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Children of Cybertron IV

by Tom Drake (tddrake@uswest.net)

Shockwave fired, and a huge plume of purple energy shot of the barrel of either of his cannons on a course straight for the rocks on which Rattrap was standing. The blasts zoomed through the air and struck the rocks. Rattrap was thrown off of his feet and sent crashing to the sandy ground below. The impact of energy on stone created a tower of orange flame that shot into the air with arms of incandescent gas arching at the apex of the explosion that came screaming back to the earth. Stones covered with licking flames followed, their impacts punching black holes into the sandy oasis. When it had ended, Rattrap lay on the ground, covering his head with his hands, and laid partially buried under a mountain of flaming boulders. There was a giant black crater in the ground where the pile of rocks had been just moments before, and smoke seethed over the edges.

The new Predacon stood silently as columns of smoke snaked into the air. Finally, he turned to Megatron, and said, "Can I finish him off?"

"Can you?!" Megatron said, pleasure and admiration spilling into his words. "Please, go right ahead."

Shockwave held up his right arm, and his hand folded back, and a triple-pronged high-speed drill emerged in its place. He activated it, and the prongs began spinning at a violent speed with a mechanical whirr. He looked at Megatron, whose smile reached from ear to ear.

The stegosaur took a thundering step forward, then was stopped by a sharp blast of white-hot energy against his back. He spun on his heels and brought his shoulder cannons on-line again, and where his laser sight fell, there stood another Maximal. It was Cheetor, crouching on one knee and aiming his laser cannon straight at Shockwave.

"Ah, another Maximal to appease my master's desires," he said, and fired two orange orbs of fire at the ground where Cheetor was crouched. The Maximal dove out of the way, then he recovered and fired off a volley of blasts at Shockwave. Most of them were on target, but they did little damage to Shockwave's heavy frame. Shockwave returned fire, and one of the blasts hit Cheetor's left elbow. The Maximal fell back, holding his damaged appendage.

"Ha!" Shockwave roared. "You Maximals are the weakest creatures in the universe! You should learn how to take a few hits--!" Just as he was finishing his sentence, someone kicked him in the small of his back...hard. He tumbled forward and crashed face-first into the sand.

Megatron turned from the brief skirmish and saw Rattrap standing, a pile of rocks cleared out of the way. He was covered with scrapes and carbon scoring, but he was standing...and as cynical as ever. He cocked an eyebrow at the heavy form of Shockwave. "Thanks fer the advice, scale belly!" he cracked.

Megatron ground his teeth. "You vile fermin..." he said, pointing his laser tail at Rattrap.

"Oh, hey, prune face!" he said, and turned his weapon on Megatron himself. The tyrannosaur got off the first shot, but it was wide, and Rattrap fired off a fierce torrent of bursts of his gun. The projectiles slammed into his chest plate, the bullets dancing and ricocheting across his purple skin. He lost his balance and fell over--on his butt.

Rattrap kicked away a few more rocks and raced over to where Cheetor lay slumping. "Hey, pussy cat," he said, offering to help Cheetor to his feet. "Where've you been? Off chasing some rabbits er somethin'?"

"I was taking care of Quickstrike," he explained. "When Silverbolt and Optimus and I got here, I went after him. I got him trapped under a tree and then heard the commotion out here, so I came running to see what was up."

"You shoulda finished me off when you had the friggin' chance!" came a thick-twanged, cowboyish voice. The two Maximals turned to see Quickstrike standing, his arachnid arm limp. He pointed his cobra hand straight at them, its mouth glowing green with building energy. "You Maxies are overdue fer some keister-kickin'!" The green energy in his cobra weapon glowed brighter, then there was a loud slam! and Quickstrike was thrown from his feet and flung against the trunk of a nearby palm tree amidst an orange cloud of energy.

The two Maximals turned back and found Silverbolt on his feet. "That should take care of him for a while," Silverbolt said, with a note of pride in his voice. "Now let's get out of here--"

"Not so fast, Maximals!" Megatron was getting to his feet, and so was Shockwave. Both were arming their weapons and aiming them straight at the three Maximals. Suddenly, both fired.

"Look out!" Cheetor shouted, and the Maximals fell to the ground. The blasts from the two Predacons slammed into a wall of rock beyond them. The wall began to crumble and crack. Smaller pebbles started to tumble down, then larger rocks followed. Above, a huge boulder came wretched loose from its foundations and started to fall freely.

"Move!" Rattrap prompted them. The three of them leapt away just before the chunk of rock smashed into the sandy floor. It drove in half a meter and stayed, creating a tidal wave of sand grains that traveled out like a sound wave. For a few moments, the three Maximals were lost in a cloud of swirling sand, like they had before.

When the grains cleared, they recovered to find Megatron and Shockwave standing side by side, aiming their guns straight down at them. "Any last words, Maximals?" Megatron whispered, his face beaming with pleasure. He was about to pull the trigger when something slammed into his side...hard. Megatron toppled into Shockwave and both hit the ground, prompting another wave of sand to wash over them.

"What...was...that...?" Megatron stammered.

"That same old pinch in the side for you, Megatron!"

All of them looked up and saw Optimus Primal, hovering in mid-air on his board. He had his shoulder cannons cocked at the two Predacons.

"Primal!" Megatron roared.

"Very observant, Megatron!" he said, and he flung himself at the Predacon commander. His balled-up fist connected with the other's face, and Megatron's head slammed into the larger form of Shockwave behind him. Optimus returned to the air and looked down at his comrades. "Come on, let's get out of here!" he declared.

The other Maximals had no argument. They got to their feet and took off, bounding over the rocky cliffs. None of them bothered to look back; it wasn't that they were afraid of Megatron, but the less time they had to spend in his company, the better. Plus, the empty stasis pod kept an ever-lingering cloud in all of their minds of another failure to keep their comrades out of the wrong hands.

Cheetor transformed to beast mode and leapt into the air, activating his rockets as he did so, and flew parallel with Optimus. Silverbolt transformed to beast mode as well and started flapping his wings, flying behind the other two. Rattrap followed suit, only he activated his wheel units and started burning rubber down the stretch of rock.

Eventually, they came to small outcropping of rock where they found Tigatron nursing an unconscious Airazor. Dinobot stood behind him in robot mode, keeping watch. The other four Maximals drew in around their comrades and huddled in a semi-circle around Tigatron and Airazor.

"Oh, no!" Silverbolt exclaimed when he saw her. "Tigatron, what happened?"

"I don't know," he replied. "I found her unconscious on the ground near the stasis pod. Inferno was pacing around."

"The stasis pod..." Optimus whispered to himself. "Tigatron, what happened to the new Maximal protoform?"

Tigatron winced and lowered his head. "Another Predacon," he answered plainly.

Optimus closed his eyes. Cheetor hung his head. Rattrap shook his head. Dinobot was expressionless. Silverbolt held his hands on his hips and was methodically shaking his head while looking at his toes.

"Optimus--" Tigatron began, peering up at the Maximal commander.

"I know what you're going to say," Optimus told him. "And I agree with you. This has to stop."

Rattrap was next to speak: "Uh, I don't mean to interrupt this philosophical moment, but just who is this new yahoo, anyway?"

"Why don't you find out for yourself, vermin!?"

Rattrap looked up and saw Thrasher leaning over the top of the rocky outcropping, holding a long plasma weapon. He aimed it straight at the rat's head. But before either of them could do anything, Silverbolt fired two wing missiles straight at where Thrasher sat. The blast knocked the Predacon over and he was silent.

For a long moment, no one spoke. Then they all heard the rhythmic sound of Inferno's jet, and they all brought their weapons on-line and pointed them at the source of the sound. When Inferno cleared the rocky overhang and was able to point his weapon and saw all the other opposing guns staring straight back at him, his jaw dropped. He shook his head, then landed and scooped up Thrasher's unmoving body and took off again, shouting: "For the glory of the Royalty!" When he had gained some altitude, he turned his flamethrower on them and fired off a volley of flaming disks.

Opposing firepower from the Maximals incinerated the projectiles. White points of light where they weapons impacted could be seen chasing Inferno across the sky.

Then they stopped, and Optimus received a transmission from Rhinox. "Optimus, there's something I need to talk to you about," he said.

"Don't worry, old friend," Optimus said in reply. "All of us have plenty we need to talk about...but back at base. Right now, we've got to get back there and recover. All of us."

"I need some assistance getting back to base. I have someone with me," Rhinox said.

"What?" Optimus said. "Did you say, someone?"

"Yep," Rhinox confirmed. "Can you spare somebody? I'm sending you the coordinates."

"Sure thing," Optimus replied. He looked at Cheetor and showed him the coordinates. "Cheetor, go!" he ordered.

"I'm on it, big bot!" he said, and he took off into the sky, which was rapidly fading into night. They all watched the lights of Cheetor's rockets fade, then they started the long walk back to the Axalon.