After the echoes of the explosions finally fade away,
Thundercracker once again allows himself to see.   As he slowly unfolds
himself from the primitively protective fetal position he had taken to
defend himself from backlash, he begins to lift his head up shakily to
survey the surroundings that have crackled back into view.  In the silence
of the room, small pops and quick buzzes make themselves obvious, as does a
slow, steady and musically monotone hum, and as the shuddering animal
finally musters the courage to look up, he sees Soundwave's body, smoking
and motionless, slumped against the far wall.

	He crawls across the room to look over the destruction he has
wrought, and the scent of burning metal becomes evident.  The hum
reverberates eerily in the emptiness of the room, and it is made even more
eerie when he realizes that it is Soundwave's vocorder that it is coming
from.  Thundercracker can't tell if he is dead or simply unconscious, but
either way, the damage is severe.  Point-blank range is nowhere to be when
you're fired upon.

	Thundercracker hears the clamor in the hallway, no doubt alerted by
the sound of his weaponry going off.  Suddenly, a green and purple robot
crashes into the room, gun raised, and gasps at the grisly scene.

	"Whoa!  Look what I found," Scavenger blurts, startled.  "The
guys'll be amazed when I show 'em this!  HEY!  EVERYBODY!  LOOK WHAT I
FOUND!"  Bellowing into the hallway, the Constructicon never sees what hits
him.

	Thundercracker leaps as soon as his prey isn't looking, wraps his
hands around the head of his victim, and smashes it against the door frame.
Scavenger falls instantly, dazed, and Thundercracker drops to his feet and
crouches on the floor.  Feeling every bit the animal he had just been
reduced to, he has no time to think as the rest of the Decepticons
approach.  He only has time to react.
Swindle runs up, only to be knocked into the wall as Thundercracker leaps
out of the room.  Racing down the hallway, one thought overrides all others
in his mind: escape.  Turning the corner, he spots a group of Decepticons
at the other end of the hallway, moving towards him.  Looking back, he sees
a mix of Constructicons and Combaticons closing the distance he had put
between them.   Yelling defiantly, he spins around, leaps into the air, and
transforms into his jet mode.  As he speeds towards the horde in front of
him, the confused Decepticons can think of nothing to do but duck to avoid
his charge.

	Thundercracker transforms back into his more natural robot mode as
he soars over them, and glides around the corner.
He must get to the tower.

	The alarms go off throughout Decepticon headquarters, alerting the
rest of the army to the trouble.  Rumble and Frenzy come running towards
Thundercracker, screaming his name.

	"CRACKER!  HEY, THUNDERCRACKER!" Frenzy screams.

	The addressed stops, noticing that the two triggerhappy punks
aren't firing on him, and realizes a simple defense mechanism.

	"Autobot intruder!  In the starboard corridor!  Get after him!"
Thundercracker shouts at them.  The pair nods in acceptance of his orders
and runs off past him, boasting about how they can't wait to bust some
Autobot heads.

	Thundercracker smirks at this exchange, but wastes no time in
continuing his quest to escape.  The mindset of the beast is beginning to
leave him, allowing him to think again, but it also brings back another,
less welcome element.  Fear.  He must get to the tower before the big guns
find him.

	That fear comes to a head as he approaches the base of the tower.
He comes inches away from crashing into Shockwave, just barely halting his
momentum in front of the one-eyed machine.  Thundercracker doubts that the
same ploy will work on Shockwave, but he decides to try it anyway.

	"Sir!  There's an Autobot intruder in the starboard corridor!" he
shouts, saluting his superior officer.

	"You are fleeing the scene rather than attempting to restrain the
enemy.  Explain." comes the terse reply.

	Thundercracker struggles a bit.  "I'm, uh, warning the others, sir."

	"The alarms would be sufficient.  Enough of your cowardice.  This
way." drones Shockwave as he stomps off towards the disturbance.

	"Yes, sir," Thundercracker replies, watching Shockwave turn the
corner.  As soon he is out of sight, Thundercracker immediately resumes his
course, realizing that he has mere moments before somebody informs
Shockwave of the truth.  Moments he can't waste.  Transforming into his jet
mode again, he zooms up the base of the tower and sends the mental message
to open the port.

	The light of the sky pours down on him as he speeds towards it.  A
feeling of exhilaration sparkles across his circuits, and he realizes that
his outburst was a declaration of independence.  Soaring out over the
ocean, he knows that he will now finally be able to live his own life,
choose his own beliefs, and do what he wants to do, never to return to the
oppressive villainy of the Decepticon army.  His emotions have never been
more powerful than at this instant.

	A sudden blip on his radar and a desperate spin to avoid a drone
rocket remind him that he's not quite free yet.  As expected, the
Decepticons have not abandoned their pursuit of the traitor.  Surveying his
surroundings, Thundercracker detects Ramjet, Dirge, Blitzwing and Vortex in
his immediate vicinity, closing in on their target.

	--*Getting captured by these guys will take me right back to
prison, and probably to either death or the loss of my mind.  I've got
nothing to lose.  Hold on to your transistors, boys, and get ready to kiss
your chassis goodbye!*--


	With a drop in altitude and a halt in acceleration, Thundercracker
plunges into action.  His pursuers soar over him, unprepared for their
quarry's tactics.  The hunted then fires up his engines again and speeds
towards his would-be captors.  As he bursts past Vortex, Thundercracker
lets the Decepticons know how he got his name.  The sonic boom he creates
is heard for miles, and he could not have asked for a more beneficial
effect.  Vortex's rotor assembly buckles immediately under the intense
pressure of the boom, and the Combaticon begins to plummet seaward.  The
other three are shaken up and disoriented, allowing Thundercracker to keep
the pressure on.

	With a roll to his right, he locks in on Dirge.  Knowing what Dirge
is capable of, Thundercracker shuts off his audio receptors and launches a
drone rocket at his rear thrusters.  The target is unable to avoid the
blast, due to the effect of the boom, and the explosion sends Dirge
careening out of sight.

	With his receptors shut off, Thundercracker doesn't hear Ramjet's
approach until it is too late.  The collision hits right at the base of
Thundercracker's nosecone, knocking him down a few thousand feet and
forcing him on the defensive.  Ramjet flies down towards his prey.

	"The game's over, Thundercracker!  Give it up!" Ramjet shouts as he
closes in.

	Thundercracker regains his composure and executes a swooping u-turn
to reverse his freefall, and he speeds upwards towards Ramjet.

	"This is not a game, Ramjet!  This is my LIFE!" Thundercracker
spouts, flying straight at his attacker.

	Ramjet, relishing the challenge of a head-on collision, boosts his
speed to overpower his foolhardy opponent.  As impact draws near,
Thundercracker waits as long as he possibly can before flipping upside-down
and strafing Ramjet's underside as he soars over him.  The scream of pain
that would once have delighted him now only serves as a grim reminder of
what he has to do to survive.

	As Ramjet's smoking form spins away, Thundercracker continues
upwards to be met by the explosion of a missile near his left wing.  With
some improvised spinning, he manages to stabilize himself before another
attack is launched.

	"Gotta hand it to ya, Cracker!  Yer lookin' mighty gutsy!"
Blitzwing calls out as he nears his quarry.  "Hell, I'd almost respect ya
if I didn't wanna kill ya so bad!"

	Thundercracker zooms off, only to be followed doggedly by the
braggart commando who, due to his relative freshness, is able to keep up
with his usually more maneuverable but sorely taxed prey.  Blitzwing
launches a furious assault of weaponry at the deserter, who manages to
avoid the brunt of any impact but feels the effects of the onslaught
nonetheless.

	"Hold still, ya wraggler!" the frustrated hunter shouts.  "The more
ya try to get away, the more I'm gonna pound ya when I catch ya!"

	"You want gutsy, Blitzwing?" Thundercracker asks, mockingly.


	As Blitzwing settles in behind his target and locks onto him once
again, Thundercracker suddenly transforms into his robot mode and drops his
acceleration.  As the startled commando zooms underneath him,
Thundercracker grabs a hold of the shafts at the base of Blitzwing's
nosecone and clutches him tightly.

	Blitzwing swoops, dives, and twirls madly in attempting to shake
off his passenger, but Thundercracker maintains his firm grip and slowly
inches his way towards the cockpit.

	"How's this for gutsy, sport?" With that, Thundercracker pounds on
the dome of Blitzwing's cockpit until it shatters, causing the confused
triple changer to stammer off a horde of inquisitives.

	"Why the... what the... how the... what the hell are you doing?
What the hell's going on?  Get the hell off me!" Blitzwing stutters,
alarmed.

	Thundercracker firmly places his incendiary gun under the control
panel and fires a round off, blowing out the nose and eliciting an
uncharacteristic screech of horror from the usually macho Blitzwing.
Thundercracker releases his grip and watches his last hunter plummet
helplessly into the ocean, creating an undoubtedly tremendous splash, even
though from his altitude it is barely visible.

	Scanning the area to ensure his safety, Thundercracker coasts along
for awhile, drained from the fight.  He alights softly upon the coast, and
sits down on the beach, much to the horror of the scattering humans that he
is too exhausted to notice.


	--*Ohhh, I'm tired.  That took a lot out of me.  Gotta rest up for
a little while; think about what I'm gonna do now.  No doubt I'm gonna be
dogged by the Decepticons until I'm captured or dead, so I've gotta find
somewhere safe.  Let's see... there's only one place I can think of where
the Decepticons won't follow me.  But the question is: will I be welcome
there?  Can they look past the memories of all of their friends that
I've... killed and accept me?   Will they let me come clean and make
amends........?  I guess... I guess there's only one way to find out...*--


	Thundercracker reaches over and peels the Decepticon insignia off
of one of his wings.  Looking at it, he ruminates over his past, present
and future, chuckling softly at the amazing nature of it all.  He looks out
at the vast Pacific Ocean, sparkling in the morning sun, and crumples the
symbol of his dark history, burying it in the sand.

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