Beast Wars Anonymous:

Small Talk
by Spider Striker (scarletspider31@hotmail.com)

Spider Striker got out of bed and stretched. Man, am I glad I still need to sleep! he thought. Nice to be able to dream still.

He got himself some ‘coffee’ and stretched some more. As he drank it, Rat Trap’s voice broke over the comm-link.

"Hey, kid! WAKE UP!"

"Already did. What’s up, Mouse Trap?"

"It’s Rat Trap."

"I know."

"Anyway, Optimus wanted you and one of the Cat-Ladies to check out some energy readings."

" ‘I have an idea. YOU do it!’ "

"What? Ya too lazy?"

"Just kidding. I’m on my way."

Spider Striker finished his drink and went to the command room to receive his orders.

Spider Striker and Catspaw tried to run in the snow. She was having better luck because she was in beast mode. "So," Spider Striker asked, "is this some energon we’re after or what?"

"No," Catspaw answered, "we’re not sure what it is. That’s why were going to figure it out."

"Great! For all we know...HOLY SH....!"

Catspaw turned around to see what was wrong. She looked left to right and didn’t see Spider Striker anywhere. "Spider Striker!" she called out, but there was no answer.

She was about to call the base when Spider Striker’s hand popped out of the snow and shot a web line that attached to a tree. Spider Striker pulled himself out of the snow. "..IT! I just remembered something," he said.

"What’s that?" Catspaw asked.

"I HATE snow!!"

"Well, at least your alright."

"Yeah, but you know what was scary?"

"What?"

"Before I fell I started to sound like Rat Trap."

They both shuddered.

An hour later they reached the jungle where the energy readings were coming from. They made there way through the jungle following the scanner Rhinox gave them. After 20 minutes the two of them came upon a huge temple.

"Whoa!" Spider Striker said.

"Incredible," Catspaw commented.

Catspaw walked up the steps to the entrance. Spider Striker was about to follow her when he felt his sixth sense warn him not to. "CATSPAW! GET AWAY FROM THERE!!!" he yelled.

Just then a huge gorilla with bat wings walked out of the doorway. It saw the two Maximals and roared. It swatted Catspaw back down to the bottom of the temple. It then jumped down and tried to smash Spider Striker but he jumped out of the way. He landed next Catspaw and helped her up. She maximized and drew her sword.

The gorilla looked at them and said "Go away! This Gargoyle’s home! Robots cause pain! You not take back to Tarantulas!"

Catspaw put her sword away. She held her hands up to show that she was unarmed. "We mean you no harm," she explained in a soft voice. "We just want to study..."

"NO STUDY! GO AWAY!!" Gargoyle yelled. He took a deep breath and exhaled flame. Spider Striker grabbed Catspaw and jumped out of the way. They landed behind Gargoyle. Catspaw transformed into beast mode. "Get on!" she ordered. Spider Striker climbed on her back and she bolted away. Gargoyle was flying behind them, breathing fire from above.

Catspaw kept running and dodging the fire, until she tripped over a tree root. The Maximals went flying. Gargoyle landed in front of them, staring at them with an expression of pure anger. Spider Striker drew both of his guns, but Catspaw transformed and stepped in front of him. "There’s no need to resort to violence," she said.

"Um, this guy kinda wants to kill us..," Spider Striker said.

"I know, but that’s because he thinks we want to hurt him."

"No," Gargoyle corrected her, "Gargoyle want to kill you because you invade home!"

Gargoyle hit the ground with both his fists and the Maximals were forced into the cave behind them by the vibrations. Gargoyle hit the ground again and the entrance to the cave was closed off by an avalanche. Gargoyle grunted in satisfaction and flew back to the temple.

Catspaw and Spider Striker got up. "You OK?" Spider Striker asked Catspaw.

"<cough> Yes. <cough-cough>"

"Good. Mind telling me where you are? I can’t see a thing."

"Hold on. You’re in front of me right?"

"Sounds right."

"Good," Catspaw said as she drew her sword. She stuck it in the ground and the cave lit up.

" ‘Cool!’ " Spider Striker said with surprise.

The two of them sat against opposite walls of the cave. Much to Catspaw’s surprise, they sat in silence for 10 minutes. After that, she finally broke that silence. "Is something wrong, Spider Striker?"

"No. Why?"

"Well, you’re usually more talkative."

"Actually, I’m being myself."

"What do you mean?"

Spider Striker scratched his head. "I’m kinda shy. That’s why I’m in my quarters all the time."

"What do mean shy? You put together that whole Christmas celebration."

Spider Striker laughed a little. "Yeah," he said, "I did that to feel less homesick and say thanks to everyone. If I were still human I would’ve been blushing and trembling and I probably would’ve fainted. If I’m not in battle, it takes all courage I got just to say ‘hello.’ "

Catspaw laughed. "So your saying that your scared out of your mind right now?"

"Well, not out of my mind."

Catspaw started laughing hysterically. Spider Striker said "That’s why."

Catspaw stopped laughing "I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me. What did you say?"

"That’s why I’m shy. Everyone keeps laughing at me. When I was human I was the kid everyone picked on. Guess some things never change."

Catspaw suddenly felt guilty. "I’m sorry. Why don’t you tell me the good things about your past life."

Spider Striker looked at Catspaw with a suspicious look and said " ‘What is this? Some kind of dork outreach program?’ "

"What? I just thought there might be good parts of your past life..."

" ‘That’s a lie and you know it!’ "

Catspaw looked very confused. Spider Striker laughed and said "Now I’m sorry. I’ve always had a habit of quoting TV and movies and other stuff, which strangely has gotten worse since I’ve met Blackbird."

"I see. Well if you want to tell me anything about your past life you can."

"I guess so. I’ve gotta tell someone before I explode. Besides, making you sit through it should be appropriate payback for your laughing at me. Where should I start?"

They both thought for a minute and then Catspaw said "Why not your
 family?"

" ‘I don’t know. Why not?’ Anyway, my family was great. My Dad got me started on all my hobbies. Introduced me to comic books, gave me an art set for my birthday, every hobby except writing. Mom got me started on that. She loved to write poetry. Then there was my brother. Oh, how I wanted to kill him!"

Catspaw giggled at that last remark. "I can relate," she said.

"We didn’t have a lot of money, but we had enough. I never compla...I hardly ever....I was happy even though I may not have showed it. I mean, sometimes my life was Hell! Especially with school. I hated being the nerd! The taunts. You think Rat Trap’s bad? ‘Oy!’ It drove me to the point where I almost liked being alone all the time.

"The only person I could really talk to was Erica. She was my best friend," Spider Striker continued. "We didn’t like a lot of the same things. In fact, she hated comics, but we got along great." Spider Striker stopped. "Anyway, then there was high scho..."

"Why did you stop talking about Erica?" Catspaw asked. "She sounded nice."

"You just answered your own question," Spider Striker replied. "She was too nice."

"What do you mean?"

"I started to feel differently about her. Y’know, like like her. Of
 course I never told her. Didn’t have the guts."

"You said you could talk to her though."

"That wasn’t what I was afraid of. I was afraid if it didn’t work out we wouldn’t be friends anymore."

Spider Striker sighed. "Maybe I should lighten up a little. You did ask for good things," he said. He sat in silence for about a minute. Then he asked "Wanna hear about my hobbies?"

"That should be interesting," Catspaw answered.

"Comic books," Spider Striker said, "were my main hobby. I blame them for my over-active imagination. The stories were great. The art was amazing," he stopped again and looked at himself. He laughed as he continued. "And characters you could really like! The Scarlet Spider! By far my favorite of all time! I used to dream of having his powers and fighting evil (which I kinda do now).

"In fact my first written project outside of English class was a comic book. I wrote it I illustrated it. The characters were mine. And it was damn good too! If I wanted to, I could send it to Marvel, Image, or even DC and gotten a job then and there!"

Spider striker stopped for the third time and whispered "God, I miss my life! I even miss my brother. I even miss being the nerd!" Spider Striker looked up at Catspaw and said "I think you’ve been punished enough. What about you? Not fair that I dominate the conversation."

Catspaw looked surprised for a second then said "You don’t want to know about my life."

"Ah! Apparently I’m not the only one with low self-esteem. ‘Give, give, give! We told you ours.’ "

Catspaw looked at Spider Striker. " ‘We?’ "

"Another quote."

Catspaw nodded. "Self-esteem has little to do with it. I just don’t like looking at my past. Too many bad memories."

"I really don’t thinks it’s fair that you sat through my story and then you don’t tell me anything. I can tell you haven’t told anyone and that your dying to."

Catspaw sighed. "Alright," she said. "You’ve been warned."

"My father was the general in charge of the Maximal Elite, an army set up just in case the Predacons started Great War II. He loved war. He had two daughters, me and Catsclaw. I was how you say the ‘black sheep’ because I hated violence, still do. My sister was favored because she liked to hunt, which led to her liking combat when animals became to easy. That didn’t stop us from being close, however.

"When I was about twelve human years old," Catspaw continued, "I was kidnapped from my home while I slept by a Predacon who saw potential in me because of my family’s history of making warriors. He forced me into warrior training under someone called Shadow. I still don’t know if he was Maximal or Predacon. He trained me for 17 human years. What surprised me was how kind Shadow actually was. He called me his daughter several times. He gave me that sword over there." She gestured toward the blade in the ground that was lighting up the cave. "He said it was an honor he only gave his most favored students.

"I probably wouldn’t have gotten that honor if he knew what I was doing behind his back. While I was supposed to be sleeping I would secretly read the text of the art he was teaching me, including the forbidden text. I taught myself secrets even Shadow wouldn’t know and used them to escape.

"I was so happy to see my family again, even my father. My sister was extremely glad to have me back. She promised that she would never let anything happen to me again. She had join the Maximal Elite by then and was more than capable of keeping that promise. She refused to accept the fact I was capable of taking care of my self. Even after she saw that I could two years later.

"The Predacon who had kidnaped me finally found me and demanded I work for him as his assassin. When I refused he attacked me. I did only what needed to defend myself, but when he threatened my family I lashed out and killed him."

Spider Striker’s white optics grew wide. "Yikes," was all he could get out.

Catspaw continued her story. "My father saw that and got me in to the Maximal Elite. I was ashamed at what I did I never wanted to use my skill again, so I told my father that I refused to join the Elite. He was enraged and cast me out of the family."

"Jerk," Spider Striker muttered so Catspaw wouldn’t hear him.

She did hear him, but ignored it. "I was mad at myself at first because Father had finally accepted me and I ruined that. Then I realized that to keep his approval I would have to kill people eventually. Everyone knew the Predacons were waiting for the right time to strike.

"I didn’t want to be around when the war happened so I asked ‘Uncle’ Optimus to get me on the Axalon’s crew, which he did. So here we are."

"WOW!" Spider Striker said. "Guess I don’t have a right to complain about my life, but I have a few questions."

"Ask away."

"If you hate violence and war so much, why are you fighting in this one?"

"Because I want to see it end as soon as possible. I can do that better on the battlefield."

"OK. Why is Catsclaw here?"

"She’s that overprotective. Now I want to ask you a few questions."

"Shoot."

"Why haven’t you talked to Blackbird about your past life?"

"You mean because he went through the same thing?"

"Yes."

"Because he didn’t," Spider Striker answered simply. "I’m sure he was a lot of lost loved ones and everything, but our situations are the different. He was in a war, now he’s in another one. He was a robot that can transform, still is. I was a normal human who avoided conflict because it would put me in the hospital. Now I’m a robot who fights in a war, and kicks butt!"

"I can see that. Why did you laugh when you talked about comic books?"

"You mean the characters? Oh, well, let’s just say my body resembles that of a comic character’s costume. Hey, how’s your sword lighting up the cave?"

Catspaw looked at the sword and replied "I honestly don’t know. It’s capable of all sorts of things. This one I found out when I was trapped in a similar situation to the one we’re in now. I got so frustrated about being trapped in the dark I slammed the sword into the ground and the cave lit up."

"Weird," Spider Striker said in response. "So, how’d you like your Christmas gift?"

"I told you I liked it when you gave it to me."

"Yeah, but did the incense work right? Did you like the song?"

"I loved the song! It’s very beautiful. Do you know any others like it?"

"It’s hard to find another song like ‘Skipping Stones,’ but I can maybe think of something similar to it." Spider Striker thought on what song he could give as an example when something else caught his attention. "Hey! I just noticed something!"

"What?"

"I’m not nervous anymore! I guess all I needed to do was ‘swallow my fear and just get involved.’ "

"Where’d you here that?"

"My mom. She made it sound like it was an easy thing. Anyway, I was looking for a song that was similar to ‘Skipping Stones.’ Hmm. I can’t think of one."

"Do you know any songs that have nice lyrics?" Catspaw asked.

"I know some very beautiful songs," Spider Striker replied.

"Can you sing one?"

"WHAT?!"

"Don’t you sing?"

"Yeah, I sing. When no ones around to hear me."

"Why?"

"I don’t know, maybe because I can’t."

"Sing for me. Please?"

"Can I ask why?"

"No."

"Funny."

"Please."

"Not until I get reason."

"Just want to hear you sing. I don’t know why."

"No."

"Please."

"NO!"

"Please."

"Oh, alright!" Spider Striker cleared his throat. " ‘No mountain’s too high for you to climb/all you need is some climbing faith/No river’s too wide for you to cross/all you have to do is believe it when you pray/And then you will see/The morning will come/And all of your days will be bright as the sun/So all of your fears/cast them on me./I just want you to see:

" ‘I’ll be your cloud up in the sky/I’ll be your shoulder when you cry/I’ll hear your voices when you call me/I am your Angel!/And when all hope is gone, I’m here/No matter how far you are, I’m near/It makes no difference who you are/I am your Angel!’ "

He stopped. "That’s all the words I know. That’s my favorite song of all time."

"That’s better than the song you gave me for Christmas," Catspaw said. "And your singing isn’t that bad." Spider Striker stared at her. "OK! You’ve got the worst voice I’ve ever heard! But the song is very nice."

"At least your honest."

Spider Striker slowly woke up. As he did, the web he was sleeping on disintegrated and he fell to the ground. ">ooof!<"He was completely awake after that. "I don’t remember making that bed-thing. Must of done it in my sleep," he muttered to himself. He stood up and stretched. He looked for Catspaw.

Catspaw was standing in front of the pile of rocks that sealed off the cave with her optics closed. She brought up her arms and moved them around like she was casting a spell. Suddenly, she lashed her right arm out. An almost invisible wave of energy shot out from her hand and half the rocks were forced away. She lashed out her left arm and that took care of the other half. She opened her eyes and smiled. She turned around and found Spider Striker standing behind her. "You saw that whole thing?" she asked.

"Yep," Spider Striker replied. "Why didn’t you do that in the first place?"

"Because everyone else was talking about how you hardly talk to anyone. It was good for you to finally open up."

"OK. Fair enough. In that case, can I ask you a favor?"

"Go ahead."

"If I ever need to talk to someone that I can talk to you."

"On two conditions."

"What?"

"One, you come out of your quarters and get to know the other Maximals as friends."

"OK, I’ll try very hard to do that."

"Two, if I ever need anyone to talk to I can come to you."

"DEAL!"

They shook hands and walked outside. They started to head to the Axalon. They had walked about 15 minutes when Rhinox and Catsclaw flew over to them on a giant version of the Predacon hover-boards. The hover-board landed in front of them. "Hop on," said Rhinox.

As he got on, Spider Striker looked at the board and asked "What? You couldn’t build this thing before me and Catspaw had to drag our butts through the snow?"

"Sorry," Rhinox said. "I was still getting the bugs out when you left and Optimus wanted that energy reading checked out ASAP. Did you two figure it out?"

As Spider Striker told Rhinox what happened, Catspaw watched him. He’s one of the nicest people I’ve ever met, she thought. It’s a shame he’s so shy. I think I can help him get over that. I also think I’m staring to like him.

The stasis pod opened and the robot got out. Where in the Inferno am I? it thought.  It was about to activate its beast mode when it heard something in the bushes. It pulled its laser cannon and said "All right! I know your there. Might as well come out and get it over with."

The bushes rattled even more and a huge, black shadow emerged from them. "HOLY SLAG!!" the robot shouted. The shadow consumed the robot. Screams of pain echoed through the forest.