The Intergalactic Highway

(( OOC: Don't everyone post at once. I'm bored, so I'm going to post for Rattrap again. ))

"Do you ever think positively?"

Watching Airazor swoop down and maximize with a perfect landing, Rattrap wondered if that was a goal or competition among all of the Maximal fliers since they tended to do it so well and so frequently. Silly visuals about competing with each other for something like that made him snicker inside, especially when he imagined those failing at it without much practice and falling flat on their faces. If he were a judge, however, he'd have to give more credit to Optimus since his beast mode was not aerial but he still seemed to have an incredibly smooth transition in motion from beast to robot and robot to beast when it came to landing or taking off. On the other hand, the females seemed to be much more graceful.

Looking up at her in her robot mode, the short rat said in his defense, "Hey, hey, that was positive, sister! You know, I coulda said, 'now we can be the first ta get tortured and then vaped.'" Grinning at her with his two front teeth, he also looked to Whitegrazer to see her reaction toward his attitude before his attention shifted to the crystal.

Reluctant at first, Rattrap got down on all fours and cautiously waddled over to the center of the site, glancing at the pillars every step as if expecting some kind of weapons to activate or something. Standing upright again right before the glowing "orb," he gathered some readings and glanced at his two female companions with some surprise. "Strip my circuits and call me a toaster! This crystal is stable."

The sphere-like crystal continued its pulsing. No sign of hostility yet, even with Airazor's transformation. At the moment, the site remained unthreatening.

(( OOC: Now, I'm assuming Whitegrazer will need to be zapped as well so she's laying down and gets trapped inside with Airazor? ))

Umbra wrote: Anything can be worthy of value, not just shanix or energon..In my Business even lives can have a value.. but No.. what I seek is information. I suppose I could even trade some information if you'd like..

Steelclaw watched Umbra morph out of his camoflauge into a body shape and size that should not have been at all concealable. He mouthed a silent, "wow."

Umbra wrote: My memories are a little.. disorganized from the pod crash, but I do know of that weapon clearly.. Death crystal from planet Dread. Also known as Chaos crystal.. it's become a rare commodity on the black market ever since Dread's liberation from the Decepticons 3 vorn ago.. One crystal is said to be capable of penetrating any armor or force field..a skilled sniper with a crystal like that could take down a military ship in one shot by aiming directly at the engine.. You have a dangerous bullet there, Sir

Steelclaw's processor drifted to the Maximal ship, Nomad. He had never considered using the Death Crystal before--his history with it made it so that he really didn't want to lose it--but maybe one day he would need to.

Umbra wrote: Umbra, Terrorize!

Terrorize. This was just getting better and better.

Umbra wrote:Judging from Cecaelia-chan's weapon being drawn..

Chan! That was it. But something told him he wouldn't remember a few days from then, anyways.

Umbra wrote:I can only see that you Predacons are currently engaged against a enemy.. if I'm to provide my services, I humbly request information on this world and the battle waged, Sir.

"If you're going to provide your services, it's my duty to give you that much, Umbra. But, uh... where do I begin?

"Well, we call our fight the 'Beast Wars'; I think that was the idea of the boss from the Maximal side, though, so if you want to call it something different go ahead. That boss is named Optimus Primal; he's been a career explorer, but he's still bad news. I've actually got detailed bios on all of the Maximals back at base though, so I won't bore you with the rest of the details.

"I figure you know already that there's a ton of raw energon on this planet, since you had to adopt one of the local lifeforms for your alternate mode. Our leader, Megatron, intends to collect enough of it to return to Cybertron and fuel an army of revolutionaries so we can topple the corrupt society in place there-- er, my words, not his; I'm sure he can give you a much more inspiring... acerbic speech.

"For the moment, though, our sides are on hold for attacking each other. If it weren't enough to fight for the fate of Cybertron, we've gotten aliens... or very, very aloof planetary residents, who keep sending us through traps and attacking us with crazy inventions. We've been able to handle it so far, but, uh, now they're actually coming here directly, or at least doing something much more direct. So we're letting our respective sides have enough space to think.

"That can't possibly be everything, but it's a lot of the big stuff. You have any specific pieces of information in mind for me or Cecaelia to give you?"

Umbra observed Steelclaw's surprise, finding it almost amusing considering he'd been around another Octopus. He could only assume Cecaelia wasn't that skilled with her body.

Listening to Steelclaw explain the situation, Umbra started to try to connect the pieces to understand how he'd gotten there. A Maximal exploration ship seemed unusual for him.. perhaps he used it as a means to escape something on Cybertron.. but he had no idea as to what.

Steelclaw wrote:"That can't possibly be everything, but it's a lot of the big stuff. You have any specific pieces of information in mind for me or Cecaelia to give you?"

Umbra stood up and shaked his head No, that's enough information. Thank you. Optimus and Megatron battling on a unknown world.. History seems to enjoy repeating itself.. Though.. with your groups at a ceasefire, I imagine that would just leave me to spy work.. That's easy enough at least. Now.. considering it was a Maximal stasis pod.. I can only assume the Maximals are going to be searching this area. I would suggest we bring your comrade back before she gets too far, and leave the area to avoid a battle.. Unless you'd rather these Maximals happen to.. mysteriously disappear in these woods?

He smirked transforming to his beast mode, his skin shifting in colors into a camouflage pattern to match the ground, but remained noticeable as he wasn't altering his textures or flattening out.

((OOC: Yeah, she will have to be zapped at the same time as Airazor. XD Yikes. Well, at least, it is no invasive scan. ))

Whitegrazer was too occupied staring at the alien site to hear what Airazor and Rattrap were saying. Something about it was captivating to her. Her spark was reacting to it strangely as well. She felt pulled...called to it. There was something-

Whitegrazer!!

Her master's yell was sharp, nearly made her jump. What?

Pay attention. You are in dangerous territory, focus!

Right.

What the Matrix was she doing? Shaking off what the site's aura was doing to her for a split second, she joined Rattrap and Airazor looking at the blue orb. It was a stable energon crystal just like Rattrap had pointed out to them.

She transformed since the crystal wasn't going to fry her systems. Looking at the pillars, looking at each one, there was this feeling inside her...so foreign to her. Her spark was racing inside her chest. She needed to get something to distract her.

"Interesting architecture." Was all she mustered softly from her mouth. Well, the aliens did have an unique style.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Blackarachnia took a glance behind her to see Tarantulas and Arachnitron splitting up before she continued.

I have to find a way to lose them and do something with this transwarp cell. They can't leave without it.

Maybe she could try to get them knocked out or stunned for a few moments for her to enact some plan. For now, she kept swinging, waiting for Tarantulas and Arachnitron to make the first move against her.

(Anyone else ever notice that whenever Airazor scans something she gets hurt? )

"Hey, hey, that was positive, sister! You know, I coulda said, 'now we can be the first ta get tortured and then vaped.'"

"You're a real fun bot, you know that?" Airazor responded sarcastically. It almost amazed her how Rattrap managed to think up the crazy things that he does. No other bot on this planet was quite like he was... and she wasn't entirely sure if that was a good or bad thing. On one hand, if there were more like him this war would likely be over as everyone would be far too lazy to fight. However, they would likely annoy Airazor so much it'd drive her to insanity.

"Interesting architecture."

Their other companion seemed to be uninterested in the crystal and instead preferred the pillars which surrounded them. The falcon had noticed them when circling and silently agreed that they were very impressive. She couldn't help but wonder what they were here for. Perhaps they were just for show like the standing stones, but what if they had another purpose?

"Strip my circuits and call me a toaster! This crystal is stable."

Airazor turned her attention back to the Crystal and walked towards her gray friend. Her questions may be answered in the next few moments... "Than I should be able to scan it safely." She replied and activated her scanning system on her optics. Her eyes turned from emerald green to a pale red which matched the hue which her own vision had now taken. In this new world, she was able to see energy emissions much more effectively.

As she stared at the Crystal, pulsating lines and colors radiated outwards indicating that it was gaining strength. At the bottom of her vision, text in cybertronian confirmed her fears exactly. Moving her hand outwards, Airazor attempted to try and gauge just how much power it already had. "It's a field generator..." Power began to spike drastically after putting her hand forwards. "...and its building up tremendous-- AHHH!!!" An electrical arc suddenly struck her without warning and threw her a few feet away from the crystal. To prevent damage to her body, her electrical breakers were tripped and power temporarily shut down. She was thrown into stasis almost immediately. It was a huge surge of electricity, and even after the fact, pulses of blue light could be seen going through her body.

OOC: Sorry for the delay, Una and Darkspark....I had a class this weekend so I was pretty busy.

BIC:

Things were happening so fast! First, Blackarachnia ran off with their transwarp drive and then she was sailing through the forest with her grappling hook! And before Arachnitron or Tarantulas could get close enough to stop her, Blackarachnia swiftly and effortlessly changed directions.

Tarantulas cursed in frustration, but mimicked her maneuver. He changed directions and landed on a nearby branch. Arachnitron followed suit, swinging around and landing next to Tarantulas gracefully. They both watched Blackarachnia as she flew through the trees.

Tarantulas turned towards Arachnitron commanding:

"Arachnitron, we'll continue pursuit from the sides, I'll attack from the left, you the right, we'll try to catch her in a pincer formation and force her to continue in a straight line until she's out of trees to swing from, or we see an opportunity to recover the transwarp cell. You can use firepower if you must, but make sure no stray shots hit the cell, if the resulting explosion fails to kill us the alien weapon above our heads will. Move out!"

Arachnitron nodded and did as ordered. Using her grappling hook again, she sailed off to the right after Blackarachnia. She pulled out her energon pistol and fired a few shots after Blackarachnia. She aimed high on purpose so that the shots would go directly over her head. Her intention wasn't to shoot her for fear she'd jeopardize the safety of the transwarp cell. She just wanted to entice the other she-spider to turn around and shoot back. Perhaps then, Tarantulas could swing past her and grab the transwarp cell while she was distracted. Or at any rate, maybe Blackarachnia would accidentally hit a tree while she was distracted. Arachnitron and Tarantulas were desperate to get that transwarp cell back!

Frilla looked back towards Tigatron as he was working to contact the ermine fuzor though she had a feeling they likely wouldn't get an answer which was something didn't settle right with many of them to know one of their teammates didn't answer. Looking back to the screen the frilled lizard could only wait to hear news from the others and was hoping that something would go well other then finding out more bad news, they had seemed to be getting quite a bit of that lately and it might as well have been part of their routine now.

Typing on the control panel she continued trying to make heads and tails of the signature detected when the stasis pods had crashed, yet there still seemed to be nothing else except for that fact it was there and so similar to the Standing Stones. Were the aliens planning another trap? Or were they expecting another bot to use as a guinea pig and find out more about them? Sighing in frustration for the moment Frilla decided to wait since nothing else was happening that seemed important,"Slagging Vok are really turning out to be a pain in the skid plate, can't make heads or tails of anything they do anymore."She said and glanced back towards the tiger,"As if Aurora going missing wasn't bad enough now this."

Airazor turned her attention back to the Crystal and walked towards her gray friend. Her questions may be answered in the next few moments... "Than I should be able to scan it safely." She replied and activated her scanning system on her optics. Her eyes turned from emerald green to a pale red which matched the hue which her own vision had now taken. In this new world, she was able to see energy emissions much more effectively.

Whitegrazer still was looking at the pillars. Now, where did she see that design before? It seemed so familiar to her.

As she stared at the Crystal, pulsating lines and colors radiated outwards indicating that it was gaining strength. At the bottom of her vision, text in cybertronian confirmed her fears exactly. Moving her hand outwards, Airazor attempted to try and gauge just how much power it already had. "It's a field generator..." Power began to spike drastically after putting her hand forwards. "...and its building up tremendous-- AHHH!!!" An electrical arc suddenly struck her without warning and threw her a few feet away from the crystal. To prevent damage to her body, her electrical breakers were tripped and power temporarily shut down. She was thrown into stasis almost immediately. It was a huge surge of electricity, and even after the fact, pulses of blue light could be seen going through her body.

Looking back towards her comrades, she couldn't shake off this teething pressure like something was calling for her attention. The blue orb was doing exactly what Airazor said. Pulses that started in slow intervals began to increase, but her optics went to Airazor when she was hit by some electrical spike.

"Air-"

The same electrical spike that hit Airazor hit her on her side, interrupting her as she was about to call out for her friend. Her body slumped to the left side and like Airazor, her body shut down.

((OOC: Posting for Whitegrazer for now. ))

(( OOC: All right. Are the Preds near the Vok site ready to rumble or what? ))

"You're a real fun bot, you know that?"

Hey! Sarcasm! That was more like it. Rattrap thrived on it, so he couldn't help but smile at Airazor's remark. His smile faded, however, when she approached the crystal.

"Than I should be able to scan it safely."

He didn't think it was a good idea, but then again, nothing had happened to them so far.

"It's a field generator..." Power began to spike drastically after putting her hand forwards. "...and its building up tremendous-- AHHH!!!"

"Air-"

"Airazor! Whitegrazer!" Rattrap called to them in horror as he helplessly watched them get struck and seemingly electricuted, knocking them straight to the ground, their bodies infused with bright blue pulses. Airazor's scream sounded full of agony and it terrified the rodent. Now he was alone, and as much as he wanted to help his fellow Maximals, the alien contraption began to shift. Why hadn't one of the pillars zapped him as well? Was it because he was still in beast mode? He didn't know, and there was no time now to try and make sense of any of it. The "arms" holding up the crystal jolted and then began lowering it to the ground. "Oooooh no," exhaled the small rat as he began backing up away from the orb on his hind legs. Suddenly, it powered up and sent a wave of energy that pounded into Rattrap, blowing him off of his feet and straight back into some rocky formations. Slamming into the rock wall, he fell down flat on the ground, shaky at first as he stood up on all fours, and then watched what happened next in disbelief.

The same kind of band of power that had just hammered Rattrap continued expanding outwardly from the crystal, progessively branching out to the diameter of the site, just short of the several smaller pillars that surrounded the outside. Once it reached those, it formed a somewhat biological barrier shaped like a very large mushroom or dome, engulfing both Airazor and Whitegrazer.

"Awwwww, this is not good," Rattrap said, shaking his head before he maximized and immediately opened a communication link to their commanding officer. "Rattrap to Optimus. Come in, Fearless Leader!"

Failing in his search for Orcariner, Primal was interrupted by the Spy's message. His voice sounded desperate. Something was wrong. There was some sort of a very faint shock, barely noticeable but it was there, that he had felt just moments before. Where was Whitegrazer? "Optimus here. Have you reached the anomaly?" he inquired, immediately making his return to the command center.

"Have we ever! I-I-It's some kind of nnnutty, alien fungalo! A-A-And it swallowed Airazor an' Whitegrazer!" he returned. "You better get your monkey butt over here before somethin' else happens!"

An overwhelming feeling of fear of losing those two came over Primal. One of his worst nighttmares; for his Maximals to get caught by those unpredictable and powerful aliens. Several of them had already had personal experiences with them, but something told him that he had to be the one to confront them this time. "I'm on my way!" he told him.

"Cheetor!" Optimus called through his transmission link to the cheetah to awaken him. "Report to the bridge at once!" He certainly didn't want to put another Maximal's life in danger venturing out to this alien site, but he might need help, and Cheetor was the fastest one left who could keep up with him on the ground.

"Slagging Vok are really turning out to be a pain in the skid plate, can't make heads or tails of anything they do anymore." "As if Aurora going missing wasn't bad enough now this."

Tigatron frowned lightly at Frilla's words. He was uncertain as to what to say. But she was right. Looking back at the screen, he pointed to it and said in observation, "There's a spike in the energy." Immediately following that, their leader appeared on the bridge. "Optimus, I'm afraid I have not heard a word from Aurora." But something else seemed to be troubling the Commander.

Primal's voice was colder and more direct, generating the seriousness of the situation. "Find her," he said, worried optics settling on the tiger's bright red ones. "Track her down and get her back here." Although he wasn't yelling, his tone indicated intolerance for failure.

"Frilla, stay here and monitor communications and the scanners. You'll need to hold down the Axalon. Call Rhinox's team back to Base if you need reinforcements. Keep Sentinel on alert. Cheetor and I have to make haste to the alien site to help Rattrap."

Opening the roof hatch, he sent the cheetah, "Cheetor, follow me on ground to these co-ordinates; the Vok anomaly." He sent him the destination. "Quickly!" he added before blasting out of the roof through the small opening and sqiraling off toward the direction he needed to head in.

Tigatron looked at Frilla with concern, not thrilled about leaving her there alone, but also wondering what was going on at the site, and feeling deeply concerned for Airazor, Aurora and Orcariner. "Will you be all right here?" he asked Frilla caringly.

-----

Back at the Vok site, inside of the large dome, the floor's patterns now glowed a bright white, but the ceiling was as black as a starless and moonless night sky. The crystal Airazor had attempted to scan laid in the floor now, almost flush with it. The pillars that had zapped her and Whitegrazer were still visable inside, surrounding the orb-like crystal just several feet away from it. Then, a deep voice began speaking in a strange language. The origin of it could not be found as it echoed throughout the structure. However, this place was sound-proof. Nothing on the outside could be heard inside and vice versa.

((*beats her busy days*Alright time for the Preds to move since I wasn't expecting the sudden busyness on my part! ))

Finally arriving to the area Megatron was panting slightly, the distance had been somewhat longer then he had anticipated but none the less fatigue wasn't going to stop the tyrant from his goals and already there had seemed a steady increase in activity shortly before his arrival. Yes,this was getting interesting already indeed. With a fanged grin on his large reptilian face Megatron pushed through some of the exhaustion to where he finally saw the avian and equine transformers, but he wasn't about to give them much more time for socializing. "Onyx, Nemesis there is no more time to waste let's go." He ordered to them, moving right past them once he was close enough and still showing no signs of stopping, not until they had reached the source of the problem.

No, there was no slowing down when they had the golden opportunity to use something against the Maixmals besides the Golden Disk Inferno had retrieved earlier the day before. His plans were just getting started. Though as they three Predacons were to come over the final ridge Megatron heard the voices of the Maximals, meaning they had been beaten to the location but it would be a good way to ambush them if they had to so the t-rex decided to peek over the ridge edge and watched as the events unfolded with first Airazor being struck down along with Whitegrazer before they were hidden from sight by...a green mushroom it seemed.

Onyx had glanced towards the t-rex upon his arrival, surprised when there was a sudden spike in the energy coming just a short distance from himself and Nemesis, making the equine slightly uneasy. He had yet to deal with these aliens as of yet but to know they would be facing them now was fairly unsettling for the battle worn mech which wasn't common that he got this feeling, but he had no choice but to follow orders and slowly trotted after Megatron until they came upon the ridge. The sight that greeted them made the stallion's ears go back in shock, mostly from seeing first hand what such beings could do with a simple over-charge of electricity. Two cybertronians down and one that was up...until the green structure hid them from view.

But the real question was what Megatron was planning to do with such a contraption since it didn't seem they would be able to control such power that immediately could put them in stasis lock.

Wintersong looked at Ironclaw as she nodded,"Come on Silverstreak, I'm sure the others will be glad to see a new friend and ally among our ranks. Trust me I think we could use the good news and enthusiasm."The white tigress said with a brief smile before turning to lead the way wondering if maybe this enthusiastic younger femme might bring a new air around the base compared to the depressing sadness that had hit over night, though there was also the jokes Rattrap and some of the others were able to bring up once in a while. It was always useful in such saddening times.

Pushing back the thoughts for now Wintersong began to head back at the pace from earlier, wondering how the others were doing on their retrieval and if they had been just as lucky. Though it was still concerning about the alien signature that had been picked up when the pods fell, having put a lot of the Maximals on edge from hearing about it or just made them wonder what to expect next. Perhaps they were on their way after all? Or were they here already? So many questions and yet so little answers, it was growing frustrating to deal with the Vok anymore and knowing so little didn't help. Wintersong's thoughts though were interrupted when she picked up the signal again that seemed to strengthen and paused when the Axalon was just in the distance, looking back from where they came.

"That signal just got stronger, that can't be a good sign."She said glancing back at Ironclaw with a worried look before motioning them to come on as she picked up the pace a bit.

((Alright last post for the night since I was waiting on you Winter. ))

Shaking with excitement Silverstreak eagerly followed after the tigress, her fur fluffing up slightly from how excited she was and maybe more so then she should have been but who could blame her? It had been months since she had been able to stretch her legs and months since she had been around any other bots from being trapped in a stasis pod, waiting to be activated for when they were to ever land on a mysterious planet, to which they had, and be able to know more transformers and put her skills to good use perhaps. Though she wondered if she would really be able to put them to work, of course Silverstreak didn't know completely if the Predacons were a team cooperating with her fellow Maximals or if they truly were in a full blown war on this odd, organic world. Either way she was quite looking forward to the days to come when she would be part of the crew.

The pace Wintersong set was an easy one to follow, despite the size differences between herself, the large cat, and badger they all seemed to be moving with ease. Though the silver fox was hardly paying attention to pace, more of her attention was drawn to the beautiful landscape around them, the occasional creature they saw here and there, it was just so different from home and it made it all the more interesting for the cyber ninja-in-training. But not paying attention nearly had Silverstreak running into Wintersong's leg though she quickly caught herself and stopped before it could happen, tilting her head slightly when she seemed to be concerned about something. Of course the younger femme had been aware of the odd signal but didn't know it was a threat and from the reactions she guessed maybe it was something she didn't know yet.

Looking back to where Wintersong was gazing she realized it hadn't been too far off from where she had crash landed herself, wondering if whatever this signal was might have played a part in her being there. Looking forward again she saw Wintersong taking off in a faster pace,"Hey wait up!"She called and scurried after the tigress so as to not be left behind.

Blackrosefencer wrote: Arachnitron nodded and did as ordered. Using her grappling hook again, she sailed off to the right after Blackarachnia. She pulled out her energon pistol and fired a few shots after Blackarachnia. She aimed high on purpose so that the shots would go directly over her head. Her intention wasn't to shoot her for fear she'd jeopardize the safety of the transwarp cell. She just wanted to entice the other she-spider to turn around and shoot back. Perhaps then, Tarantulas could swing past her and grab the transwarp cell while she was distracted. Or at any rate, maybe Blackarachnia would accidentally hit a tree while she was distracted. Arachnitron and Tarantulas were desperate to get that transwarp cell back!

Tarantulas swung from branch to branch using his grappling hook and pincers, keeping pace with Blackarachnia as she tried to give them the slip, Arachnitron following his order perfectly as the two of them forced the prey to continue in a straight line, unable to go left or right without falling into their clutches.

"At least this one knows how to obey a command" Tarantulas mused inwardly as he observed Arachnitron's shots at Blackarachnia, quickly surmising that she was trying to distract BA so she'd make a mistake they could take advantage of.

"Excellent, I'll wait to see how the witless widow reacts and then make my move" Tarantulas thought patiently, watching to see if Blackarachnia would slip up or attack Arachnitron, thus giving him an opening to strike.

Either way, he had his own ideas in mind if Arachnitron's distraction failed, the transwarp cell would be his again, no matter who had to die for him to reclaim it!

(ooc: Phew.. I've kept trying to post, but being busy/pure exhaustion has prevented me.. Thanks for the best wishes! Still sore, obviously, but everything is going well so far. Just celebrated my son's first birthday yesterday, a whoopin' 6 days after my daughter was born. Busy year! )

Onyx wrote:"Nice to see you back Nemesis, even if I haven't properly met you yet."

Nemesis nodded as way of greeting when Onyx approached, albeit she refrained from commenting on where she'd been for so long. Surely the Predacons had been spreading rumors but she was not about to confirm or deny anything, preferring to keep her personal life private. What the others thought or said mattered little to her since she was not in it for the glory.

Instead she directed Onyx' attention to a clearing up ahead.

"The signal is originating a short distance away. Given its nature I'd be surprised if the Maximals aren't already there or fast approaching by now."

She did not get to continue before their purple two-legged leader came barging past them while panting heavily.

Megatron wrote:"Onyx, Nemesis there is no more time to waste let's go."

"I'll take the aerial route," she responded as she flapped her wings with enough force to lift her off the ground.

Moments later the Predacons approached the giant alien mushroom where, not surprisingly, the Maximals were already present. Intrigued, Nemesis watched from the air as AirRazor and Whitegrazer entered only to meet a cruel fate inside. Or at least that's what the screams would imply. Nemesis moved in for a closer look..

Umbra wrote: No, that's enough information. Thank you. Optimus and Megatron battling on a unknown world.. History seems to enjoy repeating itself.. Though.. with your groups at a ceasefire, I imagine that would just leave me to spy work.. That's easy enough at least. Now.. considering it was a Maximal stasis pod.. I can only assume the Maximals are going to be searching this area. I would suggest we bring your comrade back before she gets too far, and leave the area to avoid a battle.. Unless you'd rather these Maximals happen to.. mysteriously disappear in these woods?

Steelclaw looked confused for a second. "Cecaelia?" He turned around and found her a small distance off. "How's that for situational awareness; I tell you, I wouldn't make it in government work. Cecaelia!" he called.

He looked back to the somewhat-camouflaged Umbra. "And you're right. The Maximals usually come here about the same time as we do. I'm glad we even managed to get here first, actually. But, uh... I think making them disappear mysteriously would be a breach of-- OUNF!"

Steelclaw was knocked off of his feet and thrown a few feet as Dinobot rammed into him head-first in his velociraptor mode.

"Dinobot, maximize!" he shouted, and after he had transformed, he drew his sword. Steelclaw picked himself off the ground, coughing and laughing at the same time.

"...breach of the truce. You really want to fight about this one, Dinobot?"

Dinobot smiled challengingly. "I won't tell anyone if you don't."

Steelclaw sighed. "I'm not gonna go against the ceasefire. And since that means I can't really stop you, I guess you get to just take the newcomer here home with you. Oh, no. Wait. That's right. He's a Predacon; sorry."

Dinobot continued to face Steelclaw, and kept his sword at the ready, but he turned his head suspiciously. "This usurper has tried to fool newly-woken protoforms before," he told Umbra. "What has he been telling you?"

* * *

Optimus Primal wrote:Cheetor!

Cheetor sprang from his bed and laughed half-consciously. "Take that, stupid clown," he mumbled. He stood in place for a few moments, and then the world became clearer to him; he was in his room. Did someone just call him? What was he just thinking about?

Optimus Primal wrote:Report to the bridge at once!

"You got it, Big Bot," he replied. On his way to the door, he opened his weapons rack, grabbed a fully loaded quasar rifle, and put it in his subspace.

He was only on his way in the middle of the hallway when Optimus' next message got to him.

Optimus Primal wrote:Cheetor, follow me on ground to these co-ordinates; the Vok anomaly.

The coordinates materialized suddenly on his HUD, and he was familiarizing himself with the general location that they signified when he reached the bridge.

Optimus Primal wrote:Quickly!

Cheetor gave Optimus a thumbs up just before the Maximal leader took off through the opening in the roof. He put himself on the elevator, took it down quickly, and leapt off in beast mode before it even reached the ground. If this was that important to Optimus, Cheetor would run so fast that he got there first.

"Big Bot," he asked over com-link. "What's the situation here?"