"Aftermath: Part I - New Introductions"

[Optimal Optimus Primal]

"I don't know where you've been through all of this tragedy lately, Saber," Rhinox said calmly, merely making an observation that his own excuse was being stuck in the CR when the spiders had heavily doped him during their invasion, "but it's good to see you again." He added it with a light smile as he placed the empty extinguisher aside and gently kicked a lot of his empty bullet casings off to the side of heavily traveled paths on the floor so no one would trip on them. Sweeping them up properly would have to wait later, as well as the rest of the burnt mess Inferno left behind.

"Move," "Move what?"

"Tigatron and Whitegrazer retrieved a stasis pod that holds a blank protoform inside," the engineer explained in his throaty voice. "I need it up here. And if it took the both of them to carry it, I'm assuming it's one of the larger ones. He'll need your help to move it and place it in this room," he instructed her, pointing to the next room just outside of the command center in the corridor. "Quickly," he enforced. There was a time he and Optimus wanted to help Saber-Fang with that supressed beast inside of her, but Sonar had always interfered and failed to offer any cooperation even though he seemed to hold a lot of answers about the matter. A shame that Saber tended to avoid explaining to them the "problem" she suffered with every day. For now, Rhinox hoped she could keep it under control. What he and Whitegrazer were about to attempt was going to need a quiet and uninterrupting atmosphere for complete focus and concentration. ...Assuming Whitegrazer would return unscathed.

Moving on, Rhinox hurried about to a different room, grabbing a large piece of machinery and then another piece, placing them both in the command center. It hogged up some room but he needed it there to make quick connections to databases and power. Kneeling down, he began working on assembling the miracle machine together while he waited for the protoform.

[Night-Hunter]

"I don't know where you've been through all this tragedy lately, Saber,“ Rhinox said calmly. "But its good to see you again." He added with a light smile.

Lost mostly. Saber thought as she returned his light smile.

"Tigatron and Whitegrazer retrieved a stasis pod with a blank protoform inside."

As he explained where he needed it, she wondered why he even needed it in the frist place. But it wasn't her place to ask and she really needed to make up for her lost time she had spent in the wilds.

"Quickly."

"I'm on it." The formal general promised before taking off to meet Tigatron and Whitegrazer.

[Phoenix]

"Hey, I'm flying here!" "And shouldn't you be practicing with some easier targets, anyways?"

Megatron had been firing at all the Maximals present but upon hearing the transmetalized cheetah's words he began focusing his attention mainly on the flying cat. He started concentrating his shots at the path directly in front of where Cheetor was flying, attempting to catch the annoying furball as he flew into the swarm of incoming fire.

As the cat continued his approach, Megatron decided to counter by reverting to beast form as well. He shouted out the command angrily, swiftly converting to his dinosaur form with a massive roar.

"Take them out, Predacons!," he ordered, his powerful engines appearing as he spoke, "Quickstrike and Steelclaw; go for the rodent! Silverbolt and I will handle the kitty cat."
As soon as he was done barking out his commands, the thrust created by his engines started lifting his beast mode off the ground. What he lacked in grace, his raw power was sure to counter effectively.

Aurora only vaguely registered that someone arrived to scoop her up into their arms, letting out a soft moan as her weight was shifted. Her abdomen remained a gaping hole, her body limp and weak from the loss of fluids, as she kept drifting in and out of consciousness. All she could do now was try to hang in there, try to preserve what little strength she had left in order to survive until she could be repaired.

In a moment of faint alertness her optics flickered on for long enough to register that it was Whitegrazer who was carrying her. The little fuzor attempted a grateful smile but it must have come out as a painful grimace instead, her words coming out in short bursts of strained coughs.

"You.. heard.. me.."


She wanted to go on, wanted to explain to Whitegrazer exactly how grateful she was for her being there, and all about the confusion she was feeling as well. But she choked on the words and nothing else came out. And then she felt the overwhelming darkness surround her mind again, going completely limp in the mare's arms as she was forced to succumb to it.

Behind them the still form of Nemesis still drifted in the water, the scorched feathers now soaked from the environment she was in. Everything was eerily silent, the water lay as dormant as the form occupying it, the sword once belonging to the former Maximal commander having buried itself in the submerged sand below.

[DarkSpark]

Terrorsaur flipped over in midair and managed to land on his clawed feet with a grunt, standing up to watch the maximals flee the scene like the cowards they were.

"Well that could have gone better" Terrorsaur snarled, disappointed over missing a chance to kill Airazor, wounding her wimpy rescuer doing little to brighten his mood as he waited for his jet engine to cool off.

"This is Commander Terrorsaur, all units still functioning report now if you're not busy slagging maximals or being slagged yourselves" Terrorsaur ordered into his comlink, deciding his main priority for now was getting Tantrum under control and bringing his stasis pod back to base so this mission wouldn't be a complete debacle and give Megatron an excuse to throw a hissy fit.

Una wrote: Blackarachnia kept mumbling to herself, trying to get Tarantulas to let go of his control over her, " What am I? A third wheel? Let me handle this, Legs!" She grunted as she find herself firing at Dinobot, but wondered if it was her will or Tarantulas'. Grrr! There was no time for her to second guess herself. All she had to do was focus and make sure Tarantulas and/or Arachitron didn't get her killed! Dying at the hands of a former Predacon or the other spiders was not how she wanted to go down!

"Then shut up and handle it fool!" Tarantulas barked back, in no mood for her "rebellious streak" right now with the biggest ace up the predacons sleeves in danger of being taken away by a rogue element like Dinobot.

She allowed her to do the fighting, but was prepared to seize control if he meager skills proved insufficient for the job, or if she was about to get them both killed.

Una wrote: She had went flat on the ground when green lasers came at them, dodging them. She stopped firing to see Dinobot holding the Golden Disks. Hmmm...she wanted to know what secrets laid in them, but her priorities were stalled until Tarantulas was gone. It was a risk to fire on them and Dinobot really seem keen to get them. Was she really that eager to die to get some old artifact? No.

"You said you could handle it, GET UP AND PROVE IT" Tarantulas demanded, sending shivers of pain through her mind, not enough to throw off her concentration or cripple her, but enough to give her a taste of what he could do to her if she screwed this up, like the instinctual feeling of dread many lifeforms get when something bad is about to happen.


OOC: Many apologies to Blackrosefencer, I just figured I should get a post in since its been a while and she can still jump in later & we can return to the normal post lineup. I can alter my post later as well if necessary.

[Optimal Optimus Primal]

(( @ una: Edited my post. Yes, it was misleading by the way I was reading it but that's my fault. I see now what you meant.

Oh, N-H, in case you are unware, Tigatron is waiting for Saber in the hangar.

WHERE is everyone else?! Really disappointed... I've waited long enough with Rattrap now, so moving on. ))

IC:

"Go, my Predacon brethren," "Destroy them!"

"Yeah... How many times have we heard that?" Rattrap said rhetorically with a roll of his optics.

"I'm on it!"

Watching Cheetor take off with high hopes (at least one of them had them), Rattrap peered around his cover to wait and see how close the little, yellow bot was by this point that was "spitting" all over the place. Setting down his hubcap shield, he opened one of his forearms and pulled out a demo charge. Good thing I still got my hiding spots, he grinned to himself. Engaging the timer on the little bomb, he tossed it into the air right in the snake/scorpion Fuzor's direction. Then he quickly grabbed his shield and leaped over to another nearby pile of boulders to hide behind as the charge exploded. ((OOC: Not saying if it hit Quickstrike or not, just that Rattrap took adavntage of the explosion to move from his position.))

"Hey, I'm flying here!" "And shouldn't you be practicing with some easier targets, anyways?"

Taking another peek at the Preds, Rattrap thought it best to concentrate on Megatron. Cheetor would be able to handle the birddog. Taking a careful and steady aim over a boulder with one hand on the trigger and the other hand holding up his shield for some extra cover against the yellow Fuzor's random shots and Megatron's, Rattrap fired three shots at the powerful t-rex with his new weapon before immediately ducking down after exposing himself again. Whether or not they hit Megatron he didn't know. What the rat DID know was that he was going to be overwhelmed by the ground unit Predacons very soon. And where had Steelclaw gone...? Slag, lost track of him already, which wasn't good because he knew he was just as skilled a marksman as he was. He'd have to come up with something else...

[NaitoKage]

( Sorry, been lurking as usual. Just didn't get around to posting due to strange luck that I don't think anyone wants to hear about. Anyway.. As for if the attack hits, you just used a splash damage weapon and Quickstrike isn't that fast or smart. )

"And shouldn't you be practicing with some easier targets, anyways?"

Quickstrike looked up from his shooting as he noticed Cheetor take to the air, he was about to alter his aim when he noticed something in the air come flying near his general area. Unfortunately, as he'd only come out of a Stasis pod a little while ago and his data tracks were more mixed up then a strawberry smoothie, he had no idea what a demolition charge was.

Looking at the device confused, it then suddenly exploded. The shockwave of the explosive sending the fuzor flying with a scream of TARNATION! only to leave him sliding across the ground.

He got up slowly rubbing his head with his snake arm Ugh.. he then looked towards Rattrap's area as he noticed him pop up shooting at Megatron Why you low down dirty varmint! he shouted, thrusting his snake arm in the direction firing at Rattrap's cover.

___________________________________

Umbra sighed as he observed the battlefield. Hearing Terrorsaur on the radio, he was unsure what to do at the moment. While Terrorsaur's command was terrible allowing two fliers be taken out by the creature which seemed to possibly be an ally, he didn't seem to be betraying Megatron at the moment. So terminating the air commander was probably not a good idea.

Either way, it seemed more productive if the creature was calmed for the time being.. something Umbra could manage. Using his siphon he sweeped across the ground swiftly, almost looking like a moving blob of earth as he enclosed on Tantrum's position.

He stopped as he came up to Tantrum, transforming to his robot mode silently, noticing Tantrum's seemingly crying of rage like state. His tentacles shrouded around his main body like a cloak as he reached behind himself with his right arm, using the limbs to conceal his actions if necessary. Perhaps he could speak some sense into the creature, and if not.. well sometimes you have to use the whip instead of the stick and carrot.. Strange.. you won the battle, and yet here you stand crying as if you were defeated. Do you thirst for their destruction so badly? he then said, his armor shimmering away it's camouflage as he took his more usual black and gold color scheme.

__________________________

"Among other things." "Follow me!"

Aerostriker simply smiled as he watched his new comrade flying, it seemed even though she was damaged her spirits were still up. As you insist.

[Night-Hunter]

Saber stayed in her beast mode as she left the control and headed toward the one possible place Tigatron and Whitegrazer could be... The Hanger.

Primus, this place is a mess, its going to take awhile to clean this place up. Saber thought.

She had to force the door to the Hanger open, it opened with a loud screech and she managed to slip through it.

"Maximize." She transformed into her robot form as she walked deeper into the Hanger.

[Blackrosefencer]

The explosion from Arachnitron's demolition device sent the door flying into the room towards Dinobot.

"Next time give more warning before you do that again!"

Tarantulas growled at her in outrage. Arachnitron hung her head sadly.

Not only had her actions frustrated Tarantulas, but she watched in shock as Dinobot picked up the door and used it as a means to get to the golden disks whatever they were for. He flung the door at the force field surrounding the golden disks and the energy field had become much easier for him to avoid.

" What am I? A third wheel? Let me handle this, Legs!" Blackarachnia grunted at Tarantulas.

"Then shut up and handle it fool!" Tarantulas barked back.

Blackarachnia raced off into the fray firing her weapon at Dinobot as he fired back at her. Not wanting to be outdone, Arachnitron came out from her hiding place behind the wall and added her firepower to the brawl hoping that her energon pistol would slow the raptor down a bit more.

Dinobot's return fire paused a bit as he reached in between the remaining shards of the force field to gather up the golden disks. Then swiftly he spun around to send some of his green lasers back at the spiders.

Blackarachnia instinctively flattened herself against the ground to protect herself from the lasers. Arachnitron flattened herself against the door frame to dodge the incoming laser beam.

"You said you could handle it, GET UP AND PROVE IT" Tarantulas demanded.

Arachnitron's attention was drawn to Tarantulas' bellowing from Blackarachnia's body. She looked back at the raptor who would probably take Blackarachnia's hesitation as a good opportunity to leave. Arachnitron couldn't let that happen.

"I've got him," she announced and quickly switched weapons. "A few blasts of cybervenom should do the trick."

She loaded her cybervenom launcher with a fresh dart and fired it at the Maximal.

[una]

Whitegrazer kept a determined face, focusing on getting back to the Axalon. She understood that she had just left Nemesis' body floating in the water. From her quick glance, Nemesis had appeared dead yet she couldn't confirm that despite the stench of death in the air. After she put Aurora in the CR chamber, she will report Nemesis' location. Rattrap and the rest of her team could think about what to do if the water's current hadn't already drifted the female's body farther away. Whitegrazer felt it wasn't right for even a Predacon's body to go missing. If she was dead, she deserved a burial--no, she didn't deserve a burial, but it didn't matter what she deserved.

A dull pain stabbed her spark. Aurora was not in good shape. She had faith that the little one was fighting for her life. Aurora's painful gasp towards her caught her attention.

"You.. heard.. me.."

"Stay strong, Aurora."

The sight of the Axalon beamed her entire face, radiating good thoughts and prayers towards the little one.

"We are here, Aurora," she reassured the limp body in her arms. "You will be okay."

She used the same platform as Tigatron and the stasis pod did. She raced down the hallway to use the CR chambers on the bridge and gently placed Aurora in it, hearing the hiss of the doors closing and hum of the chamber doing its job.

She lowered her head, "Fight like the little warrior I know you are, Aurora."
____________________________________________________________________________________

TyCross's right optic twitched at Optimus sitting down on him, "Hey! It's impolite to meditate when someone is talking to you."

He laughed, "I can't seem to faze you. A normal Cybertronian would have knocked me out- I mean would have tried anyway."

He leaned his body lower with his right optic enlarged that made him look mad, "I will leave you to your thoughts."

Poof! The figure transformed into black smoke and vanished from sight. Silence settled around for a moment, but the void didn't change to stars or colored sparks zipping past in light speed. He was still near, leering over Optimus like a shadow and appeared in his full form. His mouth was close to Optimus's auditory sensors.

"But before I go...I just wanted to show my gratitude. I knew sending her here would be better for her. The spark between you two is strong, but hasn't reached it's full potential yet! Your connection to her if strengthened can be a powerful asset to this war. Subtle, but it's a stroke of genius. Now, allow me to give you a piece of what's to come."

TyCross had this werid smile of pleasure on his face, which looked suspicious if one didn't know him well enough. Inward he was happy. Really happy for his student. True, many things laid ahead for her, good and bad. But it was better for her than the life she lived on Cybertron. She already gave her two cents and no one listened on both sides. Maybe someday...centuries from now, her dreams would come to pass despite how impossible they seemed. She was a child. A child in his optics. Slag! To him, everyone was a child, including Optimus here. He just cared for her more. Like a father picking a favorite. Gah! He was getting sentimental again! No time for such a thing.

He needed to finish what he started centuries ago. And it was almost time.

Before Optimus could react, TyCross's fingers struck like needles behind him. He poured images into Optimus's soul: the merging of sparks, Whitegrazer standing next to Aurora, Whitegrazer standing inside some type of oasis, the growling of otherworldly beings, the insides of a vein-like stucture, a spark being poked and prodded by illuminating tentacles like some type of experiment, and-

Immediately, the images stopped as he plucked his fingers from inside Optimus, "You may not understand what I just shown you, but you will. And maybe, some day, will understand... us." The tone of his voice changed to more of a booming echo.

Flipping over Optimus's head like a hammer coming down, TyCross kept a smile on his face as he began to go farther and farther away from him, "Enjoy your remaining moments in the Matrix. Don't get too comfortable."

[Blazemane]

Dinobot hopped away from the empty containment field and let a few shots from Blackarachnia burn through the space where he had just been standing. He took in the situation in front of him at a glance; he was up against Arachnitron (who seemed very intent on stopping him, if those were indeed her demolition charges) and Blackarachnia (who, with her back to the ground, was clearly more focused on self-preservation than attack--perhaps that had something to do with why she was hesitating to shoot right now). And where was Tarantulas? He thought he had hear him earlier.

Well, better not to give Blackarachnia time to grow more confident and better not to give the group time to think any further. Having just come into this situation, it was still possible that they were still in the generic "stopping him somehow" stage, shooting and hoping he went down.

Which would be good, because he was essentially still in the "get out somehow" stage.

Dinobot's first instinct upon seeing Arachnitron aim her cybervenom gun at him was to try to block the incoming dart with the broad side of one of the Golden Disks. A fraction of a moment later, he realized he didn't want to take any risks with ruining the information on them. So he arched his back and stumbled to the side gracelessly, and the dart whizzed by just in front of him.

The next moment, he pressed his offensive, which turned itself into him putting the two Disks together in one hand, pulling out his rotating shield to prepare for any other darts, and then firing--down at Arachnitron's feet, down at Blackarachnia's, straight into the computer in the wall (he wasn't going to deal with the Darksyde's defenses on top of everything) and into the base which produced the energy field (just to make Megatron mad). The few extra moments added another facet to his "get out" plan, in that he realized it wouldn't be prudent to try to go through the two spiders into the entrance they had all used thus far. His final shot pulverized a large, thin, vented panel which he knew led to ship's engine room. Hoping that he had made the spider's hesitate just enough, and knowing this was his one good chance anyways, he turned his side to them and dashed through the new hole.

The next room was dark, but for the few active power cores glowing blue. But he knew his away around. He put his away his shield and the Disks so that he could maneuver through the thin walkways between pipes and oddly positioned walls. And he noted gratefully that it would be much easier to defend himself in here.

* * *

Take them out, Predacons! Quickstrike and Steelclaw; go for the rodent! Silverbolt and I will handle the kitty cat.

"Working on it, sir," Steelclaw spoke very quietly. He should probably have acknowledged Megatron's command in a way that he could hear, but he was focused on what he could see through his scope.

Like the demolition charge that shot up over a boulder. Alright, so there was Rattrap. And... there was Quickstrike.

"No no no no no..."

Steelclaw finally did get on his com-link.

"Quickstrike, step away from that thi...nnngggnevermind."

Well, there was Rattrap anyways, switching between covers. Steelclaw followed him with his rifle and finally had a shot lined up a moment before the Maximal would be behind the rock. In the excitement of the moment, he pulled the trigger, but he should have known what was going to happen next--Rattrap finished the last moment of his run, the bullet couldn't reach him in time, and it buried itself into the boulder behind and to the side of Rattrap, throwing up a small amount of rock dust.

Steelclaw berated himself. Now Rattrap would know for sure who was gunning at him, and he would have a general sense of the direction Steelclaw was firing from.

An idea played at the back of Steelclaw's processor. He had never figured out the full puncturing capacity of these new rounds. ...Maybe they could go through these boulders?

Yeah, maybe. But Silverbolt and Quickstrike were already on their side, so he didn't want to force Rattrap to make a hasty decision, which might lead to him coming closer to the Predacons rather than retreating. And that might happen if Steelclaw got through the boulder and missed Rattrap because he couldn't see him. Besides, he didn't want to waste rounds if they couldn't go through; he'd figure that all out later.

If Rattrap broke cover on the other hand...

((OOC: I think I should wait with Cheetor until Warwulf has the chance to post with Silverbolt.)

[Alak]

Orcariner looked down to check on Wintersong and found that she was still in stasis lock. According to his headset, her vitals were still functional and a trip to the CR Chamber should be sufficient enough to prepare her for field work. The Maximal tried to shake her injuries off his mind and focused on the path in front of him. The loud wind rushed past his audio receptors and Orcariner was still in somewhat of a state of disbelief. He was actually flying. Granted, it was in his robot mode which was nowhere near as fast as the projected velocity of his vehicle mode. Given the circumstances and his lack of still at being a helicopter, Orcariner was thankful that he could even be airborne with the two other flyers.

"How are things with you two?" he asked, looking back at Airazor and the newcomer, "I hope neither of you got hurt too bad back there."

Come to think of it, this was the first time Orcariner had managed to get a good look at the Maximals' new ally. In the heat of battle, he was too focused on surviving Tantrum's onslaught, and not to mention the fact that this new bird was a bit too quick to easily see. The aerodynamic design was an admirable sight, and the orca's headset registered a secondary CPU which was active. The newcomer was unique indeed. The giant pulled himself up towards Airazor and the new Maximal and smiled.

"I'm Orcariner, by the way. I know this isn't exactly an ideal way to introduce you to this world, but I'm glad you were there to help us out."

In a way, it saddened Orcariner to know that this visitor would be pulled into such an unforgiving war between Maximals and Predacons. Given how many lives were already lost, there was a chance that this flyer could be part of future casualties. It was a risk they all had to take once they aligned themselves to a faction. However, he had already proven that he was more than capable of holding his own in a lopsided fight. For that, Orcariner was hopeful that this one would make it to the end.

[Phoenix]

(ooc: I'll harass Warwulf into posting, hopefully tomorrow. He got some games for his birthday last week so he got kinda side tracked with that along with a part time teaching position he was just hired for. As for me, this has been my work weekend. And it happened to be easter AND turnover to the next month as well, and they had a bunch of call-ins making them desperate enough to offer critical staff bonuses to the nurses willing to work extra shifts. So I've essentially been living at work this weekend. In fact I'm going back in this afternoon.)

Silence.

Solitude.

Serenity?

No.

Slowly, almost subconsciously, slender fingers crept down to wrap around the handle of the blade currently impaled in the sand at the bottom of the shallow part of the lake. The grip tightened ever so slightly as the thus far still form began stirring.

As her consciousness returned, a wall of pain hit her with a massive impact, causing her to stand up with a agonizing scream. She looked around in a frenzy, unsure what had happened for a moment as her mind was in shambles for a few seconds. Then, as she looked around suspiciously with Optimus' sword clenched in her fist, the memories came flooding back to her, causing her to grimace with disdain for having lost track of her prey so her revenge would have to wait.

Nemesis waded back to shore, ignoring the tiny tremors in her legs caused by the massive energy surge that had wrecked havoc with her circuits. She must have looked a dreadful mess, one wing drooping down, her feathers still scorched, a burnt imprint on her hands from grasping the sword as the electricity had passed through it, her face worn and her posture slightly slumped over from the exhaustion. Yet her optics remained bright red, burning with passion and hate.

The Once-Decepticon paid her present physical appearance no heed. Of far greater concern was the damage the surge had caused to her innermost workings. She felt different, somehow, vulnerable in a way she had not felt in a very long time. As she waded through the last few feet of water before planting her feet back on solid ground, Nemesis ran a self-diagnostic of her system. And the results were.. unsettling.. at best. The sudden surge of electricity had knocked her nanotechnology offline, preventing the nanites from doing the rapid repairs she had come to take for granted.

With a frown imprinted on her face, Nemesis fell to her knees and dug her fingers into the sand below. She had no way of knowing when, or even if, the nanites would come back online, and the prospect of being limited to an existence without her healing abilities was both overwhelming and frightening to her.

[NaitoKage]

"How are things with you two?" "I hope neither of you got hurt too bad back there."

Aerostriker tilted his head back towards Orcariner as he spoke up Fairing alright, I probably took less damage then she did. a second voice was then heard speaking up Ocular sensors down 30 percent,minor fuselage damage.Fueltanks at 65%, estimated range 350 km at current heading. Combat rating satisfactory.

Aerostriker's eye dimmed slightly annoyed Or what he said.

"I'm Orcariner, by the way. I know this isn't exactly an ideal way to introduce you to this world, but I'm glad you were there to help us out."

Aerostriker nodded Don't worry about it, I've had some run ins with space pirates in the past that were far worse.. Name's Aerostriker-
He was then suddenly interuppted as a part of his chest detached transforming into a strange looking transmetal beetle with knobby tires where legs would normally be. The stag beetle flew above and around Orcariner seeming to scan him Broadcast of Beacon 2.0 confirmed, are you the Commander? the beetle inquired in a monotone voice.

Aerostriker spoke up Stop that! And.. that is my co-pilot Stag. He was muttering something about a radio signal earlier, sounded like something commanders or intelligence officers used back in the air force.

"Strategic Tactical Artificial-intelligent Gun" is the full name of this unit.

And that name is too long! No one with any sense would call you that! Er.. Anyway, we saw your.. attempted flight earlier. If you need any help using that helicopter mode, I could give you some lessons or tips. I used to do some test piloting so I know how to fly just about anything.

[una]

Blackarachnia had watched as Arachnitron's dart whizzed past the not-so-graceful dodge Dinobot did. Grr... this overgrown dinosaur doesn't want to go down, doesn't he? Blackarachnia used her machine gun legs to try and trip the Maximal up. Gah! She felt the heat on her feet, distracting her as Dinobot made a hole in the wall beside him. Part of her wanted to go after him for the simple interruption, but she realized that it wasn't her problem now.

"Leave him. We didn't see anything. They were gone when we got here."

They better be on their way before Megatron and the others come back. She did not want to punished for this little incident.

And she didn't care if Tarantulas disagreed.

[Optimal Optimus Primal]

TARNATION!

Rattrap snickered at himself.

No sooner after Rattrap had fired at Megatron did an unknown but familiar accurate shot almost nail him. Fortunately, it had hammered the boulder guarding him instead. "Whoa," he gasped lightly, watching the small fragments of rock fall on him, "That was close." Steelclaw. But where was the bear camping?

Ugh.. Why you low down dirty varmint!

Just as Rattrap tried peeking around another side of the giant rock to find out, he ducked right back behind it when he saw the yellow, snake Fuzor bot firing more of that green junk at him. Slag! he thought. No doubt that Pred's weapons were venomous like the spiders' and were likely to paralyze him or knock him down. Great. No where to go now with Megajerk and this cowboy closing in on his position, and Steelclaw covering any movement he might make beyond his cover. "Now, isn't this just prime?" Rattrap mocked Primal's infamous phrase outloud to himself. What now?

Trying to think quickly under the pressure, the Maximal Spy-turned-Commander dragged his silver, long and narrow foot through the dry dirt he was sitting on. If he left his spot now, all of them would have their eyes on him. If he stayed where he was, he was dead TransMetalized meat. As he got an idea, Rattrap put his hubcap and gun away and he converted to his vehicle mode. Locking his front wheels, he spun his larger rear wheels in place, kicking up as much dirt and dust as possible while he kept control of his rear end slightly fishtaling back and forth. In no time there was a giant, thick, brown cloud looming over his whole immediate area. Perfect cover for an escape. But after the escape, he wasn't sure where to go. Most likely to hide behind more boulders before he was shot at again. How quick was Steelclaw? The rat was uncertain. Welp, here goes nothin'.

Releasing his front brakes, Rattrap tore off and sped away from his cover, breaking the cloud's perimeter as a new trail of dust followed in his wake. His neon green eyes searched frantically for a new spot after they glanced up for a moment in the sky to find Cheetor's position and the birddog...

(( OOC: Yeah, I'm leaving that open for Steelclaw to make a move. I'm game for injuring Rattrap at least a little bit in this battle. Let's see how good the big bear is with his aim on a fast moving target. ))

-----

Kneeling on the floor in the bridge, working diligently on his machine, Rhinox stopped for a moment and looked up when he heard footsteps. It was Whitegrazer carrying a very badly injured Aurora in her arms. Frowning, he watched her place their little friend into the unoccupied CR chamber; Ironclaw was still in the other one. How long was it going to take to repair him...?

"Fight like the little warrior I know you are, Aurora."

"What happened?" the engineer's low voice caringly inquired at the mare. Before she answered, he was already back to work. Relieved to see that Whitegrazer appeared to be unharmed, he was greatly concerned for the damage he saw on Aurora. At least she was getting immediate repairs. Hopefully she would make a full recovery. It was almost time to reveal his secret plan to Whitegrazer.

-----

"Maximize."

Upon hearing the hangar's internal door scrape open and Saber's voice, Tigatron raised his hand high above and waved it to get her attention. "Over here, Saber-Fang," he called out. "I'm relieved to see you're back on your feet," he smiled at her before turning his gaze back to the large stasis pod. "Let's get this to Rhinox as quickly as possible," the tall and lean Maximal said as he grabbed one end of it and waited for the former General to do the same before lifting it up.

At the same time, he noticed Whitegrazer suddenly arrive, Aurora hanging almost lifelessly in her cradled arms. Wondering what had transpired out there and why Aurora had decided to fall behind, there was clearly no option of distracting Whitegrazer as she simply shuffled on through the hangar and made haste to the repair chambers. The grave situation made Tigatron wonder how the others were fairing on the battle field so far away from their base.

-----

"Hey! It's impolite to meditate when someone is talking to you."

Optimus didn't budge even though TyCross was breaking his concentration.

"I can't seem to faze you. A normal Cybertronian would have knocked me out- I mean would have tried anyway."

How arrogant can this guy be? he wondered, breathing calmly with his optics still dark. Who would ever categorize Primal as a "normal" Cybertronian, anyway? His own pride quickly dwindled, though, when his thoughts were tossed back to his devastating and shameful involvement with Protoform X, and remembering how he felt when he learned about Arachnitron's and Nemesis's pasts...

"I will leave you to your thoughts."

Finally, thought Optimus as it grew eerily quiet around him. But he underestimated TyCross.

"But before I go...

Not expecting TC to return so quickly, and right next to his audio sensor, Primal's optics illuminated, startled, but he refrained himself from speaking and interrupting him.

I just wanted to show my gratitude. I knew sending her here would be better for her. The spark between you two is strong, but hasn't reached it's full potential yet! Your connection to her if strengthened can be a powerful asset to this war. Subtle, but it's a stroke of genius. Now, allow me to give you a piece of what's to come."

How was Primal supposed to communicate with Whitegrazer without her "Master" while he was here... wherever "here" was? Did he repair something with their connection when he pulled that stunt with the "wire"? This guy was talking as if Optimus really did still have a part of what was going on with the Beast Wars on Earth. He thought back to when Ty told him this wasn't his time yet to be here. But... how? His mind abruptly stopped when he saw that smile on TC's face...

He poured images into Optimus's soul: the merging of sparks, Whitegrazer standing next to Aurora, Whitegrazer standing inside some type of oasis, the growling of otherworldly beings, the insides of a vein-like stucture, a spark being poked and prodded by illuminating tentacles like some type of experiment, and-

"Argh!" Optimus let out when TC's fingers suddenly sank into his translucent body, and then inhaled deeply and slowly when the visions began racing through his head, cluttering his once organized mind. As soon as he tried deciphering one image, another shot through and another and more before they stopped.

"You may not understand what I just shown you, but you will. And maybe, some day, will understand... us."

The dead Commander's breathing had accelerated during the intrusion and began calming when TyCross finally released him. Confusion and uncertainty swallowed Primal's face as he looked upon him. Optimus made a slight reaction to dodge him as he flew over his head, but remained floating there in place, watching him slowly back further and further away.

"Enjoy your remaining moments in the Matrix. Don't get too comfortable."

Silence once more. Was he alone again? Primal sighed and glanced around. He couldn't help but retrace the images that Whitegrazer's Master had given him, trying to piece them together as if he could spend his time now prying at the alleged future... assuming anything TyCross had given him had anything to do with future outcomes. Us...? he repeated TC's use of the word that he assumed was referring to himself and Whitegrazer. Ty was an Empath. He still had so many questions but little to no answers. Impatience was getting the better of him again so he calmed down and shuffled through his mind and soul, thinking about his Maximals, and Whitegrazer, Aurora, Cheetor, Orcariner... ...War, the Vok, Megatron... So much at stake...