I apologise right now for the fact that this is the LONGEST chapter I've written so far. I didn't even realise until I had one scene left to go that it was about 32 pages long. D'oh!
So, sorry about that.
I don't know how it got that long. But I suppose this chapter could be considered crucial. You'll have to read it to find out, won't you?I'm glad I got this up before I go up to my grandparents tomorrow. I have a feeling I won't be on often the next few days.
What's great is, I'm already halfway through chapter 7 already! (I work strangely: out of order most of the time, so the ideas for future chapters stay in my head. It was the same story with my Drama Coursework. 20 pages, 10 questions...no one told me that 1 came before 5
)Anyhow, enjoy! I know I did.
Beast Wars REBIRTH
VOULUME 1
Chapter 6: UNEARTHED PT 1
Rhinox was aboard the Hercules getting a few things together. He was mildly excited, for he was going to examine one of the Maximals' power generators somewhere in Sector 24, south of their current position. He didn't need much; just some scanning equipment.
Once he had all his scanning and repair equipment (for he was informed he might be a significant help to improve said generator), he radioed Pangaea One. It was Shellshock who answered him.
"Pangaea One here. How's it hangin', Rhinox?"
"I think I've got all I need," Rhinox replied, as he read his list, "all I need now are the coordinates for my destination and I'll be on my way."
"Kay, but I'll have to talk to Jag about a buddy to go with…oh…hang on a sec…" his voice quietened, and he appeared to be talking to someone else next to him, "…oh, ok…Here, you might as well talk to her…"
He handed Rhinox over to the leopard, who greeted him a lot more warmly than when they first met.
"Listen, about this buddy system…" Rhinox began, awkwardly, "…it's all well and good, but I think I can manage by myself."
"Well, if I'm perfectly honest…" she replied, leaning closer to the microphone, her voice quieter and a bit muffled, "…the buddy system is really only for the younger bots." She kept looking from side to side to make sure no one could hear her, "Obviously, people like yourself and Optimus can take care of yourselves, but it's just precautionary. A lot of our units aren't used to combat, and don't always know how to handle it. However, I do insist you meet with one of the fields units close to where you're going."
"I understand," Rhinox replied, "so how about those coordinates?"
---
"This is it, Bolt. You ready?"
"As I'll ever be, my dear…"
She sighed, praying this ludicrous plot would succeed. It was only two days ago that she started Silverbolt's 'rehabilitation' into the Predacon ranks. It hadn't gone at all according to plan. He was too…Maximal. But today was their deadline, and they could only hope for the best. If worse came to worst, Blackarachnia would be accepted and he wouldn't. She knew a lot more about being a Predacons than he did after all.
They approached the 'desk' inside a derelict warehouse outside the military sector, where a surly looking mech was admitting bots in through a single door.
They stood in front of him for nearly a minute before he looked up at them. He gave them a once over, and sighed exasperatedly.
"You're kidding, right?"
"Excuse me?" Blackarachnia demanded.
"Listen chumps, I've got a lot of serious work to do, so if you're quite finished wasting my time, beat it." He waved an arrogant hand at them and proceeded to push the button to let the next guys in.
"What are you talking about?" the widow asked, placing a hand on her hip. Silverbolt, who had been instructed to say absolutely nothing, followed her example by folding his arms in order to look impatient…though he didn't know why.
"Puh-leez!" the desk bot replied, laughing slightly now, "Do you think I'm an idiot? Every transformer on Cybertron knows that the beast bots from Earth were all Maximals!"
Blackarachnia didn't approve of his tone. "Not all of them…" she replied darkly.
"Yeah, apart from your fancy hood ornament. Get out of my sight before I call security…"
"Call them then. We'll see who's a Maximal around here!"
He looked up at her questioningly. "What?"
"Listen, bub," she leant an arm on the desk, "the only reason I ever said I was a Maximal was because they were winning…" she held up a claw behind her back to shut the fuzor up, for she could feel him about to crack, "…any self respecting Predacon would've done the exact same thing."
He laughed. "A Predacon would not betray their cause…"
"And I didn't. I'm here now, aren't I?"
He wasn't enjoying this conversation one bit. "But you did help them defeat Megatron…" he protested.
"Yes, but don't you think by now I've learned a thing or two about them by now?" She grinned and winked. He stroked his chin thoughtfully, finally starting to consider it.
"What about this guy?" he asked, nudging his head at Silverbolt.
"Oh, him?" she stammered slightly, "Oh, he's also a former Predacon. The Maximals actually forced him to join, altered his programming and everything…" She silently slammed her foot on his when she heard him utter the beginning of a protesting sentence.
The clerk was not buying it. "I think I'd like to hear it from him, personally."
Blackarachnia glanced nervously sideways at Silverbolt, who ruffled his feathers uncomfortably. The bot at the desk got up and came around to face Silverbolt. He was only a head taller than the widow, and not quite the fuzor's height, but he was still well-built.
"Well?" he asked.
"…Well what?" Silverbolt answered after a moment of silence. The clerk raised a brow ridge.
"Where's that Predacon, huh? C'mon, I'd like to meet him…" He was grinning broadly, obviously enjoying himself. Silverbolt was starting to get agitated. He lanced over at Blackarachnia, who made several gestures indicating he get tough.
"Come on. Come on!" the mech demanded. He started to poke at Silverbolt's chest plate and tug at his feathers, which agitated the fuzor.
"Sir, I must ask you to refrain from doing that…" he stated blandly, his ear mask twitching.
"Whatcha gonna do about it? Or are you too Maximal to do anythin' about it?" the desk bot taunted. Blackarachnia watched on, unsure of what would happen.
As the poking and tugging ensued, something inside Silverbolt snapped at the word 'Maximal'. He grabbed the bot by the collar plate and soared to the high ceiling of the abandoned warehouse.
"I se you haven't got any jets on you," he taunted uncharacteristically, "let's hope you're made of rubber, then."
The bot merely laughed. "Yeah. Like you'd do that."
Silverbolt shrugged. "Your funeral buddy boy."
He let go. The bot fell at least 20 feet, but before he hit the ground, something grabbed his leg. Silverbolt lazily hovered above the ground, dangling the bot.
"Aw, there's so little room to play in here. Why don't we take this outside, where there's miles of sky, huh? C'moooon!" The bot was finally starting to panic.
"Hey look man, I've got work to do…" Though that was not his biggest concern at the moment.
"What do you think, Blackarachnia? I think the construction pits just south of here might be fun. Lots of sharp, pointy objects!"
Blackarachnia just stared up the pair, mouth agape. She wasn't sure whether to be worried or impressed.
"Alright, alright, you've made your point! Yeesh. Now will you let me go?" the hanging bot demanded.
"Interesting choice of words, don't you think?" Silverbolt stated sluggishly, loosening one finger.
"Alright, bonehead, I think he gets the message," Blackarachnia interjected, waving her claws up at him, "we don't want to bump of the recruiting agent just yet, do we?"
"I suppose not.."
Silverbolt finally put the bot down, making sure he made a little thump as he did. Muttering, without looking at either of them, the clerk typed in a few things on a pad on his desk and pressed a button and pointed them through another door at the back of the building.
"Not bad, bonehead," complimented Blackarachnia, moving towards the exit.
Silverbolt nodded, breathing deeply, not entirely sure what just happened. Nonetheless, he shook his head and followed his love through the second door.
Now wasn't that fun? You can't avoid me forever bonehead…
---
Cheetor was bored that day, and decided to do some reading up on whatever files he could bring up on the computer. He could see who he was fighting with, as well as what he was up against.
He skimmed through the first few files: Jagna, Greyback, Skylark, Nightshaft, whatever. He knew enough about them for the time being. He repeatedly pressed the 'next' button to go through all the Maximals. He stopped a little longer on Sleek (a femme who had caught his attention a few days earlier), and then it hit him just how many times he was pressing the 'next' button, and therefore how many files there were. And he was still on his own faction.
He instructed the computer to bring up a list of faction statistics…
There were 33 Maximals in total, spread across three bases: 12 males and 21 females. Cheetor gaped at the screen. That would please Rattrap, at the very least. But now he, Rattrap, Optimus and Rhinox were there, the total tipped to 37.
Then he brought up the Predacon list. Not long ago, there were nearly as many Predacons as before they arrived. 29 to be exact, and almost equally divided by gender (just one more male). It was strange that so many stasis pods from their old ship hadn't been activated during their first visit. The Beast Wars might have gone by a lot quicker if Optimus had half the number of Maximals Jagna did now.
But that hardly mattered. Just because there were more of them, that didn't mean the Maximals were at a complete advantage.
Optimus, meanwhile, was pleased to observe that the Maximals of Pangaea had welcomed him and his team so warmly. Even their leader was feeling more comfortable having them around. And he had been told that she was hard to please.
In fact, she approached Optimus, Rattrap and Cheetor that afternoon with a proposition. She invited them to their second base.
"I think it's about time you knew your way around," she commented, oddly calm.
"Does this mean we're 'allowed' to know how stuff works now?" Rattrap asked, trying his best not to be sarcastic. She nodded. They had broken her outer shell of a distrusting person…at last.
"One thing though…" she said abruptly. Rattrap rolled his optics, "Nothing like that," she said defensively, "it's just a matter of how we're going to get your fearless leader in."
They stared blankly at her. So she explained that Pangaea Two had one main entrance: a swallow hole barely big enough for Shellshock to fit down. And he was one of their biggest bots. She said the only alternative was for Optimus to…
"Swim in?" the three mechs chimed in unison.
Jagna nodded, then tilted her head. "You not fond of the water?" she asked them. Rattrap and Cheetor gave a shudder. "What about you, Optimus?" He shrugged.
"To be honest, I've never entered the water in this form…or any, even…" Come to think of it, had he ever been in the water at all? At this, the leopard femme pursed her lips.
"Well…there's always a first time…" she stated suggestively. Optimus looked at her. He had never taken swimming into consideration before, as he was not a water creature, nor had he ever needed to. But then again, neither was she.
"How do you stay under the water for so long?" He was referring to the 15 minute inland swim to the cave of her third base. Se smiled broadly at him.
"Agree to try and I'll tell you…" He smiled back.
"Alright."
From her subspace, she withdrew a small mouthpiece. She explained that even though as robots they didn't need to 'breathe', their beast disguises did, which in turn meant that they actually did have to. Confusing though it was, it made sense. It seems that every beast era transformer had some sort of problem adjusting to the beast modes. The Maximal leader explained that they had learned this through…unfortunate accidents…
"As for the whole water-getting-into-our-joints thing…" she continued, holding the mouthpiece up, "…you're just going to have to get used to that." She grinned at Cheetor, who was expecting something a little more spectacular.
She didn't think Optimus would have much trouble, for his shiny form didn't look like it was susceptible to a little water. He was hoping the same thing.
The plan was that they would all head in the direction of Pangaea Two, where they would separate. Rattrap and Cheetor would meet with another maximal to guide them to the main entrance, while Optimus and Jagna would head for the second entrance.
"We might as well get going, it's quite a way," she suggested.
"I could get us there in no time," Optimus offered. She shook her head.
"What's the point of that? The landscape has probably changed since your last visit," she said with a smile.
Optimus smiled and nodded. A perfect excuse for sightseeing, he supposed.
---
"Why me?"
"Because I ssssssaid ssssso."
"Yeah, but, but…WHY?!"
Serpentia glared at the reluctant troop.
"Becausssse…" she reiterated, "…if you don't, there sssshhall be ssssome exxxplaining to do…but not to me…" She bared her yellow fangs in a cruel grin, looking behind the bot, who turned and saw the door to Kahn's chambers.
"You…you wouldn't…aw, come on! Please Tia!"
"What have I told you about addressssing me in that manner?!" the snake hissed aggressively, "Now be a good little insect drone and follow my orderssss."
The femme she was speaking to bowed her head in a sulk. She transformed into beast mode, a blue-tailed dragonfly with big, red eyes. She turned and buzzed unhappily away. Serpentia shook her head after her.
"Al that fusssss over a Maximal. Sssshhheesssshhh."
---
"Secure Code accepted. Processing…"
Click. Whirr. Bzt.
"Analysis completed. Accessing data…"
A large red hand picked up the vile in the scanning unit. It contained clear, blue liquid. But the hand's owner gave it a shake, and it began to glow with streaks of silver and green running through it. Once it was still, it became clear again.
Ultra Magnus walked up behind his old friend. There was only one light source in the dismal underground lab which swung from the ceiling, only just lighting up the table where he was working.
"Well?" the tanker enquired.
"It seems our initial comprehensions were merely subliminal to the greater scale of this thing. Our ineptitude to warrant such an assumption is quite perplexing, when we consider that what we actually expected to see in this compound was…"
"Perceptor…" Ultra Magnus moaned.
"Ahem, yes…" The red Autobot technician rubbed the back of his neck and continued, "It is almost exactly what we thought it was."
"Almost?"
"Almost as in there is an extra element in here that I cannot identify. Yet, anyway. It's going to take more time than you can give me, I'm afraid."
Ultra Magnus nodded grimly.
"You know, you'd be better facilitated back up on the surface. And exposure to the moonlight might do your power cores some good," he suggested, looking his old friend up and down. Many of the Autobots had died away, and only a few remained, including the odd Decepticon here and there. Ultra Magnus was one of the few survivors of the Great War to live out in the open. The remaining survivors, such as Perceptor and various others, preferred to keep their existence concealed.
"Thank you, my friend, but I am perfectly equipped right where I am."
"You won't last down here for much longer…" Magnus added, his tone growing more worried.
"Neither will you up there…" Perceptor replied.
The two Autobots looked carefully at each other, each knowing exactly what the other was thinking. They didn't need to say it.
Perceptor got distracted by a muffled squawk that came from a shelf to his left. He narrowed his optics, and exclaimed, "I say, is that Lazorbeak?"
"Mm. He's been following me around for a few days now." Ultra Magnus replied, "I've tried to ignore him, but he won't take a hint. Kind of like his master, eh?" the bot joked. He didn't even try to hide the fact he knew the winged cassette was tailing him.
"Yes, well, I won't have that thing in my lab." The professor stated firmly. Magnus chuckled again.
"It's alright, I'm leaving anyway. He'll follow me out. Thanks again, Perceptor." They shook hands, and Ultra Magnus left his old comrade in the piece of his secret home, which few on the planet actually knew about.
Perceptor looked back at the vile that he had left on the table, squinting. It began to glow bright white without provocation. Perceptor's optics widened.
"Fascinating…"
As he left, Ultra Magnus heard Perceptor seal his chamber. He shook his head sadly, and continued walking.
"Come on then, Lazorbeak," he said lazily and indifferently. Not acknowledging the comment, the metallic bird flew after him.
About 15 cycles later as he walked down a corridor towards an elevator, Ultra Magnus received a transmission from Diamond Nine.
"Diamond Nine to Ultra Magnus. Come in Ultra Magnus." Her tone was urgent.
"Ultra Magnus here, report Diamond Nine."
"Finally! Where have you been, we've been trying to get a hold of you for over half a megacycle!" She sounded very rushed, and was talking quickly.
"Apologies, there must have been some bad reception," he lied. Perceptor had in fact installed communications dampeners covering a whole parsec around his underground home.
"You've gotta get your tanker up here now, Ultra Magnus. We have a Code Blue situation, scenario Gamma."
He screeched to a halt, his optics widening. "You don't mean…"
"Yeah. Megatron is gone."
---
Xaphron was zooming across the ice sheet in beast mode, not far behind Rhinox (who had taken the Maximals' hover platform), her thorax twitching uncomfortably in the chilly breeze.
"Slaggit, It's cold!" the insect complained as she buzzed over the icy savannah. "So not only do I have to deal with that Maximal gargantuan, I have to do it with my wings frozen. Thanks a lot, leader…" she complained, beating her wings faster than usual to keep them from turning stiff with cold.
She swerved to a stop suddenly when she saw the deserted hovercraft. Someone must have forgotten to cloak it. She rubbed her skinny arms together. "This'll do better than anything else on offer here…"
She flew excitedly towards it, but when she was barely four feet from it, it disappeared. Unfortunately, she was travelling so fast, she couldn't stop herself. She was flattened against the force shield, then catapulted away from it in a light show of sparks. Slightly sizzled, she picked herself up and rubbed her head.
I hate being a Predacon…we always lose…
Then she caught a glimpse of footprints in the snow. It was not snowing, and there was no wind, so they were quite clear to her. She grinned. A little smaller than I recall, but that must be the Maximal…
Meanwhile, Rhinox was starting to ever-so-slightly regret agreeing to this mission. Or did he volunteer? Either way, as he trudged his way through the bitterly cold ice having left the sheltered comfort of the hover-platform, he was starting to regret it.
He regretted it even more when he was hit in the back by a convoy of bullets. He fell face first into the ice.
He lifted his head, spat out a mouthful of snow and groaned. Xaphron was smiling to herself (no one could ever tell if she was smiling because of her mandibles, both in beast and robot mode).
He stood up and turned around to face a skinny insect femme bot. She didn't look like it would take much to bring her down; a gust of wind, perhaps. But she could fly, which was an advantage she held over Rhinox.
As he fired at her, he came to a conclusion: she was a female incarnation of Waspinator, at least in terms of buzzing around avoiding as many bullets as possible. Though he had to hand it to her, she seemed to have a lot more coordination than the wasp.
And she had better aim. She managed to hit Rhinox again, throwing him back a little. She landed in front of him, twitching her mandibles.
"Wait a minute…who are you? Aren’t you supposed to be…"
"Xaphron! Over here…"
Without really thinking, the dragonfly turned around at the sound of her name.
"Oh no. No! NO!"
SPLAT.
Before Xaphron was flattened by the enormous hairy foot, she whimpered something about 'This is what I meant'.
Rhinox looked up and faced a giant woolly mammoth. It was smiling at him, so he was thankfully reassured it was a Maximal.
"Uh, thanks…" he began slowly.
"No problem, hun," the pachyderm replied in a very, very deep female voice. She transformed, towering over Rhinox by a least two feet. She bore a green and gold colour scheme, much like his, but was clearly a femme bot, though quite heavily-built.
"Name's Stampede," She smiled more broadly at him.
"Rhinox, and thanks again," he replied, returning the smile.
"So, Rhinox," she placed her hands behind her back coyly, "what's a big, hunk o' Maximal like you doin' in a barren tundra like this?" She had slowly walked towards and ended up behind him and placed an enormous arm around his neck, her golden shoulder plates creaking as she did so. Her smile had grown, if possible, even wider.
"Uhhhh…"
He didn't know quite how to react. His first instinct was to spin his way from under her arm.
"Oh, I get it!" Stampede playfully winked, and Rhinox attempted another smile, but his mouth ended up resembling a crooked coat hanger.
After that, they walked together across the icy plain.
"So what kind of generator are we talking about?" Rhinox asked the gigantic woman.
"It's a make-shift geo-thermal reactor. Kind of like the one at Pangaea One, only we ain't got no lava here, y'know?" She laughed at her own joke, nudging him. He tried his best to conceal that she almost knocked him over.
"Still, that's pretty impressive, considering you only had salvaged parts," he commented kindly. She nodded. She held a hand out for him to stop.
"Well, here we are!"
"Here we are where?" he asked, confused. He looked in all directions around him, but saw nothing but the many mounds of snow they had already passed.
She smiled her broad smile again. "Check this out…"
She bent down and started brushing some loose snow aside. Under about half a foot was a switch. She pulled it, and from out of the snow rose a large, bulky machine dotted with radars, solar panels and pressure monitors. On the large black screen was a green grid outline of the surrounding area and the pipelines that lead to each major geyser in the region.
"Nice, huh?"
"Very," Rhinox replied. He didn't think the machines these Maximals managed to build from salvaged parts would ever cease to amaze him.
"Well then, I've been instructed to allow you to…help yourself," Stampede added with another grin.
Later, while Rhinox busily tapped away at the keys on the console of the generator, Stampede was on watch. Her shoulders tensed up as she saw a small black dot about a parsec from them across the icy plain. She tapped Rhinox on the shoulder. He turned to see what the problem was.
"I don't see anything…" he commented. Stampede squinted.
"Then whaddya call that?" She pointed to the spec, which was moving. The pair of them watched the dot suspiciously. Then they heard a strange hissing. Rhinox turned back to the generator.
"Is it this?" He asked. When she did not answer, he turned around again. She had shifted herself into a defensive position. There was another dot now, and it was coming towards them, getting bigger as the hissing got louder too.
"Get behind me!" she yelled suddenly. Bewildered, he hastily complied. Before he could ask why or interjected that he was perfectly capable of handling himself, she had taken an enormous shield out and held it in front of her. Suddenly, a large explosion threw him backwards against the generator, and her on top of him.
A second later, he grunted and pushed her off him. She was quite a bit larger than him, so it was slightly difficult.
"Stampede?" he asked her hurriedly, "Are you alright?" She groaned and stood up, clutching her stomach.
"Yeah, that missile was a small one…for now…"
Rhinox set his scanners on where that projectile had come from. The dot was no longer there. He heard her snarl.
"I hate that little…"
"Who?" asked a very confused rhino.
"Keep those scanners o' yours on high alert, we ain't alone here." she instructed seriously, her playful tone gone.
Rhinox complied, and withdrew his chain guns. She nodded approvingly.
"There!"
Rhinox turned on his heel and aimed, ready to fire. Standing about fifty metres from them was a black and white flightless bird.
"…It's a penguin…" he stated blankly. Stampede ignored him and fired at it. It speedily dodged by sliding out of the way on its belly. Rhinox shrugged, deciding it was obviously not a real penguin, and followed it with a shower of bullets.
Avoiding each one, the flightless bird dropped down on its belly and slid towards them, Rhinox and Stampede's bullets following him every meter. But before he reached them, he swerved to his left and headed for the machine. However, Rhinox managed to block his path, and the bird headed away again.
"You ain't getting our generator!" the femme yelled at the tiny bird. She transformed into beast mode and followed him, her enormous feet causing miniature earthquakes as she swung her head from side to side in order to put her trunk and tusks to effective use. The penguin was fast, but not fast enough to avoid a whack on the side of the head from a pillar of ivory.
In mid-air, the penguin suddenly transformed. He landed on his feet on the ice and skidded across it like a figure skater. In fact, the transformer had blades on the soles of his feet.
Stampede slammed her foot on the ice. A large crack travelled from her foot to where the transformer was headed, and he plummeted through the ice. Stampede watched the ice pieces float and the bubbles die away.
"That'll slow him down a bit. The ice freezes over pretty quick here, but he'll find somewhere to resurface. We need to hide this thing…"
"Why's he after it? The schematics I reviewed on the Predacons' base said they had their own power generators."
"Yeah, well, they can't seem to get enough power," she stated bitterly, "Come on. This thing is actually a lot bigger than it looks."
Indeed it was. Rhinox didn't have enough time to have a proper look at it before they were attacked. The phrase, 'tip of the iceberg' came to mind when Stampede quickly showed him what lay under the ice. The machinery extended miles beneath them, and he was told that it stretched outwards for miles as well, so as to reach as many of the geysers in the area. There were also insulated pipelines that she explained were only active during melting season, and they were used to carry the meltwater from surrounding ice sheets and glaciers to a secondary hydro-generator.
"Very impressive…" Rhinox quietly mumbled. These Maximals were quite the scavengers. Some of their salvaged technology was more efficient than standard mechanisms on Cybertron.
"This is one of the most important power supplies to us on this planet, the most in this region. Arctech, the one in the tux, is a scientific forager, if he gets his dirty little flippers on this contraption…oi…"
"And not only that, we seem to have another Predacon interested in it," Rhinox said. Stampede laughed.
"Psh. That little bug is terrified of me. She won't try anything…on her…own…" She trailed off mid-sentence, coming to a realisation. Rhinox came to the same conclusion.
"They'll be sending more…" he said slowly. She nodded.
"Archtech must've alerted their base of our location. Dangit!" She slammed the heel of her palm into her forehead, "I've never let him get so close before…slag! Slag! Slag! Slag!" She hammered her cranium harder and harder with each curse, and Rhinox had to stop her before she caused any damage. She came to a realisation: "Xaphron! Damn! No wonder she was such an easy target today!" She shook her head at not realising the dragonfly was a diversion.
"We'll just have to hide this thing extra carefully," Rhinox assured her. She huffed, explaining that was easier said than done. Because of the vast scale of this project, there was a lot of ground to cover and conceal. And Archtech could be under any of the ice sheets, waiting for them.
"Easier said than done, hun…" she replied, in a bit of a slump. Rhinox shrugged. Well, he wasn't going to know what to do anyhow, was he?
"Come on, show me how it's done. I'm a fast learner."
---
Optimus, Cheetor, Rattrap and Jagna had been making their way to Pangaea Two for almost a megacycle, but they hardly noticed. The Axalon crew had spent a lot of time inside either the mountain base or the Hercules to have noticed what was now outside.
The landscape had indeed changed. When left to its own devices, undisturbed for however long, Earth could work wonders with itself.
They had left the harsh, mountainous region that Pangaea One occupied and were now in a flatter, mellower landscape. The mountains were far behind them, but ahead they could see a limestone cliff, cut into for miles by a magnificent river.
They followed the gorge for about a parsec before Jagna instructed Rattrap and Cheetor to climb up to the top and continue upstream for another kilometre.
"You'll meet a badger when you get close…" she began, then Cheetor cut in.
"Misty?" he asked. He remembered his 'escort' well. She was a nice bot. Jagna nodded, and they went their separate ways.
"How far now?" Optimus asked the Maximal leader. He guessed they were close, as the entrance was via a waterway.
"Just here," she said, nudging her head to where the gorge widened out and the limestone cliff face began to slope.
She transformed into robot mode and withdrew the mouthpiece from her subspace. "Ready to get wet?" she asked, tossing one to him. He shrugged and nodded, deciding to remain in beast mode as he didn't know how wide the passage was.
The river seemed to branch out at where she entered it. She gestured him to follow her down one of the smaller segments of the wide river.
Here goes…
He put on his own mouthpiece, entered the water after her, and submerged.
He was surprised at how quickly he took to the water. It was almost like being in the air, something he had been accustomed to for quite some time.
The river suddenly became very deep, deep enough that even he could not stand with his head above the water. He could see Jagna just ahead of him, the light glistening through the glassy surface.
They seemed to be heading right for the sloping cliff face. Optimus wondered why, but then he saw the femme dive deeper, so he followed. He saw a dark opening where the riverbed met the bottom of the wall.
They swam into it.
He didn't quite know how long or how far they went, but when they finally resurfaced some time later, he was once again awed by the sight of the Maximals' resilience and hard work.
They were in a chamber, the second of three, that were laid out next to each other in a triangle. The one they were in looked like it was for recreational purposes, the third (to their right) had nine large data bank machines in it, and the first and largest chamber was filled with even more machinery. Not as much as in Pangaea One, but just as functional. In fact, Optimus recognised the console on the largest wall (the wall with the fewest stalactites or stalagmites) as Megatron's old holographic orb. He wasn't aware that thing survived Tigerhawk's attack.
Jagna smiled proudly at the look on his face. They entered the main chamber and were greeted by Bounder, whom Optimus hadn't actually met yet. Then he spotted Rattrap and Cheetor.
"Nice, huh? My kinda place," Rattrap said approvingly.
"Yeah, a giant hole in the ground," teased Cheetor.
"Actually, I've been meaning to ask you about that," Optimus turned to Jagna, puzzled, "why are all your bases located underground?"
She shrugged. "Where else can we go, really? And besides, we're well hidden."
Optimus tilted his head. It sounded like a safe assumption, but being underground did have its disadvantages as well.
"Mates! G'day there!"
Sandskimmer hopped up to them with a big smile on his face.
"Haven't seen ya since the swap! How's about a tour then, eh?"
---
Meanwhile, back on the ice, Stampede was explaining the still glitch-ridden cloaking procedure. Then her on-boar computer began to beep. She took out a small electronic pad that had a grid displayed on the monitor, with 7 large red blips moving towards the centre.
"Aw, slag! They've sent their entire aquatic platoon!"
"Go!" Rhinox instructed, "I think I can manage from here. Hold them off as long as you can, I'll join you when I'm finished."
Stampede nodded, put the pad back in her subspace and ran towards the direction of the many Predacon blips.
Rhinox was hurriedly following the mammoth's instructions, hardly noticing a long, thin creature slithering up behind him. Until it was too late.
He turned to see the thing at his feet. The water snake flipped its tail onto his leg and sent a powerful surge of energy right through him. He yelled and fell to the floor. The eel transformed. It was Elektra. She gave the Maximal another little shock for fun.
Just then, the penguin that attacked the Maximals earlier arrived, sliding on his belly.
"Archtech, Terrorise!"
He transformed and, ignoring Elektra, went straight for the console on the half-hidden generator.
"Your welcome for getting rid of him for you…" the eel spat, placing a hand on her hip.
"I coulda taken him…"
"Yeah, once he was alone," she jeered back, laughing at him.
"Just keep them busy, I'm working here!" he snapped, still refusing to look at her, focusing all his attention on the machine.
"Watch it before I shock that tux right off you!" Elektra retorted, "Just remember this ain't a priority."
"Since when did you care about priorities? 'Sides, I've been after this thing for stellar cycles, I am not passing this up. So beat it Sparky!" the Predacon tech retorted.
"Oooh, very original…" She took out a medium-size rocket launcher and shot a hole in the ice. She put her weapon back in her subspace and dove through the hole and into the water. At least she could join in bringing the mammoth down 6 to 1. That was always fun.
Stampede, about 200 meters away, was kicking off a large pike that had attacked itself onto her leg with its teeth. She was trying to get as far away from the ice where there were several surfacing holes, but it was too late. A torpedo was fired from beneath the ice, blowing an enormous hole big enough for all the Predacons to emerge from.
"Octotron, Terrorise!"
"K-Scale, Terrorise!"
"Rockjaw, Terrorise!"
"Blackscale, Terrorise!"
Those four Predacons transformed simultaneously as the emerged from the icy water. Octotron was a large purple octopus, who gripped the rough surface with his tentacles as he climbed out. In robot mode he was tall, bulky and purple accented with gold, his tentacles emerging from his back, like Rampage, but they harboured machine guns, like Tarantulas' original form.
K-Scale resembled a creature from Egyptian mythology: he was a chimera, a fusion of a crocodile and a dog, and he had the same ruthlessness and ferocity as the myths portrayed. He growled and immediately began slashing at Stampede's legs with a chainsaw made up of the teeth of his crocodile head.
The next two were femme bots: the large hippo was Rockjaw, almost as heavily built as the Maximal mammoth femme, but nowhere near as tall. However, she had great strength, which she used to full effect. Blackscale, a jet black iguana with aqua marine frills, followed her.
"Aw, come on, this ain't fair!" Stampede moaned, kicking off the pike and running for her life. The fish lay flopping on the ground.
"Hey! Get back here!" he yelled. "Trawler, Terrorise!"
When he transformed, he was still on the floor, flailing pathetically. He hated being on land. Blackscale ran past him and yelled, "Get up you lazy tailpipe!"
"I'm getting, I'm getting!" He got up eventually, and ran after the group…or at least tried to, for he was used to the water and constantly tripped over his own fins (that joined together when he was in the water).
Back at the generator, Rhinox was coming to. He groaned and looked up. The penguin was in robot mode and had taken the board of the console off and was fiddling with the wiring inside. He quietly reached for his chain gun a little way away from him on the ground, and stood up.
"Hey!" he said, catching Arctech's attention, "You must be lost, 'cause that's not yours…"
The Predacon technician stepped back, putting his hands up. The two stared each other down for a few seconds. Archtech reached for his weapon, but Rhinox riddled him with bullets before he could get to it. He picked up the out-cold Predacon and flung him as far as he could.
"Tells you how much I'd trust you…"
He scanned the surrounding area and spotted movement near the horizon. He zoomed in to see Stampede fighting off (or attempting to fight off)…six Predacons!
He ran to aid her. He was halfway there when a hand somehow made its way through a tiny hole in the thick ice, grabbed his leg, and pulled him under with such force it might have knocked a smaller transformer out. Fortunately, Rhinox remained conscious and focused, but he also found himself no longer in the open air, but in the ocean.
Not again, he thought bitterly. He didn't have many fond memories of being this wet.
He saw a shark coming towards him, fast. But it wasn't entirely a shark…it was a fuzor: half shark, half canine. It must have been what pulled him below the waves. He got out his second gun, only to discover it was useless underwater.
Slag!
"Going somewhere, sunshine?" the shark taunted as it glided slowly towards him. It was femme bot. Geez, where do they make these femmes? thought Rhinox.
Next thing he knew she had clamped her jaws into his arm. And since they weren't real shark teeth, but made of razor-sharp steel, they sank right through his armour. A storm of bubbles escaped his mouth as he felt several rows of teeth, and grunted in pain.
Suddenly, she let go of him to transform into robot mode. She closely resembled old sketches of a Sharkticon, as her tail was perched on her back and her limbs were made up of her canine parts. The top half of her shark head lay on the chest, and the teeth, which doubled up as blades, lay diagonally across her chest like a belt of bullets.
Once again, she tried to take a bit out of him. But although Rhinox didn't particularly enjoy being in the water, he knew how to handle himself in it. Just because his guns didn't work it didn't mean his fists weren't.
She was fairly hefty, like most of the Predacon women he'd bumped into (which he still found bizarre), and her jaws were powerful, but not as much as when in beast mode.
Rhinox eventually managed to rid himself of his toothy limpet by kicking her in the face with the side of his leg (covered in shark spikes). The fuzor whimpered and thrashed backwards, shaking her head. Rhinox took this opportunity to clamber out of the water, using the blade he 'borrowed' from his attacker as a pickaxe, and hoisted himself up.
Unfortunately, it didn't take long for Razorblade to follow him. Being part-Great White shark, she easily leapt out of the water and ended up on dry land in robot mode.
"Rhinox to anybody! We got some serious Pred trouble at our end! We're outnumbered!" he yelled into the com-link, firing at Razorblade while trying to aid Stampede, who was grossly outnumbered and barely holding her own.
To Be Continued...
---------------
MAJOR EDIT:
I've changed this into two chapters - Unearthed is now a two parter, simply because it's so damn looooong
Which means....i uploaded two chapters at once!
Sorry for screwing you all around, but this isn't doing my head much good, either
2ND Edit: WAAAH! MY HEAD HURTS! All this editing and changing things is so confusing!
AND I have to rename every single document I have a record of past chapter 6 for REBIRTH (I've planned all the way up to chapter 13 X_X
That, and there are no longer any bold or itlics in her, but that's just tough.
Bye ;_;