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Balance of Power
Part One
Disclaimer: Beast Wars
and all characters and references contained therein are the property of Hasbro,
Kenner, Mainframe, and Alliance. I hold no rights over their characters or
the television show. I do hold rights over my personally created
characters and the plot of the following story. If you have not watched
the show but plan to in the future, I suggest you do not read this story as it
may contain spoilers.
= = = = = =
Rattrap gave a big, exaggerated yawn and rubbed his optics. He was on
monitor duty at the Maximal command center tonight and was quite bored.
The Axalon's computer did not offer him a challenging game of cyber poker any
more, since he had learned how to read it. It seemed that whenever it made
a bluff, the computer took almost one and a half nano-clicks longer to play its
card. So there sat the rat, with one optic on the security monitors and
the other closed. It was shaping up to be another boring night watch.
= = = = = =
Blackarachnia was in much the same predicament as Rattrap. She too was
stuck with monitor duty again and was bored as well. The last time
anything interesting happened was nearly a week ago, when she, Waspinator, and
Inferno had ambushed Dinobot and Cheetor while they were investigating a crashed
stasis pod. She and the Predacons had reached it first and discovered the
blank protoform inside. It was worthless to them, but it made an excellent
trap. Unfortunately for her, Dinobot’s keen senses had detected one of
her legs protruding out from behind the rock she had been crouched behind.
When they returned to base, Inferno had ratted her out to Megatron.
“She is the reason for our failure, royalty.” He had said. And he was
right. She had been careless.
But things had been quiet recently, and although Megatron had managed to keep it
quite hush-hush, the she-spider suspected he was concocting another one of his
devious plans. She was curious about what it might be, but right now she
would give four of her legs for a little action.
Her daydreaming was interrupted when the sirens blared and the bases red warning
lights flared to life. She jumped to her feet and madly punched buttons on
the console in front of her. Just then, Megatron’s purple face appeared
on one of the monitor screens.
“Blackarachnia, report!”
“Stasis pod incoming chief, on vector 217.48. Grid Tiron.”
“How long before it hits ground?” Megatron inquired.
“Just under ten cycles,” Blackarachnia replied. “Should I…retrieve
it?”
“No! Not you, spider. After you botched the last mission, I don’t want
you anywhere near that stasis pod. No.”
Blackarachnia groaned and threw Megatron a furious glance.
Then Megatron spoke again. “Scorpinok will go and reprogram the pod.
Have him take Waspinator, Terrorsaur, and Inferno with him. I will follow
shortly. This pod will be ours, yeesss…”
= = = = = =
Optimus Primal flew over the canyon that ran through grid Tiron. When the
Maximal leader looked downward, he could see Cheetor directly below him, and
Dinobot and Rattrap following about a click behind.
Anxiously, Optimus searched the area in front of him for any sign of the crashed
pod. Fallen trees, displaced boulders, anything that might give away the
pod’s location. He was so focused on finding this pod that he didn’t
notice the danger looming above him.
“Terrorsaur, terroriiize!”
“Wazzpinator, terrorizzzze!”
The two Predacon flyers dove from their high position and began firing;
Terrorsaur with his shoulder cannons, and Waspinator with his dart gun.
Waspinator’s aim was off, but Terrorsaur’s wasn’t. A blast from his
cannon destroyed Optimus’ left prime-jet and sent him hurtling to the valley
floor below.
“Cheetor, Maximize!” The cat transformed and ran over to his fallen leader,
who was picking himself up off the ground. “You alright big bot?”
“Well isn’t this just prime…I’ll manage, but it looks like the preds
beat us to the pod. I just hope they haven’t reprogrammed the protoform
yet.”
Just then, Dinobot and Rattrap appeared next to the two other Maximals and
transformed. Immediately, Dinobot drew his sword and began firing his
optic lasers at the attacking Predacons. One blast hit Waspinator square
in the chest plate and sent him sprawling. As the rest of the Maximals
opened fire, the pterodactyl thought better of trying to hold them off on his
own and took off in an eastwardly direction.
“He is fleeing!” Dinobot exclaimed. “That coward will lead us
straight to the pod.”
Optimus tried to stand, but the series of sparks and energon surges that
followed forced him back to the ground. Quickly transforming to beast
mode, the gorilla turned to Rattrap.
“Rattrap, I want you to lead the mission until I get back. Until I
repair myself I won’t be any good in a fight. I’m going to head back
to base. I’ll send Airazor to reinforce you as soon as I’m within
communication’s range.”
“Eh, you got it fearless leader. We’ll get that pod back fer ya.
You jes worry ‘bout gettin’ back ta base in one piece.”
“Don’t worry big bot,” Cheetor piped up, “Those preds don’t stand a
chance.”
= = = = = =
Scorpinok stood hunched over the stasis pod’s control terminal. He was
about to begin the delicate process of replacing the Maximal program chip with a
Predacon chip and choosing a beast form for the new soldier. It wasn’t
the easiest thing to do, especially for Scorpinok and his big claws. But
he made it work, and before long he had completed the delicate operation and was
in the process of scanning a list of suitable life forms. Scorpinok
wasn’t a very creative bot, and soon he had decided on the form of a scorpion.
“Dinobot, maximize!”
Scorpinok whirled around to see the large brown head of a velociraptor fall away
and be replaced by Dinobot’s bright blue face. The scorpion brought a
claw up in an attempt to strike that face, but Dinobot caught Scorpinok’s arm
and drove his sword through the Predacon’s abdomen. Scorpinok looked
down just in time to see a few pints of his own mech fluid pour out of his gut
before he went into stasis lock.
Rattrap walked up behind Dinobot and pushed him aside. “Outta da way
chopperface. Let da rat work.
“Watch yourself vermin,” The raptor growled, “there are more Predacons
afoot…”
“Well you and da cat keep em offa me fer a few cycles while I try n’ fix
whatever the preds did to da pod.”
Dinobot snarled. “affirmative…”
= = = = = =
“AAAAAHHHH! You will buurrrn Maximal!” Screamed Inferno as he descended upon
an unsuspecting Cheetor. “The royalty commands your destruction!”
With that, the fire ant unleashed a massive volley of missiles towards the rock
Cheetor had dived behind.
Pulling out his quasar rifle, Cheetor took aim and fired several shots in
Inferno’s direction. One blast grazed inferno’s leg, but it didn’t
seem to phase the crazed insect. Searching frantically for a means of
countering the onslaught, Cheetor’s optics rested on a small grove of trees.
There was no way he was going to be able get off any decent shots from his
current position, but maybe…
Transforming to beast mode, Cheetor sprinted madly in the direction of the
trees. He checked his rear to make sure Inferno was following him, and
sure enough, the ant was in hot pursuit. Picking up speed, the
cheetah leaped from the ground onto a rock, and from the rock to a tree.
Under the pressure applied by the cat’s weight, the tree bent back, allowing
Cheetor to use it as a springboard. It hurled him through the air toward
Inferno at amazing speed. Transforming in mid air, Cheetor unleashed a
barrage of quasar pulses, all of which hit their mark. Before he fell
however, Inferno let loose one more missile, which also hit its mark.
Both bots fell to the ground, nonfunctional.
= = = = = =
Dinobot slowly and silently stalked through the valley, searching for the
Predacon he knew was near. He stopped and sniffed the air.
“Terrorsaur…” the raptor muttered.
Suddenly, Dinobot’s thoughts were interrupted when a missile grazed by his
head and crashed into the ground in front of him, sending him sprawling to the
dirt.
“Say goodbye, traitor!” screamed the pterodactyl as he pulled an assault
rifle from his back compartment and began firing. Dinobot picked himself
up off the ground and dove behind a boulder. Quickly, he turned and stuck
his head out to fire his optic lasers. To his dismay, he realized how far
away Terrorsaur was; just out of range of his lasers.
Thinking quickly, Dinobot jumped out from his cover and began making his way
toward the Predacon flyer, while using his rotary blade as a shield from the
energy blasts.
As he got closer, Terrorsaur began to worry. His shots weren’t stopping
the larger robot. Replacing the assault rifle in its compartment, he
activated his shoulder cannons and launched dual missiles at the advancing
Dinobot.
Dinobot knew his rotary blade would not protect him from the missiles.
With a desperate lunge, he hurled the spinning shield toward the missiles and
was gratified to see both of them detonate in mid air. Not wasting a
second, Dinobot leaped forwar and flung his sword through the air toward the
shocked pterodactyl. It struck Terrorsaur in the leg, not a serious wound,
but it did throw him off balance and caused him to come crashing to the ground.
Terrorsaur re-opened his optics and saw Dinobot looming over his prone form.
“Goodbye, weakling,” the raptor said with a grim smirk.
A prolonged blast from his optic lasers left Terrorsaur in a smoldering heap of
blackened metal. By this time, the energon fields of the planet had taken
their toll on Dinobot, so he transformed back to beast mode before heading back
to the pod’s landing site.
= = = = = =
Rattrap hit buttons madly on the stasis pod’s control terminal. “Eh,
dose stinkin’ preds… They’ve already reprogrammed da pod!” The rat
searched the ground frantically for any trace of the maximal chip that must have
been extracted. He found it clenched in Scorpinok’s claw and was just
about to remove it when he was gripped with a searing pain and fell to the
ground.
“Blackarachnia, terrorize!”
Rattrap tried feebly to reach his fusion gun, but his optics became darker and
darker with each passing nano-click as the cyber venom spread through his
circuits. He was non-functional in less than half a cycle.
Not wasting a second, the spider turned to the pod with a sly grin.
“Looks like I got here just in time.” Picking up the maximal chip, she
held it in her claw and applied just enough pressure to snap it in half.
“Now for the pod,” she said to herself. "One idiot scorpion
around here is enough for me. There's gotta be something better..."
“Beast form selected,” stated the computer. “Duplication process
complete.” The seal that protected the protoform was released and the
hatch blew open, allowing the new Predacon to emerge.
First one scaly, clawed foot gripped the pod wall, then another, and another,
until the lizard had all four of its legs outside the pod’s confines. It
then slithered out and onto the ground where it took a moment to examine itself.
“Who are you? And what am I doing here” he asked the spider.
“I’ll explain later. Right now, we got company!” Blackarachnia
stated looking off into the distance. Airazor was there, already
transformed and speeding toward them. As she neared, the falcon loosed a
volley of mini-missiles at the spider and knocked her to the ground.
“Reptilicussss, terrorize!”
The reptilian skin and scales melted away as the form of the Komodo dragon
twisted and turned into a dark green midsize robot. The head of the lizard
became the bot’s left hand; its right was a four-fingered mass of razor sharp
claws. In this hand, he held a plasma disruptor that he fired at the
stooping Maximal.
“Leeave here Maxxximal. Lesssst you ssstart a battle you cannot ffinissh.”
Reluctantly, Airazor realized the gravity of her situation and backed off.
Blackarachnia was back on her feet and in the distance she could see a large
purple dinosaur marching toward their position. She radioed for any
functional Maximals and was relieved to hear Dinobot’s voice crackle over her
transmitter. She flew off to find the raptor, giving one last sad glance
at the new Predacon.
= = = = = =
“Treacherous spider…” Megatron muttered to himself. “She’s disobeyed
me again.” As he neared, the Tyrannosaurus called to Blackarachnia,
“Widow! What in the inferno do you think you’re doing? I thought
I ordered you to remain at base. Explain yourself before I reduce you to a
burning pile of slag!”
“Oh, quit grinding your gears, grape face. If it weren’t for me, the
Maximals would’ve gotten the pod!” At this, a low growl thundered from
Megatron’s throat, but he said nothing. The spider kicked the prone form
of Scorpinok. “This idiot you sent to do the job couldn’t reprogram a
microwave. Besides,” she gestured to Reptilicus, “I didn’t tamper
with his programming. You can check it if you want.”
“Hmmm…that won’t be necessary.” Megatron transformed to robot mode
and pushed the spider out of the way to address the newcomer. “Ahem…I
am Megatron, leader of the Predacons on this planet. Who might you be?”
“I am Reptilicussss. How did I come to be here?”
“I will explain once we get back to base.” Megatron said. “The
Maximals no doubt have reinforcements on the way. I’ll send Panthera
back later with a team to salvage our fallen troops.”
= = = = = =
Optimus sighed a heavy sigh as he gently set the limp body of Cheetor in the CR
chamber, and then looked up to address Dinobot who was doing the same for
Rattrap. “That’s the second pod in a row we’ve lost to the Predacons…if
we don’t get it in gear soon, we’ll be up to our ears in hostiles.”
“They already have us outnumbered…” Dinobot pointed out, “We must find a
weakness and exploit it before they decide to bring the fight here and attack us
head on. The odds will be stacked against us.”
“Rhinox,” Optimus said turning to the big green robot sitting at a computer
terminal, “We need a weapon. That’ll be our job for the day. I
want some sort of plan by the time Rattrap and Cheetor are up and functional
again."
= = = = = =
End of part one.