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Children of Cybertron II

by Tom Drake (tddrake@uswest.net)

If Prowl had any organic skin, he was sure that it would be lacerated beyond recovery by now. The howling winds blew the grains of sand around him and Airazor and Rhinox behind him like they were all trapped in the belly of a vicious maelstrom. Prowl couldn't detect anything around him save for the ground and the heavy fall of Rhinox's feet behind him. Other than that, he was flat lost.

"Can you see anything where you are?" Prowl said into his wrist comm unit.

"No," Airazor replied through an ocean of static.

"We should be getting close to the pod by now," Rhinox said. "My sensors tell me that its only fifty meters ahead."

"I can't even see one meter ahead!" Prowl blurted. "How the hell am I supposed to see a half-sunken stasis pod that is fifty meters away?"

He could hear Rhinox growl. "Just keep moving forward, Prowl. We'll be on it soon."

Prowl sighed. "Whatever you say, big guy." He powered forward through the biting grains of sand, trying to find some way to get his bearings. His scanners were crap in this weather; all he had to go on was Rhinox's advanced perimeter sensors. He sure hoped the big guy was right that it was only a little farther ahead. He couldn't take much more of this--

He didn't have time to whine about it any more. He heard a distinctive sound of a motor and vibrating rubber wheels in the distance. He lifted his head and tried his scanners in the direction of the sound, which was to his left. Nothing but static. Damn.

He began to speak into his comm unit. "Yo, hold up. There's something out there--"

Suddenly, a barrage of speeding missiles slammed into his back. The first two knocked him off his balance, then the third pounded through his right side. It ripped through the forest of circuits in his chest and incinerated the exterior plating. Two more hit him square in the back, and he fell over, his face falling into the shifting sand dunes. He struggled to get to his feet, but two more missiles impacted on the ground right near his face. The explosion threw Prowl into the air, and when he landed, his optical sensors were blank.

"NO!!!" Rhinox yelled. The swirling sand began to settle, and in the clear view he had of the area around him, he could see the form of Tarantulas transform from his vehicle mode into his full Transmetal self. The spider didn't seem to notice Rhinox; instead, he approached the silent form of Prowl.

That's when Rhinox ripped out his chain guns and began firing madly and blindy at Tarantulas. The first wave struck Tarantulas's chest plate, causing him to spin on his heels and face Rhinox. His eyes widened with horror as the rest of the bullets struck him square in the face. The shells danced and ricocheted across his purple steel skin. Finally, Tarantulas fell over backwards, completely dazed.

"Rhinox!" Airazor shouted. She ran up to his side and laid a hand on his shoulder. Rhinox was breathing heavily, his eyes were bright red with rage. "Calm down," she soothed.

Tarantulas's legs began twitching. His head appeared, held wobbly in his left hand. Rhinox shrugged off Airazor's hand and approached Tarantulas. As he did so, he kicked the spider hard in the face with the blunt end of his right foot. The blow knocked the spider out again.

Rhinox stepped around him and leaned over the still form of Prowl. He peered down at the other Maximal. There was a gaping hole in his chest that looked like a crater. It ran all the way through, singed at the edges. Loose wires spasmed in the air, glowing with intense heat and spitting sparks. Nothing moved. Rhinox could see a part of the spark chamber. It was dark. Prowl was dead.

Rhinox balled his fists and pointed his head at the sky, which was fully visible now. He let off a caterwaul of anguish, shaking his arms at the sky. When he was finished, he looked at the still form of Tarantulas. I know I can't brutalize him, Rhinox thought. But he deserves to be.

Airazor tried agian. "Rhinox..." she began.

"Don't," he told her.

She stayed quiet.

"Oh, boo-hoo," came a familiar, taunting female voice. Both Maximals spun, and when they did, they found Blackarachnia and Waspinator standing side by side, weapons traimed on them.

Rhinox whispered to Airazor: "Go to the pod. Save the new Maximal. I'll take care of these yahoos."

"But..." she protested.

"Go!" Rhinox said. "Now!"

She took to the air faster than she ever had before. Waspinator took off after her, but Airazor aimed a pair of wrist missiles in the bug's direction. She fired, and the projectiles zoomed through the air at breakneck speed before slamming into Waspinator's face. There was a brief cloud of incandescence in the wake of the small explosion before dissipating; Waspinator crashed back down to earth.

Airazor flew unimpeded across the sky in the direction of the stasis pod.

"Ah, worthless bug!" Blackarachnia shouted, and started across the ground after Airazor. But Rhinox had pulled his chain guns on her in moments, and he fired off a volley of bullets that sliced and burned through the air around her. She stopped in her tracks, and she turned, spider leg guns trained on Rhinox, but the Maximal was read, and fired off a couple more shots that caused her to duck. Rhinox used his few available milliseconds to run towards the female Predacon. When she recovered, rage flaring in her face, Rhionx popped up and slugged her in the face. She, too, was knocked out.

Rhinox waited a few moments and approached her side. She was legitimately unconscious. "We may have lost one Maximal spark today," he said, "but now we have a chance to save an old one."

Deeptooth and Razorshark came over a rocky bluff and found themselves staring down into a wide cleft in the sand dunes. A long, V-shaped depression led to a black spot in the sand grains, in which they could easily see their assigned stasis pod. It appeared to be in good condition.

Razorshark approached it first and looked it over. He accessed the main control panel, which he would use to change the Maximal spark inside to a new Predacon.

Deeptooth was hesistant. "Do you know what you're doing?" he inquired.

"Relax," Razorshark told him. "I've got it." He punched a few keys, and then the pod's onboard computer told him: Access codes failed. You do not have authorization to alter identification. "What?" Razorshark was lost.

"I thought you said you know what you're doing," Deeptooth remarked.

"Shut up," Razorshark replied. He punched a few more keys. Access failed. If you do not enter proper identification codes in thirty nanoclicks, spark will terminate and self-destruct mechanism will be activated. "Huh?" Razorshark said, inquisitive.

"You moron!" Deeptooth shoved him aside. "You've screwed up the computer. Now it thinks we're trying to hijack the spark, and it'll blow itself up before that happens!"

Ten, the computer announced. Nine...eight...

"Go!" Deeptooth pushed him. They each tried to turn on their anti-gravity burners and accelerate away, but they stumbled over each other in their blind attempt to escape.

Four...three...

"Go!"

Two...one..

The explosion occurred just beyond the rock formation to Rattrap's left. He had transformed to climb the wall when a devastating boom shook the entire formation, knocking Rattrap to the ground. Boulders rattled loose and tumbled down, which crashed around himself, Dinbot, and Tigatron. A tower of orange and yellow flames shot into the sky, with multiple arms going up with it that arched over at their apex and came hurtling back down to earth. Twisted metal ribbons and shrapnel came raining down with globules of fire. Rattrap covered his head and pressed himself a wall of sandstone as yellow tails of flame and smoke zipped by. A school of rocks tumbled down from the top of the formation, riding a river of fire like an avalanche rolling down a mountain. In that mess were two mangled, there were two oxidized Cybertronian bodies. They smashed into the ground about five meters away from Rattrap, and to add insult to injury, the tide of rocks beat and mashed the Transmetal frames even further. When it was all over, smoke and dust lifted into the still air. No one moved.

Rattrap looked up, and saw that Dinobot and Tigatron were okay. Then he saw the faint silver reflection of Cybertronian skin, and Rattrap jumped up and ran over. He tossed aside a number of rocks and pieces of debris. When he got to the bottom, he found the mangled form of Razorshark. Rattrap didn't need to have a look inside the spark chamber to know that the Predacon was permanently off-line.

Dinbot and Tigatron worked on clearing away more of the rocks, and then they found Deeptooth, in similar condition as Razorshark.

Rattrap looked at his comrades. "Wow," he said quietly. Then another reflection caught his eye, and he pushed aside a giant boulder. He found what resembled the forward tension absortion conduit of a standard Maximal stasis pod. It was black and curved, lined with silver on the inside. It was charred black. "Uh, fellas," he said, in almost a whisper. "I think maybe we're a bit too late."

He scurried up what was left of the rock formation; the blast had cleared away about four meters worth of rock from the top. When he reached it, he looked out into the ocean of sand. There was a massive black hole in the ground, with twisted fragments of debris strewn about, still covered with flames. On either side of the hole, Rattrap could clearly discern two halves of a stasis pod. Roiling columns of smoke climbed into the rapidly clearing sky.

"Blast that cursed spider!" Megatron hissed. His comm unit was receiving nothing but static on Tarantulas' frequency. He hadn't been able to raise anything from Blackarachnia or Waspinator, either. Maybe I should stop replicating bugs, he decided bitterly.

He looked at Quickstrike and Inferno before him. They had found the last stasis pod in an oasis. It had come to a stop in front of a small palm. Sand ran through small cracks and funneled down into little dunes. A few idle ferns swayed with the steady breeze.

Megatron decided that he should send one of them to check on the pod that the spiders and Waspinator were supposed to have under wraps. Quickstrike had the nerve, but he was much too stupid to be trusted with such a mission. That meant that Inferno would have to go. The fire ant was blindly loyal and would therefore carry out any task handed to him.

"Inferno," Megatron said, "you will go to the first stasis pod. You must change the identification on the pod's computers so that it becomes a Predacon. You've done it before. Go."

The ant saluted. "As you wish, my queen." His burners kicked on and he took off into the sky, shaking his flamethrower in one hand and pumping the fist of his other. He screamed madly and convulsively as he disappeared.

Megatron stood watching him, and merely shook his head. Then he turned to Quickstrike and the stasis pod lying in the oasis. "Now," he declared, rubbing his hands together. "Let's get down to business..."