The Matrix Arc, Chapter Two
Before this chapter, here's a quick TW for body horror. You have been warned.
Shockblast tried to open his eyes. Questions flooded his mind. Where was he? Why was he tied down? Where was Magnus? So many questions and yet none of them answered. He could hear the whirs of machinery, and, masked by that, the chatter of some robots. He couldn’t make anything out. He tried to open his mouth to call out to them but he found himself unable to. He could barely move. Not out of fear, no, Shockblast was always excellent under pressure. This was different. He heard footsteps approaching him and he didn’t know whether to be relieved or even more scared.
His dilemma was answered, however, when he heard the voice of his fellow senator, Decimus. “Look who’s finally awake…” Huh…?
Suddenly, Shockblast could see again, but his view wasn’t from his own eyes. Somehow, his sight was being broadcast from somewhere above himself in the space he found himself in. He recognized Decimus, standing over a table where Shockblast could see his own body, restrained down, with his head almost entirely disassembled. His eyes had been removed, as well as his helmet. He could see his own processor. As a scientist, he wasn’t unfamiliar with the sight, but seeing his own produced some visceral reaction that he couldn’t even process properly. The entire scene was baffling, to say the least. Shockblast tried to say something, but to no avail. Decimus reached out a hand and stroked Shockblast’s chin. Shockblast tried to move away but he couldn’t. He felt disgusted.
“Oh Shockblast, don’t try to move. It will only make it worse.” Decimus turned around and gestured for someone out of Shockblast’s view to come closer, to which Shockblast saw even more of his fellow senators enter the scene. Momus. Dezarus. Proteus. With each new member, Shockblast grew even more disgusted, and, quite possibly, enraged. He had no idea what was going on but he knew whatever it was couldn’t be good.
Perhaps the thing that scared Shockblast the most in this situation was the cold demeanor with which Decimus, who Shockblast knew for his kind tone and his helpfulness with Shockblast’s career as a senator. “Are you all ready for the show?” to which, the others in the room all muttered various words of agreement.
It was then that Shockblast heard a voice he hadn’t heard since his early days as Senator. One of the first things Shockblast had worked for was the imprisonment of the monster scientist Jhiaxus. Jhiaxus had been doing unethical experiments on other Cybertronians, and when Shockblast discovered this, he made sure he had been put away for life. But here he was. The large rust-orange body of Jhiaxus emerged from the darkness and stepped towards Shockblast’s body as the senators all stepped back.
The senators all offered torturous options for the mad scientist, but Jhiaxus disregarded this. His hands transformed themselves into needle-like implements as he descended on Shockblast’s head. He pulled out Shockblast’s emotion cortex and, still connected to the rest of the processor, Jhiaxus offered it towards the Senators. Decimus stepped forward, grabbed Shockblast’s emotion cortex, and looked up to where Shockblast’s view was streaming to, before crushing the cortex in his hand.
Shockblast felt a rush of every emotion he had ever felt magnified tenfold, and then, nothing at all. He watched as Jhiaxus continued to pull apart and modify his body four hours upon hours. He didn’t feel anything. He had no mouth, and he could not scream.
Shockblast would like to say he had lost track of time when a sudden barrage of blasts shook the room, but he had been doing nothing but counting time. He had watched Jhiaxus and the senators destroy any semblance of Shockblast, performing even outlawed procedures such as the empurata, twisting his body until he had become unrecognizable. At some point, Jhiaxus and the senators had stepped away from the operating table to discuss something out of earshot. It was during this period that Shockblast could hear a large metal door be blasted open and the senators panic as roughly 5… No, 6 sets of footsteps rushed in. He couldn’t see much from his fixed point of view, but he did see one abnormally large bot come up to his body, checking something on their wrist before ripping the straps off his body. The large bot tried to lift Shockblast’s body, before realizing the wires connected to his head. They called over someone called Sludge, and an even larger bot came over, carefully working to reassemble what remained of Shockblast’s head. Shockblast’s vision returned to his actual body, along with the ability to move it. In an instant, his body instinctively lashed out all the pent up movement from the course of the torture. The two larger bots stepped back and waited for Shockblast to calm down. When he regained control of his body, he sat up calmly and turned to the two bots who had freed him from his restraints. From this angle, he recognized them as the Dynobots Sludge and Strafe. He looked around the room and saw some of the other Dynobots battling it out with the senators. Jhiaxus was nowhere to be seen. The Dynobots, superior in size, strength, and combat experience, quickly overpowered the senators. With all the senators unconscious, the remaining Dynobots made their way over to Shockblast.
Grimlock, the leader of the Dynobots, offered Shockblast a hand as he got off the operating table. “Senator, sorry we’re late. The rust storm jammed our signal.”
Shockblast couldn’t respond.
“We’ve been ordered to follow any request you have from here on out that doesn’t conflict with our mission, but I recommend we get out of here before they wake up.” He said, gesturing back to the other senators.
Shockblast couldn’t respond.
“Alright, well, if you don’t start moving, I’ll just have Sludge carry you out.”
Shockblast began moving towards the exit without responding.
“Okay team, let’s get the hell out of here!” Grimlock rallied the other Dynobots and they all made their way out of the door they had blasted open and onto the jump ship that was waiting for them. Shockblast was the last one, and as it began to take off, he saw that one of the senators had woken up and was trying to call to the others. Shockblast was filled with a sensation that can only be described as emotionless rage. He grabbed a bomb off the wall of the ship, and hurled it into the building with strength he never would have thought possible of himself. Two of the Dynobots got up and rushed over to Shockblast, holding him back as the jump ship picked up speed. Shockblast watched, emotionless, as the bomb exploded inside the building, seemingly causing a chain reaction due to the decrepit nature of the place, causing the entire building to collapse in on itself and burst into flames as the Dynobots and Shockblast left the area.
The two that were holding Shockblast back let go after realizing that the senator had essentially gone limp, and the strike team just watched as the construct was destroyed.
A few hours of flight later, and the ship began to slow. Shockblast sat up from the floor and noticed something immediately. They were not in Iacon. Grimlock seemed to notice Shockblast’s observation, as he spoke on it.
“Yeah, sorry for not telling you sooner, Senator. But change of plans. Welcome to Tarn.”
Shockblast followed behind the Dynobots as they all exited the jump ship and stepped into the city. Darkness enveloped them along with the thunderous noise of thousands of Cybertronians going about their life around the mining town. The neon signs plastered across the buildings were nearly blinding, and the wind was harsh. Shockblast looked up and instantly recognized the insignia that Orion and Megatron had designed for the Ascenticon Party flying on a massive banner flowing high above the street. The Dynobots led Shockblast around and to a large building that almost resembled the grant capitol at Iacon, if not a dark reflection of it.
Inside, there was an antechamber filled with supplies in between large granite pillars, and in the main room sat a massive half-moon table, around which sat various faces that Shockblast recognized, and even more that he did not. All sitting at the table were talking and gorging themselves on energon delicacies, all except one. Sitting at the center of the table, notably missing one of his almost trademark toothed horns. Dried energon was stained around the wound.
When Megatron looked up to see the Dynobots and their escortee, he stood up and gave an odd smile. “Ah, Senator! Welcome to the Ascenticon Fortress! I do hope the Dynobots have made your trip comfortable.”
Shockblast couldn’t respond.
“When I learned that you had been kidnapped by your fellow senators, I made sure to send my best men to retrieve you, my friend.”
Shockblast couldn’t respond.
“I’m terribly sorry for what you had to undergo, Shockblast. But soon, our chance for change will come. I can feel it in my servos. Our time is now, my friend! And I would like you to be in my cabinet when glory calls. So what say you, Shockblast?”
Shockblast processed what Megatron was saying, looking up at the Ascenticon leader with his glowing red eye, before speaking in a voice that was much deeper than the one he had woken up with. “Please, call me… Shockwave.”
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