The Intergalactic Highway

Alarmed at Rhinox's shouting, Orcariner instinctively lunged forward and halted the pillar's descent. It was evidently powered by an unknown source as the giant could feel its unrelenting pressure against his palm. Still, being positioned in a lower stance, Orcariner was given the advantage of leverage against this death trap. This labyrinth was clearly riddled with traps if a simple pedestrian was exposed to a danger as simple as this. The Maximal looked down at Rattrap to make sure that his more fragile teammate was still in good health.

Turning his attention back to the forceful pillar, Orcariner used his free arm to swing in an uppercut motion. It was times like these where he was appreciative of his weaponry and class 10 strength. The left fist smashed through the base of the pillar and the rest of the structure plummeted down with the released of the other hand. Orcariner's energo sword greeted the remains of the descending object and it proceeded to split the attacker into pieces. All that was left was a stump of rock that could not even reach past the orca's head.

"Looks like this thing does have a limit," he said, "Let's hope the rest of the traps are this easy."

Looking back at Rattrap, he asked, "Are you alright down there?"



----------



Scorponok had no time to react as he found himself entering free fall into a dark pit. He unexpectedly rebounded due to the highly elastic arm that belonged to Glowstick. Unfortunately, there was something else grabbing onto him.

"Let go!"

A muffled complaint was heard from below.

"That hurts!"

Looking down through his thermal visor, Scorponok made out the body belonging to Terrorsaur. The flyer had a tentacle that was extremely capable of being used as an escape rope. Yet, due to his lack of experience with the appendage, Terrorsaur instead used his teeth to cling onto Scorponok's foot. More muffled sounds were heard.

"I swear I'll shoot you once we get out of here!"

Glowstick said something about Scorponok being heavy. It was true that the obsidian armor provided a lot of bulk, but it was necessary bulk. Never in his life did the lieutenant think of entering a scenario such as this. While not wanting to regret being a talking tank, Scorponok could not help but wish he was Frilla at the moment. That was more due to the lack of a nuisance biting into her foot.

(( OOC: It's late on the west coast and I need to get up early but I figured I owed you guys a post because I probably won't be able to do one on Thursday and I'd hate to hold up the game until Friday, so here we go. I apologize if I miss something; there's a lot to catch up. ))

"He can't hide from us now."

Optimus gave a nod to Whitegrazer. Despite his pain, if he couldn't defeat the alien, he was confident that his Maximals could.

"Airazor is tough and like Optimus said, fighting down there will be suicide so everything will be okay."

"Thank you, Whitegrazer," Tigatron said with a faint smile. He had faith in Airazor; he knew she could take care of herself.

"I was just kidding, I do however have a... history with him that I'm not to proud of."

Primal looked at Saber-Fang and wanted to say something, but he held his tongue. Now was not the time to confront her about that.

"We really need to watch his mace this time,that can do some damage with enough force behind it."

"Indeed," Optimus agreed with Feralnight, lifting his left hand and rubbing his chin for a moment. He was sure that was what his clone hit him with. Primus, it hurt.

"I'm on my way," "So, what do you intend for our next move to be?"

The leader opened his mouth to speak, but was suddenly interrupted by Manterror, of all bots.

"MAXIMALS! I have aligned myself with these aliens! They have given me unspeakable powers which only I have! They think I am an ally, but they are wrong! I wish to help you in your quest for global domination and destroying these invaders! It is with my powers alone that this alien threat can be defeated!"

Was that supposed to be a joke? Because Optimus did NOT find it amusing one bit. He narrowed his red optics at the mantis as he voluntarily showed himself.

"Mantis you must be delusional, the aliens wouldn't grant a insane bug ultimate power. Especially a predacon."

"We have no idea what these aliens are capable of," Primal said diplomatically with a grim tone, "but they don't seem to favor one allegiance over the other." Meaning, the Predacons and the Maximals were in the same boat for survival when it came to these unknown beings. And he obviously didn't believe anything Manterror said.

"Manterror, quit making an aft out of yourself. And no sane Alien would give you powers, just so you can use them against the aliens."

Optimus watched Inferno and Sonar approach their group. He grew more on guard, but more than anything, he tried harder to hide his pain. He didn't need these Predacons to know his condition. Nothing looked wrong with him on the outside save for the hit to his chin, but he was feeling pretty beat up elsewhere, especially his right arm and shoulder. Were these all the Predacons here? He doubted it. He expected an ambush.

The clone departed from his cover, cloaked, and blasted off toward the group of Maximals and Predacons on the edge of the forest. Flying at them at a higher altitude, he used the only left side of his shoulder-mounted missile launcher and fired a missile at them before veering off on a hard angle, nearly boomer-ranging from the trees and zipping around to make a another run at them.

Hearing a familiar sound, Optimus tilted his head and turned it a little just before he saw the missile. "INCOMING!" he hollered. He immediately lifted his left arm and activated his wrist cannons, targeting the missile and firing. Out of the corner of his optic sensor he could see the clone banking away. Icebreaker's thermal sensor was incredibly helpful. The missile's explosion with his cannon shot was close enough to knock Primal off of his feet, rolling backwards several feet away from his previous position. As long as it didn't damage, or only caused minimal damage, anyone else, his intention was to stop it before it took everyone down. Shaking his head, he slowly got back to his feet.

Tigatron gasped before strafing and crouching from the blast that blew off branches and bark, sending splinters into the air.

-----

"Strange," "I'm having to readings of energon radiation effects. Unless if we're in need for emergency repairs or utilities exclusive to our beast modes, we might as well walk around in robot form with consequence."

Eh. Rattrap still felt more comfortable in beast mode right now. He found it more useful in this situation. Though it was good they wouldn't have to worry about navigating with Orcariner's large and aquatic beast form.

Steelclaw.. Ah, I remember now.. Been awhile. You were the one that infiltrated our base months ago with the help of Glowstick. You two sure made a mess of our security protocols.. Always did wonder why you did it though..

Uh, yeah, thought Rattrap, hearing their conversation behind him. Let's not forgot who these Preds really are. He shook his head, trying very hard not to bad mouth Steelclaw and Waspinator.

Rattrap!

His right ear folding back toward Rhinox's cry, Rattrap stopped in his tracks as soon as he heard something shifting above. He glanced underneath him and saw an odd glowing stone. That ain't normal, he thought, and gasped when a stone pillar came crashing down from above. He thought was going to be squashed like a bug! Gasping, he was about to jump forward when Orcariner suddenly leaped in and stopped the pillar's descent. The rat looked up at him, grateful for his haste and size.

"Looks like this thing does have a limit," "Let's hope the rest of the traps are this easy." "Are you alright down there?"

"Thanks, Big O," the rodent gulped silently. "I was afraid there'd be traps in 'ere. If I didn't know any betta, I'd say these caverns have been here a long time, as if they were expectin' us to fall into them sooner or later. Keep your eyes open," Rattrap warned those behind him before he continued leading them through the tunnels again, even more cautious now than before.

(Well don't worry about that too much! Sometimes the game gets held up by everybody at some point. Even me, when I was waiting for all five characters to get replies.. then even I started getting behind on posts.*LOL* Hm.. speaking of which, Una hasn't responded in awhile, and Venatrix has been quiet..)

Megatron tilted his head as he heard the explosion in the forest, he simply laughed. It looks like our guest has arrived, I do hope Tarantulus and the others provide better entertainment this time..

__________________

With the sudden explosion, Tarantulus chuckled to himself. He enjoyed the thought of a few maximals kicking off at the hands of the alien, but alas business before pleasure. Tarantulus, terrorize! he shouted as he transformed to his robot mode, his visor then sliding down as he drew his missile launcher, firing off a cyber venom tipped missile towards the alien from his hiding spot. He then started to run out of the woods with his spider leg machine guns blazing wildly in sporadic bursts towards the creature. He shouted out towards his allies Don't just stand there, show these maximals how it's done!

_______________

Icebreaker blinked as he looked towards Starshadow Um.. you know..if you wanted something reliable to draw with, wouldn't Cecaelia's ink be a better choice? he said with a puzzled look, he wasn't exactly fond of the idea of her hurting herself for such a reason, even if she was a predacon.

He sighed, then walked towards the doors inspecting them. Transforming to his robot mode, he walked towards the door and drew his survival knife, jamming it between the stone doors and using it to pry them a bit, he then put it away as he grabbed onto the door and started to slowly push it open. After pushing the door wide enough for the group to walk inside, Icebreaker looked around with his tactical visor, he stepped inside, then blinked as his scanners started reporting to him. That's weird.. my field dampers are recharging. The rock is so dense here that there appears to be no energon radiation. Looks like we wont have to use our beast modes too much.

He then looked towards Starshadow and Cecaelia Well ladies, shall we?

___________________
Glowstick simply laughed as he heard Frilla Ha, you knew you missed me.

Glowstick simply blinked looking at Terrorsaur bitting on Scorponok's foot. He did the equivalent of a face palm for a squid with one of his tentacles, then sent out his other feeder tentacle to grab onto Scorponok pulling him and Terrorsaur up, his other limbs moved grabbing Terrorsaur as he floated upward towards the other side of the pit setting Scorponok down.He then glanced towards Terrorsaur You know.. you didn't have to grab him with your teeth..and I'm guessing your flight systems are down. Guess I'll take a look into that once my repairs are done. He then set Terrorsaur down, speaking up Ah, well we got out of that not too badly.. Nobody lost or injured-

His eyes then widen as he looked towards the others, counting with one of his appendages. 1-2-3 he throught to himself while imaginary numbers appeared over Scorponok, Terrorsaur, and Frilla's head. a 4th number appeared with a dotted line shaped like Blackarachnia, his photophores started to flash in a strange sequence of panic as he came to realize they were missing Blackarchnia. Or.. not. Slag.. he then turned looking around for Blackarachnia.

Starshadow completed the drawings and kept it in her inventory compartment. "I have reasons for using my mech fluid."

Cecaelia looked at the bots and stretched her arms. "To the Temple of Doom!" she skipped inside the building with Starshadow while flashing the glowing blade brighter like disco lights.

"We'll need to mark our tracks.." the catbot used her mech fluid to write a number on the wall then catch up to Cecaelia.

((OOC: I have been waiting for OOP's post before I responded. That's why I haven't been posting. ))

Manterror's statement was totally made up but everyone knew that too.

Whitegrazer kept her smile but soon, she heard Optimus' warning. She jumped back, feeling the heat of the explosion hit her face that made her cover it with her hands. She saw Optimus rolling several feet away. Running towards him, seeing him struggling to get up, she offered her hand to help him up.

________________________________________________

Blackarachnia looked in disgust at some slime the tentacles lefted over, glaring at Scorponok, "Nothing personal, shellhead."

She watched Scorponok and Frilla pass something. It didn't glow but that mark was....Crap! She screamed as she fell, transforming to her beast mode so she could use her webbing to catch the ceiling of the cave. She was nearly close to being stabbed. Crawling slowly back up, she growled at Scorponok and Frilla, "Be more careful! These aliens want to kill all of us. Be smart and look at your surroundings before you even take one step!"

Blackarachnia was clearly sour as she transformed, "Give me light and I can lead the way."

Wintersong stopped when the ground suddenly gave way but quickly looked down as Glowstick caught Frilla, Scorponok, and Terrorsaur. It seemed the aliens really weren't kidding when they wanted to rid of the two sides, but the tigress wondered if there was more to this then just a simple topple underground. When the four were finally safe Wintersong finally spoke up,"There might be more to this capture underground then we know." She said glancing down at the spikes below then the group itself,"These aliens,whatever they are, might just be testing us down here." If that was the case the tigeress now wondered what the aliens were doing to this planet and why it needed to be protected.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

Turning towards the sound Snow Trix changed her mind on making a run for it and instead headed towards the sound of the explosions and gun fire, "Snow Trix Terrorize!" She commanded and transformed aiming her wrist launchers towards the sky. She couldn't see the clone but he had to be somewhere so the fox decided to fire i multiple places, hoping to limit the flight area of the Primal Clone.

"Perhaps a bit Glowstick but don't get your hopes up." Frilla replied smiling the best she could in beast mode then looked at Blackarachnia,"We'll all have to be more careful Blackarachnia regardless who leads and who doesn't." She said calmly. But the frilled lizard did a quick scan of the place to make sure there wasn't any more surprises before they would head off again then looked to her teammate at the consideration."Likely Wintersong but it seems more like a big experiment, these aliens had all the factors they needed then along come us and now we're a danger to what they had planned. A lot of places here on this planet just aren't natural." She said, also referring to the cave.

Though Frilla hoped she was readying all this wrong ad that it was a coincidence. If that was even a likely chance.

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

Feralnight looked at Optimus and nodded, it didn't seem the aliens really cared for which team won the war because they'd only destroy them one way or another. Turning away from Manterror the fuzor looked at the others wondering what their next move would be before she heard Primal's yell. Crouching she put her wings in front of her as a shield, surprised by the force of the explosion that even knocked Optimus off his feet. "Grrr...I'm getting sick of this clone walking all over us. For once I think the Predacons have the right idea, Feralnight maximize!" Feralnight howled and transformed, frustrated with the Primal clone already today and took flight though was careful to avoid the mini missiles from Snow Trix.

Looking at where Tarantulas was aiming Feralnight drew her gun at her side and using her Shoulder Mounted cannon she looked for any signs of the clone. Least hoping he'd show briefly before she fired.Wasting ammo wouldn't help but just to be safe she fired a few shots in a few different directions

((OOC: I'm gonna take Saber out of this fight and just have her be knocked out cold until CC is either killed or he takes off again. So I'm just gonna let Inferno and Sonar be themselves.))

"MAXIMALS! I have aligned myself with these aliens! They have given me unspeakable powers which only I have! They think I am an ally, but they are wrong! I wish to help you in your quest for global domination and destroying these invaders! It is with my powers alone that this alien threat can be defeated!"

"Manterror, quit making an aft out of yourself. And no sane Alien would give you powers, just so you can use them against the aliens."

Saber took an involuntary step back when Sonar appeared, her ears drooped a little when he looked right at her and gave his sick smile.

"INCOMING!"

* * *

Over excited, Inferno fired in several directions, one of his shots hit close to Saber, knocking her back wards and into a tree, the former General hit the tree with a heavy thud and slid down the tree and onto the ground unconscious.

Sonar smirked but shook his head.

"That was unnecessary. I told you I would be your eyes if the coward was cloaked."

Don't just stand there, show these maximals how it's done!

Sonar turned to look at Tarantulas and smiled.

"Gladly." Sonar said, closing his optics.

He sent out a continuous waves of sound in all directions, he bared his teeth in a sick smile when he "saw" Phantom.

There you are.

"Inferno, fire two shots at your 2:00... now!"

He heard and saw Inferno fire his blaster at the creature, the shots fired would distract the cloned Primal while he would take advantage of it. Moments later he flew after the blasts, he broke off and went to flank his old foe to "thank" him for helpping the bat slowly kill Saber-Fang.

((OOC: Time for a rematch. *evil laugh cough, cough*))

((OOC: I've been kinda' slow too.))

Cheetor was surprised by how fast things had turned ugly, but he was more surprised by how easily the others seemed to react to it. For an advanced species, the aliens were just plain bad at getting their plans to work.

Wintersong wrote:There might be more to this capture underground then we know. These aliens,whatever they are, might just be testing us down here.

Oh. That did make a little more sense.

No it didn't...

"Kindof a pointless test, don't you guys think?" Cheetor asked. "I mean... it's like 'Hey, I wonder if those Cybertron 'bots can survive some death traps.'

His voice changed tone at intervals as he kept up with his fake conversation. "Well, what if they die?" "Then they couldn't survive 'em." "O.k., but what if they don't die?" "I don't know. We should probably kill 'em."

Even though the hole was pretty big, there still just a little more space on the sides for the rest of the 'bots to walk around it. After Cheetor got around, he noticed something red to his side.

"So... it's bad new when these symbols light up, right?"

From somewhere ahead of the group, Cheetor thought he could make out the sound of rushing water. He gulped.

"We're toast."

* * *

Airazor wrote:Close! It's Airazor.

Steelclaw tapped his head in admission of his supposed lapse. Throughout the Beast Wars, he had slowly improved on one of the skills he'd long been trying attain- allowing signs of weakness to be a strategic asset. "Of course. You know how it is. You get aliens tricking you and throwing you underground and suddenly things get a little harder to hold on to."

I'm curious, what is it like to be a Predicon?

Now that was a question one wasn't often asked.

"Depends on which Predacon you ask, I suppose. For me it's kinda-"

Rhinox wrote:Steelclaw.. Ah, I remember now.. Been awhile. You were the one that infiltrated our base months ago with the help of Glowstick. You two sure made a mess of our security protocols.. Always did wonder why you did it though..

"There you go," Steelclaw remarked, still looking at Airazor, but pointing his free hand at Rhinox. "You work your hardest at seeing your cause through, and accept the misconceptions as they come. Not much else you can do in war."

"Hey," he called ahead to Rhinox, "I tried to leave the place the way I found it. Besides, now you've got a shiny base defense program and everything."

He turned to Airazor again. "It really is shiny. You've seen Sentinel's force field before, right?" His head suddenly whipped back ahead and he winced as he saw the pillar crashing for Rattrap. "Ooh."

Ocariner, of course, was quickly on top of the situation.

"Being a Predacon can also be intensely frightening, going up against a guy like that," he mentioned, only partially joking.

* * *

((OOC: In "Fallen Comrades" does Dinobot have thermal vision? Or is it just... specially colored?))

(Um.. Dinobot's vision looks like he's high. I'm serious. Though the ground seems brighter.. so I guess it's either thermal vision or maybe reflection of infrared. We'll just go with Thermal since he knew tricks of getting by cameras like that and well.. more characters need alternate optical sensory anyway! And don't worry about being too slow.. even if you do play as Cheetor. Okay.. bad pun there.)


Glowstick looked towards Blackarachnia as she climbed up her silk strand, he rubbed the back of his mantle with a tentacle Uh.. how? I do customize my tools to glow but they aren't that bright..So the only other light sources I can think of would be me, my sword, or.. Terrorsaur's new arm.

He listened to Wintersong speaking about it being a test, it was possible. He then glanced to Frilla Heh, you were my best assistant, but I think I'll sleep easier without trying to lead you.

He then turned looking at Cheetor move on ahead, then heard a rather familiar sound.. normally a comforting sound to the squid, he seemed almost to cheer up for a moment, then his eyes widen as he realized it was water.. in a enclosed area.. leading towards a spike pit, and he was the only one who could swim or fly. Kid, if this was a test then you officially flunked! Everyone fall back, the water will sweep you into the pit otherwise!

He floated backwards as he transformed to his robot mode, then fired off two laser blasts down into the pit, a small explosion heard as the pit spikes broke, cracks and holes formed in the rock floor around the spikes. Glowstick's face and side seemed a bit better then before, now mostly sealed, though his optic was still missing.

______________________________

Rhinox let out a sigh of relief as he saw Rattrap was safe, he looked towards the ground at the glowing symbol as it then stopped glowing. He pointed towards Rattrap's foot That symbol.. we need to avoid those marks!

Rhinox then looked back towards Steelclaw Sentinel does work nice, but it doesn't take care of all our security problems.. Specially thanks to your Squid friend there, I can't even remember how many times we have to change encryption and frequencies for our Comlinks because of his little pirate radio shows.

__________________

Icebreaker blinked looking at the number on the wall, then shrugged following behind the two girls, he pulled the light off his penguin head and passed it to Starshadow You'll probably need this more then I will. he then stated, his systems internally mapping their route as they moved. He looked around as they moved, then noticed a glowing symbol on the wall as Cecaelia walked past, he suddenly swung his right arm forward grabbing her by the tentacles on her back and pulled her back swiftly as three rapid blasts of energy came from the wall and slammed into the other side. Might want to watch your step their..One does not simply skip through the temple of doom.

Cecaelia blinked when she was pulled back by Icebreaker. But why? The answer was revealed when three shots were fired. "Ooooh..It's indeed the Temple of Doom!"

Starshadow flashed the light on the rune and touched it. "It seems that these marks are sensors without red lasers..Better watch out for them and activate them first before we pass.." she said as she continued her journey with Cecaelia.

Wintersong looked at Glowstick but the sound of rushing water made her quickly step back a bit from the pit, having not yet crossed to the other side. "This was more then one trap." She growled a bit, though hated to admit that the aliens were smarter then they appeared. Who knew what else the aliens had set up long before the Maximals and Predacons had arrived of if they'd come out alive.

Seeing Whitegrazer rush over to aid him, Optimus took her hand with his left, his optics full of gratitude looking into hers, and got to his feet with her help.

Tarantulus, terrorize! Don't just stand there, show these maximals how it's done!

So, Tarantulas had been around there too, lurking. No surprise.

"Grrr...I'm getting sick of this clone walking all over us. For once I think the Predacons have the right idea, Feralnight maximize!"

"That was unnecessary. I told you I would be your eyes if the coward was cloaked."

Primal watched the spider and Feralnight take off after his clone, but glared at Inferno when he shot too close to Saber-Fang. Accidental or not, they couldn't afford spontaneous fire power like that, taking out every bit of help they needed. It angered the leader. Looking at Whitegrazer and Dinobot (and Valkyrie if Ven re-appears again soon), he shared, "I've seen... The alien is severely damaged. His... His right shoulder and back were hit by Glowstick's sword. It shouldn't take much to bring him down. We can attack him from several angles at once," with all of the Predacons who were with them and his Maximals.

"Tigatron, see to Saber-Fang. Make sure her injuries aren't life-threatening," Optimus ordered the white tiger, forcing himself to cope with his own mysterious pain.

The white cat nodded and maximized, jogging to Saber's side and kneeling down next to her and the tree she had flown into, examining her body. She was unconscious but her vitals appeared to be normal. It was a rough hit she had taken, though. Tigatron pulled out a small medical kit and scanned her head for any injuries she may have acquired from Inferno's carelessness. "Saber-Fang, can you hear me?" he asked softly.

"Inferno, fire two shots at your 2:00... now!"

Flying at high velocity back toward the group, Tarantulas's sneaky cyber venom missile caught the clone off guard. He saw the projectile after it was too late to react. The missile pierced his upper left leg and the venom immediately began paralyzing his systems. Cutting off his prime jets, his sudden drop of altitude causing Inferno's shots to pass by right above him, he crashed into the ground and slid a few yards before his invisibile body came to a stop. Desperately trying to fight the venom, his body shook uncontrollabely, growling in anguish, and he grabbed the projectile in his leg, yanking it out and clenching his jaws so as not to scream. He had to move. How could he have seen him? Was Sonar helping him? He knew that bat was out there again, and probably wanted revenge on him, the fool. Laying there helplessly, his body trembling, the Vok clone had a stronger and quicker immune system to battle the venom than the others had. If he only had a couple minutes to recover... There was nothing else he could do at the moment. And unfortunately, Sonar hadn't been far behind.

"AAAAAARGH!" Optimus suddenly hollered in agony and collapsed next to a boulder, his body suddenly beginning to shake involuntarily. He grabbed his leg with his left hand and trembled on the ground as the virus inside of him attacked his robotic nervous system, just as his clone was suffering from Tarantulas' cyber venom. "By... Primus," he exhaled in deep breaths, pushing himself to sit up and lean his back against the boulder.

-----

That symbol.. we need to avoid those marks!

"Yeah, well, they're a little hard ta see in the dark when they ain't glowing, all right?" Rattrap informed Rhinox, feeling incredibly embarrassed and foolish for missing the first one. He should've been more careful! These good-fer-nothin' aliens! he blamed in his mind.

He eavesdropped on the others' conversation, wondering if Steelclaw was just acting cordual to get through this chaos without getting killed especially since he and Waspinator were greatly outnumbered, or if it was genuine and he wasn't actually as bad as Rattrap had always thought. Yeah right. It had to have been all for show.

Whitegrazer was very concerned about Optimus, his injuries seemed to be getting worse. How hard did that clone hit him back there? She watched as Sonar and Inferno attacked the clone, nearly killing Saber-Fang. Someone had to keep those Predacons under control with their trigger-happy fingers. She hoped that Saber-Fang was all right--she was a tough one.

Seeing the clone fall in pain, she was caught off guard by Optimus' scream of agony next to that made her turn to look at their leader who was really, really in pain right now. What was going on?

She looked at Dinobot and Valkryie then back at Optimus, "Something is going on here." Looking at Optimus' injuries as well as seeing him trembling on the ground.

Sonar was next to the clone, "Dinobot, Valkryie, I will look after Optimus. You guys better keep the clone alive." The two probably thought she was crazy for saying that but....If what she was thinking was true..., "I don't know why this is happening but somehow the clone's injuries are becoming Optimus'."

Should they tell the Preds? The problem was especially with Sonar and Inferno, they might take advantage of such a situation.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

She wondered if the Maximals were really trying to kill them all. This is why a spider ventures alone. But there seem to be no way to be able to do so. Still wearing her sour expression, she looked around the cave formations for anymore symbols of any kind.

"Hey, Terrorsaur! Can you use that new arm to light this wall for me?" She asked.

"Mantis you must be delusional, the aliens wouldn't grant a insane bug ultimate power. Especially a predacon."

"Manterror, quit making an aft out of yourself. And no sane Alien would give you powers, just so you can use them against the aliens."

"We have no idea what these aliens are capable of, but they don't seem to favor one allegiance over the other."

Manterror was slightly disappointed in the lack of faith the other bots had in him. While he was lying in the first place, it seems he hadn't been able to convince a single one of them. Perhaps they just needed a bit more convincing? It was possible. If they actually saw the Aliens, he would be able to kill it with his superior strength anyhow. They would believe him than. "So you may think! My powers have become legendary thanks to their aid! I cannot be stopped!"

It was at that moment that Clear Convoy returned. "Ah ha! A worthy challenger! MAN-TERRORIZE!" He yelled and transformed from his bug form into a two-legged robot. His trademark grin plastered on his face as he did so. Turning towards the attacker, he saw the shot but hadn't reacted quick enough. Optimus however, did. He intercepted the missile with his own and saved everyone else from being blown to shreds. Not bad for a maximal.

Then it was the Predicons turn. Tarantulas made a great shot, knocking the alien flier from the sky and sending him crashing towards the earth. Inferno missed, but likely would have hit had the clone kept on going at the rate he had been. Manterror was quite proud of his comrades, a job well done. Now however, it was his turn. Moving towards the location of the crash, the Mantis scanned the area. Soon, he found the clone squirming helplessly on the ground. The cybervenom was wrecking his systems and while he was still invisible, his form was easily distinguishable from the red venom lines coursing through it. With his left blade still inoperable, he instead activated his right razor blade and approached. Walking towards the fake primal at a steady pace, he taunted his victim. "What nice ligaments you have! Oh how much better they would look away from you're body! But don't worry, I'll be sure this hurts you for more than a nonoclick."

Knowing that the venom should keep his adversary pinned down for a long time, he decided to play a few games with him. Instead of going for the killing blow immediately, the Mantis wanted to first dismember him. Remove his arms and legs... and than the head. Rushing forward, he brought his right claw into the air. The blade underneath spinning at full velocity. With a quick swoop, he aimed his attack at clear convoy's left arm, hoping to take it clean off!

---

"Being a Predacon can also be intensely frightening, going up against a guy like that,"

Airazor chuckled at the bear's remark. If there had been any Predicons the size of the Orca, she would likely turn tail and run in the opposite direction. It must take some serious guts to try and fight him. Steelclaw's tale was quite amusing, and she was genuinely interested. A pity he hadn't been a maximal, she would loved to have held a much longer conversation with him. Now however, it was time to get serious. The time for chatter was over.

"That symbol.. we need to avoid those marks!"

If this maze had been filled with traps like that last one, they would need Airazor's keen eyesight to spot the symbols. Thankfully, the other party members provided enough light for her to be able to see a good deal ahead of them. Activating the zoom lens in her eyes, the falcon glanced at the area ahead, hoping to spot a trap before they happened to walk into it. With the darkness, she wasn't able to see as far ahead as she would have liked, but it still helped. Even if she only saw a few extra feet, it would help. To her surprise, it did too.

"Rattrap, stop!" She yelled quickly, as it was almost too late. Returning back to normal vision, she pointed to symbol only a few feet away. "That stalagmite has a symbol on it. We better stay clear of it!"