Turmoil

Beast Wars Anoymous:

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 Turmoil series begins immediately after the episode "Crossing the Rubicon."

Page Administrator's Note: This story contains adult content. Consider yourself warned.

Turmoil, pt. 1
by Ralph Ares (ralph@isgsfo.com)

"Unit Blackarachnia: Maximal Repair Status: complete Operational status: 100% functional. Opening CR chamber."

Blackarachnia's optics switched on as she stepped out of the CR chamber. She stretched her arms in the air and yawned. What time was it? A quick look at the ops console told her that she had been in the CR chamber for over six megacycles. The other CR chamber was still cooling down, so Silverbolt must have just gotten out a few minutes before her.

It was around 200 hours and whoever was supposed to be on duty in the control room was off dozing somewhere.

Where was Rover, anyway? It wasn't like Silverbolt to run out without saying anything. She sat down at the conference table to rest for a few minutes more with her head buried in her arms.

"Good evening, beloved," said a voice from behind her.

Startled, Blackarachnia spun around in her chair to see Silverbolt standing in the doorway; she gave a sigh of relief. "So, a sneak attack, eh?" she smiled.

Silverbolt smiled back. He approached and embraced her lightly as she stood to do the same. Their bodies were still warm, his more then hers, probably because of the heat involved in patching up all those holes he had accumulated during their little scrap with Rampage.

Rattrap returned after chewing out Cheetor for falling asleep at his post and stopped a few feet from the doorway, still in beast mode. He moved back into the hall as he watched them kiss for a good three minutes. It sickened Rattrap to watch Silverbolt kissing a former Predacon. Sure, she was technically a Maximal now, but his hatred of all Preds ran deep. For the sake of not getting in a major scrap with the two lovers he waited until they were done and just looking into each other's eyes before he made his entrance. "Uh, you two gonna be long? 'Cause I have to get back on duty before King Kong drop kicks my tail down field, okay?"

Blackarachnia rolled her eyes at the obvious peeping tom and walked out of the control room with Silverbolt. "Don't you ever get tired of the rat always snooping around?" she asked before they were out of earshot. Rattrap simply mumbled something to himself and slumped back at his post.

"You'll get used to him."

"You almost sound like you expect me to stay around long enough to get used to him," she said teasingly.

"Yes," Silverbolt gave a slight, half laugh. "We could run away together," he added, also teasingly.

Blackarachnia smiled seductively. "How 'bout we do that right now?"

"What?"

"Oh, come on, just for tonight." She ran her hand down his chest. "It'll be fun." She leaned over to whisper something inaudible in his ear and slid her lips across his neck as she pulled away again. It was only her trained willpower that stopped her from bearing her fangs with her mouth so close to his neck; she still had the instincts of a black widow spider and it was hard to keep from having intrusive thoughts about how her instincts told her to show her affection. She took the reluctant Silverbolt's hand and led him down the corridor toward the main entrance.

Meanwhile, on board the Ark

"So then after shutting up my slaggin' computer I got sucked into the vortex, ended up in this time frame and the rest is history." Depth Charge put his hands behind his head. "I guess it's just a bit unsettling sometimes, you know, knowing that you've already been here, that everything you do would have been old news before you ever came online that kind of thing. Hey, you're a really good listener, you know that?" Depth Charge popped another energon goody into his 'mouth.' "You want one, man?"

He held out the half-full container to the, limp, long-offline body of the Autobot known as Wheel-Jack. "No? Oh well, more for me then." He put his feet up on the large Autobot weapon lying on the floor that Wheel-Jack had dropped long ago. "So this is where the great Grimlock was born, eh? Wow." He shook his head in disbelief at all the stories that he had heard of the Ark and of the adventures of its first and only crew. He had never actually seen the Ark; it had been destroyed long before his time.

Depth Charge wasn't an old Maximal, but sometimes he felt like it. Protoform X, the maniac that the Maximal government had created, had destroyed his home while he was supposed to be guarding it. His home was a small, almost secret colony in the very farthest parts of a vast frontier; there was no way any rescue ship could have gotten there fast enough. He was one of the few survivors of the monster. His families, his friends, all of them were gone. It was no wonder few found it hard to understand him. Protoform X was like a shark; no one could understand what one of its attacks were like unless they lived through one. He could still see his hellish red eyes in his dreams, taunting him, laughing at him. Those eyes had seen the last moments of life that his friends had had. He had been hunting him for years before he finally caught him. But now he was lost again on this planet, and no matter where he was, it didn't make a difference. What mattered was that it was loose and alive. He vowed to find some way to kill it one day, one day...

He shook off that line of thought; it wasn't good to think about that in his business. That's just what Rampage (Protoform X) liked; that's what he wanted. Instead he looked over the inside of the ship. This place meant a lot to the obsessed Maximal and he sometimes came here to unwind. He hadn't been doing it for long; he had just recently hacked the access codes out of Optimus's personal files. "Well, I guess I'd better go so that want-to-be Prime doesn't catch me in here and make me listen to one of his long drawn-out lectures and drill me on how I got in here." Depth Charge got up and casually started to walk out. "Hey Iron-hide, nice to see you again," he said to the body of another Autobot. He thought he might take a quick flight to clear his mind. Though he was most suited to the water in his stingray mode he also had a limited flight mode that he had programmed into his replication process himself.

He was just about to leave when he was caught off-guard by a loud beeping on the over sized control panels of the giant sized ship. "What in the Inferno-"

"Incoming vessel of unknown origin. Autobot life signs detected on board," stated the computer.

"By the pit," started Depth Charge, but thoughts eclipsed all other words in his mind.

Later

"So what are you saying? This thing's Autobot?"

"No, it's from our time, all right, I just don't know how it got here," said Rhinox, answering Rattrap's annoying question.

"Well, they could have gotten here the same way I did," interjected Depth Charge, more to himself then anyone else. He was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed and his eyes trained upon the floor in thought.

"But from what you told us, that sector was deemed off limits. Why would any 'law abiding' Maximal disobey orders from the very top?" Optimus said. Optimus was the commander of the Maximal group on this planet and was physically well suited to his role. He was now the biggest of the Maximals and the Predacons. He now had Autobot energy running though his body and transformed into what looked like a cross between a monkey and a jet.

"They might be scavengers or pirates for all we know," said Rhinox, a tall green Cybertronian with soft red optics, pessimistic but with a calm indifference. Rhinox was huge for a Maximal of his age. He had thick strong limbs and a stone wall for a torso, and, like his name suggested, he transformed into a rhinoceros.

"Most likely, with all the ships that disappeared in this sector I wouldn't be a bit surprised if they were salvagers," Rattrap said, staring at the static-filled pictures on the view screen. "Looks like the right kind of ship anyhow; large cargo space, easily modified, old paint job. Oh boy, this sure looks like something out of an Autobot shipyard to me. Are you sure that this is from our time frame? 'Cause if it were about twice as big it could have been a ship in one of the Great Wars or something."

"Well, if it is a salvage ship, then the first place they're going to go is the Predacon's base." The rest of the occupants in the control room were now looking directly at Depth Charge. "What I mean is, if they're looking for something to salvage then they're going to go for what they can see from orbit, and the Pred's base is the only ship that's still out in the open."

"Slag! He's right you know, Optimus. If we don't find a way to warn them about the Preds, they won't be expecting an attack," Rhinox grimaced.

"Well that's just-"

"Don't say it, Optimus!" Rattrap spun around in his seat. "Every time you say it something bad happens, especially to me."

"By the way, Rattrap, where are Silverbolt and Blackarachnia?"

"How should I know? For all I know they could be greasing each others gears," he said with a humph.

"That's enough, Rattrap. When I want your attitude toward those two I'll program it into you! Got that?!"

"Sure thing boss-bot." Rattrap retreated back to the scanners. Optimus opened a channel with the perimeter defenses. "Cheetor, have you seen Silverbolt and Blackarachnia?"

"Yeah, they passed through the front gate about a megacycle ago."

"Any idea where they may be now?"

"Sure as I am fast. Scanners can't help but picking up all the noise they're making out there." There was a hint of jealousy in his voice.

Rattrap muttered and trailed off without looking back at Optimus.

"Well, I don't care what they're doing, get them back here now!"

"You got it, big-bot." Cheetor opened a channel to Silverbolt and Blackarachnia's com-system. "Aww, ain't you two cute. Hate to break up your fun but we've got big trouble back here and Optimus says to get back here on the double!"

Without waiting for the surprised response he knew was coming, he switched off the com-link just in time to hear a shocked expression and panting for breath. Cheetor put his feet up on the console and his hands behind his head, all the while laughing at the two and how they thought that they had been in a private place. Man, would he ever hear about this from them when they got back.

Cheetor laughed harder. That was, if they could catch him.

High in orbit around the primitive Earth is the salvage barge Mad Max. On board are several labor drones, a few humans, and one Cybertronian. After outrunning a Maximal cruiser on patrol, they were caught in a temporal vortex and transported to their current predicament.

"Whoa, what hit me?" Grace stood up and got back into her seat on the bridge.

"Are we dead? Did the patrol get us?" Zach got up and dusted himself off.

"Does anyone know if the cargo is okay?" said Dave Nodeman, holding his head.

Grace made a disrespectful snort. "Dad, screw the damn cargo, we could have been killed just now. What was that thing, anyway?"

"Scanners indicate a temporal vortex," said Max in a digital tone as he stood up and checked himself for damage on his nearly indestructible, Junkian built drone body.

"Thanks Max. Go check on the 'Cargo' will ya?" said Dina Nodeman. "They might be injured so get a medical drone to help you."

"Right away Mrs. Nodeman," said the only sentient drone on the ship as he scuttled off on all four legs to see to the 'Cargo.'

"Hey, where's Wheeler?" asked Grace, still holding her forehead.

"Right here," said the surprisingly short Autobot as he stumbled onto the bridge. "I told you this sector was sealed off for a good reason! Now we're in some kind of weird Twilight Zone and we're never going to get this 'Cargo' back to Yardarm in time!"

"Well, what did you want me to do?! I couldn't have used a shipping lane, do you know the penalty for doing this sort of thing?!"

"Both of you just shut off!" yelled Dina as she held up a fusion pistol in an empty threat, but it did the trick. "Now come on people, let's just find out what in the pit is going on here and get the 'Cargo' delivered on time before this turns into another Aliens sequel, okay?! Now every one to their stations and be quick about it."

Grace started tapping away at her keyboard. "Engines were a little depolarized but they're go."

"Life support is go," Zach shouted out.

"Tactical is go," Dave flashed the O.K. sign.

"Navigation is go," Wheeler sat down in his chair.

"Weapons are go," said Dina.

"All cargo is secure and maintenance is tacking care of damage to the outer hull," Max's face appeared on a monitor located at his normal place on the bridge.

"Good. Now that we know how we're doing, let's think of a game plan. I want to hear options, people."

"I think we can follow the vortex back the way we came," Wheeler said, looking over the scanner data. "Whoa, what have we here?" Wheeler started to check his calculations for errors.

"What's the 411, Wheely?" asked Grace, spinning around in her chair.

"According to the star positions, we're in the past."

"Okay, so then it must have been a Pred transwarp field we went through."

"Yeah, and that means that there's a Predacon ship in the sector."

Wheeler typed away at his station and shook his head. "I'm detecting massive amounts of debris on that planet, looks like a Maximal exploration ship and a Predacon cruiser and there are numerous Cybertronian life signs on the surface."

"Oh, great, marooned Maximals and Predacons on Gilligan's Planet, we really need this," Zach said sarcastically.

"No, this is just what we need."

Everyone turned around and stared at Grace, including Max who had just gotten to the bridge.

"Look, we can't go back the way we came because then we'd be back to where we started."

"Yeah, so?"

"So, we can hide the ship in orbit around that moon and go down to the surface in the escape pods."

"What good will that do?" asked Grace's father.

"Wheeler, are any of the ships operational?"

"The Predacon ship is badly damaged and they're missing a few engine components, but yeah, it could fly again if we got the drones to work overtime and gave it a little elbow grease."

"Oh okay, I see where you're going," Zach got a big mischievous smile. "We go down to the planet, say we were attacked by-" he snapped his fingers to try to think of the right attackers. "A Predacon raider ship. We're in the era of the first Great War."

"Yeah, and say that they stole some weapons and supplies. We can dump them in deep space now, and after we fix up their ship with supplies we bring down-"

"We come back up here to grab what cargo they might have missed," Dave spoke hypothetically. "Then we slip by the Maximal blockade like that," Dave snapped his fingers.

"All right, all right," Dina gave her nod of approval. "Now let's work out the details and then we can get the cargo to Yardarm-"

"We don't have time for all that! Our buyer will want them in less the a week-"

"Our buyer hasn't been born yet; we're in the past, remember? Now, come on, people, let's get going. We have to make this look seamless."

Three stasis pods, whose already decaying orbits had been disturbed by space debris, crashed to the surface of the planet near a dark, foreboding place.

One crashed deep into soft limestone where its front end became lodged and crumpled. The other two landed near the opening of a large cave where they also landed hard and began to short out.

"Scanning for compatible life forms." Through much effort by all three of the failing pod systems, the DNA scanners were raised and beams of yellow light circled out in all directions.

"Compatible life form found. Beginning replication process." Two of the DNA scanners either jammed or fell off after completing their main function in existence.

The pod lodged in the limestone started to short out again. "Rep- Rep- Replication malfunction; rescanning for compatible life forms. Additional life form found, con- con- con- continuing replication process-- Replication process--" Those were the last words the pod could say as it had suffered heavy damage both in orbit and on impact.

There was a dead silence in the velvety, dark, cloak of darkness that was the night. Then something inside the pod started slamming dents in the lid in order to escape its confines. As the lid was flung far across the rock face, a hideous, horrid being rose from the pod like a vampire from its tomb. A hellish, moldy-green light shot from the thing's eyes accompanied by a blood-curdling screech. Large, paper-thin wings spread from the pod and the nightmarish creature flew off into the night.

Only a few meters away vertically, the other two pods had chosen their life forms. "Replication process complete-- Rep- Rep- Replication malfunction-"

What a night, thought Cheetor. The ship in orbit had disappeared, there was an electrical storm that was messing with the long-range scanners something awful, and Blackarachnia and Silverbolt had kicked the scrap out of him when they found him. "Man, I'm just going to crawl into the CR chamber and never come out." Cheetor limped over to the CR but was stopped by a sudden beeping at one of the computers.

"Stasis pods located to the east."

"Ultra-gear!" Cheetor jumped into the seat then regretted it. He punched up a link to another part of the base. "Hey, Optimus, we have located pods at coordinates 8" 30' by 19" 44'" [smack in the middle of nowhere in the African savanna]. "That's the best I can give ya Optimus, this storm's really messing with the scanners."

"Understood, Optimus out!"

Far away from the storm’s influence there is a still, quiet pond in the middle of the woods, were two victims of Cupid’s arrows lay by the water’s edge. She lay on top of his much larger body and giggled at his failure to see the constellations she was pointing out. “Okay, bone-brain, listen. See that bright star, right there?” she lifted her hand from his on her waist to point to the star.

“Yes,” nodded Silverbolt still chuckling a little.

“Good, now you go to the right a little, see those two close stars?” she moved her hand accordingly.

“Yes.”

“Well then there you have it, that’s were we’re from, that’s uh, that’s Cybertron.”

He looked for a few moments. “What’s it like?” asked the fuzor.

The She-spider smiled and tried not to laugh too much. “You wouldn’t like it, Rover. It’s mostly cities, towers, factories, barely any organic life,” she stared out into space for a moment. “You know, when I signed on to this mission I was convinced I would never see it again.”

“Really?” asked Silverbolt.

“Yeah… but I don’t know why… I know about Cybertron from my data-tracks but I don’t remember my life there.”

“You miss it, don’t you?” he said looking down at her.

“Not really, it’s more like a dream really. Just another one of those stars out there, just another world, another time,” she smiled up at the male’s face. “I’m the kind of girl who likes to concentrate more on the present.”

Silverbolt held her waist tighter to himself playfully. “Oh really now? Hum, and what would you be concentrating on now, my lady?”

“Oh, I think I can think of a few things,” her smile melted into a look of seduction and she rolled over to look him in the face. He stooped playing with one of her spider legs that came out of her back and looked into her eyes. She had such beautiful eyes, so deep, so clear. Except for her mouth her eyes were the only part of her face that wasn’t part of the Roman-like helmet that covered a large area of her head.

They kissed lightly a few times and his attention shifted to her dark blue skin. It was so smooth and soft, but yet tough and thick. Besides her gold helmet there weren’t too many places where her beautiful skin was hidden. She had a tall pair of gold boots, a pair of talons that covered the backs of her hands, some upper body armor that held her spider’s legs for when she transformed to beast mode, and some additional armor that was more for decency’s sake than protection. Her hide was as strong as any armor.

They were kissing more now, and longer, both of them had their hands start to wander a bit. She nuzzled her head on his shoulder as he began to undo her upper body armor. She again realized the position she was in and how easy it would be to sink her teeth into his neck and drain his mech-fluid. She truly loved him and her spider’s instincts were screaming out to her to show it in a Black widow’s fashion. It was almost irresistible, the warm creamy mech-fluid, the blood of a Cybertronian, so close she could almost smell it. She couldn’t take it anymore and rolled over, off of him.

“What? Is everything alright, my lady?”

“Yeah, I just… I just have a headache that’s all.”

Silverbolt dropped himself back onto the grass. “Oh. Well that’s all right,” he wasn’t very good at hiding disappointment.

Blackarachnia almost didn’t hear him; she really did have a throbbing feeling in her head. “Ahhh!” She suddenly yelled and she grabbed her temples in pain.

“What is it?!”

“Rats and bats, and spiders and wolfs…” said an eerie voice that seemed to be coming from inside Blackarachnia’s head.

“Who said that?!” screamed Blackarachnia.

“Who said what?” said a very confused Silverbolt.

“…Monsters, demons, witches and ghouls!” said the hunting voice again. A pair of red glowing eyes appeared in Blackarachnia’s mind. Following it was a long flow of flashing images including a stasis pod, a screaming protoform, the last moments of life, the feeling of fear, anger, and rage! She started screaming like a banshee.

“Blackarachnia! What is it?!”

“Get out of my head! Tarantulas? Is that you!” The bewildered Maximal, now standing, fell limp in Silverbolt’s arms. He lay her on the ground filled with worry.

He gave a sigh of relief to see that she was still breathing. That meant that she wasn’t in stasis-lock. But she still was unconscious which was odd considering that Maximals didn’t just lose consciousness without going off line. He caught the scent of something that made him go to beast mode and started to growl like a wolf defending its mate. He started to growl at a pair of red eyes in the bushes and undergrowth and beard his wolfs teeth and eagle’s talons. But when the eyes closed they were gone without a trace.

Meanwhile on board the Mad Max

Grace was walking down one of the narrow corridors on the outer hull with her favorite drone, Max. They were talking over the preparation of the ship and the safeguards for the cargo, when Zach popped out from around the corner. "Hey Grace," he said in a cocky voice.

Grace gestured to Max to leave them alone and the drone excused himself and walked off in the other direction without another word.

Grace turned back to Zach. "Hey there, buddy," Grace punched in a few commands into the wall console and then typed down the information in her data-pad. "What's on your mind?" she said as if she didn't know.

"Well I was just thinking that before we head down to the planet that-"

"Forget it, Zach. There isn't a force in nature that could change my mind, so just forget it," she interrupted without looking up from her data-pad.

"Oh, come on Grace-"

"No!" she said looking up from her work. "It's not going to happen. So just back off."

"Look, Grace-"

"Okay, that one time, that was an accident."

"No way! That was New Year's Eve and you had drank enough to put an Elmedieon Charger to sleep!"

"Look, Zach. We've been friends now for how long, 15, 16 years?"

"Yeah, around there."

"Well since before we could remember, but just back off on this, okay?" Zach started to retaliate but Grace just held up her hand. "Look, Zachary, go take a nice cold shower, okay?" Grace walked away indifferently from Zach and headed to the command center at the end of the hall.

She slumped into her chair and put her boots up on her console and crossed her arms over her chest.

Wheeler and her mother were at their stations. Dina Nodeman flashed a look at the Autobot who knew the drill with things like this and left to work on some other part of the ship. When the automatic door swooshed closed Dina turned around in her chair to face her daughter.

"I don't want to talk about it, Mother," Grace said as he closed her eyes to rub her temples.

"He made another pass at you didn't he?"

Grace sighed. "You know, our friendship was so much easier before puberty set in."

Dina sighed in sympathy. "So, do you want me to give him garbage compactor duty?"

"No, Mother. It's not his fault. He's just-" she leaned back in her chair with her arms crossing her chest again. "Male."

"Well, Grace, I'm sorry, but I just don't see the problem. You've known each other since we took him in. You two are always on the same ship together." Dina thought for a moment and obviously found something amusing. "Do you remember that time when you two had to share an umbilical for three days when you jumped ship from that passenger cruise?"

"How could I forget, I still can't get the smell out of that suit," she said buckling over with laughter.

When the two stopped laughing Dina stared at her offspring lovingly. "You know, Grace, most of the adults at Yardarm refer to you two as a couple."

Grace rolled her eyes at this news. "Great, just what I need: Public Opinion."

"Oh come on Grace, he's a nice boy. What's the problem?"

"So, what, are you on his side now?"

"Grace, you know I'd never force you to anything you didn't want to do-"

"Oh, does that mean I can just skip my duties for the next few days?"

Dina almost smacked her forehead and thought, I should have seen that one coming. "Grace, it's just that you're twenty-three now and you still don't have any interests in anyone in or out of the colony. I had always thought that it was because you were keeping it open for Zach, but-"

"No, I just don't want things to change okay? Like you said, we have been friends most of our lives, I would be like seeing my brother; it'd just be too weird," she shrugged it off and turned to her station to continue her work.

"Well," Dina said putting on an understanding face. "I guess you'll always have Max," the two burst into laughter again.

It is dawn on the plains of Africa, a pride of lions have come across a pair of intruders in their territory. The dominant male approached cautiously, sizing up its opponent. Then it pounced on the intruder only to find that it was hard as a rock and hit him with a strange arm that popped out of the top. The other intruder did the same. "Scanning for compatible life forms."

The lion decided to let this be a warning to the two creatures that obviously didn't want to fight. He gave them a bellowing roar and with his pride walked off, not wanting to be disturbed with such things anymore. Then a weird yellow light passed them, along with a strange, and rather loud, flying thing that flew in the direction of the two creatures. Well the lions had had enough of this and started to run off to a more peaceful part of their territory.

Optimus transformed and landed by the two pods just in time to see the pods open their lids. And out stepped two yellow lions. Two pods, he though, this was unexpected. "Greetings, friends, I hope you had a pleasant sleep," said Optimal Optimus with a hint of humor.

"Greetings, commander Primal," said the two, nearly identical, lionesses in unison. "What happened to you?" they said with confused looks on their faces.

"Oh, this?" he looked at his body. "It's a long story, I'll tell you all about it when we get back to base.

"What happened to the Axalon?" they said, again in unison.

"I'm afraid it's gone. It was destroyed by Predacons."

The two looked at one another and seemed a bit agitated by this news, they transformed to robot mode. They were tall, slender, and beautiful. They looked like female versions of the original Cheetor body, they had a shinny new red and gold paint job each, and both had quasar cannons in hand. Of the differences from the other cat-bots was the presence of tails in their robot mode and jetpacks.

"Now then if you'll follow me to base, it's a bit of long ways away, so we better get started."

"Yes, commander. And by the way," the twin lionesses said. "My name is Siren," said the lioness on the right with the red face, speaking alone for the first time.

"And I am Felicia," said the lioness with the tan face.

"Pleasure to meet you, welcome aboard," he jumped up and transferred to flight mode. He flew off, going slower then he was capable of to give the new arrivals a chance to catch up, but soon found this unnecessary and a mistake as the two soon passed him and made him struggle to catch up.

Author's Note: The Turmoil series begins immediately after the episode "Crossing the Rubicon."

Page Administrator's Note: This story contains adult content. Consider yourself warned.

Turmoil, pt. 2
by Ralph Ares (ralph@isgsfo.com)

"Well that's a surprise, how many again, Silverbolt?"

"Four humans, one Autobot and several drones."

"Well, I'll tell Optimus when he gets back, Cheetor out," Cheetor flicked off the com-station, not seeming to be aware of the person sneaking up behind him.

"Well, hello there, tall, dark, and musty," said a seductive, female voice behind him.

Cheetor spun around quickly to see the unfamiliar Cybertronian. "Uh, hi, who are you?"

"I'm the new girl on the block," she said coyly as she walked over and sat down on the console next to Cheetor.

"Well my name's, uh..." he seemed totally stupefied as he sat there ogling at the sleek, gold and tan Maximal.

Optimus walked by the doorway not seeming to notice, followed >by Siren who stopped momentarily to see her sister shamelessly >flirting with a rather ugly Maximal male, as she thought. She shook her head, mumbled something about a slut, and turned to catch up with Optimus.

"Cheetor," he finally remembering his name.

"I'm Felicia," she rubbed her hand across his cheek. "I'm sure a handsome Maximal like your self is already taken, so I hope I'm not overstepping my bounds by asking if you're doing anything tonight."

Cheetor just sat there frozen but, somehow, managed to shake his head.

Felicia smile broadened. "Good."

A sudden thought whip lashed in Cheetor's mind. "Oh, slag, I have watch duty tonight."

Felicia shrugged. "Oh well, some other time, pussy-cat?"

"Su-su-sure," Cheetor managed to stutter out.

"That's a good kitty," she said and she taped his nose with the tip of her finger. She started to walk away, swishing the tip of her tail in his face first, then walked out, hips slightly swinging.

Cheetor just watched her leave, unblinking. And after she was gone he just sat there staring at the doorway. "B- b- bye Felicia."

They looked like an ancient caravan of explorers slicing there way though the jungle. Grace and Zach were relaxing in Wheeler's car mode as they headed to the Maximal base. Grace was listening to her walk-man while Zach was looking over the inventory list of the supplies they had brought down in the escape pods.

"So do you actually think they're going to buy this, Wheeler?"

"Who knows? But I guess it's a little late for that now. All I'm worried about is how we're going to get that Predacon ship?!" his anger was directed at Grace.

"Okay, okay, I admit I made a mistake. How was I supposed to know that these Predacons were criminals?!"

"You could have just kept your big mouth shut! Come on Grace, put two and two together; if two ships are crashed on an alien world at the same time they most likely shot each other down

"Oh yeah, ships shoot themselves down on alien planets all the time, don't they?" she said sarcastically.

"Would you two shut up?! I can't drive with you two annoying me! Now you two play nice or I'll have to separate you," he flashed the ejection seat button on his dash bard.

"We could make a deal with the Predacons. We scratch their backs they scratch ours."

"Yeah, and next why don't we make a deal with the crew of the Bounty?"

"Hey, I don't hear you coming up with any better ideas."

"No, Zach's right, we can't trust these Predacons. Our best bet is using the Maximals to take the ship by force."

"And how long would that take?! I'm not being stuck on this planet for Stellar Cycles!"

"Well, I don't think we have a choice, Grace," said Zach sympathetically.

"You're crazy! Wheeler, tell Zach he's crazy." Wheeler sighed. "I'm sorry Grace, but"

"You're both crazy!" Grace tossed open the door of the slow moving vehicle that was following the drones.

"Grace, where are you going?"

"For a walk! I might as well get used to this stupid planet!" she said scornfully. She turned on her Exo-suit jetpacks and flew off in a fit.

Dave Nodeman took his daughter's place in Wheeler. "What's Grace doing?" He asked calmly.

"Must have been something I said."

"Oh, Quickstrike?" called a slow calm voice.

"I'm comin' sugar-bot!" called out Quickstrike to Blackarachnia.

"Oh, Quickstrike, you're so strong, and brave, and tough, no one could beat you."

"Well, ya got that right little lady," he put his 'arm' around her.

"Oh, and Quickstrike?"

"Yeah?" he turned back to her.

"Guess what? I lied." Before his eyes she changed into a hideous spider creature with long fangs, twisted gnarled horns, rusted, and dirty.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!" yelled the terrified fuzor. He then found himself in a spider's web, face to face with a monster version of Blackarachnia and the other Predacon's limp, lifeless bodies lying around him.

His eyes snapped open; it was just a dream. He knew that. That's not what scared him. It was the huge, ugly, thing in the shadows whose glowing, ghostly, eyes seemed to pierce the very essence of his spark.

He pointed his snake arm at it only to find that he couldn't fire it. "What in the Sam hill is going on here?!" he shouted, but that was the last thing he said before the thing pounced to finished him off.

Somewhere else on the planet that very same night

The wiry travelers sat around their campfire in the deep forest. "So you're saying they just came out of nowhere and just opened fire?"

"You've got it, 'Bolts. I don't know what they wanted or who they were. All I know is that when they started boarding the first thing I did was to get my family off the ship." Dave Nodeman looked over at his wife who was playing some kind of card game with Grace and Zach. "You've got a girl, Silverbolt?"

"Yes."

"Well that sounded mournful."

"She's been having blackouts lately, I fear it might be due to a disease she recently recovered from. She's stable but-" he didn't need nor want to elaborate further, it was obvious that he was worried.

Dave decided that this was not the best conversation to get into right now. "Well," he tossed the stick he was using to poke at the fire with into the flames. "Maybe I have something here to take you're mind off that." He stood up and gestured for

Silverbolt to follow him to one of the cargo containers. What could possibly take my mind off my beloved? He thought as Dave opened the large container.

"We found these in orbit." He pulled off the inner lid to reveal, lying about as casually as spare parts, a long vessel like object with Cybertronian writing on it.

"A Stasis Pod!" said the startled Bird/Dog.

"We found 17 of them in erratic orbits around the planet and observed three more land not far from here."

"With the other two stasis pods we found and your arrival this may be the end of the Beast Wars."

"Precisely," said Grace getting up after winning. "Then we can take them prisoner, take their ship, we repair the ship, get off this rock and back to the real world," Grace said as she walked over to her father.

Silverbolt shook off the feeling that she had been practicing that speech. "This is truly a day to remember," Silverbolt said as the thought of his love snapped him back to reality.

"Don't worry so much, Spot," Grace said as she, rather comically, scratched behind his ear.

"Well, it's just something doesn't feel right somehow."

The Arachnoid in the tree above them scattered off after securing its findings.

Also at the same time, back in the Predacon base

"Twenty-two pods," muttered an infuriated Megatron to the assembled Predacon. "TWENTY-TWO PODS?!!" he screamed out as he shattered the monitor screen before him. "WHY WAS I NOT INFORMED OF THIS?!!"

"The storm was interfering with our sensors, Mighty Megatron, there was no way we could have known," stammered a cowering Tarantulas.

"I don't want to hear excuses!" he looked around at the Predacons and slammed his fist into the arm of his chair. "Where's Quickstrike?! Why isn't he here?!"

"He does not appear on any of our sensors, My Queen, internal of external-"

"But that can only mean he isn't in the base or in the Jamming zone, he would have to be in Maximal territory," interrupted Tarantulas.

"Or he could just be dead, we don't have time to look for him! All of you, come with me, we're attacking their camp!"

"Yes, My Queen," said Inferno, already running out of the command center eager to redeem himself in the eyes of his royalty. The other Predacons quickly followed.

The place is Cybertron; the time is for some far in the future. For others it is not too far in the past. A powerful and influential general stared out at the pitch-black morning sky from his office window. Down below they were loading the "brand spankin' new exploration ship" as the general referred to it. He turned around and sighed to collect his thoughts. Then he directed his attention to the six soldiers standing at ease, but still with blank, obedient expressions on their faces.

"You are the best of the best to ever come out of the Maximal secret operations lab. It is to you that this terrible assignment is passed to," he looked over the two identical females. And the four males, less identical then their female counterparts, two with red glowing eyes, one with green eyes, and the last with cold yellow eyes. "It is ironic that I would have the name Unicron. I was named after the monster planet you all know from you're data-tracks. It was he who created the first mutant spark, which I have tried to recreate. But, even though we were able to make a nearly match it was a failure. It is the job of this ship," he gestured to the window. "To take it to some uninhabited planet where it won't be able to hurt our people ever again. However," he switched on the security cameras so that the six could see on the screen in front of them the raging, chained monster that they were trying to load on the ship. "If the unthinkable should happen," he sighed again. "Well, you'll know what to do."

"Sir, yes, sir," said the line of troops all at once.

"Now, I'm not going to sugar-coat this for you like those in mission briefing. This thing is some of the most purely concentrated evil we have known since the Great Wars. If the Predacons ever found out that we were producing such weapons, it would most certainly mean all out war. Do you understand?"

"Sir, yes, sir."

"Good, now, I'm telling you that it's probable that not a single one of you will survive if you're orders are put into action. Now then, seeing as this will be you're last night on Cybertron, possibly forever, I suggest you use this time for personal matters, dismissed."

The six dispersed and walked down the corridor two by two. "So what do you think about all this, AC57?"

AC58's sister sighed. "I don't really know, sis. It's still a long time before we'll have to do anything, besides I'm the kind of girl who likes to concentrate more on the present."

General Unicron waited until the troops were gone and gestured to the one way mirror that was the window into his office from a secret room, from which stepped a tall, green robot with soft red optics. He was huge for a Maximal of his age; he had thick strong limbs and a stone wall for a torso.

The general bid greetings to his old friend. "I take it you saw the team?"

"Uh-huh," said the old Maximal with a calm indifference.

"What do you think about them, Orion?"

"I think they're all hotshots, unstable, and who could kill off a whole planet and themselves too if they darn-well felt like it," Orion smiled. "They'll do."

"Very good. Now shouldn't you be going over the flight plan of the... what was the name of that ship again," he gestured out the window again.

"The Axalon."

"Ah, yes, the Axalon."

"Water content 95.983%. Soil content 0.034%. Pollutants 0.0003%," Max shook his nearly perfect round head. "Perfect," he muttered as he stared at the water sample he had taken from the river. He had never seen naturally flowing water that was so clean.

He sealed the sample and placed it into a container on his 'waist' and decided to check how it was down river. He had only gotten a few feet when his audio sensors heard a growling from behind him. He turned around to see a tall, white and gray, Predacon.

Max's reflex response was to shoot sulfuric acid in the Pred's face and run off as fast as his four spidery legs would carry him. The Predacon screamed in rage and Max sounded the alarm by making an ear piercing siren noise. Though he did not make it for long as two of his legs were shot out from under him and toppled over like a broken toy and rolled into the coursing river where a second shot to the torso blow out his hydraulics pump and knocked every system off line.

The last thing that Max saw was his left arm floating in his own mech-fluid, and then there was nothing.

"Did you hear something?" Grace said as she looked out the flap of her tent.

Zach lifted his head off his pillow and half opened his eyes groggily. "No go back to bed, Grace. Its nothing." He dropped his head back onto his pillow.

"I thought I heard Max's siren go off."

"Grace, what ever it is I think it can wait till morning."

Grace went over to the arm piece and hit the com button. "Hello, Max?" nothing but static.

"He's just recharging," he yawned. "Go back to sleep."

"Still, I think I'll go for a walk anyway."

He sighed. "Be back soon."

"I will," she said as she tossed her hair free from her dog tag's chain and walked out. It was a cold night, too cold for Grace's comfort. Wheeler and Silverbolt were sleeping around the fire and her parents seemed to be in their tent. There was a slight wind and it chilled the night air, she crossed her arms close to her body and looked around at the camp sight. There was a circle of logs surrounding the fire where Silverbolt and Wheeler slept. The two tents were on one side of the fire and on the other side was crate upon crate of equipment, half of it was filled with drones and drone parts. Behind the tent there was a small stream. The camp was surrounded with trees and underbrush that seemed to give their situation an almost pleasant feeling. Grace looked up at a mighty redwood, tall and ancient, it must have been one of the first trees in this forest. She started to walk over to the campfire when she heard a shrill whistling sound. She didn't even have time to turn around before an explosion sent her flying forward and she landed on the now wide-awake Silverbolt with a thud.

She managed to lift herself up and turned to see the smoldering crater that was her tent. "ZACH!!," she shouted.

"We're under attack!" shouted Silverbolt as he transformed to bot-mode.

"Oh what a startling deduction," Wheeler said sarcastically. He pulled his mass-driver gun off the ground and started to shoot at the incoming flyers.

"Burn Autobot!!" cried Inferno as he opened fire, literally, on Wheeler.

Wheeler turned his head to cough out the smoke and, for the most part was unaffected by the flames, shot a hole in Inferno's chest the size of a basketball.

Grace shot off one of Waspinator's wings but he was able to land on his feet. He slammed his metal fist into her gut as she charged at him with a sword and he kicked her in the jaw sending her to the floor.

Grace tripped him with her legs, which were much stronger then Waspinator had expected due to the Exo-suit's legs she was wearing. She jumped on him, pinning him down, and started slugging the scrap out of him until he was able to slam his fist in her side. He stood up and put his foot on her back as he pulled his gun.

"Goodbye, fleshy-bot. Zee you in the Inferno!"

As he pulled the trigger he was grabbed by the ankle and the wrist by a drone that started spinning him around and slammed him head on into a that mighty red wood.

Grace jumped to her feet and patted the drone on the shoulder with her unshielded arm as her Exo arm had taken the full force of Waspinator's shot. Seeing as her drill-laser was no longer in operation and her fusion pistol was strapped, she grabbed Waspinator's gun and shot him down again when he started to get back up.

Megatron tossed off the ten or twelve two legged drones that were trying to take him down and shot six more before the rest of his forces got there. "Don't shoot the pods you ideates!"

Dinobot was now using his talons to sword fight with Silverbolt. Silverbolt sliced one of his feather sword into Dinobot's arm hinge. Dinobot gouged his talon into Silverbolt's right shoulder and sent him flying back with a blast of his monocle. He then wasted no time in decapitating a drone that was charging at him with a energy sword.

Wheeler stomped on a few Arachnoids that were trying to drag away a stasis pods. Wheeler was then knocked down by Inferno's fist in his face. "Spineless relic! You will burn for your insult!" Inferno said as he held his wound with one arm and his gun in the other. He shot off one of Wheeler's arms before Wheeler was able to trip him and cram a concussion grenade in his open gut and rolled away.

"Long live the Royalty!!!" his words were dulled by the explosion, and he was gone except for a few pieces of smoking scrap.

"Whatever," Wheeler said as he crushed Inferno's head under his foot. "Get the pods to safety!" he bellowed at some drones who immediately obeyed their master's wishes.

Tarantulas who managed to sneak into the middle of the cargo containers started typing away at the keys on the side of a stasis pod and laughed cynically as he connected the reprogramming chip and the yellow light flooded the camp.

"They've gotten to the pods!" Dave Nodeman shouted as three more yellow beams of light swept over him.

"I'm on it Dad!" Grace run over to the cargo, past many dead drones that were laying lifelessly in front of the pods they were pulling to safety.

She spotted the spider and shot him directly between the eyes and he flew backwards into several cargo crates. Less then a second after that two razor sharp claws dug into her shoulders and lifted her off her feet screaming. "Now you're a naughty little girl aren't you?" said a female voice from behind her.

Grace kicked wildly and managed to knock her attacker back. Though this did result in slashing up her right arm even more she was able to pick up Waspinator's gun and shot the large Praying mantis who had attached her. However this victory was short lived as she was quickly impaled though the back by a gagged sword that popped out of her abdomen. Her eyes rolled back and she fell limp on the ground.

The robot behind her chuckled quietly and ran off to fight a more worthy opponent.

Megatron looked around to see that all the stasis pods had been either taken, destroyed, or converted. "Predacons! We have what we came for! The night is ours, return to base!"

The Predacons, both new and old picked up their wounded and ran off shooting behind them as they went.

"Come back cowards!" yelled Dina as she fired her fusion pistols in their direction. She was full ready to go after them when her husband grabbed her by the arm.

"Dina, Grace is down!" They ran over to where Grace was sprawled out on the ground. "Quick, get the tissue fuser and the first aid kit!"

Optimus sighed a sigh of either concern or irritation. "So how many did they get?"

"Ten," said a rather solemn Rhinox.

"And the others?"

"Two were destroyed, we got the other five. But out of those five three of them were blanks, the Preds got a blank too though."

"SLAG!" Optimus pounded the unfortunate wall that happened to get in the way of his fist. "What about the three that the humans said they saw fall from orbit?"

"When we got there all we found were three empty pods. No reprogramming chips but the pods looked like scrap. Who knows what condition the new Maximals are in?"

"What information did we learn from the pods?"

"One female, two males."

"Serial numbers?"

"The fist male was 95211.6583-AB75, the other 235411.6783-AB73," Rhinox seemed to become more distant when he said the numbers.

Optimus looked his friends face for a second, studying it, was that a look of fear or guilt? "And the female?"

"23692.9867-AC58."

Life on this world wasn't going to be easy. It was a world of turmoil, a planet of chaos. What Grace wouldn't do for a good old Maximal patrol-fleet to outrun right about now. At least they followed some laws, some order.

Grace's life had been a unique one to say the least. She started using a space suit a few days after she could walk, she had been flying shuttles when other kids were learning about them in school, and while her peers were studying self-defense she was raiding transport ships.

Grace didn't regret living her life the way she had so far, that was for her parents to worry about. She loved her life-style; always just one jump in front of the Pred authorities and slagging the Maximal's, stealing from the Quintessons, and hiding with the Junkians. It was a life of adventure, a life of glory a life that now felt so empty. A life that had one critical piece missing. There was an old remedy for filling that void inside, one as old as time itself: filling in the missing part with the lust for revenge. A hunger to make others feel that pain.

But her lifetime of experience told her that it was the mission that was most important. And yet, wasn't the mission trying to do the same thing? It was the correction of a wrong that happened long before the Maximals or the Predacons had ever existed. It wasn't just a mission for funding, it was also Wheeler's mission.

The mission of those who died before him.

There was a hint of irony that in their attempts to escape they had trapped themselves. Their ship was orbiting around the dark side of the moon, the Pred ship was under the control of some of the worst criminals of Cybertron, and they had landed themselves in a war that could destroy or save their whole race. Now no matter what, they couldn't leave.

If only she had kept her big mouth shut, she thought. Then we wouldn't have ever come down to this world. It's my fault that he's dead. The future was looking as dark and bleak as the cold wet crater she was staring into.

She buried her head in her arms and gritted her teeth to try to stop from crying. What was Zach to here? A friend, a brother-something else For some reason she felt like that was the most important thing she had to decide. But like the hole she was sitting by, there was no clear end to it that she could see.

She could hear the bottom of the pit filling with water. It was raining hard tonight, Grace wondered if it did every night. She ran her fingers through her wet hair and stood up slowly after grabbing two fist-fulls of something out of her pockets. She placed her fists on her shoulders, the ceremonial sign of mourning. She then tossed a fist of broken glass and a fist of white rose peddles into the tomb where there were no remains.

Painfully she turned away and started the long walk back to the Maximal base.

As Blackarachnia slept her thoughts were peaceful and pleasant. They were mostly about her and Silverbolt. But then, as if a bolt of lightning, she started to toss and turn, muttering something that could not be understood by the ever-close Silverbolt who was sitting at her bedside.

The she-spider's eye flew open as she screamed at the ceiling with all out terror before she was fully awake.

She turned to Silverbolt and flung her arms around him gasping for breath as if she had just been running from her invisible fear. "Calm yourself, my lady. It was only a dream," he caressed her back.

She shook her head strongly, getting her breath back finally. "No it was real, it was a memory. Those faces those eyes-" her speech was broken by a terrified crying.

Realizing that this was the first time that he had even imagined Blackarachnia crying Silverbolt was alerted that there might be something more to this then a mere dream. He looked her straight in the eyes. "Was it about your past?"

Blackarachnia seemed to look confused for a moment then thought. "It's all slipping away so fast now I don't know," she put her head on his shoulder tried to compose herself, also realizing that this had been the first time that she could ever remember herself crying. "I don't know, it was like some one else's memories. It's like a long flow of images, I just can't shake the feeling that I'm supposed to know what they mean."

Silverbolt let go of her slowly and reached over for his pillow on the other side of the bed and but it behind of Blackarachnia's back. "How do you know they aren't yours?"

She shook her head again, trying to find the right words. "I can't explain it. I just know they aren't. It's listening to an old tune and not knowing the song, it's-" she shook her head again as the feelings slipped away completely. "I don't know," she sighed and sat there for a few moments composing herself. "So," she acted like nothing had happened. "Are you up to finishing what we started by the pond?" she asked with a mischievous smile.