Fantastic Four and the Transformers (CONT)

by Chris McFeely

CHAPTER TEN

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WHEN ALL ARE ONE

Galactus knew he was beaten. He fell to the ground one final time, and heard something inside him snap as he made contact. Unicron loomed over him, his mechanical fingers knotted together, his arms raised above his head, preparing to deliver the final blow. Galactus shut his eyes and accepted his fate. Suddenly, Unicron’s attention was turned as Sue and Johnny shot past - Doom had, after all, instructed him to kill the Fantastic Four, not Galactus. Using the diversion to his advantage, Galactus kicked Unicron’s clawed feet out from under him. The titan fell, and Galactus righted himself, although he knew he could not hold out much longer.

* * *

Springer side-stepped to allow Sue and Johnny entrance to the bunker, as they streaked downwards from the sky. “Reed?” Sue called out as she passed through the door.

“I’m fine, darling,” Reed responded, not looking up from his work on Rodimus Prime. There was a blue spark, and Reed smiled. “Better than fine,” he corrected himself.

“It’s finished?” Johnny asked.

“Indeed,” Reed replied. With a flourish, he withdrew his microscopically thin fingertips from Rodimus’s systems, and with a noise similar to that caused by switching on a computer, Rodimus’s optics glowed blue, and he sat up. The Ultimate Nullifier was attached to his chest, interconnected with the Matrix, looking particularly dangerous.

“I’m afraid that you’ll find transformation impossible while the Nullifier is attached to you,” Reed said. “But the good news is that my theories were correct - this merging of mechanisms will allow you to mentally control the power and intensity of the Nullifier’s blast.”

Rodimus cupped the Nullifier’s barrel in his hand, and grabbed one of the two handles on the underside of the device. “Let’s get this over with,” he said at last. “Between Galactus, Unicron, Doom, the Quintessons, and the Decepticons, Cybertron will be lucky to survive!”

“I hear you,” Springer said, aiming a hefty kick at Soundwave’s still-unconscious body. The Decepticon spasmed, and inadvertently transformed to his cassette player mode. Springer chuckled, and transformed to his sports car mode. He roared out of the bunker, followed by the Human Torch, who left a fiery trail in his wake, Rodimus, who had to adjust his equilibrium to compensate for the Nullifier, and finally, Reed and Sue, the former riding a wave of invisible energy created by the latter.

Before long, they arrived at the side of Ultra Magnus, Arcee, and the grounded Aerialbots. Sky Lynx and Powerglide were still circling above, blasting at the Quintesson horde. Doctor Doom was floating in the air in the middle of it all, watching both the battle between Galactus and Unicron, and the struggle of the Autobots against the Quintessons. Reed could almost see the smug expression beneath his armoured face. Springer even noted that a few Decepticons were grappling with the Quintessons, most notably Scourge and Cyclonus, Galvatron’s lieutenants - but Springer knew that the only reason they were fighting was because they wanted to save Cybertron from the Quintessons, so they could have it for themselves. The Decepticon leader was nowhere to be seen. Springer transformed to robot mode and set about slashing the Quintessons once more. The Human Torch and Invisible Woman attacked Doctor Doom, who seemed less than bothered by their presence. Reed came to rest along with Rodimus beside Ultra Magnus.

“What’s it look like, Magnus?” Rodimus asked his old friend.

“Not good,” Magnus replied. “Half our warriors are damaged -” he gestured at the Aerialbots “- and the other half are seriously running out of ammo.” As if to emphasise his point, when Magnus turned to fire at the horde of invaders, his weapon produced nothing more than a hollow click. “Damn,” he swore. “Whatever you’ve got up your crankshaft, Rodimus, we could really use it right about now!”

“I’m going to need help,” Rodimus replied, “and, no offence, Mr. Fantastic, but you aren’t really what I have in mind.” Reed smiled and waved away the comment with a motion of his elasticated hand.

“None taken,” he said. “But the fact remains - we need help.”

“Perhaps I may be of some assistance,” came a voice behind them. The trio spun around, to see Galvatron standing there, somehow having managed to sneak up on them. “Would you believe - I come in peace?” he almost chuckled.

“No,” Rodimus replied bluntly. “But you’re all we’ve got. Let’s hear it.”

Galvatron gestured to the throng of Decepticons battling with the Quintessons. “Constructicons!” he bellowed. “Merge into - Devastator!” The six robots, almost hidden amongst the battlefield, due to their purple and green armouring, similar to that of the Quintessons’, heard their master’s command, and obeyed it. Scrapper, Scavenger, Mixmaster, Long Haul, Bonecrusher, and Hook leapt clear of the battle and transformed to their vehicle shapes, and from there, they merged their forms into that of the first gestalt giant - Devastator!

“Devastator... devastate!” the titan drawled.

“Excellent,” Galvatron said out loud, then leapt into the air, transforming to his laser cannon mode as he did so. Devastator seized him in one bulky hand, and aimed at the Quintessons below. Galvatron belched destruction, incinerating a score of Quintessons with one blast.

Rodimus turned to Magnus. “You’ve got to admire his style,” he admitted. He yelled at Devastator. “Clear us a path to Unicron!” The gargantuan robot dumbly obeyed.

“NO!” Doctor Doom fumed, and swatted away the Invisible Woman and her flaming sibling. He shot towards Rodimus Prime, but met with Mr. Fantastic’s fist before he got there. He crashed to the ground, his boots damaged, unable to fly. As stars swam before the dictator’s eyes, Arcee moved over to him, and picked him up off the ground. “Unhand me!” he shrieked. “None may touch Doom!” Arcee was only too happy to oblige, and dropped him to the planet’s surface. He snarled at her, and gestured with his hand. Nothing happened. “Curses!” Doom swore, realising his weapons systems were either depleted, or damaged. Arcee kicked him over the horizon.

Batting Quintessons away, left and right, Magnus, Rodimus, and Reed slowly moved towards Galactus and Unicron. Their unlikely allies continued to hold off the squads of Quintessons trying to halt their progress.

“There’s got to be a faster way!” Rodimus yelled over the sound of battle and screaming Quintessons who were unlucky enough to get in Devastator’s way.

“You’ve got that thing!” Magnus yelled back, pointing at the Ultimate Nullifier emblazoning Rodimus’s chest. “Use it!”

“No... wait!” Reed shouted a warning which came to late. Rodimus was blown from his feet as a blast more powerful and intense than a thousand times the hottest sun in the known galaxy could produce streaked from the Nullifier and vaporised at least a hundred Quintessons in their tracks.

Galactus was caught in a tie-up with Unicron, but looked down as the blast was unleashed. Rage crossed his face - the humans and their allies had once again desecrated his possessions for their own needs! Unicron used this momentary distraction to his advantage, and swiftly grabbed Galactus in both mechanical arms, held him high above his head, and body-slammed him into the ground. The battlefield shook, and everyone stopped fighting to turn and look.

As the Quintessons cheered for their master, Reed stretched over to Rodimus. “I was going to warn you,” he said, “you wouldn’t be able to control the Nullifier the first time you used it.” He looked around at the giants. Galactus was heaving himself up off the ground, and looked at Reed with pure malice in his eyes. “Oh dear,” Reed sighed. “It would be expedient to bring this confrontation to a closure, do you not think?” Rodimus nodded.

“Let’s do it,” he said, with a sense of finality in his voice that chilled Reed to the marrow of his elasticated bones. “Autobots!” he roared at the top of his voice. “Roll out!”

Arcee, Ultra Magnus, Powerglide, Sky Lynx, the Aerialbots, and Springer transformed to their vehicle modes, and charged towards the titanic combatants at top speed, crashing through the Quintesson horde. The Thing leapt on top of Springer with a cry of “Yeeee-hawwww!!!!”, and was followed by Sue and Johnny, sailing through the air. Galactus turned and snarled at the oncoming robots and humans, but was caught on the chin by a haymaker from Unicron. He crashed to the ground, unconscious at last.

Unicron bellowed his victory, then stopped and looked at those assembled around him. Autobot and Decepticon alike had united to face the monster. All were one.

“And now,” Rodimus said, his clenched fists held at his sides, speaking to Unicron, though he thought it was doubtful the behemoth could hear him. “Goodbye, Unicron.” Rodimus seized the firing controls of the Nullifier and squeezed the trigger. The Nullifier spewed death, striking Unicron in the chest. The beast screamed in agony, as the incredible power of the Matrix, merged with that of the Ultimate Nullifier permeated every inch of his being, seeping through his garish purple and orange armour, destroying all within him. The force of the blast propelled Unicron off the surface of the planet, and up into the jet black sky. Rodimus grit his teeth and held down on the trigger, his feet scraping on the metal ground as he tried to keep himself from being blown across the landscape. Still the powerful energy surged forth, and still Unicron screamed.

“No!” he bellowed, finally speaking a whole sentence as Doctor Doom’s controlling influence was destroyed along with the rest of Unicron. “You shall not defeat me...again...!” His face contorted with pain, and he glared at the Transformers on the surface of the planet. “I shall return!”

“No,” Rodimus echoed. “You shall not.”

Unicron exploded, with the brightness and power of a supernova star, showering the surface of Cybertron with gigantic pieces of metal and circuitry. Sue, reacting quickly, protected everyone with a forcefield, despite the strain it caused her after the exertion of the battle.

The Quintessons gasped. The Autobots cheered. The Decepticons smiled. The Fantastic Four laughed, and congratulated everyone. Galactus moaned in his unconsciousness. And as Doctor Doom rose over the horizon, seething with anger and still hurting from the kick, his armoured jaw dropped at the scene before him.

Rodimus Prime gestured at the Quintessons, who grumbled and swore, and moved back to their ship. It wrenched itself from the surface of the planet, and slowly rose into the sky. Reed watched it go, but paused at what happened next. A thin beam of light shot from the nosecone of the ship, encompassing Doom in an aura of light. The armoured dictator vanished.

The Thing placed a hand on his friend’s rubbery shoulder. “Think he’s gone for good this time?” he asked.

“I doubt it, old friend,” Reed replied. “I think that was merely a teleportation beam. I don’t expect the Quintessons have finished with Victor yet.”

“Looks like we’ve got other worries,” Johnny chimed in, pointing over Reed’s shoulder.

Galactus stood over the crowd of heroes, a look of intense hatred on his bloodied face.

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