Written by DBX
We had lost track of Destron during our pursuit. I thought we had captured him and I let my guard down, I can't afford to make that mistake again. At the moment though, I was more concerned with what happened to the Oracle. If it was really using so much of its energy in preparation for the reformatting then it couldn't have teleported, but how could it disappear into thin air like that? We had received a transmission from Ballistic moments after the burst of light we saw, unfortunately the signal was bad so we couldn't understand anything he said. Regardless, we had a pretty good idea of where to go.It took us several minutes, but we were able to travel to the source of the explosion, we were near the armory in the center of Cybertropolis. There was a large crater in the middle of the street below one of the buildings but nothing inside of it.
"Looks like some kind of battle happened here." Nightwolf said.
The doors of the building beside the armory opened and Ballistic walked out, he was badly damaged and he had a sort of dazed look on his face.
"Ballistic what happened?" I asked.
"It's Rhinox." Ballistic answered quietly.
Ballistic explained what happened as we made our way to the top of the building he had walked out of. There, Rhinox's shell laid dead and empty with hardly any damage at all, just like Ballistic had told us. Ballistic said that he and Rhinox had been fighting the Oracle but he was knocked off the building. After he recovered from the fall he contacted Rhinox and Rhinox gave him a short message before he saw the same light we did. From the description of the events, I knew what had happened. Rhinox used up all of his energy to destroy the Oracle.
"Let's hope that in death he found the redemption that he sought in life." I said, "Goodbye Rhinox."
The four of us saluted our fallen comrade and then Ballistic carried his shell back down to ground level. There was a small transport in the building we were in so Rhinox's shell was loaded inside.
"I'll take care of it." Nightwolf said.
"After that I want you to go back to the Citadel, ask for volunteers to help with finding Destron. We need as much help as we can get. With the Oracle gone there's no telling what he might do now." I said.
"Right. See you guys later okay?" we all nodded, our agreement, it was just Nightwolf's way of telling of us to make sure we survived. As Nightwolf drove away in the transport, Ballistic explained something to us.
"Rhinox figured out that if Destron was going to reformat the entire planet, he was going to need a fairly tall building to work from, and since the Oracle was headed for the armory, that has to be where ground zero is."
"The only way into the armory is through the underground, there's an entrance nearby. Security will be tight but it's nothing we can't handle. There shouldn't be any Cybertronian guards though, just automated defenses." I said.
"It wouldn't surprise me if there were though. Destron commanded a lot of respect, we may not have gained full support from the citizens." DinobotX said.
"If there are any Cybertronians down there, you know what to do. Try not to hurt them too badly but if it comes down to your lives or theirs, do what you have to do."
"Can't you just fly to the roof?" Ballistic asked.
"I'll need backup once I'm up there. Besides, Destron is still on his way here, we've got time." I said.
We got into the underground fairly easily, but we still weren't in the armory yet. That would be a little more difficult. The door to the building was heavy and could only be opened by remote. I transformed to tank mode and pointed my primary weapon at the door. A couple of shots later, it fell down but in that instant, the automated defenses kicked in and started firing on us from the hallway within. DinobotX used his optic beam to take out most of them while we ran down the hallway but we were still taking fire. Then we got to the lobby where the automated defenses were shut off.
"There should be an elevator nearby. We can use it to get to the roof." I said.
"I'm afraid that I can't let you do that." I looked ahead, Destron was standing there with at least a dozen members of the Guard.
"Destron you can't continue with the reformatting now, the Oracle is gone." he only laughed at me.
"The Oracle can't be destroyed you fool!" Destron said.
"It's true! I saw it myself, Rhinox destroyed it!" Ballistic said. Destron's face showed shock, he looked like he believed Ballistic. Maybe he had tried to contact the Oracle.
"The Emissary...he destroyed the Oracle..." Destron's voice was a mixture of shock and disbelief, "Then the reformatting will commence anyway. In memory of the Oracle." then he ordered the Guard, "Destroy them."
"Wait!" I shouted, "Don't you see what Destron is doing?! Without the Oracle, the energy will destroy Cybertron! Don't let him fool you!"
"These soldiers are my personal guards. Their only duty is to follow my orders unquestioningly." Destron said, "There's nothing that would persuade them otherwise. Destroy these three and prepare for any other attacks. I'll be on the roof preparing." he then walked to the elevator and entered it. The Guard started attacking the three of us. We fired back but they were getting back up faster than we were knocking them down.
"Prime, it might be wise for you to go after Destron." DinobotX said.
"Three of us can't hold all of them off and you want me to leave it to just you and Ballistic?"
"Listen to him, he knows what he's talking about. Even if we win here it wont do us any good if Destron starts the reaction! Go!" Ballistic yelled. After a moment of hesitation I decided they were right.
"Okay, but I'm coming back here and both of you better be alive when I do!" I transformed to aerial mode and flew towards the elevator, firing at the doors until it opened. Inside I flew up the empty elevator shaft after the car Destron was in. I fired at the cables causing the elevator to start falling. Then I broke through a door, getting out of the way in time. As the elevator passed by I noticed Destron wasn't in it. Flying back up the shaft I saw an open door a few stories up so I flew in and transformed back to robot mode. I knew Destron was nearby. The floor we were on contained some high-powered weapons, an explosion in there would be disastrous so I had to be careful. A door ahead of me had been knocked down, I walked into the next room slowly with my gun drawn. The room held cases and cabinets full of weapons, one case was broken open and a weapon had been taken. Before I could investigate further, a shot hit me in the shoulder. I spun around and fired hitting Destron back. He was carrying a plasma rifle. After a short volley of weapons fire, he left the room heading back towards the elevator. Instead of entering the elevator shaft, he entered the stair well. I transformed back to aerial mode and flew up the elevator shaft, knowing he was going for the roof.
On the roof there was a large device attached to a metal holding tank and a glass chamber filled with plasma energy. At the top was some kind of antenna device, this was what Destron was planning on using to reformat the planet, but where was Destron? Getting a good look at the device, I was afraid it would have some kind of failsafe mechanism on it that would prevent me from just destroying it. Then without warning, Destron came out of hiding and fired at me. I ran away from the device and across the roof trying to get away but he was too quick. I fired back at him getting in a few hits but not enough to stop him. Then he hit me square in the chest knocking my down.
"You can't stop me Prime! This is the only thing I've got left and I'm not going to let you take it away!" Destron said. Then he ran over to the device and started up some kind of sequence that I knew would end with the energy reaction. I was running out of options, so it was time to change tactics. I got up, transformed to aerial mode and flew straight at him. Not expecting a kamikaze attack, Destron was thrown off guard and I hit him directly, causing him to drop his weapon onto the roof, but I wasn't done there. I continued flying, pushing him off the roof and over the edge of the building.
"No! You'll destroy us both!!" Destron yelled in fear.
"But I'll save Cybertron!" I yelled. I increased the fire of my engines propelling us faster than gravity's hold and towards the ground below. The force from the impact was intense, luckily Destron too most of it, but I was still damaged pretty bad. I wouldn't be able to do that again, but I had at least gotten Destron far enough away that he couldn't start the reformatting. Thinking it was over, I got up and started walking away, but I heard a noise behind me. Turning around I saw a battered Destron standing up,
"I'm....not.....done yet!!" he said.
"Give it up Destron. You're too badly injured, you can't go on."
"Maybe you can't, but I can!" he said, he appeared to be regaining his strength. That was impossible! "The planet will be reformatted!"
"Haven't you learned anything from those failed experiments?! You'll only kill everyone on the planet!"
"No, not all of the experiments failed." he said.
"What?!"
"Do you honestly think I would reformat the planet without testing the process first?!!" his rage was building with each word, and something else was happening too. His skin was beginning to crack and break apart, "A leader always goes first!!" now the cracks in his skin were beginning to glow.
"By Primus...." I gasped, now I knew why he wasn't transforming when we fought him earlier, somehow his anger was triggering his ultimate transformation. Then he let out a horrible scream of pain and rage. After the glow faded, I could see what had happened to him, he looked like a red gargoyle. Over ten feet tall with organic red scales that looked like armor plating and large bat-like wings on his back. He had spikes lining both arms and shoulders and talon-like fingers. He looked exactly like he had become, a monster.
"NOW YOU WILL FACE CYBERTRON'S DESTINY!! A PURE ORGANIC TRANSFORMER!!!!"
