I have finally completed...chapter 16...the first chapter of...
*drum roll*
Beast Wars Rebirth...................VOLUME TWO!
I really want to thank Blazemane for this. I replied to his discussion in the Console about fanfictions, and even if it wasn't directly linkes, it gave me a boost and a kick up the aR$3 to finsih this darn chapter! It's been staring at me, mocking me with its three or four paragraphs missing...but behold! The finished product!
Before I continue, I must say that it ws quite difficult thinking of things to say for all the awkward scenes. I found it was really easy to just write a load of drivel that had to be rewritten many times over, but I got there.
That, and I loved playing around with a fresh new character! Read on to find out more
Allow me to present:
Beast Wars REBIRTH
VOULUME 2
Chapter 16: After the Storm
The next morning, the mountain cove of Pangaea One was unusually quiet. The formerly converted Maximals, including Rattrap, were feeling cut-off from the rest of the group. The tension was still looming like a low fog. It was not that the Maximals didn't trust their recently reinstated comrades, but the memory of the last few days lingered, making everyone uncomfortable talking to anyone else. It wasn't even anyone's fault.
Only one seemed unaffected by it all.
Sandskimmer sat in front of a monitor, more focused on it than ever before, as if staring at the screen would block out the rest of the cave.
Suddenly, a hand grabbed his shoulder (though non-threateningly) and spun him around in his chair. Skimmer gasped in surprise as the base spun with him. Finally, the hand stopped him. The dizzy Maximal focused his blurred optics on…
"Ah!"
Greyback's face was uncomfortably close to his, with an unusually wide grin on it.
"Mornin' skipper," the jerboa laughed nervously, unsure of what to make of this strange situation.
"Morning Skimmer," Greyback replied with and air of uncharacteristic gaiety, "wonderful morning, isn't it?"
Sandskimmer stared at him in utter disbelief. "What planet are you on, mate?"
"Earth," Greyback answered obliviously, "and it's a wonderful planet."
"You're staring to scare me…" Sandskimmer said, retreating as far as he could into the back of his chair.
Greyback laughed heartily in response and patted the young Maximal's shoulder. Then something caught his eye at the central console. He smiled and patted Sandskimmer's cheek twice as a farewell and walked jollily away, leaving the jerboa stunned and confused.
Greyback almost waltzed over to the console, greeting everyone he passed with a cheery "Morning!"; turning every head in the room, including the one he was headed for.
"We're chirpy today, aren't we?" asked Jagna, who was busy assessing the new security codes for each base.
"We have our reasons," Greyback returned with a wink. She laughed lightly, but she cleared her throat and quickly turned her head back to the holographic schematics she had been inspecting. She, too, felt awkward being herself around the others after the fiasco of the last few days.
Greyback paused and took the time at last to gaze around properly.
Everyone's so miserable, he observed. Yes, he understood, but no one was at fault and they were all together again. There's no need to be like this…
His eyes wondered back to Jagna as she leaned over the console to get a closer look at her codes. A thought popped into his head, and he grinned. He decided it was time for the others to realise that the past was no longer the now.
He walked over and stood next to his commander. She straightened up, about to ask him what he wanted, but she never got the chance.
He grabbed her waist and pulled her towards him, dipped her deeply and locked his lips onto hers.
Her eyes were wide as plates to start with as she wondered what the heck was going on. But she caught on quick, and embraced it. The two of them smiled, almost laughed as they sensed everyone in the room staring at them, gob smacked.
After a few more seconds of simply enjoying themselves, Greyback lifted Jagna back upright and let her go, a little reluctantly. Smiling broadly at each other, Jagna said, "Alright you, get back to whatever work you're supposed to be doing,"
Just as playfully, Greyback replied, "Yes commander,"
She turned back to the hologram, the two of them ignoring the astonished chins on the floor. Before he left, Greyback pulled on her tail, making her 'Miaow!' with surprise. She squinted at him as he exited the cavern, chortling.
"Haven't you lot got work to do?" Jagna asked the room, her tone now much lighter than it was.
Wildcat picked up his jaw and whispered to Signia, "Did that just happen?" Without taking her eyes off Jagna, he dolphin nodded in response, unable to speak from shock.
Everyone looked at each other awkwardly, trying to decide how to react. No one had smiled all morning.
Spanner slowly shuffled towards Jagna, who lifted her head when he reached her. It took him a while to speak, but when he could manage he said,
"Do we all get to say good morning to you like that now?"
After half a second of silence, they burst out laughing, bent over double or leaning on the console for support. Eventually, the whole room joined in, and the tension was finally lifted as friend laughed together once more.
…
……
…
At the Predacon base, Arachnikahn was still recovering from his fury fit of the previous night.
"Not only do they undermine me," he had bellowed uncontrollably so his voice echoed down every corridor of every level of Porta Magma, "they defy me, betray me, and my sorry excuse for a lethal Predacon army couldn't do anything about it and let a HANDFUL OF MAXIMALS GET THE BETTER OF THEM!"
This morning he sat alone in the control centre where none of his Predacons dared venture. He sat slumped low in a chair, drumming his claws on the arm. He knew now, as well as having suspected anyway, that Troupe Iniquity had ulterior motives they had been implementing behind his back. What worried him now were the inevitable consequences of their untimely demise.
Death did not concern him; he had lived through it once already. It was how he would suffer until then that terrified him, frankly.
No. not after I've come so far…
"You will not find me!" He slammed him fist on his chair with such force he left a fist shaped dent.
"Ssssssir?"
"Leave me…" Kahn said hurriedly. He did not know how long Serpentia had been standing there…
"I havvvve a progresssss report for…"
"I am not interested…" he hissed back, almost as strongly as her.
She continued anyway, "Desssspite our recccent…failure…." She uttered with slight difficulty, "…we can at leassssst be thankful that Maxxximal morality isss down tenfffold. All their ffffield unitsss are being called to basses, and it isss possssible they will ssssoon be evacuating Pangaea Two."
Kahn snorted, unimpressed. Maximal morality at its lowest did please him the majority of the time, but today was…just not his day. Besides, Maximals had that annoying tendency to turn dire situations into energon and daisies. That mindless optimism had always sickened him.
"I have a suggesssstion…" the serpent offered. A twitch on his brow was a signal she could continue, "…Arctech hasss completed and refffined the ressssearch we uncovered."
Kahn's interest was lit up again. "And?"
"And it can be done."
"Excellent," he uttered slyly, and broke into his manic laugh, joined by celebratory hissing from his lieutenant.
…
……
…
"Where is he? Where is he?!"
Skylark ran manically through the base asking everyone she passed the same question, and before they could respond with "Who?" she was already asking the next person.
At last she spotted her quarry: Greyback, and ran flat out towards him. He spotted her to, but not in enough time to escape her flight path. She crashed into him with a gear grinding hug, lifting him a foot off the ground.
Dazed and winded, he tried to ask what the slag she was doing, but she put him down and adjusted his position into a head locking snuggle and rubbed his head, all the while squealing, "At last! At last! At last!" She then finally ceased rubbing his crown like she was grating cheese and squeezed his head in another tight hug. She was making strange high-pitched noises as she giggled uncontrollably with delight.
"Sky!" came Greyback's muffled shout, "As lovely as your cleavage is, I'd appreciate a chance to breathe, please!"
"Oh, right, sorry," the owl replied sheepishly, still grinning as she released him. As he rubbed his neck, she poked his stomach, repeatedly chanting, "You! you! you!..."
He attempted to block the poking, failed, and couldn't help but laugh. "What in the Pitt are you poking me for?" he demanded between chuckles.
"You know full well!" she squeaked, pointing a finger at him, having finished her finger torture exercise. When he continued to look cluelessly dumfounded, she huffed and continued, "A certain THING you MIGHT have FORGOTTEN to tell me this morning?"
He finally caught on, and chuckled. That little titter was just the confirmation Skylark was looking for. She squealed even louder, jumping up and down, clapping her hands, and couldn't resist another hug.
"At last!" she sang again, "Do you have ANY idea how LONG you guys have kept me waiting? It feels like a millennium. Oh wait, it HAS been a millennium!"
"Woah Sky, calm down," Greyback said amusedly, placing a hand on her shoulder as if to prevent her jumping too high and cracking her head on the ceiling, "What are you talking about?"
"Oh, Puh-LEEZ!" she heaved waving her arms, "As if it wasn't obvious?! I'm so happy for you guys, come here!"
Once again, she grasped him around the waist and squeezed him tightly, and he would have blushed were he not made f metal. Was it that obvious?
"Have you confronted Jag in this manner?" he asked amusedly when she let him go.
"Nope. She's next!"
After one final squeeze she was off like a shot. Grey considered warning the leopard, but…
"Nah."
…
……
…
In a training cave, Llamara stood as still as a statue, a sword in each hand. Then, with the most precise excellence her body moved with each cutting edge as if following choreography to a dance. She had never been so precise in execution with her weapons before, but after the recent incident, her understanding of how to use them elevated.
The swishes of the motion echoed through the cave, creating a deadly sound. Llamara felt strangely at ease with it.
She swung around, each sword passing her one by one, graceful at first. But she saw Spanner standing at the entrance and dropped them clumsily with a gasp of surprise. The macaw winced when the swords fell.
"How…" the llama femme panted nervously, "How long have you been standing there?"
"You've gotten pretty good with those thangs," Spanner commented just as nervously, but in a more terrified way.
"Yes, well…" Llamara shuffled and cowed her hooves, "I was just…"
"Y'know what? Imma gonna let you…y'know…" He exited swiftly without looking at her.
Llamara was left standing alone in the room, her posture slumped and awkward as she stared at the empty space Spanner had just occupied.
She dragged her feet towards a stone bench and dropped herself onto it, burying her face in her hands, sobbing lightly.
It might have been ten seconds or ten cycles, but after a while she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up.
"Oh, Nomad…" she breathed. He gave her a small smile.
"At last. You are the first not to have called me Drifter. I was starting to worry my name had been forgotten," the camel replied disheartedly. She tried to laugh, but it came out as a choke. He sat down next to her, keeping his hand on her shoulder.
"At last," she repeated with a gasp of irony, "You're the first one to talk to me willingly,"
"I understand how you feel," he began.
"No, you don't," she interrupted firmly, rising to her feet and throwing his hand off her, "You see these things?" She walked over to one of her fallen blades and picked it up to show him, "Three days ago they were my safeguard. Despite how long I've had them, I was never much good with them. Do you know why? Because I didn't use them. I didn't need to, I didn't want to use them. But then they became…they…I became…"
Her voice started to change pitch, and her words became more and more difficult to utter.
"Having said that," she continued, "If I did know how to use them, perhaps this wouldn't have happened. They took us by surprise, but perhaps if I knew how to defend myself, defend you guys…I wouldn't have become such a monster."
"It was not you," Nomad replied straight away, rising to his feet as well, "You would never do such a…"
"You're right, I wouldn't!" she snapped, now getting hysterical, "But…I…I liked it…"
He stared at her, but her gaze remained on the floor.
"I liked knowing what I was doing, not what I was doing…" she continued slowly and defensively, "…I liked being in control. For the first time, even though it wasn't me doing it, I knew how to fight. But what I hated was that what I was fighting for wasn't right. And that witch…" She pursed her lips at the memory of Peruvia, "…she used that against me!"
Her grip on the handle of her blade tightened so that her hand shook. Then it loosened, and her arm lost its strength to keep itself up. She did not drop her sword, but it tentatively dangled in her grasp. She covered her face with her free hand and breathed unevenly, trying to control herself.
Nomad's hand took hers that held her blade and lifted it up. She reluctantly let go of her face and saw that he was holding it up in front of her so that she could see her reflection.
"I do not see a witch," he said kindly, letting go of her arm. She held her blade steady now. "I see the same caring Maximal you always were. And she's here to stay."
She turned around to look at him.
"As am I."
For the first time since their reincarnation, she smiled, and he did too.
Suddenly, Accinon ran into the room, panting.
"Llamara! Nomad! There you are!"
"You were looking for us?" the llama enquired cautiously, wondering why Accinon wasn't looking at them like the others had been. In fact, the lynx was smiling.
"Yeah, Jag's called a meeting in the main control centre," Accinon informed them.
"We did not receive any notification," Nomad said slowly.
"New protocol," Accinon explained, "messages are being sent personally until security is reconfigured. She felt them staring at her, unsure. "Come on, guys!" she said desperately, walking to stand in between them, "It's been weird for all of us, but…well, it's over now. Whaddya say?"
She placed her arms around both of them, and they stumbled, wide-eyed. Llamara looked down into the young Maximal's optics. She was thrilled to see that Accinon was being genuine, and some of her guilt lifted off her.
"I say…let's not be late!" She returned the gesture by putting her own arm around the lynx's waist. Accinon looked up at Nomad, who smiled when Llamara did.
"Thank you," he said quietly to the little femme.
…
……
…
Porta Magma was buzzing uncomfortably, too. Everyone knew they were in for it when Arachnikahn eventually came out of his strop.
Fights erupted every now and then amongst the Predacons who were at home base and who were stationed at Pangaea One.
"You couldn't handle a few Maximals and a wayward bunch o' zombies!"
"While you sat on your fat aft doing absolutely nothing!"
Xaphron tutted seriously. Well, 'serious' as in she tried to look serious. No one ever took her seriously. The komodo dragon mech Gammatron happened to be next to her.
"What?" he asked irritably as she continued to resemble a clock ticking.
"This. Is. Ridiculous," she moaned, her dragonfly wings buzzing in annoyance, "There's always at least one conspiracy working at a time. Sometimes more! Seriously, everyone here seems to be thinking about taking over, or making trouble, or planning to take over the universe, yada yada yada," she said dramatically, not taking it too seriously herself. Gammatron just kept a neutral face and 'listened' to her, "There's the whole 'how did this thing start?' cover up, the Iniquities, I'm positive Crowbeak's got this Starscream complex, Serpentia's hiding something, even I'm thinking of taking over just to get it over and done with! The only one who seems even remotely sane is y…" She caught the look on his face, which seemed to say otherwise. "Oh, come on!" the insect wailed hopelessly, "What could you possibly be up to?"
He did not respond for a while. "Wouldn't you like to know…"
Xaphron buzzed suspiciously. "Well, I suppose it can't be the worst one. Ow, my head. I'm gonna go lie down…"
The lizard stared after her, "Yesss. You do that…"
…
……
…
Greyback watched the Maximals tentatively enter the control cave, eyeing each other awkwardly as they did. He shook his head. Then he spotted Jagna coming out of the third corridor to his left. He noticed she was limping, and grinned.
"Skylark?" he enquired.
"She jumped up and down on my foot," the leopard answered irritably. She could obviously sense he knew something like that would happen. "That and I might need a new neck brace…"
"Awfully excitable today, isn't she?"
"Don’t give me that. I will have justice!"
…
……
…
"This should be interestin'…" Rattrap mumbled to Shellshock who nodded. He had not said a word all morning, and had been deliberately avoiding Nightshaft. What she said last night hit home hard. He never would have thought his best friend would think of him like that.
The Maximal leader braced herself before she entered the control cave. When she did, many people pretended not to notice. It was only when she was stood on top of her 'podium' near the centre back wall with Greyback stood behind her did everyone listen.
It took her a little while to speak. "Well…" she began as nonchalantly as she could, "Obviously there's a lot to explain…"
"Can I say something?" Caricaal asked timidly from amongst the crowd, raising her hand.
Jagna nodded after a moment's hesitation. The desert feline stepped forward. She was usually so quiet, and would never have asked to speak before.
"You can stare at us like this all day, but you should know it hurts more than if you slagged us all off. You can ask us questions if you feel we need to gain your trust back, provided they're not about Hellcat. Or Jaggid, or Eradicator, or any of them. We don't know." she said simply and plainly, "And no matter how strongly you think we're lying, we're not. Ask us, then ask yourselves, 'Would I lie?' How could you?"
The base remained silent. The Iniquities' victims lowered their heads, as Carri stared imploringly into the crowd. Nothing. She gave up, and resumed her conspicuous position in the silent crowd.
"Alright, that's it!" Greyback shouted, pushing past Jagna to stand in front of the Maximals, "I'm gonna go ahead and say it straight out: get over it people!" The room stared at him. "It's weird, it's awkward, I'm not going to deny that. But rather than avoiding them, we should be grateful we have our friends back in one piece."
As he said it, he took a few steps backwards, and placed his arm around Jagna. Whispers erupted from bots who had missed the morning's events, and smiles spread across the faces of those who hadn't.
"We can move on now," Greyback continued, sweeping the cave with his gaze, "And let's face it; if I can, anyone can, right?" A wave of agreeing murmurs flooded the room. "There we go," he said quietly with a smile.
"Well said," complimented Jagna. She pulled his tail, and he let out a small yelp. He squinted down at her, and she smiled innocently.
Shellshock bumped into the pair, and he grinned widely. "You dawg," he said with a wink and a hard nudge.
"Yeah, yeah, very good, Shell…" Greyback replied, nursing his arm.
"Right then. Onto the new protocol for security around here," Jagna announced, clapping her hands together, "Obviously, leaving the codes solely with me is a…a bad idea," she shifted uncomfortably and cleared her throat, "So I'll be needing a few volunteers to help me out with something quite important…"
There was silence.
"Anyone?"
Still there was no response.
"Well. So much for that," Jagna said, rather deflated.
"I'll do it!" Cheetor suddenly said, raising his hand. The femme looked at him, dumbstruck for a moment, then her gaze turned to admiration.
"Thank you, Cheetor," she said slowly, as if still unsure if it had actually happened. He smiled back at her.
"Count me in!" Moonhawk chirped, raising her hand and stepping forward. Jagna's smile broadened pleasantly.
"Et moi," Souris squeaked, followed by Bounder and Sky Scraper.
Jagna beamed. "Excellent. That'll do. Alright you lot, with me," She beckoned them to follow her into one of the side chambers, and signalled to Skylark to take to the stand.
The owl stepped forward and announced, "And the rest of us will be given our own unique codes to access the main consoles and secondary security depository. It'll take a few days though, and each of you is going to have to go into stasis lock for about 6 megacycles to download the whole programme, so to speak. Optimus, if you don't mind, you'll be first."
Optimus was a little surprised, but he nodded in agreement. Skylark held out her hand to lead the way towards the group leaving with Jagna. The leopard was waiting for him in the doorway with a smile on her face.
"I take it then," he began as they walked down the corridor together, "that we're good now?"
She looked up at him and replied, "We're good."
…
……
…
"Well?" spat an angry tarantula after more pacing in his quarters. K-Scale flinched slightly.
"They're reconfiguring their security codes…" the reptilian fuzor answered.
"And?"
"And we won't know any more for another few days. They're doing it one by one and it's taking ages."
Kahn grumbled slightly, but instead of exploding in a hysterical fit like K-Scale thought he would, he shook his head and sat down.
"No matter. Gaining the Maximals' base was only an extra commodity. We have bigger things to think about," He pressed a button on the arm of his chair. He did it with a small malicious smile, as this was the very chair he managed to rebuild from salvaged material from the wreckage of his old base. Every time he sat in this chair, he thought of his old leader: now a prisoner on a far away planet, thousands of years behind him.
The button opened the door to his chamber. Camophlage had been waiting for him. She offered him a smile that he resented.
"I want you to give our friend a message," he instructed.
"Would you like it faxed or hand delivered?" she asked with a hint of anticipation.
"Give him the works…"
…
……
…
Meanwhile, back on Cybertron, barely two days had passed. Silverbolt and Blackarachnia were still waiting for word from their Predacon contact.
"I fear we may have been…unsuccessful," said Silverbolt, drooping his ears. Blackarachnia shook her head at his lack of confidence in her Predacon abilities, but she knew he was probably right. News of the beast bots had spread all over Cybertron, and apparently, 'Maximals didn't defect'. Total slag. But that was the attitude.
"When did we last hear from Optimus and the others?" Blackarachnia asked out of interest as she leaned on the window sill of their quarters.
"We didn't…" Silverbolt answered thoughtfully.
"Hm…" She didn't like the sound of that.
Suddenly, something just below their window flickered. The widow was taken aback and gasped slightly, and the next second Silverbolt was there.
"What is it my love?"
"Down there!" Blackarachnia pointed to a dark figure zipping very quickly from one side of the street to the other. After four or five zigzags it stopped. It was waiting for them.
"Come on…"
Downstairs, the couple very carefully made their way to where the figure stood as still as a statue. From its build they could tell it was female.
"We were wondering when you'd show up," the femme sneered lightly.
"Alright, whoever the slag you are, come out before I fill you so far up with venom you'll be a walking Petri dish…" Blackarachnia threatened.
"Yes, yes, very nice," the femme answered, stepping out of the shadow and into the street lamp light. She had the longest legs either of them had ever seen, and she had…six of them. Blackarachnia stared, "Although you should know you're not the only ones with fancy new gizmos at your disposal…"
The 'legs' they had seen resembled spider legs, but were made entirely of metal, and looked incredibly light and easy to use. Blackarachnia pursed her lips, muttering, "Copy cat…"
"Cool huh? Amazingly affordable prices on the black market these days. Although a little skill in blackmail here and there does come in handy once in a while," she winked at Silverbolt, and plucked one of his feathers from his wing with a mechanical claw. He growled, but did not advance.
"Fine," Blackarachnia said coldly, "now as to the 'who the slag are you'…"
"I am your new partner. Hijinx is the name, espionage is my game. Among other things I happen to be good at," she Hijinx added, staring sexily into Silverbolt's optics. He gulped.
"Hey, hey, back off," the she spider hissed menacingly, "if you're the idiot they've sent to help us, give me the return address. We don't need any help."
"Yyyyyeeeeeaaaaaahhhh…" Hijinx replied, unconvinced, "you've really enforced our opinion about your spying abilities, Maximals…"
Blackarachnia and Silverbolt simultaneously withdrew their weapons.
"How do you know we're MaxOOF!" Silverbolt was interrupted by a very sharp elbow in the gut.
"Puh-leez, don't try and cover it up," Hijinx implored lazily, "It's not like your boyfriend here can pull off anything past 'not a morning person'…"
We'll just see about that…said an eerie voice in Silverbolt's head. He had heard it before, but he shook it out, ignoring it completely. He didn't want his love to know there was something bothering him.
"Then why haven't you scrapped us yet?" Arachnia asked suspiciously.
"Well, surprisingly enough, you may be of some use to us…and us to you, depending on how you look at it…"
The widow paused, "…Go on…"
"Okay. Your High Council; Maximals, Predacons, Decepticons whatever, seem to be under the impression that we're up to something," Hijinx began.
"And by 'we' you mean?" Silverbolt asked.
"Ah, ah, ah, all in good time Fluffy," Hijinx replied, wagging her finger at him as if telling off a child at school, "We could actually do with your help. And by 'your' I mean you two."
"Why us?" Silverbolt asked again.
"Well, I'm kinda outta the loop on that one. Personally, I think you're overrated," Blackarachnia hissed at the remark, but the femme continued, "And before you get into the whole, 'Well why should we help you, Predacon?' thing," she said with a falsetto voice and flamboyantly exaggerated 'hero' gestures, "…You'd like to know what Megatron's been up to in his spare time, wouldn't you?"
She grinned widely, baring brilliantly white steel teeth. This was beyond serious. If this femme really knew what Megatron was up to…
"And by the way, you are to reveal none of this to your precious Ultra Magnus, or any of the High Council. Shall we?" She gestured to the floor just behind her. A panel slowly raised itself off the ground at her call.
The fuzor and Transmetal spider looked at each other.
"Lead the way…"
…
……
…
Cheetor and Greyback were in a sub chamber of Pangaea One, discussing the plans for the next few weeks. Rattrap sat idly next to them. He was only there because he was told to, for whatever reason. But he had a sneaky suspicion he wasn't going to like it.
"Now Cheetor," Greyback explained thoroughly, "as you know, Signia has finally come across what she's been looking for for quite some time now…" He brought up a hologram of the area Signia had scanned. Cheetor inspected it carefully while Greyback continued, "We've been tracking it for decades. We know it's of Maximal design, and it's been giving off the lowest frequencies at random intervals over the years. Got anything for me?" the wolf asked, hoping the cat might recognise the disfigured hunk of steel from his previous visit to Earth.
Cheetor spent a few more cycles staring at the hologram with his optics squinted. Then all of a sudden, "It's the Axalon!"
"What?!" Greyback and Rattrap chimed together. The rat jumped out of his seat and went to stand next to the cat.
"How did you get that from that?!" he asked. In his opinion, the object in the hologram more resembled a shrunken pumpkin with legs than any kind of spacecraft. "…'Sides, that's impossible. There wouldn't be anythin' left of it after four thousand years!"
"Well, Rhinox did often boast about it being the most endurable ship in the exploration fleet," Cheetor commented, still awed by the sight of their old ship after all this time.
"Yeah, yeah. Puh. Hard teh think we started off as explorers, huh?"
Cheetor nodded. In fact, he'd forgotten completely. Greyback inspected the hologram thoughtfully. Signia's calculations showed it was approximately 3,500 feet below sea-level in an area of relatively low drift.
"Who would you say knew your Axalon the best?" he asked, not taking his eyes off the data.
"Well, that would be Rhinox," Cheetor replied.
"Yeah, but we need him here," Greyback pondered, scratching his chin.
"Well," Cheetor began, "there's always OW!" The cat yelped at the throbbing pain in his foot. He glared at Rattrap, "Whatcha do that for?"
"Do what?" the rat answered innocently. Contrary to his intention, however, he caught Greyback's attention.
"Rattrap? How about you?" the wolf asked slyly.
"Woah, no. No way, uh-uh, forgeddit! I ain't goin' scuba divin' again for no piece o' equipment you think might be there. Get some other punk fish bot teh go!" The rat desperately waved his arms and shook his head in protest, but Greyback was having none of it.
"No, we need someone a little more familiar to the structure of the vessel to help Signia manoeuvre down there,"
"Well, then, send spots!" Rattrap yelled, pointing to Cheetor, "I mean, he ain't no engineer, but at least he can tell his skid plate from his elbow! Allegedly…" he added sneakily.
"A cat? In the ocean? He'd be like a fish out of water. Besides, I heard you've done this before,"
The Maximal lieutenant put his hand on Rattrap's shoulder and led him away. Just before he left he shot Cheetor a quick wink, and the Transmetal II feline chortled.
…
……
…
"Maximal signature approaching,"
"Scan and identify," Kahn instructed the computer.
After a few seconds the computer replied, "Identified," and brought up the schematics on the wayward trespasser.
"Ah, excellent. Our little friend has arrived right on time. The best enemy is a punctual one, I always say," Kahn rambled to Crowbeak, who gazed disapprovingly at the approaching Maximal as his leader disabled the entrance security to allow the Maximal in.
"Why do we even need this guy?" the vulture complained with his usual pursed lip, "It's not like he's a genius or anything, he doesn't even have special access to the new codes. Moron didn't even volunteer…"
"Yes, I will talk to him about that," Kahn replied darkly, "but he's still our best, and regrettably, only asset…"
Just then, the door to his chamber opened. Neither of them even bothered draw their weapons, but lazily turned around to face their visitor.
"What a coincidence! We were just talking about your brilliant contribution!" Kahn exclaimed with the most distasteful falseness, "I mean, without you, the takeover of the Pangaea bases would not have been possible…"
"Takeover nothing, we got kicked out!" Crowbeak barked. Arachnikahn slapped his forehead.
"Yes, I know, I was trying to MAKE A POINT!" the spider bellowed, and the Maximal shuddered knowing it was directed at him. Kahn arose from his chair and slowly walked over to his 'guest'. "Need I remind you of the conditions of our agreement? I mean, you know how hard it is for me to control my appetite…" he sneered nastily down at the shivering Maximal.
"Y…You…you can't…"
"Oh, but I can," Kahn corrected, "I can do anything I slagging well please." He uttered his chilling Tarantulas laugh, "And you are merely a pawn in my plan…one whose very spark now belongs to me!" He leaned over the Maximal so that he bent over backwards and fell to the floor, cowering with terror. Kahn sniggered at the pathetic display of sentimental weakness.
Crowbeak grabbed the Maximal by the throat and hoisted him four feet off the ground, his wings flapping silently but menacingly. Both he and Kahn were now smirking. Gasping for breath, the Maximal was tossed back into the doorway, where he landed at the feet of three more Predacons looming threateningly over him.
"Now get out of my sight and do your work," Kahn instructed forcefully, "my spy…"
***
Disclaimer: I claim no rights to Beast Wars © Hasbro or its characters. However all original plotlines and characters herein belong to me.
***
Tadaaaaaaaaaaa!
Oh noes, a SPY?! KNOW WAE! What will happen, I wonder? Join me again for more tales from Jagna's head *closes imaginary leather-bound story book and puffs on cigar* Good night, my children!
EDIT: God, I'm stupid. I put the wrong chapter number/title down. DUR. X_X Fixed now, though! ^^;
