The Monster of Kaon (Transformers Si): Chapter 9

I watched as the chemical slowly started to turn into a blue shade, indicating that it was time for the next step.

Carefully, I tilted the glass tube containing water, all the while, the machine continued stirring the concoction.

"Hi, Maximus!"

The sudden shout startled me, causing me to dump all the water into the mixture, causing it to turn deep blue before exploding in my face.

Another failure.

I suppressed my rising anger and turned towards the perpetrator for my recent failure.

"Windblade, how many times have I said? Do not shout when I am in the middle of something-"

"But you are always 'in the middle of something'. That's so boring!! Why not go to the Arena? Or the Theatre? I heard that there is going to be a large play based on ancient Cybertronian legends, including someone called 'The Monster of Kaon', a new story that one of our Adventurers picked up from their last trip out into the Galaxy."

The familiar name caused me to flinch involuntarily, thankfully, my featureless faceplate made it impossible for the young and naïve bot to figure out my feelings.

"…aren't activities like this supposed to be performed with you Amica? Why are you asking me instead of Chromia?"

"Well, you are the only bot I know who doesn't have an Amica or a social life as a whole, so I figured you could come with us?"

At her words, I stopped cleaning up and sat down, losing myself in old memories.

On Caminus, it was important for a bot to find an Amica Endura, a best friend that would accompany you for the rest of your life, within 10 Mega-Cycles, or roughly 10 to 11 weeks in human terms after your birth. Anyone who does not have an Amica is shunned by society as a whole.

I still do not understand the subtleties of their religion and their social practices, hence I do not know the reason for such actions, but what I do know is that, for now, I am the only bot on this planet without an Amica Endura, and as such am not welcome in many an establishment on the planet. The only reason I am still treated with some level of respect is because of the protection of the Forgefire Parliament, the Mistress of Flame formerly known as Stormrunner, and my particular set of skills.

And frankly, I could not care less about all this. I once had such a friend and I saw her die in front of my eyes during our rebellion against the Quintesson Empire during the Age of Wrath. I am not ready to form such a bond once again, especially on Caminus where I could not hope to find anyone that would understand me like she did.

"I appreciate the sentiment, Windblade, but I don't have time for it-"

"You never have time for anything fun! That's it, I am taking you to the play tonight with Chromia, even if I have to drag you there myself."

My amusement must have slipped out in a vocal way since she started fuming.

"And how do you plan to drag me there? Especially since even combining your strength with Chromia, you two are still nowhere near strong enough to move me an inch, let alone to the theatre."

"….I will call Pyra and the others for help."

This time, I could not help but pause.

Pyra Magna is a powerful bot, even in her new, economic, form. She is strong enough to give Soundwave a run for his credit back when he was still a Gladiator. Combine that with the rest of the Torchbearers, they stand a real chance of actually carrying me against my will to the Theatre. And it is not a secret that the Torchbearers heavily dote on Windblade and Chromia due to their age.

I think it is in the best interest of my dignity to go along with Windblade's demands.

Synthetic Energon experiments could wait for another day, I am sure the Parliament would understand if I simply mentioned Windblade's name.

"….Fine. But only if you promise not to startle me like you did just now, ever again. The experiments I conduct here are extremely volatile and dangerous. Any small slip-up could lead to a catastrophe."

"Okay! I will come in the evening with Chromia to pick you up. Bye, Maximus!"

Just as swiftly as she arrived, she disappeared from my cave/lab in her alt-mode, taking to the sky and disappearing into the city.

"The Monster of Kaon, huh?"

I sat in place, once again lost in memories from a distant time. I am really looking forward to how these Camieans portray my character from when I was not Maximus, but Armorbite, the exiled leader of the Programming caste and newly christened Unbeatable Gladiator from the pits of Kaon.

Then again, I do not expect them to know of this detail. Instead, I believe they will talk about Armorbite, the Moster that single-handedly massacred ten entire battalions of Security Forces when they tried to assassinate Megatronus and me when we first began the CRDF movement which would later turn into the Ascenticon movement.

Whatever may be the case, it is a rare chance for me to learn what is happening out there. What has happened to Cybertron after I was betrayed by yet another Prime.

Thinking back to my exile, I could not help but clench my arm in rage.

That bastard Alpha Trion knew that my audio receptors would record his words and store them in my memory banks, allowing me to know just who was responsible for throwing me out of Cybertron at the exact moment when my friends needed me the most. The sheer arrogance of that bot and his unwavering belief in his so-called 'future' gave rise to no small amount of hatred for him and the entire lineage of the Primes, and to a lesser extent, to the rest of the 13 Primes. If Alpha Trion is like this, then how bad must the rest of the Primes have been when they were alive?

I had already learned the fact that the war happened more or less how it was supposed to happen if I had not interfered, showing that, at least to some extent, Alpha Trion must have manipulated the events from behind the scenes, I could find no other explanation for why things happened in such a way that was very similar to the 'cannon' timeline.

What I did not know was the fate of my friends, Elita and her squad, Knockout, Breakdown, the Combaticons, Shockwave, Soundwave, and most importantly, Orion and Megatronus.

It was my primary motive when establishing a diplomatic relationship with Eukaris and the Beast Formers that inhabited that world, the descendants of Onyx Prime's tribe. I wanted to know the fate of my friends and the Beast Formers were supposed to be the best source of information due to the fact that they had the only functional Space Bridge in the 100 light-year radius from Caminus.

Of course, my efforts were not completely a success. While I managed to establish a diplomatic relationship with many of the tribes on Eukaris, whether through a dual to prove my worth or through extensive philosophical debates, I failed to achieve my main objective.

Turns out, the space bridge on Eukaris had stopped working a few centuries ago after they diverted the massive Energon reserves that were required to operate the machine. They used that Energon to sustain their people instead, a choice that I could not fault them for but left me frustrated all the same.

Fortunately, all hope was not lost. Thanks to the Mistress, I had the exact coordinates for what I recognized to be Earth. If I managed to find or make enough Energon to power the Eukaris Space Bridge, I could bridge to Earth and scour the planet for our old outpost that Shockwave and I had set up way before the CRDF was established to research CNA and the genetics of organic life in hopes of solving our people's need for Energon.

Our base on Earth has a functioning Starship and the precise coordinates for Cybertron stored in it for emergency use.

That was why, I had dedicated myself to solving the mysteries of Synthetic Energon. Both to help Caminus, which took me in when I had nowhere to go, and power to power the Space Bridge and get back to Cybertron through Earth.

But first things first, I need to deal with the mischief of an excitable youngling.