New 'bots

19.Sept.07

New 'bots

At many serene moments, the world produces such wonderful sights that one is forced to stop and enjoy them. But nobody ever minds. It could be the luminescent reflections of sunlight off of water, glittering ripples of breathtaking design. Or as the snow falls down calmly and surely, the sun can shine behind the flakes, creating an irresistible spectacle of glistening orange and white. Or after the sun has cast its last shadow of the day, and the full moon illuminates the night life with a soothing white. It’s comforting. It’s awe-inspiring. A lone but contented tiger sat at the edge of a forest taking this sight in, filled with the same awe.

Tigatron was enjoying the lunar show, when three obstructions to the orb caught his attention. Had he taken the time to notice, the objects, blazing like meteorites, would have looked wonderful casting red streaks against a glimmering backdrop. However, he was already preoccupied with what he knew was his duty.

“Tigatron to maximal base, there are three stasis pods falling.” The comlink clicked. The message had gotten to the Axalon. Tigatron knew he had to wait until Optimus told him which one to go to. A lone tiger waited. But he did not wait patiently.

* * *

“Rhinox”, the comment from the maximal leader startled the busy rhino, who had up until then been absorbed in his thoughts and calculations. “Have you found the landing coordinates for the three stasis pods?”

Without turning around, Rhinox responded, giving Optimus the locations of the three potential warriors. One was in a Serengeti-like location, the farthest from the maximal base. Optimus sent Airazor and Cheetor to this location since they could reach it the fastest. The second farthest was in a pine forest. Optimus decided to go there with Dinobot. The nearest was in a dense deciduous forest. This is where he sent Rattrap and Tigatron. Rhinox was left to guard the base.

* * *

Megatron had also been made aware of the three incoming protoforms. He decided to go with Terrosaur to the one farthest from the maximals, which was also the closest to the predacons. The massive T-rex chose Terrorsaur mainly so he could personally keep an eye on him. He sent Scorponok and Waspinator to the farthest pod, the closest to the maximals. He sent Blackarachnia and Inferno to the center pod. He needed the loyal ant to watch her. She could be extremely treacherous, especially when placed with Tarantulus. Speaking of which, Megatron couldn’t seem to find the spider… Hmm, typical.

* * *

Tarantulus was aware of the present situation, but disappointed. He knew he could only reach one pod. It seemed apparent to him that he might as well choose the closest. Armed with venom, machine gun bullets, beast specimen and reprogramming equipment, he rushed off to the forest.

Scorponok and Waspinator arrived at the pod in the forest, and upon further inspection became confused. They had tried all the reprogramming codes they knew, and they weren’t getting any response from the pod. Not an emotionless remark from the pod saying the maximal was now a pred, not a notification that the codes had failed; nothing. Waspinator scratched his head.

“ Wazzpinator doezzn’t understand. Why pod say nothing?”

A cackle echoed behind the pondering pair. “I could help.”

Scorponok had the proper experience to understand that Tarantulus was far from trustworthy, but his choices were Tarantulus’ help or failure. He elected to let Tarantulus assist. Tarantulus immediately got to work.

“DNA sequencers online” This was starting to appear unpleasantly familiar. No matter, Tarantulus wasn’t going to fail like he did with that ant. He promptly removed the maximal programming chip from the pod and inserted a predacon chip.

“New programming accepted. Beginning DNA sequence.” He quickly removed an encaged solid grey wolf spider. Tarantulus wasn’t going to fail like he did with that ant.

From within the pod, unheard to the outside villains, a computer voice warned the protoform inside. “Unknown unit attempting to use predacon programming.”

Outside, the DNA scanner searched. The first thing it found was an encaged solid grey wolf spider. The scanner closed and began creating the specifications for the protoform. Tarantulus cackled triumphantly. He hadn’t failed. It was all his processor could think about. For once in the unfortunate spider’s career, success!

Tigatron and Rattrap arrived on the scene not having seen this reprogramming process. They transformed and drew their guns.

“Step away from the maximal pod, or suffer the consequences.” declared Tigatron. All that Rattrap and Tigatron saw was Scorponok, Waspinator and a stasis pod. The two predacons backed away but Rattrap was unimpressed. It was happening too easily. He was right, which was confirmed by two darts of cyber venom flying into their backs. They fell over pained and groaning, Red lines running over them. The stasis pod then opened…

Tarantulus had an idea. He walked up to the solid grey wolf spider and told it to finish the two maximals. The spider thought for a moment. He crawled over to the two helpless robots. If spiders can smile, that’s what he did. He winked with the four eyes farthest to the right.

“Swiftfang, maximize!” The spider’s spinnerets became the bottom of his new feet, attached to legs which consisted of the bottom of his abdomen. However, not everything on the bottom of the abdomen became his legs, as they became shaped like regular robotic legs.. Since it was the bottom of his abdomen which became legs, the beast form spiky haired skin split in the middle and revolved to the back of his legs, revealing silver metal. His head flipped onto his back, and the remainder of his abdomen (the top and what of the bottom wasn’t used for legs) was hinged up onto his back over his spider head. The spider legs remained in the same place (which meant they wouldn’t be on his robot arms like the other two spiders). His arms came from the bottom of his main body, each arm having four breathing holes from his beast mode on them. His hands each had five fingers rather than claws. When his arms came out, the bottoms were of a silver color same as the legs. The robot’s chest and stomach region that moving these arms out revealed was also silver. Where his spider head flipped onto his back, a head came out of the hole. His head was the same silver as the rest of his body, and his optics were windows of pure blue.

The new arriver did not waste time, promptly kicking Tarantulus in the stomach with his right leg. Tarantulus was bent over; the wind knocked out of him. Swiftfang brought his right knee to his adversary’s face and his right elbow to the back of Tarantulus’ head at the same time. As soon as the connection was made, Swiftfang pulled both his leg and arm away, sending Tarantulus flying back unconscious.

Swiftfang immediately ran into the forest, taking advantage of Scorponok and Waspinator’s shock. When they regained their senses, they split up to chase after him. While they were looking, Swiftfang stealthily came back to the place where Rattrap and Tigatron were. He pulled out two guns with darts similar to the ones loaded with cyber venom, but instead they were loaded with anti-venom. He shot Tigatron and Rattrap with these, and the red lines running across them gradually dissipated. Rattrap sat up and groaned. He pulled Tarantulus’ dart out of his back.

“Man, this is not my day!” He told nobody in particular. Then he pulled Swiftfang’ dart out of his shoulder. He then looked at Swiftfang. “Isn’t there an easier way to administer anti-venom?”

Swiftfang smiled. “If you wanted, I could inject it with my fangs!”

“Huh, you’re so funny” Said Rattrap who trailed off mumbling.

“You can inject anti-venom with your fangs?” asked a perplexed Tigatron.

“Weird, isn’t it?” stated more than asked Swiftfang.

Swiftfang started to walk back into the forest. He first found Scorponok. He strolled into plain view. When Scorponok noticed him, he aimed his right pincer and shot a missile. Swiftfang neatly rolled away on his back as a tree erupted into a fireball right behind where he was. Scorponok ventured closer to where Swiftfang had disappeared. He got to the tree Swiftfang had flipped behind. He wheeled around it pincers open. To his surprise, he found nothing. He turned around and saw Swiftfang staring at him. He tried to aim the pincer missiles at him, but Swiftfang quickly back flipped onto his hands, using the momentum to kick Scorponok’s pincers into the air and then landing on his feet. Before Scorponok could bring his pincers down, he was hit by a lightning quick double-legged dropkick. Behind Scorponok the forest continued down a steep hill. It was a very steep hill.

Despite the fact that Tigatron and Rattrap had gotten the venom in them neutralized, they were still weak. Waspinator had gotten bored and frustrated with looking for the wolf spider and decided to finish the maximals. He was surprised when he found that they weren’t poisoned, but decided to attack them anyways. He drew his gun and flew down to their level.

“Ooo, Wazzpinator will scrap maximals. Megatron will be happy with Wazzpinator. Maybe Wazzpinator not get boring assignments? Ooo hoo hoo…uuh?” Waspinator felt his shoulder get tapped. He turned around.

“Yah busy, or can I interrupt?” Swiftfang’s fist made a very loud collision with Waspinator’s face. Waspinator was dazed but still fuming. He aimed his gun at Swiftfang with his left hand. Swiftfang grabbed this arm and swung it behind Waspinator’s back. He kicked Waspinator behind his left knee. This made Waspinator fall, but his arm was held by Swiftfang’s left hand which kept him from being completely on the ground. Waspinator’s face met Swiftfang’s right elbow at the same time the back of his head met Swiftfang’s right knee. Waspinator was out like a light.

* * *

Cheetor and Airazor arrived at their assigned stasis pod before Megatron and Terrorsaur. The two maximals had no other task at the moment but to wait for the pod to perform the necessary tasks and they would have a new companion.

“So what type of personality do you think he’ll have?” inquired Cheetor.

“Who knows? Maybe he’ll be talkative.”

“Do you want another Rattrap? One is o.k. but enough.”

At this, Airazor chuckled. “I’ll let him know that’s how you feel. What type of personality would you want him to have?”

“I think a malicious robot would do me well. Perhaps he could be ruthless, cruel and fierce. Ah, that would be ideal, yes.” responded a deep voice from a massive Tyrannosaurus-Rex.

“Funny, I don’t seem to recall asking you.” said Airazor.

“That is merely a technicality. Now, as regards that protoform, we could solve this peacefully or painfully. Simply hand me the pod and we will leave this area, yes.”

As deep as the young cheetah could muster, he responded “No.”

“Very well, Megatron terrorize!” Terrorsaur, Airazor and Cheetor all transformed. Airazor swooped for Megatron but was stopped mid-flight by an enraged pterodactyl. Terrorsaur had a vendetta for Airazor because of the first time the two met. Airazor went to the Axalon with Cheetor and Rhinox, while he went to the Darkside with his own head and limbs in tow. Since the falcon was currently fighting Terrorsaur, Cheetor was left to the predacon leader.

“This isn’t fair!” muttered a despairing cat. Megatron’s purple head laser sought Cheetor. Among the things it found was a few of the scarce thin trees, some rocks and the air. Cheetor continued weaving in and out of cover. This was starting to wear away at Megatron. At one point, Megatron actually lost sight of Cheetor. As he was looking around, a quasar blast hit him in the back. He wheeled around and saw the cat. He held his fire until he saw Cheetor start to run this time, and with a missile blast from his tail, let Cheetor know he wasn’t going to let him pass. Smoke rising from his torn chest, Cheetor slowly watched Megatron advance on him.

Airazor wasn’t fairing so well either. Terrorsaur had immediately opened fire with his shoulder canons, and had hit her in the left shoulder. She attempted to return fire with her arm-mounted guns, but Terrosaur continued dodging them. She couldn’t act quickly because of the pain she had experienced. Terrosaur was about to shoot one of her wings, when Cheetor noticed her dilemma. He aimed his gun, and hit Terrosaur in the chest. Airazor saw her opportunity, and flew up to him, punching him square in the face. Dizzy, Terrosaur was helpless against the barrage of bullets that soon came from Airazor. Her victory, however, was short lived when Megatron shot her right in the stomach with his head laser. She was sent crashing back unconscious.

When Megatron turned around, he was surprised to see Cheetor was no longer there. Megatron saw him attempting to run for cover with a gaping whole in his chest. Just as he was about to jump into a ravine, Megatron shot his right leg, sending Cheetor crashing down.

Satisfied that he had won, Megatron removed a programming chip. He was about to grab the maximal programming chip in the pod, and replace it with a predacon programming chip, when Cheetor did last thing he could at that battle. In a final shot of desperation, he aimed at Megatron’s hand. Somehow, the blast hit its target sending bits and pieces of the programming material into the air. Megatron howled in rage as the DNA scanners began searching. Eventually, they scanned a lion. The new maximal stepped out of the pod.

“Blazemane, maximize!” Blazemane’s transformation was much the same as Tigatron’s and Cheetor’s. His head went to his new chest. His arms came out of his main body. This revealed a stomach area. His forelegs flipped onto his back in a criss-cross pattern. His hind legs became his robot legs, the fur splitting in the middle and rotating to the back of his leg. Then his chest mounted lion head revolved into his body which on the other side revealed a normal chest plate. His robot head came from out his beast mode neck. The color of his robotic form (excluding of course the fur) was blue, but of noticeably darker shade than Cheetor’s. His chest plate was green as were his optics.

Had there been any happiness left in Megatron’s face, it had all left. He started shooting his head laser at the newcomer, who continued to dodge until he rolled into the ravine where Cheetor was. He looked at the damage Cheetor had sustained. It was extensive.

“I suppose there’s no point in asking if your alright.” he grimly noted. Cheetor struggled to raise his head.

“I’ll be o.k., but what about Megatron?” inquired Cheetor.

“He’s mine.” Cheetor was surprised by the anger those two words brought out of the lion. It sounded of an anger coming from deep within, long built and long suppressed. Blazemane climbed out of the ravine. Megatron laughed.

“Come to face your doom have you?” taunted Megatron.

“You stole my line.” stated Blazemane in a matter-of-fact manner. With that, Blazemane’s beast mode legs folded in half, the bottom halves going behind the top half. The new whole revealed previously concealed machine guns. The legs revolved 270 degrees, so the machine guns faced the same way as Blazemane. These legs rested on his shoulders, aided by the natural curve that the front side of his beast mode legs had. Without a word he opened fire. Yellow fire erupted from his machine guns as bullets and bright sparks bounced off of Megatron’s chest. Eventually, Megatron fell over, smoke trailing off of him. Just then, a blue electrical shock pulsated around Megatron.

“I’ve been in battle mode too long. Beast mode!” Megatron knew he couldn’t fight a fresh soldier in beast mode. He decided to retreat. Airazor managed the strength to stand on Blazemane’s shoulders the way home, and Cheetor was slung on Blazemane’s back. The two wounded ‘bots had survived that day, but hardly.

* * *

Optimus and Dinobot arrived at their pod before Blackarachnia and Inferno. They noticed it was a rather large pod. A memory suddenly came to Optimus.

“I remember this one. He actually signed up on the Axalon to be an explorer, not a protoform. When the ‘bots came to the Axalon to load that day and I read his name on the list and it said that he signed up to be in a stasis pod, I assumed he was aware of the same thing. After everybody was on the ship, I tried to start its engines. Then the person in charge of the ship station told me I wasn’t permitted to fly, because they scanned five functional robots on the ship, while their records said there were only supposed to be four. I looked around and saw Cheetor, Rattrap and Rhinox (although they had different names then). So I asked where the fifth was and they told he was in the engine room. I ventured there and saw him around the engines. When I asked him why he wasn’t in stasis form, he looked confused and asked if he was supposed to be. I checked for his name on the crew list and like I thought, it said stasis form. He appeared peeved but I explained that if he wanted to be on the Axalon, he could only do it that way. Otherwise we didn’t have clearance. Frustrated, and understandably so, he went into a pod in stasis form. After that, we were given clearance, took off…”

“…And attacked our ship!” snapped Dinobot.

“That is eventually what happened, but I don’t see why you should care any more. You’re a maximal now.” reminded Optimus. Optimus expected a response, but he heard none. He looked at Dinobot and noticed that the anger had left him, and he was now contemplating… well, he could be contemplating anything. Optimus didn’t push the matter.

The DNA scanners appeared and began looking for a large form to match the large soldier. It found one and sunk back into the pod. Just then, Blackarachnia and Inferno arrived on the scene. Optimus and Dinobot had already transformed and the two preds’ followed suit. Inferno shot at Dinobot, while Optimus aimed his arm mounted gun at Inferno. He shot and made a direct hit on the ant’s chest. Inferno was enraged and started flying. Dinobot looked right at the wires which enabled his flight and fired his lasers.

Inferno was laughing liking like a madman. “Hahehahahehehehehahahehahahahawha…aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa” Thud.

This left Blackarachnia to fend for herself. She shot at Dinobot with her leg machine guns while she fired cyber venom darts at Optimus. Dinobot suffered heavy fire, but Optimus continued dodging the darts. He then shot two shoulder mounted missiles at her, both of which exploded right by her. While she wasn’t directly touched, she flew backward. She was about to get up when a black bear came out of the stasis pod.

“Steelclaw, maximize.” On his beast mode hind legs, the fur split in the middle and revolved to the back of his legs, revealing sandy grey metallic panels. His arms came from the underside of his main body. These arms were the same sandy color. His bear head fell onto his chest and his forelegs flipped behind his back. Here they connected in the center rather than crossing. His head came out of his beast mode neck. This was a darker shade of grey than his body and his optics were blue.

One of Steelclaw’s beast mode hind legs opened, from which he pulled a rocket launcher. Blackarachnia gaped in horror as she watched a rocket grow larger in her optics every milliclick…

* * *

At the Axalon, the mood was light. Three new robots were there and all had proven worth in battle. After Cheetor and Airazor came out of the CR chambers, they were introduced to Swiftfang and Steelclaw. The three newcomers were promptly given a tour of the base. They all felt welcomed, except by Dinobot. While Dinobot did welcome Blazemane and Swiftfang, he was wary of Steelclaw.

Rattrap had quickly made friends with Swiftfang. Rattrap was told by Optimus to show Swiftfang his new quarters.

“So what is your main job on this ship?” asked Swiftfang.

“I’m just your basic stealth fighter, plant a few bombs, shoot a few preds’, an’ call it a day.”

“I thought this was an exploring crew.”

“That’s all it would have been, had we not been told to track Megatron. That’s how we got here. Megatron an’ ‘is crew decided to take the golden disk.” explained Rattrap.

“I know.”

“What?”…

* * *

Back at the Darkside, Megatron broke his own personal record. He choked Terrorsaur half to death, punched Scorponok half way across the room and left in his wake a shattered computer screen, a dented hover board and a command button panel sparking from the impact of one fist.

“You let the maximals have three new soldiers? The sheer incompetence!” he bellowed.

Blackarachnia was nervous to come forward, but she knew that if she could get through to him with the information she had, his anger would subside. Hesitantly, she spoke up. “Megatron, I managed to get DNA of the new maximal me and Inferno were fighting.”

“Let me see it.” commanded Megatron.

Megatron performed a scan on the DNA sample. Using a code he had downloaded off of the golden disk, he accessed a stolen maximal archive. When he found the robot that the DNA matched, he was able to look at his history. As the information appeared on Megatron’s bubble computer, and he read it, he began to laugh. The laugh grew stronger and stronger until he finally finished with “Yes.”

* * *

Tarantulus was frustrated with his failure. However, he now had an advantage. He had knowledge about Swiftfang which nobody else did. He allowed himself a chuckle. Tarantulus wasn’t going to fail like he did with that ant…