8.Feb.09
Beast
Wars
Chapter
Two:
Something here
The
night was warm though still cool enough that Rattrap was surprised to see one of
his targets, the one that he thought was more important. Though, not to pull any
importance away from the new Maximal...or possible reprogrammed Predacon.
Either
way, Rattrap wondered why the new transformer had gone with (or was it taken?)
the human he’d seen. The human he was looking at right now.
“Maximize.”
Rattrap whispered, “Stealth mode.” He added just before transforming so that
a low powered field surrounded his shell for a few moments. That field reduced
the sounds Rattrap’s body made in its transformation.
With
a flick of his wrist and a quick dip into subspace, Rattrap tightened his right
hand around his trusted, and well cared for semi-automatic energy pistol. The
Maximal put his shoulder up against a tree trunk and swept his reactivate
scanners over the aria, looking for the missing ant-transformer.
The
night was almost a little too quite. There was still some night going insects
firing off various buzzes, clicks, chirps, a whistle and here and there flashes
of lights from some bugs. But there was no sign of any of the nocturnal, forest
going birds or mammals, small or large.
Very
few beams of the moonlight above broke the maze of branches. Yet Rattrap could
still see, thanks to the wonderful thing known as inferred vision. The Maximal
could see every rock, pebble, twig, leaf and tree.
There
were also no signs of the giant fire ant Rattrap had seen a few times, nor of
its robotic form. And that made him uneasy. Rattrap was a little bit worried,
but not for himself. He had too many stellar-cycles of wide spread experience to
be overly concerned with the safety of his person. Despite Rattraps numerous
and sometimes very vocal protests to the contrary. Rattrap would admit,
and only to himself, that he like to complain more often than not.
Yet,
all things considering when it came down to it, Rattrap was one of the best
mechs to have on your side.
Right
now though, Rattrap was far more concerned for the still human body that was
half hidden between the large roots of a tree.
The
small Maximal was probably the only transformer on this planet that had not only
met a human; but Rattrap was one of the few that had (discreetly) ignored the
Maximal Counsel of Elders’ ‘law’ of not interfering with any human worlds
or space.
Long
ago, Rattrap had learned that the Elders were wrong about the humans. He liked
them. They knew how to have fun and how to work. He had spent stellar-cycles on
human colonies, even half of one on the once shared colony of Omicron before it
dropped off the radar of Maximal scanners. Though he had never gone to the human
home world, having never been that interested and most humans kept it hidden.
Slowly,
Rattrap pushed off the tree he was using as cover and moved over to where the
human was. He activated all scanners on top of visually scanning the aria.
Rattrap
glanced down, looking at the human, a female woman he noted. Not too young, but
old enough to be on her own in human terms. How she ended up here, on
this planet, he couldn’t guess.
“Hey
kid,” Rattrap said softly, shifting his pistol to his left hand, the Maximal
knelt. He reached out and placed a hand on the woman’s shoulder and shook it,
though carefully, mindful of his own metallic body.
A
few things happened at once than.
The
human woman jerked awake with a confused sound and wide blue eyes starting up
into Rattrap’s own red optics. Apparently the sight of him was so unexpected
to the already jumpy woman that, in retrospect it wasn’t that surprising that
she let out a half yip, half yelp and through herself away from the bright
red-glowing eyes in the dark.
Her
panicked yell had also triggered the reaction of the previously missing fire
ant. With and unnatural shriek that was a combination of something organic and
robotic, the giant any busted out of the ground, pausing only long enough to
spot the intruder (namely Rattrap) and lunged.
Rattrap
snapped his pistol up and got one three-round shot off as he stumbled back. “Eeeeaaaaaaaah!”
The Maximal screamed, the first time in a while as the ant’s powerful
mandibles clamped down around his middle and shook almost viciously. Hard enough
that Rattrap lost his grip on his weapon, watching it slide over the back of the
ant and drop into the whole he’d made in his appearance.
“-Vare
avvack vhe vween!” the new transformer was saying, voice muffled by the
smaller Maximal it held.
“Inferno!”
“Vou
vill not harm her-”
“INFERNO!”
The human screamed herself this time and when the ant paused for a second she
darted closer and grabbed on if his antennae at the base and bent backwards an
inch.
“AH!”
the giant ant, Inferno immediately let go of Rattrap, backing up and away in an
attempt to lessen the new and far more pressing pain on his head. “My
Queen…please, please Royalty…!”
Rattrap
couldn’t move for a few minutes, warning signs flashed and flooded his HUD,
nearly blocking out his vision as his body told him everything that was crushed,
bend and damaged. The Maximal suck in air in rapid gasps to cool his over heated
shell. Rattrap was on his knees, propped up partly by one hand and his left
forearm on the ground, his head hanging down.
“-I
mean it! Don’t make me hurt you Inferno!”
“I
was only trying to protect you my Queen…”
“I
understand that, but I told you before not to randomly attack things, and
people!”
“He
attack you!”
“He
startled me!”
Rattrap
shook his head as his adios flashed on and off again. Squinting he slowly focus
on one sense at a time, blocking one warning massage after another until he
could hear and see again properly.
The
silence that greeted him wasn’t really comforting and he looked up, spotting
in the corner of his HUD that time had passed again.
This.
Really. Wasn’t. His day.
…At
all.
A
soft (to him) and organic hand grasped his shoulder and Rattrap looked up,
hearing the sound of a transformation as well.
Rattrap
had forgotten how interesting human eyes could be. As well as how expressive
they could be.
Worry...
“Hey
don’t-” The voice trailed off into darkness as Rattrap’s field of vision
tilted sideways and dimmed on both the human’s face as well as that of the new
mech who stepped forward.
Stasis
lock claimed the Maximal.