Whether Autobot or Decepticon, they were all living beings. Aside from their bodies being composed of machinery, their inner essence wasn't really that different from humans.
Decepticons had ambition, Autobots had ideals. Some Decepticons were devious and cunning, some Autobots were deeply righteous.
By human scientific standards, they were genuine silicon-based life forms.
Since they were life forms with thought and consciousness, they possessed minds that could be affected by psionic attacks. Mind Blast would work on Decepticons too.
Bella struck with full force. Psionic energy, enhanced by Eagle Vision and her elementary sixth sense, locked firmly onto the blue-painted attack helicopter. One Mind Blast slammed into him.
The mental world surged with shocking waves. Through the brief mental contact between them, Bella's mind also received some stream-of-consciousness fragments. This guy was called Dropkick, and that Harrier jet was called Shatter.
"What? What is this!—!" Dropkick was stunned. Several combat modules analyzed for ages but couldn't figure out what had attacked him.
He vaguely felt this energy resembled the methods of the Thirteen Primes. Was it or wasn't it? As a grunt-level character among the Decepticons, he'd never even seen a Prime.
He anxiously accelerated his internal energy circulation, trying to expel the abnormal energy brought by Mind Blast and regain control of his body.
Transformers, due to their mechanical structure, had extraordinarily high resistance to many forms of energy-based interference. If left to make adjustments, he'd quickly shake off Mind Blast's effects.
Bella was regulating her breathing with no time to talk. She beckoned to her side.
Shaw, who'd been ready, grabbed another RPG, locked onto the attack helicopter, then squeezed the trigger.
This time Dropkick couldn't dodge. His body was still expelling Mind Blast—completely in a rigid, non-resistant state.
The rocket hit squarely on the attack helicopter's side door. The explosion then ignited the interior cabin. With a tremendous boom, the blue-painted attack helicopter trailed thick smoke, wobbling as it fell toward the ground.
Not knowing what TV shows he'd watched at Charlie's house, Bumblebee now raised one right arm while his car radio blared cheering sounds.
The red Harrier jet Shatter was startled seeing her companion shot down, but she was confident in herself. Fighting one-on-two held no fear for her. She lowered altitude, and when nearly touching the ground, transformed again—becoming a red Plymouth, a very famous Roadrunner.
The car landed and drove at high speed for over a hundred meters before transforming again. The trunk became legs, the hood moved to the chest, and a rather odd head emerged from the body.
The giant robot did a flip in midair, then took large strides while firing as she ran.
This was a female Decepticon, over seven meters tall, towering above Bumblebee by a full two meters.
Her right hand's energy cannon rapidly charged, aimed at the extremely fast pickup.
Bella inside the pickup wasn't idle either. She pulled out Number Three, the Golden Apple. Massive amounts of energy surged within this cutting-edge technological device. She used her own psionic energy to locate and guide it. Psionic and Golden Apple energy gathered together, the target likewise aimed at the female Decepticon.
"Terminating target!"
"Let me show you what I've got!"
A golden beam of light and a pure energy blast passed each other in the air.
The pure energy blast hit the pickup. Because the energy was too concentrated, even activating ghost mode didn't fully negate it. The vehicle body was flipped by the massive explosion. Bella, who hadn't been wearing a seatbelt at all, was thrown over ten meters. Fortunately, Bumblebee was quick—he leaped up and caught her in midair.
Number Three's energy impact also hit the female Decepticon. Fragments scattered everywhere. Her lower abdomen was blasted through with a large hole. A whole bunch of module alarms appeared before her eyes, along with numerous data warnings. The female Decepticon knelt on one knee, unable to stand for quite a while.
What had hit her?
Having followed the Decepticons to many planets, she was still stunned.
In pure energy level terms, the golden beam was far inferior to her energy cannon. But the energy impact that hit her carried strange properties—no matter how much energy she mobilized to suppress it, it couldn't be effectively neutralized.
This meant the wound didn't expand but didn't shrink either. The female Decepticon clutched her bowl-sized wound, trying several times to stand but failing each time.
On the other side, Bumblebee fired repeatedly behind him, then transformed into a Beetle and followed the smoking pickup, fleeing the battlefield at high speed.
Following Bella's directions, they drove into San Francisco, circled half the city district, then entered side streets. Finally, they drove through a residential garage, and by the time they stepped on the gas, they were already stopped inside Bella's secret base.
"Shaw! Shaw, how are you?" Bella was clearly also blasted into disarray, but Root acted like she didn't see it, taking off her headset and only asking about Shaw.
Shaw was way tougher than her! Could an energy weapon completely kill a ghost? Shaw looked disheveled, but it wasn't even as bad as her injuries in Silent Hill.
Bella was different. Just being affected by the explosion's shockwave, she felt pain all over. As a mage class, she really was fragile! She resolved that given time, she absolutely must develop a defensive spell.
"That woman! That woman suddenly disappeared!" The girl Charlie Watson looked panicked. Shaw had been sitting beside her driving, but after the female Decepticon blasted the pickup, that woman had vanished right before her eyes!
Relatively speaking, vehicles driving without a driver didn't surprise her. Wasn't this standard procedure?
"That woman had such a creepy aura... could she be a ghost?!" Analyzing to the end, the girl's voice changed.
Bumblebee also put on an 'I'm so scared' act, body curled up, watching the surroundings anxiously.
Bella had to step out to comfort the scared-of-ghosts duo.
"It's fine, it's fine. Shaw is a good person. Well, she was a good person in life, now she's a good ghost, and actually a very cute ghost... You'll understand slowly." Bella checked the pickup front and back. Not bad, nothing major—Shaw could repair herself.
She went to the counter and poured herself a drink, downing it in one gulp. Only then did she look at the girl Charlie Watson and Bumblebee crouched on the ground.
Sensing her gaze, Bumblebee quickly turned into a Volkswagen Beetle and went motionless, seemingly wanting to continue pretending to be a car.
Bella couldn't help laughing. The girl Charlie also felt embarrassed.
"...This is pretty exaggerated. Are we all blind? Haha, I'm talking to you! Stop pretending to be a car. We fought side by side just now, remember? Get up and tell us about yourself." Bella said, looking at Bumblebee.