A light emerged through the darkness of the already starry night sky. The Autobot team hopped off the bridge and came to a stop as they realized they were in the middle of an unfamiliar mountain forest. The Prime took a few paces ahead, the squad carefully following him. As he walked and observed their surroundings, Optimus saw a distant entrance of a large deep cave, big enough for tall robots like them to go inside.

"That's probably it." Arcee whispered. Optimus nodded, the five cautiously began to watch their movements as they went in. All of them, except Grimlock, activated their weapons in case of an ambush. Soon, they heard echoing voices. The old leader signed them to take cover, they hid themselves behind several giant boulders and stalagmites and took a peek. They saw a group of Vehicon guards standing in their way as if they were protecting something.

Something that probably should not be discovered.

Grimlock growled as he stepped forward. Optimus put his servo in front of the dinobot to prevent him from going any further, "At ease, Grimlock." he ordered silently, "We must be stealthy."

"How are we even going to pass through those 'Cons without getting caught?" asked Smokescreen as he kept his optics on the soldiers.

Strongarm glanced at the Decepticons and then at the steady dinobot who was staring at the drones, the cadet had a slight smirk expressed on her face-plate as soon as an idea came into her processor, "By distracting them."

Grimlock raised his optical ridge in confusion and questioned, "Distracting them? With what?" he noticed that the gazes of his allies had landed on him, subsequently, he came to a realization, "Ohhh..."

As the Vehicons continued to keep guard and talk to each other, they heard heavy upcoming steps. All of the soldiers froze in place and rapidly transformed their arms into blasters, aiming at the direction where they overheard the unexpected noises, "Who goes there?!" one of them asked with full confidence.

Upon catching his bold question, Grimlock peeped his helm from the place he was hiding and formed an awkward toothy grin as he waved his clawed servo, "Heyyy, how's it goin' guys?" he asked, acting completely unbothered by the charged handguns at him, afterwards, he showed up to them in his normal robot mode, "Nice hidey-hole you have here."

"Stay right there!" the same drone alerted, making Grimlock halt on the spot, "Keep your servos in the air! Do not come any closer!"

"Okay, okay!" he lifted his arms, "No need to be so pushy about it."

"What do you think you are doing here?!"

"Uhh-- I got... lost?"

Before they could approach him more, one of the soldiers' heads got shot by a sudden blast, the rest got sliced apart from their backs and fell on the ground, revealing Arcee with her blade arms, the last three got blown up by Smokescreen and Optimus through their chest-plates and crashed down motionless. Strongarm came out from her hiding spot as her Decepticon Hunter cooled down. Smokescreen put away his armaments, "Can't believe that actually worked!"

Grimlock smiled at his comment, "What can I say? My acting is good!"

"I think we will have to put more work on that later." Strongarm added unamused. Out of the blue, running pedes were heard from another deep path of the wide cave.

"We must go." declared Optimus, "We do not have much time." as the whole team followed the trail, more Vehicon drones came their way. The Autobots stopped and glanced to the other side, only to see their way back being blocked as well by more troops. Grimlock transformed back into his T-Rex mode and let out a powerful roar, shaking the entire place, the others drew back their defences and prepared for a fight.

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As the prisoners stood still and impatient from where they were forcibly held, the tense silence was swiftly disturbed by the three commanders who finally decided to come back. What they noticed was that Shockwave was holding an odd device in the form of a big sphere.

Bumblebee's optics went wide after realizing what he was holding, "An Energon Harvester?"

"It can't be." denied Bulkhead, "That relic was destroyed years ago!"

"Correct." the scientist confirmed, "This is an enhanced version based on the design of its original creation. I was able to give this one more than just an ability to harvest Energon, unlike the one that you've destroyed."

"So what?" Sideswipe asked totally unfazed, "You just made a copy of it and gave it a small upgrade, big deal."

The lieutenant gave him a strict optic to shut his intake and looked up at Shockwave once again, "What do you mean by more than just harvesting Energon?"

"Siphons a huge amount of any source of power and energy from its targets." the one-eyed Deception clarified further, "It could be stored and transferred not only to its user but to any other living being."

Starscream loomed over as he held his servos behind his back, "Have you used it on any other test subjects before, Shockwave? How can we be sure this thing won't start multi-functioning during the process?" the seeker asked untrustingly.

"Do not underestimate my calculations, Starscream." the purple 'Con gave him a warning stare, "I have examined the relic, it is fully operational and I could certainly clarify that there are no signs of failure. For side effects, however, I cannot guarantee."

Rainbow had to double-take that last information, "What did you say?!"

"You can't just use that thing to take our magic!" Sunset protested out loud, "These elements of friendship are supposed to bring harmony, not destructiveness!"

The seeker rolled his optics in annoyance, "Power is power, no matter what, fleshling. You can do whatever you desire to do with it!"

"That's not how it works at all!" objected Twilight, "We use our magic to protect and help anyone in need." during their argument, Knock Out's sharp digits touched his stasis-cuffs, the medic got an idea and tried to unlock the cuffs with his long claws while they were distracted.

"Enough!" Shockwave interjected, "I am not going to waste any more cycle with such nonsense." the scientist went to the computer system and noticed one of his tools was on the ground. His antennas raised in awareness as he stared down. The Decepticon lifted his helm and looked at the screen, only to see that the signal blocker had been shut down and a message consisting of their coordinates had been sent off to a secret receiver. Shockwave focused his attention on the prisoners and his red optic immediately landed on the element of magic who stared at him back with a glare.

Unexpectedly, each robot and human felt the trembling earth underneath them, tiny rocks were falling from the ceiling with each slight shake. Detonating sounds could be heard outside of the facility, "What is that noise?" Starscream activated his comm-link, "What is going on there?!"

::The Autobots, sir!:: a Vehicon reported through his audial, ::They are he--!:: a loud explosion interrupted his sentence and became static. 

"Autobots? How did they even manage to find us?!" Starscream shouted in rage and glared at the other standing robots.

Shockwave, however, did not take his optic off Twilight, "You are clever." he said and approached her in a treating way, the girl tried her best not to show any reaction of fear as he came closer to her glass cage, he slightly leaned down to her eye level, his bright red optic lurking at her steady body, "But not clever enough." he turned to the two commanders, "Investigate and do not let them come any closer." he ordered and went back to the console. Starscream simply nodded and left, Soundwave following him right afterwards.

══════════════════

During their fight, the Autobots managed to beat a high number of Vehicon guards, unfortunately, more continued to appear with each successful kill.Grimlock rapidly pushed one of the drones away with his tail, causing the drone to crash into one of the cave's walls which only made a crack long enough to get to the ceiling. As the whole place began to tremble, each Cybertronian looked above them and saw how the stalactites started to collapse. Optimus quickly realized what was about to happen and before one of the sharp-shaped rocks could get to Arcee, the Prime grabbed her by the arm and pulled her to him. Both of them covered themselves and closed their optics as more boulders continued to fall, causing an entire stone blockage to form between them and the rest of their team. When the tremor stopped, Optimus saw the large wall ahead of him and the femme.

Arcee hurried to the big boulders, trying to find a way to see their allies, she found a small gap through the rocks and shouted, "Guys!" the Prime kneeled beside her and saw how the other three Autobots were slowly standing up back on their pedes.

Unluckily for them, some of the Vehicons were still alive. Grimlock, Strongarm and Smokescreen prepared themselves again for a battle, "We will try to hold them off!" the cadet shouted back at the Prime and femme from the other side.

"We got this, Prime!" affirmed Smokescreen, "We will catch up in no time!"

The Autobot leader stood up and said, "Let us go." Arcee nodded in confirmation, both of them ran along the deeper parts of the pathway.

"I hope to Primus we are not too late." Arcee begged under her vents as they sprinted. Shortly, they came to a halt as they stumbled on more ways through the cave, the femme peered at each one and huffed in irritation, "Great... now what?"

"Have you managed to detect anything, Soundwave?"

She and Optimus halted on the spot as they heard the familiar annoying voice that belonged to Starscream.

The seeker and the slim Decepticon searched around for any kind of unwanted intruders. Soundwave scanned the area, he had the map of the cave on his visor, soon a small red dot appeared on it, showing that there was someone right at their current location, Starscream gave him a perplexed look, "What? How is this possible?! I don't see any—!" a few tiny rocks bounced on their helms. The two glanced up, only to spot Arcee supporting herself between two speleothems hanging from the ceiling.

The femme hastily let go and fell, pede aimed towards the face-plate of the seeker. Starscream shrieked in pain at the hard kick between his optics and collapsed on his back. Arcee landed on his chest-plate and directed her guns at him. Before Soundwave could attack, he was greeted by Optimus with a hard punch on the side of his face-screen, causing the 'Con to crash into one of the walls and drop forward on the hard terrain.

Starscream gaped with shock at the tall standing leader, "Optimus Prime?!" he let out a nervous chuckle the moment Optimus gave him a cold glare, "Haven't seen each other quite in a while, have we?"

"Tell us where he is, Starscream! Or I will not hesitate to blow your ugly face, right here, right now!" Arcee impatiently insisted on knowing, she was already done by the seeker's fake attitude.

Starscream gulped as her arms drew nearer to his face, "I-I don't know what you are on about!" he pretended.

"Oh, you know damn well who I mean you slimy little-!" without even getting the chance to harm him, she got violently shoved away by one of Soundwave's tentacles. Starscream quickly took this chance to point his firearm at the leader. Less than a second, Optimus ducked and rolled over away from the shot. He noticed that Soundwave had stood up. The Prime glanced at the ceiling and opened fire above. The top rocky surface began to violently shake, as the giant stones started to fall, the Decepticons shielded their helms and got trapped with no way out to escape.

The Autobot leader lowered his weapon and saw the femme cleaning a few pebbles off her armor as she got up, "It will save us some time until we reach the others." informed Optimus, "Are you alright?"

"Been better." the femme briefly answered as she passed next to him, "Let's hurry up."

══════════════════

While Shockwave and his troops loomed over the computer system, Knock Out continued to struggle with opening his restraints. The instant he heard a tiny click, he managed to free his servos from the stasis cuffs. The medic examined his digits and then his teammates who were sitting next to him. Knock Out peeped over the scientist who had turned his back on them, keeping his entire concentration on the screen. The red doctor got up and silently as possible went to Bumblebee.

As the lieutenant stood forcibly still with chained servos on his back, he felt someone's digits on his arms. He glanced over his shoulder-pad only to see the shiny Cybertronian focused on his cuffs, "Knockout? How did you get out?" Bumblebee inaudibly asked him in bewilderment.

"These claws can be in handy for other things except good looks, you know." Knock Out let out a sly smirk as he showed off his sharp metal fingers, "Now, stay still." he roamed the ends of his digits inside the locker. In a trice, Bumblebee was freed from his restraints.

The medic went to the green and other red mech, successfully managing to take off their stasis-cuffs as well, "You couldn't have done that earlier?!" Sideswipe questioned, frustrated from his arms being held for so long. 

Knock Out huffed at him and put his servos on his hips in return, "Well, excuse me for being under pressure!" he whispered-shouted back.

Bumblebee quietly yelled at them, "Knock it off!" his sight then landed on their armaments which were laid over Shockwave's working table, "The hunters..."

"Be careful." Bulkhead alerted, the yellow soldier stepped closer to the counter. His servo was only several inches away from his weapon until he accidentally hit a tiny piece of rock. That immediately caught Shockwave's and the other drones' attention. The Vehicons opened fire at him in a flash, Bumblebee ducked and grabbed his Decepticon hunter. As they continued to shoot, Bulkhead blew them up with his Energon blaster.

"How did you manage to free yourselves?!" enquired Shockwave in anger. Without noticing, Sideswipe sent a flying kick on his helm, causing him to stumble and drop on the ground along with the harvester.

Shockwave let out a groan and saw the two red mechs standing all tall and proud beside him, "A magician never reveals their secrets." Knock Out replied as he twirled his prod, Sideswipe held his katana between his neck cables and shoulder-pad.

Bulkhead rushed to the girls gave them a comforting look, "Time to bust you outta here." he told them as he tried to figure out how to free them, just when he could touch Applejack's cage cylinder, something big and heavy tackled him down.

The cowgirl shouted in fear for her guardian, "Bulkhead!"

Ravage snarled at him, trying to take a bite off his face-plate, Bulkhead held his snout shut with his two bare servos. The green giant grunted as he gave all of his strength to keep the beast's sharp teeth away from him. He almost ran out of power until Bumblebee blew the feline away with his hunter. When the yellow Autobot formed his blaster into a spear and went to help his green comrade get back up on his two pedes, the cyber-panther sprinted to them. Ravage managed to wrap his tentacle tail around Bumblebee's staff and tossed him to his bulkier friend, making them both crash into each other and tumble.

"No!" Sunset shouted for the fallen Autobot warriors as she hit her fists on the glass surrounding her. The girls' gazes went to Knock Out and Sideswipe who fought with Shockwave. The red mechs were attacking the wide purple Decepticon from both sides. Unfortunately for them, Shockwave successfully defended himself and managed to block their attacks with his arms. Once Knock Out attempted to strike him with his Energon prod, the scientist grabbed his face-plate.

"NOT THE FINISH!" the cherish red medic dropped his prod and cried out in fear for his paint job as he struggled to get out of his strong grasp. Without even realizing what was happening, Shockwave tossed him at the other red mech with full force. Sideswipe quickly became alerted and dodged his thrown companion who bumped into one of the facilities' walls and landed on the ground with his helm upside down. Sideswipe decided to strike but got slammed away by Shockwave's arm cannon, making him crash to the other side of the laboratory. The scientist picked up the relic and stepped near the young mech. Sideswipe's neon blue optics went wide as the light inside his cannon formed, ready to charge. Before he could blast the laying Cybertronian into pieces, he got shot from behind, which made him miss his aim and fire near the young mech's helm.

Shockwave turned and saw the tall mighty leader and the small blue femme standing at the entrance of his laboratory with charged weapons, "Stand down, Shockwave!" Optimus gave out a loud command. The two Autobots noticed that he had pointed the Energon harvester in the direction of the captured terrified humans with his normal servo and arm cannon targeted at the rest of the Autobot members. Ravage stood completely still, eyes focused on his nemeses.

Everyone was caught in the crossfire.

"Drop it down, right now!" Arcee yelled with rage at the one-eyed Decepticon.

Shockwave faintly shook his helm in return, "I'm afraid I cannot do that, not when I finally have what I need, it will be illogical."

"I will show you illogical once I--!"

The femme was interrupted by Optimus' gesture for her to remain silent. He continued instead, "I suggest you surrender or we will have to use force."

"Oh, I'm not so sure about that, Prime."

The voice of the Decepticon seeker arose near the two Autobots. They glanced over their shoulder-pads only to see Soundwave and Starscream. The grey mech had an evil grin expressed on his face-plate, missile directed at them. A large number of Vehicon soldiers appeared from all over the place.

Soon, the silence was disturbed by heavy stomping sounds along with a loud voice, "Told ya my fists can get us through the—!" Grimlock ceased from talking the moment he, Smokescreen and Strongarm froze on the spot and saw their comrades being surrounded by the Decepticons. Every robot and human silently stared at one another.

"Well... this is awkward..." added Knock Out.