If one were to fly over Cybertron, one would see that it was dark. One would see flashes of light not unlike lighting, but of a larger scale. One would see dark clouds floating upwards and spreading over the area like a dark sheet. One would witness parts of the planet suddenly begin to sink and disappear. One would see a charred, wrecked surface as if one continuous fire had been burning on it for decades. One would see a planet of ash.

A few Maximals arriving from earth saw this. They were fully aware that when they arrived it would be different to when they left. Not only would it be a struggle just to get in past the Predacon perimeter guards, but also once on land, the chances of being shot were very high. Their home planet had been on its last leg after the Gitrix war; now it was virtually destroyed. In fact the only reason they had to return was to fight. To fight for their families, for their friends and for their clan. Some did it because they had to, others because they needed to.

Yet when they did arrive and Cybertron came into full view, they couldn’t believe just how little there was left to fight for.

Primus, the Predacons had done it this time!

Blinx gazed out of the ship’s window at the nearing planet. A planet that used to be of a light grey colour, but which was now darker in tone. He was seated, so no one in the room could see they way his legs were trembling. The way his hands were jerking underneath the tops of his legs, as he had placed them there to stop them doing just that but to no avail. However, like everyone the terror in his eyes was clearly visible. Mommy and daddy were dead. Sister was dead. Cousin was dead. All were dead. They just had to be. No Maximal could have survived the explosions that took place at Surnbalade. Or at Nystrin, or at Hystrider, or at Yantree… The list just went on and on.

He was incredibly frightened it was making him feel sick. This was all wrong; the whole idea was wrong. Sending their remaining youth back was like sending them into a death trap. They’d never make it out alive. It was stupid. If the Maximal race was to survive, and it wasn’t going to on Cybertron, then they should keep what youth they had left somewhere else. Somewhere safe. He himself had been living comfortably in Australia, Earth. For the amount of humans and now, transformers, living on earth it was still rather unpopulated and he lived on the plains, near a small town. He had a quiet life. He did his university work on the computer, and there was little work he needed to do as a robot. He simply downloaded the information into his systems. He just got his extras from the Internet, even if it wasn’t as vast as the Cybernet. He had wanted to become a doctor, specializing in humans. Stuff that now!

He watched as the fighter jets soared past his windows. Thankfully they were EA fighter jets from Earth going ahead to fight off the Predacons while they flew in. Not the most comforting things to see as you go in to land.

His attention was interrupted when someone tapped him on the shoulder. He turned to see his new friend, Viper, looking at him worriedly.

“I guess it’s a dumb question to ask if you’re scared,” he whispered.

Blinx nodded with a weak smile.

“Yeah. It’s very…terrifying.”

There was a long silence between them.

“Do you think my brother might still be alive?” Viper asked.

The blue and silver bot shook his head very slightly as Viper locked his eyes on his.

Viper lowered them and looked away, the lacking device for tears sometimes felt as if it were supposed to be there. Viper envied humans for this ability to display emotions, although humans themselves tried to hide tears as much as they could.

Blinx gazed at his feather-covered arms. He’d taken the form of a Mangrove Kingfisher when he first arrived on earth. He’d stopped over at South Africa where he stayed a few months. He was very lucky to have picked up such a lovely animal. Viper, on the other hand, had picked up the form of a snake. A viper snake, hence his name. They took the forms to survive the atmosphere there; now the beast forms would simply be burdens on Cybertron. Especially as all the organic containment shields were down.

There was a jolt and a terrified gasp from all the passengers was let out. There were about twenty in his cabin. He glanced about wildly, but after the jolt things went quiet. The ship continued as normal.

“It was probably just getting through the atmosphere,” Viper said.

Blinx nodded, his optics wide.

He glanced behind him to look out the window. Indeed they were going through the atmosphere. The shields had been put around the glass to stop it from melting. It got fiercely hot going down.

“Well, I guess we might as well start getting ready. Put your armour on, for what it’s worth,” Blinx said as he shakily got to his feet.

All around him young bots were beginning to get up and open their small cases. Each had one gun. That was it. There was a shortage of weaponry at the moment and if it weren’t for the existence of humans, Cybertron would be Predacon long ago. No, it would have been Decepticon long ago…

He took a deep breath and looked across the room. His other friend, this time one he hadn’t seen in years, was staring at him. They had picked him up from one of the moons on the way to Cybertron. He’d been working at some station there.

He flashed a weak smile at Blinx.

“Don’t look so scared, Blinx. It’ll be okay,” he said softly.

Blinx fastened up his shoulder pads and sighed.

The slight rumbling stopped and he figured they were in Cybertron’s atmosphere now.

He looked earnestly at his friend.

“I sure hope you’re right Magnanimous. I really do.”

………………………………………………………………………………………………

“Yo Joe!”

Joe cringed at the sound of Jason’s voice. The irritating little man had found him again. Life was cruel.

He spun around and gave an approaching Jason a hard stare.

They were in an underground camp, and a mighty nice one at that. It had actually been

constructed during the Gitrix War as a hiding place for both soldiers and energon. It had sleep cabins and a dinner area as well as a pool table in a small room at the back of the longest hallway. The pool table was originally for bored officers, as Vixadonia wasn’t attacked as much as it could have been. That was mostly because the main energon was hidden elsewhere. Vixadonia was a huge city, about 12 times the size of New York. Maybe more. Of course now it had been reduced in size…

Joe was just about to enter his cabin (with only ten members to share it with, it was one of the smaller cabins) when he heard that rabbit -deafening voice.

“Yes, Jason,” he said wearily.

Jason walked up to him.

“Hey, Joe. Nice to see you’re alive,” he said quickly.

“Yeah, nice for me too,” Joe responded.

Jason got straight the point of his conversation.

“I’ve just come back from the medic center. They’re having urine tests for the humans to make sure they haven’t breathed in and absorbed Sodigaphronate, which is a poisonous chemical floating around the back of Vixadonia. Two chaps have already fallen really ill with it. I expect you’ll have to go up now. They’ve done all the cabins along here except yours,” Jason said, almost happily.

Joe moaned.

“I hate this!! I tell you, urine tests really piss me off.”

“Pun intended?” Jason piped.

Joe didn’t bother answering.

It had been two weeks. Two of the longest weeks in his life and that was because they were two weeks of waiting. Waiting for death, waiting for liberation, waiting for anything and everything. The Predacons hadn’t attacked since the fall of the Vixadonian shields, which were fast being repaired. Where were they and why hadn’t they shown their ugly heads yet? Not that he wanted to go to war, but he didn’t want to be stuck waiting for death in a still smoldering pile of rubble. Although the underground cabins were nice, and he’d managed to find a well hidden secret cabin. It was the cabin of some officer who stayed there a very long time. It was nice and really fancy for a war sanctuary. And he had it all to himself…he and Tourmaline, of course. He had told no one of his little secret. He’d be an idiot to do so. Only Joe knew just in case there was an emergency and he needed to be taken out from the underground.

Rattrap licked his lips. Thank Primus for all that cheese he had stashed away in his sub-space pocket. He had remembered when he first tasted it…ah; it was such a delightful food!

“Jeez, Rattrap! How much of that stuff have you got?”

Rattrap glanced up, in beast mode, to see Tourmaline standing in the doorway, staring at him.

He shrugged.

“Eh, quite a bit. Occasionally I come across a bit a mould, but hey, I’m a rat and I don’t mind,” he responded. He transformed with a satisfied burp.

Tourmaline shivered with disgust and headed of towards the small but fairly comfortable recharge bed. She was looking very tired.

“Hey, whatcha been doing outside dat’s been makin’ ya so tired?” he asked curiously. He himself had stayed underground for several hours to avoid cleaning up work or rebuilding the shields, even though he was a technician and mechanic. The city was a big mess.

She let out a weary sigh and collapsed on the bed.

“I’m on a nursing course, remember? The medics are going to need all the help they can get. I’ve always fancied being a doctor, you know,” she said.

Rattrap pulled a face.

He hated being sick or injured and watching people get sick and injured. He’d had enough of it in his lifetime.

“Uh, dat’s nice. Say uh, Tourmaline? I was thinkin’ you and I could go play pool in an hour’s time. Ya know, Joe’s invited us and I really like pool. And uh, it would look pretty good…ya know. I love makin’ people jealous. Oh and can ya play pool? Coz it’s not really a problem if ya don’t. Ya can just flash dat pretty smile and…Tour?”

He walked over to the bed and peered down. She was fast asleep, it seemed.

“Tooouuur?” he whispered.

She groaned and rolled onto her side.

Rattrap sighed. She’d been doing that a lot lately. Just curling up and sleeping first thing she did when she got back from her work. The way he saw it, these were possibly the last few days of their lives and he sure as the Pit didn’t want to spend them sleeping!

He sat on the edge of the bed and touched her hand.

“Aw, why ya so tired, sugar? Don’t ya know we’re at war?”

No response.

He shrugged. There wasn’t much to do here; maybe sleeping wasn’t such a bad idea after all. Then again, she was still pretty down after hearing of Hyra’s death.

Just then, Joe stumbled in, looking flustered.

“I always freeze up, you know? It happened to me at school during the drug testing!”

Rattrap shook his head in confusion.

“Joe, what ya babbling about?”

“Never mind. Just don’t absorb any silifrogmate or something. I’ve no idea how they’d extract a sample out of you. Do you guys bleed?” Joe asked, still acting strange.

Rattrap nodded slowly.

“Uh…yeah. Not as badly as you fleshy things. We have mech fluid.”

“Mech fluid,” Joe muttered, then shook his head and stared at Rattrap.

“Oh yeah. Lieutenant Chandlers asked for you. He said you looked weird so he looked up your records to see how you got that funny second mode of yours. He learnt that you were a mechanic, technician, spy and warrior so, in other words, he wants you to do a couple of things,” Joe explained with a twisted grin.

Rattrap’s face went sour.

“More like a couple a hundred things! Ugh, why’d I have ta be so specialized?” he asked aloud. Joe smiled.

“Know the feeling.”

Rattrap stared at him incredulously.

There was a moment’s pause and slowly Joe’s smile faded.

“Okay, maybe I don’t. But you’d better hurry! You know how grumpy those officers get.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Rattrap grumbled and started heading out the room.

“By the way,” Joe began, “who’s the chick? Er, I mean female robot?”

Rattrap stopped briefly.

“Oh, dat’s Tourmaline. She’s a detective wid’ war training who wants ta be an artist but who’s takin’ a nursing course. And da translation for da slang word ‘chick’ for women in transformer is ‘spanner.’”

“You call them spanners?!” Joe exclaimed as he chased Rattrap down the secret passageway.

“Yeah, but it’s not like a fowl’s any better,” Rattrap commented.

Joe shrugged and continued down the corridor.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Diamond sighed as she slumped down into a chair and picked up a cloth. She started to wipe the dirt she had gathered while outside. It was sure a mess up there and very tiring to clean.

Dinobot was at the other end of the cabin, typing away on a laptop.

“What’re you typing?” she asked.

He snorted.

She shrugged and continued polishing herself.

“It’s been awfully quiet these past two weeks,” she thought aloud.

“Yes, yes, well, we all know that,” he muttered irritably.

She gently threw down the piece of cloth, got up and walked over to him.

She peered over his shoulder and gazed at the laptop screen.

He was researching human technology.

She grinned and tapped him on the shoulder.

“We have plenty of humans here. Take Joe, for instance. He could tell you about that stuff,” she said.

Dinobot chuckled sardonically.

“Joe, and yes, I have met him, is nothing but a human Rattrap. If I were you, I’d stay away from that kind,” he snarled.

Diamond was a little surprised. She’d been working on setting up a camp with him yesterday and found him absolutely fascinating.

“He seems nice, and it’s so interesting to hear how earthlings live,” she said.

Dinobot was quick to cut in.

“Yes, but humans, like us, have many sides. The majority of them are repulsive, stupid creatures.”

She laughed.

“Oh yeah? And what experience have you had? You’re hardly sociable.”

“And you’ve just judged an entire species by one man!”

She sighed and didn’t bother continuing the argument.

Somewhere along the line her father had had a bad experience with a human. Because of the strange, humanlike dreams she’d had, she was incredibly interested in their biology.

Joe had given her extensive information on the human body, although he seemed to have a particular interest in the reproduction system, but she wouldn’t tell her dad that.

She asked him another question.

“Do you think Megatron is still out there?”

He froze at that.

“Since when did you pay an interest in him?” he asked rather earnestly.

“I was chatting to Rattrap about it.”

“And what did he tell you?”

She shifted uncomfortably.

“He said that ‘dat slime sucking lizard ain’t easy ta kill’,” she quoted, using an almost identical accent.

Dinobot turned in his chair with a slight smirk.

“I wouldn’t be surprised. You master his accent very well, which is another thing. Don’t spend so much time with that rat. The last thing I need is for my daughter to end up being chased by low-life scum like-”

“Oh dad! He’s a friend. You’re far too over protective.”

Dinobot was getting very irritated and resumed typing.

“Well, sweetheart, there was a time when you showed a particular interest in one of my other former battle companions,” he muttered.

She felt a burst of angry surprise.

“Oh? And that bothered you? Dad, for Primus sake I was 16! Most transformer girls have married and had kids at that age!”

“I know. Stupid, isn’t it?”

She sighed, exasperated, and walked off, back to her chair.

“Forget talking to you! Maybe I’ll just go and find Rattrap and chat to him!”

Dinobot grunted.

“Suit yourself.”

She shook her head. He was in a bad mood. No point stressing it.

She resumed polishing herself when she felt a cold wisp of wind go past her legs.

She froze and listened.

Nothing.

She looked about for an entrance for such a cold burst of air to have gotten in from, but they were sealed off underground in a heated cabin.

‘Creepy,’ she thought, and carried on cleaning herself.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Kismet sat down on a chair in the small room. Diamond was sitting in the chair next to her, although she could not see Kismet or Chimera for they were the air itself. Chimera was standing beside her, gazing at the wall without seeing it, obviously thinking. Kismet knew that very soon the Predacons were going to attack, and that she must get Diamond on her side quickly, before it was too late. She was going to appear the moment Diamond was most desperate for the war to end, after she’d lost a friend or a battle, and tell her all about her plans to ‘save Cybertron’. Technically, she could do that anyway. However, this plan was flawed with the possibility Diamond could get killed in battle, so she’d have to convert her in a moment that she was alone. Until then, things would have to wait.

“Chimera” she began in telepathy, “have you found any trace of this Cheetor guy?” she asked suddenly. She was in her transformer mode.

Chimera was standing beside her.

“Uh, no. However I do think-”

Chimera interrupted herself by screaming and clutching her right arm.

“Ah! Slag it!”

Kismet stood up in alarm and stared at the moaning femme.

“Chimera?” she questioned.

Chimera had her eyes tightly shut and had collapsed to her knees. She had her left hand held firmly over an area on her right arm.

She opened her eyes very slowly and gradually let her hand slip away from the spot on her arm. To Kismet’s shock, there was a deep cut in her arm and a trail of silvery mech fluid was leaking out of it.

“How’d…that get…there?” Chimera gasped, flinching with pain.

“I was just standing!”

Kismet shook her head in disbelief.

“Magnanimous has been injured! It appears to be a dagger wound. Quick, Chimera! Transform into wind and go and find our brother. You will know where to go, just let your amulet lead you. It will glow the closer you get to him,” Kismet urged frantically.

Chimera’s optics widened.

“He’s…he’s on this planet! Primus! I’m going,” she said adamantly, and transformed and disappeared. There were only a few drops of mech fluid on the floor left behind. Kismet bent and smeared it on her finger. She took out a DNA scanner from her pocket and scanned the blood. It was not of Chimera’s blood type, as she had previously tested. This had to be Magnanimous’s blood. He was hurt. She had to stay here and protect Diamond, yet she feared Chimera wouldn’t make it in time.

Using her telepathy, she spoke to her younger sister.

“Go Chimera, be swift. We cannot lose him. Capture him if you must. Bring him here unless I order you otherwise. Go!”

Chimera was miles away already.

She cleared the blood off the floor. No evidence of their presence must be left, she thought. Afterwards she left the cabin and went to keep an eye on her sister. They were skating on thin ice with this plan. She could only hope it would work.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

He stumbled for the umpteenth time. His legs felt like jelly and his right arm continued to burn. He scrambled back onto his feet and continued jogging onwards. Around him bullets shrieked and explosions rocked the ground. A fog had settled over the land and he could see the grey forms of his fellow Maximals running onwards.

Since they had landed on Cybertron, they had been running. They lost their first fight when trying to regain Kiulist, and now they were running through the partially Predacon occupied town of Rymax. He had been stabbed as he ran past what looked like a wounded Predacon. He had screamed and pulled away and continued running, even though the pain was incredible. Now, about ten minutes later, he was beginning to tire of holding his arm to keep the blood in. Beside him ran his friend, Blinx.

“Magnanimous! How’s your arm?” he cried above the noise of explosions.

Magnanimous leapt over another body. They were getting further away from the Predacons, but were heading into another group of them.

“Fine,” he lied.

Suddenly the Maximals ahead of him stopped and started firing at a building. Magnanimous squinted and stared at the dark red letters imprinted above the main doorway.

“New Byronex? Why are we attacking a toy store?!” he screamed. A voice from behind him made him turn around.

“Because that’s a Predacon base in disguise,” Viper informed him.

“I found out from the corporal!”

Magnanimous turned back to look at the building. Auto guns started coming out from just about every inch of the building and a sentinel shield flowed over it like water.

“Oh yeah! As if we’re going to be able to get in there!” Blinx yelled angrily.

More Maximals started arriving and soon there were about two hundred of them assembled in front of the base.

Blinx and Magnanimous opened fire.

“You know, I’ve only been here an hour and I hate the place already! I wanna go back to Australia to my sheep and kangaroos!” Blinx called to Viper.

Viper grinned, although he was terrified senseless.

He too opened fire.

The three of them stood shoulder to shoulder, firing continuously.

There was a pause as all concentrated on where they were hitting. All the Maximals were aiming for one spot just over the doorway.

“I heard it took the Predacon fighter jets almost a week to break Vixadonia’s shields!”

Magnanimous stared at Blinx in awe at his remark.

“What?!”

There was a loud crash from behind and all three swiveled round to see the back line of their army suddenly collapse. They could all see, in the distance, an approaching squadron of Hover Tanks. The tanks had just mowed down about twenty soldiers in an instant!

“Uh oh,” Blinx muttered.

Viper and Magnanimous exchanged glances.

“What do you think we should do?” Viper asked.

Magnanimous took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a second.

He then looked directly into Viper’s optics and shook his head.

“I think it’d be a good idea if we lowered our weapons and RAN FOR OUR LIVES!”

None of them hesitated, and it seemed they started a trend as before long, the now sixty remaining Maximals were in hot pursuit.

The Predacon Squadron decided to continue fighting, and chased them and mowed just about every Maximal down until there were twelve left.

Viper ran though the narrow gaps between buildings as the roar of the tank squadron filled his ears. He was fighting tooth and nail and knew that in a few moments, he’d be caught and killed. Behind him Magnanimous and Blinx followed, or so he thought. He ran and jumped over debris and rolled under a volley of shots fired from a seemingly never-ending chain of mounted auto guns all along the city. He ran along a dark, narrow street and hit a dead end.

He turned to see that he had lost his friends and he was alone.

Where were the other twelve?

He started running back out of the alley but stopped dead in his tracks as a lone h-tank came into view, blocking his exit. It tilted a little, and then settled into an upright position, aiming its weapon. Viper backed up against the wall and raised his weapon, his entire body trembling with fear.

Then he heard the terrifying rising shriek the tank’s gun made as it charged up.

“No…” he whispered.

The hover tank moved in

………….

Blinx skidded to a halt beside a manhole. Magnanimous slammed into him and they both toppled over. Blinx dragged himself to his feet and looked behind him. He watched as the remaining Maximals spread out and ran amuck. Before his very eyes he saw a hover tank shoot down a soldier. As the soldier fell, he spontaneously combusted and blew into a thousand pieces. His spark was most definitely extinguished.

“Where’s Viper?”

Blinx shrugged dolefully and glanced at the manhole.

“We can’t go back now. We’ve only two options; run even further into this Pred swamped town or go down that manhole and try and get as far away from here as possible.”

Magnanimous stared at the manhole cover in terror.

“What about the tunnel rats?”

“We’ll just have to chance it,” Blinx said hurriedly and began to pull the cover off. Magnanimous helped him and a moment later the two had descended into the dark sewage system below.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Tarantulas screwed up his face.

He couldn’t believe he’d gone through with this! Just looking at her was beginning to make him regret his decision. It was a terrible thing to do.

Blackarachnia smiled at Tarantulas, leaning seductively against the Transmetal Upgrader in her new form. Her new transmetal form.

Her new form had incorporated her Predacon features. (So she doesn’t look like her transmetal Maximal form like shown in season 3 Beast Wars.)

She was still golden with a low cut black torso. Her torso had her red widow markings on it. Her bikini like bottom was like the one she had in her old mode, but was thinner and rimmed with silver. Her legs were patterned with cross-stitched stocking like designs down to her knees. From her knees down she was black, like she had long leather boots on. Her shoulders had silver caps on them shaped like spearheads. There were three little holes in them that you could see when she faced you. Those holes were tiny inserted guns. Her legs were gold but were dashed with splashes of silver. He bare stomach was golden and sleek. There was a silver, metal plate around her elbows that ended sharply so that if she elbowed you hard, you’d have a two-inch gash!

She had a helmet a bit like her old mode except again it was thinner and longer. Her eyes were even more Egyptian like and were lined with black. Her Predacon signature was magnificently planted just above her right breast and was silver, but when in the right light, bared the colours of the rainbow. She had two new weapons. Laser fire that came out of her main pincers and a thin strap attached to her left thigh held a multitude of little knives, daggers and various tools. She was hot, sexy and dangerous.

Tarantulas never did like her.

“You do realise I only let you get upgraded to shut you up! Now that you have your new mode, I do hope you’ll stop bothering me, she-spider,” he snarled.

Blackarachnia stood up straight and folded her arms.

“That’s a lovely comment, Tarantulas,” she said sweetly.

Tarantulas sniggered and walked off.

He was beginning to get uncomfortable.

She was alone now in the storage chamber. The transmetal up-grader had since been replicated and sent to Quantile and other head bases. Beast forms were both an advantage and a burden, but they were good to have if one mode was damaged or exposed to energon radiation.

She looked at herself in the glass of the upgrade chamber and admired her new look. She liked it, to say the least. Yet she was more impressed with the little tool kit she had. They could come in use, most definitely. She was much more powerful and was itching to try her new stuff out. But she was stuck in this dark, lonely laboratory. She didn’t want to be here! She wasn’t supposed to be here. It felt wrong. She wanted the access codes to Vector Sigma…but in order to get them, she’d have to work with Tarantulas and this ‘friend’ of his.

She sighed and stared at her reflection. Then her eyes drifted over to the control panel and thought came into mind.

What if I could upgrade myself again? A transmetal 3, now wouldn’t that be interesting?

She stepped closer to the machine, lifted her claw and stoked the keys on the control panel.

What if…

Her thoughts were interrupted by a gargling scream from down the hallway.

“Blackarachnia! Where the Pit did you put that glycerin?!” Tarantulas called.

A crooked smile came across her face.

“You mean that natural laxative chemical?”

“Yes, it can be used as that. Where is it?”

She left the room and continued in the opposite direction to his lab, down the hallway.

“Oh, it’s in the dinner I served you. Didn’t your lamb chops slide down nicely?” she smirked.

She didn’t hang around long once the death threats set in, and decided that it was time for her to leave the lab and take a long, blood-lust refreshing walk….

………………………………………………………………………………………………

“We strike in one deca-cycle.”

Megatron glanced up at General Alesion. He and the other senior officers were assembled around a large table with a holographic display of the battle plan in the center.

At the meeting, the twenty officers had learned that the Predacons had developed a way around the heat seeking radar with a special kind of shield impenetrable to the heat seeking beams and the radar. It was powered by a device that had been created by one of their tops scientists. Megatron was eager to find out who had developed it, as if it were Tarantulas…. However, he held his question. He wasn’t going to announce it to all the head officers. That was far too risky considering some of his possible future plans.

He listened intently.

“We won’t be able to use the new technology yet as it is still being mass produced and fitted onto the jets and ships. It will take at least a few months before every unit has it.”

“Unit?” one major queried.

Alesion grinned.

“Yes, unit. You don’t think we won’t use it on our ground troops as well? We are, after all, metallic creatures. We were previously being picked up on their maps as flashing red blips, tuned into the core which has a Predacon chip which as you all know, let’s off our signature.”

“Yes, very good.”

Megatron sighed mentally.

It was so silly, all of this. This was ancient technology they had to deal with. It seemed that the technologists got to big for their boots and forgot the basics. It was still so embarrassing that they were only thinking now ‘hey, what if they use radar once we block out our signatures? Duh….

Then again, he hadn’t thought of it. Yet it wasn’t his job to. He was simply a link down the long chain of military command. He received orders from the General to give to the rank below him, a major. His major gave orders to the captain who gave orders to the lieutenant and so forth until it eventually reached the lowest but most important of ranks; the soldier or pilot.

“I think that just about covers it,” the general said.

“Yes, definitely,” Megatron whispered. This meeting had been going on for hours.

After they were dismissed, Megatron lumbered down the corridor towards the exit/entrance of the building. When he got to the doors, he slapped a hand across his forehead and sighed.

He activated his COM. and contacted his two useless but ‘required’ bodyguards.

“Waspinator, Vindictive, get down here at once!”

“Yezzz Megatron!!!”

He waited impatiently for the two to come down.

They arrived, puffing and panting.

Waspinator stood up to his full height, his little chest heaving.

“Wazzzpinator and wolfie-bot reporting to-”

He wheezed and then continued.

“Duty.”

Megatron shivered with disgust. He seriously didn’t want to have to go through this again once he left the Beast Wars.

“Follow me,” he sighed and walked outside. He had decided that he would not ask about the Tarantulas issue and would instead fly over to the Quantile Main Laboratories himself. He fired up his jet and glared at his two twits.

“Let’s go,” he snarled and flew off.

Waspinator, in beast mode, flew up and hovered over Vindictive. He had guessed it was up to him to lift the huge wolf-bot.

“Waspinator feel like carrier pigeon!’

The wasp grabbed a hold on the scruff of the wolf’s neck and picked him up slowly.

“Ah shut up and buzz off!” Vindictive said irritably.

Waspinator was feeling too old and tired to argue.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

7PM Cybertron time – If their system is the same.

There was a crack like noise, followed by a steady, quick rolling sound, then an eruption of cheers.

Joe rose up with a smile, watching as the white ball hit the orange one into the net. Ah, how he loved pool.

“Good shot, Joe,” said Mark, his human opponent.

He handed Mark the cue and stood at the other end of the table, watching closely as Mark positioned himself.

The room was small, dimly lit and filled with cigarette smoke: the sights and smells of home, for Joe. It made him feel terribly nostalgic.

It was crowded and there were a lot of men standing around the table, watching the game while swigging down a couple of beers. The general atmosphere was relaxed.

“Aim for the one!” cried one of the men.

“I’d try the three,” said another.

Joe shook his head slightly, still grinning. He was doing well and reckoned he’d win it soon.

Mark shot at the green for the bottom right pocket. It juddered and popped out.”

“Damn.”

The crowd roared at his miss and a few claps were heard.

Joe had only the black ball to pot.

Joe eased up to the table and without even seeming to aim slotted the eight in the bottom left corner. The clustered group of men yelled in congratulation and clapped, but Joe simply smiled. He wasn’t good at many things, except pool, partying and playing the guitar.

Mark shook his hand, congratulated him and went off to get a beer. For now the pool table was left alone as the men decided to do the same as Mark. Joe turned to go and ‘freshen up’ with a little bit of vodka when he saw the door opening. There was Rattrap, looking tired and unhappy. All the more reason for him to come here and get drunk, Joe thought with a grin.

“Hey, Rattrap! Gladja could make it,” Joe called. Rattrap shuffled through the crowds and over to Joe’s position.

“ Hi Joe,” he said wearily.

“Wazzup my man? Where’s your girlfriend and why are you looking so blue?”

Rattrap battled to translate, seeing as Joe didn’t have his suit on and thus lacked a translator. The underground cabins had been oxygenated.

After scratching through his memory on human slang, he managed to answer.

“I’ve just had ta clean up two tons of scrap, repair a soccer field of sentinel, explain my previous lack of involvement to a grouchy sergeant an’ wid’ my luck Tourmaline’s pregnant wid’ triplets, she so tired. An’ you?’

Joe scratched his head and shrugged.

“I’m cool.”

“Dat’s nice ta hear,” Rattrap said sourly.

Joe wondered if transformers could breed, get drunk and take drugs, all at once.

He settled on one of the questions.

“Can you drink alcohol?” he asked.

A growing smile started across Rattrap’s face.

“Oh yeah, but it’s called Super Charge Unleaded here!”

He seemed to have brightened up considerably.

“Well, there’s a small bar at the back of the room for humans and transformers,” Joe said,

“Why don’t you forget all your worries and have a drink and play a game of pool? Jason’s gone to fetch his CD Player and then you can listen to some music, human style!”

“Sounds good,” Rattrap agreed and headed off with Joe to the bar.

Outside the noisy cabin, Diamond stood quietly in an empty hallway. It was quite dark and the lights were flickering further up. She was leaning against a wall, her legs crossed. She was thinking.

Where was Cheetor? Why had she been cursed with clairvoyant dreams? Did she love Cheetor? What would her father say? When were the Predacons going to attack and why the slag were they sitting here and waiting?

She shook her head gently and inhaled deeply.

Rhinox was dead, Hyra was dead, Scarlet was dead and all her friends were dead, save for Rattrap and Tourmaline and of course, Cheetor. Well, she wasn’t sure on Cheetor, as he could be anywhere….

She felt her chest getting stuffy and her optics burning as though she were about to cry.

Although she’d never cried before, she really wanted to. It was like an experience she had once had and now wanted to relive.

It made no sense, but nothing did these days.

Her sad and confusing thoughts were interrupted by voices echoing down the passageway.

She looked up the to see, in the distance, approaching senior officers. They turned into a room and closed the door, although it didn’t latch closed properly. It was an old door and refused to close unless forced. They hadn’t noticed, as it was gradually drifting open. Out of curiosity, and in a desperate attempt to find out what they were doing here, she darted down the hallway and stopped behind the door. She held up a hand to stop the door from opening and attracting attention. She listened closely.

She could hear the voices of the officers quite clearly.

“I think it’s safe to say that we’re losing this war.”

Her spark shuddered. She wasn’t surprised, but more shocked when she actually heard her senior officers, the ones she looked up to, admit it.

“The Predacons have almost certainly figured out a plan to destroy us, one way or another. I wouldn’t be surprised if they blew up the entire city!”

“Over sixty Maximal main cities have been taken and an estimate of 70 million Maximals have been killed in three of them alone!”

Slag, that’s a lot…

“Yes, the situation looks very bleak. But before we come to any conclusions, let’s here your report, Colonel Smith,” came a familiar voice. She recognized it as the voice of Major Maxtrel, an officer she had met on the train from Dudier.

Colonel Smith was obviously human, she could tell by the surname.

“Officers, I regret to inform you that yesterday the Predacons officially declared war and Earth and warned that once the Maximals had been ‘dealt with’ they would turn on us. Now, the EA leaders have come to the conclusion that whether we back out of this or not, the Predacons are going to attack us anyway. Our only chance to prevent their attack is to keep on aiding the Maximals. Yet, we are at present dealing with numerous conflicts on our own planet and thus our full attention has not rested on Cybertron. I fear that because of the war back on earth, help is going to start dwindling soon. We are already spending billions on this war, billions that could go towards helping our own planet and building up our own defenses.”

Diamond closed her eyes and put a hand over her mouth.

That was the last thing they needed! Humans backing down on support meant almost instant defeat.

There was a frightful silence before one of the officers spoke.

“We understand. Then, my friends, it is settled. We will carry out Operation Phoenix and rescue what we have left. A date has been proposed by Major Maxtel, which is two weeks time, if that is not too late. A shuttle has been built to house them all and a good area for take-off, I would think, is in the Nystrin-Kiulist desert.”

What on Cybertron were they talking about? Phoenix? Take off? Desert?

“Yes, a good idea sir but the area is rather open. I think that the area behind Hashlyn is more suitable seeing as the shields have been put up and we have an air force to secure the airspace settled there,” Major Maxtrel cut in.

Diamond was utterly confused, but she would find the answers, one way or another.

“Hmm…yes, perhaps that is a better idea. What say you all to that?”

There was a muttered agreement from the ten or so officers.

The voice of Smith was heard next.

“I approve of this plan. If you should need any help from the EA, please, just ask. We can supply you with more ships to defend the operation.”

Ships? What operation!

“Indeed. I’ll arrange with General Howard Nelson that we get more ships. I say, where is our newly promoted major? The one with that beast mode?”

Diamond felt a flicker of hope pulse through her. They had to be talking about her dad!

“Beast mode? Oh, he’s not a major. He’s a Special Unit.”

“No, no. The other one with the dinosaur beast mode? Oh…what was his name?”

“Dinobot? He….er, ahem,” stuttered one of the officers.

“I expect you don’t know this one’s history, if you fail to remember his name, even. Dinobot was a Predacon. As far as I know, he still is. He’s been serving with the Maximals a good seventeen years but I still felt that it was a bit risky having him here while we discussed these…top secret plans.”

Diamond was at first shocked at this distrust, then filled with rage. Her father wan an honorable, intelligent person who could offer sound advice any time! To disregard him just because he fought for the Predacons over 20 slagging years ago was madness!

She narrowed her optics in disgust and hatred.

“Seventeen years is a long time, Colonel. I’m sure he would have contributed well to this plan if given a chance,” she heard Maxtrel say, slightly indignantly. She had the urge to storm in there and support him, but knew better.

“Perhaps, I was just being cautious. You can never be to careful!”

“Men! That is enough. Forget the issue. Somewhere down the chain of command he’s going to find out and I’d rather he know now than wonder later why it took so long for the plans ton get to him. Now, unless anyone has anything further to say, this meeting will continue tomorrow, with Major Dinobot, at 6 am.”

There was a low mumble as the officers started leaving the room and Diamond jogged down the hallway and around the corner. She peered her head around the wall and watched as the officers walked away. Major Maxtrel was fortunately the last out and she decided that she wasn’t going to wait for information. She ran down the hallway and came up behind him. The other officers had gone.

“Major!”

He turned around and saw her.

“Why, hello there Lieutenant-”

“What’s going on, Maxtrel. When and why are we going to Hashlyn?”

He was stunned for a moment, pondering on how she knew about this when it slowly came to him that she must have been eavesdropping.

He sighed.

“Lieutenant, I’m sorry but I’m not inclined to tell you-”

“Please!” she said in a desperate whisper.

He gazed into her optics for a moment before closing his eyes and shaking his head.

“Diamond…”

“Please, Major,” she asked once more.

He looked around and then grabbed her wrist.

“All right then. But we must find somewhere else to discuss this. If I’m caught telling you I don’t know what will happen. Come, let’s go inside the meeting room where we won’t be seen.”

She nodded and followed him inside.

He let go of her wrist and sat down wearily on the chair, watching has she heaved the faulty door closed. He knew that door was to blame for this.

She looked at him expectantly and he suddenly felt that was he was doing was right.

He couldn’t let bots like her go to waste.

He breathed in deeply and looked straight at her.

“It’s like this.”

……………………………………………………………………………………………..

Jason hurried up to Joe and handed him the CD Player.

“I’ve got, loaded on here, Travis, Angel, Iris, Drops of Jupiter, Savage Garden, Lady Marmalade and Madonna,” Jason said excitedly.

Joe cocked and eyebrow.

“Savage Garden, Jason?”

Jason blushed a little.

“Yeah. I think their music is sweet.”

Joe rolled his eyes and smiled.

“Okay. Um, how about Lady Marmalade? That’s about as recent as your downloads get.”

Jason shrugged. He was never ‘in’ with the music.

“Sure! I’ll go plug it in…wait, I’ll have to use battery. I have a hunch the adaptors are different here.”

Rattrap snorted.

“Just a tad!”

Jason shuffled through the crowds and Joe resumed his conversation with Rattrap.

“So, you crashed on my planet millions of years ago? What did you do?! I mean there’s no cable or anything on prehistoric earth,” Joe asked him.

Rattrap shrugged.

“Eh, da Preds kept us busy. Ya know I told you about Megs and his Golden Disk? Well, da same guy crashed not so far away from us…you can imagine the conflict.”

Joe nodded, sipped his beer, and then smiled.

He looked in the direction of the door.

“Hey, look who’s come to join us,” he said teasingly.

Rattrap turned around on the bar stool to se Tourmaline looking about the room curiously.

Rattrap noted that there were virtually no transformers in the room, so he wasn’t going to make anyone jealous tonight.

But as we know, humans are strange creatures.

“Hey look! It’s a metal Pamela Anderson! I’ve always wanted one of those!” someone screamed.

Joe slapped a hand across his forehead.

“Louis! Watch what you say you big-mouthed swine!”

Rattrap hadn’t the faintest idea who Pamela Anderson was, and neither did Tourmaline. Neither reacted.

A wolf-whistle, however, was recognized.

“Uh, Joe? Is a wolf whistle a sign of admiration for one’s physical appearance on Earth as well?” Rattrap asked.

Joe nodded.

“For sure."

Rattrap grinned.

“Yo, Tourmaline! Over here!” he called.

Tourmaline spotted Rattrap and walked over to him.

The humans had quieted down in curiosity. None of them had seen a female transformer yet and their first impression of one wasn’t bad!

She came up to Rattrap and Joe and smiled nervously.

“Hi guys. Erm, why is everyone staring at me?”

Joe was happy to answer.

“They’ve never seen a sexy machine before. It’s like a whole new fashion idea!”

Those who heard Joe started to chuckle.

The awkward silence (well, for Tourmaline at least) was broken when Lady Marmalade burst into play.

Rattrap and Tourmaline jumped with slight fright and looked around for the source of the strange rhythm.

Joe stood up with a cheer and looked around.

“Hey, Lara! Come and dance with me!” he yelled.

A female human pushed through the crowds and came up to Joe.

“Nice to see you alive, Joe,” she said as she stood in front of him.

Joe was grinning happily.

“Glad to see you’re actually going to dance with me!”

Rattrap glanced up at Tourmaline.

“I guess this is a human ritual related to music,” he said.

She shrugged with a smile.

The crowds had moved out a bit so there was room in the middle of the room to dance.

Lara spoke the same time as the lyrics.

She said: Hello, hey Joe, you wanna give it a go?”

She burst out laughing.

Joe smiled sheepishly.

Gichie gichie ya ya da da!

The two walked to middle and started dancing.

Rattrap watched as the female managed to make her body ripple, almost, and spin and twirl. The muscles moved in sync with the music. Humans were magnificently flexible.

He glanced at Tourmaline.

“Ya think you can do dat?” he asked, his voice a touch challenging.

She glared at him playfully.

“Wanna bet? Let’s play!”

She grabbed his arm and pulled him up, walking briskly to the center of the room.

Rattrap looked absolutely horrified.

“Who said anythin' about me bein’ able ta do dat!!” he exclaimed.

She bit her lip with a naughty glint in her eye.

“There’s only one way to find out!”

Rattrap suddenly wished she were pregnant with triplets!

He glanced over at Joe and mimicked his moves. Transformer dancing was very different to this.

Tourmaline, on the other hand, looked like she’d been dancing earthen style for years.

She twisted and spun and the way the light shone on her body…

Rattrap’s optics almost fell out.

“Where’d ya learn moves like dat!?”

“I was an undercover detective. Do you know just how many different night clubs I’ve been to?” she laughed.

Rattrap didn’t want to guess.

The song hit full swing and the drunken men started to cheer, Joe had lost himself in the music and Rattrap had figured out a few human dance moves by this stage.

However, he went and sat down after the climax and watched Tourmaline instead.

He’d at least not totally humiliated himself.

He was used to thinking quickly.

About an hour passed, he watched Joe getting more and more drunk, Jason losing more and more pool games and felt himself getting more and more tired.

Tourmaline herself was looking normal again (i.e. exhausted).

She’d been dancing to the numerous, fast paced songs and was now very tired.

She came over to him, drunk with adrenaline and dazed with fatigue.

She stumbled and finally managed to stand.

“That was nice,” she breathed.

Rattrap shrugged.

“Yeah, you look very…how should I put dis, seductive, when ya dance. I never knew metallic forms were capable of movin’ like dat ‘til you came along,” he complimented.

She opened her mouth to say something but then her optics darkened and she collapsed into his lap.

He wasn’t surprised.

With a sigh, he stood up and picked her up.

“Yep. I betta get ya ta bed.”

Joe was right behind him when he said that.

“That’s a bit pushy, don’t you think!” Joe hiccoughed.

He staggered forward a bit.

“I mean, don’t you want to ASK her first?!”

Rattrap cocked an eyebrow.

“I don’t think I need to!”

Joe shrugged.

“Transformer customs are WAY different to ours…*hic* oh wait, they're not. Well, *hic* you two have fun!” he garbled.

He stumbled off somewhere screaming for Jason to hit a green ball.

Rattrap shook his head.

“Fun. Huh. No one’s fun when dey’re like dis-”

He stopped in mid sentence when he looked across the room.

There was Dinobot, and he wasn’t looking happy.

He waved a claw, beckoning Rattrap.

“Ah joy. My night just got better,” he muttered and hurried over to see what Dinobot looked so anxious about.

Blackarachnia walked slowly back to the Quantile Laboratory. She’d been walking by herself for a few hours. Enjoying her solitude, having time to think and pick up interesting bits of scrap along the way. Now it was evening, the three moons were out and shinning on her form. They made the silver parts of her glitter and she took on an eerie, almost ghost like form as she drifted closer to the building.

She stopped, however, when she caught sight of a dark form entering the building. A form she recognized and her suspicions were proved when she saw and heard another bot approaching.

The other bot was making a distinct buzzing noise.

“Well, well, what have we here? Megatron and Waspinator?” she breathed.

She watched both of them slip inside after a brief chat with the guard. She decided to sneak along and find out what brought them to the Quantile Head Laboratory.

She went inside the building and silently followed them down the passageway. Megatron was muttering something to Waspinator and suddenly the wasp stopped.

“Stay here and don’t eaves drop on out conversation!” she heard Megatron say sternly.

Waspinator buzzed in agreement. Megatron turned into a room. Tarantulas’s lab.

She sighed. She wasn’t going to be able to eaves drop either if Waspinator was standing guard.

So she decided to do something illegal in this laboratory.

She went down the hallway and entered the main storage room. She moved through the shadows and found the closet she had been looking for. She opened it, took out an invisibility cloak, slipped it on and went back to the lab.

Walking straight past Waspinator, she paused, turned back and kicked him in the stomach. He yelped and looked around wildly. She chuckled and opened and closed the door to the lab. When she shut the door, both Megatron and Tarantulas stared at it and blinked.

“How did it do that?” Megatron asked.

Tarantulas, who was sitting casually in his chair shrugged.

“I don’t know and I don’t care. Things like that happen so often in my lab I start to worry when they don’t!”

Megatron shook his head and continued speaking, Blackarachnia was standing right behind him.

“Yes, well, to get back to the purpose of this conversation. I want to leave Cybertron. I believe it is destined to be destroyed unless something stops it. Something that will make both factions stop in their tracks,” Megatron said.

“The sudden absence of Vector Sigma?” Tarantulas queried.

Megatron nodded.

“Exactly.”

Tarantulas stretched all eight of his legs and yawned.

“That’s very original, Megatron,” he sneered.

Megatron growled irritably.

“I haven’t forgotten who suggested it first, but that’s beside the point.”

“Oh, I beg to differ, for it is very much the point. The point is that I saw the potential such a thing had and I have already thought about it, planned it and I’m just about to organize it. And you know what, Megatron? You aren’t and never were in my plans. So, why should I now consider you?”

Blackarachnia grinned. That was Tarantulas for you.

Megatron slammed his fist down on the console angrily.

“Cybertron is as good as scrap! I don’t want to see it get like that! I wouldn’t mind seeing the Maximals get scrapped, but they alone aren’t going to go down with the planet. Cybertron is dying, Tarantulas, and unless someone does something fast….”

Tarantulas sneered and clapped his claws together.

“Yes, true, but why should I care for either the Maximals or the Predacons?” he asked.

“Because you are Predacon!”

“Not actually!”

There was a stunned silence as Megatron stared at the aggravated spider.

“You know far too little about me, Megatron. Now, leave this place. I cannot help you. Do you honestly think I can get into the Altron Chamber?”

“But you just said you had plans!” Megatron protested.

“Did I? Well, they’re none of your concern. Now goodbye, Megatron!”

Megatron did not take to this treatment lightly.

“Tarantulas, you will tell me how you plan to get those codes immediately! I’m warning you.”

Tarantulas stood up and glared at Megatron.

“No, I’m warning you. If you don’t get out I’ll call security and what are you going to do? Shoot me?!”

Megatron snarled, transformed into beast mode and spun around.

“Fine. It is a race then. Whoever gets there first gets the machine.”

He headed towards the doorway.

“Good luck!” Tarantulas sneered.

Megatron left in an angry silence.

Tarantulas breathed out a long sigh of relief.

“Oh how I hate that reptile!” he almost gasped.

He sat down and wheeled his chair around to face the computer.

Blackarachnia decided she’d ‘arrive’ at the doorway.

She walked over to it, and opened it, and then dropped off the coat, reopened it and came in looking puzzled.

Tarantulas was too absorbed in his work to notice the door mysteriously opening and closing, never mind her.

“Hey there, Tarry. Just saw Megatron storming down the passageway looking a deeper shade of purple. What happened?” she asked in false curiosity.

“Oh, he just wanted to take over Cybertron again. I refused to help him, this time.”

She was mildly surprised he told her that much!

“Really? That’s nice. I see you’ve recovered,” she giggled.

Tarantulas spun around in his chair.

“Shut up! You know, I ought to slag you for that, but it’s a waste of my energy!”

He turned back to his computer.

She started to leave the room.

“Yes, I bet it would be. Good luck on your ‘kill everybody and restart’ plan,” she said sweetly and left the room.

This time, Tarantulas noticed her.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

“Slag, I hate this place!”

Magnanimous winced as the medic patched up his arm.

Blinx was pacing up and down the room nervously.

“Do you realize how close we were to death? It was mere luck that we didn’t run into any tunnel rats on our way here!” he exclaimed.

Magnanimous knew Blinx was right. They were very lucky that neither had been injured or killed by underground patrollers on their way to Aswade. Aswade, as far as they knew, was about the safest spot, and yet it was under constant attack!

When they arrived, they learnt that mainly EA ships were protecting the air base and artillery would have been finished if it weren’t for the humans.

Now, for the first time in hours, they were seated in a quiet little medic camp. Their experience had been terrifying. They’d lost a friend and the thought that in a few hours they were to be sent of to fight somewhere else was not comforting in the least.

“Blinx, there’s no point dwelling on it. What has been has been! There’s also, very little we can do about the future.”

Blinx was full of indignation.

“Of course we can do nothing about the past, but I disagree with you about the future. We must find a way….”

Blinx trailed off and looked away. Magnanimous knew why; there was someone else in the room.

The female medic sighed.

“You think you boys got it bad? I arrived in a city, sewed up sixty disemboweled patients in a few hours; the city was conquered so I had to flee. I arrived in another city, gave birth in between stitching up flesh deprived humans, had to flee again when the hover tanks arrived and in that time I watched my new born daughter get killed, came here and was straight away put to work. I haven’t even had time to weep for the loss of my child and you know what? After all I’ve been though in the past two days in which I haven’t slept or eaten, I find I don’t have the slagging energy! So you shut your traps and be grateful for what you do have!”

She yanked out the last of the needles in Magnanimous’s shoulder. They had been in there to inject healing fluid into the wound, and stormed off.

Both of the males glanced at each other.

Blinx sighed.

“Did I mention I hate this place?”

“Yes, you did.”

“Did I stress the urgent matter of leaving?”

“Yes, you did.”

“Right,” he muttered and sat down on the floor and examined a graze on his knee.

Magnanimous rubbed his sore shoulder and looked through the doorway. There were planes taking off every few seconds and coming back as well. Fewer coming back in, of course, and the planes that did come back were often beyond repair and were scrapped for parts.

He turned and looked at Blinx.

“I’m going for a walk,” he declared.

He walked out of the room and wandered around the base, eventually finding himself entering another, empty medic camp. There were many small tents set up as miniature bases. This was one had a metal bed that was covered with blood.

He stared at the enormous puddle for a long time, his entire body going cold.

He started to shiver and felt his throat become tight.

His world became deathly silent and all the colours around him began to blur.

With horrible realization, he suddenly knew it was coming. That feeling. That strange, terrifying experience that overcame him whenever he was alone and frightened. His forehead began to burn tremendously. Then came that pulsating whoosh, whoosh, whoosh noise and a gentle, almost distant high-pitched hum, like a mosquito. He could only see the blood covered bed clearly, the rest of the surroundings became a whirl of colour. He was petrified, cold and alone. Then it came. A shadow began to form next to the bed and his body tried in vain to move. Slowly the shadow gathered itself up.

Then it became more a solid form, yet still fairly transparent. Soon, it had totally formed. There stood a transformer, red-coloured with splashes of yellow and turquoise.

He stood there, his face full of terror and his optics wide. He was looking at something past Magnanimous, but the bot was unable to turn and see. Suddenly, the red bot’s torso exploded and his entire chest was revealed. His entire insides were there, charred and smoldering. The bot’s face twisted in agony and he stumbled back, his optics tightly shut. His spark was revealed, situated in a ripped up spark cage that looked ready to break. He started to fall gradually, as if in slow motion. Severed pipes filled with mech fluid were spitting out their contents inside his gaping chest. He hit the floor and then faded. The area around became clear and crisp once more and the shadow totally vanished. Sound flooded back to his ears and he started to warm up. All had been quiet during the ‘past vision’, as he liked to call it, and now the burning on his forehead had stopped, and the whooshing noise was gone and all was as it was.

He let out a long, trembling sigh and turned away.

He hated that. It never used to happen much but nowadays it was becoming more and more frequent. There was something wrong with him. Some may call it a strange gift to be able to see exactly what happened to certain people before their demise, and it would be if he were in the police or religion business. But he saw it as a curse, a terrifying curse with no purpose. He didn’t want to know how that puddle of blood got to be there. His vision had showed why the bot had been rushed to the medic camp and the fact that he saw the vision meant that that bot had died. Why these visions came he’d no idea, and he never liked them.

He stepped outside into the sunlight and resumed rubbing his shoulder, although this time it was more out of comfort that he could move again.

“Glad to see your arm has been repaired,” said a voice from behind him.

He turned around sharply to see a female bot standing by the doorway to the medic camp.

He frowned, as he didn’t know who she was, but had the strangest feeling that they’d met before.

“Who are you?” he asked the rather dark looking femme.

She smiled what appeared to be a smile of relief.

“My name’s Chimera.”

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Continued in The Lilac Horizon, part two: Phoenix.