The Intergalactic Highway

(Probably too much Futurama.. but eh. "Look at me! Zoidburg.. Home owner!")

Steelclaw wrote: "Actually, where did your stasis pod land? If it's anywhere the Maximals can reach any time soon, maybe we shouldn't leave it out."

Umbra turned one of his eyes back behind them as he thought for a moment I left it on the beach.. I guess I could keep it around for storage..But moving it on land.. hrm...

His eyes looked towards the ground as he noticed a Hermit crab crawl by, dragging a snail shell on it's back. He gave a sly but happy expression But I think I have an idea.

He turned around inflating his mantle and discharging a pulse of air from his siphon as his body flattened out,taking a strange shape that seemed like a familiar type of flatfish to Cecaelia, he seemed to glide an inch above the ground in groundeffect with a slithering like motion as he moved between trees. He wouldn't be able to sustain this sort of movement continuously, but for short distances it was useful as a burst of speed compared to his crawling movements.

Making his way towards the beach, he grabbed the stasis pod pulling it towards him and crawled inside.

Moments later a dragging noise was heard moving towards the two with the sight of a giant hermit crab like creature with the Stasis pod as it's shell. My species of Octopus is adapt at taking disguises of other sea creatures, I don't believe I'll be able to use it for land creatures but it isn't completely useless.

He then crawled along side Steelclaw in the direction he had pointed in.

DarkSpark wrote:" She was tampering with the cell, continue your pursuit but utilize extreme caution, I cannot confirm exactly what she was doing, but at least you will not have to trouble yourself over keeping up with her much longer."

Arachnitron responded to Tarantulas' communication: "okay, will do. Arachnitron out."

Once she had clicked off her comm, she sighed hastily. She was not a runner at all. She was beginning to tire out. But if she was going to catch up to Blackarachnia, she'd have to pick up the pace. She sprinted at her full speed towards the other she spider.

Suddenly, missiles exploded the brush and trees ahead of Blackarachnia. Arachnitron slowed down gasping for breath. She walked in the direction waiting for more orders. She seriously hoped that Tarantulas had already reached the other spider.

"Quickly now, block her remaining escape routes. She'll get to choose whether she dies by our pincers or in flames! BWAHAHAHA!

Tarantulas called from the trees above her. She looked up at him as he gracefully landed next to her and ran off in one direction hoping to block her escape from that side. Arachnitron nodded and headed off in the other direction intending to block her other way out of the forest.

Arachnitron approached the area where Blackarachnia was standing. She noticed the she-spider's body was burned and dirty from the fire and debris. She also noticed that Blackarachnia was just standing there in front of the fire with her arms crossed waiting for them. Arachnitron skidded to a stop.

She clicked on her comm link. "Arachnitron to Tarantulas. I've got her. I think she's had enough. Arachnitron out."

Clicking off her comm link she redirected her attention to the other she-spider. Walking slowly, she approached her. "I know you think that what I did was foolish, but you have no idea the programming issues that were plaguing me. Tarantulas solved those problems. Foolish or not, it's a small price to pay in exchange for the life I got back. What you are doing though, is even more foolish! You don't know anything about that technology. You've already admitted that. So why don't you just hand that over to me or Tarantulas before you hurt yourself."

Arachnitron stood a few feet away from Blackarachnia. She walked, acted and talked to Blackarahnia as though she was a child that got a hold of something she shouldn't be playing with. She walked slowly and carefully so as not to spook the widow into doing something else to the transwarp cell. Meanwhile, she kept one optic on the transwarp cell and the other on Blackarachnia. If she prepared to fire, Arachnitron would be ready to dodge the shot and reach for the transwarp cell. They had to get that back!!

Frilla looked back when she heard the lift, seeing Wintersong, Ironclaw, and it seemed their newest teammate finally arriving. Looking back at the monitor again the frilled lizard sighed as things still seemed far too quiet, and it was making her a little uneasy to know that something may be going terribly wrong especially when the energy had suddenly spiked for a while and suddenly was back to normal for the moment. "Well we had a spike in the strange energy signature we detected along with the pods with Optimus and Cheetor going out to help there and Tigatron went to try and find Aurora. Besides that there's not much else going on." She responded before turning to look at Ironclaw then at Silverstreak with a greeting smile."Also nice to meet you by the way, I'm Frilla."She introduced.

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

Feralnight looked towards Dinobot as he began to speak and nodded slightly at what he said,"Guess it's a little surprising but it seemed we arrived a little too late to really change his mind."She said as they walked, but of course she could have been wrong about that as well and Umbra could easily turned to help them at one point or remain with the Predacons despite lack of payment. But it was still too early to tell if that would even be the case,"But still it's disappointing we couldn't have the chance to bring back the protoform regardless, we can only hope Wintersong and Ironclaw were a little more successful in retrieving the other one otherwise we might have lost two comrades."She said with a sigh, ears going back slightly and silently praying that there was something good that could come out of this day.

"Megatron will think of something to keep Umbra on his side I'm sure Dinobot, somehow he'll make it work."Feralnight added as she sighed a bit while they headed back to base.

"Well I'm sure you'll settle in just fine Silverstreak."Wintersong said though she was surprised at how enthusiastic the fox was, despite being on some strange planet and having come close to being found by the Predacons. Though it might have been a nice change considering the last few days had been full of sadness for the crew, perhaps this would be a change in that mood. Though her attention briefly went to Ironclaw when he touched her arm and she smiled back for a moment before he went to asking Frilla what was going on and the white tigress decided to show Silverstreak around while they waited for the others."Come on I'll show you where the quarters are, that way we can waste some time and so you know the ship a bit better."She said and headed down one of the halls, the second time in a row she had to show someone to a new quarters.

Megatron couldn’t help but shake his head at Manterro’s arrival and futile actions, but it didn’t seem he had to say what was really needed to gain entry into the odd structure as Nemesis said exactly what was on his thoughts. Yet the biological weapon they needed wasn’t currently at hand, so he thought at least until Scorponok seemed to make a timely arrival which was a little bit of a surprise. More often than not his underlings seemed to have trouble with timing and orders but this time one of them had gone to the trouble of being able to have what they needed, but again Megatron shook his head at Scorponok’s words; he would have face palmed instead but his little arms prevented that in his form.

“Well yes, why of course be my guest we do have a truce remember.”He said in a matter-of-fact tone, hiding the frustration and impatience to seek what the aliens had inside. Or at least to try and gain the power it held within for his own gain but he would have to play with the truce until the perfect moment.

On the other hand Onyx was looking between them silently, finding at the moment that he didn’t really need to speak. Though watching his teammates he couldn’t help but find it a little ridiculous of how they approached the situation, mostly Manterror who tried to get in and failed like Rattrap had tried though luckily it seemed Scorponok’s untimely entrance was helpful now. Yet as the wall was melted away his uneasiness seemed to grow, making him step back slightly.

“Megatron sir we really shouldn’t try anything further, something about this structure just isn’t right.”Onyx said looking away from the structure only for his eyes to widen finding Megatron’s tail come at him with enough force to knock him off his feet and land hard on his side, the wind slightly knocked out of him as Megatron growled in annoyance,”Your beginning to work my patience equine, I suggest you watch your words.”Megatron said firmly, not interested in hearing about having to be cautious.

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

Silverstreak smiled at Frilla when she greeted her,”It’s nice to meet you Frilla, can’t wait to meet the others.”She said before looking back at Wintersong and quickly followed, eager to get settled and return to the bridge just in case the other Maximals arrived during that time.

The repairs were completed. The doors of the CR chamber opened automatically as soon as Starshadow's body recovered from the damages. Starshadow stepped out with a new scar on her face.
Some of the Maximals were back from their missions.

"What's going on?" she looked around and saw a newcommer, "and who's this runty puff ball?"

--------

After the Maximals left and Umbra went to get his pod, Cecaelia could feel the energon radiation getting to her, "beast mode!" she commanded and reverted to her octopus form.

Tasting the dirt sucked to the femme. Watching Umbra using his pod like a shell made her thought about an idea. She launched four tentacles on the pod and pulled herself up to the top of it, "Mind if I hitch a ride?" He should be okay with her sitting on his "shell" since he was bigger and stronger than her.

“Well yes, why of course be my guest we do have a truce remember.”

"Just as long as you don't forget," Primal returned, narrowing his dark red optics for a moment at the Predacon leader.

“Megatron sir we really shouldn’t try anything further, something about this structure just isn’t right.”

”Your beginning to work my patience equine, I suggest you watch your words.”

Optimus watched in disgust and concern when Megatron suddenly retaliated Onyx's words with violence, knocking the black horse right off of his hooves with his powerful tail. He wanted to reach out and help him up, but since an action like that might make Megatron suspicious or even angrier, possibly putting Onyx in even more danger, he instead resolved to a verbal defense, not that Megatron would listen or care for his words either, but at least Primal could stand up to him and defend himself against his tail, and in the process, indirectly show the other Predacons that they shouldn't be treated that way; if they even cared or realized that it was wrong. After all, Optimus didn't physically punish his Maximals, and they stayed in line and worked together. Well, most of them did. "It would be unwise to ignore your Predacons' concerns, Megatron. Too much haste with little knowledge or understanding about these aliens might have you meet your downfall a little sooner." Primal said it as neutrally and unthreateningly as he could and without a smile or a smirk. He was quite serious with his advice. He didn't want to see any more lives lost in this war of theirs, not even Megatron's.

Transforming to his beast mode, since past experiences with the Vok's traps had proven that their beast forms held some sort of defense or peaceful approach, the gorilla looked at his two comrades and said confidently, "All right, let's go, Cheetor and Rattrap," as he turned and cautiously stepped into the strange, dark structure, leading his Maximals into the unknown.

Converting to his rat mode, Rattrap gave a sneer at all of the Predacons and began, very reluctantly, following his leader inside the "mushroom", as Cheetor had called it. "Oooh man. I want extra hazard pay fer dis!" the rodent commented. Pausing at the hole, he studied it and sniffed it for a moment before hopping inside.

Pitch black darkness surrounded them as soon as they entered the large, alien dome. Optimus continued forward on his knuckles, approaching the illuminated floor that laid before them. Looking around, he surveyed as much as he could about the structure but there wasn't much to see. It didn't appear very threatening except for maybe those tall pillars and the large crystal that laid in the floor smack-dab in the center of everything. Then he spotted exactly what he was looking for. "Whitegrazer! Airazor!" Primal called out to them. He galloped on his knuckles to the white mare's side who was laying nearby the falcon, while Rattrap, with a gasp, immediately tended to Airazor. Both appeared to be seriously injured or paralyzed, but Optimus was grateful that they were alive.

((huh... I must have missed that. Sorry!))

"Airazor? We get into some doozies, don't we?"

Airazor was glad that her friend had finally transformed and escaped the electrical beams. It had taken her far too long to take her advice. Luckily, she seemed to still be in good cheer. Airazor closed her eyes now that she knew her friend was safe. She needed a bit of time to recover her energy as she had lost almost all of it. "Yeah, we have a shockingly good time." She responded wearily. Only seconds later, she fell asleep...


...


...Awaking to the hands of Rattrap pulling on her neck, Airazor slowly opened her eyes and looked around. She saw Optimus and immediately knew what he was going to do. He planned to stay here with these aliens. "Optimus... Don't Stay..."

Ironclaw was listening to Frilla when she mentioned that Tigertron was looking for Aurora. This made his eyes widen and he started to worry. He placed his hands on either side of Frilla's chair and turned it to face him. "What happened to Aurora? Where is she?!?" he asked with urgency. After a second he let go of her chair and strode across the bridge becoming paranoid about what possible things could have happened to her.

A little surprised by the sudden turning Frilla looked towards the badger and sighed, briefly reminded of an older brother worried about their younger sister and not knowing where she had gone. "Ironclaw would you relax, Tigatron is looking for her and is one of the best trackers we got. But at the same time can you really blame Aurora wanting to be alone for a while, I mean just yesterday we lost two Maximals and one happened to be Icebreaker, they were close and Aurora might need time to gather her thoughts."She told him turning her chair back around but looked once more at the badger,"Give her some space is all I say and don't do something stupid to go after her, the last thing we need is others being at risk. Her and TIgatron will both be fine."She added before going back to monitor duty.

(ooc: After having gotten at least a little bit of sleep, I guess I can sort of see how that previous post could have been interpreted both ways. It's hard to write when you go on so little sleep per night.. Also lol@Cheetor. He's too cute.)

Aurora's feet were starting to hurt when she eventually made it up to a the top of a hill which ended in a cliff with a waterfall not unlike the one at the Axalon. She took a moment to rest there while gazing upon the untouched landscape below. By now the sun was setting again, causing the final rays of sunshine this day to shimmer playfully in both the river leading down to the waterfall and Aurora's iridescent wings alike. The ermine fuzor enjoyed the warmth from these final few rays as she made her way to the edge of the rocky part of the waterfall.

The fall was quite steep before ending in a pool of water below. It wasn't unlike places Icebreaker had taken her before so she could practice her gliding technique.

Upon thinking of Icebreaker once more, Aurora sighed deeply. She missed the giant penguin so insanely much and wanted nothing more than to open her eyes and be able to see him again, alive and well, as if all of this had just been a bad dream. Yet try as she might, there was just no waking up this time.

Then a thought hit her for the first time. She'd been so grief struck throughout all of this, she hadn't even contemplated who had been responsible for Icebreaker's death. Whoever it was should be made to pay for the pain they had inflicted. It was only fair.. right?

Aurora frowned ever so slightly as she thought back to returning to base and finding it had been attacked in the meanwhile, which had resulted in all of this misery. If, or when, she returned to base, she'd have to look into who was responsible. Perhaps one of the security cameras had picked something up, or maybe even sentinel knew something.

Meanwhile, at the site of the giant alien fungus, Nemesis gave a rather puzzled look in return to the young cheetah who'd been eyeing her for some time. Although she'd seen the catbot around before, she'd never actually had any interactions with him, so she could only assume the hateful look in his eyes were due to past events. Not that she cared much what the feline or anyone else for that sake thought of her and her actions. If anything she was almost a bit amused by the cat's intense stare.

"Can I help you, kitty?," she then said to the cat as she took a step closer to him. Her voice remained fairly calm yet hardly reassuring.

Feralnight wrote:Megatron will think of something to keep Umbra on his side I'm sure Dinobot, somehow he'll make it work.

Dinobot's eyes widened. So, there was such a thing as Maximal pessimism, after all. He had always just assumed that Rattrap was a special case.

Hearing her sigh, he turned his reptilian head to look at her, noting how her ears had shifted reflexively backwards; her gaze seemed... disheartened. He could only wonder why she was already despairing.

"T'hah," he finally scoffed, and then looked away. "Megatron didn't keep me on his side. We shall see about Umbra."

* * *

Steelclaw followed his new teammate to the beach slowly and watched him grab the stasis pod.

Umbra wrote:My species of Octopus is adapt at taking disguises of other sea creatures, I don't believe I'll be able to use it for land creatures but it isn't completely useless.

The pod seemed to fit on his back rather well, even if seeing an Octopus carrying around a Cybertronian contraption was somewhat unnatural.

"Nice."

Cecaelia wrote:Mind if I hitch a ride?

He laughed quietly. The way Cecaelia so quickly trusted that Umbra wouldn't find her presence on the pod a hassle, Steelclaw was reminded of Cecaelia's friendship with Glowstick. He remembered then that Glowstick's AI had specifically mentioned her earlier that day, and he suddenly found himself wondering how she had been affected by his death.

He continued to walk by Umbra and Cecaelia's side as they headed back into the forest and left a trail of odd prints in the sand behind themselves.

* * *

Optimus Primal wrote:All right, let's go, Cheetor and Rattrap.

Seeing Optimus transform into beast mode, Cheetor decided to do the same thing. He turned for the hole in the alien structure and was just about to enter...

Nemesis wrote:Can I help you, kitty?

He paused for a moment, and then turned his head back to her; the slightest hint of a growl started to escape from his throat.

But he had to listen to Big 'Bot. Giving Nemesis one last glance, Cheetor turned around and hopped through the hole.

After a few steps, he had to move around what looked like a pearly, glowing pool of energized liquid or plasma or... well, he didn't want to test it and find out. The dark-grey metal underneath him felt cool on his pads, but since he was so wary of the aliens, he didn't welcome it, and he hoped to be gone as soon as possible.

Optimus Primal wrote:Whitegrazer! Airazor!

Cheetor rushed over to the other two Maximals. Since Rattrap was taking care of Airazor, that left him to get Whitegrazer out.

But... uh, how? Without fingers. Maybe he'd be fine to... "Cheetor, maximize!"

As soon as he was on his feet, a line of electricity found him; Cheetor, registering the pain, reacted instantly, calling "beast mode!", and becoming a cheetah once more.

"Smooth," he mocked himself. "There goes life number three." He shuffled down on his paws, and shifted until he'd managed to slide his shoulders underneath Whitegrazer's side and then lifted himself up slowly. Finally, he started following Rattrap, very slowly and carefully. Being a robot-in-disguise and all, he had the strength to keep her lifted up. Balancing her on his back while he walked forward, however, was going to be a challenge.

"Yeah, we have a shockingly good time."

Whitegrazer chuckled weakly at her friend's comment and followed suit with Airazor in falling asleep, letting her internal systems repair.

Blue orbs singing around each other, racing, and playing, twirling around in a sea of lines left in their wake as they chased each other in a place with no boundaries or restraints. They were free with nothing stopping them in their child-like exploration of the endless world before them and of the others far or near them. It was like they were all one and the same, connected yet attained their individualism as they all saw their world with their own song and movements.

Yet, they all could feel a mysterious force around them that they couldn't see. Only the sounds of their notes could be felt. It was frightening, but the notes were trying to sooth their anxiety to the point the orbs became contented and tranced by the notes. Dancing and curisoity filled them, acknowledging the force as friendly. Shouting out their names to welcome them with open arms. The mysterious force...never took the welcome and always disappeared, but not without giving a certain glow of appreication and approval, which made them pulse with joy.

But soon, danger loomed...

What? What was happening?

Orbs quivered and panicked. Hands seemed to grab them one by one. The hands were cold, unemotional. Cries filled the air.

Why couldn't they talk to these hands? Who were these hands that was tearing them apart?

Enclosed in a small space, it was suffocating. Frantically, they yelled towards each other for help, but they couldn't. One by one, there was pain. Connections being cut until one remained; it was the mysterious force they always felt.

Their note was loud and threatening. It was an emotion that boiled their centers, shocking their entire existence.

It was anger.

Her optics brightened; she was in a daze, distorted. Was she still in the alien structure?

She moved her beast mode's eyes to the left to see someone standing over her in a blurry mesh of black. Her focus adjusted and she smiled warmly. Letting go of the block she created earlier so Optimus couldn't feel her pain, she moved her feet, trying to get a way to get herself up.

"Optimus..." she said softly almost like a whisper, looking at the pillars with a steely gaze, "this place...I saw it before."

"More ways than one."

Staring back at Optimus with certainty, she didn't have to say where as Optimus was fully aware of what she meant.

It was then she heard Cheetor's voice and cringed when he transformed, but was relieved as he transformed back. He was, with great difficulty, trying to get her out of there along with Rattrap and Airazor, who was pleading towards Optimus.

"Optimus... Don't Stay..."

But she was silent. She knew, despite the fact of what she already saw, Optimus was going to stay and talk to the aliens. After all, he was the only one they wanted to speak to. The rest of them were irrelevant in the eyes of alien. It was like before: they were bait and Optimus came.

Such sheer ruthlessness...Reminded her of a certain old friend she knew. The same old friend who paid her visit not too long ago.

Part of her wanted to stay, but the another part told her. She was much needed outside than in. Optimus would be fine. The aliens won't kill him, probably sting him, but not kill him.

Poor Cheetor was having a time dragging her away. Saving Cheetor crushed circuits, she used her strength to get up with the help Cheetor aready gave her.

She staggered abit with shaky legs, but she held her ground with a stomp of defiance and stubbornness against her own systems.

Before she continued outside, she gazed back at Optimus. Silent, but her spark was sending messages through their connections. It was caution, but Optimus knew that already.

__________________________________________________________

"I know you think that what I did was foolish, but you have no idea the programming issues that were plaguing me. Tarantulas solved those problems. Foolish or not, it's a small price to pay in exchange for the life I got back. What you are doing though, is even more foolish! You don't know anything about that technology. You've already admitted that. So why don't you just hand that over to me or Tarantulas before you hurt yourself."

Blackarachnia just shook her head, "This life you have now, you got by desperation, making a deal with the devil. Now, you are nothing but a playtoy for him to use and expliot. Isn't death preferable than living as a disposable slave? Though, it seems you are going to learn that the hard way."

She let out a sharp sigh, showing her disgust at this black widow's actions. She was weak. Letting her problems get in the way of intelligence, control her, and now, she will be controlled by Tarantulas when she realizes or not. And if Arachnitron finally realizes that? She will either be trapped or it would be too late. Pathetic.

"Not foolishness, little widow. It's called survival."

She tossed the transwarp cell for Arachnitron to have then waved her pincer with a smirk, "I left a little gift on it..."

"That is an explosive I designed for a special occasion. You see, little widow, Tarantulas isn't the only who is crafty. Want to guess what the explosive does?"

She cackled with laughter, "I give you a hint: don't try to remove it. It will explode. Maybe we should wait for Tarantulas to arrive? He will know." She winked, cackling more.

(( OOC: LoL at Airazor and Cheetor. I love the writing in this RPG. XD

Great post, una. That was worth the wait. ))

"Get them out of here! Quickly!" Optimus had ordered Cheetor and Rattrap.

"Man. You don't gotta tell me twice!" the small rodent commented, reaching Airazor.

While Primal pondered what could have landed them nearly unconscious since it was so quiet and there didn't seem to be much of anything posing a threat, there was suddenly a loud zap with a flashing that strobed the entire immediate area.

"Smooth," "There goes life number three."

With surprise, Optimus turned to see that Cheetor's transformation had triggered a defensive mechanism from one of the pillars, and it seemed its intention was to fry his systems until he either blacked out or reverted back to his feline form. So, this place was not so innocent after all. Fortunately, Cheetor had enough control and strength to transform back and deal with Whitegrazer in a less convenient way with his paws. Primal would have dragged her out himself but he wasn't going to waste this opportunity to finally speak to these beings and keep Megatron out of the equation. It was time for some well deserved answers. Taking note of their robot modes being frowned upon, he made sure he remained in his gorilla form to avoid any unnecessary injuries, especially with how painful that electricution looked.

Rattrap gasped watching in fear what happened to Cheetor. "Well, let's not let it take any more of yer nine lives an' get outta 'ere!" he said with haste. The rat grabbed a hold of Airazor by her long, bird neck with his front paws and started dragging her out while walking on his hind legs backwards. Because of his size, she was a little heavy and awkward to pull, but he made sure he could handle it. His priority was to get her to safety and let her beast mode work on repairs as quickly as possible. He didn't want to leave Optimus behind since this was obviously a trap, but maybe he'd have better luck dealing with this than they did.

"Optimus... Don't Stay..."

"I have to," he told Airazor, taking a couple steps toward her on his knuckles before stopping, while Rattrap continued to pull her back toward the small opening they had entered through. "Since our arrival on this planet, we haven't exactly been the best of tenants." Waging the Beast Wars had destroyed small portions of the mysterious planet, and had taken innocent lives of the wild life who were there before they crashed and assumed control over everything. It was not their right to have done so. Whether these alien beings "owned" this world or not, the Maximals and the Predacons had certainly made a mess of it. Standing upright, he continued, "These aliens have the right to expect some answers," and vice versa, he thought. Perhaps he would finally get some.

"Optimus..." "this place...I saw it before."

The Maximal leader shifted his gaze to the white mare, relieved to hear her soft voice as she slowly awoke while Cheetor wrestled to drape her over his back. For a moment, his brown eyes followed hers to the pillars before returning back to her white, long face, staring deeply into her concerned eyes. Realizing what she meant, there was suddenly a chill under his fur as anxiety seemed to overwhelm him inside. This was leading up to something big that she had mentioned with her visions. Something disastrous. However, Optimus tried to stay calm and be strong, absorbing her emotions and energy. Maybe this was a bad idea. Maybe he should follow his own advice he just gave to Megatron before entering this structure and heed to his Maximal's caution. ... No. He was determined to get answers this time. Curiosity got the better of him, and it didn't matter what happened to him now as long as she and Airazor were safe. And they were in good hands.

Watching them slowly disappear into the darkness, Primal took a deep breath as if preparing for the biggest speech of his life in front of all of Cybertron. He was alone now. Just him and the Vok. It was now or never. Standing next to the crystal in the floor, he looked up at the dark ceiling and said as confidentally as he could, "All right! Whoever you are!" In response to his words, a metal rope suddenly emerged from the floor underneath him and wrapped tightly around his right leg. "Gah!" Optimus called out, taken unawares and looking down at what had grabbed him. Another strap shot up and wrapped itself around his left wrist. Growling, the Maximal tried pulling himself loose with all his strength but the metallic vines were much stronger. Another reached up and immediately wrapped around his thick neck, holding him tightly in place as another rope restrained his right arm. Suddenly, this wasn't looking too good. As panic began settling in, he continued struggling to try and break free, his arms trembling with the force he was applying but the straps didn't budge. Then the gorilla felt another one wrap very tightly around his stomach as it braded with the others and push him upward in a spiral motion effortlessly right off of the floor several feet in the air. With one leg still free, he desperately tried grabbing one of the ropes to yank it off of him but another quickly secured it. Now he was stuck there, vulnerable to whatever might happen. It was either get fried by maximizing, assuming that the motions of his transformation could even break him free from his bonds, or wait and see what was to happen next.

Fear and panic was quickly growing inside of the supposed "fearless leader" while he laid there helplessly suspended in the air. He thought of Whitegrazer, as if it would keep him company, and tried maintaining control of his emotions, but he wasn't succeeding very well while he continued struggling to escape and growling from the amount of uncomfortable squeezing the ropes had on his body.

Two green, semi-tansparent planes appeared; one under his back on an x-axis and the other next to his head on the y-axis. Slowly they started coming together toward his body and Optimus tried to see them but the vine around his neck prevented little movement for his head to look around as it practically choked him in place. Panicking more now, he failed to gain any control to protect or block his and Whitegrazer's connection, and as soon as the planes touched him, Primal cried out very loudly in agony. Everything he felt, she could probably feel as well, but he was helpless to stop it. His mind nearly falling incohorent from the pain, he writhed in the air while it felt like every molecule in his body was being pulled apart and burned. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGH!" Primal could no longer think, he could barely keep screaming to cope. Green light filtered throughout his entire being as beams of it poured out of his eyes and mouth, much like what had happened at the Standing Stones where he had first been abducted and learned about these very powerful beings. To them, the Maximals and Predacons were insignificant ants. Worthless. A nuisance. But not so easily terminated, as the Vok were learning every time their traps failed. This time may have a different outcome...

Primal's screams echoed from within the alien structure. Scorponok could not help but grin from the sounds that made him shiver with glee. Turning to Megatron, he asked his master.

"Optimus seems occupied," he said. "What should we do with the others once they come out?"

His pincers clapped with anticipation, implying that he was hoping for this boring truce to end. Scorponok was really in the mood to blow something, or someone, to smithereens.