Enter the Angel

The stasis pod hurtled through the atmosphere at an abnormally high speed, its protective metal shell melting a little. The pod got nearer and nearer to the ground, until it finally hit in the clearing of a dense jungle. Upon impact, pieces flew off and shattered.
A crackling voice said "Initializing..(*snap*crackle*) sequence...", and a rod came out of the sparking control panel and began scanning. Meanwhile, a set of gold eyes investigated the scene, and then left.
"Subject acquired." The scanning device returned to the control panel. Seconds later, it came out and began scanning again. As a dove flew over, the computer once again said "Subject acquired," and retreated into the control panel.

"That impact was pretty rough," a worried Rhinox said at the Maximal base.
"We'll have to get there pretty quickly if we want to get there before Megatron does," responded Optimus Primal. "Cheetor, Rattrap, you're with me."
"Of course, I get da dirty work," sighed Rattrap.
"I suppose Rhinox and I will stay behind and guard the base, then," growled Dinobot. He wasn't too thrilled with the idea of being left behind.
"Right. Have Airazor and Tigatron on standby, just in case." Optimus, Cheetor, and Rattrap left.

"We must find that stasis pod, quickly!" yelled Megatron.
"Wazzpinator bored."
"Royalty! I have located the stasis pod! It looks destroyed," informed Inferno.
"Hmmm. We might as well not waste our time on slag. All units, return to base!"
"My queen, there looks to be some activity over at the crash site! Shall I investigate?"
"Only if you stop calling me that."
"Yes, my queen!" Inferno went to the wreckage while everyone else headed to the Predacon base.

Minutes later, Optimus, Cheetor, and Rattrap arrived at the destroyed stasis pod. Optimus landed to look around. Just as he landed, a black and white blur came out of a tree and started attacking Optimus with teeth and claws. The blur was hit by a ball of energy, and it fell off Optimus and hit the ground.
The white-winged black panther readied itself to pounce on Cheetor (with blaster still smoking), when Optimus shouted, "Cheetor! Stand down!" 
Cheetor lowered his blaster and shrugged.
The winged panther relaxed from its pouncing position , blinked its gold-colored eyes a couple of times, and said, "You're not like the others."
"The others?" asked Optimus.
"Yeah. That purple dinosaur thingie, and the wasp, and the others. The ant came after me, but I took care of him," she responded proudly.
"Wait a nano- YOU took out Inferno?!?" exclaimed Cheetor.
"Oh, so that's his name."
"So, why don't you transform?" Cheetor inquired.
"Trans-huh?"
"Your chips may have gotten damaged in the crash," Optimus said. "You just say your name, and then say 'Maximize'."
The cat refrained from asking what potato chips had to do with not having a name. "Okay... so, what's my name?"
Rattrap groaned.
"You mean you don't even know your name? That crash must've been harder than we thought," Cheetor said.
Rattrap chuckled.
"What?" Optimus asked him.
"She kinda looks like an angel, with dem wings’n all," Rattrap answered.
"Yeah, she does!" Cheetor laughed.
Just then, a missile came from out of nowhere and hit Optimus in the back. Megatron shouted, "Attack! I knew something was wrong when Inferno didn't return!" Then, Megatron's troops opened fire on the Maximals. The panther watched as Optimus got shot down and Rattrap and Cheetor get hit.
Just as Optimus was about to go into stasis lock, he heard "Angel: maximize!" and then everything went dark.

"We need back-up!" a strange voice said over the com-link.
Back at the Axalon, Rhinox asked, "Who is this?"
"There's no time for that! Everybody but me is unconscious!"
“Where are you?”
“In the jungle.”
“Where in the jungle?”
“I don’t know.”
“I can look for them,” Airazor volunteered. “Then I can give Tigatron the coordinates.” With that, she left the base and flew off.

While Airazor was flying, she spotted a black, white-winged cat flying around.
"They're down there!" the cat shouted.
Airazor opened her com-link. "Tigatron, they're in sector Delta!"
"I am on my way!" The com-link turned off.

Megatron and company were nowhere to be seen.
"You scared off Megatron all by yourself?" asked Airazor.
"Yeah, but I got hurt." The cat showed the hawk a sparking blaster wound in her side. It wasn’t bad, but it looked like it didn’t feel good.
"I'm here!" Tigatron ran over to the two. "Where's Megatron?"
"He left," the cat replied.
"Everyone's offline," Airazor pointed to the fallen Maximals.
"Who might you be?" Tigatron asked the panther.
"I think my name's Angel, but I'm not sure," she responded.
"You're not sure?"
"The gorilla said I crashed pretty hard."
Optimus began to come to. After the bright spots clouding his optics went away, he stood up. "Uhhh... Angel, is it?" he said. "Thanks for your help."
"No problem," she said.
"Did you transform?" asked Cheetor, who had also just come back online.
"Yep," Angel said.
"And...?" Rattrap came back, too.
"I don't like it," she announced.
"WHAT?!?" exclaimed Rattrap.
"I like being like this better."
"So you're not going to transform?" Cheetor was confused.
“Nope.”
“Angel, you don’t have much of a choice,” Optimus said. “You can’t fight very well in beast mode.”
“Awww... Do I have to?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll do it later.”
“Fine.” Optimus gave up. “We need to get back to base. Airazor, why don’t you show Angel the way?”
“Yes, sir!” Airazor said cheerfully. She took to the sky with Angel close behind.

When everyone was back at the Axalon, Cheetor showed Angel around. In the control room, Rhinox and Dinobot were busy pushing buttons on control panels. Angel looked at all the gadgets and gizmos, awestruck.
“So you’re our new friend?” Rhinox asked. Angel nodded happily.
“Hmmm. Doesn’t look like much,” Dinobot grumbled.
“Hey! She took down Inferno in beast mode!” Cheetor defended. Angel beamed.
“Looks like you could use some time in the CR chamber,” Rhinox said, noticing the hole in her side.
“C… R... chamber?” Angel was confused.
“It’ll repair your wound.”
“Oh.” Angel shifted her attention to a control panel, and was about to push a button when Dinobot grabbed her paw and growled, “Don’t touch that!”, surprising Angel.
“That’s okay. Dinobot’s a real stiff, anyway,” said Cheetor. He led her down a corridor to a room. The door opened, and Angel went in to investigate.
She found a window with a nice view, a place to sleep, and other stuff.
“Cool!” she exclaimed.
“This is where you’ll be staying,” Cheetor informed her.
The intercom turned on. “Angel, please report to the control room.” It sounded like Optimus.
“The control room?” Angel asked Cheetor.
“That’s where we came in.”
“Okay! Wow, this stuff is technical.”
On the bridge, she was greeted by the entire Maximal crew. Everyone was waiting.
“Well?” asked Cheetor.
“Well what?” Why were they all staring at her?
“Aren’t ya goin ta transform?” Rattrap questioned.
“Awww...”
“Angel...”
“Okay,” she said reluctantly. “Angel: maximize!”
When the transformation was complete, she looked herself over. She bore a slight resemblance to Cheetor and Tigatron. She was black and dark gray, with green optics. Her panther head was on her chest, and her wings were attached at the back of the shoulder. On her forehead was a green stone from which she could shoot laser bolts. There were slits on the ends of her fingers where claws could come out, and what was a tail in beast mode was now a whip.
“See? I don’t like it,” she said. “Beast mode.”
“Oh! We forgot to introduce ourselves! I’m Optimus Primal, this is Rattrap, Cheetor, Dinobot, Tigatron, and Airazor.”
“Cool. I’m going to look at my room some more,” she said, turning to go.
“Oh no you’re not. You’re going into the CR chamber,” Optimus ordered.
“Awww... Do I have to?”
“Yes.”
“Okay.” Boy, people sure wanted her to do a lot of stuff. She walked into the CR chamber and the hatch closed behind her.
“This one is a handful. She is very childish,” Dinobot said.
“True, but we can’t be choosy. She has aptitude to be a valuable member of the crew, if only we could get her to transform more,” Optimus said.
“Good luck to that,” Rhinox commented, then turned back to his work.

The End (for now, but don‘t think you‘re getting off easy. There’s a lot more to come)…