Mountains of Magnus - Treacherous Peaks

[Foxfire]

The Mountains of Magnus are located in the northern region of Cybertron. They are treacherous peaks with may dangerous species of local fauna still dominant in the area. The Mountains also emit magnetic waves that scramble any sort of navigation.

[Laser]

Torus nervously read the screen in front of him. Blinking lights and buzzing gadgets littered the control desk, and several codes cluttered the screen as well. What were these? Ah, the bounty hunters had located one of the drones. The drone. They had requested assistance….wait! No! His bodyguards had left to assist them! He practically alone! Someone had altered the controls and sent a false order. He ran to the other desk to check for any remaining guards, but none were online. Frantically, he grasped a comlink and tried to contact the Nightrunner, the ship the others had left on—but he dropped it once he realized he was staring to into one very red eye.

Kol.

“You!” Torus fell backwards on his rump, kicking the floor to scoot away from him. “You’re…alive!?”

Kol looked offended as he slowly approached him. “Oh? Weren’t you expecting me? I mean you practically invited me here. I must admit I’m impressed with the way you’ve locked things down here. All the authorization codes are impossible the crack, and the bodyguards looked amazingly experienced….which is why I sent that false distress signal. Mountains of Magnus....famous for interference with all forms of navigation. They should be busy for a while.”

“How did you get in here?”

“I simply plugged it into the equation. Where you not eliminating and killing off all of my kind? How could those who work for you allow a Helion drone to escape if they were looking for it in the first place? I turned myself in, and they brought me here.”

“….Where are they?”

Kol kneeled close and spoke blankly. “The bodies are below the deck….I cannot speak for their souls.”

Torus backed away in a furious kick of fear. He spoke through his teeth. “Why are you really here?”

“I’m here to help you retire.”

The doctor’s optics widened and then narrowed angrily. “You wouldn’t dare! It’s against your pr-“

“Programming? Or perhaps you were going to say protocol? Either way, my answer is the same. For years I have been abiding to this…this code…these so- called rules that you gave me and the others like me to follow. I endured oppression and hatred, I was treated like an animal. I never did anything to wrong anyone….but you knew that. You knew that and you still allowed me to be kicked, beaten, and stomped after doing the things that YOU wanted me to do. You worked so hard to make me this way…didn’t you? Taking another man’s life to fuse his mind into someone whom you and society have deemed so unworthy of acceptance. And you did worse than that didn’t you? You not only sat and watched, but you helped. You gave them the tools they needed and supported them fully when they plotted against me.”

“Its not always about you drone! It was Aura! I work for her—“

Kol seized him and broke his collarbone in a swift twist. Torus screamed and agony, and he was tossed back down to the floor. Kol began strolling around the room, looking at pictures and sculptures. Torus reached behind the counter slowly, and clutched his emergency rocket launcher while Kol spoke. “Not always about me? I suppose you’re right….You had to bring the others into this as well. You systematically exterminated the rest of my kind because you were afraid. You were afraid your mistakes would come back to haunt you. You were afraid of me. I know all about your collaboration with Aura, Gron Torus. I believe you...but that’s still not going to save you.”

Torus leapt from the floor and heaved the launcher to his shoulders. “Die Unit 766!!” He pulled the trigger and flew backwards into the wall, dropping the launcher to the floor.

Kol lunged forward and flicked the nose of the rocket daintily, flipping it with his arms and changing it’s course. It crammed itself deep into Torus’s throat, but did not detonate on impact. The doctor squealed in pain, and energon burst from his lower neck, soaking the floor and covering his upper body. He wheezed something inaudible, and choked on his own fluids. Kol took his head in his hand, and made eye contact with him. “My name is not Unit 766….” He dropped Torus's dying head and walked out of the room, down the elevator, and left the facility. He never looked back. As he continued walking, the hideout exploded behind him, sending shards of glass and melted aluminum in all directions, scorching the ground. But he did not stop. He was no longer Unit 766.

“My name is Kol.”

[Foxfire]

Remote Peaks

Darkfire transformed and landed on a familiar precipice. She had spent many cycles on this very mountain in her younger years. She had been so different back then. Angry. Bitter. Vengeful. Now, the only thing the assassin felt was emptiness. She looked down at her arm. It was covered in her sister's energon. The sight disgusted her. Angrily, Darkfire clawed at her arm and painfully scraped away the remnants of the energon. Her claws dug into her own circuits in the fury of her movements and caused her own circuits to leak. Darkfire stopped her frenzied antics and looked out onto the barren peaks of the Mountains of Magnus. Her actuators would never be clean of the stain of her betrayal. Her sister...would...hate her...

"You always did like to come up here whenever something was bothering you."

The assassin glanced back at a familiar face. Her master. He had taught her discipline and refined her natural fighting prowess those many years ago. She cast him an unreadable gaze, showing no hints of emotion. This wasn't particularly hard, for Darkfire felt nothing at the moment. Her master examined her and she examined him in turn. For as long as Darkfire had known him, her master had been old, but he never appeared that way. There was always a flicker of a fierce spirit in his optics and hidden vitality in his step, but now...those attributes were gone, replaced by weariness and age.

The old master walked over to stand beside Darkfire. He cast his ancient optics out onto the peaks of the mountains. Where Darkfire only saw desolation, he saw the magnificence of nature. After letting a moment pass, the old cybertonian sighed.

"Why have you come here, little one?" the master asked, using his old name for Darkfire in an attempt to draw her out. She had always hated being called that name, which had always greatly amused the old master. After a moment, Darkfire stood.

"I don't know why. Coming here...felt like the only thing to do. ...I need to leave."

Without another word, the assassin dove off of the edge of the cliff in an elegant swan dive. She transformed and rocketed away, moving deeper into the mountains of magnus. The old master watched his former student leave sorrowfully. Was she destined to a life of misery? He prayed to Primus that it was not the case.

[Laser]

As Kol trudged away from the massacre, he looked above to see the Nightrunner swoop down and land ahead. Several bodyguards ran out...they all seemed familiar. Now he knew who they were. His so-called squad from 5th company. Grill, Rig, Thrat, Mutt, and the rest. And who other than to lead them, then Bolt himself.

"Whoa! You guys see that shit! That's amazing!"

"You think Torus's old ass is still alive in there?"

"Haha! Nah, no way Rigz. Somebody give Aura a ring. I'm sure she'll have more than two cents to--hey...hey who's there?" Everyone pointed their assault rifles towards the shadows. "Come out and show yourself!"

Kol stepped out from the night and gazed upon them. Waiting.

"Hey! Holy shit that's Kol! Dude, we have been looking all over for you! Am I right? haha am I right?" His cocky smile vanished when he saw Kol's scythe unsheathe slowly, scraping the ground and casting another shadow in the moonlight. "Whoa whoa! What do you think you're doing bro? You're not still mad about that money are you? We can pay you back dude! We have history. We're frenemies. We're--"

"Witnesses." Kol interrupted.

He launched a grenade straight into Rig's chest. It exploded on impact, and it's shrapnel mixed with it's victim's metal skin, adding to the burst of deadly shards. The shreds of shrapnel and metal shot into the eyes of the surrounding enemies, temporarily blinding them as they shouted in pain and confusion. He had 27 seconds. Time starts now.

He hit the first one in the ribcage, breaking them with the first hit and shattering them with the next. He left him sprawled on the ground, still alive. One tried to transform and blast to safety, but Kol impaled the aircraft with his harpoon, and slung the enemy into the injured bot still moving on the ground. Two birds. One stone. Grill opened fire with his high powered machine gun, but Kol had already side-stepped, allowing the bullets to chew up Mutt instead. He slid into Grill, and punched his left shoulder, breaking it at the joint. He twisted it off and wrapped it around Grills neck, using it as a make shift vice, crushing his head. Bolt tried to attack from the rear, but Kol caught him and flipped him over, snapping the elbow where it met the forearm. He cut him at the hamstrings and quads, stopping him from standing. Mutt was still alive, but didn't survive Kol's volley of 36 rapidly placed punches. The survivors fought valiantly, fueled by shock and were a depiction of crazed desperate animals. But they were no match for someone fueled by 300 years of anguish, hurt, disrespect, and oppression. They all fell. Bolt stood on his knees, watching. He had failed.

Kol turned away from the field of dead. It took him 34 seconds. Oh well. He approached Bolt.

"No way man! Please! I'm sorry dude, I'm sorry! Look, Aura's got tons of money. We can work this out!"

Kol circled him patiently. "You experiment on me, break my will and insult my dignity, beat me like a cur in the streets, steal from my personal savings, and now you try to barter with me for your life?"

Bolt swallowed. "....Okay...I'm a coward. I'm a bitch okay! There I said it. Don't do this man. Please...."

"Where is Aura?"

"She runs a day job at the Air Traffic Control at the peak of the mountains. Own personal office and everything. Security is tight. You can't get to her. She'll give you whatever you want dude, I'll make sure of it. You'll be sorry if you screw with her. She's got people."

"I've been apologizing for my existence for nearly 450 years. I will never be sorry again."

"Wait...no!"

Kol used the tip of his scythe to tilt Bolt's face up to his. "Remember my face...take revenge in the afterlife..." And with a quick motion, Bolt's sobs and pleas were silenced forever.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL: AURA'S OFFICE

Aura smiled delightedly after reviewing this weeks drug haul. They'd sold nearly double in 4 days then they had in 2 months! Things were really looking up! She poured herself a drink and lazily turned up the radio. "God I love this song!" She shook her hips to the music and sipped her drink, dancing her way back to her main desk. Once she opened up the door, she threw up, dropped her glass, and screamed bloody murder.

There, on her desk, crudely preserved and wearing a look of fatal terror, was Bolt's head.

[Foxfire]

The Canyons

Unfortunate.

Bodies. Mutilated and rendered to unrecognizable scrap heaps piled high on top of one another. Roughly twenty of them guards. That didn't count the other ten inside who even now slowly died as their energon leaked away drop by drop. A horrific massacre that would've made even the most psychotic of killers turn away in disgust. Their deaths had not been slow. They had not been painless. Most of them had not even seen their destroyer. They died screaming. Visages of utter terror permanently etched on their countenance. They had been escorting a transport through the Mountains of Magnus on an unfortunate day.

At the center of them stood a lone figure, black and evil, utterly covered in its prey's energon. Their energon pooled into a vast lake of death at the malevolent being's feet. Those who knew this apparition would not have recognized the being that stood at the center of death. They could only guess that the being of death was the blackest spawn of Unicron. Evil incarnate made to walk the planet. The being moved, looking up into the dismal grey sky and let out a horrific sound. Such intense pain, anger, and sorrow unleashed into the air for all to hear. But no one was there. Alone, the being was. As it had always been meant to be.

Violet optics cast their gaze from the sky down to the earth once more. It moved slowly out from the lake of death it had created to retreat into the darkness from whence it came. To sink into despair and pain once more. The being entered a cave, and vanished as the darkness swallowed it up. It left a trail of energon from the scene of death to this cave, but it did not matter. Anyone who dared to enter would die.

Unfortunate.

[Laser]

Aura sat across the room at a smaller desk…as far away from the severed head as possible. Bolt…he’d worked for her for a long time. Whoever did this was trying to tell her something, trying to get in her head. But she didn’t have any enemies that would care enough to do that. She was narrowing them down in her head, when a voice came through to her on her comlink, smooth as silk, and as relaxed as winters evening.

“Hello, mistress.”

Aura smiled and responded, opening a hatch on the side of the desk. “Ah Muscles! I was wondering when I’d hear your sexy voice again. Been staying out of trouble? That was a joke. Apparently assassins will do anything to stay “ahead.”

Kol stood aboard the grounded Nightrunner, staring off into the horizon. “I hope you have a few minutes. I believe we have some catching up to do.”

“Have you ever used a booster, Muscles?” She pulled a small cylinder from the hatch in her desk. Planting it on her thigh, she injected the needle into the stream of energon, causing her energy levels to sky rocket. Her eyes fluttered from the pleasurable sensation. “It feels….amazing. So arousing. Little suckers sell for 2,000 credits a pop.” She pulled out the needle and discarded it. “Tell me again how you killed Bolt. And Torus. How much energon spilled from the bodies? I wanna know every little detail, so I can fantasize about it….ya know, when I get bored.”

“I think you misunderstand, “ Kol explained. “I am not playing games. Look under your table, with your eyes, mind you, and not your hands.”

Aura smiled and bent to look under the desk. What she saw made her smile vanish as quickly as it formed. A thermal detonator. If she got to close, it would explode. If she got too fresh, Kol would detonate it. No telling how many were in here.

“Now that I have your attention, I’d like to utilize some of your resources. Work with me, and set aside your backstabbing, evil, conniving ways, and we can get along….for now.”

“Evil? Conniving? Please, I prefer being called an entrepreneur.”

“I know large criminal organizations such as yours have major sources. Sources in big cities. Big Cities like Iacon.”

“So what?”

“So I need those sources. There is a storm coming, and I’m going to need a pretty big umbrella.”

Aura shook her head in disbelief. “How are you going to get my guys in Iacon to follow you of all people?”

Kol uploaded pictures of Torus and Bolt to Aura’s visor. “I can be very persuasive.”

Aura rubbed her neck, but retorted defiantly. “I’m not afraid of you Kol.”

“Then how come you haven’t hung up yet?” Kol shot back icily.

“……………”

“Once you explain that it is imperative they follow my lead, I will take care of the rest. I am also going to need a location on your weapons shipments. Next, I will need 350 cargo transports on the way to Iacon, attempting to enter at the Eastern and Southern ports. Send me the access codes to the 30 top companies invested in at the Iacon Stock Exchange, and have your men from neighboring cities head to the city outskirts immediately. I need their names and secure transmission lines so I can contact them. You have exactly 56 minutes, starting now.”

“I can’t believe you think you are going to get away with blackmail.”

“Please, I’m only trying to be an entrepreneur.”

“We’ll meet again soon, Muscles—“

“—Sooner than you think, mistress. Until then, check your corners.” And the call was ended.

Aura sat quietly, staring out the window. She had underestimated Kol. Now he was temporarily running everything she had worked so hard for. Sure he only needed it for this one mission, but….he wouldn’t abuse the power he had at his disposal. Not like she did. He was about to write history. She was only the pen. Kol was on his way to becoming the most dangerous Decepticon in the Armada, and Iacon was his test run. She scowled. The more she thought about it, the more and more it came into realization.

Kol was truly untouchable.

*******************

The Nightrunner glided across the skies easily, unseen and unheard, cutting through the canyons with a steady, relaxing pace. Kol was preparing himself to contact Rexacon. It was high time he headed back to Kaon and catch up with the others. Suddenly, he picked up heat signatures on the radar. Heat signatures that were...fading.

He landed the small ship on the first strip of flat ground that was available, opening the hatch and strolling down the ramp. As he rounded the ship, he was welcomed by a slew of dead, part of an escort no doubt. The bodies had been mutilated, destroyed, violated beyond all recognition. Not even he would have taken the time to torture someone like this. He would have killed them quickly, efficiently. But these had died horribly, and none of them had a chance to begin with. They were ambushed. Kol stooped to fold lifeless arms over the chest of a older cybertronian, and gently closed the eyes of a cold, dead femme. He started to think of the Guardian, but stopped. If he had done this, there would be nothing left. Something more precise had done this. He noticed a trail of energon leading to a cave, and stood. This could never happen again. If he died trying to save the lives of a future escort, so be it. He stalked into the cave silently...moving deeper and deeper inside....

[Foxfire]

Within the Darkness

She sensed...a presence. Something had dared to disturb her dark womb of suffering. Violet optics flickered to live dangerously in the darkness. The assassin saw a silhouette of a Cybertronian. It had a singular red optic. It was...familiar. Rising slowly and silently from where she sat, Darkfire watched the figure, reading his movements to assess him. Determination. Dangerous. Not to be underestimated. The assassin cloaked and faded away to nothingness. She sank further back into the cave and drew out one of her throwing knives. He would die like the rest. Screaming.

Darkfire focused on the form of the intruder, gauging how to best cripple the interloper with one strike. Crippling with the initial strike made the rest far easier. The knee? No. Too small a target. The hip then? To impair mobility in one leg and lock it down? Perhaps. She could aim for the shoulders. Disable one of the arms to prevent a violent counterattack. No. That would simply not do. Something about this new intruder made her wary. He had seen what she had done and come alone to confront her. No. She must be cautious. Putting away the knife, Darkfire slid out her dual blades and moved into a slight recess in the wall of the cave, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike or learn more about her new adversary.

"....."

[Laser]

It had been 30 seconds now.

30 seconds of intense waiting and anticipation. He could feel it. Whatever had destroyed those people...he could feel it. Watching him. Analyzing him. Much like his own methods, but on a far darker scale. There was movement, but it was unseen. There was restlessness, but it was unheard. There was a being, but it was unknown. The cavern was dark, cold, empty. Any other who ventured into the bowels of the darkness would find his ungodly end.

But not Kol.

He kneeled, closing his mask over his eye, shutting him up into the black abyss. He concentrated, unafraid, patient. He brought all his senses into one, and developed the sixth. He did not only acknowledge this darkness, this evil. He felt it. The numbers filled his head, and he analyzed every point of attack, every angle of defense. Any other would frantically strike out, like a crazed animal fighting for it's life.

But not Kol.

"........"

[Foxfire]

Within the Darkness

The intruder was as expected. Dangerous. Calm. Not simply more prey. This one was was a predator, but not one such as the being that stalked it from the shadows. No. How badly did the being want to rend the circuits from his frame, one by one. How badly it wanted to hear the screams of the final agony and despair once more. But the being could wait. It was as patient as time itself. It thrived on the hunt. Thrived during the kill. Everything else was dead. It examined the interloper once more. It needed to see its adversary in action to acquire the necessary information.

Drawing out the knives once more, the being planned its attack. Soaring through the darkness a knife thudded as it stuck into the cave wall. An instant later, more glinting knives were thrown directly at the intruder. Unsheathing its claws, the being moved broke away from the wall and took cover in a separate recess to distance itself from the intruder. Its optics were locked onto the interloper to gauge his reaction. The first knife had been a diversionary tactic to give her opponent's senses something to focus on while the other knives did damage.

[Laser]

And then, the clock started.

Kol picked up the low whistling of the first projectile far before it hit the wall. In a flash, advanced from his crouched position, his scythe fully extracted in a spear form. He could hear the whistle of at least four others, homing in on him, guided by the hand of a master. Once the first had stopped with a thud, he saw the wall before him not with his eye, but by hearing. He planted his feet on the base and ran up the side, flipping backwards and barely escaping the razor sharp messengers of death as a knife scraped his crown. He caught one daintily in mid-flight, and, using the force of flip, hurled it back into the black where it had came from. He landed on the tip of his scythe, balancing on the point. He slid back to the ground slowly, resuming his crouched position.

And waited.