Deathsaurer

Super Robot Wars SL

Carbombya

Megatron's reckless plans had proven to be more successful than Brainwave was expecting.

"Are we done with your crazy mode now?" The Transtech clearly unhappy with the way this day was going.

"What are you complaining about, the idiots that tried the aerial ambush got totally sreamrolled and we managed to take out another helicopter that was trying to pick them up." Megatron boasted quite pleased with his success thus far.

"But their main military base?"

"I told you I had to be unpredictable or we were doomed."

Brainwave still wasn't buying this. "There is unpredictable and there is downright stupid. Guess what your last plan was. I hope your next one is an improvement."

"My next plan is to use holograms to distract them. Some with proximity bombs other with remote controlled weapons. While they're busy chasing ghosts we'll sneak into the city looking for a weak spot to hit."

"Well I certainly like this better than your last idea. I doubt it will take the overlord long to figure out what we're doing so we have to act fast."

Super Robot Wars SL

Carbombya: The Game is Afoot

"Well Mr Overlord as much as I've enjoy this conversations I suspect it is in our best interests not to stay here."

With that Brainwave and Megatron transformed into vehicle mode planning to run a series of hit and run ops until back up arrived. Realizing what they were planning to do the shoes started to scramble Carbombya's military assets, such as they were, as transport to catch the intruders.

"Rastun, we're going to keep them busy till you get back. Let me know when you're ready and I'll send you updated coordinates."

Just as Brainwave finished a helicopter carrying several Carbombyan soldiers flew into view. Several shoes attached to the soldiers detached to ambush the pair. Unfortunately for one of them they landed in front of Megatron who promptly ran it over leaving the cultist stunned. The remaining members of the unit opened fire upon them.

"Oh by the way, they have guns now."

Megatron realized there would be no way to gain the upper hand as long as the helicopter could see them. "Brainwave, you're going to have to shoot the helicopter down or they're just going to keep swarming us."

"Lovely..." It seemed avoiding casualties wasn't in the cards. The Transtech transformed jumping on the back end of Megatron's vehicle mode and took aim. "Let's hope we stop these guys here otherwise we're probably going to end up pissing off half the world by the time we're done." He then fired downing the aircraft not particularly caring if anyone escaped.

"Alright, we're going to keep going in this direction until we can't see the cultists anymore then we're going to double back and hit them provided no other aircraft spot us. After that we'll snipe at a military base to keep them off balance."

"These tactics seem a bit reckless for you Megatron."

"Yes, well, being reckless is our best option because it's not like me. If I behave like my usual self he's going to be able to predict my every move. Once he thinks I'm going to be totally reckless we'll switch back to my usual MO."

Brainwave couldn't help but think Megatron over complicating the situation. "Would this be a bad to to say I think you're losing it?" But the Predacon refused to respond.

Super Robot Wars SL

"Of course it can be tracked. I'm not trying to hide. I'll even tell you exactly where I am. That's how pointless your efforts are." The overlord continues his taunting.

"If you're so confident why the distortions of the projection?"

The Transtech's intent clear: try to get as much info as possible.

"It's all part of the game. The way I see it to you there are 2 possibilities for my identity. One of them you might have a chance against, the other means your doom. Do you feel lucky Transtech?"

Megatron was having none of this. "Oh please Tarantulas, who else could possibly have a grudge against me?"

The shadowy figure gave a light chuckle. "Why could Megatronus possibly be angry you tried to imitate him? What an absurd notion."

"I have his location. Seems he really doesn't care what we try to do but we're still going to need a distraction to get through the city."

"Just blow it up!" The Predacon's anger getting the better of him. "We don't have time for that stupid spiders silly games."

"Only as a last resort. We don't need to freak everyone out to the point that shoot at us on sight. Rastun, see if you can get someone to attack Carbombya so they can't throw everything at us. I'd try but after that mess with the Titans I don't expect anyone to actually listen to me."

Super Robot Wars SL

"Don't you think you have something a little more important to worry about at the moment? But hey, what do I know I'm only the shadowy dude that wants to destroy all of reality."

Things were turning out far more amusing than the overlord had dreamed.

"I agree with the crazy Unicron follower. This really isn't important right now. Besides it's not like he has access to our best tech. We're not stupid. He might be dangerous for Lowtechs but to us he's that guy that got beaten by sentient lab equipment that turned on him. Only potentially dangerous if he has a MacGuffin." Brainwave was getting seriously annoyed by this.

"Oh you guys have no damned idea what you're doing do you? This is hilarious. First you fall for scouting trap revealing all your powers to me, now this. This is almost as pathetic as this stupid country and I never get tired of laughing at Megatron. Please continue."

The trio needed to get their act together and fast or this guy was going to walk all over them.

Super Robot Wars SL

Carbombya: The Man Behind the Curtain

It was a harsh realization that it wasn't a simple Unicron artifact possessing people but a full blown Unicron cult in action. Empowered individuals are dangerous enough but a cult the size implied here doesn't act without one of Unicron's direct subordinates leading them. The question was who was it? The Blendtrons? Tarantulas? Megatronus? The last was the most worrying. It'd taken the most advanced Transtech weapons to drive off Liege Maximo, Megatronus would be impossible for them to defeat currently.

"We have to tread very cautiously. Depending who organized this cult we could be walking into a slaughter regardless of what tweaks I make to our weapons." The Transtech's tone made the seriousness of the situation clear.

Megatron however saw this as an all or nothing moment. The fate of reality would be decided here or so he thought. "Our best bet is to reveal the cults presence and get everyone to attack them at once. If we don't stop them here and now we probably won't stop them at all."

The mysterious individual continued to watch their plotting through the dead shoe curious to see just how far they were willing to go. After all their plans were ultimately pointless as there was precious little they could actually hope to do to stop what had been set in motion. Unicron was not something that could ever be fully destroyed, merely delayed. And all the fighting currently going on in this new mess of a reality was fueling the Chaos Bringer.

"I seriously doubt anyone is going to take shoeformers seriously enough to send a full invasion force Joe. The best we can hope for is fodder to distract the shoes long enough for us to find their leader. But it's certainly worth a try."

The overlord was amused by their desperation and decided to rub salt in the wound.

"You must realize there is nothing you can do. I've already won. If you wish to try you luck be my guest but you won't like the outcome."

The group was shocked to see a hologram being projected off the shoe's corpse. It was a shadowy apparition the only detail that could be discerned was his orange eyes. His voice too distorted to identify. The individual seemingly unconcerned with their plans.

Megatron laughed at the boasting. "Your arrogance will be your downfall." The Predacon's taunt laced with irony.

"I suppose you'd know something about that wouldn't you Megatron. But unlike you my plans actually work."

Megatron could barely contain his rage. This was personal now and he was going to rip Unicron's servant apart.

Super Robot Wars SL

"Ah wonderful, test subjects! This turned out better than expected though I'm curious why you'd deploy a mech that advanced when you can't get any support. In any event it's time to find out what these lunatics are up to."

Brainwave advanced on the disabled shoes drawing an energon scalpel to remove their data tracks for information.

"You've failed Transtech!" One of the shoes not quite as heavily damaged as the other 2 commented. Suddenly all 3 of them violently shuddered.

"Bah, I hate cultists. He triggered a group memory wipe. There is nothing we can retrieve from them."

"You, humans. How many of them are there?" The groups strategist demanded.

"We... we don't know exactly. All of our countries top leaders, the heads of the military, and every soldier we know have shoes enslaving them."

"This country is a joke, how big can their military possibly be? 2-3 hundred max?"

"Even then we've lost the element of surprise and their numbers are far larger than we can reasonably handle, yes. And that doesn't account for their overlord. Cultists this dimwitted can't have pulled this off by themselves, no."

"If they have an overlord he'll likely be immune to anything we can reasonably cook up currently. We'll need to be really clever about this." The scientist realizing this was far larger than he initially assumed.

"Well that is why you brought me along." Megatron's ego showing. "You'll need to increase our weapon output for this."

"I had hoped to avoid using technology any more advanced than we came with. Didn't want to risk it falling into the wrong hands. But this situation was completely unexpected. I thought they'd just have been poking some random MacGuffin or something."

"There likely isn't any value in trying to capture anyone else because the know what we were after now so we'll have to bait out their leader and defeat him. Hopefully ending this before it gets worse."

Brainwave didn't enjoy hearing what Megatron was saying but he had a point. The data would either be extra heavily encrypted slowing them down considerably and making them vulnerable to ambush or just outright deleted as soon as they were detected. Elsewhere I shadowy figure watched the conversation through the optics of the disabled shoes.

"Do you really think it will be that easy Megatron? Oh no, Unicron's plans are not so easily stopped." His maniacal laughter an ominous omen of what was to come.

Super Robot Wars SL

The Transtech scientist stared in disbelief. He'd heard rumors of such a thing but dismissed them because who the fuck would turn into a shoe? A shoe that doesn't even blend in at that. No, these guys can't hide for shit.

"I can't believe this is happening... I always assumed that was an April Fools joke by military intelligence. I honestly can't believe there are Cybertronians that turn into shoes... It's so outlandish."

"Well look at the bright side, at least they're going to be ti..." Before Megatron could finish his thoughts the shoes transformed, all of them mass shifting to a size slightly larger than Brainwave. "...ny. Well ignore me, clearly I know nothing."

All 12 members of the group carried the tell tale insignia of Unicron. Their outlandish appearance indicating they were nothing important, likely cultists that revere Unicron ridiculous as that may be.

"You're more advanced than we expected. Being able to identify us so quickly. How unfortunate for you."

The 6 soldiers previously held hostage by their footwear now free, well free as you can be in Carbombya.

"Help us! They promised us great power if we aided them but they enslaved our country..."

"Silence imbeciles or we will crush you."

Brainwave was slightly amused they thought anyone here cared about them.

"That doesn't sound like its my problem guys. I'm going to free you but not because I care. I'm going to do it because I hate Unicron."

The shoes didn't take that statement well. Insulting there god was sacrilege to them.

"How dare you... Lord Unicron is the greatest thing ever and he shall return everything to its natural form, nothing. Your chances of a quick and painless death are now 0."

Clearly these cultists were more deluded than the moron that thought The Socialist Democratic Federated Republic of Carbombya made sense.

"Do these morons actually think they're important?" Taunted the heavily armored Cybertronian hoping to provoke a fight to alleviate his boredom."

"It does seem that way Joe. As do all you serve Unicron until he eats them and they see the truth. Unicron sees everything the same, nothingness."

Unable to contain their rage the cultists charged the group, 4 attacking each member. Brainwave and Megatron quickly drew there weapons and opened fire leaving Rastun to fend for himself. Their concentrated fire slowed the charge long enough for Megatron to enguage his particle cannon and annihilate 2 of them in a single shot.

"It'd be nice if at least one of them was taken intact so I can examine their data tracks." Brainwave posited having destroyed a 3rd shoe himself.

Megatron not really taking heed of what Brainwave said quickly kicked another shoe over and unloaded on it with his arm mounted gun until it stopped moving. Sadly there wasn't much of anything important left as a result.

"Or we could just destroy them all. Finding out what they're doing isn't important or anything." The Transtech sarcastically added.

Of course he didn't have much room to talk as he gunned down another shoe leaving 3 for them to deal with. One of them had stealthily snuck into Brainwave's blind spot but his scanners managed to detect the incoming sneak attack hitting his would be attack with a high frequency sonic pulse making him stagger but not disabling them. Realizing he couldn't hold back he quickly gunned down the stunned enemy while dodging his last attacker. Megatron meanwhile was enjoying his heavy armor and strength giving him and edge of his last assailant punching him around like a toy for laughs. Impressively the shoe wouldn't go down. Not being designed for the combat necessary to disable the shoes Brainwave decided he had to destroy his last attacker and hope Rastun had better luck. While Megatron willingness to cooperate on the capture plan was questionable he was having no luck actually KOing his last shoe. Though Brainwave had no idea if that was because he was dicking around or the shoe was legitimately that tough. Megatron's last shoe managed to land a punch right to his face angering him and he quickly summoned his sword attempting to slice it in half but much like the guns it was clear it would take multiple hits so he hacked it until it stopped. Meanwhile Brainwave gunned his last shoe down looking over to Rastun to see if he had better luck disabling them.

Super Robot Wars SL

"That's cute and all but you don't know the history of this country."

"Yes, if they're involved with Unicron it was their choice at the start. They were quite happy to ally with the Decepticons, who I note would just as soon destroy Earth as enslave it, for gold and world monuments." Megs remided Rastun of their previous sellouts.

"But if it makes you feel better go ahead and scout. I warn you though if any of Unicrons servants are here that stealth system will be useless against them. It wasn't designed to defend against anything that advanced."

Before anything could be decided a small military unit pulled up to the trio.

"Identify yourselves and declare your intentions!"

Super Robot Wars SL

Outskirts of Carbombya: I'm telling you there really is a plot

"Ah Carbombya city, capital of stupidity. Let's see just how you're involved in this nonsense."

Pulling out is scanner the Transtech did preliminary scans.

"Hmm, Unicron related readings are indeed significatly more intense here than Autobot city, what a shock, but I can't localize anything that would cause it. A more in depth study will be required."

"The question is do we want to be subtle and grab a few civilians for study or blunt and just start breaking stuff until the cause reveals itself?"

"Rastun?" Both Cybertronians asked in unison.

Super Robot Wars SL

"Well of course I won't break anything. You're the only person thus far capable of understanding the stakes and thus willing to make the sacrifices needed."

Walking over to a work bench Brainwave quickly wired together an impromptu space bridge generator and cloaking system. After this was done he headed outside to install it in the Chronoframe. Slowly tapping his chest plate Megatron impatiently waited for this diversion to end as if saying bored now.

"Alright, now let's get this investigation started."

"Finally." Huffed Megatron.