Iota Temple-Home of Ancients

[Laser]

Kol awoken.

He was in a room with endless walls, elevated nearly 20 feet above what he thought was the floor. He felt no pain, despite what happened just earlier. Above him seemed like he was in space, the stars cycling about, rotating--so close...yet so far away. He tried to move, but couldn't. Looking at what contained him, he found himself trapped in a cubeish gel, fluid and cool to the touch. He was confused as to why he couldn't escape...but he was completely paralyzed, save the movement in his eye. At the top lip of the room, information cycled from around the world, showing updates on upcoming and past events...The floor changed scenery and demonstrated the innards of the deepest core. He looked up to see a large, thin white Cybertronian step enter from the floor, the projection wrapping around him as he came up, like some type of fluid. The bot stood to his full hit, and smiled, bowing to Kol.

"Why hello, Kol. My name is Valkyrie. But my friends call me Valk."

Kol stared. "You..you have friends?"

"Heheheaahhah!" Valk composed himself. "Good one!" He playfully jabbed at Kol and proceeded to the couch, pouring himself a drink. "What do you drink, Kol? Afterburns' fine?"

"....."

Valk shrugged and set the glass aside. "Fine."

"Where...where am I? Have I passed?"

Valk laughed. "Not...really. This is the Thetabase, dear boy."

Kol was shocked. The Thetabase was a myth, a storytale. It was the fuel of conspiracy theories, used by the old timers and skeptics to pin the blame of impossible events. And here it was in the heart of it all. "Impossible..."

"Quite possible, actually. As a matter o' fact, too possible. Everything that has happened in the past 300,000 cycles, Kol, has run through this very room. This is indeed the center of our kind."

"....You...you were the voice inside my head..."

"Indeed I was."

"Why have you forsaken the others? Why choose only two to leave the vault?"

"In time in time..." Valk waved off his questions. "For now, I have a proposition for you, Kol."

Kol laughed. "You should have just killed me."

"I thought about it. I promise you that. But you're different from the others, Kol. You're professional. Suave. Silent. And a fantastic fighter! After this war, you will be good for nothing, but walking around and stalking people. But as the Gamekeeper, I think time calls for a little 'shakeup' don't you say old boy?"

"I'm not following. And I'm bored."

Valk grinned and stood up, walking beneath Kol. "You have a good heart, Kol, which means this decision will make for an epic gamechanger....

"Out with it then!"

"Fair enough." Valk flipped his hand, casting aside a window blind and revealing a massive, metallic structure. Energy fluttered through it's being, and large, ancient letters were carved into it's 6 faces. Thetacon scientists worked around in cranes, elevators, and on ground level. Kol couldn't believe his eye....he was the first outsider to set eyes on this in eons...it was--

"The Cube..."

"Indeed." Valk walked over to the window. "Impressive isn't it? And we've found ways to harness it's power to use it to our advantage!"

"THEN SHARE YOU WAYS WITH THE WORLD!"

"NEVER! You all would abuse the power! You understand NOTHING!" Valk calmed himself, seeming exhausted. "Here is the proposal.....You have one of two choices. I can let you touch the Cube now....take it with you and forsake the world as you wish....and you can take Rexacon, as promised. The others will die. All of them."

"...."

"The second choice is far more interesting. I know your innermost desire, Kol."

"....."

"You cannot express yourself in any other way than martial arts. That is why you are practically untouchable. You are far too...complex. But you've yet to master the most mystical of all arts, have you not?"

"...Metallicato...."

"Suppose I allowed you to understand and instantly know this ancient power! You would be the greatest fighter in the universe!"

"This does not interest me if I am laying my allies on the line."

"But you haven't even let me speak about the best part! I'll give you this power, and you can leave with your friends alive! But The Cube stays....and you must destroy Lord Rexacon....and bring me his head."

Kol narrowed his eye. "And If I choose neither?"

"You will perish. Along with all the others who failed to be the first to touch the cube! You will forfeit the chance to save your allies...and what if none of them reach the AllSpark in time?" Valk grinned. "We are expecting company, you know."

Kol closed his eye. The Autobots....

"Hahaha! With such a power of infused martial arts, you will be unstoppable! Neither chose you make can seperate you from a selfish choice! Choose Rexacon and the Cube over the lives of your allies, or choose ultimate power and sacrifice your dear leader, as well as your chances with the AllSpark, and have to find a new power to harp over! Remember who you are dealing with! Make your choice I say! Make your choice!!!!!"

[Rexacon]

Shadow continued walking as they entered another chamber, but this time empty. Looking around, it seemed as though there was nothing here. A nice sign of relief, he continued walking until the quakes that happened earlier was loud. Soon a small crack went between their legs as a large tail busted through the floor. Its tailed glowed bright red as it targeted the duo.

Shadow quickly dodged as the tail missed him by an inch. Swinging around, it stopped as it looked at Echoblade and the scorpion. Glowing at the tip again, it hurled itself towards Echo to stab her.

[FrostWhisper]

Echo stood still in shock as something burst through the floor, she instinctively held the baby scorpion closer to her as it swung at Shadow. When the tail slashed at Echo, she dove to the side, as she fell, she could only hope that she had dodged quickly enough.

[Rexacon]

The stinger of the tail managed to miss Echoblade, but the shockwave from it still erupted as it sent Echoblade against the wall. Rising from the ground was a giant scorpion as its eyes gazed upon Echoblade. Carrying the baby, it screeched as drilling teeth began rotating. Waiting to chew Echoblade to pieces.

Shadow quickly got to his feet as he charged forward towards the scorpion. Stabbing it underneath its belly, he slowly began to develop a big cut.

The scorpion screeched in pain as Shadow tries to give Echoblade enough time to escape. Using the other blade, Shadow stabs the beast and hopes to double the damage.

[FrostWhisper]

Echoblade dropped her sword because of the force of the shock wave and she could feel her armour give way a bit as she hit the wall. Echoblade looked up to see the many teeth of a giant scorpion staring her in the face. Echoblade may have been surprised to see the scorpion, but she was even more surprised when she saw Shadow stab the beast. She had expected him to run off after the foul being had been distracted, but instead he had attacked the monster. Inwardly, Echoblade was thankful to this bot who had seemed to come out of nowhere, he had saved her life twice now. Echoblade wasted no time in standing up, drawing her remaining sword, and jumping onto the beast's head. Echoblade swung her sword down towards the base of the monster's neck. While she was fighting she talked as if this were a normal, everyday occurrence. "I could have handled myself you know," Echoblade said. "My name is Echoblade, by the way. I think that since you should know since you've ruined two of my plans already."

[Rexacon]

The scorpion screeched in pain as it attempted to get Echoblade off of it. Moving around, Shadow continued making the wound deeper, but the scorpion is stronger than anticipated. Echoblade seemed to have attacked instead of running away. Screaming, he heard her give out her name as he chuckled when she said she had a plan.

"Right...I'm sure you did. Name is Shadow. So what about that baby you have. Its limiting you right now, that thing clearly wants the child."

Shadow pulled out the swords as he began to send energy slashes at the wound. Making it open slowly as the beast was in pain. Clearly angering the beast, it soon began to glow red as purple shards came out.

"Damnit, its one of them too!"

When Shadow looked around, its tail swung at him knocking him to the wall. The sword slowly began to melt within the beast as its now adapted to the stabbing. Making its skin poison and its blood highly acid. The claw of the creature managed to find Echo as it grabbed her and threw her across the floor.

"We..need to rethink our strategy."

~~

Rexacon continued to look upon this room as it basically gave the origins of the thetacons. Touching the wall, the prints glowed as he was given pieces of the past. These pieces showed what happened during ancient times, when the prehistoric ruled. The emergence of the primes to the creation of the corrupted beast then to it being locked up along with other people including its sentinels.

"Amazing..."

Rexacon turned his head as Roll began looking upon the hieroglyphs. In amazement, it shows the beast picking a bot to represent it and giving him powers that are almost up to par of one of the thirteen. However, it can take that away instantly. Basically like a God.

"This gamekeeper....could it be the person that was accepted by this beast? For him to control the temple like this, I don't know....this could explain it."

Walking towards Roll, he looked at the walls. Even though Roll had told him what he is seeing already, it would explain it. Rubbing his metallic chin, he looked upon the other side to reveal a door.

"Even if thats the case, we must move. The more we waste time, the better for the gamekeeper or whatever his name to do something to stop us."

Heading over to the door now, Rexacon wanted to make sure that he reaches the cube and takes it. Hopefully, he runs into Echoblade and Kol so that he can rescue them in the process. Knowing Kol, he'll find his way back to the decepticons.

[concentratedrandom]

Another dead sentinel dropped to the ground. That made 14. It was all so simple in his head, it was living, he attacked, it was dead. There was some noise earlier, but it was gone now. Looking around, Tonic tried to think of what was going on. His thoughts ran through his mind so simple yet so difficult, and none left to his mouth.

"Quiet, it's much more quiet. Now that they're dead, they seem dead at least, it's quiet. What's going on? Why am I on my knees? My blades are out, they're stuck in this sentinel. It's dead. How did it die? And there's so many others here too. What happened? I was losing before, but then Rexacon told me to hurry. So I used more power. Where did I get it from though? Oh, I guess it doesn't matter though. I won, they never once bit me. I killed them, they were my enemy. They were alive, so they were my enemy. And now they're dead."

Pulling his claws out from the dead body, Tonic walked forward while swinging his arms back and forth as he staggered as if he couldn't move them. Walking into a large crystal in the middle of the room, he lashed out and broke it into pieces within a nano click. Looking back, his face was void of all emotions with his mouth hanging open and his eyes and normally green glowing energon glowing purple instead.

"What is with the crystals? They weren't here before, were they? And where am I going? Oh look, the sentinels are getting back up. All 14, and they're friends, look at them glowing purple. Shame no one else is around, better go find them I guess. And there are bound to be more enemies around, better kill them off to. It'll be easier now that these sentinels are on my side."

Turning back around, Tonic started to dash at a much higher speed than he normally could. The sentinels started to follow him as well, working well and even better than before as if they hadn't been attacked. Tonic had his arms swinging lifeless and his head lower than normal as he ran. He felt great, but little did he know...

Something about him, something was horribly wrong.

[FrostWhisper]

Echoblade couldn't believe the amount of effort Shadow was putting into trying to get Echoblade to get rid of the baby scorpion. "I couldn't put him down even if I wanted to, Echoblade replied. He's holding on to my arm for dear life, Echoblade continued to fight the creature until she heard Shadow's exclamation, then she looked to see what was happening, just in time to see him be knocked down. Before Echoblade could react, the beast threw her to the floor. Echoblade curled up as she fell to keep the baby scorpion safe. When she hit the floor, Echoblade rolled and stood up. "I have a plan," Echoblade replied to Shadow's last statement as an idea popped into her head. Echoblade ran at the monster with her sword ready and shouted a battle cry. "Die, you freak of nature!" Echoblade leaped over the creature's back. As she was in the air, Echoblade readied herself to twist out of the way of any oncoming attacks. Echoblade hoped that the beast would try to stab her with its tail, if it did, Echoblade planned to twist out of the way of the tail so that the monster would stab itself instead. Echoblade hoped that the monster would do what she was expecting it to do, otherwise she'd just look stupid, her battle cry would have been for nothing, and she'd be fresh out of ideas. If she'd thought about it beforehand, she would have realized that this plan had a very small chance of success, but she hadn't, and even a small chance is still a chance.

[Rexacon]

The scorpion looked at Echoblade as she attempted to charge at it. Aiming its tail at her, it tried to stab her while she was in motion, but stabbed the ground as she jumped in the air. Its dark purple eyes looked at her hovering over its back as the spikes that were shown began to move. Each spike glowing, they fired upon Echoblade.

Shadow looked at her as that was no plan, but suicide. Jumping up, he headed towards the beast as he caught up to Echoblade. Combining his swords together, he began spinning it to form a shield. Hovering in front of Echoblade, he began blocking the incoming spikes as one struck his leg. Grunting in pain, he looked at Echoblade as she was going to get hurt.

"Get out of here. That baby scorpion is hindering you and right now, your making yourself an easy target."

[FrostWhisper]

Echoblade's plan had failed, and as she landed, Echoblade inwardly scolded herself for believing that such a risky plan would work. Echoblade saw Shadow get hurt, and she knew that it was her fault, she was about to say something when Shadow spoke. However, Shadow made a mistake. What Shadow said may have been true, but several things he said were things that Echoblade disagreed with. First of all, Shadow had told Echoblade to run, and Echoblade wouldn't leave a fight like this that fast. Secondly, He had told her that the scorpion was hindering her, Echoblade lived for challenges, and fighting with a hindrance was a challenge that she wouldn't give up on. Lastly, he had told Echoblade that she was making herself an easy target, and Echoblade absolutely hated that. "I'll show you who's an easy target here," Echoblade mumbled. Echoblade knew that this had to end soon, one way or another, and she had one last trick up her sleeve. Echoblade flew up to the top of the room, there wasn't much space in the room, but if she couldn't carry out her plan in this space, it probably couldn't work anywhere else either. "Hey ugly!" Echoblade shouted down to the giant scorpion. "Yeah, you with the tail, not the other guy!" Echoblade couldn't resist the urge to make a joke about Shadow, after all, at this point,she wasn't sure how much longer she had to live. "Sting this!" Echoblade shouted as she transformed, making sure that the baby scorpion ended up in the carrying space of her alternate form. Then, Echoblade dove down at full speed, and attempted to ram the monster into the ground. Echoblade was sick of getting attacked by everything in Iota, and she decided that she was going to fight brutally from now on, kill or be killed seemed to be the motto of everything else here, so she simply adopted that way of living for herself at the moment.