13.June.2008

Starbolt the Cowardly Pred

Authors Note: This book takes place after “Double Jeopardy.” Hope you like it!

By: Tor

“… then we can crush the Maximals once and for all, yesss!” Megatron finished dramatically.

“Please, Megatron,” dismissed Blackarachnia, checking her reflection in a window. “Do you really think Dinobot will join us?”

“Ratrap won’t care to join us again either,” rasped Terrorsaur, who still had an extremely bad headache from the last time he had contact with his ‘faithful lieutenant.’

“Waspinator izzz tired of digging hole for bomb!” Waspinator, who was severely worn out from digging a tunnel under the Maximal’s base.

“I told you before, it’s not a bomb, you bug! It’s a sonic connetor, and it once the tunnel’s done, it will blow a sweet little door right in the Maximals base,” snapped Blackarachnia.

Tarantulas slinked into Megatron’s control room, “Megatron, a stasis pod is coming in our territory.”

Megatron smiled his evil smile, “What a nice surprise, yesss. Terrorsaur, Waspinator, and Tarantulas, go and escort our new Predacon home.”

***

Tarantulas was finishing up switching the Maximal chip for a Predacon chip, when Terrorsaur squawked, “Waspinator, look, Maximals!”

“Waspinator, TERRORIZE!”

“Terrorsaur, TERRORIZE!”

Let them battle, I must get this Predacon online, Tarantulas thought, still rewiring the stasis pod.

“Ratrap, MAXIMIZE!”

“Dinobot, MAXIMIZE!”

This will be easy, those two will just argue on how best to defeat us. I’m sure Waspinator could defeat them, Tarantulas thought, typing furiously at the pod’s keyboard. Suddenly Waspinator’s head landed right on top of the pod. Perhaps not.

“Greetings, old comrade!” Tarantulas knew that was Dinobot, probably trying to distract Terrorsaur.

“The pleasure is all mine, traitor!” screeched Terrorsaur’s voice. There was an explosion and Dinobot’s voice cried out in pain. Tarantulas chuckled as he was finishing up the rewiring process.

“Done!” Tarantulas shouted.

“Beginning activation program. DNA sequencers online. Scanning for compatible life forms,” the pod’s onboard computer said tonelessly. “Compatible life form found. Beginning replication.”

“Tee hee hee!” giggled Tarantulas.

“Chopperface! The pod!” Ratrap’s voice called out.

Tarantulas turned, Dinobot, who was at least a foot taller than Tarantulas and wielding a huge rotating sword, was charging at him.

Right in time, Tarantulas ducked down below a sword swipe, and rolled away, pulling out a harpoon gun as he went. He fired as soon as he got out of his roll. The shot hit Dinobot in the chest, blasting him away.

“Good shot, eight-eyes.”

Tarantulas whirled, his spider leg guns ready to fire. He came face to face with a tall, roan horse.

“Who are you?” demanded Tarantulas distractedly, aiming his gun at Rattrap (who was ducking and dodging his shots like and expert).

In response, the horse, bellowed, “Starbolt, TERRORIZE!”

The horse became an extremely handsome Predacon, with high cheek bones, a big dark eyes, a reckless smile, and a good, muscular body. And a barrel gun.

“Good,” Tarantulas smirked. “Go for that big blue numbskull!” Tarantulas waved his gun at Dinobot, who was charging toward them again,

A flicker of fear passed on Starbolt’s handsome face, “I’m new to this, eight-eyes,” Starbolt replied hurriedly, then regaining his composure, “Why don’t you show me the ropes, unless of course, you can’t hit the ground if you fell.”

Tarantula’s optic sensor narrowed, but he took aim and shot at Dinobot, who ducked this time, and still hurtled toward them.

“Nice,” Starbolt remarked sarcastically, “you were only eight miles away from hitting him.”

“Why don’t you shoot at him, horsy?” Tarantulas returned angrily.

Starbolt looked shifty, but took aim at Dinobot, who was very close to the two Predacons now, and fired his barrel gun.

Bullets went in all directions. One hit Tarantulas in the head, and he fell into stasis lock.

***

“Then Dinobot hit poor Tarantulas over the head, and I carried him back here,” Starbolt was saying.

“Hmmm… I am pleased, yesss.”

Megatron stroked his chin. Starbolt’s story didn’t tally with Terrorsaur’s account of events, but still, it would be more interesting to see how Starbolt would aid the Predacons then to slag him right now.

“Yup, then I took on the ‘traitor,’ and then I scrapped him of course. I don’t see why you haven’t slagged all of the Maximals if Dinobot was the toughest.”

Megatron was not paying attention, “Yesss. You may go.”

“Yes, Megatron,” Starbolt said and gave an overdramatic bow.

He passed Blackarachnia on the way out, and winked at her with his reckless smile. She batted her optic sensors at him.

“I’m going to like it here,” Starbolt said to himself.

***

“Who was that ponyboy?” Ratrap said.

“That was probably the new addition to the Predacons,” Rhinox said sadly.

“I can’t believe that you two couldn’t get to that pod!” Cheetor pounded the table angrily.

“Do you think we did not try to retrieve the pod?” Dinobot narrowed his optic sensors and turned slowly to face Cheetor.

“No, I didn’t mean that-” Cheetor began.

Dinobot stomped out of the room. It was Ratrap’s turn to glare at Cheetor.

“Look, it wasn’t anyone’s fault,” Optimus interjected. “Let’s just get Dinobot into the CR chamber and find out what that new Predacon will do for Megatron.”

“Shoot everything that moves?” offered Ratrap, rubbing his injured shoulder.

Optimus shook his head, “Cheetor, go to sector 1-3-0. There has been a lot Predacon activity in that sector. Report immediately to me when you get there, and I’ll send Ratrap or Dinobot, who ever is fittest, for backup.”

Cheetor leapt out of his seat, “Got it, Big Bot!”

***

Cheetor sneaked around a boulder as a cheetah, and saw that the rocky valley opened up to a splendid view of a lush, green valley.

“Wowie!” breathed Cheetor. “It’s beautiful. Cheetor to base. I am in position, but no sign of Preds. Cheetor out. What would a Predacon want in here?”

“Well, Pussycat, why don’t you ask one?”

Cheetor spun around to find himself looking into the barrel of a gun. He gulped.

“Are you always this stupid or are you making a special effort today?” Starbolt sneered and kicked viciously at Cheetor. “Walk this way, if you can process that, and I’ll show you what I’m up to.”

Starbolt steered Cheetor at gunpoint into the valley.

A crack in the Earth showed Energon crystals, natural and raw. Starbolt stopped Cheetor at the edge of the ravine.

“I‘d count to three and shoot you, but you probably can‘t count that high, so any last words?” Starbolt grinned and cocked his gun, his finger on the trigger.

Cheetor was looking over Starbolt’s shoulder, mouth hanging open. Starbolt was irritated, the attention of the cat should be on him, as he did have a loaded gun pointed at it’s head.

“What are you looking at, you worthless piece of spotted slag?” Starbolt snapped, turning.

“DIS!”

A brown blur slammed into Starbolt, knocking him down to the ground.

“OWIE!” yelped Starbolt, “OW! Ow, ow, ow!”

“Not so tough, now dat your outnumbered and outclassed are ya, Bucky?” Ratrap said, straightening up and pointing his gun at Starbolt, while Cheetor took this opportunity to maximize.

“Don’t hurt me! Please, please, please!” begged Starbolt, piteously.

“Give me one reason why I shouldn’t I scrap ya after what cha tried to do to my pal?”

“I don’t have the face for burns?”

“Wrong answer, Buck-Toothed Bronco.”

“WAIT! I’ll tell you what Megatron is planning! Don’t hurt me!” squealed Starbolt.

Ratrap looked at Cheetor, who shrugged with a nonplussed look on his face.

“Well, well, a traitor to the mighty Megatron,” grinned Ratrap.

“So what is Megatron planning?” Cheetor burst out.

“He has Blackarachnia, Terrorsaur, and Waspinator digging a-” started Starbolt in a defeated voice.

“Silence! Starbolt, Megatron will be very interested in your fickle alliance!” a creepy-crawly voice laughed.

Ratrap and Cheetor turned in unison, their guns pointed at the voice. Tarantulas was staring gleefully at Starbolt, “Perhaps Megatron will give you to me to terminate…”

Starbolt squeaked out, “Beast mode!” and before anyone could stop him, galloped away into the trees.

“Traitor!” Tarantulas screamed, and ran after him.

Cheetor and Ratrap stared after the two Predacons.

“Wow, and I thought me an’ ol’ Scalebelly had problems,” commented Ratrap.

“I wonder what will happen to Starbolt…” wondered Cheetor.

“Who cares? All I needed ta know was ‘is weaknesses, now I got ‘em. He’s to self-centered, and a little crybaby, which could come in handy. Anyway kid, we better get back to base.”

***

“… and then Tarantulas went after him,” Cheetor was recounting the events that had happened in the valley.

“Well, we have learned two things,” Optimus said solemnly. “One, Starbolt can be persuaded to inform us about Megatron’s plans, and two, we need to get that Energon before Megatron.”

“And,” Rhinox added, “Blackarachnia, Terrorsaur, and Waspinator are digging something.”

“We need attack the Predacon base, while they are in turmoil about Starbolt’s betrayal!” roared Dinobot.

“No, we need to try and get that Energon before Megatron.”

***

“Starbolt! You are going to regret giving even a piece of information to the Maximals, yesss!”

“Sir, I swear that eight-eye creep is lying, he hasn‘t got enough brains to even know when I am bluffing!” Starbolt countered convincingly, his head high and expression indignant. “I live for the Predacons, and I would not blab any information, no matter how insignificant, to the enemy!”

Tarantulas hissed angrily, “First of all, you are a coward and you changed alliance at the first sign of danger, and two, I have NINE eyes, so stop calling me ‘eight-eyes!’ Can’t you count?”

Megatron sat back in his control chair and watched the two bicker. Tarantulas was a lying traitorous bit of scheming slag, Megatron knew that, but he told the truth when it suited his best interests. Starbolt had lied to Megatron about his first battle and seemed to be a little too perfect, which was always a bad sign.

Megatron cut in, his voice light and airy, “Well, I will excuse you this once, Starbolt,” his voice changed; it was cold and threatening, “but fail me again and you‘ll be nothing more than a sorry little scrap pile.”

“Thank you, Lord Megatron,” said Starbolt, a hint of sarcasm underneath his tone. Starbolt turned and departed out of the room, leaving Tarantulas to rage to Megatron .

“Hello, tall, dark, and handsome.”

Starbolt turned, grinned, and wrapped Blackarachnia in his arms, “Hey, beautiful. What’s on your mind?”

Blackarachnia smiled coyly, “I have a little… invention to try out.”

“You are so smart, my little genius!” cooed Starbolt in a baby voice.

Blackarachnia hid her distaste. This bot was so handsome, but his arrogance, lack of courage, and mushiness was a definite turn-off.

“I’ll test it out for a kiss,” Starbolt smiled his heart-stopping smile.

Blackarachnia cringed, but it was to test out her inventions, and Waspinator was a little wary of her inventions since the last one exploded on him. She reluctantly let him kiss her, but broke away extremely quickly.

“Whoa, babe, I need to try out your inventions more often!” Starbolt stated cockily.

Yuck! Blackarachnia thought, but took his hand and lead him down to her own lab.

“This is a gun amplification mechanism,” Blackarachnia showed Starbolt her invention with a flourish.

“Sweetie, it’s great!” purred Starbolt, slinking his arm around her waist.

Blackarachnia grimaced, Here we go again…

She pulled away and began to attach the small black box to Starbolt’s barrel gun.

“Cutie Cakes, this is so thoughtful. Those Maximals won’t stand a chance against me.”

In response, Blackarachnia rolled her eyes. Starbolt didn’t notice and began to spout praises about his little ‘Cutie Cakes.’

I actually wouldn’t mind if this gun amplifier exploded on him, Blackarachnia thought irritably.

“Now I have an idea of how to test it. Cheetor should be on patrol in sector 6-7-2. He’ll be a breeze to take out, if you use my gun amplifier.”

“Of course, Sweetums,” Starbolt gazed happily at Blackarachnia, who felt a swelling sense of nausea roll through her.

***

Starbolt trotted along, going through a mental list of insult he was going to apply on Cheetor, when his scanners said, “Maximal presence detected. Unit: Dinobot.”

Starbolt cursed. He liked easier opponents, ones who weren’t large than him and didn’t have laser optics. Still, he had a better gun and the element of surprise; his gun amplifier came with a signature scrambler.

“Starbolt, TERRORIZE!” he whispered. In robot mode, Starbolt carefully raised his gun and pointed it at Dinobot’s back. Grinning wolfishly, Starbolt pulled the trigger.

The unsuspecting Dinobot was blasted forward and hit a boulder with a growl of pain. The Maximal then fell belly-up on the ground. He didn’t know what had hit him, but he knew it had power. He leapt to his feet roaring, “Dinobot, MAXIMIZE!”

“Well, well, well. Looks like I caught the treacherous Dinobot,” Starbolt taunted smugly.

“No, coward, it seems the other way around!” Dinobot lunged at Starbolt, who dodged extremely fast.

“Wow, I could run faster in my sleep!” bantered Starbolt, shooting Dinobot again.

Dinobot growled and shot his laser beams toward Starbolt. Starbolt squealed and ran out of the way.

“You have no courage or honor at all, swine. Courage isn’t needed, but honor must never be lost.”

“How can you lose honor if you never had any to begin with?” shrieked Starbolt, who was cowering behind a boulder. “You turned your back on your team, on your leader.”

Dinobot stiffened. He had honor, he knew it, but he would make the insolent little Pred pay for his remark. Rage and hatred swept through Dinobot. Her roared ferociously and blasted the boulder Starbolt was cowering behind into pieces.

Starbolt had foreseen this move and had his gun aimed at the furious Dinobot on the other side of his barrier, and fired his gun straight into Dinobot’s face. Starbolt kept firing and firing, his optic eyes closed, praying that he would damage Dinobot enough so he could escape. He ceased firing and cracked open one optic sensor.

Dinobot lay on the ground, his armor blackened and smoking, his optic sensors had a glassy look, and wires sparked from his left leg.

Relief seeped through Starbolt. He had done it. And gotten out alive. “I win, Bonehead. Next time you betray the winning side, make sure you don’t lose your precious honor or your fighting skills. Oh wait. You never had either one,” sneered Starbolt, standing over the barely conscious Dinobot. Then he spat on the ground and left Dinobot on the ground.

“I will make you pay…” wheezed Dinobot.

“Commencing stasis lock,” Dinobot’s onboard computer said.

***

Dinobot’s red optic sensors flickered on. He was inside a CR chamber, by the look of it. The door opened to reveal Optimus Primal and Ratrap sitting at the control table, looking toward the CR chamber.

“Have a good nap, Sleeping Beauty?” Ratrap smirked. Dinobot snarled menacingly, in no mood to play games with the annoying mouse.

“Dinobot, what happened on patrol?” Optimus asked quickly, before Ratrap could irritate Dinobot further (which would lead to a dissing match [which would lead to a really foulmouthed argument {which would lead to a fight <which might lead to a broken control pad that would crash the sercuity system. Again>}]).

“I was,” Dinobot sucked in a rasping breath, “ambushed by the horse, Starbolt.”

“You lost to him? We actually thought someone like Megajerk or somebody important took you out,” Ratrap sounded incredulous.

Optimus shook his head, “Starbolt must have had help. Those blast marks on your chest weren’t caused by Starbolt’s gun. It would take a blaster with twice the power of his gun to make that much damage.”

Dinobot snarled at thought of Starbolt cheating in the battle. Cheating lacked honor.

“We can worry about Starbolt later, right now we have bigger problems. Megatron is going to start moving the Energon soon, so we have to stop him.”

“How?” Cheetor asked. “We can’t transport that much Energon by ourselves!”

“Rhinox has made a compact transporter. Cheetor you will carry it on your back while the rest of us gather the Energon. Maximals, let’s move.”

***

“… I have six more gun amplifiers. One for each of us,” Blackarachnia unveiled more of the small devices to Megatron.

“With these contraptions, we will be unstoppable, yesss!” Megatron grinned.

Starbolt sauntered in the room, flashing a smile in Blackarachina’s direction, “My lord, the Maximals are moving toward the Energon mine.”

“Predacons prepare for battle. We will pay the Maximals a visit, the last one they will ever receive!”

***

Cheetor was panting slightly. He had been running back and forth between the Maximals for a good couple of mega-cycles, picking up Energon crystals. He was grateful that Rhinox had configured a small anti-gravitational engine, lightening his load slightly.

“Little Cat, I have some Energon,” Tigertron called.

“Coming, Big Cat,” Cheetor sprinted to his feline friend, who carefully placed a large Energon crystal into the chute, where it was sucked into the main pack.

“We should be done in a few more mega-cycles,” informed Rhinox.

“A pity none of you will live that long.”

“Megatron!” Optimus said, whirling around.

“Yesss, Optimus Primal,” sneered Megatron. “You are trapped in a gorge, unable to transform unless you want to suffer from Energon buildup. A perfect trap with perfectly stupid prey.”

“My grandbot could’ve come up with a better insult,” muttered Starbolt.

Megatron shot a venomous glare in Starbolt’s direction before continuing, “If anyone wishes to surrender… they can stuff up their exhaust pipe.”

“Weak,” remarked Starbolt.

Megatron face soured, but he kept his eyes on Optimus and fired up his gun, “Say goodbye, Maximal.”

“Goodbye!” Cheetor had used Starbolt’s snide comments as cover to come up behind Megatron and leap on his back.

“GETOFF ME!” roared Megatron, hopping around on the spot. Ratrap, despite the graveness of the situation, began to crack up.

“Kid,” panted Ratrap, “you got guts.”

“Waspinator will help Megatron!” Waspinator declared and shot at Cheetor. The shot missed Cheetor and hit Megatron. The force of the amplified gunfire knocked Megatron (with Cheetor still clinging on his back in beast mode) to the ground.

“Don’t shoot at me, you fool!” Megatron snarled.

“Dinobot, MAXIMIZE!” Dinobot had jumped out of the ravine too, and he engaged Tarantulas in battle.

Soon all the Maximals and Predacons had transformed and were battling each other. Megatron flung Cheetor of his back. Cheetor landed on his feet, yelling, “Cheetor, MAXIMIZE!” Tarantulas was punched so hard, he was forced into stasis lock. Optimus Primal was chasing after a fleeing Waspinator, while Rhinox got blasted by Terrorsaur.

Amid all the chaos and confusion, Starbolt slipped away into the trees surrounding the Energon mine.

I don’t wanna get hurt, so I’ll just lay low for a while. Once we win, I’ll join in and say I was there the whole time, Starbolt reasoned with himself.

“Ah, a lonely horse, unprotected and off-guard.”

Starbolt gulped. He knew that voice. He slowly turned around. Dinobot was watching him through narrowed optics. And he had his drill-like sword gripped in his right hand.

“It is time to regain my honor,” Dinobot grinned nastily, slowly approaching a trembling Starbolt.

“Don’t hurt me! Please!” yelped Starbolt.

“I must regain my honor,” repeated Dinobot, his grin widening. His eyes suddenly glowed green.

“Uh-oh,” Starbolt’s was frozen with a look of extreme terror on his handsome face.

Dinobot’s laser cut right through Starbolt’s neck, decapitating him. For good measure, Dinobot drilled his sword straight through Starbolt’s spark. After a moment of the grinding of metal on metal, Starbolt’s body fell to the earth, never to move again. Then, Dinobot turned and rejoined the battle between the Maximals and his former comrades.

***

Megatron was furious. The battle wasn’t going as planned. Not only were the gun amplifiers short-circuiting, but the Maximals were gaining the advantage. Tarantulas was in stasis lock, Blackarachnia was being floored by Ratrap and Cheetor, Terrorsaur couldn’t hit Tigertron, Scorponok was being drilled with bullets from Rhinox’s Chain Guns of Doom, and Waspinator had been blown to bits by Optimus Primal, who was now engaging Megatron in battle. To top it off, Starbolt was gone.

Coward! Megatron thought savagely, trying to punch Optimus Primal’s head and missing.

“Blast! Predacons retreat!” bellowed Megatron, barely dodging a kick from Optimus Primal. Megatron began to back away, his gun pointing at Optimus Primal. He fired, but Primal was quick and shot into the sky and began to pelt Megatron with bullets. “Argh! This is not over Maximals! Noo!”

“Yeah, dat’s right, run, you slag-sucking-” Ratrap began.

“Ratrap…” Optimus warned.

***

It was a couple mega-cycles after the devastating battle and Scorponok (being the one with the least amount of damage [excluding Megatron]) was sent out to find Tarantulas’s and Waspinator’s offline bodies to bring to the CR chambers and Starbolt, who was probably hiding somewhere.

“Hey, what is this?” Scorponok had spotted something glinting behind a bush. He brushed away the plants. There was Starbolt’s head, an expression of pure panic fixed on his features.

“Coward,” Scorponok said with a slight smirk. He had never really liked Starbolt coming in and putting the moves on Blackarachnia. Scorponok was about to toss the head away, when suddenly an idea hit him. “Hmm… if I could program a bugbot to make a certain Maximal a coward like Starbolt… Megatron will be so pleased.”

The End