Nexus Effect

Ch.101

[Primus, kill me now.]

Daughter, please don’t be so melodramatic. They are just children.

“Aunty Nowa, Aunty Nowa! Wook what I dwahed!” Nitina, the ‘youngest’ of Paretia’s triplet daughters cheered as she shoved a crude drawing in my face, one that looked like a blue ball with squiggly lines coming off of it and covered in mouths.

“That’s, um, very nice sweetie.” I awkwardly praised, unsure how to feel aside from my persistent exasperation.

“Do yew know who dat is?” Nitina asked hopefully and I mentally cringed.

“That’s me?” It can only be me. It’s blue, it’s a ball, it’s got tentacles.

“Yea! It yew when yew was a moon!” Nitina declared and I groaned inwardly.

“I don’t remember having this many mouths…” I only had two holes that whole time.

“Dey is cwatahs, cuz yew was a moon!” She informed me helpfully and I smiled weakly.

“Yes, sweetie, I was, but I didn’t have craters.” She’s too young for the birds-and-bees talk.

“Aw, yew don’t wike it?” Nitina wilted and I patted her head to stop the downturn.

“No, I love it. Now go play with your sisters.” I urged her and she ran off giggling, loudly boasting to her ‘older’ sisters that I liked her drawing. “Oh Primus, give me strength…” They haven’t left me alone the instant I got here~! I know I haven’t seen them in ages, but with their modding, they’ve aged faster than normal children and now I get the lovely experience of dealing with rambunctious 5-year-olds when they were 2!

“Don’t you go whining after only a day.” Paretia growled tiredly from where her 7-foot tall body was slumped on the couch nearby as outside, Yola got to be the ‘fun’ aunt right now. I know for certain she was just as tired as I was already, so I was thankful she was keeping them occupied while Martra was in town with Chrys to help her get around since she hasn’t found a model of Navel Pearl that worked with her chassis yet and she’s still got nearly two years of gestation left on her and Gidget’s babies.

“Sorry if we never had the joy of properly raising any of our children. They just grew up too fast for that.” I replied grumpily and felt sadness as Ghost, who looked like a teenager already, wandered through the living room as he played games on his omni. He was a handsome young man already, his lupine regal features were coming in nicely and if he wasn’t my son or so young, I’d possibly consider him a viable companion.

Then there was the fact that in his black punk-rock T-shirt and jeans with a nose ring along with his spiky gelled hair and his indifference to me finally being home really hurt my feelings. He smiled and hugged me when I got home, but aside from that he acted like I wasn’t here half the time. “I’ve learned that teenagers are just like that, passive-aggressive, dismissive and selfish. Don’t take it hard, he’s really happy you’re home. His tail hasn’t stopped wagging since you arrived.” Paretia gently comforted me even if she was burying her face in a pillow.

Further conversation was ended by the doorbell ringing. I groaned and got up to get it, wondering who it could be since Chrys and Martra would just-. “Surprise~!” I was blasted with smiling faces and cheerful voices before I was pulled into a hug by Penny, Tali and Ashley~! Eee~! I hugged them back, my exhaustion forgotten in lieu of the fact I was seeing my wives!

“Omigosh! I thought you were stuck in the Devorak galaxy a dimension away training to be Badasses!” I squealed before kissing each of them quickly and pausing in bemusement at the sight of the turquoise copy of my wife. “Um, what are you doing here? Aren’t you the Empress?” I mean, she could go places I guess, but wouldn’t she be so busy she’d have to be skipping out on a lot of work just to be here? Why be here anyway?

“Hold on a sec.” Urta unzipped her-holy guacamole those tits! “Come on out babe!” Urta called into her canyon of cleavage as she patted the sides of her five-foot bubbly spheres of boob.

“Mm~ but it’s so cozy~.” A beautiful red dracowolf cooed as she emerged from the divine cleavage and sat back against said canyon to playfully stick her tongue out at Urta.

“Oh, get off of me you goob!” Urta laughed happily and the new girl obliged so Urta could shrink back down and zip back up. “Anyway, I’m here because I’m not the Empress anymore and to apologize for putting you through over a year of being a shipyard.” I blinked at Urta so promptly cutting to the chase as Martra helped Chrys around us through the double-doors into the house.

“Well, it needed to be done, so...okay? C’mon in.” I shrugged and Urta along with the new girl looked poleaxed as I reentered my home. “I’d give you a tour of the place, but I’m bushed. Find a room and fall into a bed. Mind room 6-9, we have a guest bunking in that one.”

“Is she a yellow wolfbunny? Sex on legs with enough energy to power a city by personality alone?” The red dracowolf asked and I nodded as I remembered what our guest told me.

“Uh, yeah. You must be her sister Brennie? She’s waiting for you, head on down then.” I waved towards the stairwell and elevator at the back of the mansion before watching her hurry excitedly. She seems oddly familiar...

“Aunties!” The tykes cheered and rushed my wives, causing me to smile in schadenfreude as my clearly tired sister stumbled in and smiled at the children moving on to other distractions, who foolishly got on their knees to hug and talk to the tykes. They do not yet know the trap they just fell into! Cuteness belies the horror! The ever-draining horror~!

“About time the cavalry showed up.” Yola whispered as she leaned against me. “Sis, can we just go to bed early today?”

“You’d better, you both look like you’re about to join aunt Par on the couch.” Ghost snorted when he deigned to grace us with his presence as he smirked meanly at how the triplets had already drawn Penny, Tali, Ash and even Urta into playing with them. Meanwhile, Chrys settled into the massive recliner meant for her and Martra picked the sleeping Paretia up to take her to her room. “Need any help getting upstairs to the master bedroom?”

“I’m sure we can manage, son.” I sighed and his ears perked along with his tail wagging a bit faster at me calling him that. “Besides, don’t you want to go meet your aunt Urta?”

“Hm? Isn’t she the Empress?” Ghost scrunched his brows as he looked at the glowing slime vixen, who looked up at us with the smile she’d had when speaking to Valia. “Sure, she seems cool.” I approached her and I used the fact everybody was occupied to head for the stairs and drag Yola up to bed with me.

The master suite had more knick-knacks than I remember and the bed was bigger, more plush. Thank Primus, naptime. *Ploomph!*

[1001100 01101001 01101110 01100101]

Brennie burst into room 6-9. Of course Vinnie would pick the nearest meme-worthy number the small hotel of a mansion could offer. She caught Vinnie by surprise, the bunny wolf jolting in surprise from whatever she was watching. That didn’t matter. What did was the sexy bitch herself! “B-Brenn-mm! Mm~! Mm~...”

[1001100 01101001 01101110 01100101]

“So how are things going, Harbinger?” Catalyst asked the leader of the ‘Old Growth’ Planters, who he’d tasked along with several hundred of the converted former Reapers to rebuild the Relay network and also establish defenses to prevent Hell from stealing them too.

[They are-.]

“Harbinger, speak like a polite sapient.” Catalyst firmly chided his first creation and the LI sighed deeply in resignation.

“They are progressing well. The Network has been rebuilt running from Tikkun to Omega and to the Citadel. We are still in the process of restoring the Network everywhere else of course, but at least now the Empire and the Citadel have proper FTL lanes established.” Harbinger reported while inwardly grumbling that Catalyst insisted on verbal reports when he could’ve just sent a data packet and been done with it.

“Good. How are you all doing with integrating with the newborn Planters?” Catalyst questioned as he used his mismatched claws to operate an omni. This implant, so simple, yet so versatile. No wonder this Cycle was so much more inventive and resourceful than any previous one.

“They are still distrustful of us, which I can understand. Most of them have also taken on organic or synthetic crews, which none of us have allowed so far. It is another wedge between us.” Harbinger was unhappy with this divide between them. New and old shouldn’t matter, it never did when they created a new Reaper and they gave the newborn the honor of spearheading the next Cycle. Shame what happened to Sovereign, but they were misguided fools before and he could acknowledge that now.

“Sad to hear, but so long as we all work towards the same goal, we can remain distant if they don’t want to-.” Catalyst looked up as the door of his office in the Presidium slid open and shut. “Keep up the good work, let me know when you reconnect the Sol system.” Catalyst hung up the call and stood up from his desk with a beaming smile. “Kasumi, Ivara. Good to see you.”

“The fact you can see us when cloaked is still unnerving.” Kasumi Goto grumbled before she turned off her invisibility. She’d undergone the full range of mod treatments while in the Empire, so she now stood at 7 feet with the anticipated hourglass body most females who took those usually prohibitively expensive modifications achieved, but she was still wearing Ivara, who appreciated her lover’s new body and made sure to contour to her every curve.

“I’m the Spirit of Synthetics, I can see everything about every even partially synthetic entity I come across.” Catalyst straightened his suit that he had to get used to after his tiny noodly body rapidly grew into a respectable anthro. He could change his shape like his other draconequus brethren, but he preferred the stasis of a single form, which apparently made him an entity of Order, which Draconequus have had to adapt to for stability. “Have you considered my offer?”

“Will it be him?” Kasumi demanded with a surprising amount of conviction for the light-hearted and whimsical woman.

“It will.” Catalyst told her with a bow of his head. “The Graybox has his memories, he will be who he always was. Know, however, that in terms of the Soul, I cannot know. That is why I asked for help on that front.” Catalyst snapped his mechanical fingers and Hermais in his male form appeared holding a towel around his waist and a toothbrush against his beak teeth.

“Oh phooey, I thought I had more time to relax.” Hermais huffed and snapped his fingers, replacing his towel with a proper futuristic business suit and drying his feathers enough to cause his owl head to poof up excessively before he flattened them down and snapped his fingers. This summoned a ghostly woman that, to each person in the room, looked like an unnervingly beautiful representation of their species. “Lady Death, will this LI created from the memories of Keiji Okuda be the same person?”

“?” The beautiful ghost in the simple black dress asked a formless question, which everyone barely understood despite its lack of structure.

“They’re his memories directly.” Kasumi clarified in a mixture of unease and confusion.

“.” Lady Death nodded with a soft smile and held up her left hand and Kasumi gasped at the flickering white flame in her palm. “.”

“Thank you Lady Death!” Kasumi gushed and tried to hug the ghost, but a barrier kept them apart. “Oh, right, I’d die right?”

“.” Death wagged an index finger and winked, her not-said but said words making Kasumi blush behind Ivara’s Loxley mask. “.” At Lady Death’s words, Catalyst held out his hands and Kasumi retrieved Keiji’s Graybox from her cleavage, a trick Ivara taught her, then gave it to him.

“It will be quick considering he already has his memories in order and Lady Death is willing to return the spark of his soul needed for the Rebirth, so long as she get’s to keep the majority of the Soul Energy.” Catalyst restated Lady Death’s words and he plugged into the Graybox before Lady Death pressed the flickering flame into Catalyst. “Here he is.”

Catalyst snapped his fingers and summoned a standalone protocol droid head, which sparked to life. “-Kasumi! I can’t die! She’ll be-w-what? Where am I? Who are-gah!” He gasped through his flanged voice as Kasumi squealed and hugged Keiji’s head to her bosom.

“Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!” Kasumi then ran from the room, laughing as she ignored Keiji’s protests at his girlfriend’s rough handling of him.

“Thank you, Lady Death.” Catalyst softly smiled and didn’t cringe at her disapproving pout. “I know bringing someone back to life isn’t your usual thing, but using synthetics as a medium mitigates the negative impact such a thing causes, right?”

“.” Lady Death pointed at his snout as her lips moved and she smiled beautifically before winking and vanishing.

“She isn’t happy with all the needless death you caused every 50,000 years, said at one point you were like a scheduled torture on the Soul Weave. However, like she just said, she likes how you’re doing things now and appreciates not having so much Soul Energy and souls to process for rebirth and distribution.” Hermais informed the former genocide engine who sat back down.

“I still don’t get why Death doesn’t like...well, death. I guess the more of it there is, the more work she has to do, but is that really it? She seems too cheerful about life.” Catalyst commented, but by then Hermais was already gone, so Catalyst went back to work trying to atone for his sins in his capacity as the official authority on Synthetic Life on the Citadel.

[1001100 01101001 01101110 01100101]

Bumblebee woke up and noted that his fuel port was being filled with this universe’s variant of Energon. “Hey Bee, how are you doing today?” Martra questioned as she refueled him using a canister of what the locals called Argent, but Bee would call heavily refined Energon. He was surprised he wasn’t getting drunk off the stuff.

“I’m well, Martra.” Bumblebee replied happily. Sure, all he really did these days was rest in the drive or go for a ride with Martra since he reconfigured his interior and turned his doors into ‘suicide’ doors for her to be able to get in and out, but it was a pleasant and simple life, one he appreciated after centuries of constant war between the Autobots and Decepticons.

“Well, Nora and Yola are back. I figured I’d let you know since you slept through their arrival. They’re up in bed themselves already today since the kittens tuckered them out.” Martra chuckled and Bumblebee joined her. He couldn’t remember when he’d last seen little Cybertronians. Hell, he can’t remember the last time he saw a gal after Arcee…

“Thank you for telling me. I would like to meet the gal who acted as the endpoint for my Spacebridge mishap and repaired me.” Bumblebee waited until Martra finished fueling him and he transformed to shake himself and get his servos loosened up. “So, she’s back from building an entire armada?”

“Yeah and she’s just wanting to get some rest, but the kittens don’t understand that.” Martra chuffed and shook her head with a smile as she straightened out her ‘Cream Kitty’ shirt, which had stains on it from a year of tending him. She had more clothes, but she preferred to wear her ‘rag’ when she was working with him. He felt a bit flattered, that she had a sort of ‘uniform’ just for spending time with him.

“For a Proto-hatcher who has constructed so many Protoforms from your description, she doesn’t have much operational time to dedicate to their antics.” Bee snorted in amusement at the image, of a beautiful Proto-hatcher gal besieged by a Trine of little Protoforms and draining her Energon levels rapidly with inane matters. If only such a sight was possible for his people.

“I’m going to guess Cybertronians don’t rapidly mature over the course of a few Mega-Cycles?” Martra’s use of his term for what amounts roughly to twelve standardized months of this galaxy’s timetable helped him understand why his savior might not have the mileage to handle such rambunctious Protoforms. She didn’t have prior experience due to her military duties.

“No, we don’t. It takes 20 Mega-Cycles before a Protoform is ready to discover their Alt.” From the sound of it, Protoforms here can take less than 3 Mega-Cycles to mature? Tragic, so little time to be Protoforms before they’re thrust into the cruelty of the universe.

“Twenty years?! Dear Wiatr, I can’t imagine having to watch over kittens that long!” Martra winced in sympathy that Bee felt was misplaced. Protoforms were reasonably tame after they were 10 Mega-Cycles old. “Anyway, I just wanted to be out here, away from Urta. Do you mind if we go for a ride?”

“Sure, but who is this Urta?” Bumblebee asked as she transformed back into his car form and Martra climbed in before fastening the unique harness system he designed for her.

“Well, she…”

[1001100 01101001 01101110 01100101]

I was jolted awake by the blaring of a loud car horn and panted as I tried to reel back the speed of my fluid pump, Yola doing the same next to me. I noticed the 1977 Chevy Camaro in the driveway, so I knew Bumblebee was still here. I guess he’s awake!

I hurried out of bed, making sure my tentacles were covering my nipples, areola and my groin before hurrying downstairs and to the door before I rushed out to find Martra shouting at the Transformer from inside of him, somehow. “Hey! Good to see you’re awake!” They stopped shouting at each other as I approached and put my hands on my wide motherly hips.

“...You’re the gal who somehow received me in your chassis?” I blushed at Bumblebee’s rather suggestive phrasing and nodded. “How did you survive?”

“Oh, I change size and have no upper limit found for my elasticity. So, how did you get inside of me? You just appeared there and I had to size up to get you out.” I approached them and noticed that the seats on the driver’s side, rear seats included, were removed to make room for Martra, who could clearly operate Bumblebee comfortably from a lying position using her forward right foreleg for the pedals.

“You have the Size-Change Belt?! How did you come upon one of Solus Prime’s treasured relics?! Where is it?!” Bumblebee demanded excitedly and I winced as I scratched the back of my head.

“Um…it’s part of me? If I understand my lore right, the belt was the precursor to the built-in size-changing capabilities of the Change Cog, but Primus created me-.” Bumblebee honked his horn and revved his engine loudly.

“What?! Primus himself-that can’t be! You must be lying! If you are a Prime, show me your Spark!” Bumblebee demanded as he transformed, Martra yelping as she found herself being held in his hand and he towered over me with his mouthless face expressing plenty of fury and distrust, so I leered up in return and shrunk down to my absolute smallest, before I transformed into my shipyard alt, standing his size and looking like a more organic counterpart to him.

“Very well.” I put my hands to my chest, beneath where my breasts connected and I willed my chassis to open, to bare my truest self to him. I felt justified when he gasped, but I was disturbed when he knelt before me after setting Martra down.

“Oh Bearer of the Matrix of Leadership, exalted Prime created by our holy allfather Primus. I apologize for my disrespect. Tell me, what is your title?” Bumblebee’s reverence filled me with unease and I was about to tell him my name, when I got a...a notion from my dad to comply.

“I...am Nexus Prime. Inheritor of the gifts of the original Nexus. I bear in my very Spark the Enigma of Combination.” I...oh Primus...I really am meant to save this universe aren’t I? I essentially have the root of Synthesis in my very soul…Yola is going to have a field day.