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Showdown
by Dilophotra

It was the same scenario all over again. Only this time, something was different. Silverbolt was still operating without his wings, fighting against Quickstrike, but this was strangely opposite from the previous battle. Silverbolt was losing!

The frightened fuzor looked up as Quickstrike aimed his gun at his head.

"Adios, tin-horn..."

Silverbolt awoke with a start. He glanced around the room, brown eyes wide, realizing that the yelp echoing in his ears was his own.

There was a knock at the door.

"Come in," Silverbolt said, lying his head on his talons.

The door slid open to reveal Airazor. She looked like she had just woken up.

"Are you okay?" she asked. "You yelped."

"I had a nightmare," the eagle/wolf admitted. "It just shocked me a little. I'm sorry."

"Well, we're all here for you," Airazor said wearily.

The door closed behind her as she left.

Silverbolt sighed. It was going to be a long night.

"Silverbolt is worrying me," Airazor mentioned to Tigatron the next morning.

"Yes, he's not himself lately," the tiger agreed. "Perhaps it's these nightmares."

Airazor would've responded, had she not been hit with a blast of cybervenom. Tigatron gasped and turned to find none other than...

"Quickstrike!" he growled.

The Siberian tiger started to head towards the fuzor, but instead he was faced with an offer he couldn't refuse. Give up, or Airazor died.

"One more blast of cybervenom, and your feathered lady is finished," Quickstrike told him excitedly. "What'll it be, Stripey? The girl, or fightin' me?"

Tigatron stood down. He was still in beast mode anyhow. His claws retracted into snowy white paws, but his green eyes stayed focused on the cobra/scorpion. His eyes didn't stay focused for long. Quickstrike fired a bolt of cybervenom at him, knocking the tiger down. Tigatron lifted his head weakly, groaned, then dropped his head as his world went black.

Silverbolt looked at the feather that had been tied to the rock that had been thrown through his window. The feather was one of Airazor's, and the disk gave a message: meet Quickstrike and do battle, or Airazor and Tigatron would die!

Silverbolt growled angrily, dark eyes narrowed. This wasn't good. At first, he considered telling Optimus. Instantly he decided against it. If he did that, then he would surely lose the lives of his two friends!

He growled to himself again. Airazor and Tigatron were his two closest friends. He couldn't do anything that could be a risk to them! That was it. He had to save his friends!!

"Bird-dog?" Desiree said as she entered the fuzor's room. He wasn't there. "Silverbolt, where are you?" A note sat on the ground, next to a rawhide bone and a squeaky toy. She read it to herself as Rattrap entered.

"Well, where is the squeaky addict?" asked the rodent.

"Tigatron and Airazor were kidnapped by Quickstrike, and now Silverbolt has to face him to save our friends!" Desiree cried.

"Then we have to help him!!" cried Rattrap.

He started to walk out when the heel of Desiree's high-heeled yellow boots dug into his tail. Rattrap cried out, then turned to the Martian princess.

"No." Rattrap looked at her for a moment. "He has to do this alone." She lifted her foot and Rattrap turned to her. "Whatever you do, don't tell Optimus!" She looked out the window. "We can only pray that he'll be all right.'

Silverbolt stood in the area where he was told to go, dark eyes focused on the tree-line. He transformed and folded his wings tightly, remembering the terms. No wings, or his friends would die either way. He could hear the scorpion/cobra's wicked laughter as he stepped from the tree-line in battle mode, the tongue on his snake hand flicking in and out rythymically.

"Let us fight," Silverbolt growled.

"Keep those wings down, tin-horn," Quickstrike advised, chuckling devilishly. "Otherwise, your friends might unexpectedly go BOOM!"

"What is going on?" Optimus Primal asked the rat and the princess.

He was standing in front of the two, and the two had been overheard by the commander.

"Really, Optimus, nothing!" Desiree pressed.

"I know you better, Desiree, I can tell when you're lying. Seriously, what's up?" the transmetal gorilla said pointedly.

Rattrap and Desiree glanced at each other nervously, then back at Optimus.

"Silverbolt's gone off to fight Quickstrike to save Airazor and Tigatron, and if he doesn't go along and keep his wings off-line, they die!" admitted Rattrap.

"Shouldn't you have told me about this earlier?" Optimus asked darkly.

"In a way, I think not," mentioned Desiree. "After all, you might've wanted to go after him. If we would, we would lose Airazor and Tigatron, and possibly Silverbolt as well. Not only is that too many losses, but it's stupid losses when at least two may survive."

"I have to agree with ya on that, Desi," Rattrap agreed. "Face it, Primal. We're in it, big time."

Optimus shook his head.

"That's just prime."

Quickstrike flew into a tree, knocked backwards by a blast from Silverbolt's only weapon: a gut gun.

"Good will always triumph over your villainy, snake!" Silverbolt said in his noble manner.

"I'll be happy to take you down, tin-horn!!" growled Quickstrike angrily.

The fuzor lunged at his opposer, digging the fangs of his snake hand deep into Silverbolt's arm. The wolf let out a howl of agony, before shoving Quickstrike back. His arm was useless now, and it was his aiming arm! He snarled angrily at the Predacon and took his gut gun into his other hand. He would have to settle with a shooting arm and bad aim.

"You'll never win," he growled.

"What makes you think that?" laughed Quickstrike. "Yer arm barely works now!"

Silverbolt snarled again. This was getting him nowhere...

"Who'd have thought this would happen?" questioned a white fox as he headed down a slope of snow. This was Whitepaw, one of Tigatron's closest friends. He was quite a young Maximal, just starting out and doing well at his training under Tigatron's paw.

"Me, of all people, sent to battle a wanna-be cowboy Pred who's holding my best friend and his girlfriend captive while he fights a fuzor who's on his own for the sake of his friends' lives!"

Whitepaw turned and looked at the Arctic shoreline by which he was walking. Out in it, a dolphin leapt. Whitepaw smiled to himself, remembering who that was. He yipped a greeting, then hurried on his way.

Silverbolt leapt out of the way of the striking hand Quickstrike kept plunging at him. Both fuzors were pretty evenly matched, and neither was about to give up any time soon. Suddenly, the hand that transferred from Quickstrike's scorpion legs struck hard against Silverbolt's stomach. The wolf/eagle lurched backwards, the breath knocked out of him. It was almost too much for him to bear.

Quickstrike laughed mockingly.

"What?" he snickered. "Am I too much for a tin-horn like you?"

Silverbolt shook off the feeling of breathlessness and attacked the cobra/scorpion again. It was hard to keep from using his wings, but he forced himself to do so. If he did, Airazor and Tigatron would die!

Whitepaw was just about at the edge of the Arctic region when he saw a silhouette leap in front of him. The fox's snowy paws skidded to a stop on the icy ground to avoid running into Snowstorm, the Predacon wolf.

"Snowstorm!" cried Whitepaw.

"Hello, brother," growled Snowstorm. "Miss me?"

With that, the white wolf tackled the Arctic fox and the two began to fight.

"First Airazor and Tigatron, now the bird-dog!" Rattrap mumbled angrily. "We should just let him fight the Western reject, let 'im get 'imself killed, get the bird-lady and stripes, and get it over with!"

"Shut your trap, rat," Dinobot growled, "or you shall become a mount in my quarters!"

"Both of you be quiet!"

The two looked at the computer Dinobot was carrying in his claws. Diana frowned up at them, the screen showing the human form she had created for herself.

"You two!" she sighed. "Always bickering, even on a search and rescue mission!"

"Geez-o," Rattrap grumbled. "One upped by a stinkin' computer!"

Rattrap jumped as his hindquarters were zapped.

"Lousy computer," he snarled under his breath.

"Hey!!" Diana cried. "I heard that!"

Silverbolt yelped as he hit the ground hard. He shook his head slightly as he growled at Quickstrike. Quickstrike approached the downed wolf snickering, snake-head hand aimed at the wolf/eagle's head.

"So, wolfy," Quickstrike growled, trying to contain his maniacle excitement, "you had enough?"

"Not just yet!" Silverbolt snarled.

He struck out with his foot and tripped Quickstrike, then quickly scrambled to his feet. He felt like a fool!!

Then again, was there ever a time fighting Quickstrike that he didn't?

"I hope we're not too late," Diana mentioned, her round little face etched with a look of worry. "Poor Silverbolt..."

"Don't worry too much about the bird-dog," Rattrap laughed. "He's tough."

"I must agree with Diana," mentioned Dinobot. "If he is injured in this battle, he can not fly out of harm's way."

Things had gone from bad to worse in the battle between the two fuzors. Silverbolt was lying on the ground, wounded from a blow from Quickstrike. Quickstrike was laughing as he approached.

"Time to die, wolfy," he chuckled devilishly. "You AND your friends."

Airazor and Tigatron? Silverbolt growled under his breath. He had been duped! He pulled out his gut gun and shot Quickstrike several times in the head, not only knocking the Pred unconscious, but leaving him headless as well!!

With that, Silverbolt made a valiant effort to move, but he felt an overwhelming pain and blacked out.

"Ohhhhh... by Primus, what happened?"

Airazor sat up and shook her head, as well as shaking the dirt off her wings. Tigatron was waking up beside her. He shook his striped head, then looked at Airazor. They looked at each other for a moment before turning to the clearing. Silverbolt was laying there, unmoving.

"By the Matrix!!" cried Tigatron. "It's Silverbolt, he's injured!"

Airazor spread her wings and took to the sky as Tigatron ran out to aid his friend.

Dinobot, Rattrap, and Diana arrived just as Silverbolt was waking up.

"You guys are a little late," said Airazor. "He already beat the slag out of Quickstrike, and saved our skidplates while he was at it."

"I knew he could do it!" Rattrap lied.

He got another zap to the hindquarters from Diana.

"Point is, we were worried," explained the computer. "We didn't think you'd make it!"

"Once again, I only needed my wit to beat him, not my wings," Silverbolt mentioned. "But... it never hurts to have someone threatening the lives of your friends."

"I am a little disappointed in you, Silverbolt," Optimus scorned later. "You should've at least told us the situation. We would've agreed to it."

"I understand, sir. It will not happen again," Silverbolt agreed.

"You were lucky to get out alive," mentioned Airazor. "But, all in all, we do want to thank you."

"Yes," Tigatron agreed. "You saved mine and Airazor's lives. We are in your debt."

"No need to thank me," Silverbolt chuckled. "But, there is one thing..."

"What?" Diana exclaimed, surprised at the fact that something else was going on.

"Let's never go through THAT again!" answered the wolf/eagle.

The group laughed as the sun sank below the horizon.

In the meantime, the Predacons were just finishing collecting Quickstrike's battered form. Though the fuzor's body was currently non-functional, his mind was in overdrive.

*This ain't over till it's over, tin-horn. Next time, you won't be as lucky as to escape!!*