Beast Wars Anonymous:

Cold Front
by Wes Whitten (weswhittentf@juno.com)

Tigatron hefted his body through the frozen arctic. He was almost there at his outpost, where Tigatron monitored the activity of the frozen area. Tigatron had not been here since he recovered Snowstalker. But she was gone now, and Tigatron had to move on with his life.

It was difficult for Tigatron to enter his outpost as he got there. His memories of all that had recently happened streaked through his head. He saw Snowstalker, Metrix, Cheetor, the Golden Rock, the stasis pods, he saw it all.

"Welcome back to the Arctic Outpost, Tigatron!" welcomed the computer at the outpost.

"Thank you, computer," Tigatron replied, "anything happen while I was away?"

"No activity out of the ordinary occurred," the computer reported.

Tigatron gave off a sigh of relief.

"Well, let's just hope the next stasis pod that lands doesn't land near by. I'm afraid my memories of Snowstalker would cause me to hesitate on retrieving it," Tigatron admitted.

"The next stasis pod to land by itself without any tampering, should be coming down this very week," the computer reported.

"This very week? We just received Razorbeast and Wolfang from stasis pods almost two weeks ago," Tigatron said.

"However, were their pods brought down by nature, or by force?" asked the computer.

"Force," Tigatron muttered.

"Than the next arrival of a pod should occur this week," the computer spoke.

"Well, I shouldn't think about that now, is the area secure?" asked Tigatron.

"Area secure. No unknown technology detected. All life forms are natural arctic beings," the computer reported with assurance.

"Well, that is something nice to hear," Tigatron said, relieved.

"Indeed," the computer responded, trying to continue the conversation.

"Beep! Optimus Primal to Arctic Outpost!" the voice of Optimus Primal emerged from the computer's receivers.

"Optimus, what is it?" Tigatron asked.

"Tigatron, I don't.....much time com.....breaking up..." spoke Primal's voice, as bits of the message faded.

"Primal, communications are going wrong, I can't completely read you," Tigatron informed, with a bit of worry on his face.

"....know, now listen.....found....pod in the.........miles north of......Outpost ....beware, the........Megatron also......of pod, I'm sending.........but may.....take a... but beware, the...different......similar....Axalon's...'snkkkkkkkkkktttttttt'" spoke Primal desperately, as the communications went dead.

"Computer, what's wrong? What's happening at Axalon?" asked Tigatron.

"The activity warned by Optimus is undetectable from my sensors," the computer reported.

"What's happening over there?" Tigatron wondered.

"Warning! I have received all the message. Primal warns of a stasis pod 30 miles north of this location. He says to beware, the pod has a different energy reading, similar to that of Axalon. The pod may have been damaged," the computer informed.

"Okay, I guess I have to go, what did he say about Megatron?" asked Tigatron.

"Predacons are aware of the pod. I can detect a group slowly reaching the pod's location," the computer spoke.

"Oh no! I have to go! I can't let my memory of Snowstalker stop me from reaching the pod," Tigatron exclaimed racing from his Arctic Outpost at top speed.

As Tigatron went out of sight, the computer beeped on, "He will never make it..."

"This way! We won't fail Megatron this time!" ordered Scorponok, as he and a group of Predacons entered the area of the frozen arctic.

"With our early warning of the pod's landing, we will surely claim it," spoke Iguanus.

"Iguana bot right! Wazzzpinator know new pod Predacon's!" chimed in Waspinator hovering above the traveling Predacons in wasp mode.

None of the Predacons responded, as they continued to quest forward. Scorponok looked behind him as a flurry of snow began to drift by. The sun had just risen a mere hour ago. It would take the Predacons only so many hours before they reached the pod. Scorponok knew a journey through the Arctic always meant danger, whether it was brought by nature or Maximal.

"Pod's only 15 more miles east," reported Snapper.

"It's ours..." Scorponok assured himself.

Meanwhile, Tigatron rushed through the freezing snow towards the pod's location. He was a good 29 miles away from it.

Two hours passed and the Predacons were only a mile or two from the pod. Waspinator flew ahead to scout around, while the Predacon force began to pick up pace.

Tigatron was now 11 miles from the pod. His destination time would be in an hour even if he was running at top speed.

The pod seemed all for the Predacons.

"There it is!" exclaimed Iguanus, pointing to the stasis pod wedged into a block of ice.

The Predacon group rushed forward to it and examined it hardly. It was stuck in the ice of the ground, and Scorponok could see that it would not be worth the effort to try to pull it out by hand.

"Stand back," warned Scorponok. The other Predacons stepped back as Scorponok opened his left claw to reveal his twin missile launcher. The two missiles were fired and the ice around the pod cracked.

"It's almost out..." encouraged Blackarachnia. She dawned her own missile launcher and fired a well-aimed missile at a solid block of ice in front of the pod. It shattered and the pod tipped over with the lack of support that it had received from the ice.

"Pod is ours! We take back to spider-bot to program?" asked Waspinator.

"Why take it all the way back there for him to program it? Let's do it ourselves right here, right now!" Blackarachnia stated.

Scorponok grinned, as he crouched down towards the pod. He opened the control panel and began to fiddle with a few buttons.

"Do you know what you're doing?" asked Blackarachnia.

"No, unlike the Maximals, we Predacons don't get trained on how to program these things. Only Tarantulas really knows how to," Scorponok responded.

"We're not hauling this thing back, how hard could this be?" asked Blackarachnia, shoving Scorponok out of the way.

Blackarachnia set to work and pushed a few buttons and tried a few codes. However, the pod never responded to anything she did.

"Shouldn't the pod have activated itself if it was undamaged?" asked Snapper.

"Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't," says Blackarachnia, now frustrated with her surroundings. She entered one last possible code, but it had no affect.

"Did you think to push the activator button?" asked Iguanus.

Blackarachnia slapped her head at the realization of her own stupidity. First thing when she got back to the Darkside, she was going to have Tarantulas teach her how to operate these stupid pods. Blackarachnia pressed the activator button and punched in a code. The computer in the stasis pod activated and accepted the primary code.

"Activation code processed and accepted," the computer reported.

Iguanus and Snapper smiled in the background.

"Wazzzpinator happy, but is pod missing something?" asked Waspinator.

"What? Nothing's missing, we haven't forgotten anything," responded Scorponok.

The pod began its activation process, and soon began seeking a suitable life form.

"Besides, if anything was wrong it would be all Blackarachnia's fault," Scorponok commented.

Blackarachnia glared at him, even though she knew nothing was wrong.

Suddenly the computer blipped its final words, and deactivated as the stasis pod opened revealing a new Beast Warrior.

Scorponok smiled, and then realized what they had done wrong.

Tigatron caught his breath as he stopped dead in his tracks. He was only a mile or two from the pod, but he knew he couldn't go on anymore. He was hurting all over from running for the past two hours or so. He knew that the other Maximals would never reach the pod in time from Axalon's location. Tigatron lowered his head as he realized he couldn't either. He couldn't stop thinking about the events that occurred last time a pod landed in the frozen Arctic. He couldn't bare another tragedy like that one to occur.

"Pull yourself together, Tigatron," Tigatron tried to encourage himself.

"Predacons surely have the pod now, but I can still possibly stop them from programming it," he assured himself.

Tigatron fell to the ground. His agony was unbearable.

"Uh-oh!" muttered Snapper.

"Wazzzpinator knew something was wrong," protested Waspinator, as he hovered above the four Predacons, who all stared dumbfounded at what emerged from the pod. It was a robot, a beast warrior for sure, but Blackarachnia had forgotten something.

"What went wrong?" murmured Blackarachnia as she grabbed her weapon.

"Ever heard of a Maximal identification chip?" the Beast Warrior, who was in beast mode, said.

"This is all your fault!" Scorponok pointed at Blackarachnia, as everyone else grabbed their weapons.

"Oh, so now you're going to destroy me because I'm not what you wish? To some people, being a Maximal is all right," the beast only answered.

The Predacons prepared to destroy.

"Oh well, Polar Claw, Maximize!" declared the polar bear.

Polar Claw let loose a cyberbat from his shoulder, which circled the group of Predacons. Blackarachnia and Snapper targeted it, but the bat was well faster then their reactions.

While the others were paying attention to the cyberbat, Polar Claw attacked Iguanus and drove him to the ground.

"Say uncle," ordered Polar Claw, preparing to snap off Iguanus' arm.

"Never!" he cursed.

Polar Claw ripped his arm off and batted it at Snapper, who was knocked out by the sudden impact of his body and Iguanus' arm.

"Prepare to die!" screamed Scorponok, launching cyberbee and firing his missiles.

"Three Predacons and a bee against me? It hardly seems like a fair fight for you," Polar Claw smirked, as he easily dodged the Predacon's fire.

The cyberbat returned to Polar Claw and reattached itself to him as Polar Claw fired all his might at Scorponok. He was directly hit and fell backwards hard on the snow. He found himself paralyzed with agony.

"The fight's over," Polar Claw said, grabbing Blackarachnia and swatting her against Waspinator and cyberbee. Miss Arachnia and Waspinator fell to the ground next to an unconscious Snapper as cyberbee exploded.

"Game set and match," spoke a pleased Polar Claw as he dusted himself off.

Polar Claw made his way from the battle site with pleasure, he knew he earned the title of Maximal. But something was wrong. Where was Polar Claw supposed to go now? He wasn't quite up to date on his surroundings.

"Uh," stammered a voice from behind Polar Claw. He whizzed around to find a robot rising from the ground. But this was not one of the Predacons he had just fought.

"Who are you?" asked Polar Claw.

The robot lifted his head and noticed Polar Claw for the first time.

"Name's Tigatron, I'm a Maximal," he stammered.

"Maximal? Good, then we're on the same side! Are you okay?" asked Polar Claw.

"Yes, I was just having some...recollections about this place. That and the fact of running for almost 30 miles kind of got the wind knocked out of me," Tigatron responded.

"I'd say I know the feeling, but I don't," answered Polar Claw.

"Well, I take it your the protoform from the pod?" asked Tigatron.

"Yes! The female Predacon forgot to insert a Predacon reprogramming chip, so I stayed with my true faction when I was created," responded Polar Claw, "Now, is there any other Maximals around?"

"No," stated Tigatron, "the rest of the Maximal team is down south on the planet in our headquarters, Axalon. Due to my beast mode, I was assigned to be on arctic patrol here. There's a computer 30 miles back that I can use to signal Axalon. They'll send a team to take us to your new home,"

"Home. I like the sound of that!" chuckled Polar Claw.

"Well, on our way shall we go?" asked Tigatron.

"Let's," spoke Polar Claw.

The two Maximals trudged back to the Arctic Outpost. Leaving a group of Predacons to awake damaged and stranded in the Arctic.