DEATH CRYSTAL

     When Ruby & her sisters awoke; they had less than five Earth hours of recharging, but they had an abundance of energy.  Kind of like a kid who stayed up all night because he started school the next morning.  Their excitement doubled when Megatron, himself, came to escort them to Hook's lab. 

     As they entered the lab, Onyx's excitement was replaced by horror as she saw the operating equipment.  Ruby explained to Megatron that Onyx was molested by a transformer who pretended to be a doctor.  After that day, she has been a bit paranoid.  Megatron assured them that Hook & any of the other Constructicons were highly qualified technicians.

     After the sisters were lying on the med-slabs, Megatron pulled Hook aside & spoke to him so that the femmes could not hear.  During the conversation, Hook merely nodded.  When Megatron walked out the medical room, Hook walked back to the femmes.  He severed their main & auxiliary power connections, fired up his instruments, & began to work.

     After several hours of working; he reconnected the femmes power supplies.  Then he reported that his job was completed, to Megatron.  Megatron told him to have the femmes report to the training room.  After Hook acknowledged his order; Megatron contacted Soundwave & instructed him to have his combiner groups to meet outside the training room.  Megatron smiled to himself.  After he had seen how his new warriors performed they would attack Autobot City on Earth.  Won't Prime be surprised to see me, once again, he thought to himself.  Then he laughed an evil laugh that only truly evil being can pull off.  When all the selected warriors had been assembled, Megatron had all his troops combine into their gestalt forms.  The femmes found themselves looking up at Devestator, Menasor, Bruticus, Predaking, & Abominus.

     As they were staring; Megatron's voice came over a speaker system.  He told the femmes that they were to fight each of the gestalt warriors.  The femmes muttered to themselves about how they knew Megatron could not be trusted.  It was Emerald's telepathic voice that calmed them.

     "They won't kill us," she said.  "Megatron has ordered them not to."

     "That's a relief," Ruby mindspoke.

     "How are we supposed to fight these guys?" asked Onyx.

     Emerald smiled at her sisters.  They looked at her questioningly.  Onyx was about to say something when Emerald mindspoke, "We fight them by becoming like them."

     The others looked at her & wondered if their sister had suddenly gone insane.  Then realization hit them all at once& they shouted in unison, "The operation!"  Emerald merely nodded her head.  All the femmes' optics started to glow a bright violet as they wondered what type of warrior they would form.  Emerald tried to get the information out of Megatron's CPU, but found that even he hade no idea of how they would look when combined.

     Each of them hoped that the gestalt they formed would have some of their qualities.  Ruby hoped that it would have strength, Diamond hoped for elegance, Topaz hoped for a tactical mind, Emerald hoped for beauty, & Onyx hoped for a warrior's heart & abilities.  As they were pondering this, Megatron spoke over the speaker system again.  "I hope you ladies are ready," he said.  "Now prove to me that you are worthy of being Decepticons."  Ruby looked at her sisters & nodded.  At that gesture, the femmes leapt into the air & Ruby shouted out, "Aerialcons, merge!"

     As they were transforming, they felt their bodies configure in a way they never had before.  Even as this registered, their transformation into a gestalt warrior was over.  Then another unexpected event took place.  They felt their sparks merge into one as their personalities merged to create the conscience of the Decepticons newest warrior.

     Megatron was both surprised & pleased at this new warrior.  He noticed that she stood a head & a half shorter than the other gestalts & she was a bit more curvaceous.  Yes, he thought, very pleasing to the optic sensors.  Then Megatron said something that surprised the other gestalts.

     "Now, my deadly Decepticon gem, state you name for me."

     Soundwave was shocked to hear Megatron bestowing such an honor to the femme gestalt.  Normally, he would have named the warrior himself.

     "You have called me a deadly gem, so I take a variant as my name," said the femme.  "From now on, I shall be known as Death Crystal!"

     Pleased at this new name, Megatron smiled & said, "Well, Death Crystal, your first test is now.  Devastator Attack!"

     Devastator rushed at Death Crystal.  He assumed that he would easily win over the femme.  An assumption, he realized, was a huge mistake.  Death Crystal quickly dispatched Devastator & then Bruticus.  Menasor proved to be more of a challenge.  He wasn't as impulsive as Devastator & he was far more intelligent than Bruticus.  Eventually she bested him.  She used her speed to defeat Abominus' brute strength.  The real test came when she faced Predaking.  He rushed at her with his energon sword.  She managed to evade his attacks, but realized she couldn't do so forever.  As if it had a mind of its own, a sword of crystalized energon appeared in her hand.  For the first time, Predaking found that he was being fought to a stand still.

     Seeing that this battle could go on for hours, Megatron ended the battle.  Pleased with the results, he ordered his warriors to disassemble & both rest.  He had a bit more planning to do if they were going to defeat the Autobots.  He called Cyclonus, Soundwave, & Topaz to the command center.  They went over the plan for hours until they were satisfied that all the flaws were worked out.  He then told his troops to rest.  In a week’s time, he & his army would attack the Autobot city.

     Topaz headed back to femme quarters & shared the plan with her sisters.  She also reported that Megatron would be choosing his queen tomorrow.  All the femmes were excited about either the battle, which lay ahead, or about Megatron choosing his queen.  All except Emerald.  She knew in the upcoming battle, Death Crystal would probably face off against Superion.  When that moment came, she knew that she would have to choose between her loyalty & her love.

     The next morning, all the Decepticons were ordered to gather in Megatron's throne room.  The femmes had been placed at the foot of the throne & Megatron officially anointed them into the Decepticon ranks.  Once that ceremony was completed, Megatron told the femmes to rise.  When they did so, Megatron announced to all his warriors that Ruby was to be the new queen of the Decepticons.  All the Decepticons were pleased.  All except Onyx.  She had wanted Megatron to choose her.  In her mind; she knew that if she were queen, Megatron would definitely be as good as dead. 

     Sensing her sister's thoughts, Emerald warned Onyx not to do anything rash.  That seemed to calm her a bit.  The thing that straightened her out was the mental image of Megatron firing his fusion cannon at point blank range.

     "Besides," Emerald mind spoke, "with Ruby as queen, we are guaranteed to be ranking officers now."

     Megatron let the buzz of excitement run its course a bit longer before bringing silence to his troops, once again.

     "I have moved up the time for the attack on Autobot city," he stated.  "Destroy as many Autobots as you wish, but leave Optimus Prime functional!"

     Some of the Decepticons were skeptical, but Megatron stated that he needed Prime to perform the wedding ceremony.

     At Autobot headquarters, Prime was overseeing the installation of a new security program in Teletran III.  Silverbolt was helping Wheeljack secure the new circuit board in place.  Although the Aerialbot leaders' body was aware of its functions, his CPU was in another place entirely.  It wasn't until Optimus had shouted his name for the third time that he snapped back into reality.

     "Huh?  Oh, sorry Prime.  My data banks were elsewhere."  Silverbolt said, sheepishly.

     "Not a problem, my friend.  What's eating at your processing chips?"

     "It's Emerald, Prime.  I can't stop thinking of her."

     "Ah, so that's it.  I wish you the best of luck, but remember that she's a Decepticon.  Be careful."

     "I will, Prime.  I will."