Beast Wars REBIRTH: Chapter 5 - Stalemate
Posted: Tue Jul 01, 2008 7:17 pm
O_o
Oh my god, I've been stuck on THREE PARAGRAPHS for SO LONG! It was driving me crackers, So I sat myself down and finished the damn thing! DX
Ah well, I hope you like it. Forgive the length, but I've come to realise that I can't actually write stuff in small quantities
Just ask my drama teachers (how much coursework have you got for us today? ..... oh.....XD)
Chapter 4: STALEMATE
“You’re gonna pay for this, rat man…”
“Yeah? We’ll just see about that”
The scarlet red macaw stared at the Transmetal rat through his narrow visor. He was scanning him closely, and Rattrap was doing the same. The rat had his smug face on, mocking the parrot.
“You have been Flushed!” he yelled, triumphantly smacking his cards down on the table. He chuckled and rubbed his hands together, “Maybe next time yeh’ll think twice about playing against the pro, junior.”
He smiled broadly at Spanner’s defeated disposition. The shiny metal rodent reached for his winnings with his arms outstretched and his fingers wiggling excitedly.
“Hold up, there, RT…” Spanner interrupted. Rattrap paused, “Before you take all your dough, tell me…what the heck should ah do with these two pairs?”
Rattrap looked at said pairs. His jaw dropped. He scanned them again. Nah, it can’t be…
“In yo face, bro! Gimme that stuff!” The macaw threw his four aces onto the table and dragged the winnings from under Rattrap’s nose. The rat wailed with despair, banging his head and fists on the table.
“Maybe you should think twice from now on, dawg…” boasted Spanner, counting his booty. It was not much, but it was the principle that counted. It had been stellar cycles since anyone had beaten Rattrap at poker.
“How the slag did you do that, yeh broken record?” queried Rattrap, trying to get over himself.
“Ah called yo bluff, foo. I saw you getting’ all ‘woah man, what a hand’ on me. I called it…and you bought mine. It’s a bot eat bot world out there, man, live with it. Go with the flow!” He got up, and did a sort of hip-hop jig to boast his victory, and moon walked out of the room, leaving Rattrap to wallow in a massive puddle of self-pity.
“’Sides…” the macaw amusedly called to the rat, “I’d a’ won anyhow…”
As he left, he stroked the gap in his cuff with glee, revealing four more cards.
“Sucka…”
---
Despite some turbulence, Optimus’ crew had integrated into the Pangaea lot quite well. The first few days of their stay in their base had been rocky and rather unpleasant, mostly due to the war and the incident with the Predacons and a certain four Maximals. But things were finally starting to settle down.
For instance, Rhinox invited Jagna and Skylark to their ship, The Hercules. Needless to say, they were awestruck. Most of the bots currently on Earth didn’t even know that sort of technology existed, they had been living on salvaged parts for so long. Skylark was beside herself. Jagna had not seen her so excited since they found the first piece of a CR chamber, and she thought of a way to make it work without the use of unavailable energon. Rhinox was rather impressed by this, but Skylark was not at liberty to say exactly what she did, at least with her commander so close by.
“Pft, that was easy. Believe it or not, it was finding the parts big or un-singed enough to be compatible with what I came up with or salvaged from…uh…” Jagna was giving her a very fractious look, which she read instantly as, ‘shut up now’.
“Don’t worry…” Skylark continued to Rhinox, “I’ll be able to tell you in time. She gets over the whole suspicion thing pretty quickly, she’s a softie, really…”
“I can still hear you…” the leopard commented. Skylark and Rhinox chortled and continued looking at Hercules’ specs.
Jagna, meanwhile, was looking up publicly viewable files on this crew’s information on Cybertron. Her optics narrowed as she examined the frequency readings of their transwarp hole detector and stabiliser.
“Hello? This thing on? Helloooooo!”
The cat bot jumped and extended her claws, growling, searching for the source of the unknown voice that suddenly appeared out of nowhere. It had a tinny quality to it, which meant it wasn’t in the room with them…
“Woah…” Rhinox quickly made his way towards where Jagna was standing, who was still crouched low and tense. “Easy, kitten,” he said softly to calm her down, “It’s a communication from Cybertron.”
“Oh…” she replied dryly, unenthused, straightening up and retracting her claws.
“From Cybertron?” Skylark asked in awe. Jagna scowled, but it went unnoticed.
“This is Rhinox, technician and third chair for the Warpship Hercules. That you, Jumpstart?”
There was a crackle, the same strange one from their first landing here, then, “Rhinox! ‘Bout time!”
Rhinox was glad to hear a familiar voice from Cybertron once again, “Sorry we’re late for our report, but it’s been a weird few days…”
“Late? What are you on, bot? You’re check-in is technically early, I’m just bored…”
“Gee, I’m touched,” the rhino joked, “Wait, we’re early?”
“Oh, yeah, way early. Buuut, since you’re here, fire away, rhino man.”
Rhinox shook his head, and explained what had happened to them. He explained that when they landed, they could not detect any stasis pods. Then he described with vivid detail their first encounter with the bots on this planet: the Predacons. He continued with their first Maximal encounter, their visit to Pangaea One, and at this point, Jagna began to hiss like a kettle. For what reason, Rhinox could not fathom, but when he started to explain how the Maximals disclosed themselves within the mountain, she pounced forward and slammed her fist on the console.
“What?” cried a surprised and irritated Rhinox.
“What? What?! I do not want you revealing the whereabouts of our base to anyone!”
“This guy’s on Cybertron, what can he do?”
“Um, hello, Rhinox? Who the heck is that?” asked Jumpstart over the communicator, clearly startled by this interruption.
“This is Jagna, leader of the Maximals on this planet,” Rhinox replied, leaning his head on his hand and placing his elbow on the console, “Say hello, Jumpstart…”
“Uhh…hello…” the bot began, somehow afraid that whoever had made the racket would come through the radio and throttle him.
“Hi…” Jagna replied, reluctantly.
“…base?” queried Jumpstart.
“Oh, no you…”
“Ahem!” interjected Rhinox. He gave Jagna a stern look, saying, "this is our ship, I will handle it if you don’t mind…" She huffed, caught Skylark’s warning gaze and walked away to stare at a rather fancy-looking CR Chamber.
“Bottom line is, Jumpstart, is that the pods on this planet were obviously activated a while ago…”
“Obviously…” replied the bot, nervously.
“…and it might be a little trickier getting them all home, seeing as nearly half of them are now Predacons. Don’t ask me how, but we intend to find out,” He shot Jagna a suggestive look, to which she raised an ignorant brow, “We’ll check in again in about two weeks, as planned, sport,” the rhino continued, “Rhinox out.”
“Later, big guy!”
The communicator clicked, emitted that odd static again, and went silent.
Rhinox turned to Jagna, rather annoyed. “Next time, would you mind not butting in? This is an important Cybertronian matter…”
“So important they sent you lot to do it?” the cat replied, nastily. Skylark’s optics widened. This would not end well. Rhinox sighed deeply, trying not to get wound up.
“Look,” he continued, calmly and slowly, “our mission was to return to Earth to find all the lost stasis pods, which we did…kind of…and bring them back home, to Cybertron…”
“Well, perhaps we don’t want to get crated back to Cybertron!”
At that, the leopard stormed out of the Hercules’ control centre, snarling at the high tech sliding doors that delayed her exit, and walked away as quickly as possible once she was out.
“What’s with her?” Rhinox inquired, watching the leopard speed off in beast mode on the monitor.
“Don’t ask…please…” Skylark responded.
He tried…but he had to.
“Why does everyone here get so charged up when they hear the word Cybertron?”
He saw her bite her lip, milling through how she was going to answer, if at all.
“Well, that’s kinda tricky…” she began hesitantly.
“Yes?”
Okay, so he won’t budge, she thought, giving up. Orders or whatever, these Maximals were on their side.
“Not everyone here knows what Cybertron is…”
“How is that possible?” asked an astounded Rhinox, “Cybertron is the home of all Maximals, it’s etched into every transformer’s core hard drive!”
“Something that can easily be removed,” she continued, very uncomfortably.
“So who does know it exists? Apart from you and Jagna…”
“A fair few, it’s kinda like learning where you come from in some ways. It’s the young bots who are a little less aware of their origins.”
“What about you? You obviously have a knack for technology, which must have stemmed from somewhere. What’s your opinion on Cybertron, Skylark?”
She huffed a little, and pursed her lips.
“I think if they gave a molten slag crap about us, they would have come sooner. And you did a fine job, leaving us all here in the first place, didn't you?”
Rhinox wheeled his seat a way back from her. For some reason, there was a lot of bitterness towards their home planet amongst these Maximals.
“Can we get back to this?” she asked, attempting to deviate from the subject.
“Sure…”
---
“Well? What did you discover?”
“That Maximals are stupid…”
“Watch that resonator of yours! I command you to tell me…”
“Fine, fine. Optimus’ crew clearly have no idea about the time delay. They think they’re two weeks behind schedule with their reports, and they left three days ago.”
“And what of the two beast bots left on Cybertron?”
“How should I know? That’s not my…”
The bot cringed when the other banged his fist on the table, causing the two on either side of him to jump in their seats.
“Calmness, please, we are not barbarians,” said the one on the angry bot’s left, “This young man is right, he has done his duty. Till next week, my boy…Now begone!”
The young bot yelped and trotted out of the dark room through the one door that led to a well-lit hallway.
The still seething bot in the middle muttered, “Why do we rely on such incompetence?”
The bot to his right replied, “Because they are on the same incompetence level as the Maximals, of course. How else would he be able to hack into their communications without their even knowing there was one?”
“Good point. And Ultra Magnus?” the middle one replied.
“Still uncertain. He has certainly become a lot quieter in his old age. As for the beast Maximals, Silverbolt and Blackarachnia, they continue to pass themselves off as Maximals.”
The one on the right scoffed and snorted, “Do they realise that they are widely known as the only beast bots left on the planet, and every transformer knows they are Maximals?!”
“Indeed, they seem oblivious. The security Maximal hasn’t a clue, but the femme is cleverer than she appears. She once served under, defected and defeated the second Megatron. She might use her Predacon influence to pull it off.”
“Little fool! Our mole in the Council has been keeping an eye on them, and thus far, they are failing miserably,” the middle bot scorned.
“All that aside, we must allow them to infiltrate our ranks…”
The bot in the middle and on the right stared at him. He shrugged.
“We have so many agents, it’s only fair,” he began with a sly grin, “besides, it might prove useful to have units with such intimate knowledge of Earth…and the Vok…”
They all shuddered.
“Then it shall be,” stated the middle transformer, “For the glory of the Predacon cause!” He held up his right hand and the other two copied. All three slammed a large button in the centre of the table, activating a red light that illuminated all their faces.
“Tripredicus Council meeting adjourned…”
---
Back on Earth, just outside Pangaea One, Greyback and Accinon were adjusting the frequency modulators of the base's shields…much to each other's dismay.
"Dontcha think it's kind of weird?" Accinon asked, bored by the lack of conversation, despite her present company, "I mean, if we're at war now, the Preds would be attacking us left right and centre, right?"
BOOM!
The pair was sent flying onto their back when a photon charge hit right at their feet. Greyback got up and scowled at the cat.
"What?" she asked, defensively.
"Yoohoo! Maxies!" cooed a voice from above them. The pair directed their gaze upwards and saw a green pterodactyl femme smirking down at them, "Mind if we come and play?"
"We?" Grey asked, soon to regret asking, "Aw, crud…"
He dashed towards Accinon, who was still looking up at the flying dinosaur, grabbed her around the waist and flew with her out of the way of another shot.
"Agh! Do you mind?" she scoffed.
"Your welcome!"
"Now come on, what's the point of shooting you if you won't stay still?" yelled a mocking voice from above. That voice was different to the last one they heard. They heard the grinding gears of someone transforming into beast mode, and ducked when a giant bald eagle came swooping down to snatch one of them. The massive bird reared his head, and yelled, "Khronus, Terrorise!"
His golden feathered chest heaved with laughter as he fired his double laser canons at the groundling Maximals.
Ugh, what a perfect start to the day…
"Show off…" muttered his flying counterpart.
"Don't worry, Pteradonna, I'll leave you the burnt bits!" The pterodactyl scowled, then swept in closer to their quarry, firing her shoulder blasters.
"Shouldn't we be getting back to base?!" Accinon called over several gunshots, including her own and Greyback's.
"No, we need to lead them away from the entrance. We can't risk them finding our base!" Greyback replied as loudly. He dodged another shot from Pteradonna and aimed back at her. "I'm getting sick of these shootouts," he muttered, disgruntled, "come on." He beckoned his feline companion away from the mountainside.
Up in the air, the Predacons watched in bemusement as the Maximals began to flee.
"They must be headed back to their base," commented Khronus as he began to follow them.
"You idiot! They're obviously trying to lead us away from their base!" Pteradonna snapped at him, cutting across his flight path and hovering in front of him.
"Oh, please, they can't be that smart…" he sneered, attempting to veer past her.
"Please tell me you can't be that stupid!"
This little distraction allowed the Maximals to head further away, avoiding the forest.
"Shouldn't we be headed for cover?" Accinon asked.
"That's what they'll be expecting…" Greyback answered, panting as they ran faster, "It'll throw them off for a little while…"
"That is he most idiotic, bone-headed plan I've…"
"Watch that dry tongue of yours, kid, you might just lose it!"
Minutes later, the two flyers had caught up and were firing at the Maximals. Accinon constantly asked for a reminder as to why they were running across open savannah where they were easy targets.
"Because we won't be for long…" He pointed his index to their left, to an area that was a lot greener than where they were. The density of acacia trees was suddenly greater, but only just noticeable…from the air, for the tops of the trees had a similar colour to the ground. Accinon smiled, and followed his lead.
"Good plan!" Greyback shook his head. Despite how long he'd known her, he would never get used to the shifting sides of her personality. One minute you were Primus, the next a garbage disposal unit.
They made a sharp turn, throwing their predators off slightly, and took cover under the closed savannah. The Predacons were high up, and so were very confused when the Maximals suddenly disappeared from view.
"What the…?"
Greyback and Accinon were hiding in the shade of a large acacia. "On my mark. Ready?" Greyback instructed, pulling out his weapon, "One…two…"
"THREE!" yelled a voice that was neither his nor Accinon's.
There were several large bangs from behind them. They covered their heads and waited for the firing to cease.
Meanwhile, up in the air, Khronus and Pteradonna were turning their heads, wondering where those strange sounds were coming from. The 'dactyl bot sighed as she spotted the missiles. She tapped the eagle on the shoulder.
"What? AGH!"
The two were hit by a few of the photon blasts and descended to the west, followed by two threads of black smoke.
Greyback finally lifted his head and saw the two Predacons going down. With his weapon still in his hand, he turned and snarled at…
"Wildcat? What the slag…?"
A cougar with a smug look on his face blew the barrel of his gun and placed it back in his subspace. He winked at Greyback, who withdrew his own weapon, and then focused his attention on Accinon, who was scowling at him from the ground.
"How many times do I have to save your aft, sis?"
"Gee, I dunno, bro, how many times to I have keep you off my aft? We had it covered, y'know, we didn't actually need you help…"
"Oh yeah, the running away part really convinced me…" Wildcat sneered back.
Greyback sighed. "There's a reason you two are stationed at different bases…"
Both felines glared at the wolf mech. Reflecting on past experiences, Greyback kept his mouth shut, ignoring the sibling arguments as best he could.
"What are you doing out here, anyway? On your own?"
"Well, sibling, I was on my way for the changeover…"
"That was today? Oh man!" Greyback slapped and reared his head in annoyance, "That explains a lot…"
"Fair enough, brother mine. But where's your buddy?" Accinon enquired, "You're the good child, you should know you have to have at least one…"
"Can it, sis, Souris is behind me…"
"That's not how you pronounce it, dipstick," his sister scorned.
"Sour-ee, whatever. She's right behind me. You know how she gets when there's a battle going on. Speaking of which…"
He turned his head, lifted his fingers to his mouth and whistled. After a few seconds of tentative silence, a small rodent crawled out of a bush, its big black eyes wide with fear. "It's OK, gal, you can come out," Wildcat cooed gently. The brown mouse nodded and came further out. She smiled lightly at the sight of Accinon and Greyback, but said nothing.
"Are we swapping with you guys?" Wildcat asked Greyback.
"Not me, but we were just on shield duty. You know the drill is to meet at P One," he scoffed, narrowing his optics. The cat shrugged. Shaking his head, Greyback added, "You two know well that it's in everyone's best interest to be as far away from each other as possible…"
"No objections here," said Accinon.
"Ditto," concurred Wildcat. The two felines turned from each other and crossed their arms, holding their heads up high.
"Anyway," Greyback continued, "I think what we're going to have to do is take a detour to Pangaea Two. We'll take the long way, in case we bump into any more Predacons."
"But we just hauled our afts all the way from P'Two!" Wildcat complained, referring to himself and Souris.
"That's an order." Greyback affirmed.
Wildcat and Accinon scowled together at the pushy wolf. The first sibling agreement he had witnessed, Greyback observed.
The lieutenant sighed, and beckoned his fellow Maximals to transform into beast mode and follow him.
---
Back at Pangaea One, the Maximals were preparing for the changeover. Sandskimmer explained to Optimus and his crew that every seven or so decacycles, units from Pangaeas One and Two change stations for two reasons. One: it maintained diversity amongst the crew, as each had different skills and specialties. And two: staying at one base too long was boring.
"Don't I just know it," commented Rattrap. At least the Maximals had two bases.
A few megacycles later, a stampede of footsteps came down the corridor from the main entrance to the mountain layer. A large shadow came around the corner…
"SHELLY!!!!"
Nightshaft was gone in a flash, running towards what looked like a walking green boulder. It was in fact a giant tortoise, who transformed when he spotted her headed in his direction. Not a second after he transformed and straightened up to greet her was he on his back after a tackle-hug from the spider monkey. The two bots laughed at themselves, and they were joined by every other bot in the room.
The cavern was filled with gleeful pleasantries as friends were reunited after Primus knows how long. It was a very warm feeling, and when so many smiles were exchanged everyone's spirits were lifted, making them forget about the war, even the new Maximals.
After friends said their hellos, introductions to Optimus' crew were quickly made. The units who had transferred from Pangaea Two were; Shellshock, the giant tortoise who now sported Nightshaft and a necklace (Optimus was informed that those two were the closest of friends, and had been apart for quite a while), a dove femme by the name of Lightwing, and another bird, Moonhawk. She seemed closely-knit with Jagna, who smiled widely at her arrival.
The units who would change places with the newcomers were Vixen, Streakhorn, Sleek, Sandskimmer and Accinon.
"That seems a bit of an unfair trade, doesn't it?" Optimus asked Jagna quietly.
"I'm sorry?" the Maximal leader replied, tilting her ears.
"Well, you've got three coming and five leaving. Doesn't that leave one of your bases undermanned?"
Jagna opened and closed her mouth, mulling through his logic. "Three? Hang on…" she instructed him. He waited patiently as she counted the heads of the Pangaea Two exchangees. Her face relaxed when she finished. "Two of the Twos are late…" she stated, matter-of-factly. Optimus nodded, satisfied. But then Jagna's facial expression reverted back to confusion. She left Optimus to get to a higher level to scan every unit in the base.
"It's good to see you all again," she addressed the new arrivals with a small smile, once she had everyone's attention, "has, uh…has anyone seen Greyback and Accinon?"
Every head shook, looking at one another.
"Weren't they fixing the shields?" someone asked.
"Yeah, but they'd have been back by now…" someone else replied. Jagna's ears flattened, annoyed.
"Right then. Vixen, Sleek, Sandskimmer, your swapping buddies are here, so you three can proceed to Pangaea Two. Streakhorn, you'll have to wait for Souris. As for Wildcat and 'Non…" She narrowed her optics, "…Someone see if they can be contacted. And Grey. This lack of communication is getting ridiculous…"
She descended her 'podium' muttering under her breath, obviously slandering her second-in-command.
"Any luck, Sky?" the leopard asked her technician.
"Nearly…got it!" Skylark hooted triumphantly, and leaned closer to the microphone, "Skylark to Greyback. Come in, Grey."
Jagna held her breath, pessimistically expecting another glitch in communications, but to her pleasant surprise, they got a response.
"This is Greyback."
"Ooh, goodie! Okay, Grey. The P Two units have just arrived…well, most of them…we were wondering where you and 'Non got to…Have you got yourself into trouble again?" Skylark teased.
"Well, actually," Greyback protested, "we were ambushed by Khronus and Pteradonna." Skylark and Jagna both gasped, widening their optics. Hearing, this, Greyback continued assuredly, "We're fine. Wildcat showed up and we chased them off. Souris is here too. We're taking the scenic route to Pangaea Two, in case the Preds follow us."
"Good call, Greyback," Jagna commented, leaning in closer so he could hear him. On the other end of the line, Greyback smiled proudly, clearly chuffed, "continue and keep us posted. We'll have to delay the exchange till later. Careful out there, you lot."
"As always, commander," he replied, saluting, "No Preds we can't handle."
"I wasn't talking about the Predacons…" Jagna replied, lowering her voice. She caught Skylark's eye and they exchanged a knowing look, feeling sorry for Greyback and Souris, the bots who had to endure the siblings for their entire journey.
"Thanks for reminding me…" Greyback replied darkly, "We'll report in two megacycles. Greyback out."
"I'm feeling pretty sorry for Souris right now…" Skylark commented. Jagna nodded, cringing at the thought of the siblings and their squabbling, Greyback's low tolerance level, and the poor timid mouse in the middle.
---
"Ouch! Watch where you poke that thing!"
"Well, if you'd stop squirming, maybe I could get a clear shot."
"OW!"
Khronus and Pteradonna had taken refuge in a niche in a cliff face that loomed over the savannah where they attacked the straying Maximals. Khronus refused to remain still while the pterodactyl femme attempted to inject fluid energy into him to fix the hole blown out by one of the pesky do-gooders. This resulted in a new hole in his thigh.
"You see what I mean? I'm going to need a vice now."
"Just leave it, you pencil beaked parasite! I've suffered worse…"
"…at my hand if you're not careful, you ignoramus!"
Whosever idea it was to pair this couple up because they were both flyers…had a screw or two loose.
As she attempted to seal the new whole in the armour of the now writhing bald eagle, Pteradonna's internal computer notified her of Maximal activity.
"Identify exact location," she instructed, purposefully ignoring Khronus' squawks of agony as she 'accidentally' made another hole with the syringe. Serves you right…she thought.
"Quadrant D-9-7-7-4, headed east."
"The plains…" the 'dactyl bot turned to Khronus, who was clutching his leg, "That's a long way from here…they'll be sitting ducks!"
"Uh, news flash for ya Donna…they could be headed for the limestone cliffs. Plenty of hiding places, and plenty of ammo…" He raised a brow suggestively.
"Hey, that only happened once!" Pteradonna answered defensively, "And they were very big rocks…"
"Uh-huh. Let's not forget the forest they gotta go through to get wherever they're going. Now let's go, before I have so many holes I'll be whistling in the air."
"Be less distracting than the smell, I should think…"
"Why you…SQUAWK!"
A slap on his damaged thigh with her scaly wing signalled Pteradonna's departure when she transformed into beast mode. Khronus shook his head and followed suit, his golden wings outstretched and beady orange eyes ablaze.
---
Souris timidly observed Greyback snarl with his hands over his head as the two of them walked in front of the bickering siblings. She gingerly patted his leg in her beast form. He submissively acknowledged her sympathetic gesture, but she deserved it as much as he did…she lived with the other one.
After the seventh, "Did not", "Did too", Greyback's flipping sequenced commenced.
"Will you two CAN IT!"
They all stopped dead in their tracks. Souris shook her head, and Accinon and Wildcat had their infamous, "What did we do?" faces on. Greyback took a deep breath and attempted to calm down. However when he spoke, his voice suggested anything but calm.
"I have had it up to here with you two," he indicated with his hand, which was shaking slightly. He changed his tone to a hoarse whisper, "This has gone on…too…long…and I swear, if anything else goes wrong today, Primus help you both, I'll…"
"ARRÊTE!" shouted a surprisingly loud voice. Greayback, Accinon and Wildcat spun round. Souris had transformed, and was sniffing the air, elevated on her toes, displaying her rodent mannerisms as her nose worked like mad.
Still a little stunned by the volume that came out of the usually quiet mouse, asked, "What, Souris? What is it?"
She did not answer immediately, but she suddenly spotted what she was looking for: in the air behind and above her three comrades. She pointed and shook her hand frantically, followed by the rest of her body. She strongly resembled a dead leaf being blown off its branch in a gale.
"Touts le mondes! Vite! Vite! Um, uh…DANGER!" She struggled to find the appropriate word to get them to understand that she was trying to say: that Khronus and Pteradonna were closing in on the group, and fast.
She hid behind Greyback, clinging onto his arm when he finally turned around.
"Aw, slaggit, you gotta be kidding me!"
In the air, Donna scowled at her partner.
"Way to go, airhead, they spotted us!" she sneered, pecking him in the side of the head with her large beak.
"Ow! Oh, come on, how is that my fault?" he protested, disrupting her flight pattern by slamming his wing on her.
"Agh! Ugh, forget this. Let's get those Maximals!"
To that, his beak somehow formed into a smile. "Ok. I bagsy the wolf!" And he swooped down. Donna barely had time to stutter that cats give her gas before she followed suit.
"Well, ain't this just peachy?" Greyback hollered sarcastically after he pulled himself and Souris behind an enormous tree trunk for cover. He instructed her to hide within the gaps between each root with gestures rather than words she might not understand. They first found Souris in Galoo Sector, a region of the continent that would eventually become France, and therefore her default language, for some bizarre reason, was set to French.
"Stay there," he instructed her. He withdrew his weapon and came out from his hiding place, aiming his gun at the sky where he last saw the Predacons.
"…Where'd they go?"
"Peekaboo!"
BLAM.
Greyback was thrown off his feet and slammed into a tree behind him, his body tangling in the gaps of the roots. He was in stasis lock.
"Scrap," the siblings said together.
"Okay, they're using the canopy for cover, we'll use the shrub," instructed Wildcat. He was about to head for a thick bush to his left, but his sister grabbed his hind leg with two paws, and his chin hit the floor.
"Ya don't think that's what they think we're thinking of doing? They'll blast you like Grey as soon as you enter a clearing!"
"The point is to not end up in a clearing! We're in a very dense forest and…"
"And you don't think they haven't noticed that?!"
The pair's squabbles could be heard by the Predacons and their comrade.
"Mon dieu…" Souris muttered as she dropped her head into her hand. What she heard next made her shake her head even more.
Above, the Predacons, too were arguing about how to take the Maximals out.
"We should just swoop down there and grab 'em!" Khronus argued.
"No, they'l just cower for cover. Why don't we just burn the place and let 'em run?"
"Uh, yeah, and where are they going to run to?" Donna remained silent, "…More cover! Whatever, we're doing it my way." Khronus dived, withdrawing his weapon, scanning for hidden Maximals.
"Nu-UH!" Donna interjected angrily. She pulled out her flamethrower and followed her partner, burning the vegetation as she swooped.
On either side of her, the mouse femme heard quarrelling, and gunfire. The two things she could not handle. And would not put up with.
Very tentatively and squeamishly, she ducked between shots that Khronus was dealing, and dove under the stream of flames Donna was spilling out of her weapon. Souris arrived next to Accinon and Wildcat, who were yelling at each other and firing simultaneously. She was breathing very fast, clutching her chest. The poor thing was terrified, but infuriated by the level of incompetence the siblings were demonstrating in their current situation.
The felines were abruptly silenced by a slap on a hand by a very sharp little hand.
"Can this wait, Souris? We're kind of…" Before he could say, "busy", she angrily whispered,
"Non! Arête, you two! Zees cannot go on. Eef you would be so kind, zees is vhat you are going to do…"
Not far away, Greyback was stirring. He rubbed his head, and then noticed a large black hole in his chest where he had been hit by that wayward missile. What fun. What was more, the forest around him was on fire.
"What the slag…?"
It was spreading fast, so his first reaction was to pull out a sort of fire extinguisher. While he tamed he flames climbing the lianas, he looked around to see if he could spot his comrades.
He needn't have worried, for when he spotted Souris, she was looking less petrified than before he was knocked out. He gestured mutely to her to inform him of what was going on. She only smiled, winked and pointed at the cats to their right.
Greyback looked, and his jaw dropped. Why were they out in the open? Bickering, wouldn't you know it. The wolf slapped his face hard with his hand and dragged it down towards the ground. Souris placed a reassuring hand on his arm, and retained her positive composure.
"I think we should take the featherless wonder out first…" Wildcat snapped.
"And I think Khronus needs to go…" Accinon replied angrily.
Up above, the flyers hid above a thin layer of canopy, wondering what was going on. Both the cats were saying that one or the other of the flyers was the bigger threat.
"Kid knows what he's talking about…" Pteradonna approved.
"What have you, got a cog that need de-rusting? The girl's gotta strong case…" Khronus said, smugly ruffling his feathers.
"Puh-leez! It's so obvious I'm their biggest threat," the femme replied equally if not more smugly.
"Says the featherless wonder!"
While the two were distracted, Souris (with a little trouble, as the cats were genuinely bickering about something or other now) yelled, "Maintenant!" to Accinon and Wildcat. They fired their weapons simultaneously upwards.
The pair or airborne Predacons, still in the midst of their argument, heard a strange whistling sound emanating from beneath them. They sighed and stared at each other in defeat as the two missiles hit them.
As they were comically catapulted away, entangled in each other's loose parts and sparking circuitry, the distancing sound of short-hand verbal abuses could be heard as their trail of smoke disappeared beyond the Maximals' sightline.
The brother and sister looked at each other, silent for a second, and burst out laughing.
Through gasps of giggles, Wildcat managed to utter, "Man, those two're worse than…"
"You two…" Grey finished for him. He raised a brow at their bowed heads.
"I 'ope you two 'ave learned your lesson aujourd'hui," Souris said, placing one hand on her hip, and pointing the other one at the siblings, "see vhat 'appens vhen you get at each ozer's sroats? Nossing but trouble, mon cher, non?" she asked Greyback, who smiled.
"C'mon. Let's get to Pangaea Two. I'll tell the boss to send a couple of units to make the exchange properly, kay?" The three with him nodded, they all transformed into beast mode and followed the grey wolf in the direction of their secondary base.
As they walked past a large mahogany buttress root, one beady black eye appeared out of nowhere, and followed the four Maximals.
---
A few hours later, in Arachnikahn's personal chambers, he hung suspended in his life support tube. "Well?" He asked the two Predacons before him.
"We were…unsuccessful in destroying the Maximals…" Kronus muttered unhappily.
"I see…Anything else?" Kahn enquired.
The eagle and pterodactyl lowered their heads in shame.
"I might have something…" A hissing voice echoed through the chamber from behind the disgraced duo. Pteradonna rolled her optics and turned around to face the voice, placing both hands on her hips.
"What?" she asked, unimpressed.
"Silence. Let…her speak…" Kahn wheezed, "What have you…discovered?"
"The existence of a second Maximal base…and its location…"
---
Spanner was happily whistling as he walked down a corridor in the cavernous mountain of a base. He entered his private quarters to find Rattrap there.
"…Can I help you, man?" the macaw inquired, wondering what the rat was doing in his room. And why he was smiling.
"Eh, jus' droppin' by teh offer my congratulations to the first bot teh ever oust me at a game." He raised what appeared to be a beaker full of liquid energon, which he 'withdrew' from his own stash on the Axalon. A malicious grin formed on Spanner's face.
"Wanna try another one, homie?" he asked, teeth exposed at the full extent of his smile. Rattrap smirked and tweaked a brow.
"Yeh're on."
"Possibly something to do with what you got there? Winner takes all?"
"I was hopin' yeh'd say that. Let's go rookie!"
Barely 10 cycles later, Spanner was staring into Rattrap's optics, which seemed to have turned a strange shade of magenta. "Brothuh, you goin' doooowwwwwnnn…"
And he was on the floor. Rattrap slammed his tube onto the table, leaning back in his chair and folding his arms in a satisfied way.
"Nobody messes with dis rat."
He grinned as he picked his beaker back up; and self-proclaimed himself a genius as he pulled out a flask of water he used to…'soften' his own drink.
"What goes around comes around…" he left the wasted macaw in his happy place and added, just before he exited the room, "…sucka…"
LOLZ! I adore Rattrap! Does he rock or what?
I now realise that the title of this chapter is truly appropriate....NOTHING HAPPENED> And that annoyed me a little bit. This had turned out to be a sort of a filler chapter :\
Not the next one though, I promise!
A big thank you goes to DarkSpark for input and encouragement! Peace out, dude!
*Yawn* I can finally be done with this chapter. Goodnight.
P.s. 5 chapters? Is that all it's been? o-O
P.s.s I anticipate there are many spelling/grammer errors. Yeah..........I don't really care right now. 'Night!
Oh my god, I've been stuck on THREE PARAGRAPHS for SO LONG! It was driving me crackers, So I sat myself down and finished the damn thing! DX
Ah well, I hope you like it. Forgive the length, but I've come to realise that I can't actually write stuff in small quantities
Just ask my drama teachers (how much coursework have you got for us today? ..... oh.....XD)Chapter 4: STALEMATE
“You’re gonna pay for this, rat man…”
“Yeah? We’ll just see about that”
The scarlet red macaw stared at the Transmetal rat through his narrow visor. He was scanning him closely, and Rattrap was doing the same. The rat had his smug face on, mocking the parrot.
“You have been Flushed!” he yelled, triumphantly smacking his cards down on the table. He chuckled and rubbed his hands together, “Maybe next time yeh’ll think twice about playing against the pro, junior.”
He smiled broadly at Spanner’s defeated disposition. The shiny metal rodent reached for his winnings with his arms outstretched and his fingers wiggling excitedly.
“Hold up, there, RT…” Spanner interrupted. Rattrap paused, “Before you take all your dough, tell me…what the heck should ah do with these two pairs?”
Rattrap looked at said pairs. His jaw dropped. He scanned them again. Nah, it can’t be…
“In yo face, bro! Gimme that stuff!” The macaw threw his four aces onto the table and dragged the winnings from under Rattrap’s nose. The rat wailed with despair, banging his head and fists on the table.
“Maybe you should think twice from now on, dawg…” boasted Spanner, counting his booty. It was not much, but it was the principle that counted. It had been stellar cycles since anyone had beaten Rattrap at poker.
“How the slag did you do that, yeh broken record?” queried Rattrap, trying to get over himself.
“Ah called yo bluff, foo. I saw you getting’ all ‘woah man, what a hand’ on me. I called it…and you bought mine. It’s a bot eat bot world out there, man, live with it. Go with the flow!” He got up, and did a sort of hip-hop jig to boast his victory, and moon walked out of the room, leaving Rattrap to wallow in a massive puddle of self-pity.
“’Sides…” the macaw amusedly called to the rat, “I’d a’ won anyhow…”
As he left, he stroked the gap in his cuff with glee, revealing four more cards.
“Sucka…”
---
Despite some turbulence, Optimus’ crew had integrated into the Pangaea lot quite well. The first few days of their stay in their base had been rocky and rather unpleasant, mostly due to the war and the incident with the Predacons and a certain four Maximals. But things were finally starting to settle down.
For instance, Rhinox invited Jagna and Skylark to their ship, The Hercules. Needless to say, they were awestruck. Most of the bots currently on Earth didn’t even know that sort of technology existed, they had been living on salvaged parts for so long. Skylark was beside herself. Jagna had not seen her so excited since they found the first piece of a CR chamber, and she thought of a way to make it work without the use of unavailable energon. Rhinox was rather impressed by this, but Skylark was not at liberty to say exactly what she did, at least with her commander so close by.
“Pft, that was easy. Believe it or not, it was finding the parts big or un-singed enough to be compatible with what I came up with or salvaged from…uh…” Jagna was giving her a very fractious look, which she read instantly as, ‘shut up now’.
“Don’t worry…” Skylark continued to Rhinox, “I’ll be able to tell you in time. She gets over the whole suspicion thing pretty quickly, she’s a softie, really…”
“I can still hear you…” the leopard commented. Skylark and Rhinox chortled and continued looking at Hercules’ specs.
Jagna, meanwhile, was looking up publicly viewable files on this crew’s information on Cybertron. Her optics narrowed as she examined the frequency readings of their transwarp hole detector and stabiliser.
“Hello? This thing on? Helloooooo!”
The cat bot jumped and extended her claws, growling, searching for the source of the unknown voice that suddenly appeared out of nowhere. It had a tinny quality to it, which meant it wasn’t in the room with them…
“Woah…” Rhinox quickly made his way towards where Jagna was standing, who was still crouched low and tense. “Easy, kitten,” he said softly to calm her down, “It’s a communication from Cybertron.”
“Oh…” she replied dryly, unenthused, straightening up and retracting her claws.
“From Cybertron?” Skylark asked in awe. Jagna scowled, but it went unnoticed.
“This is Rhinox, technician and third chair for the Warpship Hercules. That you, Jumpstart?”
There was a crackle, the same strange one from their first landing here, then, “Rhinox! ‘Bout time!”
Rhinox was glad to hear a familiar voice from Cybertron once again, “Sorry we’re late for our report, but it’s been a weird few days…”
“Late? What are you on, bot? You’re check-in is technically early, I’m just bored…”
“Gee, I’m touched,” the rhino joked, “Wait, we’re early?”
“Oh, yeah, way early. Buuut, since you’re here, fire away, rhino man.”
Rhinox shook his head, and explained what had happened to them. He explained that when they landed, they could not detect any stasis pods. Then he described with vivid detail their first encounter with the bots on this planet: the Predacons. He continued with their first Maximal encounter, their visit to Pangaea One, and at this point, Jagna began to hiss like a kettle. For what reason, Rhinox could not fathom, but when he started to explain how the Maximals disclosed themselves within the mountain, she pounced forward and slammed her fist on the console.
“What?” cried a surprised and irritated Rhinox.
“What? What?! I do not want you revealing the whereabouts of our base to anyone!”
“This guy’s on Cybertron, what can he do?”
“Um, hello, Rhinox? Who the heck is that?” asked Jumpstart over the communicator, clearly startled by this interruption.
“This is Jagna, leader of the Maximals on this planet,” Rhinox replied, leaning his head on his hand and placing his elbow on the console, “Say hello, Jumpstart…”
“Uhh…hello…” the bot began, somehow afraid that whoever had made the racket would come through the radio and throttle him.
“Hi…” Jagna replied, reluctantly.
“…base?” queried Jumpstart.
“Oh, no you…”
“Ahem!” interjected Rhinox. He gave Jagna a stern look, saying, "this is our ship, I will handle it if you don’t mind…" She huffed, caught Skylark’s warning gaze and walked away to stare at a rather fancy-looking CR Chamber.
“Bottom line is, Jumpstart, is that the pods on this planet were obviously activated a while ago…”
“Obviously…” replied the bot, nervously.
“…and it might be a little trickier getting them all home, seeing as nearly half of them are now Predacons. Don’t ask me how, but we intend to find out,” He shot Jagna a suggestive look, to which she raised an ignorant brow, “We’ll check in again in about two weeks, as planned, sport,” the rhino continued, “Rhinox out.”
“Later, big guy!”
The communicator clicked, emitted that odd static again, and went silent.
Rhinox turned to Jagna, rather annoyed. “Next time, would you mind not butting in? This is an important Cybertronian matter…”
“So important they sent you lot to do it?” the cat replied, nastily. Skylark’s optics widened. This would not end well. Rhinox sighed deeply, trying not to get wound up.
“Look,” he continued, calmly and slowly, “our mission was to return to Earth to find all the lost stasis pods, which we did…kind of…and bring them back home, to Cybertron…”
“Well, perhaps we don’t want to get crated back to Cybertron!”
At that, the leopard stormed out of the Hercules’ control centre, snarling at the high tech sliding doors that delayed her exit, and walked away as quickly as possible once she was out.
“What’s with her?” Rhinox inquired, watching the leopard speed off in beast mode on the monitor.
“Don’t ask…please…” Skylark responded.
He tried…but he had to.
“Why does everyone here get so charged up when they hear the word Cybertron?”
He saw her bite her lip, milling through how she was going to answer, if at all.
“Well, that’s kinda tricky…” she began hesitantly.
“Yes?”
Okay, so he won’t budge, she thought, giving up. Orders or whatever, these Maximals were on their side.
“Not everyone here knows what Cybertron is…”
“How is that possible?” asked an astounded Rhinox, “Cybertron is the home of all Maximals, it’s etched into every transformer’s core hard drive!”
“Something that can easily be removed,” she continued, very uncomfortably.
“So who does know it exists? Apart from you and Jagna…”
“A fair few, it’s kinda like learning where you come from in some ways. It’s the young bots who are a little less aware of their origins.”
“What about you? You obviously have a knack for technology, which must have stemmed from somewhere. What’s your opinion on Cybertron, Skylark?”
She huffed a little, and pursed her lips.
“I think if they gave a molten slag crap about us, they would have come sooner. And you did a fine job, leaving us all here in the first place, didn't you?”
Rhinox wheeled his seat a way back from her. For some reason, there was a lot of bitterness towards their home planet amongst these Maximals.
“Can we get back to this?” she asked, attempting to deviate from the subject.
“Sure…”
---
“Well? What did you discover?”
“That Maximals are stupid…”
“Watch that resonator of yours! I command you to tell me…”
“Fine, fine. Optimus’ crew clearly have no idea about the time delay. They think they’re two weeks behind schedule with their reports, and they left three days ago.”
“And what of the two beast bots left on Cybertron?”
“How should I know? That’s not my…”
The bot cringed when the other banged his fist on the table, causing the two on either side of him to jump in their seats.
“Calmness, please, we are not barbarians,” said the one on the angry bot’s left, “This young man is right, he has done his duty. Till next week, my boy…Now begone!”
The young bot yelped and trotted out of the dark room through the one door that led to a well-lit hallway.
The still seething bot in the middle muttered, “Why do we rely on such incompetence?”
The bot to his right replied, “Because they are on the same incompetence level as the Maximals, of course. How else would he be able to hack into their communications without their even knowing there was one?”
“Good point. And Ultra Magnus?” the middle one replied.
“Still uncertain. He has certainly become a lot quieter in his old age. As for the beast Maximals, Silverbolt and Blackarachnia, they continue to pass themselves off as Maximals.”
The one on the right scoffed and snorted, “Do they realise that they are widely known as the only beast bots left on the planet, and every transformer knows they are Maximals?!”
“Indeed, they seem oblivious. The security Maximal hasn’t a clue, but the femme is cleverer than she appears. She once served under, defected and defeated the second Megatron. She might use her Predacon influence to pull it off.”
“Little fool! Our mole in the Council has been keeping an eye on them, and thus far, they are failing miserably,” the middle bot scorned.
“All that aside, we must allow them to infiltrate our ranks…”
The bot in the middle and on the right stared at him. He shrugged.
“We have so many agents, it’s only fair,” he began with a sly grin, “besides, it might prove useful to have units with such intimate knowledge of Earth…and the Vok…”
They all shuddered.
“Then it shall be,” stated the middle transformer, “For the glory of the Predacon cause!” He held up his right hand and the other two copied. All three slammed a large button in the centre of the table, activating a red light that illuminated all their faces.
“Tripredicus Council meeting adjourned…”
---
Back on Earth, just outside Pangaea One, Greyback and Accinon were adjusting the frequency modulators of the base's shields…much to each other's dismay.
"Dontcha think it's kind of weird?" Accinon asked, bored by the lack of conversation, despite her present company, "I mean, if we're at war now, the Preds would be attacking us left right and centre, right?"
BOOM!
The pair was sent flying onto their back when a photon charge hit right at their feet. Greyback got up and scowled at the cat.
"What?" she asked, defensively.
"Yoohoo! Maxies!" cooed a voice from above them. The pair directed their gaze upwards and saw a green pterodactyl femme smirking down at them, "Mind if we come and play?"
"We?" Grey asked, soon to regret asking, "Aw, crud…"
He dashed towards Accinon, who was still looking up at the flying dinosaur, grabbed her around the waist and flew with her out of the way of another shot.
"Agh! Do you mind?" she scoffed.
"Your welcome!"
"Now come on, what's the point of shooting you if you won't stay still?" yelled a mocking voice from above. That voice was different to the last one they heard. They heard the grinding gears of someone transforming into beast mode, and ducked when a giant bald eagle came swooping down to snatch one of them. The massive bird reared his head, and yelled, "Khronus, Terrorise!"
His golden feathered chest heaved with laughter as he fired his double laser canons at the groundling Maximals.
Ugh, what a perfect start to the day…
"Show off…" muttered his flying counterpart.
"Don't worry, Pteradonna, I'll leave you the burnt bits!" The pterodactyl scowled, then swept in closer to their quarry, firing her shoulder blasters.
"Shouldn't we be getting back to base?!" Accinon called over several gunshots, including her own and Greyback's.
"No, we need to lead them away from the entrance. We can't risk them finding our base!" Greyback replied as loudly. He dodged another shot from Pteradonna and aimed back at her. "I'm getting sick of these shootouts," he muttered, disgruntled, "come on." He beckoned his feline companion away from the mountainside.
Up in the air, the Predacons watched in bemusement as the Maximals began to flee.
"They must be headed back to their base," commented Khronus as he began to follow them.
"You idiot! They're obviously trying to lead us away from their base!" Pteradonna snapped at him, cutting across his flight path and hovering in front of him.
"Oh, please, they can't be that smart…" he sneered, attempting to veer past her.
"Please tell me you can't be that stupid!"
This little distraction allowed the Maximals to head further away, avoiding the forest.
"Shouldn't we be headed for cover?" Accinon asked.
"That's what they'll be expecting…" Greyback answered, panting as they ran faster, "It'll throw them off for a little while…"
"That is he most idiotic, bone-headed plan I've…"
"Watch that dry tongue of yours, kid, you might just lose it!"
Minutes later, the two flyers had caught up and were firing at the Maximals. Accinon constantly asked for a reminder as to why they were running across open savannah where they were easy targets.
"Because we won't be for long…" He pointed his index to their left, to an area that was a lot greener than where they were. The density of acacia trees was suddenly greater, but only just noticeable…from the air, for the tops of the trees had a similar colour to the ground. Accinon smiled, and followed his lead.
"Good plan!" Greyback shook his head. Despite how long he'd known her, he would never get used to the shifting sides of her personality. One minute you were Primus, the next a garbage disposal unit.
They made a sharp turn, throwing their predators off slightly, and took cover under the closed savannah. The Predacons were high up, and so were very confused when the Maximals suddenly disappeared from view.
"What the…?"
Greyback and Accinon were hiding in the shade of a large acacia. "On my mark. Ready?" Greyback instructed, pulling out his weapon, "One…two…"
"THREE!" yelled a voice that was neither his nor Accinon's.
There were several large bangs from behind them. They covered their heads and waited for the firing to cease.
Meanwhile, up in the air, Khronus and Pteradonna were turning their heads, wondering where those strange sounds were coming from. The 'dactyl bot sighed as she spotted the missiles. She tapped the eagle on the shoulder.
"What? AGH!"
The two were hit by a few of the photon blasts and descended to the west, followed by two threads of black smoke.
Greyback finally lifted his head and saw the two Predacons going down. With his weapon still in his hand, he turned and snarled at…
"Wildcat? What the slag…?"
A cougar with a smug look on his face blew the barrel of his gun and placed it back in his subspace. He winked at Greyback, who withdrew his own weapon, and then focused his attention on Accinon, who was scowling at him from the ground.
"How many times do I have to save your aft, sis?"
"Gee, I dunno, bro, how many times to I have keep you off my aft? We had it covered, y'know, we didn't actually need you help…"
"Oh yeah, the running away part really convinced me…" Wildcat sneered back.
Greyback sighed. "There's a reason you two are stationed at different bases…"
Both felines glared at the wolf mech. Reflecting on past experiences, Greyback kept his mouth shut, ignoring the sibling arguments as best he could.
"What are you doing out here, anyway? On your own?"
"Well, sibling, I was on my way for the changeover…"
"That was today? Oh man!" Greyback slapped and reared his head in annoyance, "That explains a lot…"
"Fair enough, brother mine. But where's your buddy?" Accinon enquired, "You're the good child, you should know you have to have at least one…"
"Can it, sis, Souris is behind me…"
"That's not how you pronounce it, dipstick," his sister scorned.
"Sour-ee, whatever. She's right behind me. You know how she gets when there's a battle going on. Speaking of which…"
He turned his head, lifted his fingers to his mouth and whistled. After a few seconds of tentative silence, a small rodent crawled out of a bush, its big black eyes wide with fear. "It's OK, gal, you can come out," Wildcat cooed gently. The brown mouse nodded and came further out. She smiled lightly at the sight of Accinon and Greyback, but said nothing.
"Are we swapping with you guys?" Wildcat asked Greyback.
"Not me, but we were just on shield duty. You know the drill is to meet at P One," he scoffed, narrowing his optics. The cat shrugged. Shaking his head, Greyback added, "You two know well that it's in everyone's best interest to be as far away from each other as possible…"
"No objections here," said Accinon.
"Ditto," concurred Wildcat. The two felines turned from each other and crossed their arms, holding their heads up high.
"Anyway," Greyback continued, "I think what we're going to have to do is take a detour to Pangaea Two. We'll take the long way, in case we bump into any more Predacons."
"But we just hauled our afts all the way from P'Two!" Wildcat complained, referring to himself and Souris.
"That's an order." Greyback affirmed.
Wildcat and Accinon scowled together at the pushy wolf. The first sibling agreement he had witnessed, Greyback observed.
The lieutenant sighed, and beckoned his fellow Maximals to transform into beast mode and follow him.
---
Back at Pangaea One, the Maximals were preparing for the changeover. Sandskimmer explained to Optimus and his crew that every seven or so decacycles, units from Pangaeas One and Two change stations for two reasons. One: it maintained diversity amongst the crew, as each had different skills and specialties. And two: staying at one base too long was boring.
"Don't I just know it," commented Rattrap. At least the Maximals had two bases.
A few megacycles later, a stampede of footsteps came down the corridor from the main entrance to the mountain layer. A large shadow came around the corner…
"SHELLY!!!!"
Nightshaft was gone in a flash, running towards what looked like a walking green boulder. It was in fact a giant tortoise, who transformed when he spotted her headed in his direction. Not a second after he transformed and straightened up to greet her was he on his back after a tackle-hug from the spider monkey. The two bots laughed at themselves, and they were joined by every other bot in the room.
The cavern was filled with gleeful pleasantries as friends were reunited after Primus knows how long. It was a very warm feeling, and when so many smiles were exchanged everyone's spirits were lifted, making them forget about the war, even the new Maximals.
After friends said their hellos, introductions to Optimus' crew were quickly made. The units who had transferred from Pangaea Two were; Shellshock, the giant tortoise who now sported Nightshaft and a necklace (Optimus was informed that those two were the closest of friends, and had been apart for quite a while), a dove femme by the name of Lightwing, and another bird, Moonhawk. She seemed closely-knit with Jagna, who smiled widely at her arrival.
The units who would change places with the newcomers were Vixen, Streakhorn, Sleek, Sandskimmer and Accinon.
"That seems a bit of an unfair trade, doesn't it?" Optimus asked Jagna quietly.
"I'm sorry?" the Maximal leader replied, tilting her ears.
"Well, you've got three coming and five leaving. Doesn't that leave one of your bases undermanned?"
Jagna opened and closed her mouth, mulling through his logic. "Three? Hang on…" she instructed him. He waited patiently as she counted the heads of the Pangaea Two exchangees. Her face relaxed when she finished. "Two of the Twos are late…" she stated, matter-of-factly. Optimus nodded, satisfied. But then Jagna's facial expression reverted back to confusion. She left Optimus to get to a higher level to scan every unit in the base.
"It's good to see you all again," she addressed the new arrivals with a small smile, once she had everyone's attention, "has, uh…has anyone seen Greyback and Accinon?"
Every head shook, looking at one another.
"Weren't they fixing the shields?" someone asked.
"Yeah, but they'd have been back by now…" someone else replied. Jagna's ears flattened, annoyed.
"Right then. Vixen, Sleek, Sandskimmer, your swapping buddies are here, so you three can proceed to Pangaea Two. Streakhorn, you'll have to wait for Souris. As for Wildcat and 'Non…" She narrowed her optics, "…Someone see if they can be contacted. And Grey. This lack of communication is getting ridiculous…"
She descended her 'podium' muttering under her breath, obviously slandering her second-in-command.
"Any luck, Sky?" the leopard asked her technician.
"Nearly…got it!" Skylark hooted triumphantly, and leaned closer to the microphone, "Skylark to Greyback. Come in, Grey."
Jagna held her breath, pessimistically expecting another glitch in communications, but to her pleasant surprise, they got a response.
"This is Greyback."
"Ooh, goodie! Okay, Grey. The P Two units have just arrived…well, most of them…we were wondering where you and 'Non got to…Have you got yourself into trouble again?" Skylark teased.
"Well, actually," Greyback protested, "we were ambushed by Khronus and Pteradonna." Skylark and Jagna both gasped, widening their optics. Hearing, this, Greyback continued assuredly, "We're fine. Wildcat showed up and we chased them off. Souris is here too. We're taking the scenic route to Pangaea Two, in case the Preds follow us."
"Good call, Greyback," Jagna commented, leaning in closer so he could hear him. On the other end of the line, Greyback smiled proudly, clearly chuffed, "continue and keep us posted. We'll have to delay the exchange till later. Careful out there, you lot."
"As always, commander," he replied, saluting, "No Preds we can't handle."
"I wasn't talking about the Predacons…" Jagna replied, lowering her voice. She caught Skylark's eye and they exchanged a knowing look, feeling sorry for Greyback and Souris, the bots who had to endure the siblings for their entire journey.
"Thanks for reminding me…" Greyback replied darkly, "We'll report in two megacycles. Greyback out."
"I'm feeling pretty sorry for Souris right now…" Skylark commented. Jagna nodded, cringing at the thought of the siblings and their squabbling, Greyback's low tolerance level, and the poor timid mouse in the middle.
---
"Ouch! Watch where you poke that thing!"
"Well, if you'd stop squirming, maybe I could get a clear shot."
"OW!"
Khronus and Pteradonna had taken refuge in a niche in a cliff face that loomed over the savannah where they attacked the straying Maximals. Khronus refused to remain still while the pterodactyl femme attempted to inject fluid energy into him to fix the hole blown out by one of the pesky do-gooders. This resulted in a new hole in his thigh.
"You see what I mean? I'm going to need a vice now."
"Just leave it, you pencil beaked parasite! I've suffered worse…"
"…at my hand if you're not careful, you ignoramus!"
Whosever idea it was to pair this couple up because they were both flyers…had a screw or two loose.
As she attempted to seal the new whole in the armour of the now writhing bald eagle, Pteradonna's internal computer notified her of Maximal activity.
"Identify exact location," she instructed, purposefully ignoring Khronus' squawks of agony as she 'accidentally' made another hole with the syringe. Serves you right…she thought.
"Quadrant D-9-7-7-4, headed east."
"The plains…" the 'dactyl bot turned to Khronus, who was clutching his leg, "That's a long way from here…they'll be sitting ducks!"
"Uh, news flash for ya Donna…they could be headed for the limestone cliffs. Plenty of hiding places, and plenty of ammo…" He raised a brow suggestively.
"Hey, that only happened once!" Pteradonna answered defensively, "And they were very big rocks…"
"Uh-huh. Let's not forget the forest they gotta go through to get wherever they're going. Now let's go, before I have so many holes I'll be whistling in the air."
"Be less distracting than the smell, I should think…"
"Why you…SQUAWK!"
A slap on his damaged thigh with her scaly wing signalled Pteradonna's departure when she transformed into beast mode. Khronus shook his head and followed suit, his golden wings outstretched and beady orange eyes ablaze.
---
Souris timidly observed Greyback snarl with his hands over his head as the two of them walked in front of the bickering siblings. She gingerly patted his leg in her beast form. He submissively acknowledged her sympathetic gesture, but she deserved it as much as he did…she lived with the other one.
After the seventh, "Did not", "Did too", Greyback's flipping sequenced commenced.
"Will you two CAN IT!"
They all stopped dead in their tracks. Souris shook her head, and Accinon and Wildcat had their infamous, "What did we do?" faces on. Greyback took a deep breath and attempted to calm down. However when he spoke, his voice suggested anything but calm.
"I have had it up to here with you two," he indicated with his hand, which was shaking slightly. He changed his tone to a hoarse whisper, "This has gone on…too…long…and I swear, if anything else goes wrong today, Primus help you both, I'll…"
"ARRÊTE!" shouted a surprisingly loud voice. Greayback, Accinon and Wildcat spun round. Souris had transformed, and was sniffing the air, elevated on her toes, displaying her rodent mannerisms as her nose worked like mad.
Still a little stunned by the volume that came out of the usually quiet mouse, asked, "What, Souris? What is it?"
She did not answer immediately, but she suddenly spotted what she was looking for: in the air behind and above her three comrades. She pointed and shook her hand frantically, followed by the rest of her body. She strongly resembled a dead leaf being blown off its branch in a gale.
"Touts le mondes! Vite! Vite! Um, uh…DANGER!" She struggled to find the appropriate word to get them to understand that she was trying to say: that Khronus and Pteradonna were closing in on the group, and fast.
She hid behind Greyback, clinging onto his arm when he finally turned around.
"Aw, slaggit, you gotta be kidding me!"
In the air, Donna scowled at her partner.
"Way to go, airhead, they spotted us!" she sneered, pecking him in the side of the head with her large beak.
"Ow! Oh, come on, how is that my fault?" he protested, disrupting her flight pattern by slamming his wing on her.
"Agh! Ugh, forget this. Let's get those Maximals!"
To that, his beak somehow formed into a smile. "Ok. I bagsy the wolf!" And he swooped down. Donna barely had time to stutter that cats give her gas before she followed suit.
"Well, ain't this just peachy?" Greyback hollered sarcastically after he pulled himself and Souris behind an enormous tree trunk for cover. He instructed her to hide within the gaps between each root with gestures rather than words she might not understand. They first found Souris in Galoo Sector, a region of the continent that would eventually become France, and therefore her default language, for some bizarre reason, was set to French.
"Stay there," he instructed her. He withdrew his weapon and came out from his hiding place, aiming his gun at the sky where he last saw the Predacons.
"…Where'd they go?"
"Peekaboo!"
BLAM.
Greyback was thrown off his feet and slammed into a tree behind him, his body tangling in the gaps of the roots. He was in stasis lock.
"Scrap," the siblings said together.
"Okay, they're using the canopy for cover, we'll use the shrub," instructed Wildcat. He was about to head for a thick bush to his left, but his sister grabbed his hind leg with two paws, and his chin hit the floor.
"Ya don't think that's what they think we're thinking of doing? They'll blast you like Grey as soon as you enter a clearing!"
"The point is to not end up in a clearing! We're in a very dense forest and…"
"And you don't think they haven't noticed that?!"
The pair's squabbles could be heard by the Predacons and their comrade.
"Mon dieu…" Souris muttered as she dropped her head into her hand. What she heard next made her shake her head even more.
Above, the Predacons, too were arguing about how to take the Maximals out.
"We should just swoop down there and grab 'em!" Khronus argued.
"No, they'l just cower for cover. Why don't we just burn the place and let 'em run?"
"Uh, yeah, and where are they going to run to?" Donna remained silent, "…More cover! Whatever, we're doing it my way." Khronus dived, withdrawing his weapon, scanning for hidden Maximals.
"Nu-UH!" Donna interjected angrily. She pulled out her flamethrower and followed her partner, burning the vegetation as she swooped.
On either side of her, the mouse femme heard quarrelling, and gunfire. The two things she could not handle. And would not put up with.
Very tentatively and squeamishly, she ducked between shots that Khronus was dealing, and dove under the stream of flames Donna was spilling out of her weapon. Souris arrived next to Accinon and Wildcat, who were yelling at each other and firing simultaneously. She was breathing very fast, clutching her chest. The poor thing was terrified, but infuriated by the level of incompetence the siblings were demonstrating in their current situation.
The felines were abruptly silenced by a slap on a hand by a very sharp little hand.
"Can this wait, Souris? We're kind of…" Before he could say, "busy", she angrily whispered,
"Non! Arête, you two! Zees cannot go on. Eef you would be so kind, zees is vhat you are going to do…"
Not far away, Greyback was stirring. He rubbed his head, and then noticed a large black hole in his chest where he had been hit by that wayward missile. What fun. What was more, the forest around him was on fire.
"What the slag…?"
It was spreading fast, so his first reaction was to pull out a sort of fire extinguisher. While he tamed he flames climbing the lianas, he looked around to see if he could spot his comrades.
He needn't have worried, for when he spotted Souris, she was looking less petrified than before he was knocked out. He gestured mutely to her to inform him of what was going on. She only smiled, winked and pointed at the cats to their right.
Greyback looked, and his jaw dropped. Why were they out in the open? Bickering, wouldn't you know it. The wolf slapped his face hard with his hand and dragged it down towards the ground. Souris placed a reassuring hand on his arm, and retained her positive composure.
"I think we should take the featherless wonder out first…" Wildcat snapped.
"And I think Khronus needs to go…" Accinon replied angrily.
Up above, the flyers hid above a thin layer of canopy, wondering what was going on. Both the cats were saying that one or the other of the flyers was the bigger threat.
"Kid knows what he's talking about…" Pteradonna approved.
"What have you, got a cog that need de-rusting? The girl's gotta strong case…" Khronus said, smugly ruffling his feathers.
"Puh-leez! It's so obvious I'm their biggest threat," the femme replied equally if not more smugly.
"Says the featherless wonder!"
While the two were distracted, Souris (with a little trouble, as the cats were genuinely bickering about something or other now) yelled, "Maintenant!" to Accinon and Wildcat. They fired their weapons simultaneously upwards.
The pair or airborne Predacons, still in the midst of their argument, heard a strange whistling sound emanating from beneath them. They sighed and stared at each other in defeat as the two missiles hit them.
As they were comically catapulted away, entangled in each other's loose parts and sparking circuitry, the distancing sound of short-hand verbal abuses could be heard as their trail of smoke disappeared beyond the Maximals' sightline.
The brother and sister looked at each other, silent for a second, and burst out laughing.
Through gasps of giggles, Wildcat managed to utter, "Man, those two're worse than…"
"You two…" Grey finished for him. He raised a brow at their bowed heads.
"I 'ope you two 'ave learned your lesson aujourd'hui," Souris said, placing one hand on her hip, and pointing the other one at the siblings, "see vhat 'appens vhen you get at each ozer's sroats? Nossing but trouble, mon cher, non?" she asked Greyback, who smiled.
"C'mon. Let's get to Pangaea Two. I'll tell the boss to send a couple of units to make the exchange properly, kay?" The three with him nodded, they all transformed into beast mode and followed the grey wolf in the direction of their secondary base.
As they walked past a large mahogany buttress root, one beady black eye appeared out of nowhere, and followed the four Maximals.
---
A few hours later, in Arachnikahn's personal chambers, he hung suspended in his life support tube. "Well?" He asked the two Predacons before him.
"We were…unsuccessful in destroying the Maximals…" Kronus muttered unhappily.
"I see…Anything else?" Kahn enquired.
The eagle and pterodactyl lowered their heads in shame.
"I might have something…" A hissing voice echoed through the chamber from behind the disgraced duo. Pteradonna rolled her optics and turned around to face the voice, placing both hands on her hips.
"What?" she asked, unimpressed.
"Silence. Let…her speak…" Kahn wheezed, "What have you…discovered?"
"The existence of a second Maximal base…and its location…"
---
Spanner was happily whistling as he walked down a corridor in the cavernous mountain of a base. He entered his private quarters to find Rattrap there.
"…Can I help you, man?" the macaw inquired, wondering what the rat was doing in his room. And why he was smiling.
"Eh, jus' droppin' by teh offer my congratulations to the first bot teh ever oust me at a game." He raised what appeared to be a beaker full of liquid energon, which he 'withdrew' from his own stash on the Axalon. A malicious grin formed on Spanner's face.
"Wanna try another one, homie?" he asked, teeth exposed at the full extent of his smile. Rattrap smirked and tweaked a brow.
"Yeh're on."
"Possibly something to do with what you got there? Winner takes all?"
"I was hopin' yeh'd say that. Let's go rookie!"
Barely 10 cycles later, Spanner was staring into Rattrap's optics, which seemed to have turned a strange shade of magenta. "Brothuh, you goin' doooowwwwwnnn…"
And he was on the floor. Rattrap slammed his tube onto the table, leaning back in his chair and folding his arms in a satisfied way.
"Nobody messes with dis rat."
He grinned as he picked his beaker back up; and self-proclaimed himself a genius as he pulled out a flask of water he used to…'soften' his own drink.
"What goes around comes around…" he left the wasted macaw in his happy place and added, just before he exited the room, "…sucka…"
LOLZ! I adore Rattrap! Does he rock or what?
I now realise that the title of this chapter is truly appropriate....NOTHING HAPPENED> And that annoyed me a little bit. This had turned out to be a sort of a filler chapter :\
Not the next one though, I promise!
A big thank you goes to DarkSpark for input and encouragement! Peace out, dude!
*Yawn* I can finally be done with this chapter. Goodnight.
P.s. 5 chapters? Is that all it's been? o-O
P.s.s I anticipate there are many spelling/grammer errors. Yeah..........I don't really care right now.
'Night!
