That long-awaited conversation between him and the two boys never happened. Rockwell just didn't want it not had a chance.
His Galvan form had managed to figure out the structure of Energon, only blue one.
Any kind of fuel is explosive, but Energon was something else.
Cybertronian anatomy worked like this: everything is Energon. Energy for living, energy for their weapons, they themselves. If humans – and most organic life – had different kinds of food, for a Cybertronian it was strictly Energon. Though there were nuances.
During a little tour Rockwell gave Arcee, he started asking about Energon. Arcee explained it like this:
There were three main types: the most common standard blue Energon, Dark Energon (which used to be considered a myth), and rare red Energon.
Blue Energon was used for everything on Cybertron. The part used for food also had its own varieties – basically blue mixed with other colors like pink, bright green (emerald, Rockwell figured), silver, brown, and so on.
As for Dark Energon, Arcee couldn't say much – it was never studied. According to legend, Dark Energon was the blood of Unicron the Destroyer, the Cybertronian god of destruction who fought against Primus (their main god). Cybertronian mythology was a whole separate topic and more Optimus's specialty.
Red Energon – because of its special ability– would charge a Cybertronian's processor to such an insane level that their systems would start going haywire at supersonic speeds. Using it was extremely rare.
And yeah, the blue Energon meant for consumption could be flavored by flash-heating it at insane temperatures. The key was a sudden spike in heat.
The principle was kind of like a non-Newtonian fluid—the faster you hit it, the harder it gets, and vice versa.
The Autobots did not currently have the resources or technology to search for and harvest higher-quality energon. Team Prime often had to raid energon mines controlled by the Decepticons, which they were not particularly proud of, as Arcee mentioned.
" I would kill for oil bath and big high grade energon... Primus knows we all need this. Although Prime, as I remember from Elite-1, doesn't really get along with high-grades, Primes don't get drunk or party."
she said , sharing a little fact that made Rockwell involuntarily replay the scene in his head. If he wasn't mistaken, she 'Would kill for a night in a jacuzzi with a glass of wine.' He didn't know about the jacuzzi, but they would soon have a higher-quality energy source, and he would prepare everything they needed.
But now time for experiment.
The room was a void of didn' – walls, floor, ceiling, all bleeding into one another like an unfinished canvas. No shadows, no corners, just fuckin nothing.
Rockwell stood in the center of it, a five-meter monument of living magma and jagged obsidian.
His dark reddish-brown crust cracked with every slow breath, molten veins pulsing orange-red beneath the surface like a heartbeat. Plates of blackened rock armored his shoulders, his forearms, his chest – where the Omnitrix symbol glowed a steady green against all that fire. Steam hissed from the smaller vents along his shoulders, the air around him warping from the heat.
His mask-like face remained hidden in shadow beneath a crown of flames, only the faint glow of his eyes visible behind what felt like a tactical visor.
Before him, a massive square stretched across the floor – seamless, impossible to tell where it ended and the room began. It was a table, maybe. Or a stage. Or an altar. The space didn't care to define itself.
And on it sat a chunk of raw blue Energon.
It was unrefined, jagged, pulsing with that familiar cold light. Rockwell had pulled it from one of the mines himself.
The mine was in Peru. After the experiments and tool-making, Rockwell would hand everything over to the Autobots, and they could figure out the rest from there.
His Pyronite [HeatBlast] form could generate temperatures up to supernova level without much trouble – according to the HighTrix's data, anyway.
He'd be raising the level second by second, since he had no idea where the Energon's limit was.
According to his hypothesis, the temperature would give a different color, and he'd record the data. Once he got one color, he'd increase the temperature to get a different result, and when he reached the final point—a bright, sparkling blue state—he'd stop and start developing storage cubes with the specified temperatures. This was how they were made, which was why Cybertronians stored energon in cubes—basically a kind of microwave. For high-quality energon to become a fully-fledged version of itself, it required long-term processing at a single temperature.
Flammable substances could sometimes be refined, but it depended on their nature and required strict safety measures. Some metals like aluminum or gold, for example, would only burn under certain conditions, but they'd melt at high temperatures without catching fire.
Energon fit into that category. This room—which was a training simulator—could easily handle insane temperatures.
He reached out with his massive magma hand toward the large crystal—about the size of his palm in this form, which meant it was a pretty hefty chunk. The energon had been cleaned of stone and shaped into a bar. Grabbing it with one hand, he clenched the other into a fist and extended his index finger toward the crystal. Rockwell was ready. The finger acted as a torch, and the AI in his head logged the data.
"Let's begin." The words came out as more of a low growl from his magma throat.
The flame started slow. It passed 1000° degrees, then pushed past 2000°, climbing to 3000°. Somewhere around 4500°, the crystal finally began to show signs of change.
As a result, it turned out like this
5500° - Gold
5900° - Silver
6000° - Emerald
7000° - brow
And finally 9000° - Pinkish Blue Energon
So much for alcohol.
Rockwell stopped directing the flame and slowly set the bar back on the table.
Immediately, his mind went to the kind of material that could withstand those temperatures.
Nay. Not a single metal on Earth could handle 9000°C—that was far beyond the melting and boiling points of every known metal.
The most heat-resistant metal was tungsten, with a melting point of 3422°C and a boiling point around 5555°C. At 9000°C, it would have evaporated long ago.
What about making the tungsten thicker?
Again, no. Even a thick layer of tungsten wouldn't survive 9000°C. It would start melting at 3422°C and completely vaporize at 9000°C, regardless of thickness.
The solution was Taydenite. A metal that didn't exist in this universe, but did exist in the one the HighTrix came from.
It was the hardest metal known, and 9000°C was child's play to it. Tidenite also made up the armor of his Prypiatosian-B [NRG]form.
That was also the reason most of this training room hadn't melted to hell—everywhere was lined with a layer of Taydenite
And luckily, Rockwell had a literal walking, living source of Taydenite in his arsenal. By combining the genes of a Petrosapien [DiamondHead] and a Crystalsapien [Chromastone], a new evolutionary branch of the two species could be created. That meant an unlimited supply of Taydenite was right in his hands.
His thoughts were interrupted by a Prime
A call from Prime.
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[A/N: check comments for HeatBlast pic]