Shockwave reached the testing chamber first.
The room beneath Kaon had been reinforced until it no longer resembled any ordinary industrial space. Heavy support ribs crossed the ceiling. Additional bracing had been welded into the walls, and the floor bore the dark marks of recent strengthening work where layered load plates had been fused over the original foundation. The chamber had been built for weight, impact, and failure.
Shockwave stood at the control console, his single yellow optic fixed on the readouts streaming across the screens. The Nexus interface schematic hovered in the air above the station, its connection points marked in precise lines of light. Every signal return, every locking response, every synchronization spike fed into the system as the six Constructicons settled into position across the marked integration grid.
They had attempted the process before.
This was not discovery anymore.
This was refinement.
Scrapper and Hook had already finished the final checks. Every lock, rail, and coupling plate had been inspected twice. Hook had been especially precise, moving from one frame to the next with a medic’s attention to failure points, not because he expected safety, but because he knew exactly what damage looked like when a system failed under stress. Scrapper watched every inspection, corrected one alignment, asked two brief questions, and then said nothing more.
The six construction vehicles waited across the chamber floor.
For a moment, nothing moved.
Then Scrapper’s voice came across the chamber. “Phase two.”
The machines shifted.
Scrapper rolled forward first, aligning beside Mixmaster. The two vehicles moved with careful precision, locking rails extending outward as heavy connection arms unfolded from beneath their frames. The mechanisms engaged with a hard metallic clack, and the two machines lifted, folding upward as their frames rotated and lengthened into the lower structure.
Mixmaster’s drum turned once as the leg assembly locked into place beside Scrapper’s chassis.
Behind them, Long Haul reversed into position. His massive dump truck frame rose as internal supports extended outward, forming the central mass of the growing body. Hook moved next, his crane assembly splitting apart as his vehicle frame folded upward and locked into the upper structure on one side. Bonecrusher’s treaded frame rose on the opposite side, twisting as the arm assembly extended outward.
Scavenger rolled forward last. His excavator arm lifted high before rotating into position as the final limb connection sealed.
The chamber shook as the massive structure continued rising. Metal folded. Locks engaged. Six separate machines became one towering frame as the final sections rotated into alignment. At the top of the structure, armored plates shifted, and a head began to form.
Shockwave watched the readouts spike, stabilize, then spike again.
The blast doors opened behind him.
Heavy footsteps entered the chamber.
Megatron walked in first, red optics fixed immediately on the forming giant. Starscream followed with Thundercracker and Skywarp at his sides, the three Seekers slowing almost as one as they took in the scale of what stood at the center of the room.
Starscream did not speak.
For once, neither did Skywarp.
The final plates locked into place with a thunderous clang.
The towering gestalt straightened slowly.
Megatron stopped beside Starscream just as the giant head lifted. Red optics flickered to life in the massive face, dim at first, then brighter as power surged through the combined frame.
Devastator stood.
Starscream stared upward, optics tracking every line of the integration. He had expected instability. He had expected the frame to shudder apart under its own weight or seize under conflicting command signals before it could complete the cycle.
But it stood.
The scale of it was staggering.
The massive gestalt shifted its balance once, hydraulics groaning as the weight settled through its legs and into the reinforced floor. The chamber accepted the load with a low metallic tremor.
Megatron watched the machine rise. “Impressive.”
Starscream did not look away. “Yes.”
Then Devastator’s head jerked sharply.
The red optics flickered.
One massive arm twitched, then the other. Bonecrusher’s tread assembly ground against Hook’s locking plates with a harsh screech of stressed metal. The giant’s posture shifted, not like a machine settling, but like six different commands had collided inside the same frame.
Starscream saw it instantly.
The systems were fighting each other.
Motor signals collided. Six separate command structures attempted to control the same body. The face changed, confusion moving across the massive features in rough, distorted fragments as the shared body struggled to understand itself.
A deep, broken voice rumbled out of the giant.
“Too—”
The head snapped sideways.
“Many—”
The arms convulsed.
The entire frame staggered as if struck by an invisible force.
Shockwave stepped forward slightly, optic narrowing as he watched the readouts spike. “Neural synchronization unstable.”
Devastator staggered again, confusion grinding through the massive frame. The motion was not pain, Starscream realized. Not exactly. It was overload. Too many signals. Too many instincts. Too many points of awareness trying to become one direction.
The command burst out from the combined voice in a rough mechanical roar.
“Separate!”
The locks disengaged violently. Arms tore free. The torso split apart as the integration rails released all at once. Six machines crashed back onto the chamber floor in a thunder of metal and sparks.
Then silence.
Scrapper was the first to transform back. He stood upright, shaking his head once as if clearing static from his processors. “Yeah…” He looked around at the others. “That was a mess.”
Bonecrusher pushed himself up from the floor with a low growl. Mixmaster rotated his drum slowly before transforming, optics flickering as he checked his own balance. Long Haul rose with careful heaviness, rolling his shoulders once. Scavenger sat back on his haunches for a moment before standing, while Hook examined the locking joints along his arm with immediate clinical focus.
Starscream glanced toward Shockwave.
The scientist was already studying the readings from the console.
Megatron watched the Constructicons recover without visible concern.
Starscream folded his arms slowly. “It stood.”
Shockwave nodded once. “Yes.”
Starscream looked back toward the six mechs now standing again at the center of the chamber. “That was more than I expected.”
Shockwave’s optic flickered faintly. “The prior attempts established partial viability. This attempt achieved full structural standing before synchronization failure.”
Across the room, Scrapper pressed one hand briefly to the side of his head as if clearing lingering signal noise. “Next time,” he muttered, “maybe we ease into that.”
Hook took one step and nearly lost his balance. The separation had been rougher than the transformation itself. He steadied himself against one of the heavy support rails before pushing upright again and walking toward Shockwave. The others did much the same: Scavenger flexed one arm slowly, Bonecrusher rolled his shoulders with irritation, Mixmaster tested his alignment, and Long Haul stood solidly for a moment before shifting his weight with deliberate care.
Scrapper looked at each of them, gauging condition before anyone else spoke.
Hook finally reached Shockwave and looked directly at him. “It’s viable.”
Shockwave waited.
Hook’s voice steadied. “But we need better synchronization.”
Shockwave gave a small nod. “Expected.”
Behind them, Megatron stepped forward slightly, red optics still fixed on the Constructicons. “Granted.”
The single word carried across the chamber.
Scrapper glanced up toward him.
“You will continue,” Megatron said. “Until the system stabilizes.”
Bonecrusher smirked faintly. “That part I like.”
Long Haul rolled his shoulders once more, the earlier strain already fading from his posture. Scrapper looked at the others, then nodded.
They were not discouraged.
If anything, the failed integration had only sharpened their focus.
Shockwave turned slightly toward them. “Further attempts will improve synchronization.”
“Then we keep trying,” Scrapper said.
Starscream folded his arms. The attempt had been unstable, confused, and rough, but it had also proven something important.
The machine could stand.
And that meant sooner or later, Devastator would walk.
Scrapper rolled his shoulders once, then looked over the others again. Hook. Bonecrusher. Scavenger. Mixmaster. Long Haul. Each of them was still running quick internal checks, but none stepped away from the grid.
Scrapper nodded. “Phase one.”
Six bodies shifted again.
Metal folded and rotated as the Constructicons dropped back into their vehicle modes. The chamber floor trembled slightly as the heavy construction forms settled into position across the marked integration grid.
This time, there was no hesitation.
“Phase two,” Scrapper ordered.
The vehicles moved.
Scrapper and Mixmaster rolled into position first, locking together as their frames unfolded upward into the lower structure. Long Haul reversed into alignment behind them, his dump chassis rising as the torso frame assembled and locked into place. Hook’s crane assembly folded upward and attached to the upper structure while Bonecrusher’s treaded frame twisted into the opposite arm mount. Scavenger rotated forward last, excavator arm rising as the final limb connection sealed.
The massive structure rose again.
Metal plates shifted.
The head formed.
Devastator stood.
This time the giant did not immediately collapse.
The massive frame straightened slowly, adjusting balance as the combined weight settled through the reinforced chamber floor. Starscream watched carefully. The red optics glowed brighter now, and the head turned slightly as the giant looked around the chamber, taking in its surroundings as if seeing them for the first time.
Shockwave stepped forward from the control console. “Take a step.”
Devastator did not move.
The giant remained standing, frame rigid as six minds worked to orient themselves inside the shared body.
Thundercracker leaned slightly toward Starscream. “He’s trying to figure out where his feet are.”
Shockwave spoke again. “Take a step.”
The giant still did not move.
Megatron stepped forward beside Starscream. “Take a step.”
Devastator remained still.
Then another figure entered the chamber without announcement.
Soundwave approached quietly, stopping beside Shockwave at the console. His red visor flickered once as he studied the towering machine, then the readouts, then the tension locked through the massive frame.
He had been prepared.
Starscream saw that in the precision of his movement. This was not improvisation. Shockwave had briefed him, and Soundwave had come with a correction already calculated.
A low sound filled the chamber.
Precise.
Controlled.
A sonic tone vibrated through the floor, through the reinforced walls, and into the massive gestalt’s frame. It was not loud, but it carried weight, tuned with such exactness that Starscream felt the resonance through the platform beneath his feet.
Devastator’s head lifted.
The giant took one step.
The floor trembled as the foot came down.
Then the massive head turned toward Megatron. The red optics brightened, and the combined voice spoke again, deeper now, steadier than before.
“Devastator.”
The name rolled through the chamber.
Starscream went still.
The giant’s voice followed with the same grave force.
“Devastator obey Megatron.”
For a moment, no one moved.
Starscream did not react outwardly, but the words caught him completely off guard. He had expected instability. Confusion. Perhaps a mindless weapon driven by raw force and held together only as long as Shockwave and Soundwave could force the interface to obey.
Not this.
Devastator had spoken.
Not as six mechs arguing through one mouth.
As something singular enough to name itself.
Thundercracker glanced at Starscream briefly, clearly just as surprised. Skywarp leaned forward slightly, his usual grin muted by the scale of what stood in front of them.
“Well,” Skywarp said softly. “That’s new.”
Starscream kept his expression controlled, optics fixed on the towering gestalt. Inside his processors, however, the implications were already unfolding.
If the machine could stand, if it could move, and if it could think clearly enough to speak, then it was not simply a weapon.
It was an army breaker.
Cities would not withstand something like that. Fortifications would collapse under it. Defensive lines would become suggestions. The Senate could outlaw arenas, manipulate records, erase senators, and send Sentinel Prime charging through empty districts, but none of that would matter against a force that could tear through the physical structure of a city.
Megatron had gained more than a demonstration.
He had gained a future breach point.
Starscream watched Devastator take another slow step across the chamber floor, the reinforced plates groaning beneath him.
Nothing would stop a thing like this once it stabilized.
The realization settled quietly in Starscream’s mind.
He said nothing.
But the calculus of the coming war had just changed.