#manage the jump into the next manic episode and crash instead like. at this point ive bottled it up for so long i know its gonna be

[shatteredglassanimated]

Shattered Glass Animated Season 1 Episode 6 - Blast From The Past

Overlord Sumdac is preparing a new kind of battle-drone to take out the Resistance and with his new unholy alliance, the threat is getting greater. Meanwhile, Blitzwing tries to teach Lugnut to be more amicable.

“Aw, come on!” Penny pouted up at Lugnut, hands propped on her hips. Miles was cowering at his usual place behind her. He threw nervous glances up at the Decepticon. Unlike his human companion, he was well aware of Lugnut’s annoyance.

“I am busy, human,” Lugnut snapped. “Find someone else for your rituals.”

Penny threw her arms up in frustration. “Who? All of you are always busy talking to Aaron or Cyrus lately! It’s boring.”

Lugnut turned away from the platform he’d put his damaged arm on to give Penny a one-optic glare. “Hard as it may be to believe, we all have more important things to do than participate in meaningless activities for your enjoyment! If that is a problem to you, I suggest you find a way to make yourself actually useful and leave me be.”

Penny stared at him for a moment. Then her eyes started watering. She sniffled, turned on her heels and ran out of the room, Miles hot on her tail. She passed Blitzwing on her way out. The Triplechanger looked after her with a worried expression.

“Did something happen?” he asked.

Lugnut shrugged. “Organics. Always leaking over every little thing.”

Blitzwing frowned. “What did you say?”

“Evidently something she didn’t like,” Lugnut grumbled, turning back to his arm on the table.

Blitzwing ex-vented and leaned against the door-frame, crossing his arms. “Lugnut, would it really put you off-line to be a bit more friendly?”

Lugnut huffed.

“I am just saying, it might be hard to get the rest of the humans to like us if you keep being so hostile.”

“I do not need to be liked,” Lugnut snapped.”What use is bonding with them in any case? We’ll be leaving this planet eventually.”

“But we still don’t know when that’ll be,” Blitzwing retorted. “Megatron, Blackarachnia and Professor Black are still working to establish a way for us to communicate with New Kaon. We need what help we can get.”

Lugnut said nothing, though his movements grew a tad more aggressive. Blitzwing walked over, picked up the bigger mech’s arm, ignoring his protests and firmly put it back in Lugnut’s empty socket.

Lugnut stared at him for a bit, then moved the arm around. It stuck.

“..Fine. What would you have me do?”

Blitzwing smirked. His faceplate switched over to Hothead, who gave a bellowing laugh. “Oh, you will hate this next part!”

                                  ---------------------------------------

“I’m failing to see how this relates to my new body,” Optimus Prime said drily, his single intact optic narrowing.

Sumdac chuckled, tightening another screw on the gigantic, metal structure before him. “Oh, quite a lot my decapitated friend. What I am constructing here, is a new form of battle-bot. Once it’s finished, it will give us the edge we need to overpower the resistance and your metallic “friends” aiding them.” He took a few steps backwards to admire his work. Three gigantic metal bodies stood against one wall of his laboratory.

Optimus narrowed his optics at the things. To him, these creatures looked laughably boorish.

The one in the middle was the biggest, with a square body, ending in a long tail, two powerful hind legs and, as if to offset them, two very small arms with three claws on each one. It’s head was almost as big as it’s body with jaws the size of a scrap press. The one to the right was smaller, with more equal proportions and stood on all fours. It’s head was framed by a shield-like plate. It had two horns on it’s forehead and one were it’s nose should have been. The one to the left seemed tiny compared to it’s companions. It was barely two heads taller than Bumblebee, with two long winged arms and a narrow head that seemed like it had been pulled apart on both sides, forming a pointy beak and a crest. It stood upright on two spindly legs with sharp talons on it’s pedes.

“Stunned speechless, I see,” Sumdac said, grinning. “Not that I would fault you for that. These new models were made to resemble creatures from our earths’ Jurassic era. Roughly two hundred million years old.”

“That’s hardly impressive,” Optimus replied bluntly. “Cybertronians have existed for ten billion years.”

Sumdac’s face grew red and he took a deep breath. It was at times like these that the concept of just pulling the plugs connecting the head to his building’s systems grew ever more tantalizing.

“In any case,” he continued through gritted teeth, “These dinosaurs, as we call them,  especially the three I modeled these drones after, were apex predators and fighting machines. If properly motivated. Luckily, all the motivation my creations require, is the push of a button. And once they defeat and capture the Decepticons, I will have all the blueprints I need to construct you the body you so desire.”

With a self-assured smirk, Sumdac stepped up to a control panel positioned in front of the drones and pressed down a few buttons.

The drones’ eyes lit up red. They started to twitch, moving their limbs. Then the drone in the middle let loose a roar that echoed off the walls of the lab. Sumdac’s grin grew downright manic as he watched his creations come to life.

Then the drone on the left flapped it’s wings a few times and rose into the air. Sumdac’s grin vanished.

“Not in here you imbecile,” he shouted, waving his arms. “This room is nowhere near big enough to-”

The drone, in it’s eagerness, shot up and crashed right into the ceiling. It’s head got stuck in the countless cables in the air. It flapped, screeching furiously. Finally, it’s thin neck snapped under the unevenly distributed weight. The screeches subsided. It’s body crashed into the drone in the middle, taking one of it’s small arms off. The middle drone roared again, stumbling to the side.

It stumbled over the right-most drone and buried it beneath itself, completely crushing it’s body in a mess of bent metal and sparks. Smoke filled the laboratory. Right on cue, the sprinklers set in, immediately extinguishing the small flames coming from the mangled bodies.

Sumdac quietly stood there and watched the mess, fists clenched so tightly they shook.

“Evidently there was a reason they died out so soon,” he heard Optimus snark behind him.

                                           ---------------------------------

“Alright,” Blitzwing announced, hands propped up on his hips. “Before you start being friendlier to humans, I believe we should practice with you being more friendly to fellow Cybertronians!”

“I’d just like to remind everyone that I have things to do,” Blackarachnia spoke up, arms crossed and a scowl on her faceplate.

She, Blitzwing and Lugnut were standing in one of the mine’s empty tunnels. Blackarachnia and Lugnut were standing across from each other, with Blitzwing positioned in the middle.

Lugnut’s optic narrowed and he opened his intake, but Blitzwing quickly stepped in front of him. “Which is why Lugnut is very grateful you took the time to help us anyway.” He elbowed the bigger mech slightly. “Right?”

Lugnut rolled his optic, but relented. “Yes, my gratitude knows no bounds.”

“Well that didn’t sound very nice,” Blackarachnia said, giving a mocking pout.

Lugnut’s optic narrowed again, but Blitzwing shot him a warning look and he ex-vented, shoulders drooping. “Thank you, I suppose.”

Blackarachnia shrugged. “Eh, it’s a start.”

“Alright, let us begin,” Blitzwing said quickly, clapping his hands together. “We’ll start with something simple. Lugnut, imagine Blackarachnia had done something to irritate you. Something like, taking the last energon cube. What would you do?”

Lugnut gave a long vent. “Blackarachnia, I wanted to take that cube. That was quite rude of you.”

“Didn’t see your name one it, big guy,” Blackarachnia smirked.

Lugnut’s optic narrowed. “Why you-!”

“Lugnut,” Blitzwing said warningly.

“I... suppose there is some truth to that,” Lugnut said through gritted denta. “Still, I really wanted that cube. You know I am a flight frame. I need more energon than you.”

Blackarachnia put a hand to her chin as if in thought. “Hmm, you’ve got a point there.” She let her servo drop to the side and grinned. “But then again, you could stand to lose a few megatons. Maybe you would actually hit something, if you were lighter.”

Lugnut lunged at her before Blitzwing could stop him. Blackarachnia jumped out of the way with ease, grin never leaving her faceplate. Lugnut crashed against the wall. The impact knocked several rock loose. The three of them managed to vacate the tunnel just in time before it came down.

They were still busy padding off dust from their frames and peeling smaller rocks out of their systems when Megatron, Starscream and Professor Black came running around the corner, the two Decepticons with their weapons raised and the mutant with one acid-dripping arm out of the sleeve of the special suit he’d taken to wearing.

“We heard an explosion! Is everything alright?” Megatron asked.

“Yeah, we’re good. That was just Lugnut trying to be nice,” Blackarachnia answered drily, flicking a pebble off her shoulder plate.

                                          -------------------------------

Optimus let his optic wander over the destroyed bodies of the drones, deep in thought. For all his taunting, he had to admit the drones were commendable for what they were. Though he wouldn’t be caught off-line admitting that to Sumdac.

The human had stomped out in a huff after his inventions had chosen to destroy each other instead of their shared enemies. Which had given Optimus ample time to study what remained of their body and circuitry. Like everything else on this planet, they were far too primitive as constructions to serve as potential new bodies for him.

But they were formidable enough to serve as his arms, metaphorically speaking. All they needed was a steady servo to guide them. Also metaphorically speaking, given his current situation.

Optimus let parts of his consciousness seep into the laboratories’ computers and machinery. It didn’t take long to reassemble the bodies and implant a signal beacon. They would be at his beck and call at a thought now.

When Sumdac re-entered the room, he found his drones fully repaired and operational.

“Spare me the thanks,” Optimus said, feeling a smug satisfaction at the sight of Sumdac’s disbelieving expression. “I suggest you have these things brought to the city. I’m sure our heroic friends would just love to meet them.”

                                    ------------------------------------------------

Blitzwing looked out over the water from the spot on the beach he was standing on. He had to admit, the way this planet’s sun reflected off the gleaming surface made for a very calming sight. Almost peaceful. Neither the Cybertronian colony he had been forged on nor New Kaon had a sun as bright as earth’s.

The sound of Lugnut barrelling through through the thick foliage behind him tore him out of his thoughts.

“Oh don’t complain,” Blitzwing said, as Lugnut opened his intake. “I told you to land on the beach. This island will be the ideal place to train you. No humans to watch us and nothing else you could break or cause the collapse of.”

“I suppose,” Lugnut huffed, bending a small tree out of the way.

“Since practicing doesn’t seem to agree with you, I guess we’ll just.. talk about this.” Blitzwing scratched the back of his helmet nervously. He had to admit, this hadn’t been going how he’d planned it out to. “Let’s star with, um... why do you feel you have to be so harsh to the humans?”

“I am not being harsh, I am being straight-forward,” Lugnut said, crossing his arms. “Would you want me to tell them sweet lies and deceive them, like an Autobot?”

“No, of course not! But Lugnut, there is a middle ground between lying and being polite.” Blitzwing ex-vented. “Humans have feelings and thoughts just like we do. And perhaps you should consider that the next time you speak to them. A little empathy can go a long way.”

Lugnut went quiet for a short time. His optic expanded a little. “Blitzwing-”

“Lugnut, Blitzwing, come in!” Both Decepticons flinched slightly at the sound of Megatrons voice in their comms. They both reached up to their aduials.

“Where are you?” Megatron asked.

“At an island not far from the city,” Blitzwing responded.

“What? What for?”

“That is.. a bit hard to explain,” Blitzwing said, fiddling with his insignia and hoping the embarrassment didn’t seep into his vocalizer. He had completely neglected to tell anyone but Blackarachnia about his and Lugnut’s little trip.

“In any case, we need you back here and fast! It seems Sumdac’s machines are attacking the city!”

“Understood,” Blitzwing replied. “We’ll be there immediately.”

Him and Lugnut nodded to each other, then transformed and took off.

                                    -----------------------------------

Downtown was chaos. Civilians were running through the streets in a panic, screaming and crying. Three humongous drones were rampaging through the streets, overturning vehicles and trampling everything in their way.

The drone who resembled a Tyrannousaurus, turned it’s head back and forth, as if looking for something, even sniffing the air a few times. It completely ignored the panicked young woman trying to dodge it’s claws. Before it could squash her, a laser-blast collided with it’s chest throwing it back.

Megatron lowered his arm cannon and turned to Blitzwing and Lugnut, who had just touched down a few feet away, already turned back into robot-mode.

“Blitzwing, Lugnut, evacuate the humans! The rest, help me contain these drones!”

The other Decepticons nodded. Blitzwing and Lugnut split up, each leading a group of humans away from the fight. Lugnut suppressed an annoyed growl. It was like these organics didn’t want to be saved! Every few steps they would stop to turn back and gape at the fight. Some managed to stumble over their own feet so often, Lugnut wondered if they perhaps hadn’t been assembled right at forging.

“Will you move, humans?” he finally snapped, when one of them once again threw a hasty look over their shoulder instead of running. They stared at him, eyes big and fearful. Lugnut flinched a little, remembering Blitzwing’s words.

“Now look,...The situation might be less than ideal, but, um...” He was no good at this. And now what little movement he had managed to bring into this group seemed to have stopped entirely.

He heard a noise behind him and extended his right arm just in time to catch a van that had been sent flying by the fight.

“Lugnut, what are you doing?” he heard Megatron shout behind him. “Get those humans away from here!”

“Do you think I haven’t tried?” Lugnut snapped back, turning around with a narrowed optic.

His anger lowered his spacial awareness. The servo currently clutching the damaged van collided with the wall of a nearby building. A part of the wall broke in, with a couple pf brick raining down on the streets and the still terrified humans. The sight of several heavy objects seemed to kick them into gear at least.

The humans started screaming in fear again and ran into the alleyways and side-streets. Lugnut stared after them, feeling somewhat guilty. He hadn’t meant to frighten them or put them in danger. At the very least they weren’t in harms way anymore. He turned to go back to the fight.

Megatron was busy engaging the drone with the enormous jaw, holding it back with his swords. Blackarachnia and Blitzwing were trying to subdue the other two, together with the humans. Starscream was currently chasing the sole flying drone through the air, trying to shoot it down with his pulse canons. being a seeker, Starscream was a fast flyer, but the drone was small and very agile, dodging his shots at every turn.

When the drone bearing three horns on it’s head tried to snap it’s jaws around Blitzwing’s servo, Lugnut punted it in the stomach, sending it flying into it’s companion and away from the Decepticons and the humans.

“What are those things?” Blackarachnia asked, looking down on Cyrus and Amicable Archer. “I thought you said this planet didn’t have any Cybertronian life-forms except for us.”

“It does not,” Archer responded, setting in an explosive arrow. “‘Tis another ploy of Overlord Sumdac! He built these vile beasts in the image of animals long perished.”

“Just without the skin,” Cyrus shrugged. “We call ‘em dinosaurs.”

“And what weaknesses do these ‘dinosaurs’ have?” Megatron asked, readying his sword at the sight of the two drones slowly picking themselves back up.

“Err, I dunno. They died out, like, billions of years ago,” Cyrus replied, assuming a battle-ready stance.

“Then we shouldeth repeat that process,” Archer grinned, letting his arrow loose.

The explosive hit the three-horn in the head, but did little but make it stumble. Starscream touched down beside the group, frowning.

“I hate to admit it, but this thing is too small for me to hit. You’d think fighting Autobots for stellar cycles would have prepared me for that.”

“And those other two seem particularly stubborn, for all that they have no combat skills, “ Blitzwing added, rubbing a new dent on his side. “We should-”

The tyrannosaurus charged without warning, aiming right for Megatron. Megatron pulled his sword up just in time to block the drones jaws. The drone let out a furious roar, before clamping down on the blade, tearing it out of it’s owner grip and tossing it across the street. Before Megatron could react, the drone buried it’s jaw into his now weaponless servo, biting hard enough to make the plating crack and draw energon.

“Get away from him!” Starscream shouted. A bright light flashed from his eyes and the next second, his intake shifted. A sound-projector-like device assembled itself inside of it and shot a mixture of a strong acoustic wave and proton blast right at the drone.

The drone screamed as the blast hit it, letting go of Megatron. The blast threw it backwards, right into the three-horned drone who had just started to get up again.

Starscream’s intake transformed back to normal. The Decepticons and humans stared at him in shock. Starscream himself seemed just as shaken. He brought a hand up to his now regular intake, as if to make sure it was still there.

“Wow. Guess I know why they call you Starscream now,” Cyrus joked, crossing his arms.

“Starscream” Blitzwing said, “I’ve known you for stellar cycles and this is the first time I’ve seen you use this power. How did you do that?”

“I..I don’t know,” Starscream admitted. “I suppose I was just really angry and then... this. But, that never happened when I fought before!”

“In any case, it is a useful power to have,” Megatron said, laying a hand on Starscream’s shoulder-plate and giving him a smile. “I would have been short of a servo if not for you.”

“Ha, yes,” Starscream chuckled, face-plate flushing a little. “Though we were pretty lucky I made the thing let go before blasting it into a wall.”

Megatron looked thoughtful for a moment. “Do you think you could do it again? At will?”

Starscream hesitated for a second. “I think so.”

Megatron smirked. “Then I believe we just found a way to deal with these ‘dinosaurs’.” He turned to the others. “Round up the drones in one place. Make them as easy a target as possible. Starscream, do you think you could do the same with the flyer?”

Starscream grinned. “I said I can’t hit it. I didn’t say I couldn’t scare it.”

With that, the Decepticons and the humans took off.

Lugnut lowered his arm to allow Blckarachnia to download. When she was finished, the two of them with additional  help from Cyrus, surrounded the three-horned drone. It lashed out for Cyrus, only to be kicked aside by Blackarachnia. When it tried to lunge at her, Lugnut and Cyrus tackled it towards the middle of the street.

The drones with the large jaws tried it’s luck with Blitzwing, only to slip on a pool of ice suddenly appearing under it’s feet. It screeched and dug it’s claws in, trying to anchor itself. A blast of energy hit it in the side and propelled it towards the same spot the three-horned drone was currently busy fighting off Blackarachnia, Lugnut and Cyrus.

The flying drone was back to dodging Starscream’s proton-blasts, though it’s movements were a fair deal more frantic now. When a shot grazed it’s right wing, it let out an ear-shattering screech and dropped down onto it’s two companions.

“They’re all together! Now, Starscream!” Megatron shouted.

Starscream opened his intake. There was no light this time, but the sonic canon appeared anyway, firing a blat that seemed even stronger, now that it’s owner knew what he was doing.

The drones screeched, trying to cover their non-existent ears. Sparks jumped over their frames and they collapsed on top of each other, motionless.

“Sumdac’s really upping his game,” Cyrus commented, walking over to the drones to get a closer look. “That’s the first time he tried Dinobots.”

Blackarachnia raised an eye-ridge. “‘Dinobots’?”

Cyrus blushed a little. “We gotta call ‘em something, don’t we?”

“In any case,” Megatron said, re-sheathing his swords. “We should retreat back to the mines fro now. These things don’t pose a threat anymore.”

“Shouldeth we not take them with us?” Archer asked. “They seemeth to resemble your kind a great deal.”

“Not exactly,” Blitzwing said, picking up his human friend. “They have a semblance of a spark in them, but... they don’t have free will like we do.” He hesitated for a second. “I think.”

“Decepticons, transform and rise up!” Megatron commanded.

The group transformed into vehicle mode and took off towards the woods. Blitzwing couldn’t help but throw a glance back at the seemingly lifeless bodies of the Dinobots before following.

                                    -------------------------------------------

Optimus scowled at the pathetic scorching husks that had once been his attack drones. When the one wit the large jaw had sunk it’s teeth into Megatron he had almost been able to taste victory. But then came that annoying second-in.command and his sonic pulse.

Through their link, Optmius had felt it when it hit the drones. It had been... unusual. There was something else behind the sonic waves, an energy comparable to a spark. But as his connection with the drones had been severed shortly after, he hadn’t been able to analyze it further.

Sumdac had raged and huffed and thrown tools around and in the end he had retreated to his private quarters, not even bothering to look at the re-captured drones. For once, Optmius couldn’t fault him for his behavior. If he’d had a body, he would have done the same.

The drones had been the closest he’d come to being mobile again in solar cycles. Now they wouldn’t even twitch at his signal.

“If even the greatest mind of this planet can only produce you,” he told their still bodies, “Then my chances of ever getting my body back are grim. Locked in this lab-”

“’Grimlock’? I do say, ‘Grimlock’... It’s quite a nice name.”

Optimus’ optic widened. The drone with the large jaw had talked. And now it moved. Slowly, carefully, like a proto-form making it’s first steps, the drone pushed itself back onto it’s legs and turned it’s head from side to side, as if seeing the room for the first time. It’s two companions followed suit.

“Looks like the Decepticons didn’t destroy you after all,” Optimus said slowly. “So what did they do?” His optic lit up for a split-second, then dimmed again. “You don’t respond to my Cybertronian commands anymore either. But you still function. As if you had sparks.”

The big-jawed drone, tilted it’s head from side to side. “Yes, that’ll do nicely. I am Grimlock,” it muttered, as if it hadn’t heard.

Optimus fought down a  surge of annoyance at the thing ignoring him. “Well, Grimlock, my name is Optimus Prime. And I am your leader.”

Grimlock turned to look at Optmius, his own, small, blue optics narrowing just the slightest bit. “Beg your pardon my good Sir, but I am quite certain that I, Grimlock, am the leader of our trio. Though I admit I do not know much else...”

“Obey me!” Optimus snapped, optic lighting up again.

To his anger, the drones once again did not respond. But one of the many screens on the wall switched on, rattling off a documentary.

“-and so the remnants of the dinosaurs, known as fossils, serve as fuel for today’s cars, trucks and air transports. Furthermore-”

“Not you!” Optimus groaned.

He prepared to retract from the system to shut the voice down. But then he noticed the drones. All of them seemed focused on the screen now. Grimlock’s expression, what little of it could be read, seemed apprehensive now, almost disturbed.

“How barbaric!” he exclaimed, the other two drones squawking in agreement. “So these... ‘cars’, ‘trucks’ and ‘air transports’ consume our kind?”

If Optimus still had an intake, he would have grinned. “They do! Airs transports especially consume a lot of fuel. They feed off your fossils and at the rate they’re currently going, you’ll be extinct in no time. Your only chance of surviving is to destroy them.”

Grimlock’s optics narrowed. “It would appear so.”

“And do you want to know what’s worse than air transports?” Optimus asked amiably. “Air transports that transform into robots!”

He pulled up the security camera feed, showing the Decepticons in battle. The Dinobots seemed to believe him.

“It makes you angry, doesn’t it?” Optimus asked. “Use that anger. Let it out!”

Grimlock and the other two drones roared and opened their jaws. Three streams of fire surged through the air, consuming the screen on the wall until their was nothing left but melted metal.

“My word!” Grimlock said, examining the said remains of the monitor. “Were we always capable of such destruction?”

“Yes,” Optimus lied. “I built you like this. And if you manage to destroy the air transport robots, I’ll built and entire army of drones just like you. What do you say to that?”

Grimlock drew himself up to full height, snorting out a small fire ball. “I say, to battle, fellow Dinobots!”

                               --------------------------------------------

The gate to the Terrordome opened. A procession of huge vehicles exited the building, driving towards downtown. The few civilians that had come back to garner what was left of their belongings saw the ironclad trucks and quickly retreated.

The trucks stopped side by side in the middle of the streets. The police drones that had accompanied them stood aside. The trucks transporters opened.

The Dinobots stepped outside, looking around curiously, as if they hadn’t been there only hours ago. Captain Fanzone exited one of the driver’s cab and looked up at his cargo with a wide grin.

“Well fellas,” he said. “Knock yourselves out! Just give us a call once your done!”

He re-entered the vehicle and gave the driver the sign to drive off. As the trucks rolled back towards the Terrordome, Fanzone heard a roar behind him. When he turned, he saw the Dinobot he had been told was named Grimlock pick up one of the parked cars and sever it in half with a single bite.

Fanzone chuckled as he settled, shaking his head. “This is why I love machines.”

                                ------------------------------------------------

“Don’t these things ever learn?” Lugnut asked, irritated, as the Decepticons once again made their way through the sky and towards downtown.

Below them the Dinobots were on a rampage, tearing up streets and throwing cars around.

“No longer shall we, the Dinobots, be food!” screamed the one with the large jaws.

“Apparently they learned how to talk,” Blitzwing said nervously.

In that moment, the flying drone opened it’s beak and released a stream f fire into a nearby car underneath it.

“As well as a few other tricks,” Megatron commented.

“Well, what’re we waiting for?” Cyrus spoke up from withing Lugnut’s cockpit. “Let’s give ‘em the old sonic shout and send ‘em back to the stone age!”

“Wait!” Lugnut called. “Perhaps we should lure them away from this area first. I’ve seen a few humans who have not yet evacuated when we flew over these buildings.”

“That... is a very good idea, Lugnut,” Megatron answered, sounding surprised.

Lugnut huffed, hoping his vocalizer wouldn’t give away his embarrassment. “I simply think the humans would be very grateful if their housing units stayed intact this time. And it will be easier for us to fight without them getting in the way.”

“Aww, no worries big guy,” Blackarachnia cooed mockingly from her sitting spot on Blitzwing. “We won’t get any crazy ideas about you having a spark after all.”

With that Megatron swooped down close to the ground Starscream and Lugnut following after him. Each of them rammed into one of the Dinobots, hard enough to knock them over, but not hard enough to do damage.

All three of the Dinobots let out infuriated roars.

“You wish for a fight?” Grimlock growled. “You shall have it!”

The Dinobots spit fire at their attackers, but the Decepticons had already taken to the air again, easily avoiding their attacks. Letting loose irritated snarls, the Dinobots followed suit. The Decepticons led them well outside of town, onto the road.

There, they touched down to the ground and transformed back into robot-mode, weapons out and at the ready.

The Dinobots stopped dead in their tracks, seemingly dumbfounded by this chain of events. Their optics wandered over their opponents, then came to a halt at Blackarachnia.

“Um, wereth they not going to attack?” Archer whispered to Blitzwing, confused.

“They were supposed to,” Blitzwing said.

“And what are they staring at me for?” Blackarachnia asked indignantly. “It’s not like I’m the only organic thing on this planet!”

The Dinobot in the middle perked up at her voice, then shook his head. “Ah, you must forgive me, fair spider-lady. I, Grimlock, seem to have been awestruck by your beauty.”

Blackarachnia blinked. “What?”

The three-horned Dinobot and it’s flying companion made a sound that sounded a lot like gurgling and pressed themselves on the ground.

“But how can this be?” Grimlock asked, seemingly talking more to himself than anyone else. “How can such a lovely creature be accompanying the vile flying transport robots who consume our kind?”

“Er, I’m confused,” Cyrus admitted, scratching his bald head. “Are we gonna fight or what?”

“We might not have to,” Megatron said grimly. he turned to Starscream. Starscream, do you think you could hit all of them at once with that new power of yours?”

“Starscream blinked. “I... yes, I think so but...will that be necessary? They’re fairly peaceful now.”

Megatron shook his head. “We don’t know if it will stay that way. We need to at least put them out of commission for now.”

Starscream hesitated, the nodded. He took a step forward. His intake transformed into the sonic gun. The blast hit the Dinobots with full force. With a pained screech, they stumbled backwards, then collapsed.

“Blitzwing, freeze them,” Megatron called.

Blitzwing lowered his ice cannons and encased the Dinobots in a wide block, big enough to take up most of the road.

“Well that was easier than I thought,” Cyrus commented. He looked up at the frozen Dinobots, frowning. “What do we do with ‘em now?”

“We destroy them,” Megatron said curtly.

Blitzwing flinched and turned towards his leader, optics wide. “Wait, what?”

“Blitzwing, you’ve seen what they can do. What they did. They are dangerous. We can’t allow Sumdac to find and repurpose them again,” Megatron said gravely.

“But...but,” Blitzwing stuttered. “Isn’t that a little extreme? You heard them, someone clearly told them we were some sort of threat! And besides that...” He looked at the Dinobts, optic thoughtful. “I felt like something was different about them this time. They seemed like they were aware. Like... like they had sparks. What if they’re more than simple attack drones?”

Megatron shook his head. “These are far too many ‘what ifs’ than we can afford right now. I would be lying if I said it didn’t irk me a little bit, but it has to be done.”

“I agree,” Lugnut spoke up, stepping forward. “I propose me, Blitzwing and Blackarachnia stay behind to take care of matters. You and Starscream should fly Cyrus and Archer back to our base in the meantime. Just to be safe.”

Megatron gave him a surprised look, then quickly got ahold of himself and nodded. “Thank you, Lugnut. I’ll believe we’ll do just that. Come along, Starscream.”

Starscream nodded, throwing a suspicious glance at Lugnut as he did so. Lugnut didn’t blink. Starscream shrugged, transformed and let Archer enter, before following Megatron, who had done the same with Cyrus, into the air.

Blackarachnia, Blitzwing and Lugnut watched them fly away.

“Now,” Lugnut said, when the two of them were out of sight. “I believe we have work to do.”

                                         -----------------------------------

“Gotta say, big guy,” Blackarachnia commented, looking down the edge of the giant crater into the lush, green valley before her. “I really wasn’t expecting that.”

Donw below her, the Dinobots were roaming around through the grass, sniffing here and ther and letting out a joyful squawk or screech now and again.

“Me neither,” Blitzwing admitted, smiling slightly. “I was sure you would actually destroy the Dinobots, when you proposed it to Megatron.” he turned to look at Lugnut, who was watching the Dinobots as well, expression unreadable. “May I ask what made you change your mind?”

Lugnut huffed, crossing his servos. “I have seen Cybertronians like the Dinobots during the war. Young, naive, still barely protoformed. Easy to manipulate in their youthful zeal. It was obvious they had no idea what it was they were getting into when they fought us.” He lowered his head a little. “Had we destroyed them, Sumdac would have found their remains and rebuilt them eventually. And then they truly would have had a reason to despise and fight us. What good will it do us to make more enemies on this planet than we already have? This island is remote enough to be a good hiding place from Sumdac. Here, they’ll be able to carve their own path, their own identity. Far away from any wars.” He looked up again. “A respected fellow Decepticon once told me ‘A little empathy can go a long way.’ I suppose I decided to heed that advice today.”

Blitzwing’s smile widened a little.

“Welp,” Blackarachnia said, stretching. “Since that’s all wrapped up for now, we should get going. It’s been a long day and I have a comfortable berth back at the mine with my name on it.”

“And I need to find a certain small organic,” Lugnut said quietly. “Whom I owe an apology.”

Lugnut and Blitzwing transformed, Blackarachnia jumped onto Lugnut’s wings and the three of them departed.

Back in the valley, the Dinobots were still wandering around. Grimlock looked around.

“I, Grimlock, must say I quite like this ‘nature’.”

He took another step forward. The humming of machinery inside of him intensified. His claws retracted. His massive jaw pulled in and onto his chest. His small, scrawny arm stumps were pulled into his body to be replaced by two mechanical arms. A helm with a red visor and a riffled intake popped out where his jaw had been pulled down from a second ago.

“But I must say. I like this even more,” Grimlock said, grinning.

He pulled a sword out from his back and watched as it engulfed itself in flames.

#shattered glass animated #sga #episode 6 #transformers animated fan-write

[decadentbirdtyrant]

Feeling Numb

TW: Mental Illness, smoking, disassociation, bipolar disorder, mentions of death, medication 

I don’t know what to post as triggers hopefully.

This is wrote in second person, I’m not sure why that’s just an easier way for me to write. Almost feels like I’ve removed myself from the equation in a way. 

You're doing it again. Staring at the wall unmoving, but as your vision fades from clear to blurry and back again the tell tale static clouds over the image. That's what it is though, an image. It doesn’t feel like real life anymore just like you are floating and staring at a paused screen. An image of a wall. The subtle movement in the lines before you as they bend back and forth are all you really need to know you are still breathing. You aren’t sure how long you have been blanking but noticing is a good sign that it’ll stop soon. That being said you still can’t feel your limbs and so trying to move them is nigh impossible. Finally though you manage to move your sight it's sluggish and it means you're coming back. The next thing you can move is your neck slowly looking back and forth and down to your hands. Slight twitches at first until you can flex your fingers then moving up your arms the feeling and movement returns to your control. But honestly the hardest part is last. You have to stand up, not that it is necessary but if you don’t you run the risk of spacing out again, and no one wants to be held hostage by their own body. It takes a while to gather the gumption to move your feet, they tingle from the numbness subsiding and soon there are pins and needles running up your legs. Now put it all together. Move your eyes and head, find a place to put your hands, use your arms to push yourself up, search again for a stable surface to grab onto, stabilize yourself while your legs continue to stall. Take one step and then another after four steps you start to feel normal again, you start to feel in control again. You feel like you have made it out of the woods, that you have accomplished a difficult task, just for it to all come crashing down. You don’t remember why you froze, what happened that made you become near catatonic. It wasn’t something big, there was no unexpected death, no terrible news, no real danger. Just the accumulation of stress and anxiety, the depression and anger dragging you down and finally your mind shutting itself off in a state of protection. It never helps. Instead of allowing yourself to fall victim again you make yourself move, distraction is the best method and games are a good way to keep mind occupied instead of fretting. 

Leaving the Living Room, keeping your head down and eyes cast to the floor while going through the Dining Room and through the door into your “office” the only thing that makes it your office is the expensive PC and dual monitor set you bought when you were manic. At least you were happy then. Other than that the office really just has some work out equipment (that you bought when you were manic and hardly touched), boxes from Amazon purchases, your old monitors that go with your old PC, and a wall mounted TV. All of which were impulse purchases, subtle reminders all over your house that you are in fact not well, not doing good, and hardly in control of yourself. Hell even this house is an impulse of a manic episode. Being both your escape and safe place and your biggest regret. 

Now that you sit at your desk you can’t help but notice the mess your life has become as the Dining Room sits right there in your peripherals. The table is covered in junk and more boxes of more things you bought when you shouldn’t have. There is hardly a Dining Room any more. You always tell yourself that you’ll stop, but all it takes is another obsession, an inkling of a thought that blossoms into an unneeded need. You need even more now to distract yourself. So you do the only thing that seems to work. Play a game on the computer and zone out on it for hours. 

By the time you decide to check the time four hours have passed and they felt like only one. Your joints are stiff and you can’t straighten your pinky finger without a little pain. That only really means you need a bit of a break before you continue this gaming endeavor. Standing up you feel multiple joints in your body pop and crack. Your muscles ache with the strain of moving for the first time in hours. Keep your head down as you walk through the Dining Room, but nothing can save you from the heart ache at seeing your kitchen. You suppose it could be worse but you were raised in a very clean house with a relatively strict mother who would definitely not be approving of the state of your house. It’s always the kitchen that hits the hardest though. When you had bought this house a year ago that kitchen looked completely different. You spent four weeks straight working on this kitchen, from repainting to putting in a new floor just so you could let it fall apart. But you do what you do best, avert your eyes and open the fridge which is honestly no better. Old food that should have been eaten days ago sits there mocking you. Another way of wasting money, it’s become a trend with you. Those around you tend to think you are good with your finances and if paying bills on time is all there is to go by then yes, you are good with your finances. Making a mental note to clean the fridge, which you will forget every time you look at the fridge for the next week, you grab out an energy drink. It feels like an addiction now, it kind of is a caffeine addiction Soda just doesn’t do it and the cans are just too small, say that to all the half drank cans of soda and energy drinks on the coffee table in the Living Room. No use thinking about that now, this can will join the ones in the office that are also half drunk. Moving along you whistle for your dog, and just as she always is she bounds up happily and wags her tail, her mouth open in a way that it looks like she is smiling at you. 

“Let's go outside” To that she jumps around and heads to the back door. You haven’t spoken in probably the last six hours and you can feel it in the way your throat felt scratchy and mouth felt dry. Going through the back door you once again move quickly as to not remind yourself of the mess your life is. When was the last time you cleaned the litter box? By the smell of it, it had been awhile and in this downward spiral you can tell it’ll be awhile more. 

There is something to say about fresh air, it always has an uncanny ability to make you feel ten times better than you felt in the stale indoor air. Yeah you may live in a city, and yeah you may live in a poor area of the city that is predominantly populated by meth addicts, and yes sometimes you can smell someone cooking meth in the air and the only reason you know what that smells like is because you have lived in this neighborhood for a long time. That does not diminish the fact that fresh air no matter how hot or how cold will always make you feel better. It’s dark out right now, there is a distinct lack in sound other than the buzz of bugs, a few cars, the occasional sirens and of course your dog. She has a hatred of anyone walking near her yard, bikes, motorcycles, and the mailman. You sit down on the back steps and pull out a pack of cigarettes. Cigarettes stopped feeling cool around the time you could legally buy them, but at that point they were no longer an accessory but a necessity. They calm you but really it isn’t the tobacco or the nicotine it's the deep breathing. The way you smoke a cigarette is actually very common to deep breathing exercises. You put the cigarette to your lips and take a deep breath in, holding it for a moment and then slowly releasing the breath. After the first drag you already feel calmer. Sure you could stop smoking and just take up deep breathing exercises but something tells you that you will never stick to it. What do you care about honestly, you obviously don’t have an issue wasting money on frivolous things, and you aren’t planning on living long and for as long as you can remember you never thought you’d live long. You just don’t see yourself growing old and wrinkly, in fact you have currently made it much further than you even considered possible. 

After finishing that cigarette you consider lighting another but your dog saves you from yourself by deciding then that she needed to bark loudly at god knows what. So you call her back in and though she too can be rather distracted she eventually comes happily inside trotting by you without a care in the world. Retracing your steps you keep your head down to not focus on the mess areas of your house until you are sitting back at your computer chair, your still unopened energy drink in front of you perspiration gathering on the outside. You’ll continue to ignore it though as you are back to the game and the outside world once again ceases to exist. Thankfully you can’t remember why you were so upset in the first place. 

This lasts until well past your bedtime with work coming up next evening you should really get to bed but if not the computer keeping you up the YouTube videos playing on the TV as background noise will. There is just something you hate about stopping a YouTube video in the middle of it. So you have to finish it. It’s fine though you know yourself and you know that you can run on little to no sleep. As it finishes you have to physically force yourself to shut down the PC and TV and make your way to the Bathroom. Unlike the rest of your house the Bathroom is relatively clean, it's just one of those places that drive you insane if it isn’t clean. Reaching above the medicine cabinet you grab down two orange pill bottles. ‘Lamotrigine’ and ‘Buspirone’ are supposed to help fix your head, maybe they are working but you honestly can’t tell. The only one that you can tell is doing something is ‘Bupropion’ and really that's only because it wakes you up it’s why you have to take it before work. It’s also why you feel more and more comfortable pushing the limits on bedtime. “If I don’t get enough sleep its fine, my meds will make me more awake and alert.” You also have prescribed sleeping pills but you don’t take them. They are only for dire situations but the last time you took them your dreams took a dark and rather gruesome turn so you stay away from them now. You glance over to the shower and consider that you should take a shower but “I can’t I have to go to bed for work” and “I don’t want to I’m too tired” also “I’ll just take a shower after I wake up” Which you know is a lie, they all are. You aren’t too tired, you don’t care about getting sleep for work, and you won't do it when you wake up. You can’t say why but you just can’t take a shower right now. So you don’t. You leave the bathroom without another thought and grab the cup by the kitchen sink, fill it with fridge water, and swallow back your pills. You hope the neighbor hadn’t seen you through the kitchen window. It’s an absurd thought but the idea of someone knowing you have to take pills to feel a semblance of okay is terrifying. 

When you were first diagnosed with a mental illness you were around the age of 7. It was depression and anxiety, things you started suffering from after your parents divorce 4 years ago. Though being 7 now and understanding divorce, try explaining that to a 3 year old who doesn’t understand why Daddy isn’t at home with them and Mommy. You were given your first prescription pills at the age of 7, and though she meant well your mother lied to you about what the pills were for. Your father on the other hand did not lie to you, was it because he cared? Maybe but mostly you think it was to be defiant towards your mother. The two hated each other at this time period. By not lying to you he made you upset with your mom for not telling the truth and resentful of the pills or as he referred to them “crazy pills”. 

“Crazy Pills” that's what you think when you take them, when you look at the bottles in the bathroom, when you even remember that you need to take them. One little phrase from nearly 20 years ago and it still haunts you to this day. It has foiled every other attempt at getting better mental health. But this time will be different. You hope. 

Once you have downed your pills, you start to feel this strange anxiety. It’s a morning anxiety usually where you feel this need to move and everything is going to slow. Quickly turning you head up the stairs to the second floor, it's more of a finished attic space where the ceiling height in the middle is just an inch or so above your head. This is the best part of your house. It’s the cleanest because you only come up here to go to sleep or fold laundry. Ducking through the bedroom door. Hurriedly you get undressed down to your boxers and turn on the fan. Crawling into bed you plug your phone in and grab a dissolvable melatonin, hoping that it’ll act quicker than your sleep anxiety can. If the sleep anxiety hits first you’ll be up for another three hours at least. It’s then that you remember what had put you in such a terrible mood. Scrolling through your phone you come across a post from a member of your “friend” group talking about how they all went and did something “had so much fun with all my friends!” You weren’t invited. You had always felt like you weren’t really a part of the group but you had always said it was because of your paranoid thoughts. Day by day though you start to notice that no, no you were right. They don’t care that you aren’t around, they don’t miss you, they wouldn’t notice if you disappeared, they wouldn’t care if you died other than to garner sympathy for themselves. You realize once again how much time and energy you’ve wasted on people trying to be who they want you to be just to be thrown away. Again. It stings a lot worse now, they are still friends with your ex, they still hang out with her and talk to her. Your breakup was mutual but no one thought to ask you if you were doing okay. Why would they? You don’t show your feelings, how could they possibly know you have any if you never show them. Robots don’t have feelings and at this point you just feel like a robot. A shell of a person. You do as you always do, distract yourself. Flipping through tabs on your phone you find one of fanfiction and start reading until the melatonin kicks in and finally you are asleep. You’ll wake up multiple times before you actually get up. You may get up in 3 hours or 8 but at least now you can sleep and forget all your worries until you wake up and they all come crashing back down on you. 

When you finally wake up you don’t leave your bed for a couple hours, just sit there and snooze the alarm over and over and once it’s almost time for work you pull yourself out of bed, get dressed and take “crazy pills”. Today is going to be a good day. It won’t but as long as you lie to yourself it's easier to face each day.

#mentalillnessstory #ashittyday #bottomoftherollercoaster #ventwriting