d never though possible, it’s eyes glowing red like blood, a creature as tall as some of the trees. His mouth gaped open, but he was unable to speak, paralyzed with fear. It was then he felt himself losing conciousness,
falling to the soft ground with a dull thud, everything gone dark.

           Not sure how the little fleshling was able to enter a hibernation mode, he shrugged it off and began to scan for that which brought him here, some kind of technology buried somewhere in the forest that would help the human scientists assemble some kind of device. Still fighting considerable amnesia, Windsweeper decided that for now, he would carry out his mission. He knew nothing about this world, aside from it’s name, Veriterra, and how to get to it, the information programmed into his core unit. Not taking any chances, upon arrival in orbit, he teleported onto the planet’s surface, first searching the mountains nearby, then teleporting to this forest. Stealthily he walked between the trees, with just enough space in between them for him to slip through. His optics were scanning everything and anything, hoping to quickly pick up the first piece of the puzzle. Spending ample time on this planet was not what he wanted. 
          “If I finish this mission quickly, perhaps the fleshlings will have no further use for me, and I can be on my way.” he muttered to himself, hoping he could deal with the amnesia after the mission’s conclusion. It took a little while longer, but finally his optics began to pick up a faint signal with the energy signature he was looking for. It was below him, buried in the ground no more than a two metres deep. Accessing the soil composition and deeming it not worth using a weapon, Windsweeper knelt down and drove his large right hand into the somewhat soft ground, scooping away some dirt and cutting through some tree roots. After another handful of debris, he had partially unearthed it. Grabbing what was visible and pulling gently, it emerged from below.
            More dirt fell off of it, revealing it’s true form, a metallic piece of technology with a circuit board and some parts he had never seen before. His optical scans showed that the device was not functional, at least not by itself. 
          “To me this looks worthless, but to the fleshlings, it’s not.” he said softly, finding more confusion with the device than anything else. All things aside, Windsweeper knew he had to get going. There was no point in taking too much time here and risking the mission, no matter the confusion. Without further delay, he quickly teleported, disappearing in a quick flash of purple energy, and reappearing a short time later back out in orbit of the small world. He transformed to his flight mode and put the device in an empty storage bay for his trip back to the human’s planet, and then to Junkion, where another piece of puzzle lay hidden from everyone.

           With the sun now directly above the forest, his right eye opened first, slowly as to not go blind temporarily. He put his hands over his face to help shield his eyes, blinking all the time as he awoke on the ground next to his sack of wild mushrooms. Sitting up slowly, he began looking all around, expecting to see something that wasn’t there. Where did that creature go? How can something that big disappear so quickly? Questions swirled through his head, but there were no answers.
           Then it hit him. He had eaten a whole loaf of bread, and maybe some wild mushrooms after a long, tiring walk. 
           “Perhaps I was a glutton, then fell asleep from the food and fatigue.” he said to himself. That made sense. Jax had been working extra hard in his workshop lately, forging through long days and into the nights to get his swords and tools ready for the market, hoping to impress
someone into buying them. Thinking it over again, it seemed totally plausible to him that fatigue had caused him to see things, that were nothing more than a daydream. Getting off the ground and dusting himself off, he picked up his sack and started off for home, having planned on having a late lunch before spending more time in his workshop. Jax looked down into his sack as he walked, marveling at some of the large mushrooms he had picked. Marveling at the forest, he couldn’t help notice that some of the trees looked either a little crooked, or missing some branches and leaves. He shrugged it off and continued on, wanting to get home.
             Between making supper and working on some more forging in his workshop, he had a lot to do before sundown. His mind was full of thoughts pertaining to these tasks, and yet he still couldn’t clear a tiny piece about whatever it was he saw before he lost consciousness back there. Still, he decided it really wasn’t worth worrying about, as it more seemed possible that it was a hallucination, or even a daydream he had while munching on his loaf of bread. Not wanting to devote any more time to this train of thought, Jax turned his attention to his delightful mushroom supper.

              With a dull thud, the shuttle touched down on Cybertron’s surface at his headquarters’ landing pad, it’s gangway ramp extending outwards to the ground almost immediately. Skystorm was the first to emerge from the ship, almost bounding down the ramp to get to the control centre as quick as possible. He could have phase-shifted inside, but did not feel like performing
any dramatics today. Crankcase transformed into his vehicle mode instead, burning serious rubber down the ramp, across the landing pad zone, and into an open hangar door, taking his own way to the command centre.
              Down a long hallway and a couple sliding doors later, Skystorm entered the command area to see Minirod staring at some data on the main screen, with the Constructor Squad at computer terminals in the background, and the five Aerialbots huddled around the map table, triangulating something. He walked up beside his faithful partner, Minirod, and also looked at the data being presented on the screen. 
            “What do you have?” he asked his smaller comrade. Minirod’s optics blinked, and he double checked another screen before answering. 
            “Just as you were landing, one of our remote listening posts near Veriterra picked him up on approach to that planet before vanishing again.” he explained at length. 
            “Windsweeper.” replied Skystorm. Minirod quickly responded. “Yes sir.”
             Skystorm didn’t know how the ex-Decepticon was moving about so fast, but he needed to come up with a plan sooner rather than later. The only thing he could think of was to have patrols sent out towards other systems, and even coordinate with his forces on Charr, co-commanded by Ultra Magnus, and Shockwave. 
            “Minirod, do our forces on Charr know what’s been going on as of late?” he queried. Minirod nodded. 
            “Yes. It was Ultra Magnus that had gotten the signal from the listening post near Veriterra.” the smaller robot replied.
            “Have him send out some patrols, and we’ll do the same.” said Skystorm, getting the plan rolling. Minirod only nodded, and started working the screens and comm unit as Skystorm walked over to speak to the Aerialbots, who were still huddled by the map table, conversing amonsgt themselves. Silverbolt looked up at him as he approached, and the talking between the other four stopped for the moment. 
            “We have an idea.” the leader of the Aerialbots said. 
            Skystorm nodded. “I’m listening.” was all he said in return, ready to listen.
            “I’d like to take my team to Junkion, and patrol that area. There’s no guarantee Windsweeper will go there, but since there is no pattern, we have to start somewhere.” explained the Aerialbot. Skystorm nodded in agreement. 
            “I concur. With Wreck-Gar off-planet, we need to make sure we have a large presence in the area.” he said. Silverbolt then turned to the rest of his team. 
            “Aerialbots, to Junkion we must go. Our function is patrol.” he said. The other four nodded simultaneously, and they all headed for the rear door that exited into an open hangar.
            Skystorm was about to leave the command area, when his comrade, Crankcase walked up to him quickly. 
           “Message from Blaster coming in on the comm....he’s under attack!” exclaimed Crankcase, a touch of urgency and confusion in his voice. Skystorm headed over to the main screen, where Minirod was in the process of getting the feed from Blaster on the screen.  
            “Blaster, what’s happening out there?” he asked. The visual feed wasn’t the greatest, and Skystorm noticed some fire in the background, it’s smoke wafting around Blaster.
            “Ship was attacked.....looked like old Windsweeper, but don’t know how that’s possible.” he said loudly over the comm. 
            “Can you make it back to Cybertron?” asked Skystorm. Blaster pressed a few buttons.  
            “Took a bit of a beating....lost some energon cubes in the attack....can make it to Charr....” he said, the comm getting a little fuzzy. 
            “All right. I’ll meet you there and we’ll discuss the situation. Headquarters out.” he said, tapping the button that closed the channel. Skystorm thought for a second before doing anything. Now the rogue Windsweeper had appeared out of nowhere and attacked a shuttle that been on it’s way back from the planet Klo, which wasn’t that close to Veriterra. This wasn’t making much sense to him, nor was the pattern being developed. Regardless, he needed to get to Charr and get a report from Blaster. Looking about the command centre, he was seeing who was left he could take with him.
             “Crankcase!” he yelled. “Get to my ship, and have the Aquacons meet you on board, we’ll need them.” he ordered, as his comrade nodded, transformed, and motored out of the command area to get the others, needed for backup as Skystorm expected to the situation to get worse as time passed.

                                               Chapter 3 - Trash and Treasure

           Smoke billowed out of the shuttle, it’s burning hulk now a permanent part of Charr’s landscape, having crash landed due to damage done from a sneak attack. The ship’s pilot, Blaster, had been on his way back to Cybertron from the planet Klo, but the damage from the attack was too extensive, so a diversion to Charr was needed.
           The large Autobot had already started walking away from the downed ship, having crashed close to the planet’s base. As he made his way up a small hill, a familiar vehicle had screeched to a halt at the top. The large white and blue truck was none other than Ultra Magnus, one of the commanders of the Charr base. Magnus transformed into his robot mode as Blaster approached him. 
          “What do you say, Magnus?” asked Blaster with his trademark upbeat voice.
           Ultra Magnus’ optics blinked first. “Skystorm just arrived at the base. He wants to speak to you.” said Magnus. 
           Blaster nodded. “Sure thing. Let’s take off!” he exclaimed happily. Magnus knew Blaster was okay without even having to ask. Without further delay, both leapt into the air, and soared towards the base. It was a short trip, with both robots landing outside the main entrance within a few cycles. They made their way down the corridor and then took a right down the next corridor, emerging into the large hangar bay, where Skystorm stood waiting, next to his ship, the Aquacons standing on either side of him.
           “Blaster. Glad you made it.” he said, staring at the Autobot. 
            Blaster smiled. “It may have got a little crazy, but Blaster isn’t done blastin’ just yet!” he exclaimed happily.
            Skystorm needed some information now. “So what exactly happened out there?” he asked, wondering how it all went down. 
           “Not sure. I was on my way back to Cybertron when my ship came under fire. I could have sworn I saw old Windsweeper come at me from head on, but before I had a chance to find out for sure, I was taking a pounding.” explained Blaster, recalling the attack.
            This confused Skystorm a little, as he was unsure how to form a retaliatory plan when everything Windsweeper did seemed totally at random, and had no discernable pattern. The only idea he had was to get more troops out patrolling, but keeping sizable forces on Charr and Cybertron, just in case Windsweeper attacked either. 
           “Aquacons, take another ship, and patrol the Klo system. We need to be covered in case there’s another attack.” he ordered. The Aquacons only nodded, and headed off to an adjacent hangar bay where another shuttle sat. He then turned to Blaster again. 
           “Blaster, join me and Crankcase. We’re going to the human’s system and stake it out as well.” he said to the big Autobot. 
           “Look out and shout...OWW!” yelled Blaster enthusiastically, as he walked over and boarded the ship via the ramp. Skystorm now turned towards Magnus. 
          “Make sure you send out patrols around this place.” he said to the co-commander. 
          “I’ve got the Technobots on standby, as well as a patrol already out there.” Magnus replied. “Good work.” said Skystorm, before turning towards his shuttle and re-boarding it. After Magnus had left the hangar, the shuttle’s main engines roared to life, before bursting out of the open bay door, gaining altitude as it went out into space again.

           They had received word that one of the components had been retrieved, and their robot was on it’s way to the planet of Junk for the second piece of the puzzle. As he finished reading the communique, Cal’s facial expression became one of worry. Turning to his partner, he voiced his concerns. 
          “Can we really trust him?” started Cal. “I mean, what if he starts remembering things and goes....mental or something?” he asked. Jim looked to his best friend and sighed.
          “You worry too much.” he said. “Nothing can go wrong with this plan. It’s foolproof. If he starts acting differently, we can shut him down remotely.” he explained, no emotion being displayed.
           Cal looked down at some displays, then back up at Jim again. “I hope you’re right. We’re taking a huge risk doing this....if anyone finds o–“ He was cut off by Jim’s interruption. 
           “No one will find out. If things take a turn for the worst, we’ll destroy the robot, the lab, and everything in it.” Jim explained, now with some frustration in his voice. Cal gave up to Jim’s sound reasoning. 
           “Okay.” he agreed. Still, he couldn’t shake the little voice in the back of his mind that maybe the robot might keep the components, assemble the device, and merge with it to become almost unstoppable. This was no simple piece of technology they were trying to put back together. When assembled, the device would create a massive energy wave similar to that of a space-borne hurricane, drawing power from stars and space dust. It had the potential to heavily damage whole worlds. They had only found out about the device and it’s origins from a data disc left behind by the Decepticons from back when the two robot factions warred on Earth. When both sides began to work together again, the information was discarded or destroyed, so that no one faction could start another war.
             Cal hoped to himself that the robot didn’t have any problems while carrying out the mission. He was also careful not to show any signs of doubt to his best friend and partner, Jim. He had learned over the years that once Jim got an idea in his head, it was full tilt until the very end. Some would call in ambition or drive. Cal called it being stubborn sometimes, as Jim’s gung-ho attitude had cost them a project here and some funding there over the years. But, as dangerous as this latest endeavour was, to succeed was to finally break out of the shadows, and change the world with their ideas, and not someone else’s. 
             He then remembered one more little detail to iron out. “Jim, what about those robots at their city here on Earth?” Cal asked his partner, wondering what to do. 
             “Cal,” started Jim as he turned to Cal. “As long as that tin can working for us does what he’s told, the others like him here are of no consequence.” he explained. 
            “Why is that?” asked Cal a little defiantly. Jim frowned for a second, before explaining further. “Because once the device is assembled, the first thing we’ll do is unleash it on those fools, and Earth will be rid of them finally!” he exclaimed, with an evil grin.

            They both laid crouched behind a huge piece of wreckage, taking plenty of fire from their attacker. Some shots lanced off the wreckage, some left smouldering blast damage in the metal. Fireflight peeked around the metal mass and fired a few bursts from his weapon, while Air Raid peeked over the top of the cover and did the same, hoping to draw some fire or hit something. Ducking back down quickly after their barrage, the impacts of a new salvo of weapons fire hit their cover immediately.
            “Boy, this sucks!” exclaimed Fireflight, whose ultimate pet peeve was being pinned down in a battle. 
            “You’re telling me!” started Air Raid. “I think my paint got scratched diving in here!” he said, his humour lost on Fireflight at the moment. An explosion rocked their hiding spot, as a bigger blast almost made it to them.
            “I’d REALLY like to know where the others went off to right now!” he yelled, hoping their backup didn’t go far. Just then, he heard something coming in fast, the noise of rocket engines growing really loud. He peeked over the cover to see Slingshot and Skydive dropping down for an air-to-ground assault on the target. Both planes fired their weapons and caused some explosions near the attacker’s position, with Fireflight and Air Raid using this diversion to leave their cover and advance towards the epicentre of the battle, guns firing to give themselves a chance. Suddenly, as both of them were about to duck into new cover, Air Raid was struck by a bolt of energy, and fell down into the junk.
            “Dammit!” yelled Fireflight, who ran back to his comrade, and pulled him behind a large piece of an old space vessel for cover. 
            “What were you thinking getting shot like that?” he asked. 
            Air Raid just shrugged. “Was making sure you’d come to my rescue.” he laughed. Fireflight just shook his head. Air Raid looked down at the damage done to his chest plate. 
           “It’s not that bad, but it’s exposed my circuits. That weapon was able to do it in one shot. Amazing.” he said, still inspecting the damage to himself.
            This posed a problem for Fireflight. Air Raid couldn’t charge the enemy for fear of getting sent into stasis lock by taking any more damage to the weakened area. Fireflight didn’t want to rush it by himself, a any move like that would be foolish and unproductive. 
           “Well,” began Fireflight. “It seems we’re stuck here for the moment. If Silverbolt shows up, we can really get this party started.” he finished, referring to the fact that the five Aerialbots could unite to form the gestalt, Superion, who would make short work of the attacker that was holding them both at bay. Firelfight raised his left arm, and tapped a control, activating a beacon for the others to track. The sooner they got here, the sooner Superion got a chance to play.

           Another cycle, and he’d have the device’s second component. Managing to immobilize some of the attacking force, he continued to pull the technology out of the old burned-out spacecraft, making sure not to damage it. Taking small breaks to fire off a few volleys of his weapon, he took a bit longer than he had hoped to salvage this component, not expecting anyone to be around when he initially arrived on Junkion. Everything had gone well until he teleported to this location, not knowing the planet was being staked out by a small group of Autobots.
           Inspecting the device as it emerged, he took a more careful look at it, before firing off another salvo at the enemy. Windsweeper was starting to get a little frustrated at this mission, the pressure on him to complete it was enourmous, as were the shards of memories that had hit him on his way here, unable to make sense of it. 
          “Why can’t I remember things?” he mumbled to himself, not caring what he sounded like. It was then he noticed that the weapons fire had stopped for the moment. He looked over the wreckage that was shielding him to see a curious sight. All five of the attackers were lined up shoulder to shoulder, and the largest of the five was talking loudly. 
          “Aerialbots, merge to become Superion!!” it shouted, as the five robots lined up transformed into various pieces to become one giant robot, that carried an equally giant weapon in it’s right hand. The weapon became leveled at where he was hiding, and he wasted little time in deciding it was time to leave this place. He had what he came for, and didn’t feel like engaging that thing. Placing the component in his storage bay as he transformed to flight mode, Windsweeper immediately teleported off the planet and into space, just as his hiding spot was obliterated by an explosion set off from the giant’s weapon.
            Rocketing away from the planet, he knew now that he could not just give the completed device to the humans. No, it’s not that simple, he thought. To hand it over would be foolhardy, and would mean he might just end up being a servant to the fleshlings, depending on what they were planning on doing with the device in the first place. If anyone should be granted some kind
of power, it was him. Another shard of memory flashed before him, a faint image of another like him appeared then disappeared.
            He had no idea what it meant, or why this kept happening to him. Continuing on, he decided to make a stop at an old space station he had found on his way to the planet of Junk, to store the second component with the first for safe keeping until he found the other two pieces. 
           ‘Power and glory will be mine and mine alone.’ he thought to himself, not wanting to share any of it with them humans, seeing as how he himself was doing all the work in getting the device assembled. With his arrival at the abandoned space station getting nearer, and his mind finally set on a plan of his own, Windsweeper felt some relief at having a new purpose. It was time for him to control his own destiny for a change, and lay waste to anyone or anything that dared get in his way.

                                             Chapter 4 - The Rendezvous

           Space seemed vast to many beings, many races who thought of it as a void and nothing more. But to him, it was a never ending source ofwonder and intrigue. Having had to suspend his scientific research at theoutbreak of the Cybertronian War, he had spent the years after the peace treaty rededicating himself to science and his work, things that he found most rewarding. The only difference between his post-war science and now, was that he had no partner this time, no fellow scientist to share the experience with. This time, he had decided to go it alone.
           Jetfire rocketed through the vastness of space, on his way to an old lab he used to occupy at an abandoned space station between Junkion and Cybertron. It had been constructed by Cybertronians before the war, but had been vacated during the conflict. In the days before war broke out, he and his then-comrade Starscream used to share a large lab, always with something to examine and study. Jetfire hadn’t been back to the station until now, choosing a lab on Cybertron to do his work in the last few decades.
           On approach to the station now, he noticed that there was some small power signatures emanating from it. As he drew closer to the cylinder shaped station, he noticed an open cargo bay hatch that was open on the ring-like structure that projected outwards from the cylinder. He had tried to get that door open many times before, to no avail. Reducing thrust, he slowly decelerated and entered the large cargo bay, transforming to his robot mode and touching down on the deck with a dull thud.
           Looking around, he noticed that all the cargo containers thatwere present the last time he was here, still stood in their positions. The cargo bay looked the same, save for the large hole blasted in the wall, leading to the corridor. It seemed that whoever made the ‘new’ entrance didn’t feel like taking the time to move the rubble away from the real entrance, the pile of debris stacked high against it. Deciding to head to his old lab, he walked over and stepped through the hole, emerging into the corridor that led to the main area where the labs were, as the ring section was only cargo bays and hangar bays, which didn’t concern him right now.
            A short time later, he was in the round corridor on the laboratory level, and searched for his old haunt. When he arrived at the lab, he heard something coming from inside. The door was partially open, and there was a light on inside. Suddenly Jetfire didn’t feel alone on the station anymore. He drew his weapon, and swung around the wall, bursting through the door expecting to open fire on an unwarranted intruder. Instead, the sight that greeted him both confused and surprised him. A familiar robot was working at one of his work stations, and looked up to see who had interrupted him.
           “Windsweeper? You’re....alive?” he queried, remembering the loss years beforehand of the very Cybertronian that stood before him.
            Instead of a response, the former Decepticon raised his own weapon, leveling it at Jetfire and firing, the burst of energy catching him and ripping a wound in his side before sending backwards through a wall and back into the corridor. He managed to look up as Windsweeper stood above him, the weapon now pointed at Jetfire’s head. 
           “You will not stop me. The Eye will be assembled, and I will conquer everything.” he stated, just before Jetfire lost power and went temporarily offline. Windsweeper ran back into the lab, grabbed the half-assembled device, and proceeded to leave the space station, knowing he would have to find another place to hide until the weapon was complete. He shut down the
main power on his way out and blasted the controls, keeping the station in the dark for good now, of no use to anyone. He still had two more pieces to find, and one happened to be close by, on Cybetron. Once out of the hangar, he transformed to his flight mode, and set off for his homeworld, remembering that now, as his mind began to clear.

           “He’s not responding to any of our signals anymore. What should we do?” asked Jim, as Cal was working the controls feverishly. He didn’t have answer at that moment, and tried pressing the kill switch, hoping to end everything prematurely. 
           “I don’t know....I can’t terminate him either.” said Cal. “We’re doomed, doomed!” he added. Jim shook his head an began pacing back and forth in the lab. 
           “Everything was going so well, the pieces were being collected, we could TASTE victory!” he said, different emotions flowing through him.
           Cal agreed, but then put his own spin on it. “Yes, we could, but now we lose! The core processor couldn’t suppress his memories to it’s fullest extent. He will know everything soon!” he explained, freaking out.
            Jim refused to give in to him. “No, we’ve come too close to be stopped now! There must be a way out of this!” he surmised loudly. Cal thought for a second, but could only come up with one course of action that would stop the renegade robot, and help them save face and avert disaster altogether.
           “We can make an alliance with the other robots, stop this here and now before it’s too late!” said Cal, desperate.
            His partner had no choice but to agree. “Very well....let us try to save ourselves and our world, and NEVER undertake anything like this again!!” he exclaimed forcibly. Cal nodded as they both walked hurriedly to their hovervehicle, intending to head off to meet up with the other robots, and confess to them what they had done. It wasn’t easy for Jim to go about something like this, never usually one to accept defeat. But the stakes were too high this time, and he would not be the one to condemn Earth over something like this.

            The former Autobot City on Earth was bustling with activity, as hours earlier, a shuttle carrying Skystorm, Blaster, and Crankcase landed within the city, rallying some troops for patrol duty to stop Windsweeper should he make an unwarranted visit to the sphere in the near future. One of the first Transformers to greet them upon arrival was Grimlock, of the mighty Dinobots, who was always a familiar presence on Earth, as were the other four of his pack.
            Grimlock pushed a button on the controls in front of him, and a viewing screen came to life. On it, was an image of the Dinobot Swoop, who was out on patrol. 
           “Me Grimlock ask for status. Tell it.” he said, words being a failing of his sometimes. Swoop responded quickly. 
           “Me Swoop no see nothing. Me check with Snarl soon.” he replied, before cutting the comm channel. Grimlock nodded to himself and turned to Skystorm. 
           “Swoop no see nothing, need time to find Snarl.” he explained. “We wait for Snarl.” he finished, his optics glowing slightly. What the Dinobots lacked in intelligence, they made up for in battle, respected by all Transformers for their ferocity in wartime conditions. Fighting the powerful Devastator to a standstill during the first battle of Autobot City during the Cybertronian Wars, and attacking Unicron by themselves, the Dinobots had no lack of courage. But for now, they were charged with the defense of the City, and Earth, should anything happen to it. Grimlock walked across the control room and up to the Dinobot Sludge, who in robot mode, had been guarding the secondary entrance that let to the City’s transformation room.
            “Me Grimlock say you Sludge need to patrol perimeter.” he said in a commanding tone. Sludge nodded. 
            “Me Sludge go now.” was the reply from the Dinobot with the softer voice. Sludge left the control room, and went about his patrol. Grimlock turned towards Skystorm and was about to address him again, when an alarm went off. Grimlock hurried over to the screen again.  
            “Scanner say intruder coming.” he said. Skystorm took a quick look at the screen, then placed some orders. 
            “Grimlock, take Crankcase and intercept the intruder. I’ll notify the other Dinobots to join you.” he said.
             The Dinobot leader only nodded, with Crankcase falling in behind him as both exited the control room. Tapping some controls, Skystorm quickly opened a comm channel to the other Dinobots. 
            “Swoop, Snarl, Slag. There is an intruder approaching the top of the perimeter. Intercept it.” he ordered. All three chimed in at once acknowledging the order before the comm channel closed. He hoped for the intruder’s sake it wasn’t Windsweeper, because he knew full well what would happen if the Dinobots intercepted him, especially Grimlock.

            The entry road to the City was now blocked with a temporary barrier, with Crankcase standing in front of it with his weapon drawn, and leveled at the point in which the road disappeared around a bend. Grimlock was nearby, and were three more Dinobots positioned in the immediate area, the only one absent being Swoop, who had taken up a position on the  platform of Lookout Mountain, which gave an excellent vantage point on most of the entry road. Partially destroyed during the Battle of Autobot City, the platform was entirely rebuilt years later. For a short while, nothing moved. The defenders waited for something to come around the bend, but nothing did during that time. Then, just as it had seemed the scanner readings were wrong, a small earth vehicle emerged from the rocky bend, heading towards Crankcase. He performed a quick scan with his optics. 
            “Two humans.” he mumbled out loud. As the vehicle got closer, he walked towards it a few steps before stopping again.
            “Stop your vehicle immediately!” he ordered. The small hovercar came to a stop, the two small fleshlings climbing out of it and just standing there for a second before one of them spoke immediately. 
            “We need to see your leader. It’s urgent!” said the small human. Crankcase could now see three of the Dinobots closing from behind the humans, and Grimlock had taken up position beside him. It was then he lowered his weapon slowly, and tapped a comm button on his left arm to contact the City. 
            “Boss, this is Crankcase. Two humans want to talk to you right away.” he explained. A few quick seconds ticked by before the comm crackled to life with his response.
            “Very well. Bring them in.” replied Skystorm, who then cut the channel. Crankcase turned his attention back to the humans. 
            “Follow me.” he said to them, turning and walking towards the gate, Grimlock beside
him, and the other three Dinobots bringing up the rear. Swoop would stay out on patrol for the time being, keeping watch on the area should anything happen. Passing through the now open gate, the line of Transformers and humans alike made their way to the heart of the City.

           “You can’t be serious?” he asked the two humans, still dealing with some confusion in understanding what they had just explained to him. Skystorm looked at the two fleshlings and made another inquiry. “Where was Windsweeper going after Junkion?” he asked. The two humans looked at each other, then back up at Skystorm. 
           “He is....um....he’s going to your planet....” said the one human, who’s voice trailed off.    
           ‘Heading to Cybertron would be suicide.’ he thought to himself, knowing full well of the defence systems, and the bulk of his troops that were there on the planet. Not overly satisfied, he pressed them for more information. 
           “Your telling me that one of these ‘pieces’ to this device you told me about is hidden somewhere on Cybertron? That’s a little hard to fathom.” he finished, glaring at the two humans, his optics now glowing a brighter red. The one human opened his mouth to reply, but was cut off by the voice of Crankcase, who was working the comm systems. 
           “Boss, there’s a signal coming in from Jetfire.” he said, still pressing buttons. Skystorm left the humans, who were being watched by Grimlock, to make his way over to the viewing screen. He pressed the flashing button that was indicating the signal, and transferred it to visual. An image of Jetfire popped up on the screen, his form looking damaged and scarred by weapons fire. The ex-Autobot starting speaking. 
           “I am....on the supply station near Junkion....Windsweeper was here, and attacked me.” said Jetfire, having trouble communicating.
           “Jetfire, when did this happen?” queried Skystorm. The large robot had more. 
           “Almost a day ago....I just came....back online. Took a direct hit....and malfunctioned.” he said. Skystorm nodded. 
           “He’s apparently headed for Cybertron. Can you make it there?” he asked, not sure if the ex-Autobot was able.
            “I....I think so....” was the reply. “Good. I will contact Cybertron at once.” said Skystorm, watching Jetfire nod once before he cut that channel, and started sending hails to Cybertron. After a couple cycles, an image of Minirod came up on the screen.
           “Go ahead.” he stated, waiting for a response. “Minirod, the Windsweeper situation is more complex than we thought. He’s heading your way now.” he explained to his second in command. Minirod replied quickly. 
           “All right. The Aerialbots just returned from Junkion, and the Constructicons are here as well.” he said. Skystorm let a faint smile go across his face, knowing his second in command was always ready for trouble. 
           “Good.” replied Skystorm. “Is the Space Bridge working again?” he asked. Minirod gave his boss the bad news. 
           “Not yet. It’s not being very nice to us.” he said.
           “Not to worry.” started Skystorm. “I’ll shift there shortly.” he finished, referring to his phase-shifting ability. 
           “Earth out.” he said at the screen, cutting the comm channel.Turning to Crankcase, he issued a few orders. “I’m leaving for Cybertron. Stay here with Grimlock, and see if you can get any more from the humans.” he said. 
           Crankcase nodded. “Sure thing. I’ll let you know.” he finished. Skystorm then walked to an open part of the command area, away from the others. He focused his thoughts on the phase-shift, not requiring the controls for some time now. 
          “Cybertron.” he said to himself, before a wave of shimmering purple energy enveloped him. Within a few seconds, the bright blanket of light and energy was gone, and Skystorm with it. Some in the command area stared at the spot where he had stood, in awe of the power and effect of the phase-shift.

                                              Chapter 5 - Welcome Back?

           The weapons fire was intense, and was unrelenting. He tried to avoid as many of the energy bolts as possible while still firing his own weapon, but was still being grazed, and taking the odd hit. While the odds were stacked against him, the multitude of attackers were slower, and didn’t want to mobilize too much, seemingly afraid of losing their advantage on the flank. Close to his objective, but pinned down on the moonbase, Windsweeper was a at a loss as to how he was going to defeat the large force tasked with immobilizing him. Taking refuge in an unused structure, he ducked in an out of the main entrance, constantly exchanging weapons fire.   
           “I must complete my mission...” he said to himself, trying to figure out a way out of the jam he was in. Getting a quick idea, he ran out of the small structure directly towards the attacking force, hoping to confuse them. A few errant weapons blasts struck him as he fired some of his own, managing to knock down two out of the eleven attackers.
            After getting off a couple more shots, he transformed into his flight mode and left the moon’s surface, with five of the attackers in pursuit as he soared towards Cybertron itself. As he made his approach, he decided to land in Telex, Cybertron’s biggest city. He landed quickly, and headed towards the coordinates for the third piece of the device, the information stored in his core processor. Windsweeper knew he would encounter further resistance at some point, especially with the forces that followed him from the moon.
            He ran between structures, ducking in and out, using some the shadows as aids for temporarily concealing himself. He looked back once and a while, expecting to see his pursuers sooner rather than later. His scanners started telling him that he was closing the distance now to his target, the only impasse remaining being the fact that the item was located in an energon storage unit. He knew that shooting his way in would destroy everything in that room, including the technology he was after. Scanning the structure with his optics, they revealed only one way in or out, somewhat complicating things.
            Windsweeper scanned the door for a weakness, and in doing so found a small control panel on the left side. He used a fist to smash the controls, then pulled the panel off the wall, playing with the circuitry on the inside. It wasn’t long until the door slid open, and access was gained. Running down the short corridor, he slowed down and casually walked into the main storage room, where his optic scanners said the piece was. There was little light in the large room, so he switched his optics to infrared mode. He immediately stopped in his tracks, motionless.
            The highlighted forms of at least ten other robots stood out amongst the stored energon and the racks they were on. Suddenly, one of them spoke. 
           “Lower your weapon, NOW!” the voice ordered. The hum of the energon cubes was soothing as his options began to dwindle. He decided to respond, stalling for time. 
           “I must complete my mission! Stand aside!” Silence ensued for a cycle before the other robot spoke again. 
           “Lower your weapon or you will not leave this room....alive.” said the voice. He knew the mission must be completed, and he decided on the only course of action that was available to him. Pulling the trigger of his weapon, a bolt of energy lanced out and struck a pile of energon cubes, detonating them violently. He turned towards the corridor and bolted down it as chaos reigned supreme in the storage bay, the heavy explosion knocking over the team of transformers sent to stop him. Windsweeper hurriedly transformed into his flight mode upon exit from the storage bay.
           ‘The device cannot be finished now....’ he thought to himself, as the piece of technology more than likely went up in flames. Unsure of how to proceed, he set course for the supply station again. Thinking that might not think to look for him there again, it might be a good place for him to regroup, and plot a counter-strike on those who made his plan fail, the power he could have had, lost.

           The repair bay had not been this busy in some time. First Aid and Ratchet worked feverishly to repair the mass of damaged robots that had assembled before them. An energon explosion caused by a blast from the rogue Windsweeper’s weapon had done considerable damage to the Constructor Squad, Minirod, Cheap Shot, and a few others. Jetfire was present as well, but had been quickly repaired before the others’ arrival. As repairs continued, the doors slid open and Skystorm walked in, hoping to get some information from the lot.
           “I’m guessing it didn’t go as had been planned?” he asked Minirod, who was getting some adjustments made to his new chest plate.
           “No it didn’t. I would have never thought he would have shot the pile of energon cubes.” replied Minirod. 
           “He could have taken himself out.” he finished, a little bit of frustration in his voice. That much energon blowing up could have caused a lot more damage, but they were all lucky it didnt. The whole mess still didn’t sit well with him.
            Skystorm just shook his head, then spoke softly. “Do we know where Windsweeper fled to?” he asked his second in command. 
           Minirod’s optics blinked once. “No, but the Aerialbots are tracking him. We’ll hopefully know something soon.” he replied. Just as Skystorm was about to ask something else, Jetfire walked up. 
           “Let me join the search. I know how he thinks.” said the large ex-Autobot. Skystorm pondered this, then gave a reply. 
           “Agreed. Rendezvous with the Aerialbots at once.” he said. Jetfire nodded and left the repair bay in a hurry.
           “Well, what does that leave us to do?” asked Minirod, not aware of any other plans at the moment. Skystorm took a second to reply.
           “Let’s head to the command area. We can’t do much else at the moment, and I want to stay central here instead of phase-shifting all over the place.” was his answer, as both began to leave the repair bay and go about their business. As the door slid open again, Minirod paused briefly and addressed First Aid. 
           “Do your best okay? I need those guys.” he said. 
           First Aid nodded. “Sure thing.” he said as he scurried around to the next repair.

           “When does the hurting stop?” asked Fireflight to the other Aerialbots, remembering the barrage of weapons fire from his earlier encounter with the rogue Windsweeper. 
           “Geez, you’d think a little bit of excitement now and then would make you happy!” replied Air Raid, sitting next to his comrade in the shuttle’s cockpit. Fireflight just shook his head and checked his readout as he spoke. 
           “Excitement? We could have been vapourized!” he exclaimed, not really seeing the humour that was trying to be conveyed by Air Raid.
           “Quiet down you two.” interrupted Silverbolt, the leader of the Aerialbots. All five of them were on a shuttle that was shadowing Windsweeper, trying to track him and follow him. It wasn’t easy to do, as they had lost him twice already to due to his ability to teleport, which temporarily confused the scanners. Silverbolt checked the controls again, and was trying to plot the rogue’s course. The results confused him. 
            “If the computer is correct, his course will take him to the abandoned supply station near Junkion.” he said out loud.
            “Why would anyone want to go there? It’s empty.” said Skydive. “I’ve read about it, and there’s not much to see.” he finished, wishing he could do more research on it before they arrived, to see if anything about it had changed. Silverbolt spoke up again to answer the question. 
            “I don’t know why he wants to go there, all I know is that once we arrive, he must be stopped.” said the leader. 
            Slingshot spoke up. “Fine by me. Let’s go in and get him! I’ll take him myself!” he said, energetically. The others didn’t bother responding, knowing how self-centered and arrogant Slingshot could be sometimes, including now.
            The station now came up on the scanners, with both the signals of it and Windsweeper now showing on the screen as a single dot. The shuttle got closer and closer to the station, with the Aerialbots bracing for a sneak attack, not sure if they were being lured there. Fireflight, bothered by what might lay ahead, made a suggestion to Silverbolt. 
            “Hey, what if we formed Superion right before we get there?” he said to the leader of the group. Silverbolt pondered this idea for a few moments before giving a reply. 
           “Could work, but he would have to stay outside. There’s no room for Superion inside the station.” he explained. 
            Fireflight seemed convinced. “Good point.” he replied. Now in visual range of the station, they all looked up and out the forward viewer at the cylindrical object, it’s ‘wheel’ section slowly helping to rotate the whole station. Just then, the scanner started beeping. Something had suddenly shown up on the screen. Air Raid checked his instrument panel, and was the first to tell what the unknown object was. 
           “It’s Jetfire!” he yelled out happily, glad to have some help.
            The large Jetfire in his flight mode, rocketed up to and came alongside of the larger ship, mimicking the shuttle exactly, and coming to a halt at the same time, both hanging in space before the station. The ship’s comm came to life, and the little indicator light above it began flashing quickly.
            “He’s inside?” asked Jetfire, wondering what was going on. Silverbolt pressed the comm controls and responded. 
           “Yes. We haven’t decided on a plan of action yet. 
            Any ideas?” he said, explaining the situation before asking his own question, hoping for some imput.
            “I can think of only one option.” said Jetfire. Silverbolt waited for more, but it never came. Impatient, he pressed the comm. 
            “Are you going to tell us?” he queried, a little confused now. Jetfire responded quickly to the question. 
           “Wait here for my signal.” was all he said before cutting the channel and jetting off to the far side of the station. The five Aerialbots were somewhat stunned, not expecting Jetfire to be so rash and reckless.
           “So, he’s going in there alone, and we have to wait here?” asked Air Raid, not really expecting an answer. They all watched as Jetfire disappeared behind the station, with his signal on the screen becoming one with the station, and for that matter, with Windsweeper as well. Silverbolt wanted to head in there and be by Jetfire’s side against the rogue, but he respected Jetfire enough to let him at least try before joining in. But for now, all he could do was wait, andhope that the signal came before Jetfire became unable to make it. 
            “That rogue Windsweeper is powerful.” he remarked out loud. No one spoke up or commented, all preoccupied with the wait.

                                                  Chapter 6 - Kamikaze

           “That’s right Jetfire, come on in.” he muttered, looking at the screen intently, watching his old partner enter the station. Giving up on his mission to assemble the device, due to a piece’s destruction, Windsweeper wanted the next best thing: mutual destruction of himself, and whoever he could take with him. There was no reason for him to exist any longer, he hadn’t been whole in some time. The balance of the shards of memories had broken through his thoughts, shattering whatever was left in his mind. He saw no reason to continue, and knew the end was near.
            Windsweeper had not come here to hide, only to destroy this place, and others foolish enough to join him inside. He had rigged the station’s three reactors to overload, the explosion more than enough to completely destroy it, whoever was inside, and anyone stupid enough to be in a close orbit. 
           “All it takes is a press of a button.” he said aloud, looking down at the control mechanism he had attached to his left forearm. He knew that Jetfire could navigate the station by memory, so he drew he weapon in anticipation of the large Autobot’s arrival, hoping to immobilize him so that he could detonate everything, with the both of them still inside. The cycles ticked by, and no Jetfire. Windsweeper wasn’t impatient yet, but did wonder if his ex-partner was working on a plan of his own before the imminent showdown. He wasn’t about to leave the lab on a whim. Windsweeper stayed inside the lab, and patiently waited some more, letting Jetfire come to him.

           Entering through the cargo bay once again, he stopped in his tracks to collect his thoughts, and try to prepare for whatever lay ahead.
          “It’s possible there are booby traps.” said Jetfire to himself, wondering if going into the main corridor meant getting shot, blown up, or immobilized. Carefully, he walked over to the hole in the wall that lead to the corridor, and stuck his head out slowly, peeked around before stepping out into it. 
          “So far, so good.” he muttered, as he went left and made his way down the darkened corridor, hoping to get to the main cylinder without incident. The lighting was considerably low, the low hum of power absent. His weapon drawn, the trip to the main area was slow, as he walked carefully so as not to set off any kind of devices that may be planted for his benefit. When he reached the main area, Jetfire decided to take a more roundabout route to the lab section, preferring to use the element of surprise if it was even possible. He knew the station quite well, having spent a lot of time here for research purposes. 
            Finally entering the lab area after cycles of walking via his alternate route, he arrived at the science corridor, pushing the partially slid door open slowly. Jetfire then used his optics to conduct an infrared scan, hoping to detect the rogue Windsweeper before said enemy detected him. A small energy signature registered on his scanners, hiding in Jetfire’s old lab a few doors down. His grip on the plasma rifle tightened, ready to open fire and take down his quarry. Walking up to the door, he leveled his large weapon at the door before opening it.
            The door had barely been slid open when weapons fire pierced the gloomy corridor, missing Jetfire’s head narrowly. He ducked back behind the wall, sticking his rifle around the half-opened door, taking blind shots with it, hoping to hit something. He wasn’t about to charge in there and take heavy damage. Just as soon as it began, the weapons fire from the other side stopped. Knowing it could be a trap, Jetfire stayed where he was for the time being.
           “You know you want me, Jetfire.” said the voice of Windsweeper, from inside the lab. Jetfire didn’t respond, trying to come up with a plan. 
           “You can fight me, or I can detonate the station right now. It doesn’t matter to me.” he explained, nothing but seriousness in his voice. Jetfire now had a diffucult choice, as any move could lead to mutual destruction, but continued to wait, hoping that Windsweeper got frustrated enough to come out into the corridor. Neither of them moved for the next little while, each waiting for the other to make the next move. Jetfire then decided he could wait no longer. 
             He burst through the door quickly, his weapon firing at everything and anything, hoping to catch Windsweeper off guard. And it did, with one blast from Jetfire’s plasma rifle caught him in the face, the other in the upper right chest plate, blowing a hole clean through him. His left eye blown away, and smoke from damaged circuits wafting out of both wounds, he toppled over backwards and landed hard on the lab’s floor. Jetfire lowered his weapon, and walked up to his former partner. 
            “You could have chose a different path.” he said. 
            Windsweeper’s remaining optic blinked slowly. “I....I wanted power...” he said, his voice trailing off. Jetfire shook his head slowly, knowing that there was no way of getting through to him.
            “Now you have nothing.” replied Jetfire, looking down at the defeated transformer. Windsweeper’s functional optic blinked again before he spoke. 
           “I have....the last....laugh....” his voiced trailed off as he reached over to his left forearm, and tapped the small control panel with his right hand. A second later, the entire station began to shake and shudder. Jetfire snapped to attention, remembering what had been said about the station’s reactors. Not wasting any time, he ran out of the lab and down the corridor. He knew he wouldn’t have enough time to get all the way back to the cargo hold, as the shuddering became more violent. Running as fast as he could, the station creaked loudly as the reactors were close to overloading and exploding, unable to deal with the amount of power being produced any longer.
            Jetfire made it to the top level of the cylinder, and stopped. He aimed his rifle directly above, set the power discharge to full, and opened fire. A gaping hole was blown into the superstructure, large enough for him to escape. Jetfire quickly transformed to flight mode, and 
jetted up through the hole, as the reactors overloaded, triggering explosions and tearing the supply station to shreds. The fireball was short-lived, leaving a debris field in it’s wake, the station now but a memory. As Jetfire emerged from the debris, he scanned for any trace of Windsweeper, but found none, making him believe his old partner was no more.

           “There was no trace of a body or spark?” asked Skystorm, the five Aerialbots and Jetfire before him in the command centre on Cybertron.
           “None. I didn’t find any trace, and neither did the Aerialbots when they scanned and catalogued the debris field before we left for home.” said Jetfire. Still thinking about what had just transpired. He then thought of something he wanted to ask. “
           What was this ‘device’ that he was trying to assemble, anyways?” was his query. Skystorm turned to the viewing screen, and brought up a schematic that the two human scientists had provided.
           “If assembled, this thing could have unleashed a storm of power that could scorch entire planets.” he explained. Jetfire said nothing, too much in awe of the schematics on the screen. Skystorm turned off the viewer, and turned his attention back to the others. 
           “It worries me that no body was found.” he said to the others. 
           Silverbolt spoke up. “No one could have survived that.” he stated. Skystorm nodded, then replied. “Maybe so, but if he had enough power left to activate a reactor overload, he could have easy teleported clear of the station.”
            Jetfire stared off for a second a thought about that. Could Windsweeper have teleported at the last possible second? It didn’t seem feasible to him, due to the condition he had left Windsweeper in before making his own escape from the station. He would have found some indication, or some kind of pieces of Windsweeper or something. But he didn’t, only finding bits and pieces of the station. Turning his attention back to Skystorm again, he noticed the briefing was over, and the Aerialbots had left, and Skystorm returning his attention to the vidscreen. Jetfire turned and left the command centre, wanting to spend some time in his lab here on Cybertron, and unwind with some research.
	Walking to his lab, his mind couldn’t keep away from Windsweeper, and whether or not he had met his demise in the explosion. The last time he had been thought dead, he had come back and started this latest adventure, wreaking havoc. But Jetfire knew from working
with him for a long time, that Windsweeper was not normally like that. If the humans had found him and reprogrammed him, they had somehow changed him for the worse. And what of his Spark? Was it still one with him, or did it leave when Windsweeper ‘died’ the first time?
            There were too many questions revolving around the whole situation. Jetfire decided to let the matter rest for the time being, and once again focus on his research. He felt comfortable in his lab, a sanctuary of sorts for his research and study. The door sliding aside upon his quick arrival, he went straight to his computers, and started working away at whatever he had left unfinished from before, no longer worrying about Windsweeper, now just an afterthought.

           The object was a light amongst darkness, drifting through space all by itself. The light continued to flicker, the energy surrounding it unstable. The energy had enveloped a robot form, badly damaged and missing some pieces. The form was that of Windsweeper, not dead, but in stasis lock from the severe damaged inflicted by the explosion of the supply station. By all means, the powerful explosion should have destroyed him, didn’t. As the station exploded, he had enough power left to trigger his teleportation device.
           However, the combination of the teleport and the explosion had an adverse side effect. He was now phasing in and out of space/time at the molecular level, as was soon destined to leave this space and time, and emerge elsewhere, as he had no control over it. The light grew brighter, as he phased in an out with no end in sight. Finally, it flashed for the final time, and the lifeless form of Windsweeper disappeared for good. Those of his own kind would soon come to think that he had fought his last battle, that he finally found by accident the end of the line. The truth was that the future was uncertain. No one could predict it, and no one could know what had truly become of a scientist turned warrior, brought back by outside forces to work for them, being only a shadow of his former self. But one thing was for sure. If anyone could find him, if anyone might come across Windsweeper in another place, another time, or even in another dimension, there was one who could accomplish this.
           Little did anyone know that the final showdown would occur elsewhere, fought on a distant battlefield in a distant realm. The one Cybertronian that held the key to finding Windsweeper was someone that had already visited other realms, been involved in transcending time and space on other occasions. This Cybertronian could, and would find the lost Windsweeper, and would facilitate the final battle, with mutual destruction more than just a possibility. 

                                                            THE END