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Fires of the Pit
by Dilophotra

Inside the twisted mind of a mentally deranged ant, there lie many things, but the main thing is being obedient to the royalty and following the orders of the "queen". Inferno knew this, and he knew that if he didn't find out what was causing the energy pulsations from that cave, he would be in a world of hurt! He entered the cave in his beast mode, which made it easier to dig his way out of a tight spot. What could be at the other end of the tunnel?

The air was peaceful in this area, and Rattrap was happy to get away from the base, away from Tarantulas' lair, away from everything. It was nice to have a day off. He had memories -- good and bad -- to lament over now, but he couldn't let that get in the way of his rest.

"Wazzzpinator do this, Wazzzpinator do that. . ." muttered Waspinator as he buzzed along his daily routine. "Why doesn't anyone give Wazzzpinator a break? Wazzzpinator always gets slag assignments. . .why does that line sound familiar to Wazzzpinator?" He shrugged it off and continued along, still buzzing angrily to himself, when he saw Inferno enter the cave. Curious, he started to fly closer. "Hmmmm. . .Wazzzpinator wonder what ant-bot is up to. . ."

"Cut it out!!!" Dilophotra cried. "I give!!! I give!!!"

Dinobot righted himself, still laughing. He helped Dilophotra stand.

"Oh, that was a right nasty trick!" she laughed. "Right nasty indeed!"

"Well, I'm your partner. . .I'm allowed to do that!" Dinobot smiled.

Dilophotra gave him a look.

"Don't give me that!" she purred, trying to hide the seductive tone that popped up at times like this.

"You know that I don't like it when you sneak up on me like that."

"Because you're ticklish?" Dinobot asked mischieviously.

"That's not funny," Dilophotra snapped.

Dinobot acted like he was hurt by the comment, and Dilophotra went along with it.

"I'm sorry," she purred softly. "I won't act up again, okay, master?"

She was being sarcastic, and Dinobot knew it.

"Master, huh?" he asked thoughtfully. "Does that mean that if I tell you to do something, you will?"

"Your wish is my command," Dilophotra purred, this time letting the seductive tone shine out. "Anything. . ." She took a step closer. ". . .you. . ." She stepped closer again. ". . .want." She put her arms around his neck. "What'll it be?"

Dinobot growled, but not angrily. Dilophotra smiled.

"You're too much," Dinobot snarled softly. "But. . .if I can have anything I want. . .could it be. . .hmmmmmmm. . ."

"Yes?"

". . .You?"

Dilophotra shook her head, laughing softly.

"Why not?"

The stasis pod crashed without anyone noticing. It was dark, and most everyone was doing something in their own personal agenda. After scanning for a moment, the pod found a viable lifeform and replicated it. Out of the pod climed a small black dog, a miniature schnauzer. She looked around, then continued on.

"Ah-ha!" Inferno laughed. "The royalty will be pleased to know what I have found!"

There in front of him was a cannon -- and not just any cannon. This one had the Decepticon insignia enscribed on it's side. This weapon had been left behind by their ancestors! Inferno looked it over carefully, his optics scanning for any damage. No, it appeared to be intact. As a matter of fact, it was still working.

State your name.

Inferno was a little startled. The cannon had a computer. He shrugged and said the first name that came to mind.

"I am Starscream," he told the computer.

The computer -- at first -- didn't respond, and Inferno started to get nervous. What if that thing was programmed for voice recognition?

Name: Starscream.
Identified.

Inferno laughed in triumph. He had to contact Megatron at once!!

"A weapon left behind by the Decepticons? This could be useful, yessss. . ." Megatron growled when he heard the news. "Stay there until I arrive! If it responded to your voice as Starscream, then it should respond to mine! Yessss. . ."

"What do you think he found?" Optimus asked again.

"A Decepticon weapon!" Rhinox said, his voice laiden with worry. He shook his head. "Something that size could completely wipe out our entire fleet!"

Optimus nodded in agreement.

"Where is it located?"

"Ummm. . .near where Silverbolt, Cheetor, and Nightrunner are on patrol."

"Send them immediately. We'll need them to stop him before things get out of hand!"

"Huh? Decepticons? Cheetor, what's a Decepticon?" Nightrunner said when she heard what Optimus had to tell them.

Cheetor laughed.

"They were the ancestors of the Predacons, NR!" he said, still laughing. "They warred with our ancestors -- the Autobots -- three-hundred years ago! The war stopped with a peace treaty, but started up again when Mega-jerk decided to steal the energon from Cybertron."

Nightrunner shrugged. She was still confused.

"Don't worry, Nightrunner. You'll figure it out in time," said Silverbolt as he glided down to land beside his friends. "Personally, I would rather FORGET who the Decepticons were!"

Cheetor shook his head. More reminicing from former Autobots. And he thought Rattrap was bad when he complained about being a former Decepticon!

"Well, let's find fire-boy so we can get this over with," he said. "I DON'T want that thing to be used against us!" He shuddered. "Not pretty."

"Better contact Desiree," said Silverbolt. "She's not too far from here, and she's on a solo mission today. She might help."

"Energon/unstable, energon/unstable, energon/unstable, energon/unstable. . .man, I thought that most of the deposits around here were turned into stable energon or destroyed!" Desiree grumbled to herself, scanning with a small hand-held device. "Oh. . .here we go. . .energon/stable. . ." Her comm. went off.

"This is Silverbolt to Solo Scout 1, come in Solo Scout 1!"

"This is Desiree. Wuz up, bird-dog?"

"Inferno has found a weapon that was left behind by the Decepticons! If Megatron gets ahold of it, the results could be disasterous."

"Give me your coordinates. I'll get there as soon as I can."

"Uhhh. . .we're in Vector Gamma, Sector 3, Coordinates 371 by 63-2."

"Gotcha. Desiree, out." She turned on her remote comm. "Better call my partners. This is the Martian at third to home base, home base, do you read?"

Static.

"This is Princess Desiree to Maximal Base, Maximal Base, do you read?"

"This is Dinobot."

"Oh, there you are! Look, I need you and Dilo to get here as soon as you can. SB, Cheets, NR, and I need backup."

"Sorry, Des. Primal is sending Rhinox, Dilophotra, and I on a mission here in a few nanoclicks. We can't make it."

Desiree sighed.

"Okay. We'll contact you if we have any trouble. Desiree, out."

"There it is," Silverbolt whispered. "He's in there."

"Why are we whispering?" asked Nightrunner silently.

Cheetor rolled his eyes.

"You don't want him to hear us, do you?"

"No."

"Then keep whispering."

They kept perfectly silent as they approached, because voices were coming from inside. . .

"Well, of course Waspinator came in to see what ant-bot was up to," said Waspinator as Inferno shook his head, watching the wasp. "Waspinator didn't know if you were doing something wrong or not!"

"Why would I disobey the royalty?!" asked Inferno in confusion. "The royalty ordered that I explored this cave, and I did as he pleased. I was told to find out what the energy signatures in this cave were coming from, and that is what I did!"

"Well, what did ant-bot find? Aren't you going to tell Waspinator?"

"I found a weapon unlike any other that I have seen! It was left behind by the Decepticons."

He paused. He heard whispering outside. . .

Suddenly, laser fire and flame columns burst from the mouth of the cave. The group leapt away, avoiding being cooked. Desiree rolled into a kneel, then turned to glare at Cheetor.

"Whispering'll keep us from being found, huh?" she muttered, glaring at him.

Cheetor shrugged, transformed along with Silverbolt and Nightrunner, then continued firing.

Nightrunner was hit, knocking her backwards and leaving her sprawled on the ground a few feet away. She was unconscious. Inside the cave. . .

"Yes!! Waspinator hit little kitty-bot!!" cried Waspinator.

Inferno shook his head.

"Just keep on firing," he said firmly. "We MUST keep the Maximals from entering, the royalty commands it!"

"Why does Waspinator always have to get stuck with you?!"

"Because you don't obey the royalty."

"Yes Waspinator does!!"

Inferno sighed.

"Just shut up and fire."

"NIGHTRUNNER!!" cried Cheetor.

"Is she okay?"Desiree asked.

"I'll check," Silverbolt cried.

He fired into the cave a few more times with his wing missiles before diving over to Nightrunner's position. Carefully, he pulled the little 'bot behind a rock.

"Nightrunner?" he said.

Nightrunner looked up at him briefly, then closed her eyes again.

"How is she?!" Desiree called over.

"Bad," was Silverbolt's reply.

Near the time that this was happening, Megatron entered the cave.

"Is it completely intact?" he asked.

"Yes, my queen," said Inferno with a salute.

"How does it work?"

State your name.

Megatron looked at the device curiously.

"I am Megatron."

The machine, at first, did not respond. But then. . .

Name: Megatron
Identified

"Activate firing procedure," Megatron ordered.

Activating.

Inferno would've smiled proudly at his accomplishment had it not been for lack of brains and imagination. He watched, knowing that he had served the royalty well, as the consoles on the machine sparked to life. Aside from being about as intelligent as a rock, Inferno was nothing else but a loyal servant to the colony, something that the Maximals couldn't handle, especially not now.

"They stopped firing!" said Desiree, standing up.

Cheetor grappled her shoulder and yanked her back down.

"That means they probably have that Decepticon machine on-line!" he growled at the Martian. Desiree stuck her tongue out at him. Cheetor ignored it and turned to Silverbolt, who was carrying Nightrunner's limp form back over to his comrades. "How is she?"

"Like I said, bad," Silverbolt explained, placing the little Maximal on the ground. "She took a bad hit from Waspinator."

Suddenly, a burst of fire ripped out around them. Silverbolt, scorched and damaged, fell to the ground -- writhing in pain.

"Silverbolt!" cried Desiree.

She grabbed his hand and helped him behind the rock.

Inferno was cackling madly as he fired his cannon at them, his maniacle brain on overdrive.

"Cheetor, get in there and destroy that machine" Desiree ordered.

"You got it," Cheetor agreed.

He transformed to beast mode, running past Inferno's mad blasts as he made his way into the cave.

Megatron thought that nothing could stop him now. Until something happened. A laser blast, thrown out of nowhere, hit the console of the Decepticon cannon.

"NO!!" Megatron snarled.

The damage to the console was beyond repair. It would never be used again. He turned to where the blast had emitted from. Cheetor hadn't seen this. Before he could run, Megatron rammed his tail weapon right through Cheetor's chest. Gasping for air and from pain, Cheetor struggled to get free.

"Insolent feline," Megatron growled at him, twisting his tail weapon. "You will die for this, yessss!!!!!!!"

Cheetor writhed like a worm strung on a hook, the twisting tail weapon ripping a gaping hole in his chest.

Megatron would've killed him, had the limp body of Waspinator not crashed against him. He was thrown to the back of the cave, ripping his tail weapon out of Cheetor's chest as he went. Cheetor stood for a moment, dazed, with mech fluid gushing from the wound. Then, with a painful snarl, he collapsed. Rhinox, Dilophotra, and Dinobot stood at the mouth of the cave.

"Dilophotra, Dinobot, you two handle Megatron. I'll make sure Cheetor's okay," said Rhinox.

"See," said Desiree, jogging up to the cave behind Rhinox, "I told you we'd need back-up!"

Rhinox nodded in affirmation, then ran over to Cheetor.

"He's leaking a lot of mech fluid," he said, examining the orifice in the transmetal cheetah's chest. "We need to get him, Silverbolt, AND Nightrunner back to base ASAP."

Dilophotra and Dinobot walked up.

"Where are Megatron and Waspinator?" asked Desiree.

"They ran off like the cowards they are," growled Dinobot.

"Let's just go home now," Dilophotra said.

Silverbolt was the last one to step out of the CR Chamber, but he was preceded by Cheetor and Nightrunner.

"All fully functional again," Desiree said with a smile. "This day has turned out better than it started!"

Nightrunner examined her hands, making sure she was still in one piece, then looked around at the team.

"At least they didn't get that machine," she said. "That would've been bad."

"Yes, NR, it would've been bad," Cheetor agreed.

"Let's just hope they find nothing else like that in the future," Silverbolt said. "Which reminds me. What happened to Inferno? Did he retreat with the rest of the Predacons?"

"Oh. . ." Desiree said with a mischievious smile. "He's around."

"BLAST!!" Megatron growled, slamming his fist down on the arm rest of his chair. "That blasted feline ruined my whole plan!! He will pay!! YESSSSS!!"

"Megatron," said Blackarachnia, "you and Waspinator came back almost completely in tact, but, I have one question, aren't you missing someone?"

"True. . ." Megatron said thoughtfully. "Where is Inferno?"

As Megatron pondered this question, a few pieces of Inferno sparked in front of the cave. In the distance, a small black dog walked into the light.

"Schnauzor, MAXIMIZE!!"