The Intergalactic Highway

((Sorry guys, in the middle of a vacation with the hubby this week and had some jet leg Monday night but working on this now.))

“It makes me no less a traitor than a Predacon back home that wants peace under the Pax Cybertronia.” Frilla pointed out frostily. But then again, it seemed Nemesis wouldn’t be convinced she was otherwise due to how close she seemed to have become to the tyrant, made evident when she remarked earlier to Optimus she was now his second in command. Yet another event she had missed in her absence, making her wonder how much the Predacon rankings had changed.

The avian’s lack of empathy for what fate befell those who did wrong in Megatron’s eyes also made it even more evident it didn’t matter regardless. “Optimus isn’t the only one that can’t be reasoned with.” The frilled lizard muttered under her breathe as she listened to Nemesis speak. Looking at the avian Female with disbelief and pity, Frilla spoke, “Hypothetically speaking, if Megatron won the war and,Primus forbid, got back to Cybertron then what? You condemn those who do not share his views?” Frilla questioned, “Nemesis, regardless of how the war ends and you survive, maybe you ought to take the time when you get home to see a different perspective. Megatron’s view is only one of them. For every handful of Predacons that want bloodshed and war, there are some like myself who want this cycle to end. I am still a Predacon in some sense, just not your definition of it.” As she spoke, the reptilian femme’s tone became less hostile and more calm, finding it would be a waste of energy to try and convince Nemesis otherwise.

Whether she would choose to listen to her or not was her choice.

“I never said the Maximals were devoid of flaws themselves now did I.” And it was true. Secrets and lies had long since been uncovered over the course of being on Prehistoric Earth, and it seemed some had yet to be revealed. “But I would sooner trust them to have my back than Megatron’s ragtag band of killers and maniacs.” Frilla was firm about her own decisions, knowing full well the dangers that came with leaving one crew for another, but she had chosen the lesser of two evils in her opinion. She just happened to be one of those who had her hands clean of secrets and lies or the need to manipulate as was common with her former faction. Quite frankly, none of them would probably be this far if Frilla hadn’t Hesitated to kill Optimus that fateful day she decided to turn sides, the same fateful day Whitegrazer had joined them and Nemesis had awakened from her frozen slumber.

She became attentive however as Nemesis began to move, raising an optic ridge as she mentioned needing to see someone. Frilla said nothing as she merely followed, still preferring to keep an optic on the avian finding her moving towards the infirmary and right for the CR chamber she could assume contained Rattrap who she hoped was making a recovery. “Lets hope for your sake he’s in a forgiving mood for whatever you did to him.” Frilla commented, still angered that Nemesis had harmed him and not knowing the full extent of what she had done. But she was also aware that she was far smaller than the rodent and her ability to hold back may require a fair bit of ingenuity to palacate his fury.

—————————————————

By the time Dinobot and Tigatron has arrived to the scene the battle had already began to unfold before they had split off.

Dinobot laid on the firepower as he drew close to the crab, knowing they might do little damage in the short-term. He had to go with his usual method, quick, brutal strikes with his spin sword until the crab gave up or his former comrades decided to call it a day. “Let us test this “immortality” claim, shall we crustacean?” Dinobot growled as he drew close enough to begin striking and dodging around Rampage’s strikes or taking the brunt of any of his own attacks.

Though the raptor kept on the defensive to some extent, ever aware of the wound he had upon his chest he had patched up that could easily be reopened.

“Haven’t you inflicted enough pain today Predacon?” Tigatron inquired as he surprised the dinosaur female from behind. Compared to earlier she seemed to be holding up just fine, making him wonder if the time between her late leave of the base to this renedevouz point had allowed her some recovery time. Or it was a testament to how durable she was even in a downgraded body far smaller than what she was use to.

Then again, he hoped whatever his beloved had done to shake the Predacons up a bit had been enough to force her on the defensive.

Off in the distance, the sound of the battle unfolding had caught the attention of a newcomer. Terrabite had been scouring the land recently in search of other Cybertronian life, having only found faint signs here and there that he wasn’t alone. But it was only just now that he heard those sounds confirming the signs he had found up until this time.

Drawing closer and closer to the scene, Terrabite slowed his pace in beast mode as the trees he had been moving through gave way to a vast expanse of grass and few rocks to hide behind. Though a river nearby seemed to offer some cover for the kaprosuchus, making his way towards the riverbed and sinking into its depths as his sparrow drone followed from above. Maneuvering closer towards the battlefield, Terrabite would only occasionally break the surface to see how close he was getting until the river came within a short distance of the combatants, close to where Spineback had emerged earlier.

“Hm, probably the best spot I can observe without getting involved...for now. Sparrow drone, undeploy.” Shifting to his robot mode close to the surface, the mech raised his arm for the sparrow-like drone to return before closing the compartment again and lifting himself so only his head broke the river’s surface. The best course of action he saw to take was to simply watch and observe for the time being, watching how the battle would turn out.

((Whew, hope I got everything! This is my longest post for sometime.))

Tigerhawk winced slightly as he noticed the small shock Rhinox got, giving the rhinoceros an apologetic look for the distraction. With how trashed the bridge was he could imagine the large mech had quite a long repair process ahead of him, already noting Rhinox’s blackened fingers from multiple shocks already. “Sorry to interrupt your work, I didn’t realize the bridge was this bad.” The large fuzor apologized, optics quickly scanning the room briefly as he listened to Rhinox bring him up-to-date on Zodiac’s kidnapping. Not an area he recognized but nevertheless nodded, “Got it, on my way then. And good luck here.”

Moving over to the lift, Tigerhawk was taken down to the outside of the ship where he transformed to beast mode and finally took to the skies, directing himself towards where his fellow Maximals had gone. “Tigerhawk to Optimus, I’m on my way towards your location now.” The tiger/hawk fuzor commed, pushing himself to go as fast as his form would allow.

+++++++++++++

It was like talking to a steel wall with the spider. What did it really matter if Zodiac was alive or not? The shapeshifter had more than been a nuisance to both sides, he was better off a pile of scrap that wouldn’t further interfere with their operations on both sides as far as Spineback was concerned. “Or you need him alive long enough for your own vendetta Tarantulas, what other reason would you be so interested in such technology.” The medic’s accusation was far more open this time, challenging him to prove her wrong in this moment. But given his history she doubted he could refute the claim.

Admittedly though, his nanobots, and those possessed by Nemesis, were quite impressive. Scientifically speaking, Zodiac would be quite a technical marvel to study, maybe even cultivate his nanobots in the same way she was testing Rampage’s regenerative capabilities. That was proven as the tear in his wing seemed to heal as quickly as it had been damaged, not even a scar left behind. Yet, she was no fool either. She had seen what happened a couple of times with Nemesis when struck by electricity and what Megatron had done to his abdomen earlier confirmed a suspicion that the nanobots had a glaring weakness, something she had not seen with Rampage’s CNA.

However, her, Rampage, and Terrorsaur were all taken aback by the sudden hands reaching out to grasp hold of their leader, seeming to act at its own accord even when unconscious. ‘A defensive mechanism...for once the arachnid was right.’ The medic thought to herself with shock and curiosity. Rampage’s own shock passed as quickly as it came, letting out a signature light but twisted chuckle, “I’m beginning to think “freak of nature” doesn’t quite fit me anymore. Just full of unsettling surprises isn’t he.” Rampage observed, musing at the irony of always being called the cannibilistic freak and yet here was Zodiac, proving those assumptions were only partly right anymore.

Now this was getting interesting.

At least it was until Airazor made her presence known to them. The shockwave was enough to make both Spineback and Rampage stumble back but maintain their footing while Terrorsaur squawked and fell on his skidplate. Airazor’s speed had made it difficult to see who had made the surprise attack, but by Megatron’s exclamation it was one of the Maximals and the cry was all too familiar to the pterodactyl as well. “Airazor.” Terrorsaur couldn’t help the wide grin of glee at his archenemy making her appearance, again proving to be quite difficult to take out of a fight even after all she had gone through earlier in the day. He still had never gotten a proper revenge for their first meeting, this time hoping to watch the falcon fall as him, Spineback, and Rampage began to follow suit in firing at the falcon.

“Well, that did the trick.” Airazor had steered clear of Megatron’s grasp, already gone by the time he had attempted to make a grab for her. She wouldn’t give him or the Predacons that satisfaction twice in one day, already growing tired of being someone’s hostage and ransom. But, she focused on gaining some height once more, weaving, twisting, and rolling to dodge the blasts aimed at her but still feeling the heat of some of those attacks graze her feathers. Thankfully much of that enemy fire seemed to stop in her general direction, causing her to tilt towards the left to see what was going on and sighing with relief to see the other Maximals arriving right on time, “Now I call that good timing.”

“Not surprised, Megatron likes to make a show out of eliminating traitors.” Cheetor commented, not all that surprised all the Predacons would be present. They had all been there to attack, why not all of them present for a show of force, aside from Nemesis of course. But it did beg the question that if the tyrant was willing to go this great of distance for one individual what lengths would he go to finally eliminate all those who questioned his leadership? Frilla and Dinobot had been more fortunate not to be targeted in such a way, but given Megatron’s behavior over the many months it was beginning to make the young cheetah wonder. Though his ears perked forward as Optimus began going through the plan, a flanking maneuver to give the Predacons a taste of their own medicine. “The Preds won’t know what hit them.” The young cheetah seemed far more enthusiastic at the thought of revenge than normal, but given what had happened could anyone blame the Maximals. Their friends had been taken hostage, damaged, and their base torn asunder to be left in shambles yet again...it was high time the Predacons knew what it was like to feel the heat.

Once they neared the location, Cheetor veered away from Optimus and the rest of the group to give a wide berth around the Predacons who seemed too intent on Airazor to notice them coming right away. Perfect opportunity to strike. Coming from behind, Cheetor put his focus towards Terrorsaur, the only one that wasn’t presently engaged with one of his teammates seeing him preparing to take flight after Airazor as he usually did, “Not this time beakface.” Cheetor growled in his chest as he launched forward to tackle Terrorsaur from the sky, sending both tumbling along the grassy plain until they landed with the young Maximal pinning him to the ground on his back, claws digging into his armor.

“Annoying fleabag! You’ll pay for getting in my way!” Terrorsaur snarled, the thrusters on his back humming to life and the heat striking Cheetor’s underbelly, causing him to yowl and rear back to give the transmetal flier the chance he needed to knock the cheetah from his back. Feeling the weight gone, Terrorsaur rolled a few feet away and was on his feet a few seconds later, blades in hand as he found himself face-to-face with a now maximized Cheetor, the rifle he had grabbed in hand. “You are really becoming a nuisance pussycat.” The flier hissed, optics narrowed in annoyance as Cheetor stared him down defiantly.

“Guess I’m just the cat you can’t get off your back.” Cheetor raised the rifle as he spoke, beginning to lay on his own firepower towards the flier, forcing Terrorsaur to begin deflecting the strikes with his twin wing blades but slowly stepping forward with each shot and taking others that pelted his armor. He was attempting to cover the distance between himself and the teenager, ignoring the stinging pain as the bullets tore through some spots, “Eat this spots!” Before Cheetor has the chance to react, Terrorsaur had already fired a quick eye beam, causing the young Maximal to growl with a pained “Hey!” as the rifle was blasted from his hand followed immediately by a lung forward to get in two shallow gashes against the Maximal’s abdomen.

The pain wasn’t bad but it still pained Cheetor enough to flinch, blindly firing his head blaster to knock Terrorsaur back a few feet to temporarily give Cheetor some reprieve, gripping his abdomen that was now lightly bleeding.

As instructed, Wintersong had split off towards the left a little before Tigatron had gotten there, having homed in on Quickstrike as her target. She prowled closer towards the scorpion/cobra fuzor, ignoring the nagging feeling of the Vok presence urging her to go after the one they considered a major threat given what her and Whitegrazer has talked about earlier, Tarantulas. But she felt her own stubbornness kicking in, blocking out their otherworldly voice attempting to be heard. As usual, they were not always whispers, some of their voice breaking through at the back of her consciousness, ‘Go for the spider feline, he is of far more danger than this little insect.’ They seemed to hiss in her ear, causing her ears to flick back slightly in irritation.

‘My teammate needs help first!’ She insisted,

‘Our priority is those who seek to destroy us and the Project, that is your concern.’

‘It will be my concern once this fiasco with the shapeshifter is done and over with.’ Wintersong snapped within her processor, once more trying to put up a mental block between herself and the presence she felt even at her very core, a presence she viewed no better as a parasite. A presence she admittedly was growing increasingly concerned about in the short time she had been back, and making her reconsider staying quiet with Optimus about it after all. But it was something that could wait as she transformed to robot mode, taking her Energon Rifle in as she began to fire at Quickstrike’s back, “Hey, short stuff! Mind if I cut into your little dance? I’ve been itching for some action.” Wintersong whistled, trying to goad the fuzor to turn his attention on her instead.

Tigatron’s quasar blasts hit their mark against Spineback’s back, causing her to growl as she turned with her shield arm up, seeming to have caught the attention of the other resident tiger. “I haven’t done enough furball.” The dinosaur femme began stomping forward in anticipation to meet Tigatron head on, taking his blasts as he went without flinching despite some of them striking already damaged areas from her brief conflict with Wintersong earlier. “On the contrary, I hope you’re more stable than your femme feline friend and your unfortunate rodent buddy.” Once the veteran felt she was close enough to the older cat, she swung her lance she still held in hand, attempting to knock him from his feet.

“Be my guest reptile, I welcome the challenge.” Rampage jeered, raising a hand to block his face from Dinobot’s eye lasers. But for a brief moment, the former Maximal guinea pig focused his optics on the seemingly dead Zodiac, spotting the dagger buried in the dragon’s spark chamber. Or what should have been the chamber anyway. A part of him wondered if it was truly the end of the twisted, corrupted soul that was Zodiac, for the moment forgetting his so called faction and the Maximals were deep into a desperate battle, focusing on the tortured spark. The pulses seemed weak and faint, but still suggesting hints of life. Perhaps a delay in the process due to the nanomachines? Zodiac subconscious being too stubborn? Rampage couldn’t be too certain.

In fact, he didn’t get to dwell on it as Dinobot’s first few strikes dig into his tough shell, by not enough to quite damage it before his own regenerative abilities easily healed the surface scratches. Glaring down at the traitorous raptor, Rampage began swiping at Dinobot, attempting to punch or grab for the smaller mech who was far more agile than him and seemed to be on a heavy defensive. “Hmph, if you’re not going to try harder, you’re a waste of my energy.” The crab spoke boredly, using the butt of his rocket launcher to attempt to knock the reptile away.

Because to be honest, Rampage was growing bored lingering around a fight he did not quite care for, especially with once again hearing an empty promise made by the tyrant.

Seeing Wintersong had taken upon herself to handle the fuzor who Airazor has been dodging around for a little while now, the falcon decided to take that opportunity to dive away. She instead put her focus towards Tarantulas, knowing he still had to hold an interest in the unconscious Zodiac based on what she had observed earlier. Transforming to robot mode, the falcon femme took out her Claw Blaster as she targeted the spider and began raining down shots from above in attempt to force him away from what she had assumed was the still unconscious Zodiac.

"If only,"

Nemesis thought she could detect a slight reluctance in Primal's voice. Of course, she couldn't blame him if he did feel a bit torn about their current standoff. Neither one of them was in an especially good situation right now, both stuck on opposite sides in a conflict that could very well end up killing one, if not both, of them. If only Primal could understand the necessity of what Megatron was trying to do and that Nemesis was now helping him with, but of course with him being a Maximal he could never side with the Predacon agenda. That would be treason to his own kin, much like informing Primal of Megatron's plans, at least what Nemesis knew of them, would be an even greater betrayal on her part.

"Have you been held accountable for yours?"

His question caused her to halt all movements for an extended moment, not quite knowing how to respond to that. Indeed, it wasn't exactly something she had given much thought to, not being one to spend a lot of time dwelling on what she had done. Yes, she had committed what some would call atrocious acts in the past. She had slayed others, both when ordered to do so and then out of her own free will.. And in some cases without having any control over the situation. Her nanomachines had seen to that, their intrinsic instincts being to protect their host by any means necessary. It didn't happen too often, but when it did.. When the tiny machines that occupied her systems took control to assure both their own and their host's survival.. she had no control over the situation at all.

And when she then came to again after the deed was done, she usually found herself repulsed by what she saw. Yes, she had killed, but her methods were never as brutal and the results never as unimaginable disgusting as when the nanomachines had done it for her. In that sense she was almost thankful that she couldn't control them the way Zodiac could, since it almost seemed too simple to end someone's life in such a horrifying fashion.

Her mouth was starting to feel dry as she finally made a response. "Point well taken," she sighed, her optics meeting Optimus' ever so briefly. "Although in a way I think we both hold ourselves accountable every day of our lives." Of course they likely held somewhat different views on that, but there was a reason Nemesis tried not to focus too much on the deeds she had done. Unlike Megatron, she did have a conscience, and there were times she hated herself for it.

"Yes, he does. But not like this."

"Then how?," Nemesis questioned Primal's resolve. "By locking him up for the rest of his life? How is that any more humane than ending his suffering?" The female couldn't imagine that Primal would simply let Zodiac go after he had proven himself to be such a threat. And she hadn't seen these redeeming qualities the Maximal had spoken of earlier.

"I appreciate that you care, to a degree, Nemesis, but you should have more faith considering my venturing out into this grave danger is due in part by your actions."

The avian female sighed and lowered her gaze when the Maximal leader reminded her bluntly, and all too correctly, that she was partially responsible for the danger he was now putting himself in to save another, and as far as Nemesis was concerned far from innocent, party in all of this. Yet she refrained from confirming just how involved she had been in all of this to Optimus, fearing the truth would likely make him reconsider his plan of releasing her after this had blown over.

"Faith..," she repeated in a more quiet voice. "I guess we just don't share the same view about risking your life for someone who is clearly not worth the effort."

Soon after Primal had departed, leaving her behind on the floor with a couple of guards. Of course she didn't waste too much time before she had forced herself back on her feet.

“It makes me no less a traitor than a Predacon back home that wants peace under the Pax Cybertronia.”

The Pax Cybertronia..

Nemesis almost grimaced a bit as the smaller female mentioned the name of what many of the Predacons considered to be the downfall of what had remained of the once great empire. It was the very topic Megatron had used to entice her into fully committing herself to his cause, and it was ultimately the reason she couldn't side with Optimus despite his honestly persuasive argument otherwise.

"Peace.. Signing away our dignity.. our very freedom.. doesn't exactly scream peace in the optics of most Predacons," the taller of the two females muttered in response, tugging ever so slightly at the cuffs on her wrists as she did.

“Optimus isn’t the only one that can’t be reasoned with.”

Now that remark brought on a slight, and ever so brief, chuckle from the avian Predacon. It wasn't so much that she found the situation humorous as it was ironic considering the circumstances they were both in. If Nemesis had truly been one who couldn't be reasoned with, at least to an extent, she would likely either have fought herself to freedom by now. Or died in the attempt of doing so. But somehow Primal had a soothing effect on her, and seemed to know exactly what needed to be done to calm the female's worst impulses. Unlike Megatron, who seemed to encourage them. Of course Nemesis herself didn't quite view it that way.

"Who are you to judge me?," the winged prisoner asked abruptly, "Have the Maximals' hypocrisy really rubbed off on you to such an extent you've forgotten your Predacon roots? Your heritage? Or were you always a Maximal in disguise?," she pondered out loud, obviously intending for Frilla to hear her.

“Hypothetically speaking, if Megatron won the war and,Primus forbid, got back to Cybertron then what? You condemn those who do not share his views?”

"Like they condemned us, you mean?," Nemesis responded almost casually. "If you truly lived on Cybertron as a Predacon, you should know how we are treated as second rate citizens."

That sentimentality had branched even off world, as Nemesis didn't consider herself a resident of Cybertron. In fact she had spent very little time on what most transformers considered to be their home planet, instead having found herself living in cybertronian colonies elsewhere. But even there the effects of the Pax Cybertronia could be felt..

“Nemesis, regardless of how the war ends and you survive, maybe you ought to take the time when you get home to see a different perspective. Megatron’s view is only one of them. For every handful of Predacons that want bloodshed and war, there are some like myself who want this cycle to end. I am still a Predacon in some sense, just not your definition of it.”

Shaking her head as way of response, Nemesis then drew in a sigh. "Until the situation changes on Cybertron, I'm not going there. I have more freedom where I am now," she said a bit more quietly, all too keenly aware of the irony in her words considering the cuffs and guards that had been posted on her.

The smaller female followed closely behind her as Nemesis made her way to the infirmary, finding it oddly empty aside from a few remaining Maximals who had not followed Primal into battle yet. And for the time being Nemesis fell quiet, merely concentrating on the cryo chamber and its occupant. The rodent seemed to be sleeping inside, looking oddly at peace despite the recent traumatic event he went through. So Primal had been exaggerating.. perhaps trying to prove a point. Nemesis still found some relief in the fact the rat was still alive, since it was unlikely Primal would keep up on his promise to let her go if his garbage munching crew mate had perished from his injuries.

Still, even now, the other female kept talking. Nemesis was only partially paying attention anymore, her thoughts racing between whatever point Frilla was trying to make and how she could get out of here. And soon, she hoped, since Megatron was bound to start asking some very difficult questions to answer if she didn't get there soon. Of course right now he was likely otherwise preoccupied with the Maximals that had decided to crash the party.

“I never said the Maximals were devoid of flaws themselves now did I.”

Nemesis frowned a bit at that. No, the Maximals were not devoid of flaws.. nor were they as innocent as most of them seemed to believe. Most of them had at least some Predacon mech fluid on their hands, even if not in the literal sense. For a leader figure, Optimus was oddly enough one of the more innocent Maximals she had encountered in that regards. And even he had been harboring secrets about his past doings.

“But I would sooner trust them to have my back than Megatron’s ragtag band of killers and maniacs.”

Killers and maniacs.. Granted, Nemesis was inclined to agree with the other female's assessment on at least a few accounts. There was no shortage of maniacs in Megatron's camp, although she personally didn't identify as one of them. A killer, however, she couldn't refute that claim. She had taken lives, quite a few of them, and even a couple of the Maximals' lives after her arrival on Earth. Granted it hadn't been entirely voluntarily in either case, which was perhaps the reason Primal seemed to have forgiven her for her role in their deaths.

“Lets hope for your sake he’s in a forgiving mood for whatever you did to him.”

Nemesis had just leaned in closer to the window in the cryo chamber to watch the progression of Rattrap's repairs when Frilla uttered those words, and for some reason they irked the avian female a great deal. Granted, the smaller female had been annoying her up to this point, but there was just something about the tone in her voice that oozed with judgement against the avian for something Frilla hadn't even been present to witness.. Something that triggered a part in her that she normally tried to keep hidden.

Whirling on the smaller female, Nemesis wasted no time before grabbing her smaller frame with her cuffed hands. Had Frilla been bigger, she likely wouldn't have been able to grab much of a hold on her, but as things were the other femme was quite a bit smaller and Nemesis' arms were conveniently restrained in front of her, giving her at least some limited mobility with her hands. Nemesis then turned around quickly, slamming the other female roughly against the cryo chamber and holding her there, with her lower extremities dangling a couple of feet off the ground, for a few moments.

"Don't try to threaten me, I will defend myself," the avian hissed at the other female, shoving her even harder against the chamber wall and almost breaking the window in the process, before seemingly coming to her senses or at the very least realizing that the other female still had the weapon that had already proven quite effective against her. Taking a step back, she then released her grip on Frilla and raised her arms a bit to indicate she didn't really have any ill intent towards her. "My apologies.. That was uncalled for," she admitted begrudgingly, hoping the other female didn't harbor grudges the way most Predacons did.

It was to this scenario that the small fuzor woke up and emerged from her own tank only a short distance away. Aurora felt refreshed as the tank doors opened, and she stretched her limbs as she took the first step outside. All in all the chamber had done a perfectly good job of repairing the wound to her foot, although Aurora didn't waste much time testing the strength of her leg.

There was no pain, and the movement in the limb seemed to be as before.

So far so good!

The fuzor looked up, smiling, completely ready to start helping out with rebuilding the base after this entire Predacon ordeal. Of course she was as of yet unaware of Primal taking most of the Maximals with him in a counter strike against their enemies.

"Hey guys, what's..."

The first thing she took note of was the lack of activity in the infirmary, and then her optics quickly settled on the nearby CR chamber which hosed Rattrap and the two females standing right next to it. Aurora's spark sank a bit when she realized Nemesis was still here, albeit clearly a prisoner, still.. she would have preferred not to have any Predacons present upon emerging from her repair cycle.

Her mouth immediately closing, a confused and then concerned look quickly replaced the joyous one she'd had only seconds before when she had first passed through the chamber doors. Where was everyone? What was Nemesis still doing here? Was Rattrap okay?? And where was Optimus..?

Elsewhere, in a strangely serene setting considering the events that were about to unfold, Tarantulas stood his ground against the surrounding Predacons who were trying to take his new toy away before he even had a chance to play his games.

"My sentiments exactly,"

The spider merely shrugged, since he honestly couldn't care less about Megatron's sentiments or opinions in any way. The two of them weren't exactly close. In fact the spider scientist really couldn't care less about any of the Predacons, as long as they didn't get in the way of his plans.

“Or you need him alive long enough for your own vendetta Tarantulas, what other reason would you be so interested in such technology.”

"As a medical engineer yourself, I'm rather surprised you don't share my interest in unraveling the secrets bestowed upon this one," Tarantulas countered while indicating the unconscious form on the ground.

"And your continuation failing to notice how little I care about your desires is beginning to aggravate me, spider!"

Another shrug of the shoulders followed.

"Don't mistake my own lack of caring for not noticing. I do notice your resistance to my proposals, much like I notice how blatantly oblivious you are being to the chance of a lifetime laying helpless at our feet. And you are both too blind to see it. "

But by all means, he wasn't going to stop these buffoons from making a grave mistake which could potentially send them to an early grave. The spider was confident that the nanomachines were capable of defending themselves. Just like any technology derived from the vok, they had taken on a life of their own.

And his assumption was proven correct moments later when two additional appendages shot up from the unconscious dragon's chest region, wrapping their fingers around Megatron's wrists in an attempt to halt his movements with the sharp weapon. There was a certain warmth generated from the where the nanomachines wrapped themselves around the tyrant, and likely the heat would only have intensified if they had been given time to start the consumption process they surely planned to do.

But alas their intended feast was interrupted when Megatron managed to plunge the dagger deep into the unconscious dragon's chest, prompting the nanomachines to release their would-be victim and instead retreat back into Zodiac's chest so that they could form a case around his spark chamber to protect it. Of course from the outside it was impossible to see that this was their true intention and instead it appeared as if the dragon went into a peaceful slumber.

“I’m beginning to think “freak of nature” doesn’t quite fit me anymore. Just full of unsettling surprises isn’t he.”

Freak of nature or endless possibilities? Granted even Tarantulas had been a bit taken aback by the sudden appearance of the extra arms, even though he had expected some sort of reaction. Regardless, he found the prospect of this new subject enthralling in a sense. An opportunity unlike any other.

"A Maximal scout!"

Of course they had to crash the party. Although the spider briefly wondered how they had been able to locate them so quickly. They hadn't been followed, the spider was certain of that since he'd had his drones scan the area at certain intervals. This Maximal, the female he recognized as AirRazor, couldn't have been here long. And from the looks of it, she wasn't alone either.

Tarantulas had backed away a bit more, thus escaping a majority of the sudden shock wave that affected the area. He, too, temporarily lost track of Zodiac and what was happening there when the Maximals swarmed them, so he missed Megatron's final blow with the dagger. He did, however, catch Optimus swooping in from above on his hoverboard, using it to ram into Megatron with surprising accuracy and speed. Of course the spider couldn't care less about that, since he considered Megatron as little more than a nuisance in his way.

"Zodiac? Can you hear me?"

There was no response from the still figure on the ground. If the voice of his surprising would-be savior was registering, the dragon made no movements or gesture to show for it. Instead he remained knocked out from a combination of the brutal attack, the sedatives, and the concoction Tarantulas had injected him with a short while prior. Still, on the inside, the nanomachines remained active.. ever repairing his injuries and protecting their host.

As the ongoing battle between the two faction leaders intensified, Tarantulas decided to make his move and moved closer to Zodiac. He did see the still gaping hole from where Megatron had impaled his chest, but a quick test with his instruments confirmed to the spider that the shape shifter was still very much so alive.. Only in stasis. Of course he didn't plan to share this tidbit of information with the tyrant, given the latter's obsession with ending the young renegade's life. Tarantulas honestly couldn't care less about Megatron's petty need for revenge, and since his new recruit possessed certain abilities it wouldn't be too difficult to keep him hidden while the spider shaped him into the subject he desired.

A sudden barrage from above stopped the spider in his tracks, however, and he immediately grabbed a couple of his drones that were scattering around his feet to use them as shields to protect him from the incoming onslaught. It seemed to work, at least temporarily, as the shots pummeled the drones and thus giving Tarantulas the opportunity to target his attacker with his own leg cannons and proceed to fire back. He was forced to abandon his spot near Zodiac to seek some shelter behind some trees and rock formation nearby.

(( OOC: Great posts, ladies! Just FYI, Rattrap had actually been placed in the hangar's CR chamber, but we can still roll with this minor change. No biggie. ))

"Point well taken,"

Just as Optimus had thought. At least it was a start with Nemesis seeing it from another side of things.

"Although in a way I think we both hold ourselves accountable every day of our lives."

Well, Optimus did, especially as a commanding officer, and for the skeletons in his own closet. He wasn't so sure Nemesis did or could. He didn't want to underestimate her, but considering how difficult it was for her to accept the blame for some of her poor decisions, he had doubts that truly understood what it meant to hold oneself accountable for their mistakes or intentional actions. He hoped he was wrong because he still wanted to see redemption and remorse in her no matter how deep it might have been suppressed inside.

"Then how?," "By locking him up for the rest of his life? How is that any more humane than ending his suffering?"

"You're not thinking outside of the box, Nemesis," Primal had said to her somewhat narrow-minded thinking, but he hadn't the time to elaborate. He wasn't even entirely sure that his ideas would work, but they were worth a try. Weren't they? It was still worth it for Optimus to try and help Zodiac despite everything. He was certain that he had already made some small head way with him before the Predacon attack interrupted them. He didn't expect Nemesis to understand, nor did it really matter because he was going to go ahead with it anyway. And maybe one day, if the results of his diligence and compassion were to surface on Zodiac, she would see why it was always worth softening even the most corrupted and tortured sparks that nearly seemed incapable of being salvaged. Either that or Optimus would be proven very wrong and things might get out of control.

"Faith..," "I guess we just don't share the same view about risking your life for someone who is clearly not worth the effort."

Primal's spark sank a little toward her comment, but he knew where she was coming from considering the shape shifter's countless attempted murders and selfish - for survival purposes - attitude. "For now, we'll just have to agree to disagree."

-----

“Sorry to interrupt your work, I didn’t realize the bridge was this bad.”

Looking at Tigerhawk, he didn't have to apologize, but Rhinox was appreciative of his concern.

“Got it, on my way then. And good luck here.”

"Thanks, Tigerhawk. You as well," he returned to the larger Maximal. He hoped his comrades were faring well out there. At least the Fuzor would offer more strength and firepower for them. After his exit, the engineer went straight back to work rewiring what was damaged with Sentinel thanks to Nemesis. "Almost there," he said to himself out loud. Just a few more connections...

"Sentinel on-line," the ship's intelligent computer announced. And while Rhinox was proud of his quick work, it was short-lived as a plethora of other problems still awaited him. "Warning: Predacon signature detected. Defenses malfunctioning. Shields off-line."

Sighing, he punched in a code to override Nemesis' signature that was triggering Sentinel's alert, but upon glancing up at the monitor, he noticed that she was now being detected in the infirmary along with Frilla and Aurora. Rhinox opened his comm. link to the smaller reptile on their team, and asked, "What's going on, Frilla?" He didn't need to worry about Nemesis trying to persuade her to switch her allegiance again back to the Predacons, but since they were in the same vicinity as Rattrap who was still in the midst of his repairs, he was concerned about his rodent friend's well being after what Nemesis had already done to him. Was Nemesis behaving? While he waited for an update, he started working on the shields.

There was a loud bang on Rattrap's repair chamber that almost didn't register with his sensitive ears because he was in such a deep slumber, but one of his silver ears did twitch in response as he seemed to be stirring from the noise. Soon after, another louder bang knocked on his CR which alerted him and caused him some panic while it pulled him out of his sleep. His body jumped a little and he gave a small gasp looking confused and almost frightened until he remembered where he was. What de heck is goin' on out dere?! he thought greatly annoyed. I can't even get decent rest in a slaggin' CR chamber without somebody botherin' me. Lifting his head a little, his green eyes caught a glimpse of Nemesis right outside of the chamber's door's window, and it looked like she was attacking Frilla! Even though it had taken some time for him to warm up to the lizard who was once a Predacon, or still was, he trusted her a lot more than freak Nemesis, so if she was in trouble, or if any of the other Maximals were since he had no idea what had happened ever since Wintersong and Tigatron helped him - ironic that he would be saved by two felines - he was willing to help her. Most of his injuries had been repaired to the point that he almost looked brand new, and his energon had been replenished, so he was ready to manually disengage the chamber and give Nemesis a taste of her own medicine after what she had done to him!

With a hiss, the door suddenly opened outward which might have knocked both of the females out of the way even though the rodent had hoped it would only hit Nemesis and give her an upper cut or something to that effect. Maximizing to his robot mode and grabbing his tail spear, he jumped out of the CR chamber in a smooth motion, locking the links in his tail to keep it straightened and jabbing the tip of its spear at her neck just shy of puncturing it. "You got some nerve still hangin' around our base and attackin' my friends, Preda-scum!" he spat on her allegiance. Only then had he noticed that her wrists were bound and Frilla was holding some kind of unusual rifle in her hands. Still, he didn't let up on his weapon that was prodding her neck just under her jaw that didn't require him to be tall in order to reach it since the length of his tail did the work for him. He narrowed his optics angrily at her while he waited for an explanation from Nemesis, Frilla or Aurora who he also noticed was present out of the corner of his eye.

-----

“Not surprised, Megatron likes to make a show out of eliminating traitors.”

Optimus couldn't agree more with Cheetor about that. He certainly enjoyed making an example out of them.

“The Preds won’t know what hit them.”

The gorilla had offered a confident smile to the young cat that was flying by his side, but he hoped he would watch his back so that no one catch him off guard and wound him as he had observed him flying off per his instructions just before Optimus had made his initial move against Megatron.

“Tigerhawk to Optimus, I’m on my way towards your location now.”

"Glad to hear it, Tigerhawk," Primal acknowledged him with his voice carrying some relief on it. "If we can get Zodiac out of here, we'll need you to transport him back to base," he informed him implying that he should be careful when he engages the Predacons and try not to get too badly damaged if it can be avoided. Of course, it would help if the rest of the Maximals watched his back.

Megatron, who had been slammed on the ground head first by Primal, laid on his side seemingly unconscious but merely waiting for the perfect moment to strike back at his opponent.

Meanwhile, Inferno had taken advantage of this radio distraction as he wobbly got to his knees and fired a rocket at the blue ape. His aim came a little short, however, as the explosive hit the ground before it reached the Maximal. Still, it provided the diversion that Megatron was looking for who slowly back onto his purple toes with an aching head and neck.

As the rocket exploded, it blew Optimus off of his feet with a ton of dirt and burnt grass that scattered into the air, and he tumbled backwards across the ground, grumbling and coughing. Slagging Inferno... he cursed at himself.

"Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha hah!" Inferno laughed before he turned his attention to Tigatron and targeted him as the rest of the Maximals closed in on the the Predacons.

Getting up, Primal grabbed one of his clubs from his back again and threw it at the ant bludgeoning him in the head with it that immediately shut him up and knocked him out. Following his successful hit, there was a humming of thrust that he could hear coming from right his side, but it was too late to react when he saw Megatron blasting at him at full force in his vehicle mode.

Upon their collision, which was a loud clash of metal on metal, and lifting Optimus off of the ground with his broad t-rex head, Megatron slammed his Maximal counter part's back right into one of the few rock formations that protruded from the ground. "Surrender, Primal! Zodiac has perished! You failed this time!" he hollered at him after he deactivated his twin engines and landed on the grass stepping back away from the gorilla.

Dazed from his body being rammed into the obstruction behind him that didn't give from the force behind Megatron's speed and weight, Optimus fell to his hands on the grass and took a breather from the pain while he heard his adversary shout at him. "Now... when have I ever considered the 'wisdom' behind your words, Megatron," he mocked the tyrant without looking up at him as he readied himself for another attack.

Growling, the warmonger narrowed his pink optics at the Maximal leader and thrust his jaws at him for his sharp teeth to grab his head.

Watching his feet, Primal ducked to miss his mouth and then lunged forward to tackle him from underneath, using his shoulder under his belly to lift him up off of his clawed toes and slam him to the ground in a close-line type maneuver with his arm giving him more control around his neck. Unbeknownst to both of them that they were getting closer to a newcomer that was lurking in the river nearby. Unfortunately, it also meant that Optimus had put more ground between him and Zodiac than he had intended to. Even if Megatron was right and the shape shifter had died, he didn't want Tarantulas to get his hands on him. Just because he didn't get a response from him earlier didn't mean that his spark had expired. He could have been unconscious or in stasis lock. He hoped anyway.

Megatron's body rolled back and landed with a thud. As soon as he hit the ground, he tried to escape the reach of his nemesis, but he was too slow in his beast mode.

Optimus punched his throat first while he was down, causing the Predacon to cough in anguish. "You show up at my base using my Maximals as hostages!" he hollered at him in anger as the rage boiled. Grabbing the other club that he still had on his back, he swung it downward on Megatron's head beating it once as he prepared for another hit. "You destroy my brig and wreak havoc among my crew!" Another swing with his weapon brought more damage to the dinosaur's purple face, knocking some of his sharp teeth out of his mouth as he laid there in a daze from the blows. "And you willfully take life without accepting any of the consequences!" He brought his club down on his head again in his fury. "When does it end, Megatron?!"

The tyrant coughed and actually started to mutter a chuckle that transitioned into sputtering laughter between more coughs and pain. "It... would have ended... had you never returned... And I was on the brink of finishing your Maximals off... once and for all!" He still reveled in that fateful day with his greatest achievement when he helped aid the aliens by killing Primal in that stasis pod and then almost annihilated his crew. It was so glorious. Megatron's laughter died down as he took a different approach to the tight spot he found himself in. "It could end now... Primal. Here I lay... at your mercy," he played against the Maximal leader who valued life too much to stop even someone as cruel as Megatron and someone as deceptive as Zodiac. What a fool.

Optimus glared thoughtfully down at the t-rex as he squeezed the handle of his blunt weapon as though he was considering his options after his callous comments.

"But your morals... and foolish Maximal code... will allow me to continue functioning... and grant me the opportunity... to achieve my victory...," he taunted him further. "Now is your chance, Optimus..." he looked up at him with the one eye that could see him without moving his throbbing head.

After a moment, the Maximal leader swung his club downward and slammed it into the ground next to Megatron's face with a thump that created a small quake of vibration as it sank a little from the momentum and power behind it. "This won't be the first time I spared your life, Megatron. Or even the second. Remember that after each of your victories. If not for my compassion and pity, you would cease to exist. But don't underestimate the limits of my leniency. I don't have to kill you in order to stop you."

"Of course... You merely lack... the means to imprison me... at this time," Megatron managed a smirk as he seemed to dismiss everything the ape had just said. In truth, his words bothered him. To think that a mere Maximal - an Optimus nonetheless! - was responsible for allowing him to continue to live irritated him greatly. But he would get over it and move forward in his conquest, at which point he could potentially blame Primal for allowing it to happen. Still, his predicament at that very moment was humiliating. Perhaps he could create a diversion with his words while one of his Predacons could intervene and get Optimus away from him and at the same time preventing the ape from giving his Maximals aid. "Just to set the... the record straight, Primal... you ought to reserve your... blind aggression for the one... who coordinated the attack on your base. It was not all my idea, although... I wish I could take... the credit for its... ingenuity and effectiveness." He nearly smirked. "Sometimes... you allow one of your... troops to take the lead... To... To test their abilities... Yesss, you understand," he spoke with a pained stammer from the ground where he laid on his side. Speaking of which, where was Nemesis?! Did she incompetently return to the Darksyde?! Was her navigation damaged thus getting her lost?! It irked him that his second-in-command still hadn't arrived at the battle! ...But the Maximals had found them... rather quickly, the more he began to think about it. He had left her at the Axalon... Megatron tried not to jump to any conclusions, but he was growing increasingly suspicious.

Optimus attempted to remain stoic as he listened to the warlord, but his shoulders sank just a tad as he began to wonder if he was referring to Nemesis being the conjurer behind the attack. Could it really have been her idea to take his Maximals hostage, use Rattrap against the shields like she did almost killing him, and let all of the Predacons invade his base? He didn't want to believe it. Not entirely. Megatron could have just as easily been lying to get under his paint and play with his emotions. He was the mastermind and manipulator, and sometimes Tarantulas, but Nemesis couldn't have been that conniving and cruel after all of the help he had given her. Besides, she had implied earlier that she was simply following orders. The only other ranking officer to bark orders would have been Inferno, but he wasn't capable of such an organized and thought-out plan of attack.

Tilting his shiny, blue head down at his foe for a moment, the Maximal leader gave a small huff and flared his nostrils in annoyance which suggested that he was done with this conversation and declared himself as the victor this round. "Surrender or retreat, Megatron," he said firmly.

But the tyrant hesitated to answer as he sent a silent distress signal to any Predacon who was available to attack Primal. Should he also make sure that he had indeed killed Zodiac? And if he was still alive, did the Predacons have time to retreat with his body to finish him off elsewhere or to experiment on like Tarantulas had wanted to do in the first place? Tarantulas... how he loathed that spider. His words were still fresh in his mind despite how much his head was recently knocked about:

"Don't mistake my own lack of caring for not noticing. I do notice your resistance to my proposals, much like I notice how blatantly oblivious you are being to the chance of a lifetime laying helpless at our feet. And you are both too blind to see it."

He very much wanted to sink his teeth into his head and shred it apart! Zodiac's technology didn't matter to Megatron in the long run. He didn't require any of it to accomplish his goal! That is what the sniveling spider failed to understand! But at least that meant that he wasn't onto his end game. The less that knew about it the better for his success. Nemesis knew some, of course, but only enough to entice her to blindly follow him to the end should he require a loyal subject with regenerative abilities to watch his back. Knowing the knowledge he had gained that day with the golden disk reinforced Megatron's confidence in what he was capable of and just how far he was indeed willing to go. And it was going to be spectacular. Glorious. Even infamous. He would rule all, the way it was always meant to be!

((Okay finally got this finished. Though I lost the file for this when I was working with it just got to finding it.

As a side note, I’m taking over Quickstrike and Waspinator, just haven’t included Waspy yet since I believe he’s at base if I remember reading that right?))

Was Nemesis serious about everything she just said? Frilla couldn’t help giving her a look of disbelief, “Do you seriously hear yourself talk at all? And I am genuinely asking because look whose calling the kettle black.” It wasn’t the frilled lizard being sarcastic or insulting either, she genuinely wondered where Nemesis’ thought process was in that moment. “You just said it yourself the factions aren’t that black and white Nemesis, not all Maximals are like Optimus and not all Predacons think as you and Megatron do.”

Why was Frilla trying so hard to convince the avian of something she obviously did not believe in. Perhaps their experiences had shaped their views, but the remark did rub her the wrong way. “We may not have gotten the best end of the treaty, but it was a start. Some of us just want to live our lives and did have peace, but it’s Predacons like you, Megatron, and the rest of the Darksyde crew that have made it even more difficult to do so for the rest of us.” Frilla firmly told her. She may not know Nemesis all that well as Optimus but she shared the gorilla’s belief others could change. If someone like Dinobot could then there had to be some hope surely. But, she merely sighed and shook her head, “But believe what you want to Nemesis, it’s a waste of energy for both of us. Whatever Megatron said, whatever he promised, I hope it’s worth it and doesn’t come to bite you in the tail feathers.”

She decided to leave things at that. They could argue differing views all day and get no where. Instead, Frilla focused on her task of keeping an optic on the avian Predacon, waiting for the call from Optimus to release her and give her the container the Maximal commander had given her earlier. Eyeing Nemesis, she wondered if the now second in command was as ruthless as she appeared or claimed to be. Different as they were, she seemed willing to listen to someone she would respect such as Optimus and making her point of being oppressed almost void. What Frilla wasn’t expecting though was Nemesis to lash out from her comment, grunting as her back collided with the CR chamber glass, threatening to break it. “I wouldn’t expect you not to.” She gritted out, holding the strange rifle up just in case, wincing as she was pressed harder against the glass, “I wasn’t threatening you Nemesis.” Frilla breathed out a sigh as she was set down, feeling a faint ache in her back from being crushed briefly but nevertheless straightening herself again, keeping the rifle trained on the avian but maintaining her composure, “You should know Rattrap well enough he holds a grudge, I just meant I hope for your safety he doesn’t immediately react to whatever you did to him because it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see my teammates are angered for a reason.”

Not to long after she said this did she heard the soft hiss of one of the other CR chambers, Aurora emerging from it looking excited for all but a moment before she saw the two. “Aurora, it’s-” Before Frilla could get more than a few words out Rhinox soon chimed in seemingly having gotten an alert about what had just happened with her and Nemesis, “A small misunderstanding with our...guest Rhinox, don’t worry.” Frilla responded, keeping her optics on the two femmes. But it seemed the situation was about to get even more complicated as it appeared their actions hadn’t just awakened Aurora but the damaged Transmetal rat as well who as predicted was quick to come to their defense.

“Rattrap stop, it was a minor misunderstanding.” The small femme tried to ease his aggression somewhat, not wanting to risk causing any more damage to the base than there already was. “Optimus has her here as a prisoner for the time being, he ordered that we watch her until the order is given.” As she spoke, the frilled lizard carefully reached over, pushing his tail aside away from jabbing into Nemesis’ neck, “Like it or not, she’s not to be harmed unless she gives us a reason.” Though knowing the rodent she had no doubts Rattrap would indicate the broken glass was something.

—————————————————

The more Terrabite watched the battle unfold the more he had to restrain himself from jumping right in. It had been many years since he had seen this much action, much less such a struggle between the factions if one did not count the political and economic differences. What excited him the most though was with how both factions seemed on equal grounds, fighting their hardest for who knew what.

What that subject or something was he cared not, only to jump in and tear up Maximals once again.

Spectating the spectacle though soon got a little too close for comfort as the crocodile-like mech was drawn towards the two commanding officers duking it out and drawing closer and closer to his position. Not wanting to give away his presence just yet, Terrabite ducked beneath the surface once more before Optimus had knocked Megatron down close to the river wincing slightly as he heard the collision of someone meeting the ground beneath the water. Deciding to get a closer look, the newcomer moved a bit further down the river to a rock formation he had seen close to the river’s edge, slowly and quietly moving from the water to behind temporary cover. From here he could properly listen to the two commanders without being seen. From what little he heard it appeared the two had been at this for sometime, and this Megatron was in a tight spot at best.

Slowly peering from his cover, Terrabite could see the other Predacons appeared preoccupied and one down for the count leaving the t-rex at the mercy of Optimus Primal. Even if they noticed, the transmetal dinosaur couldn’t stall answering the Maximal forever. Now seemed the perfect time to let go of his restraint, “Predacons do not surrender Optimus Primal, we simply find another opportunity.” As Terrabite spoke, he was already drawing his Bomb Blaster to aim at the transmetal ape and fired two grenades intending to knock him away from the heavily damaged Megatron.

Dinobot shifted and parried Rampage’s attempts at striking back in response, letting some of the punches slide across his armor as he leaned back just enough to avoid it. For the first few minutes the crab seemed to be serious in his attempts to harm the raptor, even showing a fair bit of enthusiasm for action. But as quick as he seemed to welcome the challenge he was quickly bored with their altercation. Rather disappointing really to the raptor who craved some form of retribution for what the Predacons had done to the base and Rattrap, even though he would never openly admit such a thing. As annoying and bothersome as Rattrap was Dinobot still had a soft spot for the rat and it frustrated him to see the immortal mech appeared to have his attentions elsewhere.

“You should pay greater attention to your opponent crab legs, your laziness is shining through.” Dinobot ducked the rocket launcher aimed to knock him aside and was back up straight before the larger Predacon could react, shifting into a back roundhouse kick to knock the rocket launcher from his opponents hand and following with his spin shield in one fluid motion, ramming it against his face. It was enough to knock Rampage back a step or two, giving Dinobot a chance to hop back to leave some distance, optic lasers burning bright and ready but never failing to notice things seemed to slowly working in the Maximals’ favor, “I recommend you stop while you’re ahead. Megatron is finished.” At least the raptor had thought so before the warrior noticed some unexpected interference in the distance.

Tigatron glared at the former Decepticon, ever the one who seemed to not mind only repairing individuals but also causing them harm. He would never understand the motivation for the Predacons and their ancestors to inflict pain, misery, and destruction, regardless of life was innocent or not. Sadism ran deep with them and Spineback was a good example that past and present weren’t quite that blurred no matter how many centuries passed. “Stable enough to handle you.” The male tiger responded with a low growl, rolling to dodge under Spineback’s initial swing, bringing his Quasar Gun up to fire a few rounds into her side as he rolled back to his feet. Though she quickly seemed to be interested in something else than their fight, making him wonder what could possibly be more important than defending herself. “Not exactly smart of you to lose focus so easily reptile.” Tigatron advised.

Seeing opportunity presenting itself, Tigatron switched his Quasar blasts to its cryo setting, wanting to end this as swiftly as possible to aid the others where he could. But his words seemed to jar Spineback to her senses as in the same moment he fired a few shots her lance came down, freezing her weapon down to her hand but not slowing its momentum in time to slam against the feline, sending him rolling across the grassy field with a snarl. Groaning as the pain began to register to his entire neural net, the white and green mech could only lie there in stunned silence, the wind knocked from his intakes and left seeing stars in his vision,

Wintersong’s shots pelted the fuzor’s armor, making him growl a little under his breath at being interrupted. The Maximals seemed to pop up out of no where these days during combat, most evident from their ambush to get the equine and tiger/hawk fuzor earlier. “A target is a target fleabag, jus’ don’t go disappointin’ me now.” Part of Quickstrike wished it had been one of the Maximals earlier he was facing or his traitorous sugar-bot who he still owed for her attempts to woo him into a distraction again. Although, it hadn’t been in his favor from the start anyhow back in the woods, but he intended to make up for that the best he could in this moment.

“You’re dead Maxie!” With an enthusiastic “Yee-haw!” the fuzor charged towards the transmetal tigress, firing his cyber venom towards her to force her to dodge around his attacks as she blasted him, wincing slightly as some of those shots grazed the scorched area Inferno has struck him earlier in the battle. Once they had both closed the distance, he sidestepped her next incoming shots and fired a single shot towards her hands, causing her to snarl as the cyber venom infected and weakened her grasp on her weapon and forcing her to dive to the side to avoid further blasts. Just a little more was all he needed...and it was then that Megatron sent a silent signal, which meant he had to make this quick. The boss was already furious with him for his lackluster attempts at guard duty and the last thing he wanted was to take more heat from Megatron for not acting in time.

So, while Wintersong was forced to resort to what remained of her mini-missiles, the small fuzor shifted to beast mode to move a bit more quickly than he did in robot mode. He scurried forward, taking some evasive actions to avoid the missiles, though just barely a time or two until he was close enough to lung forward and pin her down, “Yer outta luck Maximal.” He cackled with glee, the cobra head making up his tail extending swifter than she could react to sink it’s fangs into her Vok-infested left side, injecting as much of his cyber venom as he could to keep her down and ignoring the faint bleeding of mech fluid and some green liquid he didn’t recognize nor cared to know. The sound of explosives nearby were enough to signal to the fuzor he had stayed long enough, leaping away from Wintersong’s form to make his way towards Megatron, noticing someone else seemed to have come to the t-rex’s aid.

((Today for sure! Was an extremely long weekend of celebration for me and my brother, he was actually at the Junior Olympics this year so had no time to work on my post like I had hoped. But working on it now!))

“Roger that. Hopefully with any luck, they’ll be too distracted to take any shots.” At least, that was what the fuzor was hoping for. With the Maximals making their move the Predacons would hopefully be otherwise engaged and allow him to get Zodiac out of harms way. Though that was probably wishful thinking at most.

Nevertheless, as the large fuzor arrived to the coordinates, he scanned the battle below, seeing some Predacons had been put down already or were presently preoccupied with his comrades elsewhere. “Wings don’t fail me now.” Tigerhawk made a steep dive towards the shapeshifter, the memory of already being heavily damaged earlier that day still at the back of his mind, luckily enough having avoided death that day. And Rattrap had likewise been fortunate enough to have had some back up. True to their nature however, the tiger/hawk fuzor soon found himself being pelted by some of the Predacons, forcing him to have to barrel roll and veer to the side to avoid being shot down once again, transforming when getting close to the ground to fire warning shots in response, “Just never give up do they.” Touching down near the downed young dragon, Tigerhawk gave the mech a quick glance finding him practically on death’s door or deceased. “By the Matrix.” Becoming concerned they might be too late, Tigerhawk’s first thought was to get Zodiac clear of the battlefield, unsure if he was in fact deceased but remaining here would surely mean a definite demise.

Rampage rather enjoyed toying with the raptor for a little while, being unable to get a direct strike of having to put some effort in. A little dance to work up his unsatiated hunger, something that was ever constant that he could never seem to satisfy. But he could sense the growing frustration with Dinobot, being enough to peak his curiosity to maintain their fight but not enough not to feel somewhat bored at the same time. The raptor’s defensive tactics were far from what the crab had been hoping for with the famed combatant among the Maximals but he would have to do to satisfy the hunger to a small degree. “Laziness you say?” Rampage actually chuckled in amusement, aiming a punch that grazed the wound on Dinobot’s chest that forced him back just slightly, “I call it boredom.”

No sooner had that been said did Dinobot finally go on a more offensive, causing Rampage to growl at his Rocket Launcher being kicked from his hand and grunting as his head was bombarded by the spinning shield. Stumbling back a foot or two, the mech rested his hand on the bruised area, hissing softly from the slight pain. “Well then, now you have my attention.” Rampage turned back to the raptor with gleeful but angered optics, intending to no longer mess with the raptor, stomping forward a few steps before Megatron’s silent distress call caused him to pause in his tracks turning to see what was going on until he noticed the newcomer coming to Megatron’s aid.

Spineback’s lance had collided just right to slam against the tiger, having ignored his words which meant little to her. The Maximals were always soft sparked and too open minded, allowing the views of all to cloud their judgement and lose sight of what was important. It was almost sad in her opinion, to see half of their kind being too concerned for other life and preserving it than over their own kind, “Pathetic Maximal, your bleeding spark will get you killed one day.” The veteran spoke, turning her attention to her frozen lance and hand, the ice having spread along to her wrist and feeling numb from the coldness.

Slamming the lance to the ground with as much force as she could to make the ice shatter like glass, freeing her weapon and her hand which she began to flex after switching the weapon to the opposite one. ‘Now that’s cold.’ It would take some time to get her hand back to normal feeling but with Tigatron out of commission for a limited time she turned her attentions elsewhere, letting her optics scan over the remaining battlefield for the moment. Most everyone else was occupied and Inferno was down, leaving only a handful of them available to give Megatron and Inferno some back up at beast. And to add insult to injury, the sound of someone else arriving caused the medic to glance up finding Tigerhawk arriving to give the Maximals some aid. “Terrorsaur, get Inferno out of here.” Spineback commed to the Transmetal flier as she hurried to cover Megatron, firing a few low-powered shots at the large fuzor.

“Me disappoint? Maybe you ought to look in a dictionary once in a while fuzor, pretty sure your name is under the definition of disappointment.” Wintersong retorted with a roll of her optics, continuing to lay on more firepower towards the fuzor but was a little surprised to see him charging right for her instead. It appeared Quickstrike was determined not to make a further mess of things than he already had given that the captive Maximals had gotten free and returned to base soon enough. It was a wonder that the fuzor wasn’t already dead from these sorts of tactics in facing his opponent head on so recklessly. But the tactic was enough to force her to dodge some these attacks or draw a sword to deflect some of them. Though some of the venom blasts grazed her armor still, leaving some areas feeling slightly numb but not being enough to slow her approach,

Finally, it seemed Quickstrike had a moment to think on his feet, sidestepping one of her shots to fire a well-placed shot to her hands, causing her to snarl in pain, dropping her rifle and feeling the burning sensation moving along to her wrists. “I hate cyber venom.” She grumbled, deciding to resort to her mini-missiles, four remaining in total that she fired at the scorpion/cobra fuzor who used his smaller form to dodge around the missiles, though just barely. Growling as he caught her at the last moment, she was soon left trying to struggle as the cyber venom was injected into her shoulder, “You got a lucky shot fuzor.” She hissed between gritted teeth the burning sensation becoming two fold with the fuzor’s venom, which wasn’t helped by the voices at the back of her processor giving her a “I told you so!” either.

The sound of explosions nearby however seemed to finally draw Quickstrike away, making him release his grip and scurry away to his teammates instead and making Wintersong wonder what was happening. Her entire form was paralyzed due to the venom, her form being unresponsive except for occasional twitches and only able to listen to what was happening around her.

Terrorsaur shook himself or if the dizziness after being blasted away by Cheetor, glowering towards the feline who was holding his abdomen but rushing over to the older Maximal, Tigatron. He really hated these Maximals with a passion. Grunting softly as he pushed himself to his feet, the transmetal flier retrieved his swords, intending to get the young Maximal while his back was turned but stopped in his tracks the moment he got Megatron’s distress signal followed by Spineback mentioning for him to get Inferno who he had lost track of among the rest of his teammates. With a low growl, he turned his back to the two Maximals and quickly took flight, “Might as well try to salvage this; Megatron and his big revenge plans.”

And Terrorsaur thought his plans had been over the top, but this topped his energon mountain stint in his opinion.

Landing near the downed ant, Terrorsaur hauled Inferno over his shoulder with some struggle, “Ugh, as heavy as he looks.” The ‘dactyl complained under his breathe but was drawn towards the blaster fire, spying Tigerhawk having arrived next, “Time to blast you out of the sky feline.” Transferring what energy he could spare, Terrorsaur began to fire upon Tigerhawk along with Spineback, intending to hinder the Maximal or force him to release Zodiac.

Before Terrorsaur had recovered, Cheetor had seen the low blow Spineback had given Tigatron, optics widening with concern, “Big Cat!” Gripping his abdomen with one hand, the transmetal cheetah rushed over to the older Maximal, sliding over to his side and resting his free hand on his shoulder. Thankfully, it seemed Tigatron was aware and conscious, merely having the wind knocked from his body. “Just rest for a minute or two Tigatron, you’re safe now.” Cheetor assured him with relief, noticing some of the Predacons seemed to be concerned with Megatron all of a sudden. From his spot it appeared the t-rex has taken quite the punishment from Optimus, ‘Serves you right grape face.’ Cheetor thought, by did feel Optimus was letting him off easy this time. Far as the young Maximal was concerned Megatron was deserving of far worse at this point in the war.

Unfortunately, Cheetor was drawn from the sight of his father figure handling their worst foe towards some of the Predacons turning their attention on Tigerhawk who had been forced to crouch and lean over Zodiac in attempt to shield him from further harm. “Airazor! Give me a hand over here! Tigerhawk needs some cover fire!” The young mech called over to the avian female who seemed preoccupied at the time. Turning the rifle on the Predacons, Cheetor began to fire to try and give the flying tiger a chance to get away with Zodiac who had not shown any signs of movement. At the same time, past the Predacons firing at them the young cheetah noticed movement off to the side of Optimus and Megatron, seemingly an unexpected turn of events.

“Optimus!”

Airazor’s attacks only found the drones at first, causing her to pause her attack on the spider mech for the moment, optics narrowing to try and find him among the smoke. He always seemed to have quite the posse of drones to use against them in some manner, even if it was to sacrifice his little helpers to avoid serious damage. From the smoke however came Tarantulas’s own barrage, peppering Airazor’s frame and forcing her to have to fly backwards to avoid more shots which had left shallow holes in different areas but did not take her out of the fight this time. “Of course you never make this easy do you.” She said to herself, all too aware of how tricky the spiders could be, even if Blackarachnia had joined their cause.

With the smoke faded now, the falcon spotted her query moving to some cover, shifting her Claw Gun to fire after him towards the trees and rock formations. It seemed she would have to switch to heavier artillery, in her case at least. Switching her gun for her wrist launchers, Airazor dove somewhat closer to the ground, making a sweep along the tree line as she fired her mini-missiles, aiming to either force Tarantulas out or in retreat. It was as she was finishing this sweep however that Cheetor called out for her help, causing her to hesitate for a moment before rushing off to help the young cheetah, turning her mini-missiles on the other Predacons instead.

Having been protecting Zodiac’s seemingly lifeless body, Tigerhawk’s back was once again aching from the shots the Predacons had been able to get in. Thankfully, some of his comrades had noticed and decided to jump in where they could, allowing him only a brief opportunity to act. “Time to get you out of here kid.” Despite his back now sore from being blasted, Tigerhawk’s wings were still functional, beginning to flap them as he grabbed a hold of Zofiac and took to the sky, heading for the cover of the trees.

((Okay, let me know if I missed anything or need to change something! I tried to get everyone and everything.))

Nemesis sighed as she tried her best to avoid eye contact with Optimus, since a part of her feared that she'd break down and tell him the entire, and quite ugly, truth if she looked him in the optics for too long. Even now, despite the fact that Primal was clearly upset with her for what she had done, he clearly gave her some credit still. His voice was angry, yes, but not hateful. And he was still willing to give her a chance, she could hear it in his pitch. So the avian female remained in a more submissive role, seemingly contrite, although a part of her did feel less than great about her actions which she at the time, and part of her still did, deemed necessary.

"You're not thinking outside of the box, Nemesis,"

Oh Optimus.. Ever so forgiving, ever so naive. Zodiac had received extensive training in manipulation, so how could anyone ever bring themselves to trust him to better himself the way Primal seemed to think he could? Although for the time being Primal's insistence to always see some good in others was beneficial to the female, since surely his anger towards her would increase tenfold if he knew the true extent of her involvement in the attack on the Axalon.

"Just don't get yourself stuck in that same box," Nemesis muttered with a slight shake of the head. "Not everyone can be saved, not everyone can change.. No matter how badly you want them to."

She then stopped herself from going on, not wanting to say something that could damage her own case further in Optimus' optics.

"For now, we'll just have to agree to disagree."

Leaning into him one last time before he let her go so she slid down to the floor, Nemesis struggled with herself on what to say to dissuade Primal. Him going there against Megatron and the Predacon forces was as good as a death sentence, but the only thing she could possibly say to try to change his mind would be if she told him the truth about the attack and her own involvement. That she'd been the one to come up with most of the idea and the execution of it, on Megatron's order of course, but like Primal had pointed out a few times already.. the responsibility of her actions fell on her. Perhaps admitting to what she had done would help persuade Primal from launching his rescue attempt, since he'd no doubt get distracted by his anger and resentment and would ultimately change his mind about releasing her.

Still.. her need for self-preservation prevailed, and she let Primal go without telling him the truth he clearly held at high value. May Primus protect him, she thought as she watched him go, remaining silent until after he had left the premises.


------

“Do you seriously hear yourself talk at all? And I am genuinely asking because look whose calling the kettle black.”

Nemesis let out a slight, humorless chuckle at the smaller female's remark, since it was almost eerie how much she sounded like just about every Maximal the now avian female had ever encountered.

"I never took you for so naive," she told the other female as soon as the chuckle died down. "Then again we didn't get much of a chance to converse much before you ran off with the Maximals, so I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that you have no clue what a majority of us went through during the Maximal oppression."

She then sighed, her voice going a bit quieter before she continued. "Sure, the treaty could have worked if the Maximal elders weren't so corrupt and intent on keeping their superior position at the cost of the Predacons and few remaining Decepticons.. Many were forced into hiding, or left to rot in the worst slum parts of Cybertron and its colonies. Those who wouldn't abide by the unreasonable restrictions that were placed upon them, often ended up vanishing without a trace after the Cybertronian Maximal police showed up. So no, don't lecture me on matters that you have clearly never been on the receiving end of."

There was a certain bitterness in her tone and Nemesis did little to conceal it. Why would she? In her opinion she was only relaying the facts to someone who didn't have shared life experiences, who hadn't seen the brutality for themselves. To someone Nemesis did not consider to be a real Predacon since she had turned her back on everything the avian stood for.

“You just said it yourself the factions aren’t that black and white Nemesis, not all Maximals are like Optimus and not all Predacons think as you and Megatron do.”

No, not all Maximals were like Optimus. In fact a majority of the ones Nemesis knew weren't. And sadly those were the Maximals that currently functioned as the ruling class, the ones responsible for all the torment her kin had to endure.

"It's like talking to a brick wall with you, isn't it?," the avian sighed while stretching her cuffed arms out a bit. "While I do not deny that Optimus is different, he is still only one bot and is only capable of so much. He's not on the Maximal council, he doesn't have any real power to start a revolution or change anything. No matter how noble his intentions are, his main concern will always be this small crew he has made his family."

“We may not have gotten the best end of the treaty, but it was a start. Some of us just want to live our lives and did have peace, but it’s Predacons like you, Megatron, and the rest of the Darksyde crew that have made it even more difficult to do so for the rest of us.”

The avian rolled her optics at that statement, finding it quite bewildering that someone who proclaimed themselves as never turning their back on the Predacons could possibly share so many views with their Maximal overlords, one could say..

"What you refer to as peace, some might argue was more like slavery. We shouldn't have to be treated as lesser than the Maximals. Cybertron is our home world as well." Which sounded a bit ironic coming from Nemesis, who had actually never lived on Cybertron but rather spent a majority of her life on its colonies.

“But believe what you want to Nemesis, it’s a waste of energy for both of us. Whatever Megatron said, whatever he promised, I hope it’s worth it and doesn’t come to bite you in the tail feathers.”

Nemesis scoffed at that statement, still unaware of how quickly Megatron would toss her and any of them aside for his own gain.

"Your concern for my well being is duly noted," came the frankly rather cold response. When was Optimus going to return anyway, so that she could get out of here before these Maximals actually started rubbing off on her?

Not long after their little squabble had resulted in Nemesis grabbing the smaller female, pressing her firmly against the CR chamber in a moment of rage before clarity started to set in.

“I wouldn’t expect you not to.”

She pressed the other female harder against the glass for but a moment, almost shattering it in the process, but then calmed down enough to release her grip so that the smaller female, and her rifle, could get her footing on the floor again.

Clutching her cuffed hands for a moment, forcing herself to calm down, Nemesis slowly took a slight step away from Frilla and apologized for her outburst.

“I wasn’t threatening you Nemesis.”

The avian shook her head slightly, as if to clear it of all the thoughts that were racing through it right now. All those urges telling her to simply end it for the smaller traitor, as well as the voice of reason telling her such an action would certainly complicate her own relationship with Primal and the Maximals than it already had. Somehow Optimus had found it in his spark to forgive her for taking the lives of two of his crew mates, although perhaps he realized her actions when doing so hadn't been entirely willing. When she was damaged enough, the nanomachines tended to just take over and do whatever it took to preserve their host. And she mostly blacked out for the duration of it, until she'd come to again to face the messy aftermath. Fortunately those events only happened when she was seriously injured, and right now there wasn't as much as a scratch on her. Besides the nanomachines were presently offline, or at least in a state of slumber, as a result of being shot by the rifle Frilla was holding.

"At least you have some semblance of common sense in you," Nemesis muttered as way of response, still not willing to drop the hostility entirely.

“You should know Rattrap well enough he holds a grudge, I just meant I hope for your safety he doesn’t immediately react to whatever you did to him because it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see my teammates are angered for a reason.”

Rattrap.. The Decepticon-turned-Predacon wasn't proud of what she had done to the rodent. She was well aware that he could have died, but at least she had showed him some small mercy by removing him out of harm's way before leaving him to his fate. And as evidenced by his slumbering form in the chamber, he was very much so alive.

"I'm not easy to kill," she reminded the other female. "But you do have a point.. The Maximals are rather upset with me." As she supposed they had every right to be, even more so if they knew the entire truth about her involvement in the attack.

That's when it became blatantly obvious they were no longer alone, and Frilla's attention span was being dragged in several different directions. For a split moment Nemesis did consider using this opportunity to make a run for it but at the last possible moment she decided against doing so. With these cuffs on she couldn't transform, her nanomachines wouldn't be able to help her should they open fire, and from her estimations she was too deep within the confines of the Axalon to be able to make it out of there on foot or even attempting to fly in robot form.

“Aurora, it’s-”

The little fuzor looked at the other female who was barely taller than she was, taking note of the rifle in her hand and Nemesis standing a few paces away from her with her hands in restraints. What a surreal scenario this was to wake up to.. And it was about to get even stranger..

Nemesis had no sooner dropped Frilla back down before the chamber doors suddenly hissed open with such speed and intent she didn't even have time to back away. Part of the door knocked her across the jawline, leaving a faint mark in its wake.

"You got some nerve still hangin' around our base and attackin' my friends, Preda-scum!"

The avian female worked her jaw for a moment before finally bringing her cuffed hands up to rub the sting out of it, before glancing down to see the weapon firmly held in the rodent's hands with the sharp end of it hovering dangerously close to her neck. Glaring at the rodent for a moment, she then quickly came to her senses enough to take a subtle step backwards, away from the weapon at her throat.

"It's not like I'm here by choice," she muttered while indicating her restrained arms, her jaw still feeling a bit aching and sore, but it would appear no permanent damage had been done. "But I'd be happy to depart if that's what you wish."

Of course it wasn't likely any of them would do anything of the sort without clearing it with Optimus first. What would happen if Primal died as a result of his own stubbornness and relentless desire to protect others, even those who didn't deserve it? What would the Maximals do with her then?

Meanwhile Aurora had let out a surprised gasp when the chamber opened so suddenly, only for her face to light up some when Rattrap emerged from it with his sword at the ready. She, too, wasn't sure why Nemesis was still here or what deal Primal had made about her release.

"Rattrap!," the fuzor exclaimed, having to use every bit of self control not to run over to the rat to give him a hug. She honestly would have, hadn't the situation with Nemesis been so precarious. Aurora didn't want to give the taller female Predacon a chance of obtaining another hostage.

“Rattrap stop, it was a minor misunderstanding.”

Was it? Nemesis could appreciate the smaller female coming to her defense though, even if nothing that had happened between them had been based on a misunderstanding though as far as she was concerned.

“Optimus has her here as a prisoner for the time being, he ordered that we watch her until the order is given.”

Ah yes.. Nemesis had thought that's the order Primal had given his troops, but since she hadn't been able to listen in to the entire thing she couldn't have been certain. Until now. So that gave her another incentive to try to keep her cool at least, so that Optimus could give the word for her release when he returned. If he did. She still wasn't quite sure about that. So hopefully the other Maximals wouldn't turn to Predacon tactics and use her as a hostage for trade, since that would make her whereabouts while seemingly missing in action blatantly obvious. And she still needed to come up with a good cover story for when she did return.

"I spared your life, rodent," Nemesis said as calmly as she could, avoiding to make any sudden movements while the tail sword was poking at her neck. Fortunate Frilla decided to back her up on this matter as well, and gently pushed the weapon away.

"You electrocuted him against the shields!," Aurora blurted out accusingly, revealing that she had seen what happened on the monitors. Nemesis merely gave a slight shrug of the shoulders at the outburst, not being able to change or even deny what happened one way or another. There had obviously been witnesses.

“Like it or not, she’s not to be harmed unless she gives us a reason.”

Nemesis took another step back, wanting to put a little distance between herself and the armed rodent, at least until her nanomachines were operational again. "Frilla is telling the truth," the avian and tallest cybertronian of the ones present said.

That's when Aurora noticed how empty the place was, and found it strange that Optimus hadn't showed up yet. "Wait a moment.. Where's Optimus?" she thought out loud.

"He went to retrieve Zodiac," Nemesis replied with a sigh, resulting in a look of shock on the fuzor's face. He did what?!

Meanwhile Tarantulas watched as their once assured victory quickly turned into a battle where either side could come out on top, all-the-while silently cursing Megatron and his incessant need to teach the upstart shapeshifter a lesson instead of merely letting the spider do what he did best. They could already have had Zodiac under their control, or rather under the spider's control, to use him against the Maximals and to effectively leave their little rescue operation a mute point.

But noo.. The purple lizard had to do things his own way instead of listening to reason, thus wasting precious time and quite possibly putting Tarantulas' operation in jeopardy. Tarantulas would have to come up with a suitable way to repay the tyrant for that later, as he had bigger concerns as of this very moment.

The Maximal female bird was firing at him and it had been pure luck that he'd been able to deflect her shots using his own drones as a shield. His payback had come in full, of course, and he blasted her repeatedly with his leg blasters as soon as he had found cover. In fact he'd been so preoccupied with turning the falcon into swiss cheese that he had temporarily lost sight of his primary target and as such didn't notice Tigerhawk's attempt to steal his new toy away. For now.

As the falcon retaliated with another weapon, blasting his hiding spot with miniature missiles which sent splintered rocks and tree remnants flying everywhere, Tarantulas had no choice but to seize his own attack and turn his back to use his backplate as a shield of sorts while burning wood and scolding hot rock pellets pummeled him. "Aaaargh!," he hollered out in a combination of pain, anger, and frustration as he moved himself to the only remaining rock formation that seemed capable of offering some protection.

Curse that bird!, he thought to himself when the onslaught finally stopped, To the pit with her and all her allies!

His armor looked a little scorched when he emerged from his hiding spot a moment later, a loathing, seething look on his face as he eyed the falcon who was now moving away from him. It was then he took note of the large fuzor .. who was trying to get away with his prize! Fuming, and more than a little ready for revenge, the spider immediately loaded his cybervenom and proceeded to fire at the nearby fuzor who was attempting to get away.

"Ah ah ah, this toy doesn't belong to you!," he shouted after Tigerhawk as he fired again, this time a mix of cyber venom and the more long range leg weapons.

Meanwhile Zodiac still remained motionless, seemingly not reacting to all the commotion that was taking place around him.. and because of him. He hadn't even flinched when Megatron ripped the blade out of his chest, and his body lay limp when Tigerhawk scooted him up into his arms and attempted to take flight with him.

(( OOC: Waspinator is wherever you want or need him to be, New Moon. XD It doesn't matter. Thank you again for taking him and Quickstrike, whom you're playing very well already. ))

"Just don't get yourself stuck in that same box,"

Primal had slightly raised a brow at her clever remark. But it wasn't enough to change his mind on the matter.

"Not everyone can be saved, not everyone can change.. No matter how badly you want them to."

Nemesis may have been right about that. It wasn't like it hadn't crossed his mind though. But he still wanted to try. After the progress he witnessed recently, he saw hope for Zodiac; hope that he couldn't abandon now.

-----

"Surrender or retreat, Megatron,"

"Now... we both know... that it is never that easy, Primal," the tyrant managed a smirk on his face when he noticed someone approaching them from behind Optimus. He had not expected it to be a new bot though. As his vision focused, he didn't recognize him at all. However, his frame, armor and beast mode suggested that he was indeed a Predacon. Most excellent. With his Maximal counter part already damaged, he would be wise to abandon this confrontation thus sparing Megatron from the embarrassment of either option that the ape had offered.

“Predacons do not surrender Optimus Primal, we simply find another opportunity.”

The TransMetal gorilla, who was about to retort his adversary's comment, turned to find a newcomer walking toward them, and, like Megatron, he didn't recognize him. His body was drenched which suggested that he had just emerged from the river nearby. Another swimmer? Another advantage for the Predacons. And he was already drawing his weapon which gave Optimus little time to react to the ammunition that he wasn't prepared for considering how little he knew about this Predacon. Regardless, he had no choice but to try and defend himself while in his beast mode.

“Optimus!”

As the two grenades were fired at him, Primal swung his club just in time to accurately ricochet one of them back toward the giant, dinosaur-like gator's direction, but he couldn't deflect the other. Just before its explosion, he heard Cheetor hollering to him, however, there was nothing he could do. The blast knocked Optimus off of his feet and onto his back several feet away from Megatron as was its intention. There was ringing in his audio sensors as he barely clung on to consciousness groaning a little as he laid there and his internal systems worked frantically to keep him functioning.

Megatron winced from the close proximity of the fiery explosive, but he ended up grinning with some of his teeth missing as he watched his nemesis who was nearly knocked unconscious thanks to this new recruit. The t-rex moved his hind legs slowly while he adjusted his posture to stand up so that he wouldn't look so frail and pathetic despite his injuries. "An impressive... entrance," he commended the new reptile pleased with the results. "I should like... to know your name... But... business before introductions," he said as he pushed through his pain and bludgeoned head. He had a lot more inquiries about the new fellow, of course, but there was little time for an interview or a resume. "Drown him," Megatron immediately ordered the unfamiliar Predacon to test his loyalty and abilities as he pointed one of his small t-rex "hands" at the Maximal Commander laying on the ground. His voice was cold and dark, devoid of mercy and compassion. Yesss, a terrible death for the gorilla who was not water proof and lacked buoyancy so he would sink. He dared not risk giving Primal any opportunity to speak with the unknown aquatic reptile since he had an uncanny ability to convince certain Predacons to join his crew and abandon Megatron's ranks. Not this time! And whether this bot was successful or not, it didn't matter to the tyrant since he merely wanted Optimus off of his back and out of the way so that he could focus on Zodiac and the rest of the annoying Maximals. What was taking the rest of his troops so long to answer his distress call? As much as it irritated him, he decided to redirect it toward the Maximals.

"Megatron... terrorize," he commanded his internal computer, and he reverted back to his robot mode while drawing his tail cannon. It was a painful transformation, and his head was still heavily beaten from Zodiac and Primal. His vision was poor in both optics, but more so in one than the other. His jaw was a little bent, and his neck still felt as though Zodiac's nanobots were gripping it and gnawing on it. He certainly hoped that sensation would pass after his repairs, which he would require soon since his systems were alerting him of his low energon levels and injuries. He would have to call a retreat soon regardless, but not until he was certain Zodiac was dead or, at the very least, in his possession. ...If he could help it.

“Airazor! Give me a hand over here! Tigerhawk needs some cover fire!”

“Time to get you out of here kid.”

"Ah ah ah, this toy doesn't belong to you!,"

Nor does he belong to you, you treacherous arachnid, thought the Predacon leader. Taking a moment to observe the battle that he had lost track of thanks to the blue ape, Megatron very much desired to take aim on Tigerhawk who was attempting to fly off with Zodiac's carcass and shoot them both out of the sky, but there were too many other Maximals interfering with his Predacons who were also already firing at the large Maximal Fuzor. Even though he didn't want the shape shifter to fall into Tarantulas's clutches, him attacking Airazor and Tigerhawk was welcomed assistance seeing as Inferno was down and being aided by Terrorsaur, Rampage was occupied with Dinobot, and the male feline Maximals were huddled together while the TransMetal female with the strange anomaly across her breast plate had just broken up with his scorpion/cobra Fuzor appearing to be paralyzed from his cyber venom. Quickstrike finally did something right, it would appear which slightly alleviated the anger he had been reserving for him. So, Megatron decided to blast a couple shots at Airazor, and then lowered his powerful weapon to fire at Cheetor and Tigatron. Although his shots were far more inaccurate than they normally would have been because of his impaired vision and the distance between him and his targets, they could still possibly hit their marks or at least cause a distraction to deter them from assisting Tigerhawk. "Quickstrike... Spineback...," he radioed to them, "Bring Tigerhawk down! Do NOT... let him escape!" They may yet win this battle after all, yesss! However... Tigerhawk was gaining altitude now which made it more difficult to accurately hit him. The tyrant readied his twin turbine engines to take flight in desperation to retrieve the renegade's body.

"Megatron... to Nemesis," he tried to hail her over his comm. link. "Where are you?! Answer me... at once!" Wherever she was, he couldn't know if his transmission would even reach her, but he tried angrily nonetheless since he lost what patience he had left due to her long absence.

-----

“A small misunderstanding with our...guest Rhinox, don’t worry.”

Rhinox gave a grunt over their transmissions suggesting that he wasn't entirely convinced of Frilla's answer. "What's Nemesis doing in the infirmary?" he asked while he continued his work on the shields, obviously letting the lizard know that he was keeping an eye on things from the bridge.

"Rattrap!,"

Sweet, innocent Aurora who was like a niece to the rat. He managed to spare a glance in her direction to acknowledge her presence since he could never ignore her and was just as happy to see her as she was him. But as much as he would have liked to have hugged her as well or even smile at her, his hatred and personal anguish against Nemesis prevented him from giving up his current hostility toward the Predacon bird.

"It's not like I'm here by choice," "But I'd be happy to depart if that's what you wish."

"That would depend on the definition behind 'depart'," Rattrap threatened Nemesis, as if he was willing to make it her death sentence and not just allow her to walk out of there which was what she was clearly referring to. Yeah, he saw her restraints, but he didn't care. Prisoner? They didn't have time or the room for prisoners, did they? No, they didn't. Not by the sound of the battle earlier when the Predacons invaded their ship.

“Rattrap stop, it was a minor misunderstanding.”

"Minor?! Ain't nothin' minor about what she did ta me outside!" Rattrap hissed at his smaller comrade as he glared up at Nemesis with the tip of his tail's spear touching her throat and reminding everyone present what she was capable with those half her size just as all of Maximals were that were surrounding her. "And she was just slammin' yer body against my CR chamber!" How was any of that a "minor misunderstanding"? Why was Frilla defending her? Once a Pred always a Pred?! Was she turning on them?!

"I spared your life, rodent,"

"You electrocuted him against the shields!,"

Aurora's sudden response pretty much told him that she had probably witnessed it, and for that, he was sorry for her. He would have never wanted her to see something like that happen to him. Thanks to Nemesis, she'll probably have even more nightmares than she did before. At least she was on Rattrap's side during this confrontation. Not that Frilla was really taking sides; she was merely following orders. "From within an inch of killin' me?" Rattrap argued with Nemesis. "I guess I should get on my knees and grovel at yer feet, oh great merciful one," he said very sarcastically since that would obviously never happen. "You didn't spare my life, Nemesis. You were just protectin' your own hide, 'cause if I had died, Optimus woulda ousted ya," he bluntly pointed out from his perspective. Although, come to think of it, what was the point of their friendship? What were either of them gaining from it? Rattrap thought it was pointless and reckless.

“Optimus has her here as a prisoner for the time being, he ordered that we watch her until the order is given.” “Like it or not, she’s not to be harmed unless she gives us a reason.”

And there it was. Slaggin' Optimus always favorin' this lousy fembot! he managed to keep his curse to himself. He sent Frilla a quick, hostile glare as she carefully nudged his weapon aside. What the heck was she doing?! "Are yer wires crossed?! She nearly killed me shovin' me against our active shields! You know what? I'm gettin' tired of Optimus treatin' her like a friend instead of the enemy dat she is," he spoke poorly of Nemesis as if she wasn't standing right there before he turned his angered gaze back upon the black female Predacon.

"Frilla is telling the truth,"

"Is she? Or're you two workin' together?" he accused them even though it was wrong of him to include Frilla and questioning her loyalty. Just as quickly as he had said it, he regretted doing so. But he was upset and angry.

"Wait a moment.. Where's Optimus?"

Aurora's inquiry seemed to calm the rodent down a little and divert his attention. "Where is he?!" Rattrap repeated Aurora's question at Frilla and Nemesis. "I'll take this up with 'im right now," he furiously challenged although the butterfly/ermine Fuzor was probably wondering about their leader's whereabouts for another reason. She worried about him more than Rattrap did since Primal had proven himself capable of taking care of himself as well as others countless times before and almost always returned.

"He went to retrieve Zodiac,"

Despite Nemesis's own reluctance that was quite evident on her words, Rattrap glared at her before looking at Frilla in search of the truth since he didn't trust the Predacon. And only then had he finally lowered his tail weapon and step closer to Aurora. "Tell me she's lyin'," he demanded from the frilled lizard.

((Okay, I kind of figured out what Waspy can do, but feel free to tell me to change it because that was the first thing I could think of in the moment.

Also not sure if Tigatron’s actions are too soon for you OOP, let me know on that.))

“Funny, I had the same thought about you.” Frilla muttered, deciding at this point it was pointless to continue to argue the subject. Neither of the two would budge on how they viewed the predicament for the Predacon faction, because when it came down to it Frilla would have been viewed as a traitor anyway. She was a pacifist by nature, never being able to find joy in violence or using violence to make a point, much less find the will to kill like the rest of the Predacons she had come to know.

She shook her head then, “I’ve received worst treatment from our faction than any Maximal. I learned to play the game and work the system Nemesis, so no I haven’t had your experiences but I’ve had enough experiences with your type of views maybe I was in the wrong faction to begin with.” Frilla’s tone was quieter now as she continued, “I was never like you or those under Megatron; I can’t kill and I don’t see the so called beauty in destructive ways to make a point. I had a chance to kill Optimus once, but I couldn’t do it and I was horrified at what my Electro-Scrambler did to you when I first used it. So, make what you want of that but I think there are other ways to handle our situation than what Megatron preaches.” Nemesis probably could care less of what Frilla spoke of her experiences, maybe even proved her own point, but the frilled lizard stood by her beliefs.

Still she merely glanced at the avian, wishing she would listen about her warnings about Megatron. But, she would have to find out the hard way...

After being set down from nearly breaking the glass, the former Predacon shifted her position so she was less likely to be cornered once again, finger now closer to the rifle’s trigger, “For once I agree, I should have said that differently and I apologize.” Frilla noted to keep her own anger in line, knowing the situation was still rather volatile at the moment. Between Aurora’s shock and Rattrap becoming hostile as she had predicted the situation was getting only more hostile than before. “She wanted to see Rattrap’s condition, from what I could gather and I said something that provoked retaliation.” She paused then as Rattrap began threatening Nemesis despite telling the situation to the two. She could understand their reluctance, having more than heard enough that Nemesis had pushed her luck far too much and it may very well be coming back to bite her as Frilla had already spoken of.

But she raised her optics ridges in shock at how far Nemesis had really gone, shooting a glare towards the avian who she was unfortunate enough to be defending because of what Optimus had asked. Oh how she wished it had been someone else to have this job rather than her. It was only made worse when Rattrap blatantly accused her of helping the Predacon avian, an accusation he had not thrown her way in quite sometime. And to be honest, it stung her spark, causing her glare to turn into an expression that reflected that hurt as she turned back to the two, “One of us has to keep a level head Rattrap. Our base is in shambles and you’re hardly in much shape to be fighting after what happened, so back off!” Her voice came out frigid and harsh towards the rodent, feeling even in an angered state as he was the accusation was unwarranted and brought many questions she never thought she would be asking herself. If he was willing to throw out that accusation even in such a hostile state, did he ever really forget the paranoia? Did he truly trust her despite everything they had gone through since? “I hate this situation as much as you two, believe it or not.”

And there was the question she had been dreading to answer, reluctantly nodding to confirm what Nemesis said, “Yes he did. Me, you two, and Rhinox remained behind.” But her coldness remained as she added, “But then again, take my word for what it’s worth, if anything.” Perhaps it was a low blow on her part, but Frilla was making it clear Rattrap’s words hurt more than it might have intended. “Just go see Rhinox, he could use a few hands and could update you more on what’s happening, I haven’t heard anything since they left.” She told them before gesturing to Nemesis to follow her out, “As for us, we’re moving elsewhere, you got your answer about the rodent, now come on.”

——————————————

Terrabite growled as he was knocked back a foot or two from the force of the explosion, admittedly surprised Optimus had enough time to react to one of the grenades. But, his second one met its mark from the sound of it causing him to wave the smoke away as he stepped forward. Giving a slight grin, the kaprosuchus mech was satisfied his attack had done the trick before he finally turned his attention towards Megatron. He had already been through a rough go with the Maximals and someone else, especially judging by how the mech struggled to get on his own feet. “Not an entrance if you don’t have explosives.” Terrabite agreed, closely watching Megatron in case he needed the extra help but after a moment he seemed to find his footing.

“I like your style already my purple compadre.” Terrabite chuckled slightly before he headed over towards Optimus’ half conscious form, placing his weapon upon his back once more. “Tsk, tsk, Maximal, you really dropped the ball this time.” Grabbing hold of Optimus’ feet, he dragged the Transmetal ape towards the river finding the ape a little heavier than expected, “Hm, really should lay off the bananas monkey.” With a heave, Terrabite hauled Optimus onto his shoulder before tossing him as far as he could into the river, judging to be as near as he could be to the deep. Even if the Maximals caught onto what was happening it would be the easiest task to retrieve their leader, “Have a nice swim, Maximal scum.” He chuckled darkly before turning away and jogging over to regroup with who he assumed was the commanding officer of the Predacon crew there.

By the time Quickstrike arrived towards Megatron, he was already on his feet and the other Predacons were attempting to regroup to their heavily damaged leader. A quick observation told the fuzor Optimus had held almost nothing back in this fight, making him wonder if the Maximals were no longer tolerating their increasingly violent methods. Such an observation though he kept to himself, the cowboy bot knowing better than to voice this out loud in this moment. He was already on Megatron’s bad side and the last thing Quickstrike wanted was to give the t-rex more reasons to beat him to a pulp. “On it boss bot!”

Transforming to robot mode once more, Quickstrike began to focus his cyber venom blasts towards the much larger fuzor who already had a head start on them. Honestly, Quickstrike wondered how much longer the Predacons could keep this up when a majority of them had expended their ammo far earlier in the day with their previous confrontation. “And not to point out the obvious Boss, but how much longer can we keep this up? Lotta us don’t have much more ammo to spare and feather butt will be out of range.” Quickstrike inquired over coms.

Sooner or later, Tigerhawk would be lost to the trees and out of their sights. It wasn’t helped by the fact some of the Maximals remained in some fighting shape, causing Quickstrike to have to turn his attention on then, firing a few shots before Megatron stepped in allowing them to focus on Tigerhawk once more.

Hearing Cheetor nearby, the white tiger lifted his head as his systems began to recover merely giving the younger feline a reassuring smile, “I’m alright Little Cat, just had the wind knocked out of me.” Though soreness from his chest indicated Spineback’s hit had left a small dent, even a gash that could be easily repaired later. At best he was dizzy and scuffed up but still able to move and function. He had had far worst wounds in the past. With a soft grunt, the white feline pushed himself to his knees in time to see things were barely in their favor. Cheetor and Airazor were covering their flying fuzor comrade the best they could but a little extra hand seemed...

Tigatron’s thoughts were quickly interrupted when he noticed Megatron targeted them, catching his second wind despite the injuries he clearly had. “Look out!” Acting fast, Tigatron tackled the young cheetah aside to avoid being blasted, feeling bits of dirt, grass, and rock pelt their armor before he lifted his head, optics widening at seeing the new Predacon throwing Optimus into the water and the Predacons resuming their attack on Tigerhawk. “Both of you help Tigerhawk, I’m getting Optimus.” With Wintersong down and Dinobot otherwise engaged Tigatron felt he would be the best choice to retrieve their downed leader, compared to the others his form was the most suited for water, especially compared to Optimus whose larger frame and lack of aquatic adaptation could mean his demise. Leaving the situation to Cheetor and Airazor, and hopefully Wintersong if the venom wore off enough, the white tiger sprinted towards the river, firing some shots as he did just in case.

Once he reached the river bank, Tigatron stowed away his Gut Gun before diving head first into the water after Optimus.

Even with his attack it appeared Rampage was still up for more, making the raptor growl softly and make a come here motion and challenging the transmetal crab to do his worst. If it were any other situation he might have properly enjoyed a chance at a tough opponent, having found very few among the Predacons anymore that could satisfy his need for combat. Besides, a part of him was curious to test the claims of Rampage’s supposed immortality, being rather skeptical the mech was without almost any weakness aside from attacking his very spark. After all, a spark was one of their most vulnerable spots, their very life force and to have that destroyed for anyone would mean a death sentence even for someone such as Rampage or Zodiac.

They were just far more difficult to kill was all.

Tensing in preparation for Rampage’s next attack, Dinobot held his spin sword at the ready until he heard the explosions, causing him to peer past Rampage and becoming more aware of the situation around them. Optimus was down and the others were being forced to split their attention between defending Tigerhawk, the rest of the Predacons, and a newcomer he had not seen until now. In other words, the situation called for one side or the other to give, which also meant the warrior couldn’t continue to linger with the crab anymore. “We save our battle for another time.” Dinobot’s raspy voice spoke, shoving his spin sword into the abdomen of the twisted crustacean before making a sprint back to the main battlefield, firing his eye lasers towards Megatron, Terrorsaur, and Terrabite. Said new Predacon glared towards the approaching raptor, drawing his own tail sword to deflect some of the shots.

———————————————

One of the few Predacons who had remained behind on such a mission that day had decided to finally do something productive.

Waspinator had been tracking his fellow Predacons throughout the day, but had dutifully remained at his post up until this point. He had noted that one Predacon had remained out of the most recent conflict before and during it by this time. The transmetal wasp couldn’t help rubbing his chin in thought, pondering his next move since he didn’t wish to disobey orders but at the same time he didn’t want to remain idle. Perhaps if he did save the avian female who had become their second in command it might set him in the good graces of his commanding officers, especially Megatron. “Waspinator won’t remain idle anymore, Waspinator will save bird-bot.” Nodding to himself, the metal insect flipped back into the air as he transformed before having flown his way out of the base and shifting to his jet mode, which eerily resembled the ancient seeker who had possessed his body a few years prior. Perhaps a slight influence that had remained.

As he neared the wrecked Maximal ship, Waspinator slowed his pace for a brief moment to scan the area, searching for signs of Maximals that might have remained behind outside or their defense systems being active. The Maximals had an annoying habit of recovering and repairing things quickly enough. Though apparently not quick enough today, finding the shields had yet to come back up and he had no way of knowing if their defense system was online either. At best, he had a small window to act. Divebombing towards the ship, Waspinator began to fire his Twin Plasma Cannons, raining some heat on the ship in the hopes it might draw or distract the Maximals within.

(( OOC: It's perfect, New Moon. Do you mind if I have them getting back to the shore in my next post? I don't want Optimus out of commission too long. I love how angry Frilla got with Rattrap. And Waspy attacking the Axalon, oh boy. He might piss off Rhinox. I can't wait to read the next posts from Wintersong and Phoenix. ))

((In the words of TF Prime Knock Out, this is going to be juicy!

Whew, long post coming!))

Cheetor found his attention being divided between keeping the Predacons busy and wanting to help Optimus. He knew the Maximal commander could hold his own just fine, but the surprise attack by the new Predacon appeared to have put the transmetal ape out of commission for long enough.

So distracted was he by what Terrabite was up to with his father figure he failed to see Megatron targeting them, and it took Tigatron telling him to look out and tackling him or of the way to realize what nearly had happened. Closing his optics from the dirt and rocks pinging against their armor, the young cheetah realized he had to keep his head in the game. “Thanks Tigatron.” He thanked the older feline before pushing himself to his feet, nodding when Tigatron decided to handle the task of retireving Optimus who he silently hoped would be alright. Turning to check on Airazor and Wintersong he found both females weren’t harmed, largely thanks to distance it seemed before turning back to where their enemies were busy attempting to take out Tigerhawk and Zodiac. They couldn’t hold out forever, that much he was confident on, “Come on guys, just a little more!” Cheetor encouraged, moving forward across the field as he began firing once more towards the Predacons, spotting Dinobot also advancing towards them.

Yes, this has to be it! They just had to hold on!

Airazor had given the two felines a side glance every so often as she fired towards the Predacons, part of her relieved to hear and see Tigatron moving. The Maximals and Predacons had gone all in for this fight, each attempting to gain the upperhand in this rescue mission that had already gone awry but had thus far put them on equal footing. How long they could keep this up was the golden question at this point.

Gasping softly, the falcon femme was forced to flip in the air towards the right side as one of Megatron’s shots came towards her, feeling the heat of the blast as it went by. Despite the condition the Predacon leader was in, he seemed to be holding his own just fine for the time being. “Good luck Tigatron, we got things covered here.” She assured her lover, watching him take off to where Optimus had been thrown callously into the river, making it quite clear the new Predacon had no qualms in taking a life, no matter how slow or likely it was. “I’m going in from above Cheetor, Wintersong, hang tight.” As she spoke however, Airazor had taken notice the transmetal tigress has begun to move slightly, the green glowing areas not steadily pulsing from the center of her chest to where it had spread while the remainder of the white femme’s form seemed to remain paralyzed.

Though confused to this phenomenon, the falcon put her focus back towards the task at hand, shooting forward from above to get closer to the Predacon forces and firing her mini-missiles around them in order to take the heat off Tigerhawk and draw their attention towards her. It was a risk, but they had to take it if they wanted to make the Predacons leave the area once and for all that day.

Nearby, Wintersong could only frustratingly listen to the chaos around her, closing her optics as dirt from near the two male felines landed on her armor as well. ‘Come on, I got to move!’ But no matter how much Wintersong tried her systems would not respond as she wanted them to, getting several errors and warnings of the cyber venom still running its course. Compared to the two spiders, Quickstrike’s seemed more potent and concentrated, making their effects longer than usual.

But as if reading her processor as usual now, the Vokian presence kicked in once more, this time though drawing her consciousness away from the chaotic scenery around her and into an internal plane akin to the one shared by Whitegrazer but the landscape one of the darkened, star-filled void of space broken by the colorful nebula mirroring that of where the Vok truly resided, “You wish to get out of this predicament Cybertronian?” The echoing voice seemed to fill every fiber of Wintersong’s being, making her armor crawl uncomfortably and making her turn on the metaphysical plane they had made, “What’s going on?! Where are we?!” She tried to demand, but yelled internally as a heavy pressure seemed to press down on her, forcing her to her knees, “Alright, alright! Yes!” She finally called out, gasping deeply as the pressure lifted, allowing her to glance around at the empty void, the Vok preferring to remain hidden from sight...for now.

“We can alleviate part of the venom’s effects, but only just.”

“Then do it and help me, not fight me! My friends come first, I told you this. Start helping me and I...I will do whatever you need.” It was not a deal Wintersong wanted to make, but if their presence could give her the slightest help...

Seeming to silently agree to such a request, Wintersong soon found herself back to awareness, hearing Tigatron’s and Cheetor’s words briefly before focusing on her left side, for now no longer feeling the mental pain of the Vok trying to take over. Instead, she felt strangely empowered to a degree, feeling the strange invasion to her body seemed to draw the poison from the small portion of her body, the green lines gently pulsing in time with her spark and allowing her to move that small portion of her body. It wasn’t much, but enough, using her clawed hand to pull herself towards her rifle that had been blasted from her hands, “Lets give them hell.” The transmetal tigress spoke with a strained voice, bringing the rifle towards her shoulder to hold it steady to fire among the Predacon forces. But given her predicament, her shots were off and inaccurate, only able to hope they did something to contribute to a distraction at the very least.

At first, Rampage contemplated stepping in to help his new “commander”, given that Megatron’s weakened state could be to his advantage in getting back the other half of his spark. The t-rex was battered and beaten, barely maintaining a strong front in the face of the new Predacon. Alas, opportunity was once more stolen from him as he heard Dinobot, turning too late to react to the raptor’s attack as he felt the spin sword stab deep into his abdomen, causing him to roar out in pain and step back as the raptor sprinted past. Blasted reptile! The sword certainly didn’t go in smoothly, and ripping it out would be just as messy if not more so. “I’m really beginning to despise reptilians.” Growling under his breathe, Rampage took hold of the sword’s hilt which had by now stopped its spinning, no doubt caught up in gears, wires, and his thick plating, ripping the weapon from where it had become embedded causing energon and mech fluid to splatter on the ground.

Wincing from the pain, the large crab placed a hand over the bleeding wound, knowing this one would take time to heal from within while the surface already showed signs of closing up. At best he would be left with a crack-like blemish from where he was impaled. Turning to see the status of the situation, the transmetal crab considered his options in this moment, finding he could possibly turn the tide of the battle if he wanted to as he retrieved his Rocket Launcher nearby that had been kicked from his hands. Quite frankly, he almost wanted to abandon this pointless battle, finding they were at a loss already and even if he fired at the fuzor escaping with Zodiac it was unlikely his missiles would remotely hit. ‘I suppose I could take one pain in the aft out, give Megatron less to rant about later.’ The crab thought, lifting his Rocket Launcher to aim towards the arachnid, “Not the black widow, but you will have to do legs.” With a sneer, Rampage focused his attention on the frustrated spider, firing two rockets in his general direction, an extra one for good measure.

“That should keep your mad scientist problem under control for a time, oh great Megatron.” Rampage comm’d, tone still mocking as ever though not to the usual levels he had been a few days prior. What he had seen earlier in the day with their walk earlier had more than had him weary of the Predacon leader.

Unfortunately, Quickstrike’s observation was coming true.

Between Spineback trying to fire at Tigerhawk and fending off the Maximals before Megatron had stepped in her energy levels were running low. With the Maximals favoring physical ammo she had no way to absorb more energy into her back sail that served as a shield on her opposite arm, causing her to grow increasingly unsure of the situation. “Energon levels depleted, forty percent power remaining.” Came the dreaded news she had been waiting for as her last shots barely made it towards the fuzor by then. “I would love to sir, but I’ve expended all the energy I can spare for my weapon, I have nothing left.” Spineback reported, knowing she would likely be on the receiving end of Megatron’s fury later, but what else could she do? Unlike in the past, she wasn’t equipped from head to toe in long-range weapons as she once was back in the Great War causing her to make note to carry and extra firearm with her from now on if this happened.

Instead, her gaze fell to Terrorsaur who was in the middle of having to watch out for Inferno and handle Maximal efforts, giving her a different idea. “Terrorsaur, switch out!” She called to him, grabbing her lance once more as she moved over to take up a position to deflect some firepower and stand guard over Inferno and Megatron with Terrabite. Though she ducked slightly as Airazor swooped in, bombarding them in the same manner she had done to Tarantulas earlier.

Terrorsaur had moved Inferno to what little cover remained in the area before moving a little ways away to begin firing towards the Maximals in return, using his eye lasers in an effort to not expend too much more energy than he already had. Quite frankly, if it didn’t mean being torn limb from limb he likely would have bailed already and let Megatron and his loyalists handle this themselves. But, he had already pushed his luck that day as it was so he sucked it up and dealt with the problem at hand.

As usual though, the Maximals were unrelenting and determined to rescue what he assumed was a deceased Zodiac. Why did they even care about him? The mech had been nothing but trouble from the get-go, willing to kill all of them just to get what he wanted yet here they were, bleeding sparks willing to risk it all. “Pathetic weaklings.” He muttered to himself, firing and dodging around the attacks of his enemies, only occasionally breaking away to get a better vantage point. It was only when Spineback seemed to have run out of energy did she finally switch places with him, which he gladly did without an argument. “I got this fuzor no problem.” He squawked with glee and taking off away from guarding Inferno while Spineback took over instead of guarding the downed ant and Megatron, heading for the Maximal fuzor who seemed to be losing altitude. Fortunately enough, he had left in time enough to avoid Airazor’s bombardment and focused his firepower on Tigerhawk.

It certainly wasn’t Tigerhawk’s day at the moment.

The tiger/hawk fuzor first had to deal with Tarantulas, whose call out towards him gave him only enough time to realize not all the Predacons were distracted, wincing as his first cyber venom shot made its mark to one of his wings, causing him to struggle to remain airborne. The next round from Tarantulas plus the shots from the remaining Predacons who returned their efforts forced him to take more evasive actions, shifting from side to side and barely maintaining his flight path. Their shots weren’t as accurate from this distance, but some still grazed him or cane near enough he felt the heat. “Just a little...more.” He gritted out, maintaining altitude out of pure will power until he had reached the trees, allowing himself to free fall to the trees below but grunting as some of Terrorsaur’s attacks still struck on the way down.

Gripping Zodiac to his shoulder a bit more tightly to not drop him, the large fuzor jogged through the forest nearby, keeping himself out of sight as much as he could as he heard the cracking of branches from Terrorsuar trying to follow and his cackling voice. “You’re out of your element here Predacon!” Tigerhawk snarled, raising an arm to fire several electrical blasts in the air, causing the transmetal flier to yelp in surprise as he barely avoided being being paralyzed by one of the strikes and to steer clear. It was just enough for Tigerhawk to slowly back away, finding a tree he could use for cover and setting the younger mech down against the tree’s base, “This should do for now.” He spoke with a sigh, turning back to watch the skies, keeping on the defensive.

“Funny, I had the same thought about you.”

Nemesis shot the smaller female a glare, but she chose not to dwell on the subject matter any further. It was becoming abundantly clear the two of them would not come to any sort of agreement, so why waste more time and effort on it?

“I’ve received worst treatment from our faction than any Maximal. I learned to play the game and work the system Nemesis, so no I haven’t had your experiences but I’ve had enough experiences with your type of views maybe I was in the wrong faction to begin with.” Frilla’s tone was quieter now as she continued, “I was never like you or those under Megatron; I can’t kill and I don’t see the so called beauty in destructive ways to make a point. I had a chance to kill Optimus once, but I couldn’t do it and I was horrified at what my Electro-Scrambler did to you when I first used it. So, make what you want of that but I think there are other ways to handle our situation than what Megatron preaches.”

Ah yes.. Nemesis still remembered the reaction her nanomachines had to the electro scrambler that fateful day Optimus had made his return. She clearly remembered the pain, the chaos that had ensued within her, the insane reaction of her nanomachines that had been brought on by a single well placed shot by the weapon. It had been far worse than this most recent rifle shot, which had only shut her nanomachines down temporarily. No, the scrambler had done just that.. scrambled her circuits, caused the nanomachines to run wild, and for her to lose all control over them, and then, after the chaos finally subdued, the machines had finally shut down.

But at least they could agree on one thing. Neither one of them particularly enjoyed killing. The difference between there here was that Nemesis was willing to take a life if the benefits outweighed the cost whereas Frilla seemed to have adapted the Maximal philosophy of never taking a life no matter what. Well, some Maximals like Optimus felt that way anyway. Far from all of them shared this philosophy.

"Of course there are other ways," Nemesis seemed to concur, "But they are less efficient and less likely to be effective in the long run. Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire, as the Maximal elders will not listen to reason."

“For once I agree, I should have said that differently and I apologize.”

"Surely we can find some common ground about the existing leadership on Cybertron not being great. The Maximal council consists of as shady individuals as the Predacons ever were. For real truce to exist, we cannot have a leadership consisting of only Maximals who have no interest in seeing Predacons rise to power ever again."


Well.. it would seem the two females had come to some sort of agreement, however frail and short lived it would turn out to be. Of course that was about to get tested now that the commotion had brought certain other Maximals out of their hibernating states in the CR chambers.



In the infirmary, the already heated situation was threatening to escalate further when Rattrap made his opinions on Nemesis' presence perfectly clear.

"That would depend on the definition behind 'depart',"

The avian female merely grimaced a bit at his remark, since it didn't do much to break her confidence. Yes, the rodent was more likely to actually resort to such drastic measures than the likes of Optimus, but he still respected the leader a great deal and Nemesis didn't believe he'd ever go against the very core foundations the gorilla stood for. No matter what she had done.

"My my, you have quite the bark for such a little guy," Nemesis told him as way of response, seemingly unphased by his threat to her person. "Somehow I thought Primal's opinions would have rubbed off on his crew by now.. Perhaps I was wrong. Perhaps he is wrong to place such faith in the rest of you."

Then she paused while keeping still due to the rodent still having his weapon close to her throat, instead watching with interest as Frilla and Rattrap's tempers grew more ire by the nanoclick. Aurora, in the meanwhile, remained at a distance, watching the scene unfold with a certain expression of disbelief on her face. All she wanted was a day of rest, a day without all these chaotic events taking place, a day without having to worry about Predacon or Vok attacks. Just one day of peace and quiet.. was that really too much to ask for?

Rattrap had given her a tender glance moments before, but now his attention was purely on Nemesis.. And Frilla, who for some reason seemed to almost be taking the avian Predacon's side. Or was she? It was a little hard to tell if she was or if she was merely trying to keep things from escalating further.

"Minor?! Ain't nothin' minor about what she did ta me outside!"

Aurora cringed as Rattrap's words triggered the dreadful memories of what she had witnessed over the camera, whereas Nemesis almost seemed to pull a light shrug of the shoulders as if she wasn't overly bothered by what she had done. Although truth be told it wasn't so much that she wasn't a bit bothered by it as much as it was her natural response to any confrontation by someone she didn't hold in very high regards.

"And she was just slammin' yer body against my CR chamber!"

The fuzor tilted her head a bit, not having emerged from her own chamber until the tail end of that that occurrence. So she hadn't witnessed the events leading up to it. Fortunately it would seem that Frilla hadn't sustained any injuries.

"For which I already apologized," Nemesis muttered while shifting her weight uncomfortably. And if the rodent hadn't emerged only to attack her immediately, perhaps she would have apologized to him too. Maybe. At this point she didn't really feel obliged to do so given the way he was confronting her.

"From within an inch of killin' me?"

"Your bickering is making me regret not going for that extra inch..," the avian replied with a roll of the optics. Although she was mostly just mouthing off, mostly.. Since what the rodent said next came uncomfortably close to the truth in some ways.

"I guess I should get on my knees and grovel at yer feet, oh great merciful one,"

She had been merciful! Or at least as much as she could afford to at the time, with the other Predacons watching her every move and Megatron measuring her actions to see how worthy she was of the position he'd given her. The rodent was still alive, with seemingly no physical injuries left to show for the events that had taken place. So what was he yammering on about?

"You didn't spare my life, Nemesis. You were just protectin' your own hide, 'cause if I had died, Optimus woulda ousted ya,"

Would he, though? Nemesis had taken lives before, including members of the Maximals under Primal's command. Yes, he'd been mad but somehow they had worked through it. Perhaps because part of Primal knew she hadn't done it on purpose. If Rattrap had died, of course, it would have been a whole different scenario. And yes, of course part of Nemesis had Primal's rage in mind when she yanked the rodent away from the shields and put him down in a seemingly safe location. The disappointment on his face when he stopped her in the hallway had been palpable, and despite her attempts at concealing how much it bothered her to see him upset with her like that she had felt very uncomfortable as a result.

As for her, she hadn't intended for Rattrap to die when she forced him up against the shields either. Yes, she realized it was a possibility, but it wasn't an outcome she really desired. No matter how annoying the rodent was. And it wasn't purely due to her respect for Optimus either. A part of her took no pleasure in killing others. Beating them to a pulp when they deserved it, sure, but not taking their lives.. She wasn't like that, not really. At least she didn't think she was..

Without realizing it, that somewhat smug look on her face had faded and her gaze sank to the floor as she stood there in silence, not even moving for as long as Rattrap's sword remained at her throat.

"You will never understand," she mumbled below her breath, sounding just a tiny bit broken.

“I hate this situation as much as you two, believe it or not.”

Perhaps.. But there was very little Frilla could say to calm the situation right now.

"Megatron... to Nemesis,"

Nemesis nearly froze when Megatron's voice suddenly came through her comlink. Yet she was quick to try to conceal the surprise on her face with a more neutral expression, not wanting the Maximals to realize Primal had neglected to disable her communication system before departing. Granted the tyrant's timing probably couldn't have been worse, since she was not in a position where she could answer. Nor did she particularly care to do so even if she had been alone, as the last thing she wanted was for Megatron to realize she was still at the Axalon.

The tyrant was many things.. but a fool wasn't one of them. It would be simple for him to piece together her presence on the Axalon with the unexpected appearance of the Maximals. And that was a discussion she was nowhere ready to be having with her leader.

"Where are you?! Answer me... at once!"

Nemesis grew silent, and somewhat thankful the three Maximals near her were otherwise preoccupied arguing between themselves, while she tried to analyze the tyrant's current mood for hints of what was happening on the remote location the others were at. And from the sound of it, things were not exactly going .. well.. for the Predacons, if Megatron's barely contained anger, impatience and slight hint of desperation was any indication.

Could Optimus actually be winning this confrontation? Or was there some other reason behind Megatron's rage?

Regardless, she did not answer Megatron's hail. Instead merely muting the signal as not to give the tyrant an indication she had in fact heard him. There would be a time and place she'd have to face him, no doubt, but that wasn't now and here.

"Are yer wires crossed?! She nearly killed me shovin' me against our active shields! You know what? I'm gettin' tired of Optimus treatin' her like a friend instead of the enemy dat she is,"

Aurora had wisely chosen to remain neutral while Frilla and Rattrap argued about Nemesis, the rat blatantly ignoring the fact the avian female was standing right there and could obviously hear every word they said. Rattrap sounded so angry, more so than the fuzor was used to seeing him despite the rodent's known temper tantrums. This time, though, he did have a point about Optimus. Their leader was always so forgiving towards others, even those who really didn't deserve it. Most of the Predacons had proven themselves to be evil at their cores as far as the fuzor was concerned, yet Primal kept giving some of them new chances. Including Nemesis.

Yet now the black bird with red and silver details remained silent, merely standing there as the rodent and the Predacon defector female basically yelled at each other. Not knowing quite what to do, the fuzor decided to let Rhinox know what was happening in case it escalated beyond control.

"Rhinox, we have a little bit of a situation brewing here in the Infirmary," she told him quietly, although he could no doubt hear the yelling going on in the background. Man, she wished Rhinox was there in person.. or Optimus.. Where was he anyway?

"Is she? Or're you two workin' together?"

Nemesis snorted at that remark, since it sounded absolutely absurd. But then again the rodent frequently did this.. accusing others of being shady behind his back. The avian wasn't even one of the Maximals, yet she was all too keenly aware of Rattrap making these claims.

"Towards what goal?," Nemesis inquired while lifting her cuffed hands a tad to make her point obvious. Why she felt the need to even defend Frilla wasn't entirely clear to her, but as of this moment the frilled lizard was actually the only one willing to hear her out and even help her so she would take it at face value.

"Where is he?!" "I'll take this up with 'im right now,"

Aurora watched as Rattrap seemed to calm down enough to take note of Primal still not being here to greet them when they emerged from the chambers, which wasn't like him at all.. And truthfully she felt a bit of dread coming on, as if she already knew the answer even though she wasn't willing to accept it.

It was Nemesis who gave them Primal's whereabouts first, prompting the fuzor to glare at her. Not because she answered first, but because of what her answer was. And Aurora hated it.

"Tell me she's lyin',"

Nemesis would have crossed her arms in defiance if she could, but since her hands were tied together all she could do was use her newfound freedom now that Rattrap had withdrawn his sword from her, to lean up against the side of the CR chamber wall. Not surprisingly the mouthy rodent was in complete denial, but Nemesis really couldn't care less what he thought about it right now.

Aurora on the other hand didn't think Nemesis was lying. There just didn't seem to be any point in doing so, no benefit for her, other than making the Maximals squirm of course. But the look on Nemesis' face wasn't one of a liar, at least not at this moment. So Aurora's spark sank while she waited for Frilla to either confirm or deny the prisoner's claims.

“Yes he did. Me, you two, and Rhinox remained behind.”

The disappointment clearly visible on Aurora's face, the little fuzor sighed to show her disappointment. Why would Optimus have taken such a foolish risk when he had so recently promised her he would try harder to avoid getting himself hurt? Aurora would have to have another conversation with him about this when he came back.. she didn't even want to consider the alternative of Primal not making it out.

When Frilla suggested helping out Rhinox next, Aurora merely nodded and sent another glance at Rattrap. Part of her still wanted to run up and hug him, but she refused to do so while Nemesis was still nearby. Fortunately Frilla seemed to be taking charge of that situation as well..

“As for us, we’re moving elsewhere, you got your answer about the rodent, now come on.”

Nemesis chose to oblige this time since frankly she was getting fed up with the rodent's attitude already. Since there wasn't anything else to say other than continuing to argue about the same issues, she followed the smaller female out of the Infirmary.

Just as Aurora started making her way closer to Rattrap, the sound of fire power bouncing off the newly repaired shields caught her attention. The fuzor stopped in her tracks, muttering a disheartened "Not again..", although this time the shots that were fired seemed far less intense as if there were fewer attackers involved. Hurrying the rest of the way to give Rattrap that hug she'd been wanting to give him ever since she saw him being pushed up against the shields. "Can't those Predabums just leave us alone?," she asked the rodent while hugging him tightly. She really wasn't overly concerned this time, since it seemed to be a much smaller scaled attack than the one before, so it really wasn't anything their auto-guns couldn't deal with.

Tarantulas had kept up shooting at the retreating Maximal fuzor who was attempting to fly off with the spider's prize, relentlessly firing even as Tigerhawk gained altitude and as such was becoming more difficult to hit. Yet somehow one of the spider's blasts with cyber venom hit its mark and caused the fuzor to wobble and soon after he started making his descent into the forest.

The spider cackled with glee as he watched his target return to ground level, immediately starting to make his way closer so that he could reclaim his new subject and quite possibly feast on the Maximal fuzor for good measure while at it. At the very least he'd make sure the Maximal suffered before he died, but now that the thought of feeding on him had entered his mind it did sound like a most desirable outcome as well.

Sure, the spider often fed on the local wildlife , but it had been too long since he got to sink his fangs into an actual Cybertronian. In fact the thought of such made his mouth water, reinvigorating him as he made his way between the trees while searching for his target.

Oh, that fool Megatron could have his little battle with Primal.. Yes, Tarantulas had heard his socalled leader's distress call, but he chose to ignore it. If Megatron perished, it would serve as a favor to the spider. As little respect as he held for the tyrant, he still knew the purple dinosaur to be capable as a leader. There was that chance, however small, that he could potentially interfere with the spider's own plans in the future. So if Megatron were to perish, then.. good! One less concern to be worried about.

Up in the distance he could see the wounded Tigerhawk place Zodiac's still form against a tree. Yes, from the distance he almost looked dead, but the spider somehow doubt a single stab wound would be enough to kill him. At least he planned to make sure, and to do what he could to harvest the nanomachines if the host had indeed perished.

He transformed to his spider form so that he could better sneak up on his targets, quickly locating a tree that would allow him to get off the ground and out of sight. A concealed spider was a dangerous spider indeed.. Yet just as he was about to climbing up into the tree, the first of a total of three missiles slammed into the ground dangerously close to him. Tarantulas yelped out in surprise, the tree splintering from the sudden impact and sending both tremendous amounts of wood splinters as well as the spider himself crashing to the ground. Before the spider could recover, another missile smashed into the ground even closer to him, sending him flying against another, thick tree. The spider grunted upon impact, landing on his back after this second impact, feeling both dazed and achy but without having sustained any severe injuries.

Bah! Someone was going to die a most painful death!!, he promised to himself while attempting to get his bearings enough to get back on his feet.. Only for the third missile to explode as it impacted with the tree Tarantulas had just hit, causing the large tree to tilt over and come crashing down upon the hapless spider.

"Aaaargh!," Tarantulas cried out as he got squished by the large tree trunk, his spider legs being the only thing sticking out from underneath the tree and thus revealing his location.

“Not an entrance if you don’t have explosives.”

Megatron managed a faint smirk to the newcomer's opinion considering how successful it had been. But he wasn't quick to accept just anyone into his ranks based upon their entrances. This could have easily been a new Maximal spy for all he knew. But time would tell. Something about him gave the tyrant the impression that he was in fact all Predacon. But where had he come from? Where had he been all this time? Did he arrive by a stasis pod that had been dispersed into the orbit among the other lost soul's from the Axalon or by a vessel? If he had emerged from a stasis pod, then what his history? Where did his allegiance truly lie? Many questions arose but with no time to investigate them at the moment. He would just have to trust his instincts on this one.

“I like your style already my purple compadre.”

The t-rex hardly acknowledged the comment even though inside of him it boosted his ego. While Megatron saw to the others, he left his newest recruit to handle Primal on his own.

“I would love to sir, but I’ve expended all the energy I can spare for my weapon, I have nothing left.”

Megatron scoffed at how unprepared Spineback was as if it were her fault, but really he was the one to blame. Then again, he wasn't expecting the Maximals to discover them so quickly or at all and rain on his parade. Had Nemesis shown up, they would have been able to defeat them. Blast her! Where was she?! It infuriated him that she wasn't responding to his hail. But maybe, MAYBE, it wasn't getting through to her.

“On it boss bot!”

After firing his own shots which continued to deplete his ammunition, Megatron observed the cyber venom striking Tigerhawk who was nearly out of range now. Yes! he jeered inside himself as he hoped to see the Fuzor crash but he continued onward. Struggling of course but nonetheless still flying. Cursing under his breath, he growled and watched Terrorsaur chase after him. Even if Megatron flew after Tigerhawk, he would be exhausting too much energon. So, he deactivated his humming engines and stood there contemplating their next moves. Surely, Zodiac was dead, although he would hate to make the wrong assumption that the shape shifter had when he tried assassinating him. But there was nothing else they could do. The Maximals were winning this battle, and Megatron's luck had run out. Even with the new arrival, the warlord was wise enough to know when to end a pointless confrontation.

“Come on guys, just a little more!”

“And not to point out the obvious Boss, but how much longer can we keep this up? Lotta us don’t have much more ammo to spare and feather butt will be out of range.”

Distracted by everything else, he hadn't even noticed Tigatron slip by to rescue Primal who had been thrown into the river by the new reptile. Walking toward Quickstrike, Spineback and Inferno, Megatron quietly observed Cheetor and Dinobot continuing their advance with his impaired vision, glaring at them before firing his twin shoulder guns in their direction just to slow them down a bit. Then he examined his tired and low-on-ammo troops before making the decision to retreat. To continue this would be foolish. He couldn't risk losing any of his Predacons, and some of them needed extensive repairs, himself included. He could barely think coherently with his pounding head and sore neck.

“That should keep your mad scientist problem under control for a time, oh great Megatron.”

Following Rampage's voice, he saw what the crustacean did to Tarantulas and almost smiled deviously at the fiery scene in the trees. The tarantula had been the one who delayed him. He delayed him from dismembering Zodiac and defeated the chance to allow his troops to mangle and consume his spark! To the Pit with Tarantulas! In addition, Megatron shook his aching head a little at the tone in the crab's voice and relayed to him, "It's time... to fall back... Rampage," he ordered through his pain that been bestowed upon him by Zodiac and Primal.

“Tsk, tsk, Maximal, you really dropped the ball this time.”

As the ringing in his audio receptors began to subside, the voice he was hearing was almost unfamiliar. Almost. Some where deep within his memory he might have been able to place it, but Optimus was barely clinging onto consciousness to put the effort into figuring it out. He groaned again a little as he could feel someone grabbing his feet and dragging his back across the river rocks and sand-like dirt along the shore.

“Hm, really should lay off the bananas monkey.”

More banana jokes at his expense, from what he could make out in his dazed disorientation. He was certain his density had everything to do with his strength and muscle and not so much with being overweight. Had he been able to, he would have shown just who this Predacon was dealing with like he had did with Megatron. His diet may have consisted of bananas here and there, but for a beast mode that solely relied on plants and energon, gorillas were one of the strongest mammals on land, and he was never afraid to take on the likes of Megatron or any other Predacon because of it. Unfortunately, in his current predicament, he couldn't fight back and was left at the mercy of this new arrival he could feel now lifting him up and tossing him into the air. Tossing him where? Everything was black. He couldn't see. He couldn't comprehend his whereabouts. It would have taken someone very strong to lift his body and throw it the way it felt to him.

A large splash could be heard. Water. The impact gave him a little whiplash that finally knocked him out entirely as his body began sinking to the bottom of the gentle but deep river. The weight of the water pushed him down quicker, filling his mouth that had been left slightly open, and swamping his joints. The darkness, the abyss as it was, left Optimus susceptible to his mind. There was a distant voice, but it wasn't speaking to him, it was speaking to someone else. Someone nearby. It was incomprehensible to him, but he knew it was Vok. This had happened a couple times before now, ever since Wintersong had returned to them after her ordeal with the cocoon.

What seemed like days, or a very long dream, breaking the surface of the water suddenly awakened the Maximal leader who gasped with the sudden oxygen intake and choked on the water in his throat. Coughing most of it up, he was dazed while he felt someone holding on to him and helping him back to the shore. "Wintersong," he muttered without realizing he was speaking out loud. She was simply his last thought that he had associated with the Vok that he heard in his mind. His pink eyes opened and focused on Tigatron's face beside his as they swam across the river to the bank. The blue-faced gorilla managed to smile at the white tiger, ever grateful for his assistance time and time again. "Tigatron," he said almost taken aback, now that he was more coherent. "Thank you." Although Primal's form wasn't really meant for the water, even more so now as a TransMetal, and certainly less than Tigatron's was, he wasn't afraid of the liquid, and he had actually taught himself to swim earlier in the war, unbeknownst to Megatron. It wasn't exactly a skill one could learn on Cybertron, but on Earth, which was covered in about 70% of the element, it was a valuable thing to learn so long as your beast mode allowed it or benefited from it. In any case, due to his injuries, he was too weakened to swim on his own, but he didn't want to leave all of the work up to Tigatron considering his body weight compared to the tiger's. So, he started to kick his short legs a little bit, as much as the severely wounded one would allow without causing too much pain until they reached the shore.

Optimus crawled on his hands and knees up the bank with Tigatron helping his stability as he coughed up the rest of the water and took deep breaths. Even though he was all clean and shiny now, the remnants of the attack in the brig having finally washed off of him, his joints were stiff and some of his systems were bogged by the intake of water, but otherwise he was alright, and he looked up as he proudly watched his Maximals overthrow the Predacons. Where was Tigerhawk with Zodiac? He carefully stood up and searched in the sky just in time to see him flying out of range with Terrorsaur coming up on his tail. "Airazor," he radioed her, "give Tigerhawk some company, and return to the Axalon with Zodiac as quickly as possible."

"Predacons... retreat," Megatron finally, reluctantly declared across all of their communication links as Wintersong's and Dinobot's shots kept ringing in his direction. Reverting to his damaged beast mode so he could begin the slow repairs, he turned away from the broken battle and moved in the direction of the Darksyde, injured and somewhat defeated. "Somewhat" because he had gained a much bigger advantage in the long run with the discovery of the golden disk that he had made earlier. Plus, he still had Rampage's other half of his spark, and he still had the alien orb. The only things he really lost here were his pride and Zodiac's body. "Spineback... bring Inferno," he instructed her.

"Maximals, regroup," Primal instructed Wintersong, Cheetor and Dinobot as he watched the Predacons beginning to fall back along with the new one as the Maximals continued to lay some heat on them. Who was he...? He would have to dig around the Axalon's roster files to see if he had been assigned to him at one point. It was possible.

As Megatron led his troops away from the battle field, he finally started to address his questions to the new Predacon. "We may have lost... this battle, but... we have gained a new member. Now... care to introduce... yourself to us?"

-----

“She wanted to see Rattrap’s condition, from what I could gather and I said something that provoked retaliation.”

"Hm," Rhinox grumbled softly and thoughtfully over his transmission with Frilla. He knew he was getting close to re-activating the shields, but as he listened closer to her opened comm. link, he thought he could hear Rattrap's and Aurora's voices. Both of them were finished with their repairs? Thank the Matrix. Primus knows they could use the extra hands. And if not at the Axalon, then with their leader's team out in the field. But judging by what he could pick up in the background, things were a bit hostile in the infirmary. He trusted Rattrap not make a mess of things, and as it was, Rhinox had to remain on the bridge to keep working on their defenses so he couldn't be the one to calm things down in the medical bay. He gave it some more time before feeling like he had to intervene, but Frilla was doing well enough on her own.

"My my, you have quite the bark for such a little guy,"

Rattrap glared at Nemesis. She should know just how damaging he could be, so, for once he managed to keep his mouth shut about it and not waste his breath with a rebuttal.

"Somehow I thought Primal's opinions would have rubbed off on his crew by now.. Perhaps I was wrong. Perhaps he is wrong to place such faith in the rest of you."

This time he couldn't keep quiet. "Why do you think yer still alive?" he asked her rhetorically before he withdrew his weapon from her. Of course Rattrap respected his leader too much to go against his wishes and his beliefs, but she was reeeeaaaally pushing it. However, that didn't discredit how he felt about their odd friendship, one that those who were aware of it knew how to keep it a secret from the Predacons. The burden may not have been fair, but some of them understood why it had to be that way. Her words a little hurtful too. In the beginning, Rattrap was the one who found it difficult to place his faith in their leader who was so new to a commanding position, and he hadn't really seen it from another perspective such as the one Nemesis had just offered. Optimus did believe in all of his Maximals all the time. It was a strength some leaders lacked in, but not him. Even Rattrap found it admirable even if he disagreed with some of his tactics and ideals. Maybe Rattrap should do better to show how wrong Nemesis was about that accusation. Of course, a part of him couldn't help but think she merely said it as a reverse psychology tactic. Man, he did not like her... What the heck did Optimus see in Nemesis?

"For which I already apologized,"

The Spy rolled his optics as if her apologies were just empty notions. How noble of you, he thought sarcastically. He found it difficult to accept any kind of apology from a Predacon sincerely.

"Your bickering is making me regret not going for that extra inch..,"

Rattrap narrowed his optics at her, but he seemed to be calming down a little bit now as he began considering her actions earlier. Despite how brutal and cruel she was to him with the shields, she did leave him in a less vulnerable spot. ...Still... he was one Maximal who often found it very difficult to forgive such actions. They had kidnapped him... SHE had kidnapped him. She was the one giving the orders back at the pod retrieval, not Megs. She was the one who shoved him against the shields. It was easier for him to be hateful and angry about it than to feel sorry for her and the positions she put herself in.

"You will never understand,"

He studied her and her voice for a moment. "Probably not," he admitted and then added on, "But I ain't the one who's gotta understand, am I? Just Optimus." He was supposed to trust his commanding officer and his judgments, but it was difficult sometimes. He still didn't understand this friendship between the two, but Primal had led them this far, farther than Rattrap would have given him credit for in the beginning of the war when they crashed there. He sighed as his body seemed to finally relax given the situation, either letting go or burying his anger toward her. For now. Maybe he would need a different way to handle it. Whitegrazer or Rhinox could probably help him with it, because it obviously wasn't helping the Maximals' situation.

"Towards what goal?,"

"Who knows," Rattrap shrugged, "you Preds are always up ta somethin'. Obviously," he implied toward everything that had happened that day alone and basically feeling defeated now in their conversation and from the earlier attack.

"Rhinox, we have a little bit of a situation brewing here in the Infirmary,"

Now Aurora was chiming in over his comm. link. The engineer sighed and replied, "Just send him to the bridge. I can give him some work to do. Are you doing alright, Aurora?" he inquired not just talking about her physical state but her emotional state as well.

“One of us has to keep a level head Rattrap. Our base is in shambles and you’re hardly in much shape to be fighting after what happened, so back off!” “I hate this situation as much as you two, believe it or not.” “But then again, take my word for what it’s worth, if anything.”

The Spy's optics widened at Frilla's outburst who had obviously been hurt by his words. Words he had quickly regretted saying when they left his mouth, damaging their friendship a little bit but hopefully not permanently. Probably one of the few things that could rectify his poor assumptions would be an apology. And apologies were not Rattrap's specialty. They were something of a rarity, but that didn't mean he wasn't incapable of giving them. Like everyone else in this war, he had been maturing and evolving. It was in better character to apologize than to shy away in silence and embarrassment. Plus, Dinobot wasn't around to witness any of this, so, at least he wasn't in the audience to make Rattrap any more uncomfortable about it than he already was with Nemesis being there.

“Just go see Rhinox, he could use a few hands and could update you more on what’s happening, I haven’t heard anything since they left.”

"Yer... Yer right, Frilla," the rodent began. "I'm, uh... I'm sorry. ...I was... outta line," he carefully apologized to her as he faced her and looked into her optics before stepping past her and starting to walk to the exit of the infirmary. He paused briefly to peer over his shoulder at Nemesis with an accusing glare while he put his tail spear/whip away before continuing on his way out and heading for the bridge where he assumed his larger rhinoceros friend would be.

He stopped when Aurora came up to him and suddenly wrapped her arms around him. The rat returned the embrace and quietly held her close. Did any of them realize just how much they meant to her? Rattrap should try to be a better role model for her. And Optimus should stop running off and putting his life in danger. Although something told him this time that their leader had a better handle on things and was going to kick some Predacon butt.

"Not again..",

Still holding on to the Fuzor he saw as a niece to him, Rattrap looked around a bit startled as the broken ship trembled and the booms echoed throughout the corridors.

"Can't those Predabums just leave us alone?,"

Beginning to feel better, Rattrap nearly smirked at her comment; Predabums. "It's stuck in their programming ta cause trouble all the time," he tried joking lightheartedly with her. "Come on. Let's see if we can help Rhinox," he encouraged Aurora as he finally released their hug and hurried to the command center.

"ALERT: Predacon signature detected," Sentinel had announced as Waspinator came into range of the scanners. But Rhinox had mistaken it for someone else.

"I've already cleared Nemesis," he told the ship's computer.

"Unit identified as Waspinator," Sentinel corrected him.

Seriously? Hadn't they been through enough today? As the base shook, Rhinox grumbled with irritation. He was just about to activate the shields, but they wouldn't have been able to sustain the firepower, so he opted to keep them on reserve which would allow it to keep charging their energy. They were currently only at 10% which meant that they had a long way to go. The rest of their defenses, including their auto-guns, were still off-line. He would have to take this fight up the wasp in person. And given that Rhinox barely saw action, except for the infiltration in the brig earlier, he was ready for it. Drawing one of his chain guns, he started moving to the lift but stopped in his tracks when he saw two of the smaller Maximals entering the large, round room. "Aurora, Rattrap," he happily greeted them despite the situation. He was glad to see them. "Care to join me? Our auto-guns are still off-line, and near as I can tell, it's only Waspinator attacking us. It's possible he knows that Nemesis is here, but we can't let her go right now, so we're gonna have to shoo this pesky bug away before he causes any more damage." He loaded his weapon that began spinning showing that he was ready to head out and start firing at the intruder.

"Count me in, Big Green. I got some tension that I gotta release which I might as well take out on Bug Eyes," Rattrap said as he took out his gun since he couldn't very well pick a fight with Nemesis who was the real cause of his aggression. Granted, he still wasn't in the best shape to go looking for trouble, but they needed to get Waspinator away from them as soon as possible.

(( OOC: I hope this was okay, New Moon, between Optimus and Tigatron. Let me know if you want me to change anything. As for everyone else, I hope I didn't miss anything or get too far ahead. XD ))

((Nope! Perfectly fine!))

“Neither group is exactly devoid of that. The Maximal Elders and Tripedicus Council are not so different from one another, one side just happens to have more influence.” Frilla pointed out. Far as she was concerned at least. The Maximal Elders had become the very thing they had tried to prevent, and now neither governing body was without corruption and resorting to tactics that left them questioning who to trust and who not to.

But to say neither one could be fought against seemed rather lacking in foresight. If history was anything to go by, sometimes it took a few powerful voices to overthrow a previous ruling body and, this was the frilled lizard theorizing now, with the namesakes of some of the most influential and prominent leaders ever known in Cybertronian history that could very well apply even to today. “Whether you come back to Cybertron or not Nemesis, even you should not rule out all possibilities.” And that was something Frilla did agree with her on, that Cybertron was not in the greatest state after three centuries. And it would stay that way if they didn’t do something.

Now, the frilled lizard found herself in a sticky situation, optics shifting between Nemesis and Rattrap during their own verbal confrontation. Unfortunately, Nemesis mouthing off wasn’t exactly helping her defense nor Frilla’s attempts to avoid her becoming a bird kabob. The former Predacon might as well have said nothing at this point, Nemesis’s choice of words only doing well to heighten the tension to which Frilla actually glared at the avian at the same time Rattrap had, “Maybe it would be in your best interest to shut up now Nemesis.” She grumbled. Quite frankly, Frilla was beginning to question herself about defending Optimus’s decision, knowing that was the main reason she had yet to let Rattrap do his thing. She was angry about what the avian female did, but allowing her anger to cloud her judgement in the moment wasn’t in the best interest of anyone, especially when her and Rattrap started to go rounds verbally next.

To be honest, Frilla hated this whole outcome, wishing Optimus had left someone else to watch Nemesis. Because she had to agree, what goal could either of them have in working together especially when Frilla had risked everything to come to the Maximal crew and lost everything she had known since. “Tricky maybe, but we’re not all out to be like Megatron.” She coldly reminded Rattrap, implying that even if she still considered herself a Predacon she wasn’t anything like Nemesis nor wanted to be. But her message seemed to have through clearly when Rattrap seemed to calm down and realize the damage had been done.

Granted, he seemed to realize how out of line the accusation had been and even attempted to apologize after the situation finally began to calm, a not-so-easy feat for the rodent. She knew this well, but the doubts were already there at how genuine the rat truly had been all this time, if at all. “Well, we at least agree about that, Rattrap.” She sighed in a less harsh tone, meeting his gaze with a mix of anger and uncertainty before her and Nemesis departed. She truly wanted to forgive the rodent for the outburst, but in this moment she couldn’t bring herself to accept the apology right away and focused on getting Nemesis as far away from the furious rodent as possible. Though, they had barely made it halfway down the hall before she felt the ship shake causing her to glance towards the roof in disbelief. Had some of the Predacons come back for the avian? Regardless if they did, Frilla kept the rifle trained on Nemesis, hoping she wasn’t about to regret siding against Rattrap and Aurora in this moment.

Meanwhile outside the Axalon, Waspinator had made a few quick runs along the ship, testing what he was working with. In a few sweeps of the ship he had progressively gotten closer, always scanning for signs the Maximal defenses were about to target him or their shields about to pop up out of no where. Amazingly, nothing had remotely occurred, causing the transmetal wasp to hover in place momentarily to wait a bit longer.

Still, nothing happened.

Smirking inwardly, Waspinator transformed to robot mode and scanned the ruined hull, finding a rather gapping hole where the brig had been. Now that seemed like as good a spot as any to gain entry easily, lowering down slowly near the opening to examine it carefully, his Toxic Stinger in hand. His first thought was that the Maximals would be guarding a spot as vulnerable and open as this, causing him to not consider his foes may be using the bridge entrance instead.

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Tigatron swam as hard as he could after Optimus’ unconscious form drifting lower and lower to the river’s bottom, his heavier frame giving the male tiger a little bit of a challenge. But before long, the white and green mech had wrapped an arm around the unconscious Maximal leader and hooking one of the ape’s arms over his shoulder for better support before swimming back to the surface. Letting out a gasp as they broke the surface, Tigatron made sure he still had a good grip on the transmetal ape who seemed to come around quickly once they had broken the surface and could get air back into his intakes at last.

Curiously though, Tigatron looked towards Optimus who appeared to be conscious but not quite coherent when he uttered his fellow white tiger’s name. Perhaps it was a coincidence he happened to utter her name, knowing the two had often been mistaken for in the past, although less so when Wintersong became transmetal. So, for now, the male tiger didn’t think much of the mix up, merely offering a quick nod, “Glad to see you’re hanging in there, you had us worried.” The tiger mech told him, offering a grateful look when Optimus gave him additional support to get to the rocky shore, even if it was only a small bit of support given Optimus’ beat up appearance. Once they did reach the shoreline, Tigatron took extra care to make sure his leader was able to move before giving the blue ape some space and taking a short time to get his own bearings.

Megatron’s shoulder guns were more than enough to slow the raptor who hissed under his breath as the shots struck his shoulder, chest, and knee, causing him to wince somewhat as his wound was hit once again. As if it wasn’t already sore from letting Rampage’s punches slide across to get in a few good hits himself. It would have to be something his self-repair systems would have to handle later.

Alas, the battle finally seemed to be winding down, Dinobot getting the call from Optimus to regroup just as Megatron appeared to be calling for a retreat. Giving a final glare towards the group, Dinobot reluctantly backed off to regroup with Cheetor and Wintersong, reverting to his beast mode to allow his chest more time to heal. But, at least Optimus seemed to be in better spirits, “Well, it appears we accomplished what we came here for, at least.” The raptor grumbled, wondering if all this has been well worth the risk, letting his gaze sweep across the battle-torn area once again noticing off in the distance where Rampage appeared to have found a different target during the fray. “Barely. We are fortunate that the Predacons bit off more than they could chew this day, I doubt we will always have such a lucky outcome.” Tigatron spoke solemnly as he approached with Optimus, reverting to beast mode once they had regrouped.

“Then perhaps we should start fighting fire with fire, as I have long since mentioned from the beginning.” Dinobot growled, implying he had taken notice of the increasingly violent and brutal methods his old team was resorting to.

Once Tigerhawk had disappeared behind the trees and Terrorsaur taking over in his pursuit only then did Quickstrike stop his attacks. At this point it was pointless to keep wasting his ammo, and even if he were to attempt to give chase from the ground it seemed unlikely they could keep the chase up for long. Ammo dwindling and their team getting exhausted, Quickstrike was just as much to opt to agree with their medic that they would have to save it for another day as he had pointed out before. And surprisingly, Megatron seemed to silently agree as he finally called a retreat much to the small fuzor’s relief.

As much as Quickstrike wanted to keep blasting the Maximals after missing out on so much action earlier, he had to reluctantly admit there wasn’t much more they could do. It irked him to be giving up the fight, still more than rearing to tear them apart but knew better from time to time to admit defeat. This was one fight they couldn’t win, but many more to come in the future as he transformed and began following Megatron back towards the base. Though he too curiously listened in as the newcomer began a proper introduction.

Megatron’s quick attack to force Dinobot and Cheetor to back off seemed to do the trick, allowing Terrabite a chance to get a better feel for those who were to soon to be his new comrades. Many of them seemed more than capable of handling themselves, and others didn’t seem all that bright at the same time. He had observed enough though that he felt this group was exactly what he had been yearning to join, a group not afraid to make a proper statement rather than dealing with things from afar and in the shadows. Perhaps to a degree, but nevertheless they had a statement to make and they spoke it loud and proud.

Yes, this was most certainly what he had been hoping for for years.

Once the retreat was called, Terrabite relaxed and placed his tail sword back where it belonged, “Beast mode.” Reverting to beast mode once more, the large Predacon turned to the new concern at hand as he fell into line with the rest of the group, focusing his attention mostly on Megatron as he spoke. “The names Terrabite.” He began, “I was planted here as a Predacon spy to work as a mechanical engineer for the Axalon, see what information I could gather about the Maximals. But...that clearly is no longer the case given what I’ve seen today.” Terrabite explained, mostly condensing things to be to the point for the time being. There was much to tell of course, but given the state of the Predacons a life story didn’t exactly seem the best to relay right now. “And that’s just the highly condensed version, I can give you more detail once we’re not out in the open.” Terrabite assured them. Though he doubted the Maximals would attempt anything, he felt it better to be safe than sorry to go into great detail in the open.

((Also, let me know if Frilla’s anger towards Rattrap is overboard or not OOP. I thought it might be an interesting twist for the two since I know it has been sometime since the friendship between the two was explored and could bring up the lingering concerns they once had.))

It seemed their persistence was paying off..

The young cheetah watched with some relief as the Predacons seemed forced on the defensive for once today. Their ammo was running low, they were visibly becoming tired, and the Maximals had still managed to pull together to get in a final assault. Dinobot’s last minute help was also greatly appreciated, joining the raptor in relentlessly laying on the firepower as Airazor attacked from above. At the very least, they could keep the Predacons distracted for Tigatron to also get Optimus who he was still greatly worried for but kept focused. He trusted the white tiger to get Optimus and himself out of harms way no problem while the rest of them handled this situation.

But, as per Megatron’s usual tactics the transmetal dinosaur had to get the last shot in, Cheetor growling as he was struck by last minute shots, forcing him to stop his own attack at the same time as Dinobot. By then, the Maximal leader had been rescued and was coherent enough to call for a regroup as Megatron called for a retreat. Though Cheetor hesitated to comply with Optimus’ order right away, steadily watching the Predacons leave the battlefield before he turned to join the others, “For once, I second that notion Dinobot.” The young feline agreed, stowing away the rifle before shifting to beast mode with a pained wince thanks to the wounds inflicted by Terrorsaur. “The Preds want to keep pushing the boundaries, maybe we should start doing the same; quite frankly, I’m tired of them trashing our base and us.”

Cheetor’s attitude, like Rattrap’s, had grown over the course of this isolated war, and though he was maturing it didn’t all seem for the better.

Airazor hovered nearby after her attack on their enemies, watching as Megatron finally seemed to decide to call of leg his efforts. Though they had put up quite the effort on the short amount of ammo they had remaining it was for naught as their efforts had dwindled and exhaustion had begun to clearly set in. Finally, something had turned in their favor after the ambush they had suffered in checking on the pod signal before hand.

Sighing with relief, the falcon femme flew away from her position to soar over her comrades, spotting Tigatron with Optimus who appeared to be in decent shape, beaten up but functional. He was coherent enough to even direct the battle-worn Maximals, causing her to smile slightly at seeing despite everything the Maximals were pulling through just fine, “On it, see you all soon.” Airazor commed back before she flew off towards where Tigerhawk been last seen, optics narrowing as she saw Terrorsaur flying away from the scene and worriedly eyeing the splintered and burning trees.

With the battle finally winding down, Wintersong ceased firing her weapon towards the Predacons, eyeing them as they began to gather away opposite of the Maximals. They seemed exhausted in comparison, having likely had little to no breaks in between their revenge campaign which was quite alright in her book. They deserved worse but for now she was relieved to finally see this day coming to an end...hopefully. One never could be too sure when it came to the Darksyde crew who always seemed to have an ace up their sleeve as it were.

Now having a moment to focus, Wintersong concentrated on her form that she could finally begin to move more, albeit sluggishly as if weights were attached to her body due to the lingering effects of the venom. Though, her upper left side was a different story, feeling less heavy and allowing her to maneuver around somewhat, enough to push herself to her knees with her weaker right side. She had even momentarily forgotten why she was able to move when she became more focused in helping her teammates until the presence of the Vok spoke once more, ‘You had your taste of our support feline, continue to cooperate and things will go far more smoothly.’ As soon as they had spoken their presence became but an echo at the back of her very core, ever present but dormant at the same time. The not-so-subtle but calmer demand was clear...and tempting. She felt less pain and conflict than she had before in allowing the Vok to merge with her being, but it made her feel no less violated of them occupying her spark and body against her will. Still, the temptation to cooperate seemed all too hard to ignore in lessening the progression of this “evolution” and maybe discovering more of what the Vok has planned.

The “what ifs” and unknowns to such an arrangement left her absent minded to the conversation however, unaware that Optimus had even sensed what had happened while in the river. Normally she would be rather gung-ho about getting back at the Predacons for everything, but this time they were the last thing on her mind as she silently changed to beast mode, standing a slight distance from the others with her newly colored optics focused blankly ahead.

“Finally noticed that yourself did you?” Rampage answered Megatron in a matter-of-fact tone as if that should have been obvious already. Things had gone in their favor up until this point, but with back-to-back attacks what had the transmetal saurian expected? His troops were not all like Rampage who could take his fair share of punishment and handling drawn out conflicts longer than some of the most tenacious combatants, and had expended much of their efforts towards the earlier parts of Megatron’s plans. Sooner or later, he would work his troops to death or lose half of them to fights he could not win contrary to believing otherwise.

Then again, those who were as power-hungry as Megatron cared not for morale and what happened to those under them, so long as they could get what they wanted. Rampage more than knew what that was like, especially in the attempted replication of some long-dead Decepticon’s immortal spark. Far as he knew anyway. The transmetal crab was doubtful he was quite that strong, all he knew was that power was the central cause of his torment and miserable existence. So, perhaps it wasn’t that harsh of an outlook in his case. Nevertheless, the psychopath crab transformed to his beast mode and began following after the rest of the Predacons, caring little for the idle introduction of the newest Predacon.

Poor soul had no idea what he was getting into.

Spineback couldn’t help giving a small sigh of relief when Megatron finally made the call to retreat, relaxing just slightly as the Maximals appeared to get that same memo. She greatly wanted to retaliate, to give the Maximals a parting gift as before but her energy was low, missiles all used up, and she could feel the exhaustion tugging at her frame. She paid little mind to Megatron’s scoff, being quite use to how the Predacon commander acted and could easily point out none of them had anticipated a long-drawn our confrontation beyond the initial Axalon attack. But unlike Tarantulas or Terrorsaur, she knew how to keep her mouth shut when it was needed. “Going to be a long evening.” Noting the injuries of each Predacon and ever aware of an absent Nemesis, the Chief Medical officer made note of what tools she would need and who would likely need a lengthy CR tank visit.

But, this situation only further made her determined to make her side projects work without relying on the technology residing in the thought-to-be deceased Zodiac and Nemesis. The demonstration of Megatron’s electrified dagger had been enough to give her a general idea it might not be that viable if electricity was a weakness, something of which the Maximals could counteract easily. But Rampage didn’t have that concern. This was something she still had to pitch to her leader of course when they had a chance. For now, she reverted to beast mode, welcoming the time her self-repair systems could do its work so she could be ready to do her work at base, approaching the unconscious fire ant, “Bit off more than you could chew today ant, you’ll definitely require extensive repair time.” Shaking her head, she gently grabbed the ant with her jaws, tossing Inferno onto her back above her spine before turning to follow the rest of the worn out Predacons.

Though as they walked she listened to Terrabite, raising an eye ridge at the name, “Weren’t you plastered all over the news across Cybertron a few decades back?” She spoke, the name sounding faintly familiar. He wouldn’t be the first Cybertronian convicted of stepping out of line during the Pax Cybertronia and certainly not the last.

By the time Terrorsaur could return to the tree tops, Tigerhawk had already stepped back out of sight and the canopy blocked most of his view. Growling in annoyance at losing his target, the transmetal flier circled around a bit longer, eyeing the landscape below until he heard the first explosion, causing him the squwak in shock as the force of the blast sent him tumbling backwards, having been close enough to the area to feel the shockwave. Where in the world had that come from?!

He barely got the chance to register this before two more explosions sounded behind him, forcing Terrorsaur to give up the thought of tracking down the fuzor to avoid being caught in the crossfire of some idiot’s attempts at who knows what. In that same moment the call of retreat reached him as well, “Ugh, forget that worthless sack of scrap, he won’t last anyway.” Terrorsaur grumbled, transforming to beast mode and flying off after the rest of the team, for now ignoring Airazor’s presence as he left and catching the tail end of of Terrabite’s introduction. Though he simply scowled at the newcomer, scrutinizing his form, ‘Probably another aft kisser.’ The flier through to himself.

Tigerhawk has been far more focused on Terrorsaur to consider Tarantulas could still be stalking him. This far into the forest, he expected to have better cover and avoiding detection, especially with the extra baggage he had in carrying Zodiac and ensuring his safety. A few times he saw a flash of red but kept himself back into the shadows to avoid the flier’s sights, watching him closely until he seemed to move to a different area. “Don’t have a big window to get out of here, might as well take what I can get.” The large fuzor murmured, shifting back to beast mode and turning back to the apparently lifeless dragon, “Now let’s really get you out of here kid.” No sooner had the words left him did the explosions happen, causing Tigerhawk to gasp and duck, covering the younger mech with his body again as the second and third explosions sent splintered wood raining down on them and hearing the sound of the spider’s surprised yells.

Once things had settled again, the large fuzor lifted his gaze, ensuring nothing more was about to happen before he slid Zodiac onto his back and began making his way out. A few paces nearby though Tigerhawk noticed the legs sticking out from under the fallen tree, faintly chuckling at the fate that had befallen the twisted spider, “Well, karma bites back in the most painful way possible.” He chuckled, jumping onto the tree for good measure before leaping off to take off through the forest in the direction of the Axalon only slowing when he heard Airazor hail to him from above. “You seem to be holding up just fine, got worried there for a moment.” The falcon femme spoke as she followed from a few feet above the ground earning a small smile of assurance, “Appears I was fortunate someone attacked when they did, Tarantulas is a spider pancake way back behind us. Just not his day.”