Drain of Lost Past

Drain of Lost Past - Act 2

Part 4

~ First Steps To Rescue ~

"It's worse than hell around here", Felina mumbled.

And that it was. The stifling heat was hard to enduredue to the constant stream of lava crossing the land. A normal human would have broken into a heavy sweat long before reaching the Predacon base. Inside the large structure, Gemini felt rather sloppy indeed, and Alana probably would as well. At least the rain, which had not yet subsided, was refreshing in a way. All that was left of the previous thunderstorm was now a light drumming sound, kilometers away, now bring a soft sound to the ear.

She stepped in front of a row of boulders, the only thing blocking her way to the Predacon base. She knew it was a trap. Stasis guns were hiding behind every rock, waiting for her to perk her nose up and show she was there.

"Felina, maximize", she whispered.

From the kitten form emerged the robotic one. She then called her blaster from sub‑space, turned around and shot at the one stasis gun that had escaped its hiding when she had transformed. Not expecting a shadow to jump at her after the explosion, she raised the blaster again with a soft shriek and slammed her back against the rock behind her.

The shadow had jumped out of the way of the blast and landed beside her. The tall being looked down at her: a light smile tracing itself upon its lips and showing deadly teeth. Felina put her weapon away.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

"You gave the invitation, huntress. It would have been a lack of honor to refuse such a challenge", Dinobot let her know, still in his beast mode.

She was about to speak but realized it was true. Though silent, she had sent the challenge to Dinobot before departing to Predacon grounds. She escaped a sigh and turned to the large structure that was Megatron's home as well as Cheetor, Rattrap and Gemini's for the time being.

"Tell me, huntress... Why are you doing this?" Dinobot snarled in curiosity.

"Doin' what?" she asked impatiently.

"Wouldn't it be a satisfaction to know the rodent and the kid are out of your way. A few robots to scratch off your... *snarl* hunting list?"

Felina's lips pinched together painfully while she readied her blaster.

(There's only so many things I care for in this fucked up world right now, and I'd like to get them back, Optimus.)

"I'd rather not answer that. I have a reputation."

"So you do..." Dinobot trailed off, but he already knew the answer.

He knew that somehow there was a part of Felina that feared loneliness. Perhaps this part of her had grown attached the Axalon's crew. There was a lot more to this woman then they seemed now.

She moved a lock of hair from her face, now ready, and blindly jumped into the field. Alarmed, Dinobot growled and called out to her. The huntress ran between the rows of firearms like she had known exactly when each of them would come out. She jumped from left to right, avoiding the blows, while shooting at the Predacon blasters, blowing them up one by one. She kept running, moving round and around with incredible agility and soon, she was at the other side of the trap... intact. She had taken one hell of a chance doing what she had done, and that showed her to be that more desperate.

"Y'still up for the invitation or y'just gonna stand there and watch from a distance", she yelled at him from her side.

Dinobot snarled silently and shook his head. She had even taunted him by taking all the fun away from him. Typical. He took his time to go to her, his patience running even lower then before.

"Before Christmas", Felina taunted him again.

To her surprise, Dinobot not only responded to the call, he transformed to robot mode and he began a speed run toward her while his eyes went from their usual red to green. Was he going to shoot her down? Before she could react furthermore, he had grabbed her by the waist and tossed her out of the way of a blast that had come from above. His eyebeams struck the machine and turned it to dust once she was out of danger.

Her mouth dropped wide and agape at what she had missed, as well as the fact that Dinobot had saved her when he could have taken that opportunity to see her be taken down.

"Wha..."

Dinobot stood over her with his full height, his optics going back to red.

"You're distracted", he informed her in a gruff voice and offered his hand to her, "Maybe you're not fit for the upcoming fight."

"Says you", she sniffed and slapped his hand out of the way, getting up on her own, “I’m fine I was just... testing you..."

"I'll bet", he sneered with triumph but the fun was quickly gone from his features, "let's hope... Megatron will not want to test you as well."

Felina looked quickly around the structure of the ship to find its weakness. Upon further inspection, Dinobot tapped her shoulder and pointed to a hole where any intruder could have went in right above them. The Predacons just did not expect anyone stupid enough to try such a foolish action. That, and Scorpinock had not done his job to patch it up when Megatron had asked.

Dinobot helped Felina up and followed closely behind. Once both had climbed aboard, the former Predacon grinned with mischief, one equal to Felina's. They seemed to be having the luck of their lives; it was their lottery tickets right there; they were in the weapon storage room. A lot of these weapons were illegal, such as shotguns, magnums, rocket launchers, etc.... Nowadays, they only allowed weapons such as blasters. They rarely killed on the first shot, only rendering the enemy out of order for a while. CR Chambers and Tanks, they would do the deal.

Even with humans, it would burn them, but it rarely killed them on the first shot; same thing went with lasers, though some were more dangerous then others. Missiles were for the higher organizations commands like the army, or the Axalon. Those were borderline legal and very rarely used. One way or another, a Transformer attacking a human was highly illegal as well, and if it were to happen, even as the human survived, the Transformer could face the destruction of his spark by the higher Councils.

On the other hand, explosives and bullets, they could annihilate parts of the body. If the part was completely destroyed, you could forget about the CR Chamber or the CR Tank: they were gone for good unless finding spare parts, which were very expensive or nearly non-existent anyway. A bullet to the head could badly damage the circuitry and would often render the Transformer to a pile of walking metal. Of course, it would depend on the size of the Transformer. Explosive bullets, they could blast a Transformer's head right off its shoulders and if that happened, recycling the body was the only alternative. As for the human body, it was easily annihilated with barely a few bullets.

These rules had been maintained since the end of World War III back 250 years ago, which also coincided with the time a hand full of Transformers decided they wanted to be more human, thus creating Maximals and Predacons in the process. They were smaller, and gave into their emotions a lot more then their original ancestors. A lot of Transformers followed the trend afterward, which explained the heavy decrease of Autobots and Decepticons over the centuries. Some Maximals and Predacons even came to want to look disturbingly human.

Satisfied with her final pick of a weapon, Felina went on the search for her comrades with Dinobot following closely. He chose not to take a new weapon with him.

----------------------------------------------------------------

"Heh! Cute."

"What is?"

"Well, it's just the way Tarantulas said 'die'. It almost seemed like if he was serious", Gemini told Rattrap.

He rolled his eyes, "He was."

"Oh stop! Teehee!"

"Oh man! I'll take Pred torture anytime if I can get a break from 'dis!"

"She's doing it on purpose to get on your nerves, RT", Cheetor concluded and shared in a laugh, "It's working too."

But he soon suppressed a sigh from his corner and lay there. He was exhausted. His and Rattrap's com-links were out of order, and Gemini simply did not have one. Contacting Optimus was out of the question. Their weapons had either been deactivated or taken away, except for Gemini's considering only Felina and Rhinox had had the chance to see her in action thus far. Cheetor needed a trip to the CR Chamber, even if his circuits and joints had been put back in place. Not to mention this whole conversation Tarantulas had held up moments earlier gave him heavy goose bumps.

Gemini inspected the bars that were keeping them held prisoner carefully, running her robotic fingers along their warm length. It felt different from when she had had human hands and had yet to get used to the feeling. She could touch the metal, feel the warmth but her nerves sensed it differently. It was too strange to explain, but the sensation remained there still. She probably would never get used to it either. Finally, she looked at both Maximals.

"I think I can free us..."

"Oh suuuure", Rattrap exclaimed with sarcasm, " and exactly how are ya s'posed to do 'dat? Without blastin' our heads off in da meanwhile, 'dat is? Ah checked da lock, and even I can't open it, `cause `dere are NONE!"

Gemini turned to one of the rails surrounding them, the gem on her forehead, the one Felina had first taken as nothing but decoration, now glowing like Dinobot's eyes would. Soon, a purple laser beam came out of it and struck the rod.

"Ultra‑Gear!" Cheetor said and rose from his position.

"Must be dead brain cells evacuatin’", Rattrap shot sarcastically if not even with a certain jealousy that a human female might be able to free them, "Wouldn't wanna lose 'em all now, heh!"

"Shut up Rattrap", Gemini shot back.

"Ah guess truth hurts, now doesn't it? Maybe y'should jus' play pom-pom girl while da real pros handle it!"

The beam stopped and before Rattrap could react further more, she was on him with her hand squeezing at his throat, pushing him against the railing and causing the suspended cage to hover left and right from the hit. Next, the gem was glowing again, and this time, she was not aiming for the railing but for Rattrap's head.

"You know, this was made to kill robots!"

"Gemi wait!" Cheetor exclaimed but he was interrupted by a new presence.

"Ah! Now that's a good thing! Waste all your energy, yeeesss."

Gemini let go of Rattrap's neck as Megatron, Scorpinock and BlackArachnia approached them. She took in a deep breath and clenched her teeth. This was starting to get complicated. Worst yet, she distinguished GoldenFire's form behind the small Predacon group.

"But, what do we need them for?" Scorpinock asked his leader, "I don't see what use they are to us right now."

"All in due time, Scorpinok, all in due time."

However, their fun was interrupted when GoldenFire's com-link opened to Alana's frequency. Her voice was trembling slightly, either from running or nervousness. Either way, she was not in feeling her best.

"What is it?"

"She knows! Fiona knows everything! She's been playing us all along and she's coming your way! She alerted Optimus and the others! We gotta move the plan along now!"

"BLAST!" GoldenFire raged and closed the com-link, "Well, she can come here as much as she wishes, I'm not giving her the satisfaction of finding all of her friends alive."

"Then what do you suggest?" Megatron asked GoldenFire without much interest.

One way or another, even if it were to happen now or later, GoldenFire was going to contact Sigma Corp and bring them home, so to him, it mattered very little what GoldenFire's fears were.

GoldenFire stopped to think a moment. First thing was to humiliate the… girl... that woman... what was her name again? Ah, Fio... Felina yes, yes Felina. First thing was to humiliate her. They could not waste the Transmetals, so injuring them too much was out of the question. They had to be alive once back to Cybertron, so there was no touching them. Scaring them maybe, yes. Harm them in a deadly matter? No. Then he had to take care of... of... Fe... lina, Felina! Take care of her. Not kill her, just render her out of order for the trip home. Optimus Prime... wait, was it Prime or Primal? Optimus then. Just Optimus. He and the rest of his Maximals would not be too hard to take care of later on. Hopefully they could capture... Rhinox? Rhinox yes, they could capture him as well. Sigma Corp. could still use his knowledge.

"Do what you want with G... with..." he shook his head, rubbing at his temples, "Slag... Do what you want with the girl. I want her dead and in pieces before the huntress gets here. I want her to see what we can do to the rest of her friends if she doesn't cooperate."

"Hmm, I like that idea", BlackArachnia agreed. GoldenFire left quickly enough after that.

"Well then, Megatron, I do have a device I'd like to try out if it's fine with you?" Scorpinock attempted.

Megatron growled, "Do as you wish, but make it quick."

Scorpinock wasted no time to open the cage where he reached for the human. She recoiled, of course, but the claws the Predacon took a handful of her hair and forced her out onto the platform by his and BlackArachnia's feet. Cheetor was first to pounce at them but Scorpinock hurried and closed the door in the chrome cheetah's face with a loud metallic thud.

"GEMI!"

BlackArachnia grabbed the human by the neck and forced her up while Scorpinock held the device up against her head like a gun.

"Argh! Nuh-NO!" Gemini cried, "I'm not a guinea pig!"

Megatron could not help but laugh at this statement, " Ah, then please, explain to me about your arms and legs?"

"I... I volunteered for that experiment!"

"And so are you know. Scorpinock, proceed!"

The device activated, causing burning warmth to back its way to Gemini's temple.

"Gemini! Let her go! Let her go", Cheetor yelled.

Megatron looked at the feline, rubbing his chin as if he was thinking. "Um.... No." And he burst into another sinister laughter.

End of Part 4