Through Ash and Dust (ROTB)

Chapter 57

"Woah!" Optimus turned at Mirage's surprised shout, and lifted his hand to cover his face, running over to a boulder, as Battle Trap had armed his weapon and began to shoot. It looked like it was a machine gun of a sort, but they were forced to take cover. Wheeljack ran towards them to take cover as well. "Not cool!"

"Take cover, Wheeljack!" Optimus shouted, gesturing for him to get over and helped him to duck down as Battle Trap shot at the boulder.

Battle Trap stopped firing, seemingly amused by the hiding autobots, and unlocked the mace on his arm and began to swing it around. "Someone give me a real fight!"

He swung the mace around several times before he grunts as the mace had been caught. He turned his head and Battle Trap saw Primal holding the mace and glaring back at him. "It's a fight you want! You got one."

Optimus armed his sword as he stood up, running towards Battle Trap as the terrorcon began shooting at Primal to try and get him to let go. Optimus slid on his knees and sliced the terrorcon's arm, just enough so Primal could yank on the chain hard and pull the terrorcon's hand right off his wrist. Battle Trap roared in pain and Optimus sliced his left leg off, and proceeded to try and stab him. But he was cut off as Primal ran over with the metal mace in his hand and proceeded to slam it down on Battle Trap multiple times until he was dead.

Optimus was surprised, as usually, no one would do that. Primal looked at Optimus with a smug expression, and Optimus gestured at Battle Trap's body. "He was mine." Primal chuckled lightly at Optimus's response.

Mirage chuckled as he witnessed and heard what happened. "Are we keeping tabs of our kills, huh? I didn't realize this was a competition, I would have already had the highest score."

Wheeljack huffed in amusement, kicking and shooting a terrorcon next to him. "You only just joined the fight, hombre joven. If anybody has the highest score, Cheetor would be at the top. He's kicking the tailpipe of a lot of terrorcons right now!"

Primal chuckled and slammed the mace onto another terrorcon. "And you would be right, Wheeljack. But this is no competition." He glanced up and narrowed his optics. "After all, we are running out of time."

Optimus looked up at the sky and narrowed his optics. He saw that the portal was wide enough that they could see Unicron, and a dark cloud began to stretch across the sky, bringing a shadow over the battlefield. "Unicron..."

"You fought bravely..." Optimus and Primal both flinch upon hearing Unicron's voice. Neither expected him to hear or speak to them, but that didn't matter now. He was very close. "But this world is already mine."

Mirage glanced at the bridge for a moment and groaned before shrieking as a terrorcon bit his wrist and he punched its face. "Not yet its not." He looked at Optimus who nodded in agreement. "He hasn't won yet! He's merely prepping for the main course, which is going to be delayed indefinitely."

"And no appetizers to go!" Wheeljack added, slamming his foot down on a terrorcon and shooting as more charge at them. "We are all lucky no one is dead yet."

"This isn't even a challenge, that's why!" Mirage chuckled before shrieking as Nightbird slammed in him. "Aahh!" She began to drag him across the ground and he glared at her. "Don't even think about it!" He shoots her chassis, and she shrieked, letting him go as she fell to the ground. He huffed and stood up, brushing the dirt from his chassis. "I do not appreciate being dragged around like a ragdoll!"

Nightbird chuckled and stood on her feet with a grin. "I quite enjoy making you look like a ragdoll!" Mirage aimed his cannons at her and she jumped at him, kicking her feet against his chassis and forcing him to fall on his back on the ground. "I just find it strange you weren't here at the start of the fight. Were you up to something with that human of yours, or were you too much of a coward until you saw everyone else fighting, hmm?"