eugenesis-text

epicentre, towards the enemy, trapped in a shifting maze of people he no longer liked or trusted. ‘You’re a
108,’ he said to a sidestepper; ‘You’re an 86,’ he told an Autobot who would not get out of the way. No
one seemed to be listening to him.
Kup saw Throwback dump Hot Rod’s body onto a bench and his face warped like corrugated iron.
‘I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,’ he said, and Chromedome stepped back to let the veteran talk.
‘What happened’ asked Perceptor sternly.
Prowl chewed his fingers in the second row.
‘We made it inside, and they - they were waiting. They killed Rapido and Rad instantly. We fought
our way into a control room.’
‘What about Rev-Tone and Quark’
‘They weren’t supposed to—’
‘What happened to them, Kup’
‘They got them too.’
Prowl backed into the crowd. His bedside space was immediately filled by new Autobots, like
seawater filling a sandpit.
Perceptor continued the interrogation. ‘Were you followed’
‘No. I don’t think so. I took a different route back and, and—’
‘And what’
‘And I think they let me run anyway.’
‘You stole a MARB and four troops, Kup. Do you appreciate the gravity of your situation’
‘I don’t know what to say – please – it’s my fault.’
‘Leave it, Perceptor,’ said Red Alert softly, placing a hot hand on his elbow.
‘Leave it No, not this time. Four Autobots are dead because…’ He looked over his shoulder and
scanned the front row. ‘Where’s Prowl’
‘He left,’ said Throwback. ‘He said he had something to do.’
4/11.002983712
Does not compute.
4/11.002983712
Does not compute.
4/11.002983712
Does not compute.
Prowl wandered through the Institute in a daze. Doped and docile, shuffling down endless corridors,
he itched but did not scratch.
A lifetime of memories took up space his mind. Over-ingesting energon for the first time (never
again); leaving Ibex for the big city, determined to visit the Great Dome; watching The Ceremony in 3 rd
Cycle 270 and – to his eternal shame – being cautioned after causing a disturbance; quitting his job as a
chartered surveyor to join the Mechaforensics Division; taking the lead in the legendary Morphcore
Murders case (a serial killer was maiming Autobots; he’d suspected that Megatron was testing his new
transformation device, but had never been able to prove it); patrolling the last ever States Games, where
Megatron had turned into a gun (the first time he – or anyone else in the crowd – had witnessed that type
of transformation); bumping into the defeated Iaconian athlete, Orion Pax, at some anti-Decepticon rally
and thinking he was a sore loser; arresting a Vosian terrorist he would come to know as Grimlock; huddling
next to a battered radio, listening to reports of a civil war and telling Wheeljack that it would be over
before the next cycle; Autobrand, of course; signing up for Strikeforce Alpha; seeing the Ark for the first
time; seeing a human for the first time; stumbling through a Flashback Portal; holding his best friend’s hand
as he died before his eyes; fighting Unicron; discovering the Nanobot conspiracy; being told by Ratchet,
some windswept night not so long ago, that he was self-critical, that he punished himself for every single
mistake…
But ignoring all that, accepting all that, in spite of all that:
4/11.002983712
Does not compute.