The Intergalactic Highway

((OOC: Just rewatched the Season finale and I forgot Terrorsaur was supposed to be present with Scorponok. Instead of retconning him in, is it ok if Nemesis just takes his role instead?))

IC:

Scorponok grinned with malice as Rattrap carried Airazor out of the alien construct. Pincers opened wide and both of his mega missiles presented themselves in a cold fashion.

Nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide.

Optimus was still inside so there was too much risk in attacking early. Should Primal hear the sounds of battle, he would surely find the will the break out of whatever grip the aliens had over him in order to rescue his friends. Maximals were strange like that, always finding some absurd strength when their comrades were placed in harm's way. Scorponok continued to stare down the hostages, but he refrained from taking any action. This was Megatron's victory that was to be celebrated. Only Megatron would choose the next course of action.

(ooc: I think this is where we need to deviate a bit from the official story. To give the spiders time to do their thing, this battle should probably drag out a bit longer than the ten seconds it lasted in the show. Yes, I realize there will be a countdown and the mushroom will go boom. But the spiders' roles got a bit delayed before and they need to get into the base and do their thing for the rest of the script to work. Terrorsaur didn't really have an important part here, more of a cameo than anything, so I'm pretty sure he's not needed for the rest of this to play out. Besides.. replaying the script is pretty boring. Time to spice it up a bit. :p )

As the Maximals exited the opening, Nemesis held her weapon trained on them. It would appear that Optimus was not among them, an observation that was confirmed when the agonizing screams and yelling continued inside the structure.

For some reason Primal was not dead yet, leading Nemesis to believe the aliens were attempting to convey a message through him. Perhaps these aliens were toying with the Maximal commander before striking him down. If such was the case, they could prove to be a rather unrelenting and unpredictable foe to the Predacons in the future, since Nemesis doubted the aliens sided with either team. They had no reason to.

"Welcome back, Maximals. We were starting to worry the aliens would take all our fun," she told them with a bewildering smile. Her finger rested on the trigger of the weapon which was very similar to that she had wielded before during her visit to the Maximals not too long ago. Fortunately the Predacon armory had been able to produce a copy.

Meanwhile Aurora had settled on a large rock overhanging the waterfall. From there she had a good view of the path below as well as the two moons above. All was quiet, so she wasn't too concerned of the fact her white fur and shimmering wings stood out in the moonlight. For a change she felt relatively peaceful, in fact.

((OOC: It was a pretty good vacation, OOP. Thanks.))

Feralnight wrote:Guess I haven't been thinking in my right state of mind lately.

Surprised by the sudden turn in the conversation, Dinobot looked at Feralnight curiously. How exactly did she mean, "not thinking in the right state of mind?" Dinobot knew he wasn't any good at offering advice on any other topics but combat and strategy, but it was interest more than confidence which drove him to speak again.

"Why... do you think you haven't been thinking right?"

Besides, he defended himself internally as they continued walking, if her judgement is truly clouded, then she--and consequently, our effectiveness as a unit--will be at greater risk when this truce with Megatron ends and if this alien threat becomes an alien attack.

* * *

As much as Cheetor agreed with Airazor, he reluctantly listened to Whitegrazer and Rattrap. After watching the rat carry the falcon out, he noticed that the hole through which they had to exit was getting smaller; he paused for a second and was about to say something to Whitegrazer about her needing to go through first because of how much bigger she was than him.

But even as he opened his mouth to try to say something, he hesitated. Like... how long would it take for him to jump through anyways? One second? If Whitegrazer refused to leave until he did, then he'd waste so much more time...

In one blurred bound, he was off of the alien floor, back into the night air, and then onto his paws again. He only noticed the Predacons perfunctorily, turning around immediately to make sure Whitegrazer got out. And when she did, and he finally focused on the enemy, he saw that they were holding up weapons.

Nemesis wrote:Welcome back, Maximals. We were starting to worry the aliens would take all our fun.

Cheetor growled audibly at the Predacon treachery, focusing his attention on Nemesis because she was the first to say anything about it.

But yes, please, please let the truce be over...

((Oy,sorry for the wait guys but had writer's block for a little while and wasn't feeling well this past week. Ugh curse you summer colds!))

Smirking slightly at how eager his underlings were to take action Megatron decided now was the time to act, especially when Optimus was likely to be out of commission when the aliens were done with him, least he thought so."Well Maximals it has been fun, but as Nemesis kindly pointed out it's time to drop our little charade and end this silly little truce."He said with a sneer, his weapon powered to it's fullest already aimed and without another moments hesitation he began to fire upon the Maximals since they seemed in such an exhausted state. Whether or not he could get his hands on what lied inside Megatron saw a chance to take out some of the Maximals to lower their numbers and if the aliens did rid of Optimus it would leave a chance to finish the others to at last end the Beast Wars and turn the favor to the Predacons.

Looking between his teammates Onyx realized he was the only one who restrained from immediately transforming to engage the Maximals, and for mainly having his own code of conduct that he followed. But attack opponents when they were down and like unarmed was something he didn't do, not anymore and from how things sounded before they could have very well been affected by these alien visitors in some way. In a nut shell to Onyx all of it seemed wrong and possibly a stupid idea, especially when they had no real clue of this structure and what lied behind it compared to the Maximals who seemed they suffered from it themselves.

Reluctantly the black stallion sighed and transformed, reaching back and grabbing his Friction Rifle since the effects could often give him enough time he could avoid doing much more damage unless his opponent could continue. Yet even then he still hesitated to raise it on the downed Maximals.
=======================
Upon making it to the main bridge Silverstreak could feel some tension in the air and from the sound of the voices it seemed like there would have been a brawl there and then if nothing had stopped it, luckily Wintersong calmed down and the panther just seemed to want to taunt them. Well maybe that's what she was doing, though the fox wasn't quite sure if that was the case but none the less she didn't plan to press for what all was going on. "So who might you be?"SIlverstreak asked Starshadow curiously, having yet to meet the panther femme since she had followed Wintersong to find a quarters for herself that way if needed she could have rested for a while but Silverstreak was far too eager to have any rest. Quite frankly she was bordering a human child on a sugar high, if she had been any more excited then she already was.

Una wrote: "Well, I can't take it off now. What's done is done?" She winked, "The explosive can only be taken off if you guys can figure it out. But I doubt you want to waste time, trying to. I mean how much time have we wasted chasing each other around."

Something in her words were right. She felt time was at the essence now.

"We need to get into the Axalon. The Maximals have intact stasis pods. Arachnitron's pod is too damaged." She was walked towards the direction of the Maximal base, "I know how to breach their shields."

"Well, fellow spiders?" She turned around still walking with no care in teh world, "You two better follow me as that explosive..."

There was a clicking sound, "is hardwired to me so if you guys don't want to explode, stay close to me. I know you would love that, Tarantulas."

She chuckled softly.

Tarantulas glared silently at Blackarachnia for what seemed like cycles but what were really only nanoclicks before doing something rather unexpected considering the dire situation he now found himself in...He laughed.

"Heh heh heh....Heh heh heh...Hahaha...BWAHAHAHAHAHAAHA!" he cackled, his insane mirth echoing through the forest eerily as though it were haunted, the flames around them making him look like a demon straight from the Pit itself.

"Heh heh...You do enjoy your juvenile power plays don't you my dear? Even when doing so can only serve to hurt your ambitions in the long run, as they always have in the past" Tarantulas said as he began following Blackarachnia, his apparent amusement with her actions despite his earlier fit of rage making it hard to tell whether he was just playing along or if he'd finally and truly lost his mind given the nature of the stakes they faced.

"Well, partner? Will you be joining us on this little field trip? I wouldn't miss it for the world if I were you" Tarantulas said to Arachnitron as he turned back to face her briefly, motioning to follow BA on the left while he handle the right, his intentions not yet clear other than to follow BA and thus avoid destroying the transwarp cell and dooming them to death by planetary destruction.

His true thoughts were his to know alone...And they were the stuff of nightmares to say the least.

OOC: hope ya guys like how I'm portraying Tarantulas here, really going for the crazy mood swinging mad scientist here

"That's not how we work here Starshadow, we actually care for what happens to our own, unlike the Predacons if something is wrong with a teammate we try and help if they want it not just leave them to suffer. You don't like get your furry skid plate off this ship and go back to the Preds where toy belong!"

Starshadow hissed and glared at the lizard, "I would've been a rogue if I had the choice...Frills.."

"

Just back off panther, or you won't have to be worrying about going anywhere."

Her ears went back hearing that. She couldn't help but sigh at it. Pathetic maximals...they worry too much about the little things.. she was about to explore the base until she saw the silver fox standing infront of her.

"So who might you be?"

"Well Fluffs, I happened to be your mother." Starshadow replied sarcastically.

OOC: Love both posts! You both rock! Hope I can live up to it with this one...

BIC:

Arachnitron couldn't help but smirk as she watched Tarantulas knock Blackarachnia to the ground. Blackarachnia gracefully flipped herself back into a right-side up position.

She was silent for a moment making Arachnitron wonder what was going through the other widow's mind. But her momentary, uncharacteristic display of emotions was over for the moment. The Predacon programming held most of Arachnitron's anger and hatred. The Maximal programming generally was the one to show the terror and panic that the newly liberated Hybrid had just shown moments ago. Of course, the Hybrid was known to be a bit bi-polar. It was for this reason, she generally chose to show no emotions whatsoever. What she was really feeling was a mystery to all including herself at times. In fact, she wasn't quite sure if she were pulling herself back together because Tarantulas had shown an even greater display of panic or if the panic really had defused.

"Well, I can't take it off now. What's done is done?" She winked, "The explosive can only be taken off if you guys can figure it out. But I doubt you want to waste time, trying to. I mean how much time have we wasted chasing each other around."

Arachnitron crossed her arms over her chest plate calmly. "Yes, and who do we have to thank for that?" she responded coldly.

"We need to get into the Axalon. The Maximals have intact stasis pods. Arachnitron's pod is too damaged." She was walked towards the direction of the Maximal base, "I know how to breach their shields."

"Well, fellow spiders?" She turned around still walking with no care in teh world, "You two better follow me as that explosive..."

There was a clicking sound, "is hardwired to me so if you guys don't want to explode, stay close to me. I know you would love that, Tarantulas."

She chuckled softly.

Arachnitron snapped her head in the direction of the clicking sound. She shook her head in awe. This widow was clever. It's almost a shame that she had quelled the influence of the Predacon programming. She would have been a great match in a battle of wits with Blackarachnia. They both had this inborn need to dominate, possess, and control their opponents.

Tarantulas began to cackle wildly in response to Blackarachnia's actions.

"Heh heh heh....Heh heh heh...Hahaha...BWAHAHAHAHAHAAHA! Heh heh...You do enjoy your juvenile power plays don't you my dear? Even when doing so can only serve to hurt your ambitions in the long run, as they always have in the past."

She would have been shocked at his sudden mood swing, but she sensed the rage was still present and his reaction was more of a show than anything else. An attempt to save face at his earlier outburst. Like any self-respecting Predacon, Tarantulas didn't want to appear as though he had lost control of the situation. Tarantulas began to follow Blackarachnia in the direction of the Axalon, but then he stopped.

Well, partner? Will you be joining us on this little field trip? I wouldn't miss it for the world if I were you," Tarantulas said to Arachnitron as he turned back to face her briefly, motioning to follow BA on the left while he handle the right, his intentions not yet clear other than to follow BA and thus avoid destroying the transwarp cell and dooming them to death by planetary destruction.

His true thoughts were his to know alone...And they were the stuff of nightmares to say the least.

Arachnitron hesitated a moment thinking back to what Blackarachnia had said about being a pawn to Tarantulas. She still had time to change her mind. But she remembered the pain she felt as the Maximal and Predacon programming constantly tore her in two different directions. Without Tarantulas, that pain would come back. Without a second thought, she nodded and followed the other spiders to the Maximal's base. She stayed to the left of Blackarachnia as instructed.

"No," she reminded herself. "He had asked. I wasn't instructed. He asked if I wanted to follow. This was my choice." Blackarachnia was wrong. Arachnitron did have free-will. Or did it just appear that way? Her mind reeled as she followed the other spiders trying to decide whether she had done the right thing. Without the Predacon or Maximal programming to guide her, she wasn't sure what the right thing was. Then she had a thought: How long would it be before their voices came back? She didn't think she could survive any longer with them in her mind. She was sure. She wanted them gone. She had done the right thing. And the reality was that in order to keep them gone, she had to follow Tarantulas. She needed him.

She had one final thought: Wintersong. It had been a while since she had thought about the white tigress and the friendship she had attempted to foster. Or, well, the friendship that the Maximal had been pushing her to foster. That was true, wasn't it? The Maximal had been in her mind the whole time that the Hybrid was with Wintersong. Then, she remembered how hurt she felt when Wintersong tried to give her up to the Predacons. She hadn't understood what the Hybrid wanted...no, not wanted, needed! She hadn't understood the pain that she was trying so hard to hide. She was just another bot choosing the Maximal or the Predacon over the Hybrid. Not realizing that there were three inside of her mind; not two! The Hybrid was constantly overlooked...until Tarantulas came along. He was the only one who tried to save the Hybrid.

She pushed all thoughts of the Maximals and Wintersong out of her mind. This was where she wanted to be. This was where she needed to be in order to survive. She knew if the voices came back; it would drive her mad. She had to keep what little sanity she still had.

Ironclaw wasnt that tempted by the monitor duty, he had been the bot to sit at the desk while others took action. He'd had enough of that and just gave out a lsight grunt when Frilla had suggested it. His hands and arms were heavy on the lift, so much so tht he thought he was bending the metal beneath his hand. He brought his hand to his face then glanced at the metal work, it was fine. Quickly his open hand changed into a fist when he heard Starshadows comments on the sentiment that Maximals share. Though rather than going into blind rage he thought how it must be a Predacon. No one to confide in? To continually have to watch your back. He would rather be dead than 'pred'. Surely they cant be all that way? they would have just destroyed each other. This matter confused him so he decided to put it aside. Ironclaw then realised that he had taken his mind off Aurora for the first time since he had learned about her dissappearance. Frilla was right, he needed to take his mind off the issue.
However just then he felt Wintersong's hand on his shoulder, his softened his rage and made him place his hands by his side. He went out to reach for her bu he saw that she had already gone over to Frilla, to help her with monitor duty. Dissapointment filled his face and he decided to make his leave. He pushed passed Starshadow when he heard her harrasing Silverstreak. Ironclaw stared at Silverstreak for a while. He knew that this make her feel uncomfortable, but that was not his intention. He got stuck there for a while and then moved on.

Looking back briefly Frilla for a moment was almost sure there would be a brawl right there in the main bridge, but luckily it seemed both felines had the sense to avoid something there and then. Sometimes it seemed they jumped at any chance to fight one another but with things settled down the frilled lizard turned back to the monitors, nodding at the tigress as she joined her. Despite the extra hand Frilla was beginning to wonder if they'd need it since the activity seemed to be very little there at the Axalon or even around it, at the moment the only activity outside was the signs of Rhinox's team returning but it seemed they weren't successful since there were only the three of them this time. "Seems we'll have most everyone here."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Behaviro wise I suppose things have changed, and being so distracted with my own thoughts won't help anyone,"Feralnight said as she thought about it. Whether or not it was noticeable the fuzor knew it was becoming a frequent thing with her lately and already it had had her in trouble of getting caught by Glowstick the day before and she really hadn't been listening or talking much like she once did. Though the thoughts of her past had seemed to start haunting her all of a sudden there was the realization just how bad it could get if she wasn't more focused on the present then the past.

Pushing the thoughts aside Feralnight looked forward again and was glad to see the Axalon not too far ahead now,"But on a side note at least we made it back in one piece a change."She said.

(ooc: Great post, Mystrea!)

Nemesis faint smile widened a bit as Megatron finally revealed the truth that had been so obvious to them all for a while. Weapon firing caught her attention for a brief moment and she glanced over to confirm the Predacon commander had indeed decided to prove his intentions by opening fire on any and all of the Maximals present. The Predacon leader's sudden outbreak was rather similar to her own when taking on the Maximals before her unwilling stay at their base, and certainly the scorpion would follow his lead within moments. She, too, was prepared to inflict pain, letting her gaze move between the potential targets when she noticed one of their own apparently hesitating.

"Good things don't always come to those who wait," the winged female commented to Onyx, switching her aim to the growling kitty instead. Keeping her weapon steady, she tilted her head at the feline.

"Hopefully you'll meet your end with more dignity than your Maximal friends," she told Cheetor as she purposely fired off a shot just to the side of him. She then adjusted her aim a bit so that the next shot wouldn't miss. "They didn't pose much of a challenge at all. Died too quickly to gain any satisfaction from the kill," she retorted.

The smile on her face finally appeared as a full blown grin as she prepared to fire a grenade at the cat and his cohorts. She finished her speech with one final taunt, hoping anger would cause the Maximals to make hasty, reckless mistakes when they counter-attacked.

"Your friends died like the whimpering cowards they were in life," she told the young cat as she pulled the trigger.

(( OOC: Now Feralnight will have both Dinobot AND Rattrap questioning her.

I'm not going to have Rattrap blow Megatron away with Scorponok's missile, as funny and awesome as that was in the show. I want to spice things up a bit before everyone evacuates, and have some fun with a little battle if everyone else wants to. I'll have Optimus join in in my next post. A longer lasting battle might help give una more time to post since she is not feeling well lately. ))

"H-he will be fine."

Rattrap could sense something in Whitegrazer's voice glancing over at her just before the hole closed behind all of them. Laying there, on his back next to Airazor, he wondered how they'd get Optimus out of there. Clearly the aliens were putting him through a lot of pain, whatever they were doing to him, and he might need their help in order to escape. Now that the Preds were going back on their truce, the Maximals didn't have a way to re-open the Vok structure. Not good. But Megatron was probably thrilled about it.

"Welcome back, Maximals. We were starting to worry the aliens would take all our fun,"

Looking up at Nemesis' weapon, the brown rat swallowed. Were they going to take the first shot, or were they waiting for the Maximals to give them a reason to fire? All of them laying there in their beast modes were at a disadvantage when it came to weapons since all of the Predacons were already aiming theirs at them; ...although Onyx appeared to hesitate. If they took the time to maximize, they would likely get shot in mid-transformation which was never a quick recovery. Fortunately, Rattrap and Cheetor were quick in their beast forms, and they could cover Whitegrazer and Airazor which would give them time to transform while he and the spotted cat distracted the Preds. Unfortunately, judging by the cat's growling, Cheetor was letting the former Decepticon's comments get under his fur and was losing focus. On the other hand, he was distracting her...

"Good things don't always come to those who wait," "Hopefully you'll meet your end with more dignity than your Maximal friends," "They didn't pose much of a challenge at all. Died too quickly to gain any satisfaction from the kill," "Your friends died like the whimpering cowards they were in life,"

"Well Maximals it has been fun, but as Nemesis kindly pointed out it's time to drop our little charade and end this silly little truce."

While Nemesis's words were rather harsh and very cruel, Rattrap ignored them because he knew how wrong she was and that was all that mattered to him. Taking advantage of Onyx's hesitation - assuming he wasn't going to fire at them just yet - and Nemesis being distracted, Rattrap quickly rolled over onto his stomach and spun around to make his tailend facing the female Predacon, and at the same time avoiding Megatron's blast. Then he immediately stretched out his tail and wrapped the tip around one of her ankles, yanking it as hard and as fast as he could to at least alter her aim just before she fired at Cheetor if not also make her fall down. Hopefully the other Maximals would be able to convert to their robot modes, pull out their weapons and provide cover fire for him and Cheetor so they could then maximize and draw their weapons as well and try to fight off these greedy Preds and save their leader. Otherwise, the Predacons were about to unjustly demolish them. The Spy knew the others back at the Axalon were probably anxiously waiting for a report, but right now there was no time for that.

-----

Tigatron had been following Aurora's scent for some time. As it got stronger, he knew he was closing the gap between them. Thank the Matrix, he thought, relieved to have finally found a steady trail. It lead him higher up above the waterfall, the sound of the crashing water growing ever so fainter. There, at a distance behind her, he saw the young, white Fuzor perched on a rock. He couldn't possibly know what was going through her mind, or what she was feeling just now, so he decided to give her some space yet and simply sat down in plain sight, happy to finally find her and know that she was safe. If she happened to look over her shoulder, she would see him right away since his coat stood out as much as her's in the night despite his stripes, but hopefully she wouldn't be startled since he wasn't too close to her. If she didn't look, he had plans to just call her name softly to let her know he was there. But Tigatron also counted on the light breeze to carry his scent to her nose and alert her of his presence. For the moment, he took a gander at the beautiful stars and the two moons, peacefully listening to the frogs and crickets.

Feralnight wrote:Behavior wise I suppose things have changed, and being so distracted with my own thoughts won't help anyone.

Behavior changes? Distracted with her own thoughts? No, Dinobot had not been that observant, though she spoke as if he had noticed all of these details before and was accusing her of them; she must have been feeling particularly amenable to such accusation.

He supposed he was fortunate to have her tell him all of this now. Still, none of this satisfied his curiosity. Why was she acting so guilty? Why was she not in her right state of mind?

Feralnight wrote:But on a side note at least we made it back in one piece a change.

"You go on ahead," Dinobot replied, shelving his questions for later. He opened his com-link and called ahead to the Axalon's bridge. "This is Dinobot. What is the status of the other two missions; I should wish to be of any service there is left to offer."

He wouldn't admit it, but in spite of his wager on Umbra's allegiance, and his confident declarations to Feralnight, he still felt as though he had failed that day, and such knowledge stung him.

* * *

Megatron wrote:Well Maximals it has been fun, but as Nemesis kindly pointed out it's time to drop our little charade and end this silly little truce.

Sure thing.

Cheetor ducked low to the ground when Megatron's laser came searching for the group of Maximals; he stiffled any reaction he might have given when the light skimmed his shoulder and charred the fur there.

Nemesis wrote:Hopefully you'll meet your end with more dignity than your Maximal friends.

The sudden turn of events had forced Cheetor's naturally keen reflexes to a level of attention he could never have hoped to attain outside of the battlefield, and he subconsciously judged the trajectory of the incoming shot. Tacit knowledge made him feel like it was safe to stand still, so he did.

He locked eyes with Nemesis once more to show he was unaffected, angrily challenging her to do better.

Nemesis wrote:They didn't pose much of a challenge at all. Died too quickly to gain any satisfaction from the kill.

Killing doesn't satisfy you, huh? Shock. Those of us on the good side of things could have warned you as much ahead of time.

And that smile. It had to go.

Nemesis wrote:Your friends died like the whimpering cowards they were in life.

There came the moment, then, where Cheetor's rage and indignation reached the threshold of where they couldn't actually build any further; and for this reason, they ceased almost entirely. He could not wish Nemesis into stasis lock, but he wanted to wish her that, so it hurt to wish her that, so he stopped wishing her that. He had become emotionally shut-down, unfeeling--if only for a little while. Or maybe this was what heightened emotion really felt like; streamlined, unwavering obsession on a single course of action which threw all worries out the window.

Time slowed. The grenade fired. Rattrap pulled Nemesis off-balance. Cheetor realized he could see a flash of the grenade's shape. Grenades explode when stopped by opposing intertial force. Maybe.

Emotionally shut-down and completely irrational.

Cheetor jumped upwards rather than to the side. The alloyed panels and spotted fur shifted in their sundry directions. An arm and a hand coiled outwards and pulled backwards swiftly.

The grenade flew into Cheetor's hand, and as he flipped in the air, the hand spun around and upwards with him, and over his head, and in front of his chest, and the grenade flew out of it, down into the ground by Megatron's feet.

And Cheetor, fully transformed by now, fell back down with his feet set to land on Megatron's shoulders. His emotions started to surge back to him then--angry still, but now defiant.

(ooc: @Pheonix. Really? Lol thanks, just kinda making it up as I go along.)

Everything happened so fast that Scorponok's grin faded into a look of worry. The familiar violet flash of Megatron's fusion cannon lit up the environment, but none of the Maximals were injured. There was a swift scuffle and now a grenade was at his leader's feet.

"No!" the lieutenant yelled.

Diving on top of the grenade, Scorponok curled his body to ensure that he would absorb as much of the blast as possible. His job was not to kill Maximals. It was to protect Megatron. A swelling force erupted from beneath him but it was over just as quickly. Scorponok slowly turned aside and saw that his objective was successful as his leader was unscathed. The 1st Lieutenant's obsidian armor was mostly held together aside from a small hole in the center of his breast plate. Aside from the sparks flying around, the wound did not appear to be too bad at all. However, Scorponok felt the wind had been knocked out of him. His armor protected him from shrapnel weaponry, but the explosion still sure packed a punch. Struggling to get up, the Predacon found himself stumbling back towards the ground wincing.

Airazor kept mumbling to herself about how they can't leave Optimus inside by himself as Rattrap pulled her out towards "safety". If they left him here, the Aliens would be able to create another clone of him or worse. Not to mention that if any harm ever came to the Maximal's leader, they would be doomed and the Predicons would win the war. None of the other Maximal's seemed to see things her way and she simply didn't have the strength to argue about it.

After rattrap pulled her through the hole, their enemies had weapons pointed at the four maximals lying on the ground in beast mode. "And here I thought that this day couldn't get any better." She said aloud. For a moment, it appeared as if the Predicons were content with simply showing their weaponry to unarmed maximals. Had she not been just zapped by aliens and nearly killed, their presence might have been scary. However, she simply wasn't scared at all.

"Good things don't always come to those who wait," "Hopefully you'll meet your end with more dignity than your Maximal friends," "They didn't pose much of a challenge at all. Died too quickly to gain any satisfaction from the kill," "Your friends died like the whimpering cowards they were in life,"

Sensing the rage in her friends around her, Airazor knew that the tension was about to break soon. When Rattrap made the first move, Airazor jumped into action quickly. "Maximize!" She said, transforming into her Robot mode and immediately popping the rockets out of her arm. Sighting Onyx reaching for his Rifle, she immediately reacted and fired a shot at the weapon - hoping to disarm him and prevent him from hurting any of her friends!

---

Manterror saw the Maximals coming and brought his razor blades closer to his face. He knew that the Predicons were about to break the truce and he couldn't wait to start chopping some heads. His mouth drooled as Megatron spoke and Nemesis ripped into the Maximal's minds and tore their confidence apart. He liked Nemesis. She was the only bot here besides himself who was good enough to kill maximals without remorse. Perhaps one day she and him would take over the world together! Of course, he would have to kill her eventually because two bots can not rule the world. He would have to play her like a pawn and hope she keeps killing maximals----

The battle began as the Mantis was still thinking to himself about useless stuff. Rattrap had taken Nemesis by surprise and Cheetor sprung into battle. Airazor Transformed and shot at Onyx leaving only Whitegrazer....

Moving towards his helpless victim, he stood over top of the horse and spoke. "You're too old to race now my pretty... let me show you what happens to race horses when they lay down! MUAHHAHH!!" Moving his left saw blade in a vertical motion, he dropped it down towards the horses Neck, hoping to end her life with a quick beheading!