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Chapter 5: Born Yesterday
this page added by Mop-Boy
mop-boy@mindless.com
Ignatz awoke as the hallway began to collapse. He saw the multi-armed scientist scatter off and into an nearby hatch. All of a sudden there was a lound sound, like ripping and shredding metal. Then the large Predacon felt himself tumbling out of the ship, into zero gravity. As he spun from the ship he found his armor heating up and begining to melt. He gazed up and found himself falling into a sun. The brilliance of the star caused his optics to overload, and he found himself in darkness...
The elderly Predacon entered the room and closed the door. It was a small, dimly-lit room. The dirty rust covered walls surrounded the poorly kept place with one rusty old oval door that was closed. Rusty tarnished steel grates composed what was the floor. Above, stretched a multitude of different sized lead pipes. The old pipes were covered with mineral deposits from where leaks had run their course. Two tables, sat in the room, covered with old rusted tools, outdated datapads, and dirty old corroded looking robot parts. There were stained boiling science beakers with long translucent tubes that twisted, curved and connected to other dusty looking fluid containers. A large view screen, spewing Predacon propaganda, was hung on the wall Next to the room's exit. Any light in the room came either from the lit up viewsecreen, or from the maintenance flood lights that shot up from the grated floors.
The viewscreen on the wall began beeping, and blinking as various calculations and readouts popped up into view.
"Ah! At long last its done!", wheezed the old Predacon as he hobbled over to the center of the room. Sitting in the floor was what looked like a large high tech manhole cover with blinking lights. The weak con bent over and pressed a button on the cirular obejct, then stepped back. As he did the manhole began raising with a steady hissing sound. Below the cover rose a transparent glass chamber that glowed an erie greenish-yellow hue. It finished ascending and clicked as it locked into place. The chamber was cylinrical in shape, and stretched from the tarnished grated floors to leaking pipeline covered ceiling. In it's bubbling green-yellow liquids, was a large dormant looking figure. It looked lifeless as it floated in the churing fluids.
The well-aged bot limped back over to the chamber to a little pad of buttons attachted to it. Next to the buttons is what looked like a release lever. The geezer pressed a sequence of buttons, then pulled down the release lever. When he did this, a plate of the glass chamber lowered back into the floor. As it lowered, the fluids inside spilled out, draining into the grated floors, and with it, the heavy metallic being fell out of the chamber and onto the ground. The old Predacon began pulling out wires and tubes which connected the large creature to inner components of the chamber. "Wake up dear boy! The time for resting has passed. Open your optics and take in the world around you!"
The big bot lifted itself to it's knees as the fluids on his armor dripped down into the floor. It's eyes began to glow and flash on and off, as if it were blinking it's eyes. The metal being had a humanoid shape and feature, as did many Cybertronians.
"Do you know your name?", the old Pred asked as he made futile attempt to lift the large being with his own weak body.
"Ig...Ignatz? Yeah. I'm Ignatz.", replied the bot as he stood up on his own two legs. He looked around the poorly kept lab with a confused look. "Wh...where am I?"
"Heh. Why you're home dear boy!", the old con laughed as he hobbled across the room and began accessing files on the wall monitor. "You're home!"
Ignatz looked at the old con as he played with the veiwscreen controls, "Home? But..."
Ignatz was interrupted by the door being hammered on from the outside. It continued for a few seconds, then a voice spoke up, "We know you're in there old geezer. You're under arrest by orders of the high commander! Open the door, or we'll force our way in!!"
"Oh dear! Oh my! They're too soon! Quickly my boy! Remove those floor panels!", the old Predacon said to the large bot, as he frantically pointed down at a group of floor grates.
"One last chance old one!", spoke the voice from outside. "Come out now or we're commin in after you!"
Ignatz effortlessly uprooted the panels then looked back at the older bot.
"Now then! Quickly! Get down there!", exclaimed the elderly Predacon.
"Alright! I gave you a chance to come quietly! Now we're going to do this MY way!", yelled the voice from outside. "Clear that door cons!"
Ignatz quickly jumped down into the opening. There wasn't much head clearance, but there was enough for him to fit in if he bent over. The large bot looked up at the protecting elder, "What about you??"
"Don't worry about me. I'll be ok." The old Pred said as he tried to comfort the the young one. "Now quickly! Cover yourself before they get in!"
Suddenly, outside, there was sound of laser fire, then the door erupted in fire and blew off the hinges. It flew across the room, smashing the chamber, and the two tables. Robot parts, tools, glass...all were destroyed, and scattered throughout the room. The wall monitor was completely damaged from being next to the door when it blew.
Quickly, the room was filled with Predacon troopers, carrying large plasma rifles. Each one had a cold faceplate to match their heartless occupation. A group of the troops surrounded the old Predacon, and trained their sights on him, while the others secured the room.
"I warned you old man", said a figure as he walked through the horde of Predacons, toward the elder bot. "I told you not to defy the council! Now you will pay for your disobedience!"
"I'm not afraid of you Skorpanok!", wheezed the old con.
"Oh really??" replied Scorpanok, as he pulled out a large cutting blade. "You should be! You really should be." The leading Predacon took his blade and embedded it into the old one's midsection. "Your days of miscreations are over! You will be made an example of, for those who refuse to comply with Predacon creation regulations!" He then twisted the large knife, and yanked it back out. He then walked away, cleaning off the fluids that were left on the blade.
The old Predacon clutched his stomach in pain, and fell to the floor, bleeding mech fluid. He coughed as he spat out what words he could speak, "I've seen Predacon generals come and go, with as little thought of as a cyber-gnat..you'll be no different!"
Scorpanok reached the door, then turned to the officer standing guard at it. "Snuff his spark!", he said as he stored the knife away.
"Yes sir!", responded the officer. "What about the lab sir?"
The Predacon general turned around, and took a quick glace around the room. He faced the door again, and said, "Burn it. Burn it all."
"It's nothing but junk!"
From beneath the grated floors, Ignatz watched in horror as the troopers opened fire on the old Predacon. After the laser flashes ended, all he could see was the elder's lifeless face staring down at him. Ignatz was covered by the dead Predacon's mech fluids, from the rain of it that fell into the crawlspace. "Goodbye.", the large bot whispered to himself as a tear rolled down his face plate. "Goodbye...father."
"Alright! Set the thermal charges, then move out!!", ordered Scorpanok's officer, as he walked out the door.
"Gotta go." Ignatz thought to himself as he looked around the dark space for a way out. "Can't stay here." He then saw that underneath of him was another grate that led down. He quickly pulled up the covering of the hole and dissapeared into it's darkness.
The big mech wandered through dark vent shafts, and dimly-lit passageways, for what seemed hours, with no rest. Finally he found a loose grate. He wasn't sure where it opened up to, but he was tired of crawling around cramped places. He pulled up the grate and jumped down through the opening.
Ignatz found himself in a long corridor, that curved off into one direction. Suddenly he heard guards coming down the hallway. The large bot turned and found the corridor dead ended where he stood. "There's nowhere to go!", he worried as he frantically looked for a place to hide. He then noticed a very large set of blast doors a few yards away. "A better place than here." he thought as he sprinted towards them. The doors opened and he slipped in, no sooner than the guards rounded the bend. When the doors slid shut, Ignatz leand against them and sighed in relief.
"Ah! Another applicant I see!", said a voice from behind Ignatz.
The large bot turned around and before him stood four Predacons. Three of them were short, rather homely looking cons, that smacked each other around. The fourth was a large grey Predacon with purple armor.
"I knew there had to be better...more qualified Predacons for the job than these three!", spoke the large grey/purple Predacon as he walked over to Ignatz. "I am Sub-Commander Megatron! What might your designation be?"
"Designation?", questioned Ignatz. "Oh! My name. It...it's Ignatz"
"Well...Ignatz, to qualify for this job, you must first pass a test.", said Megatron.
"A test?", asked Ignatz.
"Yes first off, how much is one and one?" queried Megatron.
"Um...", Ignatz thought very hard before giving an answer. "Eleven?"
"Well...good enough! You've got the job!", congradulated Megatron.
"But what about them?", Ignatz asked as he pointed to the quarreling threesome. "They couldn't answer your question?"
"Well...let me show you.", Megatron said as he turned and faced the three stooges. "Oh boys!"
The trio of Predacons all jumped into attention. Two of the faced Megatron while the other faced the wall. The stooge on the left elbowed him in the ribs, and pointed him in the right direction.
"Um...yes well. How much is one and one?", questioned Megatron.
The trio looked at each other then immediately replied. "Bananas!!" After that, they were back at poking each other's optics out.
"Oh well, um...", babbled Ignatz. "I don't think that I..."
"Let me put it another way my dear Ignatz.", Megatron said as he put his hand on Ignatz's shoulder. "Take the job or become part of my star ship's fusion reactor core!"
Ignatz took no thought and replied, "Sounds great!! Is it reasonable pay?? Do I get benefits?? When do I start??"
"Excellent, almost nothing, you don't want to know, and as soon as possible!", Megatron said as he answered all of Ignatz's questions. The commander Predacon handed him a badge. "Here. This is now yours...Chief Predacon Engineer Ignatz!"
Ignatz felt warmth. He knew he was still falling into the sun, but there was little he could do. Blind, and paralyzed, all he could do was wait. Wait for the end. The warmth quickly turned to a painfull burning...then nothing.
He saw nothing.
He felt nothing.
He was nothing.
His spark had not been pulsing for very long, for he was only born yesterday.
What do you do now?
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