Post by Deleted on Jul 3, 2012 19:46:38 GMT
"Hitman and Sizzle"
Written by Graham Thomson
Prologue - Earth-date 1988
Fizzle and Sizzle stepped cautiously through the decaying cells of the Decepticon detention facility. Every rusting door had been left ajar, daring those brave enough to look inside.
"No sign at all of Guzzle," Sizzle said as he pushed the door. Flakes of desiccated paint clung to his fingers.
"Face it," Fizzle said, "most all of Tyrest has been abandoned."
Sizzle threw a punch into the nearest wall. It was so dry and rusted that it crumbled with the force.
"Shush," warned Fizzle. "Who knows what traps lay here."
"I just don't understand!" Sizzle let his temper flare. "Override and Dogfight are safely back in Iacon with Backstreet. We get back from Earth and Guzzle is nowhere to be found!"
"Guzzle's fine," Fizzle reassured. "Famed survivor of the Polyhex Software Wars. He was a veteran while we were still wet behind the gears."
Sizzle stepped up to his fellow Sparkabot and pushed a finger aggressively into his chest. "He's not fine. He's missing. And no-one but us seems to care. It's like we don't matter."
"Oh come on," Fizzle said, grabbing Sizzle's hand. "Don't be so ridiculous!"
Snatching himself away, Sizzle said: "We don't matter to the Autobots. One bit."
Fizzle shrugged. "Now, now. Don't let that hot temper of yours get the better of you. Again."
Sizzle struck his comrade without warning. The punch was clumsy but hit Fizzle square in the face. His visor crunched. He reeled back, clutching at the bridge of his nose.
Realizing that he'd lost control, Sizzle dipped his head in shame. He was lost for words.
Looking through his cracked visor, Fizzle silently glared at Sizzle. There was a moment's pause between the two Autobots before Fizzle turned on his heel and marched out of the cell. Their bond had been broken. Their friendship was over.
* * *
Earth-date 1992
The wide-eyed Decepticon, the only one on Cybertron, had left himself exposed. The tremor had shaken him from his hiding place and now he was exposed---dead-centre in Blaze's sights.
Blaze, his finger beginning to squeeze the trigger of his proton rifle, whispered: "Decepticon scum..."
Feeling something tap his shoulder, Blaze reeled around and dropped his rifle. The Decepticon he had been stalking turned and ran.
"Sizzle!" Blaze snarled, realizing who had snuck up behind him. "What the!"
Sizzle crossed his arms over his chest. "So this is what you've reduced yourself to now. Carrying out Grimlock's dirty work."
"You've got a nerve," Blaze spat. "We haven't spoken in four years, and..."
"Fizzle, you know very well how many times I tried to apologize to you."
"I go by the name of Blaze these days."
Sizzle scoffed. "You think changing your name will make you matter more to the other Autobots?"
"Worked for Goldbug, didn't it?"
"What are you doing out here?" Sizzle asked. "I figured you'd be safely tucked away in Iacon, pouring over strategies with the likes of Prowl or Jackpot."
Blaze remained silent.
"Oh," Sizzle realized. "Even with a change of name, and attitude, you still don't matter."
"I do to Grimlock," Blaze explained. "His policy of a strictly no-Decepticon Cybertron is in full force. And that's last one we knew of that you've just helped escaped. I was stalking him for weeks!"
Sizzle mused, "Where are they coming from? Surely our network of early-warning satellites would pick any up."
"Blaster has the skies covered. I hunt them on the ground."
Sizzle knelt down and picked up Blaze's rifle. "So I see."
Snatching the rifle, Blaze asked: "What about you? How many times have you been thrown out of Maccadam's for brawling in the last four years, I wonder."
"Still looking for Guzzle. You do remember him, don't you?"
"Of course I do!" Blaze said. "Don't you dare assume I don't think about him every day I'm out here."
"And yet you've done nothing to find him."
"What's the point? He was officially declared deactivated after Unicron's attack."
"Officially," Sizzle repeated.
"Look, a lot of Autobots---and Decepticons---lost their lives in that battle. Most were reduced to either molten slag or a bruise on the surface of Cybertron."
"Yes, but..."
"But nothing! He's dead now, just a statistic in the datatracks."
"Wow," said Sizzle. "You say it as if he doesn't matter."
"Dead or alive, when have any of we 'Sparkabots' mattered?"
The two Autobots steadied themselves as a shallow tremor rolled underneath them.
"Look, Fiz--- Blaze, I came out here to find you for a reason. I intercepted an emergency transmission."
Blaze snapped to give Sizzle his full attention. "And?"
"Blaster helped me trace it back... to Guzzle."
"When was it sent?"
"A week ago."
Blaze raised his hand to his head. "He... He's alive?"
"The source of the signal originated underground, not far from here actually. Will you come with me? In case I need backup," Sizzle pleaded.
Blaze turned away from Sizzle and looked out across the vista of the Tygun Span. He thought about the recent tremors, the re-appearance of the Decepticons and he thought of Guzzle. He resigned himself to his true priorities. He hadn't changed that much, after all. "Yes," he said.
* * *
"I just don't understand," Blaze said, stepping lightly and shining the beams of his reconfigured headlights across the calcified walls of the underground cave.
"What?" Sizzle replied.
"I thought Primus had reformed Cybertron. You know, after Unicron's defeat."
"So did I. But I guess it was only a surface-level restoration."
"But Primus is supposed to be omnipotent!" Blaze protested. "There should be no limit to what He can do."
Sizzle sighed. "Evidently there is."
"Oh you of little faith. Let's not forget He transported the entirety of the Transformers race from all corners of the galaxy to Cybertron before Unicron arrived!"
Pointing his own lights into Blaze's face, Sizzle said: "Since you're such a staunch disciple of Primus, why didn't you ever pray to him to help us find Guzzle?"
"I did," Blaze said quietly.
Sizzle pushed past Blaze and further into the caves. As expected, the floor was debris-ridden. The recent tremors had shaken the walls and roof so violently that chunks of ore had rained down onto what was once a smooth walkway. The Autobot twisted his body from side to side letting his beams glint off the roughened metal surfaces.
"So this signal," Blaze said, catching up, "any trace of it now?"
"I wouldn't know," Sizzle admitted, "even if it was still transmitting I don't have the hardware to detect it."
Blaze shook his head.
"You know as well as I that most of our core components were gutted and replaced with our ignition batteries and flame throwers when we became 'Sparkabots'."
"I remember," said Blaze. "Even back then you wanted to be part of the latest fad, the latest gimmick."
"You had it done as well."
"Yeah well... you always were unsettlingly persuasive," Blaze replied, almost smiling.
Sizzle stopped walking. "You smiled then."
"No I didn't."
"Come on Blaze. It's been four years. You gonna stay mad with me forever? When we find Guzzle..."
"If," Blaze said. "If... we find Guzzle, it still won't change what's happened between us."
Sizzle began walking again, quicker this time. "We're not far from the co-ordinates Blaster gave me."
The Autobot stopped suddenly. He felt a tremor, a weak one. Then he noticed a blue glow emanating from the furthest corner of the cave. And then he heard a voice. He heard a voice calling for help. Sizzle broke into a sprint and shouted: "Guzzle!"
"What?" said Blaze, joining the chase.
"Guzzle... I can hear him!"
The light faded and so did the voice. Sizzle stopped. "Gone," he said.
As Blaze came to a stop he said tersely, "Oh, really."
"I swear I heard him," Sizzle begged. "And look, we're at the co-ordinates."
Blaze threw out his arms. "Then where is he? What's going on here, Sizzle? If this is some twisted..."
"It's no joke!" Sizzle felt his grip on his temper slipping.
"I'm going," said Blaze. "I have an actual Decepticon out there and I'm under the strictest of orders to kill him. I'm done messing around!"
"No," Sizzle said as Blaze turned and started walking away. "Don't you dare walk away from me. Not again!"
Blaze heard a thundering of footsteps behind him and, before he could react, was thrown to the ground. He landed hard, no time to cushion his fall with his arms. He twisted round onto his back and looked up at Sizzle who was still hugging his legs. He tried to kick him away, but his actions were futile.
"I told you not to walk away!" Sizzle's face was knotted in anger. He spat lubricant as he spoke. "You think I'd drag you all the way down here on a whim, on some fanciful little excursion? I'm here because I'm at the end of my very short fuse. I have to know what happened to Guzzle!" He lifted his arm and clenched his fist, ready to strike.
The blue light returned, so harsh this time that it blanched the entire cave. The floor rumbled. Sizzle relaxed and stood up from Blaze. Their armour had become transparent blue and green, glowing almost with the intensity of the light's radiation.
They both heard the voice this time: Guzzle's voice. "Help me," he begged.
* * *
Guzzle's voice was dry and strained. "I can't believe someone's found me." He looked up at his brothers with desperate eyes. "I can't believe you've found me."
Sizzle cradled Guzzle in his arms. Guzzle was buried, waist deep, in the rubble, his armour and steel skin scorched, rusting and otherwise in the sorriest of states. Dried energon had clogged his joints, showing up exposed wires and filaments where it had burned through the skin.
"We've got to get you out of there," Sizzle soothed.
"You can't," Guzzle protested.
"Blaze!" barked Sizzle. "Help us!"
Blaze remained where he stood, arms folded across his chest. "I can't believe we've found you. You've been missing for so long."
"Blaze..."
Lifting his hands to the ceiling of the underground cavern, Blaze said: "Thank Primus!"
Guzzle wheezed. "Thank Primus, indeed."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Not helping," said Sizzle. "Now help me!"
Blaze and Sizzle began to lift the rocks that hugged Guzzle's lower body.
"Did you get caught down here?" Blaze asked. "Did one of the tremors cause a cave-in?"
"You're not listening to me," Guzzle said.
Everything shook suddenly, causing alarm to the three Autobots. Sizzle and Blaze dug faster. But all Guzzle said was: "Hide."
The blue glow that bathed the cave intensified momentarily and footsteps in marching rhythm echoed.
"I said hide!"
Blaze and Sizzle sprinted backwards and dove for cover. From behind nearby rocks they saw a Decepticon emerge from the light and then kneel down besides Guzzle.
"Dinner time," Gutcruncher growled, grabbing Guzzle's chin and forcing him to look up at him.
Behind Gutcruncher a team of guards took point: Treadshot, Axer, Banzaitron and Charger.
Gutcruncher, a square-set brute of a Decepticon, took a crude refueling cylinder and, with all the finesse of a drill tank, plunged it into Guzzle's neck. The Autobot winced.
"The famed survivor of the Polyhex Wars," Gutcruncher hissed. "Your legendary stamina has done us well."
From their vantage point, Blaze and Sizzle looked on in horror. The Decepticons snorted in derisive unison.
Gutcruncher ripped the cylinder from Guzzle's neck and crushed it in his hand. "Not much longer," he said. "Bludgeon's almost ready and your use to us will be no more."
The five Decepticons turned on their heels and marched with a sense of triumph in their steps back into the light.
When they were completely sure that the Decepticons had gone, Blaze and Sizzle returned to Guzzle's side.
"Guzzle?" Blaze asked.
His eyes a little brighter than before, Guzzle explained: "I've been trapped here since Primus summoned us all back to Cybertron to face Unicron. I was on the surface when I sensed his call, but I didn't realize that I was directly above his teleportation device..."
"This place?"
"Yes," Guzzle continued. "This whole area is some kind of warp generator, kept hidden and to be used by Primus when the time came, when Unicron came."
"So much for divine powers," Sizzle whispered. Blaze nudged him.
"I can't exactly explain it," Guzzle said, "but somehow I got caught up in the process... A case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Once we'd all been transported home, the generator should have shut down. But me being here kept it open."
Realizing just what his fellow Sparkabot was saying, Sizzle offered: "I'm so sorry."
"Bludgeon and his forces discovered a nexus point on Charr, that's where the Decepticon army is now, and they've been keeping me alive, only just, to maintain the link. They're planning their invasion right now. We've got to stop them."
"How?" Blaze asked.
Sizzle shook his head.
Guzzle's voice dropped. "I'm what's keeping it going. To kill the generator, to stop the invasion, you have to kill me."
* *
"There's got to be another way," Sizzle stammered. "This is completely unacceptable."
Blaze remained quiet and cool-tempered.
"Can't we move you? Can't we find the generator and turn it off?" Sizzle was desperate.
"No," said Guzzle. "There's no time to dig me out. Gutcruncher's forces will be back and tearing into us before we even reach the surface. And anyway, I'm the only thing stabilizing the generator. Moving me could unbalance it and, since the generator is part of Cybertron, all around us, we'd likely rip the planet up."
"Face it, Sizzle, he's right," Blaze said slowly.
"I know, Blaze."
"Blaze?" Guzzle chuckled. "You changed your name?"
"He wanted to be taken more seriously," Sizzle said. "He wanted to matter."
Guzzle shrugged his shoulders. "Well I'll be dipped in the smelting pool."
Blaze couldn't help but smile. And then the feeling of dread enveloped him, the realization that this would be the last time the three of them would be together. He wished Guzzle had been written off as an unknown fatality of the Unicron war.
"Come here," Guzzle said. "Both of you."
The two Autobots knelt down. They regarded Guzzle with quiet pity. And admiration.
"I still remember the day we three became Sparkabots. How we met in the corridor outside Brainstorm's lab in the Manganese Mountains. You two sure were wet behind the gears," Guzzle spoke softly and tenderly. "I never thought we'd become as close as we did. We weren't just soldiers, were we?"
Sizzle put his hand on Guzzle's shoulder. "Friends until the end."
Guzzle continued: "All the time I've been trapped here I've wondered if any of the other Autobots thought of me. Did anyone want to rescue me? Did anyone care? Did I matter at all?"
"Of course you did," Blaze said. "That's all any of us want."
Guzzle nodded his head. "Then I have a plan." He looked down at Blaze's sniper rifle. "I won't die in vain, and you can do something that really matters. You can save the world."
* *
"I can't believe how calm he's being," Sizzle whispered to Blaze.
Blaze and Sizzle, back at their hiding place, back behind the pile of rocks, watched the blue light return and the tremors gain momentum.
"I guess he already made his peace a long time ago."
"Are you OK?" Sizzle asked.
Blaze glanced over from behind the sights of his sniper rifle. "I've got my best friend's optics dead centre in my sights and my finger on the trigger. Take a calculated guess."
"Fair point, I'll shut up."
"But it does make you realize, doesn't it?"
"What?"
"That most of the stuff you fill your life with doesn't matter, the petty fights, the anger over trivial things, the mountains made from molehills."
"I think I know what you're trying to say."
Blaze smiled. "I hope so, because I'm not sure."
"I wonder why he refused to say good bye," said Sizzle.
Blaze looked at Sizzle, trying to maintain his own composure. "Because friends should never have to say good bye."
The two Autobots returned their attention to Guzzle, now nodding his head to indicate that it was almost time. The ground and walls rumbled with the sound of tank treads and heavy ordnance. The Decepticon army was ready to come through.
"I can't do this," Blaze said. "I can't pull the trigger, not on him."
"You've got to," Sizzle urged. "It's a strategy even I'd be envious of."
Blaze's finger trembled over the trigger. The greater good, he thought. The greater good. How many more friends must I lose for the greater good?
The sight of the Decepticon army, Gutcruncher at its head, was awesome. For them to get through the interface between Charr and Cybertron, for them to get to the surface would mean only chaos and the re-ignition of the war that the Autobots fought so hard to win.
"He's signaling," Sizzle said. "Do it now, you've got to do it now."
* *
"We owe you a huge debt," Optimus Prime said, his proud voice echoing across the spectator-packed galleries of the Great Dome of Iacon. "The world owes you a huge debt."
Sizzle and Blaze stood by their leader, heads bowed. Next to them stood Guzzle's remains, packed into a glistening golden obelisk.
Optimus continued his speech: "We go through life, thinking that we don't matter, that the choices we make should be done so lightly because we think no one else cares. But these three Autobots made the bravest decision any of us may ever have to make because they knew their actions mattered, because they mattered."
The end.
Written by Graham Thomson
Prologue - Earth-date 1988
Fizzle and Sizzle stepped cautiously through the decaying cells of the Decepticon detention facility. Every rusting door had been left ajar, daring those brave enough to look inside.
"No sign at all of Guzzle," Sizzle said as he pushed the door. Flakes of desiccated paint clung to his fingers.
"Face it," Fizzle said, "most all of Tyrest has been abandoned."
Sizzle threw a punch into the nearest wall. It was so dry and rusted that it crumbled with the force.
"Shush," warned Fizzle. "Who knows what traps lay here."
"I just don't understand!" Sizzle let his temper flare. "Override and Dogfight are safely back in Iacon with Backstreet. We get back from Earth and Guzzle is nowhere to be found!"
"Guzzle's fine," Fizzle reassured. "Famed survivor of the Polyhex Software Wars. He was a veteran while we were still wet behind the gears."
Sizzle stepped up to his fellow Sparkabot and pushed a finger aggressively into his chest. "He's not fine. He's missing. And no-one but us seems to care. It's like we don't matter."
"Oh come on," Fizzle said, grabbing Sizzle's hand. "Don't be so ridiculous!"
Snatching himself away, Sizzle said: "We don't matter to the Autobots. One bit."
Fizzle shrugged. "Now, now. Don't let that hot temper of yours get the better of you. Again."
Sizzle struck his comrade without warning. The punch was clumsy but hit Fizzle square in the face. His visor crunched. He reeled back, clutching at the bridge of his nose.
Realizing that he'd lost control, Sizzle dipped his head in shame. He was lost for words.
Looking through his cracked visor, Fizzle silently glared at Sizzle. There was a moment's pause between the two Autobots before Fizzle turned on his heel and marched out of the cell. Their bond had been broken. Their friendship was over.
* * *
Earth-date 1992
The wide-eyed Decepticon, the only one on Cybertron, had left himself exposed. The tremor had shaken him from his hiding place and now he was exposed---dead-centre in Blaze's sights.
Blaze, his finger beginning to squeeze the trigger of his proton rifle, whispered: "Decepticon scum..."
Feeling something tap his shoulder, Blaze reeled around and dropped his rifle. The Decepticon he had been stalking turned and ran.
"Sizzle!" Blaze snarled, realizing who had snuck up behind him. "What the!"
Sizzle crossed his arms over his chest. "So this is what you've reduced yourself to now. Carrying out Grimlock's dirty work."
"You've got a nerve," Blaze spat. "We haven't spoken in four years, and..."
"Fizzle, you know very well how many times I tried to apologize to you."
"I go by the name of Blaze these days."
Sizzle scoffed. "You think changing your name will make you matter more to the other Autobots?"
"Worked for Goldbug, didn't it?"
"What are you doing out here?" Sizzle asked. "I figured you'd be safely tucked away in Iacon, pouring over strategies with the likes of Prowl or Jackpot."
Blaze remained silent.
"Oh," Sizzle realized. "Even with a change of name, and attitude, you still don't matter."
"I do to Grimlock," Blaze explained. "His policy of a strictly no-Decepticon Cybertron is in full force. And that's last one we knew of that you've just helped escaped. I was stalking him for weeks!"
Sizzle mused, "Where are they coming from? Surely our network of early-warning satellites would pick any up."
"Blaster has the skies covered. I hunt them on the ground."
Sizzle knelt down and picked up Blaze's rifle. "So I see."
Snatching the rifle, Blaze asked: "What about you? How many times have you been thrown out of Maccadam's for brawling in the last four years, I wonder."
"Still looking for Guzzle. You do remember him, don't you?"
"Of course I do!" Blaze said. "Don't you dare assume I don't think about him every day I'm out here."
"And yet you've done nothing to find him."
"What's the point? He was officially declared deactivated after Unicron's attack."
"Officially," Sizzle repeated.
"Look, a lot of Autobots---and Decepticons---lost their lives in that battle. Most were reduced to either molten slag or a bruise on the surface of Cybertron."
"Yes, but..."
"But nothing! He's dead now, just a statistic in the datatracks."
"Wow," said Sizzle. "You say it as if he doesn't matter."
"Dead or alive, when have any of we 'Sparkabots' mattered?"
The two Autobots steadied themselves as a shallow tremor rolled underneath them.
"Look, Fiz--- Blaze, I came out here to find you for a reason. I intercepted an emergency transmission."
Blaze snapped to give Sizzle his full attention. "And?"
"Blaster helped me trace it back... to Guzzle."
"When was it sent?"
"A week ago."
Blaze raised his hand to his head. "He... He's alive?"
"The source of the signal originated underground, not far from here actually. Will you come with me? In case I need backup," Sizzle pleaded.
Blaze turned away from Sizzle and looked out across the vista of the Tygun Span. He thought about the recent tremors, the re-appearance of the Decepticons and he thought of Guzzle. He resigned himself to his true priorities. He hadn't changed that much, after all. "Yes," he said.
* * *
"I just don't understand," Blaze said, stepping lightly and shining the beams of his reconfigured headlights across the calcified walls of the underground cave.
"What?" Sizzle replied.
"I thought Primus had reformed Cybertron. You know, after Unicron's defeat."
"So did I. But I guess it was only a surface-level restoration."
"But Primus is supposed to be omnipotent!" Blaze protested. "There should be no limit to what He can do."
Sizzle sighed. "Evidently there is."
"Oh you of little faith. Let's not forget He transported the entirety of the Transformers race from all corners of the galaxy to Cybertron before Unicron arrived!"
Pointing his own lights into Blaze's face, Sizzle said: "Since you're such a staunch disciple of Primus, why didn't you ever pray to him to help us find Guzzle?"
"I did," Blaze said quietly.
Sizzle pushed past Blaze and further into the caves. As expected, the floor was debris-ridden. The recent tremors had shaken the walls and roof so violently that chunks of ore had rained down onto what was once a smooth walkway. The Autobot twisted his body from side to side letting his beams glint off the roughened metal surfaces.
"So this signal," Blaze said, catching up, "any trace of it now?"
"I wouldn't know," Sizzle admitted, "even if it was still transmitting I don't have the hardware to detect it."
Blaze shook his head.
"You know as well as I that most of our core components were gutted and replaced with our ignition batteries and flame throwers when we became 'Sparkabots'."
"I remember," said Blaze. "Even back then you wanted to be part of the latest fad, the latest gimmick."
"You had it done as well."
"Yeah well... you always were unsettlingly persuasive," Blaze replied, almost smiling.
Sizzle stopped walking. "You smiled then."
"No I didn't."
"Come on Blaze. It's been four years. You gonna stay mad with me forever? When we find Guzzle..."
"If," Blaze said. "If... we find Guzzle, it still won't change what's happened between us."
Sizzle began walking again, quicker this time. "We're not far from the co-ordinates Blaster gave me."
The Autobot stopped suddenly. He felt a tremor, a weak one. Then he noticed a blue glow emanating from the furthest corner of the cave. And then he heard a voice. He heard a voice calling for help. Sizzle broke into a sprint and shouted: "Guzzle!"
"What?" said Blaze, joining the chase.
"Guzzle... I can hear him!"
The light faded and so did the voice. Sizzle stopped. "Gone," he said.
As Blaze came to a stop he said tersely, "Oh, really."
"I swear I heard him," Sizzle begged. "And look, we're at the co-ordinates."
Blaze threw out his arms. "Then where is he? What's going on here, Sizzle? If this is some twisted..."
"It's no joke!" Sizzle felt his grip on his temper slipping.
"I'm going," said Blaze. "I have an actual Decepticon out there and I'm under the strictest of orders to kill him. I'm done messing around!"
"No," Sizzle said as Blaze turned and started walking away. "Don't you dare walk away from me. Not again!"
Blaze heard a thundering of footsteps behind him and, before he could react, was thrown to the ground. He landed hard, no time to cushion his fall with his arms. He twisted round onto his back and looked up at Sizzle who was still hugging his legs. He tried to kick him away, but his actions were futile.
"I told you not to walk away!" Sizzle's face was knotted in anger. He spat lubricant as he spoke. "You think I'd drag you all the way down here on a whim, on some fanciful little excursion? I'm here because I'm at the end of my very short fuse. I have to know what happened to Guzzle!" He lifted his arm and clenched his fist, ready to strike.
The blue light returned, so harsh this time that it blanched the entire cave. The floor rumbled. Sizzle relaxed and stood up from Blaze. Their armour had become transparent blue and green, glowing almost with the intensity of the light's radiation.
They both heard the voice this time: Guzzle's voice. "Help me," he begged.
* * *
Guzzle's voice was dry and strained. "I can't believe someone's found me." He looked up at his brothers with desperate eyes. "I can't believe you've found me."
Sizzle cradled Guzzle in his arms. Guzzle was buried, waist deep, in the rubble, his armour and steel skin scorched, rusting and otherwise in the sorriest of states. Dried energon had clogged his joints, showing up exposed wires and filaments where it had burned through the skin.
"We've got to get you out of there," Sizzle soothed.
"You can't," Guzzle protested.
"Blaze!" barked Sizzle. "Help us!"
Blaze remained where he stood, arms folded across his chest. "I can't believe we've found you. You've been missing for so long."
"Blaze..."
Lifting his hands to the ceiling of the underground cavern, Blaze said: "Thank Primus!"
Guzzle wheezed. "Thank Primus, indeed."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Not helping," said Sizzle. "Now help me!"
Blaze and Sizzle began to lift the rocks that hugged Guzzle's lower body.
"Did you get caught down here?" Blaze asked. "Did one of the tremors cause a cave-in?"
"You're not listening to me," Guzzle said.
Everything shook suddenly, causing alarm to the three Autobots. Sizzle and Blaze dug faster. But all Guzzle said was: "Hide."
The blue glow that bathed the cave intensified momentarily and footsteps in marching rhythm echoed.
"I said hide!"
Blaze and Sizzle sprinted backwards and dove for cover. From behind nearby rocks they saw a Decepticon emerge from the light and then kneel down besides Guzzle.
"Dinner time," Gutcruncher growled, grabbing Guzzle's chin and forcing him to look up at him.
Behind Gutcruncher a team of guards took point: Treadshot, Axer, Banzaitron and Charger.
Gutcruncher, a square-set brute of a Decepticon, took a crude refueling cylinder and, with all the finesse of a drill tank, plunged it into Guzzle's neck. The Autobot winced.
"The famed survivor of the Polyhex Wars," Gutcruncher hissed. "Your legendary stamina has done us well."
From their vantage point, Blaze and Sizzle looked on in horror. The Decepticons snorted in derisive unison.
Gutcruncher ripped the cylinder from Guzzle's neck and crushed it in his hand. "Not much longer," he said. "Bludgeon's almost ready and your use to us will be no more."
The five Decepticons turned on their heels and marched with a sense of triumph in their steps back into the light.
When they were completely sure that the Decepticons had gone, Blaze and Sizzle returned to Guzzle's side.
"Guzzle?" Blaze asked.
His eyes a little brighter than before, Guzzle explained: "I've been trapped here since Primus summoned us all back to Cybertron to face Unicron. I was on the surface when I sensed his call, but I didn't realize that I was directly above his teleportation device..."
"This place?"
"Yes," Guzzle continued. "This whole area is some kind of warp generator, kept hidden and to be used by Primus when the time came, when Unicron came."
"So much for divine powers," Sizzle whispered. Blaze nudged him.
"I can't exactly explain it," Guzzle said, "but somehow I got caught up in the process... A case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Once we'd all been transported home, the generator should have shut down. But me being here kept it open."
Realizing just what his fellow Sparkabot was saying, Sizzle offered: "I'm so sorry."
"Bludgeon and his forces discovered a nexus point on Charr, that's where the Decepticon army is now, and they've been keeping me alive, only just, to maintain the link. They're planning their invasion right now. We've got to stop them."
"How?" Blaze asked.
Sizzle shook his head.
Guzzle's voice dropped. "I'm what's keeping it going. To kill the generator, to stop the invasion, you have to kill me."
* *
"There's got to be another way," Sizzle stammered. "This is completely unacceptable."
Blaze remained quiet and cool-tempered.
"Can't we move you? Can't we find the generator and turn it off?" Sizzle was desperate.
"No," said Guzzle. "There's no time to dig me out. Gutcruncher's forces will be back and tearing into us before we even reach the surface. And anyway, I'm the only thing stabilizing the generator. Moving me could unbalance it and, since the generator is part of Cybertron, all around us, we'd likely rip the planet up."
"Face it, Sizzle, he's right," Blaze said slowly.
"I know, Blaze."
"Blaze?" Guzzle chuckled. "You changed your name?"
"He wanted to be taken more seriously," Sizzle said. "He wanted to matter."
Guzzle shrugged his shoulders. "Well I'll be dipped in the smelting pool."
Blaze couldn't help but smile. And then the feeling of dread enveloped him, the realization that this would be the last time the three of them would be together. He wished Guzzle had been written off as an unknown fatality of the Unicron war.
"Come here," Guzzle said. "Both of you."
The two Autobots knelt down. They regarded Guzzle with quiet pity. And admiration.
"I still remember the day we three became Sparkabots. How we met in the corridor outside Brainstorm's lab in the Manganese Mountains. You two sure were wet behind the gears," Guzzle spoke softly and tenderly. "I never thought we'd become as close as we did. We weren't just soldiers, were we?"
Sizzle put his hand on Guzzle's shoulder. "Friends until the end."
Guzzle continued: "All the time I've been trapped here I've wondered if any of the other Autobots thought of me. Did anyone want to rescue me? Did anyone care? Did I matter at all?"
"Of course you did," Blaze said. "That's all any of us want."
Guzzle nodded his head. "Then I have a plan." He looked down at Blaze's sniper rifle. "I won't die in vain, and you can do something that really matters. You can save the world."
* *
"I can't believe how calm he's being," Sizzle whispered to Blaze.
Blaze and Sizzle, back at their hiding place, back behind the pile of rocks, watched the blue light return and the tremors gain momentum.
"I guess he already made his peace a long time ago."
"Are you OK?" Sizzle asked.
Blaze glanced over from behind the sights of his sniper rifle. "I've got my best friend's optics dead centre in my sights and my finger on the trigger. Take a calculated guess."
"Fair point, I'll shut up."
"But it does make you realize, doesn't it?"
"What?"
"That most of the stuff you fill your life with doesn't matter, the petty fights, the anger over trivial things, the mountains made from molehills."
"I think I know what you're trying to say."
Blaze smiled. "I hope so, because I'm not sure."
"I wonder why he refused to say good bye," said Sizzle.
Blaze looked at Sizzle, trying to maintain his own composure. "Because friends should never have to say good bye."
The two Autobots returned their attention to Guzzle, now nodding his head to indicate that it was almost time. The ground and walls rumbled with the sound of tank treads and heavy ordnance. The Decepticon army was ready to come through.
"I can't do this," Blaze said. "I can't pull the trigger, not on him."
"You've got to," Sizzle urged. "It's a strategy even I'd be envious of."
Blaze's finger trembled over the trigger. The greater good, he thought. The greater good. How many more friends must I lose for the greater good?
The sight of the Decepticon army, Gutcruncher at its head, was awesome. For them to get through the interface between Charr and Cybertron, for them to get to the surface would mean only chaos and the re-ignition of the war that the Autobots fought so hard to win.
"He's signaling," Sizzle said. "Do it now, you've got to do it now."
* *
"We owe you a huge debt," Optimus Prime said, his proud voice echoing across the spectator-packed galleries of the Great Dome of Iacon. "The world owes you a huge debt."
Sizzle and Blaze stood by their leader, heads bowed. Next to them stood Guzzle's remains, packed into a glistening golden obelisk.
Optimus continued his speech: "We go through life, thinking that we don't matter, that the choices we make should be done so lightly because we think no one else cares. But these three Autobots made the bravest decision any of us may ever have to make because they knew their actions mattered, because they mattered."
The end.
