Tales of the Intermezzo - Alert A Transformers Universe Story copyright 2003 by Dave Van Domelen characters and settings are TM Hasbro/Takara ============================================================================ "intermezzo - n. A brief entertainment between two acts of a play." - American Heritage Dictionary "It's a trap." Ratchet sighed, an affectation he'd picked up from humans. Inferno merely chuckled. Reactions I knew to within 96% certainty they would have. "It's ALWAYS a trap with you, Reddy," Inferno replied, apparently relaxed. But a 0.002 variance in his vocal modulators told me beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was worried too. He just refused to show it when he was nervous. Me, it was my JOB to show it. "Look," I countered, "in the year since the end of the Nucleon War, Decepticon activity has been fully 24% below expected levels based on data for their previous defeats. To put in the terms of those humans you love to spend time around, I've been waiting for the other shoe to drop. And that," I pointed at the paused message on Teletran-1's screen, "is a shoe if I ever saw one. Waiting to drop on our heads." Ratchet shrugged, a somewhat grotesque motion given his newly asymmetric body. While most had been content to return to their previous forms when the cure had been found for Nucleon-induced modelock, Ratchet had insisted on what he considered an upgrade. It was ugly in both modes as far as I was concerned, but he was proud of his new powers, so I wisely stayed quiet about his aesthetic choices. "It just seems too far-fetched to be a trap. The Decepticons would have gone for something more believable than some ape calling himself Optimus Primal," Ratchet pointed out. "And Unicron? He's a myth. Something to scare young protoforms with...at least, in this reality. So if a monkey says he needs help fighting a myth, who's to say it's a lie?" "And like you said," Inferno added with a grin, "Decepticon activity is down. I'm getting bored just hanging around in rehab...I'm up to speed on transforming again, and I'm ready to go out into the field." "I still think there's something this Optimus Primal isn't telling us," I countered. "Something's not quite right, but I just...grrr." The growl was directed at myself as much as anything else. I could feel my "horns" discharging electricity, an unfortunate side effect of boosting the gain on my sensors. Unfortunately, it made it seem to everyone else that I was glitching, and they automatically discounted what I had to say whenever it happened. Anything else I might have said was interrupted by Teletran-1. "Incoming message from Cybertron," the computer intoned. "From Optimus Prime." "Put it on," Ratchet nodded to the nonsapient computer. "Ratchet, Inferno, Red Alert," Optimus Prime nodded to each in turn, his comforting visage filling the main screen in place of the recorded message from his gorilla imitator. "While I agree with Red Alert that there's a chance this is a trap, it's our job to help those in need. I'd like the three of you to go to the coordinates given in the message and check things out. If it's the real thing, we can send more help, but the three of you make for a good rescue team if there's anything immediately wrong. I've got Tracks rounding up a squad to take the Space Bridge to Earth and keep an eye on things while you're investigating this." "Acknowledged," I grudgingly reply, and the other two nod enthiusiastically. Prime's right...protecting others is our primary duty, even if it does mean walking into traps. I just wish the others wouldn't be so cheerful at the prospect of giving their lives. It makes me feel guilty about trying to stay alive myself. * * * * "The message said to generate a subspace pulse right over there," I gestured, "at a time exactly thirty astroseconds from now. Any deviation, and the gateway will deposit us in the wrong spot, and we may be cut off behind enemy lines." Ratchet signed impatiently. "We know, Red Alert. We saw the message too. And you've said it five times since we got here." "Aw, he's just being careful," Inferno grinned. "Can't be too careful when messing around with dimensional portals. Could end up stuck in Arthurian England, you know. Heh." "For once, someone besides me recognizes the danger," I replied reservedly. It was always possible Inferno was goading me, not agreeing with me. "Get in position, activating pulse in five astroseconds!" At the appointed time, I generated a subspace pulse by the simple expedient of summoning my rifle. It would also ensure I was armed. The gateway opened like a freestanding space bridge, familiar yet subtly different. My sensors strained to pick up any sign of danger as we fell upwards into the gleaming disk and reality fell away behind us. "Freaky," Inferno commented, not very usefully. "It's like being on a Space Bridge, but there's no beacon beam," Ratchet added, slightly more usefully. The lack of a beacon worried me, even though we seemed to be moving with purpose and not simply drifting off into interspace. "There must be some sort of beacon," I pointed out. "We're all following *something*. I'm going to put all my sensors at maximum...please be quiet for a moment." My request was no mere fussiness...when I turned my sensors up all the way, particularly loud *thoughts* could distract me. Not that I could read the thoughts, that was Soundwave's unique talent. But they were like static in my electromag receptors. My senses reached out, farther and farther, seeking some sort of beam or field that was guiding us. Something seemed to be teasing me at the very edge of detection, so I strained even more. EVILDARKNESS*EYES*! I screamed and almost lost consciousness, curling up in a ball and shutting down my sensors as fast as I could. "Red Alert, what's wrong?" Ratchet asked, his hands on my shoulders, trying to keep me from curling so tightly that I would damage myself. A moment later, I had regained my bearings. "Something is out there. Some terrible evil, worse than anything I've ever experienced." Inferno put a name to my nameless dread. "Unicron." * * * * It looked like Cybertron, yet was no part of Cybertron I recognized. The stars overhead were all wrong, and the feel of the ground beneath my feet hummed like a molten-core world such as Earth, not a solid-core world like the Cybertron I knew. Most ominously, there were none to greet us. "Maybe we got the directions wrong?" Inferno suggested. "They seemed pretty straightforward, I don't see how," Ratchet replied. I narrowed my optics, calling up the video of the message on the upper quarter of my field of view. I played back the directions several times, at multiple speeds and with different algorithms. "It WAS a trap," I hissed. "Huh?" the other two said in unison. "There's a very subtle cut in the message, changing the timing of the subspace pulse by simply omitting the first digit of the figure Optimus Primal gave. We have no way of knowing where or when we...wait, I'm picking up approaching aerial units!" At that moment, a squadron of tiltrotor vehicles reminiscent of Terran V-22 Ospreys shimmered into view, dropping their stealth sheaths. At the center was a slightly larger variant that quickly transformed into a hovering robot I had no files on. "Don't think of it as a trap," the air commander purred, "think of it as an opportunity to hear the other side of the story before casting your lot in with Optimus Primal. I am Obsidian, former general of the Maximals and current general for Lord Unicron." "Unicron!" Inferno gasped. "Why would we believe your side of the story? Unicron is the destroyer of all life!" Obsidian approached calmly, his forces remaining in formation. "Not all life. Merely mistakes. He is a necessary part of nature, pruning back races that would one day destroy all, maintaining the balance." "Mind giving us an example of a dangerous race?" I gave Obsidian my most skeptical glare. "Oh, Decepticons, for one. Where Vehicons, Maximals and Predacons pose no threat to reality itself, the grand plans of Decepticons do...although some have been convinced to surrender their visions and join with Unicron. Humanity is another...Unicron has seen universes ravaged by their shortsighted folly. He moves between the realities, restoring the balance, saving those who are worthy, and then moving on. A triage of sorts, if you will," he looked meaningfully at Ratchet. "You're lying," Inferno blustered. "Am I? Your friend has been fixing me with a variety of sophisticated sensor beams," he gestured in my direction. "Surely one of those detectors can tell if I lie." "He's not lying," I stated flatly. "See?" "But he's leaving out some very important points," I added. "Like how all of his forces are soulless drones. How if he could modify the message he could simply have blocked it, or sent his own rather than tricking us to this point. And most importantly, how wiping out a species to save the universe isn't a trade any Autobot should be willing to make!" "Yeah!" Inferno shook a fist. Obsidian floated back up, the rotors over his shoulders barely whispering as they spun. "Very well. I offer you a simple choice at this juncture. Serve Unicron," he extended some strange clawlike device from his right arm, "or be served TO Unicron. Either way, your Sparks will strengthen him!" With that, he reversed direction suddenly and plunged his claws into Inferno's chest, pulling back before either Ratchet or I could stop him. In his claws was a glowing, pulsing sphere of light that radiated life. Inferno, for his part, slumped over and the light went out of his eyes. "Thus shall it be for you as well, if you do not submit!" Obsidian bellowed, his drone warriors surging forward. The next breem was a blur, the small horde of drones attacking from the safety of the air, but slowly falling to my rifle and Ratchet's new missiles. I must have destroyed a dozen of the things, eventually using one as a stepping stone to leap up to Obsidian himself and grapple with the minion of Unicron. "Give that back!" I bellowed, grabbing for the "Spark"-extracting claw. Obsidian paused, then looked over my shoulder and laughed. He released the claw, unclamping it from his forearm. "Take it. It's not going to help you anymore." As I fell back to the ground clutching the claw unit, I twisted around to see what Obsidian had been looking at. To my horror, I saw it was Inferno's shattered body, blown to pieces by shots that had missed me and Ratchet. Or maybe the bastard had even ordered them to destroy Inferno's body. "Ratchet, we need to...!" But Ratchet had fallen. He seemed to be alive, but only because Obsidian had commanded his remaining drones to follow him in his laughing retreat. The "Spark" pulsed erratically. I was no doctor, no philosopher, but I could see that just as the body had died without the Spark, the Spark would not long survive outside a body. And I had no suitable container, no energon cage or laser core. Well...I did have a laser core. My own. What would happen if I placed Inferno's Spark alongside the one I presumably had within my laser core? I didn't know. I just knew that if I did nothing, Inferno would die. Could I cheerfully sacrifice myself for another? No. I doubt I've ever done anything cheerfully. But I could do it, nonetheless. I am an Autobot. I rescue those who need rescuing. * * * * "What...what happened?" I ask as I wake up. "Easy, there, Red Alert. I'm not sure why your robot mode has changed, but you seem to be okay physically," Ratchet replies. "Huh? Is there something wrong with your optics, Ratchet? I'm Infer...." Then I see the shattered shell of...me. The pieces have clearly been gathered together after being blown apart. "What in the name of Primus? What's my body doing over there, and in pieces?" Ratchet shook his head and mutters something. I catch the phrase "survivor's guilt" in there somewhere. "Hey, I'm not insane, I'm Inferno!" "You do...sound more like him," Ratchet admits. "Maybe your datatracks were damaged...." At that mention, I check my datatracks myself. "Oh, Primus," I gasp. "He dumped his own laser core and put mine in its place. Wait, no...he put my Spark in his laser core. He gave his life to save me after Obsidian ripped my Spark out and blew up my body." "How is that even possible?" Ratchet narrows his optics. "And why couldn't he have waited for me to recover?" I wrack my new memories. "There wasn't time. My Spark was fading." We're interrupted by a mechanical lion and what looks like Snarl covered in dinoleather running towards us and shouting. "I hope these are the good guys," Ratchet mutters. "If they are, I'm for joining 'em," I reply. "These servants of Unicron need to be stopped. They don't just steal energon, they steal souls. And there's no way I can go home while they're still running around...I can't throw away Red Alert's sacrifice like that." "I'm with you," Ratchet nods. ============================================================================= Author's Notes: Heh, this one really IS a Transformers Universe story, eh? And why let the Red Alert/Inferno name goof stand as just an error when it can be turned into grist for the story mill? When thinking of what setting to draw the Autobot trio from, I settled on my own Actionmaster War continuity, since it would help me explain Ratchet's new body without needing yet another story. }-> The mention of Tracks is kind of a throwaway, although I see him getting rebuilt in the Sideburn/Speedbreaker mold after the Actionmaster War, filling out the Autobot Brother trio. Maybe the official OTFCC Universe comic will give another origin for the Machine Robot Rescue duo, but it's not like I ever worry about my stories being contradicted by official sources. Heh. Heck, if they want to adapt "Alert" as a comic, they're welcome to contact me. [Much later note: The fanclub storyline has Universe Inferno as a rebuild of Beast Wars Inferno, which is pretty slaggin' cool too.]