Chapter 83: The Lively Autobots Base
Hardly half a month after the Decepticons' spotlight died down, the underground Base grew lively once again.
First, three shooting stars streaked across the midnight sky, crashing into the wasteland behind the factory, shaking dust loose from the top layer of the Base in a continuous shower.
Skids and Mudflap rushed out first to check out the commotion, but as soon as they reached the spot, Tyrant swatted them aside with a single slap each.
This guy had chosen a heavy tow truck form, his build a circle even sturdier than Ironhide's, with dual-mounted energy cannons carried on his shoulder guards. His very first words upon landing were, "Where is that old bastard Megatron?"
His voice was loud enough to shatter glass.
Arriving right after them were Dr. Q and Little Zhuge.
The former transformed into a roly-poly scientific engineering vehicle, and after transforming, he wore a monocle optical lens, holding half an energy circuit board in his hand. Upon landing, he circled the Base three times, muttering, "The shielding layer can still be optimized by another three layers."
The latter was unimaginably compact, transforming into a bright blue conceptual toy sports car. As soon as he hit the ground, he chattered endlessly, chatting from Universeshipping lanes to Earth technology at a machine-gun-like speed, getting along swimmingly with Jazz in under ten minutes.
Barely two days later, Topspin, Roadbuster, and Leadfoot arrived as a trio, all adopting heavy armed pickup truck forms with their bodies welded full of bolt-on armor. The moment they stepped through the door, they clamored to test their firepower against Ironhide.
Arriving fashionably late was Swerve, who had chosen a silver-white ambulance form with a mild-tempered and slow-paced way of speaking. As soon as he arrived, Ratchet dragged him off to help organize the medical bay.
Counting Arcee's three sisters and Sideswipe who had arrived earlier, plus Optimus Prime, Ironhide, Jazz, Ratchet, and Bumblebee, there were precisely eighteen Autobotsgathered in the Base.
The originally spacious landing pad instantly looked crowded, and Skids and Mudflap almost tore an energy pipe apart just fighting over a maintenance slot.
"Can you two stop acting up for once!" Ironhide pulled the two troublemakers apart with a dark expression, roaring in a muffled voice, "We just finished expanding, and you're already crowding it up like this again. If you keep acting up, both of you are going outside to stand guard!"
"Stand guard then!" Mudflap muttered unconvinced, "Who told the new guys to be so damn huge one and all..."
Dr. Q pushed his monocle and spoke leisurely, "The Basestructure can be dug down another two layers. The eastern rock wall can be expanded into a weapons testing ground, and the western side can be made into an energy storage warehouse. If we have enough materials, it can be finished in half a month."
As soon as those words were said, Tony's eyes lit up. He had just been pondering expanding his laboratory, and immediately slapped his thigh, saying, "Alright! I just happened to get a few new shield machines. Cybertronian structural mechanics plus Earth engineering equipment are guaranteed to dig fast and sturdy!"
Ironhide originally wanted to complain that "human equipment is unreliable", but thinking of Tony's precise wiring during the last Base expansion, he swallowed the words back down to his mouth and only muttered, "I'm responsible for armor reinforcement. Don't cut corners."
"Who's cutting corners!" Tony immediately bristled, "The things I build are ten times sturdier than your old armor!"
Well, these two tech freaks had gathered together again.
The new round of expansion commenced amidst all this lively commotion. Tyrant, Topspin, and the others were responsible for the heavy lifting; their huge mechanical arms swung down like chiseling tofu, causing large chunks of the rock wall to fall off. Dr. Q and Little Zhuge stared at the structural blueprints, occasionally shouting out phrases like "Move another half meter to the left" or "The load-bearing beam angle is wrong". Tony stepped on a floating platform to lay energy lines, while Ironhide squatted up high to weld armor plates. The two of them bickered while working, arguing about everything from material hardness to energy conversion rates, making the entire Base restless with their noise.
Logan occasionally strolled over and leaned against the doorway to watch the commotion.
Whenever a multi-ton alloy plate couldn't be hoisted up, he would raise his hand and use Magnetic Field Manipulation, steadily and precisely locking the plate into the slot, saving a lot of lifting effort.
Every time he showed off this trick, the nearby new Autobots would stare in a daze for a long time, looking at him as if he were a monster.
"Don't just stand there in a daze." Jazz patted Tyrant's arm and chuckled teasingly, "You'll get used to it. This lord has incredible abilities; if he really starts fighting, all of us combined might not even be his match."
Tyrant nodded in a muffled voice, his gaze towards Logancarrying a bit more wariness.
After tossing and turning for over a month, the expansion was finally completed.
Two more layers of space were added underground, completely equipped with a weapons testing ground, research cabin, energy storage, and maintenance dock. Even the landing pad was widened twofold; let alone eighteen Autobots, even ten more could easily fit.
The innermost allspark chamber added two more layers of energy shielding. Not to mention satellites failing to scan it, even if the Decepticons searched right in their faces, they might not detect the energy fluctuations.
Just as the matters of the Base came to a temporary close, Logan was cornered by Anna in the Villa study.
The silver-haired assistant stood before the desk holding a tablet, wearing a sharply tailored suit skirt. Her tone was as steady as reading a financial report: "Mr. Logan, the third-quarter data for the Astral platform is out. Two months after the live broadcast function went online, daily active users broke thirty-two million, and registered hosts exceeded one hundred thousand, covering more than twenty categories such as food, knowledge, entertainment, and technology. The mall went online simultaneously, with the first month's transaction volume exceeding two hundred million U.S. dollars and cooperating brands exceeding one thousand."
Logan had just picked up his coffee and raised an eyebrow upon hearing this: "Growing this fast?"
"Mm." Anna swiped her fingertip across the tablet, pulling up user profiles, "After the traffic monetization policy came out, creators' enthusiasm has been very high. People from many traditional industries have settled in; there are chefs teaching cooking, engineers talking about mechanics, and farmers filming their daily farming routines. The valuation given by Wall Street has tripled, and the media has recently been saying..."
She paused, a trace of extremely faint amusement flashing through her ice-blue eyes: "Saying that you are the Father of Self-Media."
"Puff—"
Logan almost spat out a mouthful of coffee, coughing twice from choking: "What kind of messy title is that, it's so tacky."
Anna chuckled softly, quickly resuming her serious expression: "There is another matter. Mr. Tony started a live broadcast yesterday building an armor suit, and the live stream's online audience broke five million, crashing the servers once. The technical department had to temporarily expand capacity to stabilize it."
Logan couldn't stop laughing: "This guy is showing off again."
Come to think of it, Astral being able to develop this fast relied entirely on Logan copying homework based on his past life's experience.
First, they launched the Creator Incentive Program, providing subsidies based on view counts to attract the first batch of video creators.
Then they pushed the live broadcast function, bringing along tipping, co-hosting, and product promotion all at once, instantly igniting ordinary people's enthusiasm.
Who could have imagined before that talking into a phone could make money? For a time, people from all walks of life flooded in:
A chef in a restaurant kitchen set up a phone to film toss-cooking, and in less than two months, he gained over a hundred thousand followers, while the shop's takeout orders tripled.
A university Professor started a live broadcast lecturing on physics, originally thinking no one would watch, but as a result, hundreds of thousands of netizens camped out to attend the class, and the comment section was filled entirely with "So physics is this interesting".
Not to mention those singing and dancing, doing extreme sports, and sharing daily life—there were all sorts of diverse things.
By the second half of the year when the mall went online, it directly opened up the closed loop from content to consumption. It was a common occurrence for hosts to make a product popular, bringing along logistics and manufacturing industries to bask in some of the glory.
Logan casually opened Astral, and the homepage pushed all sorts of diverse content.
He scrolled through two food tutorials, and then came across a mechanic explaining engine principles.
Just as he was scrolling, Tony's call came in with an extremely smug tone: "Did you see that? I had five million people online for my premiere broadcast! It's growing way faster in followers than your Ares!"
"Yes, yes, yes, you're amazing." Logan smiled and leaned against the back of his chair, "Your servers got crashed, and the technical department worked overtime past midnight. Didn't Pepper lecture you?"
"She's busy with company matters and doesn't have time to lecture me." Tony paused, then excitedly said, "Hey, let me tell you, during the live stream just now someone asked if they could custom-order armor, and I was thinking we could make a civilian protection version..."
"Stop right there." Logan immediately interrupted him, "Don't even think about civilian armor; S.H.I.E.L.D. will be the first to object. If you really want to make it, discuss it with Pepper first, lest you make a mess of things."
Tony clicked his tongue, reluctantly responding: "Got it, got it, so naggy."
Hanging up the phone, Logan chuckled softly and turned to pick up his jacket.
"Let's go, Ares, let's go check out the Base."
The big dog immediately perked up, wagging its tail as it followed behind him, its paws making soft clacking sounds as they stepped on the floor.
When driving to the Base, it was lively inside.
Tyrant and Ironhide were testing their firepower in the testing ground, their energy cannons making the rock wall hum loudly; Dr. Q and Little Zhuge were chattering around the new equipment discussing parameters; Arcee's three sisters were tuning patrol routes; and Skids and Mudflapwere arguing again over grabbing energy cubes, only to have their heads knocked by Ratchet one by one.
Optimus Prime stood in the central hall, watching everything before him. The energy core on his chest glowed faintly, and his entire demeanor softened considerably. Seeing Logan walk in, he nodded slightly: "Logan, you're here."
"Mm, just came to take a look." Logan walked over, his gaze sweeping across the lively Base: "Quite lively."
"Indeed." Optimus Prime's voice carried a hint of gratification, "After wandering for so long, we finally have a proper home. Thanks to you and Tony."
"Don't be so polite." Logan smiled, "We're all allies from now on, looking out for each other is only right."
Just as they were speaking, Tony rushed out of the laboratory in a whirlwind, holding a circuit board in his hand: "Logan! Come over quickly! Dr. Q and I made a new gadget, a Magnetic Field Amplifier! Try and see if you can expand the manipulation range by three times!"
Logan raised an eyebrow and strode after him.
Behind them, Jazz whistled and smiled at Sideswipe beside him: "Look at that, with those two around, the upgrade speed of our Base is even faster than back on Cybertron."
Sideswipe nodded, his gaze towards the laboratory direction carrying a hint of anticipation.
The Autobots gradually began to take root on Earth. Because of Logan's intervention, their fates did not follow their original trajectory.
If Optimus Prime knew how miserable their original encounters were, who knows if he'd kowtow to Logan.
Of course, Logan himself didn't even realize that his arrival had already changed the fates of quite a few people.
Chapter 84: Leeks Growing Batch After Batch
Starscream was hiding in an abandoned airport deep in the Arizona desert, the bullet holes on his wings not yet repaired, and his tail wing venting a faint trace of black smoke, looking just like a singed drowned chicken.
He crouched in the shadow of the dilapidated terminal, his optical lenses flickering erratically as he cursed Megatron, The Fallen, humans, and even Frenzy eight hundred times over in his heart.
Back in the day on Cybertron, he had also been a dignified air Commander, commanding the wind and rain with great prestige, but upon arriving on Earth, he first lost four subordinates, then watched Blackout get captured alive, and almost had half of his tail wing blown off. Now, he could only cower in this ungodly place eating sand.
Leave? He certainly wanted to leave.
But the moment he thought of The Fallen's wrinkled old face, and that strength which could crush Cybertron alloy as easily as a biscuit, his wings couldn't help but tremble.
Returning to report that "the advance team is completely wiped out, the allspark hasn't been found, and Megatronhasn't been found either," The Fallen would dismantle him into energy blocks on the spot to feed mechanical worms.
If he didn't leave, humans were searching the whole Worldlike madmen, and the trackers in their hands were freakishly effective—he would be dragged out no matter where he hid. If he stayed any longer, he would sooner or later follow in Blackout's footsteps.
"Cowards, trash, a bunch of useless things..." He muttered curses, just as he was about to transform into a fighter jet to change his hiding spot, when the communication channel suddenly crackled with static, and a string of encrypted signals popped up.
Starscream was stunned for a moment, then hurriedly connected. The next second, several rough electronic voices slammed into his skull with a buzzing sound:
"Commander Starscream? Demolishor reporting as ordered! Where is My Lord Megatron?"
"Scrapmetal in position, send me the allspark coordinates!"
"Roadside has infiltrated the urban area, currently screening target individuals."
"Soundwave has taken over near-Earth orbit satellites and is scanning global energy signals."
Starscream instantly straightened his back, his previous deflated aura swept away, even intentionally lowering his voice by an octave to put on the airs of a Commander who had everything under control: "What is there to panic about! Go into hiding first! Humans have tracking equipment in their hands, don't expose your whereabouts! Wait for my command before taking action!"
With that, he cut off the communication with a "snap," leaning his back against the wall of the terminal and secretly letting out a sigh of relief.
Fortunately, reinforcements had arrived.
Now he neither had to fear The Fallen holding him accountable nor fear the encirclement and suppression by humans.
He calculated smugly: once he gathered enough men, he would first take down a human Military Base to vent his anger, and then go find Megatron and the allspark. By then, all the credit would be his, and Optimus Prime and his bunch were worth jack shit.
As for whether he would flip over again? Starscreamselectively ignored this question.
Anyway, he had subordinates charging at the front; at worst, he would just run faster.
On the other side, inside the underground Base in the suburbs of New York, Tony was stepping on a hovering platform floating in mid-air, the welding torch in his hand crackling with sparks as he huddled together with Dr. Q to debug a palm-sized energy scanner.
Ironhide squatted on the steel frame nearby, arms crossed over his chest, wearing an expression that seemed to say "let's see what tricks you guys are up to," but his gaze was very honest, glancing toward the screen from time to time.
"I say, is this filtering algorithm of yours any good?" Ironhide spoke in a muffled voice, "The tracker last time couldn't even track Starscream when he ran away, and its sensitivity was not as good as my built-in radar."
"What do you know." Tony retorted without looking back, his fingers clacking loudly on the keyboard, "That last time was a castrated version given to S.H.I.E.L.D., understand? Can you just hand over the real deal casually? For this version, I added a three-layer Cybertron energy resonance matching algorithm. Never mind hiding in the desert, even if they burrow into the Earth's core, as long as it's a Decepticons energy signal, I can drag it out in half a second."
"The algorithm logic is fine." Dr. Q pushed his monocular optical lens and slowly delivered a killing blow, "It's just that the hardware is still a bit lacking. Ironhide, lend that spare energy crystal of yours for use, and the power can double."
"Why should I lend it to him?" Ironhide instantly bristled, "That's what I kept to charge the main cannon!"
"Such a stingy look." Tony rolled his eyes, "Later I'll have Stark Industries custom-make ten high-purity energy blocks for you, which are ten times better than your old crystal. Are you going to lend it or not?"
Ironhide grinded his teeth, looking at the beating waveform on the screen, and finally reluctantly gouged a blue-glowing crystal out of his shoulder armor, throwing it down: "It's a deal, ten blocks! Not a single block less!"
Tony caught the crystal and was just about to stuff it into the instrument when he heard footsteps coming from the entrance.
Logan was biting on a cigar, walking in leisurely, followed closely by Bumblebee trotting along eagerly.
This guy now ran back and forth between the Villa and the Base every day, more punctual than clocking in for work.
"Yo, what are the three tech freaks tinkering with together again?" Logan pulled over a crate and sat down, casually patting Bumblebee's leg armor, "Don't tell me you're researching how to blow up the test range again? Last time Ironhide blasted half a cliff face down with one shot, and Coulson even called me to ask about it."
"That's because he has seen nothing of the World." Ironhide snorted dismissively at this, yet unusually didn't refute it.
"The main characters are here." Tony's eyes lit up, handing the scanner over to Logan, "Upgraded Decepticons locator, just finished debugging. Guess what? Five more mice have burrowed right under our noses, and they're hiding pretty deep."
Logan raised an eyebrow and took the scanner to glance at it. On the screen, five small red dots flickered: two in the western desert, one in the downtown Los Angeles, one floating in near-Earth orbit, and another whose signal kept cutting in and out, like a bad contact.
"Not bad, they even learned to infiltrate in batches." He tapped the red dot in the urban area on the screen, "This one can even infiltrate the city? Kind of interesting."
"It's Alice, a Decepticon spy." Dr. Q brought up the data, "She excels at human mimicry and is specially responsible for infiltration. The other three are combat units—Demolishor, Scrapmetal, and Roadside—all heavy firepower types. The one in orbit is Soundwave, a communications officer who can hack into all electronic equipment."
Logan couldn't help laughing, "These guys are like leeks, harvested batch after batch."
"Old rules?" Tony raised an eyebrow, a slight bad smile on his face, "I'll 'accidentally' leak the coordinates to Coulson, letting Sector Seven and the Military charge in front while we watch the show from behind?"
"Otherwise?" Logan shrugged, "Could it be that we charge up to fight every day while S.H.I.E.L.D. picks up the ready-made rewards in the back? Since they want to study alien technology, they'll have to put in effort and act as cannon fodder."
Ironhide next to them originally wanted to say just charge over and blast them to pieces with one cannon shot, but hearing this, he pondered it over and felt it made a lot of sense.
It could both clean up the Decepticons and avoid exposing the Base, killing two birds with one stone.
Thus, he added in a muffled voice: "Fine then. But I have to go to the test range to test the new cannon, staying a bit closer just in case the humans can't hold out, I'll fire a supplementary shot."
"Oh, cut it out, you're just itching for a fight." Tonyunmercifully exposed him, but his hands didn't stop moving, clack-clack changing a few sets of parameters, synchronizing the civilian version data of the tracker to Coulson, and by the way 'accidentally' marking the coordinates of the three combat-type Decepticons as high-probability anomaly points.
In less than half an hour, the entire Military system of the western United States mobilized.
When Simmons received the news, he was wrestling with Blackout at Hoover Dam. He slammed the table on the spot and shouted "Capture them alive! Capture them alive as much as possible!", and led Sector Seven's Agent team rushing toward the desert.
Fury sat in the command vehicle, his single eye staring at the red dots on the screen, calmly dispatching two Agentteams over.
Over on the Army's side, they were even more eager for action. Having lost quite a bit of equipment fighting Blackout last time, they were holding their breath and wanting to make up for it.
The first to suffer was Roadside.
This guy had transformed into a bright purple super sports car, darting along the interstate highway toward downtown Los Angeles, planning to rendezvous with Alice.
Relying on his high speed, he didn't take the human patrol team seriously at all. As he was leisurely overtaking cars, he suddenly heard the roaring sound of a helicopter coming from behind.
"Human trackers have actually improved." With a look of disdain, he pressed the accelerator to the floor, the engine roaring like a Beast as his speed instantly soared to over three hundred kilometers per hour, "You think you can catch me with just that?"
But just as he rounded a curve, he heard a crisp "click" sound, and his left front wheel felt as if it had been fiercely twisted by something, instantly throwing his steering off.
Roadside was startled in his heart, violently turning the steering wheel. The car body carved a long black brake mark on the highway, almost flipping into the ditch by the roadside.
In the span of that momentary daze, the Military's armed helicopters had already caught up, anti-tank missiles whistling over with tail flames.
Roadside hurriedly transformed, his arms turning into energy cannons attempting to counterattack, but his wrist joints went numb again, causing the energy cannon to lose its aim and strike the hillside nearby.
"Damn it! What is that?" He roared, but only saw a dark shadow flash past on the distant hillside, so fast it seemed like an illusion.
The second after, dense artillery fire smashed down overwhelmingly.
Roadside had already sustained some internal injuries, and his movements were half a beat slower. His armor was torn open with several gasps by armor-piercing shells, and his energy core was instantly exposed to the outside.
"Despicable humans..." He cursed halfway through before his chest was accurately hit by a missile, exploding into a ball of fire with a loud bang.
On the distant hillside, Logan leaned against the car side, a trace of magnetic field operation overflow still lingering on his hands.
He looked at the explosion in the distance and clicked his tongue: "A bit too fragile, I thought he could hold out for two more minutes."
Ironhide squatted behind a giant rock nearby, his main cannon still steaming with residual warmth, looking displeased: "You acted too fast, it blew up just as I aimed."
"Who told you to dilly-dally." Logan smiled, "Let's go, the next one. Demolishor is big and bulky, he should be able to take some hits."
Demolishor could indeed take hits.
This guy had transformed into a giant mining excavator, standing rooted in the abandoned mine in the desert. The Military's tank shells hitting his body only left shallow white marks.
Simmons stood inside the armored vehicle, holding a loudspeaker and shouting "Surrender, you are already surrounded." He shouted until his throat was hoarse, but the opponent swiped a claw over, almost flattening the command vehicle.
"Strengthen the firepower! Blast them!" The Army general ordered with red eyes, shells smashing over like raindrops amidst a sky full of smoke and dust. But when the smoke cleared, Demolishor was still standing there safe and sound, the crusher on his shoulder slowly rotating and making a harsh metallic friction sound.
"These human weapons are like scratching an itch." Ironhide curled his lip watching from afar, raising his hand wishing to fire, "With this kind of firepower, you couldn't blast through even if you fought until tomorrow."
"Don't rush." Logan pressed down on his cannon barrel, "Wait until he charges the defense line before taking action, otherwise they'll start getting suspicious."
As soon as his voice fell, Demolishor indeed roared, his huge single wheel charging toward the Military defense line.
Rolling heavily across the desert, the ground shook along with it, and soldiers retreated one after another, watching as the defense line was about to be overrun.
Right at this moment, Demolishor suddenly tripped on his feet, his massive body stumbling forward by half a step.
It was this half-second flaw.
Behind the sand dunes in the distance, a concealed energy cannon silently shot over, accurately hitting his vulnerable spot.
Demolishor let out a miserable scream, rolling over sideways as his weakly armored waist and abdomen were instantly exposed outside.
How could the Military let go of this opportunity? Dozens of bunker-busting shells were fired simultaneously, accurately hitting the exact same location.
"Boom——!!!"
After the loud explosion, Demolishor collapsed to the ground, struggled twice, and completely stopped moving.
Simmons waved his fists excitedly: "We hit him! I told you we could do it!"
Fury inside the command vehicle looked at the strike point on the screen, his single eye narrowing slightly.
Too coincidental.
The angle, timing, and precision were all too coincidental to be a coincidence.
Yet he didn't say anything, only calmly instructing: "Have the engineering department quickly dismantle the wreckage, and seal and store the core components."
As for who was helping behind the scenes, he already had some guesses in his heart.
Speaking next of Scrapmetal, this guy died even more cleanly.
He was a giant steamroller who originally wanted to flank and sneak-attack the Military position, but just as he rounded the mountain pass, he was blocked right in the middle by troops lying in ambush beforehand.
What was even more unlucky was that he charged too fiercely; his treads were suddenly twisted into a hemp rope by a magnetic field, and the entire vehicle directly flipped out, rolling dozens of meters before stopping.
By the time he finally managed to transform and stand up, what greeted him were dense clusters of missiles and energy beams. Without even managing to say a harsh word, he was blown into scrap metal.
In the span of a single day, all three combat-type Decepticons were completely wiped out.
Alice, relying on her humanoid mimicry, hid not far away and watched with her own eyes as the Military hauled away the wreckage. Scared pale, she sneaked back into the urban area, not even daring to turn on her communications casually.
Soundwave was even more cunning, always hiding in the satellite without showing his face, only daring to occasionally send an encrypted signal to report the situation, with no intention of showing up whatsoever.
Starscream was jumping up and down with rage in the abandoned airport, yet he didn't dare to go out for revenge.
He certainly didn't want to follow in the footsteps of those three idiots.
He could only grit his teeth and send a distress signal to The Fallen, dumping all the blame for the failure onto "humans having a traitor leaking secrets" and "Optimus Prime intervening secretly," while completely omitting his own poor command.
When the news reached the ears of The Fallen, this ancient Cybertron elder was hiding in the asteroid belt on the back side of Mars.
Looking at the transmitted battle report, the mechanical whiskers on both sides of his metallic face trembled frantically.
Trash! A bunch of trash!
First the advance team was annihilated, and then more than half of the second batch of reinforcements were lost. If this went on, before finding the allspark and the Matrix of Leadership, the Decepticons would all be dead!
Unable to bear it any longer, he finally raised his withered metallic fingers and sent out an assembly signal carrying immense pressure toward the depths of the Universe.
All Decepticons wandering in the nearby stellar domains were to assemble toward Earth.
He refused to believe that with Cybertron's technology, they couldn't take down a tiny, primitive Planet.
Over on Earth's side, the underground Base was bustling with activity.
Tony slumped in his chair, browsing battlefield videos taken by netizens on the internet, laughing until he slapped the table: "Look at Simmons' expression, like a general who won a victory. He doesn't even think about it—if we hadn't secretly given supplementary blows behind the scenes, he'd probably have been flattened into a pancake by now."
"Human firepower really is a bit lacking." Ironhide rarely nodded in agreement, toying with a new energy block in his hand in a good mood. He had finally fired two cannons today, so it wasn't a wasted trip.
Optimus Prime stood in front of the big screen, his brows slightly furrowed: "Things are not that simple. Starscreamhasn't shown his face, and Soundwave is also hiding; they will definitely send signals for reinforcements. It won't be long before more Decepticons come over."
"Let them come then." Logan leaned against the wall, casually spinning his lighter, "Clean up one if one comes, clean up a pair if two come. Just right, the Base expansion is finished, and we're lacking targets to practice on."
Just as his voice fell, the instrument in front of Dr. Qsuddenly emitted a rapid alarm sound.
Everyone looked up to see that on the screen, from the direction of the deep Universe, dense energy signals were rapidly approaching like a swarm of diving locusts.
Tony whistled: "Yo, speak of the devil. Looks like quite a few are coming."
"Just right." Ironhide flexed his shoulder armor, his main cannon making a clicking chambering sound, "I haven't tried the group attack effect of the new cannon yet, coming right on time to test the waters."
Optimus Prime nodded gently, the energy core on his chest glowing a bit brighter: "Notify everyone, enter Level 1 alert."
Chapter 85: The Fallen
When anomalies descended, the ones who always noticed something wrong first were the New York City citizens.
One second, the streets were bustling with heavy traffic, and the background music of short videos from Astral phones drifted from one end of the street to the other; the next second, all electronic screens collectively crashed to a blue screen, streetlights went out in unison, driving cars suddenly stalled and paralyzed in the middle of the road, and even civil aviation airliners in the sky swayed, their cockpit instrument panels instantly turning pitch black.
Electronic devices across the entire East Coast were like being pressed with a shutdown button by an invisible hand, leaving only the sound of incessant car horns and pedestrians cursing.
"What is going on? Did Stark Industries' servers blow up?"
"I was only halfway through scrolling on Astral! Ares by Wolf King hasn't finished updating yet!"
As soon as the complaints started, everyone heard a deafening sound of breaking the air overhead.
Looking up, more than a dozen meteors dragging flames cut through the clouds, heavily smashing into the industrial area in the suburbs of New York, sending dust soaring into the sky.
As the dust cleared, several menacingly shaped giant robots slowly stood up.
The one in the very center had a withered and emaciated figure, covered all over in dark golden ancient armor, with eerie blue flames dancing in his eye sockets, and just standing there, he exuded a suffocating coercion.
It was none other than The Fallen.
He raised his withered finger, and Soundwave immediately received the command, injecting a cold mechanical voice into all electronic devices worldwide that were still operational through the communication channel:
"Humans, hand over Megatron and the allspark. Otherwise, seventy-two hours from now, the Cybertronarmy will trample this Planet flat."
As his voice fell, a harsh sound of metal collision came from the industrial area in the distance.
Several Decepticons in the form of engineering vehicles rolled and collided together, dismantling, reorganizing, and locking in place. In just over a dozen seconds, a ridiculously massive combiner robot stood up, which was Devastator.
He shook his head, and the excavator shovel on his chest slammed heavily onto the ground, vibrating the glass of the entire street with a buzzing sound.
Starscream followed behind The Fallen, his wings tucked away obediently, his waist bent by half, and a flattering smile piled on his face: "My Lord, rest assured, those spineless humans will obediently hand over the things once scared! Lord Megatron and the allspark will definitely be found back soon!"
Yet in his heart, he was frantically complaining: The old thing has finally arrived. If he didn't come, I would be eating sand in the desert until I rusted. It would be best if you charge ahead when the fighting starts; if we win, the credit is mine, and if we lose, I'll run first.
The Fallen glanced at him, didn't speak, and the fire in his eye sockets flickered.
Of course he didn't believe Starscream's nonsense, but right now the advance party had suffered heavy losses and it was a time when personnel were urgently needed, so he couldn't be bothered to argue with this fence-sitter.
"Have Devastator find and start the Sun Harvester." His voice was hoarse, carrying the harsh feeling of metal friction, "Also, go check the location of the Tomb of the Primes; the matrix of leadership must be obtained."
On the other side, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s underground command center was in complete chaos.
Fury stood in front of the big screen, his single eye staring at the dense Decepticons signals on it, his face so dark that it could drip ink.
Simmons paced back and forth nearby, muttering incessantly: "It's over, it's over, NBE-1's accomplices have come knocking! Such a huge robot, how do we fight it? Sector Seven's firepower is simply not enough!"
"What are you arguing about?" Fury scolded without turning his head, his gaze sweeping across the corner, and his tone softened slightly, "Captain Rogers, you probably understand the situation by now."
Standing in the corner was a man wearing an old-style military uniform, with blonde hair, broad shoulders, a narrow waist, and grasping a signature Vibranium shield in his hand, his facial expression being nothing short of bewildered.
Steve Rogers, also known as Captain America, had just been dug out of the ice of the Arctic Ocean three hours ago.
Just waking up, he was still wondering why the ward was so advanced, when the next second he was dragged into the command center, met face-to-face with the critical hit of alien robots invading Earth, a giant combiner robot, and global electronic equipment paralysis.
He had slept for seventy years, and waking up, not only had the World changed, but even aliens had popped up?
"I..." He cleared his throat, looking at the multi-story-high Devastator on the screen, his fingertips tightening slightly, "I need a strike team. No matter what the enemy is, invading Earth is something we cannot tolerate."
Fury nodded, but sighed in his heart.
Captain America was capable of fighting, but the opposite side was a dozen-meter-tall alien metal lump, and relying solely on a shield won't work.
He only hoped that Tony's side could be more reliable this time, and not be like last time, making solemn promises with his mouth while secretly making moves behind the scenes.
Meanwhile, in the underground Base in the suburbs, the alarm was wailing.
Tony squatted in front of the console, his fingers typing rapidly on the keyboard, cursing: "Damn Soundwave, how dare you hack my system? Do you think Stark Industries' firewall is made of paper?"
The screen next to him flashed three times and finally lit up again, with dense lines of code jumping on it, which was reverse-tracking Soundwave's location.
Ironhide stood behind him, his main cannon already loaded, speaking in a muffled voice: "What's with all the nagging, just rush out and blast it to pieces with one cannon shot. What kind of ability is it to hide in the Base?"
"What do you know." Tony rolled his eyes, "If we rush out now, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s reconnaissance plane will immediately be able to take pictures of us. By then Fury will come everyday to freeload technology, and it will be annoying to death."
Logan leaned against the pillar, biting an unlit cigar, spinning a lighter with his fingertips, his expression turning a rare few shades more serious.
When he heard the five words Sun Harvester just now, he knew things weren't right.
The Fallen was no ordinary Decepticon; this old guy was aiming to drain the Sun's energy. If he were really allowed to start the Sun Harvester, the entire solar system would suffer.
And the key to starting that thing was the matrix of leadership.
That thing was currently lying in the Tomb of the Primes under the Pyramid of Giza in Egypt.
"Stop arguing." He spoke, his voice not loud, but it instantly silenced the noisy Base, "The Fallen isn't here for Megatron and the allspark; that's a smokescreen. What he's really looking for is the matrix of leadership."
Optimus Prime suddenly turned his head, his optical lenses suddenly contracting: "The matrix of leadership? How do you know about this? That is Cybertron's oldest secret; even I have only seen fragments of it in ancient texts."
"Found out by accident." Logan glossed over it vaguely, as he couldn't possibly say he knew it from watching a movie, "Right under the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, it's the Tomb of the Primes. To start the Sun Harvester, The Fallenmust use the matrix of leadership as the key. If you let him get his hands on it, the Sun will be sucked dry by him."
Optimus Prime was silent for two seconds.
He indeed had doubts in his heart about how Logan, a human, could know the secrets of Cybertron's ancient era.
But now was not the time to dwell on this; once the matrix of leadership fell into the hands of The Fallen, the consequences would be unimaginable.
"I will lead a team to Egypt." He immediately made a decision, his voice steady, "Ironhide, Sideswipe, Grimlock, Arcee triplets, come with me. Jazz, Ratchet, Dr. Q stay behind at the Base to assist Tony in stabilizing the ground defense line."
"Wait." Logan raised his hand to stop him, "Over in Egypt, we definitely aren't the only ones watching; The Fallenmust have sent people over too. It's too slow for you to drive there; by the time you arrive, everything will be over. I'm going to find a helper who has space-jumping ability and can send you directly there, making subsequent support fast too."
"Space jumping?" Tony raised an eyebrow, "Earth has this kind of figure? How come I don't know."
"An old antique, sleeping in a museum." Logan smiled, patted Dr. Q on the shoulder, "Help me get a little energy from the allspark and put it in a portable container. I have a use for it."
Dr. Q nodded, his monocle flashing, and turned to go to the allspark chamber.
Optimus Prime looked at Logan's back, his brow slightly furrowed.
He always felt that this human ally harbored too many secrets, from accurately locating the allspark at the very beginning to casually stating the coordinates of the Tomb of the Primes now, every single thing reeked of something wrong.
But he could sense that Logan had no malicious intent.
"I hope everything goes smoothly." He said in a low voice and turned around to reorganize the team.
Logan pocketed the metal box filled with allspark energy, drove the camaro transformed by Bumblebee, and headed straight for the National Air and Space Museum in Washington.
The electronic paralysis had not fully recovered yet, and the road was jammed solid, so he simply had Bumblebeetake a shortcut, crashing blindly into the museum's backyard.
"Wait here, don't blow your cover." Logan jumped out of the car, patted the roof, "If anyone comes over, just act like a normal exhibit."
Bumblebee's headlights flashed, which counted as agreeing.
The museum was empty, tourists had long been evacuated due to the electronic failure, leaving only a few security guards chatting idly at the entrance.
Logan skirted around to the side door, casually twisted the lock off with a magnetic field, and slipped in silently.
Deep inside the exhibition hall, a black SR-71 Blackbird reconnaissance plane quietly parked on the display stand, its fuselage covered with a light layer of dust, looking no different from ordinary antique exhibits.
But as soon as Logan approached, he could feel the faint energy fluctuation inside the fuselage; having slept for decades, it still carries an ancient sense of heaviness.
Jetfire, former second-in-command to The Fallen, an elder-class Autobot who later defected from the Decepticons.
"Wake up, old buddy." Logan walked over to the wing, attached the metal box containing the allspark energy to the side of the fuselage, "Stop sleeping, your former boss has come knocking; if you keep sleeping, Earth is going to be torn apart by him."
The energy of the allspark spread along the fuselage, and the originally dormant metal shell trembled slightly.
The next second, the entire Blackbird fighter jet emitted a dull hum, and the clicking sounds of gears turning, parts dismantling, and reorganizing sounded one after another.
A huge robot propped up its body, shook its head, its optical lenses flashed twice, and then slowly focused on the human in front of it.
He was extremely tall, a circle sturdier than Ironhide, covered all over in ancient dark-black armor, with the energy core on his chest glowing with a dim red light, looking somewhat weathered, but his temper was not small at all.
"Which little brat is disturbing my sleep?" His voice was hoarse, carrying the stuttering feeling of old-fashioned machinery, looking down and glaring at Logan, "allsparkenergy? Where did you get that from? Where is that old bastard The Fallen?"
A series of questions smashed down like a machine gun.
Logan raised an eyebrow, not rushing to answer, but instead leaning against the nearby display rack: "Good thing you're awake. The Fallen is on Earth right now, bringing a bunch of Decepticons, and getting ready to start the Sun Harvester to drain the Sun dry. I remember you old fellow fell out with him back then precisely because you opposed this matter?"
Jetfire's optical lenses suddenly lit up, and the energy core on his chest even jumped: "That old thing actually dares to come? The Sun Harvester? He's crazy!"
"He doesn't just dare to come." Logan shrugged, "He's just missing the matrix of leadership to start the machine. I know where the matrix of leadership is, and I have people heading over, but we lack someone who can travel quickly. If you are willing to help, let's go to Egypt right now and teach that old thing a lesson."
Jetfire was silent for two seconds, lowering his head to size Logan up twice.
A human knowing the allspark, knowing the matrix of leadership, and even knowing the old grudge between him and The Fallen.
A bit eerie.
But the matter of The Fallen wanting to start the SunHarvester left him no room for hesitation.
Back then he defected precisely because he opposed such indiscriminate slaughter, and now that the old thing had come knocking, he had no reason to hide.
"Fine!" He agreed in a muffled voice, moving his joints and making clicking sounds, "I've been sleeping for nearly a hundred years, just right to stretch my muscles!"
Saying that, he was about to transform, but Logan was quick-witted and hurriedly stopped him: "Wait, wait, wait, wait! Not here! This is a museum! If you transform, the roof will be blown off! Let's go outside first!"
Jetfire froze for a moment, looked down at the surrounding glass display cases and ceiling, and scratched his head somewhat sheepishly: "Oh, I forgot. Slept too long, didn't pay attention to the place."
He strode towards the outside of the museum, his heavy soles stepping on the floor and vibrating the dust down in a flurry.
Passing by a huge floor-to-ceiling mirror, he even stopped to check his armor and muttered: "Tsk, I've rusted from sleeping too long. After dealing with The Fallen, I'll need to polish up properly."
Logan followed behind, almost laughing out loud.
This old urchin's temperament was exactly the same as in the movie.
As soon as the two walked to the backyard, Bumblebee's headlights flashed, and he vigilantly raised his cannon barrel.
He sensed the ancient Decepticon energy fluctuation.
"Our own people." Logan raised his hand to hold down Bumblebee's cannon muzzle, "Jetfire, elder-class, our ally."
Jetfire lowered his head to eye Bumblebee, his optical lenses flashing: "Oh? The Autobots are here too? Not bad, not bad."
Saying that, he knelt on one knee and opened the cockpit behind him: "Get on, kid, sit tight. My space jump is a bit shaky; if you vomit on me, I won't let you off."
Logan smiled and vaulted in.
"Go to the suburban Base first to pick up Optimus Primeand the others." He patted the cockpit wall, "Then head straight to Giza, Egypt. We must get the matrix of leadership before The Fallen."
"Sit tight!"
As Jetfire's voice fell, the fuselage violently vibrated, the engine emitted a deep roar, and it shot straight into the clouds.
The instant it broke through the clouds, space rippled with distortion, and the black fighter jet instantly vanished into the horizon.
On the ground, Bumblebee watched the disappearing light spot, his headlights flashed, and he transformed back into the camaro, driving leisurely back to the Base.
Anyway, the big shots were going to fight, so he just needed to guard home.
Meanwhile in Giza, Egypt, in the desert near the pyramids, several Decepticon figures had already quietly crept over.
Leading them was Starscream.
He was carrying out The Fallen's order to find the Tomb of the Primes, and he was a hundred times reluctant in his heart.
Why should he be the one to do such unrewarding work? But he didn't dare to disobey The Fallen, so he could only dawdle and lead people wandering blindly in the desert, under the fine name of precise investigation.
"A bunch of trash, taking forever just to find a tomb." He kicked the sand near his feet, plotting in his heart that when they really found the tomb later, he would let his subordinates rush in to scout the way first, and if there was danger, he would be the first to run.
What he didn't know was that hundreds of kilometers away in the sky, a black fighter jet was tearing through space, rapidly approaching Giza.
A good show centered around the matrix of leadership was about to begin.
Chapter 86: Killing The Fallen
The black fighter jet cut across a distorted spatial ripple, landing steadily on the tarmac of the underground Base, shaking the ground dust down in a flurry.
As Jetfire landed, he transformed into humanoid form, flexed his stiff joints, and looked up to see Optimus Primewalking towards him.
The moment their gazes met, Jetfire's optical lenses suddenly brightened by several degrees, taking half a step forward with a hint of incredulous huskiness in his voice: "A Prime? A new Prime?"
Optimus Prime nodded slightly, his tone solemn: "Optimus Prime, current leader of the Autobots. Elder Jetfire, I've heard a lot about you."
"Bah, what Elder or no Elder." Jetfire waved his hand, his armor clashing with a muffled sound, speaking casually while his eyes held a trace of gratification, "Back when Cybertron fell, I thought the Prime bloodline was cut off. I didn't expect to see a new leader. Alright, with a kid like you around, that old bastard The Fallen won't be jumping around for many more days."
As he spoke, he patted his chest, making a clanking sound: "Stop dawdling, get on quickly. The Decepticons have probably already sneaked over to Egypt. A step too late, and the matrix of leadership will fall into that old bastard's hands."
Optimus Prime didn't waste words, turning to signal Ironhide, Grimlock, Sideswipe, and the three Arcee sisters to follow.
The six Autobots transformed one by one, turning into a convoy parked behind Jetfire.
"Sit tight everyone!" Jetfire shouted loudly, transforming back into the Blackbird fighter jet as its engines roared straight into the sky, "Space jump initiated—if you get motion sickness and vomit, I'm not responsible for cleaning it up!"
Sitting in the cockpit, Logan felt his vision blur sharply, the surrounding clouds instantly twisting into light bands, and a strong sense of weightlessness vanishing in an instant. He rubbed his brow and complained, "Your jump is shakier than a roller coaster. When you defected back then, you weren't vomiting all the way while running, were you?"
"What does a little brat like you know." Jetfire's voice came through the communicator with a hint of defiance, "This is Cybertron's top spatial technology, the smoothness is already considered good! If you let that kid Starscream do it, he could toss you right into outer space!"
While speaking, the fighter jet suddenly sank, breaking out of the spatial folds. Below was an endless golden sea of sand, with several pyramids standing quietly under the scorching sun, ancient and heavy.
"We've arrived." Jetfire lowered his fuselage, landing slowly behind the sand dune, "Ahead is the Great Pyramid of Giza, and the Elder's tomb is directly below. But I've sensed energy signals from the Decepticons, and there are quite a few of them."
Logan pushed open the cabin door and jumped down, raising a hand to shade his eyes as he looked into the distance.
Sure enough, behind the sand dune to the left of the pyramid, several ferocious metallic figures were swaying back and forth.
The silver-gray fighter jet form at the lead was particularly eye-catching, and it was none other than Starscream.
This guy was standing on the sand dune with his hands on his hips, gesticulating at his subordinate Decepticons, his optical lenses sweeping across every inch of the sand dune as he cursed angrily: "A bunch of trash! It takes you forever just to find a tomb entrance! If Lord The Fallen blames us, who among you can take the responsibility?"
Yet in his heart, he was beating wildly: Who knows what mechanisms are in this tomb, can an Elder's tomb have any good stuff? Later when we find the entrance, I'll let these few idiots rush in first to scout the path. If there's real danger, I'll retreat immediately; anyway, when the sky falls, the tall ones will hold it up.
As he was calculating, a deafening engine roar suddenly came from behind him.
Starscream turned his head sharply, his pupils constricting: "Autobots?! Why are they here?!"
The ones who arrived were none other than Optimus Prime and his group.
The six vehicles slammed on their brakes, their tires leaving deep marks on the sandy ground, and instantly transformed to stand in a row.
Optimus Prime, wielding his energon axe, stepped forward, his voice like a booming bell: "Decepticons, leave Earth! This is not a place for you to run wild!"
"Optimus Prime?" Starscream's heart skipped a beat, but he put up a tough front verbally, "Just with the few of you? You dare block me? Attack! Tear them apart!"
The several Decepticons behind him howled and rushed forward, the two sides colliding instantly, and the loud crash of metal shaking the sand dunes.
Ironhide took the lead, his arm energy cannons fully open, and the light blue energy beams blasted against the armor of the Decepticons rushing towards him, exploding with flying sparks.
While firing, he cursed in a muffled voice: "Is that all the skill you have?"
Grimlock was even more direct, carrying dual main cannons on his shoulder and firing a salvo right into the crowd, blowing dust all over the sky and forcefully blasting a gap in the Decepticons' charging formation.
Sideswipe transformed into a silver-white afterimage, shuttling through the gaps of the battlefield, his energon blades flashing with cold light, inevitably kicking up a string of metallic debris wherever he passed.
The three Arcee sisters split into three directions to maneuver, their guerrilla cannons hitting precisely at the joint connections of the Decepticons, making their movements stutter.
Starscream stood in the back, watching his subordinates retreat step by step, cursing them in his heart as a bunch of trash.
He feigned raising his hand to command, but his footsteps quietly moved backward, having already prepared to slip away if things went south.
While the fighting here was in full swing, Logan had long since used the cover of the dust to detour to the side of the Great Pyramid.
He remembered clearly that the entrance to the Elder's tomb was hidden behind the rock wall on the north side of the pyramid, sealed by a layer of camouflaged sand and stone.
"This is it." Logan stopped, raising his fingertips slightly, and an invisible magnetic field spread along the rock wall, precisely finding that hollow stone wall.
He didn't stand on ceremony either, suddenly clenching his five fingers.
"Click—"
The heavy rock wall was instantly twisted into pieces by the magnetic force, and the stones rolled down in a flurry, revealing a pitch-black cave entrance that emitted ancient and faint energy fluctuations.
Logan patted the dust off his hands and stepped inside.
The tomb passage was deep and narrow, with the walls carved full of ancient Cybertronian patterns, extending downwards for dozens of meters, ending in a spacious stone room.
On the stone platform in the center of the stone room quietly lay a hollow metal dagger with a rustic design, glowing with blue light in the center.
"It really is here." Logan walked over, reaching out to pick up the matrix of leadership.
It felt slightly cool to the touch, its energy warm, mellow and heavy, with no signs of sanding or dissipating at all.
Logan raised an eyebrow.
When Sam got his hands on it in the original plot, this thing directly turned to ash and had to rely on the protagonist halo to recover.
How come in his hands, it was completely intact?
Could it be because he was the chosen one?
He weighed the matrix of leadership in his hand, having no time to delve deeper.
Outside, the fighting was clanging loudly, and if he dawdled any longer, Ironhide and the others would probably finish fighting.
"Let's go."
Logan pocketed the matrix of leadership and turned to walk quickly out of the tomb.
The outside battle had already shown a one-sided trend.
Several Decepticon grunts were beaten to pieces by the Autobots, with broken arms and legs thrown all over the ground.
Seeing that things were wrong, Starscream had long since stealthily transformed into a fighter jet, hovering mid-air, ready to run away at any time.
Just at this moment, Logan walked out from behind the pyramid.
He raised his hand and snapped his fingers, and a light blue magnetic field instantly expanded outward with him as the center.
"Hum—"
The air seemed to freeze for a split second.
The remaining few Decepticons still putting up a stubborn resistance suddenly froze in their movements, their joints emitting unbearable metal friction sounds, as if they were tightly gripped by an invisible giant hand, unable to even lift an arm.
"What is this?!" a Decepticon roared in terror, trying his best to struggle, but the magnetic force was omnipresent, drilling into every mechanical gap, wrapping around every screw, tightening more and more.
With Alpha-level magnetism fully open, let alone these few ordinary Decepticons, even someone of The Fallen's level would be pinned in place and unable to move.
"What are you standing there for?" Logan tilted his head and shouted to Optimus Prime, "Quick resolution, don't waste time. Devastator is probably about to dismantle the pyramid."
"Understood!"
Optimus Prime responded and moved, his energon axe carrying a cold light that cut through the air, with a single wave splitting and shattering the energy core of the Decepticon in front of him.
Ironhide and Grimlock also followed closely by opening fire, their energy cannons accurately hitting the pinned targets, explosions sounding one after another, and dust soaring into the sky.
Starscream in mid-air watched with his eye corners twitching continuously.
My goodness, what kind of monster is this human? He can actually manipulate metal?!
Not daring to stay a single second longer, he immediately turned the fighter's nose, engines at full throttle, and fled far away without looking back, not even caring to report to The Fallen—save his own life first!
"Tsk, he ran again." Logan looked at the distant sky where Starscream disappeared, and sighed, "This skill of running for one's life is truly top-notch."
Just as they finished tidying up the grunts, a heaven-shaking loud noise suddenly came from the distance.
Everyone turned to look, and saw that the outermost pyramid was slowly collapsing.
The giant combinable Devastator clung to the pyramid, his excavation shovel frantically digging through sand and stone, with large chunks of rock falling down from the pyramid body.
Not long after, a gigantic machine with a ferocious design slowly revealed itself, its muzzle pointing straight at the sky. It was precisely the Sun Harvester.
"Not good!" Optimus Prime's expression sank. "He's going to activate the machine!"
Before his voice fell, a distorted spatial rift suddenly exploded in front of everyone.
A dark golden figure slowly walked out from the rift, with an emaciated form and glowing blue eye-fire. It was none other than The Fallen.
His gaze instantly locked onto the matrix of leadership in Logan's hand, the fire in his eye sockets suddenly surging. His voice was hoarse yet carried a bone-chilling coldness: "Human... hand over the matrix of leadership."
The moment the words fell, an invisible gravitational field abruptly pressed down.
"Bang——"
The ground instantly caved into a large pit, and the sand and stones were crushed to pieces by gravity, turning into fine dust.
The surrounding Autobots all let out a muffled grunt simultaneously, their figures suddenly sinking downwards. Ironhide even knelt on one knee, his armor emitting an unbearable creaking sound.
Gravity manipulation—this was precisely The Fallen's ability.
"This is somewhat interesting." Logan stood in the center of the gravitational field, yet his figure remained completely motionless. A light blue magnetic field lingered around his body, forcefully resisting the downward-pressing gravity. "Old thing, is this all your ability amounts to? How dare you come to Earth to run amok?"
"Ignorant human." The Fallen let out a cold snort, his emaciated fingers suddenly clenching as the gravity instantly doubled. "Mere magnetism, and you dare to contend with me?"
"Who is strong and who is weak, we'll only know after trying."
Logan's gaze turned sharp, his right hand pushing forward.
The majestic magnetic field erupted with a roar, fiercely colliding with The Fallen's gravitational field.
"Boom——!!!"
The two invisible forces clashed in mid-air, distorting space into wrinkles.
Taking the two of them as the center, the ground cracked layer by layer, and sand and stones were whipped into a frenzy across the sky, forming a massive dust tornado.
Logan took a step forward, his magnetic power climbing once more. The light blue glow grew increasingly intense, even spreading along the ground, suspending all the scattered metal fragments around and turning them into a dense metal rain that roared towards The Fallen.
The Fallen's eye-fire jumped, and he raised his hand to deploy a gravity barrier.
The metal rain smashed against the barrier, producing crisp cracking sounds as all of it was deflected away.
However, his gravity barrier also shook accordingly, and the downward-pressing force weakened by a fraction.
"Impossible!" The Fallen let out an involuntary low roar. "How could a human possibly possess such strong power?!"
Having lived for millions of years and seen countless Cybertronian powerhouses, he had never seen any human able to hard-withstand his gravitational field, let alone launch a counterattack!
"There are plenty of things you haven't seen." Logansneered, simultaneously lifting his left hand to apply force from both sides. Magnetic force pressed toward The Fallenfrom all directions at once. "Old thing, are you pulling rank here?"
Just at the moment the two were in a stalemate, two figures rushed up simultaneously from left and right.
"Eat this blast of mine!" Ironhide roared, his main cannon energy charged to the absolute limit as he fiercely bombarded The Fallen's flank.
"The Fallen, your opponent is us!" Optimus Prime raised his energon axe high, leaping forward and bringing it down towards the opponent's head with overwhelming force.
Attacked from both front and rear, and tightly constrained by the magnetic force, The Fallen was instantly thrown into a fluster.
He barely managed to dodge Optimus Prime's axe with a sideways move, but failed to evade Ironhide's energy cannon, and his shoulder armor was blasted into a large pit.
"Dammit!" The Fallen cursed furiously, his eye-fire jumping wildly.
He hadn't expected that a mere group of Autobots plus a human could actually push him to this extent.
If this kept up, let alone getting the matrix of leadership, he would end up broken right here himself.
While there is life, there is hope!
He immediately wanted to activate spatial jumping to run away, withdrawing first to discuss matters at length later.
But just as he mobilized spatial energy, the magnetic force around his body suddenly surged several-fold, wrapping tightly around his limbs like an airtight iron net.
"Want to run?" Logan's gaze turned cold, the blue light around him so piercing that people couldn't open their eyes. "Did you ask me first?"
His hands violently twisted.
"Crack——Crack——!!!"
Harsh metal-breaking sounds rang out successively.
Under the extreme magnetic distortion, The Fallen's arms and legs were forcefully twisted into the shape of a pretzel, the armor at the joints completely shattering, with wires and parts scattered all over the ground.
"Ah——!!" The Fallen let out a shrill and miserable scream, his massive body heavily slamming onto the sandy ground, kicking up a sky full of sand and dust.
The fire in his eye sockets flickered frantically, carrying incredible terror and malice: "You... just what kind of person are you..."
"The person taking you down."
Logan walked over slowly, his right hand lifting slightly.
A condensed grayish-white airflow transformed into a sharp blade, precisely piercing through The Fallen's energy core.
The glowing blue eye-fire flickered a few times abruptly, then completely dimmed down.
This Cybertronian Elder who had lived for tens of thousands of years thus fell right here in the Egyptian desert.
The battlefield instantly quieted down.
Ironhide shook his still somewhat dazed head, looking at the remains of The Fallen on the ground, then looking at Logan, before finally squeezing out a sentence after a long while: "...You brat, you're even fiercer than Optimus Prime."
Jetfire walked forward, patting Logan on the shoulder with a force so great it almost slapped him down: "Not bad, kid! You've got some moves! Much stronger than that bunch of Cybertronian Elders back then! As expected, this old man didn't misjudge you!"
Optimus Prime walked up, his tone solemn: "Logan, thank you. You have saved Earth once again, and you've also saved the Autobots."
"Don't stand on ceremony." Logan waved his hand, tossing the matrix of leadership to him. "Keep this thing, it's more useful with you than in my hands. That's right, where is Devastator? Just now I was too busy fighting the old thing and didn't pay attention to him."
"After that guy finished demolishing the pyramid and saw that The Fallen was dead, he was so scared he directly disassembled and ran away." Sideswipe wiped the debris off his energon blade and smiled as he took over the conversation, "Running faster than a rabbit, couldn't be stopped no matter what."
Logan raised an eyebrow, not particularly surprised.
Devastator was originally a combination assembled from several Constructicons anyway, lacking any brains; it was completely normal for him to run away once the boss died.
"Alright, pack up and get ready to head back." Loganpatted the dust off his hands. "The remaining stragglers can be handled by S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Military."
And indeed that was the case.
Having lost The Fallen's command, the remaining Decepticons were left without a leader, plunging into complete chaos.
Sector Seven, S.H.I.E.L.D., and the Military joined forces to surround and intercept the scattered, fleeing Decepticons.
Captain America led the assault team charging at the very front, his Vibranium shield smashing minor Decepticons' parts flying everywhere. His fighting style was fierce and decisive, forcefully carving out his own presence amidst a pile of heavy weapons.
Simmons stood inside the command vehicle, looking at the retreating Decepticons on the screen, so excited he was dancing around: "We won! We won! The alien invaders have been repelled! Sector Seven has rendered a great service!"
Fury stood to the side, his single eye staring at the blurry footage transmitted from the Egyptian desert on the screen.
He saw it clearly—that light blue energy field, as well as the gravity domain that collapsed in an instant.
However, he didn't point it out either.
For some matters, tacit understanding was enough.
As for Soundwave, who had been hiding in the satellite the entire time, he didn't even show his face from start to finish.
Watching The Fallen die and the Decepticons rout, he silently cut off all communications, hiding deep within orbit without leaving even a trace of energy fluctuation.
It was cunning beyond words.
That evening, everyone returned to the New Yorkunderground Base.
Tony had been waiting at the Base entrance for a long time. The moment he saw Logan, he rushed over hollering noisily: "Not bad, Logan! Sneaking off to Egypt to single-handedly fight The Fallen without bringing me along! If I hadn't been remotely monitoring the energy fluctuations, I wouldn't have even known you finished the job!"
"Bring you along?" Logan raised an eyebrow. "Who would stay behind to guard the Base if I brought you? Besides, your mark x hasn't undergone actual combat testing yet. If a real fight breaks out, don't let it fall apart at the slightest touch."
"Nonsense!" Tony bristled, "My armor is super sturdy! It's ten times stronger than Ironhide's old armor!"
"Who did you say is old?!" Ironhide immediately glared.
Well, these two tech geeks were about to start arguing again.
Jetfire walked over, patting Logan on the shoulder with a force so great it almost slapped him down: "Not bad, kid! You've got some moves! Much stronger than that bunch of Cybertronian Elders back then! As expected, this old man didn't misjudge you!"
The Base instantly became noisy and rowdy.
Chapter 87 Nationwide Carnival
Jetfire was patting Ironhide's shoulder and excitedly chattering about the old days of Cybertron's golden age, from the pedantry of the Prime Council to the absurdity of the Decepticons' early uprising. Skids and Mudflap were chasing and wrestling at their feet, almost knocking over an energon supply crate, before Ratchet grabbed them by the back of their necks one by one and tossed them into a corner.
Tony squatted by the workbench, putting his head together with Dr. Q to argue over the energy conversion rate of the magnetic field amplifier. The two argued until their faces were red, not even noticing when Ironhide walked over.
Just then, the detection screen in the central hall suddenly lit up with a light green friendly identification signal. Jazz leaned against the console and let out a whistle: "Yo, more companions have come looking for us, and the signal is quite strong—three of them."
As soon as the voice fell, three deafening sonic booms rang out above the Base, shaking the dust on the top floor down in a shower.
Three vehicles of different shapes drove over and landed steadily on the landing pad.
At the very front was an army-green heavy tactical truck, its body welded full of external armor and cannon barrels, looking fully loaded with firepower.
The truck door popped open with a click, and the body disassembled and reassembled. A stout and sturdy Autobot stood up, biting on a spark-emitting energon cigar. His booming voice was even louder than Ironhide's: "Where is Optimus Prime? Hound reporting for duty!"
Beside him was a silver-and-black Bugatti Veyron. After transforming, his figure was slender and neat, with two katanas strapped to his back and a stern faceplate. After landing, he only nodded slightly and spoke concisely: "Drift."
The last green Corvette Stingray was the flashiest. After transforming, he spun three energon darts on his fingertips, let out a brisk whistle, and swept his gaze casually across the area: "Cross. I heard Earth is quite lively, so I came to join in the fun."
Optimus Prime walked up quickly, opened his arms, and tapped shoulder pauldrons with the three of them in turn: "Welcome home, brothers."
Logan leaned against the pillar in the corridor, watching the commotion, and clicked his tongue in his heart.
Hound, Drift, and Cross had all arrived.
Counting Optimus Prime, Ironhide, Jazz, Ratchet, Bumblebee, the three Arcee sisters, Sideswipe, Skids and Mudflap, Grimlock, Dr. Q, Brains, Topspin, and Jetfire at the veteran level, aside from those two old fossils squatting far away in a British castle, practically all the Autobots from the previous movies had gathered.
This lineup was much more luxurious than the miserable few people in the original plot. In a few months, when Lokibrought the Chitauri over, he would definitely give these alien fodder psychological trauma.
"What are you looking at?" Tony strolled over at some point, following his gaze toward the landing pad. "The three new guys look quite capable. Later on, let Ironhidespar with Hound. I bet Hound wins; he has more cannons."
"Don't go stirring up trouble." Logan gave him a shove. "Last time the two of them almost blew the testing ground flat, and Ratchet cursed for three days. If you instigate them again, he'll curse you out along with them."
Tony curled his lip, looking unconcerned: "We can just fix it if it blows up. Actual combat is the only standard for testing weapons."
Lively as it was, the hype outside was even crazier than inside the Base.
Ever since the news of the Decepticons' invasion and The Fallen's execution spread, the whole world had blown up like a frying pan.
As the hottest short-video app right now, the Astral platform directly became the main battlefield for netizen revelry, with eight out of the top ten trending topics related to this incident.
#CaptainAmericaIceSealedSeventyYearsFirstVictory# hung firmly at number one. In the video, Steve charged at the very front holding the Vibranium shield, and the footage of him smashing a small Decepticon flat with one shield strike was edited repeatedly, paired with stirring old Militarymusic that made people's blood boil. The comment section was filled with "Grandpa, the idol you followed has made a comeback" and "Seventy years and still this capable of fighting." Some even dug out old World War II posters to compare with current screenshots, exclaiming that "Time never defeats a hero."
Consequently, a bunch of accounts on Astral popularizing World War II history and explaining serum experiments gained a wave of followers. After Captain America himself found out, he specially registered an account, and his first video was holding his shield and saying, "Thank you everyone for your concern, I am doing well, and Earth is safe." Within ten minutes of going online, his followers broke one million, crashing the server once again.
Following closely behind was #WolverineWringsApartAlienMechaWithOneHand#. Someone clipped footage from fuzzy leaked Militaryfootage showing Logan using magnetic force to snap off The Fallen's limbs. Although the image quality was as crappy as a mosaic, it didn't hinder netizens from letting their imaginations run wild in the slightest.
There were all sorts of tricks: Photoshoppers, video remixers, and essay writers.
The most popular meme photoshopped the scene of the two clashing energy beams into an arm-wrestling match downstairs in a residential area, with the caption: "Senior Group Finals, The Fallen Narrowly Defeated," making Logan so angry he almost threw his phone.
"What senior group? Can you even speak?" He rolled his eyes at the screen and casually liked Ares's latest frisbee-fetching video.
Geez, his own popularity wasn't even as high as his own dog's.
Ares's title of "Wolf King" had completely gone mainstream now. Anything he posted of his daily life could get hundreds of thousands of likes, and the comment section was full of people lining up to dognap him. Some even started a "Wolf King Daily Fortune," which was quite vivid.
When Jessica came in, she just happened to see Loganlooking at his phone, torn between laughter and tears.
She threw a stack of files onto the coffee table, flopped down onto the sofa, picked up the iced cola on the table, and took a huge gulp: "Stop scrolling, boss, time to work. According to the report from the black market, Decepticon fragments are being scalped like crazy now. A fingernail-sized piece can sell for thirty thousand dollars, and there are unscrupulous merchants painting ordinary car sheet metal to pass it off. I've busted three counterfeit dens this week alone."
She complained and spread her hands: "As a private detective, I spend every day doing anti-counterfeiting work now. If my peers found out, they'd laugh at me. My salary has to go up, boss."
"It will go up, it definitely will." Logan smiled and picked up the files to flip through a couple of pages, which detailed recent black market transaction records and even clues about insiders from Sector Seven secretly leaking fragments. "Good job, your bonus is doubled. Keep an eye on it, and let me know anytime there are large transactions or unknown cash flows."
"You got it." Jessica snapped her fingers, her eyes lighting up. "Right, my account followers on Astral have already broken two hundred thousand, all thanks to posting anti-counterfeiting daily updates. Boss, do you want to get me an official verification?"
"Go find Anna to sort it out yourself." Logan waved his hand with a smile. "She handles that part."
While the civilian side was buzzing with noise, the official side wasn't idle either.
Sector Seven, S.H.I.E.L.D., and the Military carved up the Decepticon wreckage, bickering every day over some research data.
Simmons regarded the living Blackout as more important than his own life, eating and living in the laboratory at Hoover Dam, deathly afraid that people from S.H.I.E.L.D.would secretly come to extract intelligence from him.
Fury wasn't in a hurry either. While doing tai chi with Simmons, he had his subordinates work overtime for reverse engineering, producing prototypes of new alloy armor and small energy weapons in a short month.
When Tony received the news, he sneered dismissively: "At their progress, by the time they figure it out, the next wave of aliens will have already attacked."
Having said that, he turned around and dragged Ironhideand Dr. Q along to upgrade the Base's defense system three more times. Energy shields, automatic turrets, and jamming devices were all installed at once, terrified that the next invasion would come too abruptly.
Life went on like this lively and bustling.
There were fresh events in the Base every day: Hound and Ironhide compared firepower and collapsed half a rock wall, getting punished by Ratchet to repair the perimeter wall for a week; Jazz took a picture of the two old timers squatting by the wall laying bricks and posted it in the internal group, sending everyone into fits of laughter. Drift and Sideswipe compared swordsmanship, sparking up the training ground with twin swords against energy blades in fierce moves, until Sideswipe narrowly lost, losing half a box of energon cubes and having a dark face for three days. Cross had nothing to do and secretly registered an Astral account, showing first-person perspective disguised flying darts hitting targets from afar with astonishing accuracy, gaining a million followers in less than half a month and interacting daily with netizens with witty banter, more proficient than internet celebrities. Jetfire even pulled the three new old companions along to chat about Cybertron's old days, from elder gossip to past battles, chatting all night long and causing Skids and Mudflap in the neighboring dorm to suffer from insomnia every day, going to Ratchet with dark circles under their optics to ask for sleep-inducing energon cubes.
Astral's users were still growing like wildfire, and the financial report figures Anna delivered every day hit new highs.
Everyone was immersed in the joy of repelling the alien invaders, thinking this was already a colossal crisis and that peaceful days lay ahead from now on.
Every street and alley was chatting about alien robots, convenience stores started selling Decepticon-shaped toys, and movie theaters stayed up all night re-releasing old sci-fi films to packed houses.
Only Logan knew clearly that this was merely a rehearsal.
What was The Fallen? Megatron was also just a minor character.
In a few months, Loki would descend with the Tesseract, and the Chitauri fleet would pour into New York through the wormhole. That would be a true large-scale invasion.
However, he wasn't panicked at all now. With Tony's black technology as a foundation, a whole team of Autobots as combat strength, Jetfire as a mobile ace for spatial jumping, and his own superb Magnetic Field Manipulation, the Chitauri and Loki would have no way back once they came.
That evening, Logan stood at the highest point of the Base, looking at the neon-flashing New York City in the distance.
Optimus Prime walked slowly to his side, following his gaze toward the city's direction, his voice steady: "Worried about the next invasion?"
"A little." Logan didn't hide it from him, letting out a soft chuckle. "There are quite a few forces in the Universeeyeing Earth. After fighting The Fallen, there will be another batch. The next ones to come might be an entire fleet."
"The Autobots will guard this place together with you." Optimus Prime's tone was very solemn, the energy core on his chest glowing slightly. "Earth is our second home, and we will fight to the very last moment."
"I know." Logan nodded, turned his head, and smiled at him. "That's why I'm not panicked at all."
Just then, Tony's boisterous shouting came from below: "Logan! Optimus Prime! Come down quickly! The final version of the magnetic field amplifier is done! Hurry over and test its power!"
Logan and Optimus Prime exchanged a glance, both seeing smiles in each other's optics.