Alternate Season 2: Episode 1 - Enter the Dragonfly (part 1)

[Tundra]

Cheetor was impressed there still were swamps on this planet. He didn't like it - stuff he didn't want to think about was seeping in his joints and gumming up his servos - but after the aliens had done their best to wipe out this planet, it was kind of cool that parts of it had remained stubbornly unchanged.

OF course, it would have been nicer if they were currently wandering around grasslands like Optimus's group, instead of slogging through something that appeared to be half mud and half rotting vegetation, and which sometimes sucked him in up to his hip joints.

"I never thought I'd say it," Rattrap grumbled from beside him, "but there are days I really miss my original beast mode."

"Why, so you could enjoy the stink more?" Cheetor shot back.

Rattrap elbowed him. "A real rat wouldn't be sinkin' up to his tail every other step."

"Good point. I can just hear Rhinox when he sees..." A sound reached him, and Cheetor cocked his head, dialing his audio receptors up to full power. A whining buzz, getting closer fast, invisible in the near twilight under the trees but heading straight for...

"Heads up!" Cheetor shouted, diving sideways as a dark shape narrowly missed his head. He barely glimpsed it before it vanished into the trees; it was too dark to be Waspinator, definitely too big, but from the way it flew and the rough impression he'd gotten of the shape - big head, long, needle-like body - it had definitely been insectoid.

"Slaggin' Preds!" Rattrap shouted. "They beat us to the pod again!"

Cheetor pushed himself out of the mud carefully, all his sensors scanning the area around them. Rattrap was still on his feet, gun drawn, circling slowly as he did the same. The shape was gone, though, as was the sound, and after a few cycles he relaxed and lowered the weapon, though he kept it in hand. "Guess we get to go back and tell the Big Banana the good news."

"Maybe. But don't you think we should at least try to find out what they've got?" Cheetor looked around. "Or maybe there are even other stasis pods. Rhinox said..." He faltered, remembering how close they'd come to losing Airazor, how fragile a protoform in a damaged pod was. "Rhinox said the alien ship knocked a lot of them out of orbit, and he couldn't track them all."

"Hey, you wanna keep slogging around this mud hole looking for an empty stasis pod and getting dive bombed by Preds, be my guest. Me, I'm heading back to base before something rusts."

"I guess you're right."

Cheetor paused to look around again, and suddenly the whine was back, followed almost immediately by the shape making another pass at his head. Cheetor ducked and whirled while Rattrap started firing; as the shape dodged the blasts, Cheetor was able to identify the bulbous head and needlelike body as belonging to a dragonfly.

A dragonfly as big as Rattrap in robot mode.

It vanished in the trees again, but this time, they didn't lower their guard, instead taking up positions back to back and waiting.

"Weird that the other Preds aren't attacking with it," Cheetor murmured.

"Count yer blessings, kid," Rattrap shot back. "An' keep quiet."

They waited, listening, but the buzzing didn't renew. Then a voice from the side shouted, "Don't you guys think you're a little quick on the trigger?"

"Not quick enough!" Rattrap shot back, whirling to face the direction of the voice.

"You attacked us, remember?" Cheetor followed Rattraps example, putting his hands together and preparing to fire an energy pulse.

"Hey, you think I'm stupid? I woke up to find two strange bots wandering around with weapons drawn. You don't think a little recon was in order before I wandered up and introduced myself?"

"He does have a point," Cheetor muttered.

"Eh, maybe." Rattrap raised his voice. "Okay, then, if you don't have anything to hide, come out an' show yourself."

"You're still the ones with guns pointed at me."

Cheetor let the energy pulse dissipate and separated his hands. Rattrap didn't move. "Rattrap!" Cheetor said quietly, reaching over and shoving the smaller bot's hands down. "Better?"

"Better." There was a pause, and as movement drew his attention Cheetor finally made out the shape of the dragonfly as it sidled around the side of a tree. "Wingstorm, maximize!"

The dragonfly unfolded into a mech about Cheetor's height. Wingstorm's color scheme didn't change much in robot mode; he was still mostly a blue almost dark enough to be black, but now with hints of chrome at his joints, and pale blue optics. The darkly glittering compound eyes of his beast mode had slid down onto his chest like a shield; slender - and still eerily insectoid - arms and legs had unfolded from his beast mode's thorax, and the elongated abdomen had become a spear, slung across his back between his wings, and held in place by his beast mode's legs.

"You're a Maximal?" Cheetor asked blankly.

"Of course I'm a Maximal. What else would I be?"

"With a beast mode like that, you look like a Pred," Rattrap retorted. "And why would a Maximal attack like that?"

"It wasn't an attack." Wingstorm's optics flared with amusement. The wings folded down his back flexed and energy crackled along them, releasing in a blast that took out a nearby tree. "That's what an attack looks like."

Rattrap still hadn't lowered his gun. "So, you're tryin' to tell us the Preds didn't get to your stasis pod, an' you just came online all on your lonesome?"

"Rattrap! Come on, you heard his activation code."

"Anyone can change their activation code, kid."

"He's fresh out of the pod! You can't think Megatron would..."

"Maybe so, but that sure looks like the kind of beast mode a Pred would choose."

"Oh, for...yes, there were a couple of Predacons around when I came out of the stasis pod: a wasp that didn't seem smart enough to transform on his own, and a big red bot who kept ranting about his queen. As for my beast mode, given where I landed I'm lucky not to've wound up a mosquito."

"An' nobody tried any funny stuff to bring you over to their side?"

"Well, the red one kept trying to tell me about my duty to 'the colony', but come on. My data tracks might be a little faulty, but I remember enough to know I'm no Pred." He shrugged. "I took out the little one, and lost the other one in the trees. Then I saw you guys."

"An' figured you'd have a little fun at our expense."

"Lay off him," Cheetor snapped. "We got lucky this time; we should be grateful, not trying to drive him over to the other side."

"Yeah, I guess." Rattrap holstered his weapon, looking wholly unconvinced. "Just seems a little weird to me."

"Don't mind him; he's paranoid." Cheetor stepped forward and offered his hand. "Hi, I'm Cheetor."

"Wingstorm." The insectoid bot took his hand in a firm grip. "Good to meet you, Cheetor." He grinned again and looked past Cheetor's shoulder. "You too, Paranoid."

"Eh, can it. The name's Rattrap." He waved off Wingstorm’s proffered hand. “Now come on, let's get back to base. I can't wait to hear what Optimus has to say about this."

[Blazemane]

Interesting beginning. You are effective at describing both situations and internal thoughts.

How's the rest coming?

[Tundra]

Thanks for commenting; it's hard writing when you don't know if anyone is even still around reading.

I'm working on the second "act" of Enter the Dragonfly right now; my goal is to have the entire story finished before the new DVD set comes out on June 7. The rest of the season is outlined, but only bits and pieces are written.