BEAST WARS REBIRTH: Chapter 14 - Breaking Down Barriers

[Jagna]

Chapter 14...the penultimate chapter of Volume One...

*can't contain herself*

WAHOO!

The title's a bit naff, but just before I was about to post I realised the title was labelled 'No Title'. Had a bit of a Homer moment and D'ohed myself.

but here it is. A short one, but brace yourself...the last one's a long one! (Reason being, I put a lot of chp 14 into 15, and 15 was already half done, I just need to fill in some gaps.)

Tada:





Disclaimer: I claim no rights to Beast Wars © Hasbro or its characters. However all original plotlines and characters herein belong to me.

***

Beast Wars REBIRTH

VOULUME 1

Chapter 14: Breaking Down Boundaries

Rattrap sat hunched over his knees on a low stool and cracked his knuckled anxiously.

"We're in big trouble here!" he exclaimed.

"Calm down Shorty, it's only three Maximals," Blockade assured him unsympathetically.

"Nu-uh! I just got word from Strider, they've all figured it out, they all know!" He was getting slightly hysterical, so the mammoth femme slapped the back of his head hard.

"And what difference does that make? It's not like they're gonna do anything about it. Not like they can, anyway," Blockade huffed.

"Besides," Jaggid interrupted, who was leaning casually against a wall, "I instructed Peruvia to make a point to the Maximals about squealing on us. And you now how poignant she is," The leopard grinned maliciously, and Blockade did too. Rattrap, on the other hand, only grimaced.

"Yeah, but you know how Maximals are, they'll try somethin', I can feel it…"

He began ringing his hands so much that his joints might have become loose and his hands would fall off. Observing this, Jaggid had a thought.

"Perhaps you would feel better if something were done about it. if someone took care of it…" She glanced over at the mammoth, who caught on immediately and her grinned widened.

"Yeah!" Rattrap thumped his fist in his hand, "Yeah, you're right. Someone oughta…oughta…why yeh both lookin' at me like that…?"

Minutes later…

"I didn't sign up fer this!" the rat yelled as he was 'escorted' to the exit by Blockade and Jaggid.

"Just shut up and get going," Blockade uttered as she and the leopard hurled him outside. He landed on his face with a mouthful of basaltic soil. "Now git!"

The rat spat out the dirt and mumbled, "I don't get paid enough…"

…
……
…

Back at Pangaea One, Nightshaft was lying in stasis lock in Moonhawk's arms, severely damaged and twitching every now and then. She had been gone for hours, and nobody knew what they were doing to her. Though they did have a clue: occasionally they would hear her yells, and the Predacons' bursts of manic laughter.

When she was returned to them, she was flung callously through the doorway already in stasis lock. Then Peruvia followed her inside. She received many vicious glares, and a few attempts to attack her person, but she quickly deflected them. Darkwing and Xaphron could be seen lurking in the doorway waiting for her to return, but they, too, looked terrified of her.

The llama femme scanned the rest of them again gleefully. She was searching for units that looked like they might talk…

Her eyes fell on Spanner, who was still clutching his chest, trying to keep the holes in his chest closed so as not to expose his vulnerable circuits. She smiled and walked up to him, pushing Wildcat out of her way. She knelt down to Spanner's level, and he tried his best to wriggle away from her.

To his surprise, she gently ran her hand across his chestplate. But there was no sympathy there; in fact, an even crueller smile crept onto her face.

"That will have loosened your tongue. Take him," she instructed the Predacons at the door. Darkwing withdrew her sai blades threateningly and beckoned the sabertoothed tiger mech, Sabergem, after her. They rushed in quickly, grabbed the macaw, and rushed back out. Peruvia took her time leaving, savouring the anguish of her captives.

Optimus shot up onto his feet. He stormed over to the femme, but did not intercept her. Firstly because he did not want to provoke her, and secondly he knew he would not be the one to be punished…

"What are you going to do with him, what do you want?" When she turned away and didn't answer him, he raised his voice, "What are you going to do?!"

She turned back over her shoulder, her expression blank.

"Gee, I wonder…" She glanced past Optimus, and he turned to see that she was looking at Nightshaft, and his spark sank at the sight of her. When he turned around again Peruvia had gone and the bars were back online.

He shook his head and made his way over to the unconscious spider monkey. Moonhawk looked up at him as he approached, she had never said a word to him before, and in their dire situation the first thing she said to him was, "They won't stop," Her voice quivered and her eyes were wide.

He knelt down beside her, gently laid a hand on her shoulder and looked down sadly at Nightshaft.

"We'll find a way…" he said softly.

…
……
…

Meanwhile, the three captive Maximals in Porta Magma were calculating their chances of getting out alive. The odds were against them at the time. In fact, they overheard several conversations about their 'interrogations'. Skylark twitched nervously.

"They're pretty serious this time…" she muttered to no one in particular. Rhinox placed his hand on her shoulder, "…Seriously, why do they want our access codes so badly? Kahn's perfectly capable of hacking our systems manually,"

"If that's the case, why hasn't he tried that before?" Rhinox asked her.

"Well, Rhinox," Greyback began, having been silently brooding in a corner, "there were several impeding ramifications preventing him from acting. One: until several days ago, he was mangled and deformed beyond moving a finger without life support. Two: Skylark doesn't give herself enough credit when it comes to her encryption. And three: until the…infiltration…" he stammered uncomfortably at the thought, "…the location of both our bases was a well-kept secret. During our truce and even during the first war Kahn couldn't find them with both hands and a map."

"Both?" Rhinox asked. Greyback nodded. "I thought you said you had three bases?"

Greyback and Skylark's faces lit up.

"You're right…" Skylark began, slowly rising to he feet, "We could see if anyone managed to escape and…" but Greyback cut her off.

"We can't. I tried any kind of communication, but I think Jeepers Creepers implemented some signal blocking system, the slagger," He trailed off and began to curse inaudibly.

"Perhaps," Rhinox replied, "but then again, there's always trying to communicate outside the buffer zone…" He raised his eyebrows suggestively.

"What, try to escape?" Skylark whispered.

The rhino nodded. And, to his surprise, Greyback jumped at the idea. Not to mention, he had a wide smile on his face.

"Let's go for t. we did it once, we can do it again. How's your memory, Sky?"

She smiled with him. "As good as it ever was…"

…
……
…

Two megacycles later, Rhinox and Skylark managed to bypass the circuitry of the bars of their cell. It was very fiddly work, but with concentration, hard work (and a few of Rattrap's missing tools) they managed to shut down enough bars for them to squeeze through without scorching themselves or setting off the alarms, much like Nightshaft had done previously.

Grey poked his head out of the door and looked both ways. Thankfully, the Predacons were being briefed elsewhere, and the coast was clear.

"C'mon," he whispered. They followed him out the door, creeping along the walls in an exaggerated fashion.

However, they soon ran into trouble in the shape of a green pterodactyl femme floating a foot above the floor.

"Looking for something, pup?" Pteradonna asked the wolf mech when she gently lowered herself to the ground in front of him. She raised her flamethrower and aimed it as his face.

"Y'know, I really don't have time for this," said Grey, passive and annoyed.

The reptilian flyer chuckled. "Any last words before I…BLURBL!"

She received a facefull of foam from Greyback's flame neutraliser. The wolf shook his head, snickered and moved on, leaving the 'dactyl bot blubbing on the floor, attempting to wipe the stuff off her face.

"Hide her somewhere, we can't the alarm being raised," Greyback instructed Rhinox, who was a few seconds behind him. The rhino complied; he picked up the Predacon, gave her a hard punch in the face and placed her not-too-carefully into what seemed to be a supply cupboard.

"Um, guys?" Skylark squawked, "Haven't they installed a personal safeguard?"

"…Yes they have…" Rhinox replied. He had looked at Pteradonna's watch when Skylark mentioned the safeguard, and a light on her onboard console was blinking, "…which means it's time for us to run."

They ran.

As they ran, Greyback commented, "Let's hope they'll be Preds about it and ignore each other's calls for help,"

"Hold it!" Rhinox bellowed. The other two screeched to a halt, knocking into each other. They turned to the rhino, who was inspecting his own wrist console. "There's someone a few corridors away,"

Greyback moved over to him to see. He squinted his optics and tilted his head to a smaller corridor to their left.

"Here's what we'll do…"

…
……
…

A few minutes later, Skylark was the first to round the corner. There was someone blocking her path. She stopped, Rhinox and Greyback behind her. Her optics widened as two sets of claws protruded from Jaggid's hands.

"Come on…" she sneered, baring her sharp teeth, "I'll take you all on!"

She was about to advance on them, but she was suddenly alight with electric energy and she let out a roar of pain. It seemed to last for ages, but when it died down so did her voice, and her optics went dim. As she fell, a hand caught her around the waist and held her just above the ground.

"I got her!" Greyback called, Jaggid slumped backwards over his arm. He had been waiting behind her, and he was the one who shocked her, "Turn that thing off…"

The Greyback that stood behind Rhinox flickered and vanished. It was a hologram.

"Okay…now what?" Skylark asked as she watched the wolf lift their former leader into his arms and stand upright.

"Run, run, run as fast as we can…" he answered solemnly.

"Alright, but let's get going before anyone else decides to show up," said Rhinox.

…
……
…

Everything was black.

Rustling.

There was something there.

She tried to move her hands.

They were being held behind her back.

The scenery came back into view gradually from a dark blur. The first thing Jaggid saw was the earthy ground, and thick roots extending beyond a pair of legs that weren't hers. She looked up and saw who they belonged to.

"Ah, Greyback," she said pleasantly with a hint of malice as he stared down at her with a fixed expression of hidden contempt, "nice to know we're both into this sort of thing," she added with a toothy grin, referring to her energy bonds.

"Alright Jaggid, we're willing to make you a deal," Skylark interrupted monotonously.

Jaggid lowered her head, retaining her grin, ignoring the fact she was tied to a tree. "That's sweet, but you don't have anything I want…"

"Except the access codes…" Rhinox continued.

The leopard's face dropped immediately. They all looked down at what they could see of her face, she was thinking hard.

"…I'm listening…" she eventually forced out.

Skylark straightened herself out before continuing. This was not how things should be. "You want to access our files at Pangaea One: fine. Seeing as you're already there, you'll get there eventually, I guess,"

"Mhm…" the Predacon mumbled, still staring intensely at the ground. Rhinox observed her carefully. It was almost as if she was willing the tree roots to come alive and rip the Maximals apart. "And I would have to give you what in return?"

"Get your sorry souls out of our Maximals," Rhinox stated blandly.

"Yep. Going to happen. NOT." she replied, he grin no longer visible, quickly twisting into a scowl. "You don't have anything to bargain with."

"Except that you let slip a few details about yourself that I don't think you're aware of," Skylark said slyly. Jaggid's ear twitched, "Something about Stampede you didn't figure out in time: she talks in her sleep."

Jaggid growled.

"So we know how to get you out, with or without your help," Rhinox continued darkly.

The Predacon lieutenant suddenly smiled a broad, malicious grin, and chuckled.

"You'll never find her…she's mine," she said forebodingly, raising her head slightly.

"No…" Skylark exclaimed hopelessly.

"Sorry you went through all that trouble for nothing," the leopard continued satirically.

Greyback, who had been silent the whole interrogation, suddenly lunged forward. He grabbed the converted Predacon by the scruff of her beast mode head and forced her close to him, teeth bared.

"Get out…" he began venomously, "…get out before I RIP YOU OUT OF HER!"

His bellow only made her laugh more. "Oh really? Go on then…" she dared him. His face remained contorted with rage, but then his face dropped, and he let go. He took a few steps back and turned away.

"Oh, by the way," she continued, "I think she'd be very disappointed that you'd so willingly compromise your entire team for just one bot."

"It's for all the Maximals whose lives you've stolen," Rhinox spat angrily.

"Is it?" Jaggid asked, her gaze fixed on Greyback. He lowered his head, hiding his face from all of them, and walked away and slumped behind another tree.

"They're all mine…"




To Be Continued…






We are nearing the end of volume One...hold onto your hats!