Chuckling, he stayed back for the moment since Optimus had dodged him, assessing the space available as well as his opponent; he wasn't exactly sure of the scale of escorts, but he was rather sure the Prime had been one of the higher-ranked ones, which mean bodyguard... Which of course was different than routinely fighting to the death - or nearly so - but the Prime did have help of the Matrix now, too.

The axe was given a narrow stare, his optics then travelling up to Optimus' faceplates as his fingers flexed about the sharpened crystal. He did have an energy mace, but while he would have preferred to use it - it'd have kicked in more of the convict-consort programming more immediately - the override using his own experiences and programming deemed another action more suitable, especially as he'd be more protected from the axe.

"I haven't even properly seen the mech, Prime, merely heard his voice, and only at one point that I actually remember. In a few cycles, you're going to have to remind me that there even is a shell program," Megatron snapped, voice and expression both bitter.

Both because of the shell program's existence at all, and the fact that after this, even if they could find and deactivate this particular override and sub-routine, with what he was about to do? They would surely deactivate his transformation cog too.

With a grimace, Megatron gripped the crystal between his teeth before transforming, and even if he briefly stalled due to the pain from the harem-coding now flaring up, he wasn't beaten yet. Not by a long shot.

A tank without any cannons was still a tank, even if he could hardly maneuver in the room avaiable. But he didn't need room to just charge the Prime.