Part 1

Part 1

The universe is full of scum. All types of scum; murderers, villains, planet killers, viruses; you name it, we got it. And the transformer species is no stranger to scum, do the names Unicron, Galvatron, Terrorform ring a bell? Not to mention my current quarry, the elusive T2 Vampire Prime.

Unfortunately I am no stranger to the delinquents of our society. In fact, I believe I have working for me a collection of freaks that would rival any other.

I may not be the best samaratin in this universe, but I’d like to think I am just a little better than the crew I am currently held up with. The triple changer Outskirts would be little more than a racist, hating every Decepticon he sees, except for his deadly Phalanx virus that inhabits him. Though he claims it is dormant, my scans reveal he could start the plague at a whim, but seems to control his infected arm.

Firefly, his cassette companion, isn’t much better. A destruction expert, he isn’t happy unless he is blowing something up...or planning to blow something up. The odd thing is he’s a Decepticon, and a fairly normal one at that. Perhaps his friendship will make Outskirts more personable, or perhaps they were just forced together under these tremendous circumstances and fake a working relationship.

Then there’s Darkseed, the Predacon necratog, who is right now eating her dead comrades, the Predacons I slayed yesterday. She claims it’s a atog thing, that it makes her stronger. All I know is that I don’t plan on leaving my corpse around her.

All in all I have assembled a dangerous group of robots from across the galaxy, each one with no true allegiance to me. By Primus and the pit, these rouges will be the death of me...but I no-longer fear death...

-excerpt from Harbinger's personal log entry.

The Autobots had never had a throne room before Terrorform came to power. Now Autobase on Cybertron was a fortress, a castle designed to protect the Autobot Dictator.

"I want Outskirts! And I want Vampire Prime!" shouted Terrorform, his voice echoing throughout the enormous room. "How goes our forces on Earth?"

"Deadwings reports yet another failure," said Shockwave, the purple Decepticon commander.

"Incompetent fool. How am I to run an empire when there are so many obstacles to ultimate power? Shockwave do you have any suggestions?"

"You could bring in the greatest bounty hunters in the Alliance, and outside of it. Offer significant energon and a place in your ranks for those who manage to bring you the wanted targets. Those who succeed will become some of you finest warriors, and those who fail..."

"Will no longer be a problem. Your idea has merit Shockwave. It’s no wonder Megatron trusted you so much." Terrorform smiled slightly , "Bring me the greatest transformer bounty hunters, assassins, and special agents! I want them here within my throne room by the end of the day."

"Your Autobots will want to be involved with this, and they don’t have many bounty hunters, and last I checked, even fewer assassins," said Shockwave.

"Fine, fine. Who do we have that can be some use to me and is in a position o authority in the Autobots?"

"The clone, Coldspell, leads the Throttlebots currently on Earth," said the purple Decepticon.

"Excellent. Send Blackwit to join them on Earth and instruct them to hunt down Vampire Prime and Outskirts," said Terrorform.

"Yes commander," said Shockwave, then he turned and left the throne room.

Less then thirteen cycles later, the Autobot throne room was filled with a variety of transformers of all shapes and sizes. The left corner was populated mostly by Actionmasters; Axer, Gutcruncher, Banzai-Tron, Prudox (a Bombshell from a different dimension) and others. Next to these was God Neptune, then Tiger’s Eye and his Cyberjets. Remnants of the Quintesons could be seen in the rouge sharkticons that littered the room, and in the Terrorcons. A few Junkions could be seen lurking in the shadows as well as other renegade Autobots. Soundblaster, the Destron Soundwave stood closest to the Autobot leader as he began to speak.

"You are the most corrupt, vile, and evil transformers ever to be assembled," grumbles and profanities could be herd under various transformers breaths, "and that Why I like you! You are the finest group of assassins, bounty hunters, and trackers ever assembled! You all have been given a disk containing information on your two targets: The clone Vampire Prime; and Outskirts, the plague bearer." Terrorform paused to look at his assembled masses, noticing Tarantulus, Rampage, and several Fusors lingering in the right corner. Megaplex seemed disappointed as he slowly backed away from the Terrorcon Blot, who began drooling. The original Predacons grumbled a bit and right ahead of them was a group of anxious generation 2 Decepticons who were looking nervously at the Destron Autorollers.

"I want these two found and bought to me...alive. Both are on Earth an I have arranged several ships to take those of you without other means of travel to Earth. Your rewards if you succeed: untold riches, infinite credits, all the energon you could ever want, and a starship of your choice."

"Why call us here? You have an Empire, what can we do that it can’t?" asked Axer, pushing aside Prudox and Gutcruncher to get a better view of the Autobot Dictator.

"You are the best at what you do. I simply offer you the chance to prove it. I will reward those who succeed and frankly I have little need for those who fail," said the Autobot leader. "Also I rule over all I see, including your little side operations. Whether Decepticons or Predacons or Destrons, I can destroy you at a moment’s notice." To emphasize this point the Autobot leader gestured at a sharkticon bounty hunter who had fallen asleep against the back wall. The Decepticon Shockwave then leapt from the ceiling and transformed into his laser mode, eradicating the unexpecting shark.

Despite the abruptness of this action and the various swords, lasers, and claws that were drawn, there was no further violence as the inhabitants realized the show was not an assault on them but a symbol of Terrorforms utter ruthlessness.

"Thank you Shockwave," said the smiling Autobot from his throne.

"You are dismissed," said Shockwave as he lead the various transformers out of Terrorform’s throne room. Several sharkticons stopped to say good bye to their friend, the first one picking up the loose tail laying on the floor.

Blackwit got of his shuttle at Autobot city and was met by Coldspell, the Bumblebee clone currently in charge of the Throttlebots.

"Glad you could join us, we’ve got our hands full tracking down these two fugitives and a special agent such as yourself could just about tip the scales in our favor," Coldspell shook Blackwits hand, Blackwit pulling his away to avoid the cold. "Oh, sorry, sometimes I don’t know my own temp! Anyway we’ve managed to convince Autobot Earth command to lend us a shuttle; very good considering the fact that Outskirts and his friends have appropriated the Atog vessel."

"Great, just prime. Coldspell how do you plan on capturing these two renegades?" Blackwit asked, slightly annoyed.

"Well, I plan on tracking them down and doing whatever in necessary," said the Throttlebot leader.

"Wrong. First things first, I want to interview anyone who has had contact with these two; that means get Dirge, the Insecticons, and the Magic Wars Predacons on the comm. and tell them we’ll be there soon. After we find out all we can about them, then we’ll begin tracking them down."

"OK, fine. We are scheduled to launch for Europe in two hours so don’t get to comfy. After takeoff, the Throttlebots will be debriefed on our mission," said Coldspell.

"Three of our clones have gone missing," Shrapnel told his fellow insecticons.

"Which?" asked Bombshell.

"We don’t really keep track, do we?" asked Kickback.

"Normally, no. But these three were with us when we were hunting down Vampire Prime. These three were also left alone with Eradicate on more than one occasion, and I fear for our other brethren."

"What shall we do?" asked Bombshell.

"I don’t know...yet." said the Insecticon leader.

"Wait...We received a transmission from the Throttlebots. They wish to meat with us..us..us. They want to know about the prime clone..clone..clone." Kickback’s voice trailed off.

"They will want to meat with Eradicate as well..ell..ell. We can take this as an advantage to find our missing clones...and maybe to exterminate that Predacon if he did steal our clones..clones." said Shrapnel. All three insecticons began to laugh, followed by their clones that filled the entire valley. The irritating cackle of the insecticons echoed for miles.

"Slag! Outskirts get off your but and fix the shields for the port side! We’ve got Insecticon clones following us and Earth command has already been alerted. If we don’t find a hiding place soon, we’ll be surrounded by more enemy ships than you have Phalanx nanites!" Harbinger yelled. The stolen atog vessel flew over the coastline followed closely by several dozen Insecticon clones.

"Attempting a direct interface with the ship, this clunker is so obsolete, I’m afraid I can’t rush the repair process that much. Firefly, electrify the hull to prevent the clones from munching through! I’m sealing all openings and preparing for submersion. We can escape the Insecticons when we dive into the Pacific Ocean. Then we can do whatever we want until we are found out under water," Outskirts said as he worked with the computer.

"I am releasing an energon poison I have developed," said Darkseed, "If these clones continue to follow us their energon cores will explode after several seconds of exposure."

"Great. Outskirts are we ready for submission?" asked Harbinger.

"Just one second...There! Head towards that whirlpool. We can fake a crash landing so others won’t come after us," Outskirts said, sending coordinates to the navigational computer.

"Darkseed, how is your gas doing?" asked Harbinger.

"Most of our pursuers have either exploded or broken off pursuit. The rest won’t be able to follow us under water, especially in that whirlpool."

"Good," said Harbinger.

"Final decent into Eurobase alpha complete," Searchlight said as the Throttlebot shuttle landed.

"Coldspell, permission to start tracking down our quarry?" Rollbar asked.

"No," said Blackwit.

"Good idea Rollbar," said Coldspell. "Take Freeway and Searchlight with you and watch out. Do not engage your quarry and signal us every two hours. If you run into any problems retreat, I don’t want to combat them yet."

A large Decepticon ship landed on the beach of the Florida peninsula. Halfshell, Scylle, Coelagon, Terrormander, and Seaphantom exited the ship, followed by Rampage, Aquasting, Terrorgator, and Soundblaster.

"Now Seacons, into the water. Let us hunt down our prey," said Halfshell. His Seacon pirates jumped into the water. Rampage also crawled into the water while Aquasting grabbed Terrorgator and flew off over the ocean.

"Bluebeak eject, Manta eject, Octor eject. Operation search and destroy." Out of Soundblaster’s chest ejected Bluebeak, a Laserbeak clone; Manta, a manta ray cassette; and Octor, and octopus cassette. Bluebeak took flight on a similar course as Aquasting, while the other two went into the ocean. "It’s only a matter of time now..." said Soundblaster.

To Be Continued.