Things That Go Bump in the Night
By: Miss Special
Rhinox paused from his work to listen the soft flute tones of Copland's "Appalachian Spring" drift through the Ark. It was a good thing Angel learned quickly; he didn’t think everyone could’ve tolerated the noise much longer when she’d started out. Angel turned out to be some musical prodigy, and in her own right, too. Nothing the aliens did had anything to do with it.
It had taken a little while for her to get over the trauma of her experience with her other self, but she felt a lot better after deciding to take up music. She held up rather well during the most recent events, too. She was there when Dinobot died and when they’d found the Ark.
One thing, however, Rhinox noticed, was she never played sad music. He didn’t read too much into it, though. It was probably only because she seemed to be the kind of person who liked something that moved, and sad music didn’t move.
Angel, deciding practice was over, set her flute down and looked to Spirit, who was sleeping on the bed.
“It’s your lunchtime, isn’t it?”
Spirit meowed a reply, sitting up.
“Fish today?” Spirit liked fish, so she nodded. Angel transformed to beast mode and let the little white cat jump up on her back.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Cheetor sneered as Angel walked out the Ark‘s doors. Over the past few weeks, a sibling rivalry of epic proportions had sprung up between the two. They couldn’t so much as be in the same room together without them fighting. It usually didn’t go beyond words, but Optimus’d had to pull them apart a time or two.
“Where you’re not,” Angel replied testily. “You smell bad.”
Ignoring the fighting, Rhinox warned Angel, “Don’t stay out for too long. There’s going to be a big storm later, and you wouldn’t want to be out in it.”
“Okay!” Angel chirped, and waved to Rattrap and Silverbolt, who were on watch. The she spread her wings and flew to her fishing hole.
While most smaller cats seem to abhor water, many big cats love it. Angel and Spirit were no exception to this. Spirit stayed well away from the shore while Angel stuck her head in and looked around. She saw some nice sized bass, swimming around without a care in the world.
The fish didn’t stand a chance. Angel soon pawed a bass up onto the shore, which Spirit happily ate. Angel occupied herself with swimming while Spirit picked the fish bones clean. That done, the two cats walked (Angel’s wings were sopping wet) towards the Ark, accidentally running into Blackarachnia along the way.
Angel uncharacteristically hated Blackarachnia. This baffled everyone, since Angel was normally a friendly person, and she didn’t even give the spider a chance. What everyone didn’t know was how Blackarachnia helped Megatron bring Evil Angel online. Angel hadn’t told anyone what went on that day, and whenever she was asked, she changed the subject or closed her mouth and refused to say anything. And what Angel didn’t know was how Blackarachnia helped Angel beat her other self, since Blackarachnia hadn’t told anyone about messing with the program.
Angel snarled at the spider, who barely looked at the other. Blackarachnia was used to it by now. Neither stopped walking, so it passed quickly, and the cats soon arrived at the Ark, and just in time, because Rhinox’s storm was brewing in the sky overhead.
“So, what’d we miss while we were gone?” she asked cheerfully.
“We lost a stasis pod, and Optimus is in the CR chamber,” Rhinox replied gravely.
“Oh.” She looked around. “Where’s Cheetor?”
“He left. He seemed pretty mad about losing the pod.”
Angel sat for a moment, announced, “I’m going to practice my flute,” and went to her quarters.
She played through her repertoire and was about to start again when she heard Depth Charge (Angel didn’t like him much. Spirit said he smelled like fish) was talking to Optimus.
“He was a good kid,” Depth Charge said. Angel instantly knew who “he” was, and felt bad. Cheetor was like a brother to her. An annoying one, but still, she had some moral obligation to prove to the world he wasn’t dead. He couldn’t be dead. It was impossible. He was only lost. That’s exactly what he is- lost, Angel told herself.
“Spirit, we have to go find Cheetor,” she declared.
“Meow?”
“Nope. He’s lost. He can’t be dead. You don’t have to come if you don’t want to.”
“Meow.”
“Good. You can help me! Let’s go before Optimus tells us we can’t.”
They unsuccessfully attempted to sneak out of the Ark, but Optimus caught them in the act.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“We’re going to find Cheetor.”
Optimus looked very sad.
“You’ll be killed,” Depth Charge told them. “There’s something out there you can’t handle.”
Angel puffed out her chest and said, “I can handle anything. I’m Angel.”
Optimus sighed. “Angel, please just accept the fact that Cheetor’s gone.”
“’Course he’s gone! That’s why I’m going to find him!” Without waiting for a response, Spirit hopped onto Angel’s back, and the bigger cat flew out of the Ark, leaving Optimus in her wake.
"Meow?" Spirit asked while Angel was flying.
"Yeah, I turned my com-link off. I don't want anyone to try to get me to go home." She hovered over an area. "Let's start here," she said, landing. Spirit sniffed the wind, and Angel sniffed the ground.
"Nothing yet... Hey, wait-" sniff, sniff,"-I smell something! It smells like... sorta like... Dinobot? B-but I thought he was dead..."
"Meow."
"No, I don't think he's a zombie. I don't think it works that way. But that's gotta be Dinobot. Maybe he knows where Cheetor is."
"Meow."
"CHEETOR ISN'T DEAD!!"
"Meow."
"How could Cheetor be a zombie of he's not dead? C'mon, the trail leads this way." The cats followed the scent with their noses to the ground. The trail led right to feet... shiny transmetal feet. Angel looked up into a very creepy face. It looked kind of like Dinobot, except grumpier. If that was possible.
"Hi, Dinobot!" Angel said cheerfully. "We thought you were dead! Except Spirit, that is. She thought you were a zombie."
"Meow."
Dinobot didn't say anything. He turned on this light thingie over his eye, and a red beam fell onto Angel's forehead.
"Uh... wassat? It looks kinda cool." Angel warily backed away, and just in time, because the light then fell on her forepaw, which seemed to explode.
Angel yowled in pain. This was bad.
"Hey, I thought you were my friend!" Angel squeaked. Dinobot focused his sight on her head again. Spirit, who had taken the opportunity to climb up Dinobot's back, clawed him in the head, causing another misfire. Angel was shot in the wing, but she had a chance to transform, and took it. Spirit jumped down from Dinobot and hid, knowing she'd be in the way otherwise.
"I don't wanna fight you! You're Dinobot!" Dinobot shot her in the chest, knocking her onto her back. Angel was just getting up when he shot her again.
"STOP IT!" she commanded. Something in her clicked, and a funnel cloud appeared out of the sky. Angel (and Spirit, still hiding) watched in awe as the funnel cloud turned into a small tornado and carried Dinobot away, leaving everything else intact.
“Did I do that? How- What- I wanna go home.” She returned to beast mode. “I don’t like zombies. Especially Zombie Dinobots. C’mon, Spirit.”
“Meow,” the cat said, coming out from hiding.
“Yeah, that’s a good idea. I’ll call Optimus.” She turned her com-link on. “Angel to base...” Nothing. Not even static. “Um... I think it’s busted. In any case, let’s fly before anything else happens.” Angel spread her wings, but immediately retracted the damaged one. “Ow. I don’t think I can fly.”
“Meow.”
“Yeah, I guess so. Better get walking.”
Angel hadn’t said anything, but Spirit guessed her friend was in a great deal of pain. The bigger cat was limping badly, and looked very tired and confused.
Spirit glanced around nervously. They were halfway home (she hoped,) and things had gone from bad to worse. The sun had set long ago, and she was sure she'd seen red eyes watching them from the dark, but Angel didn't notice. The panther put on a brave front, but it was obvious she was feeling pretty low, mentally and physically. She had to face the failure of not finding Cheetor, she was walking on three legs, and had developed a deep rattling cough, probably from internal damage. When Spirit asked if she wanted to rest, she softly replied, "No."
The red eyes disappeared again. Spirit stopped and looked around.
"What is it?" Angel asked.
"Meow."
"The eyes again? What do think they are?"
Spirit didn't know.
"We should keep moving. The faster we get home, the better."
Spirit agreed, so the took up waking again... only to see the eyes in front of them, blocking their path. The owner of the eyes emitted a low growl.
"It didn't say anything did it?" Angel wasn't as good at speaking cat as Spirit, who meowed a negative. It was a threat, but not a coherent one. Angel herself growled (she'd always been proud of her growl- in her opinion, it sounded like thunder,) and took a threatening pose, favoring what remained of her right paw.
The owner of the eyes pounced, quicker than lightning. Before Angel could react, severe pain gripped the side of her head. She felt sparks fly, but she couldn't see anything out of her left eye. She hadn't recovered in time to dodge another attack, this time from the side, which made her back feel like the skin had been ripped off.
This time, she was quicker, and got a look at her opponent before she attacked it.
It was a werecat. It had to be a werecat.
Giving no more thought to the matter, she drove everything but instinct out of her mind and pounced, all sets of claws splayed. The werecat dodged, but she drove her teeth into its throat. This would've been ineffective had she been trying to kill the werecat (which she really wasn't, as the deep recesses of her mind knew,) but it succeeded in giving the werecat a message. It thonked her on the head hard enough to get her off (death grip hadn't been quite achieved,) and disappeared into the night.
Angel, semi-conscious, didn't get up for a few moments, and when she did, a strange voice told her: "Energy reserves at half. Spark will extinguish if energy is depleted."
Spirit's ears drooped. Could thing go worse? It didn't look like Angel could get home without help from someone other than herself, and to get help Spirit would have to leave Angel, which meant both cats would be in danger.
"C'mon, Spirit, we gotta get going. The werecat's gonna come back if we don't." Angel took up a slow pace, and Spirit followed, admiring her friend's determination.
Angel, lame and half-blind, painfully picked up a leaden paw and set it down ahead of her. She lifted another one and repeated the process. This was walking. This was agony. She wanted nothing more then to lie down and sleep, but she couldn't. There were zombies and werecats about.
This was a perfect night for such things. There were no stars or moon in the sky, and nothing around but dismal barren landscape. The only things breaking up the dark were two white cats.
"Energy reserves at five percent. Discontinue activity or Spark will extinguish," the voice said again. It'd been giving the two a virtual countdown to Angel's death, the only thing breaking up the silence.
Then mountains came into view. Angel squinted her good eye, and could just barely make out a big cave and watchtowers. The Ark. They were almost there.
Silverbolt hadn't wanted to be in a watchtower tonight, mainly because there was a feeling to this night that made everything seem creepier. But, duty was duty, and it shouldn't be shirked because it was "creepy". He was trying to maintain a vigilant watch over everything, but there wasn't much to watch, so his mind wandered ever so slightly before he caught it and renewed his focus.
And that's when he saw them. Two shapes of whitish hue off in the distance: one very small, and the other mottled white and dark.
"Silverbolt to Optimus," he said into the comm. Optimus'd given him strict orders to alert him if there was anything that so much as resembled the missing cats.
"Do you see them?" Optimus responded, hopeful.
"I believe so. I can faintly see them; they seem to be moving very slowly. Shall I investigate?"
"Stay where you are. I'll go myself." Within moments, Optimus was out and heading to the cats' position.
"Energy levels at one percent. Discontinue activity immediately or Spark will extinguish."
"I... wish... that (cough) thing... would (cough) shut... up," Angel panted.
Spirit was about to tell Angel to save her breath when she heard jets getting close. She hoped it was a Maximal and not a zombie, werecat, or Predacon. And it wasn't.
"Meow!" Spirit exclaimed as Optimus landed. Optimus looked down at the little cat, and then at Angel.
Angel, in short, looked like death warmed over. One eye was just barely lit, and the other was slashed out, dark and useless. Equally useless was what was left of a forepaw, nearly severed. A large portion of transmetal hide was missing off her back, leaving a dark patch where white should've been, and those were just external injuries. She'd probably suffered internal damage.
"We (cough) didn't... find... him," she reported in a breathy voice.
"We need to get you into the CR chamber immediately," he said, unconcerned with the results of her impromptu mission.
Angel tried to answer, but only coughed. Spirit looked like she was going to cry, if cats could cry.
"Come on. Let's go home take you home," Optimus said. Angel made a feeble effort to move, but collapsed, both eyes now completely dark. Spirit prodded her, but she didn't move. The little white cat meowed to Optimus frantically. Optimus picked the limp panther up, said into his com-link, "Get Rhinox up. We have an emergency," and started running to the Ark, with Spirit close on his heels.
Rhinox gravely inspected Angel, shaking his head. Spirit watched, sitting as still as a statue, and Optimus stood, waiting for Rhinox to say something, hopefully positive.
"By most standards, she's dead," Rhinox said. "Her Spark hasn't extinguished yet, but it probably will sometime soon. She's got nothing left."
Spirit got up and walked over to a CR chamber and tapped it with her nose, wishing they could speak Cat.
"There's no use, Spirit," Optimus said. "It wouldn't help her now." Oh, these Maximals could be so close-minded sometimes, Spirit thought. She tapped the chamber again, and sat down, looking determined. She wasn't going to move until she got her way. Optimus and Rhinox looked ay her for a few moments.
"What could it hurt?" Rhinox ventured.
"Fine, we'll put her in the CR chamber, but don't get your hopes up." Spirit felt relieved. Angel was put in the chamber, and the little white cat curled up in an out of the way spot and watched intently.
When the repair cycle was complete, Rhinox looked into the chamber, and pushed a few buttons on a panel. Spirit, sitting on Rhinox's shoulder, also peered in. Angel looked repaired, but lifeless.
"Hmmm..." Rhinox mumbled. Spirit meowed a "What?". Sensing her obvious question, he told her, "Nothing's changed. Her Spark's still online, but she has no energy. It should've extinguished awhile ago. I don't know what to do with her."
Spirit meowed something. Rhinox didn't understand her, but he decided to make her useful. "Go get Optimus," he said. Spirit ran off to find the Maximal commander.
Spirit soon returned with Optimus. He wasn't really sure what to do with Angel, either. The decided to put her in her quarters until something- good or bad- happened.
Angel was on a nice, warm rock, sleeping in the sunlight. She was peaceful and content, not wanting to do anything but stay and sleep. When she was hurt, she was very tired, but couldn't sleep. Well, she wasn't hurt anymore, so she could sleep all she wanted. And sleep she did. Night never came, nor did the sun move. The rays constantly warmed her back. She was ready to stay this way for eternity.
There was someone calling her. The scene shifted; she was no longer on a rock in the sun. Her eyes opened.
She was in the circle of stones. This was her dream, the one she'd been having for months now. The voices were calling her. She couldn't move. They were calling...
Her eyes snapped open. She was in a dark room- her room. She'd been sleeping. She let out a massive yawn and sat up.
Various parts were sore, she noticed as she stretched. A wing joint, a paw, and all along her back protested movement, but it felt good to get them going. She blinked a few times, noticing both eyes were working, and yawned again.
The recent events seemed like a dream. She could remember the pain and trudging home, and the messages her internal computer gave her, but it seemed like a long time ago.
Had she died? Or was the sunny rock a dream? Whatever the case, she seemed to be living now. Or maybe she was a ghost? It would be fun to haunt the Ark and wake Cheetor up in the middle of the night!
Oh... Cheetor was missing, she remembered. Well, he could find himself, without her help. She didn't want to deal with zombies and werecats anymore.
She decided she was a ghost, and she was ready to haunt. She walked (Hey! How come she wasn't floating?) out into the corridor and headed to the control room. There was almost always someone in there, but hopefully not too many people, because it was more fun to haunt one at a time.
To her disappointment, the control room was bustling with activity. Optimus, Rhinox Rattrap, and... the werecat. It must be back for a rematch, trying to finish her off. Well, she'd better get it before it got her.
She gathered herself in for a pounce (briefly wondering whether ghosts could attack the living- wait, were werecats alive? One way to find out,) launched herself, and was caught in midair by Optimus' big hand.
"Hey! Lemme go! Wooooo, I am the ghost of Angel! You have displeased me! Release me and I might not haunt you!"
Optimus put her down, saying, "It doesn't work that way."
"Silence! I am Angel's ghost-"
"No, you're not. Transformers don't have ghosts."
"But I thought I was dead!"
Rattrap cut in: "You almost were, kittycat."
"We think the aliens enhanced your Spark. No normal Transformer would've survived," Rhinox said. Angel sat down and scratched her ear with a hind paw. She didn't like talking about the aliens or anything related to them.
"Hey, where's Spirit?" she asked, looking around.
"Meow!" The little white cat hopped into view, obviously happy
Angel remembered the werecat.
"Hey, Optimus," she whispered. "You DO know there's a werecat over there?" The werecat was watching her, but it probably couldn't understand her.
"Angel," Optimus whispered back. "That's Cheetor."
Angel launched herself at Cheetor, yelling, "You rotten spothead!!! You tried to kill me!!!"
It took Optimus and Rhinox to pry Angel off a very angry Cheetor.
"What did you call me, you little-"
"Cheetor, Angel, knock it off!" Optimus'd been getting sick of this feud, and was made angrier by the fact that they'd barely seen each other and were already fighting. "Cheetor, Angel risked her life to try to find you when we thought it was hopeless. Angel, Cheetor wasn't in control of himself when he attacked you. Now apologize, and don't do it again."
Angel and Cheetor glared at each other. Both grumbled something that didn't sound like an apology, turned separate directions, and stomped away. Spirit secretly thought both were happy to see the other was okay, but she didn't say anything.
Angel needed to find someplace to sit down and think. A lot had happened recently, what with the zombies, Cheetor/werecat, strange funnel clouds appearing and taking zombies, and her apparently enhanced Spark. She suggested to Spirit they find a nice warm rock to sun on. Spirit agreed wholeheartedly, and after Angel convinced Optimus they wouldn't go far or do anything stupid, they left the Ark to find a sunny rock.