Beast Wars Prime

Fantasy vs. Reality Pt.2-The Rescue

Hello all, and welcome back. Shout out to Media Hood Reviews for figuring out I modeled Mindwipe on Freddy Krueger. Between his G1 hypnotic abilities and the Mnemosurgical skills cannon to IDW transformers, I figured he could have Freddy-like power even if his victims were wide awake. Either way, I'm glad my version of him was well received, and I bet that when you read his lines, you'll hear Robert Englunds' voice. Fair warning, this chapter may be a bit of an emotional rollercoaster. Enjoy the ride.

In a cave some twenty miles from the Unit-E base, Mindwipe clung to the ceiling in his bat mode. He knew what he was doing was strictly against orders, but Tarantulas had convinced him to follow through with the plan. Not that he needed much convincing. While Megatron was preoccupied with his cyberforming project, Tarantulas suggested they needed a way to keep the Autobots busy so they would be too preoccupied to interfere with their plans.

Luckily, he had to retrieve some files from the Predacon lab that they didn't want Megatron seeing. He had lucked into finding the group in the tunnels that day and took advantage of the situation. It had been easy enough to plant the programming into the hybrids and even easier erasing the encounter from their collective memory afterwards. At the time he originally planned to use the Maximals as sleeper agents if they escaped the lab. He found the location of the base simply by looking through the eyes of his victims after activating the program.

The plan began smoothly enough. While it was irritating having to split his focus in six different directions the looks on the Autobots' faces as their friends turned on them were priceless. Then the plant got cold and shut down. While annoying it wasn't a serious loss. Neither was the horse getting tossed around and passing out. Those simply made it easier to focus on the other four.

The real kick in the gears however, was that one mech figuring out his control frequency. He'd developed the fantasy puppet program during the war as a way of both gathering information and assassination. Nobody had figured out how he did it until now. He knew he shouldn't have used a universal shutdown code, but he was in a rush. Taking a 'glance' through the remaining Maximals under his control, Mindwipe saw that the Prime and his second in command had joined the fray. He grinned, time to have some fun.

Optimus caught up with Magnus at the lift, gunfire from the surface hinting at the fray awaiting them. Optimus looked at his second in command. "Magnus, whatever happens in this fight we must not harm the Maximals. Blaster believes he can locate whoever's controlling them so we need to keep the fight going long enough for him to do it."

"Understood sir." Magnus replied, stepping into the lift behind his commander. "What do we do if the trio combine?" He asked. Magnaboss was the one bot he could never develop a contingency for without showing he had intel on the Maximals.

"A likely possibility at present, I am unsure how to handle them should it happen." Optimus replied. He activated the lift, bringing them to the surface. "We may have to improvise."

Reaching the hangar, the two found an injured Depthcharge being protected by a battered Drift and Bumblebee. The swordsbot was knocking Wingsabers' kunai away as she threw while Bumblebee deflected Rhinoxs' chain gun blasts and Leobolts' whip with Depthcharges' sword to limited success. Thankfully, Rhinoxs' blasts had slowed in both speed and intensity since the attack started, a sign he was getting low on energy.

The two Autobot officers ran in front of the injured trio as the barrage halted. "Drift, Bumblebee, take Depthcharge down to the Lost Lights' med bay." Magnus ordered.

"I shall stay and assist you." Drift replied. Out of the three, he was the least damaged. "Bumblebee, can you get him there on your own?"

Beeping an affirmative, Bumblebee lifted Depthcharge up and carried him to the lift. It was a sign of how bad Jacks' claws and Mikos' swords had hurt him that he didn't argue. "Once you drop him off, find Blaster and get a team together to go after whoever's controlling them." Magnus whispered. Bumblebee nodded as the lift sank into the ground.