Quentin Beck's special effects were jaw-droppingly lifelike. His time studying in Hollywood had transformed him entirely, pushing his craft to a whole new level.
Having everyone just stand around motionless obviously wouldn't cut it. Hollywood was the motherlode of tropes—if you could think of a cliché, someone there could choreograph it.
Right now, the dozens of fake soldiers in the projection were shuffling into new formations, apparently spooked by Natasha's earlier "reckless" shot. The whole group looked rattled—some arguing for retreat, others pushing for a full assault, and a few grumbling about wanting hazard pay.
The chaotic scene gave any outside observer the impression that this side hadn't made up its mind either.
Watching the movie-quality effects pull every eye in the base toward the entrance, Natasha let out a quiet breath of relief. Even for someone who lived for thrills, her adrenaline was spiking hard. This empty-fort bluff was pushing things way past the limit.
"Natasha, hostiles approaching from behind—Decepticons. The one in front is Starscream!" Jazz, who'd been coordinating with her throughout, whispered the warning.
Natasha immediately glanced over her shoulder. Through the trees and behind the rocks, she could make out several hazy silhouettes. The Decepticons hadn't attacked right away—they were observing from the shadows, probably spooked by the effects display on this side.
"Keep stalling. Hopefully we can buy them a little more time."
Following several pre-programmed routines, Natasha quickly adjusted the display, splitting off a group of "soldiers" to guard the rear—creating the illusion of a force bracing for a two-pronged attack.
The Decepticons who'd secretly arrived on Earth were genuinely thrown off. What the hell was going on here?
If it were just Jazz's Cybertronian technology, they'd have seen through it instantly. But mix in human tech, Isu engineering, and a dash of magic? They couldn't make heads or tails of it.
From the Decepticons' perspective, two groups of humans were squaring off at the dam entrance, and neither side could gain the upper hand.
"Starscream, let's just charge in!" Blackout had lived his entire life by one philosophy: brute force. His voice rumbled like a bass drum.
Starscream had other ideas. "Hold on. Isn't it entertaining to watch them tear each other apart?"
In truth, Starscream was flying blind.
Soundwave had gone dark. No signal, no body—just vanished without a trace.
Starscream couldn't wrap his head around it. Betraying Megatron was practically a tradition for him, but Soundwave? Impossible. In millions of years, Soundwave had never wavered in his loyalty to Megatron.
Without Soundwave's intelligence support, the Decepticons were effectively deaf and blind, stumbling around in the dark.
In the original timeline, they'd found the trail first and the Autobots had followed. Now it was the other way around—they'd stumbled along the Autobots' trail all the way to Hoover Dam, and Starscream didn't even know why they were here.
He decided to play it safe and wait to see how things shook out.
The base soldiers were waiting too. The operations chief had repeatedly stressed that their side would absolutely not fire first—they were waiting for the enemy to attack. Natasha and Jazz were running their empty-fort ruse. Starscream was angling to play the vulture. A three-way standoff locked into place.
Jazz sent word to Ironhide, Ratchet, and Bumblebee—who'd been tagging along without much to do—telling the three of them to loop around and set up an ambush behind Starscream.
The formation around Hoover Dam was turning into something bizarre. Sector Seven soldiers held the innermost perimeter on high alert. Natasha and Jazz were on the dam's exterior "preparing to attack." Starscream lurked in the tree line beyond them. And behind Starscream, Bumblebee and the others lay in wait.
With all eyes drawn to the standoff, Bella and Optimus Prime quietly slipped through the vehicle access tunnel at the base of Hoover Dam.
Bella used the Apple of Eden to breeze past three security checkpoints. The guards didn't notice a thing—they just waved them through without hesitation.
Disguised as a truck driver with a baseball cap pulled low, she looked perfectly ordinary from every soldier's angle, yet anyone who tried to recall her face later would find nothing but a blank in their memory.
"Halt! What are you doing here?" A lone soldier on patrol inside the base didn't understand why she'd brought a truck inside.
Too many troops had been pulled to the perimeter. A patrol squad that should've been five strong was down to one man.
"Special assignment. Here's the paperwork from the Department of Defense." Bella casually produced a sheet of paper and flashed it in front of the soldier's face.
The soldier saw exactly what his own mind expected to see—a classified document, nothing out of the ordinary—and waved them through.
Even with over half the base's elite agents deployed outside, even with the remaining armed forces pinned down by Natasha's empty-fort gambit, they still had to pass through five checkpoints before officially entering Sector Seven's underground facility.
Sector Seven had hollowed out the entire underside of Hoover Dam. Using the cover of a supply delivery for the underground base, Bella casually made her way to the central area.
The frozen Megatron stood in the center of the plaza. No personnel remained on site—only the automated cryogenic systems mechanically maintaining the freeze. Nobody questioned a large truck rolling in.
Bella sat in the cab and said, "That's the Megatron you mentioned, right? Let's take him out here and now."
Optimus Prime's answer didn't surprise her. "No. The AllSpark is what matters most. I can already sense its location."
You could call it chivalry, you could call it the love-hate bond between Optimus and Megatron—but Optimus Prime's focus had always been on the AllSpark.
The underground base was a spiderweb of tunnels branching in every direction. Multiple passages led to the surface, but only one descended deeper underground—to where the AllSpark was stored.
Even using every trick at their disposal, that passage was guarded by over twenty soldiers, with bank-vault-grade blast doors blocking the way. Getting through undetected wasn't realistic.
The moment they made a move, they'd be exposed. It seemed like they could only choose one—the AllSpark or Megatron. Optimus chose the AllSpark.
"We're going to blow our cover any minute now anyway. Kill Megatron first. Without their leader, the remaining Decepticons won't matter even if they get the AllSpark." Bella's tone left no room for debate.
Apart from a single Disintegrate scroll, she had no way to one-shot Megatron, and that scroll was a one-use item she was reluctant to waste. Optimus would have to do it.
The principle that good generals are harder to find than foot soldiers applied here as well—leaders were the hardest to replace.
She'd rather give up the AllSpark than pass up this chance to kill Megatron.
The bastard was frozen solid in a block of ice. He couldn't move, couldn't run. If not now, when?
"If we do this, you'll be in extreme danger. Both our fight with the Decepticons and human firearms could pose a serious threat to you."
Optimus Prime wasn't entirely on board with her plan.