Duraplex wasn’t a horrible place to be, but it wasn’t Iacon. Cybertronians built Iacon for Cybertronians, a true pinnacle of design. Duraplex was built by Quintessons to build tanks. While the machines that build tanks were no longer there, knowing the origins of their city was a constant annoyance to the city of blue-collar workers.

Duraplex residents made themselves clear, the war would not affect them. Duraplex did not recognize Autobot or Decepticon. To Duraplex it didn’t matter. And the citizens of Duraplex didn’t think the Autobots or Decepticons would want a town that always smelled of something the citizens hadn’t been able to identify.

Irrellius didn’t like Duraplex, but he wouldn’t give up on it either. Not only would he help make it into a true city, but he might as well get paid doing that. He got hired as an apprentice welder, and transport. Two jobs in one, which kept things marginally interesting. He made an excellent pack mule, his 18-wheeler mode loaded with so much raw materials he could have sworn his transaxle was tearing through the road. It beat the high steel work though, he found he had a real bad balance, and no flight ability. After the third time you panel-beat your head back into shape, you consider a career change.

The convention center wasn’t finished, but they were already scheduling events. The workers stopped, and sat up in the unfinished balcony, and Irrellius joined them, risking landing on his head again in order to fit in with the guys. The majority of the town was in the audience. The special lecturer came onto the stage, He was big, and he was purple. Another bot came up beside him, sort of boxy looking, both looked normal, but something did not feel right. .

"Hello." The speaker began. "I am Shockwave, this is Mindwipe, and you....You belong to me." With that, the other bot started shrieking. Bots fell, they screamed in pain, and passed out. The last thing Irrellius remembered was going over the railing. His last thought: ‘I’m going to land on my head again.’

Irrellius awoke with a major headache, and his internal chronometer was offline. He looked around, and did not know where he was. It took his memory circuits a few seconds to return to scanning where they were supposed to be. He remembered the sound, the one that came from Mindwipe. He wondered how he came to be here, it looked like he was underground quite a few levels, probably four or five levels below where most people stop caring. Suddenly the big obstruction that had been covering the left half of his vision caught his attention. It moved with his head, it was on top of his head. He peeled off the panel that had somehow wrapped itself around his ear. He looked at it for a second. He recognized it. Gallium. Expensive stuff, the convention center had special ordered it for the flooring. Well that explained how it got here, and how he got where he was. He looked up, and couldn’t see any light from up there. He looked around, and saw something very familiar down the hallway. He should recognize it. It was his finger. And from all the new dents, and the location of his finger, he guessed he was probably sent cannon-balling down the corridor. Lucky it wasn’t an important finger, not as important as his left optic, but that was cracked; he needed an all new one. He hoped he would find his wheel, his 18-wheeler mode would make this journey a bit faster.

After a long period of walking, and four levels up, the only progress made was to discover what caused the strange smell which permeated the city, something he preferred not to think about. Irrellius sat down, and decided he’d go crazy f he didn’t fix his chronometer. All his life he could measure time exactly, and suddenly he was half blind, and wandering around for what could be years. He picked out his welding kit, and popped his chest hatch.

In what seemed like no time, he had fixed the chronometer. The first thing it contacted the planetary computer clock. He had been down in the tunnels for a total of five subsolar cycles. How many had he been conscious for? "Well, at least I know what time it is. Now if only there were a planetary mapping system that had more levels than just the surface."

"It’s not like it would do you any good."

"Why not?" Irrellius replied, after realizing that the statement hadn’t come from him.

"Because the only way any piece of you is getting out of here is if I decide I want a trophy."

Irrellius saw it now. A big steel reptile, with huge jaws, jaws snapping at him. "What? Who are you?"

"I am Skullcruncher. I am here to end you."

"End me? Why?"

"Because Shockwave told me to, and Shockwave is law." With that, the giant gator leapt forward. Irrellius tried to jump over his enormous Maw, but the large bot wasn’t very good at jumping. The jaws clamped down on his right leg. The pain was excruciating. Some primal instinct guided Irrellius’ hand; it began moving, Hydraulics pumping at full power, and then arrived at their destination. Skullcruncher’s optic. Irrellius punched through his left eye.

And then an idea struck him. His welding kit still on the ground next to him, he grabbed a screwdriver. The screwdriver made a beeline for Skullcruncher’s other optic. It didn’t go through; instead it crashed through the retaining rings. It popped free like a ball in a child’s popgun. The momentary surprise of being totally blinded gave Irrellius enough of an opening to put his fingers in the lizard’s mouth, and pry the mechanical jaw open with his hydraulically enhanced arms. Irrellius scooped up the optic, and ran around the corner, scooping up most of his welding kit as he went. He decided the bot wasn’t following him, so he stopped, and inserted the optic. He wondered how funny he’d look, having one red and one blue optic.

As he set to installing his ‘new’ optic, he overheard Skullcruncher. "Shockwave, This is Skullcruncher."

"Have you completed your mission?"

"No, sir, I have a problem."

"What is it?"

"My gator mode has been compromised, I can’t use it effectively anymore."

"So?"MO< "So I don’t have any other decent fighting abilities. Do I really need to capture one lousy Autobot? You got all the rest, what difference will one make?"

"That one can warn the Autobots in Iacon. You come back with that Autobot, or don’t come back at all. Is that clear?"

"Y...Yes sir."

"Good. Now do not bother me again."

Skullcruncher suddenly made a horrible nerve wracking noise. Irrellius looked around the corner to see a biped robot, with a gun. Irrellius had been meaning to get one of those, ‘what with the rise of street crime and all....’

Irrellius’ thoughts were cut short, as red bolts of light whizzed past his ear. ‘Well, looks like I’d better start running.’ Irrellius ran, it was easy to avoid Skullcruncher’s shots, he had horrible aim, and the frequent sharp turns didn’t give him too many chances to fire. While Irrellius was good at evading the shots, it wouldn’t last forever. Irrellius couldn’t lose the bot, his feet clanged loudly on the deck plating, he wasn’t built for stealth. He wasn’t built to run either, running was hell on his leg servos, and he wasn’t very fast. Skullcruncher would catch up in no time. Irrellius did a mental equipment check. Welder. Screwdriver. Limbs. ‘Well, that was disappointingly short.’ He suddenly got an idea, and decided to follow it, as he was tired of running and didn’t have time to try to come up with a better idea.

Phase 1. Irrellius stopped, but he kept pounding his foot into the ground. He lit up his welder, and nestled up against the wall next to he last turn. and as the bot came nearer, the right moment appeared, and ‘Bingo.’ With a quick sweep of his skilled hands, the welder cut through the bot’s wrist, the hand and gun dropping to the ground with a dull metallic thunk. Irrellius spun the welder the way they did with guns in those old action vids. ‘Damn that was cool.’ Suddenly, he totally regretted doing that, as it gave the bot to firmly plant his other fist into Irrellius’ faceplate. ‘Damn that was dumb. Going to have to reshape my head AGAIN!’ Phase 2 bastard! With that, Irrellius’ left fist dug it’s way into Skullcruncher’s belly, and his right arced up, and came down at full Hydraulic extension into the back of the con’s head. then his right turned 90 degrees, and his elbow crashed into the wall panel. Sparks flew out of the panel for a few seconds, then the emergency door fell at full power, pinning the bot.

Irrellius walked over, and picked up Skullcruncher’s gun. He walked over to the mercenary, and took the most threatening pose he could muster, and summoned his most intimidating voice. "Where is Shockwave?"

"I--I....I’ll never tell!"

"Do you know what I’ll do to you if you don’t tell me?"

"Do you know what Shockwave would do?"

"Would whatever Shockwave does involve a welder? Do you have any idea how angry it makes me when someone gives me hours of new work involving repairing my own head? You can answer me now or after I make you wish you’d been born a sewing machine. "

"Damn...I guess I have no choice."

"Where is Shockwave, and how do I get there?"

After getting instructions, and a few wires from Skullcruncher’s hand, ‘it’s not like he was using it,’ a few minor repairs were performed, and Irrellius was on his way.