Tales of the Intermezzo - Soul of the City A Transformers Universe Story copyright 2001 by Dave Van Domelen based on properties owned by Hasbro =========================================================================== "intermezzo - n. A brief entertainment between two acts of a play." - American Heritage Dictionary "The year was 2024, and the Cybertronian War was over. With the Autobots and Decepticons nearly wiping each other out, the previously unimportant Maximal and Predacon factions took control of their world and signed a new treaty with Earth. Among the terms was that all Cybertronians would be removed from Earth. The one exception was the battered remains of Autobot City. The 'soul' of Autobot City, Metroplex, died in 2013, but the remaining structures would stand as a memorial to all who had died in the Cybertronian War, both human and Cybertronian. In order to preserve the sanctity of this site, only minimal reconstruction has been performed, and many areas are unsafe, so please do not..." Hiro shut off the autotourguide. He'd heard what he needed to hear. "Come on, Aki. Let's go in." Aki looked nervous, tired and haggard. They had both been on the run for days, and it was showing in every line on their faces. "But the computer said it wasn't safe..." "I'll risk a falling beam. Minimal reconstruction means it's not hooked into the WorldNet...any relic connections are nearly seventy years old, so the Cyberplague won't have gotten in that way. We need shelter, and we need a place to hide out for a while, until they get this mess under control," Hiro replied. The two left the clearly marked tourist trail and ventured into the shattered remains of the old fortress-city. Even after twenty years of war that included an orbital bombardment and seventy years of relative neglect, the golden alloys of the Cybertronian construct still gleamed in the afternoon sunlight. The alien "otherness" of it had kept animals from nesting in the city, and Hiro couldn't blame them. The whole place jut gave off a feeling he couldn't put his finger on, but which wasn't...right. Now, of course, it might be the last "right" place left in the world. Hiro didn't know all the details, but he knew what the start had been, and he could make some good guesses as to the rest. It had all looked so good in the newsvids, a project to use nanotech in human bodies, make everyone immortal and transcendant and all that good stuff. The long-awaited transition of humanity to the "next level" predicted by science fiction writers for over a century. The early test subjects had practically become gods, with the ability to mentally enter the WorldNet and assimilate its entirety. And they'd been physical paragons too, able to "rewrite" their own genetic codes to build better bodies for themselves. They could even directly interface with mechanical parts, becoming true cyborgs. The Binary Bonding the Cybertronians had introduced to a few in the 2010s and 2020s could now be replicated by humans, but better. Then, of course, it had gone straight to hell. Despite incredibly tight controls to keep things from getting loose, one of the new gods had decided to share his gifts with all humanity, and no timid bureaucracy was going to stop him. But he wasn't as smart as he thought, and the new nanotech he injected into the WorldNet's fabricator systems was...wrong. Maybe the filters designed to keep him from doing what he did stopped only the good part, like Pandora trapping all the virtues in her box after the vices had fled. In less than three days, an isolated outbreak had spread to the entire world, driving it mad and collapsing the trappings of modern civilization. Hopefully the space colonies had been spared, but right now Hiro was more concerned with sparing himself. "Here's a human-scale room," Aki pointed to a roofless hallway and a row of doors. "Probably where the Binary Bonded people lived." Hiro shoved the door open. The magnetic locks had no effect without power feeding them. He pulled a minilantern from his pack and turned it on. The room was spartan, but relatively clean and livable. "We can stay here for the night. Tomorrow we can look for a more defensible place, somewhere we can weather the storm, as it were." "Hiro...what if the Cyberplague never ends?" "It'll end, Aki. If nothing else, the 'cybergods' from the original project should be able to figure out a way to shut down their mistake. We just have to hold out until that happens." And if it didn't...well, they only had a week's worth of food, they probably wouldn't have to see the end of the world. * * * * "Aki, try now," Hiro said as he put down the clumsy "microwelder" that required both hands for him to use. There was a brief flickering, then the room burst into golden illumination. Aki cheered. "Fiat lux! I can't believe these old systems still WORK!" "Old?" Hiro laughed. "Only by human standards, Aki. Cybertronians build things to last millions of years. The only reason we couldn't just hit the switch and turn things on was that this was all decommissioned before the Maximals turned it over...fuses removed, wires cut, that sort of thing. And most of this tech was designed to be really easy to use and repair, since you never knew if one of the half dozen or so techie Autobots would be on Earth." He put down the massive tool. "I just wish they'd left behind some of the human-scale tools," he grinned. "Well, we have power to this room," Aki smiled. "That means we can lock the doors, and maybe even drag in one of the food synthesizers from the Powermaster quarters so we can stop eating trail food." "You should have locked the doors sooner," came a third voice. Hiro and Aki whirled to face the open door. The figure who stood there was inhumanly beautiful, but not immediately recognizable as male or female. No mere victim of the Cyberplague, this was one of the "cybergods." "You're the one who unleashed the plague," Hiro realized. "Ten points for the monkeyboy. And once I assimilate all this Cybertronian technology, I'll be head and shoulders above even my siblings, not to mention the thralls we've created." He gestured, and mutated figures crowded the doorway. "Thralls you'll be joining in a moment, I might add." Hiro picked up the microwelder and activated it. "Stay back." "Puh-LEASE," the cybergod sneered. "I'm far too agile for you to even touch with that thing." Suddenly, one of the monitor screens flared to life. SECURITY SYSTEMS ACTIVE. ENTER CODE IN 05...04...03.... "Oh, sh..." the cybergod started. Suddenly, there was a bright flash, stunning Hiro and Aki. They fell back against the walls, and Hiro dropped the microwelder, hearing it hiss for a moment against the deckplate before the safeties kicked in and cut power. Hiro wobbled to his feet and rubbed his eyes. "What...happened?" Aki asked. Hiro could make out the bodies of the cybermutants sprawled on the floor, smoking slightly. The cybergod himself had been reduced to dust. "Some sort of electromagnetic pulse weapon...just the thing to take out Decepticon intruders without hurting any human hostages they might have," Hiro pondered. "Come on! No time to waste...we need to rig up this system so it can cover as much of the city as possible. Autobot City's just become a haven for what's left of humanity, I think...." * * * * "You know, it's ironic," Maxwell said, breaking the oppressive silence of the Council Chambers. "What is?" Cyra asked, if only to keep her mind off impending doom. "Well, nearly three hundred years ago, during the Cyberplague, this city was the only place unaffected, the beachhead that let the colonials retake Earth from the cybergods. All because it wasn't connected to the WorldNet. Now, because we had the newest and most secure connections to the TacNet, we're the only place NOT hit by the invaders' virus," Maxwell replied. "Not that it's doing us that much good, since all it did was give us the few seconds we needed to sever all connections before the virus could break through." "Well, that's Terra City all over," Gar smirked. "Just one lucky break after another. The inertial dampers we didn't know about saving the city from the Big One in 2214, the shielding keeping us safe from the orbital EMP bombardment that ended the Cyberplague in 2113, and now getting to sit tight and last another few days against the invaders before they run out of easier targets and blow us all to slag." Chair Lee cleared her throat. "Before we all start planning our funerals, let's try to get a better idea of what we're facing. I know we got some intelligence before TacNet soured. Colonel Witwicky, what do we have?" James "Spark" Witwicky, the military attache to an otherwise purely civilian city, tapped a few controls at his desk, bringing up a display of wedge-shaped crafts flying over the Napa Bay military base. "We're pretty sure the invaders are Cybertronian in origin. Sensors picked up Predacon-like alloys and comm signals before going offline. But they bear a new faction sigil," he cued a closeup, "that resembles the old radiation warning trefoil. My guess is that a new faction arose and decided it wasn't bound by the old treaties. Initially they were held off by our drone fleet and the few Augmented pilots allowed under the Nanotech Treaty, but they flew rings around baseline human pilots. Still, things were going fairly well, until the fifth column attack hit. Maxwell?" The information specialist nodded. "Near as we can figure from the fragmentary reports that got out before the WorldNet was subverted, we've had a Decepticon mole on Earth since the end of the War. He infiltrated all data systems, avoiding the effects of the Cyberplague somehow...although I wouldn't be surprised if he helped it along...and then took control of our drone forces at the worst possible time." "There's a *good* time for that?" Cyra snorted. "At the moment, our assets are minimal," Colonel Witwicky intoned grimly. "There's a few experimental craft here in Terra City that are armed and ready to go: the Atlas deep space explorer, the new trans-sonic bomber prototype, and the 'Roadfire' rapid ground assault protoype. But there's a problem...none of them is rigged to be piloted yet. As prototypes, they're all designed for drone control, and the second we put them on the drone net, they'll join the enemy." "And even if we re-rigged the controls in record time, we don't have any Augmented pilots here...the enemy would just run rings around the prototypes," Cyra sighed. "And with no TacNet access, it'd be three isolated fighters against thousands of coordinated invaders." By silence, everyone admitted that Cyra was right. Even the most optimistic realized it would at best be a heroic last stand with no hope for actual victory. Suddenly, a deep voice rumbled though the room. "I CAN HELP." "Who...who ARE you?" Maxwell stammered. "That voice sounds familiar...from the historical records..." Colonel Witwicky mused. "I AM THE ONE LEFT BEHIND, LEFT FOR DEAD, LEFT TO DEFEND. I AM THE CITY. I AM METROPLEX." A holographic face appeared over the conference table, and the booming voice softened. "Many Autobots thought killed were not beyond Maximal technology to revive," Metroplex explained. "I volunteered to remain behind as a secret guardian. I was to remain hidden, help without revealing myself. For three hundred and forty eight of your years I have watched, helped, and hidden. But I can remain hidden no longer, lest I fail in my mission." "Can...can you transform?" Maxwell asked. "No," Metroplex replied sadly. "My body was destroyed, my...spark, as the Maximals call it...was placed within the immobile portions of the city, where it has resided for three hundred and forty eight years. I may not leave here, for to do so would extinguish my life. But I can still help. My subsidiary units agreed to keep this vigil with me, should I ever need them again. They shall inhabit your prototype vehicles, and I shall coordinate the defense. We share one essence, that is not something a computer virus can interfere with. Additionally, infusing the vehicles with their sparks will enhance and alter the prototypes, something we learned from Starscream centuries ago." "Gentlemen?" Chair Lee gestured at the floating head. "Do we accept?" "Do we have a better idea?" Gar replied. After a moment of silence, Lee nodded. "Do it, Metroplex. Our hopes go with you." * * * * "Space Case, stop playing around!" Skyjack ordered. "Or I'll reassign your drones to my direct control." "Awwww, come on! We spent hundreds of years sitting in that slagging museum, I wanna blow some things up." "Blow up the things I tell you to blow up," Skyjack sighed. He understood the impatience, although Space Case had spent most of the time in shutdown mode. Skyjack had been awake and aware the entire time, infiltrating the humans' pathetic WorldNet. Of course, he hadn't been bored. It was a challenge to do what he could to ensure that humanity never became strong enough to oppose the Decepticon Empire on its own. The irony was that the biggest setback ever dealt to humanity had been none of his doing. He had merely had to protect his own connections from the Cyberplague and watch the chaos unfold. "What do you want blown up, then?" Space Case whined. Such a child. "Start with the radar contact closing from 340 mark 32. We must not have eliminated all their piloted craft." "HEEE-WHACK!" Space Case shouted, surging ahead as the Terran drone fighters followed him. That left Skyjack free to contemplate his erstwhile allies, these "Vehicons." They seemed little better than drones, but claimed to be sent by Megatron. Not the true Megatron, obviously, but someone else who had taken up the name and the throne of Cybertron. That would do for now. For now. * * * * "Sixgun, I've got a wedge coming in to intercept! Looks like 'turned' drones led by...an old Terran jet? Sensors say Decepticreep!" "Roger, Slammer. Call me Atlas now, though...it's my new body. And I only have two guns...but they'll do," Atlas replied. "Scamper...or Roadfire, if you'd like..." "Yeah, I like. This is so much faster than my old body," Roadfire replied. "I really burn up the road!" "Right. So, Roadfire, they're not going to be looking for ground units, and Big Papa says they didn't bring any of their own. But be careful, the Cons may have turned our ground drones too." "Anything I should look for?" Roadfire asked. "Sending you the coordinates now. The human Maxwell says there's a master jammer for the Drone TacNet at the location I'm sending, and it's isolated from the 'Net itself. Get to it, and we at least cut out some of the invaders' force." "Roger, Atlas!" * * * * Slammer exulted in the feeling of flight. He'd been in shutdown for so long, and a non-transforming tank before that. Now he moved five times the speed of sound, and carried more firepower than ever. And he could *transform* now! He wasn't Slammer anymore, he was a trans-sonic bomber. No...he was Sonic Bomber! "Engaging bogies now!" Sonic Bomber reported as he dove into the thick of the drones. He was no fighter craft, but like any respectable bomber he could defend himself. Dozens of drones fell in the first pass, exploding under the thunder of his shockcannons. One veered off before getting into optimum range, obviously the leader. "Hey, Decepticreep, too scared to get close?" he mocked over the standard Cybertronian comm frequencies. "You sound like an Autobutt!" was the reply. "I thought you were all dead!" "I heard the same about you guys...and it'll be the truth in a nanoclick!" "Wrong way around! Get 'im, guys!" Drones, which had been holding back out of range, swarmed inwards, trying to overwhelm the Autobot by sheer force of numbers. "Eat plasmabombs!" Sonic Bomber shouted, rolling to spread the magnetically bottled charges in a wide arc. Explosions rocked the skies, and when the smoke cleared it was Sonic Bomber alone who streaked out of the clouds. "Two can play that game!" Space Case screamed, transforming to robot mode and hurling a barrage of missiles from his arm-mounted rack at his enemy. Sonic Bomber was rocked by explosions, but managed to avoid any direct hits. Sonic Bomber shouted with undisguised glee. "You don't know how long I've wanted to do this...Transform!" With a glimmer of light lancing up through the spectrum, components which had never been intended to shift against each other began taking on new configurations. Thrusters became legs and arms, wings folded back and away. "Oh...slag," Space Case muttered as he realized that his foe's robot mode was five times his own size. "I give up?" "Too late for that," Sonic Bomber smirked as he sent the Decepticon to join the Matrix. Assuming Decepticons got to do that.... * * * * Autobots! Skyjack cursed himself. He'd been sure that if any Autobots had managed to hide on Earth as he'd done, they'd have revealed themselves long before. Or he'd have ferretted them out. The telemetry from Space Case's drones before they'd been destroyed suggested an answer. The trans-sonic bomber was a project he'd failed to stop development on, but it was clearly an Autobot *now*. The Autobots must have left behind personality chips to be used in an emergency. And this qualified, he supposed. "Vehicon commander...there is a problem. At least one Autobot is present on Earth," Skyjack transmitted. "Irrelevant," came the response. "One Autobot or a hundred, we will destroy all resistance." Typical bloody-minded drone mentality. Numbers didn't matter. They NEVER mattered. This new Megatron needed a lesson in warfare, and once Earth fell, Skyjack would be glad to teach the pretender that lesson. Suddenly the sky exploded around him. Multiple kinetic strikes coming from low orbit! Mass-driver rounds given a boost by the orbital speed of the attacker...Skyjack commanded his drones to disperse, but he'd already lost half of them. Even some of the nearby Vehicons were destroyed before they could evade the strafing run's path. "Merry Christmas, Decepticons!" hailed a cheerful voice over all communications bands. "Courtesy of Atlas!" Then the remaining drones fell from the sky as their connection to his subverted TacNet was severed. From the ground. "Three Autobots, Vehicon commander. And they are NOT irrelevant." Skyjack knew his bargaining position had just vanished. No matter who won, he'd be in a poor position to make any deals. Time to cut losses. The black wedge fighter vanished from sight, sound and all other relevant senses.... * * * * "It's no good, there's too many, and they're a lot tougher than the drones!" Atlas shouted over the bond that he shared with Metroplex. "And I think they've figured out where we're being coordinated from!" "Confirmed," Metroplex sighed. "They are converging on Terra City. They sense my energies. I must leave, or you will all die," he said to the gathered humans. "But...you said that would kill you!" Gar protested. "Most likely. But when I fall, perhaps my...children...will be able to catch me." There was a long pause. Finally, the silence was broken by Colonel Witwicky. "Good luck, and may...Primus be with you." * * * * "He's WHAT?" Roadfire screamed. "The 'Cons have his number, and he's defenseless in the city against those kinds of numbers," Atlas replied. "Everyone, converge on Autobot City, he's going to try and transmit his program into one of us, if we're very lucky it'll work and we'll carry him in backup until we can put him back in a body." "Almost there!" Sonic Bomber replied. "But then what? We still don't have the power to take out these Deceptibums!" "Metroplex will know what to do once we get through the immediate crisis," Atlas tried to reassure Sonic Bomber. But since he was anything but reassured himself, it rang hollow. "But we have to beat the 'Cons to Autobot City, or it's all for nothing!" Seconds later, all three came tearing over the horizon, the gleaming city in view. The skies darkened on all sides with the wedges of invading spacecraft. If anything, there seemed to be more of them than an hour before...were they getting reinforcements from space? Sparing a nanoclick of his sensor time, Atlas swept near space. There it was. A mothership miles wide. It must have been controlling the drones. He could reach it, but he'd never have the power to destroy it. Maybe he could pick up the other two and carry them into space? "I am coming..." intoned Metroplex's voice. "Ready...!" Atlas warned. A golden shaft of light streamed up from Autobot City, a shimmering spark at the tip. Each of the trio raced to intercept it, Roadfire transforming and leaping into the sky. Suddenly...the beam split in three, lancing out to strike all three of Metroplex's "sons". "What?" "Hey!" "I don't under...." * * * * "What's happening?" Gar asked, as the viewscreen flared with golden light. "Something wonderful..." Colonel Witwicky whispered. * * * * WE ARE METROFORCE * * * * "And the sky burned. When the light faded, the invaders were no more, and the vast mothership was a shattered hulk drifting towards the Sun. "But what of Metroplex? Some say he was destroyed along with the invaders. Others think he went back to Cybertron to free it from the strange new Decepticons that it sent to Earth." "But what really happened, Gran'pa Spark?" The retired General ran his fingers through his thinning white hair. "I don't really know, Daniel. We never found any trace of Metroplex, or the three prototypes. But, then again, we never knew he'd been right around us all along, so maybe he's just hiding again. Waiting for when humanity needs him again...." ============================================================================ Author's Notes: Okay, this is an extra-long Tale of the Intermezzo, but the story just got away from me. Actually, it's more like two stories tacked together. }-> It started with the question, "What happened to Metroplex?" I had some ideas about that, perhaps he stayed behind on Earth after his apparent death, to protect humanity and be there when the Vehicons arrived (of course Megs sent a force to wipe out Earth...humanity had partly kept him from ultimate power!). But why wouldn't humanity have transcended by then, especially given leftover Cybertronian technology? Enter the Cyberplague, plus a tie-in from "Night Watchman," an earlier Tale of the Intermezzo. I also dragged in a bit of Transformers Zone, sort of an alternate timeline version. Dai Atlas, Sonic Bomber and Road Fire merged at the climax of that story to form Big Powered, a super vehicle capable of destroying Dark Nova. I borrowed some ideas from "Starscream's Brigade" (G1 ep) to replace the Zodiac Energon, and renamed Big Powered as Metroforce. Well, *I* liked it. }-> So, for the record, this is a G1/BMac/TFZone story. And a big one.