The Ascension of Nova Black

Part 14 of 17

Verse: G1 AU (all characters are OCs.)
Wordcount: 2,010+
Rating: M for violence, dark themes, etc.
Warnings: Violence (battle scenes, damage from fighting, death, etc.
Summary: The battle, in earnest, from Nova's POV. That contains Decepticons being Decepticons. AKA a lot of aft-kicking, some dead bodies/carnage, etc. And of course some snark. And the little medic getting its chance to be menacing, too, for those of you into creepy-cute. ^_^

Thanks muchly to

meaisin_caoin for betaing.

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7 - Part 8 - Part 9 - Part 10 - Part 11 - Part 12 - Part 13 - Part 14 - Part 15 - Part 16 - Part 17

Nova Black wheeled and spun, swerving to avoid the barrage of orange laser fire coming at her from all directions. She'd managed to get away from the weapon's deadly blast, but that had merely given the rest of her enemies an opening to shoot at her themselves.

Searching frantically for an opening, she dove, transforming and hitting the ground running, purple fire blazing from the lasers on her arms.

Her spark whirled in her chest, its energy bright, as she watched one and then another fall, spinning to wrench a wing out of the grasp of a third. She leapt over one of the bodies, her systems singing with charge as she ran toward the weapon. It was a long way to go, dotted with alleys and dead ends, perfect for enemies to rush out of. But if the Decepticons didn't get to it, they'd have to win this battle without taking to the air at all.

Nearby, she could see Colossus, his dark blue frame covered with small mechs struggling to halt his steady advance toward the weapon. She grinned fiercely as his arm punched suddenly forward, the strike knocking one of his assailants off of him and sending the other one sprawling. That one handed in a twisted heap in front of him, the plating protecting its spark chamber crumpled and bent, the bright light of the spark within flaring through the cracks.

Nova's wings twitched in irritated envy. Her light, lean form made her graceful, even on the ground, and her recent upgrade made her faster even than the other Seekers. But Colossus belonged here, on the ground, the slow rhythm of his fists tearing through his smaller enemies.

And she belonged in the air. Not down here with a pack of dirtkissing scum trying to swarm her and a hastily constructed surface-to-air weapon keeping her from taking off. She cursed, rushing toward the weapon and the enemies manning it.

One of the Neutrals rushed to intercept her, his yellow optics flickering with fear.

"Traitor," he called, his voice quavering.

"Whatever," Nova snarled back, throwing a punch and then kicking him hard when he moved to defend against it. He crumpled, bent over, and struggled to stand.

I don't have time for this, Nova thought. More enemies were rushing in from the surrounding alleys, their blue optics widening as they converged on her.

She could guess what they were thinking. This is a Decepticon. She betrayed them all. Why doesn't she just shoot?

Snarling in irritation, she kicked the fool in front of her again. This time he went down, his internal mechanisms clicking in protest as he fell.

Above her, she could see the orange of the weapon as it fired again. She wondered briefly who hadn't yet managed to land, until the bright purple flare of a defensive force field, glowing as the ray hit it, answered her question.

She hissed, pleased, as a ray of purple streaked from the bright shape in the center of the force field. Screams answered it.

"A Decepticon with a force field?" a young, small Autobot stammered, staring into the sky.

The Seeker wasted no time in taking advantage, transforming one of her hands into a bright purple dagger, gleaming with energon. She grabbed the startled Autobot with one arm, pushing her enemy down onto the gleaming blade. The Autobot gave a high cry of dismay as the blade bit through her outer plating. Nova gritted her denta, driving the blade into her enemy's spark.

It flared for a moment, as if in protest, swirling hot enough to heat the metal of Nova's wrist painfully. She held on, and it burst, its light flaring and then dying.

Elation sang through her circuits as she pulled the blade free. Even the pain in her wrist meant nothing to her, its heat no different from the heat crackling through her dagger as it flared with purple lightning. Her engine raced as she spun to face her next enemy.

Her moment of triumph, however, was short-lived. She rocked heavily as something leapt at her from behind. She caught a flash of bright color in the corner of her optics. She groaned, remembering the pair of Neutrals who had attacked her before she'd left the Settlement. This one, no doubt vowing revenge for what she'd done to his twin, was using the same tactic he had then: grabbing at her wings and pulling. Her joints burned with pain as he yanked at her wings.

She stumbled, twitching, desperate to get the small bot off her back. In her current form, her wings were nothing more than a liability when fighting on the ground, wide expanses of thin metal any enemy could grab and twist. Seekers, after all, were built to be light and fast in the air, not sturdy and well-armored on the ground.

Which wasn't so bad when those enemies were a pair of small Neutrals who'd never fought Decepticons before. The two brothers alone, she would easily have handled, especially now. But in this battle, she was surrounded by rebels, already swarming to take advantage of her predicament. Her optics flared as she recognized the first to try.

"I knew you were bad news," Burden rumbled, towering over her as he leveled his blaster and fired unerringly at her too-exposed chestplate.

She tossed her head, wailing as the ray of energy seared her. Still, she had been right about the Autobots' weapons. Her new chestplate, though blazing with excruciating heat, neither melted nor cracked.

But the pain came with its own problems. Seeing the uselessness of his blaster, Burden dropped it and rushed at her, his heavy fists slamming into the glass over and over again. It cracked, flying from the point of impact with a loud, tinkling sounds.

The metal of Nova's spark chamber, heavier and more reinforced than the rest of her frame, also held. Still, she was stuck between her two enemies, both driving her backward, and rapidly losing her balance.

She hissed, still thrashing, hoping that her uncontrolled movements might at least shake one of them off. Pain flared through her sensornet as the bigger, stronger robot continued to pummel her chest. Then the small one's fingers curled hard around her new brands, sending a white-hot jolt of pain through Nova's circuitry. Dazed, she felt her legs buckle beneath her and waited for the blow that would drive her fully to her knees.

It never came. She wondered for a brief moment whether she was imagining this odd moment of respite. This was battle, after all. Her pain-wracked processor must be dreaming up some way to believe that she would get out of this.

She shook her head, her optics widening as she struggled to clear the static from her vision. She wasn't entirely successful, but through the glitching she could make out a broad, dark shape struggling against her larger opponent.

I thought Colossus was further up, she thought, staring at the blurry figures and willing her vision to clear faster, slaggit, faster, I'm supposed to be upgraded now! She twisted to one side again, trying both to avoid an incoming bolt of orange flame and to dislodge her unwelcome visitor.

This time, her purposeful flailing worked. The laser fire hit the small bot clinging to her wing joints and with a cry and a dull clang, he fell.

The Seeker panted, doubled over, struggling back to her feet. Then, seeing Burden's back turned toward her, she raised her arms and fired, again and again, the heat flowing through her weapons systems reminding her of who she was.

"Knew I was bad news?" she smirked, glaring at his fallen, graying form. "You called me 'Neutral but unfriendly.' There's your 'Neutral but unfriendly.'"

She looked up, into beady yellow optics, staring almost as intently back at her.

"How many times do I have to save your worthless plating, Decepticon?" Quake asked, smirking himself.

"You sure I didn't save yours?" Nova answered, rushing into a nearby alley to give herself a moment to recover and comm the others. She fired into it to make sure it was clear, and then hurried into it, twitching her wings to try and will away the pain.

She heard a faint sound, high and trilling, but saw nothing when she whirled around, weapons ready. Keeping her sensors on alert and her weapons systems fully energized. she walked to the other end of the alley.

The body of an Autobot enemy lay sprawled near the wall, its blue optics shattered as though something small and sharp had poked them out. She could also see a hole in one of the body's neck cables, as though something had pierced them. But what would that do? And more importantly, who had done it? She couldn't think of any of her comrades who would do this. Even a fight with Winder would end in a less clean kill than this one.

She wasn't sure how much it mattered. Whoever had killed this bot was obviously on her side.

Warily, she opened her comm link. "Nova to Leech."

"I am here," replied the ruined voice, calm and measured as ever.

"That was some fancy fighting back there. How are you doing?"

"Poorly, I am afraid. My force field absorbed quite a lot of energy and is holding at approximately 12.2 percent. Add to that the fuel my laser barrage required, and --" he paused with a metallic wheeze as air cycled through blasted vents -- "if I do not make it to the fuel reserves soon, I fear I may shut down."

Nova clenched a fist. "Expected you to say that. Doesn't make me like it any better."

"We must get --"

"-- back into the air. Yes, I know. Slagging bastards."

Another long pause. Nova hesitated, unsure how best to break it. "That's up to the grounders, I think. Colossus and Quake. If they can clear the way for us, everything will be fine. If they can't, I don't know how well we're going to do it ourselves, even with Winder and Bane helping.

"Where is Bane?" she began, just as the entrance to the alleyway flared a bright, searing purple that stung her optics, her audios filling with booming sounds as missiles rained down on their enemies.

"Never mind," she corrected, watching the sky flare lavender. "Where's Winder?"

"The last time I saw him, he was wrapped around that shiny silver machine who snapped at you," the soft voice answered.

Nova snarled. "Winder's fighting Brightbolt? I swear, if that worthless, squirming piece of scrap gets to Shiny before I do, I'll tear him apart."

A dry laugh answered her, the gears of Leech's mouth creaking as if they'd fall apart entirely. "We can't have that. Some of us know what happens when you're sufficiently angry."

She grunted. "Don't care much what you think."

"I think nothing." He laughed again, grating and harsh. "As long as you don't interfere with my own work, or reduce everyone's likelihood of survival, I couldn't care less what you do. I believe they are in the western alleyway closest to the silo."

Nova grinned.

"Now, for my part, I have a question of my own. Where is my medic? We were separated early in the battle."

"I don't --" She stopped as the trilling grew louder. "Wait, yes I do. The little drone's right here."

It glared up at her, one of its array of optics shattered and dark, and gave a weak chirr of indignation.

"That's not the only place you're damaged, is it?" she murmured, bending down.

"I'm cutting the comm," she told Leech. "I think it needs repairs. Better to do that than talk to you." She clicked it off. If that bothered the conehead, he could take it up with her later. Besides, it shouldn't. Not when she was offering to fix his little pet.

It shambled weakly toward her, listing heavily to one side. Watching it, Nova could see that one of its appendages was missing entirely. Two more twitched feebly, twisted and smashed.

She looked from it to the body of the fallen Autobot. "You did that?"

It tilted its head, the four functional optics flaring in reproach.

She stared at the shattered optics and the hole in the Autobot's neck, remembering the horrible stuff the medic had injected into her knee when she'd annoyed it. "Yeah. Of course you did." She shook her head, then grinned fiercely down at her ally. "Nasty way to go. Nice work."

It trilled at her impatiently.

She stared down, examining the damage. Its appendages were tiny, and some were twisted almost beyond recognition. She frowned.

"I don't suppose you can make some clicking noises that'll explain exactly what I do to fix you? After all," she smirked, "I'm just an enforcer. You're the combat medic."