Iota Temple-Home of Ancients

[FrostWhisper]

Echoblade sprung into action as soon as the brutes attacked. Echoblade moved faster than she ever had before as she set the baby scorpion down, pulled her second blade out and slashed at the closest of the foul creatures in one fluid motion, all the while keeping tabs on the tiny scorpion she had bonded with. She swiftly pull her blades back and then stabbed at the creature, not giving it an opening, knowing that she couldn't take much more damage.

If anybody would have looked, Echoblade would have looked like a whirling mass of black and red metal as she attacked the Brute relentlessly, not giving it much of a chance to regroup or block, and hopefully preventing it from fighting back.

[Towreck]

Bunker, snapping out of his trance, brought up his Scatter Blaster just as he saw Roll dip behind him. "Oh for the love of-" That was all he got out before the brutes had attack. Rolling off to the left, Bunker leveled his Blaster out on the brutes and began firing, readying his rockets as a last ditch effort, being very cautious as his last screw up nearly burned everyone. Bunker did not want a repeat of that.

[Laser]

And so the brutes were wasted?

Valk tightened his grip on his chair...

His two servants approached him, setting a tray before him and preparing a special metallic paint to decorate his face. They moved with a sense of urgency, as if his very presence made them uncomfortable, and they could feel the tension rising...

Valk began to shake.

The younger servant daintily passed the brush over his face, the high quality material infusing with his skin and bonding with the nanites making up his defensive coating. They were hushed, communicating with only glancing at each other and nothing more than a hand motion or two. They were all most finished.

Valk started to growl like an animal.

The servants were done. They needed only to flee. Perhaps if they had left the materials they brought with them, and abandoned the scene of peril, they would not be caught in the jeopardy they were in now, but it was too late. Valk shouted in ferocity, lifting them telepathically and anything else ripped from the floor, crunching and buckling in the wrath of his fury.

"GAAAAAAHHHH!" He slammed his fist into the floor, sending a crack straight through his chambers. "This isn't how it was planned! Everything was so much more interesting only five minutes ago! And we can't keep a simple game going?!" He punched the wall, easily peeling through the reinforced metal. "No risks, no sacrifice, no one has suffered? What kind of juvenile sport is this? These Decepticons, acting as if they are untouchable...and you..you Lord Rexacon. I had my motives for keeping you alive. But now I'm having second thoughts. Everything seems too...too predictable. Yes. Yes that's what it is. Predictable. And the Autobots? How hesitant can you possibly be to get in on the action? Do you need help? FINE! I shall lend you all a helping hand!!!!"

Valk leaped from his pedestal, coming down on the floor with the force of a thousand transformers, sending a destructive seismic wave through the fatal depths of the cave...

5 MINUTES EARLIER

The brutes, unprepared for the savagery of the Decepticons, fell like trees. They were beaten, stabbed, and stomped. As each one fell, the energy bonds that held them together eerily faded out, leaving nothing but a plasma burn. The final brute roared in anger and swung out at Onewing, but it was caught by a figure in the shadows. Practically reeled in by it's attacker, the brute squealed in pain as it was folded up into an unnatural package and impaled swiftly. As the creature died, out stepped a familiar figure.

It was Kol.

"Hello comrades."

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

Laser stepped inside the cave and immediately noticed Beam staring drily at him. "What happened to you?"

Beam grimaced. "There's some kind of acid in the water."

Laser scowled and stepped out of the liquid. "Why didn't you alert me before I proceeded?"

"....um..."

Shaking his head, the Guardian started looking for alternative routes whenever he saw the brutes approaching. He recognized what they were and turned to alert Vibro whenever a strange and large bot crashed through the roof with a confrontational look in his eye. This wasn't good. Danger on three fronts...and he couldn't find Iris....

"Hey guys...do you feel that?"

Laser did feel it...it was like an earthquake, and it was coming this way....

[Bivile]

Onewing fixed his optics, seeing the sizable shape coming at him. The thrusters in his heels jerked on out of survival instinct and he flew back at few meters from the startle. The teal-colored Seeker promptly landed on his ass. Looking up, he saw another familiar figure that had also previously vanished. The dimwit would have done his happy-to-see-you smile, but he was a small amount humiliated at the moment. Remaining on his cyan-plated hind end, he brought is arms over his knees. Even for his usual clumsiness, Onewing thought it was embracing to just fall down. A quick glance to one side of him to see Rexacon in his dino mode got the scrawny flier to scoot away from him. Onewing remained sitting for the time.

"Dammit. Missed all the fun," He huffed, regretful that he was too entranced by the pretty colors to be involved in the fight.

~*~

Watertight finally was able to get a handle over himself and his thrilling growls cut off. He brought one of his claws to his face as if rubbing off his trance. Once he lowered his hand, he still appeared quite frightened. If he were human, his knuckles would have whited from clutching his trident so tight. Still obviously spooked, he turned his body around to face the guardian, who was obviously hard to miss. The snakelike Autobot moved to his toes and stepped lightly to one side.

A trembling in the ground made him flinch from its sudden onset. Something dropped to the ground from overhead. He pointed his nose in the direction, instantly able to pinpoint where it was coming from thanks to his enhanced senses. What Watertight didn't like was that the shaking was coming toward them. He brought his feet flat to the ground and dug his toes into the hard surface. The trident he was holding was brought close to his chest and gripped in both hands. He brought one of his hands down over the sliding grip which controled the splaying of the fins, causing it to click like a shotgun.

[FrostWhisper]

Echoblade could barely believe that the Decepticons had killed the strange creatures so easily. It almost seemed too easy, but she was glad, even if this had been some kind of a test or a trap, no one had gotten hurt. Kol showing up was great too. It seemed that maybe the Decepticons would fulfill their mission after all.

Echoblade sheathed one of her swords and picked up the baby scorpion, now was her chance to persuade Rexacon to let her keep it. That is, if Rexacon would transform back into his normal form.

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>>

Silentsong had almost fallen into one of the puddles when an unknown Cybertronian flew past her. Either the ship was a Decepticon, or it was just plain reckless, and Silentsong knew that the other Autobots wouldn't have let another Decepticon past them. She shook her head as she wondered why an Autobot would head down those tunnels alone, especially with the knowledge that whatever was in there would probably try to kill them.

By the time Silentsong looked up after deciding that the new Autobot was in fact an Autobot, Laser had already stepped in one of the puddles and was talking to Beam about the acidic liquid.

When a large bot crashed through the ceiling, Silentsong changed her hands into blasters, knowing that allies don't just drop in through the roof. As the ground began to shake, Silentsong wondered how their situation could possible get any worse, and then she saw the brutes.

Silentsong knew that this was not good, and her little blasters weren't going to help much either, but her daggers weren't any good until she was in close range, and the only bot in close range didn't look like he would let Silentsong get close enough to use her daggers. This could not end well.

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>>

Iris had realized that she had made a mistake as soon as she had passed Laser, but she was going too fast to stop until she had made it to the temple. Deciding that since she'd already come this far she might as well scout ahead a bit, Iris fired her thrusters again and blasted past the first bit of the tunnels.

Iris slowed down after she'd made it a little ways into the tunnel she had entered, having heard a humming noise. Confused, Iris quickly transformed into her normal Cybertronian mode and pressed herself against a wall, waiting to see what was making the humming noise.

As the Brutes glided past her, Iris decided that she'd attack from behind, giving the other Autobots a few less to fight. Iris wondered if these things could be confused, she hoped that they could so that they would hesitate and give the Autobots a chance to attack first.

Iris pulled her hammer Sol and her shield in front of her as soon as the Brutes had passed her and readied herself to attack the strange creatures.

Just as Iris was about to spring her trap on the Brutes, the ground started to shake. Iris had been ready to jump out of her hiding place, so the tremor threw her off balance, and she fell. The loud CLANG! that resounded through the tunnels as a result of her fall would have been enough to make any bot nearby want to cover their audio processors.

"Of course I would fall during a slagging sneak attack," Iris said to herself as she quickly got up to face the Brutes. She attacked, swinging her hammer and shield at the Brutes as soon as she'd made it to her feet, but she knew that she'd lost a little of her advantage over the brutes. As she fought she worried about the tremors that were shaking the temple as they intensified.

[Rexacon]

The destruction of the brutes by the hands of his soldiers gave Rexacon a slight disappointed. Half of his prey had been destroyed, but the decepticons remain. They would have to do for now as Rexacon stepped on the dead body of a brute crushing it. Looking down at Echoblade, he tail whipped her as the sound of Kol caught his attention.

*Roarrr!*

Rexacon looked over at Kol as he came out of the shadows and began charging his remaining buster claw. A new prey has emerged, but for some reason the thought of seeing Kol is slowly lowering his rage.

[Laser]

The ground buckled and fell apart, rolling like a massive title wave and breaking up the cave into a washer machine of peril. As the surface separated, hot magma became visible and boiled below. The smell of poisonous gas and other horrible things ascended up from the bowels, and the ceiling began to fall through immediately.

Kol met Rexacon head on, scooping him up in an upwards jump and slinging their bundle of struggle onto a small but relatively unaffected platform. Using the least amount of aggression he could, the drone urged him: "My Lord, get out of this beastly form. You will kill yourself! Can you not see the state we are in?"

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

Laser saw the wave coming and shouted out to the others. "Brace yourselves! Beam!" He snatched her up and locked his heels into the floor. "Watch your heads, and don't perish." It was really stupid, but it was all he could say. They were at the mercy of Valk now.

...But not for long.

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

Valk flew up in a rage, through the blue skylight that marked the center of Iota while everything crumbled below, and fired off three MASSIVE rounds of plasma pulse cannon fire into oblivion. "I'm ready to end this game! Are you? If you want the AllSpark, come and get it..."

[Rexacon]

Rexacon struggled for a bit as Kol had him on a lock. His buster claw managed to get a hold of Kol as his optics looked at him. His rage had seem to calm down for a bit that allows him to see some logic. It was enough to piss him off, but he was able to control his rage.

"Get off of me!"

Transforming back into his robot form, Rexacon looked around as he saw the temple starting to shake. It appears whoever is hosting this little game has gotten tired of it. It was time for the decepticons to move.

"Decepticons, lets get this allspark now."

Rexacon headed for the alllspark as the vector sigma key pointed the way. The way leading to Valk, oh was he gonna have some fun with him.

~~~

Roll followed suit, glad that the decepticons were able to take care of the brutes. Now all they had to do was get out of this temple and getting the allspark. She was glad to see Kol able to snap out Rexacon out of his Rex form. Now the gang is all here.

~~

"Where am I?"

Shadow awoken in a deep space surrounded by nothingness as he looks around to find where he is at. Nothing..just nothing as he began to see two dark red optics light up.

"So you have found it."

Looking at the dark figure, it appeared to be something of unknown origin. It was covered in black smoke, but could see the outline as it had spikes all over its body. The figure pointed below as they were above Iacon.

"What is this? How did we get here?"

"Don't you recognize this? This is your past...."

[Bivile]

Onewing made a yowl once he saw Rexacon going after Kol. Honestly more in a mood to save his own hide, he got up from his cluttered sitting position and jumped up to glide away backwards. He may have used his legs, but one of them still had a shard jammed into it, so it hurt to put weight on. Luckily, Kol handled himself fine and managed to get psychosaur back to himself. The teal Seeker let out a breath before inching foreword. As Onewing heard that they would be moving on, supposedly to finish this damn thing, a crooked smile appeared. He was more than ready to get this finished. The clumsy flier kept himself aloft and tailed Rexacon almost immediately.

~*~

Watertight's pointed claws hooked into the ground. He crouched and used the hand which wasn't holding onto his Trident to grip the hard floor. His head lowered so that it was nearly level with his spine as he braced. The approaching wave appeared in the vision of his visor before the glow of his eyes went dark as he closed them. With curved hooks for phalanges, Watertight was hopeful in his ability to keep on the ground. He wasn't entirely certain how the other Autobots would fare. The aquatic snake obviously trusted them and was sure of their abilities, but he was ready to help if he had to.

If a fight what coming, what would he do? Battle strategy wasn't his thing.

[FrostWhisper]

When Echoblade had been hit by Rexacon's tail, she had been thrown into a wall. She had barely been able to twist enough to keep the small scorpion from hitting the wall, and she hit her head instead, knocking her out for a few minutes. When she woke up, she found herself on the edge of where it seemed a portion of the floor had fallen apart. As Echoblade looked over the edge to see what was there, a falling piece of the ceiling barely missed her head. Looking up, she saw that it wasn't just a portion of the floor, but most of the floor that had collapsed into the magma filled pit below her.

Knowing that she had to find the other Decepticons, Echoblade transformed and flew in the direction she thought they were in. Soon she saw them, so she sped up to catch up with them.

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>>

The floor falling beneath her was the last thing Silentsong had expected to happen, but through her momentary shock, her reflexes kicked in and she changed her blaster hands back into normal hands to grab the edge of a solid-looking piece of ground nearby. Holding on for dear life, she knew that the smells rising up from beneath her meant that there was much more than a dark abyss waiting for her if she should fall. She looked down quickly and instantly regretted it, that boiling mass of molten rock was not how she wanted to die.

Knowing that she should have paid attention to what Laser had been saying before the floor had collapsed, Silentsong mentally cursed herself for paying more attention to the creatures that had been approaching. Pulling herself up, she was almost completely on the small portion of the floor when she paused to listen to what Valk was saying.

As she listened, a piece of the ceiling fell and struck the edge of the ledge Silentsong was on, causing part of it to crumble and leaving her hanging onto the edge of the portion of the floor by her fingertips again. Struggling to climb back onto the ledge, she hoped that the other Autobots were faring better than she was.

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>>

Iris had been fighting when the ground had suddenly crumbled beneath her. Falling towards the pit full of bubbling magma, she transformed as quickly as possible and flew back up, dodging falling bits of the ceiling. She started flying back towards the other Autobots to see if they were okay.

As Valk challenged everyone to try to take the Allspark, she quickly changed direction. He called this a game, he was enjoying the pain of the Autobots and Decepticons, he was doing his best to kill them, and Iris hated him more and more for everything he had said and done. At this point, Iris forgot about the Decepticons being somewhere in the temple, she forgot about the magma beneath her, she even forgot about her fellow Autobots.

Now, all that Iris knew existed was her hatred for Valk, what he was doing was heinous, and she was prepared to put an end to it, using any means necessary.