Beast Wars Anonymous:

Beast Wars and all related belong to Hasbro. The story, its original contents and ideas, and any original characters belong to the author and cannot be used or reprinted without the author's permission.

Author’s Note: "The Last Pawn" takes place instead of the television episodes "The Agenda". The continuity will most likely remain from then on (with minor exceptions), and some things run in parallel, but for the most part, this story completely replaces the end of season 2.

The Last Pawn, pt. 2
by Dracosaur (dracosaur@hotmail.com)

"Four Predacon units detected around base perimeter," chimes the Maximals' computer voice, "Sentinel online." With Rhinox and Cheetor at the controls, Silverbolt and Optimus head towards the lift, each grabbing a shield and full armaments on their way. Rhinox peers over towards Cheetor and whispers, "We need all the help we can get here, and I have an idea just how we can do that."

As the first barrage of missile, photon and laser fire blast against the shields, they fall for a moment, allowing Optimus and Silverbolt to launch out, firing on their way down. Optimus transforms into beast mode and sails through the air on his hoverboard just before hitting the ground. Just as they clear the ship, and right before another wave of attack hit the ship's hull, the shields reactivate and continue to defend its sanctity.

Optimus shouts out to Silverbolt in the midst of all the gunfire. "We have got to hold them back, we can't afford to lose this war before Cybertron gets here!" Silverbolt nods and starts shooting towards the predacons.

Megatron, crouched down behind some heavy boulders, spits out an order to Rampage on the commlink. As he closes the channel, heavy explosions surround him, and rock debris cascades all around him. He moves out from his cover, releasing his roller wheels and strafes by on skates, firing at Silverbolt before he crashes into another rockpile.

Black Arachnia finds herself climbing onto a ledge just behind the base and out of eyesight of the maximals. She quietly transforms and pulls out her venom gun, ready at the trigger. She spies Silverbolt hiding from attack behind a large boulder, and nowhere near Optimus Primal. This is my chance, she thinks.

Silverbolt is propped behind one of the nearby boulders and occasionally throws a feather bomb towards the predacons. Upon hearing a strange sound from behind, he whips around to see a cyber blaster aimed directly at his head, and the beautiful Black Arachnia attached to the other end. He pauses there for a moment, unmoving, unspeaking. She looks down at him, rough and unwavering. She draws her other pincer to his chin and coaxes him off the ground. He squints thoughtfully, wondering if she plans to kiss him or put a bullet through his chestplate. He is solemnly answered when she drops her blaster and plants a firm kiss on his lips.

"Waspinator hate maximals...Waspinator thinks Megatron is a fool...Waspinator should rule the predacons...Waspinator is predacon..." Waspinator's incessant babble drones on as he periodically fires upon Optimus Primal. Suddenly, as if from nowhere, a giant cloud of energon envelopes him and he soars towards the base's shields. After slamming headlong into the brunt side of Sentinel's energy barrier, Waspinator shorts out and falls to the ground.

The entire battlefield simmers down to a dull roar as Tarantulas motors in with Rattrap on his back. "Yeeeeeehaaaawwwww! The maximal cavalry has arrived!"

Megatron eyes Tarantulas hatefully as he rolls towards the maximal base. "I knew that spider couldn't be trusted since the day we landed on this forsaken planet. I just never suspected he'd defect to the maximals."

Black Arachnia and Silverbolt, caught completely unaware, decide to duck out of the scene completely, heading towards the falls behind the base. Tarantulas rolls towards Optimus, jettisons his passenger, and transforms swiftly by his side. Megatron regroups with Quickstrike and Rampage. After a brief conference, the Predacons realize that their situation is awkward. Fortunately for them, the ever-loyal and supersillious Inferno burrows through the ground nearby them and joins Megatron at his side. He promptly transforms.

Megatron, slightly angered at Inferno's incompetence, grabs him by the neck and practically spits his frustration into Inferno's face. "What took you so long? And why did you let them get past you?"

"Royalty, they will not get away again!"

"They had better not!" Megatron retorts, overly distraught. "We are at war, you bumbling imbeciles, and our manpower isn't exactly inspiring me. We can NOT lose to these fascist fools! I will not tolerate anymore idiocy from any one of you. Tarantulas has pulled a Dinobot, Black Arachnia is Primus knows where, Waspinator is twitching in stasis lock and in the Maximal's custody, and you bumbling buffoons can't get one task right! Oh, I swear, the next time one of you trips over your own stupidity, I'm going to rip out your hard drive and use it to for a hotplate! Am I understood??"

All three of the remaining predacon troops nod in agreement.

"Good."

Megatron lets go of Inferno's neck, letting him fall on his tail jets.

"Now, Rampage and Quickstrike, we will keep the maximals busy. Inferno, transform and try to retrieve Waspinator from the ground. Right now, I can't afford to lose any more troops."

The sounds of a computer terminal being used to its fullest capacity echoes throughout the corridors of the maximal base. The occasional explosion and warning from Sentinel is hardly a distraction for Rhinox, hard at work on his personal quest to save the team from total annihilation. He hacks away silently at the consoles all around him, attempting to use every resource he has at his disposal.

Cheetor finishes downloading an upgrade to his weapons systems and closes down the large black screen in front of him. He looks over to Rhinox and spies several strange mechanisms that he has pulled out and attached to a stasis pod. Cheetor looks over at Rhinox quizzically.

"Hey, big green...what'cha got cookin' over there?" he inquires.

Rhinox doesn't respond, hard at work on his assignment.

"Umm, I got done downloading the specs you suggested, Rhinox. The information on that alien disk could have been far more helpful a long time ago."

Without even budging a macrometer from his duty, Rhinox rebutts, "Optimus thought it would be too dangerous to upgrade without experimentation. He also didn't want the Predacons to know that we found weapon configurations inscribed on it. Now that it is destroyed, I see no harm in using them."

Cheetor stands up from his post and edges towards the stasis pod. He looks down on its hard metal surface, imagining what it must be like to be held within its confines for so many months. He wonders how Tigatron must have felt, waking up to a new world, knowing nothing about the environment he has been thrust into. Every step you take is a new adventure, every sight you see is a new experience, every piece of knowledge you acquire is fresh understanding. He had never been a protoform, per se. He was born on Cybertron, where he remembers vividly his entire life had taken place. He remembers entering the academy, the years of adventure and action that he had seen, the graduation ceremony where he last saw most of his friends. He also remembers signing up for the exploration ship, the Axalon. His entire memory banks relay back to events that happened either on Cybertron or on mission for Cybertron. Tigatron, on the other hand, was not only born of this planet, but his first memories were in the form of an organic creature. Surely, that must be the most confusing thing to experience, Cheetor thought. To know your artificial form as if it were your true form has to be not only sad but insightful as well. But, alas, Tigatron will never truly feel at home on Cybertron, and Cheetor wonders if he will even return with them once they have been rescued.

Then he suddenly comes back to reality. Tigatron is gone. Captured by those insufferable aliens that have caused so much trouble. They killed Optimus and took Airazor and Tigatron from him. What will happen tomorrow? Will the aliens succeed in destroying everything he knows and holds dear? What if they are worse than the predacons? They have proven to be power-hungry and sadistic, what if they are the true enemy of all Cybertronians? Only time will tell, and he is far more concerned with getting his friend and mentor back. In a barely audible whisper, Cheetor sighs, "big cat..."

He is abruptly jarred by a loud clanging sound. "Sorry about that," Rhinox mutters, shifting around a large apparatus with several green and clear tubes protruding in all directions. He attaches it firmly to the top of the pod, connecting the green tubes to the central scanning units on the pod, and the clear valves to the computer relays on the ceiling. He moves over to the pod's main unit and opens a small panel on the side. After clicking several small buttons and pulling down a lever, a small computer screen rises up, scrolling page after page of garbled binary data. He walks over to the console he was originally working on and presses a large red button. The wires go wild, transferring data at light speed. "I hope Optimus can hold them off long enough."

As the battle continues outside, Black Arachnia walks over to Silverbolt and puts her arms around his waist. She looks coyly into his big yellow eyes and smiles slightly. "I just had a brilliant idea."

Silverbolt is a strong and noble warrior at heart. His transmetal body, fuzed with the organic strippings of both an eagle and a wolf, permeates an aura of righteousness and good will. Within his mind, he is doing Black Arachnia a great service by trying to ween her away from the predacons which he so fervently despises. To him, they stole her away from her rightful place in the maximal force. And it is a most difficult task to bring her back from her evil ways, but he knows that within his heart of hearts, she was a maximal once, and she can become one again. He believes that their love is pure enough to one day redeem her.

Even despite all this, he wasn't prepared for what she was about to tell him next.

"Silverbolt, why don't we scavenge up a couple of stasis pods, hotwire them for flight, and get off of this wretched dirtball...together?"

More than a little shocked, Silverbolt backs away from her. "What? Black Arachnia, I'm a maximal. I have a sworn duty to uphold. I can't just abandon my friends in their time of need!"

She holds her hands together behind her back, cocking her head to the side. "Oh, come on, bowser boy, don't you think that your comrades can handle themselves?"

Silverbolt lowers his head in sadness. "Black Arachnia, that is not the point." He raises up his arms towards the base. "We have lost so many lives in the past few months, if I abandon them now, who knows what will happen! Besides, I owe the maximals for giving me a second chance."

Black Arachnia growls, "What do you think is going to happen to them, Wings? Are their shields going to suddenly drop? Are the predacons going to rush in and take over just because you aren't there? Get real..."

As if to somehow make her words reality, the defense barriers on the Axalon suddenly disappear.

Silverbolt looks at her pointedly.

Black Arachnia shrugs helplessly. "Who woulda thought?"

Megatron's eyes widen in disbelief. Inferno was able to recall Waspinator with little to no trouble whatsoever. Rampage had already done quite a lot of damage to the shields, and Quickstrike was doing the top gun tango with Rattrap. Tarantulas was busy trying to relay to Optimus his plans for uncovering the lost archives while helping him hold off Megatron's firepower. During this high pitched battle, the base's defense perimeter suddenly goes offline. Megatron is pleased beyond all boundaries. He decides to take advantage of the moment and screams out to his minions.

"Their shields are down! Now is our chance, predacons! Full-scale assault!"

Suddenly, a torrential barrage of missile and photon fire cascade along the hull of the ship. Optimus stands virtually helpless, watching the hull decay before his very eyes. "What in Primus is going on here?" he shouts.

Megatron yells to him, "Your demise, Primal. And our ultimate victory!"

Optimus whips around to notice a phaser blast coming straight for him.

Tarantulas growls as he watches Optimus fly backward, sparking from a direct hit to the chestplate. He stands up and turns towards Megatron. "You fool! You'll have us all destroyed with your insanity!"

Several small cannons rise up from his shellback, firing heavy missiles that leave a thick trail of smoke as they sail through the air towards the transmetal predacon leader.

"Now isn't that the pot calling the kettle black," Megatron rebutts, ducking below the missiles and allowing them to fire past.

Quickstrike is having a ball, riding on the unstoppable tank called Rampage, firing at will at all of the maximals within weapons range. He eyes Rattrap once more, motoring around the battlefield with his tailjets on maximum scorch. He peers intently, allowing his scanners to lock onto Rattrap's signature. "Hey, pardner, why dontchaz come on over and party with me?"

He rears back his cobra-headed arm and charges his venom blaster. As it reaches maximum blast, he unleashes it at Rattrap, nearly knocking him off his course. "Well, howdy, he heh...why dontcha sit still and make this easier on us both, huh?"

Gearing through the mess, Rattrap tries to keep Quickstrike occupied long enough to allow Rhinox to get Sentinel back online. What could possibly be going on inside of there, he wonders to himself. Whatever it is, he hopes it ends soon.

At the top of the base, a small port opens, and a tiny DNA scanning device detracts from inside. Beeping insanely and flickering oddly-coloured lights, it begins to scan the area for life forms of some kind. Two large walls of golden light form around the device, spanning three football fields in diameter and in right angles of each other. They slowly begin to rotate around the device, and all of the combatants down below hesitate momentarily to see what's going on.

Megatron eyes it suspiciously. "What could they possibly be doing? Have they found the other protoforms? Have they managed to collect the fallen stasis pods without my knowledge? If so, then I must stop their scanning process immediately."

Turning towards the battle once more, Megatron shouts, "All predacons, fire on the scanning device! Destroy it before the maximals can use it against us!"

Tarantulas ignores Optimus and begins firing upon the predacons with a vengeance. One of his missiles impacts with Inferno, knocking him out of the air. Quickstrike pulls a fast shot and blasts Tarantulas cold. "He haaa! We gonna have us a leggy barbecue tonight!"

A shout from behind catches Quickstrike unaware. "I don't think so, snake eyes!"

As Quickstrike turns around, he sees three phaser blasts headed directly for him. All he has time to do is gulp loudly and whisper to himself, "Uh oh..."

Rampage aims his cannons as high as he can while moving in towards the base. He is growing sick of the chattering that goes on during battle, and just wants to see it overwith as quickly as possible. More importantly, he hopes that the maximals slay Megatron, and that he somehow manages to recover his spark from the tin-headed geek that would enslave him. Suddenly he hears a scream, and something falls in front of him. Paying it no mind, he rolls right over it, and fires his cannons on the base. He snickers to himself as he watches a gaping hole open up on the front of the ship.

He feels strange. "That's odd. It feels like mech fluid gumming my gears. But my system doesn't detect any leaks in my superstructure. Come to think of it, I could have sworn I heard that thing say 'help me' back there. Oh well...Rampage, terrorize!"

Jumping up onto his feet and morphing into his robotic form, he whips out his semi-automatic power pistols and begins firing on the remaining maximals.

"Big bot and Tarantulas are down, Rhinox. Rattrap's out there by himself!" Cheetor shouts to him while staring down from the big hole in the ship's hull.

Rhinox stops from his work for the first time and looks directly at Cheetor. "Where is Silverbolt?"

Cheetor looks back at him, puzzled. "I...I didn't see him anywhere..."

Rhinox rolls his eyes and continues his work on the main computers. "Fine, go keep the predacons distracted. This project cannot afford to fail now!"

"Aye!"

With that, Cheetor leaps out of the base and converts to beast mode, activating his rib jets. Once online, they bring him out of his freefall and set him sailing into the center of the skirmish.

"Alright, we have over thirty suitable lifeforms scanned. Computer, deactivate DNA scanners and begin upload sequence beta. Voice code Rhinox."

The computer's voice, being young and male in sound, answers Rhinox's orders promptly. "Voice code acknowledged. Upload sequence beta initiated. All systems power diverted to defraction modulator."

Rhinox sighs loudly, lost in hope and thought all at once. "If this doesn't work, we are as good as scrap."

"You just might be scrap anyway, you oversized donkey."

The voice is familiar. The voice is feminine.

"What do you want?" Rhinox questions.

"Give me that stasis pod you have hardwired over there and we'll let you go."

Rhinox turns around swiftly to address her. "Are you mad? I can't just..."

His voice trails off as he sees Black Arachnia holding him at gunpoint...and Silverbolt at her side. He remains speechless, staring at Silverbolt with hurt and disappointment etched into his gaze.

"Why, Silverbolt?"

He bows his head in shame and silence.

Black Arachnia lowers her weapon. "Look...Rhinox, is it? Silverbolt and I just want to get away from this stupid war. He isn't betraying you...he's trying to help you."

"How? I imagine you plan to build an escape ship with it, just like you did last time. And I don't see deserting your comrades in the midst of heated war as a sign of noble personal sacrifice."

Silverbolt speaks up. "Rhinox, we..."

"Have you seen the battlefield down there? Optimus is slagged, and Rattrap and Cheetor are facing five predacons on their own. Our shields are down until this program has run its course, and we are vulnerable to predacon boarding. Now, if you two want to go play romantic runaways, fine by me. But you will have to turn me into a giant pile of rhinoceros rubble if you want to get that pod!"

He stares at them both, mad as a rabid dog. After he sees that they aren't going to attack him, he sits back down at his console and continues with his program.

Silverbolt walks over to him, as if to comfort him. "Rhinox, I..."

Without even flinching, Rhinox says, "Save it. If you want to help out, get out there and help Cheetor and Rattrap. Otherwise, you know where the door is."

Megatron stares out into the battlefield with grim triumph. Optimus Primal is laying in a pool of his own mech fluid, the traitor Tarantulas is sparking wildly next to him, and Rampage is on a rampage, decorating the side of the ship with air holes. Megatron grins with satisfaction.

That satisfaction is transformed into a dire realization as he sees the scanning walls vanish. "No! It's too late!"

The scanning pod doesn't retract, however, and instead, the flickering lights go wild, and emit a series of scattered white lasers, bouncing off of every mountain, cliffside, cloud and volcano within line of sight. It appears that the entire planet may be drenched in the strange radiation.

"Wait a minute. I figured out what they are attempting to do! They are trying to..."

Megatron is stopped in mid-sentence by a wing bomb to the shoulder. He looks towards the base and sees Silverbolt heading into the field with Black Arachnia nearby. "Both of those spiders are traitors...blast it, I should have cold booted her circuitry when I had the chance..."

Cheetor and Rattrap have managed to drag Tarantulas and Optimus back to the lift and take them to the restoration chambers. Rhinox turns to meet them when the CR doors close. Just as he approaches them, the stasis pod goes offline, and the computer voice chimes in. "Upload sequence beta complete. Seventeen lifeform programs uploaded. Replication complete."

Rhinox looks at them with a cheese-eating grin on his face. "Good to see you boys are back."

"Predacons, fall back!" Megatron shouts as the perimeter defenses reactivate. Rampage picks up the deposed Quickstrike while Inferno grabs Waspinator, and the crew heads back to base. Black Arachnia and Silverbolt are let back into the ship.

"So, I was right all along. You twos coulda got us all slagged!" Rattrap screams at Black Arachnia and Silverbolt. "The next time you two wanna go on a lover's sabaticle, at least wait until the enemy isn't around!"

Cheetor pipes up, cutting Rattrap off from making a bigger scene. "I'm more interested in knowing how much we can trust these two spiders. The last time they were here, they nearly got us all vaped by that alien machine!"

Black Arachnia slyly interjects. "Need I remind you that if it weren't for our skills, the planet would have been destroyed. Remember, it was our transwarp cell and Tarantulas' programming skills that brought that pod online."

Cheetor, obviously outraged, hollers in anger. "And if you recall, you are the reason why Optimus was blown to scrap!"

Rhinox butts in. "Cheetor, calm down. Optimus is alive and well with us, though he may not be in the best of conditions at the moment. What's done is done, and the spiders have come to help us a great deal recently."

Silverbolt shakes his head and throws his arms up. "The predacons are the real enemy, Cheetor, don't you see? We should be concentrating on them right now."

Rhinox protests. "No, Silverbolt. Now is the time to wait. Cybertron has already been hit by the transwarp wave, and we may have another secret weapon waiting for us, as well."

Cheetor says, "What's that, big green?"

Rhinox just smiles. "That's something you'll just have to see for yourself."

Beast Wars and all related belong to Hasbro. The story, its original contents and ideas, and any original characters belong to the author and cannot be used or reprinted without the author's permission.

Author’s Note: "The Last Pawn" takes place instead of the television episodes "The Agenda". The continuity will most likely remain from then on (with minor exceptions), and some things run in parallel, but for the most part, this story completely replaces the end of season 2.

The Last Pawn, pt. 3
by Dracosaur (dracosaur@hotmail.com)

The delicate landscape in Sector Phi-Theta unfolded for miles. The rugged hills, the jagged cliffsides, the dense forestry which contained the last amounts of vegetation on this side of the planet seemed so intensely peaceful. After the alien craft ignited most of the energon deposits on the upper hemisphere, most of the land was dry, charred, and unsuitable for any form of life whatsoever. It made it quite a shame that the aliens were capable of creating such intermittent chaos...that, with the lack of any concern for the life on the planet, they could unleash such a powerful weapon to destroy their tainted project.

But suddenly from nowhere, a small burst of energy permeated throughout the landscape. A small wave of energon cascaded through the windchimed trees and burrowed heavily through the gorge. A fantastic array of light and energy exploded and crackled the very air itself. All manner of lifeform seemed to respond highly to it, either attempting to flee from its devastating shockwave or withering away where it stood. A small geyser of pure power formed in the epicenter of the anomaly and started to suck the air dry of all it had left. After all was lost, a brief flash of light and clap of thunder signaled the end of whatever it was that had just transpired. After the smoke cleared and the valley was once more viewable, all form of life was gone.

Every last ounce of life, drained away. And by what?

"And to think I trusted that malevolent arachnid so many months ago when he asked to join my crew. I will use his recycled parts to decorate my quarters, yes."

The giant transmetal predacon Megatron didn't seemed pleased as he trotted back to the Darkside to recuperate from his most recent embarassment. His beast form stood about eight feet tall and glimmered beautifully in the moonlight above. His transmetal superstructure was a strange hue of brown and his smoothly shaped reptilian head glared a dark shade of violet. Unlike his beast form of old, his new Tyrannosaurus Rex mode looked cybernetic. As well he should, for that is what he was. Even though his alternate body was built from a genetic scan module so long ago, it was now permanently fused into his metallics, and he would forevermore show the scars of his long-endured war on this planet.

From out of his flank crawled an enormous fire ant. The quantum surge that swept over the planet so many moons back never affected Inferno, and for that, Megatron was highly grateful. Even though it would have been interesting to see what changes it would have made on his most loyal of troops, the effects that could have taken place on his mind might have been overwhelming. Inferno was the perfect servant. He never questioned Megatron's orders, he never betrayed his trust, and he had no ulterior motives. His programming was an error in every sense of the term, but the outcome was one of the greatest things Megatron ever had the glory of witnessing.

Although, there were a few bugs that Megatron would like to see squashed. "What shall we do now, my Queen?" Inferno asked.

Megatron stopped dead in his tracks, peered down at the oversized insect, and proceeded to kick him into the deadened trees to the side. "I thought I told you to stop calling me that!"

The ever-sinister fuzor started to snicker to himself as he crawled over towards the toppled-over bug. Quickstrike was a mutant in every regard. He was altered by the quantum surge, he had two beast forms fuzed together (hence the name fuzor), and was extremely battle hungry. His skin was a bright shade of yellow, not unlike neon, with some unusual green markings down his back. His cobra-headed tail was mostly transmetallic and very unfriendly to the eyes. The power behind his pincers was most likely unmatched by any living Cybertron. And he had no trouble demonstrating that by using them to lift Inferno up and throw him back onto the path, right side up. "Git back in line, blender-butt. We ain't got time ta horse around!"

Inferno just tossed back a low muttering and resumed his journey back to the predacon headquarters.

Flying overhead, Waspinator scouted around the area for any sign of opposition. The only true insecticon of the predacons, Waspinator was truly unique. Not only was he the most witless of the bunch, but the most selfish and repressed as well. He was also one of the few Cybertrons left in the Beast Wars that had not been transformed by the quantum surge. "Wazzpinator sees nothing. Wazzpinator thinks Megatron is paranoid. Wazzpinator should rule predacons. Wazzpinator would make greater leader than tin-head..."

"Ahhhh, shut your blabberin', bug," shouted Rampage from below. In his tank mode, Rampage was the most dangerous of all the predacons. He had not only his indestructible spark to fall back on, but his arsenal of semi-nuclear weaponry was almost impossible to evade. The maximals have had to repair many holes in the side of their hull thanks to that horrendous beast, not to mention the ones he had just recently opened up in their humiliating defeat prior. "I've still got a few missiles left, if you'd like to taste one..."

"Oooooo Wazzpinator not threatened by stupid tankbot. Wazzpinator greatest of..."

Waspinator's inept ramblings were cut short when he noticed a strange white explosion in the distance. "Wazzpinator see strange explosion. Wazzpinator investigate. Wazzzzpinator... terrorizzzzzzze!"

Flipping through the air about ten feet above the treeline, Waspinator allowed his body to unfold, revealing a green robot underneath with odd yellow stripes across his legs. He activated a scanning program and his optics turned a strange hue of red. His sensors locked onto the explosion site in the distance, and he saw what appeared to be the firing of energy weapons.

"Megatron...something strange going on in Gallos...someone's fighting!"

Megatron stopped in mid-stride and threw his head up to the sky. "What are you rambling about now, Waspinator?"

"Oooooo Wazzpinator sees energy fire coming from northeast sector!"

Megatron shook his head in disbelief. "Waspinator, that's not possible. The only Cybertrons on this planet are either here or at the maximal base. The only way there could be energy fire is if..." His voice trailed off in horror.

Rampage was barely able to contain himself. "Perhaps Cybertron's ships have arrived, o Great Master Megatron?"

Megatron peered at him intently, highly unimpressed. "It's possible, yes. But highly unlikely. Surely Cybertron would go straight to the Axalon."

Quickstrike scraped a confused pincer across his arachnid forehead. "So then, what's shakin', bossbot?"

After a moment of deep contemplation, Megatron finally transformed and bellowed his commands. "Inferno, carry Quickstrike back to the base. In his condition, he won't be much use to us in battle. Waspinator and I will fly to the anomaly. Rampage, you follow on the ground, but use your weapons with care. I have a feeling we may have a way to twist this series of bad luck in our favor yet."

And with that, his gigantic engine discs twisted on his back and fired up. He then took to the skies with Waspinator, heading towards the alleged battlefield, with a reluctant and highly disgruntled Rampage following in tank mode on the ground. Both Quickstrike and Inferno transformed, and Quickstrike leapt onto Inferno's tail-end jets. They as well hit the skies, only they headed towards the Darkside.

"We can't afford to take another hit like this," Optimus preached to his strangely diverse crew. "Cybertron is obviously late in rescuing us, the transwarp wave may have not even reached them. We have to consider all possibilities with care."

With a wide crew of predacons and maximals alike in the now moonlit command center, Optimus attempted to assess the damage taken from the most recent battle. His transmetal faceplate furrowed in concern, and he continued addressing the crowd.

"Rhinox, is it possible the predacons may have seen it first and found a way to block it?"

The last of the non-transmetal maximals, known as Big Green by his fellow crewmembers, stirred for a moment in deep contemplation. His rhinoceros beast form was apparent, even when fully transformed. The lower jaw of the creature stretched out over his chest, allowing the teeth to protrude outwardly, whereas the upper jaw rested firmly on his back, just behind his head.

After a moment of deep thought, he insisted, "It's possible, but highly unlikely. And, even were they to, I imagine they'd send someone looking for Megatron."

Rattrap piped up. "And how would they know Megadork was here?"

"Don't forget, it was a predacon transwarp cell that exploded, Rattrap," reminded Rhinox. "The transwarp wavefront signature will no doubt inform anyone who receives it of that."

Optimus resumed his initial thought. "Well, whatever happened out there, we have to get this ship back together. If Cybertron doesn't come, we have to be prepared to resume the Beast Wars as if nothing happened."

The crew nodded and went about their business, attempting to salvage the hull and other destroyed portions of the ship. After the maximals went about their way, Tarantulas walked over to Rhinox. He was fidgeting with some small remote device when Tarantulas began his questions.

"What was that beam all about?" Tarantulas inquired.

Rhinox didn't even flinch. "That is none of your concern."

Tarantulas rubbed his strange blue transmetal chin and turned to help with the repairs. Optimus caught Rattrap and took him down the hall and out of the earshot of his crew.

"Hey, uh... what's cookin', bossmonkey?" Rattrap said as he put his tools away into his arm panels.

"I need you and Silverbolt to lead a rescue patrol into grid Zeta. Scout the entire place for any fallen stasis pods. We have no idea where all the pods may have fallen, but Rhinox believes most of them had clustered in sectors Gallos and Phi-Theta."

Rattrap stepped back, slightly disgusted. "Whoa, wait a second 'ere, you want me to go with the fuzor? He almost slagged Rhinox because of that she-spider. How am I supposed to trust him?"

Optimus shook his head. "I doubt Silverbolt would have let her go that far. He's a true maximal, through and through. He's not about to stab you in the back, so just go with him. If anything does transpire, we'll deal with it then. You have your orders." And with that, he turned around and headed back into the Command Center.

Rattrap sighed to himself. "Like I been sayin' all along...we're all gonna die."

Silverbolt and Cheetor were attempting to repatch a large, charred patch of the inner hull when Optimus asked Tarantulas to relieve him. Silverbolt's large ears perked up as Tarantulas began to audibly express his distaste.

"I am not a maintenance bot, Optimus Primal. My skills would be better put to use trying to update your useless scanning relays, out-dated surveillance systems, low-grade defense systems, and horrendously bugged charging stations. I'm surprised you maximals even had the transwarp technology to follow us through the wormhole when we crashed on this dirtball..."

Optimus threw an icy glare towards the cyber-spider. "I don't trust you to re-wire my game console, much less sensitive areas of our security systems. Now, unless you want to get thrown out to the predacons that you so adamantly betrayed not even two megacycles ago, you'll get your web-spinning skidplate over there now!"

Optimus' brow began to twitch slightly as he continued to stare down the transmetal arachnid. Finally, after a few moments, Tarantulas buckled under the pressure and stormed over towards the fuzor. "Out of my way, canine," he spouted at Silverbolt, wrenching the tools from his hands. Silverbolt looked shyly at Optimus and shrugged.

As Optimus directed Silverbolt to accompany him down the hall, he realized all eyes were on him. Primal awkwardly scanned around the Command Center and realized he had attracted quite a lot of attention with his outburst. As his eyes would meet those of a bot, they would turn back to their duty hastily. Optimus sighed loudly, and ushered Silverbolt into the hall.

"Interesting, indeed. You did well, Waspinator."

"Ooooo, thank you, Megatron."

As the landscape began to unravel underneath the predacon leader and his insecticon lackey, they noticed a wide valley, full of all forms of life. A giant box canyon, approximately a mile and a half in diameter inside, seemed to capture the planet's most precious commodity and protect it therein. With a small yet thriving ecosystem, it seemed almost too peaceful.

Until the energy explosions began to take place.

"Computer, scan sector Gallos for synthetic life forms," Megatron hastily bellowed into his command module.

A young, feminine voice chimed in through his commlink. "Scanning...nine life forms detected in sector Gallos. Class: Cybertron."

Megatron's eyes widened immensely. "Nine? Oh, yes! This could be just the break I have been looking for! Computer, access new forms' security codes. I'm hoping they haven't had a chance to come online yet."

As they entered the box canyon, they saw several strange-looking Cybertronian's with various beast form strippings on their robotic forms. They seemed to be in a full-scale battle. He fired a single photon blast into the battlefield and scattered the combatants across the land. He cleared his throat and began to unweave a dramatic speech, hoping to bluff his way into their fuel pumps.

"I am Megatron, leader of the Predacons. We had lost your escape pods in the battle with the Maximals, I'm glad to see you all still function."

One of the forms stepped towards him and cautiously addressed him. "Predacon? Maximals, attack!"

Megatron grunted loudly and took to the skies. The land-bound maximals stared at him in awe as he lifted off.

"So much for the civil approach. Rampage, fire!"

He hesitated for a moment, mumbled inaudibly, and then complied. His foremost barrel spat out a large violet missile that, upon reaching the battlefield, exploded and emitted a noxious vapor. As it permeated over the maximal crowd, they began to fall unconscious.

Megatron looked down in triumph as he began to descend over the crowd once more. He looked around, and upon seeing Waspinator unconscious behind him, he unpleasantly growled.

"Eeeeeeeyyaaaaaaa! Whoa, Bolt, slow 'er down...I'm gettin' air sick 'ere!"

Silverbolt, in beast form, was flying expeditiously towards grid Zeta with the transmetal Rattrap on his back. Rattrap was obviously uncomfortable with the whole situation.

Silverbolt chimed, "We have to get there before the predacons, those were Optimus' orders."

Rattrap bellowed back, "But if we crash inta itty bitty pieces, we won't be able to, now will we?"

Silverbolt seemed irritated. "Nobody's crashing. And if you'd consider shedding a kilo or two, this might be easier on us both."

Before Silverbolt finished his thought, an energy blast flew just above Rattrap's head. A loud squawk followed, and he felt rapid descent. He saw a couple of loose brown feathers floating down around him as a pair of thick talons began to squeeze into his shoulders. He let out a silent groan as they slightly pierced his furry hide, but was too busy watching energy fire cascade around him to pay close attention to the pain. He felt the descent stop hastily, and his flight resumed normal, with the attempts to dodge the heavy firepower from the ground defense systems.

"Aiiiii we're gonna die!" he shouted amidst the explosions.

A beautiful, familiar voice squawked back at him from above. "Isn't there a rule that heroes have to face destruction with dignity?"

Rattrap shrugged. "Hey...what's the use of dyin' if ya can't enjoy it?"

Rattrap sighed lightly to himself as he could still hear her voice echoing in his head.

"If you could shed a few kilos, this would be easier on both of us."

He could vividly remember the one mission that he was on solely with Airazor. They had done a good job of keeping Megatron distracted while Tigatron broke inside of Predhead Central and got the goods on the alien disk. The only other mission they actually shared together took over half the crew to a mysterious flying island. The crazed she-spider that took it over nearly vaped his base and crew, and also helped Tarantulas scrap Optimus a few weeks later. He vaguely remembered walking through the halls of the Axalon with Airazor, trying to hunt the spiders down after having rendered Rhinox and Dinobot useless.

And now, this bonehead he's riding on the back of is in love with that witch.

As Rattrap came out of his momentary trance, he realized that Silverbolt had been talking the whole time.

Silverbolt, seemingly having just ended his train of thought, inquired, "Don't you agree?"

Rattrap, not being particularly interested in hearing what he said, just responded with a quick "Yeah, yeah" and resumed his vigil on the langscape.

Silverbolt sighed loudly. "Well, this doesn't look promising."

Rattrap quickly realized what he was talking about. He zoomed his optic scanners in on Sector Phi-Theta to see the entire sector had been turned into slag. Flora and fauna alike had been neutralized, and it appeared to have been in one giant energon blast. He heavily observed the area for any fallen stasis pods, and was soon excited to see four of them had clustered into one spot, and two others were deeply imbedded in a cliffside within a hundred meters.

Rattrap hastily slapped his commlink online. "Rattrap to Optimus. Come in, Big Banana!"

Over a slight haze of static, the voice of Optimus Primal returned, "This is Optimus. What have you found?"

As Silverbolt landed within twenty meters of the four clustered pods, Rattrap leapt off of the fuzor's back and continued his report. "We got some serious discoveries here! Looks like we found at least six pods. Only problem is, some kinda wacky energon pulse vaped the entire sector. Ain't a trace a plant or animal life fer a parsec! Any suggestions on how we get these guys inta beast mode 'fore they die, assuming they haven't already?"

A short pause. "Are the pods online?"

Rattrap squinted an eye thoughtfully. "You been defragmented lately, Optimus? Just how in the slag are they supposed to be online if there ain't been nobody here ta activate their scanning relays?"

Standing over one of the stasis pods, Silverbolt shouted towards his colleague. "Rattrap, come here, quickly! You gotta see this!"

After grumbling a few choice words, Rattrap stomped over towards the fuzor. "What's the problem now, bolts fer brains?"

"The pods...they're...open! The protoforms..."

Rattrap's eyes nearly popped out of his head. "What in slag hill is goin' on? Lemme see that..."

As he rushed over to another pod, he realized that the seals had been broken. He forced open the lid of the pod and saw what appeared to be a transmetal fuzor laying inside, being half-bear, half-alligator.

Optimus chimed in once more over the communications. "What have you found, Rattrap?"

Rattrap reluctantly stated, "Looks like another ona Silverbolt's cousins ta me. Only problem is, he's in stasis lock."

Silverbolt, then in his robotic mode, approached Rattrap solemnly. "It appears they are all in stasis lock. The energon pulse that wiped out this sector must have overloaded their circuits. They won't survive much longer like this, and I can't carry all of them back to the base."

Rattrap's brow furrowed thoughtfully. "Maybe you won't have to."

"Perhaps you read the instruction manual incorrectly, oh great and wonderful master," gleefully chuckled Rampage, then in his arachnid form.

After casting a sweeping glance over the unconscious crowd, Megatron reached inside his transmetal chest compartment and retrieved a small compression device. The contraption had a build of steel, and had several shards of stable energon -- not unlike teeth -- holding a single, living spark inside of it. He squeezed on it roughly, and Rampage began to whimper as an energon surge swept through his transmetal body.

Smiling with uninhibited satisfaction, Megatron returned the spark's prison to its resting place and began to speak again. "My dear Rampage, this biological gas affects organic creatures singularly...as a rule. However, I surmised correctly that it would also affect those Cybertrons bearing organic forms. Hence, you and I are still unaffected. I simply 'forgot' to warn Waspinator to stay back."

Rampage snickered to himself. He didn't care about the power of the weapon he fired, he was just happy to see a lot of unconscious bodies. Were he not under Megatron's control, he would have proceeded to slaughter them while they slept. Ahh, the days of Omicron are long gone, he thought to himself.

Megatron took large, carefully planned steps over to the immense crowd of comatosed Cybertronians strewn out before him. Being non-transmetal, their beast forms were easily identifiable. Fox, wolf, horse, bison, black panther, toad, bat, iguana, snapping turtle. So many new troops to command, so little time to get them under his power. He began immediately.

"Computer, patch into new forms' protocols and prejudicially delete anything regarding their identities," Megatron blurted hastily.

The recognizable voice of the predacon computer issued her warning. "Warning: Identity circuitry critical to overall functionality. Proceeding may cause permanent damage to vital systems."

Megatron sighed impatiently, peering once more over the maximal crowd that lay unconscious before him. "I don't care if they have some personality issues, just do it! I want to give them a second chance at life, rather than being confined to the mediocrity of maximal livelihood."

A quick buzzing sound, and the voice resumes. "Identify circuitry formatted. Maximal programming erased." Megatron grinned triumphantly, but was startled when he heard a small alarm chime.

"Maximal unit bison unable to override. Security systems cleared before format completed. Identity override incomplete."

Megatron's brow furrowed for a moment, deep in thought. "Perhaps he is still maximal, but he won't know it when he awakens. And when he realizes it, his 'companions' will gladly destroy him for me."

Soon, one by one, the fallen Cybertronians began to awaken. The one with the apparent wolfen form stepped forward first.

"Ahhh, what...happened?"

Megatron proceded with his elaborate scheme. "My fellow Predacons, our ship was attacked by those scrupulous sadists called the Maximals. We barely survived the crash, and have come to discover your fallen escape pods in this canyon. We are glad to see you still function properly."

The fox Cybertronian bore the physical features of a female in robotic form, with the head of a fox on her chest and the slenderness of both her gender and her beast form. "What do you mean, we are military?"

Megatron nodded affirmatively. "We have been at war with our oppressors for stellar-cycles. And now that we have gained the advantage, it is time to make our move...and finish the Beast Wars, once and for all!"

Beast Wars and all related belong to Hasbro. The story, its original contents and ideas, and any original characters belong to the author and cannot be used or reprinted without the author's permission.

Author’s Note: "The Last Pawn" takes place instead of the television episodes "The Agenda". The continuity will most likely remain from then on (with minor exceptions), and some things run in parallel, but for the most part, this story completely replaces the end of season 2.

The Last Pawn, pt. 4
by Dracosaur (dracosaur@hotmail.com)

"Ehh, Bolts, wouldya be more careful? My furry hide can't take those blasted claws a yers..." Rattrap belly-ached as Silverbolt carried him towards the cliffside where they saw the buried stasis pods mere moments before. "I gotta get my own flight mode so you 'n Optimus don't keep luggin me 'round..."

"That'd suit my tastes just fine," retorted the slightly irritated fuzor as he dropped Rattrap off near one of the gigantic craters in the cliff wall. Then, he himself landed and transformed.

Producing some scanning equipment, they climbed into the hole and ran some tests. Rattrap retrieved a small datapad and began to input the information they were collecting.

Silverbolt looked somewhat impatiently at Rattrap. "Have you discovered anything valuable?"

Rattrap looked dazed at the datapad. "Ehh, well, the stasis pod looks about three times as big as normal, according to these readouts. Heh...last time we had a big pod crash land, it wun't a purty sight."

Silverbolt shuddered as he remembered encountering Protoform X, or Rampage as he is now called, for the first time. "Well, perhaps it won't be as unfriendly a welcoming as last time."

"Ehh, I hope yer right, Rover," Rattrap attempted to console, "but these readings I'm gettin' ain't somethin you find in a children's book. Whatever this thing is, it not only doesn't have a beast form, but it's already broken free of the pod and escaped into the earth. I suggest we move on to the next pod before it comes lookin' for food."

Silverbolt shot him a quizzical look. "Food?"

Rattrap snorted. "So I imagine the worst. If he breaks out the tea and crumpets, then I won't be so skeptical. Until then, I don't trust a protoform that skitters away without a trace."

"If it's out of scanning range, how did you know it didn't have a beast form?"

Rattrap grumbled something under his breath. "Oi, bolt, Rhinox's beam couldnt'a penetrated this deep inta the earth. It was line of sight transmission, remember? No manner of beam-defraction coulda got it this deep inta the ground."

As they began to climb out of the hole, Silverbolt came to a quick conclusion. "So then the other protoform would be without a beast form, as well."

"Well, whaddya know, the bonebrain's catchin' on..."

They slowly crawled deep into the recesses of the second crater, this one being just as deep and just as large in circumference. The maximal team stepped slowly into the cliff's cavernous maw and noticed a strange light deep within. The giant stasis pod was covered in a greenish glow, and it seemed to breathe energon, pulsating madly in the light. They decided to carefully approach the pod.

"Alright, bolts, time ta crack the egg."

With that, Rattrap stepped forward and produced a cutting laser from his left arm panel. He began to work fervently on the lid, trying to slice it open and free the protoform trapped within. Silverbolt was attempting to assess the damage to the pod from the crash, and attempted to activate it's scanning sequencer. After a few moments, Rattrap put away his laser, and removed the lid from the encasement. Both of the transmetal maximals looked inside with great awe.

"Well, at least we finally have everything in moderate working order," Optimus said as he addressed his crew. "But I suspect Megatron will be attacking again, and very soon. If Rattrap and Silverbolt don't return soon, we may have to fight on without them...and it may turn grim."

Black Arachnia grimaced at the thought of dying with these maximal losers as Tarantulas piped up. "Perhaps we should abandon the base and seek out those archives now, while we still have a chance! We may lose our defensive position, but at least we can secure the alien library, and possibly fortify a better location."

Optimus shook his head in disbelief. "We can't afford to lose our only strategic advantage left, even at the risk of gaining a better one. Right now, our options are limited."

Cheetor stood up quickly and protested, "Optimus, if Cybertron doesn't come, this ship may not be an advantage for much longer anyway. Have you taken a good look at this place? One more harsh attack like that, and we'll be homeless anyhow!"

Rhinox reluctantly agreed. "I'm with Cheetor. Our energon is low, and we can't afford to power this place much longer. If we stay here, we may not only be sitting ducks, but trapped ones, as well."

Optimus didn't wan çt to believe what he was hearing, but he knew he couldn't overlook their concerns. Finally, he came to a conclusion he hoped he would never have to come to.

"Grab some extra armaments and anything you can carry with you. Rhinox, ready the base for self-destruct."

From outside the Axalon, the plush forestry and wildlife, almost completely obliterated by the alien craft so many moons ago, harbored a strange sensation of hidden danger. The few beasts that remained alive have now fled for some strange reason. But what could they be hiding from?

Optimus Primal stepped into the Command Center and immediately felt the effects. Something was not right. Something was out-of-place. Something was nearby. Or, perhaps, someone.

Cheetor and Tarantulas were busy looking over some input relays when suddenly the alert system thrust online and Sentinel went to red alert. The ship jarred quickly, and they instantly knew what was going on.

Rhinox and Black Arachnia burst into the Command Center and found Optimus activating some protocols. Rhinox immediately leapt to the defense systems and turned them on, bringing Sentinel's outside weaponry online. Suddenly, the ship began to tremble wickedly, and the crew knew the shields and guns wouldn't be enough. Cheetor and Tarantulas appeared in the room.

"Big bot, what's the deal?" Cheetor fearfully asked as sparks began to fly from every direction.

Black Arachnia spat her frustration back, "What does it look like, feline? We're under attack!"

Optimus looked extremely concerned. "Rhinox, any sign of Cybertron's ships anywhere?"

He began to tap furiously on the keypads, and a buzzing sound rang up. "Nothing on the long range scanners."

Tarantulas screamed as a large section of the ceiling came down on him. With another sudden burst, Optimus was thrown into one of the turbo lifts, breaking entirely through the glass door protecting it. Both sparked wildly, uncon õscious. The remaining three crew members looked at each other with dismay. Finally, Cheetor ran towards the other turbo lift, grabbing a few weapons and a shield on the way. Rhinox attempted to protest, but Black Arachnia stopped him.

"We're all dead anyway, big guy. We may as well try to hold this place together as long as we can."

Before Rhinox could say anything more, Sentinel began to speak. "Shields at thirty percent and falling."

Rhinox sighed, defeated. "May as well go out fighting. Let's go back up Cheetor."

As Cheetor reached the bottom of his descent, he walked out and watched the shields crumble before his very eyes. Sentinel had failed under the sheer pressure that the predacons were feeding it, and he soon realized why. As he scanned for predacon signatures, he noticed that his army had nearly tripled since the last time he was here.

"Jumping gyros, Megadork's got a whole new cast and crew!"

Megatron shouted triumphantly. "Perceptive, øpussycat, yes...now, for the introductory credits. Predacons, introduce yourselves!"

A small female fox leapt up from behind Megatron and transformed, guns at the ready. "Call me Foxfire."

A gigantic bison crept into the battlefield and roared loudly, "Bonecrusher, TERRORIZE!"

A dark grey wolf appeared out of nowhere behind Cheetor and shrieked, "Wolfaton, terrorize!"

A whinneying sound came from the center of the battlefield, and a demonic-looking horse transformed before him, dark in feature and evil in pose. "I am your worst Nightmare, catbot!"

A black panther, resembling Cheetor's pre-quantum surge beast mode in form but not in demeanor, stepped forward and reverted to battle mode. "Shadowcaster's the name...not that you'll have much chance to say it."

From the middle of the searing battlefield emerged a giant snapping turtle, whom promptly transformed. "Snapjaw I be, and dead, you are about to be!"

Screeching from the air and transforming just as øhe landed, the bat-bot entered the fray. "Know me as Bloodfang, kitty cat...as I drain your life from your useless body!"

Next, a giant, lizard-like creature slithered forward and produced a robotic form from his organic one. "This here's Iguanus."

Finally, the frog leapt forward and transformed in mid-air, landing with a loud thud mere meters in front of the transmetal cheetah. "And I'm toadstool. Mock my name, and I kick yer butt!"

Cheetor's eyes widened immensely. He grumbled, "Just what I need..."

Just then, Rhinox, with Black Arachnia on his back, landed on the bottom of the turbo lift with a loud 'crash'. She clambered down from his back and started to advance, cascading firepower over the crowd of predacons. Rhinox and Cheetor soon thereafter followed suit.

Megatron could barely contain himself. He patted Inferno on the shoulder. "Soon, we will have the victory we have waited so long for."

The battle began to look bleak. Black Arachnia was shot d ùown by Foxfire and Shadowcaster, Rhinox was losing a powerful one-on-one to Bonecrusher, and even though Cheetor took down Waspinator and Wolfaton, Nightmare and Bloodfang were able to topple him with little trouble. Megatron could feel the victory surge through his fuel pumps. He began to bask in the defeat of his enemies, realizing that soon, he will control all of Cybertron...and then, far beyond. "Predacons, advance upon the maximal ship, and prepare to board. We have won the Beast Wars!"

As the three lone maximal warriors lay fallen, writhing in agony and sparking insanely, the predacons slowly moved in for the kill.

But before they had a chance to finish it, they were called out to.

"Megatron!" echoed throughout the battlefield like a loud energon explosion in a cave.

He stopped cold in his tracks. "Primal?"

Suddenly, a gaping hole appeared in the side of the Axalon. The predacons covered themselves over as debris and dust settled everywhere. Optimus Pri ÷mal and Tarantulas leapt out and began to fire furiously on the crowd. "Well, that's just prime!"

Megatron shook his head for a moment. "Why does this feel familiar? Hmm...no matter, Predacons, ATTACK!"

The ensuing onslaught ended up taking down half of Megatron's army before they knew what hit them. Snapjaw, Shadowcaster, Quickstrike, Waspinator, Bloodfang, Foxfire, Nightmare and Wolfaton laid strewn about the battlefield before the predacons even had a chance to return their fire.

The remainder of the crew began to blast out towards Primal and Tarantulas, and Megatron gave Rampage one last order. Take out the maximal base, once and for all. Gleefully, he went about his task.

As the onslaught waged furiously, Tarantulas found himself at the wrong end of Bonecrusher's phaser fire, and was cast down upon impact. Optimus Primal retaliated, and put the bison down. He looked around and made a dire realization. He was now alone, and facing five standing predacons. ÷ Inferno blasted forth, almost obliterating Optimus' cover, and Megatron and Rampage persisted upon the maximal ship, decaying its exterior with every shot fired. Toadstool and Iguanus crept up behind Optimus, but he instead got the drop on them, pummeling them with photon fire before they had a chance to react.

Megatron grunted with satisfaction as the hull began to collapse on its own. He dismissed Rampage to finish the job, and regrouped with Inferno to end Primal's existence. Bonecrusher awakened and joined them.

As Rampage's last few missiles took out the base, Optimus tried to blast him back, but was met with some attack power from Inferno and was knocked down hard. As he lay there, sparking and drenched in his own vital fluids, he watched in horror as the base began to buck under the pressure. It's front end began to crack and come out of place, and the very rock that held it in place crumbled heavily. The sounds of tearing metal resonated for miles, it seemed, as ÷the front end of the Axalon began to bend and shred under the weight. Finally, it gave in, and as the base continued to slide out of its resting place, the front end ripped completely from its nestling and fell to the falls below. A large splashing sound soon followed.

He realized with grim horror that it was over. The Beast Wars are over, Optimus thought. And we lost. We fought so hard to keep peace, to save this planet, and to save our past. Instead, it slipped through our fingers. And now, the whole universe will suffer for our shortcomings.

His optics flared momentarily, and as he watched the huge hind portion of the Axalon buckle and topple over the cliffs, he sighed with extreme sadness. The cliffs soon gave way themselves, and large portions of rock began to pour over the side. Finally, he looked up to see the form of Megatron poised over his limp body with his tail cannon fully charged. His optics grew dark as he heard the last of the ship meet with the water ùs below, and the voice of Megatron cackling in triumph. It truly was over.

And then, a shot rang in his ears.

And another.

And yet another.

But Optimus was still functional.

As his optics flickered on, he could see large photon torpedoes pummeling the ground around him and descending heavily upon the predacons. Cybertron is here!

Megatron flinched nervously as the barrage began, but couldn't scan anything in the skies from which the firepower originated. He shrieked with distaste and leapt back as Quickstrike and Inferno began to fire into the air. A cloaked ship, Megatron thought.

Quickstrike looked totally confused. He aimed his cobra headed arm towards the sky and fired a few times, but to no avail. He couldn't seem to get a fix on anything up there, but yet the assault was getting extremely heated! "What in tarnation?" he shouted. "Where's that firepower comin' from?"

Inferno was having just as little luck, randomly zapping at the heavens to no avail, dodging photon blasts left and right. "Royalty," he bellowed towards Megatron, "I cannot see a target for my flame!"

With a mild smirk, Megatron answered his loyal drone. "No, you can't, can you..."

After a few more bursts, Megatron decided it was time to fall back, grunting something under his breath about another near-victory slipping away. Those predacons that were still conscious grabbed the fallen crew and headed out of the battlefield. After they fled, it was all over, and five maximal warriors lay heavily beaten.

Optimus' eyes flickered momentarily and came back online. He blinked momentarily, re-orienting himself with the situation. Raising up and propping himself with one arm, he could see where his comrades were. Rhinox was barely managing himself towards Cheetor, and Tarantulas sparked and bled immensely as he attempted to recover Black Arachnia, both of whom were in stasis lock.

Optimus sighed where he stood and began to take note of his ow ûn wounds. With several gaping holes in his superstructure, he was pouring mech fluid and loose circuitry everywhere. His servo circuits were scrapped, and he didn't believe transformation was possible any longer. A large chunk of his right arm was missing, and he noted that his hoverboard components took heavy enough damage to keep him grounded without serious repairs. He wasn't going very far, and now that the base was at the bottom of the falls, he may never see repair.

After lifting himself to his feet, he noticed something shimmering about sixty yards away from the field. The other maximals noticed, and they all turned to find a predacon starcruiser decloaking as it landed nearby them. Optimus sighed. "Well, that's just prime."

Megatron began to lead the mismatched crew back to their base when Bonecrusher began to voice his concerns.

"Hey, Meg, let me see if I got this straight. You destroyed their base, crippled their forces, and somehow, in some sick, twisted way û, that wasn't enough...so you were gonna murder them while they lay there helpless?"

With a cautious and irate glare, Megatron turned towards the bison-trooper and growled insidiously. "Do you have a problem with the way Predacons operate, Bonecrusher?" He stared the transformed maximal down with dire impatience.

Bonecrusher creased his brow. "How do I know that we're really preds, eh? I get this feelin' in my gut, see...tells me you been lyin' to us. And I, for one, don't like bein' lied to."

Megatron just laughed, charging his arm cannon and aiming it for Bonecrusher. "I don't think you have any room to argue with me, no."

At this, Bonecrusher began to address the other predacons while eyes were still fixed on Megatron. "Don't you see? His actions aren't noble. And I, for one, ain't about to stab a helpless gent in the back while he's down. Come on guys, let's get the slag out of here."

Megatron became infuriated and fired, blasting Bonecrusher down. Soon, the entire group became factioned off. Foxfire knelt down to Bonecrusher as Toadstool and Iguanus pulled out their weapons and prepared to defend them. Wolfaton and Snapjaw both jumped to Megatron's side, pulling all weapons out and aiming right for the small band of traitors, where Shadowcaster grinned slyly, transformed, and fled through the trees before anyone knew he left. Bloodfang and Nightmare looked at each other, unsure of whom to aide, so they decided to shrink back into the shadows and wait out the fight.

The deadened forest that they were trailing a quick path through began to deteriorate as energy fire beamed in all directions. The disappearing sun gave an ominous feel to the outnumbered battle as Iguanus took a dive from one of Quickstrike's blasts. Bonecrusher was able to recover long enough to take Snapjaw down, but soon fell into stasis lock in Foxfire's arms. She looked down towards his face, tears welling in her optics.

Obviously disgusted, Megatron fired ýoff several rounds consecutively and downed a few trees over Toadstool, and Foxfire was left alone to protect her three maximal companions. She began to panic, fear rushing through her slender body. The remaining predacons grunted and cackled as they moved in for the kill.

And, like before, fate had other plans.

With a high-pitched skreech, something large entered the atmosphere of the planet, and a strange, orange beam blasted into the mountaintops just a few clicks north of the dead forest they stood in. Megatron's eyes widened anxiously, his jaw dropped open, his weapons collapsed at his side.

"This is it, predacons. The aliens have come!"

After a moment of coughing and dusting himself off, Rattrap scanned around for Silverbolt. "Man, whatever the slag that was, I hope it doesn't happen again. Hey, bolts, you out there somewhere?"

Laying face-down, robot mode, in the dirt and dead grass below the cliffside they investigated, Silverbolt grunted to himself and started to wave the smoke out of his face. "Looked like some type of strange beam emitted from the sky and blasted into the mountains we stood upon."

Rattrap scratched his leg and strode over to the injured fuzor. After examining him more closely and noticing no major damage done, began to address him once more. "Yeah, and I got a feelin' I know who it came from. That silly protoform wun't Cybertronian, I can tell ya that much fer certain."

Still staring high into the sky above the blasted mountain, Silverbolt returned, "Yes, it looked to be transmetal, but it was pure transmetal...not meshed with Cybertronian alloys like ourselves." He glanced down quietly at the ground before him, as if deep in thought. Rattrap approached him cautiously.

"Well, whatever it is, I'm sure Optimus will be interested in knowing. Let's just hope ol' metalhead don't wake up @ 'fore we can get them here. Speakin' of which..."

With a quick gesture, Rattrap called forth his communicator. "Rattrap to Optimus. Git yer banana butt online, Fearless Leader."

After a short pause, a static-enraveled voice came through the commlink. "Optimus here. Radio me your coordinates and we'll pick you and Silverbolt up."

"Pick us up, big ape? Sounds good ta me. We can't carry all dese pods all on our lonesome, ya know. Downloading coordinates now!"

After another brief pause, Optimus continued, "Received, standby for rendezvous. Optimus out."

Silverbolted sighed with relief. "Now we wait, I suppose."

Rattrap shook his head, pulling out some tools. "Nope, bonebreath, we dig...we gotta get that protoform outta dere before bossmonkey gets here, or he'll have a spasm. B Now, come on, I'm gonna need yer help."

The interior of the ship was dark and uninviting. Coupled with its compact size and relatively ominous features, it chilled Primal's servo fluids just being there. It seemed featureless, however, which was unusual for a starcruiser. The only visible mechanisms were at the command bridge at the front of the ship, the rest appeared superficial in appearance and effect. Optimus shook his head slowly.

"So Cybertron doesn't know we are here..."

From the control chair, a darkly-featured predacon stood upright, facing Primal at just above eye level. He had many canine features and betrayed a thick Russian-like accent. His tail wavered behind him as he began to speak.

"You understand, the Tripredacus Council would prefer to handle the situation...discreetly U."

Optimus sighed audibly. "Well...that's just prime..."

"The Predacon Alliance is no less interested in seeing Megatron's reign of terror end, I assure you. Together, we will bring him to justice."

Primal nodded affirmative, dramatically slamming a clenched fist into his other hand.

The predacon seated himself back at the controls after a deep bow and continued his search. After a few more moments of silence, they reached the rendezvous point, and he steadily landed the gigantic craft.

As Primal approached one of the viewports towards starboard, he noticed a heavy downpour had begun. He thoughtfully stroked his chin as he watched Rattrap motor towards the ship in his vehicular rodent mode and Silverbolt flying back in beast mode. Optimus had seen several storms before. Energon storms, rainstorms, torn „adoes, even the occasional blizzard during winter seasons. This one seemed unnatural, he thought, and perfectly timed. He had to find out what it meant.

"Your maximals have returned, Optimus," the dark figure observed.

Without a word, Optimus headed towards the turbo lift that would bring his troops aboard. Rattrap and Silverbolt had already climbed aboard and transformed, attempting to dry themselves off. Rattrap looked at Optimus questioningly.

"You gone mad, bananabrain?" he scoffed as he tossed a small tracking device to the side. "What da slag are we doin' on a Predacon starcruiser?"

Optimus looked at him rough, yet pleading. "They're not coming, Rattrap."

Silverbolt eyed Optimus quizzically. "Who?"

Primal just sighed deeply. "Cybertron. The Predacons were the only ones who got our signal."

Rattrap squinted suspiciously, crossed h ­is arms and shifted his weight onto his right leg. "Is that a fact?"

Optimus nodded affirmatively. Rattrap threw his arms up in disgust and shifted his weight again. "What the cheese? So who'd they send, eh? Some predacon nobody to vape us quietly?"

Silverbolt stepped back, placing his hands on his hips. "What are you talking about, Rattrap?"

Rattrap rolled his eyes and swiped his hand across Silverbolt's shoulder, knocking his arm off of his hip. "What, you think dem Preds wanna see us get back to Cybertron alive? You got a whole 'nother program ta write, bowser!"

Silverbolt threw his arms down, prepared to rebutt, when Optimus stepped in between them. "Enough, you two. I'll introduce you to our alleged savior when we get back to the bridge. In the meantime, I want to know what you learned about the protoforms."

Rattrap visibly remembered his mission, his eyes growing wide as he e Êxplained the situation.

"Well, first we found the four fuzors cracked down in stasis lock. Nothin' spectacular, right? Well, then we went to investigate the other pods, and well...whatever was in the first one, it got free and scittered into the mountain somewhere. The second one, however, ho boy. That thing ain't no Cybertronian."

Silverbolt's eyes went wide as he interjected. "It was purely transmetal! Oh, it was like nothing I had ever seen before!"

Rattrap nodded knowingly. "Yeah, and den we were gonna dig da big thing up, when suddenly we were blasted by some kinda strange energon pulse. When we came to and got back inside the cliff, the pod done come ta life! It started sparkin' an' spewin' crazy junk all over da place."

Optimus seemed enthralled as Rattrap got into his story, using his hands to describe every detail. "Yeah, and all these wires 'n tings started hookin' up ta the thing, and it started ta come ta Þ life!"

Silverbolt concluded the story in vivid detail. "The creature awakened, stepped out of its encasement, and toppled over into the earth below. We tried to drag him out, but then he started to suffer from some kind of surge as we brought him towards the edge. It's optics flickered for a moment, and then, the strangest thing happened..."

Silverbolt looked at Optimus dead-on like he had seen a ghost. Optimus returned the glare, needing to know the truth. "Well, what did you see?"

Rattrap shook his head. "We THINK we saw a spark enter it's body."

Optimus gasped loudly. "A SPARK?!? How could that be?"

Before any of them could speak any further, the predacon's voice came over the intercom system. "Optimus Primal, please report to the bridge immediately."

Optimus looked up quickly, remembering where he was. He threw on his comlink. "Rhinox, grab Cheetor, Tarantulas, and Black Arachnia, and report to the turbo lift and help Rattrap and S ëilverbolt retrieve the pods."

Silverbolt and Rattrap just shrugged their shoulders at each other as Optimus nodded affirmative to their questions. "Time to welcome our boys home."

Dead branches and hardened grass lay crushed underfoot for yards where the last battle took place. The predacon troops had left the fallen maximals behind in search of the alien beam, and they were treading down the destroyed wildlife that lay in their path. Megatron abruptly halted at the sight of a predacon starcruiser perched near the mountain in question. He seemed too ecstatic for words. Inferno was the first to say anything. "Royalty, what does this mean?"

Without even glancing away from the spaceship, he answered his faithful drone. "It means that the tide has turned in our favor once again."

He whipped around quickly to view his humble followers. Quickstrike, Inferno and Snapjaw were all primed and ready to go in their battle forms, Rampage was stopped with his tur órets aimed at the ship in tank mode, and Bloodfang, Wolfaton, Waspinator and Nightmare were stalking close by in their respective beast forms. Megatron, himself being in robot mode, hastily began to address his crew.

"With the addition of our new loyal troops and incredible advantage over the maximals, we will not only control the power of the aliens, but we will take command of that vessel and begin our fantastic conquest of the galaxy!"

Every last one of the predacons chuckled to themself in pleasure. Megatron coyly smirked, then added, "Now, let us see if the maximals are ready for some unexpected guests."

The pantherian predacon paced about the bridge of his ship, arms folded thoughtfully and tail flailing moderately in the air behind him. As Optimus approached him, he stood to attention.

Optimus didn't hesitate. "You called?"

The dark form of the predacon operative disappeared behind his gigantic throne-like chair. Optimus' brow furrowed as he began yto hear the tapping of keys and see several different colored lights flicker at the main terminal. Finally, the front viewports were overshadowed by a wide paneling of view screens, showing a holographic image of the landscape around. It showed nine predacon energy signatures towards ship's port, one toward far aft, four unknown signatures nearly off the scale between port and aft, and a multitude of strange readings coming from the mountain. The familiarly accented voice began to speak.

"My in-depth scanners show that Megatron is approaching with a rather large crew. The four signatures I am detecting further south are probably unconscious predacons, and the one towards the east is more than likely a rogue."

Optimus interjected. "Hmm...it's possible they had a conflict of interests and Megatron's crew has diminished. We might want to go check out t =he others later. For now, I'm curious what is going on inside that mountain."

The operative continued with his observations. "It appears to be some sort of energy storage facility. There is simply too much energon for much of anything else to take place there."

Optimus nodded affirmatively. "In the meantime, I'd like you to do some scans on this new protoform my crew has found. They say it came from some type of pod, however, the form inside is purely transmetal..."

Before Optimus could finish, a strange blip resounded loudly on the scanner screens. The agent began to restlessly pound away at his keyboards, attempting to assess what had just come online. "It appears that your strange protoform has been activated."

Without delay, Optimus took to the lifts, preparing to aide his fellow maximals. The predacon agent mumbled something under his breath as four more such blips came online. "This is one strange planet, I am assured..."

Megatron grinned madly as the giant crew began to stalk slowly towards the starcruiser. One by one, they transformed and exited their forested haven, preparing for the biggest fight of their life. Finally, Bloodfang, Inferno and Waspinator took to the air together while the land troops raced in with Rampage and Megatron at the lead. With a roaring battlecry and a quick order from Megatron, the entire band of predacons opened heavy upon the perched ship. It began to heavily tremble and quake under the pressing onslaught. The entire maximal crew, pulling their static friends from their protective pods, turned to view the shi Pelds on the cruiser activate and lift off. Optimus was clearly disgusted.

"Troops, we have to keep Megatron away from the ship! It's our only hope!"

With that, everyone stopped what they were doing and opened fire on the predacon caravan.

Several missile shots blared into the battlefield between them, and Megatron knew that if the ship airborne, it would severely disrupt his plans. He ordered Rampage to blast it out of the sky, regardless of losing their advantage. It could be repaired later, he surmised.

As his turrets shifted around, Rampage felt a barrage of firepower overwhelm him, and within nanoclicks, he was reduced to smoldering rubble by half of the maximal crew. Rattrap chuckled but then met with one of Wolfaton's claw lasers. Silverbolt opened fire with his feather bombs in unison with Chee ˆtor's arm phasers and knocked Wolfaton cold. Optimus and Tarantulas never had a chance to meet with the repair chamber after their last devastating defeat, and Megatron could see this. He opened fire on Optimus, and watched as Quickstrike picked off Tarantulas with his venom blaster. Both of them stumbled and stasis lock took effect. The rest of the maximal crew grew nervous, watching their leader go down so violently. Rhinox, Cheetor and Black Arachnia began to charge into the fray in hopes of keeping the predacons away from the locked down maximals.

Waspinator, Inferno and Bloodfang noticed an opening. Silverbolt was the only one left to protect the stasis pods, and they were quite confident in their abilities to overwhelm him in a microcycle. They pushed forward, still not having caught the attention of the rampaging maximals below and behind them. Silverbolt saw ³what was going on, and slammed on his commlink.

A panic welled in his throat. He stood just over the ridge of the hole that the strange protoform had laid in, with Rattrap unconscious mere feet away from him. He was a good hundred or more yards away from the nearest maximal ally, and three airborne predacons were opening fire, headed straight for him. For the first time in a while, he felt fear creep over him. As he attempted to speak into his radio link, he choked on his fear. He jumped into the hole to dodge the onslaught that blazed around him. As the smoke cleared, he peeked out and fired several missiles at them. Watching them blare towards him, he shook his head, raised his arm, and began once more to speak. "Optimus..." was all he could make out before something grabbed him and drug him deep into the hole.

Inferno scratched his head as he heard a scream emanate from the hole they had fired into. · He swung around and addressed Waspinator.

"You go check it the fuzor, while Bloodfang and I retrieve the drones for the Royalty." Bloodfang shrugged towards Waspinator as Inferno began his descent to the fallen fuzors on the grounds below.

Waspinator sighed. "Why Waspinator always get slag assignments?"

Bloodfang shook his head in disbelief and dropped to meet with the flying ant. They both grabbed one of the fallen forms and opened fire on the other two, apparently destroying them and all four of the pods.

With the sounds of the explosions from behind, Rhinox turned around and noticed the fliers. He slapped a dismayed hand against his forehead and grumbled. "Oh, no..."

Megatron just laughed as he watched the fliers evaded fire from the ground and descended towards their position. His disposition changed, however, when he heard an explosion not ten meters away, and watched three of his crew member ®s toss into the air like rag dolls. That ship was no ordinary starcruiser, he thought. It had to be a battlecruiser, and he didn't want to know what it had in store for them. With that, he ordered his troops to fall back into the forest and head for HQ. The maximal crew looked scattered and ragged across the battlefield, with wires, components and mech fluid everywhere. Rhinox, Cheetor and Black Arachnia helped to gather up the stasis locked maximals that lay strewn about them, including the steaming fuzors. Considering the four they had to lug as it were, they had to leave Rattrap and Silverbolt behind for the moment.

"Oi, I gotta watch those footfalls more closely."

Rattrap picked himself up and scanned around the battlefield. He noticed the destroyed pods, the damaged ship (which was once again perched on the ground), the torrential rains cascading over the landscape, and Cheetor in flight mode s †canning the area. Looking for us, he hoped to himself.

"Us? 'Ey, wun't there somebody else 'ere? Oh, yeah, bolt was wit me, heh. Wonder where he got off to."

He scanned around the area, hoping to see some sign of the fuzor when he heard someone talking in the cavern below him.

"Hey, bonebreath, you down there?"

No answer.

"Yo, Silverbolt! The battle's over, ya can quit hidin' now." He smirked at his own comment.

Still, no answer.

Rattrap rolled his eyes, and after rubbing his domed head as if to slick back his nonexistent hair, he pounced into the hole. "Hey, bolts, where you...what the cheese?!?" His eyes went wide and his jaw dropped in astonishment.

Silverbolt turned to address him, but before he had a chance to, the creature he had been speaking to stepped forward and pushed him out of the way. It was a metallic beast which stoo -d about twice as tall as Rhinox. It had a silver coating on its reptillian forebody, and a greenish hue developed as its hind legs and tail came into play. It's gargantuan wings were blue and crystalline in appearance. It appeared to be fully transmetal, and it was definitely a fuzor. However, the wings and hind portion was undetermined by the two maximals that stood before it. It glared at them both with deep crimson optics and its tiny arms huddled back into its body. A loud screech emanated from its deeply fanged maw, and Rattrap shivered uncomfortably.

"What da heck is this thing?"

As Silverbolt began to speak, the creature moved forward another step. With a raspy yet averagely pitched voice, it scoffed, "I have a name, vermin!"

Rattrap jumped back. "H ëey, hey hey here, no need to get all personal! What are ya?"

The creature reared back on its green-scaled hind legs, obviously unsure of itself. "That, I do not know."

Rattrap's brow furrowed. "Ehh, well, why don't yaz come back with us. Mebbe we can help ya, huh?"

As he peered closely at it, he could have sworn he saw a great resemblance to Dinobot in the creature. It seemed friendly enough, yet still dangerous. It's forebody more resembled a tyrannosaurus rex, not unlike Megatron's form, but the way it carried itself was more noble than casually destructive. He believed it would be best to get it back to Optimus before going any further.

Silverbolt approached it once more. "Do you have a name, my fri êend?"

It reared back at the word 'friend', unsure of his meaning, but settled back once more when it realized he meant no harm. "I...think my name is...Dracosaur..."

"Dracosaur," Rattrap and Silverbolt chimed together.

Rattrap nodded knowingly. "I've seen some old mythology texts from Earth way back in tha day, and yer scaly butt and those hideous wings looked a lot like what I had seen of dragons, come ta tink about it. But, dose creatures din't really exist...how couldya 'ave the beast form of a creature wit no real DNA?"

It shrugged helplessly. Rattrap stroked his chin thoughtfully, but before he could speak again, a familiar voice called through the hole.

It was Cheetor. The cavalry had arrived.

Beast Wars and all related belong to Hasbro. The story, its original contents and ideas, and any original characters belong to the author and cannot be used or reprinted without the author's permission.

Author’s Note: "The Last Pawn" takes place instead of the television episodes "The Agenda". The continuity will most likely remain from then on (with minor exceptions), and some things run in parallel, but for the most part, this story completely replaces the end of season 2.

The Last Pawn, pt. 5
by Dracosaur (dracosaur@hotmail.com)

The haunting halls of the Darkside never felt so homely until today. With the destruction of the Axalon, the multiple defeats of the maximals, and the addition of eight new troops into their folds, the predacons were feeling especially triumphant as they returned home. In fact, the only thing that went wrong was Waspinator's sudden disappearance. After a few megacycles and many repairs, they found themselves restored and ready to resume their war. Megatron attended to the fuzors that Inferno and Bloodfang brought back, ensuring that they would be predacons when they awoke. Their security systems were no match for Bloodfang's programming abilities, and soon they addressed their new allies.

Megatron sat in his chair hovering at the main console in their command central. He cleared his throat and addressed his new members. "I am glad to see that you are all fully functional. We welcome you to the ranks of the predacons, and to incredible glory for the future. Now that you have had a tour of the base and been briefed on our current missions, I would like a moment to get to know our new fuzor friends."

The foremost creature was in beast form and appeared highly transmetallized. It had the dual form of a praying mantis and a lizard. Its flourescent yellow and green exterior could not hardly cover its deadly disposition. It's large, protrusive legs dangled before it as it gazed up at the predacon ruler in awe. It didn't seem able to speak at first.

Megatron cleared his throat once more. "What might your name be, my mismatched friend?"

After the creature whirred and buzzed for a few moments, it stepped awkwardly towards him. Its head was much like Waspinator's beast form, only with smaller eyes and a rusty brown color. It clacked its mandibles as if it were attempting to talk, then shied away. Megatron furrowed his brow in thought, then decided it was best to move on to the next fuzor.

"Hm. Well, what about you. You seem far more capable, by what are you called, creature?"

Megatron's cautious eyes rolled over its strange hide. It seemed to have the transfused forms of both a beetle and a warthog, and it grinned casually as it muttered its brand new activation code. "Ramhorn, terrorize!"

The other predacons looked pleased as he transformed swiftly into a deadly brute-assault robotic form. Quickstrike was especially impressed. "Wow...thems some nice claws ya got there, needlelegs!"

As if he hadn't heard a word he said, Ramhorn addressed his leader. "My liege, my friend here is fairly slow of wit, but I assure you, he is no fool on the field of combat." He chuckled to himself, obviously remembering some horrible deed past committed.

After shaking his head in recomposure, Megatron agreed heartily. "Yes, umm...well, if you can get him into battle mode within the next megacycle, I'd dearly appreciate it. I presume our tactical advantage won't last much longer with Optimus in command of a new ship."

Ramhorn bowed deeply and escorted the insect out of Central Command as Megatron dismissed them. He then turned to a console, tapped a couple of quick instructions, and drew up an image of Rampage in a small lava alcove near the base.

"Rampage, position yourself in sub-sector Hooks. I know I can count on your..." He paused momentarily, tapping his torsoplate with meaning, then resumed, "best efforts. Mm hmm."

Rampage, groaning softly with disgust, went about his way. Megatron shut off the console and addressed his on-board crew.

"Inferno, take Bloodfang and search for Waspinator and Shadowcaster in the vicinity of the last battle. Quickstrike, gather Nightmare and Snapjaw and prepare to defend the perimeter. Wolfaton, I want you to find the fuzors and have them meet you on the battlefield. We have much to lose, predacons, and I don't want to lose any of it."

"So this is it," Rattrap sighed as his comrades loaded their weapons. He cocked his hand blaster and looked up at Optimus. "We just blast our way in and finish this thing."

Optimus nodded affirmatively. "Fast and final, I don't want Megatron going anywhere."

Black Arachnia just chuckled aloud. "With what Tarantulas has in store for him, I don't think that will be a problem." She winked slyly at Rattrap, making him visibly shudder.

The operative glanced back at the maximal crew and responded, "This ship is our advantage." He placed his arms into a couple of cylindrical control conduits. "Cloaking now."

The entirety of the ship began to disintegrate before their very eyes. Rattrap gasped back a sudden wave of shock, his eyes staring in disbelief as everything began to vanish in front of him. "I hope this is enough..."

"You know somethin', leatherpuss," Iguanus snapped at Bonecrusher as he and Toadstool helped him walk through the plains. "For a tough guy, you got some serious error messages in that brain of yours."

Bonecrusher gave a pained smile as he limped along the trail where they had just recently been trashed. Foxfire strided up alongside them in beast form and looked up at the bison-bot. "You could have gotten yourself killed, Bise."

Toadstool snorted loudly. "And the rest of us, while he was at it."

Iguanus, being on Bonecrusher's right, thwapped Toadstool on the back of the head with his left hand. Toadstool shot a distasteful glare back at the lizardbot.

Before they could start an argument that might end up in Bonecrusher's being shredded into atoms, Foxfire squealed, "Enough, you two. We have enough to worry about with predacons."

"And maximals," the bison-trooper reflected. "They're bound to be hunting after us, now that we helped annihilate their home and leader. I doubt they'll be very happy, if and when they finally catch us."

Iguanus chuckled knowingly. "Can you blame them? If someone killed you, I'd scower every crevice of this quadrant looking for your murderer."

Foxfire transformed swiftly and started to walk alongside her friends. "You know, I still don't remember how we got here."

Toadstool burped loudly without warning. Bonecrusher grimaced and Foxfire waved her hand in front of her face. "You don't wanna remember, sweet lady. It wasn't pretty."

"Kinda like your breath, frogface?" Iguanus laughed.

"Hey, I thought I told you not to mock my name!"

"Your name is the least of your worries, fly-muncher."

They used their free hands to grab weapons and aim them towards each other, just behind Bonecrusher's head. They heard the cocking of weapons, and looked to see Foxfire aiming a quasar pistol at both of their heads.

"You hurt my Pooky, and I scrag you both right here, understand?"

They nodded their heads emphatically, dropping their weapons and returning to the trail. Iguanus started to speak again.

"Well, the last thing I remember, Bise and I were talking to Optimus about the mission we were coming along for."

Toadstool shot him a quick glare, but he pressed on with his train of thought. "Yeah, we were sent to some strange dump-rock in the middle of the Delta Quadrant to junk some protoform that went ballistic on a beloved maximal colony. Heh, I still remember Depth Charge goin' apeslag about that."

Bonecrusher nodded and grunted softly. "Yeah, he wun't too happy 'bout X gettin' shipped with Primal."

Iguanus snickered. He looked over and noticed Toadstool fuming madly as they walked.

"What's got your circuits in a twist?"

"This mission was a secret, you tinhead snake!"

"Oh, for bootin' up soft, ya redbellied galoot..."

Bonecrusher coughed loudly. "Enough, you two. I don't think the Maximal Elders are going to care about our discussing this aloud, we all know what's going on here."

Toadstool stopped mid-stride. "What? I thought this mission was limited authorization! Foxfire, you told me you didn't know what was going on!"

Foxfire let out a light gasp, mouth gaping wide, as if to say something, but unable to find the words.

Iguanus shook his head. "She knew all along, rubbertongue. In fact, we know more about it than you do."

Toadstool dropped Bonecrusher's left arm and stepped back. "What the slag is this? How come I don't know what's goin' on with any blasted thing? The High Council is always keeping me in the dark. I've about had it, how am I supposed to be this team's strategic advisor if I don't know the strategies laid forth, huh? HUH?!?"

Bonecrusher sat down, obviously exhausted. Foxfire knelt down to aide him. She quickly assessed him, and her face turned sour.

"Hey, slag-face," Iguanus continued. "This is not your assignment. You only volunteered to come with to investigate the mudhole, you weren't assigned to details. Did you for once think that maybe it isn't your place to know everything that goes on on Cybertron? For once, you oughta..."

Foxfire screamed, "STOP IT!!"

Iguanus and Toadstool looked at each other, almost unsure of whether or not they were going to stop. Finally, they looked down to see Foxfire knelt over Bonecrusher, stasis locked. They both gasped loudly.

Foxfire looked at the two grimly, tears welling in her optics. "If we don't get him to some kind of repair facility within the next couple of megacycles...Bise is a goner."

Slipping quietly through the deadened forest near the most recent battles, Shadowcaster calmly ascertained the events of his arrival. He was one of the many new protoforms, having no prior experience to this world whatsoever. He was born of Earth now, just as much black panther as Cybertronian. And he intended to use both parts to the fullest extent.

He bounded past tree after tree, searching for something, yet not knowing what it was he was looking for. He approached a small cavern at the side of the giant mountain. Softly, he muttered his activation code and unfolded into his robotic form.

"That beam must have been something big," he whispered to himself. He opened a small compartment in his torso frame, retrieving an infrared scanner and a few hand-held tools. He started to scan the entire area, eyes growing wide with anticipation as he saw energon was in extreme abundance. He continued to walk in and came across large twin stainless-steel doors. After a few moments of searching the entirety of the place for some means of entrance, he felt a sudden pulse shudder his entire body. It wasn't very strong, but he knew that if he continued to remain in robot mode for too much longer, it would overwhelm him in no time.

After opening a tiny panel at the side and "adjusting" several of the wires, Shadowcaster noticed that the doors began to hum and glow. An intensely evil grin overcame his feline faceplate as he realized that entry was mere moments away. "Beast mode," he muttered, and allowed his pantherian overcoat to protect him from the energon buildup.

With a long, drawn out hissing noise, the doors slowly began to part from one another. Inside could be seen a strange laboratory with streams of energon emanating from and towards all possible directions. His optics almost burst from the intense radiance of pure energy and light. His jaw dropped as he entered the hallowed halls, fascinated by the sheer power that was confined within such a small physical space.

Shadowcaster cautiously toured the giant energy museum, taking in all of his surroundings. He peered intently, noticing every last conduit and fiber between the bare transmetal walls. He also carefully took into account the strange patterns that were being formed by the energy flow.

"Energon transmissions," he murmurred quietly to himself, almost totally inaudible underneath the immense noise being polluted from all around. "Information is being passed here at a phenomenal rate. It's almost like a...a..."

"Storage facility?" a strange voice cackled behind him.

Shadowcaster froze in mid-stride and hurled around to find himself face-to-face with a gargantuan transmetal arachnid. It's spider-like body was silky and black in tone, and betrayed the large pincers and stinger-tail of a scorpion. This creature was of a type the likes Shadowcaster had never before seen, and his terror overwhelmed him greatly. His legs started to wobble like fresh jell-o, and he couldn't seem to bring himself to flee. The creature closed in with him, grabbing the panther's forelegs with its immense claws. Its tail began to glow an eerie green, and Shadowcaster's heart leapt into his throat as the stinger sharply whipped into his skin. Before another thought could cross the predacon's mind, his consciousness dissipated.

"Impressive, Optimus, yes. But you'll have to do better than that. Keep fighting!"

Megatron sat at his control chair, spouting orders to his entire crew from the sanctity of his ship. Smug in his resolve, he had absolutely no intentions of losing to the maximals that were now pelting his base with open will. Beams dropped and circuitry sparked everywhere about him. Coolant began to leak all over the place, and he could barely see as all forms of noxious gases burst in his face. Waving a casual hand in front of his face, he coughed away some of the fumes and resumed his dutiful strategy.

Nightmare, Snapjaw and Quickstrike were having a blast, terrorizing the maximals with their incredible firepower. A spike bomb from Snapjaw was able to pick Cheetor out of the sky, while Quickstrike's venom blaster tumbled Silverbolt with little trouble. Rhinox, however, had better luck, and tossed Nightmare around with his chainguns. Rampage continued to open intense fire upon the predacon battlecruiser hovering above the base.

"My, what a lovely bird I pluck tonight," Rampage chuckled to himself as he burst the ship's shields with another potent missile barrage.

From within, the operative sat at his control chair, rocking with as the explosions deteriorated his powerful defense systems.

"Alright, that was impressive. Return fire!"

The wings of the cruiser lit ablaze and cascaded photon charges upon the murderous tank, blowing it into tiny pieces across the battlefield.

"What am I to do?" a raspy voice chimed to itself.

The repair chambers were occupied with the bulky forms of the two maximal fuzors rescued from the last battle. Their forms were charred horribly, and Rhinox was unsure of their survival. They had proven versatile, however, and were mere moments from total recuperation when Dracosaur awoke from repair mode.

"I, a creature with no allegiance, brought into a war-torn planet. With no known birthright and even less knowledge of my surroundings, I am surely doomed. At least, I am without...friends."

The young feminine voice of the predacon computer sprang to life. "Repair cycle complete."

Dracosaur reared back, folding his wings comfortably at his side. His eyes went wide with delight as the chamber doors hissed open. From the first chamber stepped a creature barely half his size (but about the same height as Rhinox). It stood upright with the body of a large brown grizzly bear, but its head was protrusive and mossy like that of an alligator. Its tail was also that of the alligator DNA it carried. As it stepped forward, it greeted Dracosaur kindly.

"By what are you called, my mismatched friend?"

The creature knelt down upon all fours and looked up again. "Grizzlock, maximize!"

Its transmetal body began to unfold from around it, revealing a large brute-warrior underneath. The alligator head and tail both unhinged to form its weapons, and it growled slightly under its breath. "Where am I?" it asked, disoriented.

"That is something I do not know, friend."

Grizzlock nodded affirmatively as the other chamber's occupant stepped out. Being barely a third the size of Dracosaur, it visibly trembled as it noticed the massive beast before it.

Dracosaur was in awe. This fuzor was unlike any other creature he had seen yet. It had the body of a Komodo dragon, but with a streak of red and white fur down its back, as well as the head and tail of a common fox. With an almost childlike voice, the fuzor spoke aloud, "FireFox, maximize!"

The small Cybertronian transformed promptly and walked up to the crystalline dragon-beast.

"I am Dracosaur, my...unusual friends. Welcome to what the strange ones have been calling the 'Beast Wars'."

"Inferno to Waspinator."

Static burst from the drone's commlink.

"Waspinator, respond."

Once more, static.

"Maybe bug-face got his servos shredded," Bloodfang snickered to himself.

"If that is true, then the Royalty will be most displeased," Inferno admonished. "We are to retrieve Shadowcaster and Waspinator for our Queen, immediately!"

With that, his tail-end jets burst online once more, and he leapt into the air militantly. Bloodfang shook his head in disbelief and transformed, himself taking to the air.

"And just how do you expect to find them? We wouldn't know where to begin looking."

As they encircled the mountain where the energon beam had burst a large hole into the mountaintop, Inferno started to postulate a possibility. "Both of them disappeared about the same time, around this area. It is possible this mountain is the key."

Bloodfang fanned his wings arrogantly, swooping down towards the deadened forest that neared the mountain. He promptly transformed, landing on foot. His scanners activated on high and began to sweep the area, alerting caution as they narrowed upon a small cavern emanating energon meer meters from his position.

"Hey, ant, I found somethin'."

He nonchalantly strode towards the opening when Inferno landed just in front of him and halted him in his tracks.

"No, Bloodfang. I will go first."

"Glory-hoggin' again, firebug?"

"If there is danger here, I am better suited in combat. You would be best advised to return to the colony and warn the Queen. If they are in here, they may be in trouble."

"Ahh. Stupid or not, they are predacons. I...suppose we should assist them."

Inferno spun around on his heels and advanced towards the open maw of the monolith landmark. As they neared the stainless-steel gateway, an energon surge stunted their progression. After lurching into beast mode, they entered the alien dome.

"By the Great Smelter," Inferno chimed over the extraneous noise pollution. "This must be the Archives that the Royalty spoke of. If we can secure this alien prize, we will stand to gain by the Queen's side."

Bloodfang began to drool at the thought of potential for power when a loud shriek emanated from above them.

"Not that you will have time to enjoy it, creatures!"

Inferno's eyes went wide as the transmetal arachnid leapt from the ceiling on a thick trail of cyberwebbing and landed with a loud thud within meters from where the stood. "Inferno, terrorize!"

The fire ant cackled madly as he unlocked his robotic form, blasting a series of napalm shots at the creature. It seemed to be phased by the onslaught, but not enough to slow it down.

"Oh, I like it when my prey likes to play rough."

It's giant stinger began to charge, and both of the predacons barely had enough time to evade its venomous burst as it collided with the ground. Bloodfang promptly transformed and began to fire himself when Inferno was overtaken by a crippling energon pulse. One of the arachnid's claws grasped him and tossed him against a far wall, sending him barreling into the ground. Bloodfang watched in horror as the beast caught up to him, grasping and stinging him. He watched as Inferno's optics exploded with a greenish light as the venom overtook his body, causing him to convulse madly. Finally, his eyes grew black and his head rolled to the side.

"He...he killed the bug..."

The giant arachnid spun around and began to address Bloodfang once more.

"There are fates worse than death, creature."

Quickly, he reverted to beast mode and escaped the library as a barrage of energon burst the walls open behind him. The creature cascaded the entire cavern behind him, blasting debris in front of the bat-bot as it sped through in search of safety. The cavern roughly rumbled and collapsed on the giant spider-scorpion, rendering it inoperable for the time being.

Bloodfang flew at top speed, barely staying in front of the falling debris as it crumbled around him. Finally, he burst through the mouth and escaped as the cave-in completely blocked it off, causing dust to spray and settle on everything within a close proximity. He found himself stocked at high speed towards the predacon base.

"Predacons, keep fighting!"

Quickstrike, Ramhorn, Wolfaton and Snapjaw were defending the perimeter against the onslaught of the battleship and Optimus' forces when the strange mantis-creature came out. Ramhorn grinned evilly as he knew what was about to come next.

"Mantilla, terrorize!!"

The creature transformed as it shrieked its command code with a strange bloodlust in its voice. It began to barrage Rattrap, Optimus, Rhinox and Black Arachnia with an insane fervor as its predacon allies blasted upon the cruiser. Megatron was beside himself from within, watching the battle.

Suddenly, the defenses went offline, and the ship was dark.

"What?" Megatron shouted, confused beyond belief. "This cannot be..."

"Oh, but it can," said a strangely accented voice from the shadows as several energon bands strapped him into his chair. Two infrared beams pierced through the darkness like a needle, aimed directly for Megatron's head. Finally, the air began to shimmer as the predacon operative's body slowly materialized from the darkness.

"Greetings, Megatron."

"Hey, rubberlips, did you see that?"

Iguanus edged Toadstool forward, pointing towards the collapsing cavern.

"Yeah, I saw that a'right. Sum'ns up."

Foxfire sighed loudly. "We don't have time to worry about it. Bise is dying, fellas."

Iguanus continued to walk towards the cavern. "And if somebody here, little lady, they can prolly be persuaded...one way or the other...inta gettin' him repaired."

Toadstool scoffed. "How the slag you expect to 'persuade' anyone in our current condition?"

Iguanus slyly grinned, "I do mah best, man."

The dust had just settled as they noticed the giant bat had taken to the skies and fled for its life. Foxfire shuddered visibly. "I think we just saw the bat outta hell, boys."

Toadstool groaned uncomfortably as he and Iguanus carried Bonecrusher towards the blocked cave. "And we the only fools dumb enough to see what scared it off."

Iguanus chuckled politely, releasing Bonecrusher from his hold. He opened several cannons, four along his ribs and one on each arm, and burst the closed tunnel open once more.

Foxfire pleaded, "I don't like this, Garis."

Toadstool snorted. "He doesn't seem to mind puttin' us in risk. He's just like Bise..."

"Y'all got any better ideas? We all gonna die if we don't find something, fast!"

The other two didn't seem to protest any further, so he continued about his business.

Iguanus had Toadstool aide Bonecrusher's limp body to the mountain wall where they laid him to rest. Foxfire agreed to stay behind and watch him as they dug their way through the tunnel as quickly as possible. She looked pleadingly at the sky as the first strands of daylight began to pierce the horizon. She reverted into beast mode and nuzzled her neck against the comatosed maximal, weeping silently as dust sprayed over her fur coat. The tears poured over her cheeks and down his torsoplate, running along the ground.

The lizard- and frog-bots were busy peeling away the earthen barrier that protected their destination, piece by piece. Iguanus had threatened to blast the door open, but Toadstool recommended against it, believing it may cause another cave-in. They worked diligently, tossing aside rock and boulder, one at a time, randomly about the area. Finally, after about a megacycle of tearing through the passage, Iguanus walked back outside to warn Foxfire about the doors they found.

As he approached, he noticed that they were both very still. His fuel pump leapt into his throat as he stepped carefully to them. He noticed the dust and tears that had covered them both, and went to wipe them down a little when he heard her weeping.

"Aww, no, honey doll," he comforted as he lifted her head up from Bonecrusher's torsoplate. He petted back her soft fur and slowly took her into his arms, cradling her as he sat against the rock wall where Bonecrusher laid comatosed. "He's gonna be alright, ya know? We've been through rougher'n this before."

Foxfire couldn't control her crying. Tear after tear streamed endlessly down her face, hardening the dust that had settled upon her skin and fur. Iguanus' heart broke in two at the sight, and all he could do was watch. He felt a little guilt choke into his throat, and he began to question himself.

"It's all my fault, doll. I shoulda stopped him from twistin' Megatron's panties back there."

Foxfire sniffed back a tear, and looked up at her maximal friend. Her face drenched and dirty from blood and dust, she sobbed to him, "No, Garis. It wasn't your fault."

"Foxy, he not gonna die, if it means I die in his place, you got me?"

She sighed another tear on his chest. "Nobody's gonna die."

"Well, that sounds a little better." He cracked a slight smile.

They sat there another moment, her head nuzzled into his chest, watching the sun's early light illuminate the cloudy sky ahead of them. For just one shining moment, it felt extremely peaceful. The beauty of the morning made them forget what was happening around them for that single instant in time. Just sitting there, holding onto each other, ally to ally, friend to friend, hoping to hold on to something slipping from their fingers all too quickly.

From nearby, the sound of footsteps startled them. Toadstool walked over to them quietly and almost inaudibly whispered to them, "It's time."

Foxfire transformed and sat down next to Bonecrusher, taking his right hand into both of hers, while Iguanus stood up and joined Toadstool at his side. "We'll be right back, honey doll. You just stay there and guard our buddy."

She shot a pained smile at them both before they turned away, loading their weapons and entering the mouth of the cave.

"So, it was a trap."

"Oh, no...really?"

"You are a piece of work. Even in prison, you still operate your own agenda."

Back at the cruiser, Megatron spent his time talking down the predacon operative that he knew had every intention of wiping out every Cybertronian on the planet. "I am not naive. You have no intention of returning me, or any of us, to Cybertron alive."

The operative looked him up and down in his energon prison. With a electric cage and several power bonds tying Megatron down, he didn't believe he was in much of a position to negotiate much. Still, he found his persistent arguing intriguing.

"That is true. But your crew is scattered." He walked over to one of the autoguns he had loaded and aimed at the predacon leader and adjusted a couple of parameters on it before continuing. "And I want no witnesses. Still. Why should I tolerate your existence any longer?"

He wasn't too happy at the fact that Megatron had led the maximals into a death trap searching for a so-called secret energon cache that Tarantulas, now discovered as a member of the Predacon Secret Police, had located and decrypted.

Megatron betrayed a slight smirk, chuckling to himself. "Did you ever wonder why I stole the golden disk in the first place?"

The agent paced towards his scanner screen, displaying nothing but a single Decepticon symbol. "You were looking for energon," he said, with a raised hand, gesturing his words.

"That was a bonus," Megatron replied from within his energon encasement. "It allowed me to recruit a crew, and gain potential for power. But the real reason was this..."

"The golden disk was launched from Earth aboard the Voyager spacecraft just as the secret war between the Autobots and Decepticons began. The original Megatron...your commander...had every intention of winning. But, like myself, he covered his bets. He inscribed a secret message into the golden disk. A message which I myself discovered...and decoded."

The agent looked at him suspiciously. "I am expected to believe you? You said yourself the disk was destroyed!"

Megatron tapped on the power bonds which held him meaningfully. The operative turned around. "Arm autoguns. Target the prisoner."

Megatron looked shocked as two more guns pulled out from the ceiling and targeted his chestplate. He looked at the agent as if he didn't know what to say.

"Release the power bonds."

As the bonds that constrained him vanished, he stretched his arms and yawned with the new physical freedom. He grinned slyly, and continued. "The golden disk was destroyed...but a fragment remains."

He retrieved a small golden fragment from his torso compartment, transformed his tail weapon into a datatrack reader, and placed the fragment inside. As it began to spin, he said, "And I am not expecting YOU to believe ME..."

He aimed it towards a wall inside his energon cage and played a small shred of the track against it. A screen appeared on the wall with a face that the operative would recognize. It was the Decepticon leader, Megatron. The original Megatron. The operative's jaw dropped as the old Megatron began to speak.

"This is Megatron..."

Optimus had decided it was time to take the initiative. He had gathered his troops together and went back to the mountain after having captured Megatron and securing the predacon base. The remaining predacons had fled, and their attempts to secure a useful source of energon to power the battlecruiser well enough to return them all to Cybertron met with disaster. Several charges were waiting for them, and detonated shortly after they arrived, sending an entire mountain of raw energon into an explosive fit.

Cheetor, Silverbolt, Dracosaur, FireFox and Optimus flew towards the mountain while Grizzlock, Rhinox, Rattrap and Black Arachnia went by land. Tarantulas had stayed behind to help the predacon operative keep the predacon base secure and Megatron imprisoned. He didn't believe it was the wisest thing to do, leaving a traitor in control of everything, but he knew he needed all of the troops he could spare to secure the alien library, if in fact his assumption about the mountain was correct.

Rattrap was sniffing around as he drove, and eventually came to a near-halt when he came across an unusual scent. "Hey, yo, Rhinox..."

The large maximal, being still in beast mode, came to an abrupt stop and trampled over to Rattrap in a hurry. "What have you found, Rattrap?"

Rattrap sniffed the ground thoughtfully. "It smells like...mech fluid. Like somebody's been walkin' this trail and leakin' da whole way."

Rhinox nods solemnly and decides to notify the rest of the crew over his commlink.

"Hey, scalebelly."

"Yeah, rubberface?"

"This place alternates my currents."

"You and me both, lilyhead."

As they stepped between the stainless-steel doors, they felt the overcurrent of energon slowly seeping into their vital systems. They both nodded at each other, realizing they wouldn't last more than a few cycles in robot mode. Without further hesitation, they blasted inside, weapons at the ready, cautiously watching each others' backs and everything in sight.

Toadstool cooed over the intense noise, "It looks like some kind of energon database."

Iguanus shouted back, "How can you tell?"

Toadstool aimed with his photon pistol towards several conduits running across the high ceiling. "Those are obviously cables." He continued to gesture towards one, and then the other, bulky frameworks built into the walls on either side of the library entrance. "They are obviously transmitting information at high speeds. It's as if it's a continuously updating feed."

Iguanus creased an eyebrow. "So what da slag's updatin' it, huh?"

From all around them echoed a bone-chilling voice. "That is my job, meat."

They both started anxiously aiming their weapons at anything that moved, nervously spinning around on a dime at any strange noise. Toadstool cracked first.

"What the slag was that?!?"

"I don't got a clue, man, but I don't see no repair chamber in 'ere, so let's boogie!!"

As they started to flee from the library, a giant arachnid climbed down over the door frame and blasted a small cyberweb over it, completely blocking their means of escape.

"Oh man, we're in for it now!" Iguanus shouted.