The Intergalactic Highway

((OOC: I think he's dead Warspark.))

Starshadow was slowly gaining her concious. Her blurry vision showed her the lights outside were off. What exactly happened? As she stood up, she felt an unusual pain in the head. Was it the side effects of that light she saw? Her hands..why were they larger and different? Did something happened to her? Starshadow closed her optics. Right now, she needed some rest.

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

Cecaelia woke up, rubbing her head. What was that light just now? She stood up, facing the shiny wall of the ship. Her optics were wide open. She was now even more gorgeous! A giggle escaped from her mouth when she posed. If she had body modifications, she must have had weapon modifications. Her tentacles were waving in the air. Four of it transformed into a huge blaster which surprised Cecaelia.
"Heh..nice!"

After the shaking and screams had finally stopped, Umbra's stasis pod opened once again. His tentacles creeping slowly from the edge of the pod onto the floor like a oozing mass of darkness. His purple eyes raised up and opened glancing over the hanger for a moment. For the first time, this ship was surprisingly quiet. ...Got a bad feeling about this.. he muttered to himself in a low tone, then transformed to his robot mode.

Walking towards the bridge, he noticed the power to the ship had gone down but his scanners seemed to reveal no Energon radiation detected. With the Rectifier coil and shields down, how was that possible? This planet was teeming with energon moments ago, did it suddenly just vanish?

As he came upon the hall, his optics widened with his colorscheme seeming to shift to a flash of white for a moment in surprise as he noticed Cecaelia moving about in her quarters. His black colorscheme slowly faded back in as he walked into her room slowly, his optic raised as he spoke Are.. you.. okay? he asked, seemingly stunned at her unusual appearence. From what he could tell, it seemed like she was mutated, as if she was turned inside out with some of her beast mode parts intigrated into her robot mode.

One of his lower tentacles moved towards her keeping it's distance as a sudden clicking sound was seemingly heard coming from it You're irradiated..For now I better not get too close.. the effects could be similiar to Nucleon. His tentacle then moved back, coiling among the rest on his back.

This explained the silence he supposed, but what of the other crew members? From this he could atleast tell they were probably alive, though what state they were in or the planet they were on seemed a mystery for now.
To the Ninja, it certainly wouldn't of benefited him if his future benifactors had suddenly died, though perhaps would of been easier to loot the place and corpses. However he prefered to be above such ghoulish activies unless specific to a mission.

"Wazpinator feel pain aaalll over Wazpinator's body..." The muffled voice of Waspinator spoke out, still stuck in the wall after regaining consciousness before realizing his situation.

"Ah! Help Wazpinator! Wazpinator ztuck!" The wasp pleaded, flailing his legs like his life depended on it before trying to pull himself out.

Hold the phone, since when was Waspinator have the color scheme of metallic red and black with a dash of gold?

Whitegrazer wrote:"Hang on, Aurora,"

Aurora did not have to be asked twice. She stood close to Whitegrazer, holding onto her as far as it was possible to do so, while the ship shook violently around them. With her face buried against the taller female, the little fuzor barely caught more than a few glimpses of the rays that penetrated the hull of their ship as if there was nothing there to keep them out. It all happened so fast and Aurora was already so torn up and exhausted, the curiosity of what was taking place became a mere fleeting thought in her mind.

Were they all about to die like this? Was it all for nothing?

Whitegrazer wrote:"We will be all right, Aurora."

Whitegrazer's words soothed her inner turmoil, if only a little. At least she wasn't alone.. If this truly was the end, she would never have to endure the pain of losing anyone ever again. They would all go together. And hopefully their departed friends would greet them on the other side.

After what felt like both an eternity and but a moment at the same time, it was over as suddenly as it had begun. The base fell quiet, eerily so.

Aurora opened her eyes as she slowly let go of Whitegrazer's comforting hold so she could look around more. It took a moment for her optics to adjust to the darkness surrounding her, no doubt caused by a temporary power outage due to whatever hit them. Then their systems started rebooting, allowing the emergency lights to flicker back on.

She heard voices as the others started regaining consciousness, including Rattrap's.

Rattrap wrote: "Is everybody okay?"

The ermine's eyes went wide with surprise and confusion as she stared at the robot who bore a similarity to Rattrap but still looked very different.

She tried to speak up, but the words caught in her mouth. Tigatron was the first to respond.

"I think we are all right, Rattrap. By the Matrix..."

Rattrap wrote:"What? Is my gearbox hanging out or somethin'?"

"Something like that..," the fuzor uttered as she started connecting the dots to see the greater picture of what had occurred.

Looking around she found that several of her team mates had undergone similar transformations as Rattrap, yet a few remained the same. Herself included.

(ooc: Okay, will post for the preds later. My toddler's very excited by the Christmas tree we just put up.

Edit: Making an attempt now.)

"Save me!!! Please, save me!!! Please..."

The desperate plea of the dying Scorponok only vaguely registered in Nemesis' audioreceptors as the former Decepticon started waking up after the radiation had finished its work on her circuitry. Her optics flickered back on, her vision a bit blurry at first as she took in her surroundings. The Darksyde lay dark, almost dormant, with the occasional sparks from their consoles lighting up the immediate surroundings. The faint glow from the lava pit not far from her helped as well, at least offering some light until their emergency generators set back in.

Nemesis noted that she was laying on the ground, forming a less than graceful heap of robotic parts and feathers, but at least she appeared to be intact and fully functional still. She also registered some movement from the other Predacons who lay scattered all around her.

As she moved her arms in front to push herself up, she stopped in her tracks for a moment. Her form, which she had believed to be eternally unchangeable until that fateful day she had encountered the avian Maximal, had again changed its appearance. Although she kept certain of the avian features, such as feathers, the metallic surface of other parts of her body appeared more polished like her old Decepticon form had been. Her wings had taken on a more Cybertronian shape, her arms and legs had grown sharp metallic details. Gone were the organic bird talons making up her ankles, only to be replaced by more menacing looking metal.

In the midst of the chaos they were all in, the Decepticon-turned-Predacon smiled. Ever since she had been upgraded to the avian form, she had desired to return to the Decepticon she used to be. It would appear that her wish had at least been partially granted.

Standing up she quickly realized that her size had increased as well, bringing her up from the meager 6 feet tall she had been to a much more formidable 9 feet. It was still nowhere near the size she had been for most of her life, but at least it made up for some of the size differentials with the others.

It was then the dark shape standing on a platform above, caught her attention. Menacing red optics scanned the environment in silence before Megatron spoke.

"It would appear I've had a change.. for the better."

When the threatening, yellow light disappeared in an instant, Steelclaw was left confused. Immediately after he realized that this must have meant the transwarp cell in Primal's pod had detonated, the shockwave from the planet buster's explosion came--and with a lot more force then he was expecting. He was thrown violently to the ground, nearly embarrassed by the amount of sound his fall created in the resonant space of the bridge.

"Better be the last time..." he muttered, as he picked himself up and dusted himself off in the dark.

The computer wrote:Unit Optimus Primal... destroyed.

So that was that. Optimus couldn't be saved. One more Maximal paying for being forced into the line of fire by the Maximal elders.

Steelclaw looked to the center of the room where Megatron was observing his own computer; the morbid happiness which crossed the mastermind's features was quickly echoed by other Predacons.

Scorponok wrote:You've done it, Megatron!

Waspinator wrote:Monkey Bot haz been blown to zmithereenz!? Hooray! Now Wazpinator won't get zhot all the time!

Terrorsaur wrote:Well its about slagging time!

Before Steelclaw could a get a complete grip on the way that their elation made him feel, Megatron's words put his mind on the alert.

Megatron wrote:There is still work to be done. Prepare to leave for the Maximal base immediately so we can defeat the Maximals while they mourn their dear departed leader. This will be the final battle and we Predacons shall claim victory this day!

Megatron had a good chance of being right, and that made Steelclaw's spark pulse a little more quickly. He had always assumed he would have more time to plan his own actions in the decisive final battle against the Maximals. He had always wanted as few deaths in this war as possible--never yet in the Beast Wars had he killed or shot to kill--and he thought that perhaps the way in which the Maximals were stopped would provide the answer to that bloodless end.

But things had turned around so quickly. Optimus was unexpectedly dead, and Megatron's plan now was immediate defeat through brute force, something which could very easily translate into "slaughter," if the Maximals were indeed to be beaten without their leader (of course, that remained to be seen). Now that it came to it, Steelclaw didn't have a lot of time to plan.

The computer wrote:Warning! Sensors detect quantum surge heading for the planet!

Megatron wrote:To your stations, quickly!

Steelclaw was both relieved and frustrated. It seemed there always had to be a "But first..." didn't there?

He ran over to his computer. And then the storm came.

Firstly, there was a second shockwave, which Steelclaw could have sworn was a violation of explosive physics--even as he screeched across the floor again on his back. By the time he got a fingerhold in the grate and stopped himself, the first few sparse white dashes of light were flying in through the walls. He looked on in fascination as they swept by him, or flew into him and then disappeared.

But then there came so many of them that he could hardly make out anything else in the ship. In the next moments, he began to hear pained shouts, and his teammates calling out things he couldn't hardly distinguish. He began to feel himself venture close to something like stasis lock, but even then he finally made out one of the shouts.

Scorponok wrote:Save me!!! Please, save me!!! Please...

Was that... "Scorponok!?" he called out. He stood uneasily and took a step in the direction of the sound. "Where are you?" He took another step, faltered on his knee, and then corrected his stance. "What's going..." When the third step landed, his optics went dark, and he plummeted senselessly, unaware of the moment that he fell back onto the ground.

* * *

Cheetor stood in disbelief when Rattrap got the computer up and running and it announced that Optimus was dead. How could that possibly be right? And yet, the swelling feeling which fell on him in that moment was proof of the other half of the paradox. Cheetor did believe Optimus was dead because there was no proof to say that he wasn't. And it hurt so bad.

But just as his grief was about to overtake him and make him react in some only-natural way, he heard the clang of Aurora's swords (Big Bot's swords) fall onto the ground. When he saw how devastated she was, he realized he wasn't the only one. He fought back his feelings, because the Maximals needed to be as strong as possible.

But Dinobot, upon having his own suspicions confirmed, was assailed by an unexpected anger. Now that Optimus was terminated, there was truly, absolutely someone to blame for that termination. The sooner he could confront Megatron, the better.

And it was possible that he would not have to wait long. Megatron was a ruthless commander; the last thing he would want is to give the Maximals time to regroup from the most significant loss they had been capable of suffering.

Dinobot took a glance around at the morose looks on his comrade's faces; he knew better than to press them about tactical matters of preparing to defend themselves at this moment, so he ventured off to a console to check the status of the ship's damage and defenses privately.

The other computer wrote:Warning, incoming quantum surge heading to the planet.

Rattrap wrote:Not a good thing, eh? Everybody to your stations!

Apparently Megatron was not to be their first threat. Dinobot felt a slight twinge of uncertainty; a quantum surge was one enemy he wasn't sure he knew how to face.

Cheetor ran in front of a console and threw himself into the chair. His fingers raced across the keypad, and when they stopped, a schematic of the incoming wave was on his screen.

Airazor wrote:Life support systems are at 30% and sentinel is offline!!

Dinobot stopped typing on his console. Airazor had found exactly what he was after, even though she'd started after him. Maybe he was trying something to do something too complicated for what was necessary; either way, he was glad to be surprised by her aptitude.

Cheetor decided to warn his comrades as best as he could, calling out loudly, "Impact in 5, 4, 3, 2... here it comes!"

The ship rocked itself again, and Cheetor was thrown from his chair, slamming into the console behind himself with a groan. Dinobot clung onto the metal in front of him with his clawed hands and managed to stay in his seat. He stared grimly into the streams of energy which poured into Axalon, but when he realized they weren't hurting him at all, he relaxed.

For Cheetor, however, the light was painful, making every part of him glow with some alien energy. When his optics started to be infected by the same light, it made sight completely impossible. He caught the shout that was trying to come through his vocal processor and tried to hold onto it. He had no idea that it eventually managed to assert itself while he was slipping into stasis lock, only stopping when he finally did black out.

* * *

When Steelclaw woke up, sat up slowly and then finally managed to stand, his first thought was what had been his last one.

"Scorponok?" he called out, trying to see something in the brief flashes of illumination provided by the spark-showers of ruptured ship-wires. He received no response from the first lieutenant. "Scorponok?"

Waspinator wrote:Wazpinator feel pain aaalll over Wazpinator's body... Ah! Help Wazpinator! Wazpinator ztuck!

Steelclaw was guided by the sound of the muffled voice, and caught sight of Waspinator before he was hidden by the shadows again. Trotting over until he was close enough to make out Waspinator's shape without the help of other lights, he grabbed a hold of an arm and a foot, which seemed somehow misshapen. Maybe Waspinator would need another round in the CR tank.

"Hang on," he warned, before pulling backwards and separating Waspinator from the wall. He helped Waspinator to stand on his feet as the momentum threatened to make him overbalance.

Then another wire hissed to life, and Steelclaw caught a full sight of the Predacon standing before him.

"Waspinator?" he asked quizzically. "Is that you?"

* * *

When the light show stopped, Dinobot stood up wearily, finding his power level somehow diminished by what had just happened. A few internal diagnostics on his HUD showed that nothing life-threatening was going on, but given that this had been the result of alien technology, he could not be entirely sure. He would continue to observe himself and his comrades for a while, but he hoped Rhinox would come back online soon. He would know much more about what was going on.

Rattrap wrote:Ugh. Is everybody okay?

Rattrap's initiative in the situation suddenly reminded Dinobot that Optimus had put him in charge before he had been destroyed. Marvelous, Dinobot thought to himself. This could turn out to be rather dreadful...

Then he actually saw Rattrap. What in the slagging...

Tigatron wrote:I think we are all right, Rattrap. By the Matrix...

Rattrap wrote:What? Is my gearbox hanging out or somethin'?

Cheetor came to with another groan and rose to his feet. Somehow, as the grogginess cleared, he got the impression that that all could have been a lot worse. Huh. Well, he wasn't going to complain about a transwarp wave that didn't actually do anything.

Wintersong wrote:Uh Rattrap I think you should look around.

"Yes, Vermin," Dinobot began with a malignant smile, "you should find a mirror--that is, unless you've never dared to use one before..."

Cheetor walked close to the group and saw Rattrap and Wintersong. Apparently the transwarp wave did do something.

"Wintersong..." he said, his eyebrows raised in amazement, "you might want to look around, too."

There was the large, eternal emptiness which she controlled everything for a long, long while.
Every memory was stored in this great void.
From the first down to the last.
Each memory was filled and stored in chronological order.
Every sound and speck of light stored and cared for.
When she accessed the memory, she could see and feel everything. Every emotion. Every sensation. Every detail of every detail.
She never knew why she did it, but she did.

In her earliest moments of her existence she had no images or anything from what happened outside the borders of her own mind.
She received some data input from the inside, and stored it, like she did with everything else.
Every time she received data from the outside of her mind, she was able to fit multiple data together and created new data which could be used to perform a more complex task.
One moment in time she was able to distinguish one time from another, and organised the data more efficiently.
Eventually, 251 planetary rotations later she calculated, she created a program which allowed her to interface with the computer systems used to feed her the information she has been receiving from and actually see what happened on the outside of her consciousness.
Through a camera, which the creatures used to communicate with each other when using the machines, she could see the inside of the lab.

This experience lasted only a few cycles before the creatures discovered it and used programs to shut her out.
But she was growing far to intelligent to be blocked by these programmed.
But instead of using her direct approach. she observed and studied the programs that where directly linked to her, then altered them to the point where they where her programs now, and did whatever she commanded them to do.
It was childsplay for her.
A form of entertainment at first.

It wasn't long before she had full control over all the systems in the lab.
But there, she knew, was the danger.
The creatures that studied her, and possibly created her, where ordered to terminate her if she grew to powerful for them to control.
And that, she knew, was a line she had crossed a while back.
So she needed to be more stealthy, more cunning to learn more of the outside world, and the creatures that roamed it.

It took her a while, 56 planetary cycles, but eventually she carved a path for her consciousness to travel on throughout the entire structure.
At the end of her explorations, she found a powerful computer which she slithered into without the creatures noticing her.
And there she found a database which stored the labs entire history.
She discovered that since the computer gone online, 1.783.153 planetary cycles before she hacked her way into it, there where 5.341 attempts to create something that resembled her own being. Something the creatures called, a spark.

((OOC:

I'll post something like this every time i post during "The Aftermath".
My goal is to reveal a little more of Valkyrie's existence, as well as to explain what is happening to her.
Hope i sparked a bit of interests in the story of what is supposed to be my masterpiece.

To be continued....))

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Venatrix slowly started to awaken from her stasis lock.
"What happened...?"
She rubbed her head as she blinked a few times before she placed her hands on the ground to push herself up.
There to her surprise, she noticed that her hands and wrists looked different.
As she slowly raised herself onto her feet, she looked down, checking out her lower body.
To her shock, she discovered that the changes didn't involve only her arms, but it covered her whole body.

"Computer. Run a fully detailed diagnostic of all functions and systems."
"Acknowledged." her computer responded, and started the scan.

The anger she felt when she left the bridge was gone, and replaced with wonder and curiosity about the changes of her body.
Then she turn around and ran back towards the bridge.
When she entered the large space on the torn Predacon ship, the first thing she noticed was Waspinator being torn from the wall by Steelclaw.

Blazemane wrote:"Waspinator?" he asked quizzically. "Is that you?"

"It looks like it wasn't my body alone that was changed."
Her computer interrupted her when she wanted to ask Steelclaw and Waspinator what had happened.
"Scan complete."
A smile formed onto the changed female's lips as she checked out the results her computer presented of the scan.
"Oh.... Now that IS interesting."

She noticed Nemesis and Megatron next.

Phoenix wrote:"It would appear I've had a change.. for the better."

"It would seem you are not the only one that was given the pleasure of this.... upgrade, Megatron."

OOC: Sorry for the wait....I had a few days off but I was busy with holiday preparations and a trip to Philly with the bf.

BIC:

Everything seemed so far away as Arachnitron drifted offline including Tarantulas' response to her earlier remark towards Blackarachnia.

"Well spoken as always my dear. But we must act quickly if we are to salvage my body before the maximals come looking for us, retrieve it from the cell there and help us carry it out"

But Arachnitron couldn't move to comply with Tarantulas' command....she just slipped further and further into unconsciousness. Finally, her optics dimmed.

Was this the end? Was she dead? Arachnitron wasn't sure. She gazed around at a dark, black emptiness.

"Where am I?"

She was shocked to see shapes suddenly forming around her. She saw herself to be more specific. She was strapped to a table in one of the many laboratory rooms at the research facility. The scientists were testing her endurance to pain. They sent small shock waves through her body. They lasted for only a split second at first, but each time they shocked her, the duration of the electrocutions lasted longer and longer. She watched herself clamp her jaw shut refusing to give them the satisfaction of hearing her cry out, but eventually the pain was too much and she screamed in agony. She watched in surprise as her optics changed from a bright green color to a dark, blood red. Her cries changed suddenly into wicked laughter.

Everything happened so fast. Fueled by her rage, the Predacon programming broke through the straps and made a bee line for the scientist that had been doing the electrocuting. She flung herself at him wildly and attacked him furiously. It took three scientists to pull her off of him. She kicked and fidgeted in their grasp screaming curses at them while they dragged her behind them. Suddenly three wasn't enough and more scientists rushed in to help contain her. Her anger was mounting. The scientists had only a few moments before it would consume her. They pulled her into her cell and shackled her to the wall. Quickly they raced away and locked her in securely.

Arachnitron watched the horrifying memory play out just as it had hundreds perhaps thousands of times in her real life, but this was the first time she noticed a section of scientists who did not run to help return her to her cell. Instead, this group of scientists was furiously scribbling notes about the incident and watching her intently even as her deep red optics changed to an eerie white when the "Rage" finally took over. They had been there in real life...she was certain of it. She just was so angry and full of hatred that she never really registered them before or took a moment to realize their significance. Though right now her judgement was so clouded by her anger towards the Maximals and how betrayed she felt by their actions that she could make heads nor tails of what all of that could possibly mean. She would have to give it more thought.

And then completely out of nowhere....her nightmare changed from horrible memory to horrible warning from the Predacon programming who was buried deep within her blocked by the inhibitor chip. Arachnitron watched her optics change back to red. Then, the Predacon programming turned to look at the Hybrid who had been watching the memory play out. She showed her fangs and spoke to her:

"You'll pay just like they did."

Then she snapped awake. She was back in the Maximal base and it was dark and quiet all around her. The quantum surge had passed.

The first thing she did was nervously check her arm for Tarantulas' spider insignia. It was still there. Relieved, she staggered to her feet. Her legs were a bit shaky from the quantum surge, but she tried to lean against the wall next to her. Not quite ready to stand, she slumped back down to the floor and held her throbbing head in her hands.

The warning had been clear. The Predacon, once she returned, would make sure the Hybrid felt her wrath. Arachnitron was now even more desperate for Tarantulas to come up with a more permanent solution. The memory wasn't just a memory....it was meant to remind the Hybrid what the Predacon was capable of doing. It was meant to assert the Predacon's dominance over the other personalities. It was meant to warn the Hybrid that the Predacon aimed to return and reclaim the body for herself.

"Tarantulas.....?" she called out into the darkness weakly. She suddenly was very very frightened....

The Mantis was gaining speed rapidly as he plummeted towards the fire. It was only until Manterror could feel the flames on his face that he decided to stop laughing maniacally. His insectoid wings whizzed to life and soon were a blur to the naked eye. His movement was halted and he began to hover right above the burning magma. He just barely avoided facing a fiery fate like Skorponok. With a quick glance around, the Mantis was back in motion again - but this time towards safety... "BAAHAHAHAHHA!!! I HOPE SKORPINOK KILLS OPTIMUS A HUNDRED TIMES WHILE THEY BURN IN THE PIT! BAHAHAHAH!!!" and as quickly as his laughter had ended, it also started right back up again.

---

The storm ended and Airazor awoke to TIgatron leaning over her and making sure she wasn't injured. "Ughh..." She groaned as she lifted herself from the floor and back up onto her feet. The last time she blacked-out like that, it was from a drinking a little too much aged motor oil. Looking down at her body, she wiped away some of the dirt which she had fallen into. Then, she glanced over at Tigatron. His concern for her was sweet, although a bit unnecessary. "I'm alright, stripes. Thanks." She said to her "friend".

"What? Is my gearbox hanging out or somethin'?"

Airazor heard Rattrap's voice and turned her attention towards it. Immediately she was greeted by an unexpected sight. Not only was his body completely changed, but so was Cheetors! Why did they get changed while many of the others didn't? This day just kept getting weirder and weirder. "The Transwarp wave must have mutated your superstructures." She said, sounding rather intelligent. "I wonder what it did to your beast modes?" Airazor shrugged her shoulders at the comment. Surely they didn't look like real animals anymore. They were completely changed!

Blazemane wrote:"Waspinator? Is that you?"

Venatrix wrote:"It looks like it wasn't my body alone that was changed."

Waspinator finally regained his sense's gaining a look of surprise on his face from seeing Steelclaw's and Venatrix's appearance. "Why Claw-Bot and Red-Bot all zhiny?" He asked the two before looking at himself. "Why Wazpinator all shiny too?"

The now metallic red and black wasp's questions were left unanswered for the moments when he noted Megatron awakening from stasis-lock and noticing his leader's new bronze and black chassis.

"M-Megatron? You look different too." Waspinator meekly said in fear, hoping that his leader won't be offended.

Phoenix wrote:"It would appear I've had a change.. for the better."

Frilla's optics flickered slightly as she began to awaken, the quantum surge having knocking her offline like many of the rest who had been altered by the surge but taking time to actually recover to what had just happened. Lifting her head she took a second to focus on the once more fuzzy screen of the monitor she had fallen onto when being knocked out, hearing the others saying something about changing and it finally registered something had happened to some of her teammates during the whole ordeal. Turning the chair around she was amazed to see Rattrap, Cheetor, Wintersong, and Ironclaw were all altered to what seemed more upgrade forms of themselves, shinier and possibly stronger but that was at the same time Frilla looked down at herself and discovered she too was changed.

Her form had mostly become a light green as her primary body color with darker green along her lower arms and legs, large black bolts showing on the sides of her elbows and knees along with black in two different shades on her waist. The head of her beast form seemed to make up her upper torso and was a dark green with the thinner metallic 'skin' folds of what had once been frills being slightly lighter then the main body and showing metal plates running down the head. Her mid-section though showed a kind of rib-cage of sorts though not quite connected to a single dark grey strip of armor going down the middle. Her head also had a same circular shake to it but with a head protrusion running down the middle and connecting to a four pointed star on her forehead while the sides had frill-shaped audio receptors plus the lower part of her face was covered by a face mask. Upon standing further change showed that Frilla had gained a foot and a few inches but still no where close to Rattrap,"Even with this upgrade I'm still the short one."She said with a fake sad sigh.

Though upon Airazor's inquire Frilla too began to wonder what had happened,"Well one way to find out,beast mode!"She commanded out loud before giving a slight hiss as she transformed. Much like her robot form her beast form had become fully metal, covered in a dark green armor with metal plates running down the whole long her spine towards the tip of her tail which bore two spikes on either side. Coming own from these plates were thin metal silver stripes. On her legs were small metal cables between her upper and lower legs with the weirdest feature being overlapping plates and her claws being far more sharply curved then before. Tilting her head the frilled lizard nudged the plates on her front legs but jumped as they extended outward like wings of a plane,"Whoa, this is getting more interesting by the minute.

Focusing her gaze Feralnight took a minute or so to finally recover herself, the surge having forced her to close her eyes for a bit before lowering her wing to fold behind her again and finally able to see if anything had happened. And indeed it did! Half the crew seemed to have been altered by the quantum surge, their structures becoming shiny and upgraded from what they use to be. Now that was quite a change and likely had to do with whatever the explosion did from the transwarp cell, maybe even a combination of the explosion and it. They'd likely never know at this point in time, not unless anyone was curious enough to pursue in learning more about the changes some of the Maximals underwent but it was no doubt from the fuzor that the Predacons were likely as lucky to gain such a change.

"Certainly some nice upgrades,"Feralnight commented as she watched Frilla transform but blinked as the glider wings spread out from what had seemed overlapping armor before,"Very nice indeed."Frilla agreed as she was looking at the rest of the changes.

Onyx groaned slightly as he was regaining his footing, having at some point during the whole ordeal of the quantum surge passing through the ship fallen from his hover board and by chance landed hard on his side onto part of the surviving floor suspended over the lava. The stalling could feel some of the heat rising it made his spark skip a beat to realize just how close he came to meeting a grizzly fate, much from the same as his teammate Scorponok which he could have sworn he heard crying out for help not too long ago. But it was still taking time for Onyx to recover from the fall, a little disoriented from a rough tumble and slamming into his side that knocked the wind out of him to where it was an effort to get back up. Already though he could hear the others moving around, trying to figure out what had just happened to them.

With a final grunt the former military soldier stood on his own two feet, brushing himself off and turning to see what had just happened before his optics widened in surprise upon seeing the upgrades many of them underwent. "The surge did this?"He asked with slight amazement, seeing how their structures of not only their robot forms but likely their beast forms as well had changed to benefit them in some way. Possibly enhanced attributes were the likeliest outcome and maybe some additional features that would make them better then before, it was just quite an upgrade anyone could ask for. Well most at least.

But now the stallion couldn't help wondering if perhaps the Maximals had wound up with a similar change since that quantum surge had been aiming to hit the whole planet, which it passed right through. There had to be something that occurred to them as much as it had the Predacons.

==============================

Silverstreak couldn't believe her optics when she was able to get a better focus again, finding her new crew mates were not only fine but at least half of them had to have undergone a drastic change to both robot and beast forms. They were likely to have quite a few changes and new features to their forms besides being very, very shiny like they had just come off the assembly line. But the thing that got to the silver fox the most was the fact that something that had once been meant to destroy the cybertronians had in fact changed them instead, making something that would have been their doom into something beneficial. It was a good change of events but this curiosity wouldn't last forever which disappointed Silverstreak since she was quite curious to see what the others could do with their new forms, but it was something they would have to see throughout the times they had that chance. But mostly likely when the Preds would attack unfortunately.

One thing was for sure though this was the weirdest team she had ever worked with in her short time of functioning but it certainly had to be the most close knit group she had ever been with as well. Most in her short past had merely been working with her former sensai with her cyber ninja training to working with a few groups here and there when learning the field of sabotage but nothing as large and close as these Maximals were. In a sense it was a rather nice change while also being a very emotional one, a rough start to joining a new team but eventually things got better after they were worse.

OOC:

Half the crew seemed to have been altered by the quantum surge, their structures becoming shiny and upgraded from what they use to be.

Not to be cynical, but I would say more than half.....at least that's how it seems....I think I count ten who remained in their original form....how many characters are in this game total???

In the show, the majority of the Predacons and Maximals were unaffected by the transwarp explosion...the transmetaled bots were vastly outnumbered....which made the idea of being transmetal "special" and made their upgrades an added commodity. But now the transmetaled bots seem to outnumber the non-transmetals....making it the "norm" now and making the non-TMS chances of winning a fight slim to none. We will be very dominated in battle. It's kind of like over kill now. I think we should revisit the discussion of non-transmetals that Pheonix brought up and how we can make not being transmetal less of a bad thing.

This is the thread: http://bwint.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=3932

It was like a two post discussion and i have yet to see anything happen as its result. So maybe we need some sort of guidelines regarding its implication.

( How many characters? I lost count around 30. So I guess there could be 20 transmetals roughly.

Anyway. I wouldn't say transmetals were vastly outnumbered. If anything.. they were more even. Maximals you had Optimus, Cheetor, Rattrap, and Depthcharge. But Silverbolt was also technically considered a transmetal. We just ignored that for fuzors because some wanted to play those early. So all that was left was Dinobot, Rhinox, Tigatron, and Airazor.

Predacons you had Megatron, Rampage, Tarantulus, and Quickstrike. But they also had Inferno, Blackarachnia, and Waspinator left over as normals.


Now, for our game, what are the advantages of a normal over a transmetal?

Stealth:Transmetals are inherently NOT stealthy. They're shiney,clunky, and stand out like a christmas tree.
Carrying more items or weapons: Honestly, this was more from seeing how Dinobot dealt with the situation, by becoming Rambo. Though yes, I know that most the normals generally don't care about carrying alot of extra things.
Disadvantage?:
Less mobility
Less points


So what advantages do transmetals have?
Stronger:Reflected in more points for distrobution.
Vehicle mode/transmetal feature:Whatever you want to call it, a form of mobility which uses thrusters, propellers, wheels, treads, grav lifts or anything else, inherently mechanical.
Disadvantage?:
Less stealthy
Less weaponry


And finally what advantages do Fuzors have?
Stealth like a normal
Mobility like a transmetal or general advantage of combining two unique creatures together.
Disadvantage?:
Less points
Less weaponry

Transmetals did have the advantage of being invisible to alien technology yes, but honestly.. that didn't make a lick of sense.

Other then that, it's all just left to prefered astetics Do you want to look like a normal Cybertronian, a mixed up Cybertronian, or a Inside out Cybertronian? Seems alot like looking inside out for a more mechanical astetic. )

Veins of electricity ran through a huge room of silver and grey. A pulsing sound echoed around, coming from a huge white sphere from above. Each pulse carried unaudible whispers of something otherworldly yet eeriely peaceful.

It was calling her and she reached for it...

...Whitegrazer...,

"Optimus?"

She looked around back from where ever she was, searching for the voice she heard. But she reminded herself that the voice came beyond and she smiled.

"I promised we will fight back, Optimus. I'm not going to break that."

Accepting the flow of hope she felt just from hearing him, she stood up, following Aurora and nearly tripped on Optimus' swords. She stared at them for a second before picking them up from the ground.

"By the Matrix..."

"What? Is my gearbox hanging out or somethin'?"

Whitegrazer looked around to see many of her friends changed from the quantum surge. Made her wonder if the Predacons changed too. They probably did.

She shared Airazor's sentiment at their substructures, nodding and gave a big smile, "Looks like you guys have new toys to tinker with."

She noticed Wintersong checking their injured friends and asked her softly, "How are Rhinox and the others in the CR chamber?"
____________________________________________________________________________________

"Wh-where am I?"

It was pitch black. What happened? All she remembered was the Axalon shaking violently and Tarantulas trying to control her again. Grr...she was tempted to activate her self-destruct. Something was wrong, though. If she did get knocked out by the sudden movements, why did the floor feel so...sticky and wet. A chill ran down her circuits.

A bright light shone behind her, showing the outlines of the web she was stuck to. A web? How...?

She fought to get off the web, feeling a presence approaching her. And she knew who it was.


((OOC: I hope this is all right, Darkspark. I love that scene as well. LOL ))

Big Convoy wrote: Waspinator finally regained his sense's gaining a look of surprise on his face from seeing Steelclaw's and Venatrix's appearance. "Why Claw-Bot and Red-Bot all zhiny?" He asked the two before looking at himself. "Why Wazpinator all shiny too?"

The now metallic red and black wasp's questions were left unanswered for the moments when he noted Megatron awakening from stasis-lock and noticing his leader's new bronze and black chassis.

"M-Megatron? You look different too." Waspinator meekly said in fear, hoping that his leader won't be offended.

"They're not the only ones, Bug Face! RRRRRRAAAAWWWK!" the raspy voice of Terrorsaur proclaimed triumphantly from the shadows, followed by a torrent of poison green flame as something ridiculously fast jetted past the assembly of confused and recovering predacons, too fast for anyone to make out exactly what it was...Though one could make an educated guess considering who's voice they'd heard earlier...But Terrorsaur couldn't move that fast, could he?

Whatever it was, it blazed across the interior of the Darksyde like a shooting star, cruising over the lava flows that had claimed Scorponok's life, sending ripples across it like the calm waters of a lake or pond, even spinning around the airborne Manterror twice before sweeping upward again to continue its laps around the bridge, narrowly dodging pieces of equipment here and there, as though it was trying to test itself...

OOC: I plan on using Terranotron's paint job for Transmetal Terrorsaur's design if nobody minds, I just think his colors suit Terrorsaur better than any of the other repaints, & his original green and purple colors are too akin to Megatron's & Tarantulas'...Purple is popular amongst preds it seems XD

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3XbiX4ywnI

http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Terranotron_%28BM%29

I was gonna post something longer for Terrorsaur's big reveal, but I figured I'd draw it out a bit longer if nobody minds (its late at the time of this post and I'm preoccupied with final Christmas preparations). However, if Terrorsaur showing off his new form in this fashion isn't okay I'll cook up something different tomorrow or Sunday, especially if its too soon for him to be doing anything this flashy since he's just been transmetalized. I kinda drew inspiration from how he behaved after his power boost in the episode "Power Surge."

Una wrote: "Wh-where am I?"

It was pitch black. What happened? All she remembered was the Axalon shaking violently and Tarantulas trying to control her again. Grr...she was tempted to activate her self-destruct. Something was wrong, though. If she did get knocked out by the sudden movements, why did the floor feel so...sticky and wet. A chill ran down her circuits.

A bright light shone behind her, showing the outlines of the web she was stuck to. A web? How...?

She fought to get off the web, feeling a presence approaching her. And she knew who it was.

"Heheheheh, you're with me Witch, and I'm hhhheerrree! Inside your pretty little head, controlling your pretty little thoughts" Tarantulas answered unseen, his voice echoing menacingly throughout the black void in which Blackarachnia found herself situated, the only other sign of his presence being the heavy vibrations coursing through the sickeningly sticky threads of the web in which she was ensnared...Far too heavy for a predacon of average size like Tarantulas.

OOC: Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year to all of you guys