Beast Wars Anonymous:

Storm, pt. I
by Birgit Staebler (mac@robyn.rhein-neckar.de)

Space was a black void. Calm, seemingly endless, quiet. A small system of several planets and one sun spun silently through this darkness, one planet a greenish blue globe, ice caps shining through the cloud cover. The planet was orbited by two moons. The sunlight reflected off millions of small metal particles floating around the planet as well. Some of the particles were debris, torn off the two space ships that had crashed here some time ago; but a few were larger, cylinder-shaped and clearly not debris. They were artificial. All were the same size, but their contents, though looking alike, was not the same. Each cylinder held a protoform, keeping it in a stasis field to prevent it from either taking damage or even dying through an accident.

A small meteor shower passed by the planet, most of the tiny rocks burning up as they touched the atmosphere, raining down onto the planet, none of them even reaching the surface in one piece. Several more flew simply past, but two or three bumped into the cylinders. One was immediately punctured. An alarm went off in the silence of space, but no one was there to hear it. There were flashes of light, several small, soundless explosions, then the lid of the stasis pod was cracked and tore open, another explosion bursting into the blackness. The protoform inside died quickly, the spark extinguished within seconds.

A second pod was much more lucky. The meteor hit its front side and it spun out of control, rapidly descending toward the planet. As it entered the atmosphere, the friction against the heat shields made it glow brightly, a yellow-red beacon. Its angle was rather steep and as it came in more rapidly, it became clear that it would crash rather severely. And it did.

The ground was torn open by the crashing pod as it went down, sliding through the grass and bush lands, mowing down several small trees and finally coming up hard against a cluster of taller trees, which rocked dangerously under the impact. One of the trees finally fell over and buried several smaller trees beneath itself, but the others remained upright. Smoke curled into the sky, which was a murky grey. The wind whipped around the burned looking cylinder and all signs pointed toward a storm coming in soon. Energy crackled over the surface of the pod and began to leak through cracks and tears.

"This is one baaad storm," Rattrap muttered as he watched the display screen. There was a grayish cloud covering most of sector 18 and it was steadily moving north, away from their position.

"Yep," Rhinox muttered, studying his own station's readout. "And Optimus is right in the middle of it."

"Eeee-yeah. But fearless leader has survived more than one energon storm, right? He can watch out for himself." Rattrap made a dismissive gesture.

"And he has Dinobot with him," Cheetor put in helpfully.

"Rhinox, scramble a rescue team!" Rattrap exclaimed.

Rhinox shot him a disapproving look and Rattrap shrugged. "Eh," he snorted.

"How long until the storm is past?" Cheetor wanted to know.

"It will be mostly gone by tonight," Rhinox rumbled. "But interferences will remain. I estimate we won't be able to contact Optimus at least for another day."

"That's bad," Cheetor muttered.

"Eh, sit back and relax." Rattrap flung himself into his own chair. "Nuthin's gonna happen. The sector is dead as it can be. No Pred activities, no nuthin'."

Rhinox rumbled something under his breath. Of course there were no activities, but there might be Predacons there and there was no telling what this storm would do. It was the worst storm he had ever seen and Optimus and Dinobot were right in the middle. He trusted Dinobot to watch Optimus' back. The former Predacon would defend his leader in case of an attack, which he had proven more than once. But there was still a difference between a Predacon attack and the forces of nature. Rhinox was worried. Very worried.

Waspinator battled the rising winds and gave the approaching storm a worried look. The storm was between him and Predacon HQ and he knew that there was no chance he'd get back there before it hit him. He needed to get to safety. The winds had not troubled him at first, since he was a flyer and used to ill weather conditions, but this storm was more than he had bargained for. It howled around him with a force that was already giving him enough difficulties. And it was getting worse.

Waspinator might be called an idiot by many of his fellow Predacons -- more or less each and every one of them -- but he wasn't stupid. He had a speech impediment and his mental stability was something you could argue about, but his reasoning circuits were all on-line and he knew the danger he was in was severe. The wasp-like Predacon descended toward the ground, rocked by stronger growing gusts of wind. Energon exploded into lightning bolts around him and Waspinator gave an exclamation of surprise as one hit too close for comfort.

"Wazzzpinator find safe place," he muttered. "Or Wazzzpinator soon scrap."

He wondered whether or not his last call to the base had come through, which he doubted. The interferences were too much. Waspinator saw a patch or forest appear beneath him and he searched for a landing spot. Suddenly his optics widened behind the insectoid covers as he discovered a familiar object.

"Stazzzizzz pod!" he exclaimed.

Waspinator descended rapidly now, but through his in turn rapidly rising excitement he came too close to another energon bolt. The lightning struck him between the wings and burned his organic skin, hitting some circuits and frying them. He gave a cry of pain and surprise, tumbling helplessly out of control. Crashing was nothing new to the flyer, but it didn't mean he had to like it. He had been blown apart, fried and fallen out of the sky too many times and some damage had not been repaired -- because it was beyond repair. Waspinator knew several circuits were shaken and damaged and he knew it had resulted in changes in his personality, but he was still able to function and it wasn't worse than throughout the war -- when he had been in much worse situations, functioning on a minimum level, trying to still perform at peak efficiency. The war had left its scars, changing the flyer, and this crash on an unknown planet had done its share as well.

Waspinator sometimes thought that the most prominent changes inside him had happened after he had briefly connected to the alien probe. Rhinox's chain gun had perforated him and he had stumbled back against one of the many stones. The shock of this strange electricity running through him had nearly erased all his memory components. After the experience, a lot had changed for him. He barely remembered who he had been before he had become Waspinator, sometimes only recalling fractions of his life prior to the crash and the fateful energon surge.

Waspinator hit the ground, hard, and was disoriented for some time. There was a buzzing in his head which had nothing to do with faulty circuits -- which not even a CR chamber could fix -- but with the rising storm. The wind howled madly around him and it was just the beginning. The flyer knew it would get even worse. Waspinator transformed and stumbled to his feet, his skin immediately hit by millions of particles of sand the storm was hurtling around. He also knew he couldn't stay in robot mode too long, lest he'd risk energon overload and stasis lock. He tried to get his bearings and locate the stasis pod. It wasn't very far away.

The stasis pod was in a bad shape, Waspinator saw immediately as he approached the cylinder. There was a large crack on the left side, several smaller ones all over the severely dented front, and the heat shield had apparently failed somewhere throughout the re-entry. The silvery surface was mostly charcoal black. But still the pod seemed to function.

Waspinator was no expert on these devices and he had never tried to get a protoform out of a pod all by himself, but he knew he had to help this protoform or it would die from the energon exposure. The storm would hit here in less than twenty minutes. He had to move fast.

Waspinator tentatively reached out and tried to open the panel. After several failures it finally slid open, revealing a complicated array of instruments that confused the flyer. He had never had an even theoretical course in stasis pods and protoform revival. All his knowledge had been acquired throughout the stay on this planet through watching Scorponok, Tarantulas and lately Blackarachnia when they had worked on one project or other. Since every Predacon on Megatron's team thought Waspinator was a bugged out nut-head, the flyer had never been taken seriously enough to kick him out of labs when he ventured in. The others tended to ignore him around the base, but in battle they fell back on his flight abilities. Some part of Waspinator, the old part, was bothered by this; the other part, the damaged one, was kind of glad about this situation because it gave him a greater freedom and much more leeway.

Numbers and strange figures scrolled over the small display screen and the Predacon flyer blinked, tilting his head. He had no idea what it meant. He played his hands over the keyboard and got some error messages. "Stasis lock failing," the neutral, computerized voice said.

Waspinator felt slight panic rise.

"Complete shut down in three cycles. Spark fading."

Waspinator looked at the still closed lid and tried to force it open. It didn't budge. He hit some keys again and through sheer luck there was a soft whirring sound all of a sudden and the globe-like scanner unfolded out of the depths of the pod. "Scanning for compatible life forms," the computer voice said calmly.

A yellow scanner field spread out from the globe and began searching for a life form fitting for the protoform. Waspinator had no idea if he had reprogrammed the Maximal protoform as a Predacon through his inexpert tries with the machinery, but right now he just hoped the form would survive.

"Compatible life form found," the voice said and Waspinator felt himself tense a bit, though he should be relieved. "Scanning complete."

Something happened inside the pod.

And something happened outside as well. Lightning struck a tall tree close to him and the energon levels rose dangerously. Energon was all around him, giving him chip flashes, making him twitch. Waspinator gave the pod a worried look as it still hummed with the remodeling it was doing, hoping the energon exposure hadn't damaged the important circuits.

"Warning. Stasis lock imminent," his own warning system then went off.

The storm howled with more rage and the winds hitting him were strong enough to lift him nearly off his feet. He had to get out of here!

The pod opened. Somewhere the storm unearthed a tree, flinging it into the woods. The loud crashing sound was drowned by the howls all around him.

"Warning, system lock-down imminent!"

Waspinator forced the lid to open more and then got his first good look at the new protoform. It was already transformed into its animal mode, a reddish brown fox. The fox was slender but looking powerfully built, its paws white, the tips of its ears and tail a very dark, almost black color. It had its eyes closed and Waspinator wasn't sure whether it was unconscious or dead.

The ever-strengthening storm let him forget all musings. Waspinator transformed and grabbed the slender form with his insect legs. His flight abilities were limited due to the last hit between his wings, but at least he could still stay airborne. He kept as low as possible as he streaked away from the wall of darkness and energon lightning as fast as he could. There was another lightning bolt coming down behind him, closely followed by an explosion. He dared to look over his shoulder and discovered that a tree had been hit again, this time collapsing onto the now empty pod, destroying it. The pod was rocked by small explosions and then started to burn.

Waspinator didn't care. He had -- hopefully -- saved the protoform. His feeling of success and satisfaction vanished when he was caught in a gust of wind and lost his flight trajectory. He tumbled helplessly out of control, clutching the limp form of the fox. A burst of energon from the storm hit him and Waspinator gave a scream of pain as it sizzled over him, burning his skin. His wings hit the branches of the trees and he was flung to the left. With another cry he lost all equilibrium and crashed again, this time harder than before. He hit his head against a protruding boulder and felt his circuits overload with too much energon, despite the fact that his damper chip was handling everything. This was just too much.

Waspinator gave a whimper, still holding the fox, and tried to get up. It was an impossible task. The giant wasp collapsed and the light in his optics died as he shut down.

The storm had now reached its full strength and howled over the forest with a force that even the old and strong trees bent to its power. The unconscious robots lay on the floor of the forest, oblivious to the hell around them.

Optimus watched the cloud-heavy sky and sighed. This was one extremely bad storm and it meant they would be stuck here. Dinobot gave a low growl of displeasure, lips drawn slightly back over his razor sharp teeth. His eyes were slits of annoyance. He hadn't been very enthusiastic about this exploration trip to begin with, though he had more or less offered to accompany the Maximal leader. Optimus thought it might be out of a false sense of guilt since the last exploration had ended with Optimus getting stuck with a CyberBee and going on the rampage. Dinobot was watching the landscape very closely this time and he was nearly overly cautions, though he didn't try to show it.

"We're stalled," Optimus now sighed.

Dinobot rumbled something under his breath, giving the dark sky an even darker look. "We are close to Predacon territory," he growled.

"Not even Megatron is crazy enough to go out in this storm or send out his flyers to scout, Dinobot," Optimus said mildly.

Dinobot gave him a sarcastic look. "Then you don't know him after all, Optimus Primal. Megatron would be that crazy."

Optimus shrugged. "Maybe. But whoever he sends out, he will suffer from this storm just as we will soon if we don't find some cover."

Lightning struck a tree not far away and the wind howled around them with more force. Optimus shielded his eyes, searching for something better than the forest below them. There was nothing better. It was all the cover there was. "Let's go."

"I advise we search for a more suitable cover," Dinobot hissed, "than those natural lightning rods."

"There is none, Dinobot, so get going. The storm will hit us with full force in a few more minutes!"

Dinobot shrugged and followed the Maximal commander down to the small forest where one tree had already suffered the fate of being too tall in a thunder and lightning storm.

She woke.

It was a slow waking, very slow, punctuated by weird sounds coming through her audio receptors and strange feelings emanating from her skin.

:: Systems on-line ::

She let her diagnostics program run its course, waiting for the result.

:: System instability. Warning ::

She was confused, but remained calm. She ran the program a second time, this time requesting a status report and was confronted with a list of malfunctioning or just barely running programs and circuits. She frowned. She accessed her memory core, replaying the last entry. She had signed on to the deep space exploration vessel Axalon, going into stasis because the ship would run on a skeleton crew until it arrived at its intended destination. It would conserve a lot of energon. She remembered going into stasis and then..... the next memory was waking up.

Something started to supply her with a few more information. It was her Recent Memory Circuit, something every protoform in a stasis pod needed. The pod was collecting information throughout a protoform's stay and relayed it to the protoform. Normally it was used by the ship's skeleton crew to send strings of data to the rest of the crew in stasis to give them an idea what they were facing after waking up. This way there were no lengthy briefings necessary, especially if there was a crisis.

And what she gathered from the data, this was a crisis. She was on a planet with a lethal amount of energon present and the stasis pod had supplied her with an artificial skin and a new form. She didn't know whether or not she liked this latest 'incarnation', but it was something new and she liked new. She was an explorer, though her career had started out as that of a medic prior to signing on to the Axalon.

She sighed and tried opening her eyes. It was weird to have something cover them, something made out of artificial skin, and it was even weirder to have an 'organic' eye. Her field of vision was rather limited and the moment she tried moving, her systems protested and she fell back weakly. She groaned, and after several minutes she tried it again. Again she couldn't get up. She was simply too weak and her systems were confronting her with even more warnings. She wondered how she had arrived in such a bad state and tried to access more memory, but there was none. She had no idea why she was here, why no one else seemed to be close and..... her eyes widened as she saw her surroundings a bit clearer.

She was in the middle of a forest! The sky above her was pitch-black, winds howling around her, lightning flashing here or there.

She tried to get back up again. This time she managed to get to her feet....her four feet.... She looked down at her body, fur greeting her eyes. She puzzled about her new form again, wind ripping through her fur. She initiated transformation, feeling parts shift which had never moved and shifted like this before. The stasis pod had reconfigured her quite thoroughly. Finally on her own two feet again, she looked around. She was quite unsteady and her equilibrium was seriously disturbed. Standing motionless was all she could do, scanning, hoping to get another clue as to what in the Inferno was going on here! Why was she alone? Why was no one else around here?

Lightning hit, driving into a high tree, splitting it. Part of the tree burst into fire and another part started to fall her way. She was rooted to the spot for a moment, shock and her still not functioning systems making her freeze. Something crashed into her and she was flung aside, landing hard on the ground. Her already shaky systems were shaken up even more and she was too weak to get up for several seconds. Throughout those seconds she heard the crash of the tree half, followed by an exclamation of pain. She looked up and was greeted by a robot trapped under the tree, which was smoldering slightly. The wind howled around her still, but it was not getting worse. She doubted it could get any worse.

"Oooohhh, Wazzzpinator hurt," the robot moaned and she edged closer, stumbling a bit as her equilibrium acted up.

The robot looked at her and she was struck by its strange, insectoid look. The bulging optics flashed slightly and there was no visible nose or mouth, except for something she thought were mandibles. And there were Predacon symbols on his head. She wondered what a Predacon was doing here..... There were no Predacons on the ship's crew! She didn't know him, though she knew many of his kind.

"Fox-bot okay?" he now asked.

"Yes," she answered warily. "Who....who are you?"

"Wazzzpinator." There was a buzz in his voice.

"Waspinator?" She didn't recognize the name at all.

He nodded.

She looked at the tree, which had trapped one of his legs. She had to get it off him. She had no prejudice against Predacons and this one had saved her. The peace had lasted for over 300 years and she also had some friends among them.

Suddenly her body was wracked by energon surges and she gave a cry of surprise and mild pain. Damper fields sprang into life, but they helped to ease the pain only marginally. Her body had yet to adjust to this new environment.

"Uhhh," Waspinator muttered. "Baaad. Energon overload."

She quickly got out her weapon, a silver energy sword, and activated it. She had to free this robot before she shut down from overload! He would soon suffer the same if he was not freed from this predicament. She raised the sword high over her head, gripping it in both hands, then let it descend in one smooth move. It hit the tree half and went neatly through it, the energy blad sizzling slightly as it made contact with the organic matter.

At that moment, another energon surge hit her and this time it was worse. The dampers were not strong enough to battle this new attack and her body cramped. She had to let go of the sword and it tumbled to the ground with a wet, splashing noise. She stumbled, nearly collapsing, and cried out in pain.

Someone caught her.

"Fox-bot transform!" Waspinator's urgent voice reached her. "Now!"

She shivered, tremors running through her body. Almost instinctively she transformed back into her animal mode, collapsing onto the forest floor. She gasped slightly. When she opened her eyes, she was faced with what she guessed was Waspinator's alternate mode: an insect.

"Fox-bot rest," the Predacon said, sounding very worried. "Fox-bot feel better?"

"Yes," she said weakly. "And my name is Rogue, not Fox-bot."

Waspinator tilted his head a bit, his mandible clicking. "Rogue?" he asked. "Wazzzpinator know you."

She frowned. She didn't recognize him. Then again, he had most likely been redesigned as well and maybe he had also taken on a new name to fit his new form. But even if he had a new body, she knew no one with a speech impediment like his.

"But I don't know you..... Where am I? What happened? Do you belong to the Axalon's crew?"

The Predacon looked suddenly a bit stricken. "Wazzzpinator not belong to Maximal ship," he then said. "Saw crashed pod. Wanted to help. Fox-bot in trouble."

She smiled. "I guess I was. Does this planet have a name?"

Waspinator shook his head.

"How did you get here?"

"Ship crashed," Waspinator muttered and it seemed he didn't really want to talk about it.

"A Predacon ship?" Rogue asked calmly.

The wind howled with a bit more force for several minutes, making conversation impossible, and she buried her head in her furry tail as dead leaves, twigs and dirt were blown their way.

Waspinator hugged his wings tightly to his body and hunkered down a bit more. "Yes," he finally said after the worst was past.

She thought furiously. She had been on a Maximal exploration vessel inside a stasis pod. Now she was on a planet where a Predacon ship had crashed, a planet without a name...

"And the Axalon crashed as well," she muttered. It wasn't a question.

Waspinator nodded nevertheless.

"Why?" Rogue wanted to know.

The Predacon didn't answer.

"Why, Waspinator?" she repeated the question after a time of silence.

"If Wazzzpinator tells Fox-bot, Fox-bot will shoot him...." Waspinator muttered unhappily.

She cocked her head. "Why would I do that?"

Waspinator looked at her, indecision bright in his bulging optics.

"Please tell me?" she asked. "I'm not prejudiced toward Predacons. We were at peace and even though I fought against you in the war, we are no longer enemies."

"Here we are," Waspinator moaned.

Rogue was completely confused now. "We are?"

He nodded and then, in his strange way to talk, he explained what had happened. "Wazzzpinator wanted friend," he concluded the tale. "Wazzzpinator wanted new Predacon to be his friend, not Tarantulas' or Megatron's."

Rogue tried to digest what he had told her, torn between shock and confusion. "You stole the Golden Disk?" she breathed.

Waspinator nodded, buzzing softly, muttering, "Just wanted friend."

"And you would have turned me into a Predacon?" she then prodded. She had to know.

"Wazzzpinator can't operate pod controlzzz," the Predacon confessed, looking at the ground. "Just wanted to save Fox-bot from termination."

She smiled. "And I thank you for it, Waspinator."

Waspinator briefly looked at her. "But not friend," he sighed. "Enemy."

"No, I am a friend," she contradicted. "We haven't shot at each other yet, have we?"

"No. But Fox-bot will shoot at Wazzzpinator next time. Maximals will tell her all about Predacons."

"You told me what happened and I'm glad you were honest with me," Rogue said softly.

Waspinator sighed a bit. A new gust of wind ruffled her fur and she looked at the dark sky above her.

"Bad storm," she muttered.

"Very bad," Waspinator agreed, audibly glad for the change of subject. "Lasts long already."

Rogue looked around, then gave the large insect in front of her a once-over. Some parts of Waspinator looked badly singed and the place between his wings looked punctured.

"Can't we move?" she asked.

"Storm over soon," Waspinator told her. "Fox-bot and Wazzzpinator in trouble if they move. Storm changezzzz direction sometimezzz."

"Oh." She flicked her ears. "Tell me more about this place? Please?"

Waspinator was silent for some time, then nodded slowly.

Storm, pt. II
by Birgit Staebler (mac@robyn.rhein-neckar.de)

"Where is Waspinator?" Megatron demanded.

"He left before the storm and I believe he was cut off from us by it. It is the worst energon storm to hit this area since we arrived," Tarantulas explained. "We can't get in contact with him."

Megatron frowned, looking at the display, which showed the size and the strength of the storm quite clearly. All but Waspinator and Black Arachnia were back at the headquarters. Black Arachnia wasn't even in the storm area, so there was no worrying about that. And Megatron would be the last to worry about the treacherous, female Predacon arachnid. But Waspinator was exactly in that area and all communication had been cut by interferences. Even though Waspinator wasn't the brightest of this small group of survivors, he was one of the most loyal, aside from Scorponok. And he kept the two enemy teams in balance. If Waspinator was lost, the Maximals would be one robot stronger. Not that this meant they were superior, nooo.

"Keep scanning," he finally told Tarantulas and walked off.

Waspinator was sure that he knew the female Maximal. He didn't know where from, but she was no stranger to him. At least to part of him. His split mind was working furiously on trying to pin another face or body to the name and the old part, the one that had been him before he had been hurt, struggled valiantly. He frowned as he thought he remembered something. He was in a med bay. It was after the war and they were trying to fix his severely disturbed circuits -- without much luck.

Rogue.....

She had been a medic, he remembered happily. He almost felt his circuits working again, supplying him with those memories he had not had access to in months. She had tried to help him get better again and she had been a friend. Now she was here as well, but on the wrong side.

"Wazzzpinator remembers," he muttered.

Rogue, who had been lying under the dense bushes, looked at him. "Remember? What?" she asked sleepily.

He looked at her. "Fox-bot helped Wazzzpinator in past. Fox-bot medic. Friend in past."

Rogue frowned in deep thought and was suddenly very much awake. "I'm medic, that's true, but I can't recall you as any of my patients...... What was your name prior to this new one?"

"Wazzzpinator can't remember." He sighed sadly. "Alwayzzz been Wazzzpinator."

At least that was all he remembered. He had no idea who he had really been. The personality split had happened after connecting with the energized Standing Stones and since then, too much eluded him. Whenever he was mostly back to his old self he hated this state of mind; other times he didn't even recognize it.

Rogue nodded as if she had already suspected that. "The storm is nearly over. We should move."

Waspinator looked at the still dark sky. The storm had quieted down a lot in the last hours and instead of energon flashes, rain had started to fall heavily. Rogue's fur was already soaked, but she didn't seem to have any problems with it. They had spent quite some time together, talking, sometimes just waiting for the storm to pass, and Rogue had given her repair systems the necessary time to heal her. The beast form was very good for initiating repairs and Waspinator knew that when her own systems would start with the updates, she'd no longer experience that much trouble in her robot mode.

"Move where?" he asked quietly.

"Out of the woods," the fox answered. "Then we'll see what's next."

Waspinator nodded and tested his wings. They were not strong enough to give him full maneuverability, but he could fly again. He lifted off the ground and hovered over her. "Fox-bot lead way or follow Waspinator?"

Rogue smiled. "You know this part better than I do, I guess, so you lead the way."

He nodded and flew through the forest, closely followed by Rogue.

Rogue watched her companion while they moved slowly through the treacherous forest. The ground was muddy and slippery, and it was still raining. Branches hung low; trees had been bent by the energon storm and moving was difficult for both of them. Waspinator had to either fly low above the forest floor or high above the trees, but he was never too far away from her. As she watched him, she became aware of his soft mumbling as he talked to himself, and the buzzing and humming. It wasn't the sound of his wings; he made those sounds. Waspinator also switched back between his more lucid self and the total absorption of whatever world he was in quite often. Rogue wished she knew more about him, could remember him as he seemed to remember her somehow.

The winds had slowed down to a breeze and the occasional stronger gust. The rain was still heavy, but without the wind it was no longer as bothering. Rogue wondered where he was leading her. Part of her trusted him, mainly because he had saved her life twice already and she didn't think he would have done it if he wanted to trap and kill her now. Maybe there was a war going on here, but not right now, not between them.

Waspinator had to gain height again and Rogue slipped through some underbrush and around a fallen tree, suddenly standing in what looked like a rather large, natural clearing. The forest started out on the other side again. Waspinator was high above her and she simply trotted out into the clearing.

And her world exploded into pain.

It happened too fast to prevent it and Waspinator had not seen any signs of weapons arrays anywhere. But they were.

Something flashed in bright purple, streaking toward Rogue. She transformed, bringing her weapon up to defend herself, but it was too late. She screamed, caught full in the chest plate, and was thrown back by the sheer force of the volley.

Waspinator transformed and got out his own weapon, turning the sharp shooting mechanism into a heap of scrap metal. He descended, landing on the ground, and looked for Rogue.

"NO!"

Waspinator's cry was one of desperation and pain. He stared at the fallen form, his mind on overload.

"Not Fox-bot!" he protested. "No, not friend!"

Rogue lay motionless, her chest torn open by the blast, her eyes dead pools of darkness. Sparks erupted from the open chest and fluids leaked in great amounts. Waspinator approached her, carefully, part of him scanning for more of the defenses he hadn't known about. Someone must have installed them here, most likely Tarantulas or Scorponok. No one had told him. He hadn't known! And now he had led here! It was his fault. He stared at the smoldering heap of metal in disgust. Shooting the machine had been his first instinct and he wondered whether or not Megatron would find out who had destroyed it. This was the border between Maximal and Predacon territory, and if he was lucky, they would all think it had been a Maximal, not him.

Rogue's limbs twitched but she didn't wake. Her eyes stayed dead. Waspinator carefully picked her up, wincing as he saw how badly she was damaged. He had to get help for her, but he couldn't get her back to Predacon HQ. Tarantulas would try and make her into a Predacon; or Megatron would order her to be destroyed; or something worse. Waspinator, though a Predacon himself, didn't want her to be reprogrammed. It meant the loss of her old personality and he hated to think what a blocking chip and reprogramming would do to Rogue. But this left him only one option. It was dangerous, but if he didn't risk it, she would surely die. This way she might have a chance.

Waspinator buzzed with panic and indecision, something he wasn't even aware of doing. He held her tightly and lifted off, scanners on full for Maximal energy signatures close by.

Optimus stared at the robot in front of him. Waspinator? The Predacon looked a bit singed and burned, but otherwise completely functional. They had run into him while on their back out of their shelter from the storm and Optimus was kind of glad that Dinobot had gone ahead to scout -- though he would be back soon. Waspinator stood not far away from him, carrying a limp, robotic figure in his arms, which was in a much worse state. And if Optimus was any judge of it, the robot in his arms was really bad off. The hole in the chest was a first clue.

"Maximals help Fox-bot," Waspinator now said, looking pleadingly at Optimus.

The Maximal leader had no idea who this 'Fox-bot' was, but it had to be a transformed protoform. A protoform!

"Who is that?" he demanded. "Where did you find him?"

Waspinator carefully lowered the damaged robot. "She Fox-bot. Friend. Help pleazzze? Got hit badly by Megatron's defenses!"

She?Optimus stared at the robot again. Now he saw that it was clearly female and also a Maximal. She was his size, her optics almond-shaped and green, her body slender but powerful. Her basic color was dark red, with golden highlights. Her hands were silvery white, as were her feet up to her knees. Her reddish brown 'fox skin' had folded back in about the same way Cheetor's did. The fox's head was now on her chest. Right now the head had been torn open, just like most of her chest, and her optics were dead. She was leaking and her destroyed circuits sparked occasionally.

Waspinator stepped away from her, looking at Optimus again. "Help friend?"

All those questions floated through Optimus' head, but he banished them. He approached the limp form, wincing as he saw the damage up-close. This was worse than bad. It was disastrous. He heard steps and whirled around just in time to see Dinobot lift his sword in battle-readiness, his eyes holding a suspicious, green gleam, as if he was about to fire his eye lasers.

"No, Dinobot!" Primal ordered immediately.

Dinobot shot him a confused look, then his optics fell on the damaged form. He looked at Waspinator again, who had raised his hands in a defensive gesture. "What's going on here?" the former Predacon demanded.

"I have no idea, except that this new Maximal needs our help. Apparently she was shot by one of Megatron's toys."

Waspinator nodded. "Help Fox-bot."

Optimus checked the damage. "This is really bad. She has to be put into a CR chamber immediately and I'm not even sure it would repair all the damage."

Waspinator's optics flashed a bit. "Dead?"

"Not yet. I'll fly her back to the Axalon," Optimus decided. He looked at Waspinator. "Why didn't you get her to your own people? The Predacon ship isn't too far away."

Waspinator looked caught. "Fox-bot Maximal," he then simply said. "And friend," he added softly. With that he lifted off and flew as quickly as possibly away.

Dinobot looked like he was about to send some blasts after him, but Optimus held him back. "We have to get her to the Axalon," he said firmly.

Dinobot gave a growl but he transformed and walked off.

Optimus gently and carefully picked up the damaged form and lifted off.

Rhinox sighed deeply and turned away from the control unit of the CR chamber. "That was close," he rumbled. "She was in a very bad state."

"But she'll survive?" Cheetor asked anxiously.

Rhinox nodded and the younger Maximal sagged with relief. Optimus did the same, just not visibly.

"Any idea what did it?" Rhinox then asked.

"Waspinator said it was one of Megatron's new toys. Apparently he has installed a kind of defense system at the perimeter. She was hit dead-on."

"What's Waspinator got to do with it all?" Rattrap asked in confusion. "How come he didn' get the pod to Pred Central and let the protoform get turned inta a Pred?"

"I wish I knew, Rattrap," Optimus sighed. "He said something about this Maximal being his friend, though I have yet to find out what he meant. Apparently he found the pod, somehow activated it and the protoform was programmed into a Maximal."

"We didn't see any pod come down," Rhinox rumbled.

"We had zilch radar because of the storm," Rattrap reminded him. "There coulda been a whole flock o' pods comin' down and we wouldna seen a blip."

"That's what I think as well," Optimus agreed. "Waspinator found the pod by accident and activated it."

"Why not fly it back then?" Cheetor asked. "He could have lifted it off the ground."

"He looked pretty damaged as well...." Optimus said thoughtfully.

"He could have managed it," Dinobot told the Maximal leader.

Optimus nodded. He had thought so as well. Then why had Waspinator done it? He had played right into their hands with giving life to a Maximal and Optimus doubted that the flyer was a traitor.

"How long until she is completely healed?" he now asked Rhinox.

"I wouldn't recommend taking her out of the chamber until tomorrow," Rhinox answered.

"Then we'll have to wait for our answers until tomorrow." Optimus nodded.

"I can answer you the question of who she is, though," Rhinox added and Optimus gave him a surprised look. "I downloaded her personal sheet from the central core."

"And?" the young leader wanted to know.

"She's a medic. Her name is Rogue and as it looks she didn't take a new name to fit her beast form. Her Maximal signatures are fine and the core is stable," Rhinox explained.

"Rogue?" Rattrap echoed. "Heard about her back home. Isn't she one o' those who worked with the lunatics?"

Rhinox scowled at the choice of words, but nodded. "Those with trauma and severe damage beyond repair, Rattrap. She signed on to the exploration corps several months before we left and she was assigned to this ship."

"Eeee-www," Rattrap muttered. "A shrink."

Optimus smiled. "I don't think she signed on as the crew's psychiatrist, Rattrap."

"Sez you."

"We'll wait for her to wake," Primal decided. "Then we'll probably hear all about this."

Rhinox nodded and, after a last look at the control panel for the CR chamber, he left for his lab.

Weeks had passed since she had woken and in those weeks she had learned all there was to learn and know about her current situation. It was a war, pure and simple, and she had fallen right into it again. Rogue sighed. She had hoped that the last war had been enough and that after 300 years of peace, the Maximals and Predacons could finally co-exist. Now one Predacon commander had started this all over again, on an unknown planet, with only a few combatants. But it was still war.

"Hey, Red!"

Rogue turned her head and smiled at Cheetor, who bounded over with his usual youthful bounce. "Hi, Spots," she greeted him, smiling.

Cheetor reminded her a lot of an old friend back on Cybertron, but they were not the same. Cheetor was younger, though he had apparently learned to grow up in this battle field. She saw it in his optics. There was still a lot of youthful naivete and ignorance, but he had also seen more in such a short time than he should have. She doubted he was old enough to remember the war or to have taken part in it. Cheetor had started to call her Red, just like she called him 'Spots' whenever they were among themselves. He was an easy person to be around and she enjoyed his presence. It reminded her of home and of her past.

"What ya doing?"

Rogue shrugged. "Thinking. It is strange to wake up and be at war again."

Cheetor nodded. "I know. I mean, I didn't come out of a stasis pod, but I didn't sign on to this mission to go Predacon hunting." Serious optics met hers, then he smiled again, banishing the darker look. "But you have to make the best of it."

She smiled. "Yes."

Rogue turned back to watching the landscape around her, the Axalon looming up behind her. She had come to know all the other members of the Maximal team, meeting some only briefly, like Tigatron and Airazor who were mainly on patrol or scouting, encountering others on a daily level. She had her problems with Dinobot whose attitude puzzled her a bit, but she had no prejudice toward Predacons, as she had told Optimus when he had given her a thorough briefing. Rattrap was someone you had to get used to as well, especially his sharp tongue, but she liked him. Optimus Primal was young, but he also had prominent command abilities, she saw; something which he still had to develop though. She had no trouble with him as a commanding officer either. Rhinox was a quiet backbone in the team, explaining some stuff to her as well, especially about her very serious injuries weeks ago. She was lucky she was still alive. And she knew whom she owed it to.

Rogue tried not to think of a future confrontation with Waspinator. She couldn't gun him down in cold blood. He was an old friend. Still..... she wondered if he would attack her. Throughout her recovery she had thought long and hard about who he was, who he had been in her past, and finally she had known. It hurt her to remember the past and see the present. Something must have happened to him to change him even more than he had already changed in their past.

"Ey, fox lady." Rattrap sauntered over, standing up on his hind legs and leaning casually against a rock. "Thinkin' about the world in gen'ral?"

Rogue tilted her head, a smile creasing her features. "Something like that, yes."

"I wouldn' think too hard if I were you," Rattrap told her. "Gives ya a headache!"

She chuckled. "I know." Her eyes were drawn to the sky. "How many of us are still up there?"

Rattrap shrugged. "Best guess? All except fa those who came down. Megatron converted two inta Preds. We found Stripes and the Bird Lady. An' now you."

"What if others came down and you didn't find them? Like I did."

The small Maximal sighed. "No tellin'. Optimus is worryin' about that all the time too. Wouldna found ya anyway if it hadn't been for a lot of luck an' the bug comin' straight toward us."

"He saved my life, Rattrap. More than once." Her voice was calm, but apparently Rattrap got the deeper message.

"Ey, no offense meant." He raised both paws. "S'Just that it's pretty unusual for a Pred to save one of us."

Rogue smiled dimly. "We were friends. In the past."

"Say again?" Rattrap exclaimed.

"We met before," Rogue told him. "I didn't know him right away, but he knew my name. We have a common past, at least partially."

"Ya have a problem then."

She shook her head. "No."

"What if ya see him on the other side of a battle field, eh?" Rattrap asked.

Rogue closed her eyes. "I'm not sure."

"Then ya have a problem. Does Optimus know?"

"Yes."

Rattrap looked intrigued. "Heh, took it quite calmly then."

"He said the same you did. I might have a problem." Rogue shrugged. "I'm not sure what will happen when we confront each other again, but even though he is a Predacon, he is still my friend. He always was and always will be."

"Got many Pred-head friends?"

Rogue smiled at the rat. "Yes. And don't look so shocked. It's nothing disgusting, you know." She grinned broadly. "And you of all should know, right?"

Rattrap gave her an outraged look. "Whatcha talkin' about?"

She chuckled. "You know."

"If ya hintin' at Chopperface, forget it!" Rattrap growled. "He'd best get lost, if ya ask me."

Rogue continued smiling.

Rattrap shot her a dark look and then walked off, muttering to himself. It sounded suspiciously like, "Watch me makin' friends with a Pred, pah!"

The fox grinned as she watched him enter the Axalon again. "Yes, I'll watch you," she laughed softly. Then she rose and trotted down a path toward the forestry area not far away. She wanted to be alone a bit, get her mind straightened out.

High above the forest, out of immediate scanner range of the Maximals, hovered a large wasp. It watched the fox disappear between the tall trees, buzzing softly, mumbling to itself, then it turned away before the danger of discovery grew even more.