The Chronicles of the Doomcat
Part Five: Entropy
By: Miss Special
He looked up at the sky, marveling at the clouds. There weren't any clouds on Cybertron, or at least there weren't, until the planet had been changed.
But he wasn't on Cybertron, so that didn't really matter right now. He leaned against a building, near the mouth of an alleyway. He was in a small Transformer outpost on a small planet in a small solar system.
He was a tall, broad-shouldered, feline-ish, green-eyed mech, and he was bored. There was nothing to do in this joke of a city. Nothing to do but look up at the clouds...
His thoughts were interrupted when a smallish bot carrying a massive white sword came out of the alleyway and pushed past him without even an "Excuse me." The bot ran down the street, glancing behind it.
The mech didn't have a chance to get back to thinking when he looked up and saw a black femme jump off the far wall of the alleyway, unfurl a pair of white wings, and fly after the smallish bot.
Seeing this as an opportunity to do something, he followed both the bot and the femme down the street, but by the time he caught up with them, the bot was lying facefirst on the ground, and the femme was putting the sword in a sheath strapped to her back.
"That'll teach the little punk to steal Ace," she muttered, probably to herself. Without another word, she jumped up to the roof of the nearest building, a full two stories up. Curious, the mech climbed the stairs in the building to the roof, where the femme was looking down at the so- called city below. She didn't seem to notice the mech.
He cautiously walked over to her, wondering what she was looking for. He was nearing the edge when she whirled around, drawing her sword. The mech found the point of the long, flat-sided sword aimed right at his Spark.
"I didn't mean to surprise you," he said. "I um... mean you no harm." Wow, he thought to himself. That sounded really dorky.
The femme grinned impishly and sheathed her sword, saying, "You didn't surprise me. I could hear you coming up the stairs. I just wanted to scare you."
"Mind if I ask who Ace is?" the mech said. The femme jerked a thumb towards her sword. "You named you sword Ace?" She nodded. "Where'd you get a thing like that?"
"Why? You want one?"
"I might."
"Trust me, you don't want one. Price is way too high."
"How high?"
The femme looked troubled for a fleeting moment and said, "Nevermind."
"Why Ace?"
"Huh?"
"Why'd you name it Ace?"
"It's a good name. An ace is the best card to have in poker, which is a game relying mostly on luck, chance, and skill. And it works for phrases like, 'Ace in the hole,' or 'Ace up my sleeve.'"
"Oh," the mech said, now enlightened.
"Hey, you're reformatted," the femme observed.
"So are you," he pointed out.
"I've never met anyone who's chosen to be reformatted."
"I didn't choose. I was part of the decontamination crew for that transformation lock virus Megatron let loose. I got infected, so I had to be reformatted or else I'd die."
"What's your name?" the femme asked. The mech hesitated, not sure he wanted to tell. The femme started looking impatient, so he mumbled his name.
"What's that? I'm not sure I caught it."
"My name's Entropy." The femme stared at him for a moment, and then dissolved into laughter.
"You- haha- name's- ha- Entropy?!? As in- hahaha- ‘things start deteriorating as soon- haha- as they’re created’ Entropy?"
"My friends call me En," he added, wishing he'd just made up a name instead. The femme continued laughing, almost doubling over. "If my name's so funny, then what's yours?"
"Destroyer Angel," she answered. It sounded to Entropy like she answered automatically.
"What's your name again?" he asked, testing his theory.
"Destroyer Angel." Her laughter was subsiding.
"What is it?" he asked for a third time, enjoying what he was discovering.
"Destroyer Angel. Stop that!!" She wasn’t laughing anymore.
"Why do you do that?"
"It's command protocol. For some reason, I have to give my name whenever I'm asked."
"That's stupid. Whose idea was that?"
"Nevermind."
"What's your name?"
"Destroyer Angel. Grr- next time you do that, I'm gonna knock your block off."
"Destroyer Angel? And you think MY name's weird?"
"Hey, don't make fun of my name," she sounded offended.
"Lemme guess, you got it from the same place you got Ace."
"Look, I don't have to put up with this, so I'll just leave you and your silly name to the rooftop." She jumped off the roof, landing softly.
"Hey, wait! I'm sorry!" He jumped after her, landing hard enough to send him into beast mode. Destroyer Angel turned around and looked at him. Her jaw dropped. Entropy's beast mode was a cat built heavily enough to make the Doomcat look dainty. He had massive paws, thick forelimbs, spots that looked something like elongated jaguar rosettes, stripes, a short tail, triangular ears, brown fur, green eyes, and- his weirdest feature- short saber teeth.
"What the Pit are you?" Destroyer Angel asked, awestruck.
"Um... whatsitcalled... Dinofelis."
"Dinofelis?" Destroyer Angel repeated. Dinofelis was an ancient cat with false-saber teeth similar to its cousin, the smilodon, otherwise known as saber-toothed cat.
"My friends thought it was appropriate for me to be an extinct animal, what, with a name like Entropy," he explained. "Oh, slag, and it's going to take forever for me to transform again. Being one with your beast mode is danged hard!"
"You can't transform?"
"I barely understand how to walk with four legs, much less transform the way reformatteds do it."
Destroyer Angel laughed and said, "C'mon, follow me and I'll show you how to get used to your beast mode."
"What, you mean you get it?"
"There was a time when I thought I really WAS a cat, and then a longer time when I thought I was a cat with a robot inside."
"Primus, you're messed up."
Angel turned around, saying brightly, "More than you know. Anyways, I’ll drop Ace off at the ‘Bomber, and then I’ll teach you.” She started walking.
“The Bomber?” En followed her.
“The Little Bomber. My ship.”
“Figures. You’re able to get off this planet.”
“Spirit and I are just here long enough to refuel, and then it’s back to space.”
“Where are you going?”
“Wherever. It’s not the destination, it’s the journey.”
“Ever been to Earth?”
Angel laughed. “Have I been to Earth? En, I fought in the Beast Wars. I consider Earth my home before everything else .”
“That explains a lot. You mentioned someone- Spirit? Who’s that?”
“She’s my best friend. You’ll probably meet her. She’ll be interested to see a Dinofelis. Look- there it is.” She pointed at her ship. “The Little Bomber.”
“Hey, that’s a pretty nice ship.” He was about to ask where she got it, but thought better of it.
“I’ll be back shortly,” she said, taking the lift up into the ship. She quickly returned, swordless. “Alright, time for cat lessons.” She transformed to beast mode.
En stared at her. “What kind of cat are you? I’ve never heard of a winged cat!”
She puffed out her chest, saying proudly, “I’m a Doomcat- the only Doomcat.” En assumed she got her beast mode from the same place she got Ace and her name.
“First thing’s first,” she said, sitting down. “Weaponry above all else. Do you know how to use your claws?”
En held up a massive paw and flexed it. Long, sharp claws came out.
“Um… Okay, let’s try something harder… ears.” She swiveled her ears around. En found he could do this as well.
“I still don’t get why you didn’t know this stuff in the first place. Try smelling something.”
“Hey, wow!” He sniffed. “I didn’t know I could smell all this stuff!”
“Yeah, it’s surprising what you can learn by breathing through your nose.” Angel rolled her eyes.
“Okay, if this is all so easy, then do the eye thing.”
“Eye thing?”
“Make your pupils get bigger and smaller.”
“That’s a light thing. It’s automatic.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Try twitching your tail.”
“I’ve done that before. It’s transforming I have trouble with.”
“Oh! No prob, Spirit found a way to get past that.”
“She did?”
“Yeah. It’s a simple programming modification.” Angel guided En through the simple steps. If they weren’t simple, Angel herself wouldn’t have been able to do them. “See, and then you just say, ‘maximize’, and you transform. Watch- Destroyer Angel, maximize!” Angel transformed, just like she said she would. Entropy tried with success.
“Before either of them could say another word, a ship loudly landed near the Little Bomber.
“It’s a ship called the Rana,” En said, reading the side of the ship.
“Uh-oh. This’ll be awkward,” Angel groaned.
“What, do you know them?”
“Spirit and I were all set to explore with them, and then something came up, and we left the crew.”
“Uh-huh.” Entropy knew he wasn’t getting the full story.
The Rana’s lift lowered, and a kangaroo peered out. It spotted Angel and made a bee-line for her.
“Angel!” the kangaroo exclaimed, obviously happy to see her.
“Hi, Marcy!” Angel hoped that sounded enthusiastic. “How’s exploring treating you?”
“It’s great! We found a planet, and we looked at bugs, and we got plants!” the kangaroo hopped up and down excitedly.
“Angel, is that you?” Kodiak asked, coming over. Angel muttered, “Sort of,” under her breath, hoping no one heard. En looked at her funny. He must’ve heard.
“So,” Kodiak asked Angel, obviously trying to strike up a conversation “what brings you here?”
“My ship,” Angel answered. “We landed were because we needed to refuel.” Angel screamed inwardly as the rest of the Rana’s crew came over.
“Really? We’re here to get some R&R. We just finished exploring a small moon with life on it.” How did the original Angel tolerate these people??? She greeted the rest of the crew- Jimbob, Alcan, and Darkwing. She then introduced En to the crew, mercifully using his nickname.
Destroyer Angel remembered how Darkwing insulted Optimus, and suppressed an evil impulse. Some part of her mind decided if Darkwing said anything bad about Optimus, she’d rip him apart.
“What have you been up to since you left the ship?” Kodiak asked.
“Oh, not much. I’ve been playing with the Cybertropolis Symphony a lot, Spirit went back to work at a lab, and other than that I’ve been sitting around.”
“Do you still hang out with all those people from the Beast Wars?” Marcy sounded like she was on sugar.
“Of course I do. They’re family to me.”
Darkwing grumbled, “And I bet you still think Primal was among the greatest leaders of Cybertron.”
The next thing anyone knew, Destroyer Angel had grabbed Darkwing by the throat and lifted him off the ground.
“I will not tolerate anyone speaking ill of Optimus." En noticed her voice now had a metallic ring to it.
Kodiak started, "Angel-"
"I am Destroyer Angel, not the Angel you once knew." Destroyer Angel interrupted.
Darkwing remained defiant, saying, “I will say what I want.”
A small white cat streaked out of the Little Bomber and to the group. That must be Spirit, En thought.
“Darkwing, shut up before she kills you! Destroyer Angel, stand down!”
“Do you think I fear her?” Darkwing said.
“You should!” Spirit answered. “She’s a berserker, and a powerful one at that. Destroyer Angel, put him down! Do you want to make a mess of things?”
En had no idea what was going on.
“Remember what happened on Cybertron?” Spirit continued. "Do you want to repeat that?"
Destroyer Angel did nothing. En got an idea.
"Hey," he called to her, "what's your name?"
"Destroyer Angel." She dropped Darkwing and turned and started advancing menacingly to Entropy. En wished he'd kept his mouth shut.
"Yeah, and my name's Entropy." Maybe he could save himself if he kept talking. "Remember? You think it's funny." Destroyer Angel paused. His name WAS funny.
"And I had trouble transforming until you helped me." He laughed nervously, "Isn't that pitiful?"
Destroyer Angel stopped her advance, took a long, deep breath, and said, "En, that was a stupid thing you did just now."
"Yeah, I know." He felt immensely relieved. The danger appeared to be over.
"No, you don't. I was about this far from going berserk." She indicated a tiny amount of space with her fingers.
"What happens when you do?" Kodiak asked timidly.
"All of you would probably be dead, or at least severely injured."
"Angel," Spirit said softly. "We're all fueled up. I think we'd better go."
Angel nodded. "Right." She turned her focus to everyone. "Sorry about that. Don't think about it too much; I'm outta here." She and Spirit went up the lift into the Little Bomber.
En watched quietly as the ship took off and left the small city on the small planet.
End Part 5.