Memories

Dinobot couldn’t sleep. Instead of attempting to go back to sleep he takes to the outdoors. Under the quarter moon he makes his way to his favorite spot. His favorite spot was an assortment of rocks in the middle of the river that ran next to the base. Jumping onto one he curls up on it. From time to time water crashes against the rock, spraying him with water.

“On nights like these I wonder what happened to all the people I knew on Cybertron? How did I end up on this worthless planet, fighting a god-forsaken war? Ah yes, that’s how,” Dinobot said. He begins to replay his final days on Cybertron in his head.

Dinobot looked at another e-mail for him on his laptop. He rarely got any e-mail that intrigued him. Many, like this one, were pointless and wasted his time. He deleted it and looked at the next one. It was from Ledger, his friend of many years. They first met at the Aconite, a military training school for all factions. They shared a room with five others, but he got along with him the most.

He could understand why, both were somewhat the same. Both were loners and fierce fighters. They rarely asked for help or accepted it and looked down upon those who used a gun as their primary weapon. They graduated with honors and since then kept in touch. One day they even traded their favorite weapons. Dinobot gave Ledger his favorite set of throwing knifes, which he won in a fight against Opal, a Maximal who fought in the Great War. He still kept in touch with him too. In return Ledger gave him his Drill-bit Sword, which he still fought with today. The letter said:

Dear Dapper

I am sorry to say I won’t be around for a while. How long I do not know. I can’t say where I’m going or what I will be doing, but I can tell you that I never knew a better bot. My trip will probably be so short that you won’t notice I’m gone.

Ledger

Ledger gone. The words played over and over in his head. Did it have to do with the meetings he secretly went to? That has to be it, what else could it be? He would get to the bottom of it one day. He closed the e-mail and opened another one from another person he met at Aconite.

The bot caused so much trouble at the school. From taking the name Megatron to starting several uprisings against the staff. He was the spark that started the fire. He joined a debate just to see Megatron in action. He was now a leader of a small band of Predacons. Their goal was to make the Predacons the rightful rulers of Cybertron. The letter was for him to join them in one of their daring plans.

“Maybe I will,” Dapper said as he turned off the laptop.

Optimus sits on the floor of his cell. His new home, for the time being. He coughs from the smoke coming from the lava pit beneath him. The recent events got him thinking. Above all, why were they here to begin with? It wasn’t his fault Megatron stole the Golden Disk. Then again it was his duty to stop them. A lot of good he did. For some odd reason he remembered the day he came back to Cybertron from his first exploration.

“Hey Optimus me and Rye are goin’ out on the town to find some fresh blood for our next exploration,” Ratchet exclaimed. They just got out of the hospital and the small robot was already beginning. It was true they needed a few more hands, after half the crew got food poisoning from eating horut. He told them not to eat alien food.

“I know this is just a excuse for you to party the night away, but I’ll let you go.” The small bot did a little dance upon hearing this. “Just try not to get in trouble.” Optimus continued.

“Who me? I wouldn’t know trouble if it hit me in the face,” Ratchet replied.

“And besides, I’ll be with him,” Rye reasoned.

“We might actually bring someone back with us!” Ratchet joked as they walked away.

“I’d like to see that.” Optimus said under his breath as he headed in the opposite direction. After walking several blocks he stops in front of a bar. “Why not?” Optimus said to himself as he walked inside. He had to admit that bars were the best place to find someone with the skills he needed and wouldn’t pay an arm and a leg for. He approached a table with five robots of different factions sitting around it.

“What do you want?” A red bot asked.

“Sorry to interrupt you. I’m looking for anyone who has any experience with ships.” All of them raised a hand. “That can fly,” Optimus added. Two hands went down.

“How much you willing to pay?” The red bot said.

“134 a week.”

“Wrong answer.” Another bot said as he hit Optimus with the stool he was sitting on. The blow knocked Optimus back a few feet. Before he could fight back the other four join him. The last thing he remembered was flying through the air, then nothing.

“Ah Tarantulas I knew you would be here,” Blackarachnia said upon entering his lair.

“My dear where else would I be?”

“Working on another of your brilliant plans.”

“You know what they say. A tyrant is just another tyrant, Hehe. You know they also say we learn history to not repeat the errors of the past. Looks like Waspinator needs to brush up on his,” Tarantulas laughed again as he screwed a bolt.

“You don’t really care who’s in charge do you?”

“Are you serious? I would stab Unicron in his front. I dealt with enough people with like Megatron and Waspinator to know how to handle them.”

“How’d you come to know Megatron in the first place?” Blackarachnia asked as she took a seat on the lab table.

“That’s right little one gather around and Uncle Tarantulas shall tell you a story.” He pulled up a chair and began to tell the story of how he first met Megatron.

He saw his prey. A young female bot who had wandered into an alley. He followed her into the alley, rain bouncing off his body. This would be his eighth victim. He smiled as she saw him and shouted:

“TARANTULAS!” His smile grew wider as he recognized the name of the serial killer. Many feared him, why he didn’t know. He heard stories, but they were just stories. What he didn’t know was that young bot wasn’t referring to him. He felt a hand go around his neck. Before he could move he felt a knife cut his arm.

The little girl screamed as he fell to the floor. Tarantulas muttered one word as he shot the bot on the floor two times:

“Copycat.” She was too shocked to move, even as he got near her.

“Please don’t kill me! I’ll do anything! I’ll be good!” She pleaded.

“Now tell me why would I kill you? Feeling guilty?”

“No, not at all. It’s just I know you’re the serial killer, Tarantulas from the news.”

“I only kill fools and those I despise. You are neither of those. Go live, tell what happened here tonight.”

“Thank you!” She exclaimed as she fled down the alley.

“Bravo. What a performance, I almost cried.” A big purple and black bot said as he clapped.

“What you want Megatron?”

“Ah so you know who I am. You and I have been making the news lately. Two hundred and ten victims. You must have despised a lot of people.”

“Right now I’m despising you. Get to the point before you get the point of my knife.”

“I am in need of your services. Not this one, nooooooo. Your other skill I need.”

“So you’re in need of a scientist? What do I get paid?” Tarantulas said as he crossed his arms and leaned against the wall.

“Whatever you want.”

“You got yourself a deal. When do I begin?”

“Right away.” Megatron said as they shook hands on it.

“I’ve been working for him ever since that day. Seven years.” Tarantulas said as he finished his story. “And me. Are you happy now?” Tarantulas added when Blackarachnia gives him a look.

“I can’t really say that I was surprised with your being a serial killer,” Blackarachnia said. She slid off the lab table and headed for the door. “Thanks for the story Uncle Tarry,” Blackarachnia said as she dashed out the door before Tarantulas had a chance to throw anything at her.

“The nerve of her, but who knows maybe I am an uncle? Me an uncle hehehe I crack myself up.”

Cheetor loved his walks through the plains. He stretched out on the grass and looked up at the stars. There were hundreds of them, each lighting the sky with their light. Some were dimmer than others, some were brighter. He had a theory on stars. He felt that each star represented a transformer. That would explain why stars are born and die. The star shines the brightest when the transformer happy, brave and so on. The star the dimmest when a transformer is mortally wounded or sad.

He believed that the darkness of space represent transformers that had died or haven’t been born yet. He wondered where was his star. Would it burn bright? He didn’t mention his theory to anyone yet. He was afraid that they would laugh at it, except Rhinox and Optimus. Optimus; he couldn’t believe he was gone. He felt so much older than he was. He wasn’t the same kid Rhinox and Rattrap first met.

“Look Cheats can we hurry this up? We gonna miss the Wind Rider taking off.” Ave whined. He had no idea why people began calling him Cheats. They said the name just fitted him. Right now he was putting his models of several spaceships away into his school bag (what else was he going to put in there)?

“Do you have to keep calling me that?” Sobriquet said. Ave grabbed his left arm as she led him towards the Axon Spaceport.

“Cuz Sobriquet means nickname so we thought you could use a real name.”

“Sobriquet is a real name!” Sobriquet protested.

“It does seem ironic in a way.”

“So you’ll stop calling me Cheats?”

“Nope! You’ll always be my Cheats. Now enough out of you young man or you shall get no supper,” Ave chided him.

“Boy if mom could see you now.”

“She’s watching us now!”

“No she can’t really see you. What’re you pointing at…”

Across the street from them was their mother Usr. She was waving for them to come over.

“Told ya!” Ave said. She punched his arm playfully and together they cross the street. “Hi mother dearest, it’s your two kittens and they both still have their mittens.”

“So my wonderful children where are you going?” Usr asked after she flicked Ave’s ear.

“To see the Wind Rider take off. Why mother, would you do us the honor of accompanying us to the spaceport?” Sobriquet asked.

“I will. I don’t want anything to happen this time, understand?”

“Who us?” Ave said as she pointed to herself.

“Why mother how can you say such things?” Sobriquet added.

“Save it. Now hurry up or else we’ll miss the take off. Wait a minute Sobriquet you’ve got something on your face. Don’t mom me. Stop moving, I can’t get it. Sobriquet get back here, don’t you run on your mother. He thinks he can outrun me, I’ll show him!”

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. Little brother should know better,” Ave said. Halfheartedly she followed them. She had been running for only thirty seconds before she caught sight of them. Usr had him by the ear and was lecturing him. Upon seeing her they both ran toward the airport. Knowing a challenge when she saw one, she ran with all she had.

Jumping on a blue bus she sailed past them in no time. It looked like she was going to win a hot rod with Sobriquet and Usr on it roof past by. She ran toward the front of the bus. She didn’t stop there, she launched herself into the air and landed on a car. She hopped from one car to the next until she was past the hot rod. Sobriquet and Usr followed suit and were now on top of her.

“Out of my way slowpoke!” Sobriquet said as he jumps over her head to land on a car. She caught up with him and elbowed him. Before anyone could do anything else, Usr jumped onto the same car they were on and tripped them.

“Now children of mine, play nice or don’t play at all,” Usr said before she jumped onto a motorcycle. Ave took her blaster out and shot the back tire of the motorcycle out. She quickly put her blaster away and both Sobriquet and her gave Usr an innocent look as they past by her. Just as they were both about to jump the car they were on transformed and sent them tumbling.

“Joyride over kiddies!” The black and blue robot blurted out. The bot did an axe kick that drove into the cement. He lifted his leg again and brought a huge chunk of cement that was stuck to his foot with him. The bot brought that leg back and let loose a kick. The chunk of cement flew off toward them. They dodged it and transformed.

Both were formula one racing cars. They drove off and weave through traffic. Their new friend followed. No matter what they did they couldn’t lose him. At one point he rammed Ave. They both rammed him back. A purple jet flew passed them. They recognized who it was right away. Usr came back and peppered the bot with bullets as she passed.

Once again Usr came in for another pass. The bot took the barrage of bullets and drove up the exit ramp. Usr decided he’d had enough and stayed on the main highway. She was about to catch up with her children when the bot from before drove off a parallel highway and landed on top of her. He transformed once on top of her and hung on for dear life.

“So Ors, you have nothing better to do than to terrorize me and my children?” Usr asked.

“You know what they say you hurt the ones ya love,” Ors said as he jumped off Usr and rolled onto the highway. He pulled himself up quickly and rolled out of the way of a jeep. He pulled out a gun and fired at Usr. She pulled up and went into a loop.

“AND I LOVE YOU TOO!” Usr yelled as she turned around and fired two missiles. Ors’ gun quickly took them out. “You want to settle this another time? Too many bots in the way.”

“Fine,” Ors said as he jumped on top of her. “You’d better not try to get out of it. Like last time.”

“I was really busy. Don’t you believe me?”

“Yeah what ever.”

Sobriquet and Ave were waiting for them when they got to the spaceport. Usr told them what happened and made them shake hands with Ors.

“Mother talks about you a lot. Should had know it was you by that bad paint job you got going there,” Ave said. Ors gave her a glare and took a step forward. Ave went right up to Ors and laughed in his face. “You can’t do anything to me. Not in front of this crowd.”

“I don’t need to. Have you got e-mail yet?”

“No, I don’t see what this has to do with everything.”

“You passed you exam. You are now a member of the airforce and you’re in my unit.” Ave applied for the airforce and had been taking classes. She took the exam and didn’t know if she passed until now. She let out a small gasp.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you…”

“It’s Lieutenant Ors and it’s a pleasure to meet you too. I see you’re following your mother footsteps.” He then turned his attention on Sobriquet. “How about you son?”

“I want to go exploring space and visit every planet, sir.” Sobriquet replied.

“I think I can help you out.”

“You can? How?”

“Hehe, I’ve got my ways.”

Cheetor’s train of thoughts dispersed as his Comm link went off. It was Rattrap.

“Hey kid I need you back here at base. This is urgent.”

“What is it?” Cheetor asked as he sat up. “Enemy attack?”

“I’m not too sure, but by the looks of it, Megatron’s writin’ all over it.”

“Copy, be there in two shakes of a tail,” Cheetor said speedily. Taking one last look at the peaceful scene before him he takes off, mentally preparing himself for what was coming. Looks like Megatron still had his own agendas. He couldn’t believe Megatron would do something during a time like this, but what else could they expect from him?

Waspinator was moving boxes of his stuff into Megaton’s room. It wasn’t Megaton’s room anymore it was his. He slipped on something and fell down. Various items flew everywhere. He sat up and looked at the mess on the floor. One item caught his eye, his journal. He began keeping that journal after he got this mission, but where did he get the journal from? Slowly he begins to remember where he got his journal from and the other events that occur that day.

Wight was standing outside the Axon Spaceport with his friend Zic, a twenty-five year old human female. “Wight I want you to have this to remember me bye.” Zic said as she handed him a journal. A human one from that, from what he could tell. He could tell since it was a book, books were obsolete in Cybertron. The cover was a mixture of black and white.

“Thank you Zic I will treasure it forever.” Wight said in English. For the past five years she had been his tutor and a friend. She stopped tutoring about six weeks ago. Now she was going back to Earth and she wasn’t sure if was coming back. He opened the journal to the first page. A picture of them at the Cybertron Zoo was attached to it. A strand of her black hair ran with the bind of the journal.

He was sad to see her go. He had very few friends and no one knew him better, but that was life, friends comes and go.

“Liftoff is in ten cycles, so I’ll make this quick. I enjoyed your company and hopefully we will met again,” Zic exclaimed. She gave him a quick hug and picked up her baggage.

“Here let me help out with that.” He took the baggage from her and together they made their way to the Quex, the ship that would take her back to earth. “I’m going to miss you too. I never told you this. I’m not a Predacon I’m…”

“A Lexicon, yeah I know,” Zic interrupted him. Wight couldn’t believe it.

“You know!”

“Who you think hired me?” Zic sang. “Surprising as it is my family are honorary members of the Lexicons.”

“Why did you never tell me before?”

“We all have orders Wight. You have yours and I have mine. I’m kinda disobeying orders right now by telling you this. So let’s keep this conversation to ourselves.”

“Will do, Iop.”

“Goruet.” Zic spat back.

“Qwe op Yuer!”

“FASDURAIN!”

“Ouch, I’m wounded.” Wight said as they reached the Quex. The green passenger ship towered above them. “Get going before they take off without you.”

“See you later and remember to look me up if you ever go to earth,” Zic said as she took her baggage from Wight and headed up the ramp. Wight put some distance between himself and the ship. He watched the ship take off into space. When it disappeared from sight, he still watched that area where he last saw the ship. He stood there a while, glued to the sky.

Finally he left after getting yelled at by a controller. He wandered the streets of Cybertron and tried to find something that would take his mind off Zic. He stopped upon seeing five bots throw a Maximal of medium height and build out of the bar they were in.

“What a funny guy.” A red predacon said.

“Terrorsaur remember what Megatron said. Don’t draw attention to ourselves.” A grey Predacon said.

“Don’t be such bring down, Scrota. We’re just having some fun.” Terrorsaur replied as he kicked an unconscious Optimus. A grey sport car drove up to the group and rammed into a Maximal and a Predacon. The sports car transformed into a small bonze robot.

“Rye sent me to find Optimus to tell him we’ve got a new recruit and this is what I find? No one does that no my captain.” Ratchet said as he pulled out a blaster and shot the last Maximal of the group. “Not even a Maximal.” With a grin he tossed the small gun to Terrorsaur. “OH MY GOD HE SHOT A MAXIMAL!” Ratchet shouted.

“NO I DIDN’T!” Terrorsaur protested. A crowd of angry Maximals began to form around Terrorsaur and Scrota. Quietly Ratchet slipped away with Optimus’ body.

This was Wight’s chance. If he could save them, he could get inside Megatron’s cell. But how? An idea entered his head as the crowd got bigger and uglier.

“Pred head!”

“Murderer!”

“Kill them!” The crowd shouted. Their shouts drowned out the protests of the two Predacons. A new voice rang out:

“What izz all thizz noise about.” The crowd laughed hearing this. They laughed even more when Wight stumbled onto the scene. He was always mistaken as an Insecticon, because of his insect like body. “Waspinator don’t zee what zzzzo funny.” Wight said as he began to juggle three rocks he found on the floor. The crowds were so entertained at this they didn’t notice the two Predacons slipping away.

He decided to make his escape. “Uh oh.” Wight said as he tripped over a pebble and landed on a passing car.

“GET OF ME!” The blue car yelled as it tried to get Wight off by stopping. Wight flew into the air a few feet before hitting the ground. He picked himself up and looked around. They were nowhere in sight. After all that hard work he ha nothing to show for it. He decided to just go home. He had a long day. As he walked by an alley a pair of hands grabbed him.

He soon found himself face to face with Terrorsaur and Scrota. Scrota kept a lookout while Terrorsaur talked with him.

“Thanks for saving us back there, pal. We could use someone like you in our group. Ever heard of Megatron?” Terrorsaur said in his raspy voice. Waspinator couldn’t believe it. It had only been three months since he’d been given the mission of infiltrating Megaton’s organization.

“Waspinator don’t know who thiz Meg bot iz,” Wight said with his new accent.

He already regretted choosing the name Waspinator, but since he used it already he had to stick with it.

“Why don’t we take you to meet him?”

“Waspinator iz okay with that,” Waspinator said. Terrorsaur took the lead and they went on their way to see Megatron.

Waspinator snapped out of it as Stinger walked into the room.

“Need any help?” Stinger asked as he eyed the mess on the floor. Waspinator got off the floor and gave Stinger a look.

“No, I don’t. Do you have something to report?”

“Byzantine, Tarantulas and Terrorsaur are playing cards, as they were for the past four mega cycles. Blackarachnia has been at her post. There is still no sign of Scorponok and Inferno. There’s little Maximal activity and none have ventured anywhere near our land since their last attack.”

“Keep up the good work,” Waspinator said as he picked up his journal and opened it to the front cover. “We all left our lives behind. It is good to remember one’s past, is it not?”

“Sometimes it is. Sometimes we get so caught up in the past that we forget about the present. Sometimes we learn from our past mistakes. The past like all things can be good and bad,” Stinger said as he leaves the room.

Rattrap was waiting for him when he got back to base. Looking around him, he surveyed the scene. Two CR Chambers were gone and various consoles were torn apart.

"What else is missing?" Cheetor asked.

"Some weapons, some scrap metal and a small amount of energon. Drillbeak has been gathering energon all this time and Megatron feels he has the right to go take some." Rattrap said as he takes the safety off his gun.

"So where’s Megatron now?"

"Don't know, but he’s gone. I’m not even sure he’ll be coming back. I’m going to give that sorry excuse for a Maximal 24 mega cycles before I tell the others. If anything, he’s out spying on the Preds. Now help me clean up this mess."

"Man I have a feeling we’re going to be covering for Megatron alot." Cheetor mumbled as he began working on a busted console.

Megatron guided the cargo platform over a barren field. He looked across the field searching for something. There it was: a small flame shining bright in the night. After guiding the platform to the flame, he shouted to the owner of the gun:

"FROM THE ASHES OF DEFEAT I RISE ANEW!"

"GLORY TO THE LOYALTY!" Inferno replies.

"Where’s Scorponok?"

"In the swamps of Bog, where we set up camp," A muffled voice answered.

"Who is that?"

"Your new servant my queen," Inferno said as he pointed at a medium size boulder to their left. "The stasis pod tracking device was damaged and we only stumbled upon it by accident. That wasn't the only thing damaged. The stasis pod programs were so messed up it scanned a boulder instead of an animal. Scorponok was able to turned her into a Predacon before the process was finished."

"At least it’s a Predacon and no one else knows about her. So what’s your name anyway?" Megatron said.

"Stone Manson sir. Stone Manson Terrorize!" Stone Manson barked as she transformed. Stone Manson was a giant compared to Megatron. Megatron was overwhelmed at the size of her. He also noticed she was carrying a big heavy machine gun and had a double bladed axe on her back.

"Welcome to the Predacons Stone Manson. I want you and Inferno to take this cargo platform back to camp and set up. Tell Scorponok to use one of the CR chambers to heal up. I’m going back to the Maximal base to finish some business," Megatron ordered as he walks away.